Literary studies: c 1900 to c 2000 Books

Book SynopsisA pitch-perfect memoir, brilliantly funny, wise and moving, of family, friends and political life over the last sixty yearsTrade Review'Hard to beat. I could read this sort of book for ever' Stephen Fry, Independent 'Reading this book actually makes you feel perceptibly happier and buoyed up' Evening Standard 'An unadulterated joy Every page is shot through with anecdote and wit, so that the whole experience feels like being at a peculiarly wonderful dinner party Funny, astute and clever' Observer 'A loving, lyrical, life-filled memoir' Guardian

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Book SynopsisSeamus Heaney''s poetic career has been one of constant development and expansion, and his place among the world''s greatest literary figures is universally acknowledged. When it first appeared in 1986, Neil Corcoran''s A Student''s Guide to Seamus Heaney was immediately recognized as the clearest and most thorough account of his work so far, and it has not been rivalled since. The new edition, which like the original has had the advantage of Seamus Heaney''s own cooperation and unstinted access to the poet''s papers, follows the same pattern, adding a chapter apiece on the major collections of poems published since 1986, as well as separate discussions of Heaney''s work as a translator and essayist. The published chapters have also been revised. In consequence, this not only remains the most useful introduction to a singularly varied and important body of work, but is the most up-to-date as well.

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Book SynopsisDo you want to know why Harold Pinter is a figure of such influence and importance in the theatre? Are you studying his plays and looking for help with interpretation? Or do you teach Pinter and need a reliable guide to the plays? The Faber Critical Guide to Harold Pinter gives this and much more, including an introduction to the distinctive features of the playwright''s work, a detailed analysis of each of the classic plays and comments on performance.

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Book SynopsisA travelogue exploring the life and work of George Orwell through the places he lived, worked and wrote Following in the footsteps of his literary hero, researcher and historian Oliver Lewis set out to visit all the places to have inspired and been lived in by George Orwell. Over three years he travelled from Wigan to Catalonia, Paris to Motihari, Marrakesh to Eton, and in each location explored both how Orwell experienced the place, and how the place now remembers him as a literary icon. Beginning in Northern India, where Orwell was born in 1903, and ending in the Oxfordshire village of Sutton Courtenay, where he was laid to rest in 1950, The Orwell Tour offers an accessible and informative new biography of Orwell through the lens of place.Trade ReviewOrwell roamed widely, living in London, Southwold, Henley, Wallington, Hayes and Jura. It's this rootless, restless man that writer Oliver Lewis pursues in his innovative and thorough book, The Orwell Tour. -- Daily TelegraphIf you enjoy Orwell and if you enjoy travelogues, you'll find a lot here to like. -- The Orwell Society

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Book SynopsisAn 365-day anthology of readings from one of the most influential writers of all time, George MacDonald, compiled by CS Lewis himself.MacDonald was a major Christian writer of the late nineteenth, early twentieth centuries. He influenced nearly everyone who was a major twentieth century writer (including Lewis Carroll, WH Auden, JRR Tolkien, Walter de la Mare, and CS Lewis. Not only was he a pioneer in the fantasy fiction genre, laying the path for people like Tolkien to write Lord of the Rings, but also a major Christian thinker, which influenced Lewis profoundly.Lewis, in fact, wrote that MacDonald was his master', and said I know hardly any other writer who seems to be closer, or more continually close, to the Spirit of Christ Himself.'These words will challenge and uplift you, and illuminate the faith which underpins all of CS Lewis's popular and enduring writing.Trade Review‘I know hardly any other writer who seems to be closer, or more continually close, to the Spirit of Christ Himself.’- C.S. Lewis on George MacDonald

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Book SynopsisAn absolute belter of a biography' MARINA HYDEA Times Literary Non-Fiction Book of the Year 2022An LA Times Best Book of the Year 2022An intimate, revealing and profoundly moving biography of Jean Rhys, acclaimed author of Wide Sargasso Sea. An obsessive and troubled genius, Jean Rhys is one of the most compelling and unnerving writers of the twentieth century. Memories of a conflicted Caribbean childhood haunt the four fictions that Rhys wrote during her extraordinary years as an exile in 1920s Paris and later in England. Rhys's experiences of heartbreak, poverty, notoriety, breakdowns and even imprisonment all became grist for her writing, forming an iconic Rhys woman' whose personality vulnerable, witty, watchful and angry was often mistaken, and still is, for a self-portrait.Many details of Rhys's life emerge from her memoir, Smile Please and the stories she wrote throughout her long and challenging career. But it's a shock to discover that no biographer until now has researcheTrade Review‘This is a first-class life and a rollicking read. Seymour skilfully interweaves the autographical stories and novels with the people and fortunes in Rhys’s crazily adventurous life. She’s warmly sympathetic to the young ingénue of 17, and only slightly less so to the old bat of 87. She’s also the only Rhys biographer who travelled to Dominica to see what it was about the island — its colours, smells, conflicted history and voodoo sorcery — that haunted Rhys all her days but fired her imagination. The result is close to a masterpiece’John Walsh, Sunday Times ‘Her intimate and insightful biography … certainly reads like a novel. [Seymour] is a bewitching writer … gives us Rhys in all her glory’Laura Freeman, The Times ‘The superb achievement of Miranda Seymour’s painstaking and compassionate new biography is to dispel forever the idea that Rhys was simply a naïve chronicler of her own experiences … in terms of sheer technique, she was a virtuoso’Spectator ‘[A] slyly compelling new biography of Jean Rhys … The narrative has the tension of a thriller as Rhys struggles to finish Wide Sargasso Sea’Rachel Cooke, Observer ‘Seymour,a masterful biographer… tells her story with empathy, precision and a keen eye for the telling detail’LA Times, A Book of the Year 2022 ‘An exhaustive, definitive ride around both the idea and the reality of Jean Rhys … Seymour addresses a writer and woman who is at once self-absorbed and thoughtful, sardonic and sensitive’Siobhán Kane, Irish Times ‘An absolute belter of a biography . . . don’t read if you are afraid of monsters’ Marina Hyde, Favourite Reads of 2022 ‘A very impressive piece of work. A long and tangled life most authoritatively pieced together. I was completely absorbed’Michael Frayn, author of Noises Off

