Until you’ve consumed all of the best Critical Theory books, can you even claim to be a true fan?
- Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide (2014)
- Critical Theory: A Reader for Literary and Cultural Studies (2012)
- Using Critical Theory (2011)
- Critical Theory: The Key Concepts (Routledge Key Guides) (2015)
- Critical Theory: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) (2017)
- Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings That Formed the Movement (1996)
- Critical Theory: The Essential Readings (Paragon Issues in Philosophy) (1998)
- Rethinking College Student Development Theory Using Critical Frameworks (2019)
- Introducing Critical Theory: A Graphic Guide (2009)
Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide (2014)
This thoroughly updated third edition of Critical Theory Today offers an accessible introduction to contemporary critical theory, providing in-depth coverage of the most common approaches to literary analysis today, including: feminism; psychoanalysis; Marxism; reader-response theory; New Criticism; structuralism and semiotics; deconstruction; new historicism and cultural criticism; lesbian, gay, and queer the…
Critical Theory: A Reader for Literary and Cultural Studies (2012)
A wide-ranging and refreshingly up-to-date anthology of primary readings, Critical Theory: A Reader for Literary and Cultural Studies, edited by Robert Dale Parker, presents a provocative mix of contemporary and classic essays in critical theory.
Using Critical Theory (2011)
Explaining both why theory is important and how to use it, Lois Tyson introduces beginning students of literature to this often daunting area in a friendly and approachable style. The new edition of this textbook is clearly structured with chapters based on major theories that students are expected to cover in their studies.
Critical Theory: The Key Concepts (Routledge Key Guides) (2015)
Critical Theory: The Key Concepts introduces over 300 widely-used terms, categories and ideas drawing upon well-established approaches like new historicism, postmodernism, psychoanalysis, Marxism, and narratology as well as many new critical theories of the last twenty years such as Actor-Network Theory, Global Studies, Critical Race Theory, and Speculative Realism. This book explains the key concepts at the heart of a wide range of influential theorists from Agamben to Žižek.
Critical Theory: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) (2017)
Critical theory emerged in the 1920s from the work of the Frankfurt School, the circle of German-Jewish academics who sought to diagnose — and, if at all possible, cure — the ills of society, particularly fascism and capitalism.
Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings That Formed the Movement (1996)
In the past few years, a new generation of progressive intellectuals has dramatically transformed how law, race, and racial power are understood and discussed in America. Questioning the old assumptions of both liberals and conservatives with respect to the goals and the means of traditional civil rights reform, critical race theorists have presented new paradigms for understanding racial injustice and new ways of seeing the links between race, gender, sexual orientation, and class.
Critical Theory: The Essential Readings (Paragon Issues in Philosophy) (1998)
This selection of some of the most important writing of the Frankfurt School and its critics provides beginning and advanced philosophy students with a solid grounding in critical theory.
Rethinking College Student Development Theory Using Critical Frameworks (2019)
A major new contribution to college student development theory, this book brings “third wave” theories to bear on this vitally important topic. The book has three sections: The first briefly introduces the third wave theories that have recently expanded the frame of the topic; the second uses those theories to focus on specific aspects of student development; and the third brings it all together with a few chapters that look at the implications for practice.
Introducing Critical Theory: A Graphic Guide (2009)
The last few decades have seen an explosion in the production of critical theories, with deconstructionists, poststructuralists, postmodernists, second-wave feminists, new historicists, cultural materialists, postcolonialists, black critics and queer theorists, among a host of others, all vying for our attention. The world around us can look very different on the critical theory applied to it. This vast range of interpretations can leave one feeling confused and frustrated.
Best Critical Theory Books to Read
We highly recommend you to buy all paper or e-books in a legal way, for example, on Amazon. But sometimes it might be a need to dig deeper beyond the shiny book cover. Before making a purchase, you can visit resources like Library Genesis and download some critical theory books mentioned below at your own risk. Once again, we do not host any illegal or copyrighted files, but simply give our visitors a choice and hope they will make a wise decision.
Foundations of Critical Race Theory in Education
Author(s): Edward Taylor, David Gillborn, Gloria Ladson-Billings
ID: 3539263, Publisher: Routledge, Year: 2023, Size: 8 Mb, Format: pdf
The Philology of Life: Walter Benjamin's Critical Program
Author(s): Kevin McLaughlin
ID: 3629726, Publisher: Fordham University Press, Year: 2023, Size: 3 Mb, Format: pdf
The Poverty of Critical Theory in International Relations
Author(s): Davide Schmid
ID: 3632682, Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, Year: 2023, Size: 2 Mb, Format: pdf
Please note that this booklist is not errorless. Some books are absolutely record-breakers according to The Wall Street Journal, others are drafted by unknown authors. On top of that, you can always find additional tutorials and courses on Coursera, Udemy or edX, for example. Are there any other relevant links you could recommend? Leave a comment if you have any feedback on the list.