FRANKIn 1959 Frank Sinatra recorded his great version of Cole Porter’s “What is this thing called Critical Theory?” 36 years later Peter Barry in this excellent book explains that it’s a network of ideas developed in the 60s, 70s and 80s which challenged the status quo of liberal humanism and made flesh that haunting phrase from Marx : all that is solid melts into the airCritical theory puts you wise. You thought you had an identity? That, like, you were a YOU? Guess again - you don’t. [...]

Beginning Theory offers the literary studies student a fantastic primer to help navigate the often convoluted and complex domain of literary theory. Barry shows us that theory need not be daunting, and successfully manages to convey difficult concepts in a voice that is consistently conversational, and never dry. I appreciated his occasional interjection of self for the way in which it humanised the text. The book covers all the major theoretical approaches from Structuralism, through Psychoanal [...]

I didn’t discover this book until halfway through a graduate level class on Postcolonial Theory. This would be after trying to keep my head above water while reading Derrida in the original language. I wish I’d read it years ago.Despite its bland title and intimidating chapter headings, this book is very accessible. Each chapter takes a different ideological camp of literary theory –- from Post-structuralism to New Historicism –- and breaks it down into understandable terms. A brief hist [...]

This is an excellent introduction to literary theory. The different brands thereof are explained clearly in brief, easy-to-follow chapters.My only complaint would be about the chapters on Feminist Criticism and Gay/Lesbian Criticism. I don't think either of these topics was covered well, as if Barry himself didn't fully understand the implications of their philosophical approach. Barry is British, so this might simply be because of a disconnect between the American version of Feminist Criticism [...]

I remember sitting in a class on essay writing a few months ago where the professor asked us to write a paragraph and volunteer to read it out loud. When I read mine he made a remark (which I have, ironically, forgotten) to which my answer was that "well, it makes my essay more friendly." This seemed like an outrageous thing to value in an essay to the professor and I think he said something along the lines of "You want to give information, not make friends." I know, dumb. (needless to say I hav [...]

Read this for Critical Theory. It worked for the class, but half the time I had no idea what the author was talking about and only sort of understood after class discussions. I know the point of theory is that there is no bottom line but it would have been extremely helpful to have one for those of us who don't care for theory that much and just need a basic understanding.

The FIRST EVER BOOK I bought, when I came to English Department for an easy start to all the literary theories. It's a reader friendly book & quite handy to go through all the basics of the theories.

Again, I haven't completely finished this book during the course BUT I feel like I've read enough to say that "I've read it". It was quite interesting but since the teacher told us that the post-structuralist analysis was completely wrong, I'm only giving it 2 stars.

A nice, concise gloss of one scholar's estimation of theory's most important movements and themes. I was considering this as a possible text to use in an introductory theory class I'm teaching. Ultimately, there are three major reasons why I won't be using it. 1. Age. Even in its updated form, this book is more than a decade old. A lot can happen in a discipline in that amount of time, and students tend to see texts like this as definitive. I worry about setting them up to be not just name dropp [...]

For the student diving into literary theory as a newcomer, this book is an excellent source to start. (Hence its title "Beginning Theory" obviously). I myself recently started collecting knowledge about different approaches within the literary theory field. I'm writing my BA thesis, for which I need to analyze some literature, and to do this in an academically approved manner, I first delved into the different literary approaches. This book helped me gain a basic knowledge about existing approac [...]

This book is a good starter for a class like the one I read it in (senior seminar) but I disagree with Barry on so many things I couldn't give it more than 3 stars. He does a good job of breaking down theories and methods so that they are easier to understand, and picks out the best distinctions to make between similar sorts of theories so that students can tell them apart. His examples of how to apply the theories are not always great. (He uses Barthes' S/Z for structuralism. Not your typical u [...]

