21 English Literature

88 Open Essays

Sarah Wangler & Tina Ulrich

Licence: CC BY-SA

These essays were collected from online magazines that offer their articles under Creative Commons licenses.  A few are from individual authors who generously agreed to give their work an open license in order to share it for this collection.

Formats: Google Docs

American Literature I: An Anthology of Texts From Early America Through the Civil War

Edited by Jenifer Kurtz (Virginia Western Community College) 

2020

Licence: CC BY-SA

This book offers an anthology of texts that includes letters, journals, poetry, newspaper articles, pamphlets, sermons, narratives, and short fiction written in and about America beginning with collected oral stories from Native American tribes and ending with the poetry of Emily Dickinson. Many major and minor authors are included, providing a sampling of the different styles, topics, cultures, and concerns present during the formation and development of America through the mid-nineteenth century.

Formats: Online, EPUB, PDF, and MOBI

Suggested for: ENGL 344

Artistic Responses to the Zong Massacre (1781)

Magalí Armillas-Tiseyra (PennState-University Park) and Robin Mary Bower (Penn State Beaver) 

Licence: CC BY-NC-SA

Suitable for introductory or humanities survey courses, this module offers teaching resources for a unit on the 1781 Zong massacre. It focuses on artistic responses to the massacre and on how the massacre is a representative event of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. The module includes artworks and texts that could be used in the classroom, discussion questions and activities, and a culminating writing prompt. This module invites students to reflect on the gaps in the colonial archive and to think about the role of art and literature in shaping understandings of historical events. It also provides students with an opportunity to recognize how the dehumanizing logic of slavery shaped modernity and how black artists challenge its legacy through their work.

Formats: Word files downloadable as a .zip file (after completing the “Course Download Questionnaire”)

Becoming America: An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution

Wendy Kurant (University of North Georgia)

2018

Licence: CC BY-SA

Featuring sixty-nine authors and full texts of their works, the selections in this open anthology represent the diverse voices in early American literature. This completely-open anthology will connect students to the conversation of literature that is embedded in American history and has helped shaped its culture. Features: Contextualizing introductions from Pre- and Early Colonial Literature to Early American Romanticism; Over 70 historical images; In-depth biographies of each author; Instructional Design, including Reading and Review Questions

Format: PDF

Suggested for: ENGL 345

British Literature I: From the Middle Ages to Neoclassicism and the Eighteenth Century

Edited by Bonnie J. Robinson and Laura J. Getty (University of North Georgia)

2018

Licence: CC BY-SA

Featuring over 50 authors and full texts of their works, this anthology follows the shift of monarchic to parliamentarian rule in Britain, and the heroic epic to the more egalitarian novel as genre.

Formats: PDF and Word

British Literature II: Romantic Era to the Twentieth Century and Beyond

Edited by B.J. Robinson (University of North Georgia)

2018

Licence: CC BY-SA

Featuring 37 authors and full texts of their works, the selections in this open anthology represent the literature developed within and developing through their respective eras. This completely-open anthology will connect students to the conversation of literature that has captivated readers in the past and still holds us now.

Formats: PDF and Word

Suggested for: ENGL 393/395

Compact Anthology of World Literature II

University of North Georgia

2024

Licence: CC BY-SA

A world literature class may be the first place that some students have encountered European works, let alone non-Western texts. The emphasis in this anthology, therefore, is on non-Western and European works, with only the British authors who were the most influential to European and non-Western authors (such as Shakespeare, whose works have influenced authors around the world to the present day). In a world literature class, there is no way that a student can be equally familiar with all of the societies, contexts, time periods, cultures, religions, and languages that they will encounter; even though the works presented here are translated, students will face issues such as unfamiliar names and parts of the story (such as puns) that may not translate well or at all. Since these stories are rooted in their cultures and time periods, it is necessary to know the basic context of each work to understand the expectations of the original audience.

The introductions in this anthology are meant to be just that: a basic overview of what students need to know before they begin reading, with topics that students can research further. An open access literature textbook cannot be a history book at the same time, but history is the great companion of literature: The more history students know, the easier it is for them to interpret literature.

