English Literature A Very Short Introduction

Author : Jonathan Bate
Publisher : OUP Oxford
ISBN 13 : 0191614297
Total Pages : 192 pages
Book Rating : 4.93/5 ( download)

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Download or read book English Literature: A Very Short Introduction written by Jonathan Bate and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2010-10-07 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sweeping across two millennia and every literary genre, acclaimed scholar and biographer Jonathan Bate provides a dazzling introduction to English Literature. The focus is wide, shifting from the birth of the novel and the brilliance of English comedy to the deep Englishness of landscape poetry and the ethnic diversity of Britain's Nobel literature laureates. It goes on to provide a more in-depth analysis, with close readings from an extraordinary scene in King Lear to a war poem by Carol Ann Duffy, and a series of striking examples of how literary texts change as they are transmitted from writer to reader. The narrative embraces not only the major literary movements such as Romanticism and Modernism, together with the most influential authors including Chaucer, Donne, Johnson, Wordsworth, Austen, Dickens and Woolf, but also little-known stories such as the identity of the first English woman poet to be honoured with a collected edition of her works. Written with the flair and passion for which Jonathan Bate has become renowned, this book is the perfect Very Short Introduction for all readers and students of the incomparable literary heritage of these islands. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Author : Jonathan Bate
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199569266
Total Pages : 193 pages
Book Rating : 4.67/5 ( download)

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Download or read book English Literature: A Very Short Introduction written by Jonathan Bate and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2010-10-07 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: English Literature: A Very Short Introduction discusses why literature matters, how narrative works, and what is distinctly English about English literature. Jonathan Bate considers how we determine the content of the field, and looks at the three major kinds of imaginative literature - English poetry, English drama and The English novel.

Author : John D. Lyons
Publisher : OUP Oxford
ISBN 13 : 0191614238
Total Pages : 152 pages
Book Rating : 4.31/5 ( download)

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Download or read book French Literature: A Very Short Introduction written by John D. Lyons and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2010-04-22 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The heritage of literature in the French language is rich, varied, and extensive in time and space; appealing both to its immediate public, readers of French, and also to a global audience reached through translations and film adaptations. The first great works of this repertory were written in the twelfth century in northern France, and now, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, include authors writing in many parts of the world, ranging from the Caribbean to Western Africa. French Literature: A Very Short Introduction introduces this lively literary world by focusing on texts - epics, novels, plays, poems, and screenplays - that concern protagonists whose adventures and conflicts reveal shifts in literary and social practices. From the hero of the medieval Song of Roland to the Caribbean heroines of I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem or the European expatriate in Japan in Fear and Trembling, these problematic protagonists allow us to understand what interests writers and readers across the wide world of French. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Author : Kimberley Reynolds
Publisher : OUP Oxford
ISBN 13 : 0191620122
Total Pages : 160 pages
Book Rating : 4.26/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Children's Literature: A Very Short Introduction written by Kimberley Reynolds and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2011-10-06 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Children's literature takes many forms - works adapted for children in antiquity, picture books and pop-ups - and now includes the latest online games and eBooks. This vast and amorphous subject is both intimately related to other areas of literary and cultural investigation but also has its own set of concerns, issues and challenges. From familiar authors including Beatrix Potter and Roald Dahl, classic books such as Pooh, Alice in Wonderland, and The Secret Garden, to modern works including Harry Potter and the Twilight series, thisVery Short Introduction provides an overview of the history of children's literature as it has developed in English, whilst at the same time introducing key debates, developments, and figures in the field. Raising questions about what shape the future of literature for children should take, and exploring the crossover with adult fiction, Reynolds shows that writing for children - whether on page or screen - has participated in shaping and directing ideas about culture, society and childhood. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Author : Catriona Kelly
Publisher : OUP Oxford
ISBN 13 : 9780191577505
Total Pages : 184 pages
Book Rating : 4.02/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Russian Literature: A Very Short Introduction written by Catriona Kelly and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2001-08-23 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is intended to capture the interest of anyone who has been attracted to Russian culture through the greats of Russian literature, either through the texts themselves, or encountering them in the cinema, or opera. Rather than a conventional chronology of Russian literature, the book will explore the place and importance of literature of all sorts in Russian culture. How and when did a Russian national literature come into being? What shaped its creation? How have the Russians regarded their literary language? The book will uses the figure of Pushkin, 'the Russian Shakespeare' as a recurring example as his work influenced every Russian writer who came after hime, whether poets or novelists. It will look at such questions as why Russian writers are venerated, how they've been interpreted inside Russia and beyond, and the influences of such things as the folk tale tradition, orthodox religion, and the West ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Author : Jo Labanyi
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199208050
Total Pages : 161 pages
Book Rating : 4.50/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Spanish Literature: A Very Short Introduction written by Jo Labanyi and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2010-08-26 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This title explores the rich literary history of Spain which resonates with contemporary debates on transnationalism and cultural diversity. It introduces readers to the ways in which Spanish literature has been read in and outside Spain explaining misconceptions, outlining insights of scholarship and suggesting new readings.

