World and Time: Teaching Literature in Context

Critical introductions to a range of literary topics and genres. This handbook provides an invaluable resource for any teacher of English: it both presents a fascinating overview of teaching Literature today, and offers a valuable and practical guide to anyone teaching advanced courses in the subject. The book asks whether it is possible to combine the recent focus on the contextual study of literary texts with a continuing emphasis on close reading and discusses the key literary skills that universities expect students of literature to have developed. At its centre, in a series of linked discussions focusing on texts and topics central to literary studies, the book demonstrates surprising ways in which the study of context can give a new and sharper focus to the words on the page.

Adrian Barlow is Director of Public Programmes at the University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education.