A practical, instructive, and comprehensive guide to the language of literary study, Kennedy's A Handbook of Literary Terms is a reference manual that aims to demystify literature and the techniques literary scholars use. Over 400 entries. Clear, concise, and accessible definitions of key literary terms. Visual material supports explanations. Those interested in the study of literature and the vocabulary of literary inquiry.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From the Back Cover
“We assume that appreciation begins in delighted attention to words on a page.”
_____ X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia
This simple statement is the guiding principle behind the most popular literature text of its kind. The authors, with Mark Bauerlein, have now applied that principle to the seemingly complex world of literary terms.
Simple, clear and concise, this little handbook is one of the most practical study tools you can lay your hands on.
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
About the Author
X.J. Kennedy, after graduation from Seton Hall and Columbia, became a journalist second class in the Navy ("Actually, I was pretty eighth class"). His poems, some published in the New Yorker, were first collected in Nude Descending a Staircase (1961). Since then he has written five more collections, several widely adopted literature and writing textbooks, and seventeen books for children, including two novels. He has taught at Michigan, North Carolina (Greensboro), California (Irvine), Wellesley, Tufts, and Leeds. Cited in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations and reprinted in some 200 anthologies, his verse has brought him a Guggenheim fellowship, a Lamont Award, a Los Angeles Times Book Prize, an award from the American Academy for Poetry for Children from the National Council of Teachers of English. He now lives in Lexington, Massachusetts, where he and his wife Dorothy have collaborated on four books and five children.
Dana Gioia is a poet, critic, and teacher. Born in Los Angeles, he attended Stanford and Harvard before taking a detour into business. ("Not many poets have a Stanford M.B.A., thank goodness!") After years of writing and reading late in the evenings after work, he quit a vice presidency to write and teach. He has published three collections of poetry: Daily Horoscope (1986); The Gods of Winter (1991); Interrogations at Noon (2001), winner of the 2001 American Book Award; an opera libretto, Nosferatu (2002); several anthologies; and an influential study of poetry¿s place in contemporary America, Can Poetry Matter? (1992). Gioia has taught at Johns Hopkins, Sarah Lawrence, Wesleyan (Connecticut), Mercer, and Colorado College. He is also the co-founder of the summer poetry conference at West Chester University in Pennsylvania and a frequent commentator on literature for the British Broadcasting Corporation. He currently lives in Santa Rosa, California, with his wife, Mary, two sons, and an ever growing number of cats.
(The surname Gioia is pronounced JOY-A. As some of you may have already guessed, gioia is the Italian word for joy.)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A good choice,
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Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Handbook of Literary Terms: Literature, Language, Theory (2nd Edition) (Paperback)
This is exactly the right book for someone like me, who wants a lively, expert, up-to-date and, within its relatively brief compass, a reasonably comprehensive guide to terms in language, literary criticism and theory, but one that is not too technical, not clogged with jargon. I like the clarity and conciseness, and the helpful cross-referencing which allows one to put this definition or that in a wider context. As the authors say, there are various longer books to which one can turn for treatment in still greater depth; but for the intelligent, enquiring high school or university student, the merits of this little compendium will not soon be exhausted.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Small, but Effective,
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Handbook of Literary Terms: Literature, Language, Theory (Paperback)
This book just gives a brief outline or overview of quite a few literary terms. It's a good starter book.
0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
What I asked for,
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Handbook of Literary Terms: Literature, Language, Theory (2nd Edition) (Paperback)
I wanted used books and that's what I got. Some books I've received are used but you could never tell. this one however had a big used sticker on the side, but whatever, I don't use it for my class much.
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