Author : Sabina Knight
Publisher : OUP USA
ISBN 13 : 019539206X
Total Pages : 158 pages
Book Rating : 4.67/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Chinese Literature written by Sabina Knight and published by OUP USA. This book was released on 2012-02-03 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book tells the story of Chinese literature, from prehistory to the present, in terms of literary culture's key role in supporting social and political concerns. A welcome guide for teachers, students, and lay readers, Chinese Literature: A Very Short Introduction honours traditional Chinese understandings of literature as encompassing history and philosophy, as well as the evolution of poetry and poetics, storytelling, drama, and the novel.

Author : Peter Hainsworth
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199231796
Total Pages : 145 pages
Book Rating : 4.99/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Italian Literature: A Very Short Introduction written by Peter Hainsworth and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-02-23 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this Very Short Introduction to Italian Literature, Peter Hainsworth and David Robey examine Italian literature from the Middle Ages up to the present day, looking at themes and issues which have recurred throughout its history and continue to be of importance today.

Author : Kyle Keefer
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199840016
Total Pages : 136 pages
Book Rating : 4.14/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The New Testament as Literature: A Very Short Introduction written by Kyle Keefer and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2008-10-24 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The words, phrases, and stories of the New Testament permeate the English language. Indeed, this relatively small group of twenty-seven works, written during the height of the Roman Empire, not only helped create and sustain a vast world religion, but also have been integral to the larger cultural dynamics of the West, above and beyond particular religious expressions. Looking at the New Testament through the lens of literary study, Kyle Keefer offers an engrossing exploration of this revered religious text as a work of literature, but also keeps in focus its theological ramifications. Unique among books that examine the Bible as literature, this brilliantly compact introduction offers an intriguing double-edged look at this universal text--a religiously informed literary analysis. The book first explores the major sections of the New Testament--the gospels, Paul's letters, and Revelation--as individual literary documents. Keefer shows how, in such familiar stories as the parable of the Good Samaritan, a literary analysis can uncover an unexpected complexity to what seems a simple, straightforward tale. At the conclusion of the book, Keefer steps back and asks questions about the New Testament as a whole. He reveals that whether read as a single document or as a collection of works, the New Testament presents readers with a wide variety of forms and viewpoints, and a literary exploration helps bring this richness to light. A fascinating investigation of the New Testament as a classic literary work, this Very Short Introduction uses a literary framework--plot, character, narrative arc, genre--to illuminate the language, structure, and the crafting of this venerable text. About the Series: Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.

Author : Kimberley Reynolds
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199560242
Total Pages : 161 pages
Book Rating : 4.40/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Children's Literature: A Very Short Introduction written by Kimberley Reynolds and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2011-10-06 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this lively discussion Kim Reynolds looks at what children's literature is, why it is interesting, how it contributes to culture, and how it is studied as literature. Providing examples from across history and various types of children's literature, she introduces the key debates, developments, and people involved.