Approaching Literature: Writing, Reading, Thinking

by Peter Schakel, Jack Ridl

Developed by authors with more than 50 years of teaching experience between them, Approaching Literature has been designed as a true alternative to more traditional literature anthologies. The authors conceived this anthology with three principles in mind: (1) that exposing students to the widest array of literature can help every one find common ground with that literature; (2) that contemporary literary works can serve as entry points to reading and appreciating the canonical literature that students often find unfamiliar, intimidating, and sometimes irrelevant; and (3) that the instruction in reading and writing about literature should be accessible and jargon-free to all students, not just potential English majors. With its streamlined and student-friendly instructional text, and its ongoing commitment to showcasing the most engaging and diverse literary works publishing right now, Approaching Literature is built from the ground up with today's students in mind.

Genres: Nonfiction, Poetry, School

1696 pages, Paperback

First published December 24, 2007

Reviews

[Natalee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good collection of stories. Reading this for a college class (which I'm pretty sure the anthology was made for?) so the sample essays -- which, in the opinion of myself, my class, and my professor -- are of vey poor quality; not even my high school teachers would have viewed them favorably as samples of quality work. Regardless, enjoyable to work with, good introduction to literary studies and a wide slew of mostly American authors.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't normally bother reviewing my textbooks, but the short stories in this are really good so far. Murakami's "Birthday Girl" has to be the stand out so far.

[✿ K.B ✿ · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good book to learn how to start writing and understanding what they read. It has classic short stories and poems from amazing authors and poets. It is good for literature classes.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good Poems in this addtion.