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Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its range of best-loved, essential classics.LADY CHATTERLEY'S LOVER was banned on its publication in 1928, creating a storm of controversy. Lawrence tells the story of Constance Chatterley's marriage to Sir Clifford, an aristocratic and an intellectual who is paralyzed from the waist down after the First World War. Desperate for an heir and embarrassed by his inability to satisfy his wife, Clifford suggests that she have an affair. Constance, troubled by her husband's words, finds herself involved in a passionate relationship with their gamekeeper, Oliver Mellors. Lawrence's vitriolic denunciations of industrialism and class division come together in his vivid depiction of the profound emotional and physical connection between a couple otherwise divided by station and society.

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Book SynopsisGraham Greene''s ''long journey through time'' began in 1904, when he was born into a tribe of Greenes based in Berkhamstead at the public school where his father was headmaster. In A Sort of Life Greene recalls schooldays and Oxford, adolescent encounters with psychoanalysis and Russian roulette, his marriage and conversion to Catholicism, and how he rashly resigned from The Times when his first novel, The Man Within was published in 1929. A Sort of Life reveals, brilliantly and compellingly, a life lived and an art obsessed by ''the dangerous edge of things''.Trade ReviewA great writer who spoke brilliantly to a whole generation -- Alec GuinnessThe setting of his life is beautifully observed and conveyed. I have never admired his writing more - the masterly skill and economy; the excitement he manages to pump, not just into the narrative, but into the very sentences, which throb and glow themselves * Observer *A subversive hero, self-consciously seeking out (in Browning's words) 'the dangerous edge of things,' who lived everywhere and nowhere, a man whom few people ever knew... Greene was a restless traveler, a committed writer, a terrible husband, an appalling father and an admitted manic-depressive * New York Times *This is the work of a remarkable man determined to show he is not particularly remarkable...his fame is secure * Daily Telegraph *Greene wrote some of the most commanding English novels of the twentieth century and some of the slickest commercial thrillers * Newsday *

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Book SynopsisOrwell has become one of the most potent and symbolic figures in western political thought. Even the adjective ''Orwellian'' is now a byword for a particular way of thinking about life, literature and language yet, despite this iconic status, the man who was born Eric Blair in 1903 remains an enigma. Drawing on a mass of previously unseen material, D J Taylor offers a strikingly human portrait of the writer too often embalmed as a secular saint. Here is a man who, for all his outward unworldliness, effectively stage-managed his own life; who combined chilling detachment with warmth and gentleness, disillusionment with hope; who battled through illness to produce two of the greatest masterpieces of the twentieth century. Moving and revealing, Taylor''s Orwell is the biography we have all been waiting for, as vibrant, powerful and resonant as its extraordinary hero.Trade ReviewTaylor wins the biographical contest...[He] is an accomplished literary critic and he illuminates Orwell's work in the context of his life elegantly and expertly * Guardian *Taylor's book has the unmistakable depth of flavour that comes from long, slow, careful cooking-pithy and fascinating -- Jan Dalley * Financial Times *Taylor writes with such skill and aplomb that it's impossible not to be swept along by the intelligence and observations * Independent on Sunday *Taylor's biography is a persuasive and profoundly moving exploration of the ways in which Orwell's work was constructed from the stones of a ruined life-[it] is likely to prove in many ways definitive * Daily Telegraph *Fetchingly original...Taylor's [biography] is pacy socio-journalism -- Ian Thomson * Scotland on Sunday *

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Book SynopsisThe work of 21 poets is represented: including Rupert Brooke, Robert Graves, Ivor Gurney, Thomas Hardy, Charlotte Mew, Alice Meynell, Wilfred Owen, Herbert Read, Isaac Rosenberg, Siegfried Sassoon and Edward Thomas.

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Book SynopsisIn his work as a physician, Williams had learnt the skill of objective observation which he applied to his poetry, examining, as he said, ''the particular to discover the universal''. Marked by a vernacular American speech and direct observation of the landscape and people of his native New Jersey, his poetry explores the ''raw merging of American pastoral and urban squalor. Emotionally restrained but rich in sensory experience, the poems were written according to the guiding concept: ''no ideas but in things'' and those ''things'', a red wheelbarrow, a group of trees, a river, convey the local and the particular with a vivid intensity.

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Book SynopsisA unique history of the Beats, in the words of the movement''s most central member, Allen Ginsberg, based on a seminal series of his lecturesIn 1977, twenty years after the publication of his landmark poem ''Howl'', Allen Ginsberg decided it was time to teach a course on the literary history of the Beat Generation - partly to preserve his own memories of those years. The Best Minds of My Generation presents the best of these candid, intimate and illuminating lectures, revealing Kerouac, Burroughs and the rest of the Beats as Ginsberg knew them: friends, confidantes, literary mentors and fellow visionaries in a group who started a revolution.''Marvellous ... spellbinding ... preserving intact the story of the literary movement Ginsberg led, promoted and never ceased to embody'' The New York Times Book Review''An awesome exhaustive feat ... fascinatingly readable'' Sunday Times''Astonishingly intimate ... Full of penetrating insight and fascinating literary gossip, the book is a major contribution to the core Beat canon ... situates the Beats in cultural history in a way that no other exploration of their work does'' San Francisco Chronicle

