How to Interpret Literature: Critical Theory for Literary and Cultural Studies

Offering a refreshing combination of accessibility and intellectual rigor, How to Interpret Literature: Critical Theory for Literary and Cultural Studies, Fourth Edition, presents an up-to-date, concise, and wide-ranging historicist survey of contemporary thinking in critical theory. The only book of its kind that thoroughly merges literary studies with cultural studies, this text provides a critical look at the major movements in literary studies from the 1930s to the present. It is the only up-to-date survey of literary theory that devotes extensive treatment to queer studies, postcolonial and race studies, environmental criticism, and disability studies. How to Interpret Literature is ideal as a stand-alone text or in conjunction with an anthology of primary readings, like Robert Dale Parker's Critical Theory: A Reader for Literary and Cultural Studies.

“"Parker's text is a model of clarity and lucidity, and its accessible examples make even the most difficult theoretical concepts easy to grasp. How to Interpret Literature is compulsively readable--not just a page-turner--but even fun to read. My students found the book invaluable and have continued to use it as a reference in their other courses. There can be no higher recommendation than that."--Jamie Goodrich, Wayne State University "How to Interpret Literature is the best book available in the field. In addition to being accessible to people with little to no background in literary studies, it includes some newer approaches to literature--ecocriticism, disability studies, and queer of color critique--that many competing texts don't."--Nowell Marshall, Rider University "How to Interpret Literature offers well-informed, thorough, and incisive explanations of each theory."--Anthony Grajeda, University of Central Florida”

"Parker's text is a model of clarity and lucidity, and its accessible examples make even the most difficult theoretical concepts easy to grasp. How to Interpret Literature is compulsively readable--not just a page-turner--but even fun to read. My students found the book invaluable and have continued to use it as a reference in their other courses. There can be no higher recommendation than that."--Jamie Goodrich, Wayne State University

"How to Interpret Literature is the best book available in the field. In addition to being accessible to people with little to no background in literary studies, it includes some newer approaches to literature--ecocriticism, disability studies, and queer of color critique--that many competing texts don't."--Nowell Marshall, Rider University

"How to Interpret Literature offers well-informed, thorough, and incisive explanations of each theory."--Anthony Grajeda, University of Central Florida

Robert Dale Parker is Frank Hodgins Professor of English at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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