Literary Theory: A Practical Introduction

Synopsis of Literary Theory: A Practical Introduction

«Literary Theory: A Practical Introduction» is a guide to literary theory by Michael Ryan, published by Wiley-Blackwell in paperback (160 pages).

The work surveys the main currents of contemporary literary theory: formalism, structuralism, historicism, gender, ethnic and postcolonial studies. It explains how to apply these perspectives to the same texts, so that each reading reveals different interpretations and shows the relationship between form and content.

The first edition dates from 1998. The text is in English. It can be used as a companion to «Literary Theory: An Anthology», by Rivkin and Ryan.

It is a work for students beginning in literary criticism and theory and for readers seeking an overview of current methods.