From a Polynesian word meaning "prohibition," a taboo is a social more that should never be broken. This volume discusses the role of the taboo in "Howl," Lolita, Lord of the Flies, "The Miller's Tale," and many more works.

The technique of dark humor seeks to create comedy through the use of satirical wit and grotesque situations. This thematic technique can be found in Catch-22, "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," A Modest Proposal, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and many other literary works, as examined by this new volume.

The role of civil disobedience, the act of defying society for the greater good, is examined in 1984, Antigone, The Crucible, Fahrenheit-451, and many more works.

This title examines the theme of enslavement and emancipation in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, and many other notable works.

Certain great literary themes reappear continually throughout the world's literature and are a major component of today's literature curriculum standards. The engaging new Bloom's Literary Themes series examines these themes as they function in classic literary works, from the Bible to the novels of Toni Morrison and Philip Roth. Each book contains approximately 20 essays, with each essay discussing the role of the title's subject theme in a great work of literature. Some essays have been written specifically for the series; others are excerpts of important critical analyses published in...