Modern British and Irish Criticism and Theory offers the student and general reader a comprehensive, critically informed overview of the development of literary and cultural studies from the nineteenth century to the present day. Beginning with Coleridge and Arnold, examining the contribution of cultural commentators and novelists, and considering the institutionalisation of literary criticism in the universities of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, the book addresses in detailed, accessible and rigorous essays the rise and significance of literary and cultural studies. Nearly thirty essays contribute to an understanding of the practice of literary studies presenting the reader with a perceptive series of critical interventions which, themselves, engage in the very locations from which criticism and theory have emerged.A further reading list accompanies each chapter.Key Features* Breadth of coverage from Coleridge through Virginia Woolf to Raymond Williams and Terry Eagleton; and from the 'Cambridge School' to Post-structuralism and Postcolonial theory.* Focus on the history of modern criticism.* Accessibly written.* Theoretical debates are set in full historical, cultural and philosophical contexts. ; This volume offers the student and general reader a comprehensive, critically informed overview of the development of literary and cultural studies from the nineteenth century to the present day. ; Preface; 1. Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Matthew Arnold, Ortwin de Graef; 2. John Ruskin and Walter Pater: Aesthetics and the State, Jonathan Loesberg; 3. Oscar Wilde: Aesthetics and Criticism, Megan Becker-Leckrone; 4. The Cambridge School: Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, I. A. Richards and William Empson, Jeremy Tambling; 5. James Joyce: Theories of Literature, Jean Michel Rabaté; 6. Virginia Woolf: Aesthetics, Jane Goldman; 7. T. S. Eliot, K. M. Newton; 8. After the "Cambridge School": F. R. Leavis, Jeremy Tambling; 9. J. L. Austin and Speech-Act Theory, William Flesch; 10. Richard Hoggart, Raymond Williams and the Emergence of Cultural Studies, David Alderson; 11. Raymond Williams, Andrew Milner; 12. Stuart Hall, John Brannigan; 13. Terry Eagleton, Moyra Haslett; 14. Screen, Antony Easthope; 15. Structuralism and the Structuralist Controversy, Niall Lucy; 16. The Spread of Literary Theory in Britain, Peter Barry; 17. Feminism and Poststructuralism, Ashley Tauchert; 18. Cultural Studies, Ian Baucom; 19. Cultural Materialism, John Brannigan; 20. Postcolonial Studies, Gail Ching-Liang Low; 21. Gay/Queer and Lesbian Studies, Criticism and Theory, John M. Clum; 22. Ernesto Laclau, Chantal Mouffe, and Post-Marxism, Paul Bowman; 23. Psychoanalysis in Literary and Cultural Studies, Leigh Wilson; 24. Feminism, Materialism and the Debate on Postmodernism in British Universities, Gillian Howie; 25. British Poststructuralism since 1968, Martin McQuillan; 26. Developments in Literary Theory since 1995, Peter Barry; Contributors; Index.