Displaying the top 100 results that match your query. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/rssapi.jsp?Re=3295&N=3+5205+4294965993&No=40 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=481673 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=430380 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=560129 Hispanic literature in the United States is covered from the Spanish colonial period to the present. A detailed historical overview and a separate survey of Hispanic drama provide researchers and general readers with indispensable information and insight into Hispanic literature. An extensive chronology traces the development of Hispanic literature and culture in the United States from 1942 to 2002, providing the context within which such Hispanic writers such as Sandra Cisneros, Rodolfo Anaya, and Oscar Hijuelos have worked. Biographical entries describe the careers, importance, and major works of notable Hispanic novelists, poets, and playwrights writing in English or Spanish. A comprehensive up-to-date bibliography lists primary sources. Essays detail the most important past and current trends in Hispanic literature, including bilingualism, Chicaho literature, childrens literature, exile literature, folklore, immigrant literature. Nuyorican literature, poetry and women and feminism in Hispanic literature. More than 100 exceptional illustrations of writers, plays in performance, and first editions of important works are included.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=443441 Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance is guide to a colorful and significant era in African-American history. The book includes an introduction; A-to-Z entries; a chronology, a glossary of slang; a bibliography and lists of sources for further reading, listening, and viewing; a subject index; a general index; 12 maps; and more than 105 black-and-white photographs.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=481731 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=492398 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=442505 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=450623 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=418239 When We Arrive integrates Early American Studies and Chicano/a Studies into a comparative cultural framework by using the Puritan connection to shed new light on dominant images of Chicano/a narrative, such as Aztlan and the borderlands. Aranda explores the influence of a nationalized Puritan ethos on nineteenth and twentieth-century writers of Mexican descent, particularly upon constructions of ethnic identity and aesthetic values. He then frames the rise of contemporary Chicano/a literature within a critical body of work produced from the 1930s through the 1950s, one that combines a Puritan myth of origins with a literary history in which American literature is heralded as the product and producer of social and political dissent.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=445294 This three-volume set for high school and above covers American literature from the colonial period through the 20th century. Presented in three chronological volumes and arranged alphabetically within each one, entries (mostly half a page long) include writers, works, literary movements, characters, and influential historical events. Volume I (the revolutionary era from 1607-1814, by Carol Berkin, Baruch College) deals with the beginnings of American literature and its relationship to the events of the period. Volume II (the age of romanticism and realism, 1815-1914, by Lisa Paddock, author of scholarly articles on literature) describes the maturing of the American romantic movement. Volume III (the modern and postmodern period from 1915, by Carl Rollyson, Baruch College) addresses major social and political changes reflected by the literature of that time. About 1,500 entries on writers present key biographical facts, short descriptions of their works and critical evaluations, and the writers significance. Each volume includes bibliographies, an index, and a chronology. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=445603 In this fresh and surprising book, the Beats are revealed in a collection of 100 candid photos, unexpected essays, and pop culture depictions. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=398422 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=490702 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=431750 Karolides (English, U. of Wisconsin-River Falls) is the author of 100 Banned Books (Checkmark Books, 1999) and Censored Books (Scarecrow, 1993). As with Censored Books, the aim of this new volume is to provide rationales for teachers and other citizens in defense of frequently censored/challenged books. In this text, authors, librarians and teachers discuss 65 such books, including works of fiction and non-fiction, for children, adolescents and adults. Each essay discusses why the book should be read; to whom it should be recommended; the essayists impressions and interpretations of the text, of the concepts, and emotions the reader might experience; and reasons why the book has been challenged. Indexed by book author and title only. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=398301 Intended for students of fiction, poetry, drama, nonfiction and song lyrics in grade level 6 through high school, this 13-volume reference presents information about the most influential and significant 20th century writers of Canada and the U.S. Contributions by members of the literature faculty of various universities are arranged alphabetically and range from four to about 30 pages in length. Each begins with a summary of important facts about the author, followed by a brief statement of his or her place and significance in American literature, an extended discussion of relevant and/or outstanding life events, and a time-line. The next section focuses on what issues the particular author raised, recurrent themes, character development and other particulars. It also includes a bibliography, a sidebar highlighting important inspirations in the writers life, and lists of major publications. Finally, the articles deal at length with the authors notable and representative published works, followed by a brief summary of other writings and a list of resources. Color and b&w photographs and reproductions of art works and book covers support the text. