Recent work in critical theory - Bibliography

Style, Winter, 1997 by William Baker, Kenneth Womack, Rebecca Martin

This alphabetically arranged bibliography annotates recently published books and is based primarily on materials coming into the Northern Illinois University libraries between July 1996 and August 1997. Inclusion does not mean exclusion in a subsequent Style bibliography or review. Our remarks will simply convey the basic content of each item as objectively as possible. The publication dates for most of the items are 1996 and 1997, although some monographs have earlier imprints.

As noted in previous surveys of "Recent Work in Critical Theory," it has been difficult to arrange systematically in subject categories the wealth of recent material in the field of critical theory; some placement is ineluctably arbitrary. While only too aware of the limitations of categories, we have adopted the following rubrics: (1) General; (2) Semiotics, Narratology, Rhetoric, and Language Systems; (3) Postmodernism and Deconstruction; (4) Reader-Response and Phenomenological Criticism; (5) Feminist and Gender Studies; (6) Psychoanalytic Criticism; (7) Cultural and Historical Criticism.

(1) General

Allen, Paula Gunn. Song of the Turtle: American Indian Literature, 1974-1994. New York: Ballantine, 1996.

The sequel to Voice of the Turtle (1994), Allen's latest collection of Native American fiction explores the last 20 years of the renaissance of American Indian literature. In addition to her extensive introduction to the lives of American Indian writers, Allen's volume includes more than 30 stories by such writers as Leslie Marmon Silko, James Welch, Linda Hogan, N. Scott Momaday, Louise Erdrich, and Sherman Alexie, among others.

Andrews, William L., Frances Smith Foster, and Trudier Harris, eds. The Oxford Companion to African American Literature. New York: Oxford UP, 1997.

In this comprehensive single-volume survey of African-American literature, the editors examine more than 250 years in the life of this aspect of American heritage and culture. In addition to investigating the tradition of African-American literary history, this volume devotes attention to the lives and works of more than 400 African-American writers, including such luminaries as Gwendolyn Brooks, Jamaica Kincaid, Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, and Toni Morrison, among a host of others. This study also features essays regarding a wide range of pertinent subjects, including African-American correspondence, slave narratives, autobiographies, journalism, and Sunday school literature, among other topics.

Baker, William, and Kenneth Womack. Recent Work in Critical Theory, 1989-1995: An Annotated Bibliography. Westport: Greenwood, 1996.

Baker and Womack offer a reference guide to more than 1,800 works of criticism and literary theory. Attention is devoted to a variety of schools of criticism, including semiotics, narratology, feminist criticism, psychoanalytical criticism, postmodernism, deconstruction, historical criticism, and cultural criticism, among other topics. Baker and Womack include a general introduction to the literary criticism of the early 1990s, as well as comprehensive subject and author indexes.

Billington, Michael. The Life and Work of Harold Pinter. London: Faber and Faber, 1996.

In the first authorized biography of one of the world's most important living dramatists, Billington examines Harold Pinter's work within the context of his life. Billington studies the manner in which Pinter's plays impinge upon such issues as human experience, memory, and the unfettered poetic imagination. Billington offers close readings of many of Pinter's most significant plays, including The Caretaker, The Homecoming, and Betrayal, among others. Billington also devotes attention to Pinter's award-winning television and film scripts, as well as to the complex and private inner self that shapes his imaginative world.

Bjork, Robert E., and John D. Niles, eds. A Beowulf Handbook. Lincoln: Nebraska UP, 1997.

A valuable companion to the study of the landmark poem, this volume features a host of essays that explore Beowulf's many fascinating literary nuances. Selections include Niles's "Introduction: Beowulf, Truth, and Meaning"; Bjork and Anita Obermeier's "Date, Provenance, Author, Audiences"; R. D. Fulk's "Textual Criticism"; Robert P. Stockwell and Donka Minkova's "Prosody"; Katherine O'Brien O'Keefe's "Diction, Variation, the Formula"; Ursula Schaefer's "Rhetoric and Style"; Theodore M. Andersson's "Sources and Analogues"; Thomas A. Shippey's "Structure and Unity"; Edward B. Irving, Jr.'s "Christian and Pagan Elements"; Bjork's "Digressions and Episodes"; Niles's "Myth and History"; Alvin A. Lee's "Symbolism and Allegory"; John M. Hill's "Social Milieu"; George Clark's "The Hero and the Theme"; Catherine M. Hills's "Beowulf and Archaeology"; Alexandra Hennessey Olsen's "Gender Roles"; Seth Lerer's "Beowulf and Contemporary Critical Theory"; and Marijane Osborn's "Translations, Versions, Illustrations."

Blotner, Joseph. Robert Penn Warren: A Biography. New York: Random House, 1997.