A.  General Introductions:
After Theory, Thomas Docherty, Columbia U.P., 1997.
 PN98.P67.D63.1996
Cultural Theory and Pop Culture:  A Reader, ed. J. Storey, Univ.
 Georgia Pr., 1993.  CB19.S745.1993.
Culture and Critique:  An Introduction to Critical Theory and
 Cultural Studies, Jere Paul Surber, 1998. HM101.S947.1998
Surveys movements from modernist theories of liberal humanism, hermeneutics, Marxism, psychoanalysis, and the Frankfurt School to structuralism, poststructuralism and postmodernism and cultural studies, with useful bibliographic essays for each.
Discourse:  A Critique and Synthesis of Major Theories, Timothy
 Crusius, 1990.
Studying Culture:  An Introductory Reader, ed. Ann Gray and Jim  Mcguigar, Edward Arnold, 1993.
 Readings in major figures in the study of culture (not limited to the field of cultural studies), including Stuart Hall, Raymond Williams, Roland Barthes, etc.
Reading Theory:  An Introduction to Lacan, Derrida, and Kristeva,
 Michael Payne, Blackwell, 1993.

B.  Critiques of Liberal Humanism and European Enlightenment Institutions/Values (see also Feminism, Globalization, Postcolonialism, Science & Technology, and passim below.)
Democracy and Its Critics, Robert A. Dahl, Yale University Press,
 1989.
Discourse on Colonialism, Aime Cesaire, Monthly Review Press, 1972.
Humanism, Tony Davies, Routledge, 1997.
Imperialism and Its Contradictions, V.G. Kiernan, ed. Harvey J.
 Kaye, Routledge, 1995.
Modernity:  An Introduction to Modern Societies, ed. Stuart Hall,
 David Held, Don Hubert, and Kenneth Thompson, Blackwell, 1996.
Unthinking Eurocentrism, Ella Shohat and Robert Stam, Routledge,
 1994.

C.  Specific Schools and Movements or Topics

Border Studies
Borderlands/La Frontera:  The New Mestiza, Gloria Anzaldua,
Spinster/Aunt Lute, 1987.  Founding text for Border Studies.
Border Theory:  The Limits of Cultural Politics, ed. Scott
Michaelsen and David E. Johnson, U. Minnesota Pr., 1997.  Reconsiders all intellectual disciplines in light of borders in urban diasporas, the Mason-Dixon line, the confinement of Native Americans, and transnationally.
Culture and Truth:  The Remaking of Social Analysis, Renato
Rosaldo, Beacon Press, 1989.  A founding text for Border Studies.

Cultural Geography—see Social Geography

Cultural Materialism
Cultural Materialism:  Theory and Practice, ed. Scott Wilson,
 1995.
Faultline:  Cultural Materialism and the Politics of Dissident Reading, Alan Sinfield.

Cultural Studies
Black Britist Cultural Studies:  A Reader, ed. Houston A. Baker,
Jr., Manthia Diawara, and Ruth H. Lindeborg, U. Chicago Pr., 1996.  Reader emphasizing the strand in cultural studies which
 emphasizes race and the critique of nationalism.
Cultural Studies as Critical Theory, Ben Agger, Falmer Pr. 1992.  Cultural Studies based survey of popular culture, Marx, Frankfurt School, postmodernism, and feminism critiquing cult of cultural studies.
The Cultural Studies Reader, ed. Simon During, Routledge, 1993.

