Literature Resources: Basic References

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.

The definitive  reference on literature in English, this handbook provides an alphabetical listing of more than 2,000 important terms and facts in literature, linguistics, rhetoric, criticism, printing, bookselling, and information technology.  The Web site (www.prenhall.com/harmon) offers a handy glossary of key terms, a pronunciation key for select terms, pre- and post-tests on the terms, flash cards for key terms, and a literary timeline. 

The bestselling Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms provides clear and concise definitions of the most troublesome literary terms, from abjection to zeugma. It is an essential reference tool for students of literature in any language. Now expanded and in its fourth edition, it includes increased coverage of new terms from modern critical and theoretical movements, such as feminism, schools of American poetry, Spanish verse forms, life writing, and crime fiction.

This is the first Dictionary of English Manuscript Terminology ever to be published. Dealing with the subject of documentation - which affects everyone's lives (from every-day letters, notes, and shopping lists to far-reaching legal instruments, if not autograph literary masterpieces) - PeterBeal defines, in a lively and accessible style, some 1,500 terms relating to manuscripts and their production and use in Britain from 1450 to the present day. The entries, which range in length from one line to nearly a hundred lines each, cover terms defining types of manuscript, their physicalfeatures and materials, writing implements, writing surfaces, scribes and other writing agents, scripts, postal markings, and seals, as well as subjects relating to literature, bibliography, archives, palaeography, the editing and printing of manuscripts, dating, conservation, and such fields ascartography, commerce, heraldry, law, and military and naval matters. The book includes 96 illustrations showing many of the features described.

From Ray Bradbury to Neil Gaiman, from "Blade Runner" to "Battle Star Galactica", science fiction has emerged from the margins of popular culture to claim a significant presence across media in print, film, and television. It has shaped our vision of the future and the way we talk about it.Brave New Words, the first historical dictionary devoted to science fiction, has been described by the Library Journal as "an admirable and unique source that demonstrates on nearly every page the surprising extent to which the language of science fiction has entered everyday English terms." Itshows exactly how science-fictional words and their associated concepts have developed over time, with full citations and bibliographic information. In addition, the book demonstrates how many words we consider everyday vocabulary - words like "spacesuit," "blast off," and "robot" - had their rootsin imaginative literature, and not in hard science.Brave New Words was first published in hardcover in May 2007. On August 9th 2008, the first edition was named recipient of the prestigious Hugo Award (for Best Related Book), given to the best science fiction titles of the previous year.

What is a ham-and-egger?What are Anglo-Saxon attitudes?Who first tried to nail jelly to the wall?The answers to these and many more questions are in this fascinating book. Here in one volume you can track down the stories behind the names and sayings you meet, whether in classic literature or today's news. This authoritative dictionary draws on Oxford's unrivalled bank of reference and languageonline resources to cover classical and other mythologies, history, religion, folk customs, superstitions, science and technology, philosophy, and popular culture. Extensive cross referencing makes it easy to trace specific information, while every page points to further paths to explore.What is the fog of war? Who first wanted to spend more time with one's family? When was the Dreamtime?How long since the first cry of Women and children first? Where might you find dark matter?Would you want the Midas touch?Should you worry about grey goo?

Allusions form a colourful extension to the English language, drawing on our collective knowledge of literature, mythology, and the Bible to give us a literary shorthand for describing people, places, and events. So a cunning crook is an Artful Dodger, a daydreamer is like Billy Liar, a powerful woman is a modern-day Amazon.

It includes entries on the plays and the major characters, on Shakespeare's life and his contemporaries, on actors from Edmund Kean to Peter O'Toole, on theatres and directors, plus comments on Shakespeare by later authors such as Jane Austen, Dr Johnson, and Bernard Levin.

Provides insight into the careers of nearly 500 20th-century American writers, including black and women writers. Entries include important critical excerpts, chronologically arranged and collected from a wide variety of sources such as books, scholarly journals, general periodicals and newspapers.

This encyclopedia surveys the vibrant terrain of American literature in 350 essays from leading scholars, encompassing the range and depth of American literary history from the 1600s to the present day. It includes essays on poets, playwrights, essayists, and novelists, as well as major works and essays on literary movements, periods, and themes. Articles offer historical perspective and social context along with a range of possibilities with regard to critical approach.

This abridgement of The Oxford Companion to African American Literature will make the entries of the greatest general interest available to a wider audience, providing the same calibre of scholarship and information as the original volume. The Concise collects more than 400 biographies (authors, critics, literary characters and historical figures) of both well-known figures and the lives and careers of writers not found in other reference works. The abridgement also includes the 150 plot summaries of major works. The editors briefly update the biographic details for author entries to include mention of major new works, death dates, and awards since the Companion's 1997 publication. A revised introduction, contributors list, subject index, cross-references, and updated bibliographical notes are also included. The volume reprints in its entirety the five-part fifteen page essay, "Literary History," capturing the full sweep of African American writing in the U.S. from the colonial and early national eras to the present day.

It provides unrivalled coverage of all aspects of English literature ― from writers, their works, and the historical and cultural context in which they wrote, to critics, literary theory, and allusions.

For the seventh edition, the Companion has been thoroughly revised and updated to meet the needs and concerns of today's students and general readers. Over 1,000 new entries have been added, ranging from new writers ― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Patrick Marber, David Mitchell, Arundhati Roy ― to increased coverage of writers and literary movements from around the world. Coverage of American literature has been substantially increased, with new entries on writers such as Cormac McCarthy and Amy Tan and on movements and publications.

This source covers the entire history of literature in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland in the major literary languages (Anglo-Saxon, English, Welsh, Scots, Irish, and Latin). It includes substantial accounts of individual authors (e.g., Spenser, Pope, Austen) and detailed histories of particular themes, movements, genres, and institutions, whose impact upon the writing or the reading of literature was significant.

The third edition of The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature is the complete and authoritative reference guide to the classical world and its literary heritage. It not only presents the reader with all the essential facts about the authors, tales, and characters from ancient myth and literature, but it also places these details in the wider contexts of the history and society of the Greek and Roman worlds. With an extensive web of cross-references and a useful chronological table and location maps (all of which have been brought fully up to date), this volume traces the development of literary forms and the classical allusions which have become embedded in our Western culture.