These works can help students understand the present, as well. In an electronic age, with this text available to anyone with computer access around the world, it has never been more necessary to recognize and understand differences among nationalities and cultures. The literature in this anthology is foundational, in the sense that these works influenced the authors who followed them.

Format: PDF

Suggested for: ENGL 341

Compact Anthology of World Literature II Parts 4, 5, and 6

Edited by Anita Turlington, Mathew Horton, Karen Dodson, Laura Getty, Kyounghye Kwon, and Laura Ng (University of North Georgia)

2018

Licence: CC BY-SA

Texts from a variety of genres and cultures are included in each unit: Age of Reason, Near East and Asia, Romanticism, Realism, Modernism, Postcolonial Literature, and Contemporary Literature.

Formats: PDF and EPUB

Suggested for: ENGL 341

Composition and Literature: A Handbook and Anthology

James Sexton (Simon Fraser University) and Derek Soles (Alexander College)

2019

Licence: CC BY

This book is divided into two parts. Part I is a Composition Handbook designed to teach students the components of the writing process and the conventions of various forms of school and college writing assignments. Part II is an Anthology of Literature designed to help students read actively, analyze, understand, enjoy, and appreciate stories, poems, and plays by a diverse and inclusive group of exceptional writers.

Formats: Online, EPUB, PDF, MOBI, and more

Suggested for: ENGL 353

“The Death of Ivan Ilich”: An Electronic Study Edition of the Russian Text

Gary R. Jahn, University of Minnesota

2020

The Russian text of “The Death of Ivan Ilich” is presented for study in various formats: accompanied by an English translation; fully glossed, with explanatory and interpretive annotations; and supplemented by introductory remarks.

Licence: CC BY-NC

Formats: Online, EPUB, PDF

Discussion Guide for A Mind Spread Out on the Ground

Eduardo Azmitia Pardo, Bettina Boyle, Trudi Diening, David Geary, Mary Giovannetti, Abigail Kinch, Barry Magrill, and Jules Smith (Capilano University)

2020

Licence: CC BY-SA

This discussion guide was created to accompany the book A Mind Spread Out on the Ground by Alicia Elliott (2019). Alicia Elliott, a Tuscarora writer from Six Nations of the Grand River, offers compelling narratives that prompt the reader to ponder, examine, discuss, and address the many challenges facing Indigenous peoples today. The book was a selection of the Centre for Teaching Excellence Spring book club in 2020. The faculty members of the book club offer this resource to encourage you to create opportunities in your courses for important conversations around the many themes that this book presents. 

Book description: A bold and profound meditation on trauma, legacy, oppression and racism in North America from award-winning Haudenosaunee writer Alicia Elliott. In an urgent and visceral work that asks essential questions about the treatment of Native people in North America while drawing on intimate details of her own life and experience with intergenerational trauma, Alicia Elliott offers indispensable insight into the ongoing legacy of colonialism. She engages with such wide-ranging topics as race, parenthood, love, mental illness, poverty, sexual assault, gentrification, writing and representation, and in the process makes connections both large and small between the past and present, the personal and political—from overcoming a years-long battle with head lice to the way Native writers are treated within the Canadian literary industry; her unplanned teenage pregnancy to the history of dark matter and how it relates to racism in the court system; her childhood diet of Kraft Dinner to how systemic oppression is directly linked to health problems in Native communities. With deep consideration and searing prose, Elliott provides a candid look at our past, an illuminating portrait of our present and a powerful tool for a better future. (Description from Penguin Random House Canada)

Format: Online

Suggested for: ENGL 431

English Literature: Victorians and Moderns

James Sexton (Camosun College)

2014

Licence: CC BY

English Literature: Victorians and Moderns is an anthology with a difference. In addition to providing annotated teaching editions of many of the most frequently-taught classics of Victorian and Modern poetry, fiction, and drama, it also provides a series of guided research casebooks which make available numerous published essays from open access books and journals, as well as several reprinted critical essays from established learned journals such as English Studies in Canada and the Aldous Huxley Annual with the permission of the authors and editors. Designed to supplement the annotated complete texts of three famous short novels: Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, each casebook offers cross-disciplinary guided research topics, which will encourage majors in fields other than English to undertake topics in diverse areas, including History, Economics, Anthropology, Political Science, Biology, and Psychology. Selections have also been included to encourage topical, thematic, and generic cross-referencing. Students will also be exposed to a wide range of approaches, including new-critical, psychoanalytic, historical, and feminist. 

