ELT & Literary Studies Books

Book SynopsisA seminal contribution to the corpus of Basho translations and the first to present English renditions in the original 5-7-5 form.

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Book SynopsisPulitzer Prize--winning author Richard Ford is a leading figure among American writers of the post--World War II generation. His novel The Sportswriter (1986), along with its sequel Independence Day (1995)--the first novel to win both the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award in the same year--made Frank Bascombe, Ford's suburban Everyman, as much a part of the American literary landscape as John Updike's Rabbit Angstrom. With three other novels, a critically acclaimed volume of short stories, and a trilogy of novellas to his credit, Ford's reputation and his place in the canon is certainly secure. In Conversations with Richard Ford, the first collection of this author's interviews and profiles, editor Huey Guagliardo has gathered together twenty-eight revealing conversations spanning a quarter of a century. These show that Ford is a writer of paradoxes. He was born in the South, but unlike many southern-born writers of his generation he eschews writing set in just one region. When his first novel, A Piece of My Heart (1976), was so often compared to William Faulkner's work, Ford disdained setting another novel in his native South. A recurring question that Ford addresses in these interviews is his view of the role of place in both his fiction and his life. ""I need to be certain that I have a new stimulus,"" he says, explaining his traveling lifestyle. Not wishing to be confined by place in his writing any more than in his own life, Ford rejects the narrow concerns of regionalism, serving notice in several interviews that he is interested in exploring the entire country, that his goal is ""to write a literature that is good enough for America."" Ford also discusses the broader themes of his work, such as the struggle to overcome loneliness, the consoling potential of language, and the redeeming quality of human affection. This American writer talks extensively about his abiding devotion to language and of his profound belief in the power of narrative to forge human connections. Words, Ford says, can ""narrow that space Emerson calls the infinite remoteness that separates people."" The interviews also provide rare glimpses into the personal life of this intriguing and complex man. Ford discusses his fondness for motorcycles, Brittany spaniels, bird hunting, fishing, and Bruce Springsteen. He also talks about his reputation as a ""tough guy,"" shares his political views, and admits to being ""drawn to places where life is a little near the edge."" Huey Guagliardo is a professor and coordinator of English at Louisiana State University at Eunice. He edited Perspectives on Richard Ford (University Press of Mississippi).

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Book SynopsisThe present collection of 16 original essays offers fresh perspectives on Orlando through a unique attention to Woolf's sentences.

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Book SynopsisRead Shakespeare’s plays in all their brilliance—and understand what every word means! Don’t be intimidated by Shakespeare! These popular guides make the Bard’s plays accessible and enjoyable.Each No Fear guide contains: The complete text of the original play A line-by-line translation that puts Shakespeare into everyday language A complete list of characters, with descriptions Plenty of helpful commentary

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Book SynopsisThe third edition of Hamlet offers a completely new introduction to this rich, mysterious play, examining Shakespeare''s transformation of an ancient Nordic legend into a drama whose philosophical, psychological, political, and spiritual complexities have captivated audiences world-wide for over 400 years. Focusing on the ways in which Shakespeare re-imagined the revenge plot and its capacity to investigate the human experiences of love, grief, obligation, and memory, Heather Hirschfeld explores the play''s cultural and theatrical contexts, its intricate textual issues, its vibrant critical traditions and controversies, and its history of performance and adaptation by celebrated directors, actors, and authors. Supplemented by an updated reading list, extensive illustrationsand helpful appendices, this editionalso features revised commentary notes explicitly designed for the student reader, offering the verybest in contemporary criticism of this great tragedy.Table of ContentsIntroduction; Note on the text; List of characters; The play; Reading list; Appendices.

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Book SynopsisFew works in world literature have inspired so vast an audience in nations with radically different languages and cultures as theMahabharata. Written some 2,000 years ago and probably the longest Indian epic ever composed, it is a story of dynastic struggle that culminates in a fatal clash between two branches of a single ruling family. It is a moral and philosophical tale as well as a historical one. In his introduction, Sanskritist B. A. van Nooten notes that apart from William Buck's rendition no other English version has been able to capture the blend of religion and martial spirit that pervades the original epic.Table of ContentsPublisher’s Preface Introduction PART I. IN THE BEGINNING 1. A Mine of Jewels and Gems 2. The Ring and the Well 3. Fire and Flame 4. Indraprastha 5. The Falling Sand PART II. IN THE MIDDLE 6. Nala and Damayanti 7. The Th ousand-Petaled Lotus 8. An Iron Net 9. Virata 10. The Invasion 11. Do Not Tell 12. Sanjaya Returns 13. Trees of Gold 14. The Enchanted Lake 15. The Night PART III. IN THE END 16. The Blade of Grass 17. The Lonely Encounter 18. Parikshita 19. The Timeless Path 20. The City of Gates Notes Reference List of Characters

