Booklist Review
A preface that reprints ReneWellek's serious academic study "Periods and Movements in Literary History" sets the tone for this volume providing entries on more than 500 of twentieth-century world-literature's movements and schools. Also covered are the novelists, poets, dramatists, short story writers, theorists, essayists, genres, techniques, and terms identified with these movements. The editors drew on an advisory board representing public, school, and university libraries. Entries were prepared using standard reference sources, such as various Oxford companions to literature. The work is arranged alphabetically, beginning with the Abbaye Group of France and concluding with the Russian Znanie Group. Both are turn-of-the-century groups that formed homes for intellectuals such as Georges Duhamel (Abbaye) and Maxim Gorky (Znanie). These entries are no more than 250 words long, reflecting their relative importance. Other entries, such as Expressionism, lost generation (referring to American writers in France in the 1920s), and Realism are considerably longer and have multiple subentries. Lost generation, for example, includes sections on Djuna Barnes, e. e. cummings, and F. Scott Fitzgerald, among others; each author entry has a subsection that briefly treats one representative work. Realism includes a time line, followed by a country-by-country survey. Because realism was primarily a nineteenth-century movement, a number of influential nineteenth-century authors, such as Charles Dickens and Ivan Turgenev, are considered here. All entries are clearly and concisely written. A list of further reading follows each entry. Four appendixes complete the volume: a time line of literary movements, a chronology by country, a list of journals cited, and an extensive list of Web sites. There are also four indexes, making the dictionary arrangement with its multiple subentries much more accessible: a movements index, an author index, a title index, and a country and nationality index. Though the bulk of the volume deals with literature of Europe and the U.S., this is a highly useful volume if only because of the international focus that has been sorely lacking in other works. In spite of the density of the preface, the target audience is defined as the late high-school and early college student; but the book would be a useful resource for any student of twentieth-century literature. Undergraduate college libraries, especially, would be remiss not to have it in the reference collections.
Choice Review
Generally well cross-referenced, internationally comprehensive entries discuss movements' histories, techniques, genres, and authors/works. Entries for the later 19th century ground the treatment of the 20th and include literary critical methods, theaters, trends, and widely influential thinkers (Freud, Nietzsche, Marx) among "movements" proper. Entries run a couple of sentences to several pages; international movements segment by country, but the welcome practice of introducing individual national segments with a multinational overview is inconsistently followed--e.g., "Realism" and "Symbolism" have them but "Expressionism" and "Surrealism" do not. For those that do not, general treatment falls under one country, which makes other national entries repetitious or relatively uninformative catalogs of authors and works. "Further Reading" lists of monographs, journal articles, and reference works are strongest on titles before 1990 and are not as selective as the editors claim. Eight appendixes and indexes provide multiple paths through the text. The 31 reference sources from which "entries were prepared" are on almost every library's shelves, and other warnings sound when the verso of the title page lists five uncredentialed "sketch writers" and the introduction acknowledges a panel of unnamed advisors. Although not a bad concept, Movements feels derivative, leaving the impression that the writers lack the requisite command of the subject matter. Many pages are marred by dubious grammar and syntax, imprecise, wordy writing, and entries that blur generalizations or bury them in literary historical detail. The intended audience (late high school/beginning college students) are unlikely to use Movements, since most entries are irrelevant to their courses and introductory passages in course anthologies provide adequate summary material. Not recommended. R. H. Kieft; Haverford College
Library Journal Review
This outstanding reference defines more than 500 literary movements, schools, writers, works, and theories from 80-plus countries. Covering an extraordinary array of movements, from the well known (naturalism) to the esoteric (Quadriga, a Polish poetry movement), the dictionary incorporates an almost heady mix of novelists, poets, dramatists, theorists, and essayists. Arranged alphabetically, the entries are augmented with a timeline of movements, a chronology by country, a list of relevant web sites, and indexes of movements, authors, titles, and countries. Some entries on major movements span dozens of pages and include key authors and works that illustrate primary elements of a movement or school. A notable contribution to the field, this is broader than older similar works, which tend to focus on only one language, country, or school. This one-stop reference to the literary movements of the 20th century is an excellent tool. Highly recommend for all libraries.--Neal Wyatt, Chesterfield Cty. P.L., VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.