A common misconception is that professors who use popular culture and fantasy in the classroom have abandoned the classics, yet in a variety of contexts--high school, college freshman composition, senior seminars, literature, computer science, philosophy and politics--fantasy materials can expand and enrich an established curriculum.
The new essays in this book combine analyses of popular television... [click here for more]
Source criticism--analysis of a writer's source material--has emerged as one of the most popular approaches in exploring the work of J.R.R. Tolkien.
Since Tolkien drew from many disparate sources, an understanding of these sources, as well as how and why he incorporated them, can enhance readers' appreciation.
This set of new essays by leading Tolkien scholars describes the theory and methodology... [click here for more]
The United States has a rich haunted history not often recounted in school. Beyond the Liberty Bell and right under the presidential noses on Mount Rushmore exists a dark and sinister world, which harbors secret creatures, beings both malevolent and benevolent, that inhabit the nation--ghosts and monsters unwilling or unable to abandon the American landscape.
Hitchhike along on this transnational... [click here for more]