Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide

Citation

Tyson, L. (2023). Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide (4th ed.). Routledge.

Chapter Summary

The fourth edition has fourteen chapters, preceded by a preface to the fourth edition, a preface for instructors and acknowledgements, in roughly 480 to 500 pages (Routledge lists 496, Google Books 478). Routledge describes it as a "how-to" book that is both engaging and rigorous, aimed at undergraduate and graduate students new to critical theory and at college professors who want to broaden their repertoire of critical approaches. After a general opening chapter, each of twelve chapters takes up one approach. The publisher says each gets an extended explanation using examples from everyday life, popular culture and literary texts, a list of specific questions critics ask about literary texts, an interpretation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby through that theory, a list of questions for further practice and a bibliography. The public contents list gives chapter titles only, so the summaries below follow the titles and the publisher's description.

Chapter 1: Everything You Wanted to Know about Critical Theory but Were Afraid to Ask

The opening chapter introduces critical theory itself before any single approach is taken up. The title signals an introduction pitched at readers who may be wary of the subject, which matches the publisher's description of the book as written for students new to theory.

Chapters 2–4: Psychoanalytic, Marxist and Feminist Criticism

These three chapters come first among the approaches: psychoanalytic criticism, Marxist criticism and feminist criticism. According to the publisher, the chapter on feminist theory was considerably updated in the fourth edition, including its terminology and theoretical concepts.

Chapters 5–8: New Criticism, Reader-Response, Structuralist and Deconstructive Criticism

The next four chapters cover approaches that centre on the text and on reading: New Criticism, reader-response criticism, structuralist criticism (which the publisher's description pairs with semiotics) and deconstructive criticism.

Chapters 9–10: New Historical and Cultural Criticism; Lesbian, Gay, and Queer Criticism

Chapter 9 treats new historicism and cultural criticism together, and Chapter 10 treats lesbian, gay and queer criticism. The publisher says the fourth edition updates the chapter on LGBTQ theories, including terminology and theoretical concepts.

Chapters 11–13: African American, Postcolonial and Ecocriticism

These three chapters take up criticism that centres on race, empire and the environment. Chapter 13 on ecocriticism is new in the fourth edition and includes sections on deep ecology, eco-Marxism, ecofeminism (radical, Marxist and vegetarian ecofeminisms) and postcolonial ecocriticism and environmental justice. The publisher says the African American and postcolonial chapters were also considerably updated.

Chapter 14: Gaining an Overview

The final chapter's title indicates a look back across the approaches taken up in the earlier chapters.

Key Concepts

Chapters 2–4

• Psychoanalytic, Marxist and feminist criticism: the three approaches that open the series of theory chapters.

Chapters 5–8

• New Criticism, reader-response, structuralism and semiotics, deconstruction: the four text-centred and reader-centred approaches named in the contents and description.

Chapters 9–13

• New historicism and cultural criticism: the pairing in the title of Chapter 9.
• Lesbian, gay and queer criticism: the subject of Chapter 10, with the LGBTQ chapter updated for the fourth edition.
• African American criticism and postcolonial criticism: Chapters 11 and 12.
• Ecocriticism: the new Chapter 13, which includes deep ecology, eco-Marxism and ecofeminism.

Throughout

• Questions critics ask: the list of specific questions that, according to the publisher, accompanies each theory.
• One text, many readings: the interpretation of The Great Gatsby through the lens of each theory.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• A uniform scheme. The publisher says that every theory comes with an extended explanation, a list of the questions critics ask and an interpretation of the same novel, so readers can compare approaches directly.
• Practice built in. Each theory has a list of questions for further practice that guides readers in applying it to other works, and the bibliographies were updated and expanded.
• Wide range of approaches. The twelve approaches run from psychoanalysis and New Criticism to queer theory and ecocriticism, in a single volume.
• Updated for the fourth edition. The new chapter on ecocriticism and considerable updates to the feminist, African American, postcolonial and LGBTQ chapters (including terminology) address areas that have changed quickly.
• Reviewers' comments on the third edition. The publisher quotes Elizabeth Renker (The Ohio State University), who praises clear explanations and cross-comparisons that work in the undergraduate classroom, and Todd McGowan (University of Vermont), who says it presents each theory on its own terms.

Limitations

• A single demonstration text. The worked readings all concern The Great Gatsby, which makes comparison easy, but students will need to test each theory on other texts; the practice questions are meant for that.
• Overview depth. Fourteen chapters and about 500 pages cover twelve approaches, so each chapter is an introduction and not a full account of the original thinkers.
• Secondary account, not primary texts. The book explains theories; it is not an anthology, so students wanting the original essays need a collection.
• Fixed list of approaches. The twelve approaches are those of the contents list; approaches outside it, such as narratology or disability studies, would have to be found elsewhere.

Where It Fits in the Course

Within the literary theory course, Tyson's book is the how-to guide that applies each theory to a text. Peter Barry's Beginning Theory also gives each approach a plain-language explanation, a list of what its critics do and a worked reading, so the two are close alternatives; Tyson's single running example in The Great Gatsby and her exercises are the distinctive features of her book. Jonathan Culler's Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction explains the moves theory has encouraged and not a sequence of schools, so it complements Tyson's school-by-school structure as a shorter, more conceptual read. M. A. R. Habib's A History of Literary Criticism is a single-author narrative history from ancient Greece to the late twentieth century and is the choice for background beyond the contemporary schools Tyson covers. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism is an anthology of primary texts in theory and criticism from antiquity to the present, so it supplies original writings that a guide of Tyson's kind only explains.

How to Use This Book

The book is aimed at undergraduate and graduate students new to critical theory and at instructors looking for more approaches. Routledge does not list prerequisites; experience of reading and discussing novels and poems, and a first reading of The Great Gatsby, will make the running example work better.

Read Chapter 1 first for the general frame. After that, choose the chapters in the order of the course; they are separate, so a class can take feminist criticism before psychoanalysis, for example. For each chapter, read the explanation, then the list of questions critics ask, then the Gatsby reading, and try the practice questions on another text. Chapter 14 is best read last, as a summary comparing the approaches. Pair the chapters with the matching primary essays from an anthology when a deeper reading is wanted.