This classic guide offers a thorough and accessible introduction to contemporary critical theory, providing in-depth coverage of the most common approaches to literary analysis today: feminism, psychoanalysis, Marxism, reader-response theory, new criticism, structuralism and semiotics, deconstruction, new historicism, cultural criticism, lesbian/gay/queer theory, African-American criticism, and postcolonial criticism. The chapters offer:

• an extended explanation of each theory, using examples from everyday life, popular culture, and literary texts
• a list of specific questions critics ask about literary texts
• an interpretation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby through the lens of each theory
• a list of questions for further practice to guide readers in applying each theory to different literary works
• a bibliography of primary and secondary works for further reading.

Both engaging and rigorous, this is a "how-to" book for undergraduate and graduate students new to critical theory and for college professors who want to broaden their repertoire of critical approaches to literature.

New to this edition:

• A major update of the chapter on postcolonial criticism with the addition of sections on postcolonial ecocriticism ("postcolonial green"), postcolonial feminism, and nordicism.
• The addition of a section on rhetorical reader-response criticism to the reader-response chapter.
• The addition of a section on the work of Michel Foucault to the chapter on new historical criticism.
• An update of each chapter's bibliographies for further reading.
• Updates and clarifications of theoretical vocabulary and examples throughout.