ENGL 203 American Literature: Home

100 Greatest American Plays by Thomas S. Hischak Theatre in America has had a rich history--from the first performance of the Lewis Hallam Troupe in September 1752 to the lively shows of modern Broadway. Over the past few centuries, significant works by American playwrights have been produced, including Abie's Irish Rose, Long Day's Journey into Night, A Streetcar Named Desire, Death of a Salesman, A Raisin in the Sun, Fences, and Angels in America. In 100 Greatest American Plays, Thomas S. Hischak provides an engaging discussion of the best stage productions to come out of the United States. Each play is discussed in the context of its original presentation as well as its legacy. Arranged alphabetically, the entries for these plays include: -plot details -production history -biography of the playwright -literary aspects of the drama -critical reaction to the play -major awards -the play's influence -cast lists of notable stage and film versions The plays have been selected not for their popularity but for their importance to American theatre and include works by Edward Albee, Harvey Fierstein, Lorraine Hansberry, Lillian Hellman, Tony Kushner, David Mamet, Arthur Miller, Eugene O'Neill, Sam Shepard, Neil Simon, Gore Vidal, Wendy Wasserstein, Thornton Wilder, Tennessee Williams, and August Wilson. This informative volume also includes complete lists of Pulitzer Prize winners for Drama, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for American Plays, and the Tony Award for Best Play. Providing critical information about the most important works produced since the eighteenth century, 100 Greatest American Plays will appeal to anyone interested in the cultural history of theatre.

American Literature by Hans Bertens; Theo D'haen This comprehensive history of American Literature traces its development from the earliest colonial writings of the late 1500s through to the present day. This lively, engaging and highly accessible guide: offers lucid discussions of all major influences and movements such as Puritanism, Transcendentalism, Realism, Naturalism, Modernism and Postmodernism draws on the historical, cultural, and political contexts of key literary texts and authors covers the whole range of American literature: prose, poetry, theatre and experimental literature includes substantial sections on native and ethnic American literatures explains and contextualises major events, terms and figures in American history. This book is essential reading for anyone seeking to situate their reading of American Literature in the appropriate religious, cultural, and political contexts.

The Earliest African American Literatures by Zachary McLeod Hutchins (Editor); Cassander L. Smith (Editor) With the publication of the 1619 Project by The New York Times in 2019, a growing number of Americans have become aware that Africans arrived in North America before the Pilgrims. Yet the stories of these Africans and their first descendants remain ephemeral and inaccessible for both the general public and educators. This groundbreaking collection of thirty-eight biographical and autobiographical texts chronicles the lives of literary black Africans in British colonial America from 1643 to 1760 and offers new strategies for identifying and interpreting the presence of black Africans in this early period. Brief introductions preceding each text provide historical context and genre-specific interpretive prompts to foreground their significance. Included here are transcriptions from manuscript sources and colonial newspapers as well as forgotten texts. The Earliest African American Literatures will change the way that students and scholars conceive of early American literature and the role of black Africans in the formation of that literature.

Maya Angelou by Linda Wagner-Martin A comprehensive biographical and critical reading of the works of American poet and memoirist Maya Angelou (1928-2014). Linda Wagner-Martin covers all six of Angelou's autobiographies, as well as her essay and poetry collections, while also exploring Angelou's life as an African American in the United States, her career as stage and film performer, her thoughtful participation in the Civil Rights actions of the 1960s, and her travels abroad in Egypt, Africa, and Europe. In her discussion of Angelou's methods of writing her stunning autobiography, which began with the 1970 publication of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Wagner-Martin writes about the influences of the Harlem Writers Group (led by James Baldwin, Paule Marshall, and John O. Killens) as well as Angelou's significant friendships with Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., and other leaders from both international and African American United States cultures. Crucial concepts throughout include the role of oral traditions, of song and dance, of the spiritualism of art based on religious belief, of Angelou's voiced rhythms and her polished use of dialogue to convey more abstract "meaning." Wagner-Martin shows that, viewing herself as a global citizen, Angelou never lost her spirit of adventure and discovery as well as her ability to overcome.

