JULIAN WOLFREYS is Professor of Victorian Literary and Cultural Studies at the University of Florida.

• PrefaceAcknowledgementsCritical Keywords: AbjectionAestheticsAlterityAporiaCarnival/CarnivalesqueClassCultureDeconstructionDesireDifference/DifféranceDiscourseEventGenderHegemonyHyperrealityHypertextI/dentityIdeologyImaginary-Symbolic-RealInterpellationIntertextualityIterability/IterationJouissanceKhora/ChoraLiteratureMaterialism/MaterialityModernismMyth/ologyNarrative/NarrationOtherOverdeterminationPerformativityPostmodernity/PostmodernismPowerQueerRaceReader/ReadingSexuality/Sexual DifferenceSimulacrum/SimulationSubject/ivityUncannyUnconsciousWritingAfterwords: Literary and Cultural Theory: The Contested Ground of Critical Language, or Terms, Concepts, and MotifsWorks CitedIndex.

'For the adventure of a lifetime, pick a letter - any letter. Julian Wolfreys' Critical Keywords in Literary and Cultural Theory offers the most brilliant, generously conceived, and self-effacing invitation to roar and glide in literary and cultural theory I know. It is an anti-dictionary, increasing meaning rather than containing it, thus providing us with opportunities to explore rather than reasons to stop thinking. Look up 'class,' or 'queer,' or 'gender,' or 'writing,' or any other of the 43 terms, and you find yourself opening to a whole range of possibilities, a stimulating education you can conduct yourself. I know of no finer avenue into modern thought, wonderful both for new visitors and for those who imagine they know the terrain.' - James R. Kincaid, Aerol Arnold Professor of English, University of Southern California