At the turn of the twentieth century, M. E. Ravage set off in steerage for America, one of almost two million Jews who, like millions of others from eastern and southern Europe, were lured by tales of worldly success. Seventeen years after arriving on Ellis Island, Ravage had mastered a new language, found success in college, and engagingly penned in English this vivid account of the ordeals and pleasures of departure and assimilation.

Steven G. Kellman brings Ravage's story to life again in this new edition, providing a brief biography and introduction that place the memoir within historical and literary contexts. "An American in the Making" contributes to a broader understanding of the global notion of "America" and remains timely, especially in an era when massive immigration, now from Latin America and Asia, challenges ideas of national identity.

Though it might seem as modern as Samuel Beckett, Joseph Conrad, and Vladimir Nabokov, translingual writing - texts by authors using more than one language or a language other than their primary one - has an ancient pedigree. The Routledge Handbook of Literary Translingualism aims to provide a comprehensive overview of translingual literature in a wide variety of languages throughout the world, from ancient to modern times. The volume includes sections on: translingual genres - with chapters on memoir, poetry, fiction, drama, and cinema ancient, medieval, and modern translingualism global perspectives - chapters overseeing European, African, and Asian languages. Combining chapters from lead specialists in the field, this volume will be of interest to scholars, graduate students, and advanced undergraduates interested in investigating the vibrant area of translingual literature. Attracting scholars from a variety of disciplines, this interdisciplinary and pioneering Handbook will advance current scholarship of the permutations of languages among authors throughout time.

Rambling Prose is a collection of essays by Steven G. Kellman, culled from his lifetime of work on comparative literature, criticism, and film studies. Filled with wordplay and surprising insight, the collection demonstrates his range as an essayist and invites us to explore the human experience through refined literary analysis. Kellman explores such topics as animal rights, silence, mortality, eroticism, film, and language with his unique critical perspective and offers complex investigations of eternal human quandaries that raise more questions than they answer. Witty and insightful, Rambling Prose is a book for anyone who loves language and believes in the power, both positive and negative, of words to change the world.

Though it is difficult enough to write well in one's native tongue, an extraordinary group of authors has written enduring poetry and prose in a second, third, or even fourth language. "Switching Languages" is the first anthology in which translingual authors from throughout the world examine their experiences writing in more than one language or in a language other than their primary one. Driven by factors as varied as migration, imperialism, a quest for verisimilitude, and a desire to assert artistic autonomy, translingualism has a long and brilliant history. In "Switching Languages," Steven G. Kellman brings together several notable authors from the past one hundred years who discuss their personal translingual experiences and their take on a general phenomenon that has not received the attention it deserves. Contributors to the book include Chinua Achebe, Julia Alvarez, Mary Antin, Elias Canetti, Rosario Ferre, Ha Jin, Salman Rushdie, Leopold Sedar Senghor, and Ilan Stavans. They offer vivid testimony to the challenges and achievements of literary translingualism.

Now at seventy-three volumes, this popular MLA series (ISSN 1059-1133) addresses a broad range of literary texts. Each volume surveys teaching aids and critical material and brings together essays that apply a variety of perspectives to teaching the text. Upper-level undergraduate and graduate students, student teachers, education specialists, and teachers in all humanities disciplines will find these volumes particularly helpful.

Nimble Tongues is a collection of essays that continues Steven G. Kellman's work in the fertile field of translingualism, focusing on the phenomenon of switching languages. A series of investigations and reflections rather than a single thesis, the collection is perhaps more akin in its aims-if not accomplishment-to George Steiner's Extraterritorial: Papers on Literature and the Language Revolution or Umberto Eco's Travels in Hyperreality. Topics covered include the significance of translingualism; translation and its challenges; immigrant memoirs; the autobiographies that Ariel Dorfman wrote in English and Spanish, respectively; the only feature film ever made in Esperanto; Francesca Marciano, an Italian who writes in English; Jhumpa Lahiri, who has abandoned English for Italian; Ilan Stavans, a prominent translingual author and scholar; Hugo Hamilton, a writer who grew up torn among Irish, German, and English; Antonio Ruiz-Camacho, a Mexican who writes in English; and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a multilingual text.

This book contains 200 reviews of significant fiction and nonfiction published in 2008. It provides coverage for works that are likely to be of particular interest to the general reader, that reflect the publishing trends of a given year, and that will stand the test of time. ""Magill's Literary Annual, 2009"", is the fifty-fifth publication in a series that began in 1954. Critical essays for the first twenty-two years were collected and published in the twelve-volume ""Survey of Contemporary Literature in 1977""; since then, yearly sets have been published. Each year, ""Magill's Literary Annual"" seeks to evaluate critically 200 major examples of serious literature, both fiction and nonfiction, published during the previous calendar year. The philosophy behind our selection process is to cover works that are likely to be of interest to general readers, that reflect publishing trends, that add to the careers of authors being taught and researched in literature programs, and that will stand the test of time. By filtering the thousands of books published every year down to 200 notable titles, the editors have provided the busy librarian with an excellent reader's advisory tool and patrons with fodder for book discussion groups and a guide for choosing worthwhile reading material. The essay-reviews in the Annual provide a more academic, 'reference' review of a work than is typically found in newspapers and other periodical sources. Organization and format: The reviews in the two-volume Magill's Literary Annual, 2009, are arranged alphabetically by title. At the beginning of both volumes is a complete alphabetical list, by category, of all covered books that provides readers with the title, author, and a brief description of each work. Every essay is approximately four pages in length. The text of each essay-review analyzes and presents the focus, intent, and relative success of the author, as well as the makeup and point of view of the work under discussion. To assist the reader further, essays are supplemented by a list of additional 'Review Sources' for further study in a bibliographic format. Every essay includes a sidebar offering a brief biography of the author or authors. Thumbnail photographs of the book covers and the authors are included as available. Finding aids and special features: Four indexes can be found at the end of volume 2. The Biographical Works by Subject arranges the works by subject, rather than by author or title. The Category Index groups all titles into subject areas such as current affairs and social issues, ethics, and law, history, literary biography, philosophy and religion, psychology, and women's issues. The Title Index lists all works reviewed in alphabetical order, with any relevant cross references. The Author Index lists books covered in the annual by each author's name. ""Magill's Literary Annual, 2009"": The authors covered in this year's edition include Geraldine Brooks, William F. Buckley, Jr., Ha Jin, Dennis Lehane, Toni Morrison, Joyce Carol Oates, David Sedaris, and Kurt Vonnegut. At a Glance: This title contains two volumes; 900 pages; 200 essay-reviews; illustrations; annotated titles by category list; further reviews; biographical works by subject; category index; title index and author index.

