The most exhaustive mapping of contemporary literary theory to date, this book offers a comprehensive overview of the current state of the field of contemporary literary theory. Examining 75 key topics across 15 chapters, it provides an approachable and encyclopedic introduction to the most important areas of contemporary theory today.
Proceeding broadly chronologically from early theory all the way through to postcritique, Di Leo masterfully unpacks established topics such as psychoanalysis, structuralism and Marxism, as well as newer topics such as trans
* theory, animal studies, disability studies, blue humanities, speculative realism and many more.
Featuring accessible discussion of the work of foundational theorists such as Lacan, Derrida and Freud as well as contemporary theorists such as Haraway, Braidotti and Hayles, it offers a magisterial examination of an enormously rich and varied body of work.
By:
Professor Jeffrey R. Di Leo
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 246mm,
Width: 189mm,
ISBN: 9781350564138
ISBN 10: 1350564133
Pages: 472
Publication Date: 04 September 2025
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming
Introduction 1 Early Theory 1.0 Introduction 1.1 Humanism 1.2 Rhetoric (or, the Quarrel Between Rhetoric and Philosophy) 1.3 Hermeneutics 1.4 Aestheticism 1.5 New Criticism 2 Structuralism and Semiotics 2.0 Introduction 2.1 Structure of the Sign (or, Saussure and Peirce) 2.2 Russian formalism 2.3 Roland Barthes 2.4 Claude Lévi-Strauss 2.5 Narratology 3 Marxism 3.0 Introduction 3.1 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels 3.2 The Adorno-Benjamin Debate 3.3 Mikhail Bakhtin 3.4 Louis Althusser 3.5 Fredric Jameson 4 Psychoanalytic Theory 4.0 Introduction 4.1 Sigmund Freud 4.2 Jacques Lacan 4.3 Harold Bloom 4.4 Félix Guattari and Gilles Deleuze 4.5 Slavoj Žižek 5 Poststructuralism 5.0 Introduction 5.1 Jacques Derrida 5.2 Julia Kristeva 5.3 Jean-François Lyotard 5.4 Jean Baudrillard 5.5 New Historicism 6 Feminist Theory 6.0 Introduction 6.1 First Wave 6.2 Second Wave 6.3 Third Wave and Beyond 6.4 Hélène Cixous 6.5 Luce Irigaray 7 LGBTQ+ Theory 7.0 Introduction 7.1 Lesbian and Gay Theory 7.2 Lesbian Feminism 7.3 Judith Butler 7.4 Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick 7.5 Trans* Theory 8 Race and Justice 8.0 Introduction 8.1 Critical Race Theory 8.2 Law and Literature 8.3 Human Rights 8.4 Intersectionality 8.5 Subaltern Studies 9 Biopolitics 9.0 Introduction 9.1 Michel Foucault 9.2 Giorgio Agamben 9.3 Michael Hart and Antonio Negri 9.4 Surveillance Studies 9.5 Disability Studies 10 Globalization 10.0 Introduction 10.1 Postcolonial Theory 10.2 Border Studies 10.3 Neoliberalism 10.4 Translation 10.5 World Literature and Theory 11 Ecocriticism 11.0 Introduction 11.1 Green Theory 11.2 Critical Climate Change 11.3 Anthropocene 11.4 Geocriticism 11.5 Blue Humanities 12 Posthumanism 12.0 Introduction 12.1 Cyborg Theory 12.2 Animal Studies 12.3 Systems Theory 12.4 Cognitive Criticism 12.5 Speculative Realism 13 Affect Studies 13.0 Introduction 13.1 Queer Affect 13.2 Materialism 13.3 Presentism 13.4 Trauma Theory 13.5 Holocaust Studies 14 Pop Culture 14.0 Introduction 14.1 Cultural Studies 14.2 Media Studies 14.3 Sound Studies 14.4 Game Studies 14.5 Celebrity Studies 15 Against Theory 15.0 Introduction 15.1 Antitheory 15.2 Posttheory 15.3 Object-Oriented Ontology 15.4 Postcritique 15.5 New New Criticism Notes Index
JEFFREY R. DI LEO is Professor of English and Philosophy at the University of Houston-Victoria, USA. He is Editor of the journal symploke, and Executive Director of the Society for Critical Exchange and its Winter Theory Institute. His recent publications include The Bloomsbury Handbook of Literary and Cultural Theory (Bloomsbury, 2019), What’s Wrong with Antitheory? (Bloomsbury, 2020), Vinyl Theory (2020), Happiness (2023), Selling the Humanities (2023), Dark Academe: Capitalism, Theory, and the Death Drive in Higher Education (2024), Out of Print (2024), and Theory as World Literature (Bloomsbury, 2025).
Reviews for Contemporary Literary and Cultural Theory: An Overview
In its scope and ambition, this is a groundbreaking and authoritative reference work that will both define the field and provide an enduring point of orientation. Rich and always accessible, it is an invaluable guide for anyone interested in the study of contemporary literary theory. * Allan Kilner-Johnson, Associate Professor in English Literature, University of Surrey, UK * Unlike other mechanistic or “how-to” guides, Di Leo’s Contemporary Literary and Cultural Theory is an ambitious and rigorous survey of theory from its ancient origins to the present that will be valuable for scholars seeking to understand new directions in (and against) theory as well as students encountering theoretical questions for the first time. Through careful explication and key quotations from primary texts, Di Leo nicely balances the need to provide both an informative—and, at times, reflective—discussion of High Theory, and a precise summary of those areas of theory such as LGBTQ+, Race and Justice, Biopolitics, and Ecocriticism that are most pressing for the field today. * Michael Malouf, George Mason University, USA * The scope of Di Leo’s book is vast and the depth of his knowledge profound. His critical argument is always lucid and engaging. The book achieves what Di Leo set out to do: provide a useful and illuminating map of the city of literary theory and cultural studies. * Journal of Literary Studies/Tydskrif vir Literatuurwetenskap * This book will thus be an essential guidebook and resource for the novice; a rigorous work of scholarship for the seasoned critic; a persuasive challenge to the skeptic; and, finally, it will provide motivation to those wearied humanists who need to replenish their source of inspiration. * The Comparatist *
