A Critical Companion to John Skelton


Book Description

Introduces Skelton and his work to readers unfamiliar with the poet, gathers together the vibrant strands of existing research, and opens up new avenues for future studies.




Larry McMurtry


Book Description

Larry McMurtry's award winning novels have redefined not only the literature of the west, but also the essential myths with which the west is associated. Readers were initiated into the world of the modern cowboy with McMurtry's first novel Horseman Pass By. Nearly 35 years later McMurtry revisits his hometown project with his latest update on the characters who populated The Last Picture Show and Texasville in his most recent novel Duane's Depressed. This Critical Companion examines all 22 of McMurtry's works. By considering individual literary elements and overall construction of the novels, this analysis probes how McMurtry has given contemporary relevance to traditional elements of the Western story.




John Irving


Book Description

One of America's most noted contemporary novelists, John Irving has created a body of fiction of extraordinary range, moving with ease from romance to fairytale to thriller. Although his fiction follows in the tradition of the great 19th-century world novelists, he is a quintessential American writer—his novels are laced with broad humor, farce, and absurd situations. He does not hesitate to tackle the troubling issues that have faced our nation in the past few decades, such as war, racism, sexism, abortion, violence, and AIDS. This study offers a clear, accessible reading of Irving's fiction. It analyzes in turn all of his novels from Setting Free the Bears (1968) to his newest novel A Widow for One Year (1998). It also provides the reader with a complete bibliography of Irving's fiction, as well as selected reviews and criticism. Following a biographical chapter on Irving's life, an overview of his fiction explores his work in light of his literary heritage and use of a variety of genres. Each of the following chapters examines an individual novel: Setting Free the Bears (1968), The Water-Method Man (1972), The 158-Pound Marriage (1973), The World According to Garp (1976), The Hotel New Hampshire (1981), The Cider House Rules (1985), A Prayer for Owen Meany (1989), A Son of the Circus (1994), and A Widow for One Year (1998). The discussion of each novel includes sections on plot and character development, thematic issues, and a new and fresh critical approach from which to read the novel. Campbell explores the great moral range in Irving's novels. She shows that all his novels deal with a character's quest to discover the self, a journey of raw energy that touches us because we recognize it as our own. This study will help readers to appreciate the experimental fiction that is Irving's trademark and his ability to capture the essence of American life in the last part of the twentieth century.




The Oxford History of Poetry in English


Book Description

The Oxford History of Poetry in English is designed to offer a fresh, multi-voiced, and comprehensive analysis of 'poetry': from Anglo-Saxon culture through contemporary British, Irish, American, and Global culture, including English, Scottish, and Welsh poetry, Anglo-American colonial and post-colonial poetry, and poetry in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Caribbean, India, Africa, Asia, and other international locales. The series both synthesizes existing scholarship and presents cutting-edge research, employing a global team of expert contributors for each of the fourteen volumes. This volume explores the developing range of English verse in the century after the death of Chaucer in 1400, years that saw both change and consolidation in traditions of poetic writing in English in the regions of Britain. Chaucer himself was an important shaping presence in the poetry of this period, providing a stimulus to imitation and to creative expansion of the modes he had favoured. In addition to assessing his role, this volume considers a range of literary factors significant to the poetry of the century, including verse forms, literary language, translation, and the idea of the author. It also signals features of the century's history that were important for the production of English verse: responses to wars at home and abroad, dynastic uncertainty, and movements towards religious reform, as well as technological innovations such as the introduction of printing, which brought influential changes to the transmission and reception of verse writing. The volume is shaped to include chapters on the contexts and forms of poetry in English, on the important genres of verse produced in the period, on some of the fifteenth-century's major writers (Lydgate, Hoccleve, Dunbar, and Henryson), and a consideration of the influence of the verse of this century on what was to follow.




Ideas of Authorship in the English and Scottish Dream Vision


Book Description

An investigation of English and Scottish dream visions written on the cusp of the "Renaissance", teasing out distinctive ideas of authorship which informed their design. The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries have long been acknowledged as a period of profound change in ideas of authorship, in which a transition from a "medieval" to a "modern" paradigm took place. In England and Scotland, changing approaches to Chaucer have rightly been considered as a catalyst for the elevation of English as a literary language and the birth of an English literary history. There is a tendency, however, when moving from Chaucer's self-professed poetic followers of this time to the philological approach associated with William Caxton and the 1532 Works, to pass over the literary careers of the English and Scots poets belonging to the intervening half-century: John Skelton, William Dunbar, Stephen Hawes, and Gavin Douglas. This volume redresses that neglect. Its close and comparative readings of these poets' stimulating but critically neglected dream visions and related first-person narratives reveal a spectrum of ideas of authorship: four distinct engagements with tradition and opportunity, united by their utilisation of a particular form. It regards authorship as a topic of invention, a discourse for appropriation, which is available to but not inevitable in late medieval and early modern writing. Overall, it facilitates newly focussed study of an often obscured literary-historical period, one with a heightened interest in the authors of the past - Chaucer, Lydgate, Petrarch, Virgil - but also an increasingly acute perception of the conditions of authorship in the present.




