examination of the theme in the work but, rather,
enough information and context to encourage the
reader’s own thoughts on the subject.
The essays are also designed to help students
think about these works in ways that are both tra-
ditional and unexpected. For instance, one might
expect a discussion of gender in Bram Stoker’s
dracuLa; certainly Dracula’s manipulations of Mina
and Lucy, and the attempts by Van Helsing and his
crew to save them, are fraught with issues of mas-
culinity, femininity, and sexuality, and the essay on
gender in Dracula does indeed examine these issues.
However, there is also an essay on nationalism in
Stoker’s novel, a topic perhaps not so obvious. This
essay asks students to think about how the English
characters’ assault on Dracula could be seen as an
assertion of their “Englishness” and how banishing
Dracula is, metaphorically, an imperial act.
In selecting themes, we used the Modern Lan-
guage Association (MLA) Bibliography Database
to determine the frequency of common themes in
literature. In selecting works entries, we consulted
anthologies, study guides, standard reading lists, and
available syllabi to determine the most commonly
assigned literary works in high school and college
classrooms. Most works included here are novels,
plays, or longer poems, which are more suited to
this type of approach, but we also decided to cover
the works of six essential poets: Emily Dickinson,
Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, John Keats,
Percy Bysshe Shelley, and William Butler
Yeats. A few longer poems, such as Robert
Browning’s “My Last Duchess” and William
Wordsworth’s “Lines Composed a Few Miles
above Tintern Abbey,” have also been included
on their own.
Students will be able to use the set in two dif-
ferent ways. Some will want to research a particular
work, such as F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great^
Gatsby, and will therefore head directly to the three
essays on that novel in the second part of the set.
After reading each of the individual essays—on the
American dream, identity, and social class—they
may then turn to part 1 to read more about those
three themes and find other examples of great lit-
erature that use the same theme, but perhaps in a
different way.
Other students might want to begin their inves-
tigations by reading first about a particular theme.
Some might be interested in writing on broader
subject, such as childhood, and might want to begin
by examining the theme as a whole and then turn-
ing to a number of works of literature that features
the theme. Or some might simply be searching for
a work of literature that addresses a subject that
interests them.
As a whole, Encyclopedia of Themes in Literature
provides an unprecedented amount of information
on literary themes, written in language designed to
be accessible and appealing to students, yet at the
same time challenging enough to encourage them to
formulate their own ideas about literature.—Jennifer McClinton-Temple, Editorxxvi Encyclopedia of Themes in Literature