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=444492 Borderlands -- especially the United States-Mexico borderland -- have long served as backgrounds for depicting social instability. And borders -- or magic curtains -- have readily been fashioned into exotic backdrops for films, novels, ballads, and tales in which characters shift easily from one culture to another. The protagonists are equally at home in both societies, or, at worst, at home in neither. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=397354 A collection of compelling interviews by Karin Rosa Ikas with ten Mexican-American writers fills a void in Chicana studies, womens studies, and ethnic studies scholarship. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=445302 There are many anthologies of southern literature, but this is the first companion. Neither a survey of masterpieces nor a biographical sourcebook, The Companion to Southern Literature treats every conceivable topic found in southern writing from the pre-Columbian era to the present, referencing specific works of all periods and genres. Top scholars in their fields offer original definitions and examples of the concepts they know best, identifying the themes, burning issues, historical personalities, beloved icons, and common or uncommon stereotypes that have shaped the most significant regional literature in memory. Read the copious offerings straight through in alphabetical order (Ancestor Worship, Blue-Collar Literature, Caves) or skip randomly at whim (Guilt, The Grotesque, William Jefferson Clinton). Whatever approach you take, The Companions authority, scope, and variety in tone and interpretation will prove a boon and a delight. Explored here are literary embodiments of the Old South, New South, Solid South, Savage South, Lazy South, and Sahara of the Bozart. As up-to-date as grit lit, K Mart fiction, and postmodernism, and as old-fashioned as Puritanism, mules, and the tall tale, these five hundred entries span a reach from Lady to Lesbian Literature. The volume includes an overview of every southern states belletristic heritage while making it clear that the southern mind extends beyond geographical boundaries to form an essential component of the American psyche. The Souths lavishly rich literature provides the best means of understanding the regions deepest nature, and The Companion to Southern Literature will be an invaluable tool for those who take on that exciting challenge.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=373312 Compiled in response to emerging transnational perspectives in American Studies, this comprehensive and imaginative anthology brings together a rich variety of works of colonial literature from across the Americas, covering the period from first contact, through to settlement and the emergence of national identities, with an emphasis on the American Revolutionary period. The editors weave together a diverse collection of exploration and travel accounts, epic, occasional and meditational poetry, histories and narratives, ballads, journal entries, oral narratives, letters, and essays to illustrate the depth and breadth of American colonial cultures. Most texts are presented in their original form from first editions. Alongside the standard English colonial texts, works from Native American, Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Dutch and Italian sources are also included, some newly translated into English, such as Manuel da Nobregas Dialogue for the Conversion of the Indians. The volume features a generous selection of texts from New Spain, New France, New Netherland, the Middle Atlantic region and the Chesapeake and Indies, which are rarely brought together. It includes works not usually collected, like Benjamin Churchs Entertaining Passages Relating to King Philips War, and gives a special emphasis to writing by women. These selections, extensively annotated, expand the range of what is usually considered American literature, and offer a unique comparative perspective. This collection enables students and general readers to examine the phenomenon of colonialism across the Americas, both in general terms and in its specific consequences for Native American culture, and for European explorers and settlers.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=323189 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=380249 Perfect for browsing or study, this book is a fascinating guide to Americas greatest writers beginning in the early 1600s and continuing through contemporary authors. The dictionary is the official companion to the C-SPAN series American Writers: A Journey Through History. 150+ photos. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=368345 An introduction to Robert Cormiers book, I am the Cheese, discussing the authors life, the impact of the book, plot, cast of characters, and literary criticism. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=400251 Comprehensive and totally energizing, this guide bursts with supportive topics such as finding a voice, getting to know literary ancestors, and overcoming a bruised ego and finding the determination to pursue dreams. It is a uniquely nurturing and informative touchstone for affirming, bearing witness, leaving a legacy, and celebrating the remarkable journey of the self. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=388636 Hundreds of alphabetically arranged entries synthesize the most important facts and ideas about American literature of the sea and Great Lakes from colonial times to the present. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=377093 In this companion anthology to The Portable Beat Reader, Charters brings together more than 75 essays, reviews, poems, and sketches that evoke the credos and controversies of the Beat generation writers of the 1950s. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=389589 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=377609 This award-winning series systematically presents career biographies of writers from all eras and all genres through volumes dedicated to specific types of literature and time periods. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=566338 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=373542 The first collection of essays dedicated exclusively to Latino literature from across the United States geared to the needs of students and teachers. