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Much loved for its wit and wisdom since 1870, Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable takes you on a captivating adventure through its trademark blend of language, culture, myth and legend. As Susie Dent explains in the foreword, Brewer’s “is not a straightforward dictionary, nor is it an encyclopaedia. It is, in fact, unlike any other reference book that exists, anywhere.” This nineteenth edition encapsulates all the charm and wit that characterise its predecessors and maintains the standards of scholarship and eclecticism that have long been its hallmark.

Thoroughly updated with over 100 new and revised entries – think crowdsourcing, cyberpunk, iPad and mash-up – this unique resource is guaranteed to delight, entertain and inspire in the best Brewer’s tradition. Discover Brewer’s take on angels, heraldry, pub signs and recluses, and delve into the lexicographical world of the eggcorn. Whether you are a committed Brewerphile or a newcomer to its pages of fascinating entries, this edition will draw you in and keep you glued to its rich mix of eccentric nuggets.

Over 750 entries

The most authoritative and up-to-date dictionary of critical theory available, covering the Frankfurt school, cultural materialism, cultural studies, gender studies, film studies, literary theory, hermeneutics, historical materialism, Internet studies, and sociopolitical critical theory. It explains complex theoretical discourses, such as Marxism, psychoanalysis, structuralism, deconstruction, and postmodernism clearly and provides biographies of figures who have influenced the discipline, such as Deleuze and Foucault.

This new edition has been updated to extend coverage of diaspora, race, and postcolonial theory, and of queer and sexuality studies, ensuring that it remains invaluable for students of literary and cultural studies and anyone studying a humanities subject requiring a knowledge of theory.

'This dictionary's virtues and its plain-spokenness make it … as apt to the bedside table as to the desk: Dr Baldick is a Brewer for specialized tastes' – Times Literary Supplement

Over 1,200 entries

This bestselling dictionary provides clear and concise definitions of the most troublesome literary terms, from abjection to zeugma. Now expanded and in its fourth edition, it includes increased coverage of new terms from modern critical and theoretical movements, such as feminism, schools of American poetry, Spanish verse forms, life writing, and crime fiction.

It includes extensive coverage of traditional drama, versification, rhetoric, and literary history, as well as updated and extended advice on recommended further reading and a pronunciation guide to more than 200 terms. Completely revised and updated, this edition also features brand-new entries on terms such as distant reading, graphic novels, middle generation, and misery memoir. It is an essential reference tool for students of literature in any language.

In the past four decades the field of Asian American literary and cultural studies has grown enormously, expanding its areas of inquiry beyond the reflections on national identity and citizenship to encompass such issues as transnational and diasporic identities and communities; the workings of imperialism; the intersectionality of race, gender, and sexuality; and social justice/human rights in a global context. Led by Editor in Chief Josephine Lee and Associate Editors Floyd Cheung, Jennifer Ann Ho, Anita Mannur, and Cathy J. Schlund-Vials, this project is the largest and most comprehensive collection of scholarship on Asian American literature and culture to date. From Asian American literary classics to experimental theater, from K-pop to online gaming, the Oxford Encyclopedia of Asian American Literature and Culture guides both established scholars and readers new to this study through the extensive landscape of Asian American writing and cultural production. More than one hundred essays on varied historical periods, geographical locales, and artistic modes offer an extensive examination of racial representation and activism, interdisciplinary and comparative approaches to literary work, ethnic communities, space and place, transnational and transpacific flows, and genres such as speculative fiction, the detective novel, and melodrama. Along with literary works from the late-19th century to the 21st century, the Oxford Encyclopedia of Asian American Literature and Culture covers a wide-ranging selection of Asian American theatre, dance, music, visual arts, film, television, and media. With its illuminating and profound commentary on Asian American writing and artistic practice, the volumes survey the historical foundations of this rich field, showing the exciting new directions that currently drive the study of Asian American literary and cultural traditions.

Latina/o literature is a growing field of study. It is both an emerging literature and a rich historical one that continues to be documented and uncovered in archival and personal collections. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Latina and Latino Literature offers a sweeping introduction to a variety of genres and themes in Latina/o literature from its Latin American origins in the precolonial period to contemporary texts and perspectives. The collection illustrates the historical, social, and political contexts in which successive generations of Latina and Latino authors have written, exploring the interrelationship between geography, national origin, race, gender, sexuality, and other cultural and ethnic identities.

Led by Editor in Chief Louis G. Mendoza and an editorial board of experts, this collection throws light not only on how Latina/o texts have evolved since the contact period, but also on how we have come to understand and conceptualize this work over the past three generations. From Chicana/o identity to Caribbean and Central American diasporic literature, from key figures in Latina/o letters to bilingual texts and graphic novels, the collection explores a variety of issues that are central to the 21st century's American experience, such as feminism, LGBTQA groups, indigeneity, environmental justice, social movements, migration, and US-Mexico borderlands. Each article paints a nuanced and in-depth portrait of Latina/o literary history in a dynamic, complex, and deeply engaging field of study that is at once highly popular, historical, and theoretical. One of the most extensive and detailed surveys of Latina/o literature to date, this encyclopedia shows the historical and cultural significance of this literary tradition in the American context, challenging readers to revisit conventional literary notions and expanding the borders of American literature.

Over 175 articles

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Literary Theory gives a comprehensive coverage of every aspect of literary theory, both traditional and contemporary. Led by Editor in Chief John Frow and Associate Editors Mark Byron, Pelagia Goulimari, Sean Pryor, and Julie Rak, the encyclopedia features around 175 essays written by a wide range of experts and distinguished scholars to explore the problems, the concepts, and the methodologies that arise when we discuss literary texts. They ask what systems of value go into making this category, separating “literary” from other kinds of texts or other language games; what a “text” is, what kinds of text there are, and who decides what it means to “read” a text: to understand it literally, to react to it emotionally, to look for broader structures of meaning, to understand it in relation to the context in which it was written or the contexts in which it was later understood; who “we” are who read; how reading relates to writing, and who or what the author of a text is and what authority they have over its reception; what background understandings shape our reading, how we acquire a knowledge of the norms and conventions that govern reading, how our class or our gender or our ethnicity form our understanding and the differences between our understandings; and whether some readings can be said to be better than others. Ranging across the analysis of formal concepts, of the institutions that support the production, dissemination, interpretation, and valuation of literary texts, of the identities of the real and textual persons who interact in the study of texts, and of the systematic methodologies of literary interpretation and understanding, the Encyclopedia is the most advanced and comprehensive collection of essays on literary theory ever published.