The third edition of this classic reader, like its successful predecessors, makes available in a single accessible volume examples of the writings of many key figures in the field together with seminal essays that have explored and extended the implications of critical theory. The new edition

retains those essays and documents that can now be considered as part of the canon of modern literary theory and adds a wide selection of fresh material--New Historicist, Postmodernist, Postcolonialist, and retrospective accounts that reflect upon some of the critical issues now emerging in the

retreat from earlier theoretical totalities.