Development and Development Theory Critiques
The Color of Hunger:  Race and Hunger in National and International
Perspectives, ed. David Shields, Roman & Littlefield, 1995, p. 153-65.
Dark Victory:  The United States and Global Poverty, Walden Bello,
rev. ed., Food First Books, 1999 (1994).
The Debt Boomerang:  How Third World Debt Harms Us All, Susan George, Westview
Press, 1992.
Debt and disorder : international economic instability and U.S. imperial
Decline, Arthur MacEwan, Zed Books, 1998  HJ8899 M33 1990
Encountering Develoment:  The Making and Unmaking of the Third
 World, Arturo Escobar, Princeton U.P., 1995.
Free markets & food riots : the politics of global adjustment, by John Walton
& David Seddon, Blackwell, 1994.  HC59.7  W263  1994
A Fate Worse than Debt, Susan George, Penguin Books, 1988
The Modern World System, 2 vols., Immanuel Wallerstein, Academic
 Pr., 1974.
The Post-Development Reader, ed. Majid Rahnema, Zed Books.
The Struggle for Accountability:  The World Bank, NGOs, and Grassroots
Movements, Jonathan Fox and L. David Brown, eds., MIT Press, 1998.
Victims of Development:  Resistance and Alternatives, Jeremy Seabrook, London:
Verso, 1993.
50 Years is Enough:  The Case Against the World Bank and the International
Monetary Fund, ed. Kevin Danaher, South End Press, 1994.

Diaspora Studies
Cartographies of Diaspora:  Contesting Identities, Avtar Brah,
Routledge, 1996.
Diaspora and Immigration, V.Y. Mudimbe with Sabine Engel, special
issue of South Atlantic Quarterly (Duke U.P.), 98.1.
Nation and Migration:  The Politics of Space in the South Asian
Diaspora, P. van der Veer, Univ. Pennsylvania Pr.
(See also the journal Diaspora:  A Journal of Transnational Studies.)
 

Discourse Studies (See also works on Foucault)
Discourse, Sara Mills, Routledge, 19997.
Useful introduction to theories of Foucault and other thinkers on discourse, with clear differentiation from Marxist analysis and references to issues of gender and sexual orientation though little attention to race; gives more attention to the archaeology of earlier Foucault than to genealogy and biopower.
The Imperial Archive:  Knowledge and the Fantasy of Empire, Thomas Richards, Verso, 1993.
Race and the Education of Desire:  Foucault’s History of Sexuality
 and the Colonial Order of Things, Ann Laura Stoler, Duke
 University Press, 1995.
Important study of often overlooked attention to race in the work of Foucault, through historical analysis of Dutch colonialism in Indonesia; greater attention to biopower in later Foucault.
Reading Knowledge:  An Introduction to Foucault, Barthes, and
 Althusser, Michael Payne, Blackwell, 1997.
Theories of Discourse:  An Introduction, Diane Macdonell,
 Blackwell, 1986.  Neo-Marxist attempt to synthesize and critique Althusser, Pecheux, and Foucault.

Educational Institutions
Culture and Government, Ian Hunter, 1988.
Foucault and Education:  Discipline and Knowledge, ed. Stephen
Ball, Routledge, 1990.
The Imperial Archive:  Knowledge and the Fantasy of Empire,
Thomas Richards, Verso, 1993.
Learning to Divide the World:  Education at Empire’s End, John Willinsky, U. Minnesota Pr., 1998.  Draws on historical and recent classroom materials to argue that education served and still serves to divide with world in the east/west, black/white, primitive/civilized of the colonial imaginary.
The Order of Things:  An Archaeology of the Human Sciences,
Michel Foucault, Vintage, 1970.  Historical argument that the division of knowledge into natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities strengthened the regime of truth of modernity.
Outside in the Teaching Machine, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak,
Routledge, 1993.
Reproduction in Education, Sociology and Culture, Pierre Bourdieu.
The State Nobility  Elite Schools in the Field of Power, Pierre
 Bourdieu, 1996.
Universities and Empire, ed. Christopher Simpson, New Press.

