Literature helps readers develop sensitivities to language, gender, race, and culture. It provides a forum for exploration and an opportunity to emerge beyond one's self, see through another's eyes, and live as someone else. Between the covers of this sampling of world-class literature are countless readings that possess the power to make a lifelong impact.

The sixth edition of Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama offers
• Fifty-four short stories, including Franz Kafka's unforgettable novella The Metamorphosis
•An innovative new chapter in the poetry section featuring fifteen teachable new poems in praise of diversity
•Fifteen dramatic plays, including Shakespeare's Hamlet and Othello and Sophocles' Oedipus the King and Antigone
• "Critical Approaches to Literature," an entirely new supplement at the back of the text, which explains and provides examples of nine critical approaches to studying literature

This edition features a new co-editor, Dana Gioia, author, poet, teacher, and literary critic, who adds a new multicultural and contemporary approach to the text.
--back cover