Foreword ix
 To the Reader xii
 1 Defining Criticism, Theory, and Literature
  Eavesdropping on a Literature Classroom
  Can a Text Have More Than One Interpretation?
  How to Become a Literary Critic
  What Is Literary Criticism?
  What Is Literary Theory?
  Making Meaning from Text
  The Reading Process and Literary Theory
  What Is Literature?
  Literary Theory and the Definition of Literature
  The Function of Literature and Literary Theory
  Beginning the Formal Study of Literary Theory
  Further Reading
 2 A Historical Survey of Literary Criticism
  Introduction
  Plato (ca. 427-347 B.C.)
  Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)
  Horace (65-8 B.C.)
  Longinus (First Century A.D.)
  Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)
  Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586)
  John Dryden (1631-1700)
  Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
  William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
  Hippolyte Adolphe Taine (1828-1893)
  Matthew Arnold (1822-1888)
  Henry James (1843-1916)
  Modern Literary Criticism
  Further Reading
 3 New Criticism
  Introduction
  Historical Development
  Assumptions
  Methodology
  Questions for Analysis
  Sample Essay
  Further Reading
  Web Sites for Exploration
  Student Essay: Dale Schuurman, Keats's "To Autumn": Verses of Praise for a Malicious Season?
 4 Reader-Response Criticism
  Introduction
  Historical Development
  Assumptions
  Methodology
  Questions for Analysis
  Sample Essay
  Further Reading
  Web Sites for Exploration
  Student Essay:Jennifer Douglas, "Ethan Brand's" Challenge to Me
 5 Structuralism
  Introduction
  Historical Development
  Assumptions
  Methodologies
  Questions for Analysis
  Sample Essay
  Further Reading
  Web Sites for Exploration
  Student Essay: Conie Krause, Will the Real Walter Mitty Please Wake Up: A Structuralist's View of "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty"
 6 Deconstruction
  Structuralism and Poststructuralism: Two Views of the World Modernity
  Poststructuralism or Postmodernism
  Historical Development
  Assumptions
  Methodology
  American Deconstructors
  Questions for Analysis
  Sample Essay
  Further Reading
  Web Sites for Exploration
  Student Essay: Jennifer Douglas, Deconstructing a "Real" House
 7 Psychoanalytic Criticism
  Introduction
  Historical Development
  Assumptions
  Methodologies
  Questions for Analysis
  Sample Essay
  Further Reading
  Web Sites for Exploration
  Student Essay:David Johnson, A Psychoanalytic Approach to Poe's "The City in the Sea"
 8 Feminism
  Introduction
  Historical Development
  Assumptions
  Methodology
  Questions for Analysis
  Sample Essay
  Further Reading
  Web Sites for Exploration
  Student Essay:Lori Huth, Throwing Off the Yoke: "Rip Van Winkle" and Women
 9 Marxism
  Introduction
  Historical Development
  Assumptions
  Methodology
  Questions for Analysis
  Sample Essay
  Further Reading
  Web Sites for Explora tion
  Student Essay: Juanita Wolfe, Baking Bread for the Bourgeoisie
 10 Cultural Poetics
  or New Historicistn
  Introduction
  Historical Development
  Assumptions
  Methodology
  Questions for Textual Analysis
  Questions for Analysis
  Sample Essay
  Further Reading
  Web Sites for Exploration
  Student Essay:
  Krista Adlhock, Hawthorne's Understanding of History in "The Maypole of Merry Mount"
 11 Cultural Studies
  Introduction
  Postcolonialism: "The Empire Writes Back"
  Historical Development of Postcolonialism
  Assumptions of Postcolonialist Theory
  Methodology
  Questions for Analysis
  Postcolonialism and African American Criticism
  Gender Studies: New Directions in Feminism
  Sample Essay
  Further Reading
  Web Sites for Exploration
  Student Essay:
  Wendy Rader, "The Gentlemen of the Jungle":
  Or Are They Beasts?
 12 Literary Selections
  John Keats, "To Autumn"
  Nathaniel Hawthorne, "Ethan Brand"
  James Thurber, "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty"
  Sandra Cisneros, "The House on Mango Street"
  Edgar Allan Poe, "The City in the Sea"
  Washington Irving, "Rip Van Winkle"
  Tony Harrison, "Marked with D."
  Nathaniel Hawthorne, "The Maypole of Merry Mount"
  Jomo Kenyatta, "The Gentlemen of the Jungle"
 Glossary
 References
 Credits
 Index