Book Collections

This collection could be referred to as the CTA's "genealogy of theory collection," since it attempts to trace the development of the field of critical theory. It includes more than 350 volumes pertaining to the study of aesthetics and literary criticism. Most of the texts in the collection were published in the 18th century in Great Britain. It includes well-known titles by canonical figures, such as William Hogarth and Joshua Reynolds, as well as works by as-yet-undiscovered authors.

This collection consists of René Wellek's personal library of 7,000 volumes, many of them basic for the study of the history of criticism and literary theory. It is notable for its richness and depth of coverage of American, English, and Continental European works upon which Wellek relied in fashioning his eight-volume History of Modern Criticism (1955).

The Critical Theory Book Collection includes many editions by authors represented within the CTA’s papers and manuscripts. Some of the principal topics related to critical theory represented in these books include: Art and Aesthetics, Literary Criticism and History, Language and Linguistics, Deconstruction, Derridean Theory, Heideggerian Theory, Postmodernism, and Reader-Response Criticism.