This much needed book will be an invaluable companion to those who are already enthusiastic about the work of Diana Wynne Jones, as well as being a more than useful guide to those as yet relatively unfamiliar with her novels. Mendelsohn's emphasis is on Jones as a writer of critical fantasy, and the distinctions she draws between different varieties of fantasy (such as portal-quest and immersive) are particularly helpful in the light they throw on her claim that Jones's novels are in effect teaching young readers how to read the fantastic intelligently and critically.

The One Mind: C. G. Jung and the Future of Literary Criticism explores the implications of C. G. Jung's unus mundus by applying his writings on the metaphysical, the paranormal, and the quantum to literature. As Jung knew, everything is connected because of its participation in universal consciousness, which encompasses all that is, including the collective unconscious. Matthew A. Fike argues that this principle of unity enables an approach in which psychic functioning is both a subject and a means of discovery—psi phenomena evoke the connections among the physical world, the psyche, and the spiritual realm.

We all have the ability to recognize and create humour, but how exactly do we do it? Salvatore Attardo and Victor Raskin have attempted to explain the workings of humour with their General Theory of Verbal Humor (1991). The central aim of Hamilton's study is to test the usefulness of the General Theory of Verbal Humor on a specific corpus by identifying and interpreting the narrative structures that create humour. How well can this theory explain the way humour 'works' in a particular tale, and can it provide us with interesting, novel interpretations? The genres used to test the General Theory of Verbal Humor are the fabliau, the parody and the tragedy.

On Writing is both a textbook for writers and a memoir of Stephen's life and will, thus, appeal even to those who are not aspiring writers. If you've always wondered what led Steve to become a writer and how he came to be the success he is today, this will answer those questions.

Why is English synonymous with literature in the United States? At the turn of the twentieth century, literature courses were taught in the original language, and English did not signify literature any more than did French, Italian, or other modern languages. Fifty years later, English had colonized literature, and non-English literatures became configured as "foreign language study." This timely and important intervention into an on-going debate shows how the multilingual population of American faculty and students became progressively more monoglot, as did the configuration of literary studies.