Customer Reviews

NTC's Dictionary of Literary Terms

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Contained a brief entry on modernism, but not a word about postmodernism. Let alone postcolonialism...

A dictionary is no good if it doesn't have the words you want to look up!

So this book doesn't cover every possible term. Perhaps the words "complete" and "comprehensive" are misleading. It may also need an updating (1991 publication). It does, however, cover all the major terms as well as many lesser known ones. More importantly, this book does a very good job of explaining and illustrating the terms, including differentiating between some often confused terms. Easy to read, relatively easy to comprehend; uses good examples. A nice effort. I have found it very useful.

I wish I could read about the PARADOXISM, a literary avant-garde movement set up in 1980s by Florentin Smarandache and based on antitheses, antinomies, contradictions, paradoxes.

I used it to help me pass the Praxis II, and I've used it in several lesson plans that I've written. The definitions are extremely understandable, and all are correct. The book is appropriately annotated, and thoughtfully composed.

This is required for my son's advanced placement English class and I have been reading it for my own curiosity. It is an intelligent explanation of terms that describe literary works (books, plays, poems, reports, etc). Terms that are harder to grasp are treated in more detail and with examples so you don't have to look any further to know what they mean. Some terms I've seen all my life and never really understood are now completely clear. The English language is an amazingly powerful way to communicate and this little digest adds enormously to your English skills.