The books in this series – all written by eminent scholars renowned for their teaching abilities – show students how to read, understand, write, and criticize literature. They provide the key skills which every student of literature must master, as well as offering a comprehensive introduction to the field itself.
Published
How to Study Theory Wolfgang Iser
How to Write a Poem John Redmond
How to Read a Shakespeare Play David Bevington
How to Read the Victorian Novel George Levine
How to Read World Literature David Damrosch
Literary Theory A Practical Introduction Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan
THIRD EDITION
This third edition first published 2017
© 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Edition history: Blackwell Publishing Ltd (1e, 1999); Blackwell Publishing Ltd (2e, 2007)
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available for this title
Hardback ISBN: 9781119090021
Paperback ISBN: 9781119061755
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Cover image: Barbara Kruger: Untitled (No Radio), photograph 51″ × 68″, 1988.
Collection Don/Doris Fisher, San Francisco, courtesy Mary Boone Gallery, New York
For E. P. Kuhl and Robert Scholes, for teaching me how to read
This book should be used with the following literary texts:
Elizabeth Bishop, The Complete Poems
Elizabeth Bishop, “In the Village” (see Appendix)
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
Kiran Desai, The Inheritance of Loss
Louise Erdrich, Love Medicine
F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye
Alice Munro, Selected Stories
Alice Munro, Family Furnishings: Selected Stories, 1995–2014
William Shakespeare, King Lear
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
The 1997 National Theatre production of King Lear directed by Richard Eyre and starring Ian Holm is an especially good way to get students to engage with the play. It is available on DVD.