The Gift in Antiquity presents a collection of 14 original essays that apply French sociologist Marcel Mauss’s notion of gift-giving to the study of antiquity. • Features a collection of original essays that cover such wide-ranging topics as vows in the Hebrew Bible; ancient Greek wedding gifts; Hellenistic civic practices; Latin literature; Roman and Jewish burial practices; and Jewish and Christ…
This student-friendly text introduces students to the history and scope of literary theory, as well as showing them how to perform literary analysis. Designed to be used alongside primary theoretical texts as an introduction to theory or alongside literary texts as a model for performing literary analysis. Presents a series of exemplary readings of particular literary texts such as Jane Eyre, Hear…
A Concise Companion to the Romantic Age provides new perspectives on the relationships between literature and culture in Britain from 1780 to 1830 Provides original essays from a variety of multi-disciplinary scholars on the Romantic era Includes fresh insights into such topics as religious controversy and politics, empire and nationalism, and the relationship of Romanticism to modernist aesthetic…
A Companion to Medieval Poetry presents a series of original essays from leading literary scholars that explore English poetry from the Anglo-Saxon period up to the 15th century. Organised into three parts to echo the chronological and stylistic divisions between the Anglo-Saxon, Middle English and Post-Chaucerian periods, each section is introduced with contextual essays, providing a valuable int…
This expansive Companion offers a set of fresh perspectives on the wealth of texts produced in and around what is now the United States. * Highlights the diverse voices that constitute American literature, embracing oral traditions, slave narratives, regional writing, literature of the environment, and more * Demonstrates that American literature was multicultural before Europeans arrived on the c…
This comprehensive collection offers a complete introduction to one of the most popular literary forms of the Victorian period, its key authors and works, its major themes, and its lasting legacy. Places key authors and novels in their cultural and historical context Includes studies of major topics such as race, gender, melodrama, theatre, poetry, realism in fiction, and connections to other art …
A Companion to Poetic Genre brings together over 40 contributions from leading academics to provide critical overviews of poetic genres and their modern adaptations. Covers a large range of poetic cultural traditions from Britain, Ireland, North America, Japan and the Caribbea Summarises many genres from their earliest origins to their most recent renderings The only full-length critical collectio…
The Seventeenth Century Handbook provides the undergraduate with a succinct account of the century’s events, along with an exploration of the ways the literature reflected and helped shape the history of the time. Provides a coherent narrative of the entire century of literary history as well as an easy-to-use guide to the principal literary works and figures Offers an exploration of the ways the …
Through a series of 34 essays by leading and emerging scholars, A Companion to Romantic Poetry reveals the rich diversity of Romantic poetry and shows why it continues to hold such a vital and indispensable place in the history of English literature. Breaking free from the boundaries of the traditionally-studied authors, the collection takes a revitalized approach to the field and brings together …
A Brief History of American Literature offers students and general readers a concise and up-to-date history of the full range of American writing from its origins until the present day. Represents the only up-to-date concise history of American literature Covers fiction, poetry, drama and non-fiction, as well as looking at other forms of literature including folktales, spirituals, the detective st…
This student-friendly handbook provides an engaging overview of American fiction over the twentieth century, with entries on the important historical contexts and central issues, as well as the major texts and writers. Provides extensive coverage of short stories and short story writers as well as novels and novelists Discusses the cultural contexts and issues that shape the texts and their reputa…
Reading Romantic Poetry introduces the major themes and preoccupations, and the key poems and players of a period convulsed by revolution, prolonged warfare and political crisis. Provides a clear, lively introduction to Romantic Poetry, backed by academic research and marked by its accessibility to students with little prior experience of poetry Introduces many of the major topics of the age, from…
This interpretive dictionary introduces the critical and theoretical world of distinguished literary and cultural critic Edward W. Said through the crucial terms and concepts central to his work. Compares and contrasts Said's perspective with other key theorists, such as Derrida, Spivak, Foucault, and Jameson Describes the crucial terms and concepts central to Said's work Places the development of…
Anglo-Saxon Keywords presents a series of entries that reveal the links between modern ideas and scholarship and the central concepts of Anglo-Saxon literature, language, and material culture. Reveals important links between central concepts of the Anglo-Saxon period and issues we think about today Reveals how material culture—the history of labor, medicine, technology, identity, masculinity, sex,…
Casting a fresh perspective on the greatest long poem in English, David Hopkins guides the reader through the inspiring poetic landscape of Milton’s great epic Paradise Lost, a work of literature which has compelled and fascinated readers down the ages and which offers enduring insight into the human condition A welcome aesthetic focus on the poetic experience of reading Paradise Lost rather than …