Paper presented at the Modern Language Association of America German 5 Conference on Modern Literature at the University of California (Irvine) in April 1970. (DS)

Today the past is suspect; immediacy and relevance are the primary measures of value. The historical interpretation of literature thus seems naive, and the teacher of literature is threatened with irrelevance. (Editor)

Considers those aspects of "Kidnapped"--moral dilemmas, storyline, style--that might appeal to young people today. (HOD)

Reminisces about growing up with Freddy, Walter R. Brooks' adventurous pig, and the qualities and values he represents. (HOD)

Traces the history of English prose from Francis Bacon to the present, commenting on the quality of various authors' writing and of fiction today. (HTH)

Considers the state of the art of literary criticism; evaluates and compares seven books of criticism. (RL)

Submits that Martin Luther King's persuasiveness in his writings may be attributed not only to his structure, logic, and ethos, but even more to his creative, eloquent, and commanding use of the English language. Supports this argument with examples from King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail." (RL)

Analyzes the book "Five Run Away Together" from the popular but controversial children's series by Enid Blyton; acknowledges some of the negative factors critics have seen in Blyton's books but also points to some values the books have for children. (GT)

James Agee's "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men" is like many other works of American non-fiction in that it concentrates on the narrator's successful quest for wholeness of vision, a sense of home, and roots. (DD)

Explores concrete poetry through traditional prosodic analyses of representative poems and suggests an analytic framework for the oral interpreter's approach to concrete poetry. (MH)

Exposes the two basic myths underlying Carter's position on the discreteness of linguistic description, which are the myth of objectivity and the common-sense myth of language. It is concluded that stylistic analysis is an attempt to spread one's influence and to persuade readers of the validity of one's own response to literary texts. (14…

Examines introductory genres and their various realizations, conventionally used to introduce academic books and variously named as "introduction,""preface,""acknowledgement," and "publishers blurb" to investigate their nature, function, and structure within the context of current theory in genre analysis…

Discusses the history and literary value of young adult novels written mainly for adolescents. Topics covered include measures of quality; literary criticism and reviews; specific characteristics of young adult novels related to the elements of plot, characterization, dialogue, setting, point of view, and style; and critical standards. (nine…