Feminism/Women of Color Theory
Black Feminist Thought, Patricia Hill Collins, Unwin Hyman, 1990. Accessible introduction to major tradition in U.S. feminism.
British Feminist Thought:  A Reader, ed., Terry Lovell, 1990.
All the Women are White, All the Blacks Are Men, But Some of Us Are
 Brave:  Black Women’s Studies, ed. Gloria T. Hull, Patricia
 Bell Scott, and Barbara Smith, The Feminist Press, 1982.  Founding collection of essays for Women of Color Studies.
Feminism/Postmodernism, ed. Linda Nicholson, Routledge, 1990.  Now classic collection of essays by well-known theorists.
Feminist Practice and Poststructuralist Theory, 2nd ed., Chris
 Weedon, Blackwell, 1996.  Readable introduction useful for considering the application of poststructuralism to social change.
French Feminist Thought:  A Reader, ed. Toril Moi, 1987.Influential and readable introduction to complex theoretical issues.
Making Face, Making Soul:  Haciendo Caras:  Creative and Critical
 Perspectives by Women of Color, ed. Gloria Anzaldua, aunt lute
 foundation, 1990.  Important early collection of major thinkers in the Women of Color response to white feminism.
This Bridge Called My Back:  Writings by Radical Women of Color,
 ed. Cherrie Moraga and Gloria Anzaldua, Kitchen Table Pr.,
 1983 (1981).  Important early collection of major thinkers in the Women of Color response to white feminism.

Gay/Lesbian/Queer/Gender/Transgendered/Bisexual Studies
Epistemology of the Closet, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Columbia U.P.,
1985.  Analysis of the centrality of the modern male homo/heterosexual definition to 20th century Western thought.
The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader, ed. Hanry Abelove, Michele
Aina Barale and David M. Halperin, Routledge, 1993.  Compendium of most major 20th century statements in Lesbian and Gay Studies.

Globalization and Transnational Corporation Critiques
Activists Beyond Borders:  Transnational Advocacy Networks in International
Politics, Margaret Keck and Kathryn  Sikkink, Ithaca:  Cornell Univ.
Pr., 1998.
Big business, poor peoples : the impact of transnational corporations on the
world's poor, John Madeley, Zed Books, 1999.  HD2932 .M3 1999
The Case Against the Global Economy—and For a Turn Toward the
Local, ed. Jerry Mander and Edward Goldsmith, Sierra Club
Books, 1996.
Corporation Nation:  How Corporations are Taking Over Our Lives
And What We Can Do About It, Charles Derber, St. Martin’s
Griffin, 1998.
Dolls and Dust:  Voices of Asian Women Resisting Globalisation, Bangkok:
Committee for Asian Women, 2000
Five Days That Shook the World:  The Battle for Seattle and Beyond, Alexander
Cockburn, Jeffrey St. Clair, and Alan Sekula.
Global Village or Global Pillage, Jeremy Brecher and Timothy
Costello, South End Press, 1994.  Useful historical
Background on major institutions, beliefs, and strategies.
Global Visions:  Beyond the New World Order, ed. Jeremy Brecher,
John Brown Childs, and Jill Cutler, South End Press, 1993.
Globalization and Culture, John Tomlinson, Univ. of Chicago Pr.,
1999.
Globalization:  The New Face of Imperialism, James Petras and Henry Veltmeyer,
Zed Books.
The Global Trap:  Globalization and the Assault on Prosperity and Democracy,
Hans-Peter Martin and Harald Schumann, Zed Books.
Naming the Enemy:  Anti-Corporate Movements Confront Globalization, Amory
Starr, Zed Books, 2000.
No Logo:  Money, Marketing and the Growing Anti-Corporate
Movement, Naomi Klein, Picador, 1999.
Taking the Risk Out of Democracy:   Corporate Propoganda versus
Freedom and Liberty, Alex Carey, Univ. of Illinois Press,
1997.
Taming global financial flows : challenges and alternatives in the era of
globalization : a citizen's guide,  Kavaljit Singh, Zed Books, 2000.
HG3881 .S5372 2000
Who Will Tell the People:  The Betrayal of American Democracy,
William Greider, Simon and Schuster, 1992.
Whose Trade Organization (WTO)?  Corporate Globalization and the Erosion of
      Democracy, Lori Wallach and Michellle Sforza, Public Citizen, 1999.
The WTO:  Five Years of Reasons to Resist Corporate Globalization:  Lori
Wallach and Michellle Sforza, Seven Stories Press, 1999.
The World Trade Organisation : A Guide To The New Framework For International
        Trade, Bhagirath  Lal Das, Zed Books, 1999.    K3943 .D37 1999

Hybridity Studies
Debating Cultural Hybridity:  Multi-cultural Identities and the
Politics of Anti-Racism, ed. P. Werbner and T. Modood, Zed
Books, 1997.  Essay collection with important introductory essay on hybridity, primarily in the European context.
Hybrid Cultures:  Strategies for Entering and Leaving Modernity,
Nestor Garcia Canclini, Univ. Minnesota Pr., 1995.

