Literature: History & Criticism

There is growing awareness of the tremendous impact Latino writers have had on the recent literary scene, yet not all readers have the background t...

This casebook begins by establishing the dramatic and literary concerns of the play, such as structure, themes, poetic language, and original sourc...

The first comprehensive survey of its kind in English, this book examines the experience of immigration as represented by authors who moved to Fran...

The novel has proven to be the premier literary form in the exploration of social ideas and protest. This reference guide is unique in providing co...

Dashiell Hammett's writing career began with the publication of The Parthian Shot, a tiny short story in The Smart Set in 1922, and virtually ended...

Perhaps the most important literary achievement of the 20th century, Ulysses is also one of the most challenging. This reference introduces beginni...

One of Lawrence's main concerns in his art was to explore and experiment with new ways of writing about the body. But with one or two notable excep...

A period of tumultuous political and religious strife, the English Civil War has inspired writers for the past four centuries. Their works vary wid...

Clifford Odets, one of the 20th century's leading American playwrights, was a fervent believer in democracy and the human ability to overcome obsta...

Born to a tobacco farmer in rural North Carolina, Kaye Gibbons found her literary voice by speaking through the strong southern women who inhabit h...

Willa Cather's novels Oh Pioneers! and My Ántonia are at once accurate representations of life on the midwestern prairies in the era of their first...

Taken together, Chinua Achebe's five novels--Things Fall Apart (1958), No Longer at Ease (1960), A Man of the People (1966), Arrow of God (1967), a...

John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath (1939) is one of the most widely read American novels. Much has been written about the book, yet a number of r...

Julia Alvarez made her mark on the American literary horizon with the 1991 publication of her debut novel How the Garc^D'ia Girls Lost Their Accent...

The unprecedented popularity of the Harry Potter books took the publishing world by storm and captured the imaginations of readers around the world...

This unique resource provides readers with a systematic guide to the central themes in 150 of the most commonly taught American novels. Each of the...

Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) is a major British Victorian novelist, dramatist, short story writer, and journalist. He is best known today as the auth...

This volume documents the life and works of the acclaimed playwright, Edward Albee. His first four plays were all produced Off Broadway from 1960-1...

This critical introduction to Arthur Miller provides an indispensable aid for students and general readers to understand the depth and complexity o...

Through narrative and rhetorical strategies that subvert genre and challenge the discourse of race and gender, black South African woman writer Bes...

In Antony and Cleopatra, Shakespeare dramatizes the classical love story of the Roman general and the Egyptian queen, their fatal romance, and the ...