The Princeton Handbook of World Poetries


Book Description

An authoritative and comprehensive guide to poetry throughout the world The Princeton Handbook of World Poetries—drawn from the latest edition of the acclaimed Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics—provides a comprehensive and authoritative survey of the history and practice of poetry in more than 100 major regional, national, and diasporic literatures and language traditions around the globe. With more than 165 entries, the book combines broad overviews and focused accounts to give extensive coverage of poetic traditions throughout the world. For students, teachers, researchers, poets, and other readers, it supplies a one-of-a-kind resource, offering in-depth treatment of Indo-European poetries (all the major Celtic, Slavic, Germanic, and Romance languages, and others); ancient Middle Eastern poetries (Hebrew, Persian, Sumerian, and Assyro-Babylonian); subcontinental Indian poetries (Bengali, Hindi, Marathi, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Urdu, and more); Asian and Pacific poetries (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Mongolian, Nepalese, Thai, and Tibetan); Spanish American poetries (those of Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Chile, and many other Latin American countries); indigenous American poetries (Guaraní, Inuit, and Navajo); and African poetries (those of Ethiopia, Somalia, South Africa, and other countries, and including African languages, English, French, and Portuguese). Complete with an introduction by the editors, this is an essential volume for anyone interested in understanding poetry in an international context. Drawn from the latest edition of the acclaimed Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics Provides more than 165 authoritative entries on poetry in more than 100 regional, national, and diasporic literatures and language traditions throughout the world Features extensive coverage of non-Western poetic traditions Includes an introduction, bibliographies, cross-references, and a general index




A Critical Companion to Wes Craven


Book Description

In A Critical Companion to Wes Craven, contributors use a variety of theoretical frameworks to analyze distinct areas of Craven’s work, including ecology, auteurism, philosophy, queer studies, and trauma. This book covers both the successes and failures contained in Craven’s extensive filmography, ultimately revealing a variegated portrait of his career. Scholars of film studies, horror, and ecology will find this book particularly interesting.




The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics


Book Description

The most important poetry reference for more than four decades—now fully updated for the twenty-first century Through three editions over more than four decades, The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics has built an unrivaled reputation as the most comprehensive and authoritative reference for students, scholars, and poets on all aspects of its subject: history, movements, genres, prosody, rhetorical devices, critical terms, and more. Now this landmark work has been thoroughly revised and updated for the twenty-first century. Compiled by an entirely new team of editors, the fourth edition—the first new edition in almost twenty years—reflects recent changes in literary and cultural studies, providing up-to-date coverage and giving greater attention to the international aspects of poetry, all while preserving the best of the previous volumes. At well over a million words and more than 1,000 entries, the Encyclopedia has unparalleled breadth and depth. Entries range in length from brief paragraphs to major essays of 15,000 words, offering a more thorough treatment—including expert synthesis and indispensable bibliographies—than conventional handbooks or dictionaries. This is a book that no reader or writer of poetry will want to be without. Thoroughly revised and updated by a new editorial team for twenty-first-century students, scholars, and poets More than 250 new entries cover recent terms, movements, and related topics Broader international coverage includes articles on the poetries of more than 110 nations, regions, and languages Expanded coverage of poetries of the non-Western and developing worlds Updated bibliographies and cross-references New, easier-to-use page design Fully indexed for the first time




Early Modern English Poetry


Book Description

This text features 28 essays written by important international scholars on the major poems of the English Renaissance. It offers scholarship on subjects ranging from the invention of English verse, Petrarchism, pastoral, elegy, and satire, to women's religious verse, the place of homoeroticism and Cavalier poetry.




Larry McMurtry


Book Description

Larry McMurtry's award winning novels have redefined not only the literature of the west, but also the essential myths with which the west is associated. Readers were initiated into the world of the modern cowboy with McMurtry's first novel Horseman Pass By. Nearly 35 years later McMurtry revisits his hometown project with his latest update on the characters who populated The Last Picture Show and Texasville in his most recent novel Duane's Depressed. This Critical Companion examines all 22 of McMurtry's works. By considering individual literary elements and overall construction of the novels, this analysis probes how McMurtry has given contemporary relevance to traditional elements of the Western story.