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Book SynopsisReading Children’s Literature: A Critical Introduction offers insights into the major discussions and debates currently animating the field of children's literature. Informed by recent scholarship and interest in cultural studies and critical theory, it is a compact core text that introduces students to the historical contexts, genres, and issues of children’s literature. A beautifully designed and illustrated supplement to individual literary works assigned, it also provides helpful apparatus that makes it a complete resource for working with children’s literature both during and after the course.The second edition includes a new chapter on children's literature and popular culture (including film, television, and merchandising) and has been updated throughout to reflect recent scholarship and new offerings in children’s media.Trade Review“I am not a fan of textbooks. I make an exception, however, for Reading Children’s Literature, which I assign every time I teach a children’s literature course. More importantly, my students are also fans: the book allows them to join important conversations in the field from the very beginning. The introduction addresses common dismissive attitudes about children’s literature, provides tools for becoming a careful critical reader, and sets up key terms. I highly recommend this book to any instructor of children’s literature.” — Meghan Sweeney, University of North Carolina Wilmington“My deep dismay when Reading Children’s Literature went out of print increases my delight at what the new edition of the textbook has to offer. This second edition includes new material on popular culture and children’s literature, racism and racialization in children’s literature, and sustained attention to dis/ability in children’s literature. I cannot wait to dive into this text with students!” — Mary Juzwik, Michigan State University“There’s much to like about this book. Throughout, there is an awareness of difficult issues unique to children’s literature, such as audience and selection, as well as issues like race, ability, and gender. The writing is accessible and informed by theory, but not mired in it. The new edition includes a new chapter on children’s literature and popular culture that provides language for analyzing film and television.” — Rhonda Brock-Servais, Longwood University“Carrie Hintz and Eric Tribunella have updated this text by adding brand new content and by building on compelling existing material from the first edition. With new features like review questions and a brand new glossary of the whole book, this new edition will be sure to please those who are already familiar with the first edition as well as those who are reading this textbook for the very first time.” — Lance Weldy, Francis Marion UniversityTable of Contents PREFACE What Distinguishes this Book? How this Book Is Organized What’s New INTRODUCTION FOR STUDENTS Common Assumptions about Children’s Literature What It Means to Read Critically Reading Closely Considering Literary History and Forms Examining Historical and Cultural Contexts Using Critical and Theoretical Concepts and Approaches Why Read Children’s Literature Critically? Dual Address and Complexity Linguistic and Narrative Complexity Didacticism and the Lessons of Children’s Literature The Transmission of Cultural Values Subversive or Hegemonic? Pleasure and Unpleasure CHAPTER 1: HISTORICIZING CHILDHOOD Historical Models of Childhood The Romantic Child The Sinful Child The Working Child The Sacred Child The Child as Radically Other The Developing Child The Child as Miniature Adult Using Models of Childhood to Read Critically The Uncertain Boundaries of Childhood Child Crime Child Sex Child Soldiers Child Embodiment and Disability Child Privilege and Race Children’s Literature and the History of Childhood Reading Critically: The History of Childhood Anne of Green Gables Explorations Review Reflect Investigate Suggested Readings Approaches to Teaching Anne of Green Gables CHAPTER 2: THE EARLY HISTORY OF CHILDREN’S LITERATURE Questions of Definition Defining Literature Defining Children’s Literature Children’s Literature as Genre The “Birth” of Children’s Literature? John Newbery Newbery’s Contemporaries: Thomas Boreman and Mary Cooper Sarah Fielding and the First Children’s Novel? General-Audience and Crossover Works Aesop’s Fables Chapbooks Folk and Fairy Tales Mixed-Age Works as Children’s Classics Instructional Works and Didactic Literature Textbooks Religious Works The Sunday School and Evangelical Movements The Rational Moralists Didactic Poetry and Fiction The Golden Age The Growth of the Children’s Literature Industry The Crossover Appeal of Golden Age Books The Tensions that Define Children’s Literature The Second Golden Age Reading Critically: The History of Children’s Literature Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Explorations Review Reflect Investigate Suggested Readings Approaches to Teaching Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland CHAPTER 3: POETRY Nursery Rhymes, Verse, and Poetry A History of Poetry for Children Bunyan and Watts Mother Goose The Romantic Poets and Nineteenth-Century Children’s Poetry Forgotten Children’s Poets of the Nineteenth Century Nineteenth-Century Humorous and Nonsense Poetry Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century Poetry Contemporary Poetry as a Reflection on Self and Other An Expanded Canon Poetry Picturebooks, Concrete Poetry, and Verse Novels Children’s Popular Culture and Poetry Poetry Written by Children The Separate Tradition of Poetry for Children Questions to Ask When Approaching a Poem for Children Common Figures of Speech Typical Patterned Poetry for Children Typical Metrical Forms for Poetry in English Reading Critically: Poetry “Escape at Bedtime” from A Child’s Garden of Verses Explorations Review Reflect Investigate Suggested Readings Approaches to Teaching “Escape at Bedtime” CHAPTER 4: FAIRY TALES Definition of the Fairy Tale Fairy Tales and Revision Fairy Tales Worldwide Fairy Tales and Ancient Myth A History of the Literary Fairy Tale in the Western World The Early Modern Roots of the Literary Fairy Tale Fairy Tales in the Nineteenth Century Oral Tales versus Literary Fairy Tales Fairy Tales: Mass Media and Film The Social Function of Fairy Tales Fairy Tales and Unhappy Endings Interpreting Fairy Tales Psychoanalytical Approaches Sociohistorical Approaches Feminist Responses to Fairy Tales Fairy-Tale Revision as Critical Practice Queer Fairy Tales Fairy Tales and Disability Race in Disney’s Fairy Tale Films and Television Race in Fairy Tales and Folk Tales Reading Critically: Fairy Tales Trina Schart Hyman’s Retelling of “Little Red Riding Hood” Explorations Review Reflect Investigate Suggested Readings Approaches to Teaching “Little Red Riding Hood” CHAPTER 5: PICTUREBOOKS, GRAPHIC NOVELS, AND DIGITAL TEXTS Defining the Picturebook A History of Picturebooks Precursors to Picturebooks The Picturebook as a Commercial Form Twentieth-Century Picturebooks How Words and Images Relate Wordless Picturebooks The Relationship of Authors and Illustrators Artistic Choices in the Production of Picturebooks The Size of the Book The Size of the Picture against the Page The Composition of Objects on the Page The Use, Amount, and Quality of Color The Strength of Line The Medium Used Some Media Used in the Production of Picturebooks Mixed Media Setting Text within the Pictures Concerns about Picturebooks Availability and Cost of Picturebooks Books as Toys New Frontiers for Visual Texts Reinventing the Concept Book Graphic Novels A Brief History of the Graphic Novel Graphic Narratives and the Child and YA Reader Reading Graphic Novels Critically Terms for the Analysis of Graphic Novels Digital Media for Children Forking Path Storylines Print and Online Combinations and Relationships Reading Critically: Picturebooks There Is a Bird on Your Head! Explorations Review Reflect Investigate Suggested Readings Approaches to Teaching There Is a Bird on Your Head! CHAPTER 6: DOMESTICITY AND ADVENTURE Defining Domesticity and Adventure Domestic Fiction for Children Realism and Everyday Life The Home as a Dangerous Place Illness and Disease Power Relations Social Class Psychological Complexity Adventure Fiction for Children Power Relations and Superheroics Escaping Civilization or Home Colonialism and Imperialism Hybridity: Domestic Adventures and Adventurous Domesticity Questions of Audience: Boy and Girl Readers of Domestic Fiction and Adventure Contemporary Domestic and Adventure Stories Contemporary Examples Reimagining Adventure and Domestic Fiction Adventure and Domesticity in Picturebooks Reading Critically: Domesticity and Adventure Holes Explorations Review Reflect Investigate Suggested Readings Approaches to Teaching Holes CHAPTER 7: HISTORICAL FICTION Defining the Historical Novel Common Moments or Events in Historical Fiction for Children The Use of Historical Settings in Children’s Literature Trauma and Historical Children’s Fiction Nostalgia and Nationalism Popular Culture and Series Books Awards for Historical Children’s Literature Fiction versus History Rethinking the Writing of History The Strengths of Historical Fiction Problems with Representing the Past Accuracy Authenticity Presentism Artistic Freedom and Historical Responsibility Controversy and Historical Fiction The Use of Afterwords, Authors’ Notes, and Epilogues Time-Travel and Time-Slip Narratives Reading Critically: Historical Fiction Johnny Tremain and My Brother Sam Is Dead Explorations Review Reflect Investigate Suggested Readings Approaches to Teaching Johnny Tremain CHAPTER 8: NONFICTION—HISTORY, SCIENCE, LIFE WRITING Nonfiction and Informational Books: Some Distinctions Conduct Literature Nineteenth-Century Conduct Books Reinventing the Boy’s Own Book and Girl’s Own Book Tradition Contemporary Health and Sexual Education Books Life Writing: Biography, Autobiography, Memoir, Diaries Life Writing for Children Autobiographies, Memoirs, and Diaries Picturebook and Graphic Autobiographies, Biographies, and Memoirs History Writing Exploring the Past in Nonfiction Innovative Approaches to Historical Nonfiction Science and Discovery Early Science Books: A Sense of Wonder Contemporary Science Books Experimentation in Science Writing for Children Critical Issues in Nonfiction Fictional Stories in Nonfiction Simplification and Complexity Accuracy and New Research Reading Critically: Nonfiction We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball Explorations Review Reflect Investigate Suggested Readings Approaches to Teaching We Are the Ship Approaches to Teaching We Are the Ship Some Fiction–Nonfiction Pairs and Group Historical Fiction and Nonfiction World War II Books Science, the Natural World, and Technology Books Additional Resources CHAPTER 9: FANTASY AND REALISM Genre Genre as a Guide for Readers Fantasy Early Roots of Fantasy Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Fantasy Postwar Twentieth-Century Fantasy Recent Children’s and YA Fantasy Types of the Fantastic Anthropomorphic Fantasy Secondary Worlds and High Fantasy Fantasy that Inhabits Our World Experiencing the Fantastic Fantasy as a Reversal of Expectations Fantasy Literature and Responsibility The Fantastic and the Natural World Realism Defining Realism and the “New Realism” Early New Realism and the Problem Novel Contemporary New Realism Diversity in New Realist Fiction New Realism and Series Books New Realism and Trauma Fantasy and Realism in Picturebooks Authors Working in Both Fantasy and Realism Literary Genres as a Response to Children’s Needs Fantasy Elements in Realistic Texts, Realistic Elements in Fantasy Texts Magical Realism Reading Critically: Fantasy and Realism Shadowshaper Explorations Review Reflect Investigate Suggested Readings Approaches to Teaching Shadowshaper CHAPTER 10: RACE, ETHNICITY, AND CULTUREThe History of Race, Ethnicity, and Culture in Children’s LiteratureThe Early History of Racial Representation in Children’s LiteratureAfrican American Children’s LiteratureJewish Children’s LiteratureLatinx Children’s LiteratureAsian American Children’s LiteratureNative Americans and First Nations in Children’s LiteratureA Word about Ethnicity and CultureThe Need for Diverse BooksAwardsKey Terms and ControversiesAuthorship and OwnershipAudiencePerspectiveReclamationAuthenticity and AccuracyArtistic Freedom and Ethical ResponsibilityReading Critically: Race in Children’s LiteratureThe Snowy DayExplorationsReviewReflectInvestigateSuggested ReadingsApproaches to Teaching The Snowy DayCHAPTER 11: GENDERS AND SEXUALITIESThe Significance of Gender and Sexuality in Children’s CultureGender and Sexuality in ChildhoodToys, Clothes, and BathroomsDisneyGender and Sexuality in Children’s LiteratureDefining Sex/GenderSex and GenderGender as PerformanceGender as IdentityGender and ClassChildhood GenderBoys and GirlsTomboys and SissiesBoys and Boyhood in Children’s LiteratureThe Boys’ School StoryBoys’ Adventure FictionThe Bad-Boy BookThe Feral TaleThe Unconventional Boy in Children’s LiteratureBoys and Popular LiteratureGirls and Girlhood in Children’s LiteratureThe Girls’ School StoryDomestic and Family StoriesGirls’ Adventure FictionOrphans and Good GirlsRealist Fiction and Problem Novels for and about GirlsGirls’ Contemporary Series FictionThe Diverse Girlhoods of Children’s LiteratureSexuality in Children’s LiteratureDefining SexualityThe Sexuality of ChildrenQueering the Classics of Children’s LiteratureLGBT Representation in Picturebooks and Fiction for Younger ReadersLGBT Representation in Young Adult LiteratureAwards for LGBT Children’s and Young Adult LiteratureReading Critically: Gender and Sexuality in Children’s LiteratureA Little PrincessExplorationsReviewReflectInvestigateSuggested ReadingsApproaches to Teaching A Little PrincessCHAPTER 12: CENSORSHIP AND SELECTIONCensorship: Definitions and Key TermsCensorshipChallengesSelectionPrizing and CensorshipThe First Amendment and Freedom of SpeechChildren’s Vulnerability versus Children’s ResilienceKey Moments in the Censorship of Children’s LiteratureSpecific Reasons for CensorshipSelf-Censorship/Subtle CensorshipIndividuals versus GroupsSelection and a Parent’s Rights Critical Reading as Anti-Censorship Activity Reading Critically: Censorship and Selection The Harry Potter Series Explorations Review Reflect Investigate Suggested Readings Approaches to Teaching Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone CHAPTER 13: CHILDREN’S LITERATURE AND POPULAR CULTURE Popular Culture Defining Popular Culture Popular Culture, Ideology, and the Culture Industry Popular Genres and Genre Fiction Science Fiction Utopian and Dystopian Fiction Detective and Mystery Fiction Horror Fiction Romance Fiction Formula Fiction Adaptations of Children’s Literature as Popular Culture Children’s Literature as Inspiration Stage Adaptations Film Adaptations Race in Children’s Adaptations Children’s Television Adaptations Theorizing Adaptation and Transformation Defining Adaptation Transformation and Intertextuality Fanfiction: The Pleasures and Possibilities of Adaptation and Subversive Repetition Analyzing Children’s Film The Gaze The Semiotics of Film Common Terms for Film Analysis Reading Critically: Children’s Literature and Popular Culture The Fault in Our Stars Explorations Review Reflect Investigate Suggested Readings Approaches to Teaching The Fault in Our Stars Glossary Works CitedChildren’s Book Awards The Caldecott Medal (since 1970) The Newbery Medal (since 1970) Phoenix Award Phoenix Picture Book Award Acknowledgments Permissions Acknowledgments Index

