The Routledge Dictionary of Literary Terms The Routledge Dictionary of Literary Terms is a twenty-first century update of Roger Fowler’s seminal Dictionary of Modern Critical Terms. Bringing together original entries written by such celebrated theorists as Terry Eagleton and Malcolm Bradbury with new definitions of current terms and controversies, this is the essential reference book for students of literature at all levels. This book includes: ● New definitions of contemporary critical issues such as ‘Cybercriticism’ and ‘Globalization’. ● An exhaustive range of entries, covering numerous aspects to such topics as genre, form, cultural theory and literary technique. ● Complete coverage of traditional and radical approaches to the study and production of literature. ● Thorough accounts of critical terminology and analyses of key academic debates. ● Full cross-referencing throughout and suggestions for further reading. Peter Childs is Professor of Modern English Literature at the University of Gloucestershire. His recent publications include Modernism (Routledge, 2000) and Contemporary Novelists: British Fiction Since 1970 (Palgrave, 2004). Roger Fowler (1939–99), the distinguished and long-serving Professor of English and Linguistics at the University of East Anglia, was the editor of the original Dictionary of Modern Critical Terms (Routledge, 1973, 1987). Also available from Routledge Poetry: The Basics Who’s Who in Contemporary Jeffrey Wainwright Women’s Writing 0–415–28764–2 Edited by Jane Eldridge Miller Shakespeare: The Basics 0–415–15981–4 Sean McEvoy 0–415–21289–8 Who’s Who in Lesbian and Gay Writing Literary Theory: The Basics Gabriele Griffin Hans Bertens 0–415–15984–9 0–415–18664–1 Who’s Who in Dickens Contemporary British Novelists Donald Hawes Nick Rennison 0–415–26029–9 0–415–21709–1 Who’s Who in Shakespeare The Routledge Companion to Peter Quennell and Postmodernism (Second Edition) Hamish Johnson Edited by Stuart Sim 0–415–26035–3 0–415–33359–8 Who’s Who in Twentieth-Century The Routledge Companion to Russian World Poetry Literature Edited by Mark Willhardt Edited by Neil Cornwell and Alan Michael Parker 0–415–23366–6 0–415–16356–0 The Routledge Dictionary of Literary Terms Peter Childs and Roger Fowler Based on A Dictionary of Modern Critical Terms, edited by Roger Fowler First published in 1973 as A Dictionary of Modern Critical Terms Revised edition published in 1987 by Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd This edition published 2006 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group © Routledge 1973, 1987, 2006 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data The Routledge dictionary of literary terms / [edited by] Peter Childs and Roger Fowler. p. cm. ‘Based on A Dictionary of Modern Critical Terms, edited by Roger Fowler.’ Rev. ed. of: A dictionary of modern critical terms. Rev. and enl. ed. 1987. Includes bibliographical references. 1. Literature – Terminology. 2. English language – Terms and phrases. 3. Literary form – Terminology. 4. Criticism – Terminology. I. Childs, Peter. II. Fowler, Roger. III. Dictionary of modern critical terms. PN41.D4794 2005 803–dc22 2005006915 ISBN 0–415–36117–6 (hbk) ISBN 0–415–34017–9 (pbk) To Claire Philpott, with thanks Contents Note on the style of references viii List of terms ix Dictionary of literary terms 1 Notes on contributors 254 Note on the style of references Cross-references give the article to which the reader is referred in SMALL CAPITALS. Further reading is suggested wherever appropriate, sometimes within the text and sometimes at the end of articles, whichever is stylistically more suitable. Dates of first editions are given when they are significant, but usually the most accessible and convenient modern reprintings and translations are cited. List of terms Absurd 1 Catastrophe 23 Action, actor 2 Catharsis 23 Aestheticism 2 Cento(nism) 23 Aesthetics 3 Character 23 Affective fallacy 4 Chicago critics 25 Aktualisace 4 Chorus 26 Alienation effect 4 Classic 26 Allegory 4 Closure 28 Alliteration 5 Code 28 Alterity 5 Cohesion 28 Ambiguity 6 Comedy 28 Analysis 7 Comedy of manners 29 Anticlimax 9 Comparative literature 29 Anti-hero 9 Competence, literary 31 Apocalyptic literature 9 Complaint 31 Aporia 10 Conceit 31 Appreciation 10 Concrete poetry 32 Archaism 10 Consonance 33 Archetype 11 Context 33 Aristotelian criticism 11 Contradiction 34 Art 11 Convention 35 Assonance 11 Couplet 36 Atmosphere 11 Creation 37 Author 12 Criticism 38 Autobiography 14 Critique 40 Ballad 15 Cultural criticism 41 Baroque 16 Cultural materialism 43 Belief 18 Culture 44 Bildungsroman 18 Cybercriticism 46 Biography 20 Dada 48 Burlesque 22 Decentring 48 