Literary Studies (British and Irish)

English Literature: A Very Short Introduction considers such diverse topics as the birth of the novel, the brilliance of English comedy, the deep Englishness of landscape poetry, and the ethnic diversity of Britain's Nobel literature laureates. English literature is known for its major literary movements such as Romanticism and Modernism, and influential authors including Chaucer, Donne, Johnson, Wordsworth, Austen, Dickens, and Woolf. The study of English literature brings up fascinating questions. Why does literature matter? How does narrative work? What is distinctly English about English literature? How do literary texts change as they are transmitted from writer to reader?Less