Literature: History & Criticism

The Oxford group of writers known as the Inklings met and thrived during the 1930s and 1940s. Three of the members, C. S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, an...

The African American slave narrative is popularly viewed as the story of a lone male's flight from slavery to freedom, best exemplified by the Narr...

Through close examination of the formal as well as thematic organization of Cormac McCarthy's eight novels, this volume offers a radically new asse...

How can the most silent member of the family carry the message of subversion against venerated institutions of state and society? Why would two pla...

Although the odyssey has long been recognized as a crucial characteristic of the epic, scant attention has been paid to it as a telling device with...

Women face different psychological issues at different ages. But these issues and the experience of confronting them depend on cultural contexts. L...

African American writers of the Harlem Renaissance generally fall into three aesthetic categories: the folk, which emphasizes oral traditions, Afri...

Asian America has produced numerous short-story writers in the 20th century. Some emerged after World War II, yet most of these writers have flouri...

The 19th century novel typically examines social problems and values. Several novels of that period treat adulterous relationships; in doing so, th...

Some of the greatest English novels were written during the Victorian era, and many are still widely read and taught today. But many others written...

The phrase literature and environment only achieved popularity in recent decades, yet writers dating back to the explorers of the 1500s—and later s...

This revised edition of an award-winning resource celebrates the lives and works of 35 Latina and Latino authors who write for today's young reader...

The volume approaches Greeleys novels by comparing him to the 19th-century French writer Honoré de Balzac. A prolific and popular author, Balzac re...

Few contemporary writers are as enigmatic as J. D. Salinger. Best known for The Catcher in the Rye, which continues to be read and discussed by sec...

Gender-oriented studies of 19th-century Russian literature have struggled with how to determine the feminism or misogyny of particular authors. Thi...

In America, the long 1950s were marked by an intense skepticism toward utopian alternatives to the existing capitalist order. This skepticism was c...

Since the publication of his first short stories in the 1950s, Kurt Vonnegut has enjoyed much popular acclaim and has, since the 1970s, gained grow...

Poe, Whitman, and Dickinson form an engaging triad of poets who, considered together, enrich the poetics of each other; the works of the three poet...

Treating the cultural giants of the 20th century, this volume traces their reading habits and intellectual development, as well as their contributi...

Wherever vampires existed in the imaginations of different peoples, they adapted themselves to the customs of the local culture. As a result, vampi...

Much of contemporary critical theory holds that meaning is relative and subjective. This book scrutinizes the principal assumptions and beliefs abo...

Zora Neale Hurston is considered one of the most controversial yet prominent figures associated with the Harlem Renaissance. This introductory stud...

Young adult readers have special needs and concerns, and librarians have become increasingly interested in selecting books suitable for them. This ...

Time is one of the most prominent themes in the relatively young genre of children's literature, for the young, like adults, want to know about the...

Postmodernism, as a mode of the contemporary short story, has been clearly established and recognized by short story theorists. But postmodern theo...

American women writers have long been creating an extraordinarily diverse and vital body of fiction, particularly in the decades since World War II...

H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) is commonly regarded as the leading author of supernatural fiction in the 20th century. He is distinctive among writers...

Since the publication of his first novel, The Chosen, Chaim Potok has been regarded as one of the most important Jewish-American writers of our tim...

The Irish Renaissance encompassed one of the western world's most powerful dramatic movements. But most lists of productions have only included cer...

Dickens' 13th novel has remained pre-eminent among readers for good reasons. Great Expectations (published originally as a weekly serial from 1860 ...

The English novel written between 1700 and 1740 remains a comparatively neglected area. In addition to Daniel Defoe, whose Robinson Crusoe and Moll...

Arthur Conan Doyle is often perceived as the quintessential Englishman, patriotically devoted to the Crown and the empire's defender and apologist....

The influence of science fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft is widely felt in modern literature; authors from Robert E. Howard to Stephen King can clai...

For decades now literary critics have universally praised Faulkner as one of the greatest writers of the modern era, yet students assigned to read ...

The continuing cultural encounters of the Americas, between European and indigenous cultures, and between scientific materialism and premodern supe...

Best known as the author of such works as King Solomon's Mines and She, H. Rider Haggard was one of the most popular writers of the late-Victorian ...