Literary Criticism - General

Often, when adults encounter children's literature, they tend to think about simplicity, fictional reality, naivit'e, and elementalism, as in "Elementary, Watson, elementary," Sherlock Holmes to his disciple, Dr. Watson. The very last things that cross the minds of skeptical adults are complexity, intricacy, shrewdly...

Los Angeles Review of Books is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting and disseminating rigorous, incisive, and engaging writing on every aspect of literature, culture, and the arts. Since its founding in 2011, LARB has quickly established itself as a thriving institution for writers...

"The first taste I had for books came to me from my pleasure in the fables of the Metamorphoses of Ovid. For at about seven or eight years of age I would steal away from any other pleasure to read them, inasmuch as this...

Attila, king of the Huns, is a name almost universally known even 1,500 years after his death. His meteoric rise and legendary career of conquest left a charred trail of destroyed cities across the Roman Empire. At its height, his vast domain commanded more...

Literary Nonfiction. Poetry, Frost is often quoted as having said, is what is lost in translation, and American poets and critics have long taken this as their cue to subordinate translation to other forms of literary activity and to disqualify translated texts. In TRANSGRESSIVE...

Roland Barthes's 1967 essay, "The Death of the Author," argues against the traditional practice of incorporating the intentions and biographical context of an author into textual interpretation because of the resultant limitations imposed on a text. Hailing "the birth of the reader," Barthes posits...

Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason is one of the most influential works in the history of philosophy - not to mention one of the most challenging. Its topic is the nature of human knowledge, and the question of whether or not it is...

"The editing is more than brilliant: It is nearly unimaginable how the Library of America team managed to do so much so well. . . . Every possible kind of poem is here in its best examples. No one has ever done a better...

The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects, written by Captain Edward Ruppelt in 1956, was the first serious, unbiased account written about UFOs by anyone connected with the official government investigations of UFO phenomena. Ruppelt, who coined the term "unidentified flying objects" and headed Project...

In twelve plays for broadcasting at monthly intervals, Dorothy L. Sayers drew on material from all four Gospels, keeping the theme of Jesus of Nazareth's divine kingship in focus throughout, while locating him firmly in the social and political context of his time. The...

Lucio, a normal man in a normal (nosy) city neighborhood with normal problems with his in-laws (ever-present) and job (he lost it) finds he has a new problem on his hands: his beloved wife, Diana. She's been staying out till all hours of the...

The tempestuous email correspondence between Kathy Acker and McKenzie Wark, shimmering with insight, gossip, sex, and cultural commentary."Why am I telling you all this? Partly 'cause the whole queerness/identity thing for me stretches through everything, absolutely everything. Slipping between straight/gay is child's play compared...

Written between 1946 and 1954, these accounts of four controversial trials explore the nature of crime and punishment, innocence and guilt, retribution and forgiveness. "Astonishing."-Francine Prose.Author: Rebecca WestISBN-10: 1566633192ISBN-13: 9781566633192Publisher: Ivan R. Dee PublisherLanguage: EnglishPublished: 08/21/2000Pages: 320Format: PaperbackWeight: 1.25lbsSize: 8.20h x 5.40w x 1.00d

The Ethiopic version provides a window into the state of the Greek Bible as it circulated in East Africa at the end of the fourth century. It is, therefore, an extremely important witness to the Bible's early transmission history, yet its testimony has typically...

Binding the Ghost is both manifesto and example of a new variety of reading that centers a theological perspective in considering what literature actually does. Neither dogmatic nor apologetic, sectarian or denominational, this mode of reading acknowledges the inherently charged strangeness of writing and...

This book introduces the idea and experience of wandering, as reflected in cultural texts from popular songs to philosophical analysis, providing both a fascinating informal history and a necessary vantage point for understanding - in our era - the emergence of new wanderers. Wanderers...

Storylistening makes the case for the urgent need to take stories seriously in order to improve public reasoning. Dillon and Craig provide a theory and practice for gathering narrative evidence that will complement and strengthen, not distort, other forms of evidence, including that from...

