Surface and Subtext: Literature, Research, Writing - Third Edition

Reviewed by Bryan Counter, Visiting Lecturer, Framingham State University on 6/18/25

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

This book gives what you'd expect from a reader in literature, and then some: namely, it addresses some of the shortcomings of the field in previous decades by including otherwise forgotten marginalized authors and providing context for authors students may know—for example, woman writers who have made their way into the canon in spite of historical prejudices.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

Collaboratively written by a handful of experts in the field, this book is accurate as well as approachable. It gives a good overall view of what literature is, how to think and write about it, and how to deal with the process of approaching a text as a first-time reader. This book also nicely expands the idea of "literature" to also include film, thus encouraging students to broaden their understanding of what is worth interrogating as a text (potentially including other mediums, and even their own experiences).

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

This book is highly relevant. We will always need such textbooks, and there will always be more, but this one is refreshing in offering an approachable, friendly guide to reading the many strains of literature that students will be asked to engage with in the college classroom.

Clarity rating: 5

This book is written with remarkable clarity. I commend the authors in particular on this point—nothing here will be unclear to students!

Consistency rating: 5

Despite having multiple authors, this book is consistent in quality and readability.

Modularity rating: 5

This text could easily be reshuffled or tackled in smaller portions.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

The organization is coherent, though as a professor I wonder if poetry should be later in the order, after short stories, novellas, and novels! I, at least, have always found poetry more difficult to approach, consider, and write about.

Interface rating: 5

This text was easy to navigate, and fairly user-friendly.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

No issues with grammar that I've detected.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

The authors do a nice job of including various viewpoints and national literatures in their assessment of the genres under consideration.

I would readily recommend this textbook to a colleague, and will consider adopting it for my own courses in the future.

Reviewed by Jason Parks, Professor of English, Anderson University on 6/1/24

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

Overall, this book provides an excellent, detailed overview of concepts and critical terminology necessary for writing about a variety of literary genres. It's full of excellent questions and clearly written guides for helping students to write about literature. The only reason I didn't give it a five was that each main chapter only offers one "sample analysis" of the genre. For example, in the "Writing about Film" chapter, we only get one example of a film analysis by a student. This follows the same format for each chapter, including the one about novels. I felt like having two samples for each chapter would have been beneficial to for contrast.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

Everything is accurate in terms of names, definitions, keywords, etc. The citations are detailed and the links all work. I did not sense any bias in the writing. In fact, I'd say extra effort was made to be as unbiased as possible.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

The key genres of novels, short stories, poetry, novellas, creative nonfiction are covered in depth. However, I wonder if there should be more discussion of things like video game narratives or other digital storytelling mediums. The film chapter was good, but I wonder if it might be beneficial to look into more things like a serialization of a tv show, etc.

Clarity rating: 5

The writing is very clear and personable. I think any undergraduate would find this inviting and easy to navigate. When I use this book for my next Intro to Literature class, I will definitely pull sections for students because of how clearly it is written.

Consistency rating: 5

Everything is well-organized and easy to scroll through and navigate. I really liked the online version.

Modularity rating: 5

Everything is easy to find and read. There were a few places where the bulleted lists didn't stand out as much, so I might have blocked a few of those differently, but the design and layout was excellent overall.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

Every chapter was organized the same way and it was easy to navigate. I never go lost as I worked my way through the chapters. They were very linear and built up to the assignment well.

Interface rating: 5

No distractions. Simple, straightforward text. I suppose a few more images could be included to add some color and multimodality.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

No errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

I thought the pairing of Jane Eyre with Kamala showed a conscious effort to bring in multiple voices from 19th century women across cultures. There was a lot of emphasis on African-American writers throughout, which I thought was strong. However, when it comes to literary studies, the number of voices that belong in the conversation is tremendous, so there will always be more writers I'd like to see. However, I don't think this book is primarily about the literature but about "how to write about it." So, as instructors, we can bring in the voices we feel most strongly about bringing in front of our students to help them see the diversity that exists in literature.

Chapter 9.8 "Representing the Conversation" will probably need some updates regarding AI, but, otherwise, I'd use everything in this book right now.

Reviewed by Andrew Sytsma, Adjunct Associate Professor, Tidewater Community College on 1/30/24

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

The text covers multiple traditional genres, but also includes film and creative nonfiction.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

Content is written in an impartial tone, is up-to-date, and is accurate.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

As this is the 3rd edition, the text, as a whole, is current and will remain so as necessary updates are assumingly easy to implement. Additionally, because of the nature of the content, the text will remain relevant moving forward.

Clarity rating: 5

The text’s clarity is one if its best features. The text takes a second person approach in which content is explained clearly and in an engaging way. Terms needed to understand and discuss the examples are defined and explained, which provides exemplary context for which terms are associated with which genre as well as how the terms are used when discussing examples within the genre.

Consistency rating: 5

Chapters cover various genres and are organized consistently, which heightens readability and utility (see comments on organization).

Modularity rating: 5

This text is both concise and thorough. Headings within the chapter allow for easy readability and comprehension.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

As the title suggests, the text is divided into three parts. The first part, which covers the first three quarters of the text focuses on various literary genres with an introductory chapter which defines “literature.” Each chapter within this part of the text breaks down a genre with an explanation of important terms and examples. Of particular note are the sample discussion questions related to the examples which allow the student-reader to engage with the text regarding specific genres. The questions also align with the second part of the text where the students move from “surface to subtext.” The second section of the text provides a concise, yet thorough approach to analytical writing. The section on writing includes a sample research-based literary essay. The final section wraps the text together with additional lessons on structure and style. Instructors would want to design writing lessons and assignments pulling from both section two and three as appropriate.

Interface rating: 5

The hyperlinks make it easy to navigate within the text. All graphics are logically located (see comments about organization) and are clear.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

The text is free of grammatical errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

The text is not culturally incentive or offensive; however, examples provided for this text are predominantly from English and American literature and thus do not represent a variety of races, ethnicities, or backgrounds. However, Chapter 2.4 provides a “spotlight on Non-English U.S. poetry in translation” which does explore some “linguistic and cultural diversity of the southwestern and southeastern United States” (45).

I particularly like how the text handles writing about literature. The text provides a thorough foundational explanation of various genres and the appropriate tools to discuss examples within the genres rhetorically.