Covers a range of critical theory, including the Frankfurt school, cultural materialism, cultural studies, gender studies, film studies, literary theory,hermeneutics, historical materialism, internet studies, and sociopolitical critical theory. Entries clearly explain even the most complex of theoretical discourses, such as Marxism, psychoanalysis, structuralism, deconstruction, and postmodernism.

The bestselling Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms provides clear and concise definitions of the most troublesome literary terms, from abjection to zeugma. It is an essential reference tool for students of literature in any language. Now expanded and in its fourth edition, it includes increased coverage of new terms from modern critical and theoretical movements, such as feminism, schools of American poetry, Spanish verse forms, life writing, and crime fiction.

Dictionary of technical terminology, forms, genres, groups, schools, movements, phrases, motifs, themes, character types, styles, and concepts associated with classical and modern literatures and currently in regular use. New material is focused in areas such as gender studies and queer theory, post-colonial theory, post-structuralism, post-modernism, narrative theory, and cultural studies.

Provides concise explanations of myriad approaches to literature that have arisen over the past forty years. Organized into three parts. Part I: evaluative essays examine the historical and cultural context out of which new schools of and approaches to literature arose. Part II: Individual Theorists. Analyses the individual achievements and the influence of specific scholars, and places them in a larger critical context. Part III: Vocabulary of literary theory. It identifies significant, complex terms, places them in context, and explains their origins and use.

Entries of varying lengths cover Western and non-Western literary traditions, from the start of criticism with the Greeks through postmodernism. Entries are of four types: on individuals, surveys of literary periods, essays on critical theories, and definitions of key concepts.

Guide to critical and cultural theory from a diverse range of disciplines through a series of 11 critical essays and a dictionary of key names and terms. Examines complex and fundamental theories in modern scholarship including: Marxism, Trauma Theory, Ecocriticism, Psychoanalysis, Feminism, Posthumanism, Gender and Queer Theory, Structuralism, Narrative, Postcolonialism, Deconstruction, Postmodernism.

This companion includes an introductory chapter providing an overview of some of the major issues within literary theory and criticism. It includes chapters surveying theory and criticism in antiquity, the Middle Ages and Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and the nineteenth century. For 20th- and 21st-century theory, the discussion is subdivided into separate chapters on formalist, historicist, political, and psychoanalytic approaches. The final chapter applies a variety of theoretical concepts and approaches to: William Shakespeare's Hamlet and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

Updated with new terms, examples, and exercises, and to reflect the 2016 MLA guidelines, this book defines more than 225 must-know literary terms in clear and concise prose, and offers examples and exercises to enhance understanding. Designed especially for introductory students.