ABSTRACT
Chapter 1 offers a concise exposition of the strange and wonderful thing called literature (novels, short stories, poems, plays, memoirs and so on), along with a forceful overview of why studying it might matter. Looking at a range of examples, from Shakespeare to Don DeLillo, from Emily Dickinson to Charles Dickens, this introductory chapter foregrounds the importance of literature as a space of imagination and questioning and makes a critical case for the value of what the authors call ‘creative reading’.
