Synopsis The volume offers a systematic and comprehensive account of both crosscultural modern literary schools of criticism and theoretical practices. It embraces a spectrum of critical writings which trains the students of literature not only in understanding the theories but also in familiarizing them as to how they can use the particular theory as a tool in an analysis of a work of art. The contributors have also made an attempt to fill in the gap between theory and practice which would facilitate the readers in objectifying the interpretation to literature and developing their critical competence. The volume provides a variety of ways to interpret a piece of literature ranging from modernism, existentialism, Nihilism, socio-historical, Marxist, psychological, archetypal and myth criticism. Formalism, structuralism, linguistic criticism, semiotics and stylistics. The later part of the book takes a wider view of areas emerging in the field of literary criticism such as comparative literature, comparative aesthetics, cultural studies, translation, film and fiction studies.