The McGraw-Hill Introduction to Literature [antikvár]

The McGraw-Hill Introduction to Literature, now in its second edition, is a dynamic and diversified anthology for college students enrolled in literature and composition courses. It contains fiction, poetry, and drama of American and international appeal. Designed with an eye to both the uniqueness and the universality of outstanding literature, this text offers a unified, multicultural approach to meaning, form, technique, and values in fiction, poetry, and drama. If literature, as Paul Valéry declared, is "the art of playing on the minds of others," tlien what we have attempted to create in this anthology is an appreciation of the strategies and themes by which first-rate authors capture and engage the imagination, intellect, and emotions of a broad rangé of readers. The organization of The McGraw-Hill Introduction to Literature reflects organically the prime ways in which the teaching of literature actually is done-by genre, subject, theme, and technique. However, instead of fragmenting these approaches, we combine them in order to show how readers experience the thrill and meaning of a text through the author's handling of the key elements of his or her craft. The anthology contains three traditional main sections, eacli with a prefatoxy essay: Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. While these three genres are not the only forms of literature, what we call literature is most often expressed through them. Within each of these three major sections there are self-contained chapters-excellent modules for instruction-arranged around literary selections that reveal the application of specific technique. These chapters on strategy and technique contain concise introductory essays and exercises for discussion and writing. Each distinct chapter, by isolating within the genre a specific technique in relationship to theme, asserts the primacy of method in the author's discovery, exploration, and evaluation of a subject. The extensive anthologies arranged alphabetically at the end of the fiction, poetry, and drama sections enhance the teacher's flexibility in XVll