Formats: Online, EPUB, PDF, MOBI, and more

Suggested for: ENGL 393

The Ideologies of Lived Space in Literary Texts, Ancient and Modern

Jo Heirman and Jacqueline Klooster (University of Amsterdam)

Licence: CC BY-NC

Inspired by the spatial turn in the humanities, this collection presents a number of essays on the ideological role of space in literary texts. The individual articles analyse ancient and modern literary texts from the angle of the most recent theoretical conceptualisations of space. The focus throughout is on how the experience of space is determined by dominant political, philosophical or religious ideologies and how, in turn, the description of spaces in literature is employed to express, broadcast or deconstruct this experience.

Formats: PDF

An Introduction to African and Afro-Diasporic Peoples and Influences in British Literature and Culture before the Industrial Revolution

Jonathan Elmore and Jenni Halpin (Savannah State University)

2021

An Introduction to African and Afro-Diasporic Peoples and Influences in British Literature and Culture before the Industrial Revolution corrects, expands, and celebrates the presence of the African Diaspora in the study of British literature.

Formats: Online, PDF, Word

Suggested for: ENGL 341

Introduction to Literature: Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, and How They Shape Us

Judy Young (University of West Florida)

2024

Licence: CC BY-NC-SA

Introduction to Literature: Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, and How They Shape Us introduces college freshmen to the study of literature through a focus on texts that, generally, they already know, or think they know, and how those texts aim to shape audiences to be compliant cultural objects. The book is organized around several prominent story groups, including various genres and forms, meant to promote discussion and discovery leading to students’ understanding that these texts function as cultural sculptors of readers’ principles and behaviors. Students develop the skill of analyzing texts and creating sound arguments about them through class discussions and a series of writing assignments. Ideally, they leave the course understanding how to create a sound argument and, more pointedly, that there is no such thing as “just a story.”

Formats: Online, PDF, eBook

Introduction to Poetry

Edited by Jacqueline Weal (Langara College)

2019

Licence: CC BY

This book is designed for a first college course in poetry. Assuming no prior knowledge of poetry, it guides the student through the most essential aspects of poetics, the tricky question of interpretation, and the importance of form. It also outlines, in several chapters, the ways that poetry has evolved over time. An adaptation of Introduction to Poetry: A Complete Online Course by Alan Lindsay and Candace Bergstrom (2019).

Format: Online

Suggested for: ENGL 212

Kids Read the Best Stuff

Sybil Priebe (North Dakota State College of Science)

2022

Licence: CC BY-NC-SA

This textbook from North Dakota State College covers the study of children’s literature.

Formats: PDF, Word, Google Docs

Suggested for: ENGL 305

Literary Form and Analysis: Instructional Materials for English 300

Josh Epstein (Portland State University)

2020

Licence: CC BY-NC

This OER packet comprises instructional materials used for ENG 300: Literary Forms and Analysis, a “gateway” course for the English major and minor at Portland State University. It includes handouts, exercises, and a sample syllabus for this course, emphasizing skills of “close reading” and formal analysis, as well as the scholarly study of genre (poetry, fiction, drama, and film). The syllabus and handouts offered in this packet represent only one of many possible approaches to ENG 300. These open access, freely available resources that can be readily adjusted to suit different pedagogical methods. They can also be usefully complemented with additional information about academic writing, argumentation, and the writing process. The materials here can be combined with any selection of literary texts.

