The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism

Vincent B. Leitch, et al., eds. W. W. Norton and Company, New York, NY, U.S.A., 2001. 2,662 pp. Trade. ISBN: 0-393-97429-4.

Reviewed by Michael Punt

mpunt@easynet.co.uk

The jacket illustration for this anthology is from a painting by Mark Tansey of a waterfall which would have done the nineteenth century Romanticist John Martin proud. It heralds a sublime collection of extracts from key texts that have shaped the intellectual life of a generation of academics in the humanities and artists who have not been content with simply being in the world but who, in various ways, have striven for some degree of understanding of it. Extending to over 2500 pages the book presents a daunting prospect for the reader which evaporates almost immediately. The clarity of the organisation, and the certainty of the editors’ purpose leads one almost effortlessly into the argument. The chronological table of contents begins with Geogias of Leontini and one hundred and forty eight names later, concludes with Stuart Moulthrop. Covering around two thousand four hundred years of intellectual history in more or less the same number of pages is an indication of the complexity of the vision and the formal elegance to come. An alternative table of contents reorganises the arbitrary sequence of history into a thematic matrix in which many authors and articles make repeat appearances. This restructuring of the history of ideas mirrors the project of the reader intent on standing outside the processes of their own construction. Even before the preface, the promise of Niagara is before us — ‘fortissimo at last’ to misquote Mahler.

The introduction is lean and makes its argument, as one would expect, with clarity and precision. Similarly the brief introductions which precede the selected extracts, are concise, balanced and, above all, a pleasure to read. They are followed by bibliographies which provide useful gateways to further enquiry rather than daunting exhibitions of scholarship. As one would expect there are several indexes and helpful footnotes which provide clarification and some contextual information. In short this anthology is not simply a passive reflection of contemporary theory and criticism, but both an intervention and an essential tool for anyone seriously interested in working in the landscape of western academia. Beyond this, its great virtue is that the selected extracts are not just illustrative of a particular theorist’s position but as a consequence of good design, almost every page is a sheer delight to read quite independently of its academic context.

There are of course some remarkable omissions from the anthology as well as some rather idiosyncratic inclusions. Almost any reader will notice them for themselves at once, although whether any two readers will ever agree what they are is another question. Similarly there are assertions and assumptions that are sure to be challenged, but again, this is a matter of the critical use of the anthology by a heterogeneous community rather than any damaging oversight. The most problematic (and fascinating) aspect of the book, however, is the paradox it poses as an entity in the world that can be independent of its own process of examination. How is it possible to provide a metaview of theory and criticism which is independent of that theory and criticism? This is the great paradox of exomatic experience and one that the editors are aware of since the final contribution is a Selected Bibliography of Theory and Criticism, divided into six parts which situates the anthology’s own argument in a discursive context. This is the thesis that seems to structure the argument of the anthology. It opens with Georgias’ ‘From Encomium of Helen’ beginning: ‘For a city the finest adornment is a good citizenry, for a body beauty, for a soul wisdom, for an action arete [virtue], and for speech truth; and the opposite of these are indecorous’, only to conclude with Moulthrop’s reassertion of the cul de sac of relativism as he closes the anthology with a flamboyant question mark over where value is determined. This self-consciousness points to the sublime lure of this anthology which, in addition to being a great read and an indispensable tool for teachers, it provides an archaeology of human thought that reveals a fascinating trace of the inevitable progress, wrong turnings and recirculations in the turbulent history of ideas that can be concealed by that dubious device — chronology.