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Book SynopsisPoetry by Sebastiano Aglieco Annelisa Alleva Elisa Biagini Elisa Davoglio Alessandro De Francesco Sonia Gentili Giuliano Mesa Luigi Nacci Elio Pecora Maria Luisa Spaziani Andrea Zanzotto Federico Zuliani Edited by Brunella Antomarini Berenice Cocciolillo Rosa Filardi On the occasion of John Cabot University’s fortieth anniversary, we are proud to present the fifth edition of the InVerse poetry anthology. In publishing InVerse, the University is true to its deepest mission and commitment: to bring together Anglo-American and Italian cultures. Franco Pavoncello PresidentTable of ContentsIntroduction The Task of the Translator Today Translators Credits Andrea Zanzotto Giuliano Mesa Frederico Zuliani Elisa Biagini Luigi Nacci Alessandro De Francesco Elisa Davoglio Maria Luisa Spaziani Elio Pecora Annelisa Alleva Sebastiano Aglieco Sonia Gentili Biographies

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Book SynopsisReveals Language poetry in its nascent stage, with letters written by Bruce Andrews, Charles Bernstein, and others in intense and intimate conversation regarding poetry and poetics; the contemporary poetry and arts scenes; publication venues, journals, and magazines; and issues of community, camaraderie, and friendship.

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Book SynopsisThis illustrated catalog was published to accompany exhibitions at the Grolier Club and the Stanford University Libraries in 2010. This catalog includes introductory essays about the life and work of the Shropshire novelist and poet, Mary Webb (1881-1927), as well as synopses of her novels. Webb's work is explored in depth through over 180 items, many of which are Webb's original manuscripts and typescripts. Included as a second volume is a special edition of Webb's hitherto unpublished juvenile work "Clematisa & Percival", printed letterpress on imported mould-made paper, with six full color tip-ins of artwork by William E. Bishop created specially for this publication.Table of ContentsVol. 1 Essays and catalogue.Vol. 2 Clematisa & Percival

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Book SynopsisNiccolò Machiavelli taught that political leaders must be prepared to do evil so that good may come of it, and his name has been a byword ever since for duplicity and immorality. Is his sinister reputation deserved? In answering this question Quentin Skinner traces the course of Machiavelli''s adult life, from his time as Second Chancellor of the Florentine republic, during which he met with kings, the pope, and the Holy Roman Emperor; to the fall of the republic in 1512; to his death in 1527. It was after the fall of the Republic that Machiavelli composed his main political works: The Prince, the Discourses, and The History of Florence. In this second edition of his Very Short Introduction Skinner includes new material on The Prince, showing how Machiavelli developed his neo-classical political theory, through engaging in continual dialogue with the ancient Roman moralists and historians, especially Cicero and Livy. The aim of political leaders, Machiavelli argues, should be to act virtuously so far as possible, but to stand ready ''to be not good'' when this course of action is dictated by necessity. Exploring the pivotal concept of princely virtù to be found in classical and Renaissance humanist texts, Skinner brings new light to Machiavelli''s philosophy of a willingness to do whatever may be necessary - whether moral or otherwise -to maintain a position of power. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Trade ReviewQuentin Skinner's Machiavelli: A short introduction, published nearly forty years ago and now issued in a new edition, remains a frontrunner in the field. [...] The excellence of Skinner's book lies chiefly in its cool treatment of Machiavelli in his immediate context including his encounters with princes, Florence's political tergiversations, Italy being overrun by foreign armies, and his family background, education and readings in the classics. Skinner's aim was "to serve as a recording angel, not a hanging judge", and he therefore sought to avoid the "defeasible standards of the present as a means of praising or blaming the past". * Laura Martines, The Times Literary Supplement *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1: The Diplomat 2: The Adviser to Princes 3: The Theorist of Liberty 4: The Historian of Florence Further reading Index

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Book SynopsisThough North Korea holds the attention of the world, it is still rare for us to hear North Korean voices, beyond those few who have escaped. Known only by his pen name, the poet and author ‘Bandi’ stands as one of the most distinctive and original dissident writers to emerge from the country, and his work is all the more striking for the fact that he continues to reside in North Korea, writing in secret, with his work smuggled out of the country by supporters and relatives. The Red Years represents the first collection of Bandi’s poetry to be made available in English. As he did in his first work The Accusation, Bandi here gives us a rare glimpse into everyday life and survival in North Korea. Singularly poignant and evocative, The Red Years stands as a testament to the power of the human spirit to endure and resist even the most repressive of regimes.Trade ReviewAs a collection of poems by an anonymous North Korean dissident sees the light here for the first time, Katie Law learns the extraordinary story of how he risked his life to smuggle his work out of the country ... The Red Years, a slim volume of 51 short poems, makes for pretty depressing reading, the brutality of life under Kim Il-sung and his son Kim Jong-il expressed even more crudely than in the stories. * Evening Standard *In 'The Red Years', we are shown the possibility of this kind of communal solidarity persisting. The collection, then, is a fragment of this private enclave – the ardent defense of an interiority unbroken by propaganda. * NK News *Powerful insights into a world behind walls. * Praise for Bandi’s The Accusation, Guardian *Courageous and confounding ... It's a quiet privilege to be given access to the voiceless by listening to such vivid and uncompromised storytelling. * Praise for Bandi’s The Accusation, New Statesman *A fierce indictment of life in the totalitarian North. * Praise for Bandi’s The Accusation, New York Times *Spare, direct, unflinching and bitterly angry. * Praise for Bandi’s The Accusation, Observer *Bandi [presents] a world in which North Koreans are nuanced: broken-hearted, idealistic, still full of life. * Praise for Bandi’s The Accusation, Times Literary Supplement *Its very existence is still a hopeful symbol that change is inevitable, if not imminent. * Praise for Bandi’s The Accusation, Vice *Fascinating and chilling. Heartfelt and heartbreaking. * Praise for Bandi’s The Accusation, Margaret Atwood *Table of ContentsPreface Poem 1. Barren Earth A New Arirang for the North Green Leaves, Falling Blizzard Bloody Fall A Maiden’s Window Song of the Fire Swallows Chajabi (The Hitchhiker) Ugly, White Snow The Mill on the Mountain New Seongcheon Station 2. Exhausted Heart Song of the Red People Roundabout Blues Toads No Ingredients Blues Idol 50 Years of Red Five Thieves Blues Stepmother The Song of Kim Juseok Heartsick Red Locomotive Night at the Military Camp Affliction in the Red House 3. Longing for You, My Love One Heart Long, Long Winter Nights Ah! KBS Educational Channel My Love How Much I Love You Please Deliver Just This Blow, South Wind This Lonely Life I Awaited You, My Love 4. Attached to a Life Youth is a Forking Road O Azaleas Song of Life Pine Trees Thoughts of Mother Woman of Pure Love Oak Tree in Winter A Man Your Lover 5. Wishes Bandi (Firefly) Landscape White with Snow Why I Love Wildflowers Me for Myself The Whistling Man Today The World Where People Live Open-minded Life Sow Love, Reap Love A Dream Afterword: Bandi’s Dream - Do Hee-yun

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewAmong its many strengths, Siegfried’s edition enriches our understanding of Cavendish’s engagement with contemporary, especially mathematical thought, as well as with ancient Epicureanism. This accomplishment alone is of enormous value to Cavendish, to intellectual history, and to early modern women’s studies. The introduction is written with sufficient clarity to render it accessible to undergraduates as well as with a sophistication guaranteed to appeal to advanced scholars. The presentation of the texts together with the notes makes the volume highly usable to students at every level of expertise. The editor’s knowledge of relevant scholarship is impressive and never tendentious. Scholarship has a tendency to bog down; this volume provides a new, refreshing take on our understanding of the early modern period.—Reid BarbourRoy C. Moose Distinguished Professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill"Among its many strengths, Siegfried’s edition enriches our understanding of Cavendish’s engagement with contemporary, especially mathematical thought, as well as with ancient Epicureanism. This accomplishment alone is of enormous value to Cavendish, to intellectual history, and to early modern women’s studies. The introduction is written with sufficient clarity to render it accessible to undergraduates as well as with a sophistication guaranteed to appeal to advanced scholars. The presentation of the texts together with the notes makes the volume highly usable to students at every level of expertise. The editor’s knowledge of relevant scholarship is impressive and never tendentious. Scholarship has a tendency to bog down; this volume provides a new, refreshing take on our understanding of the early modern period." -- Reid Barbour, University of North Carolina at Chapel HillTable of ContentsIllustrations xvAbbreviations xviiAcknowledgments xixINTRODUCTION 1POEMS AND FANCIES with THE ANIMAL PARLIAMENT 57Dedications and Prefaces 58Part 1 75Part 2 138Part 3 226Part 4 275Part 5 308The Animal Parliament 347The Conclusion 363APPENDIX 1: Prose Omitted from the 1664 and 1668 Editions of Poems and Fancies 367APPENDIX 2: Comparative Sample Poems from the 1653 Edition of Poems and Fancies 369Bibliography 377Index of Poem Titles 401Index of First Lines 411Index 421

