This authoritative guide introduces the key figures in contemporary critical theory for the beginning student. The critical theory covered in the volume includes: semiotics and discourse analysis; structuralism and post-structuralism; ideology critique; deconstruction; feminism; queer theory; psychoanalysis; postcolonialism; postmodernism; and the descendents of Frankfurt School Critical Theory. There are individual chapters on: Lacan; Althusser; Barthes; Derrida; Levinas; Kristeva; Irigaray; Cixous; Foucault; Lyotard; Deleuze; Baudrillard; and Guattari; Bourdieu; Habermas; Jameson; and Said. Each chapter provides biographical information and details about the thinker's intellectual context, an explanation of key concepts, an outline of the major angles of the theorist's work, an indication of ways in which their theory has been applied and suggestions for further reading. This text is designed as a companion to From Kant to Levi-Strauss: The Background to Contemporary Critical Theory, which is also edited by Jon Simons and published by Edinburgh University Press.