Engaging, authoritative, and affordably priced, The Bedford Glossary is a comprehensive reference that clearly and accessibly defines hundreds of important literary and critical terms from classical times to the present, making them real and relevant to twenty-first century students through examples uniquely drawn from contemporary literary and popular culture.
The Bedford Glossary includes lengthy (and easy-to-follow) discussions of ideas including such biggies as cultural studies, deconstruction, feminist criticism, gender criticism, irony, Marxist criticism, the new historicism, poststructuralism, psychological criticism and psychoanalytic criticism, and reader-response criticism. More obscure terms--anagnorisis, epithalamium, Menippean satire, kenning--receive shorter but equally careful treatment. This is a clear and comprehensive reference for academics, intellectuals, and anyone else who wants to hold forth intelligently on subjects literary and critical. --Jane Steinberg
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5.0
Incredibly handy:
I bought this book to help me with a school project that involved identifying about fifty different literary devices in a novel. It offered thorough definitions and examples of everything I needed. I will cherish it as an English major.
in·dis·pens·a·ble!:
This book is a must for grad students and advanced undergrads interested in literary studies -- I highly recommend it! It's better priced than other comparable books & better written.
Offers far more depth than its title suggests:
Yes, this is an excellent glossary of terms. It is also much more. Within these 420 pages, the authors have taken time and space to explore in depth the significance of varied approaches to literary analysis and scholarship.
The confusing and politicized nature of 20th Century literary criticism is served well in Murphin & Ray's clear and even-handed explication of various schools and styles. I think that new initiates to literary studies will appreciate the lengthy analyses given to critical... more info
comprehensive and lucid:
This glossary is one of the best I have seen, combining both exhaustive and detailed enteries as well as a wide range of coverage. Literary periods from Old English to the Postmodern are discussed in detail - the article on postmodernism is almost six pages. Critical approaches such as structralism and postcolonialism are lucidly presented. Literary trends and tropes are explained with illustrative examples. Crossrefrencing is particularly very useful. All this makes this glossary a good study aid for both... more info
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