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Book SynopsisThis new edition of Anthology of Classical Myth offers selections from key Near Eastern texts—the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, Epic of Creation (Enuma Elish), and Atrahasis; the Hittite Song of Emergence; and the flood story from the book of Genesis—thereby enabling students to explore the many similarities between ancient Greek and Mesopotamian mythology and enhancing its reputation as the best and most complete collection of its kind.Trade ReviewReview of the first edition: "This book is a treasure-trove. It will be hugely useful to instructors teaching any level of mythology course. Not only does it provide, under one cover, good translations of the two complete books essential to every course (Theogony; Homeric Hymns), but it also offers hundreds of pages of additional primary material. . . . No other book in English offers such a wide range of well-translated and important sources. This will be the perfect complement to courses in myth and ancient civilization, making exploration of the mythic heritage richer and more intellectually exciting for all. . . . The quality of translation is universally high—passages are simple, direct, accurate, yet preserve (as the editors wished) a good sense of the native stylistic variations found in the range of excerpts." —Richard Martin, Stanford UniversityReview of the first edition: "I am astonished by the simplicity of the idea, and, at the same time, the complexity of the effort, that joined to produce this outstanding work . . . the organization is impeccable and the selection is provocative. [An] invaluable contribution to the way we teach Classical myth at the university level." —Monica Cyrino, University of New MexicoReview of the first edition: "I believe any mythology teacher who uses primary texts should order this volume for their classes; I certainly will. While the combination of Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns in one volume is in itself welcome, the addition of Apollodorus, Pausanias, Lucian, and Ovid's Heroides, among many others, should prove irresistible to experienced teachers of myth. . . . The introductory materials are very clear and well presented." —Robin Mitchell-Boyask, Temple University

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Book SynopsisThis new edition of Anthology of Classical Myth offers selections from key Near Eastern texts—the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, Epic of Creation (Enuma Elish), and Atrahasis; the Hittite Song of Emergence; and the flood story from the book of Genesis—thereby enabling students to explore the many similarities between ancient Greek and Mesopotamian mythology and enhancing its reputation as the best and most complete collection of its kind.Trade ReviewReview of the first edition: "This book is a treasure-trove. It will be hugely useful to instructors teaching any level of mythology course. Not only does it provide, under one cover, good translations of the two complete books essential to every course (Theogony; Homeric Hymns), but it also offers hundreds of pages of additional primary material. . . . No other book in English offers such a wide range of well-translated and important sources. This will be the perfect complement to courses in myth and ancient civilization, making exploration of the mythic heritage richer and more intellectually exciting for all. . . . The quality of translation is universally high—passages are simple, direct, accurate, yet preserve (as the editors wished) a good sense of the native stylistic variations found in the range of excerpts." —Richard Martin, Stanford UniversityReview of the first edition: "I am astonished by the simplicity of the idea, and, at the same time, the complexity of the effort, that joined to produce this outstanding work . . . the organization is impeccable and the selection is provocative. [An] invaluable contribution to the way we teach Classical myth at the university level." —Monica Cyrino, University of New MexicoReview of the first edition: "I believe any mythology teacher who uses primary texts should order this volume for their classes; I certainly will. While the combination of Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns in one volume is in itself welcome, the addition of Apollodorus, Pausanias, Lucian, and Ovid's Heroides, among many others, should prove irresistible to experienced teachers of myth. . . . The introductory materials are very clear and well presented." —Robin Mitchell-Boyask, Temple University

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"[A] masterful piece of scholarship. . . . Baden’s accessible prose will make this exceptional work appeal to scholars and general readers alike." * Publishers Weekly *"Baden’s clear, insightful, and fascinating overview of Exodus demonstrates how powerful and inspiring this biblical narrative has been throughout history in religious, political, and social settings."---Mark Scarlata, Church Times"Assman brings forth an intense interpretation. . . . this book is clearly a product of meticulous work and a life-long experience and must be read by graduate theology students, in particular the ones who study Jewish identity and religion."---Dr Hafize Zor, Rest Journal

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Book SynopsisObject Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. What is silence? In a series of short meditations, novelist and playwright John Biguenet considers silence as a servant of power, as a lie, as a punishment, as the voice of God, as a terrorist’s final weapon, as a luxury good, as the reason for torture—in short, as an object we both do and do not recognize. Concluding with the prospects for its future in a world burgeoning with noise, Biguenet asks whether we should desire or fear silence—or if it is even ours to choose. Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic.Trade ReviewWhen I realized I was making notes on memorable passages in Silence several times a page, I knew I’d found the book I’ve been needing to read. John Biguenet’s extended meditation on silence is provocative, witty, moving, and truly golden. * Valerie Martin, Orange Prize-winning novelist and author, most recently, of The Ghost of the Mary Celeste *One virtue of silence is that it enables us to contemplate a work like John Biguenet’s ever-fascinating new book. One virtue of his book—one of many—is that it does not go overboard in treating silence as a virtue. * Garret Keizer, author of The Unwanted Sound of Everything We Want *Taking us from the ancient world to Houston's Rothko Chapel to outer space, John Biguenet gives us a surprisingly boisterous tour of silence, stillness, and calm. Biguenet takes a space that looks at first glance like it is empty, as if it were, actually, defined by its emptiness, and he fills it with his erudition, his wisdom, his warmth, and his wit. We are lucky to spend this time rapt at his feet, to take all of this in. * Jessa Crispin, editor-in-chief Booklust and author of The Dead Ladies Project *What makes [Silence] stand out is the way this silence retreats, fails to materialize as such. The book unfolds as a failed or botched detective story: the search for silence, for a state that defies the human. Written in the form of a memoir or notes to and from one self to others… [Silence] ends as [Biguenet] leafs through a National Geographic, reads an article on noise pollution at sea and its catastrophic effects on the social life of whales. ‘What is the future of silence,’ he asks? ‘More lonely whales,’ he fears. It’s enough to make you never want to speak again. -- Julian Yates * Los Angeles Review of Books *Biguenet examines how we define silence, how we seek silence, how we sell silence, and how silence relates to things such as reading, the stage, secrets, and even dolls. He talks about how true silence is virtually unachievable in the modern world and how people become disoriented in pure silence. ... At the end of Silence, Biguenet contemplates the future. As he writes amidst noise and commotion, the "hum" of the modern world as he describes it, he read a National Geographic article about whales and how passing ships disrupt their ability to communicate with one another. Their ‘silence’ is broken. Thus, we are left to consider how silence or lack thereof impacts not only us but the entire ecosystem around us. It's a poignant reminder that in the modern world, with its hectic pace and ever present noise, sometimes what we most need is the one thing we can't seem to get. * Frank Valish, Under the Radar *Object Lessons’ describes themselves as ‘short, beautiful books,’ and to that, I'll say, amen. … [I]t is in this simplicity that we find insight and even beauty. … Silence by John Biguenet … explores whether it's possible — or indeed if we would want — to experience true ‘silence.’ … If you read enough ‘Object Lessons’ books, you'll fill your head with plenty of trivia to amaze and annoy your friends and loved ones — caution recommended on pontificating on the objects surrounding you. More importantly, though, in the tradition of McPhee's Oranges, they inspire us to take a second look at parts of the everyday that we've taken for granted. These are not so much lessons about the objects themselves, but opportunities for self-reflection and storytelling. They remind us that we are surrounded by a wondrous world, as long as we care to look. * Chicago Tribune *Biguenet goes on to deal with our responses to tragedy, terror and crime, the relationship of children with toys and pets, Freud's views on the uncanny, gender roles in asking of questions and giving of advice … and many other facets as he shows how silence is an integral part of our lives, even in ways we could have never imagined. * Business Standard, India *We inevitably fall into a sense of wonder in the first pages of the book. * T24 *Table of ContentsI What Is Silence? II Selling Silence Seeking Silence Silence Versus Solitude Voluntary Silences III The Representation of Silence Silent Reading Silence on Stage The Unspeakable IV The Silenced Moment The Silence of Dolls Silencing Silence and Secrets V The Future of Silence

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Book SynopsisSally Rooney set the books world buzzing in 2017 with her debut Conversations With Friends; Normal People is a girl-meets-boy story with a difference, interrogating the difficulties of sincere communication in a complicated, post-ironic world. 'THE LITERARY PHENOMENON OF THE DECADE' - Guardian NOW A MAJOR TV SERIES WHICH WILL PREMIERE IN AUSTRALIA ON STAN ON APRIL 27 Winner of the 2019 Novel of the Year and Book of the Year at the British Book Awards Winner of the 2018 Costa Novel Award Winner of Specsavers National Book Awards International Author of the Year Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2018 Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2019 'Effortlessly brilliant ... tender and devastating.' - Guardian Books of the Year Connell and Marianne grow up in the same small town in the west of Ireland, but the similarities end there. In school, Connell is popular and well-liked, while Marianne