Formats: PDF and Word

Suggested for: ENGL 211

Literature, the Humanities, and Humanity

Theodore L. Steinberg (SUNY Fredonia)

2013

Licence: CC BY-NC-SA

Literature, the Humanities, and Humanity attempts to make the study of literature more than simply another school subject that students have to take. At a time when all subjects seem to be valued only for their testability, this book tries to show the value of reading and studying literature, even earlier literature. It shows students, some of whom will themselves become teachers, that literature actually has something to say to them. Furthermore, it shows that literature is meant to be enjoyed, that, as the Roman poet Horace (and his Renaissance disciple Sir Philip Sidney) said, the functions of literature are to teach and to delight. The book will also be useful to teachers who want to convey their passion for literature to their students. After an introductory chapter that offers advice on how to read (and teach) literature, the book consists of a series of chapters that examine individual literary works ranging from The Iliad to Charles Dickens’ Bleak House. These chapters can not substitute for reading the actual works. Rather they are intended to help students read those works. They are attempts to demystify the act of reading and to show that these works, whether they are nearly three thousand or less than two hundred years old, still have important things to say to contemporary readers.

Formats: Online, PDF, EPUB, and Word

Mind, Body, Motion, Matter: Eighteenth-Century British and French Literary Perspectives

Mary Helen McMurran and Alison Conway

2016

Licence: CC BY

Mind, Body, Motion, Matter investigates the relationship between the eighteenth century’s two predominant approaches to the natural world — mechanistic materialism and vitalism — in the works of leading British and French writers such as Daniel Defoe, William Hogarth, Laurence Sterne, the third Earl of Shaftesbury and Denis Diderot.

Formats: PDF

Moon of the Crusted Snow: Reading Guide

Anna Rodrigues and Kaitlyn Watson (Ontario Tech University)

2021

Licence: CC BY-NC-SA

The Open Education Lab at Ontario Tech University released a reading guide resource for the novel Moon of the Crusted Snow, written by Anishinaabe author, Waubgeshig Rice. The resource was developed in consultation with the book’s author and would be useful for educators in secondary and post-secondary school settings, as well as book clubs and adult literacy programs.

Novel description: With winter looming, a small northern Anishinaabe community goes dark. Cut off, people become passive and confused. Panic builds as the food supply dwindles. While the band council and a pocket of community members struggle to maintain order, an unexpected visitor arrives, escaping the crumbling society to the south. Soon after, others follow. The community leadership loses its grip on power as the visitors manipulate the tired and hungry to take control of the reserve. Tensions rise and, as the months pass, so does the death toll due to sickness and despair. Frustrated by the building chaos, a group of young friends and their families turn to the land and Anishinaabe tradition in hopes of helping their community thrive again. Guided through the chaos by an unlikely leader named Evan Whitesky, they endeavor to restore order while grappling with a grave decision.  Blending action and allegory, Moon of the Crusted Snow upends our expectations. Out of catastrophe comes resilience. And as one society collapses, another is reborn. (Description from ECW Press)

Format: Online

Suggested for: ENGL 431

Naming the Unnameable: An Approach to Poetry for New Generations

Michelle Bonczek Evory (Kalamazoo Community College)

2018

Licence: CC BY-NC-SA

Informed by a writing philosophy that values both spontaneity and discipline, Michelle Bonczek Evory’s Naming the Unnameable: An Approach to Poetry for New Generations offers practical advice and strategies for developing a writing process that is centered on play and supported by an understanding of America’s rich literary traditions. With consideration to the psychology of invention, Bonczek Evory provides students with exercises aimed to make writing in its early stages a form of play that gives way to more enriching insights through revision, embracing the writing of poetry as both a love of language and a tool that enables us to explore ourselves and better understand the world.

Formats: Online, PDF, and EPUB

Suggested for: ENGL 380

Open Anthology of American Literature

Edited by Farrah Cato (University of Central Florida) 

2021

Licence: CC BY

This anthology is divided into five major sections, starting with the Colonial period and ending with the publication of Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl on the eve of the Civil War. Each section includes an overview and framework for approaching the readings, as well as overarching questions to help students think about the connections between the texts. There is also a brief introduction to each of the authors featured in these sections, followed by discussion questions based on the texts. The textual introductions do not include a great deal of biographical material; instead, I have used them to provide a frame (typically connected to the larger section introduction) that I hope will help students to navigate from. The discussion questions could also easily be used as open-ended exam questions or as essay prompts. Some of the discussion questions are also invitations for students to make intertextual connections, or to consider how the literary landscape changes from its “beginnings” to the Civil War.

