Birchwood Matthew - Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory

This edition first published 2013

2013 The Estate of J. A. Cuddon

Edition History:

Andr Deutsch Ltd (1e, UK, 1977); Doubleday & Company Inc. (1e, USA, 1977); Andr Deutsch Ltd (2e, UK, 1979); Doubleday & Company Inc. (2e, USA, 1980); Basil Blackwell Ltd (3e, 1991); Blackwell Publishers Ltd (4e, 1998).

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Cuddon, J. A. (John Anthony), 1928-1996.

A dictionary of literary terms and literary theory / J.A. Cuddon. 5th ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4443-3327-5 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. CriticismTerminology. 2. LiteratureTerminology. 3. English languageTerms and phrases. 4. Literary formTerminology. I. Title.

PN41.C83 2013

803dc23

2012035085

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Cover design by www.cyandesign.co.uk

PREFACE TO THE FIFTH EDITION

While our editorial aim has been to produce an updated and more comprehensive version of the fourth edition of J. A. Cuddons Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory , we have tried to remain mindful of the fact that we are revising a volume that has hitherto enjoyed great success and has effectively created a wide audience. Hence, while we have endeavoured to update and modernize the book, it seemed unbefitting to transform it beyond recognition and to discard its distinctive characteristics of (a) historical range, (b) conciseness and wit, (c) intercultural breadth, and (d) readability, appealing as it does to a broad spectrum of people. And we wished to avoid turning it into yet another glossary of contemporary critical terms. While we acknowledge that current debates concerning literary theory are moving in many directions, we have sought not to dilute the range or depth of what Cuddon has already accomplished.

Nonetheless, after consulting with many people, we concurred that there were clearly areas where the book could be improved and made more effective as a resource. For example, some of the extant entries reflect Cuddons esoteric interests, as in the discussions of unwieldy length on topics such as ghost story and spy story. These have been retained but in a much abbreviated form. Furthermore, a number of very obscure terms have been removed altogether.

One of the factors that rendered Cuddons dictionary so accessible and usable was the conciseness of most entries. And this made it a work of reference different in kind from, say, the Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism (a splendid book in its own right), where often it will take an hour or more to read a single entry. But again, some of the entries in the Cuddon Dictionary were disproportionately lengthy, as for example, the forty pages on the novel. Any reader who wants that kind of detailed information on the novel can easily go to fuller sources. Hence we have tried to keep the longest entries to a maximum of about three pages; this also had the advantage of creating room for numerous new entries, as well as for expanding and updating some of the existing ones, without the books length being substantially altered. Some of the entries that needed revising and updating, such as those on dialectic, logocentrism, estrangement and essentialism, have been reconceived from what we hope is a more philosophically informed perspective. Other entries have been modified in the light of more recent theoretical developments.

There are a number of areas in which we thought that additional entries needed to be included: gender studies and queer theory; postcolonial theory; poststructuralism; postmodernism; narrative theory; cultural studies; terms from other literatures (Chinese, Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Indian); and a number of miscellaneous terms, including cybercriticism, life writing, world literature, and dub poetry.

Even with such a range of additions, the dictionary can hardly claim to be exhaustive or as comprehensive as we might have wished. We have had to exercise a great deal of selectivity in choosing terms from these various fields. Finally, such is our admiration for Cuddons work that it is only with a great deal of tentativeness that we hope to have produced a dictionary which both retains the merits of the original and is firmly grounded in the twenty-first century.

M. A. R. Habib,
Rutgers University

PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION

I make not therefore my head a grave, but a treasure of knowledge; I intend no monopoly, but a community in learning; I study not for my own sake only, but for theirs that study not for themselves.

Thomas Browne, Religio Medici

Charles Cuddon was the author of twelve plays, three libretti, five novels, two travel books, two dictionaries, and many short stories and essays; he was the editor of ghost and horror stories, a schoolmaster, a talented sportsman, and even, in his youth, a photographic model. When this remarkable man died in the spring of 1996, he left, among these many works, the incandescent Owls Watchsong (1960) (his astonishing elegy to Istanbul), the colossal and witty Dictionary of Sport and Games (1980), and the present work, the Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory (1976), which he was readying for its fourth edition. The number and quality of his literary remains are his own memorial: they are the testimonial of the range of his interests, his lucid scholarship, his large intelligence, his delightful sense of humour, and his elegant prose. Above all, they are a record of his generosity, to friends, students, scholars, and all who have benefited, and will benefit, from his labours.