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Book SynopsisIn Preface to Paradise Lost, C. S. Lewis presents an illuminating reflection on John Milton''s Paradise Lost, the seminal classic that profoundly influenced Christian thought as well as Lewis''s own work.Lewis a revered scholar and professor of literature closely examines the style, content, structure, and themes of Milton''s masterpiece, a retelling of the biblical story from the Fall of Humankind, Satan''s temptation, and the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. Considering this story within the context of the Western literary tradition, Lewis offers invaluable insights into Paradise Lost and the nature of literature itself, unveiling the poem''s beauty and its wisdom.With a clarity of thought and a style that are the trademarks of Lewis's writing, he provides answers with a lucidity and lightness that deepens our understanding of Milton's immortal work. Also inspiring new readers to revisit Paradise Lost, Lewis reminds us of why elements including ritual, splendour andTrade Review‘Lewis, more than any other critic now writing, adds wit, learning and enthusiasm to that ability to discuss rather than destroy, which is the prerequisite of the critic's true function.’ The Dublin Review

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Book Synopsis«In Timeless Joyce, Asun López-Varela offers a holistic, dense, and substantial approach to the study of Ulysses, in commemoration of its publication centenary. The author manages to tackle multiple perspectives that pivot around key aspects of Joyce’s narrative by structuring her account around the spiral figure. This brilliant design makes it possible to include not only detailed thematic studies, but also to recurrently return to the main research lines proposed, in an easy, smooth, and natural way. Especially relevant are the myth cells revisited, with a perceptive method that allows transcendental appreciation without forgetting the language puns, the metaphysical substratum, and the Joycean ironic groundwork.» (Juan Ignacio Oliva Cruz, President of the James Joyce Association of Spain) «López-Varela’s volume deserves attention not only for the accumulation of new analytical threads but also for the inspiring spiral framework that shows Joyce’s ironic deflective response to the grandiloquent inflation of epic, traditionally performed by myth. The author superbly shows the ambiguities present in Joyce’s mythical method, where the spatial and temporal restrictions proper of the vicissitudes of everyday life are simultaneously parodied and given transcendental scope.» (José Manuel Losada Goya, President of Asteria, Internacional Association of Mythcriticism) 2022 marked the 100th anniversary of the publication of James Joyce’s Ulysses. This book is a celebration of Joyce’s text and of the aspects that make his masterpiece timeless. Structured under the inspiration of Brancusi’s spiral image, «Symbol of James Joyce», the volume shows Joyce’s play in two movements: a centripetal move towards unity, using myth, analogies and correspondences and a centrifugal force, with a cunning mixture of irony and unanticipated turns, where the dream of unity is shattered and the text resonates in multiple directions, manifesting its diversity through forms of duplicity and double coding. The double spiral movement of Joyce’s novel is aimed at contrasting diverse perspectives on existential issues as well as religious, political and even gender aspects. Features such as Joyce’s mytho-poetics, the future of nostalgia, temporal becoming, coincidentia oppositorum, apophatic theology and philosophies of the occult are explored as part of an allegorical dimension of myth that simultaneously seeks and refuses holistic unity. Readers are involved in a sort of rite of passage, like Odysseus in his perilous journey, forced to read forwards, backwards and vertically in the fractal structure of the novel through which Joyce achieves its poetics of infinity.Table of ContentsContents: Centripetal – The Mythical Method – Giambattista Vico and the Mytho-Poetic Episteme – Giambattista Vico and the Mytho-Poetic Episteme – Nostos and the Future of Nostalgia – The Philosophy of Temporal Becoming: Stream-of-Consciousness and Beyond – Centrifugal – Joyce, the Craftsman – Irony and Parody – Coincidentia oppositorum – Dissimilar Similarities – Obscurum per obscurius: Philosophies of the Occult in Ulysses – Apophatic Theology and What Joyce Read at the Marsh’s Library – Ulysses: A Universe of Correspondences – The Motifs of Katabasis and Nekyia across «Proteus», «Hades» and «Circe» – Signs on a White Field: From «Proteus» to «Lestrygonians» – Lessing’s Nacheinander and Nebeneinander – Between Scylla and Charybdis – Reading Backwards: Inquiries into Bloom’s Jewishness and Forms of Double-Coding – Reading Vertically: Sonic and Cosmic Correspondences – Penelope: The Centre of the Spiral – Penelope: The Centre of the Spiral – Closing.

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Book SynopsisChristopher Schaberg is Dorothy Harrell Brown Distinguished Professor of English at Loyola University, New Orleans, USA. He is the author of 7 books, including The Textual Life of Airports (2013), The Work of Literature in an Age of Post-Truth (2018), and Pedagogy of the Depressed (2022). He is series co-editor (with Ian Bogost) of Bloomsbury's Object Lessons series.

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Book SynopsisThe Politics of Literary Prestige provides the first comprehensive study of prizes for Spanish American literature. Covering state-sponsored and publisher-run prizes including the Biblioteca Breve Prize credited with launching the Boom' in Spanish American literature the Premio Cervantes and the Nobel Prize for Literature, this book examines how prizes have underpinned different political agenda. As new political positions have emerged so have new awards and the role of the author in society has evolved. Prizes variously position the winners as public intellectual, spokesperson on the world stage or celebrity in the context of an increasingly globalized literature in Spanish. Drawing on a range of sources, Sarah E.L Bowskill analyses prizes from the perspective of different stakeholders including states, publishers, authors, judges and critics. In so doing, she untangles the inner workings of literary prizes in Spanish-speaking contexts, proposes the existence of a prizes neTrade ReviewAn indictment of some eight decades of literary history, Bowskill’s solidly researched book begins by tracing a shift in literary prizes for Spanish-language texts. Starting in the 1940s writers received literary awards, sometimes sponsored by the state itself, for the quality of their work and for their reputation as political authorities. By the end of the 20th century a new type of prized author began to emerge as an allegedly independent and global celebrity on display for photos and tours, sometimes in absence of discussion of the award-winning text. This second brand of recognition favors profit-driven private funding, thanks to publisher-sponsored awards. The question of whether literature has taken a turn for the worse under this change finds a sly answer in chapter 6, which documents the devastating inequity of both sorts of literary prizes. Table after table of data supports Bowskill’s ‘conservative’ estimate: "three quarters of all literary prizes go to male authors". The Politics of Literary Prestige examine a rigged game beyond the usual accusation of merely contemporary decline. * Emily Hind, Professor of Spanish, University of Florida, and author of Dude Lit: Mexican Men Writing and Performing Competence, 1955-2012 (2019) *The Politics of Literary Prestige is a valuable addition to and expansion of the ground-breaking work of the likes of Mario Santana, Deborah Cohn and Diana Sorensen on the Lain American Boom and the social, political and cultural networks that supported and promoted it. Using a remarkable range of sources, Bowskill covers the Boom authoritatively, but also revealingly unveils the missing women writers of the Boom, and offers new perspectives on developments with regard to gender and indigenous identity, as well as surveying the most recent directions in the literary prize circuit and the alternatives to it. She also penetratingly discusses literature about literary prizes. This is an important book which is hugely informative and insightful, but which also makes visible the politics of literary prestige and nuances the social role of the author beyond that of public intellectual. It is indispensable reading for anyone who wishes to understand Spanish American literature in the context of its national and global processes of production and consumption. * Philip Swanson, Hughes Professor of Spanish, University of Sheffield, UK, and editor of Landmarks in Modern Latin American Fiction (2014) *This is a much-needed and very ambitious study of the literary prize system in Spanish America and how complex and ever-changing cultural, political and identity factors underline the way in which prizes are organized at national, continental and transnational levels. The study argues very compellingly for the concept of prize networks, thus highlighting the reciprocal or relational nature of literary prizes across the Spanish American world, and its multiple methodologies - engaging the sociology of books, book history and cultural studies - have produced a vast, meticulously-researched and very original study that develops new paradigms about how prizes function in many contexts. It will be invaluable to all those study Spanish-language texts within their contexts of production, promotion and reception. * Par Kumaraswami, Professor of Latin American Studies, University of Nottingham, UK, and author of The Social Life of Literature in Revolutionary Cuba: Narrative, Identity, and Well-being (2016) *Since The Economy of Prestige (2005) by J. English, we have been waiting for a comprehensive study on the literary prizes for Spanish American Literatures. Sarah E.L. Bowskill succeeds in presenting her case that the network of national and international prizes is a system interwoven by politics of prestige intersected by nation-state imaginaries, publishers’ plans and markets, gender and linguistic identities. * Anadeli Bencomo, Professor of Contemporary Latin American Literature, University of Houston, USA, and author of Entre héroes, fantasmas y apocalípticos. Testigos y paisajes en la crónica mexicana (2011) *Bowskill has a fine eye for detail and information that may seem “gossipy.” Her attention and dependence on digital resources, charts, and archives is impressive -- Will H. Corral * World Literature Today *Table of ContentsList of Tables Acknowledgements Introduction: Literary Prestige, Politics, the Prize Network and the Roles of the Author in Society 1. Literary Prizes, Controversy and the State in Spanish America 2. Peninsular Publishers, Spanish American Authors and Prizes for Literature in Spanish 3. Spanish American Authors on the World Stage 4. Roberto Bolaño, Carmen Boullosa and Fernando Iwasaki Find their Voice in the Prizes Game 5. The Premio Biblioteca Breve and the Forgotten Women of the Boom 6. Women Winning Prizes: A No Win Situation? 7. Prizes for Literatures in Indigenous Languages 8. The Never-Ending Network? References Index of Prizes General Index

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Book SynopsisThe title of this book, Derivative Lives, alludes to the challenge of finding one's way within the contemporary market of virtually limitless information and claims to veracity. Amid this profusion of options, it is easy to feel lost in spaces of uncertainty where biographical truth teeters between the real and the imaginative. The title thus also points to the prolific market of biographical novels that openly and intentionally play in the speculative space between the real and the fictional. Drawing on theories of risk and uncertainty, Derivative Lives considers the surge in biofiction in Spain and globally, relating literary expression to concepts such as circumstantiality, derivatives, speculation, and game studies.Trade ReviewA brilliant analysis of the Spanish biofictional novel within the wider context of contemporary thought. Virginia Rademacher examines research from both within and beyond the field of literary criticism to show how biofiction as a genre challenges the notion of history as an abstraction or an irretrievable reality by depicting how real people deal with specific historical situations. Rademacher's command of modern history, intellectual currents, and the Spanish bio-novel is indeed impressive. * Bárbara Mujica, author of Frida, Sister Teresa, I Am Venus and Miss del Río *With case studies drawn from some of contemporary Spain’s most exciting writers, this is an original and compellingly theorized exploration of how biofiction works to understand, vex, exploit, or otherwise experiment with questions of uncertainty, identity, and risk in the supermodern present. Rademacher engages playfully and productively with disciplinary discourses emerging from fields such as law, finance and economics—which similarly contend with competing claims to truth and value—and dives deep into the circumstantial and speculative games that authors play when they write fiction about reality. * Samuel Amago, Professor of Spanish, University of Virginia, USA *Considering the rich field of Spanish biofiction in relation to concepts of uncertainty, speculation, and risk in a post-truth age, Rademacher’s Derivative Lives establishes an exciting interdisciplinary nexus. In the course of this study, Rademacher expands the scope and ambition of biofiction studies. * Bethany Layne, Senior Lecturer in English Literature, De Montfort University, UK *Derivative Lives nos ofrece una profunda, amena, necesaria y muy interesante indagación de las borrosas fronteras entre lo real y lo ficticio, en un mundo cada vez más impreciso en donde ni siquiera la propia identidad resulta fiable. Derivative Lives offers us a deep, entertaining, necessary, and very interesting investigation of the blurred borders between reality and fiction, in an increasingly imprecise world where even one’s own identity is not reliable. * Rosa Montero, writer, author of El peligro de estar cuerda (2022) *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction SECTION I The Circumstantial Case: Chasing Criminals/Tracing Traumatic Histories 1. Making the Circumstantial Case: Reasonable Doubt and Moral Certainty in Javier Cercas’ Soldiers of Salamis 2. Fugitive Biofictions: Antonio Muñoz Molina’s Like a Fading Shadow and Gabriela Ybarra’s The Dinner Guest SECTION II Speculative Truths and Derivative Fictions 3. Entertaining the What-Ifs in Rosa Montero’s The Madwoman of the House and the Ridiculous Idea of Never Seeing You Again 4. Fraudulent Pasts and Fictional Futures in Javier Cercas’ The Impostor and Adolfo García Ortega’s The Birthday Buyer SECTION III Critical Play in Biofictional Games 5. Playing for Real: Simulated Games of Identity in Lucía Etxebarria’s Courtney and I and Truth is Nothing but a Moment of Falsehood Appendices to Chapter 5 6. Literary Afterlives and Paratextual Play: Elvira Navarro’s The Last Days of Adelaida García Morales and Antonio Orejudos’s The Famous Five and Me Coda: Biofiction’s Antidotes to Post-Truth Endnotes Bibliography Index

