eBooks are accessible online, and many are available for download or 2 week check out.
Americans in British Literature, 1770-1832: A Breed Apart by
Christopher Flynn's timely book systematically examines for the first time how British writers portrayed America and Americans in the decades immediately following the revolutionary war. In sentimental novels of the 1780s and 1790s, prose and poetry by Wollstonecraft, Southey, Coleridge, and Wordsworth; and novels and travel accounts by Smollett, Lennox, Frances Trollope, and Basil Hall, Americans are depicted as a breed apart, separated both geographically and temporally from the 'mother country.'
British Literature, 1640-1789 : An Anthology by
Spanning the period from the British Civil War to the French Revolution, the fourth edition of this successful anthology increases its coverage of canonical writings, plays, and of the development of British Literature in the American colonies. A thoroughly updated new edition of this popular anthology which focuses firmly on the eighteenth century without neglecting the seventeenth century Contains new texts including the play Rover by Aphra Behn, and Beggars' Opera by John Gay; increased canonical works, including works by Dryden, Pope, and Johnson; and historical contextual materials, with particular attention to the Americas Features updated introductions throughout, taking into account recent critical works and editions Includes useful resources such as an alternative list of contents by theme, and a chronology of literary and political events, providing valuable historical and cultural context.
The Cambridge Introduction to Modern British Fiction, 1950-2000 by
In this introduction to post-war fiction in Britain, Dominic Head shows how the novel yields a special insight into the important areas of social and cultural history in the second half of the twentieth century. Head's study is the most exhaustive survey of post-war British fiction available. It includes chapters on the state and the novel, class and social change, gender and sexual identity, national identity and multiculturalism. Throughout Head places novels in their social and historical context. He highlights the emergence and prominence of particular genres and links these developments to the wider cultural context. He also provides provocative readings of important individual novelists, particularly those who remain staple reference points in the study of the subject. Accessible, wide-ranging and designed specifically for use on courses, this is the most current introduction to the subject available. An invaluable resource for students and teachers alike.
The Edinburgh Introduction to Studying English Literature by
What does university study of English Literature involve today? How should students read literary texts? Answers to these questions have substantially changed and developed over recent decades, often in response to advances in literary theory. In the light of this and other recent developments, the Edinburgh Introduction provides a new, updated guide for students beginning their study of literature today. Recent developments in theory are explained throughout, but they are not the only focus of attention. Instead, the emphasis is on clear, pragmatic explanation of critical practices, and of literary forms, styles and techniques. These explanations are carefully illustrated through examples taken from readily-available works - usually ones included in the Norton or other major anthologies. Each chapter is written by an experienced academic and teacher from Edinburgh University's Department of English Literature, recently reaffirmed as one of the best in the United Kingdom. The result is an unbeatable resource for new students: a well-stocked toolbox, offering foundational introductions to ways literary texts can be approached, and to the critical, formal and historical understanding this requires. New students will find essential insights on every page, guiding their understanding for years to come and thoroughly opening up for them all the imaginative promise of literary study. Key Features: An up-to-the minute foundational guide for new students; Comprehensive range of literary forms, styles and critical strategies introduced; Careful exemplification, demonstrating reading strategies at work; Based on successful introductory courses in one of the UK's leading university literature departments; The texts discussed in the book generally appear in the Norton Anthology of English Literature
Nation and Novel: The English Novel from Its Origins to the Present Day by
What is 'English' about the English novel, and how has the idea of the English nation been shaped by the writers of fiction? How do the novel's profound differences from poetry and drama affect its representation of national consciousness? Nation and Novel sets out to answer these questions by tracing English prose fiction from its late medieval origins through its stories of rogues and criminals, family rebellions and suffering heroines, to the present-day novels of immigration. Major novelists from Daniel Defoe to the late twentieth century have drawn on national history and mythology in novels which have pitted Cavalier against Puritan, Tory against Whig, region against nation, and domesticity against empire. The novel is deeply concerned with the fate of the nation, but almost always at variance with official and ruling-class perspectives on English society. Patrick Parrinder's groundbreaking new literary history outlines the English novel's distinctive, sometimes paradoxical, and often subversive view of national character and identity. This sophisticated yet accessible assessment of the relationship between fiction and nation will set the agenda for future research and debate.
