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Backpack Literature, 2/E
X. J. Kennedy
Dana Gioia

ISBN-10: 0205551033
ISBN-13: 9780205551033

Publisher: Longman
Copyright: 2008
Format: Paper; 1232 pp
Published: 10/17/2007

Suggested retail price: $56.00
Buy from myPearsonStore

The smallest and most economical member of the Kennedy/Gioia family, Backpack Literature is a brief paperback version of the discipline's most popular introduction to literature anthology.   

Like its bigger, bestselling predecessors, Backpack Literature features the authors' collective poetic voice which brings personal warmth and a human perspective to the discussion of literature, adding to students' interest in the readings.       

  • Thirty-seven stories of well-loved classics by such authors as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, and Flannery O’Connor as well as accessible contemporary works by Margaret Atwood, T. Coraghessan Boyle, Sandra Cisneros, and Ha Jin.
  • More than 237 of the discipline's greatest, most teachable poems blend the old masters like Shakespeare, Keats, Hughes, Millay, Frost, and Dickinson with newer voices such as Billy Collins, Elizabeth Bishop, Adrienne Rich, Derek Walcott, and Natasha Trethewey.
  • A wonderful collection of 11 high-quality plays includes Sophocles’s Oedipus, Shakespeare’s Othello, Ibsen’s A Doll House, and Miller’s Death of a Salesman as well as newer works by Jane Martin and Milcha Sanchez-Scott.
  • Author photos of many fiction and drama writers and major poets humanize writers for students and add visual interest. 
  • MyLiteratureLab.com, apassword-protected website, introduces a new dimension to the study of literature with Longman Lectures —evocative, illustrated audio readings along with tips on how to read, interpret, and write about literature.  This powerful program also features Diagnostic Tests, Interactive Readings with clickable prompts, student papers, Literature Timeline, Avoiding Plagiarism and Research Navigator research tools, and “Exchange,” an electronic instructor feedback tool. 

  • New writing features in every chapter. Information on the writing process includes critical thinking features, easy-to-use checklists, exercises, and practical advice.
  • Newly revised Chapter 28, “Writing about Literature” covers writing, literary argument, and critical thinking. Includes step-by-step discussion of the writing process and developing literary arguments, illustrated by student papers and writing concepts.
  • New “Illustrated Shakespeare.” Over a dozen attractive production photos illustrate major scenes and characters from Othello making the action of the play more accessible and engaging to today’s students.
  • New quality selections. New selections include works by Eudora Welty, O. Henry, Katherine Mansfield, Kurt Vonnegut, Octavio Paz, Gwendolyn Brooks, Christopher Marlowe, and David Ives.
  • An attractive new design. The new design gives the book a more open feel; headings and type have been freshened with a new layout and typographical treatment.  Author photographs appear silhouetted adding to their appeal.

 

1.         READING A STORY

 

Fable, Parable, and Tales

 

W. Somerset Maugham, The Appointment in Samarra

Aesop, The North Wind and the Sun

Bidpai, The Camel and His Friends

Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm, Godfather Death

 

The Short Story

John Updike, A & P

 

Writing Effectively

 

Writing About Plot

      Paying Attention to Plot

      Checklist: Analyzing Plot

Writing Assignment on Plot

More Topics For Writing

 

 

2.         POINT OF VIEW

 

William Faulkner, A Rose for Emily

Edgar Allan Poe, The Tell-Tale Heart 

 

 

Writing Effectively

 

Writing About Point of View

      How Point of View Shapes a Story

      Checklist: Understanding Point of View

Writing Assignment on Point of View

More Topics for Writing

 

 

3.        CHARACTER

 

Katherine Mansfield, Miss Brill 

Raymond Carver, Cathedral

Alice Walker, Everyday Use

 

Writing Effectively

 

Writing About Character

How Character Creates Action

Checklist: Writing About Character

Writing Assignment on Character

More Topics For Writing

 

 

4.         SETTING

 

Kate Chopin, The Storm

T. Coraghessan Boyle, Greasy Lake

Amy Tan, A Pair of Tickets

 

Writing Effectively

 

Writing About Setting

      The Importance of Setting

Checklist: Analyzing Setting

Writing Assignment on Setting

More Topics For Writing

 

 

5.         TONE AND STYLE

 

Ernest Hemingway, A Clean, Well-Lighted Place

William Faulkner, Barn Burning

 