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Book Synopsis'A writer of genius' - William DalrympleCan anyone really own a culture? This magnificent account argues that the story of global civilisations is one of mixing, sharing, and borrowing.It shows how art forms have crisscrossed continents over centuries to produce masterpieces. From Nefertiti's lost city and the Islamic Golden Age to twentieth century Nigerian theatre and Modernist poetry, Martin Puchner explores how contact between different peoples has driven artistic innovation in every era - whilst cultural policing and purism have more often undermined the very societies they tried to protect.Travelling through Classical Greece, Ashoka's India, Tang dynasty China, and many other epochs, this triumphal new history reveals the crossing points which have not only inspired the humanities, but which have made us human.Trade Review'A writer of genius' -- William Dalrymple'Compellingly written' * Financial Times *'A breakneck, utterly captivating survey of threads of cultural transmission-how ideas, stories, and songs-survive, change, vanish, get borrowed, refined, coopted, and grafted through time ... I underlined sentences on every page.' -- Anthony Doerr'A remarkable book.' -- Kwame Anthony Appiah'Eminently readable ... The book's great strength lies in its ability to swoop deftly and lightly between things that may be familiar to us in themselves, but which we might be tempted to separate out in our attempts to form a picture of the world.' -- Edward Wilson-Lee * The Times Literary Supplement *'Martin Puchner has exceptional and invaluable gifts: intellectual fearlessness, dazzling erudition, trenchancy tempered by breadth of mind, and a humanist's eye for minute evidence that illumines huge problems.' -- Felipe Fernandez-Armesto'Fearless and exhilaratingly erudite, Martin Puchner's panoramic tour of human culture across the millennia is a riveting page-turner.' -- Amy Chua'A forceful rebuke to those who argue that culture can be owned by groups, nations, religions or races. . . . [by] an adept storyteller.' -- Ismail Muhammad * New York Times *'A Harvard professor goes wide in this study of the humanities and human creativity, looking at standout moments and what they can tell us about our past and future. As [Martin Puchner] guides readers along a Nefertiti to TikTok continuum, he shows how cultural exchange and innovation help societies address some of life's most existential questions' -- Joumana Khatib * New York Times *'Elegantly written and full of erudite lore, this vibrant history illuminates the inveterate human yearning for expression.' * Publishers Weekly *'A thoughtful, generous vision of human creativity across centuries of culture.' * Kirkus *'Fluent and engaging.' -- Boyd Tonkin * Wall Street Journal *'A mighty, polymathic work . . . [by] a master storyteller -- Chris Vognar * Boston Globe *'Jaunty and readable but never lacking in depth, Culture hops through countries and eras to deliver a resonant argument.' -- Lauren Puckett-Pope * Elle *'Cultures develop by sharing, borrowing, and collaborating--but also by conquest, appropriation, and theft. Martin Puchner's timely book takes us on a breathtaking tour of world history, reminding us that as we judge the past, one day we, too, will be judged, and that when we ignore or try to erase our cultural heritage, we are only impoverishing ourselves' -- Louis Menand * Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Metaphysical Club *'Puchner creates a perfectly balanced and incisively abridged version of the story of human culture. Ultimately, this is an examination of the making and transport of ideas, which is always an interaction between old and new. Each chapter builds a new layer, adding to the depth and complexity, while Puchner also provides a global who's who of cultural diffusion' * Booklist *'So many books these days are described as being 'sweeping histories'; Culture, which promises in its subtitle to take us from our most primitive artistic impulses all the way to the machinery of modern-day fandom. But what intrigues me most about Puchner's latest isn't its scope - it's its driving question: 'What good are the arts?' In my more hopeless moments, this question bubbles up inside me, and I'm chomping at the bit to hear Puchner's answer, grounded in history and informed by cultures around the world' -- Sophia Stewart'Well written, nuanced and light in style, spinning a series of historical narratives in an erudite and engaging way' -- Marguerite Johnson * The Conversation *

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Book SynopsisIf literature has often informed the creation of a national imaginary—a sense of common history and destiny—it has also complicated, even challenged, the unifying vision assumed in the formation of a national literature and sense of nation. National Literature in Multinational States questions the persistent association of literature and nation-states, contrasting this with the reality of multinational and ethnocultural diversity. The contributors to this collection interrogate concepts and manifestations of nationalism in the context of literary production while evaluating the place of national literatures in multinational states at a time when social unity and political agreement have never been more elusive. The volume strives for synoptic analysis via the complementary, multifaceted treatment of literary creation in several geo-cultural contexts: Canada, the Caribbean, Europe, India, and Nigeria. Contributors: Sabujkoli Bandopadhyay, Albert Braz, Matthew Cormier, Doris Hambuch, Clara A.B. Joseph, Paul D. Morris, Asma Sayed, Matthew Tétreault, Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike, Jerry WhiteTable of ContentsIntroduction—Paul D. Morris and Albert Braz, “The Nation and Its Literature(s) – Representing People, Representing a People” Chapter 1—Paul D. Morris (Université de Saint-Boniface), “Reticent Nations: Governor General’s Award-Winning Fiction and the Representation of Canada” Chapter 2—Matthew Cormier (University of Alberta), “Cultural Memory, National Identity: The Changing Paradigms of Acadian Literature” Chapter 3—Matthew Tétreault (University of Alberta), “Literary Resistance: Situating a Métis National Literature” Chapter 4—Sabujkoli Bandopadhyay (University of Regina), “Intersections of Nationhood, Multiculturalism, and Globalization in South Asian Canadian Fiction: A Study of Anita Rau Badami’s Can You Hear the Nightbird Call?” Chapter 5—Asma Sayed (Kwantlen Polytechnic University), “Canadian Literature in Heritage Languages and the Politics of Canon Formation” Chapter 6—Doris Hambuch (United Arab Emirates University), “‘No nation now but the imagination’: No Caribbean Nation without the Dutch Caribbean” Chapter 7—Jerry White (University of Saskatchewan), “Rediscovering the Republic: The Work of Joan Daniel Bezsonoff” Chapter 8—Clara A.B. Joseph (University of Calgary), “A Multinational Narrative in a Case Study of Translating an Eastern Christian Play” Chapter 9—Albert Braz (University of Alberta), “Nigeria’s Other Civil War: Ken Saro-Wiwa and Ogoni Nationalism” Chapter 10—Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike (University of Alberta), “‘Write Only the Truth’: (Re)Contesting the Nigerian Nation in Chimeka Garricks’s Tomorrow Died Yesterday and Helon Habila’s Oil on Water”

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Book SynopsisThough Robert Fergusson published only one collection of poems during his lifetime, he was a fixture in the Scottish periodical press. Rhona Brown explores Fergusson''s poetic output in its immediate periodical context, enabling a new understanding of Fergusson''s contribution to poetry that also enlarges on our understanding of the Scottish periodical press. Focusing on the development of his career in Walter Ruddiman''s Weekly Magazine, Brown situates Fergusson''s poetry alongside contemporary events that expose Fergusson''s preoccupations with the frivolities of fashion, theatrical culture, the economic status of Scottish manufacture, and politics. At the same time, Brown offers fascinating insights into the political climate of Enlightenment Scotland and shows the Weekly Magazine in relationship to the larger Scottish and British periodical milieus. She concludes by exploring reactions to Fergusson''s death in the British periodical presses, arguing that contrary to critical consTrade Review'Characterised by insightful close readings, this book offers an alternative way of reading this most vigorous and interesting poet, challenging existing scholarship and proposing to correct a number of misconceptions. The Fergusson revealed here engaged fully with contemporary culture - news, poems, letters - countering long-held assumptions that his work is backward-looking and nostalgic.' Suzanne Gilbert, University of Stirling, UK 'I felt like I learned something here; I participated almost as closely as imagination makes possible in a past conversation. Words are not enough, wrote one frustrated correspondent honouring [Fergusson's] memory. No, they are not. But they are all we have, and Rhona Brown’s book is a risky and finally successful reminder of that.' Scotia 'The argument of this book is modesty presented, but its implications are far-reaching; Robert Fergusson and the Scottish Periodical Press should be read by anyone with an interest in the poet and eighteenth-century Scottish culture.' Review of Scottish Culture ’...Brown has told a story and adopted a method that may inspire literary critics to take a step back and consider the wider context in which authors’ works are written and published.’ Journal of the Edinburgh Bibliographical Society 'Her book is subtly illuminating and satisfying. Any library with good holdings in the area of eighteenth-century poetry should buy a copy.' Scottish Literary Review 'Robelt Fergusson and the Scottish Periodical Press enhances the reader's understanding of these important and understudied poems by detailing the confluences of time and place and public discourses. This book will become a landmark in studies of the poet.' Wordsworth Circle '... a nuanced, thoughtful and convincing re-examination of a poet often seen merely as a precursor to Burns. It encourages us to re-evaluate Fergusson's work through its magazine contexts, and retrieves him from the vernacular shadow of his popular ScotsTable of ContentsContents: Introduction; 1771: 'His first appearance as an author': pastoral, politics and apprenticeship; 1772: 'A new note': Scots vernacular, reputation and recognition; 1773 - January to July: Assurance, 'fecundity and brilliance': Fergusson, unofficial Poet Laureate'; 1773: 'Every day and special days ongoings' in 'Auld Reikie'; 1773 - August to December: 'Into the very blaze of day': Fergusson's literary zenith; 1774: 'Transfigured for all time': literary responses to Fergusson's death; Bibliography; Index.

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Book SynopsisThis open access book provides translations of early German versions of Titus Andronicus and The Taming of the Shrew. The introductory material situates these plays in their German context and discusses the insights they offer into the original English texts.English itinerant players toured in northern Continental Europe from the 1580s. Their repertories initially consisted of plays from the London theatre, but over time the players learnt German, and German players joined the companies, meaning the dramatic texts were adapted and translated into German. There are four plays that can legitimately be considered as versions of Shakespeare's plays. The present volume (volume 2) offers fully-edited translations of two of them: Tito Andronico (Titus Andronicus) and Kunst über alle Künste, ein bös Weib gut zu machen / An Art beyond All Arts, to Make a Bad Wife Good (The Taming of the Shrew). For the other two plays, Der Bestrafte BrudermordTable of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgements Preface Introduction to Tito Andronico (Titus Andronicus) The Relationship of Tito Andronico to Titus Andronicus Issues of Race in Tito Andronico The Source of Tito Andronico The Peacham Drawing Titus and Vespasian and the Ur-Titus The Chapbook Prose History and the Ballad German Titus Plays in the Seventeenth Century Textual Introduction The Engelische Comedien vnd Tragedien of 1620 and 1624 Friedrich Menius and the 1620 Engelische Comedien vnd Tragedien The 1620 Engelische Comedien vnd Tragedien and Their Theatrical Origins Conclusion The 1620/1624 Engelische Comedien vnd Tragedien: Extant Copies Editorial History Introduction to Kunst über alle Künste, ein bös Weib gut zu machen (The Taming of the Shrew) The Relationship of Kunst über alle Künste to The Taming of the Shrew Characters and Plot: Correspondences and Differences Adapting the Plot of The Taming of the Shrew Soliloquies and Asides Verbal, Cultural and Dramatic Language The Taming of the Shrew in German in the Seventeenth Century Textual Introduction The Early Editions and Their Contexts: Publication, Paratext and Authorship The Order of Publication of the Two Editions of 1672 Extant Copies of the Early Editions Editorial History A note on the translations A note on the commentary and collation TITO ANDRONICO IN ENGLISH TRANSLATION KUNST ÜBER ALLE KÜNSTE, EIN BÖS WEIB GUT ZU MACHEN IN ENGLISH TRANSLATION Appendix: Doubling charts for Tito Andronico and Kunst über alle Künste, ein bös Weib gut zu machen Abbreviations and references Index

