A Handbook to Literature

Front Cover
Macmillan, 1992 - Literary Criticism - 615 pages
"A Handbook to Literature," Sixth Edition continues its fifty-year tradition as an indispensable, dictionary-style supplement for anyone's personal or professional library.

William Harmon has renewed the Handbook's vitality with 100 new entries, reflecting contemporary trends in women's studies, ethnic studies, and film. The original 1,700 entries, highlighting current fashions in literary criticism, have been updated and expanded so that explanations range from several lines to several pages. The book is easy to use and consists of three main sections:

There is an alphabetical listing of literary terms regarding definition, explanation, and illustration. The term itself is highlighted in boldface and indicates a cross reference when appearing in small caps.

The Outline of Literary History gives, in a condensed tabular form, the most important events in the literary history of English-speaking people, along with a few undeniably significant non-English items.

The Index of Proper Names specifies all those individuals mentioned in this book

From inside the book

 

Contents

To the User
89
Handbook to Literature
120
English and American
492
Copyright

1 other sections not shown

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A Handbook to Literature
C. Hugh Holman,William Harmon
No preview available - 1992

Common terms and phrases

accented action applied APPRENTICESHIP NOVEL Ballad Bible born called character classical comedy COMEDY OF MANNERS couplet Criticism Death developed Died drama early edition eighteenth century elements Elizabethan emotional England English literature epic Essay example expression Ezra Pound fiction French George Gerard Manley Hopkins Gothic Novel Greek Henry human I. A. Richards iambic James John Johnson language later Latin lines LITERARY HISTORY lyric meaning medieval modern moral movement narrative nature nineteenth century Northrop Frye novel OUTLINE OF LITERARY pastoral pattern Period English plays plot poem poetic poetry poets popular prose realistic References Renaissance rhetorical rhyme Rhyme Royal rhythm Robert Romanticism Satire sense Shakespeare sometimes song SONNET stanza story stressed syllable structure style T. S. Eliot term theater theory Thomas tion tradition tragedy translation trochee usually verse W. B. Yeats W. H. Auden William word writers written

References to this book

About the author (1992)

William Harmon (born 1938) is James Gordon Hanes Professor Emeritus in the Humanities at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, author of five books of poetry and editor of A Handbook to Literature. His most recent poetry has appeared in Blink and Light.

Bibliographic information

TitleA Handbook to Literature
Handbook to Literature
AuthorsClarence Hugh Holman, William Harmon
Edition6
PublisherMacmillan, 1992
Original fromthe University of California
DigitizedMar 25, 2008
ISBN0023564202, 9780023564208
Length615 pages
Subjects › 

Literary Criticism / General
Literary Criticism / Reference
Reference / General
Reference / Word Lists
  
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