For students of literature, a background in literary theory will provide tools for analysis that yield a rich understanding of literary texts as well as a variety of approaches to writing about them. This is the first introductory Spanish-language textbook to present the complex and challenging thought of Barthes, Derrida, Foucault, Lacan, Kristeva and other leading authors, as well as feminists of the first and second waves, Russian formalists, Marxists, post-colonial writers, cultural and queer studies theorists and many other central thinkers in literary theory.

Each chapter explores a separate theory and discusses its fundamental concepts and how they apply to literary texts at a basic level. Chapters are identically organized, better helping students to compare and link theories. There are four sections at the end of each chapter, including a collection of review questions that provide instructors with direction for class discussion, a series of ideas for applying each theory to literary works, a glossary and a bibliography.