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You may find some of these books useful. See your reading list for the required and recommended reading for your module.
The Oxford Handbook of American Drama by
This ambitious collection of essays will cover American drama in its entirety - from its inception in colonial America, through its many incarnations in the nineteenth century, to its zenith in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Differentiating itself from other treatments of thegenre, the handbook will not only highlight the major works of the twentieth century, but will also attend carefully to earlier works and contexts. The collection's first part will explore the genre's eighteenth-century genesis. William Dunlap's complex, sympathetic portrait of British forces inAndre is counterbalanced by the biting anti-colonial political satire of the nation's first female playwright, Mercy Otis Warren, through an appraisal of her witty, subversive skewering of British loyalists in The Group. The nineteenth century saw the form diversifying with offerings like theantebellum era's reform plays, the melodrama, and the musical - a flowering that was given a new center of action in the growth of Broadway. A full survey of the vexing tradition of minstrelsy and the struggles of Black Americans on the stage provides a transition into the twentieth century. The new approaches to playwriting and performance pioneered by Eugene O'Neill, Susan Glaspell, and the Provincetown Players gave theater a new cachet early in the century through the possibilities offered by naturalism and expressionism. Overtly political content took the stage in the protest playsof Clifford Odets during the Great Depression though in general a more insular realism proved the dominant style, albeit one interrupted by recurring periods of experimentalism. Key moments and artists who defined the later half of the twentieth-century are illuminated through in-depth essays on thescathing indictments of the American dream put forward by Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, and Edward Albee; the impact of the countercultural, mixed-race musical Hair; the complex nature of David Mamet's social critique; the energy of experimental, off-Broadway theater; the importance of placeand memory in August Wilson's works; and the acute anxiety over the AIDS crisis during the Regan eighties as presented in Angels in America. The volume will conclude with a consideration of what lies ahead for the nation's drama, focusing on the pivotal work of leading lights such as Sarah Ruhl andSuzan Lori-Parks.
The Oxford Handbook of Nineteenth-Century American Literature by
How do we approach the rich field of nineteenth-century American literature? How might we recalibrate the coordinates of critical vision and open up new areas of investigation? To answer such questions, this volume brings together 23 original essays written by leading scholars in Americanliterary studies. By examining specific novels, poems, essays, diaries and other literary examples, the authors confront head-on the implications, scope, and scale of their analysis. The chapters foreground methodological concerns to assess the challenges of transnational perspectives, disabilitystudies, environmental criticism, affect studies, gender analysis, and other cutting-edge approaches.The Oxford Handbook of Nineteenth-Century American Literature is thus both critically incisive and sharply practical, inviting attention to how readers read, how critics critique, and how interpreters interpret. It offers forceful strategies for rethinking protest novels, women's writing, urbanliterature, slave narratives, and popular fiction, just to name a few of the wide array of topics and genres covered. This volume, rather than surveying established ideas in studies of nineteenth-century American literature, registers what is happening now and anticipates what will shape the field'sfuture.
Early American Literature by
The Oxford Handbook of Early American Literature is a major new reference work that provides the best single-volume source of original scholarship on early American literature. Comprised of twenty-seven chapters written by experts in their fields, this work presents an authoritative, in-depth,and up-to-date assessment of a crucial area within literary studies. Organized primarily in terms of genre, the chapters include original research on key concepts, as well as analysis of interesting texts from throughout colonial America. Separate chapters are devoted to literary genres of great importance at the time of their composition that have been neglected inrecent decades, such as histories, promotion literature, and scientific writing. New interpretations are offered on the works of Benjamin Franklin, Jonathan Edwards and Dr. Alexander Hamilton while lesser known figures are also brought to light. Newly vital areas like print culture and naturalhistory are given full treatment. As with other Oxford Handbooks, the contributors cover the field in a comprehensive yet accessible way that is suitable for those wishing to gain a good working knowledge of an area of study and where it's headed.
The Oxford Handbook of Modern and Contemporary American Poetry by
The Oxford Handbook of Modern and Contemporary American Poetry gives readers a cutting-edge introduction to the kaleidoscopic world of American poetry over the last century. Offering a comprehensive approach to the debates that have defined the study of American verse the twenty-five originalessays contained herein take up a wide array of topics: the influence of jazz on the Beats and beyond; European and surrealist influences on style; poetics of the disenfranchised; religion and the national epic; antiwar and dissent poetry; the AIDS epidemic; digital innovations; transnationalism;hip hop; and more. Alongside these topics, major interpretive perspectives such as Marxist, psychoanalytic, disability, queer, and ecocritcal are incorporated. Throughout, the names that have shaped American poetry in the period - Ezra Pound, Wallace Stevens, Marianne Moore, Mina Loy, Sterling Brown, Hart Crane, William Carlos Williams, Posey, Langston Hughes, Allen Ginsberg, John Ashbery, Rae Armantrout, Larry Eigner, and others - serve as touchstonesalong the tour of the poetic landscape.
A bibliography is an organised list or digital database containing a collection of references to published literature, including books, journal and newspaper articles, conference proceedings, reports, etc.
