The fourth edition of the bestselling Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice showcases various schools of 20th century criticism in historical and philosophical contexts. New features include: - A new chapter on queer theory. - Every chapter has been revised with new introductions with appropriate new critical vocabulary, critical terms, further readings sections, and web sites. - New student essays - Structuralism and Deconstruction have been combined into one section to make the material clearer and more streamlined. - The addition of Plotinus, Giovanni Boccaccio, Joseph Addison, Percy Pysshe Shelley, and Mikhail Bakhtin.