Why does literature matter? What is its human value? Historical approaches to literature have for several decades prevailed over the idea that literary works can deepen our understanding of fundamental questions of existence. This book re-affirms literature's existential value by developing a new critical vocabulary for thinking about literature's human meaningfulness. It puts this vocabulary into practice through close reading of a wide range of texts, from "The Second Wakefield Shepherds Play" to Mohsin Hamid s "The Reluctant Fundamentalist." Individual chapters discuss:

• Literature s engagement of the emotions
• Literature s humanisation of history
• Literature s treatment of universals and particulars
• The depth of reflection provoked by literary works
• Literature as a special kind of seeing and framing

The question at the heart of the volume, of why literature matters, makes this book relevant to all students and professors of literature.

Why does literature matter? What is its human value? Historical approaches to literature have for several decades prevailed over the idea that literary works can deepen our understanding of fundamental questions of existence. This book re-affirms literature's existential value by developing a new critical vocabulary for thinking about literature's human meaningfulness. It puts this vocabulary into practice through close reading of a wide range of texts, from The Second Wakefield Shepherds' Play to Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Individual chapters discuss: Literature's engagement of the emotions Literature's humanisation of history Literature's treatment of universals and particulars The depth of reflection provoked by literary works Literature as a special kind of seeing and framing The question at the heart of the volume, of why literature matters, makes this book relevant to all students and professors of literature.

This guide examines the production and reception of poetry by a range of women writers - predominantly although not exclusively writing in English - from Sappho through Anne Bradstreet and Emily Bronte to Sylvia Plath, Eavan Boland and Susan Howe. Women's Poetry offers a thoroughgoing thematic study of key texts, poets and issues, analysing commonalities and differences across diverse writers, periods, and forms. The book is alert, throughout, to the diversity of women's poetry. Close readings of selected texts are combined with a discussion of key theories and critical practices, and students are encouraged to think about women's poetry in the light of debates about race, class, ethnicity, sexuality, and regional and national identity. The book opens with a chronology followed by a comprehensive Introduction which outlines various approaches to reading women's poetry. Seven chapters follow, and a Conclusion and section of useful resources close the book. Key Features * Wide-ranging and flexible in scope, giving detailed consideration to widely-taught poets, texts, periods and issues * Introduces themes, questions and perspectives applicable to the work of other less familiar writers * Encourages informed discussion of the difficulties of defining a discrete genre of 'women's poetry' * Offers valuable introductory and supplementary guidance for students * Discusses in detail poems by Margaret Cavendish, Anne Bradstreet, Sara Coleridge, Christina Rossetti, Emily Dickinson, Edith Sitwell, Amy Lowell, Sylvia Plath, Ruth Fainlight, Grace Nicholls, Eavan Boland, Kathleen Jamie, Jackie Kay and Carol Ann Duffy.

This distinctive reappraisal of humanism argues that humanist thought is a diverse tradition which cannot be reduced to current conceptions of it. By considering humanism via the categories of Romantic, Existential, Dialogic, Civic, Spiritual, Pagan, Pragmatic and Technological Humanisms, Halliwell and Mousley propose that the critical edge of humanist thought can be rescued from its popular view as intellectually redundant. They also argue that because these humanisms contain within them anti-humanist perspectives, it is possible to counter the charge that humanism is based upon an unquestioned image of human nature. The book focuses on the thought of twenty-four mainly European and North American thinkers, ranging historically from the Renaissance to postmodernism. It discusses foundational writers (some of whom have been claimed as anti-humanists) such as Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Dewey and Sartre as well as the contemporary thinkers Habermas, Cixous, Rorty, Hall and Haraway, to construct a series of provocative dialogues which suggest the ongoing relevance of humanism to issues of ethics, art, science, selfhood, gender, citizenship and religion. Given the range and originality of the book's approach, Critical Humanisms will be an invaluable resource for students and researchers in the Humanities, particularly English, American studies, cultural studies, modern languages, philosophy and sociology.

This guide helps readers make sense of the most commonly taught writer in the world. One approach to Shakespeare is as a dramatist while another approach is to think of him as essentially a poetic writer. The tension between these two views is a theme in this book because it helps us to reflect upon changing literary and critical trends. This is primarily a book for readers of Shakespeare who most commonly experience Shakespeare-on-stage through imagined performances in their own heads.

