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Title: On Deconstruction: Theory and Criticism After Structuralism by Jonathan Culler ISBN: 0-8014-9201-7 Publisher: Cornell Univ Pr Pub. Date: August, 1983 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.64 (11 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: The best introduction to post-structural theory ever.
Comment: On Deconstruction delivers lucid explanations of some of the most difficult ideas in post-structural theory. Culler manages to explain the ideas without diluting them, which is no mean feat. Culler reads like an excellent teacher who whets the appetite for further reading. Read this book before you read anything by Jacques Derrida. It may change your whole experience. This book is also helpful as an introduction to a cross section of literary trends including feminist criticism and reader response. I have owned this book for several years and find myself returning to it again and again.
Rating: 5
Summary: A critical eye over Post Structuralism Criticism
Comment: As Cullers himself tells this book is a sequel of his Structuralist Poetics but with different methods and conclusions. In the 80ths write about critical theory is no longer to introduce unfamiliar questions, methods, and principles, but to intervene in a lively and confusing debate. This is the special point about this book.
The reader finds an account of what Culler considers the most vital and significant in recent theoretical writing and undertake an exposition of issues often seem poorly undertood. For it brings up debate, On deconstruction is provocative and demands some effort from the reader. It is certainly not a book for begginners... The theory and criticism of recent years is discussed focusing on deconstruction as the principal source of energy and innovation. He offers a detailed exposition of its ideas and methods, defining its relation to other strands of contemporary criticism, and assessing its implications for literary studies.
With emphasis on readers and reding, Culler considers deconstruction, in terms of the questions raised by psychoanalytic, feminist, and reader-response criticism. He then turns to a systematic analysis of deconstruction, drawing together the disparate and difficult writings of Jacques Derrida and the working out the implications of his approach for the concepts and methods that literary critics have relied on.
Surveying the variations and achievements of American deconstructive criticism, the author clarifies the procedures and assumptions of several interpretative essays, giving special attention to the work of Paul de Man. Not an easy book but surely a good deal for those who search for a better understanding of the post structuralist critics point of view and methods. Give a try!
Rating: 5
Summary: Don't listen to the Derrida snobs!!!
Comment: This book is fantastic; if you want to learn about post-structuralist thought - and how to apply it - then this is worth your time and money.
To refute the other reviewer below
#1) The fact that this represents Culler's opinions of twenty years ago is a neutral fact. Most theory that's considered part of the canon is pretty old, in fact. And if you think that deconstruction has changed that much since '67, well, then you're just wrong. Even if it had, then I would still argue over the pedagogical value of these essays. Fish, in the forward to his "Is There a Text in This Class?", openly says that he no longer holds many of the beliefs that are contained in the book - but does that mean it isn't still a classic? No. When did you think that Grammatology was published? Is it now somehow irrelevant? No.
#2) Derrida doesn't own deconstruction. A book about deconstruction isn't always about Derrida. Sorry, kiddo.
#3) As it stands, post-strucuralist theory is difficult; in any difficult subject it pays to be familiar with its main tenets before heading into deeper waters. Having said that, Derrida isn't necessarily deeper, but his translations tend to be crap. Hence, a good overview can be a good thing. But, as I said before, Derrida doesn't equate with Deconstruction. Anyone who says otherwise is either a charlatan trying to give you a hard time or is just plain misinformed.
I have had to read upwards upwards of twenty full texts on this stuff (not to mention various journals, course packs, etc) and this is by far the best - in my mind's eye. And that's all that I can really say. You already know if you need it or not - but don't let that dimwit below (or his auto mechaninc) influence you to do the otherwise.
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Title: Structuralist Poetics: Structuralism, Linguistics, and the Study of Literature by Jonathan Culler ISBN: 080149155X Publisher: Cornell Univ Pr Pub. Date: August, 1976 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction by Jonathan D. Culler ISBN: 019285383X Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: June, 2000 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: The Dialogic Imagination : Four Essays by M.M. Bakhtin, Michael Holquist, Vadim Liapunov, Kenneth Brostrom ISBN: 029271534X Publisher: Univ of Texas Press Pub. Date: 1982 List Price(USD): $17.44 |
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Title: Of Grammatology by Jacques Derrida, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Derrida Jacques ISBN: 0801858305 Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr Pub. Date: March, 1998 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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Title: Literary Theory: An Introduction by Terry Eagleton ISBN: 081661251X Publisher: Univ of Minnesota Pr (Txt) Pub. Date: November, 1996 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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