This compact anthology provides a thorough introduction to the major works of the Western literary tradition from Antiquity to 1700. It includes excerpts from seventy texts composed in eight ancient and modern languages and in genres as diverse as epic, lyric, and dramatic verse; prose narrative including story, romance, and novel; and non-fiction prose including autobiography, biography, letter, speech, dialogue, and essay. Contents include selections from the Hebrew Bible, New Testament, and works by Homer, Euripides, Virgil, Ovid, Saint Augustine, Dante, Chaucer, Machiavelli, Montaigne, Shakespeare, Milton, and many more. Further distinguishing this collection is the inclusion of works by women writers often overlooked in other literary anthologies, including works by Sappho, Margery Kempe, Marie de France, Christine de Pizan, and others. Margaret L. King's clear, engaging introductions and notes support an informed reading of the texts while extending reader's knowledge of particular authors and problems of interest. See available book previews to view the entire Table of Contents, or visit www.hackettpublishing.com for more information. The Western Literary Tradition's modest length and cost allow for the use of full-length works—many of which are available in Hackett Publishing's own well-regarded and inexpensive translations and editions—alongside the anthology without adding undue cost to a reader's total textbook fees.

The most comprehensive best selling anthology of its kind, the second volume in this two-part survey enables leaders to choose among the most important canonical and less-familiar texts of the Western literary tradition in Europe and the Americas. It offers complete texts whenever possible, uses the best translations of foreign-language material, and, when appropriate, presents more than one text by each author. Volume Two provides detailed historical and biographical notes and introductions to the later literary periods including Neoclassicism and Romanticism; Realism and Naturalism; and Modern and Contemporary.

This book begins in a narrow territory, strictly Western, and extends with the passage of time to include the poetry, plays, novels, and works of speculation of the great authors of the past and present from Russia to Mexico. his objective is to tell the whole story of Western writing in languages other than English from the twelfth-century Chanson de Roland to Evtushenko's poetry of the 1960s. Cohen not only presents a factual account of historical growth. The book reflects the author's own judgments and valuations, arrived at in the course of almost forty years' reading in the main European languages. A work of original critism, A History of Western Literature immediately became a standard reference when first published. In this new edition, the author has included revisions covering the most important recent writers and their work. "Especially for American or British readers who want to explore under sensible guidance the main lines of Western letters, this carefully wrought handbook is indispensable."--Library Journal. "Considering Mr. Cohen's vast scope, his achievement is commendable. The information he presents is accurate. His style is surprisingly readable...."--Modern Language Journal. J. M. Cohen (1903-1989) was a widely known critic and a translator of French and Spanish literature. He was born in London and graduated from Cambridge University. His versions of Don Quixote, Gargantua and Pantagruel, and Rousseau's Confessions are recognized as among the finest modern translations.

A reissue in paperback of a title first published in 1949.

This compact anthology—the second volume in Margaret L. King's masterful introduction to the Western literary tradition—offers, in whole or in part, eighty key literary works of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. The texts provided here represent an unusually broad array of languages and traditions, ranging across a variety of genres such as verse, drama, philosophy, short- and long-form fiction, and non-fiction (including autobiography, speech, journalism, and essay). This second volume shares with the first a focus on works by women; numerous texts by Latin American writers are included here as well. King's clear, engaging introductions and notes support an informed reading of the texts while extending students’ knowledge of particular authors and problems of interest. The Western Literary Tradition's modest length and cost allow for the use of full-length works—many of which are available in Hackett Publishing’s own well-regarded and inexpensive translations and editions—alongside the anthology without adding undue cost to a student’s total textbook fees.

The powerful novelist here turns penetrating critic, giving usâe"in lively styleâe"both trenchant literary analysis and fresh insight on the art of writing. âeoeWhen African American writers began to trust the literary possibilities of their own verbal and musical creations,âe writes Gayl Jones, they began to transform the European and European American models, and to gain greater artistic sovereignty.âe The vitality of African American literature derives from its incorporation of traditional oral forms: folktales, riddles, idiom, jazz rhythms, spirituals, and blues. Jones traces the development of this literature as African American writers, celebrating their oral heritage, developed distinctive literary forms. The twentieth century saw a new confidence and deliberateness in African American work: the move from surface use of dialect to articulation of a genuine black voice; the move from blacks portrayed for a white audience to characterization relieved of the need to justify. Innovative writingâe"such as Charles Waddell Chesnuttâe(tm)s depiction of black folk culture, Langston Hughesâe(tm)s poetic use of blues, and Amiri Barakaâe(tm)s recreation of the short story as a jazz pieceâe"redefined Western literary tradition. For Jones, literary technique is never far removed from its social and political implications. She documents how literary form is inherently and intensely national, and shows how the European monopoly on acceptable forms for literary art stifled American writers both black and white. Jones is especially eloquent in describing the dilemma of the African American writers: to write from their roots yet retain a universal voice; to merge the power and fluidity of oral tradition with the structure needed for written presentation. With this work Gayl Jones has added a new dimension to African American literary history.

"Western writers," says Thomas J. Lyon in his epilogue to Updating the Literary West, "have grown up with the frontier myth but now find themselves in the early stages of creating a new western myth." The editors of the Literary History of the American West (TCU Press, 1987) hoped that the first volume would begin, not conclude, their exploration of the West's literary heritage. Out of this hope comes Updating the Literary West, a comprehensive reference anthology including essays by over one hundred scholars. A selected bibliography is included with each piece. In the ten years since publication of LHAW, western writing has developed a significantly larger presence in the national literary stream. A variety of cultural viewpoints have developed, along with new tactics for literary study. New authors have risen to prominence, and the range of subjects has changed and widened. Updating the Literary West looks at topics ranging from western classics to cowboys and Cadillacs and considers children's literature, ethnicity, environmental writing, gender issues and other topics in which change has been rapid since publication of LHAW. This volume again affirms the West's literary legitimacy--status hard earned by the Western Literary Association--and the lasting place of popular western writing as part of the growing and changing literary--and American--experience. An excellent reference for a wide range of readers and an invaluable resource for scholars and libraries. Selected list of contributors: James Maguire Fred Erisman Susan J. Rosowski Gerald Haslam Tom Pilkington A. Carl Bredahl Richard Slotkin John G. Cawelti Robert F. Gish Ann Ronald Mick McAllister

The author examines the "cultural and literary identity among Western Christians which the centrality of 'the Book' has helped to create, and the Christian use of the phrase 'People of the book.'"--Preface.

The legacy of ancient Greece and Rome has been imitated, resisted, misunderstood, and reworked by every culture that followed. In this volume, some five hundred articles by a wide range of scholars investigate the afterlife of this rich heritage in the fields of literature, philosophy, art, architecture, history, politics, religion, and science.