Includes bibliographies and index.

The new edition of this core text has been thoroughly revised and updated in light of the latest developments in the field. The original structure of the book has been improved and new material has been added. Covering the key theoretical approaches in modern literary theory, the text includes those essays and documents that are essential reading for students of critical theory, with sections on: formalism and structuralism; marxism; feminism; gender and subjectivity; histories and textuality; postmodernism; postcolonialism.

For the first time, the reader also includes extracts from seminal texts by authors such as Marx, Freud, and de Beauvoir - texts which do not necessarily focus on literature but which have had a fundamental influence on the development of literary theory. In addition, the text now includes a section on issues and debates. Focusing not on authors or approaches but rather on leading questions in critical debate, the extracts in this section present opposing points of view on the same issue: Is literary criticism an ethical act? Martha Nussbaum vs Emmanuel Levinas: Is the canon a timeless assembly of great works? Terry Eagleton vs Harold Bloom: Is literature what the academy says it is? Edward Said vs Stanley Fish: Literature and the philosophy of science: Richard Rorty vs Donna Harraway