Literary Analysis

Literary Theory for Robots reveals the hidden history of modern machine intelligence, taking listeners on a spellbinding journey from medieval Arabic philosophy to visions of a universal language, past Hollywood fiction factories, and missile defense systems trained on Russian folktales. In this provocative reflection on the shared pasts of literature and computer science, former Microsoft engineer and professor of comparative literature Dennis Yi Tenen provides crucial context for recent developments in AI, which holds important lessons for the future of humans living with smart technology.

Beginning Theory has been helping students navigate through the thickets of literary and cultural theory for over two decades. This new and expanded fourth edition continues to offer listeners the best single-volume introduction to the field. The bewildering variety of approaches, theorists and technical language is lucidly and expertly unravelled.

Most readers have heard of Ulysses. Few have actually read it. This edition is for both. Published in Paris in 1922, Ulysses follows Leopold Bloom through a single day in Dublin — June 16, 1904 — and in doing so dismantles every assumption about what a novel can be and do. Stream of consciousness, interior monologue, parody, myth, obscenity, tenderness, comedy: Joyce deploys them all simultaneously, not as technique but as necessity. He was not being difficult. He was being honest about the way a mind actually works. Ulysses — One day. One city. One man buying a kidney for breakfast, ...

Discover the timeless tale of love, sin, and redemption with "The Scarlet Letter: Adapted for Modern Readers." This refreshed edition presents Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic through a contemporary lens, featuring clean formatting, updated typography, and lightly clarified language. Perfect for today's audience, it offers an easier yet authentic reading experience, making Hawthorne's intricate prose and profound themes more accessible without losing the original's depth and nuance. Set against the rigid backdrop of 17th-century Puritan New England, this novel explores themes of guilt, ...

Not enough time to read the classics? We've stripped away the prose, the endless descriptions, and the tangential musings, leaving you with the raw, unfiltered plots and key takeaways. In short, this book is for those who want to sound well-read without dedicating years to reading. Consider it your literary Rosetta Stone, translating the classics into something manageable for your hectic schedule. Discover the stories that shaped the world, one plot at a time.

Every word Oscar Wilde published — the novel, the plays, the poems, the essays, the fairy tales, and the two masterpieces he wrote in disgrace — in a single authoritative edition. Oscar Wilde lived two lives simultaneously: the most celebrated wit in Victorian London, and a man whose inner life was at war with everything the society around him demanded. He understood, better than almost anyone before or since, that style is not decoration but argument — that how you say something is inseparable from what you are saying. He paid for that understanding with two years in Reading Gaol and...

Every chapter of the Bible contributes to God’s unfolding revelation of Himself and His redemptive purpose. The Disciple’s Bible Companion is designed to accompany readers through the Scriptures chapter by chapter, enriching their understanding of the biblical text and helping them appreciate its unity, depth, and enduring relevance. Combining careful scholarship with clear exposition, this series serves as a trusted companion for thoughtful study and a lifelong resource for exploring the richness of God’s Word. Included for each chapter is a discussion of: - Introduction Place within...

Virginia Woolf called it the only English novel written for grown-up people. She was not wrong. Published in eight instalments between 1871 and 1872, Middlemarch does something no novel before it had done with such precision: it takes ordinary life seriously. Not the extraordinary life — not war, not shipwreck, not crime — but the life of a provincial English town, its marriages and ambitions and failures and the slow accumulation of days that constitutes most of human existence. George Eliot understood that this was the real subject. Everything else was avoidance. Dorothea Brooke — ...

Every chapter of the Bible contributes to God’s unfolding revelation of Himself and His redemptive purpose. The Disciple’s Bible Companion is designed to accompany readers through the Scriptures chapter by chapter, enriching their understanding of the biblical text and helping them appreciate its unity, depth, and enduring relevance. Combining careful scholarship with clear exposition, this series serves as a trusted companion for thoughtful study and a lifelong resource for exploring the richness of God’s Word. Included for each chapter is a discussion of: - Introduction Place within...

What if every possible book already existed? What if truth, falsehood, wisdom, and nonsense were all hidden in an infinite library that stretched forever? Jorge Luis Borges’ short story The Library of Babel has fascinated readers for generations, offering one of the most haunting metaphors for infinity, language, and the search for meaning. In Infinite Meaning: Exploring the Philosophical Ideas Found in Borges’ Library of Babel, The Practical Atlas takes readers on a profound journey through the philosophical questions raised by this timeless vision. Across ten engaging chapters, this ...

