Accessing the huge and often bewildering subject of Critical Theory can be an intimidating experience. This acclaimed dictionary provides the ideal introduction to the range of theories and theorists on offer and will prove an invaluable and authoritative resource to all students. * Incisive overviews of the work of key figures from Arendt and Artaud to Winnicott, Wittgestein and Woolf * Powerful summaries of the crucial debates on desire and deconstruction, object relations and Orientalism, postcolonial theory and postmodernism * Clear explanations of both the links and the disagreements between different thinkers and schools.

"Critical theory has become the common denominator in the study of the modern human sciences. The amount of theory is bewildering, and access to it is complex. As new fields of study open up and academics reassess the old disciplines in the light of a new theory, the student is faced with a vast array of critical tools with which to tackle his or her subject. What is required is a book that serves as an introduction to the range of theories and theorists at an academic's disposal. The Penguin Dictionary of Critical Theory fulfils that need." "The Penguin Dictionary of Critical Theory is a resource for all students and is an authorative reference to this huge and confusing subject." --Book Jacket.

The Penguin Dictionary of International Relations holds the key to understanding the trends and events that have influenced international relations over the last decade. This completely up-to-date reference includes explanations of the dangerous developments that have affected international relations, such as ethnic cleansing and preventive war, as well as detailed entries on broader concepts and key organizations--from game theory to SALT, from Amnesty International to WHO. This is a must for students of the world who want to keep up with the ever-changing pace of foreign relations.

A twenty-first century version of Roger Fowler’s 1973 Dictionary of Modern Critical Terms, this latest edition of The Routledge Dictionary of Literary Terms is the most up-to-date guide to critical and theoretical concepts available to students of literature at all levels. With over forty newly commissioned entries, this essential reference book includes: an exhaustive range of entries, covering such topics as genre, form, cultural theory and literary technique new definitions of contemporary critical issues such as Cybercriticism and Globalization complete coverage of traditional and radical approaches to the study and production of literature thorough accounts of critical terminology and analyses of key academic debates full cross-referencing throughout and suggestions for further reading. Covering both long-established terminology as well as the specialist vocabulary of modern theoretical schools, The Routledge Dictionary of Literary Terms is an indispensable guide to the principal terms and concepts encountered in debates over literary studies in the twenty-first century.

'An indispensable work of reference' Times Literary Supplement The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory is firmly established as a key work of reference in the complex and varied field of literary criticism. Now in its fifth edition, it remains the most comprehensive and accessible work of its kind, and is invaluable for students, teachers and general readers alike. - Gives definitions of technical terms (hamartia, iamb, zeugma) and critical jargon (aporia, binary opposition, intertextuality) - Explores literary movements (neoclassism, romanticism, vorticism) and schools of literary theory - Covers genres (elegy, fabliau, pastoral) and literary forms (haiku, ottava rima, sonnet)

In the most comprehensive study of Jacques Lacan yet to be published in English, David Macey challenges many of the assumptions that have come to surround Lacan's work. He shows that key elements of Lacanian thought relate not to structuralism, as is often claimed, but to surrealism, Bataille and the early French phenomenologists. The famous "return to Freud" is shown to mask Lacan's adherence to a psychiatric tradition and to trends within French psychoanalysis which were opposed by Freud himself. A detailed and challenging reading of work by Lacan and his associates on femininity reveals its reliance upon a virulently sexist discourse and upon an iconography derived from surrealism. The view that Lacanian psychoanalysis has a positive contribution to make to feminism and to theories of gender and sexual difference is contested. As well as providing a new and provocative reading of Lacan's work, Lacan in Contexts is an important contribution to psychoanalytic history and to the history of French intellectual life.