Related Guides
Background Sources
- The Cambridge Companion to Frankenstein The Cambridge Companion to Frankenstein consists of sixteen original essays on Mary Shelley's novel by leading scholars, providing an invaluable introduction to Frankenstein and its various critical contexts. Theoretically informed but accessibly written, this volume relates Frankenstein to various social, literary, scientific and historical contexts, and outlines how critical theories such as ecocriticism, posthumanism, and queer theory generate new and important discussion in illuminating ways. The volume also explores the cultural afterlife of the novel including its adaptations in various media such as drama, film, television, graphic novels, and literature aimed at children and young adults.
- The Cambridge Companion to Mary Shelley Known from her day to ours as 'the Author of Frankenstein', Mary Shelley indeed created one of the central myths of modernity. But she went on to survive all manner of upheaval - personal, political, and professional - and to produce an oeuvre of bracing intelligence and wide cultural sweep. The Cambridge Companion to Mary Shelley helps readers to assess for themselves her remarkable body of work. In clear, accessible essays, a distinguished group of scholars place Shelley's works in several historical and aesthetic contexts: literary history, the legacies of her parents William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, and of course the life and afterlife, in cinema, robotics and hypertext, of Frankenstein. Other topics covered include Mary Shelley as a biographer and cultural critic, as the first editor of Percy Shelley's works, and as travel writer. This invaluable volume is complemented by a chronology, a guide to further reading and a select filmography.
- Shelley's Frankenstein Mary Shelley's classic gothic novel, "Frankenstein," is one of the most widely studied novels in English Literature. Due to its key position in the canon and its wide cultural influence, the novel has been the subject of many interpretations, which require some guidance to navigate. This book offers an authoritative, up-to-date guide for students, introducing its context, language, themes, criticism and afterlife, leading them to a more sophisticated understanding of the text. Graham Allen places "Frankenstein "in its historical, intellectual and cultural contexts, offering analyses of its themes, style and structure, providing exemplary close readings, and presenting an up-to-date account of its critical reception. It also includes an introduction to its substantial history as an adapted text on stage and screen and its wider influence in film and popular culture. It includes points for discussion, suggestions for further study and an annotated guide to relevant reading.
- A Mary Shelley Encyclopedia Frankenstein is one of the most popular classroom texts in high school and college, and Shelley's other works are attracting renewed attention. This reference is a comprehensive guide to her life and career. Included are hundreds of alphabetically arranged entries about her works, friends, relatives, residences, fictional characters, allusions, and more.
- The Oxford Companion to Chaucer Written by an international team of scholars, the Oxford Companion to Chaucer provides a wealth of clear, up-to-date assessments on all aspects of Chaucer. Entries provide information on Chaucer's life and times, his works and the characteristics of them, his language and metre, his reading and the creative uses he made of it, and his major moral and literary themes. Extensive reference is also made to the development of critical opinion about his works over the centuries.
- The Cambridge Companion to Chaucer The Cambridge Companion to Chaucer is an extensively revised version of the first edition, which has become a classic in the field. This new volume responds to the success of the first edition and to recent debates in Chaucer Studies. Important material has been updated, and new contributions have been commissioned to take into account recent trends in literary theory as well as in studies of Chaucer's works. New chapters cover the literary inheritance traceable in his works to French and Italian sources, his style, as well as new approaches to his work. Other topics covered include the social and literary scene in England in Chaucer's time, and comedy, pathos and romance in the Canterbury Tales. The volume now offers a useful chronology, and the bibliography has been entirely updated to provide an indispensable guide for today's student of Chaucer.
- A New Companion to Chaucer A New Companion to Chaucer is an authoritative and up-to-date survey of Chaucer scholarship. Rigorous yet accessible, this book helps readers to identify current debates, recognize historical and literary context, and to understand how particular concepts and theories affect the interpretation of Chaucer's texts. Chaucer specialists from around the globe offer contributions that range from updates of long-standing scholarship on biography, language, women, and social structures, to original research in new areas such as ideology, the afterlife, patronage, and sexuality.
- The Oxford Companion to American Theatre The standard one-volume source on our national theatre.
- The Oxford Companion to Theatre and Performance This Oxford Companion is based on the celebrated Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance, and covers styles and movements, organizations, regions and traditions; it has a particularly strong focus on biographies of actors, playwrights, directors, and designers.
- The Palgrave Handbook of Theatre and Race The first comprehensive publication on the subject, this book investigates interactions between racial thinking and the stage in the modern and contemporary world, with 25 essays on case studies that will shed light on areas previously neglected by criticism while providing fresh perspectives on already-investigated contexts. Examining performances from Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, Africa, China, Australia, New Zealand, and the South Pacific islands, this collection ultimately frames the history of racial narratives on stage in a global context, resetting understandings of race in public discourse.
- Contemporary Authors This link opens in a new window A bio-bibliographical guide to current writers in fiction, general nonfiction, poetry, journalism, drama, motion pictures, television, and other fields.
- Gale Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new window Searchable database of full-text articles, essays, book reviews, plot summaries, poems, short stories, plays, and interviews with contemporary writers.
