The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism has become the indispensable resource for scholars and students of literary theory and discourse. The long-awaited second edition includes 48 new entries and subentries and has been revised throughout, taking account of ten years of rapidly changing scholarship.While concentrating on the explosion of contemporary critical and theoretical works, the Guide presents a comprehensive historical survey of ideas and individuals ranging from Plato and Aristotle to twentieth-century scholars. It includes more than 240 alphabetically arranged entries on critics and theorists, critical schools and movements, and the critical and theoretical innovations of specific countries and historical periods. It also examines developments in other disciplines which have shaped literary theory and criticism. An international, encyclopedic guide to the field's most important figures, schools, and movements, the new edition reflects the state of literary theory and criticism. Reviews''Nothing quite matches this in scope and depth. Taken as a whole, the guide provides a synoptic overview of literary theory from a twentieth-century Western point of view. The articles are succinct and pointed.''--Jeffrey R. Luttrell, American Reference Books Annual, 1995''A massive, double-columned Yellow Pages of lit crit. If it falls between Abrams and Zola, historically between Plato and postmodernism, intellectually between Aristotle and feminism, or geographically between Japanese Theory and Criticism and Caribbean, you can probably find it here.''--Ray Carney, Partisan Review''A superlative work of reference that can be read for information, and not just another overview. It provides a comprehensive historical survey of ideas and scholars from Plato to modern times, examining developments in other disciplines which have shaped literary theory and criticism.''--Shelley Walla, Literary Review''Two centuries ago this jumbo-size book would have come into the world not modestly as a 'guide' but as a fully fledged encyclopedia. It divides a whole field of knowledge into its constituent parts and presents them in alphabetical order with great lucidity . . . This is a text whose coverage and the general excellence of its entries really will suit the everyday business of study and research.''--Simon During, The Australian''This comprehensive and easily understood reference book will serve as an indispensable guide for helping students or scholars assess and discuss an overwhelming body of material, especially such 'buzz' topics as multiculturalism.''--Cristian Salazar, Bloomsbury Review''Books such as Holman's Handbook to Literature define these concepts briefly but are no substitute for the Guide's analytical essays and their explanations of the development and significance of key critical theories and their methods. Since the Guide is more comprehensive and analytical than Wendell Harris's Dictionary of Concepts in Literary Criticism and Theory, no academic library reference collection can do without it.''--Wilson Library Bulletin''An uncommonly absorbing reference book that attempts to map changes wrought by an anxious new worldliness and self-consciousness among scholars, which the term 'theory' connotes . . . For writers and critics, The Johns Hopkins Guide is a must, but every committed reader will want to own it.''--San Francisco Chronicle''The new Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism is very exciting. I especially like the match up of authors with subjects. The coverage is ample and the array of topics superb. This new Guide will add to the Press's lustre as a publisher of reference books. Beyond that, it promises to be an invaluable source of new ideas as well as information—which any reference work worth its salt should be.''--Hayden White, University of California, Santa Cruz''In the maze of writers and positions, past and present, that surround us in the field that we refer to as `theory' nowadays, this volume should indeed be an invaluable guide.''--Murray Krieger, University of California, Irvine
""Certainly it should (and I hope ' will) be adopted by research librarians affiliated with any credible institution of higher learning.""
