Literary studies: c 1900 to c 2000 Books

Book SynopsisAn in-depth examination of one of Nigeria's leading creative writers - Akinwumi Isola.

Read more less

Book SynopsisNew and exciting research on one of Zimbabwe's most influential writers, Yvonne Vera.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisSteve Tomasula's work exists at the cutting edges of scientific knowledge and literary techniques. As such, it demands consideration from multiple perspectives and from critics who can guide the reader through the formal innovations and multimedia involutions while providing critical scientific, aesthetic, historical, and technical contexts. This book, the first of its kind, provides this framework, showing readers the richness and relevance of the worlds Tomasula constructs. Steve Tomasula's work is redefining the form of the novel, reinventing the practice of reading, and wrestling with the most urgent questions raised by massive transformations of media and biotechnologies. His work not only charts these changes, it formulates the problems that we have making meaning in our radically changing technological contexts. Vast in scope, inventive in form, and intimate in voice, his novels, short stories, and essays are read and taught by a surprisingly diverse array of scholars in fields ranging from contemporary experimental writing and literary criticism to the history of science, biotechnology and bioart, book studies, and digital humanities.Trade ReviewDavid Banash and this excellent collection do more than bring Steve Tomasula’s astounding work to a wider audience. This book reveals the multiform layers of interlacing aesthetics that, like a tumor, a clock, a biological accident, and the birth of the alphabet, assemble into patterns that are playful, enigmatic, and wondrous. Tomasula was once the best-kept secret in contemporary narrative. Now, his work is suitably viral. * Davis Schneiderman, Associate Dean of the Faculty and Professor of English, Lake Forest College, USA, and &NOW Board Member *A groundbreaking collection of essays on an author who is at the cutting edge of experimental fiction in the twenty-first century. * Marcus Boon, Professor of English, York University, Canada, and author of In Praise of Copying (2010) *Steve Tomasula’s eco-hybrid, post-cyber, transmedia fiction works are as hard to characterize as they are engaging. Only a genetically engineered polydactyl would have enough thumbs to signal the enthusiasm generated by the digerati-literati lucky enough to have encountered them in the first decade of the new millennium. Varied and eclectic, sui generis and virtuosic, Tomasula’s major works get their due in this volume as a wide range of authors, eager and equal to the task, position his activities within the critical discourses proliferating at the intersection of creative thought and literary philosophy. * Johanna Drucker, Professor of Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, USA *What is a work that arrives before it is written? What is a work that emerges from the soft tissue of the body at different points in a given era? How do make a new kind of writing derived from the oscillation between two rectangles of light; frames that might include surveillance, animal ethologies and anatomies, as much as a philosophy of the book-to-be? This extraordinary anthology constellates readings of Tomasula novels and intermedia projects that offer us a glimpse of the novel as installation, as 'nature opening out to culture.' As someone interested in what happens at the intersection of narrative and biology, the instance of mutation as a trait transmitted between and across texts of different kinds, I was very inspired by the essays in this remarkable collection. David Banash has curated something that makes it possible to come to writing again, differently. The introduction, co-written with Andrea Spain, was, itself, a fierce and brilliant consideration of 'composition, emergence, sensation': the intense, unpredictable and sometimes violent energies that underlie Tomasula’s work in its incipient stages, but also carry it through a duration. Which is prose. Which is this other kind of radical art. An art or novel that appears only when we orient towards it. In this way. * Bhanu Kapil, Associate Professor of Writing, Naropa University, USA, and author of Ban en Banlieue (2015) *Table of Contents1. “Variations on a Theme”: the (re)Invention of the Human in Vas: An Opera in Flatland Sylvie Bauer (Université Rennes 2, France) 2. The Great American Novel: System Update Kathi Inman Berens (University of Southern California, Annenberg School of Communication, USA) 3. Tomasula's Book R. M. Berry (Florida State University, USA) 4. Fabrications in a Complex Mirror: Steve Tomasula's Turbulent Fiction Gerald Bruns (University of Notre Dame, USA) 5. Literary Archaeologies in The Book of Portraiture Flore Chevaillier (Central State University, USA) 6. The Material Is the Message: Body as Text/Text as Body in Steve Tomasula's VAS: An Opera in Flatland Anthony Enns (Dalhousie University, Canada) 7. A Book, an Atlas, and an Opera: Steve Tomasula's Fictions of Science as Science Fiction Pawel Frelik (Maria Curie-Sklodowska University, Lublin, Poland) 8. Spatiality