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“A groundbreaking example of comics representation in literature.”—Publishers Weekly“Penguin provides introductory essays; superb analyses by the series editor, Ben Saunders; and extensive bibliographies.”—Michael Dirda, The Washington Post“Stories become classics when generations of readers sort through them, talk about them, imitate them, and recommend them. In this case, baby boomers read them when they débuted, Gen X-ers grew up with their sequels, and millennials encountered them through Marvel movies. Each generation of fans—initially fanboys, increasingly fangirls, and these days nonbinary fans, too—found new ways not just to read the comics but to use them. That’s how canons form. Amateurs and professionals, over decades, come to something like consensus about which books matter and why—or else they love to argue about it, and we get to follow the arguments. Canons rise and fall, gain works and lose others, when one generation of people with the power to publish, teach, and edit diverges from the one before ... A top-flight comic by Kirby—or his successor on “Captain America,” Jim Steranko—barely needed words. You could follow the story just by watching the characters act and react. Thankfully, Penguin volumes do justice to these images. They reproduce sixties comics in bright, flat, colorful inks on thick white paper—unlike the dot-based process used on old newsprint, but perhaps truer to their bold, thrill-chasing spirit.”—Stephanie Burt, The New Yorker“As before, all three of these volumes re-present Professor Ben Saunders’ learned general series intro which does an excellent job of succinctly explaining the rise of Marvel Comics and the Marvel Method.”—Forces of Geek

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Book SynopsisA provocative history of Ulysses and the Easter Rising as harbingers of decolonization. When revolutionaries seized Dublin during the 1916 Easter Rising, they looked back to unrequited pasts to point the way toward radical futurestransforming the Celtic Twilight into the electric light of modern Dublin in James Joyce's Ulysses. For Luke Gibbons, the short-lived rebellion converted the Irish renaissance into the beginning of a global decolonial movement. James Joyce and the Irish Revolution maps connections between modernists and radicals, tracing not only Joyce's projection of Ireland onto the world stage, but also how revolutionary leaders like Ernie O'Malley turned to Ulyssesto make sense of their shattered worlds. Coinciding with the centenary of both Ulysses and Irish independence, this book challenges received narratives about the rebellion and the novel that left Ireland changed, changed utterly.Trade Review“An important development in the understanding of the Irish relationship to Joyce’s work – and of his relationship to his native country. . . . For this superb, transformative undertaking the author deserves our gratitude.” * Dublin Review of Books *“The Easter Rising, far from being consigned to nostalgia, is seen as a catalyst for global processes of decolonization . . . [Gibbons’s] tracing of connections and influences—real, virtual, and suggestive—between revolution in the street and in the word results in richly layered and sometimes erudite chapters that repay close reading . . [and] open up many fascinating paths.” * Irish Times *"One of Ireland’s most profound if idiosyncratic cultural critics, Luke Gibbons, seeks to bring these two revolutions into the same framework in his important new work, James Joyce and the Irish Revolution: The Easter Rising as Modern Event. Through a series of engrossing vignettes drawn from a wide array of contemporary sources, he positions Joyce’s 'revolution of the word' under the light emitted by the 1916 Easter Rising and sets out to 'reclaim what was radical in the Irish revolution for a modernist project akin to that of Joyce’s.'" * Jacobin *“The interest key figures in the Rising and the subsequent War of Independence (1919–21) showed in Joyce’s work and its revolutionary potential is . . . compelling. For example, Gibbons shines a light on the Irish revolutionary leader Ernie O’Malley, who devoted considerable attention to Joyce . . . [Gibbons’s] case is unassailable. Political radicalism and radical art call one another to arms.” * Times Literary Supplement *“This is a study deserving of an audience beyond the confines of Irish literary criticism. Underscoring the electrifying analysis is the hard evidence of patient scholarship and profound insight that makes this book one of the most original interventions to appear during the Decade of Centenaries.” * History Ireland *“Gibbons examines how the aesthetic innovations in James Joyce’s Ulysses reflect the political turmoil of Ireland’s 1916 Easter Rising and subsequent War of Independence . . . with some eye-opening insights.” * Publishers Weekly *"This book is a ground-breaking and original addition to the decade of centenaries. Luke Gibbons’ familiarity with the ‘underworld’ figures of the anti-Treatyites and supporters, who understood Ulysses because of their lived experience, extends our understanding of the more commonly reported Free Staters’ refusal of Ulysses, mainly on moral censorship grounds. Replete with a superb index and 56 pages of exemplary footnotes, a study in themselves, it is a generous book. It is a work that manages to yoke modernist literary expression with a broad array of transnational political effects." * Australasian Journal of Irish Studies *“Gibbons may well be Ireland’s most brilliant literary and cultural critic: a distinctive voice and a decisive eye. Here, as always, Gibbons’s commentary ebbs around observed details with a verve worthy of Benjamin, as he makes clear not only that Joyce’s work was revolutionary but also that it was recognized as such by some of the revolutionaries themselves. This is an immensely rich and suggestive work, an instant classic of Irish literary criticism." -- Enda Duffy, University of California, Santa Barbara"This book positively bristles with intelligence and erudition. Gibbons reads Ulysses and the Easter Rising as compelling instances of an alliance between political radicalism and formal/technical innovation. At the same time, he decisively rewrites our understanding of Ulysses’s reception history, demonstrating that many of Joyce’s first interpreters saw his literary experiments as direct engagements with Ireland’s turbulent political history.” -- Marjorie Howes, Boston College“In this pioneering investigation, Gibbons has convincingly reinterpreted the Easter Rising as a global and modernizing event. His Joycean cast of characters—artists, freedom fighters, and a surprising number who were both—highlights the cultural aspects of the 1916 Rising in a new modernist and international vein.” -- Mary E. Daly, University College DublinTable of ContentsList of Figures Preface Abbreviations Introduction: James Joyce and the Irish Revolution 1. “Old Haunts”: Photographic Memory, Motion, and the Republic of Letters 2. Modern Epic and Revolution: Montage in the Margins 3. “A World That Ran Through Things”: Ulysses, the Easter Rising, and Spatial Form 4. The Easter Rising as Modern Event: Media, Technology, and Terror 5. “Paving Over the Abyss”: Ireland, War, and Literary Modernism 6. “Through the Eyes of Another Race”: Ulysses, Roger Casement, and the Politics of Humanitarianism 7. Transatlantic “Usable Pasts”: America, Literary Modernism, and the Irish Revolution 8. On Another Man’s Text: Ernie O’Malley, Politics, and Irish Modernism 9. Beyond Disillusionment: Desmond Ryan, Ulysses, and the Irish Revolution Acknowledgments Notes Index

