English & Literature

The Oxford English Dictionary is the ultimate authority on the usage and meaning of English words and phrases, and a fascinating guide to the evolution of our language.

The coverage of this book ranges from Jack Kerouac's tales of freedom-seeking Bohemian youth to the frenetic paintings of Jackson Pollock, including 60 years of the Beat Generation and the artists of the Age of Spontaneity. Beat Culture captures in a single volume six decades of cultural and counter-cultural expression in the arts and society.

World Literature and Its Times helps students and researchers make connections between political/social climate during which books were written and the works themselves. Each volume focuses on major fiction, poetry and nonfiction from a particular country and region, representing approximately 50 works.

The Continuum Encyclopedia of Modern Criticism and Theory offers the student and scholar of literary and cultural studies the most comprehensive, single volume guide to the history and development of modern criticism in the humanities.

The alphabetically arranged entries in this volume cover the spectrum of African American literature, from the seminal poetry of Phillis Wheatley to popular contemporary novelists like Bebe Moore Campbell and Terry McMillan. Literary movements like the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts Movement merit their own entries.

Includes more than 400 concise articles covering all aspects of literary allegory: the device wherein characters, situations, and actions stand for ideas. Far-ranging in scope, the book covers the entire Western allegorical tradition during the vast sweep of time between the Old Testament Song of Songs and the postmodernist novels of Thomas Pynchon and Ishmael Reed. Selected Indian, Middle Eastern, South American, and African works are also included, as are works that are not, strictly speaking, allegories, yet contain allegorical aspects.

American Indians have produced some of the most powerful and lyrical literature ever written in North America. ""Encyclopedia of American Indian Literature"" covers the field from the earliest recorded works to some of today's most exciting writers. This encyclopedia features the most respected, widely read, and influential American Indian writers to date.

Asian Americans have been writing and publishing since the 19th century, but today the popularity and importance of Asian-American literature is greater than ever. ""Encyclopedia of Asian-American Literature"", a comprehensive new encyclopedia, traces American writers whose roots are in all parts of Asia, including China, Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East, and more.

Surveys 400 years of North American frontier literature. Within this literary context, the roles of women and minorities are given special attention, as is the expansion of the American West. The sheer scope of frontier literature is striking; this genre belongs as much to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and James Fenimore Cooper as it does to Willa Cather and Jessamyn West.

Whether it's a novel, memoir, diary, poem, or drama, a common thread runs through the literature of the Nazi Holocaust--a motif of personal testimony to the dearness of humanity.

Medieval literature encompasses a broad sweep of people, cultures, and styles. ""Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature"" offers a comprehensive account of the literary works, writers, and concepts of the Middle Ages; from 500 to 1500 CE.

Providing a wealth of information, this A-to-Z encyclopedia is a comprehensive one-volume reference to the literary works, writers, and concepts of the Renaissance.

This groundbreaking new source of international scope defines the essay as nonfictional prose texts of between one and 50 pages in length.

A broad artistic movement of the 1920s and early '30s, the Harlem Renaissance was one of the most productive eras in American literary history. Concentrating on the literary side of the movement - the writers, works, periodicals, editors, publishers, critics, and related topics - Encyclopedia of the Harlem Literary Renaissance provides authoritative coverage and unique insight into the literature of the Harlem Renaissance.

The Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Latin American and Caribbean Literature, 1900-2003 draws together entries on all aspects of literature including authors, critics, major works, magazines, genres, schools and movements in these regions from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present day.

African American culture draws upon a rich body of traditions from Africa, Latin America, and the South, and folklore is fundamental to the African American heritage.

Evaluates important reference materials in English studies. In the new edition James L. Harner has added entries describing resources published since May 2001 and has revised nearly half the entries from the fourth edition. The fifth edition contains more than 1,000 entries, which discuss an additional 1,555 books, articles, and electronic resources and cite 723 reviews.

Literature and Its Times provides the historical background of 300 of the most-studied novels, plays, poems, speeches and short stories. This 5-vol. set is arranged chronologically from ancient times to the present, with the entries in each volume arranged alphabetically by title. Each entry examines both the historical setting of the literary work and the historical events taking place at the time the work was written.

For more than half a century, James D. Hart's The Oxford Companion to American Literature has been an unparalleled guide to America's literary culture, providing one of the finest resources to this country's rich history of great writers.

The Oxford Companion to English Literature has long been established as the leading reference resource for students, teachers, scholars, and general readers of English literature. It provides unrivalled coverage of all aspects of English literature - from writers, their works, and thehistorical and cultural context in which they wrote, to critics, literary theory, allusions, and characters.For the seventh edition, the Companion has been thoroughly revised and updated to meet the needs and concerns of today's students and general readers.

Historical in scope, the "Reference Guide to World Literature includes biographical-bibliographical entries on nearly 500 writers and approximately 550 entries focusing on significant works of world literature. Covering writers from the ancient Greeks to 20th-century authors, each author entry provides a detailed overview of the writer's life and works. Work entries cover a particular piece of world literature in detail.

Offers a unique collection of critical essays from the second oldest literary journal in the United States. Organized geographically and chronologically, this title constitutes a global guide to contemporary literature from Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean and Europe. Includes reprinted book reviews from "World Literature Today from 1977-2001 as well as choice essays covering the half-century from 1927-1976.

Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable is one of the world's best-loved reference books. First published in 1870, this treasury of 'words that have a tale to tell has established itself as one of the great reference classics-the first port of call for tens of thousands of terms, phrases and proper names, and a fund of fascinating, unusual and out-of-the-way information.

In clear, succinct, non-technical language, this new dictionary of more than 850 terms expands upon the definition of "literary." It is the first book of its kind to give students a traditional literary vocabulary and related theoretical, historical, and cultural terms.

A user-friendly introduction to the language of literary study, The Longman Dictionary of Literary Terms is an easy-to-use reference manual that aims to demystify literature and the techniques literary scholars use. It is a great asset to those readers who would like a smart companion to accompany their reading of literature.

What is a corrido? What is the difference between a tanka, a choka and a renga? What does it mean when you're doing the dozens? What is a Bildungsroman?This dictionary of literary terms provides the student, scholar, librarian, or researcher with definitions, explanations, and models of the styles and forms of works of literature.

This new expanded edition of Peter Kemp's acclaimed collection illuminates the world of the writer, from classical literature to crime fiction and from the quill to the PC.