The Continuum Encyclopedia of American Literature - Hardcover

Bendixen, Alfred

9780826415172: The Continuum Encyclopedia of American Literature

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0826415172 ISBN 13: 9780826415172

Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic, 2003

From John Smith to Jack Kerouac, Cotton Mather to Toni Morrison, Edgar Allan Poe to Stephen King, Francis Parkman to Alex Haley, the story of American literature is really many stories - of ancient indigenous peoples, early settlers, men and women enslaved and liberated, war and peace, and immigrants seeking better lives. America's multifaceted literary heritage reflects its deepest spiritual and material consciousness: rooted and rootless, rural and urban, timeless and ever-changing. Through a living literature, one comes to learn one's orientations, aspirations, and worldviews: where we have come from and where we may be going.More than ten years in the making, this comprehensive single-volume literary survey is for the student, scholar, and general reader. The Continuum Encyclopedia of American Literature represents a collaborative effort, involving 300 contributors from across the United States and Canada. Composed of more than 1,100 signed biographical-critical entries, this Encyclopedia serves as both guide and companion to the study and appreciation of American literature.A special feature is the topical article. There are 70 such essays in this volume, among them: AFRICAN AMERICAN LITERATURE, CANADA, CHILDREN'S LITERATURE, THE DETECTIVE STORY, DRAMA, THE ESSAY, EXPATRIATES, FEMINISM, FILM AND LITERATURE, GAY MALE LITERATURE, HISTORY AND LITERATURE, HUMOR, JEWISH AMERICAN LITERATURE, LATINO/A LITERATURE, LESBIAN LITERATURE, LITERARY CRITICISM (before and since 1914), LITERARY JOURNALISM, LITERARY PRIZES AND AWARDS, MODERNISM, POLITICS AND LITERATURE, RELIGION AND LITERATURE, SCIENCE FICTION, THE SHORT STORY, THE SOUTH, THE SUPERNATURAL, TRANSCENDENTALISM, UTOPIA, and YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE. Wherever possible, references to authors of merit who do not receive individual articles are incorporated into the text of the most relevant topical essay. All topical and biographical-critical entries are cross-referenced and linked to the index. Select bibliographical material is included in most articles.Through American literature, we discover the imaginative and artistic expression of a multiplicity of people united by nationality, diversified by ethnicity and cultural identity, religion, social and economic class, political conviction, region. It is hoped that this Encyclopedia serves as a useful reference work and may itself be considered a lasting contribution to the very literature it surveys.

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About the Author:

Steven R. Serafin is a leading authority on modern world literature. He is general editor of The Continuum Encyclopedia of American Literature as well as general editor of the new edition of the Encyclopedia of World Literature in the 20th Century and the supplement to Modern Black Writers, as well as the Dictionary of Literary Biography series. With Chukwuma Azuonye, Serafin is coeditor of The Columbia Anthology of African Literature. He is affiliated with Hunter College of The City University of New York.

From Booklist:

This is a one-volume snapshot of the current canon of American literature, its development, its luminaries, and its legacy of "commonality and diversity." It is intended as a comprehensive survey of literature from colonial times to the present, "that is by definition American in scope."

The editors, one an editor of other important reference works such as titles in the Dictionary of Literary Biography series and the other the founder of the American Literature Association, have gathered more than 300 contributors to write 1,100 biographical and critical articles and 70 topical essays. The former vary in length and coverage depending on the prominence of the subject (for example, F. Scott Fitzgerald earns more than twice the space as Isaac Asimov), but they have the same basic elements: birth and death dates and places, a critical examination of the subject's life and works, a summary paragraph that justifies the subject's inclusion in the encyclopedia, and a brief bibliography of further reading. The topical entries are much more focused on the development and influence of a genre, region, or theme. Examples are African American literature, the detective story, language and dialect, modernism, and the South. The entry on science fiction is about 1,500 words and surveys the history of the genre, beginning with the early versions (Mary Shelley and Jules Verne) before focusing on the genre's development in America from Hugo Gernsback's Ralph 124C 41+ (1911) to Gregory Benford's Cosm (1998). Index entries are primarily personal names, although some groups of writers (cyberpunk fiction, writers of; expatriates) are also listed. For individuals, index entries provide birth and death dates in addition to page numbers.

This volume is less comprehensive than The Oxford Companion to American Literature [RBB O 1 95], now in its sixth edition. Oxford has more than 5,000 entries and includes characters, titles, and more topical entries, in addition to authors. Entries in Encyclopedia of American Literature, on the other hand, are generally longer: almost a page for Grace Paley, as opposed to seven lines in Oxford; five pages on romance, which Oxford covers in 15 lines. Both volumes treat authors not found in the other. Encyclopedia of American Literature is a worthy addition to literature reference collections in academic and public libraries.

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