E-Book Overview
This is a concise yet comprehensive treatment of the American short story that includes an historical overview of the topic as well as discussion of notable American authors and individual stories, from Benjamin Franklin's "The Speech of Miss Polly Baker" in 1747 to "The Joy Luck Club". Includes a selection of writers chosen not only for their contributions of individual stories but for bodies of work that advanced the boundaries of short fiction, including Washington Irving, Sarah Orne Jewett, Stephen Crane, Jamaica Kincaid, and Tim O'Brien Addresses the ways in which American oral storytelling and other narrative traditions were integral to the formation and flourishing of the short story genre Written in accessible and engaging prose for students at all levels by a renowned literary scholar to illuminate an important genre that has received short shrift in scholarly literature of the last century Includes a glossary defining the most common terms used in literary history and in critical discussions of fiction, and a bibliography of works for further study
E-Book Content
The American Short Story Handbook
Wiley Blackwell Literature Handbooks This new series offers the student thorough and lively introductions to literary periods, movements, and, in some instances, authors and genres, from Anglo-Saxon to the Postmodern. Each volume is written by a leading specialist to be invitingly accessible and informative. Chapters are devoted to the coverage of cultural context, the provision of brief but detailed biographical essays on the authors concerned, critical coverage of key works, and surveys of themes and topics, together with bibliographies of selected further reading. Students new to a period of study or to a genre will discover all they need to know to orientate and ground themselves in their studies, in volumes that are as stimulating to read as they are convenient to use.
Published The Science Fiction Handbook M. Keith Booker and Anne-Marie Thomas The Seventeenth-Century Literature Handbook Marshall Grossman The Twentieth-Century American Fiction Handbook Christopher MacGowan The British and Irish Short Story Handbook David Malcolm The Crime Fiction Handbook Peter Messent The Literary Theory Handbook, second edition Gregory Castle The Anglo-Saxon Literature Handbook Mark C. Amodio The American Short Story Handbook James Nagel
The American Short Story Handbook James Nagel
Trim Size: 152mm x 229mm
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