Introduction : Approaching theory ; My own 'stock-taking' Theory before 'theory' : The history of English studies ; Ten tenets of liberal humanism ; Literary theorising from Aristotle to Leavis: some key moments ; Liberal humanism in practice ; The turn to 'theory' ; Some recurrent ideas in critical theory Structuralism : Structuralist chickens and liberal humanist eggs ; Signs of the fathers: Saussure ; The scope of structuralism ; What structuralist critics do ; Structuralist criticism: examples Post-structuralism and deconstruction : Some theoretical differences between structuralism and post-structuralism ; Post-structuralism: life on a decentred planet ; A note on the translation of Of grammatology and on 'reading' ; Structuralism and post-structuralism: some practical differences ; What post-structuralist critics do ; Deconstruction: an example Postmodernism : What is postmodernism? What was modernism? ; 'Landmarks' in postmodernism: Habermas, Lyotard, and Baudrillard ; Postmodernist criticism: an example Psychoanalytic criticism : Should we say 'unconscious' or 'subconscious' when discussing Freudian ideas? ; How Freudian interpretation works ; Freud and evidence ; What Freudian psychoanalytic critics do ; Freudian psychoanalytic criticism: examples ; Lacan ; What Lacanian critics do ; Lacanian criticism: an example Feminist criticism : Feminism and feminist criticism ; Feminist criticism and the role of theory ; Feminist criticism and language ; Feminist criticism and psychoanalysis ; What feminist critics do ; Feminist criticism: an example Queer theory : Queer theory and lesbian feminism ; Queer theory and libertarian feminism ; What queer theorists do ; Queer theory: an example Marxist criticism : Beginnings and basics of Marxism ; Marxist literary criticism: general ; 'Leninist' Marxist criticism ; 'Engelsian' Marxist criticism ; The influence of Althusser ; What Marxist critics do ; Marxist criticism: an example New historicism and cultural materialism : New historicism ; New and old historicisms: some differences ; New historicism and Foucault ; Advantages and disadvantages of new historicism ; What new historicists do ; New historicism: an example ; Cultural materialism ; How is cultural materialism different from new historicism? ; What cultural materialist critics do ; Cultural materialism: an example

Postcolonial criticism : Background ; Postcolonial reading ; What postcolonial do ; Postcolonial criticism: an example

Stylistics : Stylistics: a theory or a practice? ; A brief historical account: from rhetoric, to philology, to linguistics, to stylistics, to new stylistics ; How does stylistics differ from standard close reading? ; The ambitions of stylistics ; What stylistics critics do ; Stylistics: examples

Narratology : Telling stories ; Aristotle ; Vladimir Propp ; Gérard Genette ; 'Joined-up' narratology ; What narratologists do ; Narratology: an example

Ecocriticism : Ecocriticism or green studies? ; Culture and nature ; Turning criticism inside out ; The Anthropocene, and things ; What ecocritics do ; Ecocriticism: an example

Literary theory: a history in ten events : The Indiana University 'Conference on style', 1958 ; The Johns Hopkins University international symposium, 1966 ; The publication of Deconstruction and criticism, 1979 ; The MacCabe affair, 1981 ; The publication of Eagleton's Literary theory: an introduction, 1983 ; J. Hillis Miller's MLA presidential address, 1986 ; The Strathclyde University 'Linguistics of writing' conference, 1986 ; The scandal over Paul de Man's wartime writings, 1987-88 ; Jean Baudrillard and 'The Gulf War never happened', 1991 ; The Sokal affair, 1996

Theory after 'theory' : Legacies of theory ; Presentism ; Presentism in practice ; New aestheticism ; New aestheticism in practice ; Cognitive poetics ; Cognitive poetics in practice ; Consilience and 'conciliatory' approaches to literary studies ; Posthumanism

Appendices: I. Edgar Allan Poe, "The oval portrait" ; 2. Dylan Thomas, "A refusal to mourn the death, by fire, of a child in London" ; 3. William Cowper, "The castaway"

Where do we go from here?: Further reading : Applying critical theory: twelve early examples ; Against theory.