Preparing for Grad School in English
Get ready for grad school in English with this essential reading list. Discover must-read books to prepare for advanced studies in literature, theory, and critical analysis.
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Of Grammatology
by Jacques Derrida
Jacques Derrida's revolutionary theories about deconstruction, phenomenology, psychoanalysis, and structuralism, first voiced in the 1960s, forever changed the face of European and American criticism. The ideas in De la grammatologie sparked lively debates in intellectual circles that included students of literature, philosophy, and the humanities, inspiring these students to ask questions of their disciplines that had previously been considered improper. Thirty years later, the immense influence of Derrida's work is still igniting controversy, thanks in part to Gayatri Spivak's translation, which captures the richness and complexity of the original. This corrected edition adds a new index of the critics and philosophers cited in the text and makes one of contemporary criticism's most indispensable works even more accessible and usable.
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The Act of Reading
by Wolfgang Iser
By defining what happens during the act of reading, that is, how aesthetic experience is initiated, develops, and functions, Iser's book provides the first systematic framework for assessing the communicatory function of a literary text within the context from which it arises. It is an important work that will appeal to those interested in the reading process, aesthetic theory, literary criticism, and basic theoretical aspects of the novel. Book jacket.
