In clear, non-technical language, this dictionary of more than 1,000 literary terms and themes takes an expanded view of the term literary. This book gives readers not only a traditional literary vocabulary, but also the knowledge of related theoretical, historical, and cultural terms they need in the interdisciplinary world of contemporary literary studies. New entries include: traditional literary terms and themes, such as individualism, skepticism, and the Odysseus/Ulysses theme; literary topics that have become increasingly popular in recent years, such as terrorism and prison literature; and subjects perennially popular among writers, such as alcoholism, baseball, and vampirism. Features include: fresh definitions and examples of standard literary and related terms such as meter, antagonist, and New Criticism; essays on major themes in literature such as evil, power, love, death, time, and more; terms related to multicultural and feminist literature; major contemporary theoretical terms, with clear definitions and examples; culture terms from film, television, psychology, history, and other fields related to literature; references for further reading; and extensive cross-references.