Principal Texts
Shakespeare, William.
King Lear
. Folger Library. Ed Louis B. Wright and Virginia A.LaMar. New York: Washington Square Press, 1957.
Smiley, Jane.
A Thousand Acres
. New York: Fawcett Columbine, 1991.
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Textbooks and Reference Materials
Aristotle.
Poetics
. Trans. S.H. Butcher. New York: Hill and Wang, 1989. For a discussion of tragedy, begin with Aristotle. The concepts are simple and profound.
Cudden, J. A.
The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory
. Fourth edition. London: Penguin Books, 1999. A very good discussion of tragedy and a general help with literary terms, though a bit wordy, full of obscure references, and less readable for students.
Dudley, Kathryn Marie.
Debt and Dispossession: Farm Loss in America's Heartland
. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001. An excellent source of information about modern farming.
Holman, C. Hugh and Harmon, William, contributor.
Handbook for Literature
. Sixth edition. New York: Hungry Minds, Inc., 1992. My favorite literary terms book - simple, concise, and very readable for students.
Nadel, Max and Sherrer, Arthur, Jr.
How to Prepare for the AP English Examination
. Fifth Edition. New York: Barron's Educational Series, Inc., 1992. This book has been very useful for students preparing for the advanced placement exam. It also contains an excellent discussion of tragedy and uses Hamlet and Oedipus as examples for discussion.
Skwire, David and Skwire, Sarah E.
Writing with a Thesis: A Rhetoric and Reader
. New York: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1998. This is a decent writing guide, and it has a particularly good section on organization in writing.
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Background and Enrichment Reading List
Achebe, Chinua.
Things Fall Apart
. Anchor Publishing, 1994. This would be a good book to work with Lear and
A Thousand Acres
. It is a classic that is frequently taught in high school and college.
Aeschylus.
Orestia
. Trans. Robert W. Fangles. New York: Penguin Books, 1984. While Oedipus and Antigone have been better liked by my students, this is another option for classical tragedy.
Shakespeare, William.
Hamlet
. Folger Library. Eds. Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine. New York: Washington Square Press, 1992. Great tragedy.
Sophocles.
Oedipus the King
. Trans. Bernard M. W. Knox. New York: Washington Square Press, 1972.
Miller, Arthur.
Death of a Salesman
. Arthur Miller, New York: Penguin Books, 1976. This is a wonderful modern tragedy. Students like the family dynamic and feel like they can understand the difference between the classic and modern tragedy when they read this.