I read this book for a course. The title concerned me. I thought it might be too basic, but it was very helpful in that one person gave his honest view of different critical approaches as well as examples of how each was used. The examples proved the most useful bits. He also forced the reader to get engaged and do some thinking and analysis. He gave all of the theories equal time if not equal respect in that he was more critical of some schools of thought. He also included discussion about poss [...]

FINALLY, a straightforward book on literary theory! It may not be the most comprehensive out there, but you come away from the text with a strong understanding of each school of thought, the major figures, and (most importantly) how these theories and thinkers interacted with one another across time and perspectives.That may be why I enjoyed this so much, now that I think about it. I understand concepts much better from a "big picture" perspective that allows me to see how ideas or works emerged [...]

I don't think we give enough appreciation to those scholars who take the time and write text books for absolute beginners. Peter Barry does his utmost to make literary theory understandable, logical and palatable for lay people, and is staying impartial and patient throughout. For somebody like me who found herself facing literary theory 'by accident' when my interdisciplinary research grew into areas I never expected it to go, this was an excellent when by now a tad outdated introduction.

It's such a great way to understand literary theories in a condensed way.

It's such a pleasure to read the story of 'theory' by Peter Barry again. It reminded me of my college days. He just gets better with each edition. A classic.

Awesome handbook for English literature students with illustrious examples!

A clear and comprehensive introduction to literary theory. Very glad to have had this textbook for my class.

It amazes me that there are so many ways, so many -ism to review literature but it also confounded me that if there are that many different methods to do close-reading, it seems to reduce the credibility or the meaning of studying literature. After learning these I am deeply affected and doubt the use of literature study. Anyway, Barry wrote a very lucid and informative introduction on existing literary theories and the structure is very clear and good for learning as it provide a stop and think [...]

10/10 in fulfilling its purpose of introducing the students to the complex yet essential world of Literary Theory and Criticism. It explains in an easy to understand language, a concise outline of various literary theories in their chronicle order. It attempts to explain the main theories through series of questions and answers, encouraging readers to think about the various aspects of theories an relate to them to a greater extent. The addition of resources at the end of each literary theory is [...]

The best book of any kind that gives easy to understand, thorough, deep summaries of the major theories used in the humanities today. It's so good and so accessible it is worth assigning in any course where you will be dealing with large swaths of critical theory, even if you won't be directly teaching it, it's good reference material for the student who may come across an essay written that uses the theory but doesn't explain it or give a lot of attention to it. Well written, engaging, and simp [...]

Beginning theory is an easy introduction to the realm of literary theory. It covers a variety of different outlooks to how to analyse a literary text. There's the highly theoretical like postmodernism and poststructuralism and them more specific such as feminist and marxist critic. I read this as a beginner so can't comment on its accuracy but I did find it very accessible and quite comptehensive for my needs.

Reading this overview, one would be forgiven for thinking that all the theory and criticism of the last century took place in England and America. I was also disappointed that there was no treatment of phenomenology. Otherwise, I found it very helpful for plotting the historical and intellectual trajectory of the discipline as an ongoing dialectic of historical and aesthetic valences.

Great overview of the different literary theories. Barry does a good job parsing out the differences in theories and tracing the history of theory as it developed. It definitely helped me during my class.

Consistently good. A jargon-free textbook that is easy to read and gets the job done. I especially liked the "what x critics do?" and the "selected reading" appendices at the end of every chapter. I knew most of the stuff but still benefited from reading it.

Into the rubbish bin. What a load of crap A perfect example of " those who cannot write, tell you what to think about writing". No thanks.

Not patronizing, not elitist, immensily practical and useful.

Ok, but Jung?

An excellent guide to the confusing world of literary theory.

This is not a bad book for a course book. I read this for a literary theory course and found it quite useful. It's quite comprehensible, although it does get a bit abstract at times. However, that's alright as it's probably almost impossible to write about literary theory without getting abstract. This book introduces most of the major literary theories such as structuralism, marxism, queer theory and eco-criticism. I think it's a good book choice for a university foundation/introduction course. [...]