Classical & Early Modern:
* Aristotle's *Poetics* (c. 335 BC): Considered the foundation of Western literary theory. Defines tragedy, comedy, and the elements of drama.
* Horace's *Ars Poetica* (c. 20 BC): A practical guide to poetry, emphasizing clarity, brevity, and decorum.
* Philip Sidney's *The Defence of Poetry* (1595): A passionate defense of poetry's value, arguing for its moral and intellectual power.
Romanticism & Beyond:
* Samuel Taylor Coleridge's *Biographia Literaria* (1817): Introduces the concepts of "suspension of disbelief" and "organic unity."
* Matthew Arnold's *Essays in Criticism* (1865): Offers essays on literary history, emphasizing the importance of "high seriousness" in art.
* Friedrich Nietzsche's *The Birth of Tragedy* (1872): Argues that tragedy is a product of the Apollonian and Dionysian impulses in human nature.
Modern & Postmodern:
* T.S. Eliot's *The Sacred Wood* (1920): Collection of essays that helped shape the modernist movement, emphasizing the importance of tradition and the "dissociation of sensibility."
* I.A. Richards' *Practical Criticism* (1929): Promotes a close reading approach to literary analysis, focusing on the text's internal structure.
* F.R. Leavis' *The Great Tradition* (1948): Defends a canon of "great" English novelists, emphasizing their moral and psychological insight.
* Roland Barthes' *S/Z* (1970): Applies semiotic analysis to Balzac's short story "Sarrasine," exploring how meaning is constructed through textual codes.
* Jacques Derrida's *Of Grammatology* (1967): A groundbreaking work of deconstruction, challenging the idea of fixed meaning and exploring the instability of language.
Contemporary & Beyond:
* Harold Bloom's *The Anxiety of Influence* (1973): Examines the complex relationship between literary influence and originality.
* Judith Butler's *Gender Trouble* (1990): A key text in queer theory, challenging the binary categories of gender and sexuality.
* Edward Said's *Orientalism* (1978): Critiques the Western construction of the "Orient," exposing its inherent biases and power dynamics.
Other Notable Books:
* Terry Eagleton's *Literary Theory: An Introduction* (1983): A comprehensive overview of major literary theories.
* Stephen Greenblatt's *Renaissance Self-Fashioning* (1980): Applies New Historicism to understand the relationship between literary texts and historical contexts.
* David Lodge's *The Art of Fiction* (1992): A witty and accessible exploration of how novels work.
* Elaine Showalter's *A Literature of Their Own* (1977): Examines the development of women's writing and its distinct characteristics.
This list is by no means exhaustive, but it provides a starting point for exploring the rich and diverse landscape of literary criticism.
It's also important to note that literary criticism is a constantly evolving field, so there are many more contemporary works that could be added to this list.