The first chapter in Responding to Literature asks the question Why read literature? Every chapter throughout the book addresses this question by inviting readers to value, to explore, and to broaden their own ways of responding to poetry, fiction, drama, and nonfiction and to connect literature to their own lives. Now in its fifth edition, this thematically arranged anthology continues to invite readers to explore the world of literature with the following new features:

• Unparalleled technology support. New “Online Resources” boxes in each chapter indicate the additional resources that students can find on Ariel, McGraw-Hill’s new fully interactive literature CD-ROM, or on the book’s Online Learning Center (www.mhhe.com/stanford). Available for packaging free with Responding to Literature, Ariel contains 28 author casebooks, annotated texts, video and audio clips, critical essays, essay topics, an extensive glossary of literary terms, and more. The Online Learning Center features casebooks for over 20 authors along with glossaries of literary terms, advice on avoiding plagiarism, and help with online research.
• A new chapter on writing a researched argument. Chapter 5, “Argument, Critical Thinking, and Research,” gives students guidelines for writing a paper that argues for a particular interpretation of a literary work, along with advice on locating evidence outside the work to back up an argumentative thesis and guidelines for citing sources using the MLA system of documentation. The chapter includes a sample student paper on Kate Chopin’s short story “The Storm.”
• A new theme on technology and ethics. This new theme deals with a topic that has an enormous impact on students’ everyday lives and will continue to have an impact on their futures. The chapter includes “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne; “Videotape” by Don DeLillo; poems by Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Margaret Atwood, Charles Bukowski, and Rita Dove; and Wit, the Pulitzer-prize-winning play by Margaret Edson.
• Over 50 NEW selections. The new selections in the fifth edition include works by Naomi Shihab Nye, Sherman Alexie, N. Scott Momaday, W.S. Merwin, Gish Jen, Kate Chopin, Leslie Marmon Silko, Annie dillard, and Bharati Mukherjee.
• Then and Now Photo Essays. Three new photo essays offer visual texts that complement and enrich the selections in three of the thematic chapters. For example, Chapter 6, Innocence and Experience, includes a photo essay with pictures of Hamlet as portrayed by different actors in different eras. “Considerations” questions following each photo essay help student to make connections between the images and works they have studied.
• An In-Depth Consideration of Four American Poets: Chapter 15, Four Poets: Then and Now, includes works by Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost (with critical studies of his work) as well as by the contemporary poets Billy Collins and Rita Dove. This chapter highlights the associations between these four poets, providing a sample of themes that are considered quintessentially American and giving students more possibilities for response.
• "Art and Poetry" is now a separate chapter. The 16 works of art and accompanying poems in this color chapter offer a rich variety of opportunities for response.
• A Focus on Film as a Dramatic Genre. McGraw-Hill will offer DVDs for three films to instructors who adopt the Fifth Edition of Responding to Literature: Hamlet (the version released in 2000, starring Ethan Hawke), Wit, and Three Kings. Each film is related to one of the thematic chapters in Responding to Literature (two are filmed versions of plays within the text) and expands the selections that instructors can draw from. New Film Connection sections in the text discuss each of the three films and offer exercises that prompt students to respond to them.
• New Web Connections Questions. At the end of each thematic chapter, new Web Connections questions encourage students to explore issues using the enormous resources available on the World Wide Web.