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“Brian Doherty’s Dirty Pictures is coming out right when it’s needed. As creative expression is increasingly attacked from across the political spectrum, this wonderful book is a reminder of how art, unrestricted and free, helps us process the mess. It’s impeccably researched, sharply written, and opens a portal back to that old, weird America that found its mind by losing it a little.” -- Reid Mitenbuler, author of Wild Minds: The Artists and Rivalries That Inspired the Golden Age of Animation“Tune in, read on, and know all. Brian Doherty's heroic and hilarious Dirty Pictures is a detail-rich history with insight from the giants—Robert Crumb through Art Spiegelman. The story of underground comix is not just important, it's as American as an apple pie laced with LSD.” -- Kliph Nesteroff, author of We Had a Little Real Estate Problem and The ComediansIn order to develop the vast field of indie comics available today, where every style and subject under the sun is available to a reader, you need the foundation laid by the underground comix scene of the 60s and 70s. In Dirty Pictures, author Brian Doherty expertly details the players and events that led to an artistic renaissance. -- Ho Che Anderson, creator of King, Sand & Fury, and Godhead“Dirty Pictures is a fascinating deep dig into a unique subculture populated by screwball eccentrics, whose rude, jarring, and far-out works of art changed the face of American humor in all its incarnations.” -- Gregg Turkington, comedian/actor (Entertainment, Ant-Man, On Cinema at the Cinema)". . .given the exponential reach of this initially tiny cluster of transgressive artists, Doherty’s book is a welcome addition to an under-analyzed legacy of the free-spirited 1960s.” -- James Sullivan * San Francisco Chronicle *"A free-wheeling, frank account of the rise and fall of the underground comic scene. . . . Lively, well researched, and full of telling anecdotes; just the thing for comix aficionados and collectors.” * Kirkus Reviews *As Doherty entertainingly traces the movement’s rise—from its humble beginnings in the 1960s to its uphill battle to be recognized as an art form—he captures how it perfectly reflected the rapidly changing norms of the baby boomer generation and its enduring impact on pop culture today. Comix fans and artists should make room on their shelves for this one. * Publishers Weekly *...shines a light on a corner of the comics business that still hasn't received its due . . . If this topic interests you at all, Dirty Pictures is likely to be the most complete and authoritative account we’re going to get. -- Rob Salkowitz * ICv2 *Dirty Pictures is a riveting look at the raunchy history of underground comix -- Thom Dunn * Boing Boing *The book is simply the best and most comprehensive look at underground comics published to date. -- Alex Dueben * Smash Pages *Indispensable. * Shelf Awareness, starred review *An immense work of comics fandom and a labor of love ... the most far-reaching history of underground comix that anyone will ever likely write. -- Keith A. Gordon * Book & Film Globe *

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Book SynopsisFeatured on the 2021 Locus Recommended Reading ListFor over 50 years, Darko Suvin has set the agenda for science fiction studies through his innovative linking of scifi to utopian studies, formalist and leftist critical theory, and his broader engagement with what he terms political epistemology. Disputing the Deluge joins a rapidly growing renewal of critical interest in Suvin's work on scifi and utopianism by bringing together in a single volume 24 of Suvin's most significant interventions in the field from the 21st century, with an Introduction by editor Hugh O'Connell and a new preface by the author. Beginning with writings from the early 2000s that investigate the function of literary genres and reconsider the relationship between science fiction and fantasy, the essays collected here--each a brilliant example of engaged thought--highlight the value of scifi for grappling with the key events and transformations of recent years. Suvin's interrogations show how speculTrade ReviewAn excellent reminder of how and why [Suvin] gained...the well-earned reputation as the field’s premier Marxist critic and historian can be found in the 24 pieces that make up Disputing the Deluge... It is a reminder that, for all his reputation as a fiercely rigorous (and sometimes rigid) theorist, Suvin has never been less than an activist, and never less than passionate. * Science Fiction Studies *Everything in here is of note, from the essays early in this century on fascism and on fantasy to the most recent pieces on the enduring importance of communism; the growing danger of anti-utopian discourse; and especially the totalizing environmental, economic, political, and cultural terror and destruction brought on by the systemic operations of the Capitalocene. * Tom Moylan, Glucksman Professor Emeritus at the University of Limerick, Ireland, and author of Becoming Utopian: The Culture and Politics of Radical Transformation (Bloomsbury, 2020) *Darko Suvin is an erudite and an insightful scholar of the stories and narrative forms of utopia but he is also a utopian writer, a stylist of such brio and finesse that he can balance anger and insight in the most delicate and yet the most piercing of interpretations. The openness and the energy, critical always but never prescriptive, are the features of a stylistic practice which insists on cognizing the forces which constitute anti-utopia, and of yielding them their due in analytic rigour and seriousness yet never yielding to them the entirety of the intellectual ground. This collection of essays, stretching from 2000 to the naming of our own ‘Coronisation Times,’ is both a great addition to existing volumes of Suvin’s work, and a contribution to a reinterpretation of some of the core concepts and arguments of that previous work, a repurposing of them so as to sharpen how they can help us catch the historical continuities and discontinuities which mark the 21st century. The essays by Suvin dramatize in detail both a mode of argumentation as well as the riches that mode can generate. It is a mode we all need--a Suvian mode--if we are to recognize and overcome the antiutopian imperatives which constitute our current deluge. * Patricia McManus, Senior Lecturer in English, University of Brighton, UK *With so many scales of crisis simultaneously unfolding around us, we need today more than ever militant, engaged, and hopeful scholarship that brushes against the grain of the 'new modesties' in critical thought and provides signposts for navigating the increasingly perilous terrain of contemporary planetary life. A disputation in the truest sense of the word--a refusal of the complacencies of the status quo and a willingness to seek truth wherever it may lead--this scintillating collection of Darko Suvin’s most significant interventions published in the first two decades of our millennium offers an exemplary case of just such a necessary scholarship. This timely collection should be of tremendous import not only to students of science fiction and Utopian studies, but to anyone interested in a sobering and clear-eyed assessment of our contemporary 'dark times' and an inspiring call-to-arms for developing the strategies necessary if we are to 'emerge from the flood' of our once again grim but still hope-filled present. * Phillip E. Wegner, Professor and Marston-Milbauer Eminent Scholar, University of Florida, USA, and author of Invoking Hope: Theory and Utopia in Dark Times (2020) *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Editor’s Preface: There Is No Alternative: Non-Reading Suvin, Anti-Antiutopianism, Science Fiction, and Communism Author’s Introduction: Words, Shapes, and Our Common World 1. Kick-Off: An Introduction to Narrative Genres, with a View to SF (2007, 2020) 2. Fantasy as Critique and Cognition: Marx’s Black Metamorphoses of Living Labour (1999-2003) 3. A Note on Fascism as Well-Meaning Utopia (2000) 4. Considering the Sense of "Fantasy" or "Fantastic Fiction": On Ahistorical Alternate Worlds (1999-2001) 5. Going into a New Century: Sociopolitical Prospects for Utopia (2000) 6. A Colloquium with Darko Suvin: Interview with Science Fiction Magazine, Australia (2000-02) 7. Poems of Old Age I (2000-04) 8. Circumstances and Stances: A Retrospect (2004) 9. Of Starship Troopers and Refuseniks: War and Militarism in US Science Fiction (An Overview) (2005) 10. To Remember Stanislaw Lem (2006) 11. On U.K. Le Guin’s "Second Earthsea Trilogy" and Its Cognitions: A Commentary (2006) 12. Poems of Old Age II (2006-10) 13. Literature, Politics, Brecht, Science Fiction vs. Fantasy: Interview with Maria Xilouri (2008) 14. Darwinism, Left and Right: And Some S-F Probes (2010) 15. Ideologies and Criticism: An Interview with Andrés Lomeña (2011) 16. On Climbing the Mountain of Life (2011) 17. Some Grateful Memories of Fred Pohl (2014) 18. A Note on Ursula K. Le Guin’s Declaration of the Arts’ Independence from Capitalism (2015) 19. Cognition Is the Esthetic Measure of Estranged Genres: An Interview with Zorica Ðergovic-Joksimovic (2016) 20. On Splitting Notions: Communism, Science Fiction (The Blagoevgrad Theses, 2018) 21. Poems of Old Age III (2014-20) 22. Orwell and 1984 Today: Genius and Tunnel Vision (2019) 23. Utopia or Bust: Capitalocene and Our Existential Antiutopia (2019) 24. Antiutopia in Coronisation Times: Capitalocene and Death (2020) Appendix: D. Suvin: Publications after 2000 on SF and Utopia/nism Index

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Book SynopsisVeteran scholar and critic Henry Sussman deploys anecdote, reportage, and memoir to lament and scrutinize the rise of anti-intellectualism in the past few decades. How are we to reckon with the decline of impartiality and sharp increase in self-interested interference in politic, legal, and cultural spheres; the normalization of pathological narcissism in public life; and the blanket dismissal of scientific findings and their counterparts in the humanities and social sciences?In retracing his own intellectual and experiential steps, Sussman revisits many of his lasting inspirations, including Walter Benjamin, Jacques Derrida, Douglas R. Hofstadter, Immanuel Kant, and J. Hillis Miller. The result is an intellectual meditation on the great dismissal,' in public and political life, of venerable and vital humanistic traditions, ethics, and ways of thinking.Trade ReviewThis book establishes a new critical standard for memoir. The Great Dismissal demolishes efforts to expunge controversial books from our society simply because they induce people to think. Through an improvised mash-up of original poetry, trenchant cultural analysis, and touching memoir, Sussman's amazing book is an electroshock to the deadened brain of America. This kaleidoscopic survey of life during the Trump-COVID years from one of Derrida's most celebrated students is an extremely important and highly original work of social and political criticism. A must read for anyone who wants to make thinking great again! * Jeffrey R. Di Leo, Professor of English and Philosophy, University of Houston, Victoria, USA, and Executive Director of the Society for Critical Exchange *In The Great Dismissal, Henry Sussman crafts an extraordinary voice meticulously registering the existential vagaries of life in New York City during the twin plagues of COVID and Trump. This intimately personal, nonlinear chronicle foregrounds contemporary journalism that challenges the mendacity, hypocrisy, and subterfuge of American political culture. The Great Dismissal is a sustained meditation on intellectual redemptions that refuse to be dismissed by the Pharisees of disinformation. * Bruce Clarke, Paul Whitfield Horn Distinguished Professor of Literature and Science, Texas Tech University, USA *No one today writes – or thinks – quite like Henry Sussman. A rhizomatic memoir of the Trump era, The Great Dismissal reads as a critique of the present penned simultaneously from the future and past. Pulling from Piketty and Poe and conversations in the street with equal attentiveness, Sussman offers a vibrant, searing, subjective answer to the still critical questions: What is to be done, and Who is to blame? The passion of the prose itself models an alternative – an irrational but inexhaustible, perennial hope – to the post-apocalyptic global present he so skillfully scalpels apart. * Marijeta Bozovic, Assistant Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Yale University, USA *Table of Contents1. November 18, 2020. Postal. 2. October 6, 2020. Apocalypse red, apocalypse blue. 3. December 12, 2020. Confederacy of zombies. 4. October 18, 2019. Protests, curtailment of bus service, Queens. 5. June 7, 2020. Atlas of vanished places. 6. February 10, 2021. Requiem to disinterest. 7. January 27, 2020. New feudal lords. 8. Thanksgiving, 2021. Partisans of writing: Mayer with Derrida 9. April 1, 2018. Welcome to the Great Dismissal! 10. August 15, 2020. Co-lateral dommages. 11. December, 31, 2020. What on earth to do with the bodies? 12. August 30, 2018. Midterm enigmas for progressives. 13. December 15, 2021. Partisans of writing. Tobin Smith. 14. January 19, 2021. Politics of entertainment 15. May 24, 2020. Sikhs and other cabbies. 16. November 15, 2020. Electronic ticks and leaden bubbles. 17. June 13, 2019. Three deer in a development near Harrisburg, PA. 18. Labor Day, 2021. Partisans of writing. Shoshanah Zuboff. 19. March 15, 2022. Partisans of writing. Adam Serwer. 20. February 14, 2022. University of the street. 21. May 15, 2022. This Thing that dwells within us. 22. June 27, 2022. Dismissal day: The strange loop of identity politics. 23. January 23, 2023. I was there.

