Synopses & Reviews
American literature bristles with energy and invention, from Cotton Mather's fiery sermons to Whitman's expansive poetic experiments to Toni Morrison's unflinching examination of race. Perhaps no other nation has produced, in so short a time, such a vast and diverse literary landscape. No mere catalog of dates, events, and synopses, the Encyclopedia's 350 interpretive essays encompass the full range and depth of American literary history from the 1600s to the present day. Each essay examines the writers' motivation, offering historical perspective and social context along with analysis fo the long-term impacts of the author, work, or movement. The heart of the Encyclopedia is the 250 essays on writers--novelists, poets, short-story writers, playwrights, and essayists. Ranging alphabetically from Henry Adams to Richard Wright and chronologically from Anne Bradstreet to Julia Alvarez, readers will find not only such towering figures as Poe and Hemingway, but also important writers who have fallen into obscurity and newer voices of young writers and those in mid-career. The Encyclopedia also includes fifty thematic essays on movements and genres, from Asian American Literature and the Chicago Renaissance to Detective Fiction, Western Fiction, and War Literature, synthesizing scholarship previously scattered in separate reference sources. Finally, there are the articles on the masterpieces themselves--The Waste Land, Native Son, and Paterson--gemlike essays that are like listening to a favorite professor deliver a passionate lecture on a work of art loved for a lifetime.
Review
"These 350 essays on writers and movements from the 1600s to the present illuminate the richness of American literature....Provides a wealth of reliable information about standard bearers of American literature in an easy-on-the-eyes formant for students and general readers." --School Library Journal
"These 350 essays on writers and movements from the 1600's to the present illuminate the richness of American literature." ...More accessible than the chronological Encyclopedia of American Literature (Facts On File, 2002) and more concise than the "American Writers" literary biography series (Scribners), Oxford provides a wealth of reliable information on standard bearers of American literature in an easy-on-the-eyes format for students and general readers."--School Library Journal
"...readily approachable. ...the 350 articles, contributed by scholars and critics, are...well written and researched. ...the range of topics discussed is also commendable."--Library Journal
Synopsis
The Encyclopedia of American Literature gathers together 350 essays from over 190 leading scholars on the whole of American literature, from European discovery to the present. At the core of the
Encyclopedia lie 250 essays on poets, playwrights, essayists, and novelists. Figures such as Whitman, Melville, Faulkner, Frost, and Morrison are discussed in detail with each examined in the context of his or her times, an assessment of the writer's current reputation, a bibliography of major works, and a list of major critical and biographical works about the writer.
Fifty entries on major works such as Moby Dick, Song of Myself, Walden, The Great Gatsby, The Waste Land, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Death of a Salesman, and Beloved place the work in its historical context and offer a range of possibilities with regard to critical approach. The Encyclopedia also contains essays on literary movements, periods, and themes, pulling together a broad range of information and making connections between them.
Each entry has its own primary and annotated secondary bibliography, and a system of cross-references helps readers locate information with ease. The Encyclopedia of American Literature is an outstanding reference source for students studying authors, or particular pieces of literature; libraries looking for one comprehensive source; and readers interested in American literature, its authors, and its connection with various areas of study.
Synopsis
This new edition ofChoephori takes into account the abundance of recent scholarship on Aeschylus' work. A. F. Garvie's introduction discusses the pre-Aeschylean Orestes tradition in literature and art, the character of the play itself--its ideas, imagery, structure, and staging--and the state
of the transmitted text. This edition reprints the Greek text and critical apparatus from the well-received Oxford Classical Text, edited by D. L. Page, and includes 350 pages of commentary devoted to problems of interpretation, style and dramatic technique.
About the Author
Jay Parini is Axinn Professor of English at Middlebury College. He is the author of several poems and books including
Robert Frost: A Life and
House of Days: Poems.