Irony

O. Henry, Gift of the Magi

Ha Jin, Saboteur

 

Writing Effectively

 

Writing About Tone and Style

      Be Style Conscious

Checklist: Thinking about Style and Tone

Writing Assignment on Tone and Style

More Topics For Writing

 

 

6.              THEME

 

Chinua Achebe, Dead Men’s Path

Luke 15: 11-32, The Parable of the Prodigal Son

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Harrison Bergeron

 

Writing Effectively

 

Writing About Theme

      Stating the Theme

Checklist: Determining a Story’s Theme

Writing Assignment on Theme

More Topics For Writing

 

 

7.         SYMBOL

 

John Steinbeck, The Chrysanthemums

Shirley Jackson, The Lottery

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper

 

Writing Effectively

 

Writing About Symbols

      Recognizing Symbols

Checklist: Thinking about Symbols

Writing Assignment on Symbols

 

More Topics For Writing

 

8.           STORIES FOR FURTHER READING

 

Margaret Atwood, Happy Endings

Kate Chopin, The Story of an Hour

            Sandra Cisneros, House on Mango Street

Nathaniel Hawthorne, Young Goodman Brown

Zora Neale Hurston, Sweat

James Joyce, Araby

Franz Kafka, Before the Law

Jamaica Kincaid, Girl

Joyce Carol Oates, Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?

Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried

Flannery O'Connor, A Good Man Is Hard to Find

Octavio Paz, My Life with the Wave

  Eudora Welty, The Worn Path

 

 

Poetry

 

9.         READING A POEM       

 

William Butler Yeats, The Lake Isle of Innisfree

 

Lyric Poetry

D. H. Lawrence, Piano

Adrienne Rich, Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers

 

Narrative Poetry

Anonymous, Sir Patrick Spence

Robert Frost, “Out, Out–”

 

Dramatic Poetry

Robert Browning, My Last Duchess

 

Writing Effectively

 

Writing a Paraphrase

Can a Poem be Paraphrased?

William Stafford, Ask Me

William Stafford, A Paraphrase of "Ask Me"

Checklist: Paraphrasing a Poem

Writing Assignment on Paraphrase

More Topics for Writing

 

 

10.        LISTENING TO A VOICE

 

Tone

Theodore Roethke, My Papa’s Waltz

Countee Cullen, For a Lady I Know

Anne Bradstreet, The Author to Her Book

Walt Whitman, To a Locomotive in Winter

Emily Dickinson, I like to see it lap the Miles

Benjamin Alire Sáenz, To the Desert

Weldon Kees, For My Daughter

 

The Person in the Poem

Natasha Trethewey, White Lies

Edwin Arlington Robinson, Luke Havergal

Ted Hughes, Hawk Roosting

Suji Kwock Kim, Monologue for an Onion

Langston Hughes, Theme for English B

Anne Sexton, Her Kind

William Carlos Williams, The Red Wheelbarrow

 

Irony

Robert Creeley, Oh No

W. H. Auden, The Unknown Citizen

Sarah N. Cleghorn, The Golf Links

Edna St. Vincent Millay, Second Fig

Thomas Hardy, The Workbox

 

For Review and Further Study

Francisco X. Alarcón, The X in My Name

Richard Lovelace, To Lucasta

Wilfred Owen, Dulce et Decorum Est

 

Writing Effectively

 

Writing About Voice

Listening to Tone

Checklist: Analyzing Tone

Writing Assignment on Tone

More Topics for Writing

 

 

11.        WORDS  

 

Literal Meaning:  What a Poem Says First

William Carlos Williams, This Is Just to Say

Marianne Moore, Silence

Robert Graves, Down, Wanton, Down!

