Identifies--and labels as elegiac romance"--a group of 19th and 20th century American, English, and European novels in which a narrator relates the story of a heroic, questing figure to whom he is committed in attempting to overcome the effect of loss which results from" the hero's death. (Author/RD)

Presents an introduction to social construction and offers a bibliographical guide to such texts. Recommends general and community specific accounts, defines social constructionist thought in literary criticism and literary history, mentions composition studies, and comments on the impact of social construction in education. (JK)