Andre Gide Explained: Moral Freedom, Authenticity, The Immoralist, French Modernism, Personal Truth, and the Courage to Live Beyond Social Conformity Andre Gide was one of the most fearless and influential writers of the twentieth century, yet his ideas remain surprisingly underexplored by many modern readers. In Andre Gide Explained: Moral Freedom, Authenticity, The Immoralist, French Modernism, Personal Truth, and the Courage to Live Beyond Social Conformity, this clear and engaging guide introduces the life, works, and revolutionary thinking of the Nobel Prize winning French author who ...

In this updated edition of the popular textbook An Introduction to the Old Testament, Walter Brueggemann and Tod Linafelt introduce the listener to the broad theological scope of the Old Testament, treating some of the most important issues and methods in contemporary biblical interpretation. This clearly written textbook focuses on the literature of the Old Testament as it grew out of religious, political, and ideological contexts over many centuries in Israel's history. 

Perfect for Halloween entertainment! Almost everybody has seen the films, fewer have read the original book. Even fewer have contemplated with wisdom uttered by the Frankenstein monster and how it applies to our lives. This e-book offers quotations and analysis of the 1818 version of the work, and invites contemplation of the ideas presented in this seminal work. In between the slasher films and the over consumption of questionable quality candy, you can exercise your brain for Halloween or anytime you want to put a little classic monsters in your life.

How to Do Discourse Analysis provides a comprehensive toolkit for conducting discourse analysis, offering twenty-six practical tools to examine how language is used to construct meaning, enact identities, and shape social realities. Written by renowned linguist James Paul Gee, it introduces key concepts like situated meanings, social languages, and discourses, showing how language both reflects and creates social contexts.

Honoré de Balzac Explained: The Human Comedy, Realism, French Society, Literary Ambition, and the Birth of the Modern Novel is a comprehensive and accessible guide to one of the most ambitious writers in literary history. In this in depth exploration, you will discover how Balzac built La Comédie Humaine into a vast interconnected portrait of nineteenth century France, capturing the rise of capitalism, the pressures of social mobility, and the psychological intensity of modern ambition. Whether you are new to Balzac or looking to deepen your understanding, this book provides clear insight...

Why do Shakespeare's plays continue to be read, studied, and performed more than four hundred years after they were written? Because the world changes—but human nature does not. The ambition that destroys Macbeth, the jealousy that consumes Othello, the love that unites and divides Romeo and Juliet, the pride that ruins King Lear, and the political intrigue that shapes Julius Caesar are not merely stories from a distant age. They are reflections of the same emotions, conflicts, desires, and struggles that continue to define human life today. Shakespeare's genius lies in his extraordinary ...

The Disciple's Bible Companion is designed to accompany readers through every chapter of the Bible, providing the historical, literary, theological, and interpretive insights needed to understand each passage within its original context and within the unified message of Scripture. Rather than replacing personal study, it enriches it by encouraging careful observation, thoughtful reflection, and a deeper appreciation of God's unfolding revelation from Genesis to Revelation. Every chapter of the Bible contributes to God’s unfolding revelation of Himself and His redemptive purpose. The ...

Every writing manual tells you to break the rules. None tells you which one, how far, or what it costs. There are four hundred craft books in print. Nearly all teach the same thing: the norms of competent fiction, then a chapter near the end saying the great ones broke them. What none supply is the part a working writer needs — which norm to break, how far, and what the break costs in readers. Disruption is a dosage problem. Not courage, not vision: dosage. Fifteen superaxes — concision, rhythm, modifiers, punctuation, subtext, restraint, imagery, distance, dread, voice, isotopy, ...

Brought to you by Penguin. This Penguin Classic is performed by Simon Harrison, best known for his roles in Everest, Transformers: The Last Knight and London Has Fallen. This definitive edition includes an Introduction by Philip Horne. When Isabel Archer, a beautiful, spirited American, is...

The Disciple's Bible Companion is designed to accompany readers through every chapter of the Bible, providing the historical, literary, theological, and interpretive insights needed to understand each passage within its original context and within the unified message of Scripture. Rather than replacing personal study, it enriches it by encouraging careful observation, thoughtful reflection, and a deeper appreciation of God's unfolding revelation from Genesis to Revelation. Every chapter of the Bible contributes to God’s unfolding revelation of Himself and His redemptive purpose. The ...