John Donne, Batter my heart, three-personed God, for You

 

            The Value of a Dictionary

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Aftermath

J. V. Cunningham, Friend, on this scaffold Thomas More lies dead

Carl Sandburg, Grass

 

Word Choice and Word Order

Robert Herrick, Upon Julia's Clothes

Kay Ryan, Blandeur

Thomas Hardy, The Ruined Maid

Richard Eberhart, The Fury of Aerial Bombardment

Wendy Cope, Lonely Hearts

 

For Review and Further Study

E. E. Cummings, anyone lived in a pretty how town

Anonymous, Carnation Milk

Gina Valdés, English con Salsa

Lewis Carroll, Jabberwocky

 

Writing Effectively

 

Writing About Diction

Every Word Counts

Checklist: Thinking About Word Choice

Writing Assignment on Word Choice

More Topics for Writing

 

 

12.        SAYING AND SUGGESTING

 

John Masefield, Cargoes

William Blake, London

Wallace Stevens, Disillusionment of Ten O’clock

Gwendolyn Brooks, Southeast Corner

Timothy Steele, Epitaph

E. E. Cummings, next to of course to god america i

Robert Frost, Fire and Ice

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Tears, Idle Tears

 

Writing Effectively

 

Writing About Denotation and Connotation

The Ways a Poem Suggests

Checklist: Analyzing What a Poem Says and Suggests

Writing Assignment on Denotation and Connotation

More Topics for Writing

 

 

13.        IMAGERY  

 

Ezra Pound, In a Station of the Metro

Taniguchi Buson, The piercing chill I feel

T. S. Eliot, The winter evening settles down

Theodore Roethke, Root Cellar

Elizabeth Bishop, The Fish

Anne Stevenson, The Victory

Emily Dickinson, A Route of Evanescence

Jean Toomer, Reapers

Gerard Manley Hopkins, Pied Beauty

 

About Haiku

Arakida Moritake, The falling flower

Matsuo Basho, Heat-lightning streak

Matsuo Basho, In the old stone pool

Taniguchi Buson, On the one-ton temple bell

Taniguchi Buson, I go

Kobayashi Issa, only one guy

Kobayashi Issa, Cricket

 

Haiku from Japanese Internment Camps

Suiko Matsushita, Rain shower from mountain

Neiji Ozawa, War forced us from California

 

Contemporary American Haiku

Etheridge Knight, Making jazz swing in

Lee Gurga, Visitor’s Room

John Ridland, The Lazy Man’s Haiku

Connie Bensley, Last Haiku

 

For Review and Further Study

John Keats, Bright star! would I were steadfast as thou art

Walt Whitman, The Runner

T. C. Hulme, The Image

William Carlos Williams, El Hombre

Robert Bly, Driving to Town Late to Mail a Letter

Rita Dove, Silos

Stevie Smith, Not Waving but Drowning

 

Writing Effectively

 

Writing About Imagery

Analyzing Images

Checklist: Thinking About Imagery

Writing Assignment On Imagery

More Topics for Writing

 

14.        FIGURES OF SPEECH

 

Why Speak Figuratively?

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The Eagle

William Shakespeare, Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Howard Moss, Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day?

 

Metaphor and Simile

Emily Dickinson, My Life had stood — a Loaded Gun

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Flower in the Crannied Wall

William Blake, To see a world in a grain of sand

Sylvia Plath, Metaphors

N. Scott Momaday, Simile

 

Other Figures of Speech

James Stephens, The Wind

Margaret Atwood, You fit into me

Dana Gioia, Money

 

For Review and Further Study

Robert Frost, The Silken Tent

Jane Kenyon, The Suitor

Robert Frost, The Secret Sits

A. R. Ammons, Coward

Heather McHugh, Language Lesson, 1976

Robert Burns, Oh, my love is like a red, red rose

 

Writing Effectively

 

Writing About Metaphors

How Metaphors Enlarge a Poem's Meaning

Checklist: Analyzing Metaphor

Writing Assignment on Figures of Speech

More Topics for Writing

 

 

 

15.        SOUND

 

Sound as Meaning

Alexander Pope, True Ease in Writing comes from Art, not Chance

William Butler Yeats, Who Goes with Fergus?

John Updike, Recital                 

 

Alliteration and Assonance

A. E. Housman, Eight O’clock

James Joyce, All Day I Hear

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The splendor falls on castle walls

 

Rime

William Cole, On my boat on Lake Cayuga

Hilaire Belloc, The Hippopotamus

Ogden Nash, The Panther

Gerard Manley Hopkins, God’s Grandeur

 

Reading Poems Aloud

Michael Stillman, In Memoriam John Coltrance

 

Writing Effectively

 

Writing About Sound

Listen to the Music

Checklist: Writing About a Poem’s Sounds

Writing Assignment on Sound

More Topics for Writing

 

 

16.        RHYTHM 

 

Stresses and Pauses

Gwendolyn Brooks, We Real Cool

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Break, Break, Break

Ben Jonson, Slow, slow, fresh fount, keep time with my salt tears

Dorothy Parker, Résumé

 

Meter

Max Beerbohm, On the imprint of the first English edition of The Works of Max Beerbohm

Edna St. Vincent Millay, Counting-out Rhyme

A. E. Housman, When I was one-and-twenty

William Carlos Williams, Smell!

