Modern North American Criticism and Theory presents the reader with a comprehensive and critical introduction to the development and institutionalization of literary and cultural studies throughout the twentieth century and at the beginning of the twenty-first. Focusing on the growth and expansion of critical trends and methodologies, with particular essays addressing key figures in their historical and cultural contexts, the book offers a narrative of change, transformation, and the continuous quest for and affirmation of multiple cultural voices and identities. From semiotics and the New Criticism to the identity politics of whiteness studies and the cultural study of masculinity, this book provides an overview of literary and cultural study in North America as a history of questioning, debate, and exploration.A further reading list accompanies each chapter.Key Features* Breadth of coverage from Northrop Frye to Fredric Jameson and from The New Criticism and the Chicago School to New Historicism, African-American Studies and Canadian Literary Studies.* Focus on the history of modern criticism.* Accessibly written.* Theoretical debates are set in full historical, cultural and philosophical contexts. ; This volume presents the reader with a comprehensive and critical introduction to the development and institutionalization of literary and cultural studies throughout the twentieth century and at the beginning of the twenty-first. ; Preface; 1. Charles Sanders Peirce and Semiotics, Kenneth Womack; 2. The New Criticism, Charles Altieri; 3. The Chicago School, William Baker; 4. Northrop Frye, Imre Salusinszky; 5. The Encounter with Structuralism and the Invention of Poststructuralism, Mark Currie; 6. Reception Theory and Reader-Response: Norman Holland, Stanley Fish and David Bleich, Jeremy Lane; 7. The Yale Critics? J. Hillis Miller, Geoffrey Hartman, Harold Bloom, Paul de Man, Ortwin de Graef; 8. Deconstruction of America, William Flesch; 9. Fredric Jameson and Marxist Literary and Cultural Criticism, Carolyn Lesjak; 10. Edward W. Said, John Kucich; 11. American Feminisms: Images of Women and Gynocriticism, Ruth Robbins; 12. Feminisms in the 1980s and 1990s: The Encounter with Poststructuralism and Gender Studies, Megan Becker-Leckrone; 13. Psychoanalysis and Literary Criticism, Megan Becker-Leckrone; 14. Feminists of Color, Anne Donadey; 15. Stephen Greenblatt and the New Historicism, Virginia Mason Vaughan; 16. Lesbian and Gay Studies/Queer Theory, David Van Leer; 17. Postcolonial Studies, Malini Johar Schueller; 18. Cultural Studies and Multiculturalism, Marcel Cornis-Pope; 19. African-American Studies, Yun Hsing Wu; 20. Chicano/a Literature, Amelia Mariá de la Luz Montes; 21. Film Studies, Toby Miller; 22. Feminist Film Studies and Film Theory, Julian Wolfreys; 23. Ethical Criticism, Kenneth Womack; 24. Postmodernism, Marcel Cornis-Pope; 25. The Role of Journals in Theoretical Debate, Kate Flint; 26. Whiteness Studies, Betsy Nies; 27. Masculinity and Cultural Studies, David Alderson; 28. Comics Studies, Christopher Eklund; 29. Anglophone Canadian Literary Studies, Fiona Tolan; 30. Francophone Canadian Literature, Elodie Rousselot; Contributors; Index.