The book starts with a brief explanation of how Shakespeare's writings have come down to us as a series of scripts for actors in the early modern theatre industry of London. The first half of the book then interrogates Shakespearean genres, while the second half examines different critical approaches to his plays via the four key issues of authorship, performance, identity and materialism. The book returns repeatedly to such questions as: 'what has changed since Shakespeare's time?', 'to what uses has Shakespeare been put?', and 'what value is in Shakespeare?' - questions that go to the heart of why we study Shakespeare.

Key Features

*A chronology of Shakespeare's career as an actor/dramatist that locates him within the theatre industry of his time.

*New readings of twelve plays that form a core of the Shakespeare canon: "A Midsummer Night's Dream," "Much Ado About Nothing," "Richard 2," "Henry 5," "Hamlet," "Othello," "All's Well that Ends Well," "The Winter's Tale," "Macbeth," "Measure for Measure," "The Tempest," and "Timon of Athens,"

*Critical analyses organized by genre (comedies, histories, tragedies, and romance) and by four key critical approaches: authorship, performance, identities, and materialism.

*An extensive resources section, including a glossary of the important critical terms that are often used in debates about Shakespeare.

This guide examines the production and reception of poetry by a range of women writers - predominantly although not exclusively writing in English - from Sappho through Anne Bradstreet and Emily Bronte to Sylvia Plath, Eavan Boland and Susan Howe. Women's Poetry offers a thoroughgoing thematic study of key texts, poets and issues, analysing commonalities and differences across diverse writers, periods, and forms. The book is alert, throughout, to the diversity of women's poetry. Close readings of selected texts are combined with a discussion of key theories and critical practices, and students are encouraged to think about women's poetry in the light of debates about race, class, ethnicity, sexuality, and regional and national identity. The book opens with a chronology followed by a comprehensive Introduction which outlines various approaches to reading women's poetry. Seven chapters follow, and a Conclusion and section of useful resources close the book. Key Features * Wide-ranging and flexible in scope, giving detailed consideration to widely-taught poets, texts, periods and issues * Introduces themes, questions and perspectives applicable to the work of other less familiar writers * Encourages informed discussion of the difficulties of defining a discrete genre of 'women's poetry' * Offers valuable introductory and supplementary guidance for students * Discusses in detail poems by Margaret Cavendish, Anne Bradstreet, Sara Coleridge, Christina Rossetti, Emily Dickinson, Edith Sitwell, Amy Lowell, Sylvia Plath, Ruth Fainlight, Grace Nicholls, Eavan Boland, Kathleen Jamie, Jackie Kay and Carol Ann Duffy.

This is a comprehensive historical, social, political, and aesthetic view of the development of contemporary theatre as an experimental theatre of multiplicity, inclusion and diversity.This book explores the development of contemporary theatre in the United States in its historical, political and theoretical dimensions. It focuses on representative plays and performance texts that experiment with form and content, discussing influential playwrights and performance artists such as Tennessee Williams, Adrienne Kennedy, Sam Shepard, Tony Kushner, Charles Ludlum, Anna Deavere Smith, Karen Finley and Will Power, alongside avantgarde theatre groups.Saddik traces the development of contemporary drama since 1945, and discusses the cross-cultural impact of postwar British and European innovations on American theatre from the 1950s to the present day in order to examine the performance of American identity. She argues that contemporary American theatre is primarily a postmodern drama of inclusion and diversity that destabilizes the notion of fixed identity and questions the nature of reality.It examines the influence of international figures such as Aristotle, Brecht, Artaud and Boal who are central to theatre as a discipline. It explores realistic and anti-realistic styles of American drama and their political and social implications, along with key critical terms and movements. It places the complexity of contemporary American drama within its political, sexual and ethnic contexts. It includes rare images from La MaMa Archive/Ellen Stewart Private Collection. It also discusses in detail Stairs to the Roof and Camino Real by Tennessee Williams, Death of a Salesman and The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Dutchman and The Slave by Amira Baraka, Funnyhouse of a Negro by Adrienne Kennedy, The America Play and The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World by Susan-Lori Parks, The Tooth of Crime and True West by Sam Shepherd and American Buffalo by David Mamet as well as a range of other texts and performers. This book is suitable for students of literature, drama and American drama and theatre.