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Book SynopsisSocial Ethics and Governance in Contemporary African Writing is the first book to bring rigorous literary, philosophical, and artistic discourse together to interrogate the ethics of governance and development in postcolonial Africa. It takes literature seriously as a context for philosophical reflection, vividly engaging the human agency, creativity, and resourcefulness of local Nigerians as political and social actors and shedding new light on the dynamics of human flourishing. Drawing on important secondary scholarship across several humanities disciplines, especially literature, philosophy, and the performing arts, Nimi Wariboko provides compelling and innovative analysis of the challenges and opportunities on governance and development in postcolonial Nigerian state and society. With a detailed introductory chapter and an authoritative analysis contained in six cohesive chapters, all anchored in political and social ethics and close readings of fascinating literary and artiTrade ReviewIn this highly original work, social ethicist Nimi Wariboko steps off Aristotle’s insight that literature can be an excellent tool for teaching ethics and developing moral imagination to interrogate the works of four Nigerian writers and one comedian, instructing how the intersection of philosophy and literature can teach invaluable lessons on imagining an ethical, pluralistic, and democratic society in Nigeria. Incisively brilliant and beautifully written, this is a must read. * Emmanuel Kwaku Akyeampong, Ellen Gurney Professor of History and of African and African American Studies, Harvard University, USA *In this influential book, Nimi Wariboko brilliantly and thoughtfully reflects on the ethics of governance and development in a post-colonial space. By employing secondary data and critical analysis, he adopts his diverse disciplinary perspectives and mastery to deeply interrogate ethical and governance issues that post-colonial states in Africa continue to grapple with. This book also deeply speaks to ethical, moral, and historical dilemmas facing governance and democracy, and it is a must read for anyone interested in social ethics and governance in post-colonial Africa. * Damaris Parsitau, Senior Lecturer and Researcher in Religion and Gender Studies, Egerton University, Kenya, and Country Director of the British Institute in Eastern Africa *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: Hear Word—Literature Is Philosophy 1. Theoretical Hesitations: Ibadan Brown Roofs’ Rusty Revival of Desires 2. The Black Moon on the White Surface: A Philosophical Analysis of A. Igoni Barrett’s Blackass 3. Bad Governance and Postcoloniality: Literature as Cultural Criticism 4. From Executed God to Ozidi Saga: Ethos of Ijo Democratic Republicanism 5. Comedy as Dialectics: Laughing Nigeria to Human Flourishing 6. Literature as Ethics Bibliography

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Book SynopsisMikhail Bulgakov's novel The Master and Margarita, set in Stalin's Moscow, is an intriguing work with a complex structure, wonderful comic episodes and moments of great beauty. Readers are often left tantalized but uncertain how to understand its rich meanings. To what extent is it political? Or religious? And how should we interpret the Satanic Woland? This Reader's Companion offers readers a biographical introduction, and analyses of the structure and the main themes of the novel. More curious readers will also enjoy the accounts of the novel's writing and publication history, alongside analyses of the work's astonishing linguistic complexity and a review of available English translations.Trade Review“This new volume is an excellent appreciation of Bulgakov’s second, final and greatest novel The Master and Margarita. Curtis is a brilliant Bulgakov scholar and her 1991 edition of his letters and diaries delivers an incredibly moving and powerful examination of his relationship with his wife and the ways in which writers were oppressed by the Soviet state. These acts of oppression are generally discussed in a circumspect way in The Master and Margarita and Curtis is at pains to dismiss previous critics’ readings of the novel as something which must be ‘“decoded” before it will reveal its secrets.’ … Curtis is an erudite and engaging guide to this wonderful book. It’s a well-known text to me and I still found a huge amount to enjoy here.” —Fortochka, Medium“A Reader’s Companion to The Master and Margarita succeeds in unpacking a novel which is complex thematically, textologically and from a narrative perspective. The companion does this with rigour, clarity and subtlety and, as such, represents an indispensable guide to a twentieth-century Russian classic.” —John Cook, University of Melbourne, Australian Slavonic and East European Studies“As its title suggests, this book is designed for those approaching The Master and Margarita for the first time (perhaps on an undergraduate Russian course), and as such it makes an excellent introduction to the text. However, it is also suitable for those who are already familiar with The Master and Margarita and with Bulgakov scholarship, and perhaps are returning to teaching the text after a break, since it provides a comprehensive overview of scholarly literature on the novel and contains some particular and original insights into it. … Overall, this is a hugely enjoyable read. It is beautifully written and carefully curated, yet allows Curtis’s own nuanced readings to shine through.” —Elizabeth Harrison, BASEES NewsletterTable of Contents Foreword 1. Bulgakov's Life: Formative Years and First Successes—1891–1928 2. Bulgakov's Life: Battling the Censor, and Writing The Master and Margarita—1929-1940 3. The Master and Margarita: Drafts and Final Version 4. Publication History of The Master and Margarita in Russian 5. A Tale of Two Cities: The Structure of The Master and Margarita 6. Woland: Good and Evil in The Master and Margarita 7. Pilate and Ieshua: Biblical Themes in The Master and Margarita 8. Political Satire in The Master and Margarita 9. Literature and the Writer in The Master and Margarita 10. "So who are you, then?": Narrative voices in The Master and Margarita, Followed by a Stylistic Analysis of Extracts from the Text 11. English Translations of The Master and Margarita Afterword—A Personal Reflection Acknowledgements Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThis volume collects the critical prose of award-winning writer Anna Frajlich. The Ghost of Shakespeare takes its name from Frajlich's essay on Nobel Prize laureate Wisława Szymborska, but informs her approach as a comparativist more generally as she considers the work of major Polish writers of the twentieth century, including Zbigniew Herbert, Czesław Miłosz, and Bruno Schulz. Frajlich's study of the Roman theme in Russian Symbolism owes its origins to her stay in the Eternal City, the second stop on her exile from Poland in 1969. The book concludes with essays in autobiography that describe her parents' dramatic flight from Poland at the outbreak of the war, her own exile from Poland in 1969, settling in New York City, and building her career as a scholar and leading poet of her generation.Table of Contents Author's Preface Part One: On Poetry 1. Czesław Miłosz: The Ambivalent Landscape of Return 2. He Also Knew How to Be Gracious (Czesław Miłosz) 3. From Common Servant to Lot's Wife (Wisława Szymborska) 4. Intellect Imbued with Clarity, Grace, and Humor: Notes on Wisława Szymborska 5. The Ghost of Shakespeare in the Poetry of Wisława Szymborska 6. The Last Time We Saw Her . . . (Wisława Szymborska) 7. Apollo and Marsyas: A Tribute to Zbigniew Herbert 8. Poet of the Seventh Climate: Recurrent Images in the Poetry of Bronisław Przyłuski 9. A Canon of His Own (Vasyl Makhno) 10. Must Poetry Be Absolutely Modern? Part Two: On Polish Prose 11. Two Unknown Soldiers (Józef Wittlin) 12. Bruno Schulz: Mythmaker and Legend 13. The Lifelong Passion of Jerzy Ficowski 14. Jealousy, Sex, and Character: Michał Choromański and Otto Weininger 15. Narrative Strategies: The Case of Andrzej Bobkowski 16. Henryk Grynberg: His Quest for Artistic and Non-Artistic Truth 17. Finding the Way between Globalization and Decentralization: Polish Literature after 1989 Part Three: On Russian Symbolist Poetry 18. Three Great Romans in Valery Bryusov's Poetry 19. The Contradictions of the Northern Pilgrim: Dmitry Merezhkovsky 20. The Quest for Pax Romana as a Quest for Peace of Mind. Vasily Komarovsky 21. The Scepter of the Far East and the Crown of the Third Rome: The Russo-Japanese War in the Mirror of Russian Poetry Part Four: Autobiography 22. My Native Realm 23. My "Unprocessed" Holocaust 24. March Began in June: My "Processed" Trauma 25. The Price of Integrity 26. Cultural Diversity in the Workplace 27. Writing Polish in America 28. Identity and Difference: The Power of Language Afterword Departures, Returns, Memory: The Collected Essays of Anna Frajlich Bibliography Selected Honors and Publications

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Book SynopsisThis literary guide leads students with advanced knowledge of Russian as well as experienced scholars through the text of Nikolai Gogol's absurdist masterpiece "The Nose". Part I focuses on numerous instances of the writer's wordplay, which is meant to surprise and delight the reader, but which often is lost in English translations. It traces Gogol's descriptions of St. Petersburg everyday life, familiar to the writer's contemporaries and fellow citizens but hidden from the modern Western reader. Part II presents an overview of major critical approaches to the story in Gogol scholarship.Trade Review“Ksana Blank’s companion to Gogol’s ‘The Nose’ is an excellent new resource for students of Russian language and literature… The annotations to the text are remarkably thorough and identify allusions, irony, and colloquialisms that the casual reader may miss and the second-language student may struggle with even while paying great attention. These annotations are informed by a deep understanding of the historical and social context of the work; they not only identify interesting linguistic moments, but also point out ways in which the nineteenth-century Russian reader would have understood Gogol’s text… ‘The Nose’: A Stylistic and Critical Companion is a helpful resource for students of Russian literature as well as for scholars new to Gogol criticism. Its attention to style and language is especially refreshing. It provides a much-needed close reading of the story that will hopefully inspire other, similarly detailed analyses of Gogol’s works.”– Sara Jo Powell, Harvard University, Russian Language Journal“Ksana Blank’s commentary to “The Nose” will be useful not only to advanced undergraduates and graduate students, but also to scholars, particularly to those who do not speak Russian natively. She has an admirable ability to reconstruct the context of Gogol’s St. Petersburg, both in the everyday life of the capital and in the idioms that Gogol consciously fractures and rearranges.” - Michael Wachtel, Princeton UniversityTable of Contents Note on Translation and Transliteration Introduction Н. В. Гоголь «Нос»: The Text in Russian ANNOTATIONS TO THE RUSSIAN TEXT I II III HOW "THE NOSE" IS MADE: Language-Game as the Engine of the Plot INTERPRETATIONS 1. Joke, Jest, Farce, Anecdote 2. Social Satire 3. Mockery of the Demonic and of the Sacred 4. Chronicle of Folk Superstitions 5. A Case of Castration Anxiety 6. An Echo of German Romanticism 7. Perfect Nonsense 8. Shostakovich's Opera "The Nose" 8. Shostakovich's Opera "The Nose" 9. A Play with Reality: "The Nose," Kafka, and Dalí Instead of a Conclusion Selected Bibliography

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Book SynopsisWandering in Circles: Venichka’s Journey of Redemption in “Moskva-Petushki” examines the definition of redemption in Venedikt Erofeev’s Moskva-Petushki. By placing Erofeev’s poema in conversation with other travel narratives from Russia and the West, the book explores the meaning of redemption across societies and cultures, and how Erofeev creates a commentary on the possibility of redemption in a broken political and social system. Through this comparative approach to Moskva-Petushki, this work offers a new reading of the text as a journey of failed social and personal redemption.Trade Review“Jill Martiniuk’s monograph… makes a solid contribution to the already large body of Erofeev scholarship, not least because Martiniuk builds her argument on meticulous close readings of major intertexts. This is a refreshingly empirical study, prioritizing textual scholarship over theoretical conceptualization, and yet it effortlessly locates Moskva-Petushki in the heavily ironic postmodern landscape of the Soviet 1970s.”— Josephine von Zitzewitz, New College (Oxford), Modern Language Review (Vol. 118, No. 1)“From the moment that the manuscript of Moskva-Petushki surfaced (and then sunk and resurfaced) over forty years ago, readers and literary scholars have debated the nature of Erofeev’s dense intertextual references. Jill Martiniuk’s book is a significant contribution to that conversation, as she demonstrates persuasively that Erofeev is in deep and extensive dialogue with Radishchev, Dante, and Milton. Their seminal works are the models for his own exploration of the possibility of redemption in the context of Soviet culture of the 1970s. Martiniuk helps us hear the echoes of these works as a coherent pattern interwoven in the text. For Venichka, redemption is tragically elusive; that tragedy—shared by the generation of Russian writers, artists, and thinkers shaped by Brezhnev’s stagnation—lies at the heart of Moskva-Petushki.”— Karen Ryan, Professor of World Languages & Cultural Studies, Merrimack CollegeTable of ContentsTable of Contents Introduction1. Moskva-Petushki in the Context of Soviet Travel Initiatives2. From Moscow to Petushki: Redemption and Social Enlightenment in Venichka’s Journey3. Rebel Angels: Seeking the Satanic in Moskva-Petushki4. Venichka and La Diritta Via: Exploring the Dantean Path to Redemption in Moskva-Petushki5. Feminine Spaces: Women as Destinations in Moskva-PetushkiConclusion

