English Language Teaching (Hardbound - 2013)

Wherever there are people there will be a literature. A literature is the record of human experience, and people have always been impelled to write down their impressions of life. They do so in diaries and letters, in pamphlets and books, and in essays, poems, plays, and fiction. In this respect American literature is like any other, though it displays many characteristics that are similar and many that are dissimilar to the literary tradition of other nations.

American Literature has witnessed several trends and movements:

• Puritan/Colonial (1650—1750)
• Revolutionary/Age of Reason (1750—1800)
• Romanticism (1800—1860)
• American Renaissance/Transcen-dentalism (1840—1860)
• Realism (1855—1900) (Period of civil war and post-war period)
• The Moderns (1900—1950)
• Harlem Renaissance (parallel to Modernism) 1920s
• Postmodernism (1950 to present)

The present Volume concentrates on the American literature of 19th and 20th centuries and includes critical papers on authors that are widely prescribed in the Indian universities. As we are aware, the beauty of any literary work is that it leads to fresh interpretation every time when viewed from a different angle. The scholarly and critical analysis presented on the works of several American literary masters such as Emerson, Hawthorn, Poe, Whitman, Hemingway, O’Neill, Miller, Morrison, Walker, etc., by experts in the field of English Literature would unquestionably enable the readers gain a new insight into the interpretation of literary works.

While serving as an additional resource to the teachers of American literature, this Volume is expected to assist the students and researchers in the domain of American literature.

Meenakshi Raman, heading the Languages Group at BITS, Pilani is an Assistant Professor of English. She has been teaching English at various levels for the last 19 years. She has published two books—Effective English Communication (TMH) and Technical Communication (OUP) and edited the 12th Volume of International Journal of Communication for the Bahri Publication and the Volume on English Language Teaching for Atlantic Publishers and Distributors. The numerous papers which she has authored for scholarly journals and newspapers in India and the papers she has presented in various national and international conferences reflect not only her interest in the areas of English language and literature but also her rich teaching experience at the University level and her primary concern for a teacher who has focus on the learners of English.

She holds the membership of several prestigious professional associations both in India and abroad: Linguistic Society of India (LSI), Indian Association for English Studies (IAES), Indian Association for American Studies (IAAS), Indian Association for Commonwealth Studies in Literature (IACSL), Shaw’s Corner, and Teaching English for the Students of Other Languages (TESOL). Her doctoral research was on the topic The Impact of Science and Technology on English Poetry.