Kategoria BISAC: Literary Criticism >> Reference

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This encyclopedic guide to the American dime novel contains over 1,200 entries on serial publications, major writers and editors, publishers, and major characters, fiction genres, themes, and locales. An introduction provides a brief history of the dime novel. A discussion of dime novel scholarship includes a selected directory of libraries and museums with significant collections of dime novels. An appendix contains a publishing chronology of the more than 300 serial publications, and a selected bibliography suggests further reading.

This comprehensive reference will appeal to popular...

This excellent guide to Hawthorne's public and private worlds will be a mandatory purchase for most libraries. Gale . . . gives detailed information on Hawthorne's milieu and his writings: his sources, plots, characters, and publication histories. . . . Appendixes include useful lists of Hawthorne's writings; his ancestors, family members, relatives, and inlaws; his friends and acquaintances; and other categories of people significant in his life and work. Annotations are clear, precise, readable. Quotes illuminate Hawthorne's opinions and prejudices. . . . Scholars, students, and browsers...

A new edition of the definitive bibliography of the modern spy-adventure-intrigue novel. First published in 1976, this edition has been thoroughly revised and updated. After a discussion of early spy fiction, Smith and White provide a detailed listing of novels from 1940 onward. The bibliography is organized alphabetically, with entries providing brief content annotations. Access is enhanced by cross references as well as appendixes and author and title indexes.

Among the new features provided with this edition are a bibliography of articles and books which reflect recent popular...

This revised and expanded edition of the only English-language dictionary of Italian literature provides some 400 alphabetically arranged entries on Italian writers, periods, literary movements, and versification, and on critical problems related to literary history. The volume covers Italian literature from the Middle Ages to the present and includes a number of new entries for contemporary writers. The entries, written by expert contributors, include current bibliographical information and have often been updated to reflect new scholarship. Unlike most Italian dictionaries, this book is...

Almost a half century after his death in 1953, the Welsh author Dylan Thomas continues to capture the attention of scholars and critics. Though he attained some measure of fame before he died, he never enjoyed financial prosperity. His life was plagued with difficulties of all kinds, and he was only 39 years old at the time of his death. Some of his works, such as Fern Hill and Do not go gentle into that good night are frequently included in anthologies, and Thomas is now often considered one of the most important and original poets of the 20th century. During his trips to the United...

Best known as the author of "Waiting for Godot," Samuel Beckett was one of the most distinguished writers of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1969, and his works have secured him a lasting place in the literary canon. The critical response to his fiction has been overwhelming. Numerous books and thousands of articles have been published on Beckett, primarily in Europe, the United States, and Canada. Since he wrote most of his works in French, and then translated them himself into English, critics responded to different versions of his works. This reference book documents...

During the last 50 years, the United States has become the home of immigrants from many Asian and Caribbean countries, and it has continued to receive people from European countries as well. Writers from these immigrant groups have greatly enriched American literature and society since World War II, and their works reflect their experiences as newcomers to the United States. Furthermore, their writings reflect their cultural heritage and tell the story of their ancestral lands. This reference is a comprehensive guide to immigrant literatures in the United States during the last five...

Postcolonial African writers have made an enormous contribution to world literature. These writers frequently examine such issues as emerging identities in the postcolonial climate, neo-colonialism and new forms of oppression, cultural and political hegemonies, neo-elitism, language appropriation, and economic instability. During the last decade, their works have elicited increasing critical attention. This reference book overviews the richness of postcolonial African literature. The volume focuses on how postcoloniality is reflected in the novels, poetry, prose, and drama of major, minor,...

Born in 1795, Thomas Carlyle was a preeminent figure in Victorian letters. Carlyle was widely reviewed, discussed, praised and criticized during his lifetime, because of his controversial ideas as well as his masterful biographies, histories and extended essays, all forms deemed more canonical in the nineteenth century. Although opinion about him and assessments of his work have fluctuated greatly in the years since his death in 1881, interest in his writings has seldom waned. This volume presents some of the most inaccessible and some of the best critical opinion dealing with four of...