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Book Synopsis* Highly entertaining account of four journeys into the Himalayas and Tibet* Includes a ground-breaking survey of the history of early TibetTrade ReviewA thought-provoking work, filled with unusual links and ideas that deserve to be explored -- Patrick French * The Sunday Times *Retells the adventures of kings and seers, shamans and deities, handling the tales of war, triumph and defeat with mastery -- Tahir Shah * The Literary Review *

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Book SynopsisYosano Akiko has long been recognised as one of the most important literary figures of prewar Japan. Her renown derives principally from the passion of her early poetry and from her contributions to 20th-century debates about women. This study shows that facile descriptions of Akiko as a ‘poetess of passion’ or ‘new woman’ no longer suffice.

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Book SynopsisYasmina Reza''s award-winning comedy Art is collected here with three more of her sharp witty and sexy plays, all translated with elegance and élan by Christopher Hampton.ArtSerge has bought a modern painting for a huge sum of money. Mark hates it and cannot believe that a friend of his could possibly want such a work. Yvan attempts, unsuccessfully, to placate both sides. The question is, are you who you think you are or are you who your friends think you are? If your friendship is based on tacit mutual agreement, what happens when one person does something completely different?Life x 3Henri and Sonia are putting their son to bed when an unexpected knock at the door throws them into disarray. Hubert and Ines have arrived for dinner, a day earlier than expected. As the evening degenerates, Yasmina Reza blends cruel observations with high comedy in an hilarious and poignant examinatioin of our most personal intimacies and private longings.<Trade Review"Art: 'A remarkably wise, witty and intelligent comedy. Art has touched a universal nerve.' The Times; Life x 3: 'Pleasure in triplicate.' Independent; Conversations After a Burial: 'Reza brings to her characters a brooding, mature compassion.' Sunday Times; The Unexpected Man: 'Delicate and witty, neatly constructed and peppered with irony.' Financial Times; 'One of the most musical and psychologically acute playwrights today.' Financial Times"

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Book SynopsisIn Ulysses and Us, Declan Kiberd argues that James Joyce''s Ulysses offers a humane vision of a more tolerant and decent life under the dreadful pressures of the modern world. As much a guide to contemporary life as it is virtuoso work of literary criticism, Ulysses and Us offers revolutionary insights to the scholar and the first-time reader alike.Leopold Bloom, the half-Jewish Irishman who is the hero of James Joyce''s Ulysses, teaches the young Stephen Dedalus (modelled on Joyce himself) how he can grow and mature as an artist and an adult human being. Bloom has learned to live with contradictions, with anxiety and sexual jealousy, and with the rudeness and racism of the people he encounters in the city streets, and in his apparently banal way sees deeper than any of them. He embodies an intensely ordinary kind of wisdom, Kiberd argues, and in this way offers us a model for living well, in the tradition of the literature upon which Joyce drew i

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Book SynopsisFerlinghetti’s A Coney Island of the Mind has become a modern classic. It has been translated into nine languages and there are now three-quarters of a million copies in print.Trade Review"Lawrence gets you laughing then hits you with the truth." -- Francis Ford Coppola"A brave man and a brave poet." -- Bob Dylan

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Book SynopsisMagdalena J. Zaborowska uses James Baldwin's house in the south of France as a lens through which to reconstruct his biography and to explore the politics and poetics of blackness, queerness, and domesticity in his complex and underappreciated later works.Trade Review"Zaborowska's readings into Baldwin's work are thoughtful and illuminating. An opinionated and passionate book on one of the 20th century's most important writers." * Kirkus Reviews *"Zaborowska takes you on an intricate journey in which she explores the central theme of home and what this means in terms of identity and belonging. . . . This book contains vast details of Baldwin’s life in France – full of stunning photographs and beautifully illustrated, it draws on interviews with those closest to him and unpublished letters and works. It dissects, analyses and tries to understand the life lived by Baldwin, particularly how the relationship between social space and architecture is linked to race. It enables readers to reassess the richness and complexity of his writing and gives them an opportunity to understand the man behind the work. . . ." -- Kalwant Bhopal * Times Higher Education *"Relying on extensive interviews with Baldwin’s friends and lovers, manuscripts, and unpublished letters, Zaborowska introduces new insights into the writer’s life and work. Me And My House is an essential read for both serious students and scholars, but also fans wishing to know more about the life and motivations of this iconic master." * The Advocate *" [An] extremely sensitive, thorough and well-informed appraisal of Baldwin’s final French sojourn by one of the leading scholars of the writer’s work and life." -- Claudine Raynaud * European Journal of American Culture *“Zaborowska describes in full, rich detail the actual home that Baldwin established in the south of France, recreating its physical qualities and also the extraordinary community he assembled there. . . . The image of Baldwin that emerges from this book is therefore quite different from the isolated stranger that previous studies have established.” -- Robert Butler * African American Review *Table of ContentsAbbreviations ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction. If I Am a Part of the American House, and I Am: Vitrines, Fragments, Reassembled Remnants 1 1. Foundations, Facades, and Faces: Through the Glass Blackly, or Domesticating Claustrophobic Terror 51 2. Home Matter: No House in the World, or Reading Transnational, Black Queer Domesticity in St. Paul-de-Vence 85 3. Life Material: Haunted Houses and Welcome Tables, or The First Teacher, the Last Play, and Affectations of Disidentification 145 4. Building Metaphors: "Sitting in the Strangest House I Have Ever Known," or Black Heterotopias from Harlem to San Juan, to Paris, London, and Yonkers 213 5. Black Matters of Value: Erasure, Overlay, Manipulation, or Archiving the Invisible House 295 Notes 317 Bibliography 351 Index 377

