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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 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 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 SynopsisWomen’s Health in Britain and America: Texts and Contexts offers an unparalleled record of women’s health in the United Kingdom and the United States since 1750. Through chapters on pregnancy and childbirth, contraception and abortion, and breast and gynecological cancers, today’s readers can better understand historical precedents for contemporary issues. Introductory overviews present context about the history of medical care for women, such as diagnosis and treatment of specific conditions, medical advances, social and political contexts, and the effects of these on their lived experiences. The book presents a collection of primary texts including archival memoirs, letters, and diaries as well as published fiction, poetry, and medical advice. Women’s Health in Britain and America provides the necessary background for those new to the subject while also offering unique texts that will engage those already immersed in the field. As the political and social discussions around women’s bodies become more contentious and consequential, the history and the multiplicity of voices presented on these pages are more important than ever.Table of Contents 1. History of Women’s Health and Writing About It.- 2. Pregnancy & Childbirth.- 3. Contraception & Abortion.- 4. Breast & Gynecological Cancers.

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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 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 SynopsisTerry Eagleton looks back across sixty years to an extraordinary critical milieu that transformed the study of literature

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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 SynopsisArgues for a decolonial reinterpretation of Sophocles'' classical tragedy, Antigone, that can help us to rethink the anti-colonial politics of militant mourning in the Americas.Sophocles''s classical tragedy, Antigone, is continually reinvented, particularly in the Americas. Theater practitioners and political theorists alike revisit the story to hold states accountable for their democratic exclusions, as Antigone did in disobeying the edict of her uncle, Creon, for refusing to bury her brother, Polynices. Antigone in the Americas not only analyzes the theoretical reception of Antigone, when resituated in the Americas, but further introduces decolonial rumination as a new interpretive methodology through which to approach classical texts. Traveling between modern present and ancient past, Andrés Fabián Henao Castro focuses on metics (resident aliens) and slaves, rather than citizens, making the feminist politics of burial long associated with Antigone relevant for theorizing militant forms of mourning in the global south. Grounded in settler colonial critique, black and woman of color feminisms, and queer and trans of color critique, Antigone in the Americas offers a more radical interpretation of Antigone, one relevant to subjects situated under multiple and interlocking systems of oppression.

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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 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 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 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 SynopsisTrade Review"With a lucid and accessible tour of political theory . . . [Jelly-Schapiro] prepares his readers for astute interpretations of several recent fictional texts and films . . . The book is cultural studies at its best." * Times Higher Education *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction: History, Narrative, and the War on Terror 1 1 • “All the World Was America”: The Long History of Homeland Security 20 2 • “A General Principle of Democracy”: Terror and Colonial Modernity 44 3 • “Choc en Retour”: Security, Terror, Theory 74 4 • “Vanishing Points”: Postcolonial America 105 5 • “This Is Our Threnody”: Writing History as Catastrophe 140 Epilogue: Rupture and Colonial Modernity 163 Notes 179 Bibliography 203

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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 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 SynopsisWe describe people who are consumed or devoured by ambition as if by a predator or an out-of-control inferno. Thinkers since deepest antiquity have raised these questions, approaching the subject of ambition with ambivalence and often trepidationas when the ancient Greek poet Hesiod proposed a differentiation between the good and the bad goddess Eris. Indeed, ambition as a longing for immortal fame seems to be one of the unique hallmarks of the human species. While philosophy has touched only occasionally on the problem of burning ambition, sociology, psychoanalysis, and world literature have provided rich and more revealing descriptions and examples of its shaping role in human history. Drawing on a long and varied tradition of writing on this topic, ranging from the works of Homer through Shakespeare, Freud, and Kafka and from the history of ancient Greece and Rome to the Italian Renaissance and up to the present day (to modernity and the current neoliberal era), Eckart Goebel Trade ReviewGoebel's book is an eloquent study of a chatoyant term and a timeless phenomenon. A brilliantly written essay that argues historically while teaching readers to turn to their own striving in a truly enlightened manner. * Andreas Beyer, Professor for the History of Art, Universität Basel, Switzerland *Eckart Goebel’s Ambition is a tour de force, tracking the complex and circuitous history of the concept through a series of profound analyses and offering inspired and provocative reflections of what has driven, haunted, and debilitated individuals and societies across the millennia. * John T. Hamilton, Harvard University, USA *Table of ContentsIntroduction I. Semantics of Ambition II. Eris - Agon - Ambition III. Ambition in Modernity 1. A New Era of Ambition (Jacob Burckhardt) 2. The Ambition of Equals (Alexis de Tocqueville) 3. Critique of Success (Gustav Ichheiser) 4. Critique of Contemplation (Karl Mannheim) 5. The Ambitious Spoilsport (Roger Caillois) 6. Hesiod’s Return in the Achieving Society (David McClelland) 7. Burning Ambition (Sigmund Freud and Alfred Adler) The Ambition to Reject Ambition: An Afterword with a View to Montaigne 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 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 SynopsisThis book offers a comparative study of emotion in Arabic Islamic and English Christian contemplative texts, c. 1110-1250, contributing to the emerging interest in ‘globalization’ in medieval studies. A.S.Lazikani argues for the necessity of placing medieval English devotional texts in a more global context and seeks to modify influential narratives on the ‘history of emotions’ to enable this more wide-ranging critical outlook. Across eight chapters, the book examines the dialogic encounters generated by comparative readings of Muhyddin Ibn ‘Arabi (1165-1240), ‘Umar Ibn al-Fārid (1181-1235), Abu al-Hasan al-Shushtarī (d. 1269), Ancrene Wisse (c. 1225), and the Wooing Group (c. 1225). Investigating the two-fold ‘paradigms of love’ in the figure of Jesus and in the image of the heart, the (dis)embodied language of affect, and the affective semiotics of absence and secrecy, Lazikani demonstrates an interconnection between the religious traditions of early Christianity and Islam. Table of Contents

