Adams, H., ed. Critical Theory Since Plato. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1971. 
Collection of essays by major scholars in the field of literary criticism, covering theories from Plato through to the "new critics" of the 1950's and beyond. Required reading. 
BH39 .A23 

Alter, Robert. The Art of Biblical Narrative. New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1981. 
Although Alter's concern is with the Hebrew Bible, the principles employed are equally applicable to the NT. Attention is paid to literary conventions in order to interpret the text. 
BS1171.2 .A45 

Aune, David E. The New Testament in Its Literary Environment. Library of Early Christianity, Vol. 8. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1987. 
Non-technical treatment of literary genres, forms, and social conventions which shape the NT documents. Excellent bibliographies follow each chapter. 
BS2361.2 .A96 1987 

Beardslee, W. A. Literary Criticism of the New Testament. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1970. 
Good rudimentary text giving the evolution of the discipline in biblical studies. 
BS2361.2 .B4 

Booth, Wayne. The Rhetoric of Fiction. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1961. 
Fine study by a leading literary critic. Parts II and III are important for the NT student who tries to understand how the narrator/author communicates with her/his audience by silencing or projecting her/his "voice" in the narrative. 
PN3451 .B6 1961 

Clark, Veve A., Ruth Ellen B. Joeres, and Madelon Sprengnether,  eds.  Revising the Word and the World: Essays in Feminist Literary Criticism.  Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1993. 
PN 98 .W64 R48 1993 

Culpepper, R. Allan. Anatomy of the Fourth Gospel: A Study in Literary Design. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1983. 
A fine study of the fourth gospel, combining the modern techniques of narratol-ogy, usually employed only to secular literature. This work represents a paradigm shift in reading, with the emphasis in interpretation on the reader. 
BS2615.2 .C85 1983 

Davis, Casey Wayne. Oral Biblical Criticism: The Influence of the Principles of Orality on the Literature Structure of Paul's Epistle to the Philippians.  Sheffield, Eng. : Sheffield Academic Press, 1999. 
BS 2705.2 .D385 1999 

Eagleton, Terry. Literary Theory: An Introduction. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1983. 
Texts are reread and reinterpreted "as forms of activity inseparable from the wider social relations between writers and readers." 
PN94 .E2 1983 

Focant, Camille, ed.  The Synoptic Gospels: Source Criticism and the New Literary Criticism. Leuven, Belgium : Leuven University Press : Uitgeverij Peeters, 1993. 
Based on essays of the 41st session of the Colloquium Biblicum Lovaniense which took place [in Leuven] on August 18-20, 1992 to scrutinize the Synoptic Gospels. 
BS 2555.2 .S965 1993 

Fowler, Robert M. Let the Reader Understand: Reader-Response Criticism and the Gospel of Mark. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1991. 
Instead of the discussion of the rhetoric and the reader of Mark, this study is fully oriented toward the reading experience. 
BS 2585.5 .F68 1991 

Hagg, Tomas. The Novel in Antiquity. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983. 
Traces in broad lines the social and literary contexts for the Greek, and Roman comic novel. Ch. VI, "The New Heroes: Apostles, Martyrs and Saints" should be of particular importance to NT students. Required reading. 
PA3040 .H2813 1983 

Iser, Wolfgang. The Act of Reading: A Theory of Aesthetic Response. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978. 
An important study for reader-response criticism. The principles outlined are well illustrated by examples. A required reading. 
PN83 .I813 

Kermode, Frank. The Genesis of Secrecy: On the Interpretation of Narrative. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1979. 
The 1977-78 Norton Lectures at Harvard by a Professor of English Literature at Cambridge are published here. He uses Mk 4:11-12 to argue for the priority of "meaning" over "truth" when doing exegesis of a passage. 
PN81 .K4 

Kowaleski-Wallace, Elizabeth, ed. Encyclopedia of Feminist Literary Theory. New York : Garland, 1997. 
PN 98 .W64 E53 1997 

Kurz, William S. Reading Luke-Acts: Dynamics of Biblical Narrative. Louisville: Westminster/John Konx Press, 1993. 
This book shows how literary criticism illuminates the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, reclaiming them as biblical narrative. The author explores literary aspects such as implied authors or readers, plot, and assumed information, or gaps, and highlights the role of the narrator, and traces the implications of reading Luke-Acts as canonical Scripture and the merits of literary methods. 
BS 2589 .K87 1993 
  
Lanser, Susan. The Narrative Act: Point of View in Prose Fiction. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981. 
An important work for understanding the private (omniscient) narrator functions in narratives, including those of the NT. Required reading. 
PN3383 .P64 L3 

Lentricchia, Frank. After the New Criticism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980. 
Surveys and evaluates the course of critical theory as developed by the "new critics" in the US from 1960 to 1980. 
A helpful resource for understanding the concepts of those literary critics. 
PN94 .L43 

