First-Year Writing: Women & Culture Reference Sources, Fall

Feminism has dramatically influenced the way literary texts are read, taught and evaluated. Feminist literary theory has deliberately transgressed traditional boundaries between literature, philosophy and the social sciences in order to understand how gender has been constructed and represented through language. This lively and thought-provoking Companion presents a range of approaches to the field. Some of the essays demonstrate feminist critical principles at work in analysing texts, while others take a step back to trace the development of a particular feminist literary method. The essays draw on a range of primary material from the medieval period to postmodernism and from several countries, disciplines and genres. Each essay suggests further reading to explore this field further. This is the most accessible guide available both for students of literature new to this developing field, and for students of gender studies and readers interested in the interactions of feminism, literary criticism and literature.

Comprehensive and up-to-date, this new edition of A Dictionary of Philosophy spans 2500 years of philosophical thought and offers a reference to the student of philosophy and the general reader alike. It has extensive coverage of modern and historical fields, encompassing personalities, terminology, and vocabulary; it extends from the classical thinkers through Aquinas, Escartes, Spinoza, and Kant to Russell, Wittgenstein, Husserl, Baudrillard, and Derrida; and particular attention is given to continental philosophy. There are over 2000 entries, with full cross-references.

Consists of 143 essays contributed by 98 specialists in world literature. Topics covered include themes relating to adventure, family life, the supernatural, eroticism, status, humor, idealism, terror, and many other categories of human experience. Each entry begins with a definition and a sketch on the origin and historical background of the literary theme. The topical essay discusses the significance and occurrence of the theme in world literature and supplies information on geographical area, genre, style, and chronology. Entries conclude with a selected bibliography of scholarship in the area. A cross-index to themes and motifs will enable the reader to find information on secondary or related topics.

An essential resource for scholars and students of feminist literary studies. The book offers a new, extended introduction outlining recent developments in the field such as ecofeminism, globalism and diaspora, defining emerging terms such as cisgendered and documenting the evolution of queer theory.

The two-volume set includes 375 entries on both Western and non-Western literary traditions, from the start of criticism with the Greeks through postmodernism. Varying in length from a couple of long paragraphs to several pages, the entries are of four different types: on individuals, surveys of literary periods, essays on critical theories, and definitions of key concepts. The entries on individuals, such as Roland Barthes and Jacques Derrida, investigate in detail the critic's thinking and influence. The surveys of literary periods cover different schools or time periods, including 20th-century French, British, and American theory. The criticism essays explain 28 different schools such as reader-response and semiotics, while terms covered in the short-definitions sections range from the surreal to the pastoral. More extensive in scope (both in geographical range and time periods) than other like references.