Cacophony 23 Deconstruction 48 Caricature 23 Decorum 51 Carnival 23 Defamiliarization 52 x List of terms Dénouement 52 Foregrounding 90 Deviation 52 Form 91 Dialogic structure 52 Formalism 93 Diction 54 Free verse 94 Différance 54 Gender 96 Difference 55 Generative poetics 97 Differend 56 Genre 97 Dirge 57 Globalization 98 Disbelief 57 Gothic 99 Discourse 57 Grammar 101 Dissemination 61 Grotesque 101 Dissociation of sensibility 62 Hegemony 102 Documentary 63 Heresy of paraphrase 103 Dominant 63 Hermeneutics 103 Double irony 63 Hero 105 Drama 63 Heroic couplet 107 Dramatic irony 64 Historical novel 107 Ecocriticism 65 Historicism 108 Écriture 66 Homophony 110 Effect 66 Humanism 110 Eiron 67 Humours 111 Elegy 67 Hybridity 112 Emblem 68 Hyperbole 113 Epic 68 Ideology 114 Epic theatre 70 Illocutionary act 115 Epistle 72 Image 115 Essay 72 Imagination 116 Essentialism 73 Imagism 118 Ethical criticism 74 Imitation 120 Euphony 75 Implied author 120 Eurocentrism 75 Intention 120 Evaluation 77 Interior monologue 121 Existentialism 78 Interpretant 121 Explication 80 Interpretation 121 Expressionism 80 Intertextuality 121 Fable 82 Irony 123 Fabula 82 Katharsis 125 Fabulation 82 Kinetic 125 Fancy 82 Lament 126 Fantastic 82 Language 126 Farce 84 Lexis 128 Feeling 85 Lisible 128 Feminist criticism 85 Literary mode of production 128 Fiction 88 Literature 129 Figure 90 Logocentrism 131 Foot 90 Lyric 132 List of terms xi Magical realism 134 Persona 170 Mannerism 135 Phallologocentrism 171 Manners 136 Phenomenology 172 Marxist criticism 136 Picaresque 174 Mask 138 Plagiarism 175 Metafiction 138 Platonism 175 Metaphor 138 Pleasure 176 Metaphysical 140 Plot 177 Metre 141 Pluralism 178 Mimesis 143 Poetic diction 178 Mirror Stage, the 143 Poetic licence 178 Mock-epic 144 Poetics 179 Modernism 145 Poetry 181 Monody 146 Point of view 182 Motif 146 Polyphony 182 Myth 146 Polysemy 182 Mythos 147 Pornography 182 Narrative 148 Postcolonialism 183 Narrative structure 150 Postmodernism 185 Narratology 151 Post-structuralism 187 Nationalism and ethnicity studies 152 Practical criticism 188 Naturalism 154 Presence 188 Négritude 154 Prose 189 Neo-Aristotelianism 155 Protagonist 190 Neo-classicism 155 Psychogogia 190 Neo-Platonism 155 Psychology and psychoanalysis 190 New criticism 155 Queer theory 195 Novel 157 Reader 196 Objective correlative 160 Realism 198 Obscurity 160 Reason 200 Ode 160 Reception 200 Onomatopoeia 162 Refrain 200 Oral composition 162 Refunctioning 201 Organic 162 Representation 202 Orientalism 162 Response 202 Originality 164 Revisionary writing 202 Ostranenie 164 Rhetoric 204 Other, the 164 Rhizome 205 Paradox 166 Rhyme 207 Paraphrase 166 Rhythm 208 Parody 166 Ritual 208 Pastiche 167 Romance 208 Pastoral 168 Romanticism 209 Pathetic fallacy 169 Satire 211 Performativity 169 Scansion 212 Peripeteia 170 Scheme 212 xii List of terms Scriptible 212 Syuzhet 235 Semiotics 212 Taste 236 Sensibility 214 Technique 236 Sexuality 216 Tenor 236 Short fiction 217 Tension 236 Sign 218 Text 237 Simile 218 Texture 238 Sincerity 219 Theme 239 Skaz 220 Threnody 240 Society 220 Topos 240 Soliloquy 221 Tradition 240 Sonnet 222 Tragedy 241 Sound 223 Translations 243 Speech 224 Travesty 244 Speech act 224 Typicality 244 Stasis 224 Uncanny, the 245 Story 224 Undecidability 246 Stream of consciousness 224 Value 248 Stress 225 Variation 248 Structuralism 225 Vehicle 249 Structure 227 Verbal irony 249 Style 228 Verisimilitude 249 Subaltern 230 Vers libre 249 Subject 231 Verse 249 Surfiction 231 Verse epistle 249 Surrealism 231 Voice 250 Suspension of disbelief 232 Wit 251 Symbol 232 Womanist 252 Synonym 233 Writing 253 Syntax 233 A Absurd The theatre of the absurd was and Ionesco such a dialectical shift was a term, derived from Camus and popular- simply faith. For to the ‘absurd’ dramatist ized by Martin Esslin’s book The Theatre it is axiomatic that humans live in an of the Absurd (1961), applied to a group entropic world in which communication of dramatists whose work emerged during is impossible and illusion preferred to the early 1950s (though Beckett’s Waiting reality. The individual has no genuine for Godot and Ionesco’s The Bald Prima scope for action (Hamm sits lame and Donna were actually written in the late blind in Endgame, 1958; Winnie is buried 1940s). In The Myth of Sisyphus (1942) to the neck in sand in Happy Days; the Camus defined the absurd as the tension protagonist of Ionesco’s The New Tenant which emerges from the individual’s (written 1953, produced 1957) is sub- determination to discover purpose and merged beneath proliferating furniture); order in a world which steadfastly refuses individuals are the victims of their meta- to evidence either.