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=317349 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=322664 African American Writers examines a multitude of black cultural leaders from the 18th century to the present as it focuses on novelists, essayists, scholars, activists, critics, teachers, poets, playwrights, and songwriters. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=291432 Best Literature By and About Blacks deals exclusively with literature written by blacks and about blacks. Designed to help students and researchers identify what to read next in black literature. This resource helps users quickly locate the most significant works of literature, both current and classical. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=326630 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=328066 This new edition contains more than 600 entirely new entries, to reflect the new figures and issues of English literature in the new millennium, and the existing entries have been extensively revised and updated to incorporate the latest scholarhip. But it remains faithful to Sir Paul Harveys original vision of an authoritative work placing English literature in its widest context: no other volume offers such extensive exploration of the classical roots of English literature and the European authors and works that influenced its development, in recognition of the fact that literature in English cannot and should not be divorced from the cultural context from which it grew. Also updated are the invaluable appendices, including the major literary awards and their winners and a full chronology spanning a thousand years of English literature, from Beowulf to the present day. Informed by the latest scholarly thinking, and comprehensively cross-referenced to guide the reader to topics of related interest.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=295647 Traditionally, the canon of American literature assumed that most significant authors were men. In truth, many women writers have contributed throughout the United Statess literary history. From Anne Bradstreet to Anne Rice, A to Z of American Women Writers examines more than 150 American women of letters whose tremendous influence and talent have educated, entertained, and enlightened readers worldwide. This volume explores the lives of such women as: Mary Rowlandson, whose account of her captivity by Indians displayed the horrors of colonial American wars between colonists and Native Americans and her spiritual journey while in captivity; Harriet Jacobs, whose personal slave narrative has become the classic account of the terrors African-American women faced during slavery; Harriet Beecher Stowe, whose book Uncle Toms Cabin was instrumental in sparking the Civil War; Dorothy Parker, whose sarcastic witticisms, scathing theater reviews, satirical and melancholic poems and short stories, and classic film screenplays have left an indelible mark on American culture and language; Pearl S. Buck, whose novels of the trials of Chinese peasants earned her the Nobel Prize for literature, making her the first American woman ever to receive that award; Maxine Hong Kingston, whose semiautobiographical experimental novels have become classic texts of the Asian-American experience; and many other women. This book is a resource for anyone interested in womens studies and the history of American literature.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=315993 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=300180 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=329027 Platicas: Conversations with Hispano Writers of New Mexico is a series of interviews with six contemporary Hispano writers from that New Mexico tradition. The conversations found here represent a sketch of New Mexican Hispanic intellectual and artistic history that has not been assembled elsewhere. Nasario Garcias interviews elicit candid commentary and spontaneous responses that reveal much about life experiences, the creative process, and the unique role that culture, tradition, and geography play in the literature that these writers have produced. Students of Hispanic literature already familiar with these authors will discover fresh insights and new information, and new readers will be enticed to discover and explore this wealth of creative literary talent unique to New Mexico.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=286838 What is African American literary art? Is it functional, or propaganda, or is it art for arts sake? What are the responsibilities of African American writers to their art forms, to themselves, and to their audiences? And what are the responsibilities of the audiences? Who shall judge it, and by what criteria shall it be judged? In African American Literary Criticism, 1773 to 2000, Hazel Arnett Ervin has assembled 60 critical statements that address these questions, ranging from public addresses to literary manifestos and credos, letters, journal entries, interviews, reviews, and studies by thinkers who have analyzed and evaluated literature and developed theory. Authors include W. E. B. Du Bois, Charles Chesnutt, Langston Hughes, Ann Petry, Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, Amiri Baraka, Toni Morrison, Houston Baker, Henry Louis Gates, Alice Walker, bell hooks, and many others. Each statement is preceded by a short headnote annotating the writers thesis and setting the tone for critical reading and thinking; following each statement is a list of sources for further study on the topic. For scholars, students, and critics who are interested in ongoing discussions not only about the function of art, the role of the writer, and the artistic responsibility of the audience, but also about the epistemology, aesthetics, and methodology within a vibrant literary tradition, this reader is an essential source.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=283878 An encyclopedia of Native American literatures featuring articles on individual authors, on individual works, on important characters in works, and on terms and events of historical significance that figure in many of the works. