Books in the Cambridge Companions to Literature series

This book is for students of literature who would like an introduction to the study of erotic texts. In fifteen different chapters, it explores key topics from a variety of national literatures, from antiquity to the present. Each chapter is written by an expert in the field who presents a representative problem from the research.

This celebrated Gothic novel is explored through essays providing critical, historical, anthropological, philosophical and intellectual contexts that serve to further the understanding and appreciation of Dracula in all its many guises. Together the essays offer exciting new critical approaches to the most famous vampire in literature and film.

This celebrated Gothic novel is explored through essays providing critical, historical, anthropological, philosophical and intellectual contexts that serve to further the understanding and appreciation of Dracula in all its many guises. Together the essays offer exciting new critical approaches to the most famous vampire in literature and film.

The Cambridge Companion to Postcolonial Travel Writing provides a variety of perspectives and approaches on a new and exciting field of academic scholarship in the humanities, appealing to students, graduates and scholars.

The Cambridge Companion to Irish Poets offers a fascinating introduction to Irish poetry from the seventeenth century to the present. Each chapter gives an overview of a poet's work and guides the reader through the wider cultural, historical and comparative contexts. It will appeal to students, graduates and general readers of Irish poetry.

This Companion is designed for undergraduates, graduates and faculty that wish to understand how the sciences and humanities inform one another. This up-to-date guide to literature and science explores major figures, genres and theories in the field, showing that the two area of studies are more closely aligned than they typically appear.

This Companion offers an accessible overview to the diversity of the American Gothic that will be of use to undergraduates, graduate students, and professional researchers. The introduction and sixteen chapters explore this topic chronologically, in relation to different social groups, and in different genres and media.

Literary disability studies is a new and growing critical subject area. This student-centered collection is a vital contribution to the field, providing the most comprehensive overview of disability representation across literatures in English.

Literary disability studies is a new and growing critical subject area. This student-centered collection is a vital contribution to the field, providing the most comprehensive overview of disability representation across literatures in English.

Well-known as a brilliant general and politician, Caesar also played a fundamental role in the formation of the Latin literary language and history of Latin Literature. This volume provides both a clear introduction to Caesar as a man of letters and a fresh re-assessment of his literary achievements.

This volume gives a fresh look at the American Renaissance, the years before the Civil War that saw the rise of authors such as Melville, Stowe, Douglass, and Whitman. A team of distinguished scholars interprets major authors' works, exploring themes of race, gender, place, memory, reading, labor, and pleasure.

This volume gives a fresh look at the American Renaissance, the years before the Civil War that saw the rise of authors such as Melville, Stowe, Douglass, and Whitman. A team of distinguished scholars interprets major authors' works, exploring themes of race, gender, place, memory, reading, labor, and pleasure.

Daniel Defoe's account of a man surviving alone on an island has challenged readers, and prompted imitators, since his novel first appeared in 1719. This Companion examines what influenced Defoe to write, what ideas he explores, and how readers have responded to the novel and its iconic protagonist.

This Companion provides a comprehensive, chronological survey of Latin American poetry from the Colonial period up until the present day, analysis of modern trends ranging from LGBT to Latino/a poetry, and six succinct essays on the major figures, ranging from Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz to Octavio Paz.

Roman comedy has been a model for writers and artists ranging from Shakespeare to Martin Luther and from Moliere to Cole Porter. This volume supplies a comprehensive critical introduction to Roman comedy and its reception presented by leading international scholars in more than twenty accessible and up-to-date chapters written by leading scholars.

This volume offers a sense of McEwan's standing in the canon on international contemporary fiction, and enriches understanding of McEwan's work by presenting complementary perspectives on the most complex novels. It will be a key resource for students, graduates, and scholars studying and teaching Ian McEwan.

The Cambridge Companion to the Novel is for students, professors, and general readers who are looking to understand what this 2,000 year-old genre of the novel is and where it came from, how it works, and where it might be going in the digital age.

Edward Gibbon's monumental The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is of enduring interest to literary scholars, classicists and historians of the ancient world. This Companion provides an accessible account of Decline and Fall, along with Gibbon's autobiographical writings: an indispensable guide to the great historian and his work.

Narrative theory explores how stories work and how we make them work. This Companion is both an introduction and a substantial contribution to the field. It takes the long historical view, outlines essential concepts, and reflects on the way narrative forms connect with and rework social forms.

This Companion introduces readers to major ideas and practices of world literary studies. Its accessible yet sophisticated essays raise fundamental questions about imagining the totality of literature; comparing literary works across histories, cultures and languages; and understanding how literature is affected by forces such as imperialism.

This Companion provides a compelling, comprehensive, and substantive introduction to the work of David Foster Wallace, one of the most important American writers of the contemporary era. The essays within, written by top scholars in the field, will appeal both to the beginning and the more sophisticated Wallace reader.

This Companion provides a compelling, comprehensive, and substantive introduction to the work of David Foster Wallace, one of the most important American writers of the contemporary era. The essays within, written by top scholars in the field, will appeal both to the beginning and the more sophisticated Wallace reader.

An original collection providing an accessible overview of the history of English melodrama, an introduction to its formal features, and a wide-ranging assessment of its ongoing influence today - addressing issues of social analysis (gender, class, race), psychoanalysis, other art forms (film, television, musical theatre), and contemporary culture.

This book re-examines the crucial trends in the decade and places them in their political and economic contexts. It is addressed to undergraduates, graduates and scholars interested in learning more about American literature in the 1930s.

This accessible collection of cutting-edge essays on Victorian women's poetry addresses major figures as well as the lesser known ones, adopting a culturally inclusive approach to poets' diversity and their multiple poetic forms and social issues. This book also features digital and close reading methods and a bibliography and chronology of publications.

This Companion will be used in undergraduate and graduate courses on African American studies and American literature. It will appeal to those wishing to examine black literature in relationship to a variety of disciplines - including psychology, political science, sociology and philosophy - and anyone interested in the relationship between art and social change.

This book is aimed at undergraduate students, and taught postgraduate students. It gives students a clear, comprehensive and accessible guide to the key concepts shaping the British novel from 1980 to 2018, which is also driven by original research.

This Companion provides an essential grounding in early modern religious culture and the ideas that Shakespeare returned to throughout his career. Focused close-readings of individual plays explore the variegated Christian contexts of Shakespeare's work, as well as the treatment of Judaism, Islam and classical paganism.