and Print, Temporality and Digital Media: Media-Specific Strategies in Steve Tomasula's The Book of Portraiture and TOC N. Katherine Hayles (Duke University, USA) 9. The Work of Art After the Mechanical Age Mary Holland (SUNY, New Paltz, USA) 10. Intermediality in Steve Tomasula's TOC: A New Media Novel: A Semiological Analysis Anne Hurault-Paupe (Paris 13 University, France) 11. Exploration and Discovery Through Visuality in Steve Tomasula's The Book of Portraiture Pelin Iscan (University of Strasbourg, France) 12. Do We Not Bleed? The Color of Flesh in a Cyborg World Anne Larue (University Paris 13-Sorbonne Paris Cité, France) 13. Ontological Metalepses, Unnatural Narratology, & Locality: A Politics of the [[page]] in Tomasula's VAS & TOC Lance Olsen (University of Utah, USA) 14. 'Still, It Moves' : The Subreal Fiction of Steve Tomasula Jackie Orr (Syracuse University, USA) 15. Enumeration in Steve Tomasula's Short Stories Françoise Palleau-Papin (University of Paris 13-Sorbonne Paris Cité, France) 16. Encoding the Body, Questioning Legacy: Reflections on Intersemiotic Experiments in Steve Tomasula's VAS: An Opera in Flatland Françoise Sammarcelli (University of Paris Sorbonne, France) 17. Steve Tomasula's Work of Wonder Anne-Laure Tissut (Rouen University, France) Afterword—An Interview with Steve Tomasula Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisText and Drugs and Rock'n'Roll explores the interaction between two of the most powerful socio-cultural movements in the post-war years - the literary forces of the Beat Generation and the musical energies of rock and its attendant culture. Simon Warner examines the interweaving strands, seeded by the poet/novelists Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs and others in the 1940s and 1950s, and cultivated by most of the major rock figures who emerged after 1960 - Bob Dylan, the Beatles, Bowie, the Clash and Kurt Cobain, to name just a few. This fascinating cultural history delves into a wide range of issues: Was rock culture the natural heir to the activities of the Beats? Were the hippies the Beats of the 1960s? What attitude did the Beat writers have towards musical forms and particularly rock music? How did literary works shape the consciousness of leading rock music-makers and their followers? Why did Beat literature retain its cultural potency with later rock musicians who rejected hippie values? How did rock musicians use the material of Beat literature in their own work? How did Beat figures become embroiled in the process of rock creativity? These questions are addressed through a number of approaches - the influence of drugs, the relevance of politics, the effect of religious and spiritual pursuits, the rise of the counter-culture, the issue of sub-cultures and their construction, and so on. The result is a highly readable history of the innumerable links between two of the most revolutionary artistic movements of the last 60 years.Trade Review[U]ndoubtedly, the most comprehensive survey of "British Beat" (interviews with Michael Horovitz, Pete Brown,Kevin Ring..), as well as informative Q & A's with American Beat scholars, Levi Asher and Jonah Raskin, and a whole lot more. * The Allen Ginsberg Project *Simon Warner's new book is an intriguing and absorbing read that weaves together the Beat poets and novelists of the 1940s and '50s and their direct influence on rock musicians in the 1960s and onwards... A wide-ranging, ambitious 'bigger picture' book that's well worth a read for fans of these seminal and creative people. * Vive le Rock *Those with an interest in the relationship between the Beats and rock, or between the world of words and the world music more generally, are certain to find this a useful publication. -- Ian Collinson, Macquarie University * IASPM@Journal *Fascinating and impeccably researched... Warner’s massive contribution to the literary and musical legacy of the Beat generation should be, along with Ann Charters’s The Portable Beat Reader, the standard reference on the subject. -- Edwin Pouncey * The Wire *Impressively comprehensive and frequently fascinating... Text and Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll succeeds because its eclecticism and its boldness in bringing genres together – it includes not only scholarly essays, but also interviews, reviews and obituaries – is consistent with the qualities he identifies in the Beats’ artistic productions and their links with popular culture, as well as his own desire to break free of “disciplinary rigidity”. -- James Peacock * European Beat Studies Network *The lingering buzz of what we do get is more valuable: A deeper appreciation, sans Baby Boomer/Sixties clichés, of a period of anything-goes, no-rules creativity, and the feeling that, damn, it must have been a lot of fun to be there. -- Jim Derogatis * WEBZ.org - PopNStuff *Impressive and well researched * Yorkshire Post *[One of] two excellent new books...I'm particularly proud to be in this book now that I see what a handsome volume it is. -- Levi Asher * Literary Kicks *Warner’s academic and exhaustive examination provides a fascinating analysis on the pivotal confluence of two artistic movements. This book will prove valuable to students and to