rant about theory, my lack of knowledge of

My friend and I recently discussed the frustration we have in theory classes (specifically, we were talking about a feminist theory class we just attended for the first time). Neither of us had strong theoretical backgrounds in our undergraduate studies, and because of this we feel lost during a large part of our so-called introductory theory classes. It's not that we aren't able to read and comprehend things well (I hope!), but that the discussions frequently refer to theorists we haven't read. The most frustrating thing is that I haven't been able to find any resource (text, class, or otherwise) to help me catch up on the most popular or most influential theoretical texts. This is mostly, I think, because the field of theory rejects the idea that there is a canon of texts everyone ought to read. The idea as I understand it is that any canon would give undue authority and privilege to certain voices while necessarily excluding others. I understand and agree with this.

However, the problem I've found is that it's nearly impossible to follow a discussion in theory class without having read "major" theorists (and, if we're speaking honestly and practically, there are major theorists). I want to be able to critique the authority of these theorists, but first I really have to know who they are, what they argue, etc. I think there must be undergraduate courses at some schools that help with this, or books that can provide a survey of the theoretical landscape. Something like that would be extremely useful. I just don't think it's helpful that I've read all sorts of critics in my field of literature but only yesterday learned something about, say, Deleuze and Foucault. (Okay, that's not exactly true; I did know some things about Foucault before. Still, my prof. looked shocked when I confessed I hadn't actually read anything by him yet.)

I think sometimes theory professors expect people to be bilingual; they have to be critical and original, forging their own new voices, and able to speak with authority about the "major" theorists of the past.