Literature A World of Writing Stories, Poems, Plays and Essays, Books a la Carte Plus NEW MyLab Literature -- Access Card Package

David L. Pike is Professor of Literature at American University, where he teaches courses on urban culture and the underground, cinema, modernism, Dante, Roman literature, and the novel. He is the author of Canadian Cinema since the 1980s: At the Heart of the World (U of Toronto P, 2012); Metropolis on the Styx: The Underworlds of Modern Urban Culture, 1800 –2001(Cornell UP, 2007); Subterranean Cities: The World beneath Paris and London 1800–1945 (Cornell UP), shortlisted for the 2006 Modernist Studies Association book prize; Passage through Hell: Modernist Descents, Medieval Underworlds (Cornell UP), recipient of the 1997 Gustave O. Arlt Award in the Humanities from the Council of Graduate Schools and a Choice Outstanding Academic Book for 1997; and articles on urban culture, subterranean studies, film, and medieval literature. He is co-general editor of the Longman Anthology of World Literature.

Ana M. Acosta is Associate Professor of English at Brooklyn College, City University of New York. Her book, Reading Genesis in the Long Eighteenth Century: From Milton to Mary Shelley, was published by Ashgate in 2006. She has published articles on religion, science and Enlightenment and is currently at work on a book-length project entitled “Theaters of Enlightenment: Imagined Encounters between Science and Religion in 18^th-century Culture.”  She has twice been the recipient of a Whiting Fellowship, has received two PSC-CUNY awards, and was chosen in 2008 by the students at Brooklyn College as a Role Model in the conference “Standing on the Shoulders of Others.”

PART 1     A READER’S GUIDE TO THE WORLD OF WRITING

 

1.  Reading and Thinking about Literature: A World of Meaning

        Meaningless Words and the World of Meaning

        Literary Form and Assumptions about Meaning

        The Point of Literary Meaning

        Forming Literary Meaning

        Making Sense

        Making Meaning out of Misunderstanding

Roberto Fernández, Wrong Channel  

        Deciphering Meaning: The Riddle Game 

        The Riddle as a Literary Device

Sylvia Plath, Metaphors

        Reading for What Does Not Make Sense

        Strategies for Reading Critically

        Writer @ Work: The Reading Process

Sharon Olds, The Possessive

      Student Writing: Justin Schiel reads and annotates The Possessive 

        Clarity and Ambiguity of Language

        Working with Ambiguity in Literary Writing

        Reading versus Writing

        Working with Clarity in Nonliterary Writing: The Summary

      Student Writing: Four Summaries ofThe Possessive 

        Clarity and Ambiguity in Storytelling

Franz Kafka, Before the Law

      Student Writing: Two Summaries of Before the Law 

Ursula K. Le Guin, The Wife’s Story 

        Clarity and Ambiguity of Argument: Summarizing  an Essay

Rosa Ehrenreich Brooks, I Hate Trees

        Student Writing: Melissa Kim, A Summary of Rosa Ehrenreich Brooks, “I Hate Trees” 

        Clarity and Ambiguity in Literary Genres

        Plot Conventions and Expectations

Margaret Atwood, Happy Endings

        Clarity and Ambiguity in Visual Culture

        Visual Assumptions

        Writing a Summary of an Image

Cornelius Gijsbrechts, Letter Rack with Christian V’s Proclamation 

        Student Writing: Alan Green, A Summary of Letter Rack with Christian V’s Proclamation

           Looking Back: A World of Meaning

 

2.  Argument, Critical Thinking, and the Process of Writing: Writing in the World

        Crafting an Argument

        Analyzing an Argumentative Essay

May Sarton, The Rewards of Living a Solitary Life

        Making Your Own Argument 

        Argument versus Thesis

        From Idea to Thesis

Chinua Achebe, Dead Men’s Path

        Student Idea Map for “Dead Men’s Path”

