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Literary Topics Videos


Who's Seuss?

Dr. Seuss was a failure to start, but he soon learned to follow his heart. He wrote books about things that he knew, and soon enough, his book sales flew. Although the doc is now long passed, his stories are still selling fast. So now today the real question is: what can we learn from a writer in the biz? Is it love, friendship, or compassion? Let's have a debate in orderly fashion.


Author Highlights Videos 22 videos

Who's Seuss?
951 Views

Dr. Seuss was a failure to start, but he soon learned to follow his heart. He wrote books about things that he knew, and soon enough, his book sale...

Edgar Allan Poe: The Twilight Connection
3321 Views

Sure, Edgar Allan Poe was dark and moody and filled with teenage angst, but what else does he have in common with the Twilight series?

Emily Dickinson
2479 Views

Emily Dickinson was a New England poet/hermit with a fascination with death and immortality. She wrote over 1000 poems in her lifetime, most of the...

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Critics Videos 4 videos

Donne Criticism
286 Views

Critics started attacking Donne's works only after he had passed away. Talk about kicking a guy when he's already down.

Michel Foucault
2441 Views

Who was Michel Foucault? This video introduces the French philosopher and social theorist who focused on discipline, discourse, and power. What are...

Jacques Derrida
3591 Views

The French have given us more than just croissants, French toast, and cafe au lait. They also gave us Jacques Derrida. Although you’re less likel...

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Literary Forms Videos 43 videos

Other Forms and Traditions in Poetry
652 Views

Have you ever read a sestina in a cantina or a villanelle in your holding cell? The great thing is that... not every type of poetry needs to rhyme....

Sonnets
9274 Views

This video defines sonnets, a favorite of William Shakespeare. What are the different types of sonnet? How do you identify different kinds of sonne...

Scansion 101
1010 Views

This video explains how to scan and diagram a poem or other work of literature for meter and line length and identifies the metrical description of...

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Special Interest Videos 21 videos

Bestsellers: Thrillers
728 Views

Click on the "play" button...if you dare. Wow, you don't seem very scared. Well, we did what we could. Guess thrillers aren't our forte.

Bestsellers: The Help
9593 Views

Historical fiction novels like The Help can whisk you back to a place and time that you may have only read about in history books. Or... a place an...

What is Shmoop Mythology?
2222 Views

The gods and heroes battle it out with monsters in the best of mythology.

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Themes Videos 151 videos

ELA 5: Themes
1123 Views

Picking a theme for a party is pretty easy—always go karate party, because they come with nunchuck egg rolls. Themes in writing are a little diff...

1984
135141 Views

Well, if this book doesn't make you want to tape over your laptop camera, we don't know what will.

1984 and V for Vendetta
17148 Views

Imagine a world in which all literature was dystopian. Okay, so we may be getting to that point, 1984 and V for Vendetta helped start it all.

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