Studying Literature in English: an introduction

Abstract

This book sets out to give you almost everything that you need as someone beginning to think seriously about literature in English, and not too much that you don’t. Although it divides into various parts, which respectively concentrate on formal, historical and theoretical approaches, it is designed to be read from cover to cover: each chapter assumes information from the previous ones. Studying Literature in English is designed, first and foremost, as a point of entry for people who are engaged with the subject as first- or second-year students at a university or other institution of higher education. It is meant to be particularly useful to students in countries where English is not the first language and where the equivalent of a British A-level in English Literature, taken for granted by a lot of similar-looking books, does not exist. However, even students in primarily English-speaking countries should be able to benefit from the comprehensive approach offered here, especially since literature is increasingly being taught, almost everywhere, as part of larger modular structures, where study time is rationed, and where the ability to see an academic field as a whole, and connect it with other ones, is very important. This book tries to tell you all that you need to know about literature, but also where to place literature in the context of a wider process of learning.