MH Abrams, Norton anthology founder, influential critic, dead at age 102

Esteemed critic, teacher and tastemaker helped shape the modern literary canon and wrote one of the 20th century’s most acclaimed works of criticismMH Abrams, an esteemed critic and teacher who helped shape the modern literary canon as founding editor of the Norton Anthology of English Literature and joined the elite himself by writing one of the 20th century’s most acclaimed works of criticism, has died. He was 102.Abrams’ death was confirmed on Wednesday by the president of Cornell University, David J Skorton, who declined to give details. According to the website of the Ithaca university, where he was a longtime member of the English department, Abrams died on Tuesday at the retirement community Kendal at Ithaca. No cause of death was given. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2015-04-23 00:00:00 UTC ]

Other news stories related to: "MH Abrams, Norton anthology founder, influential critic, dead at age 102"


Lit in colour

This week we’ve published the findings of research conducted by Lit in Colour, a campaign run by Penguin Random House and The Runnymede Trust to make the teaching of English Literature more inclusive and representative of the myriad of different voices and narratives that make up Britain’s past... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-06-29 23:09:45 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Benjamin Zephaniah calls for more diversity in GCSE texts

Less than one percent of authors studied at GCSE English Literature are from an ethnic minority background. Continue reading at BBC News

[ BBC News | 2021-06-29 18:52:35 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Just 0.7% of GCSE English Lit students study writers of colour, PRH research shows

Research commissioned by Penguin Random House has revealed only 0.7% of English Literature GCSE students in England study a book by a writer of colour while only 7% study a book by a woman. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-06-28 22:57:04 UTC ]
More news stories like this


The True Meaning of Hamlet’s ‘Frailty, Thy Name is Woman’

‘Frailty, thy name is woman’ is one of dozens of famous expressions that have entered common speech, but which originated in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The old quip about Hamlet, that it’s ‘too full of quotations’, wittily sums up the play’s influence on not just English literature but on the... Continue reading at Interesting Literature

[ Interesting Literature | 2021-06-24 17:00:06 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Early Medieval English literature was a sordid swamp of wanton plagiarism!

It turns out 12th-century British scholars (monks, really, we’re mainly talking monks, here) had absolutely no problem borrowing “long passages” from whatever manuscripts they could get their hands on, and would freely plagiarize the writings of continental scholars. Of course, plagiarism then... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2021-05-11 14:10:25 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Giancarlo DiTrapano, Tyrant Books Founder, Dies at 47

The founding editor and publisher of the influential independent press Tyrant Books died suddenly on March 30 while visiting New York City from his home in Naples, Italy. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-04-02 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Five of the Best Examples of the Pantoum Form in English Poetry

When compared with the sonnet, ballad, or even the villanelle, the pantoum verse form could hardly be called ‘popular’, and examples of pantoums in English literature are not exactly plentiful. Nonetheless, there are some fine instances of the pantoum – a distinctive and strict form which has... Continue reading at Interesting Literature

[ Interesting Literature | 2021-03-25 15:00:19 UTC ]
More news stories like this


US magazine Poetry faces outcry for publishing work by sex offender

New issue, dedicated to work by current and former prisoners, provokes uproar after it emerges one poet has served time for child pornography offencesThe US’s prestigious Poetry magazine has doubled down on its decision to publish a poem by a convicted sex offender as part of a special edition... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2021-02-03 16:08:52 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Trying to Teach English Literature in the Wake of Mao’s Cultural Revolution

My assignment was to offer a survey course on the history of English literature in northeast China. I was paired with a young American teacher sponsored by the United Nations who was to teach phonetics and oral expression. We taught six days a week, and every Wednesday afternoon our students... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2021-01-15 09:49:40 UTC ]
More news stories like this


America Starts Here: On “When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry”

2020 WORKED HARD to be one of the worst years in recent memory, but for readers of Native American literature, this era is proving to be among the most exciting in the history of Indigenous writing, especially for poetry. To wit: Joy Harjo has just begun her second term as poet laureate of the... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books