Postwar British Literature and Postcolonial Studies by
Examines the legacy of imperialism and decolonisation, globalisation and national identity Graham MacPhee explains how postwar writers blended the experimentalism of prewar modernism with other cultural traditions to represent both the pain and the pleasures of multiculturalism. He discusses a wide range of writers, from Auden, Orwell, T.S. Eliot and Larkin to Linton Kwesi Johnson, Tony Harrison, Kazuo Ishiguro and Ian McEwan. Key Features* Explores concepts and critical terms such as 'British national literature', 'new ethnicities', 'migrancy' and 'hybridity'* Case studies of postwar texts include: Sam Selvon's The Lonely Londoners, John Arden's Serjeant Musgrave's Dance, Linton Kwesi Johnson's Dread Beat an' Blood, Tony Harrison's V, Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day, Leila Aboulela's Minaret and Ian McEwan's Saturday
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Circulating books may be checked out in 3 week intervals.
The Columbia History of the British Novel by
A comprehensive survey of the British novel from its origins in the 18th century to the modern day. Organized chronologically, this reference work traces the development of the novel and provides essays on its most illustrious practitioners, from Fielding and Austen to the postmodernists. The contributors challenge contemporary views of the classics by examining canonical writers, as well as women and post-colonial novelists. They also examine subgenres such as picaresque fiction, travelogues, historical romances, detective novels, adventures and the Bildungsroman. Brief biographies of the novelists discussed are given, along with lists for further reading.
English and British Fiction, 1750-1820 by
Provides full and unprecedented coverage of a conventionally neglected period in the history of the novel, in particular taking advantage of recent major advances in scholarly bibliography and editing. Considers major figures such as Smollett, Sterne, Austen, and Scott, in a broad historical context, leading to new interpretation and insights.
The English Handbook: A Guide to Literary Studies by
The English Handbook: A Guide to Literary Studies is a comprehensive textbook, providing essential practical and analytical reading and writing skills for literature students at all levels. With advice and information on fundamental methods of literary analysis and research, Whitla equips students with the knowledge and tools essential for advanced literary study.
Literary Research Guide: An Annotated Listing of Reference Sources in English Literary Studies by
First published in 1989, this guide evaluates material that supports research, from the advanced undergraduate level on up, into British literature, literatures of the U.S., and other literatures in English. A wide range of resources is covered bibliographies, abstracts, indexes, databases, catalogs, general histories, dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks, chronologies, and more.
A Secret Sisterhood: The Literary Friendships of Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot & Virginia Woolf by
Male literary friendships are the stuff of legend; think Byron and Shelley, Fitzgerald and Hemingway. But the world's best-loved female authors are usually mythologized as solitary eccentrics or isolated geniuses. Coauthors and real-life friends Emily Midorikawa and Emma Claire Sweeney prove this wrong, thanks to their discovery of a wealth of surprising collaborations: the friendship between Jane Austen and one of the family servants, playwright Anne Sharp; the daring feminist author Mary Taylor, who shaped the work of Charlotte Brontë; the transatlantic friendship of the seemingly aloof George Eliot and Harriet Beecher Stowe; and Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield, most often portrayed as bitter foes, but who, in fact, enjoyed a complex friendship fired by an underlying erotic charge. Through letters and diaries that have never been published before, A Secret Sisterhood resurrects these forgotten stories of female friendships. They were sometimes scandalous and volatile, sometimes supportive and inspiring, but always--until now--tantalizingly consigned to the shadows.
Books from the reference section are available for in-library use, or are available for online viewing.
British English for American Readers: A Dictionary of the Language, Customs, and Places of British Life and Literature by
How does a vicar differ from a rector? Is a marquis a lord? Where are the Home Counties? Is someone who is "dead chuffed" happy or angry? Americans reading British literature, come upon such unfamiliar terms and generally have to rely on contextual clues. For the legions of readers of Dickens and Trollope, of Agatha Christie, John LeCarre, and P.D. James, of Muriel Spark and Iris Murdoch, of Noel Coward and Tom Stoppard--to name a few--as well as viewers of British film and television imports, this helpful and entertaining guide defines the kinds of things that British authors thought needed no explanation. Part dictionary, part guidebook, part almanac, part gazetteer, part history, part sociology, this lexicon has no specialty, for it deals with British culture in general.
The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Poetry in English by
The first and only comprehensive work of its kind, The Companion to Twentieth Century Poetry in English charts the development of poetry from 1900 to the present, across the whole of the English-speaking world, from the United States, Great Britain, and Ireland to New Zealand, Pakistan, Singapore, Trinidad and Zimbabwe--anywhere where poets write in English.
