Literary Themes for Students: War and Peace from Gale from Gale Virtual Reference Library

The purpose of Literary Themes for Students: War and Peace (LTSWP) is to provide readers with an overview of literary works that explore a specific theme. Poetry, plays, short stories, novels, and nonfiction that addresses the theme in some capacity is analyzed, and the reader discovers how that theme has been treated in literature across time and culture. Literary Themes for Students: War and Peace include "classic" war literature often used in the classroom curriculum, as well as more contemporary accounts of war and peace and works by minority, international, and female writers.

These volumes begin with three overview essays that introduce the theme of war and peace in literature, dividing it by geography and culture into American literature, British literature, and world literature. These essays are followed by nine sub-essays, which break these themes down further into subthemes that reflect recurring ideas in the literature of war and peace. Sub-essays examine particular titles that exemplify the subthemes and track how that subtheme has developed over time.

Each work is treated in a separate entry. These entries include an introduction to the work and the work's author; a plot summary, to help readers understand the action and story of the work; an analysis of themes that relate to the subjects of war and peace, to provide readers with a multifaceted look at the complexity of war literature; and a section on important historical and cultural events that shaped the author and the work, as well as events that affect the plot or characters in the work.

Additionally, readers are presented with a critical overview discussing how the work was initially received by critics and how the work is presently viewed. Accompanying the critical overview is an excerpt from a previously published critical essay discussing the work's relation to the theme of war and peace. For further analysis and enjoyment, an extended list of media adaptations is also included, as well as a list of poems, short stories, novels, plays, and nonfiction that further address the theme of war and peace, and allow students to continue their study of this theme.

Each chapter focuses on the ways that an entry relates to the theme of war and peace. Each entry heading includes the author's name, the title of the work being discussed, and the year it was published. The following sections are included in the discussion of each entry:

• Introduction: a brief overview of the work being discussed. It provides information about the work's first appearance, any controversies surrounding its publication, its literary reputation, and general details about the work's connection to the theme of war and peace.
• Plot summary: a description of the events that occur in the work. For poems, some additional insight and discussion of symbols and elements is provided. The plot summary is broken down by subheadings, usually by chapter, section, or stanza.
• Themes: a discussion of how the work approaches the issues of war and peace through various themes. Each theme is addressed under a separate subheading. Several of the major recurring themes are discussed at more length in individual sub-essays.
• Historical and Cultural Context: a discussion of the historical and cultural events that appear in the work or that affected the writer while the work was being written. This can include large-scale events such as wars, natural disasters, and political decisions, as well as smaller-scale events such as cultural trends and literary movements. If the setting of the work is during a different time period than that in which the author wrote it, historical and cultural events from both periods are included.
• Critical Overview: a discussion of the work's general critical reputation, including how it was received by reviewers, critics, and the general public. Any controversy surrounding the work is treated in this section. For older works, this section also includes information on the ways that views of the work have changed over time.
• Criticism: a previously published critical essay discussing how the work addresses the issues of war and/or peace. When no appropriate criticism could be found, LTSWP commissioned essays that deal specifically with the work and are written for student audiences.
• Sources: an alphabetical list of sources used in compiling the entry, including bibliographic information.

In addition, each entry includes the following sidebars, set apart from the rest of the text:

• Author Biography Sidebar: a brief biography of the author, including how he or she was affected by or led to write about war and peace.
• Media Adaptations: a list of film, television and/or stage adaptations, audio versions, and other forms of media related to the work. Source information is included.

Each entry may have several illustrations, including photos of the author, depictions of key elements of the plot, stills from film adaptations, and/or historical photos of the war or battle discussed in the entry.

Nine sub-essays discuss various subthemes of war and peace literature: heroes and leaders, violence and brutality, women and war, survival, terrorism, oppression and genocide, utopia and utopian ideals, revolution and revolt, and antiwar protest. Each sub-essay addresses approximately a dozen works that deal directly with the subtheme, and discusses how treatment of that theme has changed over time.

A Media Adaptation list compiles nearly one hundred films, plays, television series, and other media that deal with the subjects of war and peace. The adaptations are organized by subtheme for easy access.

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