The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory

1072 Pages·1991·27.93 MB·English

PENGUIN REFERENCE
The first edition of this authoritative and illuminating dictionary wa
hailed as 'a superlative work of reference that will also be read
for pleasure'.
In this new edition many of the 2,000 terms originally defined have completely
revised entries, and there are several hundred entirely new entr,ies.
The coverage of the dictionary has been expanded to encompass literary theo
and the critical movements that have developed since the book's first publicatio
Now, in addition to stimulating entries on the language of literature and literary
criticism, from barcarole and desert-island fiction to sprung rhythm and
vorticism, there are numerous sections on theoretical topics. Among these are
Freudian and psychoanalytic criticism, formalism, grammatology, hermeneutics,
post-modernism and structuralism.
'Scholarly, succinct, comprehensive and entertaining, this is an important book,
an indispensable work of reference. lt draws on the literature of many language
and quotes aptly and freshly from our own' - The Times EducationaS/ upplement
'Some entries accomplish cameo wonders of literary history. Others are funny
... generously and urbanely comP,iled' - The New York Times
THIRD EDITION
The cover shows Aristotle (Mansell Collection), Samuel Johnson by Joshua Reynolds (National Portrait Gallery)
and Roland Barthes (Camera Press)
ISBN 0-14-051227-6
Reference 90401
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PENGUIN REFERENCE BOOKS
THE PENGUIN DICTIONARY OF
LITERAR Y TERMS AND LITERAR Y THEOR Y
]. A. Cuddon was born in 1928 and educated at. Douai and at
Brasenose College, Oxford, where, after taking a degree, he did post
graduate work on the concept of evil and the devil in medieval and
Renaissance literature. He also represented the university at cricket,
rugby and hockey, though without gaining a 'blue'. For some ten
years he wrote only plays, before turning to other forms. Apart from
numerous essays, short stories, ;i.rticles, a dozen plays and three lib
retti, he has published a numbcr of novcls, notably A Multitude of
Sins, Testament of lscariot, Acts of Darkness, The Six Wounds and
The Bride of Battersea, which have been translated into several lan
guages, and two travel books; The Owl's Watchsong: a Study of
Istanbul and the Companion Guide to Yugoslavia, which have also
been translated. This Dictionary of Literary Terms was begun while
he was on a fellowship at Cambridge in 1968, and it was completed
seven years later. In 1971 he r~ceived an award from the Goldsmiths'
Company to make a study of medieval frescoes in Serbia and Mace
donia. In 1980 he published A Dictionary of Sport and Games, a two
million word aocount of most of ehe sports and games of the world
since 5200 BC. This came out in paperback in 1981. A compulsivc
traveller (with a special interest in the Balkans and Near East), his
_ main recreations are going to the theatre, watching spart and pursu
ing an amateur interest in zoology. He has edited The Penguin Book
of Ghost Stories and The Penguin Book of Horror Stories (both
published · in 1984) and is currcntly finishing a novel and a book
about travels in the Balkans.

