Reader's Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory

Raman Selden is late Professor of English at the University of Sunderland.Peter Widdowson is Professor of Literary Studies at the University of Gloucestershire. His most recent books include: Literature (1999); The Palgrave Guide to English Literature and its Contexts 1500–2000 (2004); and Graham Swift (2005).Peter Brooker is Professor of Literary and Cultural Studies at the University of Nottingham. He is the author most recently of Modernity and Metropolis. Literature, Film and Urban Formations (2002); Bohemiain London. The Social Scene of Early Modernism (2004); and A Glossary of Cultural Theory (second edition, 2002). He is co-editor of Geographies of Modernism (2005) and co-founder of ‘The Modernist Magazines Project’.

"The best of the many guides to literary theory that are currently available. Widdowson and Brooker chart a clear and comprehensively documented path through the full range of what is best in contemporary literary theory…indispensable for all students of literature…An impressive achievement!"--John Drakakis, Stirling University, UK"This Guide is as stimulating and instructive an introduction to [literary theory] as any reader might wish for."John Kenny, Centre for the Study of Human Settlement and Historical Change, National University of Ireland, Galway

• Preface to the Fifth Edition. Introduction. 1. New Criticism, moral formalism and F. R. Leavis 2. Russian formalism and the Bakhtin school 3. Reader-oriented theories 4. Structuralist theories 5. Marxist theories 6. Feminist theories 7. Poststructuralist theories 8. Postmodernist theories 9. Postcolonialist theories 10. Gay, lesbian and queer theories Conclusion: Post-Theory. Appendix 1: Recommended glossaries of theoretical and critical terms and concepts. Appendix 2: Literary, critical and cultural theory journals. Index