James Bond is possibly the most well known fictional characters in history. What most people don't know is that almost all of the characters, plots and gadgets come from the real life experiences of Bond's creator - Commander Ian Fleming.In this book, we go...

In the modern world, why do we still resort to speculation? Advances in scientific and statistical reasoning are supposed to have provided greater certainty in making claims about the future. Yet we constantly spin out scenarios about tomorrow, for ourselves or for entire societies,...

David Bartholomae has been a prominent figure in the field of composition and rhetoric for almost five decades. This is an end-of-career book, a collection of late essays that reflect on the teaching of reading and writing, on the challenges and value of students'...

Frantz Fanon's 1961 masterpiece is both a powerful analysis of the psychological effects of colonization and a rallying cry for violent uprising and independence. Author: Riley QuinnISBN-10: 1912128535ISBN-13: 9781912128532Publisher: Macat LibraryLanguage: EnglishPublished: 07/15/2017Pages: 112Format: PaperbackWeight: 0.26lbsSize: 7.81h x 5.06w x 0.23d

It had never been attempted before, and might never be done again. One man watching another man write a novel from beginning to end. On September 1, 2014, in an 11th floor apartment in New York, Lee Child embarked on the twentieth book in...

""Christ be with me, Christ within me, Christ behind me, Christ before me, Christ beside me, Christ to win me, Christ to comfort and restore me. Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ in quiet, Christ in danger, Christ in hearts of all that...

Everyone knows of Columbus and Ponce de Leon, but the name of Menendez is not as familiar. Yet Pedro Menendez de Aviles might truly be called one of the founding fathers of America, for he was the founder of the nation's oldest city--St. Augustine.This...

One of Choice's Significant University Press Titles for Undergraduates, 2010-2011 A necessary cultural and historical discussion on the stigma of fatness To be fat hasn't always occasioned the level of hysteria that this condition receives today and indeed was once considered an admirable trait....

An irreverent critical lexicon of academic life and culture The university: The very name evokes knowledge, culture, and the magnificently universal ambition at the heart of this essential institution. Bastions of free inquiry and a free society, engines of social transformation and economic progress,...

Moving effortlessly between symbolist poetry and Barbie dolls, artificial intelligence and Kleist, Kant, and Winnicott, Barbara Johnson not only clarifies psychological and social dynamics; she also re-dramatizes the work of important tropes--without ever losing sight of the ethical imperative with which she begins: the...

As we come to the end of the century, the entire vista of modern poetry has dramatically changed. Poems for the Millennium captures the essence of that change, and unlike any anthology available today, it reveals the revolutionary concepts at the very heart of...

Explores the historical and cultural evolution of the theoretical language of the stageAuthor: Joseph RoachISBN-10: 0472082442ISBN-13: 9780472082445Publisher: University of Michigan PressLanguage: EnglishPublished: 08/05/1993Pages: 256Format: PaperbackWeight: 0.90lbsSize: 9.25h x 5.97w x 1.24d

Grotesque provides an invaluable and accessible guide to the use (and abuse) of this complex literary term. Justin D. Edwards and Rune Graulund explore the influence of the grotesque on cultural forms throughout history, with particular focus on its representation in literature, visual art...

This remarkable book by one of the great writers of the twentieth century includes essays on a proposed universal language, a justification of suicide, a refutation of time, the nature of dreams, and the intricacies of linguistic forms. Borges comments on such literary figures...

"Irritating, insufferable, admirable, stimulating, disappointing Rodó . . . you are part of our family quarrels, and must bear with your disrespectful, equally disappointed, intuitive, incomplete nephews, living in a world that you helped define for us, and offered unto our revolt." --from the...

Over the last few decades, character-based criticism has been seen as either naive or obsolete. But now questions of character are attracting renewed interest. Making the case for a broad-based revision of our understanding of character, Character rethinks these questions from the ground up....

