In this series of essays, the authors aim to analyze the relationship between contemporary literary theory and its practice. The authors have selected twelve of the most prominent, influential and far-reaching theoretical positions currently available, such as hermeneutics, archetypal criticism, deconstruction, psychoanalysis, feminism and Marxism. In a way that the general reader can easily access, Atikins and Morrow discuss the primary features, background, strategies and implications of those theories which are most influential at the present time.