Start here, accessing the resources on this page, if you want to learn a little more about your literary theory or to help you choose a theoretical lens.
Literary criticism refers to analysis of a literary text. Literary theory may also be used to analysis other cultural productions in the Humanities, such as photography, dance, film, etc.
Literary Critics bring many different perspectives to bear. These perspectives often evolve as reactions to the political, economic, cultural, educational and artistic climate of a historical period.
These perspectives are referred to as Schools of Literary Criticism. Get to know different schools of criticism.
The following is a list of some schools of Literary Criticism. There are others!
Note: You may not find criticism of a text from the critical perspective you are taking. It may help you develop your analysis, however, to read how your school of criticism is applied to another work.
Remember too: relevant scholarly criticism may not use the exact terminology of your school of criticism. To find Marxist criticism, for example, you might search for class, power, socioeconomics, poverty, etc. Or to find a feminist reading, you might search for articles that talk about women, gender, sexism, etc.
These perspectives are referred to as Schools of Literary Criticism and may include, but are not limited to, the following:
Learn more about schools of literary criticism from library reference sources.
Use the links below to access some literary theory background Information and definitions on the web.
Want basic information on literary analysis terminology, genres, literary devices, literary periods, and the like?
Look it up here:
Routledge Encyclopedia of Narrative Theory by 