Today, a multiplicity of feminist approaches has become an integral part of the fields of German literary and cultural studies. This comprehensive reference provides a much needed synthesis of the contribution women have made to German literature and culture. In entries for more than 500 topics, the volume surveys literary periods, epochs, and genres; critical approaches and theories; important authors and works; female stereotypes; laws and historical developments; literary concepts and themes; and organizations and archives relevant to women and women's studies. Each entry offers a...

Over the last 20 years, there has been an increasing interest in feminist views of the Italian literary tradition. While feminist theory and methodology have been accepted by the academic community in the U.S., the situation is very different in Italy, where such work has been done largely outside the academy. Among nonspecialists, knowledge of feminist approaches to Italian literature, and even of the existence of Italian women writers, remains scant. This reference work, the first of its kind on Italian literature, is a companion volume for all who wish to investigate Italian literary...

Often thought of as the quintessential poet of New England, Robert Frost is one of the most widely read American poets of the 20th century. He was a master of poetic form and imagery, his works seemed to capture the spirit of America, and he became so emblematic of his country that he read his work at President Kennedy's inauguration and traveled to Israel, Greece, and the Soviet Union as an emissary of the U.S. State Department. While many readers think of him as the personification of New England, he was born in San Francisco, published his first book of poetry in England, matured as a...

As the American literary canon has undergone revision and expansion in recent years, the influence of women writers of the nineteenth century has been reevaluated. The first book of its kind, this reference provides alphabetically arranged entries for more than 70 nineteenth-century American women writers, such as Louisa May Alcott, Margaret Fuller, Emma Lazarus, and Harriet Beecher Stowe. Each entry is written by an expert contributor and includes a biography, a discussion of the author's major works and themes, an overview of the critical studies examining the writer's works, and a...

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) was a mystery in her own lifetime, and her poems continue to challenge their readers. For many, she remains a mythic recluse always dressed in white. Although factual knowledge has corrected that image, it was firmly established in Amherst long before the poet's death. Her works were largely neglected during her lifetime as most of her poems were published posthumously. Since "Poems by Emily Dickinson" appeared in 1890, readers have been raising questions about the poet, her world, and the works that have established her as a famous literary figure. An...

Jesters and fools have existed as important and consistent figures in nearly all cultures. Sometimes referred to as clowns, they are typological characters who have conventional roles in the arts, often using nonsense to subvert existing order. But fools are also a part of social and religious history, and they frequently play key roles in the rituals that support and shape a society's system of beliefs. This reference book includes alphabetically arranged entries for approximately 60 fools and jesters from a wide range of cultures. Included are entries for performers from American popular...

Though he wrote more than a century ago, French author Victor Hugo (1802-1885) continues to capture the imagination of contemporary readers both in France and around the world. In the United States, he is best remembered as the author of the novel "Les Mis DEGREESD'erables" (1862), which has been adapted for the stage, and of "Notre-Dame-de-Paris" (1831), more commonly known to Americans as "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." But Hugo was also a poet and dramatist, a great religious and social thinker, and one of the most important shapers of French Romanticism. As a poet, he created new verse...

Perhaps the first modern novelist, Jane Austen (1775-1817) has left an indelible mark on the world of letters. She is best known as the author of penetrating studies of domestic life and manners, and her novels such as "Sense and Sensibility" (1811), "Pride and Prejudice" (1813), and "Mansfield Park" (1814) continue to be read and appreciated today. Yet Austen also wrote numerous other pieces and a substantial body of letters. While her novels have received large amounts of critical attention, scholars have also increasingly studied her other writings, and Austen scholarship continues to...

As the author of "The Women of Brewster Place," "Linden Hills," "Mama Day," and "Bailey's Cafe," Gloria Naylor is widely respected as one of the most important contemporary African American women writers. This volume provides comprehensive coverage of the critical response to her works. The book is divided into sections devoted to each of Naylor's novels. Within each section, seminal articles and book chapters comment on her writing. Special attention is given to African American and feminist perspectives on her canon. In addition, many of the essays discuss the relationship of Naylor's...