Critical Theory Archive: Collection Strengths

Major Topics

• The Critical Theory Book Collection
  While the central focus of the Critical Theory Archive is to collect the personal papers of distinguished theorists, it also includes a selection of editions, including translations, of the published monographs by each of these theorists. Some of the principal topics represented in their books include these:
  • Aesthetics
  • Criticism
  • Deconstruction
  • Derrida, Jacques
  • Heidegger, Martin, 1889-1976
  • Language and languages -- Philosophy
  • Literature -- History and criticism -- Theory, etc.
  • Literature -- Philosophy
  • Philosophy
  • Postmodernism
  • Reader-response criticism
• The René Wellek Library on the History of Literary Criticism
  Wellek's personal library of 7,000 volumes, many of them basic for the study of the history of criticism and literary theory. The collection 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, 1750-1950. UCI's Wellek Library Lectures series was founded in honor of acquisition of the Wellek Library; a bibliography of each lecturer's work is available on the Libraries' website.


• Rare Books on Aesthetics and Literary Theory
  Sometimes referred to as our "genealogy of theory collection," since it attempts to trace the development of the field of criticism and literary theory, this collection includes more than 350 volumes of aesthetics and criticism. Most were published in the 18th century in Great Britain. The collection includes well-known titles by canonical figures, such as William Hogarth and Joshua Reynolds, as well as works by as-yet-undiscovered authors.

Archival and Manuscript Collections

The theorists whose papers are held in the Archive represent various schools of thought, including Deconstruction (Jacques Derrida, Paul de Man, and Eugenio Donato), Reader-Reception Theory (Stanley Fish and Wolfgang Iser), Political Philosophy (Richard Rorty and Etienne Balibar) and Anglo-American Criticism (Ihab Hassan, Murray Krieger, and René Wellek).

Most collections are cataloged and have a fully searchable guide available in the Online Archive of California (OAC). Collections for which a link is not given do not yet have a guide; consult Special Collections and Archives for further information.

Personal papers

• Etienne Balibar papers
• Paul de Man papers
• Jacques Derrida papers
  The complete scholarly manuscripts of the "father of deconstruction" through 1999. Given the scholarly interrelationships among the figures whose papers are held by UCI, materials relating to Derrida also appear in several other collections.
• Stanley Fish papers
• Ihab Hassan papers
• Wolfgang Iser papers
• Murray Krieger papers
• Louis Marin offprints
• J. Hillis Miller papers
  This collection has not yet been organized; please contact us for more information.
• Richard Rorty papers
  The papers of the influential philosopher, critical theorist, and public intellectual include digital files transferred from Rorty's computer disks and made available to researchers electronically through UCIspace @ the Libraries.
• René Wellek papers

Other Archival Collections

• Critical Theory Institute (University of California, Irvine) Audio and Video Recordings
  Audio and video recordings of selected events held at the Critical Theory Institute (CTI) at UCI. Events include the Irvine Lectures in Critical Theory and the Wellek Library Lectures, as well as other lectures, conferences, and discussion sessions organized by CTI.
• Critical Theory Archive Offprint Collection
  Nearly 10,000 published offprints acquired as part of the personal papers of several prominent critical theorists. Their topical coverage of includes the disciplines of comparative literature, literary theory, and critical theory.
• Safaa Fathy video recordings of Jacques Derrida
  Digital videorecordings of Derrida speaking at a wide variety of conferences, lectures, and other events in the United States and Europe.