The Routledge Dictionary Of Literary Terms

A twenty-first century version of Roger Fowler’s 1973 Dictionary of Modern Critical Terms, this latest edition of The Routledge Dictionary of Literary Terms is the most up-to-date guide to critical and theoretical concepts available to students of literature at all levels.

With over forty newly commissioned entries, this essential reference book includes:

an exhaustive range of entries, covering such topics as genre, form, cultural theory and literary technique
new definitions of contemporary critical issues such as Cybercriticism and Globalization
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.


Covering both long-established terminology as well as the specialist vocabulary of modern theoretical schools, The Routledge Dictionary of Literary Terms is an indispensable guide to the principal terms and concepts encountered in debates over literary studies in the twenty-first century.

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 (1939-1999). 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).