Literary Studies provides students with an accessible overview of everything they need to know to succeed in their English courses--literary terms, historical periods, theoretical approaches, and more. The guide helps students gain the analytical skills that will benefit them in college and as educated citizens after graduation.
read for class- only certain chapters were relevant it was like a textbook for reading which was kinda funny definitely useful but it's not like it was a very fun read lots of skimming...like when u read a textbook ya know? whatever
I was assigned this book for an English class for my undergraduate English degree. I've never had such a roller-coaster of a textbook. At first, it was good. It had simple explanations and was really well paced. Then it became a page or two of information, most of which leaves you wondering how you accidentally signed up for an intensive theory class, and thirteen of examples--which you can honestly skip and not miss a thing. Then came the section that was a history lesson--not the literary eras, mind you, but the history of critical practices that are extremely outdated. The final section is on the writing we all learned to do in 9th and 10th grade. By the end of this textbook, I felt simultaneously overwhelmed and condescended to--which could have been easily fixed by making the entire writing section compressed and turned into an initial appendix or something, and limiting the number of examples. No one needs an example of picking apart every single writing style out there.