Detailed Review and Analysis: Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism

This report provides a comprehensive review of the Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism, focusing on key chapters and critical perspectives. The review begins by examining the early twentieth-century protests of African American sociologists and historians, highlighting the work of Alexander Crummell and his views on mastering the English language as a path to social equality. The report then delves into the anthology's discussions of postcolonial reason, the concept of the subaltern, and the complexities of Orientalism, emphasizing the cultural and ideological aspects of these themes. The author analyzes how the anthology presents different theories used in criticizing literature and Western culture, and explores the challenges faced by black people in western society. The review also touches upon the importance of language in combating racism and achieving intellectual freedom, the violence of imperialist epistemic, disciplinary, and social inscription, and the author's perspective on the Orient. The report concludes with a critical assessment of the anthology's contributions to the field of literary theory and its relevance to contemporary issues.

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Review of the book
Norton Anthology of theory and criticism (Leitch, Vincent et al.)
Talking Black: Critical signs of the times
It is reviewed that in the early twentieth century, many African American sociologists
and historians protests for the voice of black. Alexander Crummell was one of the pioneered of
the nineteenth century who has spent numerous years as an Anglican minister in Liberia.
Crummell has established the American Negro Academy in 1897 and considered as the president
of the academy. It is argued by Crummell that desire to stamp out the understanding of Negro
had led to the representation of laws and statutes, which barred the doors of each close room
against Negros. As per Crummell, the prominent sign of humanity of black person would be the
mastering of the very spirit of western civilization on which the white western culture
constructed. The book reveals that black people face immense racism in the western society and
the western letters demanded them to prove their complete humanity.
Numerous western racialists like Thomas Jefferson, David Hume, Francis Bacon, and
Immanuel Kant were claimed that black persons must write verse in order to demonstrate their
humanity. Crummell was one of the brilliant black intellectuals in the African American fashion
who accepted the challenge of the racialists. “Crummell never stopped believing that mastering

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the master’s tongue was the sole path to civilization and social equality for the black person
(Leitch et al. 2245).” As per Crummell, mastering of master’s tongue does not alone create a
path for black people to achieve intellectual freedom as well as social equality. He also asserted
that black people must right for their rightful legacy. Besides this, the attainment of the English
language, as well as Christianity, is considered as the delightful sign of God’s wisdom.
The key strength of the book is that the author has effectively described the use of
English language in decreasing racism from society and obtaining intellectual freedom for the
black people. “In the English language are embodied, the noblest theories of liberty and the
grandest ideas of humanity (Leitch et al. 2246).” It is revealed that the liberty, as well as
humanity, are the key theories of English language, which identified the fact that if the black
persons leading the master’s language, then the ideas of theories would keep them alive as the
vitality of nations. The author in the book has reflected that learning master’s language is an act
of liberation for the generation of critics. The author focuses on the language that every person
must choose to speak or write their own criticisms. The book has provided a better understanding
of numerous theories used in criticizing literature, traditions and western culture. It allows the
readers to develop critic of different literature in which black people were represented as having
intellectual ability to build an art that delimit the humanity of all such persons in the western
culture (Henderson 189).
Moreover, the author wants to make the reader understand the criticism of the theory,
which states that the theory is something that black people doomed to imitate their white
colleagues. Through the book, the author wants the people not to capitulate to the disastrous trap
of white influence. It is argued by the author that black people should not repeat the fault of
accepting the authorizing language of white critical theory as a common language (Paul 140-

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143). According to the author, every people in figurative or literal manner need to board a ship
and sail to Cambridge for seeking master’s tools (de Souza 91-100).
A critique of postcolonial reason
Through the chapter ‘A critique of postcolonial reason,’ the author emphases on the
reinforcements of the British arrangement of Hindu Law to states the epistemic violence of the
law at the end of 18th century. It is revealed by the author that Hindu law can be referred to as
the unitary system which operates in four texts such as sruti, smriti, sastra and vyavahara
(Vuorela 31-46). The author wants to tell that the different texts of Hindu law used for settling a
dispute and used by legal theories as well as practitioners. “Can the subaltern speak (Leitch et al.
2004)?” The work of Antonio Gramsci focused on the subaltern classes and criticized the
vanguardist’s position of the intellectual. Gramsci shows his concern for the intellectual role in
the culture along with the political movement of the subaltern. Besides this, the author highlights
that the growth of proposition on subaltern become difficult by the imperialist project, which was
challenged by the group of subaltern studies. The author argues that a post representationlist
vocabulary hides the essentialist agenda. It is stated that investigate, measure and identify
program could hardly be taxonomic at work (Zembylas 115-127). According to the author, the
project understood by the readers in essentialist terms because of violence of imperialist
epistemic, disciplinary and social inscription.
Orientalism
Within the chapter, the author determines certain facts regarding Orientalism based on its
cultural and ideological aspects. As per the author, the orient was regarded as a European
invention, which is considered to be a place of landscapes, haunting memories, exotic beings and
romance. The chapter demonstrates that Americans does not have similar feelings regarding the

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Orient, rather they believe that the Orient was different from the Far East that is Japan and China
(Bassard 849-854). The author tries to clear it to the readers that Orientalism is independent and
an academic one as it is served in several academic institutions. According to the opinion of the
author, the term Orientalism is less preferred by specialists in today’s context. “Orientalism is a
style of thought based upon an ontological and epistemological distinction made between the
Orient” and (most of the time) “the Occident (Leitch et al. 1785).” The author states that
Orientalism is a specific closeness experienced by France and Britain until the 19th century.
However, the author argues regarding different methodological alternatives of Orientalism
whose backbones are regarded as the set of historical generalizations (Cox 317-332). Thus, it has
been analyzed that Orient is determined to be an idea of a thought of vocabulary, imagery and
history that represents the presence and reality of the West.

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References
Bassard, Katherine Clay. "The significance of signifying: vernacular theory and the creation of
early African American literary study." Early American Literature 50.3 (2015): 849-854.
Cox, Lara. "Decolonial Queer Feminism in Donna Haraway's ‘A Cyborg
Manifesto’(1985)." Paragraph 41.3 (2018): 317-332.
de Souza, Luiz Enrique Vieira, et al. "Postcolonial theories meet energy studies:“Institutional
orientalism” as a barrier for renewable electricity trade in the Mediterranean
region." Energy research & social science 40 (2018): 91-100.
Henderson, Mark. "Coprophagia as Class and Consumerism in the Human Centipede
Films." What's Eating You?: Food and Horror on Screen (2017): 189.
Leitch, Vincent B., et al., eds. The Norton anthology of theory and criticism. WW Norton &
Company, 2018.
Paul, Ronald. "Vincent B. Leitch. Literary Criticism in the 21st Century: Theory
Renaissance." Moderna språk 109.2 (2015): 140-143.
Vuorela, Ulla. "Colonial complicity: The ‘postcolonial’in a Nordic context." Complying with
Colonialism. Routledge, 2016. 31-46.
Zembylas, Michalinos. "Revisiting Spivak’s “Can the Subaltern Speak” through the lens of
affect theory: Can the subaltern be felt?." Qualitative Research Journal 18.2 (2018): 115-
127.