This classic guide offers a thorough and accessible introduction to contemporary critical theory, providing in-depth coverage of the most common approaches to literary analysis today: 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. The chapters offer: an extended explanation of each theory, using examples from everyday life, popular culture, and literary texts a list of specific questions critics ask about literary texts an interpretation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby through the lens of each theory a list of questions for further practice to guide readers in applying each theory to different literary works a bibliography of primary and secondary works for further reading. Both engaging and rigorous, this is a "how-to" book for undergraduate and graduate students new to critical theory and for college professors who want to broaden their repertoire of critical approaches to literature. New to this edition: A major update of the chapter on postcolonial criticism with the addition of sections on postcolonial ecocriticism ("postcolonial green"), postcolonial feminism, and nordicism. The addition of a section on rhetorical reader-response criticism to the reader-response chapter. The addition of a section on the work of Michel Foucault to the chapter on new historical criticism. An update of each chapter's bibliographies for further reading. Updates and clarifications of theoretical vocabulary and examples throughout.