On-Line Aids to the Study of Literary Theory and Critical Methods (updated 2/20/19)

   Many "book lists" are available on line, and a good resources for finding such electronic bibliographies is the Voice of the Shuttle "Literary Theory Page."  The following resources were selected because they offer true on-line discussions of what they describe, rather than bibliographic information about where to find a printed text version of such a discussion.  Most of these sites concentrate on modern theory, taking for granted the student's solid background in all major schools and theorists up to 1900.

Typical Stages in Critical Argument or What your academic audience is asking from the other side of the page:  a tip sheet presenting typical questions academic readers bring to their reading of scholarship, and offering ways writers' papers can answer those questions to prevent misunderstandings or omissions.

A Glossary of Literary Terms and A Handbook of Rhetorical Devices:  this site has some weak links, but overall it's a very useful way to teach yourself the basic terms used by literary analysts.  It also includes an excellent searchable guid to terms from   Greek Classical rhetoric which still are in use when describing unusual ways of using words.  You probably already know "metaphor" and "simile," but there are dozens more.  The examples draw from both ancient and modern literature.  It includes an Introduction and a Self Test for the Retorical Devices section.  The site was designed and implemented by Robert Harris, Professor of English at Vanguard University of Southern California in Costa Mesa, California

English 215: Critical Methods (2014 version): A survey of critical theory and interpretive methods with examples of theories applied.

The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism: available only to students using Goucher College computer accounts and others who subscribe to the JHU Muse system, this is an extensive and thoroughly developed study of major critical schools, their primary contributors, and terminology used.  The Guide is written for the advanced undergraduate or graduate student.