those deeply interested in music, literature, and Anglo-American cultural history of the mid- to late 20th century. -- James Collins * Library Journal *Interesting book… -- Pat Gilbert * Mojo Magazine *Text and Drugs and Rock'n'Roll is a well-researched and fascinating investigation into the relationship between rock music and the Beats, and the ways in which this interaction inspired a mode of expression that was to find common ground in the final third of the twentieth century. Warner offers readers a wealth of information on the Beats' rebellious and varied lifestyles, poetry and novels and how and why they influenced both iconic and lesser known musicians from the 1960s counterculture, through punk, heavy metal and grunge. Extended interviews with seminal figures, conversations, obituaries and a series of Q&As with individuals with close connections to the Beat-rock crossover add to the authority of this groundbreaking and timely text, while evidencing the growing importance of interdisciplinary studies for academics, researchers, students and mainstream readers alike. -- Dr. Sheila Whiteley, Queen's University, CanadaAn exhaustive and always illuminating account of the Beats' profound and still-registering impact on radical pop from Dylan to punk and even hip hop. Warner has left no stone unturned in tracing his inter-generational lines of influence, and his overview of the subject is commanding. -- Barney Hoskyns, author of "Lowside of the Road: A Life of Tom Waits"At long last an electrifying exploration of the Beat Generation writers and the wild guitarists and poetic songwriters who transformed world culture. Bravo to Simon Warner for breaking down all the sound barriers and for bridging the musical and literary geniuses of our time. Hail Hail Text and Drugs and Rock'N'Roll, a book that's bound to be around for a long time. -- Jonah Raskin, author of "Rock and Roll Women: Portraits of a Generation"Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Credits Preface Rock and rock’n’roll: A short note to the reader Introduction i) How the Beats met rock: Some history and some context ii) Charting the Beats: Background and impact iii) Beat and rock: A survey of association iv) The Beats’ own recordings: A selective discography Chapter 1 – Sifting the shifting sands: Allen Ginsberg, ‘Howl’ and the American landscape in the 1950s Interlude A – Lawrence Ferlinghetti: A survivor surveys Interview 1 - David Amram, jazz musician and Beat composer, including the Pull My Daisy soundtrack Chapter 2 – Chains of flashing memories: Bob Dylan and the Beats, 1959-1975 Interview 2 – Michael McClure, poet and author of The Beard Chapter 3 – Muse, moll, maid, mistress? Beat women and their rock’n’roll legacy Chapter 4 – Raising the consciousness: Re-visiting Allen Ginsberg’s 1965 trip to Liverpool Q&A 1 – Michael Horovitz, poet, publisher and British Beat Interview 3 – Larry Keenan, photographer of ‘The Last Gathering of the Beats’ in San Francisco in 1965 Obituary 1 – Peter Orlovsky, ‘Member of the Beat Generation, poet and lover of Allen Ginsberg’ Interlude B – All Neal: Cassady celebrated in downtown Denver Q&A 2 – Mark Bliesener, rock band manager and a founder of Neal Cassady's memorial day in Denver Chapter 5 – The British Beat: Rock, Literature and the British Counterculture in the 1960s Interview 4 – Pete Brown, British poet and rock lyricist for Cream Q&A 3 – Jonah Raskin, Ginsberg biographer and cultural historian Chapter 6 – The Sound of the Summer of Love? The Beatles and Sgt. Pepper, the hippies and Haight-Ashbury Q&A 4 – Levi Asher, founder of acclaimed Beat website Literary Kicks Interview 5 – Ronald Nameth, Beat film-maker and director of the film of the Exploding Plastic Inevitable Chapter 7 – The Meltzer chronicles: Poet, novelist, musician and historian of Beat America Review 1 – Book: David Meltzer, Beat Thing Interview 6 – Bill Nelson, British rock guitarist and Beat follower Q&A 5 – Jim Sampas, notable Beat record producer including Kerouac: Kicks Joy Darkness Chapter 8 – Versions of Cody: Jack Kerouac, Tom Waits and the song ‘On the Road’ Chapter 9 – Feeling the bohemian pulse: Locating Patti Smith within a post-Beat tradition Chapter 10 – Jim Carroll: Poetry prodigy, post-Beat and rocker Obituary 2 – Jim Carroll, ‘Poet and punk musician who documented his teenage drug addiction in The Basketball Diaries’ Chapter 11 – All cut up? William Burroughs and Genesis P-Orridge’s beatnik past Interview 7 – Steven Taylor, Ginsberg's guitarist and member of the Fugs Chapter 12 – Steven Taylor: A Beat Englishman in New York Q&A 6 – Pete Molinari, British singer-songwriter with Beat leanings Chapter 13 – Return to Lowell: A visit to the Commemorative and Kerouac’s grave Review 2 – Film: One Fast Move or I'm Gone: Kerouac's Big Sur Review 3 – Album: One Fast Move or I'm Gone: Kerouac's Big Sur Q&A 7 – Chris T-T, British political singer-songwriter Obituary 3 – Tuli Kupferberg, ‘Key figure in the US 1960s counterculture’ Q&A 8 – Kevin Ring, editor of the magazine Beat Scene Review 4 – Album: On the Road: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Appendix – Jack & Neal on record Bibliography, Discography, Filmography, Broadcasts, Personal Communication and Interviews

