Literary Criticism in the 21st Century

Vincent Leitch is George Lynn Cross Research Professor and Paul and Carol Daube Sutton Chair in English at the University of Oklahoma, USA. He is the author of American Literary Criticism Since the 1930s (2nd edition, 2010) and co-editor of The Norton Anthology of Literary Criticism and Theory (2nd edition, 2010).

• Preface1 What I believe and why2 Antitheory3 The tasks of critical reading4 Theory today and tomorrow5 Theory crossroads6 French theory’s second life7 Second lives of Jacques Derrida8 Postmodernism revisited9 Twenty-first-century theory favorites10 Theory futuresBibliographyIndex

Literary Criticism in the 21st Century is a valuable and rewarding book. One of its many virtues is its style, pellucid and often autobiographical. Leitch both describes and wonderfully practices what he calls ‘intimate critique,’ the blending of personal experiences and affects into the analysis of larger structures and trends.