A magnificent compilation of sacred writings from all traditions and the perfect companion to Stephen Mitchell's poetry collection, The Enlightened Heart, and the bestselling Tao Te ChingA collection of prose--discourses, sermons, essays, and aphorisms--includes texts and authors such as the Hindu, Confucian, and Buddhist...

bVery Short Introductionsb: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring /b In 1816, when eighteen-year old Mary Godwin began writing Frankenstein, the idea that a woman could dream up such a tale was as far-fetched as raising a being from the dead. But Mary wasn't just any woman....

The life of Jef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski reads like an adventure story, an adventure story that could be written by somebody like Joseph Conrad. The young Conrad dreamed of a life at sea, he eventually became a British merchant seaman and he spent fifteen...

World famous at twenty-four, brilliant and reckless, hard-living and scandalous, Stephen Crane wrote The Red Badge of Courage before he ever experienced war first-hand. So true was his portrait of a young man who runs from his first confrontation with battle that Civil War...

This successful introduction to intertextuality deftly introduces this crucial area and relates its significance to key theories and movements in the study of literature. The third edition is updated to include a brand new chapter, looking at intermediality, and how the study of intertextuality...

Living through the Nazi occupation of Holland and arriving in Montreal with little more than a film reel under his arm, Co Hoedeman had a dream to work for the National Film Board of Canada's renowned animation unit. It was there where he became...

The story of peace and war in the mythical land of Hatu. A rogue wizard tries to exact revenge on the last descendant of those who destroyed the staff of power thousands of years ago. Elves, Men, and Dwarves join in the defense of...

Now in its fourth edition, this popular textbook introduces prospective and practicing English teachers to current methods of teaching literature in middle and high school classrooms. This new edition broadens its focus to cover important topics such as critical race theory; perspectives on teaching...

Literary Nonfiction. Essays. Sarah Kasbeer's vivid descriptions of growing up in Illinois recall the coming-of-age memoirs of Mary Karr, but written for the #MeToo era. As an adult living in New York during this clarifying cultural moment, she has no choice but to fully...

C.S. Lewis's 1943 The Abolition of Man is a set of three essays that encapsulate some of the most important elements of good critical thinking. Lewis considers a weighty topic, moral philosophy - and more precisely how we teach it, and where morality comes...

Baruch Spinoza's Ethics is a dense masterpiece of sustained argumentative reasoning. It earned its place as one of the most important and influential books in Western philosophy by virtue of its uncompromisingly direct arguments about the nature of God, the universe, free will, and...

Literary Nonfiction. Memoir. Humor. Music. Of all of Raymond Smullyan's many books, A MIXED BAG: JOKES, PUZZLES, RIDDLES AND MEMORABILIA perhaps best captures the timeless delight of the casual conversation of this American polymath. A seamless continuum of jokes, stories, puzzles, and reflections, caught...

Les Mis駻ables, the powerful story of Jean Valjean's redemption, is beloved by readers and theatre goers everywhere. Why? Because Victor Hugo's epic novel explores, through Valjean's heroic journey and transformations, truths and delusions about politics, morality, justice, religion, and both romantic and familial love....

Now in paperback, today's most celebrated writers explore literature and the literary life in an inspirational collection of original essays. By turns poignant, hilarious, and practical, Writers on Writing brings together more than forty of contemporary literature's finest voices. Pieces range from reflections on...

Artemisia Gentileschi, born in 1598, the daughter of an esteemed painter, taught art in Naples and painted the great women of Roman and biblical history. She could neither read nor write, and she was the reviled victim in a public rape trial, rejected by...

A year in Paris . . . since World War II, countless American students have been lured by that vision-and been transformed by their sojourn in the City of Light. Dreaming in French tells three stories of that experience, and how it changed the...

A gripping tale of adventure that has enthralled readers since it was first published, John Buchan's The Thirty-Nine Steps is edited with an introduction and notes by Sir John Keegan in Penguin Classics. Adventurer Richard Hannay has just returned from South Africa and is...