This dictionary provides succinct and often witty explanations of over one thousand potentially troublesome terms encountered in the study of literature, from absurd to zeugma, from the ancient dithyramb to the contemporary dub poetry, from the popular bodice-ripper to the aristocratic masque. While it is fully up to date with the terminologies of deconstruction and other modern schools of literary theory, it also offers extensive coverage of traditional drama, versification, rhetoric, and literary history. Literary schools from Alexandrianism to Transcendentalism are included, along with dozens of terms from languages other than English. Adjectival forms and other derived words are displayed, and simple pronunciation guides are given for over two hundred difficult terms, making this thoroughly cross-referenced dictionary the most helpful of its kind for all readers of literature.