        Critical Thinking: Reading, Questioning, Writing

        Writer @ Work: Critical Thinking from First Impressions to Finished Paper

        Critical Thinking Step by Step 

Mary Oliver, August               

      Student Writing: Katherine Randall, sample writing from drafts to final paper           

      Student Writing: Three Summaries of August  

        Critical Thinking in a Comparison Paper 

Ellen Hunnicutt, Blackberries                

Leslie Norris, Blackberries     

      Student Writing: Cynthia Wilson, Leave the Picking to the Boys              

        Thinking Critically about Visual Culture          

        Signs         

        Still Images               

        Sequential Images     

        Moving Images         

        Interactive Images     

        Looking Back: Writing in the World   

 

3.  Investigating the World: Planning, Writing, and Revising a Research Paper   

        Finding a Topic         

      Student Writing: Rob Lanney, Paper Topic and Revised Paper Topic           

        Finding, Evaluating, and Summarizing Your Sources in the Annotated Bibliography       

        Primary Sources and Secondary Sources  

        The MLA Works-Cited List    

        Plagiarism and How to Avoid It               

        The Annotated Bibliography   

      Student Writing: Rob Lanney, Annotated Bibliography–Source #1               

        From the Annotated Bibliography to the First Draft     

        Making an Outline    

      Student Writing: Rob Lanney, The Castle in Productions and Films of Hamlet–An Outline        

        Writing the First Draft             

        MLA In-Text Citations            

        Writer @ Work: Revising      

      Student Writing: Rob Lanney, Hamlet’s Elsinore—Initial draft       

      Student Writing: Rob Lanney, Hamlet’s Elsinore           

      Student Writing: Lorraine Betesh, The Brooklyn Bridge in Illustrations and Photographs          

        Looking Back: Investigating the World           

       

PART 2   The Writer’s World: Genres And The Craft Of Literature

 

4. Stories: Describing the World

        What Is Fiction?       

        Fiction and History  

        Types of Fiction      

        The Craft of Fiction 

Padgett Powell, A Gentleman’s C            

        The Materials of Fiction          

        The Tools of Fiction

        Writer @ Work: Description 

Julia Alvarez, Snow

      Student Writing: Hashim Naseem, The Motherland      

        Describing the World: Topics for Essays

        Looking Back: Describing the World  

 

5. Poetry: Imagining the World

        What Is Poetry?

        Prosody: An Introduction

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, from Metrical Feet– Lesson for a Boy

        Poetic Diction

        Poetic Forms

        Writer @ Work: Three Poems about Social Relations

William Blake, London

Robert Frost, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Mary Oliver, Singapore

      Student Writing: Melissa Pabon, Summaries of London, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, and Singapore

      Student Writing: Melissa Pabon, The Importance of Everyday Occurrences in London, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, and Singapore

        Imagining the World: Topics for Essays

        Writer @ Work: Reading and Writing Essays

      Student Writing: Scott Nathanson, The Meaning of Death

        Types of Essays

        Looking Back: Imagining the World

 

6. Plays:  Staging the World

        What Is a Play?       

Susan Glaspell, Trifles              

        Dramatic Structure   

        Characters 

        Staging      

        Form and Genre        

        Writer @ Work: Writing about a Live or a Taped Performance           

Samuel Beckett, Krapp’s Last Tape     

      Student Writing: Joshua Cohen, Notes on Krapp’s Last Tape, directed by Atom Egoyan             

      Student Writing: Joshua Cohen, Response Paper on Krapp’s Last Tape      

        Staging the World: Topics for Essays      

        Looking Back: Staging the World       

 

7. Essays: Explaining the World 

        What Is Nonfiction? 

        The Essay 

Virginia Woolf, The Death of the Moth   

Annie Dillard, Death of a Moth              

        Analyzing an Essay  

        Writer @ Work: Arguing with an Essay         

George Packer, How Susie Bayer’s T-Shirt Ended Up on Yusuf Mama’s Back    

      Student Writing: Jacquelynn Messina, The Used Clothes Trade: Who Benefits?         