Walt Whitman, Beat! Beat! Drums!

David Mason, Song of the Powers

 

Writing Effectively

 

Writing About Rhythm

Freeze-Framing the Sound

Checklist: Scanning a Poem

Writing Assignment on Rhythm

More Topics for Writing

 

 

17.        CLOSED FORM

 

Formal Patterns

John Keats, This living hand, now warm and capable

Robert Graves, Counting the Beats

John Donne, Song (“Go and catch a falling star”)

 

Ballads

Anonymous, Bonny Barbara Allan

Dudley Randall, Ballad of Birmingham

 

The Sonnet

William Shakespeare, Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Claude McKay, America 

Edna St. Vincent Millay, What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why

Kim Addonizio, First Poem for You

A. E. Stallings, Sine Qua Non

R. S. Gwynn, Shakespearean Sonnet

 

 

Other Forms

Dylan Thomas, Do not go gentle into that good night

Robert Bridges, Triolet

Elizabeth Bishop, Sestina

 

Writing Effectively

 

Writing About Form

Turning Points

Checklist: Thinking About a Sonnet

Writing Assignment on a Sonnet

More Topics for Writing

 

 

18.        OPEN FORM

 

Denise Levertov, Ancient Stairway

E. E. Cummings, Buffalo Bill’s

Stephen Crane, The Heart

Walt Whitman, Cavalry Crossing a Ford

Ezra Pound, Salutation

Wallace Stevens, Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird

 

Prose Poetry

Charles Simic, The Magic Study of Happiness

 

 

Seeing the Logic of Open Form Verse

E. E. Cummings, in Just-

Carole Satyamurti, I Shall Paint My Nails Red

Langston Hughes, I, Too

 

Writing Effectively

 

Writing About Free Verse

Lining Up for Free Verse

Checklist: Analyzing Line Breaks in Free Verse

Writing Assignment on Open Form

More Topics for Writing

 

 

19.        SYMBOL 

 

T. S. Eliot, The Boston Evening Transcript

Emily Dickinson, The Lightning is a yellow Fork

Thomas Hardy, Neutral Tones

Matthew 13:24-30, The Parable of the Good Seed

Edwin Markham, Outwitted

Yusef Komunyakaa, Facing It

Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken

 

For Review and Further Study

Ted Kooser, Carrie

Robert Frost, Nothing Gold Can Stay

Lorine Niedecker, Popcorn-can cover

Wallace Stevens, Anecdote of the Jar

 

Writing Effectively

 

Writing About Symbols

Reading a Symbol

Checklist: Analyzing a Symbol

Writing Assignment on Symbolism

More Topics for Writing

 

 

20.        WHAT IS POETRY?

 

Dante, Samuel Johnson, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, Thomas Carlyle, Thomas Hardy, Emily Dickinson, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Robert Frost, Wallace Stevens, Mina Loy, T. S. Eliot, W. H. Auden, J. V. Cunningham, Elizabeth Bishop, Jorge Luis Borges, Octavio Paz, William Stafford, Gwendolyn Brooks, Robert Bly,Some Definitions of Poetry

 

 

21.        POEMS FOR FURTHER READING

 

Anonymous, Lord Randall

Matthew Arnold, Dover Beach

Margaret Atwood, Siren Song

W. H. Auden, Musée des Beaux Arts

Elizabeth Bishop, One Art

William Blake, The Tyger

Gwendolyn Brooks, the preacher: ruminates behind the sermon

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways

JudithOrtiz Cofer, Quinceañera 

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla Khan

Billy Collins, Care and Feeding

E. E. Cummings, somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond

Marisa de los Santos, Perfect Dress

Emily Dickinson, I’m nobody! Who are you?