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Book SynopsisThe focus of this study in comparative criticism is close analysis of Dostoevsky’s first literary publication—his 1844 translation of the first edition of Balzac’s Eugе́nie Grandet (1834)—and the stylistic choices that he made as a young writer while working on Balzac’s novel. Through the prism of close reading, the author analyzes Dostoevsky’s literary debut in the context of his future mature aesthetic style and poetics. Comparing the original and the translation side by side, this book focuses on the omissions, additions and substitutions that Dostoevsky brought into the text. It demonstrates how young Dostoevsky’s free translation of Eugénie Grandet predicts the creation of his own literary characters, themes, and other aspects of his literary output that are now recognized as Dostoevsky’s signature style. It investigates the changes that Dostoevsky made while working on Balzac’s text and analyzes the complex transplantation of Balzac’s imagery, motifs, and character portraiture from Eugénie Grandet into Dostoevsky’s own writing later on.Trade Review“Titus’s scrupulous examination of Dostoevskii’s ‘free’ translation reveals a pattern of departures from Balzac’s original that allow her to argue that these were intentional choices reflective of the translator’s fledgling poetics. … Titus’s study offers an illuminating account of an important moment in Dostoevskii’s creative career and sheds further light on the larger question of, to quote Priscilla Meyer, ‘how the Russians read the French.’”— Anna Schur, Keene State College, Slavic Review“Julia Titus argues that Dostoevsky’s first published work, his ‘free translation’ of Balzac’s Eugénie Grandet… ought to be considered among his literary texts. Repeatedly straying from Balzac’s original, Dostoevsky offered Russian readers a narrative that contains many of the themes that later became central in his own literary work. Titus selects three topical and engaging examples in the chapters that constitute the body of her book: female characters, the material world, and money. … [T]his accessible book will appeal to students interested in translation studies, in Dostoevsky’s rapport with Balzac, and in the recurrence in Dostoevsky’s oeuvre of the specific themes outlined here. … Her book will lead readers of Dostoevsky to Balzac (not only to Eugénie Grandet, but also to Le Père Goriot and other texts) and back to read Dostoevsky with a new awareness of some of the first choices that he made in articulating his favorite themes.”— Sara Dickinson, Dostoevsky Studies (2022: Vol. 25)“In Dostoevsky as a Translator of Balzac, Julia Titus revisits Dostoevskii’s free translation of Eugénie Grandet from a more positive angle. In Dostoevskii’s rewriting of Balzac’s novel she reads the emergence of the Russian author’s own voice. In the first place, she considers the stylistic decisions Dostoevskii made in the interests of rendering the book accessible to a Russian reading public: substituting Russian equivalents for unfamiliar French objects and terms or simply eliminating such details. In the discrepancies between the French original and the Russian translation – as well as in the similarities – Titus further reads indices of Dostoevskian themes and preoccupations that would reappear in the author’s subsequent novels. … Throughout this short book Titus provides insightful commentaries on Dostoevskii’s translations of and indebtedness to Balzac’s original text.”— Sima Godfrey, University of British Columbia, Canadian Slavonic Papers"A free translation or a complete rewrite? Readers of Dostoevsky’s literary debut – his rendering, in 1844, of the first edition of Balzac’s Eugénie Grandet – have often wondered. As Julia Titus suggests, Dostoevsky may have felt emboldened by a tradition in which Russian versions of European poetry sometimes eclipsed their originals… Titus has serious points to make... Titus’s judgements on why Dostoevsky made various alterations are insightful, if at times overly categorical; the extensive quotations she provides, however, allow the reader to draw their own conclusions… As Titus also reveals, the twenty-two-year-old Dostoevsky made a good fist of some difficult passages, despite a lack of dictionaries and reference works. He coped well with ‘various historical coins, their design elements, and other specifics’, adding affectionate and, as time would prove, entirely characteristic suffixes in order to bring M. Grandet’s sensuous love for lucre alive. Young Dostoevsky considered his translation ‘incomparable’ (bespodobnyi). Strictly speaking, he was right.”— Oliver Ready, The Times Literary Supplement“At last, a comprehensive exploration of Dostoevsky's first published work, a translation of Balzac's novel Eugénie Grandet, and of its relationship to the Russian author's original writing! Julia Titus's detailed and insightful study makes a compelling argument for translation's constitutive role in the author's creative process and represents an important step toward the full integration of translation into literary studies.”— Brian James Baer, author of Translation and the Making of Russian Literature“It is little known that Dostoevsky began his literary career as a translator. His first published book, a Russian translation of Balzac’s novel Eugénie Grandet, was later superseded by more literal versions. Julia Titus’s meticulous juxtaposition of Balzac’s French original and Dostoevsky’s “free” translation demonstrates how the Russian novelist used strategic deviations from the source text to incorporate Balzac into his own fictional universe. As Titus’s fascinating study shows, Dostoevsky’s appropriations of Balzac’s characters, depictions of the material world, and obsession with the allure of money reverberate through his entire novelistic oeuvre. At the same time, Titus highlights how Dostoevsky distanced himself from Balzac by translating him. This book will be of interest to scholars of Russian and French literature as well as anyone concerned with translation as creative appropriation.”— Adrian Wanner, Liberal Arts Professor of Russian and Comparative Literature, The Pennsylvania State UniversityTable of ContentsIntroduction Reflections of Eugénie in Dostoevsky’s Female Characters The Material World in Balzac’s Eugénie Grandet and in Dostoevsky’s Texts The Theme of Money in Eugénie Grandet and Dostoevsky’s Texts ConclusionBibliography

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Book SynopsisAfter more than a century of genocides and in the midst of a global pandemic, this book focuses on the critique of biopolitics (the government of life through individuals and the general population) and the counterdevelopment of biopoetics (an aesthetics of life elaborating a self as a practice of freedom) realized in texts by Virginia Woolf, Michel Foucault, and Michael Ondaatje. Their world fiction produces transhistorical, transnational experiences offered to the reader for collective responsibility in these critical times. Their books function as heterotopias: spaces and processes that recall and confront regimes of recognized truths to dismantle fixed identities and actualize possibilities for becoming other. Higgins and Leps define and explore a slant, biopoetic perspective that is feminist, materialist, anti-racist, and anti-war.Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsAbbreviations List of Figures Introduction: Heterotopic World FictionPart One. Biopolitics: Technologies of the Individual Correlating Knowledge and Power Relations: The Birth of BiopoliticsDiscipline and Punish: Discerning the Dangerous Mrs. Dalloway: A Dangerous DayIn the Skin of a Lion: Dangerous Yearnings Part Two. Biopoetics: Technologies of the Worldly SelfFrom Biopolitics to BiopoeticsConceptsParrhēsia: Dangerous Truth Telling Bios/Logos: Living Truth Askēsis: The Art of Elaborating the Self as a Practice of FreedomExperience-Books: Altering Truths Heterotopic Methods Method 1—Disposing/Transposing the Archive: Criminal Vanishing Acts Moi, Pierre Rivière, ayant égorgé ma mère, ma soeur, et mon frère . . .The Collected Works of Billy the Kid: Left Handed Poems Flush: A Biography Method 2—Distracting/Transacting Genealogy: Reading for One’s Life Between the ActsThe English PatientThe History of Sexuality, vol. 1Method 3—Dislocating/Transiting Strategics: Reading Biopoetic AssemblagesFoucault 1: The History of Sexuality, vols. 2, 3, 4Foucault 2: Answering Questions Woolf 1: “. . . very little persuaded of the truth of anything”Woolf 2: OrlandoWoolf 3: The WavesOndaatje 1:“[W]e can’t rely on only one voice”Ondaatje 2: WarlightOndaatje 3: Running in the FamilyOndaatje 4: The Cat’s Table Figures Selected Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisEmpress Catherine II produced a body of written material so vast and diverse that it seems impossible to provide a general characterization of the works contained in the authoritative twelve-volume collection assembled by A. N. Pypin from handwritten source material. This book does not attempt an all-embracing review of Catherine’s entire literary output, which consists of works in multiple genres and languages. The Russian empress’s writings have been the repeated subject of serious analysis for nineteenth- and twentieth-century researchers; all of these in one way or another demonstrate that across a variety of genres and formats, with a greater or lesser degree of independence and originality, the literary works of Catherine II always express her politics and ideology. These texts were carefully prepared, their publications and stage productions executed magnificently. As a rule, the most significant works were translated into French, German, and, in some cases, English. European readers, as well as the Russian public, were expected to be attentive witnesses to, and happy consumers of, the monarch’s compositions. Amongst rulers, the literary productivity of the Russian empress has no analogue in history. This volume is the first study in English of the vast literary output of Catherine the Great. Trade Review“This is the first study in English of the vast literary output of Catherine the Great. In addition to the memoirs, for which she is famous, Catherine wrote—in French, Russian, and German—over two dozen dramas; operas, histories, essays, fairy tales; legislation; and over 10,000 letters. With breadth and precision, Vera Proskurina opens up the vistas of Catherine’s geographic imagination as she set out to conquer Russia, Europe’s Republic of Letters, and the Ottoman Empire with her pen. While she expanded the Russian empire, she wrote with purpose and ambition, creating her Enlightenment persona as the incarnation of her empire. Proskurina reveals how Catherine had her works performed, translated, and published at home and abroad in dialogue with elites in intellectual campaigns that presented Russia and its autocrat to the world as enlightened. Proskurina masterfully traces the imperial legacy of Catherine’s pen.”— Hilde Hoogenboom, Associate Professor of Russian, School of International Letters & Cultures, Arizona State University“Vera Proskurina’s book is a must for every scholar of Russian imperial history and classical literature, for both research and teaching. And, as I know from personal experience, students love her work no less than their professors do. It mixes a broader perspective of cultural history with the most meticulous philological analysis. Uniquely, Proskurina strikes a perfect balance between rigorousness of her research on the one hand, both literary and historical (her analysis of the parade of weirdos on European thrones as exposed in Derzhavin’s ode ‘On Fortune’ is one of the most amusing scholarly reads I know of), and extreme vividness of the resulting picture on the other. It may seem from its title that the book is dominated by one person, the Empress herself, but in fact, readers are treated to the amazing diversity of voices with their own ideas of literary and state affairs. Enjoy the ride!”— Daria Khitrova, Associate Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Harvard UniversityTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. The Landscape of the Empire: The Antidote of Catherine II, or the Borders of European Civilization2. Barbaric Capital: Laughter during the Plague3. The Poetics of Prototypes: The Political Contexts of the Fairy Tales of Catherine II4. Territory of Freedom: Dispute by the Palace Walls5. “Light from the East”: Catherine II in a Fight against Freemasonry6. Catherine’s Imperial Stride: The Greek Project on the Theatrical SceneBibliographyIndex

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Book Synopsis'A writer of genius' - William Dalrymple'Remarkable' - Kwame Anthony Appiah'Utterly captivating' - Anthony DoerrCan anyone really own a culture? This magnificent account argues that the story of global civilisations is one of mixing, sharing, and borrowing.It shows how art forms have crisscrossed continents over centuries to produce masterpieces. From Nefertiti's lost city and the Islamic Golden Age to twentieth century Nigerian theatre and Modernist poetry, Martin Puchner explores how contact between different peoples has driven artistic innovation in every era - whilst cultural policing and purism have more often undermined the very societies they tried to protect.Travelling through Classical Greece, Ashoka's India, Tang dynasty China, and many other epochs, this triumphal new history reveals the crossing points which have not only inspired the humanities, but which have made us human.Trade Review'Eminently readable ... The book's great strength lies in its ability to swoop deftly and lightly between things that may be familiar to us in themselves, but which we might be tempted to separate out in our attempts to form a picture of the world.' -- Edward Wilson-Lee * The Times Literary Supplement *'A breakneck, utterly captivating survey of threads of cultural transmission-how ideas, stories, and songs-survive, change, vanish, get borrowed, refined, coopted, and grafted through time ... I underlined sentences on every page.' -- Anthony Doerr'Compellingly written' * Financial Times *'A remarkable book.' -- Kwame Anthony Appiah'Martin Puchner has exceptional and invaluable gifts: intellectual fearlessness, dazzling erudition, trenchancy tempered by breadth of mind, and a humanist's eye for minute evidence that illumines huge problems.' -- Felipe Fernandez-Armesto'Well written, nuanced and light in style, spinning a series of historical narratives in an erudite and engaging way' -- Marguerite Johnson * The Conversation *'Fearless and exhilaratingly erudite, Martin Puchner's panoramic tour of human culture across the millennia is a riveting page-turner.' -- Amy Chua'A writer of genius' -- William Dalrymple'Elegantly written and full of erudite lore, this vibrant history illuminates the inveterate human yearning for expression.' * Publishers Weekly *'A thoughtful, generous vision of human creativity across centuries of culture.' * Kirkus *'Fluent and engaging.' -- Boyd Tonkin * Wall Street Journal *'A mighty, polymathic work . . . [by] a master storyteller -- Chris Vognar * Boston Globe *'A forceful rebuke to those who argue that culture can be owned by groups, nations, religions or races. . . . [by] an adept storyteller.' -- Ismail Muhammad * New York Times *'Jaunty and readable but never lacking in depth, Culture hops through countries and eras to deliver a resonant argument.' -- Lauren Puckett-Pope * Elle *'Cultures develop by sharing, borrowing, and collaborating--but also by conquest, appropriation, and theft. Martin Puchner's timely book takes us on a breathtaking tour of world history, reminding us that as we judge the past, one day we, too, will be judged, and that when we ignore or try to erase our cultural heritage, we are only impoverishing ourselves' -- Louis Menand * Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Metaphysical Club *'Puchner creates a perfectly balanced and incisively abridged version of the story of human culture. Ultimately, this is an examination of the making and transport of ideas, which is always an interaction between old and new. Each chapter builds a new layer, adding to the depth and complexity, while Puchner also provides a global who's who of cultural diffusion' * Booklist *'So many books these days are described as being 'sweeping histories'; Culture, which promises in its subtitle to take us from our most primitive artistic impulses all the way to the machinery of modern-day fandom. But what intrigues me most about Puchner's latest isn't its scope - it's its driving question: 'What good are the arts?' In my more hopeless moments, this question bubbles up inside me, and I'm chomping at the bit to hear Puchner's answer, grounded in history and informed by cultures around the world' -- Sophia Stewart

