Introducing Critical Theory (Introducing...(Totem))

Rating:
Summary: Good Overview - A Starting Point
Review: This book, part of a series (basically "Philosophy for dummies") will be purchased by stressed-out college students trying to write term papers for literature class. After getting totally confused by the impenetrable writing of the great theorists themselves, students will turn to this book hoping to get some light. The book gives a decent overview of the major theories, trying to put them in common language, something the theorists themselves seem incapable of writing in. It goes so far as to use cartoons to get the points across.

While it will help sort out Deconstruction from Formalism and so on, don't count on this to save your term paper the night before its due. There's not enough detail on any of the theories to stand alone, and they are presented in a strange order. Also, some of the major schools of criticism (like New Criticism) don't appear. The author is obviously quite fond of Marxism. Unfortunately, the author also slides into some of the same kind of mumbo-jumbo as the original theorists themselves.

The idea is still a great one, however. If you read this, then some of the more specific books that follow (Introducing Lacan, Derrida, etc) it may help get you started.
Hey, if the alternative is trying to sort through Derrida and Barthes themselves, then anything has got to be better.

Rating:
Summary: Good Overview - A Starting Point
Review: This book, part of a series (basically "Philosophy for dummies") will be purchased by stressed-out college students trying to write term papers for literature class. After getting totally confused by the impenetrable writing of the great theorists themselves, students will turn to this book hoping to get some light. The book gives a decent overview of the major theories, trying to put them in common language, something the theorists themselves seem incapable of writing in. It goes so far as to use cartoons to get the points across.

While it will help sort out Deconstruction from Formalism and so on, don't count on this to save your term paper the night before its due. There's not enough detail on any of the theories to stand alone, and they are presented in a strange order. Also, some of the major schools of criticism (like New Criticism) don't appear. The author is obviously quite fond of Marxism. Unfortunately, the author also slides into some of the same kind of mumbo-jumbo as the original theorists themselves.

The idea is still a great one, however. If you read this, then some of the more specific books that follow (Introducing Lacan, Derrida, etc) it may help get you started.
Hey, if the alternative is trying to sort through Derrida and Barthes themselves, then anything has got to be better.