Emily Dickinson, I heard a Fly buzz — when I died

Emily Dickinson, Because I could not stop for Death

John Donne, Death be not proud

John Donne, The Flea

Paul Dunbar, We Wear the Mask

T. S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Rhina Espaillat, Bilingual / Bilingüe

Robert Frost, Mending Wall

Robert Frost, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Allen Ginsberg, A Supermarket in California

Thomas Hardy, The Convergence of the Twain

Robert Hayden, Those Winter Sundays   

Seamus Heaney, Digging

George Herbert, Easter Wings

Robert Herrick, To the Virgins to Make Much of Time

Gerard Manley Hopkins, Spring and Fall

Gerard Manley Hopkins, The Windhover

A. E. Housman, Loveliest of trees, the cherry now

A. E. Housman, To an Athlete Dying Young

Langston Hughes, The Negro Speaks of Rivers

Langston Hughes, Harlem [Dream Deferred]  

Randall Jarrell, The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner

Robinson Jeffers, To the Stone-cutters

Ben Jonson, On My First Son

Donald Justice, On the Death of Friends in Childhood

John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn

John Keats, La Belle Dame sans Merci

Ted Kooser, Abandoned Farmhouse

Philip Larkin, Home is so Sad

Emma Lazarus, The New Colossus

Shirley Geok-lin Lim, Learning to love America

Robert Lowell, Skunk Hour

Andrew Marvell, To His Coy Mistress

John Milton, When I consider how my light is spent

Marianne Moore, Poetry

Marilyn Nelson, A Strange Beautiful Woman

Pablo Neruda, Translated by Alastair Reid, We Are Many

Lorine Niedecker, Poet’s Work

Yone Noguchi, A Selection of Hokku

Sharon Olds, The One Girl at the Boys’ Party

Wilfred Owen, Anthem for Doomed Youth

Jose Emilio Pacheco, High Treason

Sylvia Plath, Daddy

Alexander Pope, A little Learning is a dang’rous Thing

Ezra Pound, The River-Merchant’s Wife: a Letter

Dudley Randall, A Different Image

Henry Reed, Naming of Parts

Adrienne Rich, Living in Sin

Edwin Arlington Robinson, Miniver Cheevy

William Shakespeare, When, in disgrace with Fortune and men’s eyes

William Shakespeare, My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun

Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ozymandias

Wallace Stevens, The Emperor of Ice-Cream

Larissa Szporluk, Vertigo

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Ulysses

Dylan Thomas, Fern Hill

John Updike, Ex-Basketball Player

Derek Walcott, The Virgins

Edmund Waller, Go, Lovely Rose

Walt Whitman, Song of the Open Road

WilliamCarlos Williams, Spring and All

William Wordsworth, Composed upon Westminster Bridge

James Wright, Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio

William Butler Yeats, When You Are Old

William Butler Yeats, Sailing to Byzantium

Bernice Zamora, Penitents

 

22. READING A PLAY

 

A Play in Its Elements

Susan Glaspell, Trifles

 

Writing Effectively

 

Writing About Conflict

Conflict Resolution

Checklist: Analyzing Conflict

Writing Assignment on Conflict

More Topics for Writing

 

23.  MODES OF DRAMA: TRAGEDY & COMEDY

Tragedy

Christopher Marlowe,A Scene from Doctor Faustus (in which Faustus sells his soul to the devil; Act 2, Scene 1)

 

Comedy

David Ives, Sure Thing

 

Writing Effectively

 

Writing About Comedy

Getting Serious About Comedy

Checklist: Writing About a Comedy

Writing Assignment on Comedy

More Topics for Writing

 

 

24.        SOPHOCLES

 

The Theater of Sophocles

Staging

The Civic Role of Greek Drama

Aristotle's Concept of Tragedy

 

The Origins of Oedipus the King

Sophocles, Oedipus the King (Translated by Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald)

 

Writing Effectively

 

Writing About Ancient Greek Tragedy

      Some Things Change. Some Things Don't.

      Checklist: Analyzing Ancient Greek Tragedy

Writing Assignment on Sophocles

More Topics for Writing

 

 

25.      SHAKESPEARE

 

The Theater of Shakespeare

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

A Note on Othello

William Shakespeare, Othello, the Moor of Venice

 

Writing Effectively

 

Writing About Shakespeare

      Breaking the Language Barrier

      Checklist: Writing About a Shakespearean Play

Writing Assignment on Tragedy

More Topics For Writing

 

 

26.        THE MODERN THEATER

 

Realism and Naturalism

 

Henrik Ibsen, A Doll's House (Translated by James McFarlane)

 

Tragicomedy and the Absurd

Milcha Sanchez-Scott, The Cuban Swimmer

 

Writing Effectively

 

Writing About Dramatic Realism

What's so Realistic About Realism?

