Encyclopedia of Literature and Criticism

Martin Coyle, Peter Garside, Malcolm Kelsall, Dr John Peck, John Peck9780415020657, 0415020654

This Encyclopedia is the most comprehensive guide yet to both the nature and content of literature and to literary criticism. In ninety essays by leading international critics and scholars such as Catherine Belsey, Terrence Hawker, Catherine Hayles, Cora Kaplan, Christopher Norris and Don E. Wayne, the volume covers traditional topics such as literature and history, poetry, drama and the novel, and newer topics, including 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.The Encyclopedia includes important sections on criticism, the contexts of English literature and “other literatures” in English. Individual essays cover subjects as diverse as feminist theatre, postmodernism, medieval literature, romantic poetry, Marxist criticism, censorship, realism and the novel, contemporary American poetry, New Historicism,the origins of the modern stage, the renaissance, women and the poetic tradition, the printed book, and Shakespeare and eighteenth-century fiction. Each essay seeks to provide the reader with a clear sense of the full significance of its subject as well as guidance for 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.

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Table of contents :
EEn……Page 1
Encyclopedia of Literature and Criticism……Page 2
Acknowledgements……Page 3
Preface……Page 6
I. Introduction……Page 9
1 – Literature……Page 10
2 – Criticism……Page 34
II. Literature and History……Page 73
3 – Medieval Literature and the Medieval World……Page 74
4 – The Renaissance……Page 87
5 – Augustanism……Page 98
6 – Romanticism……Page 111
7 – Modernism……Page 124
8 – Postmodernism……Page 136
III. Poetry……Page 153
9 – Genre……Page 154
10 – Poetry……Page 167
11 – Epic and Romance……Page 180
12 – Lyric……Page 191
13 – Narrative Verse……Page 202
14 – Women and The Poetic Tradition: The Oppressor’s Language……Page 211
15 – Medieval Poetry……Page 226
16 – Renaissance Poetry……Page 242
17 – ‘Augustan’ Poetry……Page 256
18 – Romantic Poetry……Page 268
19 – Victorian Poetry……Page 281
20 – The French Symbolists……Page 298
21 – Modern Poetry……Page 311
22 – British Poetry Since 1945: Poetry and the Historical Moment……Page 324
23 – Contemporary American Poetry……Page 339
IV. Drama……Page 352
24 – Stagecraft……Page 353
25 – Tragedy……Page 365
26 – Comedy……Page 377
27 – Shakespeare……Page 389
28 – Medieval Drama……Page 402
29 – Renaissance Drama……Page 415
30 – Restoration Theatre……Page 426
31 – The Origins of the Modern British Stage……Page 438
32 – Theories of Modern Drama……Page 453
33 – The Theatre of the Absurd……Page 466
34 – Theatre and Politics……Page 477
35 – Feminist Theatre……Page 490
V. The Novel……Page 504
36 – Modes of Eighteenth-Century Fiction……Page 505
37 – Feminine Fictions……Page 518
38 – The Historical Novel……Page 531
39 – The Nineteenth-Century Social Novel in England……Page 544
40 – The Realist Novel: The European Context……Page 554
41 – Realism and the English Novel……Page 565
42 – American Romance……Page 576
43 – Formalism and the Novel: Henry James……Page 589
44 – The Novel and Modern Criticism……Page 602
45 – The Modernist Novel in the Twentieth Century……Page 619
46 – British Fiction Since 1930……Page 631
47 – Contemporary Fiction……Page 643
VI. Criticism……Page 651
48 – Biblical Hermeneutics……Page 652
49 – Neo-Classical Criticism……Page 665
50 – The Romantic Critical Tradition……Page 681
51 – Great Traditions: The Logic of the Canon……Page 695
52 – Marxist Criticism……Page 707
53 – The New Criticism……Page 720
54 – Structuralism and Post-Structuralism: From the Centre to the Margin……Page 735
55 – Feminist Literary Criticism: ‘New Colours and Shadows’……Page 749
56 – Psychoanalytic Criticism……Page 763
57 – Deconstruction……Page 776
58 – New Historicism……Page 790
VII. Production and Reception……Page 805
59 – Production and Reception of the Literary Book……Page 806
60 – The Printed Book……Page 822
61 – Literacy……Page 834
62 – Publishing Before 1800……Page 845
63 – Publishing Since 1800……Page 859
64 – British Periodicals and Reading Publics……Page 873
65 – Libraries and the Reading Public……Page 886
66 – Censorship……Page 898
67 – The Bibliographic Record……Page 912
68 – The Institutionalization of Literature: The University……Page 923
VIII. Contexts……Page 936
69 – Literature and the History of Ideas……Page 937
70 – Literature and the Bible……Page 947
71 – Literature and the Classics……Page 960
72 – Folk Literature……Page 972
73 – Literature and the Visual Arts……Page 987
74 – Literature and Music……Page 1000
75 – Literature and Landscape……Page 1011
76 – The Sentimental Ethic……Page 1025
77 – The Gothic……Page 1040
78 – Aestheticism……Page 1051
79 – Literature and Science……Page 1064
80 – Literature and Language……Page 1078
81 – Culture and Popular Culture: The Politics of Photopoetry……Page 1094
IX. Perspectives……Page 1106
82 – New English Literatures……Page 1107
83 – African Literature in English……Page 1119
84 – The African-American Literary Tradition……Page 1130
85 – Australian Literature and the British Tradition……Page 1142
86 – Canadian Literature……Page 1156
87 – Indian Literature in English……Page 1170
88 – New Zealand and Pacific Literature……Page 1180
89 – West Indian Literature……Page 1192
90 – Western Literature in Modern Chna……Page 1204
X. Afterword……Page 1212
W(h)ither ‘English’?……Page 1213
The Contributors……Page 1229
Index……Page 1232