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Book Synopsis"No one else has ever made avant-garde, experimental poems so attractive to both the general and the special reader."—Randall Jarrell

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Book Synopsis"Crane's poetry has been a touchstone for me, and remains central to a fully imaginative understanding of American literature."—Harold Bloom

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Book SynopsisThis heartfelt gay memoir about an adult son uncovering his father’s secrets is “a cross between Dickens’s David Copperfield, Rousseau’s Confessions, and the new pornography” (Donald Windham).   When his father died, J. R. Ackerley was shocked to discover that he had led a secret life. And after Ackerley himself died, he left a surprise of his own—this coolly considered, unsparingly honest account of his quest to find out the whole truth about the man who had always eluded him in life. But Ackerley’s pursuit of his father is also an exploration of the self—making My Father and Myself a pioneering record, at once sexually explicit and emotionally charged, of life as a gay man. This witty, sorrowful, and beautiful book is a classic of twentieth-century memoir.

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Book SynopsisElizabeth Bishop is increasingly recognised as one of the twentieth century''s most original writers. Consisting of thirty-five ground-breaking essays by an international team of authors, including biographers, literary critics, poets and translators, this volume addresses the biographical and literary inception of Bishop''s originality, from her formative upbringing in New England and Nova Scotia to long residences in New York, France, Florida and Brazil. Her poetry, prose, letters, translations and visual art are analysed in turn, followed by detailed studies of literary movements such as surrealism and modernism that influenced her artistic development. Bishop''s encounters with nature, music, psychoanalysis and religion receive extended treatment, likewise her interest in dreams and humour. Essays also investigate the impact of twentieth-century history and politics on Bishop''s life writing, and what it means to read Bishop via eco-criticism, postcolonial theory and queer studies.Trade Review'With imagination and precision, this first-rate collection of essays explores the varied contexts – geographical, familial, historical, artistic, intellectual, social, cultural and political – that influenced Elizabeth Bishop's literary career. Read in such diverse contexts, Bishop's work emerges as more complex, multi-faceted, and surprising than even long-term readers might expect. This book is a must-read for readers new to Bishop and for those that thought they knew her.' Susan Rosenbaum, University of Georgia'Like Bishop's writing itself, this volume is a miracle of composition. Simultaneously intimate and vast, local and distant, formally precise and wildly inventive, Cleghorn and Ellis pull off a nearly impossible trick. Their collection really does provide a 'context' for one of the twentieth century's most purposefully unsettled poetic voices. Framing and reframing Bishop's work against dozens of different shifting backgrounds, the collection somehow manages to pull it 'all together' to make 'just one'. I guarantee: anyone who has ever appreciated Bishop will appreciate this.' Alexander MacLeod, Saint Mary's University'… is a groundbreaking, comprehensive collection of essays that penetrates and reveals numerous facts of Elizabeth Bishop's life and legacy …' Tristan Beach, The Elizabeth Bishop Blog'Carefully edited with thoughtful consideration given to readability, this volume will be of great value to literary students and scholars … Recommended.' R. M. Roberts, Choice ConnectTable of ContentsIntroduction Angus Cleghorn and Jonathan Ellis; Part I. Places: 1. Nova Scotia Sandra Barry; 2. New England Heather Treseler; 3. New York Jo Gill; 4. Paris, France Lisa Goldfarb; 5. Florida Sarah Kennedy; 6. Brazil Neil Besner; Part II. Forms: 7. Lyric poetry Gillian White; 8. Prose Vidyan Ravinthiran; 9. Letters Langdon Hammer; 10. Translation Mariana Machova; 11. Visual art Linda Anderson; 12. Archives Bethany Hicok; Part III. Literary Contexts: 13. Romantic and Victorian poetry Peter Swaab; 14. Surrealism and the Avant-Garde Andrew Epstein; 15. Modernism Philip McGowan; 16. Mid-Century Poetics Kamran Javadizadeh; 17. Brazilian literature Maria Lúcia Milléo Martins; Part IV. Politics, Society and Culture: 18. War Charles Berger; 19. The cold war Steven Axelrod; 20. Music Christopher Spaide; 21. Psychoanalysis Lorrie Goldensohn; 22. Religion Cheryl Walker; 23. Anthropology Barbara Page; 24. Travel Jeffrey Gray; Part V. Identity: 25. Dreams Bonnie Costello; 26. Humor Rachel Trousdale; 27. Gender Deryn Rees-Jones; 28. Queerness Michael Snediker; 29. Race Sandeep Parmar; 30. Nature Angus Cleghorn; 31. Animals Marianne MacRae; Part VI. Reception and Criticism: 32. Bishop studies Thomas Travisano; 33. Criticism and reviews Jonathan Ellis; 34. 'My saving grace': On editing Elizabeth Bishop Lloyd Schwartz; 35. Bishop's influence Stephanie Burt.