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Book SynopsisThis book explores how phenomenological ideas about embodiment, perception, and lived experience are discussed within disability studies, critical race theory, and queer studies. Building on these disciplines, it offers readings of memoirs and novels that address the consequences of stigmatization and the bodily dimensions of social differences. The texts include Robert F. Murphy’s The Body Silent, Simi Linton’s My Body Politic, Rod Michalko’s The Two-in-One: Walking with Smokie, Walking with Blindness, three memoirs by Stephen Kuusisto, Vincent O. Carter’s The Bern Book, as well as two novels, Matthew Griffin’s Hide and Armistead Maupin’s Maybe the Moon. All of the texts discussed in this book negotiate the significance of bodily and perceptual habits, the influence of language and culture on embodiment, the importance of relationality and community, the severe effects of misrecognition, and the possibilities of emancipation and social recognition. Hence, they are read as pioneering contributions to the emerging field of critical phenomenology.Table of Contents1 Introduction2 Disability and Embodiment 3 Blindness and Perception 4 Blackness and Visibility 5 Gayness and Invisibility

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Book SynopsisThis textbook takes a new approach to teaching creative writing that centers the concerns of multicultural students. It focuses on the experiences of those who wish to write through their diverse identities, including ethnic, cultural, racial, national, regional, and international identity as well as gender identity, sexual preference, class position, and disability. Combining the study of culturally diverse literature with the process of writing, students are encouraged to engage with various texts and to use them to inspire their own work. Organized around a series of writing prompts and discussions of literary readings that address identity, place, perception, family, community, encounters, inheritance, and resistance, this book offers both writers and teachers a way to engage with the practice of writing from a multicultural perspective.Table of ContentsA DIVERSE APPROACH TO TEACHING CREATIVE WRITING How to Use This Book FOR TEACHERS: DESIGNING THE COURSE Creating the Classroom Class Size Class Level Confidentiality Workshop Style Reading Work Aloud Literature Discussion Literary Papers Creative Prompts Writing, Reading, and Responding In-class Writing Prompts Out of Class Writing and Reading in Class Out of Class Writing and Responding Portfolios Revisions Revision Notes Reflection Statement FOR STUDENTS AND TEACHERS: READINGS AND PROMPTS Time And Place And Ritual Introductory Material Identity Write About Your Name Write About Hair Write About Clothes Write About Physical Appearance Write About Food Write About Language Place Write About Home Write About Departure Write About the Loss of Place Write About Feeling Trapped Write About a Landscape Write About an Airport Perception Write About Being Misperceived Write About Stereotypes Write About a Political Event That Impacted You Write About Rejection Write About Hiding Yourself Write About Code Switching Family Write About Parent-Child Relationships Write About Parental Expectations Write About an Older Relative Write About the Loss of Someone Connected to Your Culture Write About Forbidden Relationships Write About Romantic Relationships Community Write About a Communal Cultural Experience Write About a Neighborhood Write About a School Experience Write About a Holiday Write About Class Position and Cultural Identity Write About Music Encounters Write About an Encounter with Someone of a Different Culture Write About an Interaction that Shifted Your Sense of Identity Write About Explaining Your Culture Write about Microaggressions Write an Argument in Dialogue Focusing on Culture Write About Travel Inheritance Write About the First Stories You Were Told Write About Your Origins Write About Returning to Homeland Write about Superstitions Write From a Photograph or a Series of Photographs Write a Letter/Poem Addressed to Children Resistance Write About Obstacles/Limitations/Restrictions Write About an Act of Resistance Write About an Object You’ve Held Onto Write About a Secret Write about Movement Write In Multiple Languages Self-Designed Assignment Approaches Write From Anger Write From Imagination Write From Humor Experiments/Innovations Form /Structure Narrative Perspective Main Characters Poetry and Prose Text and Visual Reflection: A Writer’s Identity WRITERS AND TEACHERS Chrystos: If Education Is Not Multicultural, It Isn't Education Susan Muaddi Darraj: The Curriculum: How I Learned to Be a Writer Balli Kaur Jaswal: Imaginary Homelands and Moveable Feasts: An Indian Diaspora Woman Writer’s Perspective David Mura: Questions of Race & Audience for BIPOC Writers Khaled Mattawa: The Eternal Gain that is Translation Rebecca Balcárcel: Loosening the Collars Lisa Suhair Majaj: A Mapmaker’s Journey T.J. Anderson III: Call and Response: Writing Lives REFERENCES Literary Works Works Cited

