Literature: The Human Experience provides a broad range of compelling fiction, poetry, drama, and nonfiction that explores the intersections and contradictions of human nature. Timeless themes such as innocence and experience, conformity and rebellion, culture and identity, love and hate, and life and death are presented through the context of experiences that are enduringly human. Diverse selections from contemporary and classic authors across time and cultures offer students opportunities to discover literature with which they can connect. A flexible arrangement of literature within each theme allows instructors to teach the text however best suits their classrooms, and the expert instruction and exciting selections will help to guide and entice even the most reluctant readers. Enhancements to the shorter twelfth edition include two new casebooks that help students to see how literature can make arguments as well as new reading questions that ask students to make arguments about the selections. To top it off, Literature: The Human Experience is value-priced, providing a wealth of material for an affordable price.