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Book SynopsisThis book discusses contemporary British poetry in the context of metamodernism. The author argues that the concept of metamodernist poetry helps to recalibrate the opposition between mainstream and innovative poetry, and he investigates whether a new generation of British poets can be accurately defined as metamodernist. Antony Rowland analyses the ways in which contemporary British poets such as Geoffrey Hill, J. H. Prynne, Geraldine Monk and Sandeep Parmarhaveresponded to the work of modernist writers as diverse as T. S. Eliot, H. D. and Antonin Artaud, and what Theodor Adorno describes as the overall enigma of modern art.Table of ContentsIntroduction; 1. Contemporary British Poetry and Enigmaticalness; 2. Continuing 'Poetry Wars' in Twenty-First-Century British Poetry; 3. Committed and Autonomous Art; 4. Iconoclasm and Enigmatical Commitment; 5. The Double Consciousness of Modernism; Conclusion.

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Book SynopsisThis Element tackles the problem of generalization with respect to text-based evidence in the field of literary studies. When working with texts, how can we move, reliably and credibly, from individual observations to more general beliefs about the world? The onset of computational methods has highlighted major shortcomings of traditional approaches to texts when it comes to working with small samples of evidence. This Element combines a machine learning-based approach to detect the prevalence and nature of generalization across tens of thousands of sentences from different disciplines alongside a robust discussion of potential solutions to the problem of the generalizability of textual evidence. It exemplifies the way mixed methods can be used in complementary fashion to develop nuanced, evidence-based arguments about complex disciplinary issues in a data-driven research environment.Table of ContentsIntroduction, or What's Wrong with Literary Studies?; Part I. Theory: 1. Probable Cause; Part II. Evidence Eve Kraicer, Nicholas King, Emma Ebowe, Matthew Hunter, Victoria Svaikovsky, and Sunyam Bagga; 2. Machine Learning as a Collaborative Process; 3. Results; Part III. Discussion: 4. Don't Generalize (from Case Studies): The Case for Open Generalization; 5. Don't Generalize (At All): The Case for the Open Mind; Conclusion: On the Mutuality of Method.

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Book SynopsisPacked full of analysis and interpretation, historical background, discussions and commentaries, York Notes will help you get right to the heart of the text you're studying, whether it's poetry, a play or a novel. You'll learn all about the historical context of the piece; find detailed discussions of key passages and characters; learn interesting facts about the text; and discover structures, patterns and themes that you may never have known existed. In the Advanced Notes, specific sections on critical thinking, and advice on how to read critically yourself, enable you to engage with the text in new and different ways. Full glossaries, self-test questions and suggested reading lists will help you fully prepare for your exam, while internet links and references to film, TV, theatre and the arts combine to fully immerse you in your chosen text. York Notes offer an exciting and accessible key to your text, enabling you to develop your ideas and transform your stuTable of Contents Part 1: Introduction Part 2: The poems Part 3: Critical approachs Part 4: Critical perspectives Part 5: Background Further Reading Literacy Terms

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Book SynopsisThis book argues that modern Irish history encompasses a deep-seated fear of betrayal, and that this fear has been especially prevalent since the revolutionary period at the outset of the twentieth century. The author goes on to argue that the novel is the literary form most apt for the exploration of betrayal in its social, political and psychological dimensions. The significance of this thesis comes into focus in terms of a number of recent developments – most notably, the economic downturn (and the political and civic betrayals implicated therein) and revelations of the Catholic Church’s failure in its pastoral mission. As many observers note, such developments have brought the language of betrayal to the forefront of contemporary Irish life. This book offers a powerful analysis of modern Irish history as regarded from the perspective of some of its most incisive minds, including James Joyce, Liam O’Flaherty, Elizabeth Bowen, Francis Stuart, Eugene McCabe and Anne Enright.Trade Review'The Judas Kiss charts a surprising path through Irish literature, but on every page its insights compel assent. That is the proof of criticism of a very high order.'David Lloyd, Distinguished Professor of English, University of California'Readers can't fail to be surprised, even astonished, by the mother lode of meaning and implication Gerry Smyth uncovers in The Judas kiss. The inflections of betrayal, treachery and infidelity he finds in modern Irish fiction, and by both implication and explication in Irish society, are shockingly numerous. Betrayal accompanies human nature and Christian culture, but is also potently Irish in its fictional and cultural incidence. The book cuts a broader literary swathe than its six subject novelists would suggest, and its critical imprint may well prove indelible.'John Wilson Foster, author of Irish Novels 1890–1940: New Bearings in Culture and Fiction (2008)‘[…] the greatest compliment that one can pay a book: that it opens the way to further thinking. I certainly hope that this book initiates the kind of wide-scale reconsideration of the role of betrayal in Irish culture (and beyond), the potential richness of which Smyth proves in Judas Kiss.’James Alexander Fraser, Modernism/modernity, Volume 23, Number 1, January 2016‘[…] a thought provoking and astute work of criticism which uncovers a sharp anxiety about loyalty that troubles the roots of Irishness in fiction and in fact.’Edna Duffy, The Canadian Journal of Irish Studies, Vol. 41 -- .Table of ContentsIntroduction: Betrayal and the Irish NovelPart I 1. A short history of betrayal 2. Déirdre and the Sons of Usnach: a case study in Irish betrayal Part II3. ‘Trust not appearances’ – James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922) 4. the landscape of betrayal – Liam O’Flaherty’s The Informer (1925)5. a spy in the house of love– Elizabeth Bowen’s The Heat of the Day (1949)6. Jesus or Judas? – Francis Stuart’s Black List, Section H (1971) 7. ‘Cangled both to treachery’ – Eugene McCabe’s Death and Nightingales (1993) 8. ‘A family – a whole fucking country – drowning in shame’ – Anne Enright’s The Gathering (2007)Index

