Literature and Ourselves: A Thematic Introduction for Readers and Writers

by Gloria Mason Henderson, William Day, Sandra Stevenson Waller

Literature and Ourselves, 4/e, is a thematically organized anthology that treats literature as a continually expanding commentary on our infinitely varied lives, helping readers make the connection between literature and their own unique life stories. Each of the six themes - Family, Men and Women, Grief and Loss, Freedom and Responsibility, Imagination and Discovery, and Quest - progress outward from the self to larger issues. Within each theme, the book provides a unique combination of traditional and contemporary works organized by genre - essays, fiction, poetry, and drama - that reflect the diverse cultures and ethnicities that make up our world today. The fourth edition features new essays, poems, stories, and plays, three new casebooks (Amy Tan, Joyce Carol Oates, and Tim O'Brien), greater emphasis on writing about film, enhanced coverage of science fiction/fantasy, and new end-of-unit questions, "Writing About Literature and Film." For those interested in a personal approach to literature.

Genres: Nonfiction

113 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[DawnF · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book that contains essays, short fictions, poems and dramas.

There are so many wonderful writers and pieces captured in this book. The drama that made this book completely worthwhile for me was Shakespeare's Othello.

Othello is not a cheerful story, but instead is rather tragic and maddening (especially to a girl like me - I would think things like, why did he just believe what that person said...why didn't he ask her?!). But the reason I loved it was that the footnotes really helped improve my early 17th century English and enabled me to understand an otherwise impossible piece.

I can now say that I've read Maya Angelou, Martin Luther King, Jr., Tom Stoppard, Yeats, Keating, etc. A very nice starting point for someone who wants to expand their literary pursuits.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had it for an English Course, there's some pretty captivating works in there, and a lot of really apt interpretations, analyses, and criticisms. By being forced to read it i managed to find a number of authors i'm interested in, and a couple too that i'd all but forgotten. If you ever use this for a class, i imagine you will only use a certain selection of what's available, but take a look around in your free time, and keep it on your shelf to come back to; if you want to have access to a Shakespeare Sonnet in one place that also includes: Bill Cosby, Kurt Vonnegut, William Faulkner, Martin Luther King Jr., Robert Frost, and dozens you've probably never heard of or given a chance before, then you might want to have this around. If only to put something on that bookshelf with other "reference" books you never get to use, that you may actually be interested in, thereby blending the organizational system in a pleasing way, you might want hold onto Literature and Ourselves.
And that's not even mentioning the wide range of thought-provoking themes and subjects it tackles in order to draw in such an ensemble.

[Lyla · Rating 4 out of 5]

I purchased this as a text book for a writing class I took at FLC in 2014. I have kept it because it has a wonderful selection of well known writers included and I return to it periodically to read someone specific. I have not read it cover to cover but we used quite a bit of the material for the class.