What we seek out and note in earlier literature is what is most prominent, satisfying, and comprehensible to the contemporary imagination. (RB)

One of a series of works aimed at presenting contemporary critical opinion on major authors, this collection includes essays by John Unterecker, W. H. Auden, High Kenner, Giogio Melchiori, Frank Kermode, W. Y. Tindall, T. S. Eliot, R. P. Blackmur, Alex Zwerdling, Curtis Bradford, D. J. Gordon, Ian Fletcher, A. G. Stock, Allen Tate, and Richard…

Shakespeare's lifetime coincided with the consolidation of modern capitalism, and his plays reveal his interest in economics--defined as a rational system for calculating and comparing the value of commodities--and especially the economics of time. Shakespeare's plays offer a critique of the new capitalism by showing the extent to which it can and…

Did he or didn't he? The question is vexing Coleridge scholars. Did the author of "Christabel," "Kubla Khan," and "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" compose a blank-verse translation of Goethe's "Faust" that was published anonymously in London in 1821? Two prominent Romanticists, Frederick Burwick and James C. McKusick, both Americans, believe they…

Argues that Wordsworth's emphasis on love of nature, faith in man, and political sympathy--three expressions of concern strongly echoed in contemporary life--make him a worth literary figure for young people to study. (RB)

One of a series of works aimed at presenting contemporary critical opinion on major authors, this collection includes essays by G. Wilson Knight, Bernard Blackstone, Mario Praz, Paul West, Guy Steffan, F. R. Leavis, W. W. Robson, Helen Gardner, George M. Ridenour, Edmund Wilson, Gilbert Highet, Bertrand Russell, and John Wain--all dealing with the…

Presents five reasons for classroom study of Mary Shelley's gothic work: (1)intriguing style and subject matter, brevity and novelty; (2)narrative versatility; (3)representation of the Romantic Era in English literature; (4)female authorship; (5)significance of the central theme of "scientific aims pursued in reckless disregard of human…

One way of making connections among various authors in a survey course is to emphasize recurring themes, images, and tropes; the instructor can point out how they are transformed by a constantly changing ethos and set of historical circumstances. A case in point is the second part of a British survey, typically going from William Blake or William…

One of a series of works aimed at presenting contemporary critical opinion on major authors, this collection includes essays by Walter Jackson Bate, T. S. Eliot, Douglas Bush, Richard H. Fogle, Jack Stillinger, Harold Bloom, David Perkins, Earl Wasserman, and D. G. James--all dealing with the biography and literary work of John Keats. Designed for…

This handout is a guide to library resources in the J. Murrey Atkins Library at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte for the study of the 19th-century American authors Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville. The guide details resources in Atkins library for biographical and critical material on the two authors. The guide is in four…

This handout is a guide to library resources in the J. Murrey Atkins Library at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte for the criticism of Romantic (19th century) American literature. The guide explains important reference sources in the Atkins library reference collection and how to find biographical and critical information in books and…

Intended as a guide to scholarship on Romantic writers, this selective bibliography attempts to cover the major works and topics, with emphasis on work published in the 20th century. Omitted are unpublished dissertations and most literary histories, bibliographies of bibliography, short notes and explications, and older biographical works that…