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Book SynopsisBeckett and media provides the first sustained examination of the relationship between Beckett and media technologies. The book analyses the rich variety of technical objects, semiotic arrangements, communication processes and forms of data processing that Beckett’s work so uniquely engages with, as well as those that – in historically changing configurations – determine the continuing performance, the audience reception, and the scholarly study of this work. Beckett and media draws on a variety of innovative theoretical approaches, such as media archaeology, in order to discuss Beckett’s intermedial oeuvre. As such, the book engages with Beckett as a media artist and examines the way his engagement with media technologies continues to speak to our cultural situation.Table of ContentsIntroduction – Balazs Rapcsak and Mark NixonPart I Literature and theatre1 In search of times gone by: Stimuli, signals and wireless telegraphy in Beckett's novel WattWolf Kittler2 Beckett's exhausted media Armin Schäfer3 Micro-drama / techno-trauma: Between theatre as cultural form and true media theatreWolfgang Ernst4 Electrifying theatre: Beckett ’ s media mysticism in and beyond Rough for Theatre IIBalazs Rapcsak5 Beckett, the proscenium, mediaMartin HarriesPart II Screens and airwaves6 Beckett ’ s intermedial bodies: Remediating theatre through radio Pim Verhulst7 Angles of immunity: Beckett's Film Philipp Schweighauser8 Beckett's affective telepoeticsUlrika Maude9 Understanding QuadJulian Murphet10 Black screens: Beckett and television technologiesJonathan BignellPart III Digital Beckett11 Directing Play in digital cultureNicholas Johnson12 Editing Beckett in digital media: Towards a digital Complete Works EditionDirk Van HulleIndex

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Book SynopsisSara Paretsky is known for her influential V.I. Warshawski series, which transformed the masculine hard-boiled detective formula into a vehicle for feminist values. But Paretsky does more than this. Her novels also illustrate the extent to which detective fiction acts as a literature of trauma, allowing Paretsky to address the politics of agency in ways that go beyond the personal, for trauma always has a social and a political dimension. Paretsky’s work also exploits the way detective fiction mirrors the writing of history. Here, Paretsky uses the form to expose the partiality of historical accounts – whether they be personal, institutional, or national – that authorise ‘forgetting’ of a particularly insidious kind. Significantly, all these issues are explored within the framework of the traditional hard-boiled detective novel. As a result, Paretsky’s achievement forces us to acknowledge the deeply subversive potential of detective fiction.Table of ContentsIntroduction1. Repositioning the debate2. Sexual politics and agency3. Community and empowerment4. Global capital and marginality5. Destabilising the status quoAfterwordIndex

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Book SynopsisWhat do Philip Pullman and J.K. Rowling have in common that has made both of their stories so successful? What does Pullman listen to while he writes - and who, or what, is Dust?Pullman's award-winning trilogy His Dark Materials has been appreciated by readers of all ages. It is now set to welcome new fans as it is adapted for television by the BBC, and his new trilogy at last sees publication. Nicholas Tucker, a leading authority on children's literature, writes about the man he knows as a friend. Unpacking and examining Pullman's life and the sources he drew on for his masterpiece, he explores the world of science, theology, imagination and adventure that Pullman has created.Including a personal interview with Pullman himself, Darkness Visible offers a unique exploration of the author's work - and its controversies."Enigmas from His Dark Materials are unraveled. Unmissable for all Pullman readers" Sussex ExpressTrade ReviewEnigmas from His Dark Materials are unraveled... Unmissable for all Pullman readers * Sussex Express *

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Book SynopsisChloe Marr is young, beautiful and so irresistible that countless people fall in love with her, and friends are hypnotized by her charm and warmth. Her origins are a mystery and, in London society, such mystique carries both allure and suspicion. But when an untimely exodus pulls Chloe from the people around her, they soon realise nobody really knows the truth about anybody else… A. A. Milne’s ability to portray interwar society is second to none, and this classic novel of an elusive Mayfair delivers his signature humour and lightness of touch.Trade Review'He is sensitive. He can write charmingly… and his prose is at once facile and precise' * New York Post *'There is an astringent realism about Milne’s mind and work… and an unassuming sureness of balance lightened with so serene and deft a wit' * New York Times *

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Book SynopsisKate Grenville's The Secret River was one of the most loved novels of 2006. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize and awarded the Commonwealth Writer's Prize, the story of William Thornhill and his journey from London to the other side of the world has moved and exhilarated hundreds of thousands of readers. Searching for the Secret River tells the story of how Grenville came to write this wonderful book. It is in itself an amazing story, beginning with Grenville's great-great-great grandfather. Grenville starts to investigate her ancestor, hoping to understand his life. She pursues him from Sydney to London and back, and slowly she begins to realise she must write about him. Searching for the Secret River maps this creative journey into fiction, and illuminates the importance of family in all our lives.Trade ReviewGrenville's skill is to turn what could have been too obviously a representative moral fable into a rich novel of character. * * Sunday Telegraph * *Grenville, as ever, describes an Australia so overwhelmingly beautiful that readers will lust after its sunbaked soul too. * * Daily Telegraph * *We have had to wait five years for The Secret River but the wait has been worth it... Splendidly paced, passionate and disturbing. * * The Times * *

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Book SynopsisModernism is usually thought of as a shock wave of innovations hitting art, architecture, music, cinema and literature - the work of Picasso, Joyce, Schoenberg, movements like Futurism and Dada, the architecture of Le Corbusier, T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland and the avant-garde theatre of Bertolt Brecht or Samuel Beckett. But what really defines modernism? Why did it begin and how long did it last? Is Modernism over now? Chris Rodriguez and Chris Garratt's brilliant graphic guide is a brilliant exploration of the last century's most thrilling artistic work - and what it's really all about.

