A Contemporary Guide to Literary Terms: With Strategies for Writing Essays about Literature

Book is comprehensive without being overwhelming. It is easy to reference. Seller shipped product quickly, good condition.

I supervise students doing the Honours year of their degree, working in practice-based art & design research. They have often made it through their degree with no exposure to literature or literary theory, and then discover that to delve deeper into their topic they need to start reading critically, but lack the understanding of texts to be able to do so. For these students this is the perfect book. I have also found it excellent for International students with English as a second language. It would also suit senior high-school students. The advantage of this book over other dictionaries of literary terms (like the Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory) is its brevity, and the way related topics are linked together. The Penguin dictionary is over 1000 pages, and this can be incredibly daunting for someone who isn't a specialist in this area, and doesn't aim to be. This book gives enough information to cover the basics, but not too much to be off-putting. The language is simple, assumes no prior knowledge, and is in relatively large print. The disadvantage is the cost; this book is three times the price of the the Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms. For a PhD candidate or an undergraduate literature student I would definitely recommend the Penguin book over this one. 4/5 of the book is a dictionary of terms. These encompass both schools of thought e.g. structuralism and poststructuralism, feminist critique, deconstruction, and also more specific elements of literature e.g. elegy, epistolary novel, onomatopoeia, novel, myth, narrative points of view etc. There are also cinematic terms like Film Noir, panning, tracking etc. The definitions include examples, and are lengthy enough to be thorough but not so long that they seem incomprehensible e.g. 2.5 pages for deconstruction. The last 1/5 is guidelines on essay writing, and also exam writing, with sample essays. These are all sound, useful points, however this should not be considered primarily as a how-to-write-an-essay manual. Finally there is a one-page guide to MLA referencing. To complement this book I would recommend 'How To Read Literature Like a Professor' by Thomas C. Foster, as this teaches how to identify themes in literature, in an easy-to-read and conversational manner.