A Glossary of Literary Terms

First published fifty years ago, A GLOSSARY OF LITERARY TERMS remains an essential text for all serious students of literature. Now fully updated to reflect the latest scholarship on recent and rapidly evolving critical theories, the tenth edition contains a complete glossary of essential literary terms presented as a series of engaging essays that explore the terms, place them in context, and suggest related entries and additional reading. This indispensable, authoritative, and highly affordable reference covers terms useful in discussing literature and literary history, theory, and criticism. Perfect as a core text for introductory literary theory or as a supplement to any literature course, this classic work is an invaluable reference that students can continue to use throughout their academic and professional careers.

Abrams (English, Cornell University) defines and discusses terms, critical theories, movements, and points of view commonly used to classify, analyze, interpret, and write the history of works of literature. The individual entries, together with the guides to further reading included in most of them, are oriented especially toward undergraduate students of English, American, and other literatures. They are also useful for advanced students and general readers with literary interests. This edition takes into account new publications in literature, criticism, and scholarship. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

M. H. Abrams is a distinguished scholar who has written prize-winning books on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literature, literary criticism, and European Romanticism. He also is General Editor for THE NORTON ANTHOLOGY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. In addition, M. H. Abrams has been the recipient of Guggenheim, Ford Foundation, and Rockefeller Postwar fellowships and the Award for Literature by the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1990).

Geoffrey Galt Harpham is the president and director of the National Humanities Center in North Carolina. He has written extensively in the fields of intellectual history and critical theory and on the work of Joseph Conrad. Among his books are THE ASCETIC IMPERATIVE IN CULTURE AND CRITICISM, ONE OF US: THE MASTERY OF JOSEPH CONRAD, SHADOWS OF ETHICS: CRITICISM AND THE JUST SOCIETY, and LANGUAGE ALONE: THE CRITICAL FETISH OF MODERNITY.