Format: Online

Suggested for: ENGL 345

Open Anthology of Earlier American Literature

Edited by Timothy Robbins (Graceland University)

2020

Licence: CC BY

This textbook takes a distinctly socio-historical approach to introduce Early American literature. The anthology will allow students to engage with literature in exciting and dynamic ways. The Open Anthology of Earlier American Literature was initially created by Robin deRosa at Plymouth State University. Working with students, they collected public domain texts, edited them as necessary and created introductions for each to form the beginnings of a new, definitive anthology of Early American Literature.

Format: Online

Suggested for: ENGL 344

Perspectives of Uncertainty: Short Stories from the 1800s and 1900s

Edited by Angela O’Sullivan (Justice Institute of British Columbia) 

Licence: CC BY

Collection of short stories by Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle, H.G. Wells, Franz Kafka, and others.

Formats: Online and PDF

Suggested for: ENGL 211

Prose Fiction: An Introduction to the Semiotics of Narrative

Ignasi Ribó (School of Liberal Arts at Mae Fah Luang University, Thailand)

2020

Licence: CC BY

This concise and highly accessible textbook outlines the principles and techniques of storytelling. It is intended as a high-school and college-level introduction to the central concepts of narrative theory – concepts that will aid students in developing their competence not only in analysing and interpreting short stories and novels, but also in writing them.

This textbook prioritises clarity over intricacy of theory, equipping its readers with the necessary tools to embark on further study of literature, literary theory and creative writing. Building on a ‘semiotic model of narrative,’ it is structured around the key elements of narratological theory, with chapters on plot, setting, characterisation, and narration, as well as on language and theme – elements which are underrepresented in existing textbooks on narrative theory. The chapter on language constitutes essential reading for those students unfamiliar with rhetoric, while the chapter on theme draws together significant perspectives from contemporary critical theory (including feminism and postcolonialism).

Formats: Online and PDF

Suggested for: ENGL 211

Reading Backwards: An Advance Retrospective on Russian Literature

Muireann Maguire and Timothy Langen

2021

Licence: CC BY

This edited volume employs the paradoxical notion of ‘anticipatory plagiarism’ as a mode for reading Russian literature.

Formats: Online, PDF

Shakespeare and Canada: Remembrance of Ourselves

Edited by Irena R. Makaryk and Kathryn Prince (University of Ottawa)

2017

Licence: CC BY-NC-SA

Shakespeare and Canada is the result of a collective desire to explore the role that Shakespeare has played in Canada over the past two hundred years, but also to comprehend the way our country’s culture has influenced our interpretation of his literary career and heritage. What function does Shakespeare serve in Canada today? How has he been reconfigured in different ways for particular Canadian contexts? The authors of this book attempt to answer these questions while imagining what the future might hold for William Shakespeare in Canada. Covering the Stratford Festival, the cult CBC television program Slings and Arrows, major Canadian critics such as Northrop Frye and Marshall McLuhan, the influential acting teacher Neil Freiman, the rise of Québécois and First Nation approaches to Shakespeare, and Shakespeare’s place in secondary schools today, this collection reflects the diversity and energy of Shakespeare’s afterlife in Canada. Collectively, the authors suggest that Shakespeare continues to offer Canadians “remembrance of ourselves.” This is a refreshingly original and impressive contribution to Shakespeare studies—a considerable achievement in any work on the history of one of the central figures in the western literary canon. (Description from UOPress)

Format: PDF

Suggested for: ENGL 324/325

Surface and Subtext: Literature, Research, Writing – Third Edition

Texas A&M University

2024

Licence: CC BY-NC

An introductory text covering the foundations of genre: poetry, short story, novella, novel, drama, film, and creative non-fiction. This resource will guide readers through the process of moving from surface to subtext and how to formulate a literary essay.