[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-11-09 18:00:17 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Penguin launches project to boost diversity in GCSE reading lists

Lit in Colour, the publisher’s partnership with the Runnymede Trust, hopes to redress imbalances in English literature coursesThe book publisher Penguin Random House has teamed up with the thinktank the Runnymede Trust to boost diversity in reading lists in schools.The partnership – Lit in... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2020-10-24 16:11:09 UTC ]
More news stories like this


10 of the Funniest Comic Writers in English

Selected by Dr Oliver Tearle English literature has a rich tradition of comic writing. From Chaucer’s ‘Miller’s Tale’ to Shakespeare’s Falstaff to the early comic novels of Smollett, Sterne, Fielding, and Swift, there are plenty of laughs to be had from the pages of the literary greats. But what... Continue reading at Interesting Literature

[ Interesting Literature | 2020-10-08 14:00:57 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Granny Knows Best

BORN AND RAISED in Montenegro, Olja Knežević studied English literature at the University of Belgrade, Serbia, before completing her MA in Creative Writing at Birkbeck College, University of London, in 2008. Now living in Croatia, she is one of those effortlessly international authors whose... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books

[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-10-02 12:30:19 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Festival Five with NSK Juror Randy Ribay, by the Editors of WLT

Interviews   Randy Ribay was born in the Philippines and raised in the Midwest. He’s the author of After the Shot Drops and An Infinite Number of Parallel Universes. His latest book, Patron Saints of Nothing, is a powerful coming-of-age story about... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2020-09-29 13:14:12 UTC ]
More news stories like this


AE Housman’s Light Verse: ‘The Crocodile’

In this week’s Dispatches from The Secret Library, Dr Oliver Tearle enjoys the comic verse by one of the most ‘miserable’ poets in English literature ‘The Crocodile or, Public Decency’ is not one of the best-known poems of A. E. Housman (1859-1936), the classical scholar and poet who failed his […] Continue reading at Interesting Literature

[ Interesting Literature | 2020-09-18 14:00:40 UTC ]
More news stories like this


The Festival Five with NSK Juror Tanaya Winder, by the Editors of WLT

Interviews Poet, writer, and educator Tanaya Winder is an enrolled member of the Duckwater Shoshone Tribe and has ancestors from the Southern Ute, Pyramid Lake Paiute, Navajo, and Black tribes. She grew up on the Southern Ute reservation in Ignacio,... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2020-09-02 20:59:27 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Review: The demons that dogged Charles Dickens

Veteran biographer A.N. Wilson takes on one of the most popular, prolific and puzzling writers in English literature in "The Mystery of Charles Dickens." Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-08-06 14:00:54 UTC ]
More news stories like this


To Be the Poet of Troy: An Interview with Mosab Abu Toha by Philip Metres

After finding an anthology of English literature in the rubble of the Islamic University of Gaza during the 2014 Israeli bombing, Mosab Abu Toha had a dream: founding an English language library in one of the most confined, crowded, and isolated places in the world. According to the “We Are Not... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-07-22 08:47:29 UTC ]
More news stories like this


10 of the Best Ballads in English Literature

Traditionally, a ballad was a song that was designed to be danced to, as the etymology of the word, Provençal balada meaning ‘dance, song to dance to’, ultimately from late Latin ballare. The great British ballads – and we say ‘British’ because many of them were Scottish rather than English... Continue reading at Interesting Literature

[ Interesting Literature | 2020-06-14 14:00:45 UTC ]
More news stories like this


10 of the Most Accessible Poets in English Literature

How many times have you heard someone say, ‘I don’t read poetry. I just don’t get it.’ Or perhaps, ‘Why can’t poets just come out and say what they want to say? Why say something in such a way?’ For many people, poetry is ‘difficult’. But whilst it’s true that […] The post 10 of the Most... Continue reading at Interesting Literature

[ Interesting Literature | 2020-05-30 14:00:36 UTC ]
More news stories like this