Literary Theory ─ A complete introduction

Literary Theory: A Complete Introduction is designed to give you everything you need to succeed, all in one place. It covers the key areas that students are expected to be confident in, outlining the basics in clear jargon-free English, and then providing added-value features like key ideas, memorable quotations, and even lists of questions you might be asked in your seminar or exam.

The book uses a structure that mirrors the way literary theory is taught on many first year undergraduate university courses. Each chapter covers a key school of thought, progressing to a point at which you'll have a full understanding of the range of responses and approaches available for textual interpretation. As well as focusing on such core areas as Marxism, Modernism (and Post-), Structuralism (and Post-), the introduction brings in recent developments such as Eco and Ethical Criticism and Humanisms.

Sara Upstone is Principal Lecturer in English Literature at Kingston University. She specializes in contemporary postcolonial, British and American literature. She is the author or editor of three books on culture and theory) and has been teaching in this area for over ten years. She is currently researching the relationship between literary genre and representations of race in contemporary fiction.