Literary Theory
Literary Theory:  An Introduction, 2nd ed., Terry Eagleton, U.
 Minnesota Pr., 1996. Classic brief and nicely balanced introductory survey of literary theory, now revised to include postructuralism and feminism.
A Politics of Postmodernism.  Linda Hutcheon, 1989.  PN3503.H84.1989.  Argues that postmodernism must be transformed from mere literary to socio-political and economic praxis.
Redrawing the Boundaries:  The Transformation of English and
 American Literary Studies, ed. Stephen Greenblatt and Giles
 Gunn, MLA, 1992.
An authoritative survey of major movements in literary theory by established figures in each field, including fields by period and by topic, such as modernist studies, postmodernist studies, feminist criticism, gender criticism, African American criticism, Marxist criticism, psychoanalytic criticism, deconstruction, new historicism, cultural criticism, postcolonial criticism, and composition studies.

Marxism (emphasizing (Neo)Marxist backlash to postmodernist, feminist, and poststructuralist readings of society & history)
The Condition of Postmodernity, David Harvey, Blackwell, 1989.
Hegemony and Socialist Strategy:  Towards a Radical Democratic
  Politics, Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, Verso, 1985v.  With Jameson and Althusser’s work a major Marxist response to poststructuralism.
Postmodernism or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, Frederic
 Jameson, Duke U.P., 1991.  The major response of a contemporary Marxist to poststructuralism.
Reading Knowledge:  An Introduction to Foucault, Barthes, and
 Althusser, Michael Payne, Blackwell, 1997.
Theories of Discourse:  An Introduction, Diane Macdonell,
 Blackwell, 1986.  Neo-Marxist attempt to synthesize and critique Althusser, Pecheux, and Foucault.

Masculinities and Men’s Studies
Against the Tide:  Pro-Feminist Men in the United States, 1776-
 1990, A Documentary History, Ed. Michael S. Kimmel and Thomas
 E. Mosmiller, Beacon Pr. 1992.
Masculinities, R. W. Cornell, Univ. California Press, 1995.
The Making of masculinities:  the new men’s studies, ed. Harry
 Brod, Allen and Unwin, 1987.
Manful assertions:  masculinities in Britain since 1800, ed.
 Michael Roper and John Tosh, Routledge, 1991.
Men and Masculinities:  A Critical Anthology, ed. Tony Haddad,
 Canadian Scholars Press, 1993.
Men in Feminism, ed. Alice Jardine and Paul Smith, Methuen, 1987.
Theorizing Masculinites, ed. Harry Brod and Michael Kaufman, Sage
 Pubs., 1994.

The Political Correctness Debate
After Political Correctness:  The Humanities and Society in the
 1990s., Ed. Christopher Newfield and Ronald Strickland,
 Westview Press, 1995.
The Opening of the American Mind:  Canons, Culture, and History,
 Lawrence W. Levine, Beacon Pr., 1996.  Clearly written and lively analysis of the changing canons in U.S. education and their relation to social history.
PC Wars:  Politics and Theory in the Academy, ed. Jeffrey
 Williams, Routledge, 1995.  A field guide to the culture wars by leading voices in literary criticism, cultural studies, politics, history, and education.