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=274354 These interviews showcase three Native writers in dialogue with a European critic who becomes their partner in exploring individual and tribal identity, cultural survival and exploitation, and writing techniques. From Hartwig Isernhagens unique perspective, readers survey the growth of Native writing in the United States and Canada within the context of indigenous world literature. All three writers responded to the same series of questions by their European interviewer. The dialogues show how three major figures assess the contribution of modernism, post-modernism, and the realist tradition to contemporary Native literature.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=325145 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=283808 A highly personal collection of intelligent essays and stunning photos that illuminate the phenomena that came to be known as the Beat Generation. 45 photos. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=282486 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=278478 Let Yale University professor Harold Bloom--author of The Western Canon and a leading authority on literature--help develop your understanding of the worlds great literary works. Unlike other study guides, Blooms ReViews offers a wide selection of critical analyses by renowned scholars, as well as concise biographical and bibliographical information and a comprehensive thematic discussion of the plot--all in one handbook. The ideal aid to all students, Blooms ReViews is a definitive guide for independent study and a single source for footnoting essays and research papers. Book jacket.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=267926 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=278526 This definitive compendium of original and classic writing, photographs and drawings will establish itself as a must-have for readers interested in the Beats and in the evolution of American culture. The list of contributors is star-studded: from Ann Douglas to Joyce Johnson to Mikal Gilmore to Douglas Brinkley to Michael McClure to Johnny Depp to Patti Smith to Graham Parker to Lee Ranaldo to Richard Hell - the list goes on - the book is a whos who of writers and artists writing on a movement they belonged to, or that in some way inspired them.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=325130 The 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 author entries, this Encyclopedia serves as both guide and companion to the study and appreciation of American literature. Readers will also discover 70 topical articles covering topics such as African American literature, feminism, modernism, the South and more. All topical and biographical entries are cross-referenced and linked to the author and subject index. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=274908 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=323129 With analysis, factual contextual information, and historical documents, this book provides a detailed, but broad perspective on the most destructive event in history. Along with interviews with literary luminaries that personalize the war and help to make connections between the literature and the actual experiences of those involved, Meredith also provides rare historical documents that enhance the readers understanding of the military and political strategies of the major forces of the war. Each chapter provides a literary analysis of the most relevant literature for students on the topic of that chapter, followed by a historical overview of the aspect of the war that will aid the student to understand the historical context of the literature. This comprehensive casebook will be valuable for interdisciplinary study of World War II and the literature from that period most frequently taught in high school English and history classes.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=268927 For added value, Asian Literature provides introductory essays that track the development and trends in Asian and Asian American literature, photographs, a map of East Asia and an annotated table of contents that helps students quickly identify specific authors. Title, author, genre and nationality indexes help speed research. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=155910 W. E. B. DuBois elegantly dissected the double consciousness of African Americans; with similiar insight and vision, bell hooks untangles the complex personae of women writers, especially those whose work goes against the grain. Born and raised in the rural South, hooks learned early the power of the written word and the importance off speaking her mind. This passion for words is the heartbeat of this contemplative collection of essays. Remembered Rapture celebrates literacy, the joys of reading and writing - the lasting power of the book. Once again, these essays reveal bell hookss wide-ranging intellectual scope - a universal writer addressing readers and writers everywhere.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=282315 In his books The Great Plains, The Great Frontier, and The Texas Rangers, historian Walter Prescott Webb created an enduring image of fearless, white, Anglo male settlers and lawmen bringing civilization to an American Southwest plagued with savage Indians and Mexicans. So popular was Webbs vision that it influenced generations of historians and artists in all media and effectively silenced the counter-narratives that Mexican American writers and historians were concurrently producing to claim their standing as gente decente, people of worth. These counter-narratives form the subject of Leticia M. Garza-Falcons study. She explores how prominent writers of Mexican descent - such as Jovita Gonzalez, Americo Paredes, Maria Cristina Mena, Fermina Guerra, Beatriz de la Garza, and Helena Maria Viramontes - have used literature to respond to the dominative history of the United States, which offered retrospective justification for expansionist policies in the Southwest and South Texas. Garza-Falcon shows how these counter-narratives capture a body of knowledge and experience excluded from official histories, whose facts often emerged more from literary techniques than from objective analysis of historical data. Garza-Falcon also draws on previously unused primary sources, including interviews and literature, to present a unique social-class analysis based on historical notions of identity and experience. Unlike traditional literary analysis, her work offers significant insights into the ongoing failure of the U.S. public education system to address the needs of children of Texas-Mexican (borderlands) ancestry.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=124564 Critical perspectives on works by Rudolfo A. Anaya, Nash Candelaria, and Richard Rodriguez. