When is a theme not a theme? The resources in this collection explain the difference between subject, motif, and theme, model how to determine the theme(s) in literature and art, and offer opportunities to practice identifying the themes...

A three-lesson curriculum unit examines the history and conventions in the American literary humor of Mark Twain, George Washington Harris, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. In Lesson One, scholars read “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras...