This comprehensive survey of Spanish poetry includes Iberian and Latin American writing from the Middle Ages to the present. Unlike most literary histories, it offers a non-chronological approach to the subject. It is arranged by genres and forms (epic, ballad, sonnet) and themes and motifs (love, religious and moral poetry, satirical and pure poetry). The wide-ranging selections in this reference make it appropriate for course use.

Mary Shaw covers all aspects of French poetry from the Middle Ages to the present day in this text. Chapters focus on verse, genres, poetry, politics and philosophy among other topics. Designed specifically for use in courses, the volume contains a useful glossary of poetic terms, and is invaluable to students as well as teachers.

Presenting a literary history of American writing (from 1492 to 1820) and a concise social and cultural history, Emory Elliott traces the impact of race, gender, and ethnic conflict on early American culture. He explores the centrality of American Puritanism in the formation of a distinctively American literature. This highly comprehensive study is essential reading for students of the literature, history and culture of early America.

This wide-ranging introduction to the short story tradition in the United States of America traces the genre from its beginnings in the early nineteenth century with Irving, Hawthorne and Poe via Fitzgerald, Hemingway and Faulkner to O'Connor and Carver. The major writers in the genre are covered in depth with a general view of their work and detailed discussion of a number of examples of individual stories. The Cambridge Introduction to the American Short Story offers a comprehensive and accessible guide to this rich literary tradition. It will be invaluable to students and readers looking...

T. S. Eliot is not only one of the most important poets of the twentieth century; as literary critic and commentator on culture and society, his writing continues to be profoundly influential. Every student of English must engage with his writing to understand the course of modern literature. This book provides the perfect introduction to key aspects of Eliot's life and work, as well as to the wider contexts of modernism in which he wrote. John Xiros Cooper explains how Eliot was influenced by the intellectual climate of both twentieth-century Britain and America, and how he became a key...

British theatre has long been regarded as a world-leader in terms of its quality, creativity and range. Starting in 1900, this book introduces the features that characterise modern and current British theatre. These features include experimental performances under motorways alongside plays by Stoppard and Ayckbourn, amateur theatre and virtual spaces, the emergence of the director, the changing role of writers and political and community shows. The book is clearly divided into four sections: where it happens, who does it, what they make and why they do it. It discusses theatre buildings and...

William Wordsworth is the most influential of the Romantic poets, and remains widely popular, even though his work is more complex and more engaged with the political, social and religious upheavals of his time than his reputation as a nature poet' might suggest. Outlining a series of contexts biographical, historical and literary as well as critical approaches to Wordsworth, this Introduction offers students ways to understand and enjoy Wordsworth's poetry and his role in the development of Romanticism in Britain. Emma Mason offers a completely up-to-date summary of criticism on Wordsworth...

A lively and accessible introduction for general readers, students, teachers, and academics.

Author of 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner', 'Kubla Khan' and 'Christabel', and co-author with Wordsworth of Lyrical Ballads in 1798, Samuel Taylor Coleridge was one of the great writers and thinkers of the Romantic revolution. This innovative introduction discusses his interest in language and his extraordinary private notebooks, as well as his poems, his literary criticism and his biography. John Worthen presents a range of readings of Coleridge's work, along with biographical context and historical background. Discussion of Coleridge's notebooks alongside his poems illuminates this rich...

An overview of the history of the novel with practical tips and examples for studying fiction.