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=287081 The first Oxford Companion to English Literature, edited by Sir Paul Harvey, was published in 1932 and quickly established itself as the standard source of reference for scholars, students, and general readers alike. In 1985, under the editorship of Margaret Drabble, this well-loved text was thoroughly and sensitively revised to bring it up to date without losing its essential character, or the lightness of touch that made it such a pleasure to dip into. Since then it has been continually updated and revised to ensure that it remains an indispensable and authoritative companion, illuminating Chaucer, Wendy Cope, and everything in between. This new revision contains 15 entirely new survey articles by distinguished writers, addressing some of the key concepts and genres in modern literature, from Structuralism to Fantasy Literature.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=128792 In this groundbreaking work, author Blake Allmendinger redefines western literature. Citing works by women and children, religious minorities and people of color long ignored, Allmendinger reflects western literatures creative diversity from the Civil War to the present and shows how the West and the Frontier continue to shape modern culture. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=62483 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=261050 Now it is My Turn to Stand. At Acoma Pueblo meetings, members rise and announce their intention to speak. In that moment they are recognized and heard. In Speaking for the Generations, Acoma Pueblo poet Simon Ortiz brings together contemporary Native American writers to take their turn. Each offers an evocation of herself or himself, describing the personal, social, and cultural influences on her or his development as a writer. Although each writers viewpoint is personal and unique, together they reflect the rich tapestry of todays Native literature.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=566330 Popular images of women in Mexico - conveyed through literature and, more recently, film and television - were long restricted to either the stereotypically submissive wife and mother or the demonized fallen woman. But new representations of women and their roles in Mexican society have shattered the ideological mirrors that reflected these images. This book explores this major change in the literary representation of women in Mexico. Maria Elena de Valdes enters into a selective examination of literary representation in its social context and a contestatory engagement of both the literary text and its place in the social reality of Mexico. Some of the topics she considers are Carlos Fuentes and the subversion of the social codes for women; the poetic ties between Sor Juana Ines de la Crus and Octavio Paz; questions of female identity in the writings of Rosario Castellanos, Luisa Josefina Hernandez, Maria Luisa Puga, and Elena Poniatowska; the Chicana writing of Sandra Cisneros; and the postmodern celebration - without reprobation - of being a woman in Laura Esquivels Like Water for Chocolate.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=89704 The writings of Asian-American women - whether born in America or transplanted from China, Japan, the Philippines, or India - have continued to reflect the complexities of their authors cultural milieus, the stories set in places as disparate as Japanese internment camps in Arizona, flamboyant Manila under Marcos, and the Chinatowns of California. Likewise, these writings have continued to reflect the ambiguities of their authors identities, the tensions of a female consciousness caught between cultures. The very voices of these stories - from Wongs polite autobiographical she and Yamamotos double telling to the splinters in Kingstons voice and Hagedorns polyglot - tell of the richness of writing by Asian-American women thus far.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=228757 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=33955 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=251490 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=217976 In his deeply felt new book, Andrew Delbanco -- author of the much praised Death of Satan (FSG, 1996) -- shows why these classic American writers remain indispensable in our age of uncertainty over what constitutes our common heritage. Required Reading is a work of gratitude and urgency, for, as Delbanco says, I have no doubt that the world is better for these books having been written, and I believe it is the responsibility of the critic to incite others to read them. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=81791 The Oxford Companion to African American Literature provides the first comprehensive one-volume reference work devoted to this rich tradition, surveying the length and breadth of black literary history, focusing in particular on the lives and careers of more than 400 writers. Here, too, are general articles on the traditional literary genres, such as poetry, fiction, and drama; on genres of special import in African American letters, such as autobiography, slave narratives, Sunday school literature, and oratory; and on a wide spectrum of related topics, including journalism, the black periodical press, major libraries and research centers, religion, literary societies, womens clubs, and various publishing enterprises. Finally, the five-part, fifteen-page essay, Literary History, captures the full sweep of African American writing in the United States, from the colonial and early national eras right up to the present day. The Companion also features a comprehensive subject index; extensive cross-referencing; and bibliographies after almost every article.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=231378 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=238021 Loyalty to the community is the highest value in Native American cultures, argues Jace Weaver. In That the People Might Live, he explores a wide range of Native American literature from 1768 to the present, taking this sense of community as both a starting point and a lens. Weaver considers some of the best known Native American writers, such as Leslie Marmon Silko, Gerald Vizenor, and Vine Deloria, as well as many others who are receiving critical attention here for the first time. He contends that the single thing that most defines these authors writings, and makes them deserving of study as a literature separate from the national literature of the United States, is their commitment to Native community and its survival. He terms this commitment communitism - a fusion of community and activism. The Native American authors are engaged in an ongoing quest for community and write out of a passionate commitment to it. They write, literally that the People might live.