Literature is the art of written work and may consist of texts based on factual information, as well as on original imagination, such as polemical works as well as autobiography, and reflective essays. Literature can be classified according to historical periods, genres, and political influences.
A genre consists of artistic works which fall within a certain central theme, and examples of genre include romance, mystery, crime, fantasy, erotica, and adventure, among others. Important historical periods in English literature include Old English, Middle English, the Renaissance, the 17th Century Shakespearean and Elizabethan times, the 18th Century Restoration, 19th Century Victorian, and 20th Century Modernism. Important intellectual movements that have influenced the study of literature include feminism, post-colonialism, psychoanalysis, post-structuralism, post-modernism, romanticism, and Marxism.
This course introduces the principal genres of literature. Emphasis is placed on literary terminology, devices, structure, and interpretation. Upon completion, students should be able to analyze and respond to literature.
A Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms by
This dictionary explores more than 1,000 literary terms and themes-with 200 new to this edition. New entries include traditional literary terms and themes; terrorism and prison literature, and more; and popular subjects such as alcoholism, baseball, and vampirism.
Access Literature: an introduction to fiction, poetry, and drama by
With 53 stories, 314 poems, and 12 plays, Access Literature is designed to provide students with a grounding in the traditional canon that is a vital part of our literary heritage, while at the same time presenting the diverse voices that are an essential part of our cultural record and an exciting force in contemporary literature.
Strategies for Successful Writing by
Written in a clear, engaging style, "Strategies for Successful Writing" combines four books -- a rhetoric, a research guide, a reader, and a handbook -- into one convenient, flexible, and economically priced text. Moreover, our Free Words Upon Request program allows you to package a free dictionary or thesaurus with "Strategies for Successful Writing," making it the best value available to students.
Writing about Literature in the Media Age by
This innovative text/anthology/CD package offers a seamless integration of new media with a literature for composition text that emphasizes critical thinking, argument, research, and the writing process. Teaching students how to read literature closely, think critically, and write convincingly, the text outlines skills for developing a focused thesis and providing evidence to support it. Based on the belief that ways of knowing are often related, the text and CD instill transferable critical thinking skills about analyzing literature that can be applied across a range of media and situations--to fine art, film, music, advertising, and cultural events and issues. Individuals who are interested in literature and multimedia.
Writing Essays about Literature by
Widely used in introductory literature courses as a style guide or as a supplement to anthologies, this text provides students with valuable guidelines for interpreting literature and writing essays. It includes full-length selections as well as student essays.
Dictionary of Literary Characters by
Dictionary of Literary Characters is a stunning, five-volume set containing descriptions of more than 40,000 characters in great literary works from the United States, Britain, and around the world. The wide assortment of characters featured in this comprehensive work are compiled from novels, short stories, and plays ranging from such ancient classics as Sophocles' Antigone to 21st-century prizewinners such as Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex. No other reference work covers such an extensive assortment of characters from so many different works of literature. Appendixes include alphabetical lists of authors and literary works covered in the set.
Theory of Literature by
Bringing his perennially popular course to the page, Yale University Professor Paul H. Fry offers in this welcome book a guided tour of the main trends in twentieth-century literary theory. At the core of the book's discussion is a series of underlying questions: What is literature, how is it produced, how can it be understood, and what is its purpose? Fry engages with the major themes and strands in twentieth-century literary theory, among them hermeneutics, modes of formalism, semiotics and Structuralism, deconstruction, psychoanalytic approaches, Marxist and historicist approaches, theories of social identity, Neo-pragmatism and theory. By incorporating philosophical and social perspectives to connect these many trends, the author offers readers a coherent overall context for a deeper and richer reading of literature.
