Bøger i Cambridge Companions to Literature serien

This volume surveys the wide range of Defoe's fiction and non-fiction, and assesses his importance as writer and thinker. The man who was once pilloried for his writings emerges now as a key figure in the literature and culture of the early eighteenth century.

Introduction for students and non-specialists to this wide-ranging body of poetry, which includes work by such famous poets as Sappho and Pindar. It takes full account of the exciting new papyrus finds and new critical approaches which have advanced our understanding of the poetry and its performance and transmission.

This Companion offers a comprehensive overview and interpretation of Romantic poetry in its literary and historical contexts. Attention is given to the work of less well-known or recently rediscovered authors, alongside some of the greatest poets in the English language: Wordsworth, Coleridge, Blake, Scott, Burns, Keats, Shelley, Byron and Clare.

An introduction to how the history of Rome was written in the ancient world, and its impact on later periods. It presents essays by an international team of scholars that aim both to orient non-specialist readers to the important concerns of the Roman historians and also to stimulate new research.

This Companion gives an overview of Heaney's career, with detailed readings of his major publications. Designed for students, this volume will also have much to interest and inform the general reader and admirer of Heaney's unique poetic voice.

Presenting a clear overview of the diverse approaches to Performance Studies, this Companion provides a complete guide for students and scholars seeking a perspective on trends in the field. Bridging live art practices with technological media, and social sciences with humanities, it reflects the hybrid and experimental nature of this vibrant discipline.

Although little known during her lifetime, Kate Chopin is now recognised as a unique voice in American literature, with her seminal novel, The Awakening (1899), now widely read and studied. This volume, aimed at students and scholars of American, nineteenth-century, and feminist literature, brings a fresh perspective to Chopin's writing.

Travel writing has always been intimately linked with the construction of American identity. These specially-commissioned essays trace the journeys taken by writers from the pre-revolutionary period right up to the present. This Companion forms an invaluable guide for students approaching this new, important and exciting subject for the first time.

This book provides the new reader with the essential knowledge and conceptual tools for reading the literature of World War II. With its chronology and guide to further reading, it will be an invaluable source of information and inspiration for students and scholars of modern literature and war studies.

This Companion demonstrates the importance of crime writing in American literature. Leading scholars introduce the range of American crime fiction from the execution sermons of the Colonial era to television programmes like The Wire and The Sopranos.

Tacitus is universally recognised as ancient Rome's greatest writer of history. In this clear and accessible Companion, experts analyse each of Tacitus' works, discuss his methods and style, assess his views of history and freedom, and trace his influence from the Renaissance through to the twentieth century.

This Companion, designed for students of American history, African-American studies and literature, includes perspectives from a range of disciplines. Key topics in Douglass studies and his individual works are covered in depth. Accessible in style, this book is both a lucid introduction and a contribution to existing scholarship.

In this Companion to one of the greatest writers of classical antiquity - and arguably the single most influential ancient poet for post-classical literature and culture - leading authorities provide essential information about Ovid, his individual works and his influence on later literature and art, together with exciting critical approaches.

Comprehensive in scope, these new essays cover the fiction in the European languages from North Africa and Africa south of the Sahara, as well as in Arabic. Including a guide to further reading and a chronology, this is the ideal starting-point for students of African and world literatures.

A comprehensive overview of rhetorical practice and theory in Graeco-Roman antiquity, from Homer to early Christianity, aimed primarily at students and non-specialists. It examines the relationship between rhetoric and other, competing, verbal arts and also investigates the role of rhetoric in social and political life.

This Companion offers wide coverage of Grass's oeuvre across the range of media in which he works, including literature, television and visual arts. The newly commissioned essays explain, in a fresh and lively fashion, the fundamentals that students and readers need in order to understand Grass and his individual works.

Why group Shakespeare's last plays together? When does Shakespeare's 'last' period begin? Reflecting the recent growth of interest in late studies, in this book leading international Shakespeare scholars address these questions, locating Shakespeare's last six plays in the period of their composition and considering the significant characteristics of their Jacobean context.

This Companion focuses on British and American war writing, across centuries, forms and themes, to allow both local and comparative approaches. The chronology synthesises the key texts from each historical and contemporary war. Each chapter is written by an expert in the field and includes suggestions for further reading.

This highly successful Companion has been fully revised to take account of new departures in scholarship on Woolf since the first edition was published. This second edition includes five new chapters, and the remaining chapters as well as the guide to further reading have all been fully updated.

Leading international scholars address the highly colourful life and work of August Strindberg, one of the most enduring of nineteenth-century dramatists. Focussing mainly on his most frequently-performed plays, the Companion also discusses his novels, including the vivid Inferno, his much-publicised hostility to women and his lifelong interest in the occult.

An introduction to how the history of Rome was written in the ancient world, and its impact on later periods. It presents essays by an international team of scholars that aim both to orient non-specialist readers to the important concerns of the Roman historians and also to stimulate new research.

For more than a thousand years, the adventures of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table have inspired some of the most important works of European literature. This Companion outlines the evolution of the legend from the earliest documentary sources to Spamalot.

The Cambridge Companion to Henry David Thoreau is an accessible guide to reading and understanding the works of Thoreau. Presenting essays by a distinguished array of contributors, the Companion is a valuable resource for historical and contextual material, and helps the reader come to Thoreau's writings, as he would say, 'deliberately and reservedly.'

A comprehensive account of classic Russian fiction of the past two hundred years.

This Companion spans four full centuries to survey this most formative and turbulent era in the history of literature in English. Exploring the period's key authors and genres, the book offers an overview of the riches of medieval writing, with a chronology and guide to further reading.

This Companion presents fourteen vibrant new contributions to the debate on African American women's literature. Covering a period that dates 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.

This Companion introduces readers to more than a hundred major and minor novelists. It demonstrates continuities in novel-writing throughout the century and presents leading critical ideas about English fiction's themes and forms. Students of modern literature will find this Companion an indispensable guide to the history of the English novel.

Key dimensions of Tolstoy's writing and life are explored in this collection of specially commissioned essays. The essays are well supported by supplementary material including a chronology of the Tolstoy's life and detailed guides to further reading. Altogether the volume provides an invaluable resource for scholars and students.

John Millington Synge was a leading literary figure of the Irish Revival who played a significant role in the founding of Dublin's Abbey Theatre. This Companion offers a comprehensive introduction to the whole range of Synge's work, most famously Riders to the Sea and The Playboy of the Western World.

This Companion introduces the reader to the range, historical importance, and aesthetic merit of women's writing in Britain from 1500-1700. The volume is innovative in its attention to the materiality of writing, to the spaces in which women characteristically wrote, and to the varied genres or modes they used.