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=231838 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=77994 ABC-CLIOs Encyclopedia of Southern Literature surveys the regions major authors, works, movements, genres, and themes as a method of illustrating its contributions to American and world literature. The alphabetically arranged entries contain biographical and literary history along with bibliographic citations, critical commentary, and cross-references. Major works such as I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Gone with the Wind, and Black Boy appear in separate entries. There are also extended essays on women in Southern literature, Robert E. Lee, humor, protest literature, the Mississippi River, the frontier tradition, the colonial and Civil War periods, theater, and regional writers. Emphasis is given to women writers, diarists, young adult literature, African-American writers, and recent bestsellers. A list of home states indicates the authors from each Southern state as well as the many writers born outside the region, including Fanny Kemble, Alex Haley, Ralph Ellison, Jackie Torrence, and Edgar Allan Poe. Other study aids include a list of major works and their publication dates, a chronology of cinematic versions of major titles, and a listing of primary sources. Student researchers, genealogists, folklorists, librarians and general readers will appreciate this compelling, definitive reference work on the American Souths contribution to the American and world literature.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=248956 The Encyclopedia of Frontier Literature surveys 400 years of North American frontier literature. Within this literary context, the roles of women and minorities are given special attention, as is the expansion of the American West. The sheer scope of frontier literature is striking; this genre belongs as much to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and James Fenimore Cooper as it does to Willa Cather and Jessamyn West. From novels, short stories, and poetry to theater, oratory, outdoor dramas, songs, biographies, diaries, journals, and logbooks, frontier literature is characterized and unified by its rich expression of human experience. In the 94 alphabetized entries in this volume, readers will find dozens of authors and hundreds of works represented, as well as biographies, key concepts, terms, geographic locations, literary motifs, and dominant themes, including Explorers of the Frontier, Law and Order, Native Americans in Literature, Naturalists, and Poetry of the Frontier.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=183979 Masterpieces of Womens Literature features critical summaries and descriptions of the greatest works of literature by women authors. All the important facts and dates of authorship, along with analyses of characters, settings, themes, and plots, are included for works in every genre, including autobiographies, novels, poetry, plays, essays, and short stories. Containing works by women of all eras and backgrounds, this book covers everything from Emily Brontes Wuthering Heights to Germaine Greers The Female Eunuch, from Harriet Beecher Stowes Uncle Toms Cabin to Alice Walkers The Color Purple, as well as works by many lesser-known writers. The most in-depth reference of its kind, Masterpieces of Womens Literature is an indispensable guide for students and anyone interested in womens voices, throughout history as well as today.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=278430 Includes a brief biography of the author, thematic and structural analysis of the work, critical views, and an index of themes and ideas. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=188588 Includes a brief biography of John Steinbeck, thematic and structural analysis of the work, critical views, and an index of themes and ideas. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=82415 A compact version of the authoritative and acclaimed Cambridge Guide to Literature in English. Over 4000 entries provide quick and easy reference to writers and works from the classics of English literature to the best of modern writing; literature in English from around the world; novelists, poets, playwrights, critics, journalists, essayists; literary concepts, rhetorical terms, movements, groups; and detective writing, science fiction, childrens literature.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=281827 Includes a brief biography of the author, thematic and structural analysis of the work, critical views, and an index of themes and ideas. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=131521 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=278429 Includes a brief biography of the author, thematic and structural analysis of the work, critical views, and an index of themes and ideas. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=254709 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=280732 Includes a brief biography of the author, thematic and structural analysis of the work, critical views, and an index of themes and ideas. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=329022 The text provides an interpretative base for readers seeking a greater understanding of gothic writing and the literature of terror. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=231407 Women Writers in the United States is a celebration of the many forms of work - written and social, tangible and intangible - produced by American women. Furthering their work in The Oxford Companion to Womens Writing in the United States, Davis and West document the variety and volume of womens work in the United States in a clear and accessible timeline format. They present information on the full spectrum of womens writing - including fiction, poetry, biography, political manifestos, essays, advice columns, and cookbooks - alongside a chronology of developments in social and cultural history that are especially pertinent to womens lives. This extensive chronology illustrates the diversity of women who have lived and written in the United States and creates a sense of the full trajectory of individual careers. A valuable and rich source of information on womens studies, literature, and history, Women Writers in the United States will enable readers to locate familiar and unfamiliar womens texts and to place them in the context out of which they emerged.