Book Recommendations for Criticism

i think it depends on what you're calling "criticism".
- are you talking neo-criticism, where you can only use the text to explain and evaluate the text? because in that case, you might not want to do something with a lot of symbolism and interpretive shit.

- or are you doing an introductory course in criticism and you just want to get people thinking, and reacting to text in a critical way, as writers, editors, reviewers, what-have-you?

i have taken both, and the reason i ask, is because one of them will likely take books like CATCHER IN THE RYE off the table for you, because you wouldnt want people expressing how they think Holden has Asperger's syndrome. that would be useless in a neo-crit course, but might be an interesting conversation starter in the introduction course about how that really isnt acceptable academic critical thinking.

my recommendations, either way:
- my abandonment -- peter rock
- cathedral -- raymond carver
- the lone ranger and tonto fist-fight in heaven -- sherman alexie
- a good man is hard to find -- flannery o'connor
- 1984 -- george orwell (a lot of people might have read this, but not in a critical way... i would poll the class, and see who has read it)
- mother night -- kurt vonnegut (this is a less-often-read vonnegut, in my experience)

most of these are shorter books, too. or, short stories. nothing is more intimidating than having to read a huge book, and somehow look at it as a whole piece, since most students i have encountered have a hard time with close readings of passages, or scenes, even though that's probably what you want them to do. so in that sense, the alexie book would be a good pick, in my opinion, because each story kind of functions as a passage, and also has really powerful passages within each one. for those people who actually get things.

I would do a Marxist read of Glenn Beck's bs novel! jk. Sounds like a fun assignment though!

Thanks for the input Atmos. This is the class is the "advanced" version the basic criticism class you take as an English major. For that introductory course on criticism I read two poems by Robert Browning ("Porphyria's Lover" Lover and "My Last Duchess") and Oscar Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray.

So to answer your first question,

are you talking neo-criticism, where you can only use the text to explain and evaluate the text? because in that case, you might not want to do something with a lot of symbolism and interpretive shit.

It's all relative man; if I am doing a formalist reading, I will be just sticking to the text but if I am doing a feminist reading I might go use information outside the text on the author or whatnot.

i should add, when i responded to this i read "i will be teaching" not "i will be taking" so if my advice seemed strange, look no further.

for that class description, i would go with the alexie book. again because a close reading would be more plausible, and might not feel like you're trying to make the book into a microcosm through your selection. but also because it looks at life on an indian reservation in washington state (primarily) and is an interesting commentary on a culture most people have never seen.

Fight Club, sizing things up.

Atlas Shrugged could possibly work too. Complete philosophy came from there.

Forget Infinite Jest. Half the class will never make it through.

Also, forget all Ayn Rand. Literally, just forget about all of her work. The entire world should.