Read more less

Book SynopsisI remember shaving off my beard in the bathroom on the eve of the camp, with Mahalia Jackson singing rousing spirituals from the living room. Afterwards my chin was strangely smooth, and seemed to have shrunk. I remember that from the Springbok Grounds, where the army has its administrative offices, you could see a whisky ad on a billboard with a moustachioed gentleman suggesting: "Don't be vague, ask for Haig". I remember our arrival at camp, in a roaring truck with wooden plank benches that fetched s from the station. There were many trucks parked or driving along an endless esplanade with their headlights forked into the night. Dust and diesel fumes. People running. Uniforms. Hoarse orders in Afrikaans. I remember 'roer jou gat!", "jou gat", "se gat", "bakgat", "slapgat", "gates", and "don't gooi me grief, hey!" We walk straight so you better get out of the way is author's new book of personal and public memories of growing up in South Africa. Once again he delves deeply into sense memories, making the reader hum long-forgotten tunes, summoning up familiar pictures through his delicate and finely-tuned phrasing. In this title the author deals with the army years, the Grateful Dead years, the loss of his father to prison years and the losing himself to Paris years.

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn this innovative series of public lectures at Newcastle University, leading contemporary poets speak about the craft and practice of poetry to audiences drawn from both the city and the university. The lectures are then published in book form by Bloodaxe, giving readers everywhere the opportunity to learn what the poets themselves think about their own subject. Anne Stevenson argues that change is time's one permanent condition, that it continually transforms the present into the past at the very moment it opens the future to further change. She also argues that without an understanding of how poetry has re-invented itself through its history, today's present innovations are likely to remain rootless and unnourished. Drawing on lines from her own poem, 'The Fiction Makers' - 'They thought they were living now/ But they were living then' - Stevenson traces the theories, fashions and beliefs of modern poets in America and Britain since the 1930s (the span, in fact, of her own lifetime). Giving special attention to the voices of T.S.Eliot, Ezra Pound, Robert Frost, Elizabeth Bishop and Wallace Stevens, she shows how, after World War II, populist movements in the United States rose up against a university-based establishment, introducing a barbarian energy into the art while at the same time destroying its solid base in traditional rhythm and form. Each lecture features poets she considers to be among the most effective of their kind, ranging from W.B. Yeats, Robert Lowell and Richard Wilbur, to Frank O'Hara, John Ashbery and Denise Levertov. In her final lecture, she quotes extensively from friends and contemporaries recently deceased: G.F. Dutton, Frances Horovitz, William Martin, and finishing with a tribute to the voice and ear of Seamus Heaney. To the three texts of her 2016 Newcastle/Bloodaxe Lectures Stevenson has conjoined additional essays originally given as talks in the Chapel of St Chad's College in the University of Durham. These have mainly to do with rhythms and sounds rather than with subject-matter, arguing that, until very recently, it was a defining virtue of poetry not to be about anything that could better or more clearly be said in prose.Finally Stevenson, having had a number of second thoughts about Bitter Fame, her biography of Sylvia Plath (1989), includes a talk on this American poet's astonishing gift and tragic life, first given at Ledbury Poetry Festival in 2013.Trade ReviewAnne Stevenson’s writing on poetry is generous, judicious and not without its asperities. In About Poems (And how poems are not about), which brings together her 2016 Newcastle/Bloodaxe lectures and other recent addresses on poetry, she charts an idiosyncratic path from the formalism of the 1950s to the predominantly free verse of a more egalitarian age. She does so with an authority derived from having read, written and thought about poetry for over sixty years… It should not need saying that Anne Stevenson’s precepts come from practice: it is hard to think of many contemporary poets whose work is based on more solid foundations or shows more promise of longevity. -- Roger Caldwell * Times Literary Supplement *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1 Poems for the Voice and Ear 2 The Anthology as Manifesto 1960-1980 3 What is Poetry? 4 How to Read Poetry 5 Affinities: Robert Frost and Elizabeth Bishop 6 Epiphanies: Among the Poems of Wallace Stevens 7 Sylvia Plath: The Illusion of a Greek Necessity

