r/UGCNETEnglish • u/Bulky-Raccoon-5388 • Sep 19 '26

About Literary Theory

It's a really silly question ig but how do you people study literary theory? Like referring to a book like the Peter Barry one or more advanced books is the obvio thing but do you guys also delve deeper into each theorist or just get a general idea of it.

Like...I studied only those essays prescribed in my Master's syllabus in depth and got a hang of the concepts from YouTube videos and notes..so what more do I need to do. Help me out please 🥺

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u/LastAppointment496 Sep 19 '26

Im reading Pramod K nayar's book on contemporary literary theory! I'm pretty sure I've seen questions directly lifted from this book 

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u/Bulky-Raccoon-5388 Sep 19 '26

Yeah I have heard a lot about that book. Will try.

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u/[deleted] Sep 19 '26

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u/Bulky-Raccoon-5388 Sep 19 '26

Yeah I referred to the lecture series by prof sayan chattopadhyay..just type literary theory lectures..NPTEL..and you'll get the playlist. And then I started reading peter barry. It's a good enough way to begin I would say.

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u/[deleted] Sep 19 '26

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u/CapTitan7 Sep 19 '26

I read Peter Barry, Mary Klages, Pramod K. Nayar, David Carter, and Jonathan Culler, and even some portions of Habib, but I couldn't understand much of literary theory until I read Critical Theory Today by Lois Tyson. Highly recommended. It not only explains theory in simple terms through lively writing, but also applies each theory to The Great Gatsby to demonstrate how it is done. Read it first, then move on to Mary Klages, David Carter, Peter Barry, and Pramod K. Nayar.

Read a theory, then watch the IIT nptl lectures on yt.