        Explaining the World: Topics for Essays 

        Looking Back: Explaining the World  

 

8. Working with Literary Devices: Writing the World

        Literary Devices      

        Patterns of Repetition              

        Patterns of Inversion

        Patterns of Contradiction         

        Ambiguity and Double Meaning              

        Imagery     

        Referring to Other Texts          

        Word Pictures           

John Keats,  Drawing of the Sosibios Vase

John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn              

Hiram Powers, Greek Slave    

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, On Hiram Powers’ Greek Slave            

Peter Brueghel the Elder, Landscape with the Fall of Icarus                

William Carlos Williams, Landscape with the Fall of Icarus               

W. H. Auden, Musée des Beaux Arts        

Michael Hamburger, Lines on Brueghel’s Icarus  

Robert Hass, Heroic Simile      

Akira Kurosawa, movie still from The Seven Samurai           

        Writing the World: Topics for Essays 

 

PART 3    The Reader’s World: Exploring The Themes Of Literature

 

9. Me and You: The World Closest to Us

        Photographs from The Family of Man          

      FAMILIES

**Dagoberto Gilb, Look on the Bright Side

Flannery O’Connor, A Good Man Is Hard to Find               

James Baldwin, Sonny’s Blues                

Jonathan Safran Foer, A Primer for the Punctuation of Heart Disease                

Alice Walker, Everyday Use   

Mary TallMountain, There Is No Word for Goodbye            

Robert Hayden, Those Winter Sundays   

Lucille Clifton, wishes for sons              

**Rita Dove, Daystar

**A.R. Ammons, Coward

William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark              

Scott Russell Sanders, Buckeye             

Amy Tan,from Mother Tongue               

        Families: Topics for Essays   

      CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS

Jamaica Kincaid, Girl             

Lorrie Moore, The Kid’s Guide to Divorce             

James Joyce, Araby

John Updike, A & P

**Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm, Little Red Cap

Anne Sexton, Red Riding Hood               

Agha Shahid Ali, The Wolf’s Postscript to “Little Red Riding Hood”   

Gary Soto, Behind Grandma’s House     

**Martin Espada, Why I Went to College

Langston Hughes, Salvation   

          Children and Adolescents: Topics for Essays  

        LOVERS

John Steinbeck, The Chrysanthemums  

**Haruki Murakami, The Year of Spaghetti

Amanda Holzer, Love and Other Catastrophes: A Mix Tape

Uruttiran, What She Said to Her Girl Friend          

Ono no Komachi, Three tanka                

William Shakespeare,  How oft, when thou, my music, music play’st  (Sonnet 128)         

William Shakespeare, Let me not to the marriage of true minds (Sonnet 116)        

William Shakespeare, When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes      (Sonnet 29)           

John Donne, The Flea             

**Monica Ferrell, Rime Riche

Edgar Allan Poe, Annabel Lee

T. S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock     

**Jack Spicer, A Book of Music

Sei Shonagon, fromHateful Things        

Joan Didion, Marrying Absurd

        Lovers: Topics for Essays     

        Working Further with the World Closest to Us           

 

**Reading Globally, Writing Locally: Marjane Satrapi and The Literature of the Middle East

**Marjane Satrapi, from Persepolis        

**Marjane Satrapi, Iran and Israel

**From 1001 Nights: The Wonderful Bag

**Yehuda Amichal, The Diameter of the Bomb

**Yehuda Amichal, Wildpeace

**Mahmoud Darwish, Who Am I without Exile?

**Working Further with the Literature of the Middle East           

 

10. Beliefs and Ethics: The Worlds around Us

        Images of Good and Evil in the World

      BELIEFS: CREATIONS AND BEGINNINGS          

from Genesis

Salman Rushdie, Imagine There’s No Heaven      

K. C. Cole, Murmurs                               

**Italo Calvino, All at One Point

         Creation and Beginnings: Topics for Essays   

       ETHICS: DESTUCTION AND ENDINGS

Nathaniel Hawthorne, Young Goodman Brown    

Kate Chopin, The Story of an Hour        

Ernest Hemingway, Hills Like White Elephants     

Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried

**Tobias Wolff, Bullet in the Brain

William Carlos Williams, Complete Destruction  

Robert Frost, Fire and Ice        

John Donne, Death, Be Not Proud          

Dylan Thomas, Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night       

Emily Dickinson, I like a look of Agony

Emily Dickinson, Because I could not stop for Death —    

Emily Dickinson, I felt a Funeral, in my Brain 

Emily Dickinson, I heard a Fly buzz — when I died —       

Emily Dickinson, It was not Death, for I stood up            

Emily Dickinson,  A Toad, can die of Light —    

Emily Dickinson, Tell all the Truth but tell it slant —         

Wilfrid Owen, Dulce et Decorum Est      

Carolyn Forché, The Colonel  

Sophocles, Antigone               

        Destruction and Endings: Topics for Essays   

        Working Further with the Worlds Around Us 

 