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Book SynopsisIdentifying a crucial link between poetic form and the forming of attention, Lucy Alford offers a new terminology for how poetic attention works and how attention becomes a subject and object of poetry. She combines close readings of a wide variety of poems with research in the philosophy, aesthetics, and psychology of attention.Trade ReviewToday, as our attention is nearly suffocated by the forces of commodification, Lucy Alford awakens us to the subtle powers and true breathing room that poems extend to us. Her focus ranges from Sappho to pre-Islamic poetry through the Renaissance to French and German modernism and the living poets of North America as she attends to the emergent forms of individual works and the manifold experiences of their reception. Close or far, immediate or withdrawn, vivid or abstract, with or without present subjects and objects, poets and their readers begin in perception and arrive at an ethics of care and even love. -- Susan Stewart, Avalon Foundation University Professor of the Humanities, Princeton UniversityWidely read in modern poetry and in philosophical, psychological, and sociological studies of attention, Lucy Alford has produced a boldly ambitious book with a new take on poetry in general and the sorts of things it can do. She explores how poems shape and are shaped by different kinds of attention with authority, eloquence, and sureness of touch. -- Jonathan Culler, author of Theory of the LyricLucy Alford’s elegant and original book incisively distinguishes among the various forms of poetic attention. Fusing lyrical responsiveness with sharp-eyed analysis, it offers supple and intricate readings of attention in a stunningly transnational and transhistorical array of poems, from ancient Egypt and Greece to contemporary America. -- Jahan Ramazani, author of Poetry and Its Others: News, Prayer, Song, and the Dialogue of GenresAlford proposes a truly new taxonomy of interest to any student of poetry and poetics: how do poems hold our attention? What are the separable ways in which they do so? How does a poem send us back out into the rest of the world, and when does it encourage us to go, and to stay, nowhere? These questions apply not just to particular poets, but to the whole of a literary enterprise: Alford gives us an acoustically and aesthetically sensitive way to talk about poems from varying language and periods and about the diversity within their unity. -- Stephanie Burt, author of Don't Read Poetry: A Book About How to Read PoemsHer readings are sensitive and nuanced. * Choice *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: What Is Poetic Attention?Part I. Attending to Objects1. Modes of Transitive Attention2. Contemplation: Attention’s Reach3. Desire: Attention’s Hunger4. Recollection: Attending to the Departed Object5. Imagination: Attention’s PoiesisPart II. Objectless Awareness6. Modes of Intransitive Attention7. Vigilance: States of Suspension8. Resignation: Relinquishing the Object9. Idleness: Doldrums and Gardens of Time10. Boredom: End-Stopped AttentionCoda: Toward a Practice of Poetic AttentionNotesBibliographyPermission CreditsIndex

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Book SynopsisSuitable for students, scholars, and general readers interested in the multilingual lives of some of our most influential words and ideas, this title covers close to 400 important philosophical, literary, and political terms that defy easy translation between languages and cultures. It includes terms from more than a dozen languages.Trade ReviewWinner of a 2015 Outstanding Reference Sources Award, Reference and User Services Association, American Library Association One of The Guardian's Best Books of 2015, selected by Hari Kunzru One of The Times Literary Supplement's Books of the Year 2014, chosen by David Wootton One of The Times Higher Education Supplement's Books of the Year 2014, chosen by Robert S. C. Gordon One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2014 "[W]hat may be the weirdest book the twenty-first century has so far produced... [T]his is a considerable and entertaining book, full of odd words beautifully, at times owlishly, annotated."--Adam Gopnik, New Yorker "[An] extraordinary book... Many of the entries are illuminating, but what is most fascinating about the book is its partial vision of a fragment of European culture, through the dissection of its philosophical vocabulary."--Tim Crane, Times Literary Supplement "[A] cornucopia of lexical trajectories and semantic adventures across a wide variety of languages and histories... As for the achievement of Emily Apter, Jacques Lezra and Michael Wood in orchestrating the English edition, that qualifies as heroic ... this book is another valuable reminder that a philosophy that ignores its own history, that pretends to operate as if it had no history, is self-impoverishing."--Christopher Prendergast, London Review of Books Praise for the French edition: "This dictionary's great idea is to address European philosophy from the point of view of translation... [It] attains its goal by putting this principle to work: one cannot always translate a foreign concept in one word, but one can always explain it. And when one has grasped the explanation, one has acquired the concept."--Le Figaro Litteraire Praise from the French edition: "A dictionary cannot be summarized. One great lesson, nevertheless, which can be distilled from this one (it can be gathered in the masterworks of the entries 'Traduire' ['Translate'] and 'Langues et traditions' ['Languages and traditions']), is that no language is born a philosophical one. It becomes philosophical, as it engages in exchanges with other languages. Philosophical language is impure language, and a national philosophy cannot, therefore, exist. This conviction can perhaps be one of the meanings of the unity of Europe, to which the Vocabulaire renders homage, and service."--Vincent Aubin, Le Figaro (review translated by Mark Jensen) "[I]nteresting reading. The Dictionary of Untranslatables is a wonderful addition to my language library... [A] book to savor and think about and to learn in the broader sense of learning. For anyone interested in language, in words, and the scope of meaning that a word can encompass, I recommend the Dictionary of Untranslatables."--Rich Adin, American Editor "[G]reat success... By preserving the specificity of words in their source languages, but then proceeding though so many near-synonyms in other tongues, the Dictionary bridges this ideological divide, providing a different way of understanding what it is to be in, and between, languages."--Tom Bunstead, Independent on Sunday "[Y]ou should equip yourself with this extraordinary book... You could probably, and profitably, spend your life reading this book... The volume offers a detailed and up-to-date map of abstract thinking, from the classical age to now."--Douglas Kerr, South China Morning Post "The Dictionary of Untranslatables, newly translated from the French original, wears its modest megalomania well. An 11-year project involving some 150 contributors and comprising more than 400 entries, the Dictionary suggests comparison with Volume XI of the First Encyclopedia of Tlon, described by Borges as 'a vast and systemic fragment of the entire history of an unknown planet.' The planet in question here is what we usually call 'continental philosophy.'... [A] heady universe of speculative thinking about the meaning of life, the history of ideas, the fate of mankind, and so on... [T]he Dictionary is revealing for the way it sketches, lexically, a set of parallel but alternate intellectual traditions. What language teachers call 'false friends' are everywhere, inspiring a constant alertness to nuance... Scrupulous and difficult, it's everything that the Internet, which wants everything to talk 'frictionlessly' with everything else, is not. No dreams of universal translation here--enjoy the friction. Use it for bibliomancy, the lost art of divination by book (with scripture or Virgil or Homer or Hafiz)."--Ross Perlin, New Inquiry "A vast, lovingly detailed translator's note to western philosophy... This fascinating book belongs to the interesting-in-itself side."--George Miller, Le Monde Diplomatique "[This] is an invaluable reference for students, scholars, and general readers interested in the multilingual lives of some of our most influential words and ideas... It has already provided me with several pleasurable evenings of educational reading adventures, and promises many more for the future. A superb gift for English-speaking writers, linguists, verbivores and linguaphiles."--GrrrlScientist "The Dictionary demonstrates how much vitality and endurance these languages gain from the dialogue they engage in with other world languages--a dialogue structured and catalyzed by relations of power... As the Dictionary of Untranslatables amply documents, the academy's effects on language are every bit as far-reaching as those of colonialism, trade, and pop culture. The etymologies here are at once precise and profligate, proliferating across terms like Abstraction and Acedia, Drive and Disegno, Erscheinung and Essence, Melancholy and Mimesis, Praxis and Pravda... The struggle for clarity appears nowhere in ideal form but is always a thing unfolding in the world, a compound of ideology, politics, oppression, fear, desire--of all that is lost, and found, in translation."--Matthew Battles, Barnes and Noble Review "[A]stonishingly successful ... entertaining and revealing ... strikingly complete and correct... [A] fascinating book... The translation of European 'philosophy' into American 'theory' has probably been the most consequential event in American intellectual life in the last fifty years, but it has entailed a great deal of 'mistranslation.'... The Dictionary of Untranslatables, in addition to its other pleasures, has a great deal to teach American scholars of the humanities about the depth and complexity of the languages and discourses we've picked up only recently--and a few powerful suggestions about what we may find waiting when we choose to turn back to our own."--Michael Kinnucan, Asymptote "Dictionary of Untranslatables is a treasury of linguistic and philosophical paradoxes, both absorbing and diverting."--Alexander Adams, Spiked Review of Books "[T]his erudite volume is indispensable for advanced European philosophy, literature, and translation studies."--Choice "Dictionary of Untranslatables is one of the most solid, wide-ranging, and remarkable books of our time. Very few will ever read it cover to cover, but anyone who dips into it with a little background in the philosophical tradition, and a desire to learn more about what life is actually about, will be rewarded many times over for the effort."--John Toren, Rain Taxi Review of Books "All dictionaries are encyclopedias in disguise. But the Dictionary of Untranslatables is one of the most remarkably discursive works of reference I have encountered... [T]his giant tome, edited by Barbara Cassin, is ... a bonanza for anyone interested in the history of ideas--a kind of miniature Enlightenment."--Henry Hitchings, Wall Street Journal "This astoundingly erudite work instantly asserts itself as one of the high points in European scholarship."--James W. Underhill, Translation Studies "This is an essential volume for every university library."--Michel Petheram, Reference Reviews "A remarkable achievement--truly a cause for wonder."--Matthew Walker, Slavic and East European JournalTable of ContentsPreface vii Introduction xvii How to Use This Work xxi Principal Collaborators xxiii Contributors xxv Translators xxxiii Entries A to Z 1 Reference Tools 1269 Index 1275

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Book SynopsisThis book analyzes the ways in which literary works and cultural discourses employ the construct of the Jew's body in relation to the material world in order either to establish and reinforce, or to subvert and challenge, dominant cultural norms and stereotypes. It examines the use of physical characteristics, embodied practices, tacit knowledge and senses to define the body taxonomically as normative, different, abject or mimetically desired. Starting from the works of Gogol and Dostoevsky through to contemporary Russian-Jewish women's writing, the book argues that materiality also embodies fictional constructions that should be approached as a culture-specific material-semiotic interface.Trade Review“This book rewards the reader as a result of the breadth of discussion of a specific domain, and the number of vectors that Mondry succeeds in applying in her research. This is complemented by the depth of discussion, represented by a layered approach that employs tools from literary theory, psychoanalysis, museum studies, pathology, and sociology, to name a few of the disciplines brought to bear on the topic at hand. It is an extremely erudite study that, nonetheless, engages the reader by its approach, making it an ideal acquisition for any academic library.”— John Cook, University of Melbourne, Australian Slavonic and East European StudiesTable of Contents A note on transliteration List of illustrations Introduction Part One: The Other Body and Spaces for Matter Chapter One. Locating historically the Jew's body between display and transformation Chapter Two. The power of meat: defining ethnicity and masculinity in Gogol Chapter Three. Valued bodies and spaces: cross-religious encounters in Dostoevsky Chapter Four. Intimate spaces: the modern Jewess in the boudoir in Chekhov and Bely Chapter Five. Animal advocacy and ritual murder trials Chapter Six. Aphids and other undesirables: the predatory Jew versus Soviet art Chapter Seven. Abject bodies: tactility, dissection, and body rites in postmodernist fiction Part Two: Re/active Embodiments and a Sense of Things Chapter Eight. Women writers inventing exotic origins Chapter Nine. Strange ancestors in the house and in the basement Chapter Ten. On feeding the family: constructing Jewishness through nurture Chapter Eleven. Materiality of smell and constructs of embodied memory Chapter Twelve. "An edible chronotope": in search of Jewish heritage food Conclusion: The Power of Bodies and Senses that Matter Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThis collection offers an essential, structured survey of contemporary fictions of South Asia in English, and includes specially commissioned chapters on each of the national traditions of the region.Trade Review“This volume eloquently delineates the polyvalent cultural imaginaries of South Asian fiction in English. Scrutinizing the multidimensional ramifications of the region’s contemporary transformations via an eclectic range of national, transregional and cross-border concerns, it crucially expands the disciplinary boundaries of postcolonial studies and world literature.” (Esha Sil, Journal of Postcolonial Writing, July, 2017)“The volume offers genuinely new perspectives on writers, texts and regions that have tended to be overlooked in academic criticism. … This is a timely volume, in fact, which makes an important contribution to the field of South Asian literary studies.” (Wasafiri, Vol. 33 (3), September, 2018)Table of ContentsAcknowledgments.- Notes on Contributors.- Introduction; Alex Tickell.- PART I: REGIONAL FORMATIONS.- 1. Of Capitalism and Critique: ‘Af-Pak’ Fiction in the Wake of 9/11; Priyamvada Gopal.- 2. ‘An Idea whose Time has Come’: Indian Fiction in English after 1991; Alex Tickell.- 3. English-Language Fiction of Bangladesh; Cara Cilano.- 4. Sri Lankan Fiction in English 1994–2014; Ruvani Ranasinha.- PART II: CONTEMPORARY TRANSFORMATIONS.- 5. Writing the Margins (in English): Notes from some South-Asian Cities; Stuti Khanna.- 6. Occupying Literary and Urban Space: Adiga, Authenticity and the Politics of Socio-economic Critique; Dominic Davies.- 7. Contemporary Indian Commercial Fiction in English; Suman Gupta.- 8. Genre Fiction of New India: Post-millennial Configurations of Crick Lit, Chick Lit and Crime Writing; E. Dawson Varughese.- 9. Vignettes of Change: A Discussion of Two Indian Graphic Novels; Pooja Sinha.- 10. The New Pastoral: Environmentalism and Conflict in Contemporary Writing from Kashmir; Ananya Jahanara Kabir.- 11. Solidarity, Suffering and ‘Divine Violence’: Fictions of the Naxalite Insurgency; Pavan Kumar Malreddy.- 12. Writing South-Asian Diasporic Identity Anew; Maya Parmar.- 13. Minor Literature and the South-Asian Short Story; Neelam Srivastava.- Index.

