The Columbia Dictionary of Modern Literary and Cultural Criticism

It is an encyclopedia rather than a dictionary. Great content !

A help in coping with the vocabulary of book reviews, etc., of today.

This is a great resource for those considering doing qual research. It is very basic & to the point which is a plus for busy grad students.

This book was assigned to me as a textbook in an undergraduate lit theory course. I'm in grad school now and still use it quite often. Although it has fewer entries than most literary reference books, the definitions are sharp and contain plenty of cross-referencing and important names. This guide is an excellent starting point for term-paper research, and I will probably use it in my own classroom someday.

Childers and Hentzi offers lucid and succinct descriptions of the most common ideas and terms you are likely to encounter in literary theory. Typically, each is covered in only a page. Enough for a quick refresher for students facing an exam. Plus, the explanations often involve pointers to related ideas elsewhere in the book. The book is probably more suited for the undergrad. A grad student in the field should already be well familiar with the terminology.