'Absorbing and illuminating...Literary Theory is ideal for students and lecturers who want to learn, or be reminded, that criticism was not invented sometime in the 1960s. Harland has included a time chart covering the major periods of criticism and a glossary. He ends his account with structuralism but promises a second volume that will cover 'the last 30 years'. I look forward to it.' - Times Higher Education Supplement 'Richard Harland's absorbing and illuminating Literary Theory from Plato to Barthes...draws frequent parallels between the past and the present...Literary Theory is ideal for students and lecturers who want to learn, or be reminded, that criticism was not invented, like sexual intercourse, sometime in the 1960s.' - Gary Day, Times Higher Education Supplement