The second edition of Lois Tyson's classic guide offers a thorough and accessible introduction to contemporary critical theory. It provides in-depth coverage of the most significant approaches to literary analysis today, including feminism, psychoanalysis, Marxism, reader-response theory, new criticism, structuralism and semiotics, deconstruction, new historicism, cultural criticism, lesbian/gay/queer theory, African-American criticism, and postcolonial criticism.