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=254366 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=180864 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=146626 A region where dances for rain and prayers to the santos mix with New Age and high-tech jargon has produced some of the most exciting writing in America today. The common thread that links such writers as Edward Abbey, Tony Hillerman, Joy Harjo, Barbara Kingsolver, and Terry McMillan is an understanding of the interplay between humans and the earth. This compelling collection offers outstanding selections of contemporary Southwestern literature along with a biographical profile, a bibliography, and an original interview with each of the fourteen authors included. Here are the words of rangy Frank Waters, who at ninety-three is still the dean of Western writers; the rhythms of Navajo songs, in the poetry of Native American Luci Tapahonso; the political, highly charged prose of John Nichols, in his classic The Milagro Beanfield War; and the magical realism of Rudolfo Anaya, one of the founders of Chicano literature. Diverse in style and focus, the authors of the Southwest are united by a sense of place and an awareness of the heritage and textures of this multicultural, multilingual land.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=81700 Concisely told and full of fascinating detail, The Birth of the Beat Generation chronicles the life and times of the maverick poets and novelists William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, and Jack Kerouac, as well as the San Francisco group, which included Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Gary Snyder. It also evokes the figures surrounding them, including Neal Cassady, Gregory Corso, Herbert Huncke, and Peter Orlovsky. This is the first book to link the Beats to one another, explaining how they became a group and tracing the connections between Beat lives and such Beat literature as Kerouacs On the Road, Ginsbergs Howl and Other Poems, and Burroughs Naked Lunch. Accompanying the text are maps, more than one hundred photographs, two sociograms, quotations from Beat works and conversation, chronologies, and a vast lexicon of the slang that defines the nuances and complexities of the Beat world and mind.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=786538 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=200105 Following a historical overview, this book presents works by Piri Thomas, Sandra Cisneros, Nicholasa Mohr, Robert Fernandez, Luis Omar Salinas, Angelo de Hoyos, Pat Mora, Sandra Maria Esteves, and Martin Espada, among others. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=128117 New York Citys immensity, diversity, and drive have long been a magnet for American artists. Literary historian Shaun OConnell brings this legacy to life in Unspeakable New York. Analyzing the work of more than one hundred New York writers, OConnell shows how established members of the literary pantheon (Henry James, Edith Wharton, Walt Whitman, James Baldwin, Dorothy Parker, Saul Bellow), contemporary writers (Bret Easton Ellis, Oscar Hijuelos, E.L. Doctorow, Lynne Sharon Schwartz), and some surprising names from the past (Horatio Alger, Jacob Riis) have responded to the Citys unique demands and opportunities. Remarkable, Unspeakable New York draws on works of fiction, drama, memoir, poetry, and travel writing to build a new understanding of New Yorks place in the American imagination.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=27565 Curious about the lives of Auden, Tennessee Williams, Hemingway, or Samuel Beckett? Need to know when James Baldwin published Notes of a Native Son? A Readers Guide to Twentieth-Century Writers provides the answers. More than 1,000 biographical entries profile novelists, short-story writers, poets, and playwrights from the United States, Canada, Britain and Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, India, Africa, and the Caribbean. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=151791 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=146748 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=258245 By restoring interracial dimensions left out of accounts of the Harlem Renaissance-or blamed for corrupting it-George Hutchinson transforms our understanding of black (and white) literary modernism, interracial literary relations, and twentieth-century cultural nationalism in the United States. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=157322 For the sixth edition, James D. Hart and Phillip Leininger have updated the Companion in light of what has happened in American literature since 1982. To this end, they have revised the entries on such established authors as Saul Bellow, Norman Mailer, and Joyce Carol Oates, and they have added more than 180 new entries on novelists (T. Coraghessan Boyle, Tim OBrien, Louise Erdrich, Don De Lillo), poets (Rita Dove, Weldon Kees), playwrights (Wendy Wasserstein, August Wilson), popular writers (Stephen King, Louis LAmour), historians (James M. McPherson, David Herbert Donald, William Manchester), naturalists (Aldo Leopold, Edward Abbey), and literary critics (Camille Paglia, Richard Ellmann). In addition, the Companion boasts more womens, African-American, and ethnic voices, with new entries on such luminaries as Charlotte Perkins Gilman, M. F. K. Fisher, William Least Heat-Moon, Ursula Le Guin, and Oscar Hijuelos, among many others. With over 5,000 total entries, The Oxford Companion to American Literature reflects a dynamic balance between past and contemporary literature, surveying virtually every aspect of our national literature, from the Pulitzer Prize to pulp fiction, and from Walt Whitman to William F. Buckley, Jr. There are over 2,000 biographical profiles of important American authors (with information regarding their styles, subjects, and major works) and influential foreign writers as well as other figures who have been important in the nations social and cultural history. There are more than 1,100 full summaries of important American novels, stories, essays, poems (with verse form noted), plays, biographies and autobiographies, tracts, narratives, and histories. The new edition provides historical background and astute commentary on literary schools and movements, literary awards, magazines, newspapers, and a wide variety of other matters directly related to writing in America. Finally, the book is thoroughly cross-referenced and features an extensive and fully updated index of literary and social history.