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Book Synopsis"Paradigms for a Metaphorology may be read as a kind of beginner''s guide to Blumenberg, a programmatic introduction to his vast and multifaceted oeuvre. Its brevity makes it an ideal point of entry for readers daunted by the sheer bulk of Blumenberg''s later writings, or distracted by their profusion of historical detail. Paradigms expresses many of Blumenberg''s key ideas with a directness, concision, and clarity he would rarely match elsewhere. What is more, because it served as a beginner's guide for its author as well, allowing him to undertake an initial survey of problems that would preoccupy him for the remainder of his life, it has the additional advantage that it can offer us a glimpse into what might be called the ''genesis of the Blumenbergian world.'"from the Afterword by Robert SavageWhat role do metaphors play in philosophical language? Are they impediments to clear thinking and clear expression, rhetorical flourishes that may well help to make philosophy more accessible to a lay audience, but that ought ideally to be eradicated in the interests of terminological exactness? Or can the images used by philosophers tell us more about the hopes and cares, attitudes and indifferences that regulate an epoch than their carefully elaborated systems of thought?In Paradigms for a Metaphorology, originally published in 1960 and here made available for the first time in English translation, Hans Blumenberg (19201996) approaches these questions by examining the relationship between metaphors and concepts. Blumenberg argues for the existence of "absolute metaphors" that cannot be translated back into conceptual language. These metaphors answer the supposedly naïve, theoretically unanswerable questions whose relevance lies quite simply in the fact that they cannot be brushed aside, since we do not pose them ourselves but find them already posed in the ground of our existence. They leap into a void that concepts are unable to fill.An afterword by the translator, Robert Savage, positions the book in the intellectual context of its time and explains its continuing importance for work in the history of ideas.Trade ReviewParadigms for a Metaphorology is a model of scholarly translation. Savage's handling of citations and sources is scrupulous and thorough.... And he provides judicious explanatory notes that work in conjunction with the afterword and Blumenberg's own notes to guide readers through Blumenberg's own reading and career. Finally, and most importantly, his English rendering is consistently accurate while also being, in the context of translations of German philosophy, remarkably readable.... In short, readers approaching Blumenberg's reflections on metaphor through the English language could not ask for a more reliable and helpful guide than this volume. -- David Adams * Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *Table of ContentsHans Blumenberg: An Introduction Part I: History, Secularization, and Reality 1. The Linguistic Reality of Philosophy (1946/1947) 2. World Pictures and World Models (1961) 3. "Secularization": Critique of a Category of Hisotrical Illegitimacy (1964) 4. The Concept of Reality and the Theory of the State (1968/1969) 5. Preliminary Remarks on the Concept of Reality (1974) Part II: Metaphors, Rhetoric, and Nonconceptuality 6. Light as a Metaphor for Truth: At the Preliminary Stage of Philosophical Concept Formation (1957) 7. Introduction to Paradigms for a Metaphorology (1960) 8. An Anthropological Approach to the Contemporary Significance of Rhetoric (1971) 9. Observations Drawn from Metaphors (1971) 10. Prospect for a Theory of Nonconceptuality (1979) 11. Theory of Nonconceptuality (circa 1975, excerpt) Part III: Nature, Technology, and Asthetics 12. The Relationship between Nature and Technology as a Philosophical Problem (1951) 13. "Imitation of Nature": Toward a Prehistory of the Idea of the Creative Being (1957) 14. Phenomenological Aspects on Life-World and Technization (1963) 15. Socrates and the objet ambigu: Paul Valery's Discussion of the Ontology of the Aesthetic Object and Its Tradition (1964) 16. The Essential Ambiguity of the Aesthetic Object (1966) 17. Speech Situation and Immanent Poetics (1966) Part IV: Fables, Anecdotes, and the Novel 18. The Absolute Father (1952/1953) 19. The Mythos and Ethos of America in the Work of William Faulkner (1958) 20. The Concept of Reality and the Possibility of the Novel (1964) 21. Pensiveness (1980) 22. Moments of Goethe (1982) 23. Beyond the Edge of Reality: Three Short Essays (1983) 24. Of Nonunderstanding: Glosses on Three Fables (1984) 25. Unknown Aesopica: From Newly Found Fables (1985) 26. Advancing into Eternal Silence: A Century after the Sailing of the Fram (1993)

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Book SynopsisKatharine Towers' second collection is a book of small wonders. From a house drowning in roses to crickets on an August day, from Nerval's lobster to the surrealism of flower remedies, these poems explore the fragility of our relationship with the natural world. Towers also shows us what that relationship can aspire to be: each poem attunes us to another aspect of that world, and shows what strange connections might be revealed when we properly attend to it. The Remedies is a lyric, unforgettable collection which offers just the spiritual assuagement its title promises, and shows Towers emerging as a major poetic talent.Trade ReviewThere is so much to praise about the writing: clarity, generosity and grace. There are no barriers between poem and reader. . .[Towers] writes with a marvellously gentle wit and a metrical intelligence. . .Quite how she manages the balancing act between entertainment and something that comes close to a prayer, that catches at your throat, is beyond me * Guardian *Each of these short poems shines with soft, lyrical grace; she writes about birds, flowers and objects in clear, generous language that reaches out towards the reader, embracing and never pushing away. * Daily Mail *

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Book SynopsisAn original collection of work by the great Serbian poet of the twentieth century.Vasko Popa is widely recognized as one of the great poets of the twentieth century, a riddling fabulist, whose work, taking its bearings from the songs and folklore of his native his Serbia and from surrealism, has a dark gnomic fatalistic humor and pathos that are like nothing else. Charles Simic, a master of contemporary American poetry, has been translating Popa’s work for more than a quarter century. This revised and greatly expanded edition of Simic’s Popa is a revelation.

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Book SynopsisToday many people take reading for granted, but we remain some way off from attaining literacy for the global human population. And whilst we think we know what reading is, it remains in many ways a mysterious process, or set of processes. The effects of reading are myriad: it can be informative, distracting, moving, erotically arousing, politically motivating, spiritual, and much, much more. At different times and in different places reading means different things. In this Very Short Introduction Belinda Jack explores the fascinating history of literacy, and the opportunities reading opens. For much of human history reading was the preserve of the elite, and most reading meant being read to. Innovations in printing, paper-making, and transport, combined with the rise of public education from the late eighteenth century on, brought a dramatic rise in literacy in many parts of the world. Established links between a nation''s levels of literacy and its economy led to the promotion of reading for political ends. But, equally, reading has been associated with subversive ideas, leading to censorship through multiple channels: denying access to education, controlling publishing, destroying libraries, and even the burning of authors and their works. Indeed, the works of Voltaire were so often burned that an enterprising Parisian publisher produced a fire-proof edition, decorated with a phoenix. But, as Jack demonstrates, reading is a collaborative act between an author and a reader, and one which can never be wholly controlled. Telling the story of reading, from the ancient world to digital reading and restrictions today, Belinda Jack explores why it is such an important aspect of our society.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Trade ReviewAn altogether riveting read. * Paradigm Explorer *Table of ContentsList of illustrations 1. What is reading? 2. Ancient worlds 3. Reading manuscripts, reading print 4. Modern reading 5. Forbidden reading 6. Reading and/as interpretation 7. Pluralities Further reading Index

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Book SynopsisIn this Very Short Introduction Bernard O'Donoghue explores the many different forms of writing which have been called 'poetry', from the Greeks to the present day. He considers the varying status and uses of poetry, and engages with contemporary debates as to what value poetry holds today.Trade Review...achieves an air of indispensability, as both a guidebook for the enquiring beginner, and as a handbook of poetic values for the determined practitioner. * Simon Armitage *Everyone near the beginning of their life in poetry will want to have this book, and everyone further down the track will value it as a stimulation. * Andrew Motion *A bold encounter with the questions that make his subject so compelling. * Professor Stephen Regan, Durham University *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1: Truths universally acknowledged 2: Poetry's areas of authority and aptitude 3: The language of poetry and its particular devices 4: The kinds of poetry and their contexts 5: Poets and readers Conclusion Further Reading Index

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Book SynopsisThis comprehensive and welcoming edition draws on the whole of Stevie Smith's output in poetry, prose and drawings from Novel on Yellow Paper (1936) to Scorpion and Other Poems (1972). Hermione Lee's introduction and arrangement bring out the connections between Stevie Smith's different writings, and show us what an extraordinary and original writer she was. The selection is complemented by biographical and textual notes, and forms an attractive introduction to the work of an idiosyncratic English genius.

