Critical terms for literary study /

Neither a dictionary of critical terms nor a handbook for literary studies, this original work contains ``substantial investigations'' of 22 significant words used in modern literary criticism, words that ``are used widely, often loosely, and with little agreement on their meaning.'' Each chapter explains a term's history and its contemporary social and political connotations. The emphasis is on `` doing criticism,'' on putting theory into practice. Thus, many essays focus on the amplification of a term to a particular literary work, well exemplified in Myra Jehlen's thoughtful discussion of Huckleberry Finn in the chapter on the term gender. The essays are thorough, succinct, balanced, and illuminating (John Guillory on canon is a model of these qualities). The issues raised by the terms are often applied to nonliterary subjects, ranging from the Constitution to McDonald's hamburgers. Recommended.-- Jeffrey R. Luttrell, Youngstown State Univ., Ohio (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.