Based on concrete analyses of influential texts, this introduction offers a systematic approach to the canon of literary theory. Using the semiotic distinction between meaning, signifier, and referent, the volume is divided into three chapters. The first chapter presents the hermeneutics of Wilhelm Dilthey, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Peter Szondi, and Paul Ricoeur as a theory of meaning. The second chapter reconstructs the psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan, as well as the structuralism and post-structuralism of Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida, and Paul de Man as sign theories. Finally, the third chapter discusses theories of society, culture, history, the body, and media as models of reference. For the new edition, the volume has been expanded to include the topics of postcolonialism and New Criticism.