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This introduction to the tools required for literary study provides all the skills, background and critical knowledge which students require to approach their study of literature with confidence.
Extensively tested at the University of Edinburgh, this introduction to the tools required for literary study provides all the skills, background and critical knowledge which students require to approach their study of literature with confidence.
This introduction to the tools required for literary study provides all the skills, background and critical knowledge which students require to approach their study of literature with confidence.
Sweeping across two millennia and every literary genre, acclaimed scholar and biographer Jonathan Bate provides a dazzling introduction to English Literature. The focus is wide, shifting from the birth of the novel and the brilliance of English comedy to the deep Englishness of landscape poetry and the ethnic diversity of Britain's Nobel literature laureates. It goes on to provide a more in-depth analysis, with close readings from an extraordinary scene in King Lear to a war poem by Carol Ann Duffy, and a series of striking examples of how literary texts change as they are transmitted from writer to reader. The narrative embraces not only the major literary movements such as Romanticism and Modernism, together with the most influential authors including Chaucer, Donne, Johnson, Wordsworth, Austen, Dickens and Woolf, but also little-known stories such as the identity of the first English woman poet to be honoured with a collected edition of her works. Written with the flair and passion for which Jonathan Bate has become renowned, this book is the perfect Very Short Introduction for all readers and students of the incomparable literary heritage of these islands. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
This critical guide introduces major novelists and themes in British fiction from 1975 to 2005. It engages with concepts such as postmodernism, feminism, gender and the postcolonial, and examines the place of fiction within broader debates in contemporary culture.A comprehensive Introduction provides a historical context for the study of contemporary British fiction by detailing significant social, political and cultural events. This is followed by five chapters organised around the core themes: (1) Narrative Forms, (2) Contemporary Ethnicities, (3) Gender and Sexuality, (4) History, Memory and Writing, and (5) Narratives of Cultural Space.
REVIEW FROM PREVIOUS EDITION: 'A slim and useful student textbook for English Syntax. Although most of the examples are from English, the book introduces general concepts which provide the necessary tools for a basic syntactic analysis of any language. The book concentrates on topics that will remain useful to the student who does not go on to study linguistics but, say, literature or EFL teaching.' - The Year's Work in English StudiesIn this revised and fully updated new edition of his popular textbook, Jim Miller discusses the central concepts of syntax which are applied in a wide range of university courses, in business communication, in teaching and in speech therapy. The book deals with concepts which are central to traditional grammar but have been greatly refined over the past forty years: parts of speech and how to recognise them, constructions and their interrelationships, subordinate clauses and how to recognise the different types, subjects and objects, Agents and Patients and other roles. The book draws out the connections between syntax and meaning and between syntax and discourse; in particular, a new chapter focuses on the analysis of discourse and the final chapter deals with tense, aspect and voice, topics which are central to the construction of texts and are of major importance in second language learning. They are also areas where meaning and grammar interconnect very closely.Key FeaturesCoverage of central themes with a wide application outside the study of syntaxExplains basic concepts, supported by a glossary of technical termsExercises and sources for further reading provided.
From early medieval times to the present, this diverse collection of thirty-one essays sets literary texts in their historical contexts.
Clearly focussed on the needs of students, Robert Eaglestone and Jonathan Beecher Field have revised the best-selling Doing English specifically for English literature courses in America. Studying English presents the ideas and debates that shape literary studies in America today. This overview of the discipline explains not only what students need to know, but how and why English came to be the way it is. This uniquely comprehensive guide to the subject gives students the background they need to understand and enjoy their studies more fully. The book covers arguments about criticism and theory, value, the canon, Shakespeare, authorial intention, figural language, narrative, writing, identity, politics and the skills that are learned from studying English for the world of work. In a clear and engaging way, Robert Eaglestone and Jonathan Beecher Field: Orient you, by exploring what it is to study English in America now. Equip you, by explaining the key ideas and trends in English in context. Enable you to begin higher level study.
Studying English Literature and Language is unique in offering both an introduction and a companion for students taking English Literature and Language degrees. Combining the functions of study guide, critical dictionary and text anthology, this is a freshly recast version of the highly acclaimed The English Studies Book. This third edition features: fresh sections on the essential skills and study strategies needed to complete a degree in English—from close reading, research and referencing to full guidelines and tips on essay-writing, participating in seminars, presentations and revision an authoritative guide to the life skills, further study options and career pathways open to graduates of the subject updated introductions to the major theoretical positions and approaches taken by scholars in the field, from earlier twentieth century practical criticism to the latest global and ecological perspectives extensive entries on key terms such as ‘author, ‘genre’, ‘narrative’ and ‘translation’ widely current in debates across language, literature and culture coverage of both local and global varieties of the English language in a range of media and discourses, including news, advertising, text messaging, rap, pop and street art an expansive anthology representing genres and discourses from early elegy and novel to contemporary performance, flash fiction, including writers as diverse as Aphra Behn, Emily Dickinson, J.M. Coetzee, Angela Carter, Russell Hoban, Adrienne Rich and Arundhati Roy a comprehensive, regularly updated companion website supplying further information and activities, sample analyses and a wealth of stimulating and reliable links to further online resources. Studying English Literature and Language is a wide-ranging and invaluable reference for anyone interested in the study of English language, literature and culture.
