Exploring Literature: Writing and Arguing About Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and the Essay

Featuring culturally rich and diverse literature, this anthology weaves critical thinking into every facet of its writing apparatus and guides students through the process of crafting their personal responses into persuasive arguments.

With engaging selections, provocative themes, and comprehensive coverage of the writing process, Madden's anthology is sure to capture the reader's imagination. Exploring Literature opens with five chapters dedicated to writing and arguing about literature. An anthology follows, organized around five themes. Each thematic unit includes an ethnically diverse collection of short stories, poems, plays, and essays, as well as a case study to help students explore literature from various perspectives.

Frank Madden is SUNY Distinguished Professor and Chair of the English Department at SUNY Westchester Community College where he also holds the Carol Russett Endowed Chair for English. He has a Ph.D. from NYU, has taught in graduate programs at CCNY, Iona College, and the New School for Social Reserach, and in 1998 was Chair of the NCTE College Section Institute on the Teaching of Literature. He is a recipient of the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship, the Foundation for Westchester Community College Award for Excellence in Scholarship, and the Phi Delta Kappan Educator of the Year Award from Iona College. He was awarded the 2003 Neil Ann Pickett Service Award, granted by the NCTE to an outstanding college teacher whose vision and voice have had a major impact, and who exemplifies such outstanding personal qualities as creativity, sensitivity, and leadership. He has been Chair of the College Section of the NCTE and Chair of TYCA, and served on the Executive Committee of the NCTE, the CCCC, the MLA ad hoc Committee on Teaching, and as NCTE delegate to the American Council of Learned Societies. His articles, chapters, and commentary about the teaching of literature have appeared in a variety of books and journals, including College English, PMLA, College Literature, English Journal, Computers and Composition, Computers and the Humanities, and the ADE Bulletin.