Best Literary Criticism Books | Summaries & Audio

Literary Criticism Book Summaries

Studies in Words (Canto)

by C.S. Lewis • 1939

Why you misread old books: words like 'nature' and 'conscience' once meant something else entirely.

4.19

500+

🏰 History Of English 🌱 Semantic Change 📜 Philology 📖 Reading Old Books 📚 Literary Criticism

Studies in Words (Canto)

Why you misread old books: words like 'nature' and 'conscience' once meant something else entirely.

by C.S. Lewis 1939

4.19

500+ ratings

🏰 History Of English 🌱 Semantic Change 📜 Philology 📖 Reading Old Books 📚 Literary Criticism

Of Grammatology

by Jacques Derrida • 1967

Philosophy treats speech as pure thought and writing as its corrupt double. It has it backward.

3.97

5k+

📚 Post-Structuralism 🏚️ Deconstruction 💬 Philosophy Of Language 📖 Literary Theory 🔣 Semiotics

Of Grammatology

Philosophy treats speech as pure thought and writing as its corrupt double. It has it backward.

by Jacques Derrida 1967 456 pages

3.97

5k+ ratings

📚 Post-Structuralism 🏚️ Deconstruction 💬 Philosophy Of Language 📖 Literary Theory 🔣 Semiotics

The Seven Basic Plots

by Christopher Booker • 2004

All stories are one of seven shapes. And they all solve the same psychological problem.

3.76

1k+

📚 Narrative Theory 🗺️ Plot Archetypes 🧠 Jungian Analysis 🏗️ Story Structure 🌌 Universal Archetypes

The Seven Basic Plots

All stories are one of seven shapes. And they all solve the same psychological problem.

by Christopher Booker 2004 728 pages

3.76

1k+ ratings

📚 Narrative Theory 🗺️ Plot Archetypes 🧠 Jungian Analysis 🏗️ Story Structure 🌌 Universal Archetypes

Borges on Writing

by Jorge Luis Borges • 1973

Plausibility trumps truth, short stories hinge on a situation, and great poems arrive unbidden.

4.07

1k+

📝 Literary Craft 🎻 Poetry Craft 🌐 Translation Studies 📖 Short Story Theory 🎭 Verisimilitude

Borges on Writing

Plausibility trumps truth, short stories hinge on a situation, and great poems arrive unbidden.

by Jorge Luis Borges 1973 173 pages

4.07

1k+ ratings

📝 Literary Craft 🎻 Poetry Craft 🌐 Translation Studies 📖 Short Story Theory 🎭 Verisimilitude

War and the Iliad

by Simone Weil • 1940

The Iliad's hero is force: what turns a person into a corpse or a living thing.

4.09

500+

🏛️ Homeric Studies ⚔️ Philosophy Of Violence 🎭 Tragic Vision 🪨 Dehumanization 🕰️ Interwar Thought

War and the Iliad

The Iliad's hero is force: what turns a person into a corpse or a living thing.

by Simone Weil 1940 121 pages

4.09

500+ ratings

🏛️ Homeric Studies ⚔️ Philosophy Of Violence 🎭 Tragic Vision 🪨 Dehumanization 🕰️ Interwar Thought

Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women

by Jayne Ann Krentz • 1992

What if romance novels carry a code that literary culture has never learned to read?

3.91

424

📚 Romance Genre Studies ✊ Feminist Literary Criticism 🌀 Jungian Archetypes ✍️ Romance Writing Craft 👁️ Female Gaze

Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women

What if romance novels carry a code that literary culture has never learned to read?

by Jayne Ann Krentz 1992 200 pages

3.91

424 ratings

📚 Romance Genre Studies ✊ Feminist Literary Criticism 🌀 Jungian Archetypes ✍️ Romance Writing Craft 👁️ Female Gaze

Michel Foucault

by Hubert L. Dreyfus • 1982

Power fabricates the modern individual. Foucault's method shows how, and his final word is refusal.

4.11

500+

🏛️ Poststructuralism 📜 History Of Ideas 🧠 Continental Philosophy ⚡ Critical Theory 🔍 Social Theory

Michel Foucault

Power fabricates the modern individual. Foucault's method shows how, and his final word is refusal.

by Hubert L. Dreyfus 1982 280 pages

4.11

500+ ratings

🏛️ Poststructuralism 📜 History Of Ideas 🧠 Continental Philosophy ⚡ Critical Theory 🔍 Social Theory

Orhan Pamuk, Secularism and Blasphemy

by Erdağ M. Göknar • 2012

Pamuk's novels defy Turkey's secular state, resurrecting the Islamic past the nation tried to bury.

4.13

📚 Turkish Literature 🏛️ Turkish Secularism 📜 Religion And Literature 🚩 Literary Nationalism 🌍 Orientalism Critique

Orhan Pamuk, Secularism and Blasphemy

Pamuk's novels defy Turkey's secular state, resurrecting the Islamic past the nation tried to bury.

by Erdağ M. Göknar 2012 314 pages

4.13

16 ratings

📚 Turkish Literature 🏛️ Turkish Secularism 📜 Religion And Literature 🚩 Literary Nationalism 🌍 Orientalism Critique

The Triggering Town

by Richard Hugo • 1978

Poems don't record feelings; they discover them. Abandon the facts and follow the sound.

4.17

3k+

✍️ Poetry Craft 🏫 Teaching Poetry 🎶 Sound And Rhythm 🏙️ Imagination And Place 🗝️ Writing As Discovery

The Triggering Town

Poems don't record feelings; they discover them. Abandon the facts and follow the sound.

by Richard Hugo 1978 128 pages

4.17

3k+ ratings

✍️ Poetry Craft 🏫 Teaching Poetry 🎶 Sound And Rhythm 🏙️ Imagination And Place 🗝️ Writing As Discovery

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