The Literature Workbook

"The Literature Workbook" is a practical introductory textbook for literary studies, which can be used either for independent study or as part of a class. Laying the foundation for the further study of literature, "The Literature Workbook" introduces the beginning student to the essential analytic and interpretative skills that are needed for literary appreciation and evaluation. It also equips the teacher with practical tools and materials for use in seminars or when assigning written assessments and projects. Arranged according to genre and chronology, the chapters acquaint the reader with a range of key figures in English literature and encourages the reader to think about them in their historical and cultural contexts. Adopting a user-friendly case-study approach each chapter contains exercises and activities, discussion hints, project work and suggestions for further reading. The workbook also includes a glossary and a subject and name index.

Acknowledgements. Using this book. 1. Miniature Poems: Reading the Elizabethan Sonnet as a Jewel 2. What's Syntax Got to do with Poetry?: On Puritan Mind-Style and Romantic World-View 3. Women's Poetry: Same or Different? 4. Death on Stage: Learning to Die in a Revenge Tragedy 5. Sheridan's School for Marriage: The Effect of Education and the Nature of Comedy 6. Degenerate Apemen or Heroic Dreamers?: On Cultural Stereotypes and Synges's The Playboy of the Western World 7. Talking About the Weather: Emma and the Social Web of Dialogue 8. Of Elephants, Serpents and Fairy Palaces: Simile and Metaphor in Dickens' Hard Times 9. Laughter in Patriarchy and Colonialism: Lexical Repetition and Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea 10. Point of View and its Effects: Resisting Brian Moore's Lies of Silence Glossary. Index.

Clara Calvo is Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Murcia, Spain. Her publications include Power Relations and Fool-Master Discourse in Shakespeare, and she is a regular contributor to The Year's Work in English Studies.Jean Jacques Weber is Professor of English at University Centre Luxembourg. His publications include Critical Analysis of Fiction, Twentieth-Century Fiction (co-edited, Routledge 1995) and The Stylistics Reader (co-edited for Routledge 1996).