The essays also discuss the uses and limitations of the various schools, and the key issues they address. Part II focuses on individual theorists. This second section analyses the individual achievements, as well as the influence, of specific scholars, and places them in a larger critical context. Part III deals with the vocabulary of literary theory. It identifies significant, complex terms, places them in context, and explains their origins and use.
Accessibility is a key feature of the work.
Essays in Memory of Constantine Bida. The 170 contributors do a commendable job of providing the summary one wants from an encyclopedia while attending to the complexity and controversy that characterize the field. The book offers a complete look at the criticism contemporaneous with and newer than New Criticism. It fills an almost empty niche. While there are many books that discuss and explain a particular literary theory, books that cover them all are few.