Students are introduced to the basic poetic techniques and the endless variety of poetic forms and subjects poets have used over the centuries. The enormous possibilities of poetic expression are explored through works by cummings, Shakespeare, Edward Lear, Wordsworth, Millay, Donne, Corso, Dorothy Parker, Homer, Keats, Roethke, Hart Crane, Pound, Yeats, Coleridge and Pablo Neruda. Students eventually examine a Shakepearean sonnet and analyze successive...

Presents literature not as a simple inventory of authors or titles but rather as a historical and cultural field viewed from a wide array of contemporary perspectives. The set, which is "new historicist" in its approach to literary criticism, endorses the notion that not only does history affect literature, but literature itself informs history.

Covers world authors from many periods and genres, building an understanding of the various contexts -- from the biographical to the literary to the historical -- in which literature can be viewed. Identifies the significant literary devices and global themes that define a writer's style and place the author in a larger literary tradition as chronicled and evaluated by critics over time.

Reflect on how dystopia shows us the darker side of contemporary reality right here in our connected global world, focusing on issues we struggle with every day. Conclude with the recurring theme around utopian yearnings and the sinister road that leads to dystopia, proving that the perfect place is no place. This powerful genre embodies a simultaneous optimism and cynicism.

Provides a critical introduction to the American diary literature of late nineteenth-century.

This six-volume set explores the history of women and feminism throughout literature, from classical antiquity to modern times. Topics covered include misogyny and women's social roles in ancient civilizations, 16th-century women's devotional literature, 17th- and 18th-century women's captivity narratives, the women's suffrage movement in 19th-century America, women writers of the "Lost Generation," lesbian literature, and much more.

Watch as students and teachers deepen their understanding of literature groups over the course of a school year. This engaging video takes you into Carolyn Bridges' fourth-grade classroom as she works with literacy specialist Jennifer Allen to launch and sustain student-led literature discussions. Filmed over an eight-month period, the program shows how student skills and abilities take time to develop. The program also shows how teachers and literacy...

The period's literary themes and social currents are explored through extensive excerpts from Wordsworth, Byron, Shelley and Keats; biographical notes on each poet; and introductory analysis of their work. On-location photography is included with original illustrations and paintings from the National Portrait Gallery in London. Readings vividly demonstrate the influence of key ideas on the Romantic movement.

Rightly recognized as one of the world’s most important spiritual texts, the Bible has shaped thousands of years of faith, art, and human history. Yet for all its importance to believers and nonbelievers alike, we rarely engage with the Bible as a collection of unique narratives that were only later united into what we now know as the Old and New Testaments. And these different texts - historical narratives, dramatic visions, poems, songs, letters...

An exciting exploration of the literature that deals with gods, angels, demons and spirits--beings who take an active and sometimes frightening interest in human affairs. Describes mankind's abiding fear of and fascination with life after death, and shows the high price that many fictional characters have paid for dabbling in the supernatural.