Cover -- Contents -- Preface -- 1. Introduction: The Prehistory and Rise of "Theory" -- 2. Introduction Continued: Theory and Functionalization -- FIRST REFLECTIONS ON INTERPRETATION AND READING -- 3. Ways In and Out of the Hermeneutic Circle -- 4. Configurative Reading -- TEXT AND STRUCTURE -- 5. The Idea of the Autonomous Artwork -- 6. The New Criticism and Other Western Formalisms -- 7. Russian Formalism -- 8. Semiotics and Structuralism -- 9. Linguistics and Literature -- 10. Deconstruction I: Jacques Derrida -- 11. Deconstruction II: Paul de Man -- AUTHOR (READER) AND PSYCHE -- 12. Freud and Fiction -- 13. Jacques Lacan in Theory -- 14. Influence -- 15. The Postmodern Psyche -- THE SOCIAL CONTEXT -- 16. The Social Permeability of Reader and Text -- 17. The Frankfurt School of Critical Theory -- 18. The Political Unconscious -- 19. The New Historicism -- 20. The Classical Feminist Tradition -- 21. African American Criticism -- 22. Postcolonial Criticism -- 23. Queer Theory and Gender Performativity -- 24. The Institutional Construction of Literary Study -- THEORY CON AND PRO -- 25. The End of Theory? Neo- Pragmatism -- 26. Conclusion: Who Doesn't Hate Theory Now? -- Appendix: Passages Referenced in Lectures -- Notes -- The Varieties of Interpretation: A Guide to Further Reading in Literary Theory, by Stefan Esposito -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y -- Z.