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xxvEncyclopedia of Themes in Literature is unique among
literature references in that it is general and specific.
It offers both a survey of literary themes and a
number of in-depth analyses of how these themes
operate in individual literary works.
The first part of this set contains essays on 50
literary themes. Each essay examines a specific
theme in a general, accessible, interdisciplinary man-
ner, usually describing how the theme has evolved
over time, how it relates to other important themes,
and most importantly, why the theme is powerful
enough to recur so often in great literature. For
example, the essay on abandonment begins with
the origin of the word itself; goes on to explain
how early literature, such as the Bible and various
folktales, treated the theme; and finally discusses
occurrences of the theme in more modern literature,
such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Lou-
ise Erdrich’s Love Medicine. (Themes, authors,
and titles are set in small capital letters the first
time they appear in a particular entry to indicate a
cross-reference to an entry on that subject in part 1
or part 2 of the set. Works cross-referenced in the
text are discussed under the entries on the writers
who wrote them; both the author and the work are
set in small caps.) Along the way, the essay explains
how various disciplines outside literature view the
concept of abandonment and how those views relate
to its portrayal in literature.
Each essay is structured to fit its subject. For
instance, the essay on nationalism (a difficult con-
cept, especially for less experienced students) seeks
first to enumerate and explain the many different
definitions of the word, and then to demonstrate
how it might be used in various contexts, thus sim-
plifying a complicated concept. The essay on suc-
cess (a concept with which students will certainly
be familiar) starts by providing a few alternative
definitions of success, in order to complicate and
enrich an ostensibly simple term. All the essays on
themes endeavor to answer the central questions of
how the theme has been used and why it has proven
so appealing throughout literary history.
The second part of the set contains essays on
specific themes in more than 300 individual works
of literature. Here, the essays are organized in
alphabetical order, first by the author of the subject
literary work, and then by the title of the work. (An
appendix lists all the works covered in the book in
alphabetical order.) Each section on a particular
work contains a brief introduction to the work and
then usually three essays, each on a different literary
theme in the work. For instance, for the first work
covered in the encyclopedia, Chinua Achebe’s
anthiLLs oF the savannah, we provide essays on
the themes of gender, oppression, and social class in
Anthills. This format allows students to examine the
text from three of its most important vantage points,
making connections and understanding details they
might not have picked up by reading the text on
their own. Each essay is relatively short (750 words)
and is intended to provide not a comprehensive