Postcolonial Studies
Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory:  A Reader, ed.
 Patrick  Williams and Laura Chrisman, Columbia Univ. Pr.,
 1994. Compare with Ashcroft (below).
A Companion to Postcolonial Studies, ed. Sangeeta Ray and Henry
 Schwarz, Blackwell, 1998.  (forthcoming)
Cultural Imperialism:  An Introduction, John Tomlinson, Pinter,
 1991.
Key Concepts in Post-Colonial Literature, B. Ashcroft, et al.,  1997.(Not at Honnold.) Compare with Williams/Chrisman
 (above).
Postcolonial Discourse and Changing Cultural Contexts:  Theory and
 Criticism, ed. Gita Rajan and Radhika Mohahram, Greenwood
 Pr., 1995.  PN56.C63.P67.1995
Postcolonialism:  Critical Concepts in Literary and Cultural
 Studies, ed. Diana Brydon, Routledge, 2000.  JV51.P67.2000
The Post-Colonial Studies Reader, ed. B. Ashcroft, et al.,
 Routledge,
Postcolonial Theory:  A Critical Introduction, Leela Gandhi,
 Columbia U.P., 1998.  JV51.G36.1998
Postcolonial Theory and Criticism, ed. Laura Chrisman and Benit
 Berry, Cambridge:  D.S. Brewer, 2000.  PR13.E5.1999
See also the journal, Interventions:  the International Journal of Postcolonial Studies.  V. 1  (1999).

Postmodernism/Poststructuralism:
The Anti-aesthetic:  Essays on Postmodern Culture, Hal Foster, ed.,
 1983.  BH301.M54.A57.1983.  Useful analysis of shift away from emphasis on aesthetic towards socio-political and economic.
Critical Theory and Poststructuralism, Mark Poster, Cornell U.P., 1989.  B2430.F724.P67.1989.
Cultural History and Postmodernity, Mark Poster, Columbia U.P., 1997.  D13.P585.1997.  Foucault-influenced introduction to relations between the writing of history and poststructuralism, with important contributions agency and political subjectivity.
Feminism/Postmodernism, ed. Linda Nicholson, Routledge, 1990.  Now classic collection of essays by well-known theorists.
Feminist Practice and Poststructuralist Theory, 2nd ed., Chris
 Weedon, Blackwell, 1996.  Readable introduction useful for considering the application of poststructuralism to social change.
French Feminist Thought:  A Reader, ed. Toril Moi, 1987.
From Modernism to Postmodernism:  An Anthology, ed. Lawrence
 Cahoone, Blackwell, 1995.  B790.F76.1996; STC B790 F76 1996
Matrix and Line:  Derrida and the possibilities of postmodern social theory, Bill Martin, SUNY Press, 1992.
The Mode of Information:  Postructuralisms and Social Context, Mark
 Poster, 1990.  HM24.P66.1990.  On importance of postindustrial and poststructuralist communication(tv, databases, computers, the internet) for changing social relations, particularly on the politics of subjectivity and individuality.
Modernism/Postmodernism, ed. Peter Brooker, Longman, 1992.
The Postmodern Aura:  The Act of Fiction in an Age of Inflation,
 Charles Newman, 1985.  PN771.N48.1985.  Demonstrates how postmodern socioeconomic forces shape culture.
Postmodernism:  A Reader, ed. Thomas Docherty, Harverster
 Wheatsheaf, 1993. B8312.P675.1993
Postmodernism:  A Reader, ed. Patricia Waugh, Edward Arnold, 1992.
Postmodernism is Not What You Think, Charles Lemert, Basil
 Blackwell, 1997.  HM73 L45 1997  Excellent balanced introductory overview of postmodernism, poststructuralism and Marxist responses with useful discussion in context of social theory rather than literary theory.
Postmodernist Culture:  An Introduction to Theories of the
 Contemporary, 2nd ed., Steven Connor, Basil Blackwell, 1996.
 PN98 P67 C66 1997.  Accessible and inclusive introduction to postmodernism, including Lyotard, Baudrillard, Jameson, with attention to emerging theorists and fields and the place of academic institutions in society.
A Postmodern Reader, ed. Linda Hutcheon and Joseph Natoli, State
 Univ. of New York Pr., 1993.
The Postmodern Reader, Charles Jencks, Academy Editions, 1992.
Reading Theory:  An Introduction to Lacan, Derrida, and Kristeva,
 Michael Payne, Blackwell, 1993.
Reading Knowledge:  An Introduction to Foucault, Barthes, and
 Althusser, Michael Payne, Blackwell, 1997.
Social Postmodernism:  Beyond Identity Politics, ed. Linda
 Nicholson and Steven Seidman, Cambridge U.P., 1995.
This Bridge Called My Back:  Writings by Radica Women of Color, ed.  Cherrie Moraga and Gloria Anzaldua, Women of Color Press,
 1981.
Universal Abandon:  The Politics of Postmodernism, ed. Andrew Ross
 for Social Text (journal), U. Minnesota Pr., 1988.
 PN98.P64U55.1988