The Oxford Companion to American Literature by
For more than half a century, James D. Hart's The Oxford Companion to American Literature has been an unparalleled guide to America's literary culture, providing one of the finest resources to this country's rich history of great writers. Now this acclaimed work has been completely revised andupdated to reflect current developments in the world of American letters. For the sixth edition, editors 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 haveadded more than 180 new entries on novelists (T. Coraghessan Boyle, Tim O'Brien, Louise Erdrich, Don De Lillo), poets (Rita Dove, Weldon Kees), playwrights (Wendy Wasserstein, August Wilson), popular writers (Stephen King, Louis L'Amour), historians (James M. McPherson, David Herbert Donald, WilliamManchester), naturalists (Aldo Leopold, Edward Abbey), and literary critics (Camille Paglia, Richard Ellmann). In addition, the Companion boasts more women's, 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. These additions represent only some of the revisions for the new edition. Of course, the basic qualities of the Companion that readers have grown to know and love over the years are as superb as ever. With over 5,000 total entries, The Oxford Companion to American Literature reflects a dynamicbalance 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 informationregarding their styles, subjects, and major works) and influential foreign writers as well as other figures who have been important in the nation's 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. Ranging from Captain John Smith to John Updike, and from Anne Bradstreet to Anne Rice, the sixth edition of The Oxford Companion to American Literature is up to date, accurate, and comprehensive, a delight for both the casual browser and the serious student.
You may find some of these books useful. See your reading list for the required and recommended reading for your module.
The Cambridge Companion to African American Women's Literature by
The Cambridge Companion to African American Women's Literature covers a period dating back to the eighteenth century. These specially commissioned essays highlight the artistry, complexity and diversity of a literary tradition that ranges from Lucy Terry to Toni Morrison. A wide range of topics are addressed, from the Harlem Renaissance to the Black Arts Movement, and from the performing arts to popular fiction. Together, the essays provide an invaluable guide to a rich, complex tradition of women writers in conversation with each other as they critique American society and influence American letters. Accessible and vibrant, with the needs of undergraduate students in mind, this Companion will be of great interest to anybody who wishes to gain a deeper understanding of this important and vital area of American literature.
The Cambridge Companion to African American Theatre by
This Companion provides a comprehensive overview of African American theatre, from the early nineteenth century to the present day. Along the way, it chronicles the evolution of African American theatre and its engagement with the wider community, including discussions of slave rebellions on the national stage, African Americans on Broadway, the Harlem Renaissance, African American women dramatists, and the 'New Negro' and 'Black Arts' movements. Leading scholars spotlight the producers, directors, playwrights and actors whose efforts helped to fashion a more accurate appearance of black life on stage, and reveal the impact of African American theatre both within the United States and further afield. Chapters also address recent theatre productions in the context of political and cultural change and ask where African American theatre is heading in the twenty-first century.
The Cambridge History of African American Literature by
The first major twenty-first century history of four hundred years of black writing, The Cambridge History of African American Literature presents a comprehensive overview of the literary traditions, oral and print, of African-descended peoples in the United States. Expert contributors, drawn from the United States and beyond, emphasise the dual nature of each text discussed as a work of art created by an individual and as a response to unfolding events in American cultural, political, and social history. Unprecedented in scope, sophistication and accessibility, the volume draws together current scholarship in the field. It also looks ahead to suggest new approaches, new areas of study, and as yet undervalued writers and works. The Cambridge History of African American Literature is a major achievement both as a work of reference and as a compelling narrative and will remain essential reading for scholars and students in years to come.
Cambridge Companion to the African American Novel by
The Cambridge Companion to the African American Novel presents new essays covering the one hundred and fifty year history of the African American novel. Experts in the field from the US and Europe address some of the major issues in the genre: passing, the Protest novel, the Blues novel, and womanism among others. The essays are full of fresh insights for students into the symbolic, aesthetic, and political function of canonical and non-canonical fiction. Chapters examine works by Ralph Ellison, Leon Forrest, Toni Morrison, Ishmael Reed, Alice Walker, John Edgar Wideman, and many others. They reflect a range of critical methods intended to prompt new and experienced readers to consider the African American novel as a cultural and literary act of extraordinary significance. This volume, including a chronology and guide to further reading, is an important resource for students and teachers alike.
To find literature written by American authors, try searching the resources below:
For more online archival material relating to American history, culture, politics and more, see the Primary Sources guide.
Refine your search on ProQuest One Literature to American authors and/or American literary periods.
Go to Advanced Search, select Primary Texts on the left side of the page.
Click on the 
to see the Scope notes about searching by Nationality and/or literary period.
Use the Look up link to choose from a list, and add this to your search, e.g. choose North American.
Use the Look up tool next to Literary period to look up the American equivalents to British literary periods.
For example, to search for American authors from the late nineteenth century, choose the American Realistic Period 1865-1900, rather than the Late Victorian Period 1880-1901.
We have access to a range of drama and prose collections from ProQuest. The search functionality is the same in each collection (with some minor differences between searching drama and prose); for example, you can search by keyword, playwright/author, or browse the complete contents of the database.
From the home page, click on Advanced Search
Search by keyword in play/work, title, or playwright/author.
Refine your search by searching additional details as shown below, e.g. such as stage directions, dedications and speech.
You can also search for a particular speaker's lines by entering a name.
There are additional options to filter the search by date, genre, nationality or ethnicity of the playwright.
To browse everything in the collection, click on the Publications tab:
We have access to a range of poetry collections from Chadwyck Healey now available on the ProQuest platform. The search functionality is the same in each collection: for example, you can search by keyword, title or first line of the poem, poet, or browse the complete contents of the database.
Starting from the home screen select the Advanced Search option.
For example, if you were searching the English Poetry collection, you could enter sonnets OR sonnet* in the Publication Title search box.
Click search to retrieve the results and find the sonnet required.
Alternatively you can search for the first line or the title of a poem.
Enter the details in the first line / title search box. e.g. “Shall I compare thee to a summers day?”
Click search to retrieve the results.
To view the full item click on the link.
You can use the author lookup to find an author or you can also enter the name in the search box e.g. Shakespeare.
In the Additional Author details section, you can add nationality to your search.
To browse everything in the collection, click on the Publications tab:
