Making Sense of American Theory

books:


	• From the New Criticism to Deconstruction: The Reception of Structuralism and Post-Structuralism Art Berman University of Illinois Press, 1988 - 344 pages average customer review:based on 2 reviews view larger image
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Making Sense of American Theory

This book is a thorough account of the academic and philosophical arguments that have influenced the reception of French theory in America. The basic premise is that American academics are still tainted by British empiricism and skeptical of Continental philosophy. This fact has produced a distinct American strain of Deconstruction and Post-Structuralism. The review above faults Berman for his use of "jargon," but Berman is interested in tracing arguments to their philosophical origins, and this cannot be done without tracing the terminology of those arguments as well. In a sense, this book is a history of the "jargon" and an explanation of what belief systems are behind the terms. Anyone interested in understanding the history of these academic arguments must wrestle with the terminology. I can think of no better guide for the voyage than Berman.

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informative but stifling

This book is a good introduction to twentieth century trends in literary criticism -- the New Critics, structuralism, and post-structuralism. It's informative and scientific in its approach and has a good bibliography, but it's written in a stifling academic jargon which could have been dispensed with. Based on its informativeness, I'd have given it four or five stars; based on its style, one or zero stars. (O George Orwell, where are you when we need you?)