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Book SynopsisProvides the first book-length analysis of modernism and the Anthropocene.

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Book SynopsisThe first book-length literary-geographical study of late modernist poetry.

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Book SynopsisShows that Faust was a central influence on Tennyson's creative life.Trade Review"An outstanding work of literary-historical scholarship" -John T. Hamilton, Harvard University

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Book SynopsisWhat was the function of the invocation of destiny in the increasingly secularized era of turn-of-the-century Vienna? By exploring this question, Stereotype and Destiny in Arthur Schnitzler''s Prose offers a new psycho-sociological perspective on the narrative works of Arthur Schnitzler. While Vienna 1900 as a site of crisis has been established in the scholarship, this book focuses on the presence of forces that deny the existence of said crisis and work to contain its subversive and critical potential. Stereotype and destiny emerge in Schnitzler's prose texts as a form of these counter-critical forces. In her readings, Kolkenbrock shows that stereotype and destiny serve as an interrelated coping mechanism for a central psychological conflict of modernity: the paradoxical need to be recognized as normal' and special' at the same time. While, through the complex of stereotype and destiny, Schnitzler's prose addresses central modern questions of identity and subjecthood, Trade ReviewThis study’s nuanced and remarkably cohesive readings are well-versed in social theory, cultural history, and narratology. ... book offers a thorough examination of the complex of stereotyping, which illuminates broader psychosociological phenomena * Austrian History Yearbook *Kolkenbrock’s book provides a compelling analysis of the much-studied crises of subjectivity in fin-de-siècle Vienna by focusing with laser-like precision on the interplay between stereotypes and destiny in Schnitzler’s prose fiction. It earns its place alongside previous studies of Schnitzler and the crisis of identity and should serve to inspire further work in this area. * The German Quarterly *“This fresh and original contribution to the scholarly literature on Arthur Schnitzler is informed by critical paradigms of poststructuralism (particularly Judith Butler and Pierre Bourdieu) and builds a strong theoretical foundation for original readings of several of his prose works … One of the strengths of this study is its broad definition and problematization of the concept of stereotyping … This monograph is unfailingly lucid in its argumentation and contains a comprehensive apparatus that will be useful to scholars, students, and interested readers. The author is clearly well read in social theory and narratology and brings this nuanced perspective to her readings of individual texts. It is part of the exciting New Directions in German Studies series from Bloomsbury and is a valuable addition to Schnitzler scholarship.” -- Felix Tweraser * Journal of Austrian Studies *Kolkenbrock’s original reading of Arthur Schnitzler’s narrative prose both identifies the hidden normative agenda dominating Viennese society around 1900 and attends to Schnitzler’s complex view of the human psyche. As Kolkenbrock lucidly shows, Schnitzler’s protagonists seek individual autonomy in a society in which stereotypes about sex, race, and culture delimit the parameters of their actions. Kolkenbrock reveals that this futile search for autonomy inevitably leads Schnitzler’s protagonists to the figure of the 'other'—one in conflict with the normative order—yet these encounters ultimately do not provide a sustained escape from societal restraints. * Carl Niekerk, Professor of German, Comparative and World Literature, and Jewish Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA, and editor of German Quarterly and Lessing Yearbook *Kolkenbrock's elegant and original study discovers 'destiny' as a term for the missing substance of subjectivity in Schnitzler's prose works. By defining the different relations between an individual character's encounter with a sense of destiny, on one hand, and the operation of social stereotyping, on the other, she constructs a supple theoretical tool. The resulting analysis gives a beautifully lucid, but also subtly differentiated, account of how Schnitzler's work embodies the impossible challenge confronting personhood not only in fin-de-siècle Austro-Hungarian reality, but arguably in modernity in general: how to be normal and special at the same time. * Michael Minden, Former Reader in Modern German Literature and Culture and Emeritus Fellow of Jesus College, University of Cambridge, UK *Table of ContentsList of Abbreviations Introduction 1. Stereotypes and Physiognomy in Der Weg ins Freie (Road into the Open) 2. Madness and Investiture in Flucht in die Finsternis (Flight into Darkness) 3. Race and Destiny in Die Weissagung (The Prophecy) and Andreas Thameyer’s letzter Brief (Andreas Thameyer's Last Letter): (Dämmerseelen I) (Dozing Souls I) 4. Love as Destiny and Cliché in Die Fremde (The Stranger), Das Schicksal des Freiherrn von Leisenbohg (Baron Leisenbohg's Destiny), and Das neue Lied (The New Song): (Dämmerseelen II) (Dozing Souls II) 5. Dream, Destiny, and Infectious Alterity in Traumnovelle (Dream Story) Conclusion and Outlook Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisRealism seems to be everywhere, both as a trending critical term and as a revitalized aesthetic practice. This volume brings together for the first time three aspects that are pertinent for a proper understanding of realism: its 19th-century aesthetics committed to making reality into an object of serious art; the experiments with and against realism by 20th-century modernist, postmodernist, or magical realist writing; and the politics of realism, especially its ambitions to map the complex realities produced by global capitalism and climate catastrophe. This juxtaposition of aesthetics, experiments, and politics unsettles the entrenched opposition between realism and experimental literature that tends to ignore the fact that realism, by virtue of its commitment to a changing material and social world, cannot be but continuously experimenting. The innovative chapters of this book address some of the pressing questions of literary and cultural studies today, like the complex relation Trade ReviewLiterary realism has never looked more exciting than now, thanks to timely and ambitious volumes such as this one. The collection ranges across multiple national and historical contexts to offer a substantial reassessment of the realist mode. Written with acuity and flair, the chapters in this book demonstrate that realism was more supple, experimental, and expansive than critics have tended to assume. * Benjamin Kohlmann, Professor of English Literature, University of Regensburg, Germany, and author of British Literature and the Life of Institutions: Speculative States (2021) *Realism: Aesthetics, Experiments, Politics is an exciting addition to the recent scholarship on the aesthetic, political, and theoretical possibilities of realist writing. Following a clear and engaging introduction, the chapters cover a broad historical and geographical range and offer new insights on realism’s relationship to modernism, postmodernism, magical realism, postcoloniality, global literature, climate fiction, experimental fiction, and more. In all, the book charts an exciting course for realist studies in the new millennium. * Ulka Anjaria, Professor of English, Brandeis University, USA, and author of Realism in the Twentieth-Century Indian Novel: Colonial Difference and Literary Form (2012) *Realism: Aesthetics, Experiments, Politics persuades us of the renewed energy and innovation in the plurality of realism. Casting realism as an aesthetic and political strategy, the book is broad in scope and the essays reinforce the capacity for foundational and contemporary realism to be both experimental and relevant. * Maggie Bowers, Senior Lecturer in English, University of Portsmouth, UK, and author of Magic(al) Realism: The New Critical Idiom (2004) *Table of ContentsList of Figures Acknowledgments Introduction: Realism, Political Aesthetics, and (New) Materialism (Jens Elze, Georg August University of Göttingen, Germany) Part I. Aesthetics 1. “Uses of ‘Realism’”: A Term in History and the History of a Term (Andreas Mahler, Free University of Berlin, Germany) 2. George Eliot’s Realisms (Nadine Böhm-Schnitker, Friedrich Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany) 3. Medical Realism and the Magic of Reality: Art and Insight in Thomas Hardy’s The Woodlanders and Émile Zola’s Le docteur Pascal (Maren Scheurer, Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany) 4. Conrad on Epidemics: From The Shadow-Line to Covid-19 (and Back) (Nidesh Lawtoo, KU Leuven, Belgium) Part II. Experiments 5. “Should I Call It Horror?”: Reflecting Realism by Exploring Contingency in Ror Wolf’s Adventure Series Pilzer und Pelzer (Barbara Bausch, Free University of Berlin, Germany) 6. Trawling Truth: B.S. Johnson’s Evacuation of Realist Epistemology (André Otto, Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany) 7. Cultural Realism: Reconsidering Magical Realism in Louise Erdrich's Love Medicine (Nasrin Babakhani, Georg August University of Göttingen, Germany) 8. Narrative as Realistic Thinking (Kai Wiegandt, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Germany) Part III. Politics 9. Realism for Sustainability (Caroline Levine, Cornell University, USA) 10. Network Realism/Capitalist Realism (Dirk Wiemann, University of Potsdam, Germany) 11. Postcolonial Realism and Rohinton Mistry’s Family Matters (Eli Park Sorensen, Chinese University of Hong Kong) 12. Settler-Colonial Realism: Naturalizing and Denaturalizing the Frontier (Hamish Dalley, Daemen College, USA) Notes on Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisThis book delves into creative renditions of key aspects of Jewish Mysticism in Latin American literature, film, and art from the perspective of literary and cultural studies. It introduces the work of Latin American authors and artists who have been inspired by Jewish Mysticism from the 1960s to the present focusing on representations of dybbuks (transmigratory souls), the presence of Eros as part of the experience of mystical prayer, reformulations of Zoharic fables, and the search for Tikkun Olam (cosmic repair), among other key topics of Jewish Mysticism. The purpose of this book is to open up these aspects of their work to a broad audience who may or may not be familiar with Jewish Mysticism.Table of ContentsPrefaceList of IllustrationsIntroduction: Jewish Mysticism in Latin American Cultural Production—Beyond Borges1. The Exotic in the Eye of the Beholder: Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Literature and Film2. The Cycle of Life: Angelina Muñiz-Huberman’s Writings3. In Search of Tikkun Olam: Mario Satz’s Literature4. Wandering Souls in Isaac Goldemberg’s Narrative and PoetryConcluding RemarksBibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThis literary guide leads students with advanced knowledge of Russian as well as experienced scholars through the text of Nikolai Gogol's absurdist masterpiece "The Nose". Part I focuses on numerous instances of the writer's wordplay, which is meant to surprise and delight the reader, but which often is lost in English translations. It traces Gogol's descriptions of St. Petersburg everyday life, familiar to the writer's contemporaries and fellow citizens but hidden from the modern Western reader. Part II presents an overview of major critical approaches to the story in Gogol scholarship.Trade Review“Ksana Blank’s companion to Gogol’s ‘The Nose’ is an excellent new resource for students of Russian language and literature… The annotations to the text are remarkably thorough and identify allusions, irony, and colloquialisms that the casual reader may miss and the second-language student may struggle with even while paying great attention. These annotations are informed by a deep understanding of the historical and social context of the work; they not only identify interesting linguistic moments, but also point out ways in which the nineteenth-century Russian reader would have understood Gogol’s text… ‘The Nose’: A Stylistic and Critical Companion is a helpful resource for students of Russian literature as well as for scholars new to Gogol criticism. Its attention to style and language is especially refreshing. It provides a much-needed close reading of the story that will hopefully inspire other, similarly detailed analyses of Gogol’s works.”– Sara Jo Powell, Harvard University, Russian Language Journal“Ksana Blank’s commentary to “The Nose” will be useful not only to advanced undergraduates and graduate students, but also to scholars, particularly to those who do not speak Russian natively. She has an admirable ability to reconstruct the context of Gogol’s St. Petersburg, both in the everyday life of the capital and in the idioms that Gogol consciously fractures and rearranges.” - Michael Wachtel, Princeton UniversityTable of Contents Note on Translation and Transliteration Introduction Н. В. Гоголь «Нос»: The Text in Russian ANNOTATIONS TO THE RUSSIAN TEXT I II III HOW "THE NOSE" IS MADE: Language-Game as the Engine of the Plot INTERPRETATIONS 1. Joke, Jest, Farce, Anecdote 2. Social Satire 3. Mockery of the Demonic and of the Sacred 4. Chronicle of Folk Superstitions 5. A Case of Castration Anxiety 6. An Echo of German Romanticism 7. Perfect Nonsense 8. Shostakovich's Opera "The Nose" 8. Shostakovich's Opera "The Nose" 9. A Play with Reality: "The Nose," Kafka, and Dalí Instead of a Conclusion Selected Bibliography

