The Genres in Context series investigates and clarifies the continuities and changes within an individual literary genre. Each book includes: an overview of the evolution of the genre, in-depth analyses of four to six exemplary texts, an extensive annotated list of works for further reading, discursive critical bibliography and a chronology of major authors, works and historical events in the development of the genre.
By Robert Foulke
December 21, 2001
From The Odyssey to Moby Dick to The Old Man and the Sea, the long tradition of sea voyage narratives is comprehensively explained here supported by discussions of key texts....
By Casey Blanton
October 04, 2002
Blanton follows the development of travel writing from classical times to the present, focusing in particular on Anglo-American travel writing since the eighteenth century. He identifies significant theoretical and critical contributions to the field, and also examines key texts by James Boswell, ...
By Steven Swann Jones
October 04, 2002
One of the best known and enduring genres, the fairy fales origins extend back to the preliterate oral societies of the ancient world. This books surveys its history and traces its evolution into the form we recognized today. Jones Builds on the work of folklorist and critics to provide the ...
By Don Scheese
October 04, 2002
In this comprehensive study of the genre, Don Scheese traces its evolution from the pastoralism evident in the natural history observations of Aristotle and the poetry of Virgil to current American writers. He documents the emergence of the modern form of nature writing as a reaction to ...
By Charles May
January 02, 2002
The short story is one of the most difficult types of prose to write and one of the most pleasurable to read. From Boccaccio's Decameron to The Collected Stories of Reynolds Price, Charles May gives us an understanding of the history and structure of this demanding form of fiction. Beginning with ...
By Richard Mathews
January 02, 2002
Using a broad definition of fantasy to include myth, folklore, legend and fairy tale, this survey of the genre will entice as well as inform any student interested in the mysterious, mystical or magical. Beloved authors like J. R. R. Tolkien, Ursula K. Le Guin, William Morris and Robert E. Howard ...
By Paul K. Alkon
January 02, 2002
Paul Alkon analyzes several key works that mark the most significant phases in the early evolution of science fiction, including Frankenstein, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, A Connecticut Yankee in King arthur's Court and The Time Machine. He places the work in context and discusses the ...
By Brooks Landon
October 11, 2002
First published in 2003. Brooks Landon analyses science fiction not as a set of rules for writers, but as a set of expectations for readers. He presents science fiction as a social phenomenon that moves beyond literary experience through a sense of mission based on the belief that SF can be a tool ...
By Efraim Sicher
June 06, 2005
The first comprehensive study of Holocaust literature as a major postwar literary genre, The Holocaust Novel provides an ideal student guide to the powerful and moving works written in response to this historical tragedy. This student-friendly volume answers a dire need for readers to understand a ...
By Catherine N. Parke
January 02, 2002
Catherine Parke explores biography through detailed examinations of Samuel Johnson, Virginia Woolf, Langston Hughes, Gertrude Stein and other masters of the genre....