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Book SynopsisA comprehensive account of all major trends in Russian interwar literary theory and its wider impact in our post-deconstruction and world literature era, this book attempts to answer two fundamental questions: What does it mean to think about literature theoretically, and what happens to literary theory when it is no longer available as an option?Trade Review"Eloquent and erudite, Galin Tihanov offers us a magisterial account of twentieth-century Russian literary theory. His book is not a survey but a careful analysis of diverse movements and theorists whose unexpected juxtapositions put familiar concepts and people in an entirely new light. This is intellectual history at its best." -- Michael Wachtel * Princeton University *"Committed both to rigorous historical contextualization and to the clear analysis of ideas, Tihanov's highly original book addresses a topic of major concern to the humanities, the rise of literary theory, showing the central contribution of Russian thinkers to it. This is the first book one should read on its subject." -- William Mills Todd III * Harvard University *"The foundational status of literary theory in twentieth-century Russia has never been described with greater attention to detail than in Galin Tihanov's new book. And this extraordinary historical groundwork results in the ultimate challenge for literary criticism today: can and should the discipline survive under epistemological conditions that are now so radically different?" -- Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht * Stanford University *"Up to now, no one has woven together the many threads of Russian literary thought—Formalism, Socialist Realism, Marxism, the Bakhtin Circle, and the many groups, domestic and émigré, that shaped modern theory. With a large cast of characters and a sharp, cumulative argument, Tihanov renders obsolete numerous received judgments about theory's origins and impact." -- Haun Saussy * University of Chicago *"Tihanov has written an excellent book that provides a plethora of substance for reflection, and most importantly reminds us of the time when literature and the study of literature was taken seriously to an extent that to most readers today seems like an act of defamiliarization in itself." -- Eli Park Sorensen * Hong Kong Review of Books *"[One] senses that Tihanov, whose own intellectual range is staggering, could have chosen any number of examples to demonstrate his thesis....[A] rich and generous book." -- Caryl Emerson * The Russian Review *"There are few literary critics and theorists that delve into the afterlives of past theories and theoretical trends as dazzlingly and lucidly as Galin Tihanov does." -- Daiana Gârdan * Metacritic *"Tihanov's journey across past intellectual landscapes is engaging and helpful: it allows us to understand a great deal about the past, the present, and ourselves in that present." -- Galina Babak * New Literary Observer *"If literary theory is your thing, and you're feeling uninspired by what the Anglo-American academy has to offer, The Birth and Death is a fine showcase for what is, in effect, another world of literary theory, largely untapped. That Tihanov writes about...quite different approaches to literature—as well as about canon wars within the Russian émigré community—with such authority and erudition is, frankly, remarkable in itself." -- Ken Hirschkop * Textual Practice *"This detailed, authoritative study of the European twentieth century in terms of literary and cultural theory, its only fault being its understatement, ranges through several countries and languages, bringing familiar names into interesting juxtapositions." -- Jeremy Tambling * The Modern Language Review *Table of ContentsContents and AbstractsPrologue: What This Book Is and Is Not About chapter abstractThe Prologue introduces the reader to the goals of the book and its methodology. The death of literary theory is discussed, in Derridean sense, as opening up the much more important question of its multiple legacies. The precise meaning of "literary theory" is also clarified, in comparison with recent meta-discourses that draw on "theory" understood, more broadly and less specifically, as Continental philosophy. Introduction: The Radical Historicity of Literary Theory chapter abstractThe chapter explores the birth of literary theory in the years around World War I through a chronotopic prism: this birth took place at a precise moment in time and in a precise location – and for good reasons. The multiple (and overlapping) scenarios that best describe the emergence of literary theory point to the disintegration and modification of mainstream philosophical discourses (phenomenology; Marxism); the need to respond to new experimental developments in literature; exile, polyglossia, and the productive estrangement from a single (one's own national) language in which literature is thought. Asserting its radical historicity, one can observe that literary theory emerged in Eastern and Central Europe in the interwar decades as one of the conceptual by-products of the transition from a regime of relevance that recognizes literature for its role in social and political practice to a regime that values literature primarily for its qualities as art. 1Russian Formalism: Entanglements at Birth and Later Reverberations chapter abstractThis chapter is an exploration of the complex relationship between Formalism and Marxism, and between the different regimes of relevance and valorization of literature—and their respective argumentative logics—at work in Formalism and Marxism. To detail this, the chapter offers three case studies framed by the question of Formalism's impact and its encounters with intellectual formations that had their own (larger) stake in the political debates of the time: the 1927 public dispute between Formalism and Marxism; Viktor Shklovsky's theory of estrangement and its multiple echoes; and the mediated presence of Formalism in Eurasianism, a Russian exilic movement that sought to reconcile Formalism and Marxism, as well as the distinct regimes of relevance within which they operated. 2A Skeptic at the Cradle of Theory: Gustav Shpet's Reflections on Literature chapter abstractThis chapter takes the discussion of the different regimes of relevance and valorization of literature into new territory: it reveals how the more traditional regime of relevance that insisted on literature's wider social commitment and significance operated in a milder and more diffuse fashion in the 1920s as an invitation to interpret literature, not through the prism of literary theory—which would have entailed an insistence on the uniqueness of literature grounded in the specific way it uses language—but rather through the less radical screen of aesthetics and philosophy of art. Gustav Shpet is very much a thinker who participates in this process, but his place in it is contradictory and inconclusive: although foreshadowing some important tenets of Structuralism, he remained in the end poised between innovation and regression, and his ultimate loyalty tended to be with a philosophical and aesthetic approach to literature and the arts. 3Toward a Philosophy of Culture: Bakhtin beyond Literary Theory chapter abstractDuring the 1930s, Mikhail Bakhtin arrived at a new way of capturing the relevance of literature, different from the regimes of relevance that sustained the work of either the Russian Formalists or Gustav Shpet. Bakhtin's transition in the 1930s from ethics and aesthetics to philosophy of culture, analyzed in the first section of this chapter, is crucial for understanding this new regime. The chapter then proceeds to offer a case study of Bakhtin's positioning in relation to the 1930s Soviet debates on the classical and the canon; this prepares the ground for returning to the question of Bakhtin's impact and later appropriations of his work, especially through the lens of postmodernism and post-Structuralism. Ultimately, this chapter seeks to grasp the specific regime of relevance that sustained the significance of literature in Bakhtin's writings of the 1930s, still centered around the importance of language, but not around "literariness." 4The Boundaries of Modernity: Semantic Paleontology and Its Subterranean Impact chapter abstractThe presence of semantic paleontology in literary studies and its importance for the methodological debates of the 1930s have never before been examined systematically. The chapter thus begins by outlining the foundations of semantic paleontology and its interventions in the study of literature during the 1930s; the analysis then focuses on the principal methodological distinctions that semantic paleontology sought to draw in order to assert its own identity vis-à-vis other trends, especially Russian Formalism. Attention then turns to the central question: what was the place of semantic paleontology in the 1930s polemics on how and where one should draw the boundaries of modernity, and how did this shape the way its practitioners assigned significance to literature. The final section explores the impact of semantic paleontology on cultural and literary theory; this impact persisted into the early 1980s, at times paradoxically reinforced by the critique semantic paleontology triggered. 5Interwar Exiles: Regimes of Relevance in Émigré Criticism and Theory chapter abstractThis chapter returns to the importance of exile and discusses literary theory not per se, but in its interactions with another distinct discourse, that of literary criticism, which had its own dynamic and its own conventions. The symbiosis of literary theory and criticism was a palpable feature of literary life in the diaspora, where the social and professional makeup of the new intelligentsia encouraged this conversion to a greater degree. The chapter is thus an examination of the ways in which émigré literary criticism between the world wars sought to extend an inherited regime of relevance that would conceive of literature as speaking directly to the traditional collective concerns of its creators and readers—in contrast to a radically different perspective that sought to endorse a regime of relevance in which literature would be denationalized so as to address the private concerns of the exile. Epilogue: A Fast-Forward to "World Literature" chapter abstractToday the legacy of modern literary theory is not available in a pure and concentrated fashion; instead, it is dispersed, dissipated, often fittingly elusive. This inheritance is now performing its work in a climate already dominated by a different regime of relevance, which it faces directly and must negotiate. The patrimony of literary theory is currently active within a regime of relevance that thinks literature through its market and entertainment value, with only residual recall of its previously highly treasured autonomy. This regime of relevance has engendered the interpretative framework of "world literature" that has recently grown and gained popularity. Looking at Russian literary theory during the interwar decades, we are struck by the fact that many of its major trends were, obliquely or more directly, relevant to this new framework of understanding and valorizing literature in the regime of its global production and consumption.

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Book SynopsisTo our modern ears the word “creature” has wild, musky, even monstrous, connotations. And yet the terms “creaturely” and “love,” taken together, have traditionally been associated with theological debates around the enigmatic affection between God and His key creation, Man. In Creaturely Love, Dominic Pettman explores the ways in which desire makes us both more, and less, human. In an eminently approachable work of wide cultural reach and meticulous scholarship, Pettman undertakes an unprecedented examination of how animals shape the understanding and expression of love between people. Focusing on key figures in modern philosophy, art, and literature (Nietzsche, Salomé, Rilke, Balthus, Musil, Proust), premodern texts and fairy tales (Fourier, Fournival, Ovid), and contemporary films and online phenomena (Wendy and Lucy, Her, memes), Pettman demonstrates that from pet names to spirit animals, and allegories to analogies, animals have constantly appeared in our writings and thoughts about passionate desire.By following certain charismatic animals during their passage through the love letters of philosophers, the romances of novelists, the conceits of fables, the epiphanies of poets, the paradoxes of contemporary films, and the digital menageries of the Internet, Creaturely Love ultimately argues that in our utilization of the animal in our amorous expression, we are acknowledging that what we adore in our beloveds is not (only) their humanity, but their creatureliness.Trade Review"Pettman has written yet another absorbing, witty, moving, and smart book about the question of human exceptionalism, this time in relation to desire and love, attending especially to literary and artistic works. The book makes a significant contribution particularly to a revisionist reading of modernist literary/artistic history with relation to the presence of the nonhuman animal, or the creaturely."—Carla Freccero, University of California, Santa Cruz"Dominic Pettman writes thoughtful, light-fingered books on significant questions that are simultaneously timely and timeless. In Creaturely Love, he takes up the perennial awkwardness that haunts every effort to etherealize romance: the proximity of our loving bodies to the critter-creatures that rut and tread and mount and cover each other just outside our windows. Drawing on the newest (and some of the oldest) thinking about humans and animals, Pettman here recalls us to ourselves—by ruminating on just how hard it is to say what exactly that might mean."—D. Graham Burnett, Princeton University"Bettman’s ideas and readings will doubtless find application in future scholarship; his text makes readers eager to see all genres of cultural production in the new framework this exciting work provides."—The Goose"The book offers an interesting engagement with the complexity of expressions of affection."—CHOICE connectTable of ContentsContentsPrefaceIntroduction: On the Stupidity of Oysters1. Divining Creaturely Love2. Horsing Around: The Marriage Blanc of Nietzsche, Andreas-Salomé, and Rée3. Groping for an Opening: Rilke between Animal and Angel4. Electric Caresses: Rilke, Balthus, and Mitsou5. Between Perfection and Temptation: Musil, Claudine, and Veronica6. The Biological Travesty7. “The Creature Whom We Love”: Proust and Jealousy8. The Love Tone: Capture and Captivation9. “The Soft Word That Comes Deceiving”: Fournival’s Bestiary of Love10. The Cuckold and the Cockatrice: Fourier and Hazlitt11. The Animal Bride and Horny Toads12. Unsettled Being: Ovid’s Metamorphoses13. Fickle Metaphysics14. Nymphomania and Faunication15. Senseless Arabesques: Wendy and Lucy16. The Goat in the Machine (A Reprise)Conclusion: On Cetaceous MaidensEpilogue: Animal Magnetism and Alternative Currents (or Tesla and the White Dove)AcknowledgmentsNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisSet in Europe during the Protestant Reformation and first published in 1799, St. Leon tells the story of an impoverished aristocrat who obtains the philosopher’s stone and the elixir of immortality. In this philosophical fable, endless riches and immortal life prove to be curses rather than gifts and transform St. Leon into an outcast. William Godwin’s second full-length novel explores the predicament of a would-be philanthropist whose attempts to benefit humanity are frustrated by superstition and ignorance.This Broadview edition includes a critical introduction and full annotation. The appendices include contemporary reviews of the novel; Godwin’s writings on immortality, the domestic affections, and alchemy; and selections from works influenced by St. Leon, most notably Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.Trade Review“St. Leon, Godwin’s second major novel, is a radical experiment in fictional genres. Into a historical novel of vast range and violence Godwin melded elements of the domestic novel, the philosophical novel, and the scientific fantasy. More relentlessly than the earlier Caleb Williams, this novel tests Godwin’s philosophical premises to destruction, showing the importance—and failure—of family affections and the disintegration of effective social responsibility. William Brewer’s judicious annotations and informative introduction equip the reader to understand Godwin’s re-evaluation of his earlier views; the appendices contain ample material illustrating the novel’s influence on other writers, its relation to Godwin’s other works, and the lively reactions of contemporary reviewers.” — Victoria Myers, Pepperdine University“William Brewer’s edition of St. Leon is more than simply a new, well-edited version of the text. The introduction alone—which includes a precis of other important current critical work on St. Leon—makes this a must-have edition, rehearsing as it does the place of this unclassifiable novel in Godwin’s development and in the period, the influences visible in the novel, including its political implications and sources, and the novel’s reception and literary heirs. Many of these issues can be further pursued through the judiciously chosen excerpts in the appendices.” — Lisa M. Steinman, Reed CollegeTable of ContentsAcknowledgementsIntroductionWilliam Godwin: A Brief ChronologyA Note on the TextSt. Leon: A Tale of the Sixteenth CenturyAppendix A: From Hermippus Redivivus (1744): The Inspiration for St. LeonAppendix B: William Godwin on Immortality, the Domestic Affections, and Alchemy From William Godwin, Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, and its Influence on General Virtue and Happiness (1793) From William Godwin, Memoirs of the Author of a Vindication of the Rights of Woman, 2nd Edition (1798) From William Godwin, Lives of the Necromancers (1834) Alchemy Cornelius Agrippa Paracelsus Appendix C: Reviews of St. Leon The Monthly Review (1800) Critical Review (January 1800) Monthly Magazine, and British Register (20 January 1800) Monthly Mirror: Reflecting Men and Manners (January 1800) Appendix D: From Edward Du Bois, St. Godwin (1800)Appendix E: The Influence of St. Leon From John Burk, Bethlem Gabor, Lord of Transylvania, or, The Man Hating Palatine (1807) From Percy Bysshe Shelley, St. Irvyne; or,The Rosicrucian: A Romance (1811) From Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818) Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, “The Mortal Immortal: A Tale” (1833) Select Bibliography