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Book SynopsisJames Joyce is one of the most famous--and controversial--writers of the twentieth century. The myth of his difficulty has discouraged many readers from works such as "Ulysses," but David Norris explores his life and work in this engaging and intellectually rigorous introduction.

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Book SynopsisMaggie O’Sullivan has been a significant force in the alternative British poetry scene since the 1970s. Her international reputation has continued to grow and she is widely regarded as one of the foremost feminist avant-garde writers working in Britain today. This new volume of essays and interviews locates O’Sullivan in the wider context of contemporary British poetry and draws to light the wide-ranging influences which inform her work and her own influence upon a new generation of feminist avant-garde writing. Tackling textual, visual and sound elements in her work her poetry is complex, challenging and rewarding. O’Sullivan is also a compelling performer of her work. Thematically she is capable of tackling animal vegetable and mineral ideas in her writing, drawing on mythological and even shamanistic components that are provocative and sensual.This volume contains contributions from Charles Bernstein, Mandy Bloomfield, Ken Edwards, Romana Huk, Peter Manson, Nicky Marsh, Peter Middleton, Maggie O'Sullivan, Redell Olsen, Marjorie Perloff, Will Rowe, Robert Sheppard, Scott Thurston and Nerys Williams.Table of Contents Ken Edwards: Introduction Charles Bernstein: Colliderings: O’Sullivan’s Medleyed Verse Mandy Bloomfield: Maggie O’Sullivan’s Material Poeticsof Salvaging in red shifts and murmur Romana Huk: Maggie O’Sullivan and the story of metaphysics Peter Manson: A Natural History in 3 Incomplete Parts Nicky Marsh: Agonal States: Maggie O’Sullivan and a feminist politics of visual poetics Peter Middleton: ‘Ear Loads’: Neologisms and Sound Poetry in Maggie O’Sullivan’s Palace of Reptiles Marjorie Perloff: “The Saturated Language of Red”: Maggie O’Sullivan and the Artist’s Book Will Rowe: Preface to In the House of the Shaman Robert Sheppard: Talk: The Poetics of Maggie O’Sullivan Scott Thurston: States of Transformation: Maggie O’Sullivan’s ‘Busk, Pierce’ and Excla Redell Olsen: Writing / Conversation with Maggie O’Sullivan Nerys Williams: “My tend sees errant, Vulnerable Chanceways”: Maggie O’Sullivan’s House of Reptiles and recent American Poetics Maggie O’Sullivan and Scott Thurston

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Book SynopsisAlong with his contemporaries Edwin Morgan and Hugh MacDiarmid, Sorley MacLean is recognised as one of the most important Scottish poets of the twentieth century. Born at Oscaig on the island of Raasay in 1911, MacLean was greatly influenced by Gaelic tradition and by contemporary cultural and political ideas from around the world. In many ways he brought Scottish Gaelic poetry into the modern era, and he is a key figure in modern Scottish literature. MacLean''s poetry ranges beyond Scotland to confront European and world events and politics. This book offers a detailed study of MacLean''s poems, providing insight into the context of his work. It also includes close readings of selected poems that best represent his key themes and ideas. Emma Dymock''s SCOTNOTE study guide is ideal for senior school pupils and students of all ages as a general introduction or as a starting point for more in-depth study.

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Book SynopsisVirginia Woolf, figurehead of the Bloomsbury Group and an innovative writer whose experimental style and lyrical prose ensured her position as one of the most influential of modern novelists, was also firmly anchored in the reality of the houses she lived in and those she visited regularly. Detailed and evocative accounts appear in her letters and diaries, as well as in her fiction, where they appear as backdrops or provide direct inspiration. Hilary Macaskill examines the houses that meant the most to Woolf, including: 22 Hyde Park Gate, London – where Virginia Woolf was born in 1882 Talland House, St Ives, Cornwall – the summer home of Virginia’s family until 1895 46 Gordon Square, Bloomsbury, London – the birthplace of the Bloomsbury Group – Virginia lived here from 1904 to 1912 Hogarth House, Richmond, London – where the newly married Woolfs set up home and founded the Hogarth Press Asheham House, East Sussex – the summer home of the Woolfs, 1912-1919 52 Tavistock Square, London – a return to Bloomsbury, the heart of London Monk’s House, Rodmell, East Sussex – where Virginia lived from 1919 until her death in 1941 Trade Review"A delight to the eye and a pleasure to read. Anyone who picks it up will be enchanted by it. * Virginia Woolf Bulletin *"The Woolfs' domestic lives have been documented many times, but Macaskill has written a lively and lovingly researched book, full of domestic detail, which is sure to delight Bloomsbury fans." * Sussex Life *“Intriguing insight into her domestic life . . . rich with quotes.” * House & Garden *"A confident, well-written book with a whiff of that seductive 'spirit of place'." * Times Literary Supplement *"I can’t really recommend Virginia Woolf at Home highly enough for its excellent combination of the visual and the written...if you want a look into the life of Virginia Woolf, both the woman and the writer, this is a great place to start. It’s informative, evocative, readable and very lovely to look at." * Kaggy's Bookish Ramblings blog *"Ms Macaskill handles her material with elegance and a light touch." * Country Life *"Hilary Macaskill is... an indefatigable sleuth." * World of Interiors *

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Book SynopsisThis is a revised and enlarged edition. It is designed to help the reader of Eliot's Selected Poems by identifying and explaining the wide and often baffling range of quotations, allusions and references, literary, factual and historical.

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Book Synopsis

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