The Prentice Hall Pocket Guide to Understanding Literature - Softcover

Derek Soles

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0130269948 ISBN 13: 9780130269942

Publisher: Prentice Hall, 2001

Synopsis

Combining the elements of an anthology, a writing-about-literature book, and a dictionary of literary terms, this introduction to literary analysis, interpretation, appreciation and theory defines the various literary genres and sub-genres and discusses representative works. The book focuses on how these works exemplify the conventions of each genre and defines all the important literary elements of plot, theme, imagery, and metaphor. Designed to introduce readers to the major literary theories and illustrate the practical application of these methods, the book provides an excellent, short introduction to literary theory, terminology, and appreciation. The author addresses all aspects of character, point of view, setting, theme, metaphor, imagery, symbolism, tone, authors' life and times and an introduction to methods of literary analysis. For individuals interested in a brief, straightforward guide to reading and understanding poetry and drama.

About this title

From the Back Cover

This quick reference Pocket Guide to Understanding Literature provides a user-friendly, student-oriented approach to analyzing and understanding literature.

We are delighted to offer select Penguin Putnam titles at a substantial discount to your students when you request a special package of one or more Penguin titles with any Prentice Hall text. You must contact your Prentice Hall sales representative for special ordering instructions to receive our special package price.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The Prentice Hall Pocket Guide to Understanding Literature is a book for students who want to get a top grade in their college literature classes. It is a brief, straightforward guide to reading and understanding poetry, fiction, and drama.

To succeed in your literature classes, you must know the definitions of the various literary genres and sub-genres. These definitions are presented in Chapters 1, 2, and 3. You must also learn to recognize and discuss the elements of literature: plot, character, point of view, setting, theme, metaphor, imagery, symbolism, and tone. These literary elements are covered in Chapters 4 through 12. You also need to know how a writer's life and times can influence his or her work: biographical and contextual influences are covered in Chapter 13. Finally, you need to know the basics of contemporary literary criticism and theory. Chapter 14 reviews traditional critical approaches to literature and introduces some important contemporary approaches.

To illustrate the information covered in each chapter, The Prentice Hall Pocket Guide to Understanding Literature discusses, within an appropriate literary context, 116 poems, 61 short stories, 8 novels, and 7 plays. I have deliberately selected those poems, stories, and plays that most frequently appear on reading lists in undergraduate literature classes.

The Pocket Guide is, in short, a dictionary of literary teens, a guide to understanding a wide variety poems, stories, and plays that are frequently taught and anthologized, and an introduction to literary theory and criticism. I hope that it will help you do well in your literature course and make the course more interesting and relevant. Derek Soles

Edition details

• Publisher: Prentice Hall
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0130269948
• ISBN 13: 9780130269942
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 180