Formats: Online, PDF, EPUB, and more

Suggested for: ENGL 316

Teaching Autoethnography: Personal Writing in the Classroom

Melissa Tombro (The Fashion Institute of Technology)

2016

Licence: CC BY-NC-SA

Teaching Autoethnography: Personal Writing in the Classroom is dedicated to the practice of immersive ethnographic and autoethnographic writing that encourages authors to participate in the communities about which they write. This book draws not only on critical qualitative inquiry methods such as interview and observation, but also on theories and sensibilities from creative writing and performance studies, which encourage self-reflection and narrative composition. Concepts from qualitative inquiry studies, which examine everyday life, are combined with approaches to the creation of character and scene to help writers develop engaging narratives that examine chosen subcultures and the author’s position in relation to her research subjects. The book brings together a brief history of first-person qualitative research and writing from the past forty years, examining the evolution of nonfiction and qualitative approaches in relation to the personal essay. A selection of recent student writing in the genre as well as reflective student essays on the experience of conducting research in the classroom is presented in the context of exercises for coursework and beyond. Also explored in detail are guidelines for interviewing and identifying subjects and techniques for creating informed sketches and images that engage the reader. This book provides approaches anyone can use to explore their communities and write about them first-hand. The methods presented can be used for a single assignment in a larger course or to guide an entire semester through many levels and varieties of informed personal writing.

Formats: Online, PDF, and EPUB

Twentieth-Century Russian Poetry: Reinventing the Canon

Katharine Hodgson, Joanne Shelton and Alexandra Smith

2017

Licence: CC BY

World Literature I: Beginnings to 1650

Edited by Laura Getty, Kyounghye Kwon, Rhonda Kelley, and Douglas Thomson (University of North Georgia)

2015

Licence: CC BY-SA

Since the dawn of language, humankind has exchanged stories, either through storytellers around a hearth or through scribes tirelessly copying various texts. This literature allows modern audience a window through which we can peer into the distant past. It provides vital clues for the interpretation of history, language, and culture. It is through literature that one may compare and gain a greater understanding of other civilizations.

This anthology comprises three comprehensive collections that provide samples of literature from around the world and across the ages, ranging from some of oldest tales that have survived into modernity to works from the 1650s. These texts provide an opportunity for readers to engage in extensive analysis of the works themselves and the societies that influenced and were influenced by them.

This peer-reviewed World Literature I anthology includes introductory text and images before each series of readings. Sections of the text are divided by time period in three parts: the Ancient World, Middle Ages, and Renaissance, and then divided into chapters by location.

Format: PDF

Suggested for: ENGL 341

Writing Fabulous Features

Nicole Kraft (The Ohio State University)

2019

Licence: CC BY-NC

This book teaches the art and craft of feature writing to help readers learning to write non-fiction with flair.

Formats: Online, PDF, EPUB, and more

Suggested for: ENGL 384

Writing and Literature: Composition as Inquiry, Learning, Thinking, and Communication

Tanya Long Bennet (University of North Georgia)

2017

Licence: CC BY-SA

Writing and Literature builds a new conversation covering various genres of literature and writing. Students learn the various writing styles appropriate for analyzing, addressing, and critiquing these genres including poetry, novels, dramas, and research writing. The text and its pairing of helpful visual aids throughout emphasizes the importance of critical reading and analysis in producing a successful composition. Designed for a first-year English composition class, this book is filled with short stories and plays, and discussion of literary devices to introduce composition in the context of literary studies. 

Formats: PDF and Word

Suggested for: ENGL 353

Writing the Nation: A Concise Introduction to American Literature 1865 to Present

Amy Berke (Middle Georgia State University), Robert Bleil (College of Coastal Georgia), and Jordan Cofer (Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College)

2015

Licence: CC BY-SA

Writing the Nation: A Concise Guide to American Literature 1865 to Present is a text that surveys key literary movements and the American authors associated with the movement. Topics include late romanticism, realism, naturalism, modernism, and modern literature.

Format: PDF

Suggested for: ENGL 344