The Longman Dictionary of Literary Terms -The Essential Literary Terms: The Jargon for the Informed Reader (for Sourcebooks, Inc.)

A user-friendly introduction to the language of literary study, The Longman Dictionary of Literary Terms is an easy-to-use reference manual that aims to demystify literature and the techniques literary scholars use. It is a great asset to those readers who would like a smart companion to accompany their reading of literature.

With an accessible writing style, this comprehensive guide features more than 400 entries, covering a wide array of literary terms and concepts with concise definitions and pronunciation guides. Features include clear definitions that motivate an engagement with literary theory, along with contemporary and culturally diverse literary examples that illustrate the concepts. All of the major schools of literary theory are presented to give readers thorough background in the critical approaches.

X. J. Kennedy has written six collections of poetry, several textbooks and seventeen books for children. His numerous awards include a Guggenheim fellowship and a Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

Dana Gioia, a poet, critic, and teacher, has published three collections of poetry-Daily Horoscope (1986), The Gods of Winter (1991), and Interrogations at Noon (2001)-an influential study of poetry's place in contemporary America, Can Poetry Matter? (1992), and has edited several anthologies. He currently serves as chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. Mark Bauerlein earned a doctorate in English at UCLA, and in 1989 joined the faculty of Emory University in Atlanta. In 2004, he became the director of research and analysis at the National Endowment for the Arts.