Significant Movements (Early to Mid 20th Century)

DaDa Online
This is a comprehensive site devoted to everything dadaistic. It includes information on influential dada artists and poets, and on dadaism's impact on countries around the globe.

Dadaism
An essay taken from Dada Manifesto (1918) by Romanian-born French essayist and poet Tristan Tzara, one of the founders of the Dada movement.

History of Surrealism
This article discusses surrealism and explains the differences between two distinct trends -- automatism and veristic surrealism.

Alberto Giacometti and the Surrealists
On this site is the entire text of "No More Play", an essay on the major movement surrealism as seen in the work of Alberto Giacometti, the Swiss sculptor and painter.

Surrealism
You will find lots of interesting facts in this article on surrealism published by Duke University.

The Realm of Existentialism
This site contains general information on the existentialist movement and information on thinkers associated with the movement, like Kierkegaard and Camus.

Existential Philosophy Website
A great site with interesting essays on existentialism in practice. Be sure to check out "Shakespeare and Early Existentialism", an analysis of The Tempest.

Existentialism: An Introduction
A short and concise introduction to the basic concepts of existentialism with an explaination of some of the problematic terms in the Existential vocabulary.

The Basic Problems of Phenomenology
Written in 1927 by German philosopher Martin Heidegger, this essay explores the problems surrounding the early 20th-century school of philosophy known as phenomenology.

Illuminations: The Critical Theory Website
A site that focuses on the philosophy of the Frankfurt School, a group of Marxist social theorists who fled to the United States after Hilter gained power.

The New Criticism
This webpage gives us a brief introduction to the movement of 'new criticism', and, more specifically, its theory of intentional fallacy.

New Criticism Explained
Here you will find answers to questions about the link between new criticism and formalism.

Teaching and Studying Literature at the End of Ideology
This excerpt from the book English in America: A Radical View of the Profession examines the role of new criticism in the 20th-century and exposes its fundamental flaws.

Some Elements of Structuralism and its Application to Literary Theory
Professor John Lye (Brock University) has collected ideas from various authors on the general principles of structuralism and its relation to culture and literature.

Structuralism/Poststructuralism
This article explores the positive role of structuralism in creating an objective framework for the otherwise subjective analysis of literature. There is also a discussion of Derrida's theory of binary opposition.

Saussure and the Sign
A lecture providing a detailed explanation of Saussure's ideas, focussing on his thoughts on the linguistic sign.

Significant Movements (Mid 20th Century to Present)

Cyberspace and Critical Theory
A collection of student projects related to Literary and Critical Theory. There are essays on digital text and image, and some good information on Barthes and Bakhtin.

Modern Critical Thought
Here are some great lecture notes from a course on literary theory. Topics include Claude Levi-Strauss' theory on the structural study of myth, and the work of structuralist Marxist, Louis Althusser.

The Hydra Literary Theory Page
An interesting site emphasizing the theory of Derrida, Lacan, and Foucault. You will also find some information on Artaud and Flusser.

Contemporary Literary Theory
Several essays and lectures on poststructuralism and deconstruction, including a great discussion of the 'death of the author' as an instance of theory.

Postmodern Culture
This online journal of scholarly essays on Postmodernism and Literary Theory is a wonderful resource, but it costs $20 per year to subscribe.

Deconstruction and Human Computer Interaction
This undergraduate thesis has chapters on linguistics, structuralism, and lots of information on the founder of deconstruction, Jacques Derrida.

Postmodernism and the Culture of Cyberspace
This web page is a supplement to a university course on literary theory and has many of the readings assigned for the course on the online. The page also contains some student projects on postmodernism.

Critical Theory and Postmodern Thought
This site is a great resource for information about all the most important postmodern theorists, like Barthes, Eagleton, Lacan, and Foucault.

Some Post-Structural Assumptions
his page provides a discussion of poststructuralism, and answers the most fundamental questions people have about structuralism and poststructuralism.

Timeline of Major Critical Theories in US
A brief overview of the major movements in literary theory by Warren Hedges from the English department at Southern Oregon University.

The Essential Comparative Literature And Theory Site
Not quite as thorough as the title suggests, but a handy resource on literary theory with a collection of links to other cultural studies web pages.

Who's Who in Theory
This site provides some general information on Saussure, Derrida, Foucault, and other theorists.

Conversation with Geoffrey Bennington
A discussion of the relation between deconstruction and hypertext, with a lot of information about Derrida in particular.