Beginning Theory An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory, Third Edition

This book has been helping students navigate through the thickest of literary and cultural theory for well over a decade now. This new and expanded third edition continues to offer students and readers the best one-volume introduction to the field.The bewildering variety of approaches, theorists and technical language is lucidly and expertly unravelled. Unlike many books which assume certain positions about the critics and the theories they represent, Peter Barry allows readers to develop their own ideas once first principles and concepts have been grasped.The book has been updated and includes two new chapters, one of which (Literary theory -- a history in ten events) innovatively surveys the course of theory, while the other (Theory after 'Theory') maps the arrival of new 'isms' since the second edition appeared in 2002.

Peter Barry is Professor of English at the University of Aberystwyth.

Theory before 'Theory' - Liberal humanism * Structuralism * Post-structuralism and deconstruction * Postmodernism *Psychoanalytic criticism * Feminist criticism * Lesbian/gay criticism * Marxist criticism * New historicism and cultural materialism * Postcolonial criticism * Stylistics * Narratology * Ecocriticism * Literary theory – a history in ten events * Theory after 'Theory' * Appendices * Edgar Allan Poe: 'The Oval Portrait' * Dylan Thomas: 'A Refusal to Mourn' * William Cowper: 'The Castaway' * Where do we go from here: Further reading