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Electronic versions of many popular reference works covering multiple subject areas:
The Chronology of American Literature
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The Columbia Companion to the Twentieth-Century American Short Story
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The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature
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A breathtaking achievement, this Concise Companion is a suitable crown to the astonishing production in African American literature and criticism that has swept over American literary studies in the last two decades. It offers an enormous range of writers-from Sojourner Truth to Frederick Douglass, from Zora Neale Hurston to Ralph Ellison, and from Toni Morrison to August Wilson. It contains entries on major works (including synopses of novels), such as Harriet Jacobs's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Richard Wright's Native Son, and Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun.It also incorporates information on literary characters such as Bigger Thomas, Coffin Ed Johnson, Kunta Kinte, Sula Peace, as well as on character types such as Aunt Jemima, Brer Rabbit, John Henry, Stackolee, and the trickster. Icons of black culture are addressed, including vivid details about the lives of Muhammad Ali, John Coltrane, Marcus Garvey, Jackie Robinson, John Brown, and Harriet Tubman. Here, too, are general articles on poetry, fiction, and drama; on autobiography, slave narratives, Sunday School literature, and oratory; as well as on a wide spectrum of related topics. Compact yet thorough, this handy volume gathers works from a vast array of sources--from the black periodical press to women's clubs--making it one of the most substantial guides available on the growing, exciting world of African American literature.
A Dictionary of Postmodernism
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A Dictionary of Postmodernism presents an authoritative A-Z of the critical terms and central figures related to the origins and evolution of postmodernist theory and culture. Explores the names and ideas that have come to define the postmodern condition from Baudrillard, Jameson, and Lyotard, to the concepts of deconstruction, meta-narrative, and simulation alongside less canonical topics such as dialogue and punk Includes essays by the late Niall Lucy, a leading expert in postmodernism studies, and by other noted scholars who came together to complete and expand upon his last work Spans a kaleidoscope of postmodernism perspectives, addressing its lovers and haters; its movers and shakers such as Derrida; its origins in modernism and semiotics, and its outlook for the future Features a series of brief essays rather than fixed definitions of the key ideas and arguments Engaging and thought-provoking, this is at once a scholarly guide and enduring reference for the field.
Encyclopedia of Latin American and Caribbean Literature, 1900-2003
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Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English (2nd ed.)
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A New Handbook of Literary Terms
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A New Handbook of Literary Terms offers a lively, informative guide to words and concepts that every student of literature needs to know. Mikics's definitions are essayistic, witty, learned, and always a pleasure to read. They sketch the derivation and history of each term, including especially lucid explanations of verse forms and providing a firm sense of literary periods and movements from classicism to postmodernism. The Handbook also supplies a helpful map to the intricate and at times confusing terrain of literary theory at the beginning of the twenty-first century: the author has designated a series of terms, from New Criticism to queer theory, that serves as a concise but thorough introduction to recent developments in literary study. Mikics's Handbook is ideal for classroom use at all levels, from freshman to graduate. Instructors can assign individual entries, many of which are well-shaped essays in their own right. Useful bibliographical suggestions are given at the end of most entries. The Handbook's enjoyable style and thoughtful perspective will encourage students to browse and learn more. Every reader of literature will want to own this compact, delightfully written guide.
Includes full-text reference e-books on topics related to literature, history, science, health, careers, and business.
The Anthem Dictionary of Literary Terms and Theory
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This Dictionary is a guide to the literary terms most relevant to students and readers of English literature today, thorough on the essentials and generous in its intellectual scope. The definitions are lively and precise in equipping students and general readers with a genuinely useful critical vocabulary. It identifies the thinking and controversies surrounding terms, and offers fresh insights and directions for future reading. It does this with the help of extensive cross-referencing, indexes and up-to-date bibliography (with recommended websites).
The Cambridge Companion to American Fiction After 1945
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Each generation revises literary history and this is nowhere more evident than in the post-Second World War period. This 2011 Companion offers a comprehensive, authoritative and accessible overview of the diversity of American fiction since the Second World War. Essays by nineteen distinguished scholars provide critical insights into the significant genres, historical contexts, cultural diversity and major authors during a period of enormous American global political and cultural power. This power is overshadowed, nevertheless, by national anxieties growing out of events ranging from the Civil Rights Movement to the rise of feminism; from the Cold War and its fear of Communism and nuclear warfare to the Age of Terror and its different yet related fears of the 'Other'. American fiction since 1945 has faithfully chronicled these anxieties. An essential reference guide, this Companion provides a chronology of the period, as well as guides to further reading.
The Cambridge History of African American Literature
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The first major twenty-first century history of four hundred years of black writing, The Cambridge History of African American Literature presents a comprehensive overview of the literary traditions, oral and print, of African-descended peoples in the United States. Expert contributors, drawn from the United States and beyond, emphasizes the dual nature of each text discussed as a work of art created by an individual and as a response to unfolding events in American cultural, political, and social history. Unprecedented in scope, sophistication and accessibility, the volume draws together current scholarship in the field. It also looks ahead to suggest new approaches, new areas of study, and as yet undervalued writers and works. The Cambridge History of African American Literature is a major achievement both as a work of reference and as a compelling narrative and will remain essential reading for scholars and students in years to come.