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Book SynopsisThis monograph is nothing less than a bold attempt at solving the riddle of Gogol’s novel Dead Souls that even inspired a staging of Dead Souls at Schauspiel Stuttgart. Heftrich gives a comprehensive, coherent answer to the question of the novel’s meaning by meticulously laying bare its structure. The first part of the monograph is dedicated to one section of Gogol’s novel that has been neglected by virtually all critics - a clue that leads to a strictly ethical reading of Gogol’s epic. Gogol, as it emerges, constructed Dead Souls strictly according to a moral pattern. It is amazing to discover how flawlessly Dead Souls is built in this regard. The novel thus proves to be a true descendant of medieval romance with its inseparable interrelation between ethics and epics.Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsForewordIntroduction: Of Beauty, Truth, and EvilPart One: Chichikov’s Prehistory Ethos and Epic The Ground Plan of Dead Souls The Ground Plan of Dead Souls Revisited Part Two: Chichikov’s Crime On Truth and Lies in a Moral Sense The Five Faces of Lying In the Shadow Realm of Lies Part Three: Chichikov’s Punishment Judgment and Rumor The Five Acts of the Drama Ethos and Epic: Chichikov’s Crime and Punishment IllustrationsBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisWhat do we mean by ‘Scottish literature’? Why does it matter? How do we engage with it? Bringing infectious enthusiasm and a lifetime’s experience to bear on this multi-faceted literary nation, Alan Riach, Professor of Scottish Literature at the University of Glasgow, sets out to guide you through the varied and ever-evolving landscape of Scottish literature. A comprehensive and extensive work designed not only for scholars but also for the generally curious, Scottish Literature: an introduction tells the tale of Scotland’s many voices across the ages, from Celtic pre-history to modern mass media. Forsaking critical jargon, Riach journeys chronologically through individual works and writers, both the famed and the forgotten, alongside broad overviews of cultural contexts which connect texts to their own times. Expanding the restrictive canon of days gone by, Riach also sets down a new core body of ‘Scottish Literature’: key writers and works in English, Scots, and Gaelic.Ranging across time and genre, Scottish Literature: an introduction invites you to hear Scotland through her own words.Trade ReviewObviously indispensable; I am learning new facts and possibilities on every page. – NEAL ASCHERSONIt takes women and men of prodigious faculty to advance the institution of a National Literature. – NIYI OSUNDAREThe presiding spirit over this book is Hugh MacDiarmid… – STUART KELLYScottish Literature: An Introduction, Alan Riach’s magnum opus, is all that the term implies. It is encyclopaedic, refreshing, personal and yet detached, and it has provoked me into buying Gavin Douglas’s Aeneid, The Eneados, which is a bloody good read, as is the book that prompted its purchase! – JOHN PURSERAlan Riach’s Scottish Literature: An Introduction is excellent – incredibly comprehensive! I think it is pitched at exactly the right level for the audience it’s aimed at. I’m already well into it and am looking forward to reading the whole book. – RONALD RENTONMagisterial – THE TIMESA magnum opus/tour de force/labour of love, its impressively encyclopaedic range and lucid attention to detail are irradiated by a heart-warming enthusiasm for the subject. It conveys both the grandeur of a mountain, and the exhilaration of the climb. – STEWART CONNScottish Literature: An Introduction is ‘in a class of its own’ with ‘many happy provocations… Riach is a poet and a serious and intuitive, voracious, intellectual. The mirror to his mind, his writing sings and bustles with energy and daring. It ranges far and wide across the arts, nationally and internationally, and rallies the reader to be bolder… This is surely a work destined to be a landmark in Scotland’s literary history, for all time, a classic at a critical moment in its subject’s destiny. – ANDREW McNEILLIE, THE NATIONALI’ve been going through Scottish Literature: An Introduction with delight, marvelling at the way you have of stating things so accessibly. You’re a gift to the reader, and your prose never gets stodgy and clunky. Your proselytising zeal is exactly what Scottish literature needs. Your refusal to bow not just to Anglocentrism but to the Anglo-Saxon supremacism of those who promote Scots only at the expense of Gaelic is a credit to you. And I really appreciated the helpful anti-elitism of your approach. The 101 places chapter rounds things off beautifully and in a most unexpected way. – PATRICK CROTTY, EMERITUS PROFESSOR OF IRISH AND SCOTTISH LITERATURE, UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEENI am just rolling up to the final pages of your book. I have relished every page and feel excited and energised by it. – DAVID HARDING, ARTISTI am very much enjoying your guide to Scottish literature. I dip in and out and find myself learning (many) things I didn't know and having some of my assumptions and judgements confirmed but some challenged too. – DAVID HUTCHISON, PROFESSOR IN MEDIA POLICYScottish Literature: an introduction is a huge achievement and a great treat for all of Scotland. – HELEN BELLANY, ARTISTCongratulations. Scottish Literature: an introduction is terrific, a significant book for Scotland and the wider world. It’s a mighty tome, yet the language trips along lightly with great ease for the reader, refreshingly accessible, and packed with fascinating treasures. It’s so inclusive, setting up a feeling of community by frequently quoting other voices and creating a rounded and hugely positive sense of Scotland as a nation. A marvellous depth and breadth of literature is presented, always within a political and cultural context. This is a book that should be on shelves all over the world. – GERDA STEVENSON

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Book SynopsisThis collection of interviews demonstrates that U.S. Latinas/os of South American background have contributed pioneering work to U.S. Latina/o literature and culture in the twenty-first century. In conversation with twelve significant authors of South American descent in the United States, Juanita Heredia reveals that, through their transnational experiences, they have developed multicultural identities throughout different regions and cities across the country. However, these authors' works also exemplify a return to their heritage in South America through memory and travel, often showing that they maintain strong cultural and literary ties across national borders. As such, they have created a new chapter in trans-American history by finding new ways of imagining South America from their formation and influences in the U.S.Trade Review“Mapping South American Latina/a Literature in the United States: Interviews with Contemporary Writers by Juanita Heredia is a welcome critical Intervention … . The volume is overall a much-needed contribution to the growing field of Latina/o literature in the United States. … Mapping will be valuable to scholars of Latina/o and Latin American contemporary literature, queer and gender studies, and multi-ethnic U.S. literature; and a companion to students reading works by these twelve authors in undergraduate or graduate courses.” (Manuela Borzone, Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature STTCL, Vol. 46 (1), 2022)“This text may serve as a useful resource for educators wishing to provide students with a contemporary context to the works studied in their courses, and would also be an enjoyable read for the general intellectual.” (Carolyn González, Latino Studies, Vol. 19, 2021)Table of Contents1. Introduction: Mapping South American Latinidad in the United States.2. The Task of the Translator: Daniel Alarcón.3. Bridges across Lima and Washington D.C.: Marie Arana.4. Dreaming in Brazilian: Kathleen De Azevedo.5. It Takes Two to Tango across Montevideo and California: Carolina De Robertis.6. Traveling the Caribbean, Colombia, and the U.S.: Patricia Engel.7. My Poetic Feminism between Peru and the U.S.: Carmen Giménez Smith.8. Gender and Spirituality in Colombia, Cuba and New Jersey: Daisy Hernández.9. The Colombiano of Greenwich Village: Jaime Manrique.10. A Meditation on Parenting from Syria to Peru to the U.S: Farid Matuk.11. From Dirty Wars in Argentina and Latvia to Listening to Music: Julie Sophia Paegle.12. Writing the Chilena NuYorker Experience: Mariana Romo-Carmona.13. Returning to the Fervor of Buenos Aires from the U.S.: Sergio Waisman.

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Book SynopsisHydrocriticism and Colonialism in Latin America is organized around the critical and theoretical “turn” known as hydro-criticism, an innovative approach to the study of the ways in which bodies of water (oceans, seas, rivers, archipelagos, lakes, etc.) impact the study of history, culture, and society. This volume proposes a hydro-critical approach to issues related to the colonial period. The analysed texts demonstrate not only the presence of water and oceanic trajectories as metaphorical devices, but the inherent implication of navigation, ports, islandic territories, drainage systems, floodings and the like in configuration of collective imaginaries, from colonial times to the present. This book encompasses studies of the decisive role water played in the world view from/about the “New World” since the discovery, both for the monarchy and the church, and the impact of oceanic journeys for the advancement of colonization and slavery. In chapters that combine historical, linguistic, literary and ethnographic approaches, this volume constitutes an attempt to expand the scope and methodology of colonial studies. At the same time, the continuity of maritime perspectives reaches the analysis of contemporary literature, thus demonstrating the importance of this critical paradigm for the study of Caribbean cultures. In this respect, studies particularly illuminate the connection between popular beliefs and oceanic dimensions, as well as on issues of gender and ethnicity.Table of Contents1. Introduction: Texts, Textures, and Water Marks2. The Pacific Ocean as a Space of Freedom, Danger, and Economic Success for the Colonial Project in Verdadera descripción de la Provincia y Tierra de Las Esmeraldas3. English and Irish Missionaries in New Spain: A Hydrocolonial Reading of Religion and Empire4. On Paper Ships, Sailors, and Cosmographers: Spanish Maritime Narratives and Political Networks of an Imperial Project5. Imagining a Multi-Modal Digital Corpus of Early Modern Maritime Texts6. Alonso Ramírez’s Circumnavigation of the World (1675–1689) and the Universal Claim to the American Spirit in the Open Seas7. Pantitlán or Desagüe: Technology and Secularization in Colonial Mexico City8. “Water, Only Water on All Parts”: Re/imagining the Middle Passage in Teresa Cárdenas’ Mãe Sereia

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Book SynopsisThis book explores how Canada is imagined primarily by US writers, and what readers and scholars on both sides of the Canada-US border can learn from these recent depictions by examining a selection of US-authored fiction from 9/11 to the present. The novels — and occasionally paintings, films, and musicals — that are the subject of the book provide a deliberately varied set of case studies to probe how US texts, along with works of art produced on both sides of the Canada-US border, uncover moments in Canadian historical and literary studies that have been buried or occluded to protect Canada's self-representation as an exceptional nation. Table of ContentsIntroduction: Laying the Groundwork: Canada’s (In)visibility.Chapter 1: The Missionary Position: The American Roots of Northrop Frye’s Peaceable Kingdom.Chapter 2: Evangeline’s Revisioning: Reading Ben Farmer’s Post-9/11 Evangeline: A Novel. Chapter 3: German Internment Camps in the Maritimes: Another Untold Story in P.S. Duffy’s The Cartographer of No Man’s Land.Chapter 4: Becoming Bird(ie): Exposing Canadian Government Complicity with Forced Adoptions in Christina Sunley’s The Tricking of Freya.Chapter 5: Playing The Odds: Fleeing to Canada in Stewart O’Nan’s Novel.Chapter 6: Turning Away, Going South and West: The Receding Promise of Canada in Future Home of the Living God and The Underground Railroad.Chapter 7: The Limits of Canadian Exceptionalism: Bowling for Columbine, Come From Away, and Nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up.

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Book SynopsisThroughout history, manuscripts have been made and used for religious, artistic, and scientific performances, and this practice continues in most cultures today. By focusing on the role manuscripts have in different kinds of performances, this volume contributes to the evolving field of investigating written artefacts and their functions.The collected essays regard manuscripts as points of intersection where textual, material, and performative aspects converge. The contributors analyse manuscripts in their forms and functions as well as their positioning in the performances for which they were made. These aspects unfold across the volume’s three sections, examining how manuscripts are (1) used backstage, for preparing and giving instructions for performances; (2) taken onstage, contributing to the enactment of performances; and (3) performers in their own right, producing an effect on the audience.The diversified, interdisciplinary, and innovative methodologies of the included papers carry great potential to expand the traditional approaches of manuscript studies and find application outside the contributors’ respective fields.

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