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A COMPANION TO LITERARY EVALUATION The first critical survey devoted solely to literary evaluation When we read a novel, watch a play, or hear lyric poetry in performance, we intuitively make a private assessment of its artistic qualities. Yet it is commonly assumed within academia that literature cannot be defined. Consequently, the question of "is it any good" is hardly ever addressed in the world of literary studies. Bridging the gap between the non-academic literary world and the university, A Companion to Literary Evaluation helps readers balance instinctive judgment and reasoned assessment to articulate how or why a particular author, playwright, or poet inhabits an exalted position while others do not. A diverse panel of contributors explores key issues from various perspectives, including analytical aesthetics, the philosophy of literature, opinionated bias, and common sense. It covers topics from lyric poetry, newspaper reviewing, literary translation, and the question of Shakespeare's genius, to the simple notion of how a life of reading books alters our sense of what is good and what is not. Throughout the book, easily accessible chapters emphasize the importance of maintaining clarity of values in the evaluation of literary works, illustrate how seemingly divergent perspectives sometimes overlap, discuss the impact of Modernism, the teaching of evaluation in schools, relativism versus subjectivism in assessing literary value, and more. Incorporating methodologies that demonstrate why literature can be treated as something different from other forms of language, A Companion to Literary Evaluation is a must-read for undergraduates, research students, lecturers, and academics in search of fresh perspectives on standard literary critical issues.

A COMPANION TO MULTIETHNIC LITERATURE OF THE UNITED STATES A Companion to Multiethnic Literature of the United States is the most comprehensive collection of scholarship dedicated to US literature by authors of varied ethnic backgrounds. Bringing together a diverse panel of leading contributors in the field, this authoritative volume draws on a wide range of critical and theoretical methodologies to analyze the histories, genres, themes, cultural and geographical contexts, and new directions of multiethnic literature. The first reference work of its kind, the Companion explores how the study of multiethnic literature informs literary scholarship while highlighting cutting-edge approaches and frameworks such as ecocriticism, refugee and diaspora studies, hemispheric and transnational studies, critical race theory, digital humanities, gender and sexuality, popular culture, material and visual culture, and many more. Thirty-one in-depth chapters address African American, Latinx, Native American, Asian American, Jewish American, and Arab American literatures, among others. Throughout the book, the authors highlight significant themes and major critical trends in a variety of genres, discuss how recent developments in critical theory impact the reading and interpretation of multiethnic US literature, consider how technology and digital access to archival materials are changing the study, reception, and writing of multiethnic US literature, and much more. A Companion to Multiethnic Literature of the United States is an invaluable resource for undergraduate and graduate students, scholars and researchers, instructors, and general readers studying all aspects of US literature.