Literature and Society: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, Nonfiction (3rd Edition)

Rating:
Summary: Not My Favorite Literature Text
Review: If you are looking for a literature textbook for a survey course, then this book is not for you. It is designed for students, but it is also designed to illustrate literature's place in our society.

The beginning goes into the writing process and writing about literature. There is an example of writing on poetry, but it is only two paragraph's worth. Most students would like to see the whole essay.

The bulk of the book is arranged in topics, which have subtopics of fiction, poetry, drama, and nonfiction. The topics, "Growing up and Growing Older," "Women and Men," "Money and Work," "Peace and War," and "Varieties of Protest," give you a wide variety of selections to illustrate the idea. Unless you plan on structuring your course this way, this isn't the easiest text to navigate a class through.

The end of the book has a section devoted to each of the subtopics: fiction, poetry, drama, and nonfiction. Here, strategies and elements of each of these subtopics are illustrated here. The examples used here refer to selections from the text, which allows the student to refer back. This is a good touch.

I would not recommend this book as long as you are teaching a survey course.

Rating:
Summary: Not My Favorite Literature Text
Review: If you are looking for a literature textbook for a survey course, then this book is not for you. It is designed for students, but it is also designed to illustrate literature's place in our society.

The beginning goes into the writing process and writing about literature. There is an example of writing on poetry, but it is only two paragraph's worth. Most students would like to see the whole essay.

The bulk of the book is arranged in topics, which have subtopics of fiction, poetry, drama, and nonfiction. The topics, "Growing up and Growing Older," "Women and Men," "Money and Work," "Peace and War," and "Varieties of Protest," give you a wide variety of selections to illustrate the idea. Unless you plan on structuring your course this way, this isn't the easiest text to navigate a class through.

The end of the book has a section devoted to each of the subtopics: fiction, poetry, drama, and nonfiction. Here, strategies and elements of each of these subtopics are illustrated here. The examples used here refer to selections from the text, which allows the student to refer back. This is a good touch.

I would not recommend this book as long as you are teaching a survey course.