Native American Literature: a Very Short Introduction by Sean Teuton North American indigenous literature began over thirty thousand years ago when indigenous people began telling stories of emergence and creation, journey and quest, and heroism and trickery. By setting indigenous literature in historical moments, Sean Teuton skillfully traces its evolution from the ancient role of bringing rain and healing the body, to its later purpose in resisting European invasion and colonization, into its current place as a world literature that confronts dominance while celebrating the imagination and resilience of indigenous lives. By the time Europeans arrived in North America indigenous people already understood the power of written language and the need to transmit philosophy, history, and literature across generations and peoples. Seeking out multiple literary forms such as sermon, poetry, and novel to serve differing worldviews, indigenous authors have shaped their writing into North American indigenous literature as we recognize it today. In this lucid narrative, Sean Teuton leads readers into indigenous worlds. He describes the invention of a written indigenous language, the first indigenous language newspaper, and the literary occupation of Alcatraz Island. Along the way readers encounter the diversity of indigenous peoples who, owing to their differing lands, livelihoods, and customs, molded literature to a nation's specific needs. As Teuton shows, indigenous literature is one of the best places for understanding indigenous views about land and society and the role of humanity in the cosmos. In turning to celebrated contemporary authors such as Thomas King, Leslie Silko, Sherman Alexie, Louise Erdrich, and James Welch, Teuton demonstrates that, like indigenous people, indigenous literature continues to survive because it adapts, both honoring the past and reaching for the future.

The Cambridge Companion to Early American Literature by Bryce Traister (Editor) This Companion covers American literary history from European colonization to the early republic. It provides a succinct introduction to the major themes and concepts in the field of early American literature, including new world migration, indigenous encounters, religious and secular histories, and the emergence of American literary genres. This book guides readers through important conceptual and theoretical issues, while also grounding these issues in close readings of key literary texts from early America.

African American Literature by Hans Ostrom (Editor); J. David Macey Jr. (Editor) This essential volume provides an overview of and introduction to African American writers and literary periods from their beginnings through the 21st century. This compact encyclopedia, aimed at students, selects the most important authors, literary movements, and key topics for them to know. Entries cover the most influential and highly regarded African American writers, including novelists, playwrights, poets, and nonfiction writers. The book covers key periods of African American literature--such as the Harlem Renaissance, the Black Arts Movement, and the Civil Rights Era--and touches on the influence of the vernacular, including blues and hip hop. The volume provides historical context for critical viewpoints including feminism, social class, and racial politics. Entries are organized A to Z and provide biographies that focus on the contributions of key literary figures as well as overviews, background information, and definitions for key subjects.

American Literature As World Literature by Jeffrey R. Di Leo (Editor) For better or worse, America lives in the age of "worlded" literature. Not the world literature of nations and nationalities considered from most powerful and wealthy to the least. And not the world literature found with a map. Rather, the worlded literature of individuals crossing borders, mixing stories, and speaking in dialect. Where translation struggles to be effective and background is itself another story. The "worlded" literature of the multinational corporate publishing industry where the global market is all. The essays in this collection, from some of the most distinguished figures in American studies and literature, explore what it means to consider American literature as world literature.

The Black Border and Fugitive Narration in Black American Literature by Paula von Gleich American Frictions presents cutting-edge research in the field of American cultural studies. The series explores manifold complexities and frictions in the Americas, building on existing scholarship and propelling it in new directions. It challenges nation-based approaches by offering perspectives that are polyvocal, including interdisciplinary and transnational viewpoints from North America, the Caribbean, and Europe. Volumes in the series - peer reviewed monographs and collections - delve into literature, culture, theory, and the arts, situating them in historical contexts of global networks and migrations. They contribute to epistemologies of difference, diversity, and inequality, including gender, queer, decolonial, indigenous, and critical race studies.

Encyclopedia of American Literature by Manly, Inc. Susan Clair Imbarrato, Carol Berkin, Brett Barney, Lisa Paddock, Matthew J. Bruccoli, George Parker Anderson, Judith S. Baughman, Carl Rollyson, and Marshall BoswellAdvisory Board:Emory Elliott, University of California, Irvine; Wendy Martin, Harvey Mudd Graduate College; Sandra Adell, University of Wisconsin; Matthew J. Bruccoli, University of South Carolina; Richard Layman, Bruccoli Clark Layman Publishers and Manly, Inc.; and Park Bucker, University of South Carolina-SumterPraise for the print edition:Booklist/RBB Editors' Choice Reference Source...an excellent source for students...and its chronological arrangement offers a different slant. Recommended...--BooklistThe articles are well-written and provide readers with a clear understanding of the topic.--School Library JournalThe writing is clear and direct...useful...--ChoiceAn Extensive Reference That Spans the Entire Scope of American LiteratureEncyclopedia of American Literature, Third Edition is an extensive reference work that spans the entire scope of American literature, from the colonial period to the present. This updated and comprehensive encyclopedia includes entries on writers, works, literary movements, and a variety of other topics.Regionally and culturally inclusive, entries on writers describe key life events, provide thumbnail descriptions of and critical reactions to their works, and discuss the writer's significance in the literary period. Volume I: Settlement to the New Republic, 1607-1815Explores America's literary beginnings and the connections between early American history and the nation's emerging literary tradition--covering the Puritans and their Bay Psalm Book, the Federalists and the United States Constitution, Benjamin Franklin, Phillis Wheatley, and more.Volume II: The Age of Romanticism and Realism, 1816-1895Discusses the writers, works, genres, literary movements, and related historical events of 19th-century America, from the romanticism of Walt Whitman, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Ralph Waldo Emerson to the realism of Mark Twain, Henry James, and William Dean Howells.Volume III: Into the Modern, 1896-1945Defines the evolution of a new American sensibility and brings the modern literary world alive, with entries on Frank Norris; Stephen Crane; Booker T. Washington; F. Scott Fitzgerald; Zora Neale Hurston; The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains; Absalom, Absalom!; and The Waste Land.Volume IV: The Contemporary World, 1946 to the PresentExamines the emergence of new writers and voices and describes the evolving movements that encompass today's literary history--covering Deconstruction, the Beats, Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, gay and lesbian literature, New Journalism, science fiction and fantasy, and more.