Reading Globally, Writing Locally: Naguib Mahfouz and the Literature of Africa 

Naguib Mahfouz, Half a Day             

Naguib Mahfouz, Zaabalawi              

Binyavanga Wainaina, How to Write about Africa               

Jeremy Cronin, To learn how to speak . . .             

Chenjerai Hove, You Will Forget           

        Working Further with the Literature of Africa

 

11. Spaces and Places: The World We Live in

        Imagining Spaces     

      IN-BETWEEN SPACES 

Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty

Eudora Welty, A Worn Path    

Raymond Carver, Cathedral   

Sherman Alexie, This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona          

Robert Frost, Mending Wall     

James Wright, Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota     

Louise Erdrich, Dear John Wayne          

Yusuf Komunyakaa, Facing It                

Rachel Carson, fromThe Marginal World             

Studs Terkel, The Mason: Carl Murray Bates

        In-Between Spaces: Topics for Essays          

      CONFINED SPACES

Edgar Allan Poe, The Cask of Amontillado             

William Faulkner, A Rose for Emily      

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper                

Daniel Orosco, Orientation

Paul Laurence Dunbar, Sympathy          

Stevie Smith, Not Waving but Drowning               

Robert Browning, My Last Duchess       

Henrik Ibsen, A Doll’s House

Malcolm X, fromThe Autobiography of Malcolm X                

        Confined Spaces: Topics for Essays  

        Working Further with the World We Live In  

 

Reading Globally, Writing Locally: Jhumpa Lahiri and the Literature of Asia      

Jhumpa Lahiri, My Two Lives                

Jhumpa Lahiri, When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine  

Kazuo Ishiguro, A Family Supper           

Garrett Hongo, Who Among You Knows the Essence of Garlic?            

Xu Gang, Red Azalea on the Cliff             

        Working Further with the Literature of Asia   

 

12.  Nature, Cities, and the Environment: The World We Share

        Imagining City and Nature Together  

        LIVING IN THE CITY  

Toni Cade Bambara, The Lesson           

Allen Ginsberg, A Supermarket in California         

Ezra Pound, In a Station of the Metro      

Valzhyna Mort, New York

Langston Hughes, Theme for English B  

David Ives, Sure Thing

Bill Buford, Lions and Tigers and Bears                

        Living in the City: Topics for Essays  

        LIVING IN NATURE    

Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Three Projects         

Julio Cortázar, Axolotl            

T. Coraghessan Boyle, Greasy Lake      

Bash o , Four haiku    

Richard Wright, Haiku            

William Carlos Williams, so much depends         

Elizabeth Bishop, The Fish     

Kay Ryan, Turtle

Walt Whitman, When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer         

Langston Hughes, The Negro Speaks of Rivers      

Gerard Manley Hopkins, Inversnaid     

Louis D. Owens, The American Indian Wilderness

Donella Meadows, Living Lightly and Inconsistently on the Land          

        Living in Nature: Topics for Essays   

        Working Further with the World We Share    

 

Reading Globally, Writing Locally: Gabriel GarcÌa MÁrquez and the Literature of the Americas  

Gabriel García Márquez, The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World           

Gabriel García Márquez, The Very Old Man with Enormous Wings

Pablo Neruda, The Word         

Jimmy Santiago Baca, So Mexicans Are Taking Jobs from Americans

Tino Villanueva, Variation on a Theme by William Carlos Williams     

        Working Further with the Literature of the Americas  

 

Appendix A: The World of Literary Criticism

 

Appendix B: MLA Documentation Guidelines

 

Glossary