Malbon, Elizabeth Struthers and Edgar V. McKnight, eds. The New Literary Criticism and the New Testament. Sheffield, Eng. : Sheffield Academic Press, 1994. 
Contents:  Introduction / Elizabeth Struthers Malbon and Edgar V. McKnight -- Redaction criticism : has the Hauptstrasse become a Sackgasse? / John R. Donahue -- The major importance of the minor characters in Mark / Elizabeth Struthers Malbon -- 'Watch how you listen' (Lk. 8.18) : Jesus and the rhetoric of perception in Luke-Acts / John A. Darr -- Reading Tabitha : a feminist reception history / Janice Capel Anderson -- The Gospel of Mark as an oral-aural event : implications for interpretation / Joanna Dewey -- Socio-rhetorical criticism : Mary, Elizabeth and the     Magnificat as a test case / Vernon K. Robbins -- 'Since God is one' : rhetoric as theology and history in Paul's Romans /  Antoinette Clark Wire -- Allegories of Hagar : reading Galatians 4.21-31 with postmodern feminist eyes / Elizabeth      A. Castelli -- Peering into the abyss : a postmodern reading of the biblical bottomless pit / Tina Pippin -- How Jesus' risen body became a cadaver / Stephen D. Moore -- The ethics of reading deconstructively, or speaking          face-to-face : the Samaritan woman meets Derrida at the well / Gary A. Phillips -- A sheep in wolf's clothing : an option in contemporary New Testament hermeneutics / Edgar V. McKnight -- Matthew's dark light and the human condition /  Dan O. Via -- What is it about? : reference in New Testament literary criticism / William A. Beardslee. 
BS 2361.2 .N375 1994 

Moore, Stephen D. Literary Criticism and the Gospels. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989. 
This study is much more than just an incisive account of the rise of literary methods, and also discourse promoting postmodernism within the field of biblical studies. 
BS255.5 .M585 1989 

Porter, Stanley E. The Paul of Acts: Essays in Literary Criticism, Rhetoric, and Theology. Tübingen : Mohr Siebeck, 1999. 
BS 2625.2 .P678 1999 

Petersen, Norman R. Literary Criticism for New Testament Critics. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1978. 
The author is more concerned with the literary analysis of NT materials than with "the historical consequences of the literary findings." 
BS2361.2 .P47 

Powell, Mark A. What is Narrative Criticism. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1990. 
The non technical description of the principles and procedures of narrative criticism. Chapters are devoted to each of the three principal elements of narrative: event, characters, and settings. 
BS 521.7 .P68 1990 

Russell, D. A., and Winterbottom, M., eds. Ancient Literary Criticism: The Principal Texts in New Translations. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972. 
PA3013 .R8 

Ryken, Leland. The New Testament in Literary Criticism. New York: Ungar, 1984. 
Aiming to be sampler of opinion regarding the application of literary theory to New Testament writings. 
BS 2361.2 .N38 

Scholes, Robert, and Kellogg, Robert. The Nature of Narrative. New York: Oxford University Press, 1966. 
Particularly helpful for the NT student who wants to locate the NT writings in their literary (narrative) milieu. 
PN3451 .S3 1966 

Segal, Robert Alan, ed.  Literary Criticism and Myth. New York : Garland Pub., 1996. 
BL 304 .T475 1996 

Segovia, Fernando F. The Farewell of the Word: The Johannine Call to Abide. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1991. 
An excellent literary-rhetorical analysis of the farewell discourses in the Fourth Gospel. 
BS2615.2 .S433 1991 

Stibbe, Mark W.G. John as storyteller: narrative criticism and the fourth Gospel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. Monograph series, Society for New Testament Studies, 73. 
This study contains a literary analysis of the final form of a book (themes, irony, characterization, etc.), a functional, structuralist approach to determining genre, a sociologically based redaction criticism, and a narrative-historical component. 
BS 2615.2 .S744 1992 

Suleiman, Susan, and Crosman, Inge, eds. The Reader in the Text: Essays on Audience and Interpretation. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980. 
Collection of essays on literary theories of interpretation by leading literary critics from Europe and the USA. 
PN83 .R4 

Tolbert, Mary Ann. Sowing the Gospel: Mark's World in Literary-Historical Perspective. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1989. 
An excellent literary-historical analysis of the Gospel of Mark. 
BS2505.2 .T62 1989 

Tompkins, Jane, ed. Reader-Response Criticism: From Formalism to Post-Structuralism.Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1980. 
Collection of essays which give the history of reader-response criticism from New Criticism to Post-Structuralism. 
Has an excellent annotated bibliography. 
PN98 .R38 R4 

Tyson, Joseph B. Images of Judaism in Luke-Acts. South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press, 1992. 
This book examines Luke-Acts from the perspectives of reader-response criticism, with all of the strengths and weaknesses of that methof. As such it deals not with historical persons and events but with images in the text. 
BS 2595.6 .J44 T97 1992 

Wilder, Amos N. The Bible and the Literary Critic. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1991. 
This study tests the premises and promise of literary criticism and then offers three retrospective assessments of New Testament studies. Explores issues of narrativity, story, parable, reminiscence, and the postmodern search for meaning. 
BS 535 .B483 1991