THE PENGUIN DICTIONARY OF
LITERAR Y TERMS
AND LITERAR Y THEOR Y
THIRD EDITION
J.
A. CUDDON
PENGUIN BOOKS
PENGUJN BOOKS
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Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: Harmondswortn, Middlesex, England
A Dictionary of Lit~rary Terms first published in Great Britain by
Andre Deutsch Ltd 1977
First published in the USA by Doubleday & Company, Inc. 1977
Revised edition published in Great Britain by Andre Deutsch Ltd 1979
Revised edition published in the USA by Doubleday & Company, Inc. 1?80
Revised edition published in Penguin Books 1982.
Published in Penguin Books in the USA by arrangement with Doubleday & Compuny, Inc.
Third edition, under the title The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Uterary Theory,
published in Great Britain and the USA by Basil ßlackwell ,99,
Thirg edition published in Penguin Books 1992
5 7 9 10 8 6 4
Copyright© J. A. Cuddon, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1991
All rights reserved
The moral right of the author has been asserted
Printed in England by Clays Ltd, St lves plc
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to the condition rhat it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent,
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A. Alvarez, pastiche in the preface to The New Poetry ( 1961) , by
perinission of the author.
Kingsley Amis, extract from 'ßeowulf' by permission of the author.
W. H. Auden, 'If I could teil you' and extracts from Letter to Lord
Byron from Collected Poems, by permission of Faber & Faber aud
Random House Inc.'
Nicolas Bentley, two clerihews by permission of the author.
John Berryman, extract from 'The Dispossessed' from Homage to
Mistress Bradstreet by permission of Faber & Faber and Harcourt
Brace Jovanovich Inc.
John Betjeman, extract from 'In Westminster Abbey' from Collected
Poems by permission of the author and John Murray Ltd.
Roy Campbell, 'The Seventh Sword' from Mithraic Emblems, by
permission of The Bodley Head.
Charles Causley, extracts from 'Mother, Get Up, Unbar the Door',
'The Prisoners of Love', 'Timothy Winters' and 'The Life of the
Poet', by permission of the author and David Higham Associates
Ltd.
J. R. Clark Hall, extracts f~om translation of Beowulf by permission
of George Allen & Unwin Ltd and Barnes & Noble.
Jack Clemo, extract from 'The Plundered Fuchsias' from The Map of
Clay, by permission of Methuen & Co USA Ltd.
Wendy Cope, for 'Valentine' by permission of the author.
John Crowe Ransom, extract from 'Dog' from Selected Poems, by
permission of Laurence Pollinger Ltd and Alfred A. Knopf,
Random House lnc.
C. Day Lewis, extraci: from 'Sing We the Two Lieutenants' from A
Time to Dance in Collected Poems 1954, by permission of the
Executor of the Estate of C. Day Lewis, Hogarth Press and
Jonathan Cape Ltd.
J.
T. S. Eliot,-extracts from 'The Love Song of Alfred Prutrock', ''l'he
Waste Land', 'Ash Wednesday', Little Gidding', ~nd 'Dry Salvagt.".s'
vu
Acknowledgments
from Collected Poems 1909-1962; UK: by permission of Faber &
Faber and USA: 'from Collected Poems 1909-1962 by T. S. Eliot,
copyright 1963, 1964, by T. S. Eliot. Reprinted by permission of
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Inc.'
D. J. Enright, exttact from 'The Laughing Hyena by Hokusai' from
Selected Poems, by permission of Chatto & Windus and Bolt &
Watson.
Geoffrey Hili, extract from 'God's Little Mountain' from For the
Unfallen by permission of the author and Andre Deutsch Ltd.
David Holbrook, 'Living? Our Supervisors will do that for Us'
reprinted by permission of the author.
Ted Hughes, extracts from 'February', 'View of a Pig', and 'Thrushes'
from Lupercal, by permission of the author, Faber & Faber and
Harper & Row.
Robinson Jeffers, extract from 'Hurt Hawks' from The Selected
Poetry of Robinson ]ejfers, by permission of Alfred A. Knopf,
Random House Inc.
David Jones, extracts from 'Middle Sea and Lear Sea' from Anathemata,
by permission of Faber & Faber and the Chilmark Press.
James Kirkup, extracts from 'Four Haiku on the Inland Sea', from
Paper Windows, by permission of the author and Curtis Brown
Ltd.
Philip Larkin, extract from 'The Whitsun Weddings', by permission
of the author and Faber & Faber.
D. H. Lawrence, 'Kangaroo' and 'Snake'; UK: by permission
of Laurence Pollinger Ltd; USA: 'From the Complete Poems of
D. H. Lawrence edited by Vivian de Sola Pinto and F. Warren
Roberts, copyright 1964, 1971, by Angelo Ravagli and C. M.
Weekley. Executors of the Estate of Frieda Lawrence Ravagli. All
rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of the Viking Press Inc.'
Robert Lowell, extracts from 'Our Lady of Walsingham', 'Mr
Edwards and the Spider', 'The Holy Innocents', and 'Man and
Wife' from Lord Weary's Castle in Poems 1938-49, by permission
of Faber & Faber and Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Inc.
George MacBeth, extracts from 'The God of Love' by permission of
the author.
Hugh Macdiarmid, extract from 'On a Raised Beach' by permission o{
. the author.
Norman McCaig, extract from 'Mutual Life' by permission of the
author and Granada Publishing Ltd.
Roger McGough, extract from 'Hoarding' from Watchwords by
Vlll