The Book of Literary Terms

The best-selling author of The Book of Forms -- now in a third edition -- has created the same codification and systematization for all nonfiction forms of writing, and for all forms of fiction other than poetry. In The Book of Literary Terms, Lewis Turco provides a comprehensive guide to, and definitions of all significant terms, forms, and styles in all genres of literature except poetry. For each, all sub-genres and their historical examples are described and defined, all significant terms explicated, and all important styles represented. Wonderful for browsing as well as for reference, it is a book for students and teachers of all genres of literature, for serious general readers of literature, and for writers and critics. Turco writes in an authoritative yet engaging manner, providing endless unsuspected opportunities and avenues for readers to explore. From abecedarius, Bardolatry, cliffhanger, docudrama, epistle, foreshadowing, gagline, hypallage, invective, jestbook, kabuki play, litotes, and muckraker, to non sequitur, one-liner, pulp fiction, quartet, recognition scene, spoonerism, triple-decker, Utopian novel, videotape, writing surfaces, yellow journalism, and zeugma, and including everything in-between, it's all there in The Book of Literary Terms.

LEWIS TURCO is Emeritus Professor of English and past Director of the Program in Writing Arts at State University of New York, Oswego. A prolific award-winning author, he has published 21 collections of his own poems, including The Shifting Web: New and Selected Poems (1989), and a book of literary criticism, Visions and Revisions of American Poetry (1986). His poetry, fiction, drama, and essays have appeared in most literary magazines, and in over 100 books, most recently in Washburn and Major's World Poetry.