The English Handbook: A Guide to Literary Studies

The English Handbook: A Guide to Literary Studies is a comprehensive new textbook providing essential practical and analytical reading and writing skills for literature students at all levels.   The Handbook features coverage of all key areas, from sonnets to irony to close textual analysis. Unprecedented in bringing within one volume a combination of traditional and contemporary methods for literary analysis of fiction, drama and poetry, this is a uniquely practical reference tool. Detailed yet succinct, the book contains guidance on library and web research techniques, new technologies, and provides help in shaping essays and other assignments for different class requirements. The companion website provides further clarity and insight with helpful chapter summaries and resources for continuing study. With a perfect balance of academic rigor and essential practical information, The English Handbook is an accessible and wide–ranging manual, indispensable for all students of literature.

Preface. I: The Study of Literature. 1. "English" and "Literature": The Subject in Question. 2. Great Books and Trash: The Canon Wars. 3. What about Experience, Value, Quality, and Beauty? 4. How Dead is the Author? From Work to Text: Intention and Authority. 5. Literary History, Periods, and Movements: Some Uses and Dangers. 6. Criticism, Interpretation, and Analysis: Thinking About What You Read. 7. Interdisciplinarity and Intertextuality—What is Outside the Field? II: Reading English: From Opening a Book to Critical Analysis. 1. How to Read. Reading for Keeps: Primary and Secondary Texts. Skimming and Overview. Outlines and Summaries. Critical Reading as a Prelude to Discussion. Synthesis and Connections with Lectures, Notes. Five Methods of Reading. Literal Level: Reading for Content. Formal Level: Reading for Content and Form. Expository Level: Reading for Content, Form, and Meaning. Comparative Level: Reading for Associations and. Implications. Analytical Level: Reading for Contexts. 2. What to Look For. Identifying the Markers in a Text. Typographical Markers, Key Phrases, Definitions. Time, Place, Agency. Repetition and Variation. Description, Dialogue, and Argument. Content and Form. 3. From Themes to Structure and Meaning: Frames for Close Reading. How is a Work Put Together? 4. How to Annotate Your Text. III: Critical Practice. 1. Linguistics and Literary Study. Theoretical and Applied Linguistics: What They Study. Philology, Grammars, and Words. Communication: From Text to Reader. Denotation and Connotation: The Uses and Abuses of Dictionaries. 2. Stylistics. Language in Place—The Contexts of Language. Forms and Effects of Language. Levels, Registers, and Dialects. How Writers Put Words Together: Grammar, Punctuation, and. Meaning. Literary Stylistics. 3. Formalist Analysis. How We Got to Formalism: History and Critique. Can We Locate the Text Itself? Form and Content, Theme and Details. Representation and Structure. Advantages and Disadvantages of Close Reading. Connecting Formalist Analysis to Material Conditions of Writing and Ideology. 4. Genres. What Kind of Thing is That? The Analysis of Genres. The Social Construction of Genres. Literary Genres and Readers’ Expectations. The Relationships of Genres. 5. Rhetoric and Persuasion: From Aristotle to Now. The Elements of Rhetoric. Rhetoric and Literary Theory. Figures of Speech: What are Tropes and Schemes? Some Uses of Rhetoric in Literary Analysis. 6. Reading the Signs: Semiotics for Students of Literature. The System of Language (Langue) and a Speaker’s Words (Parole). Signifiers and Signifieds. Across Time (Diachrony) and At the Same Time (Synchrony). Sign Classes and Systems. 7. From One Meaning to Many: Constructing and Deconstructing the Text. Is Anything Outside the Text?. Opposites in Power Relations. Reading for the Gaps and Silences. Inversion, Displacement, and Deferral of Meaning. IV: The Politics of Reading: Gender, Class, and Ethnicity. 1. Gender Matters. Feminist and Masculinist Interventions. Gay and Lesbian Studies. Reading the Body. 2. Being Class Conscious. Materialist Interventions. What is Class? Reading Signs of Class. 3. Ethnic Difference: Reading in a Post–Colonial Context. Imperial Fall–out. National Identities and Cultural Heritages. On the Margins: Hybridity and Plurality. V: Poetry and Poetics. 1. Introducing Poetry. 2. Prosody: An Introduction to Scansion and Versification. 3. Forming Readers’ Responses: Poetic Genres and Stanzaic Forms. 4. Poetic Rhetoric and Mediating Signs: Images, Metaphors, Symbols, and Irony. 5. Stylistic and Aesthetic Terms. VI: Prose Fiction. 1. Introducing Prose Fiction: Plot, Setting, and Character. 2. Narrative Genres: Novel, Novella, and Short Story. 3. Character Types and Functions. 4. Narratology. VII: Drama. 1. Introducing Drama: Stage, Actor, Audience, and Speech. 2. Drama Genres. 3. Drama and Theatre: Play Text and Performance. VIII: Library Research and Scholarly Method. 1. Old and New Methods. 2. The Web: Its Benefits, Temptations, and Problems. 3. How to Find What You Need, and How To Evaluate It. 4. Library Resources: Printed and Electronic. 5. Acknowledging Your Sources to Avoid Plagiarism: Notes and Bibliographies. IX: The Analytical Essay and Other Assignments. 1. Kinds of Assignments: Their Objectives and Audience. 2. Kinds of Arguments: Induction and Deduction. 3. Organizing Your Assignment: Thesis Statement, Outline, and Computer Drafts. 4. Building Paragraphs and Arguments. 5. Integrating Quotations. 6. Revising for Content, Argument, and Style. 7. Submitting the Final Copy. Bibliography. Index.

William Whitla  is Professor Emeritus and Senior Scholar in English and Humanities at York University in Toronto . He has published The Central Truth (on Robert Browning, 1963), Essays and Reviews (on Victorian literature and religion, with Victor Shea, 2000), and Foundations: Critical Thinking, Reading , and Writing  (also with Victor Shea, 2001 and 2005).

“It would certainly be helpful to students to have multiple copies available in their academic libraries.”  ( Reference Reviews , 2012)