Literary Text Analysis & Critical Theory
Literary criticism is a vast field of discourse which includes three separate but related fields of inquiry: literary history, literary theory, and evaluative criticism. Literary history views literature as part of historical processes. Literary theory, or poetics, describes the principles of literature, its genres, techniques and functions. Literary criticism studies and analyzes works and their authors, often from specific theoretical approaches such as Marxist or feminist. The term criticism is related to the Greek word 'kritikos', meaning "a judge of literature." This judgmental role is often seen as the particular task of literary criticism. Below is a collection of literary criticism websites with literary text analysis, literary critical theory and reviews.
Alex Catalogue of Electronic Texts
Search this extensive collection of electronic texts in various academic arenas, including the humanities and the sciences.
Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature
Find general information on the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature, which is published by Modern Humanities Research Association in London.
Rutgers University, Camden, New Jersey: Gender Fallacy
Read a seminar paper by William C. Dowling that addresses some of the inherent problems with feminist criticism.
Shakespeare and Anti-Semitism
Read about anti-Semitism in Elizabethan times and the role it played in Shakespeare's work, "The Merchant of Venice."
Shakespeare and Early Existentialism
Study the Epilogue of "The Tempest" and discover its relationship with Shakespeare's philosophies.
The New York Times: Book Reviews
Read Christopher Lehmann-Haupt's review of Annie Dillard's Living by Fiction, which was published in The New York Times on March 12, 1982.
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia: Jack Lynch: Literary Resources: Theory
Find a vast collection of resources dealing with literary criticism and theory, provided by Jack Lynch.
University of Virginia, Charlottesville: Electronic Text Center
Study literature in criticism with these texts, available in English, French, German, Japanese, and Latin.
University of Virginia, Charlottesville: Spoon Collective
Join this group at the University of Virginia, dedicated to the discussion of philosophical and critical theory topics.