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Literary Theory and Criticism

Searching for books

The main call number ranges for books on literary theory and criticism are:

Literature (General)
   Theory, Philosophy, Esthetics: PN 45 - 80

Literature (General)
   Criticism: PN 80 - 98.W64

Literature (General)
   Literary history
      Literary movements (General): PN 597 - 599

English Literature
   Criticism: PR 57 - 78

Some types of literary theories and criticism have their own spectific call number ranges.  While I encourage you to browse through the call number ranges  provided above, because of the wide range of call numbers associated with this evolving subject, I also recommend that you actively search our Library catalog, OneSearch

1) You can search by Subject in OneSearch for:

  •     Literature History and Criticism
  •     Literature History and Criticism Theory
  •     Literary Movements

2) You can also do a subject search for a particular theory:

  •    Postmodernism
  •    Deconstruction
  •    Queer Theory

3) Not all theories are represented as well by exact by Subject Headings. If you can't find a theory by subject, try doing a broader search for it.  For example, while narrative theory is a Library of Congress Subject Headings, none of the books in our catalog are currently represented by that Subject Heading.  However, when Iook for "narrative theory" anywhere in the record, I find thirty books, many of which are about Narrative Theory.

Last Updated: Jul 12, 2023 1:47 PM