Psychoanalytic Theory
Reading Theory:  An Introduction to Lacan, Derrida, and Kristeva,
 Michael Payne, Blackwell, 1993.

Science and Technology and Their Critique
The Racial Economy of Science, ed. Sandra Harding.
Trust Us, We’re Experts:  How Industry Manipulates Science and
 Gambles with Your Future, Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber,
 Putnam, 2001.
Toxic Sludge is Good for You!  Lies, Damn Lies, and the Public
 Relations Industry, Common Courage Press, 1995.

Social Geography
The Condition of Postmodernity, David Harvey, 1989.
Even in Sweden:  Racisms, Racialized Spaces and the Popular
Geographical Imagination, A. Pred, Univ. of California Pr.,
2000.
Feminism and Geography, Gillian Rose, 1993.
Geographical Imaginations, D. Gregory, Blackwell, 1994.
Postmodern Geographies:  The Reassertion of Space in Critical
Social Theory, Edward Soja, Verso, 1989.
Postmodern Geography:  Theory and Praxis, ed. Claudio Minca,
Blackwell, 2001.
The Production of Space, Henri Lefebvre, Blackwell, 1991 (1974).
Space, Place, and Gender, D. Massey, Polity Pr., 1994.
Thirdspace:  Journeys to Los Angeles and Other Real-and-Imagined
Places, Edward Soja, Blackwell, 1996.
 

Sociology  (Emphasizing Sociology’s backlash against poststructuralism, feminism and postmodernism.)
Critical Social Theory, Craig Calhoun, Blackwell, 1995.  Revisioning of Frankfurt School critical social theory centering on questions of difference, with attention to poststructuralism and feminism (Bourdieu, Foucault, and Haraway).
Culture/Power/History:  A Reader in Contemporary Social Theory,
 Princeton U.P.,  1994.  HM101.C937.1994
Identity Crises:  A Social Critique of Postmodernity, Robert G.
 Dunn, U. Minnesota Pr., 1998.
The Politics of Historical Vision:  Marx, Foucault, Habermas,
 Steven Best, Guilford Press, 1995. JA74.B474.1995.  Combines Marxism and Frankfurt School (esp. Habermas) in critique of postmodernism and positivism.
Postmodernism and Social Inquiry, ed. David Dickens and Andrea
 Fontana, Guilford, 1994.  HM24.  P6642.1994.
Postmodernism and Social Theory:  The Debate Over General Theory,
 ed. Steven Seidman and David Wagner, Blackwell, 1992.

U.S. (Neo)Colonialism and Domestic Hegemony
Bananas, Beaches, and Based:  Making Feminist Sense of Internatonal
 Politics, Cynthia Enloe, Univ. California Press, 1990.
The Cultures of U.S. Imperialism, Amy Kaplan and Donald Pease.
Year 501 The ConquestContinues, Noam Chomsky, South End Press,
 1993.