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Book SynopsisThe first novel to be written for serial publication by a major female author, Sophia follows the story of two siblings, the virtuous and well-read eponymous heroine and her flighty and coquettish sister. While the latter leads a vapid life in the fashionable world of London, the former flees from a potential seducer to the country, where she pursues true friendship, learning, and an independent living. Previously out of print, the novel explores such issues as the place of female education, the opposition of city and country, the emergence of the literary marketplace, and the development of the individual.This Broadview edition reproduces images from the novel’s original serial publication and also includes other articles from Lennox’s periodical The Lady’s Museum, contemporary reviews of Sophia, and writings on sentimentalism.Trade Review“Norbert Schürer’s introduction provides the literary and cultural contexts for this wrongfully neglected novel of a major English novelist. He explains why Lennox was ‘the most important female writer in Britain around the middle of the eighteenth century’ and describes the innovations Sophia introduced both in its content and its format; it was one of the first novels to be published in serial installments in a magazine. This scrupulously edited volume is a treasure trove of information about Lennox’s life, the contemporary publishing world, and pervasive aspects of English culture such as titles, money, and transportation. It is a lively and authoritative contribution to our knowledge of the eighteenth-century British novel.” — Ruth Perry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology“While placing Lennox in a patriarchal literary marketplace dominated by Richardson, Fielding, and Dr. Johnson, Schürer provocatively reads this ‘two sisters novel’ both with and against the grain, to argue that Lennox both affirms and subverts Sophia's moral example and the novel’s conservative didacticism. Strengths of this edition include the reproduction and discussion of eighteenth-century illustrations of scenes from the novel, and the reprinting of otherwise hard to find contemporary biographies of ‘the celebrated’ Charlotte Lennox.” — Eve Tavor Bannet, University of Oklahoma “While placing Lennox in a patriarchal literary marketplace dominated by Richardson, Fielding, and Dr. Johnson, Schürer provocatively reads this ‘two sisters novel’ both with and against the grain, to argue that Lennox both affirms and subverts Sophia's moral example and the novel’s conservative didacticism. Strengths of this edition include the reproduction and discussion of eighteenth-century illustrations of scenes from the novel, and the reprinting of otherwise hard to find contemporary biographies of ‘the celebrated’ Charlotte Lennox.” — Eve Tavor Bannet, University of OklahomaTable of ContentsAcknowledgementsIntroductionCharlotte Lennox: A Brief ChronologyA Note on the TextA Note on Female Property and EducationA Note on Rank and TitlesA Note on the ClergyA Note on British CurrencyA Note on TransportationSophiaAppendix A: Textual VariantsAppendix B: Lennox’s Life “Mrs. Lennox,” The British Magazine and Review (July 1783) Obituary, The Gentleman’s Magazine (January 1804) Obituary, The European Magazine (February 1804) “Memoir of Mrs. Lennox,” The Lady’s Monthly Museum (June 1813) Appendix C: Reviews of Sophia The Critical Review (May 1762) The Library (May 1762) The British Magazine (June 1762) The Gentleman’s Magazine (June 1762) The Monthly Review (July 1762) Books printed by and for James Hoey, junior (advertisement from 1763) Appendix D: Selections from The Lady’s Museum The Lady’s Museum (March 1760) “Philosophy for the Ladies,” The Lady’s Museum (April 1760) “To the Author of the Lady’s Museum,” The Lady’s Museum (May 1760) “Of the Importance of the Education of Daughters,” The Lady’s Museum (June 1760) Appendix E: Sentimentalism and Moral Philosophy From Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury, Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times (1711) From David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature (1739–40) From Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) From Henry Mackenzie, The Lounger (1785) From Mary Alcock, Poems (1799) Select Bibliography and Works Cited

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Book SynopsisThe Second Mrs. Tanqueray was the theatrical sensation of the London stage in 1893. It established Pinero as the leading English dramatist of serious social issues, and created a star out of Mrs. Patrick Campbell in the title role. The play recounts the marriage of a "woman with a past" and how it fails because of the double standard of morality applied unequally and hypocritically by Victorian society to men and women.This Broadview edition includes a thoroughly revised text based on the author's manuscript, the prompt copy for the first production, and the published first edition; it also incorporates pertinent stage directions from the first production. The critical introduction examines all facets of the play and its production, and the appendices make accessible a wide variety of hard-to-find contemporary contextual materials related to the play.Trade ReviewAlthough I have known this play for many years, J.P. Wearing's introduction sheds new light on many interesting aspects of the piece, which I look forward to teaching afresh with the benefit of this text. The footnotes and the supplementary material all help in understanding the play, placing it in the social and legal context of its day. Not that it is a mere period piece; Pinero's skill as a playwright is impressive, and one hopes that this edition will encourage new productions." - Richard Foulkes, University of Leicester"A century and more after the fact, A.W. Pinero’s most penetrating play, The Second Mrs. Tanqueray, has now been given a full-dress evaluative and contextual editorial treatment that does complete justice to its subject. J.P. Wearing, editor of Pinero’s letters, has brought his finely honed scholarly skills and broad knowledge of English theatre and culture to the task of presenting the single most authoritative text of Pinero’s play in existence and surrounding it with several sets of informative critical, social, and cultural writing, along with a comprehensive introduction, chronology, and bibliography. An immense amount of research lies behind this enterprise, and a great range of potential readers, from undergraduate and graduate students to historians and critics, will be the beneficiaries." - Joseph Donohue, Professor Emeritus, University of MassachusettsTable of ContentsAcknowledgementsIntroductionArthur Wing Pinero: A Brief ChronologyA Note on the TextThe Second Mrs.Tanqueray:A Play in Four ActsAppendix A: Pinero on Drama From T.H.L., “How I Construct My Plays: A Chat with Mr. Pinero,” Sketch (1893) Pinero, “The Modern British Drama,” Theatre (June 1895) From Pinero, Robert Louis Stevenson: The Dramatist (1903) From William Archer, Real Conversations (1904) From Pinero, “Robert Browning as a Dramatist,” Browning’s Centenary (1912) From Pinero, “Foreword,” Two Plays (1930) Appendix B: The Second Mrs.Tanqueray, The Golden Butterfly, and the AlbanyAppendix C: Social Background From Caroline Norton, A Letter to the Queen on Lord Chancellor Cranworth’s Marriage and Divorce Bill(1855) From the Divorce and Matrimonial Act (1857) From John Ruskin, “Of Queens’ Gardens” (1865) Eliza Lynn Linton, “The Girl of the Period,” Saturday Review (14 March 1868) From A. St. John Adcock, “Leaving the London Theatres,” Living London (1901) From Emily Constance Cook, “The London Season,” London and Environs (1897-98) “Police,” The Times (5 November 1895) “The Charge Against Mr. George Alexander,” The Times (6 November 1895) “School Teacher’s Suicide: Letters from a Married Man,” The Times (29 June 1920) Appendix D: Contemporary Reactions to The Second Mrs. Tanqueray L.F.A., Illustrated London News (3 June 1893) William Archer,World (31 May 1893) Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News (3 June 1893) Punch (10 June 1893) Saturday Review (3 June 1893) T.H.L., “A Chat with Mrs. Patrick Campbell,” Sketch (7 June 1893) From Yorkshire Post (22 September 1893) From T.W.M. Lund, The Second Mrs.Tanqueray: What? And Why? (1894) From Bernard Shaw, Saturday Review (23 February 1895) From H. Barton Baker, History of the London Stage and Its Famous Players (1576-1903) (1904) Appendix E: Dramatic Techniques The Original Closing Scene to Pinero’s The Profligate (1889) The Performed Closing Scene of the First Production of The Profligate (1889) From Henry Arthur Jones, Act 4, The Liars (1897) Select Bibliography