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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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Book SynopsisThis book is the first to analyse how BBC radio presented Anglophone Caribbean literature and in turn aided and influenced the shape of imaginative writing in the region. Glyne A. Griffith examines Caribbean Voices broadcasts to the region over a fifteen-year period and reveals that though the program’s funding was colonial in orientation, the content and form were antithetical to the very colonial enterprise that had brought the program into existence. Part literary history and part literary biography, this study fills a gap in the narrative of the region’s literary history. Table of ContentsContents Permissions Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1 The Genesis of Caribbean Voices: People and Policies Chapter 2 The Critics’ Circle Chapter 3 Caribbean Voices and Competing Visions of Post-Colonial Community Chapter 4 A Sustaining Epistolarly Community Chapter 5 The Naipaul / Mittelholzer Years: 1954-58 Afterword Notes Works Cited Appendix Index

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Book SynopsisThe study of romantic modes of thought

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Book SynopsisThis book examines how the early twentieth-century Irish Renaissance (Irish Literary Revival) inspired the Chinese Renaissance (the May Fourth generation) of writers to make agentic choices and translingual exchanges. It sheds a new light on “May Fourth” and on the Irish Renaissance by establishing that the Irish Literary Revival (1900-1922) provided an alternative decolonizing model of resistance for the Chinese Renaissance to that provided by the western imperial center. The book also argues that Chinese May Fourth intellectuals translated Irish Revivalist plays by W. B. Yeats, Lady Gregory, Seán O’Casey and Synge and that Chinese peasants performed these plays throughout China during the 1920s and 1930s as a form of anti-imperial resistance. Yet this literary exchange was not simply going one way, since Yeats, Lady Gregory, Synge and O’Casey were also influenced by Chinese developments in literature and politics. Therefore this was a reciprocal encounter based on the circulation of Anti-colonial ideals and mutual transformation.Table of Contents1. Introduction.- 2. Yeats and Lu Xun: Postcolonised Modernists?.- 3.How Lu Xun translated Yeats and the Irish Revival.- 4. Yeats’s Reception in China: How Chinese May Fourth Writers Translated Yeats and the Irish Revival.- 5. Tempests in Tenements and Teahouses: A Comparison of Irish Revivalist Seán O’Casey’s trilogy of plays with Lao She’s Teahouse.- 6. Spreading the News Lady Gregory’s Plays Made it all the Way to China! A Gendered Comparison of “Founding Mothers” Lady Gregory in Revivalist Ireland and Qiu Jin in China.- 7. How Was the New Woman Constructed in Revivalist Ireland and May Fourth China? A Comparison of Socialist and Feminist Writers Ding Ling and Eva Gore-Booth.- 8. Irish Revivalist J. M. Synge and Chinese May Fourth Playwright Cao Yu: ‘Boys’ Who ‘Play’ in the Postcolonised Wilderness?.- 9. Did Ye Ever Hear of the Christmas Rising by Liu Bannong? Receptions of the 1916 Irish Easter Rising in Republican era China.- 10. Conclusion

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Book SynopsisStephen Frosh is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychosocial Studies at Birkbeck, Universityof London, UK, and author of numerous books on psychoanalysis and psychosocial studies,including Hauntings: Psychoanalysis and Ghostly Transmissions (2013) and A Brief Introduction toPsychoanalytic Theory (2012).

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Book Synopsis

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