Magill's Literary Annual, 2010 is the fifty-sixth publicaion in a series that began in 1954. Each year, Magill's Literary Annual critically evaluates 200 major examples of serious literature, both fiction and nonfiction, published during the previous calendar year. Now, the past 30 years of Magill's Literary Annual is available online with the purchase of this year's edition.

A unique combination of biography and critical analysis, Magill's Survey of American Literature covers major U.S. and Canadian authors of fiction, darama, nonfiction and poetry. Thorough biographical information, combined with broad critical analysis and the review of specific major works, places each writer in very clear focus. In addition, there are complete bibliographies of the writers' works and many other sources of review and analysis.

A unique combination of biography and critical analysis, Magill's Survey of American Literature covers major U.S. and Canadian authors of fiction, darama, nonfiction and poetry. Thorough biographical information, combined with broad critical analysis and the review of specific major works, places each writer in very clear focus. In addition, there are complete bibliographies of the writers' works and many other sources of review and analysis.

A unique combination of biography and critical analysis, Magill's Survey of American Literature covers major U.S. and Canadian authors of fiction, darama, nonfiction and poetry. Thorough biographical information, combined with broad critical analysis and the review of specific major works, places each writer in very clear focus. In addition, there are complete bibliographies of the writers' works and many other sources of review and analysis.

A companion to the award-winning Magill's Survey of American Literature, this comprehensive, six-volume set offers profiles of major authors of fiction, drama, poetry, and essays, each with sections on biography, general analysis, and analysis of the author's most important works--novels, short stories, poems, and works of nonfiction.

The 567 entries in Masterplots II: American Fiction Series, Revised Edition cover a broad range of writers and works. Classics by such canonical U.S. writers as Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner are given thorough treatment, as are the masterworks of such Latin American giants as Gabriel Garc?a M?rquez and Carlos Fuentes and such Canadian notables as Robertson Davies and Margaret Atwood. The increasing prominence of ethnic voices in U.S. fiction is reflected by articles on works by such writers as Toni Morrison, Louise Erdrich, Ernest J. Gaines, and Rolando Hinojosa. Important developments in women's literature are treated in discussions of works by such authors as Barbara Kingsolver, Terry McMillan, and Amy Tan. Discussion of works by such best-selling writers as Stephen King and Scott Turow reflects the state of American popular fiction. Essays on books by such past writers as D'Arcy McNickle and John Okada help to give a more complete picture of America's literary history.

Magill's Literary Annual, 2010 is the fifty-sixth publicaion in a series that began in 1954. Each year, Magill's Literary Annual critically evaluates 200 major examples of serious literature, both fiction and nonfiction, published during the previous calendar year. Now, the past 30 years of Magill's Literary Annual is available online with the purchase of this year's edition.

A companion to the award-winning Magill's Survey of American Literature, this comprehensive, six-volume set offers profiles of major authors of fiction, drama, poetry, and essays, each with sections on biography, general analysis, and analysis of the author's most important works--novels, short stories, poems, and works of nonfiction.

A companion to the award-winning Magill's Survey of American Literature, this comprehensive, six-volume set offers profiles of major authors of fiction, drama, poetry, and essays, each with sections on biography, general analysis, and analysis of the author's most important works--novels, short stories, poems, and works of nonfiction.

The 567 entries in Masterplots II: American Fiction Series, Revised Edition cover a broad range of writers and works. Classics by such canonical U.S. writers as Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner are given thorough treatment, as are the masterworks of such Latin American giants as Gabriel Garc?a M?rquez and Carlos Fuentes and such Canadian notables as Robertson Davies and Margaret Atwood. The increasing prominence of ethnic voices in U.S. fiction is reflected by articles on works by such writers as Toni Morrison, Louise Erdrich, Ernest J. Gaines, and Rolando Hinojosa. Important developments in women's literature are treated in discussions of works by such authors as Barbara Kingsolver, Terry McMillan, and Amy Tan. Discussion of works by such best-selling writers as Stephen King and Scott Turow reflects the state of American popular fiction. Essays on books by such past writers as D'Arcy McNickle and John Okada help to give a more complete picture of America's literary history.

A unique combination of biography and critical analysis, Magill's Survey of American Literature covers major U.S. and Canadian authors of fiction, darama, nonfiction and poetry. Thorough biographical information, combined with broad critical analysis and the review of specific major works, places each writer in very clear focus. In addition, there are complete bibliographies of the writers' works and many other sources of review and analysis.