ABSTRACT
This Encyclopedia is the most comprehensive guide yet both to the nature and content of literature, and to literary criticism. In ninety essays by leading international critics and scholars, the volume covers both traditional topics such as literature and history, poetry, drama and the novel, and also newer topics such as the production and reception of literature. Current critical ideas are clearly and provocatively discussed, while the volume's arrangement reflects in a dynamic way the rich diversity of contemporary thinking about literature.
Each essay seeks to provide the reader with a clear sense of the full significance of its subject as well as guidance on further reading.
An essential work of reference, The Encyclopedia of Literature and Criticism is a stimulating guide to the central preoccupations of contemporary critical thinking about literature.
Special Features
* Clearly written by scholars and critics of international standing for readers at all levels in many disciplines
* In-depth essays covering all aspects, traditional and new, of literary studies past and present
* Useful cross-references within the text, with full bibliographical references and suggestions for further reading
* Single index of authors, terms, topics
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part |2 pages
Introduction
chapter |24 pages
Literature
chapter |40 pages
Criticism
part |2 pages
Literature and History
chapter |13 pages
Medieval Literature and the Medieval World
chapter |11 pages
The Renaissance
chapter |13 pages
Augustanism
chapter |13 pages
Romanticism
chapter |12 pages
Modernism
chapter |18 pages
Postmodernism
part |2 pages
Poetry
chapter |13 pages
Genre
chapter |13 pages
Poetry
chapter |11 pages
Epic and Romance
chapter |11 pages
Lyric
chapter |9 pages
Narrative Verse
chapter |15 pages
Women and the Poetic Tradition
chapter |16 pages
Medieval Poetry
chapter |14 pages
Renaissance Poetry
chapter |12 pages
‘Augustan’ Poetry
chapter |13 pages
Romantic Poetry
chapter |17 pages
Victorian Poetry
chapter |13 pages
The French Symbolists
chapter |13 pages
Modern Poetry
chapter |15 pages
British Poetry Since 1945
chapter |13 pages
Contemporary American Poetry
part |2 pages
Drama
chapter |12 pages
Stagecraft
chapter |12 pages
Tragedy
chapter |12 pages
Comedy
chapter |13 pages
Shakespeare
chapter |13 pages
Medieval Drama
chapter |11 pages
Renaissance Drama
chapter |12 pages
Restoration Theatre
chapter |15 pages
The Origins of the Modern British Stage Jan McDonald
chapter |13 pages
Theories of Modern Drama
chapter |11 pages
The Theatre of the Absurd
chapter |13 pages
Theatre and Politics
chapter |15 pages
Feminist Theatre Helene Keyssar
part |2 pages
The Novel
chapter |13 pages
Modes of Eighteenth-Century Fiction
chapter |13 pages
Feminine Fictions
chapter |13 pages
The Historical Novel
chapter |10 pages
The Nineteenth-Century Social Novel in England
chapter |11 pages
The Realist Novel: The European Context
chapter |11 pages
Realism and the English Novel
chapter |13 pages
American Romance
chapter |13 pages
Formalism and the Novel: Henry James
chapter |17 pages
The Novel and Modern Criticism
chapter |12 pages
The Modernist Novel in the Twentieth Century
chapter |12 pages
British Fiction Since 1930
chapter |8 pages
Contemporary Fiction
part |2 pages
Criticism
chapter |13 pages
Biblical Hermeneutics
chapter |16 pages
Neo-classical Criticism
chapter |14 pages
The Romantic Critical Tradition
chapter |12 pages
Great Traditions: The Logic of the Canon
chapter |13 pages
Marxist Criticism
chapter |15 pages
The New Criticism
chapter |14 pages
Structuralism and Post-Structuralism
chapter |14 pages
Feminist Literary Criticism
chapter |13 pages
Psychoanalytic Criticism
chapter |14 pages
Deconstruction
chapter |16 pages
New Historicism
part |2 pages
Production and Reception
chapter |16 pages
Production and Reception of the Literary Book
chapter |12 pages
The Printed Book
chapter |11 pages
Literacy
chapter |14 pages
Publishing Before 1800
chapter |14 pages
Publishing Since 1800
chapter |13 pages
British Periodicals and Reading Publics
chapter |12 pages
Libraries and the Reading Public
chapter |14 pages
Censorship
chapter |11 pages
The Bibliographic Record
chapter |13 pages
The Institutionalization of Literature: The University
part |2 pages
Contexts
chapter |10 pages
Literature and the History of Ideas
chapter |13 pages
Literature and the Bible
chapter |12 pages
Literature and the Classics
chapter |15 pages
Folk Literature
chapter |13 pages
Literature and the Visual Arts
chapter |11 pages
Literature and Music
chapter |14 pages
Literature and Landscape
chapter |15 pages
The Sentimental Ethic
chapter |11 pages
The Gothic
chapter |13 pages
Aestheticism
chapter |14 pages
Literature and Science
chapter |16 pages
Literature and Language
chapter |13 pages
Culture and Popular Culture
part |2 pages
Perspectives