This critical study of Asian American literature discusses work by internationally successful writers such as Maxine Hong Kingston, Amy Tan, Bharati Mukherjee, Gish Jen, Chang-Rae Lee and Amitav Ghosh, and situates them in a range of literary-cultural contexts.

The focus of the book is on twentieth-century writing, particularly from the 1970s onwards, but it also traces the historical development of Asian American literature and discusses important earlier writers. Four central themes in Asian American culture are covered: beginning Asian American literature; ambassadorial literature; culture wars; and heterogeneity, hybridity, multiplicity. Each chapter offers a broad discussion of writers, concepts and approaches with case studies of key texts. Particular emphasis is placed on the critical reception of these writers, as they contribute to major debates in and around Asian American Studies. Works by Asian American writers are considered in relation to transatlantic literature, postcolonial theory, feminism and postmodernism.

Key features

*The first readily available introductory guide to Asian American literature.

*Discusses a representative range of Asian American literature, providing a sense of the diversity of the field and of its key themes and modes of writing.

*Links close reading of key texts with critical and theoretical approaches to Asian American literature.

*Encourages reflection on questions of literary value, canonicity and the scope and purpose of literary studies.

This guide helps readers make sense of the most commonly taught writer in the world. One approach to Shakespeare is as a dramatist while another approach is to think of him as essentially a poetic writer. The tension between these two views is a theme in this book because it helps us to reflect upon changing literary and critical trends. This is primarily a book for readers of Shakespeare who most commonly experience Shakespeare-on-stage through imagined performances in their own heads.

The book starts with a brief explanation of how Shakespeare's writings have come down to us as a series of scripts for actors in the early modern theatre industry of London. The first half of the book then interrogates Shakespearean genres, while the second half examines different critical approaches to his plays via the four key issues of authorship, performance, identity and materialism. The book returns repeatedly to such questions as: 'what has changed since Shakespeare's time?', 'to what uses has Shakespeare been put?', and 'what value is in Shakespeare?' - questions that go to the heart of why we study Shakespeare.

Key Features

*A chronology of Shakespeare's career as an actor/dramatist that locates him within the theatre industry of his time.

*New readings of twelve plays that form a core of the Shakespeare canon: "A Midsummer Night's Dream," "Much Ado About Nothing," "Richard 2," "Henry 5," "Hamlet," "Othello," "All's Well that Ends Well," "The Winter's Tale," "Macbeth," "Measure for Measure," "The Tempest," and "Timon of Athens,"

*Critical analyses organized by genre (comedies, histories, tragedies, and romance) and by four key critical approaches: authorship, performance, identities, and materialism.

*An extensive resources section, including a glossary of the important critical terms that are often used in debates about Shakespeare.

This distinctive reappraisal of humanism argues that humanist thought is a diverse tradition which cannot be reduced to current conceptions of it. By considering humanism via the categories of Romantic, Existential, Dialogic, Civic, Spiritual, Pagan, Pragmatic and Technological Humanisms, Halliwell and Mousley propose that the critical edge of humanist thought can be rescued from its popular view as intellectually redundant. They also argue that because these humanisms contain within them anti-humanist perspectives, it is possible to counter the charge that humanism is based upon an unquestioned image of human nature. The book focuses on the thought of twenty-four mainly European and North American thinkers, ranging historically from the Renaissance to postmodernism. It discusses foundational writers (some of whom have been claimed as anti-humanists) such as Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Dewey and Sartre as well as the contemporary thinkers Habermas, Cixous, Rorty, Hall and Haraway, to construct a series of provocative dialogues which suggest the ongoing relevance of humanism to issues of ethics, art, science, selfhood, gender, citizenship and religion.Given the range and originality of the book's approach, Critical Humanisms will be an invaluable resource for students and researchers in the Humanities, particularly English, American studies, cultural studies, modern languages, philosophy and sociology.