Description: This book explains the basic concepts of six critical theories in popular academic use today-psychoanalytic, Marxist, feminist, gay/lesbian, African-American, and post-colonial theories-and shows how they can be employed to interpret the five short literary works in the book: Emily Dickinson's "I started Early-Took My Dog", William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily", Ralph Ellison's "The Battle Royal", Alice Walker's "Everyday Use", and Jewelle Gomez's "Don't Explain". In addition, a chapter on reader-response theory shows students how to understand their personal responses to literature and how to use that understanding to produce more insightful interpretations while avoiding the typical pitfalls to which their personal responses make them vulnerable. Intended for college students new to the study of literature and to make the social issues literature raises, this book is written in simple language and guides students thought the process of gathering textual data to support sample interpretations of its selected literary works. Each sample interpretation demonstrates a different aspect of the theory at hand and thus serves as a template for future literary analysis.

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