Checklist: Writing About a Realist Play

Writing Assignment on Realism

More Topics for Writing

 

 

 

27.        PLAYS FOR FURTHER READING

 

Jane Martin, Beauty

 

Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman

 

Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie

 

August Wilson, Fences

 

 

WRITING

 

28.        WRITING ABOUT LITERATURE

 

Start by Reading Actively

Robert Frost, Nothing Gold Can Stay

Thinking about What You Have Read

Planning Your Essay

Prewriting: Discovering Ideas

 Sample Student Prewriting Exercises

Developing a Literary Argument

 Writing a Rough Draft

            Student Writing, Sample Rough Draft

Revising

            Checklist: Revision Steps

Some General Advice on Rewriting

            Sample Student Essay, Final Draft

What’s Your Purpose: Some Common Approaches to Writing about Literature

The Form of your Finished Paper

Topics for Writing on Fiction

Topics for Writing on Poetry

Topics for Writing on Drama

 

29. WRITING A RESEARCH PAPER

 

Getting Started

Choosing a Topic

Finding Research Sources

            Finding Print Resources

            Using Online Databases

            Using Visual Images

CHECKLIST:  USING VISUAL IMAGES

            Finding Reliable Web Sources

CHECKLIST: FINDING SOURCES

Evaluating Sources

            Print Resources

            Choose Web Sources Carefully

CHECKLIST: EVALUATING SOURCES

            Organizing Your Research

Refining Your Thesis

Organizing Your Paper

Writing and Revising

Guarding Academic Integrity

            Papers for Sale Are Papers that “F”ail

            A Warning Against Internet Plagiarism

Acknowledging Sources

            Quoting a Source

            Citing Ideas

Documenting Sources Using MLA Style

Concluding Thoughts

            Sample Student Research Paper

Reference Guide for Citations

    The newest, smallest, and most economical member of the Kennedy/Gioia family, Backpack Literature  is a brief paperback version of the discipline's most popular introduction to literature anthology.   

    Like its bigger, bestselling predecessors, Backpack Literature features the authors' collective poetic voice which brings personal warmth and a human perspective to the discussion of literature, adding to students' interest in the readings.     
  • 032133373XBackpack Literature
    Kennedy & Gioia
    © 2006 | Longman | Paper; 1184 pages | Instock
    ISBN-10: 032133373X | ISBN-13: 9780321333735
    Brief Description

BACKPACK LITERATURE
An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing
Second Edition

X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia

Carry literature in your backpack as well as in your heart. With new contemporary and classic selections and an emphasis on writing, Backpack Literature will motivate you to read, think, and write about literature! You’ll like the size because it easily fits into your backpack and makes taking the book to class a breeze.

Backpack Literature includes a powerful range of stories, poems, and plays that will give you a chance to meet some of the world’s most memorable characters. Written by two published poets, Kennedy and Gioia, this textbook is lively, accessible, and engaging. When you read literature, you learn how to see the world from another person’s point of view–an ability that will benefit you in your professional and personal life.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE SECOND EDITION

  • New–6 stories, 50 poems, and 3 plays add to the rich array of contemporary and classic voices you’ll find in Backpack.
  • New–More than a dozen production photos illustrating Othello’s major scenes and characters to help you visualize the action of the play.
  • New–Chapter 28 includes step-by-step coverage of the writing process and shows you how to put your thoughts into writing by developing a workable thesis and supporting it with evidence. Easy-to-use checklists help to keep you on track.
  • New–Annotated student sample papers let you see how other students have tackled their writing assignments.

Visit www.mypearsonstore.com and find your textbook by author, title, or ISBN to see what study aids and supplemental material are available with your textbook.

View a Sample Chapter PDF:

For Introduction to Literature


Pearson Higher Education offers special pricing when you choose to package your text with other student resources. If you're interested in creating a cost-saving package for your students, contact your Pearson Higher Education representative for pricing and ordering information.

This title is a member of the Kennedy/Gioia Literature Series, which also contains the titles below . You can also visit the Kennedy/Gioia Literature Series page.

    The smallest and most economical member of the Kennedy/Gioia family, Backpack Literature is a brief paperback version of the discipline's most popular introduction to literature anthology.   