The Chronology of American Literature
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If you are looking to brush up on your literary knowledge, check a favorite author's work, or see a year's bestsellers at a glance, The Chronology of American Literature is the perfect resource. At once an authoritative reference and an ideal browser's guide, this book outlines the indispensable information in America's rich literary past--from major publications to lesser-known gems--while also identifying larger trends along the literary timeline. Who wrote the first published book in America? When did Edgar Allan Poe achieve notoriety as a mystery writer? What was Hemingway's breakout title? With more than 8,000 works by 5,000 authors, The Chronology makes it easy to find answers to these questions and more. Authors and their works are grouped within each year by category: fiction and nonfiction; poems; drama; literary criticism; and publishing events. Short, concise entries describe an author's major works for a particular year while placing them within the larger context of that writer's career. The result is a fascinating glimpse into the evolution of some of America's most prominent writers. Perhaps most important, The Chronology offers an invaluable line through our literary past, tying literature to the American experience--war and peace, boom and bust, and reaction to social change. You'll find everything here from Benjamin Franklin's "Experiments and Observations on Electricity," to Davy Crockett's first memoir; from Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience" to Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome; from meditations by James Weldon Johnson and James Agee to poetry by Elizabeth Bishop. Also included here are seminal works by authors such as Rachel Carson, Toni Morrison, John Updike, and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. Lavishly illustrated--and rounded out with handy bestseller lists throughout the twentieth century, lists of literary awards and prizes, and authors' birth and death dates--The Chronology of American Literature belongs on the shelf of every bibliophile and literary enthusiast. It is the essential link to our literary past and present.
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms
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This dictionary provides succinct and often witty explanations of over one thousand potentially troublesome terms encountered in the study of literature, from absurd to zeugma, from the ancient dithyramb to the contemporary dub poetry, from the popular bodice-ripper to the aristocratic masque. While it is fully up to date with the terminologies of deconstruction and other modern schools of literary theory, it also offers extensive coverage of traditional drama, versification, rhetoric, and literary history. Literary schools from Alexandrianism to Transcendentalism are included, along with dozens of terms from languages other than English. Adjectival forms and other derived words are displayed, and simple pronunciation guides are given for over two hundred difficult terms, making this thoroughly cross-referenced dictionary the most helpful of its kind for all readers of literature.
Critical Survey of Mystery and Detective Fiction
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Critical Survey of Mystery and Detective Fiction, Revised Edition provides detailed analyses of the lives and writings of major contributors to the fascinating literary subgenre of mystery and detective fiction.
A Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms
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The Facts On File Writer's Library includes dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other indispensable resources for writers, students, and serious readers. From the origins of words and phrases to the meanings of literary terms, the collection provides comprehensive information in a clear, accessible style that is sure to satisfy researchers and browsers alike. These books will be reached for again and again. This book gives readers not only a traditional literary vocabulary but also the related theoretical, historical, and cultural terms they need to understand and interpret literature today. More than 850 terms cover contemporary themes such as AIDS, alienation, and anti-Semitism.
Encyclopedia of Themes in Literature
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The unique, three-volume Encyclopedia of Themes in Literature offers both a survey of literary themes and a collection of in-depth analyses of how these themes operate in individual literary works. Part I of this comprehensive new set contains essays on 50 prominent literary themes, with each essay describing how the theme has evolved over time, how it relates to other important themes, and why this theme is powerful enough to recur so often in great literature. Part II contains essays on specific themes in more than 300 individual classic works of literature. Each section on a particular work contains a brief introduction to the work as well as three essays on different literary themes within the work. Themes covered include alienation, coming of age, heroism, innocence and experience, race, science and technology, and more.
Historical Dictionary of the Beat Movement
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The Beat Movement was and is a literary and arts movement, the most radical and innovative of the 20th century, and because it was so open to new ideas of poetics and aesthetics, it has adapted from decade to decade. The history of the Beat Movement is still being written in the early years of the 21st century. Unlike other kinds of literary and artistic the Beat Movement is self-perpetuating. After the 1950s generation, a new generation arose in the 1960s led by writers such as Diane Wakowski, Anne Waldman, and poets from the East Side Scene. In the 1970s and 1980s writers from the Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church and contributors to World magazine continued the movement. The 1980s and 1990s Language Movement saw itself as an outgrowth and progression of previous Beat aesthetics. Today poets and writers in San Francisco still gather at City Lights Bookstore and in Boulder at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics and continue the movement. It is now a postmodern movement and probably would be unrecognizable to the earliest Beats. It may even be in the process of finally shedding the name Beat. But the Movement continues. The Historical Dictionary of the Beat Movement covers the movements history through a chronology, an introductory essay, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 700 cross-referenced entries on significant people, themes, critical issues, and the most significant novels, poems, and volumes of poetry and prose that have formed the Beat canon. This book is a vital reference tool for any researcher interested in learning more about the Beat Movement.
The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism
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The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism has become the indispensable resource for scholars and students of literary theory and discourse. The long-awaited second edition includes 48 new entries and subentries and has been revised throughout, taking account of ten years of rapidly changing scholarship. While concentrating on the explosion of contemporary critical and theoretical works, the Guide presents a comprehensive historical survey of ideas and individuals ranging from Plato and Aristotle to twentieth-century scholars. It includes more than 240 alphabetically arranged entries on critics and theorists, critical schools and movements, and the critical and theoretical innovations of specific countries and historical periods. It also examines developments in other disciplines which have shaped literary theory and criticism. An international, encyclopedic guide to the field's most important figures, schools, and movements, the new edition reflects the state of literary theory and criticism.
Magill's Survey of World Literature
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A companion to the award-winning Magill's Survey of American Literature, this six-volume set offers profiles of major authors of fiction, drama, poetry, and essays, each with sections on biography and analysis of the author's most important works.
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