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=87043 Here is a gold mine of information about womens writing, womens history, and womens concerns - 771 entries, ranging from short biographies to extensive essays. The Oxford Companion to Womens Writing in the United States provides a comprehensive, authoritative, and highly informative survey of women writers and their work as it also illuminates the issues that fired their imaginations. The volume boasts contributions by many of todays well-known cultural and literary critics, including Susan Faludi writing on backlash, Deborah Tannen on communication between the sexes, Jane Gallop on Lacanian psychoanalysis, Sidonie Smith on autobiography, Trudier Harris on passing, Nancy Armstrong on daughters, and Rachel Blau DuPlessis on poetry. There are over four hundred biographical profiles of not only important poets, novelists, and playwrights (including such contemporary figures as Wendy Wasserstein, Louise Erdrich, Anne Tyler, Amy Tan, Alice Walker, Annie Dillard, Joyce Carol Oates, Adrienne Rich, Toni Morrison, and Tama Janowitz), but also of women writers who have made important contributions in other fields - Margaret Mead, Betty Friedan, Rachel Carson, and Susan B. Anthony. Perhaps most important, there is extensive coverage of the many personal, cultural, and historical issues that have been explored by, and have influenced the lives and productivity of, women writers: race and racism, violence and sexual harassment, health, AIDS, the Civil War, the womens movement, and much more. There is also coverage of the publishing world (womens bookstores and presses), the art and practice of writing, and contemporary literary criticism (including deconstruction, black feminism, and lesbian literary theory).--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=88375 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=122341 In this collection of fourteen essays, Anne Scott MacLeod locates and describes shifts in the American concept of childhood as those changes are suggested in nearly two centuries of childrens stories. A social historian and literary critic of genuine insight, MacLeod has helped to pioneer an approach to American culture through the childrens literature that arises from it: When I read books written for children, MacLeod comments in her preface, I look for authors views, certainly, but I also try to discover what the culture is saying about itself, about the present and the future, and about the nature and purposes of childhood....Childrens books dont mirror their culture, but they do always, no matter how indirectly, convey some of its central truths. Most of the essays concern domestic novels for children - stories set more or less in the time of their publication and meant for adolescent and teen readers. Some essays also draw creatively on childhood memoirs, travel writings that contain foreigners observations of American children, and other studies of childrens literature. MacLeod looks beyond the books to their unwritten subtexts - to the interplay between writers adherence to conventions, their own memories of youth, and their adult concerns. She probes as well the tension between the literal, superficial images and themes of the stories and the realities of the surrounding culture. Beading across historical periods, MacLeod traces changes in our attitudes toward children and shows how they have paralleled or departed from the characteristic tone of each era. The topics on which she writes range from the recently politicized marketplace for childrens books to the reestablishment (and reconfiguration) of the family in the latest childrens fiction to the ways that literature challenges or enforces the idealization of children. MacLeod sometimes considers a single authors canon, as when she discusses the feminism of the Nancy Drew mystery series or the Orwellian vision of Robert Cormier. At other times, she looks at a variety of works within a particular period, for example, Jacksonian America, the post-World War II decade, or the 1970s. MacLeod examines anew books that she feels have been too quickly dismissed - the Horatio Alger stories, for example - and finds fresh, intriguing ways to view the work of such well-known writers as Louisa May Alcott, Beverly Cleary, and Paul Zindel. Five of the essays in American Childhood have never before been published; four of the remaining essays have been substantially revised and expanded since they first appeared. All are a testament to the revelatory powers of childrens literature and to our deep emotional investment in young people.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=133738 This dynamic collection of contemporary short prose, poems, and songs by 44 Native North American authors contains stories about the spirit world, the wilderness, and the joy and sadness of native people in the United States and Canada. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=87458 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=174406 Now students can turn to a single, comprehensive source for biography and criticism of Native North American authors from both the written and oral traditions. Overview essays are followed by author entries that include biographical data, critical material excerpted from books, magazines and literary reviews, a list of further sources and interviews, when available. Other features include photographs, a map showing tribal areas and major cultural groups and indexes to titles, authors genres and major tribal affiliations. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=260470 Barrios and Borderlands paints a portrait of the complex and fascinating mixture of Latino cultures in the United States today. This unique anthology embraces a broad range of genres, disciplines and ethnicities, and highlights the diversity of Latino cultural expressions.