White Studies
Critical White Studies:  Looking Behind the Mirror, ed. Richard
 Delgado and Jean Stefancic, Temple U.P., 1997.  Anthology on invention and changes in category of whiteness from sociology, law, history, cultural studies, and other disciplines.
Displacing Whiteness:  Essays in Social and Cultural Criticism, ed.
 Ruth Frankenberg, Duke U.P., 1997.  Collection emphasizing race dominance across international, racial, class, and gender lines with an emphasis on the particular ways whiteness is experienced.
Whiteness:  A Critical Reader, ed. Mike Hill, New York U. Pr.,
 1997.  Collection of writings by activists, scholars, and writers on the invisible yet ubiquitous norm of whiteness and its challenges.

D.  Individual Authors (Guides to the literature on major figures)
See the series of readers published by Blackwell, e.g., Althusser:  A Critical Reader (1994), Derrida:  A Critical Reader (1992), Fanon:  A Critical Reader (1996), Foucault:  A Critical Reader (1986), The Irigaray Reader (1991), The Kristeva Reader (1986), and Nietzsche:  A Critical Reader (1995), among others.
 

Critical Theory Bibliography:

Contemporary Critical Theory:  A Selected Bibliography, Donald G.
 Marshall, Modern Language Association, 1993.
Introductory essays on a broad range of schools of critical
theory with summaries of work of 50 theorists; lists 2,000 journals and books with brief annotations.
Recent Work in Critical Theory, 1989-1995:  An Annotated Bibliography, comp. W. Baker and F. Womack, Greenwood, 1996.

 
Spring, 1999         Joe Parker
 Reference Works for Critical Theory

The A-Z Guide to Modern Literary and Cultural Theorists, ed. Stuart  Sim, Prentice Hall, 1995.  Ref PN74.A2 1995
 Generally very useful biographical entries on a large number of 20th c. critical theorists.  Each entry includes a very short biography, summary of major works and major periods in author's development, ending with brief summary of major works and critiques.  No index.
The Columbia Dictionary of Modern Literary and Cultural Criticism,
 ed. Joseph Childers and Gary Hentzi, Columbia Univ. Pr., 1995.
 Not so useful.
Critical Terms for Literary Study, Frank Lentricchia and Thomas
 McLaughlin, 2nd ed., Univ. Chicago Pr., 1995.  PN81.C84 1995  Longer essays on a short list of central terms, such as discourse.
The Development Dictionary, ed. Wolfgang Sachs,
A Dictionary of Cultural and Critical Theory, ed. Michael Payne,
 Blackwell, 1996.   Ref. HM101.D527
 Uneven but often useful entries with brief articles and references for further reading.
Dictionary of Critical Theory, ed. Leonard Orr, Greenwood, 1991.
 Ref. PN98.S6077  Very brief introductory essays with useful lists of references for further reading.
A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory, ed. J.A.
 Cuddon, 3rd ed., Blackwell, 1991.  Ref PN41.C83  1991
 More useful for literary study than for more general topics.
A Dictionary of Modern Critical Terms, rev. ed., Routledge, Kegan Paul, 1987.  Ref PN41 D4794  Not so useful, with very traditional literary studies emphasis.
Encyclopedia of Contemporary Literary Theory, Irenal Makaryk, Univ. Toronto Pr., 1993.  Very useful guide divided by approaches, scholars and terms.
The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism, ed. M.
 Groden and M. Kreiswirth, Johns Hopkins U.Pr., 1994.
 Ref PN81.J554 1994
 Very useful for who's who and what's what, especially for schools like deconstruction or writings by major figures.
Key Words:  A Vocabulary of Culture and Society, Raymond Williams,
 Oxford U.Pr., 1976.  Ref PE 1585.W54
 Now somewhat outdated but very useful historical discussion of important terms in literary and cultural study.
Literature and Criticism:  A New Century Guide, ed. M. Kelsall, et al., Routledge, 1990. (Honnold copy on order)
Redrawing the Boundaries:  The Transformation of English and
 American Literary Studies, ed. Stephen Greenblatt and Giles
 Gunn, The Modern Language Association of America, 1992.
 PR21.R43 1992
 Very useful, longer entries on major schools of criticism, with particularly good introductions to debates in the fields; some essays by major critics.