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Lit Crit Help

In the realm of English studies, students, like myself, may find that the world of literary criticism is daunting and unfriendly. It is a difficult task to wade through the various schools and ideas represented within literary theory and try to make sense out of everything, especially for someone who is not familiar with literary criticism.

That said, this site will help clear away some of the muck and present simplified ideas and definitions for some of the major schools of literary theory, the major theorists responsible for each, and some other sources to turn to for more information.

We consider this a "survival guide"; a tool to help could-be literary criticism neophytes identify and better understand key concepts and terms used by the major schools of literary theory, as listed to the left. These are the major schools that are most commonly studied by undergraduate and graduate English students alike. We have tried to condense a lot of information for each in an attempt to pare down lengthy descriptions and definitions and to therefore simplify them.

©2001 Andy Lein and Melissa Vene. Last Updated: December 2001

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