Literary theory with an intellectual ancestry of over 2300 years is a highly complex and fascinating discipline. It is highly inter-disciplinary and intellectually very demanding to comprehend. Literary theory, from Aristotle (Classicism) to Alan Sinfield (Cultural Materialism) in the last decade of the twentieth century, is an unmanageably vast area for both our undergraduate and postgraduate students. The primary aim of writing this book is to simplify an essentially complex subject for the average college student in India. It is meant for the non-specialist in the field. Many difficult concepts have been explained in a manner that is easy to understand by the readers. In order to enable college students to get a complete grasp of theory, the basic terms and concepts are presented with great clarity.