    Like its bigger, bestselling predecessors, Backpack Literature features the authors' collective poetic voice which brings personal warmth and a human perspective to the discussion of literature, adding to students' interest in the readings.       

  • 0205551033Backpack Literature, 2/E
    Kennedy & Gioia
    © 2008 | Longman | Paper; 1232 pages | Instock
    ISBN-10: 0205551033 | ISBN-13: 9780205551033
    Brief Description | Buy from myPearsonStore

    • The concise version of the discipline's most popular introductory anthology, Kennedy/Gioia’s Literature, Compact Edition continues to inspire students with engaging insights on reading and writing about stories, poems, and plays.

                                                                                                             

    Poets in their own right, editors X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia bring personal warmth and a human perspective to this compact, paperback anthology.  Organized into three genres—Literature, Compact Edition, presents readable discussions of the literary devices, illustrated by apt works, supported by useful writing tips, and followed by (now) six full chapters devoted to writing.  A broad scope of traditional and contemporary works is provided, most headed by author images and richly detailed biographical notes and some followed by author commentary.  While maintaining the characteristics of its previous editions–accessible apparatus, expansive author representation–this Fifth Edition of Literature, Compact has been re-imagined to include new casebooks, a lively new design, and more writing coverage than ever before.

     

    Literature, Compact Edition is also available in an Interactive Edition that comes automatically with a specialized version of MyLiteratureLab, Longman's multimedia website designed specifically for Kennedy/Gioia users. 

  • 0321475771Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing, Compact Edition, 5/E
    Kennedy & Gioia
    © 2007 | Longman | Paper; 1664 pages | Instock
    ISBN-10: 0321475771 | ISBN-13: 9780321475770
    Brief Description | Buy from myPearsonStore

    • The concise version of the discipline's most popular introductory anthology, Kennedy/Gioia’s Literature,Compact Interactive Edition continues to inspire students with engaging insights on reading and writing about stories, poems, and plays.

                                                                                                             

    Poets in their own right, editors X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia bring personal warmth and a human perspective to this compact, paperback anthology.  Organized into three genres–Literature, Compact Interactive Edition, presents readable discussions of the literary devices, illustrated by apt works, supported by useful writing tips, and followed by (now) six full chapters devoted to writing.  A broad scope of traditional and contemporary works is provided, most headed by author images and richly detailed biographical notes and some followed by author commentary.  While maintaining the characteristics of its previous editions—accessible apparatus, expansive author representation—this Fifth Edition of Literature, Compact Interactive has been re-imagined to include new casebooks, a lively new design, and more writing coverage than ever before.

     

    Literature, Compact Interactive Edition comes automatically with a specialized version of MyLiteratureLab, Longman's multimedia website designed specifically for Kennedy/Gioia users.  Kennedy/Gioia's Literature, Compact is also available in the original paperback edition.

  • 032147032XLiterature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing, Compact Edition, Interactive Edition, 5/E
    Kennedy & Gioia
    © 2007 | Longman | Paper; 1664 pages | Instock
    ISBN-10: 032147032X | ISBN-13: 9780321470324
    Brief Description | Buy from myPearsonStore

    • The most popular introductory anthology of its kind, Kennedy/Gioia’s Literature, Portable Edition continues to inspire students with engaging insights on reading and writing about stories, poems, and plays.

                                  

    Poets in their own right, editors X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia bring personal warmth and a human perspective to this comprehensive anthology.  Organized into three genres–Literature, Tenth Edition, presents readable discussions of the literary devices, illustrated by apt works, supported by useful writing tips, and followed by (now) seven full chapters devoted to writing.  A broad scope of traditional and contemporary works is provided, most headed by author images and richly detailed biographical notes and some followed by author commentary.  While maintaining the characteristics of its previous editions—accessible apparatus, expansive author representation—this tenth edition of Literature has been re-imagined to include new casebooks, a lively new design, and more writing coverage than ever before.

     

    Literature, Portable Edition features four lightweight, paperback volumes—Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing—packed in a slipcase.  Kennedy/Gioia'a Literature is also available in the original hardcover edition and in an Interactive Edition that comes automatically with a specialized version of MyLiteratureLab, Longman's multimedia website designed specifically for Kennedy/Gioia users. 

     

  • 0321475801