The Handy Literature Answer Book by Daniel S. Burt; Deborah G. Felder From the epic of Gilgamesh to Aristotle and Cicero, and from Shakespeare and the King James Bible to Wuthering Heights, War and Peace, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and the Nobel-winning lyrics of Bob Dylan, the world of literature is an integral part of our lives. Great literature can shape and form thoughts and opinions as well as influence politics and predict the future. Reading can truly enrich our lives, but it can sometimes be daunting to get the most out of a great work of literature.

The Sketch, the Tale, and the Beginnings of American Literature by Lydia G. Fash Accounts of the rise of American literature often start in the 1850s with a cluster of "great American novels"--Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Melville's Moby-Dick and Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. But these great works did not spring fully formed from the heads of their creators. All three relied on conventions of short fiction built up during the "culture of beginnings," the three decades following the War of 1812 when public figures glorified the American past and called for a patriotic national literature. Decentering the novel as the favored form of early nineteenth-century national literature, Lydia Fash repositions the sketch and the tale at the center of accounts of American literary history, revealing how cultural forces shaped short fiction that was subsequently mined for these celebrated midcentury novels and for the first novel published by an African American. In the shorter works of writers such as Washington Irving, Catharine Sedgwick, Edgar Allan Poe, and Lydia Maria Child, among others, the aesthetic of brevity enabled the beginning idea of a story to take the outsized importance fitted to the culture of beginnings. Fash argues that these short forms, with their ethnic exclusions and narrative innovations, coached readers on how to think about the United States' past and the nature of narrative time itself. Combining history, print history, and literary criticism, this book treats short fiction as a vital site for debate over what it meant to be American, thereby offering a new account of the birth of a self-consciously national literary tradition.

Social Justice and American Literature by Salem Press Outstanding, in-depth scholarship by renowned literary critics; great starting point for students seeking an introduction to the theme and the critical discussions surrounding it. Social Justice and American Literature will examine the work of Richard Wright, Amy Lowell, Philip Roth, Kate Chopin and James Baldwin among others. Themes that will be dealt with are: gender and feminism; gay writers; Native American, Asian American, and Hispanic/Border writers; Appalachian and socioeconomic justice. Each essay is 2,500 to 5,000 words in length, and all essays conclude with a list of ""Works Cited,"" along with endnotes. Finally, the volume's appendixes offer a section of useful reference resources: About This Volume Critical Context: Original Introductory Essays Critical Readings: Original In-Depth Essays Further Readings Detailed Bibliography Detailed Bio of the Editor General Subject Index

Teaching Western American Literature by Brady Harrison (Editor); Randi Lynn Tanglen (Editor) In this volume experienced and new college- and university-level teachers will find practical, adaptable strategies for designing or updating courses in western American literature and western studies. Teaching Western American Literature features the latest developments in western literary research and cultural studies as well as pedagogical best practices in course development. Contributors provide practical models and suggestions for courses and assignments while presenting concrete strategies for teaching works both inside and outside the canon. In addition, Brady Harrison and Randi Lynn Tanglen have assembled insights from pioneering western studies instructors with workable strategies and practical advice for translating this often complex material for classrooms from freshman writing courses to graduate seminars. Teaching Western American Literature reflects the cutting edge of western American literary study, featuring diverse approaches allied with women's, gender, queer, environmental, disability, and Indigenous studies and providing instructors with entrée into classrooms of leading scholars in the field.