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Book SynopsisShakespeare and London: A Dictionary is a topographical reference book of all the London locations, allusions and colloquial terms mentioned in Shakespeare's complete works. For many years critics have argued that Shakespeare did not engage with the city in which he lived, however London''s topography and life is present in all his work, in its language, its locations and its characters. This dictionary offers a concise and fascinating insight into the city''s impact on the Shakespearean imagination and provides readers with a wide-ranging guide to early modern London, its contemporary meanings and the ways in which Shakespeare employs these throughout the canon.Table of ContentsList of Figures Acknowledgements Series Editor's Preface List of Abbreviations List of Headwords Introduction A-Z Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThe volume fills a gap in scholarship about Imre Kertesz, whose work to date is largely unknown in the English-speaking world. The papers' authors are scholars from the US, Canada, the UK, Hungary, Germany, and New Zealand. In addition to the papers, the volume contains a bibliography of Kertesz's works including translations, and a bibliography of studies in several languages about his work.

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Book SynopsisAvailable for the First Time in Paperback!ÞFrom Aristotle's ÊPoeticsÊ to Vaclav Havel the debate about the nature and function of theatre has been marked by controversy. Daniel Gerould's landmark work ÊTheatre/Theory/TheatreÊ collects history's most influential Eastern and Western dramatic theorists ä poets playwrights directors and philosophers ä whose ideas about theatre continue to shape its future. In complete texts and choice excerpts spanning centuries we see an ongoing dialogue and exchange of ideas between actors and directors like Craig and Meyerhold and writers such as Nietzsche and Yeats. Each of Gerould's introductory essays shows fascinating insight into both the life and the theory of the author. From Horace to Soyinka Corneille to Brecht this is an indispensable compendium of the greatest dramatic theory ever written.

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Book SynopsisFirst published in 1886 as a “shilling shocker,” Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde takes the basic struggle between good and evil and adds to the mix bourgeois respectability, urban violence, and class conflict. The result is a tale that has taken on the force of myth in the popular imagination. This Broadview edition provides a fascinating selection of contextual material, including contemporary reviews of the novel, Stevenson’s essay “A Chapter on Dreams,” and excerpts from the 1887 stage version of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Also included are historical documents on criminality and degeneracy, the “Jack the Ripper” murders, the “double brain,” and London in the 1880s.New to this third edition are an appendix on the figure of the Victorian gentleman and an expanded selection of letters related to the novel; the introduction and bibliography have also been updated to reflect recent criticism.Trade ReviewMartin Danahay provides an authoritative text, an excellent introductory commentary, an up-to-date bibliography, and a well-chosen set of contextualizing appendices. For an in-depth understanding of Stevenson’s masterpiece of horror, this is the text of choice." - Patrick Brantlinger, Indiana University"Martin Danahay’s edition of Jekyll and Hyde is a treasure trove of biographical, cultural, and historical materials. It makes a number of important contexts for interpretation available through its accessible but intriguing assemblage of ancillary documents. It cannot fail to be the inspiration for deeper investigations of a masterpiece that is itself at the crossroads of Victorian anxieties about sex, class, psychology, evolution, and the rise of popular culture." - John Kucich, University of MichiganTable of Contents Acknowledgements Preface to the Third Edition Introduction Robert Louis Stevenson: A Brief Chronology A Note on the Text Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Appendices Select Bibliography

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Book SynopsisTable of Contents Part 1: Introducing Northanger Abbey Part 2: Studying Northanger Abbey Part 3: Characters and Themes Part 4: Structure, Form and Language Part 5: Contexts and Critical Debates Part 6: Grade Booster Essential Study Tools

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Book SynopsisThis updated edition is designed to support students in study and revision for the new GCSE (9-1) English Literature exams.Table of Contents Part 1: Induction Part 2: Plot and Action Part 3: Characters Part 4: Key Contexts and Themes Part 5: Language and Structure Part 6: Grade Booster Literacy Terms

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Book SynopsisThis book includes essays, unpublished sketches, Woolf's social realist 1919 novel Night and Day, and her final, visionary novel Between the Acts. This approach to Woolf's writing takes an integrated view, incorporating her juvenilia and foregrounding Woolf's critically neglected early novels.

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Book SynopsisShakespeare lived in a world of absolutes-of claims for the absolute authority of scripture, monarch, and God, and the authority of fathers over wives and children, the old over the young, and the gentle over the baseborn. Greenblatt shows that Shakespeare was averse to such absolutes and constantly probed the possibility of freedom from them.Trade Review"Stephen Greenblatt is one of America's most elegant and inventive literary critics. He writes with panache as he spins intriguing yarns from surprising materials. He has a gift as a reader of Shakespeare for noticing details that others have tended to overlook and using them as a prism to refract the plays in new ways." (New Statesman) "It is good, at a time when there is danger of seeing Shakespeare too exclusively as an entertainer, to find an acknowledgement of the intellectual powers that pervade his work, and Greenblatt brings his formidable critical expertise to bear on the writings in this deeply thoughtful study." (Times Literary Supplement) "In this short collection of essays, Stephen Greenblatt's analysis of both Shakespeare and the Renaissance is informative and often original. He argues that Shakespeare's genius lay in embracing and subverting the norms of his age.... Yet, the book's real lesson is Shakespeare's awareness of the human condition in all its complexity." (Financial Times)"

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Book SynopsisThis book pairs close readings with a strong overview of the movement and ranges from Women's Beat Writing to African American Beats.

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisWorks do not have meanings, they soak up meanings: a work is a machine for libidinal investments (including the political kind). It is a process that sorts incommensurabilities and registers contradictions (which is not the same as solving them!) The inevitable and welcome conflict of interpretations - a discursive, ideological struggle - therefore needs to be supplemented by an account of this simultaneous processing of multiple meanings, rather than an abandonment to liberal pluralisms and tolerant (or intolerant) relativisms. This is not a book about "method", but it does propose a dialectic capable of holding together in one breath the heterogeneities that reflect our biological individualities, our submersion in collective history and class struggle, and our alienation to a disembodied new world of information and abstraction. Eschewing the arid secularities of philosophy, Walter Benjamin once recommended the alternative of the rich figurality of an older theology; in that spirit we here return to the antiquated Ptolemaic systems of ancient allegory and its multiple levels (a proposal first sketched out in The Political Unconscious); it is tested against the epic complexities of the overtly allegorical works of Dante, Spenser and the Goethe of Faust II, as well as symphonic form in music, and the structure of the novel, postmodern as well as Third-World: about which a notorious essay on National Allegory is here reprinted with a theoretical commentary; and an allegorical history of emotion is meanwhile rehearsed from its contemporary, geopolitical context.Trade ReviewAllegory and Ideology charges an antique form with renewed political urgency. At its heart is the melancholy conviction that we can never directly lay hold of history. -- Ted Tregear * Marx & Philosophy Review of Books *Throughout this challenging, boundary-crossing new tome, we are repeatedly given such experiences of the intersection of the most minute details of a text and the grandest movements of history, making for a kind of head-spinning and euphoric journey. Yet this bewildering back-and-forth is in line, after all, with what the experience of the dialectic-with its unexpected connections between previously unrelated social strata-is supposed to feel like in the first place. In that, Jameson, as a dialectician, has once again achieved his aim. -- Thomas J. Millay * Critical Inquiry *The world, it seems, keeps trying to catch up to Jameson, whose talent for dialectical unification still shines forth with radioactive power. After you've read him, it's impossible to unsee what he's shown you: his phenomenology of everyday life reveals the hidden architecture of the capitalist mode of produciton with the aesthetic aptitude of a modern novelist. -- James Draney * Full Stop *Allegory, for Jameson, is less a means of overriding difference than a means of preserving it. To look at history and find a great deal of allegory, as this book does, is to find in history, amidst all the destruction, an impulse to preserve and a large quantity of successful preservation. -- Bruce Robbins * The Baffler *Allegory and Ideology involves its readers in the process of intellectual discovery. We may learn from the author of Allegory and Ideology the delight in moving ideas around, forcing them to change the company they keep, in order to see what happens. Jameson's distinctive feature seems to be the way in which his periods rework and transform all objects of analysis by placing them in an ever-shifting syntactical architecture. His intense account of Auerbach's Dante can easily be read as a declaration of Jameson's own poetics. Nothing has a meaning, in Allegory and Ideology, if not through a complex relation to everything else. -- Franco Moretti * New Left Review *

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