Read more less

Book SynopsisMakers of Worlds, Readers of Signs charts the aesthetic and political formation of neoliberalism and globalization in Israeli and Palestinian literature from the 1940s to the present. By tracking literature's move from making worlds to reading signs, Cohen Lustig proposes a new way to read theorize our global contemporary. Cohen Lustig argues that the period of Israeli statism and its counterpart of Palestinian statelessness produced works that sought to make and create whole worlds and social time - create the new state of Israel, preserve collective visions of Palestinian statehood. During the period of neoliberalism, the period after 1985 in Israel and the 1993 Oslo Accords in Palestine, literature became about the reading of signs, where politics and history are now rearticulated through the private lives of individual subjects. Here characters do not make social time but live within it and inquire after its missing origin. Cohen Lustig argues for new ways to track the subjectivities and aesthetics produced by larger shifts in production. In so doing, he proposes a new model to understand the historical development of Israeli and Palestinian literature as well as world literature in our contemporary moment. With a preface from Fredric Jameson.Trade ReviewIt is refreshing to read an analysis of Israeli and Palestinian literatures that centers not on identity - national, religious, ethnic, or gender - but rather on the effects of capitalism on politics and culture. -- Danielle Drori * Los Angeles Review of Books *Cohen Lustig has identified a historical trend, and he presents a solid analysis supporting his argument. The historical-theoretical undertaking in this book is both thorough and a joy to read. This work is a worthy and novel contribution to the library of Palestinian historical and literary studies. * Journal of Palestine Studies *

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisAfghanistan In Ink uses a wide and largely unknown corpus of twentieth century Afghan Dari and Pashto literature to show not only how Afghans have reflected on their modern history, but also how the state has repeatedly sought to dominate the ideological contours of that history through the patronage or exile of writers. Drawing on an abundance of Afghan language sources, the chapters by leading international experts reveal a disruptive twentieth century dynamic between the importing of multiple conflicting ideologies through literary globalisation and the destabilisation of the state as a consequence of these literary and ideological flows. As the first scholarly survey of modern Afghan literature, Afghanistan In Ink places the twentieth century's itinerant and exiled Afghan writers into their transnational contexts to trace Afghan artistic and ideological interactions with Muslim and Western nations. The volume emphasises the study of literatures in their social and political contexts. With its extensive contextualising introduction, this book provides both specialists and non-specialists with unique 'inside' perspectives on the interweaving of religious, political and cultural debates that have shaped modern Afghan society.Trade ReviewFew countries have been as poorly imagined--or exposed to parochial strategists and commentators--as Afghanistan. Excavating and examining previously unknown Afghan literary texts and authors, this wonderfully timely and stimulating book radically deepens our sense of the country's history and culture. -- Pankaj Mishra, author of From the Ruins of Empire: The Revolt Against the West and the Remaking of AsiaA fascinating history of a complicated region as it struggles to establish and solidify a national identity through language and literature. ... Afghanistan in Ink is the first book of its kind to treat the region with the depth and subtlety necessary for a reader to properly learn something, and one hopes that those who pick up the reins will continue to put as much care into their work as those who contributed here. -- LSE Review of BooksAfghanistan in Ink demolishes the myth that the country has remained isolated from the the currents of international cultural influences. For more than a century powerful connections to an influential intellectual diaspora have played a significant role in the development of Afghan literature and language politics -- and one that continues to the present day. -- Thomas Barfield, Professor of Anthropology at Boston University and author of Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political HistoryAn extremely absorbing collection of essays: not only does this book take the reader deep into the literature of Afghanistan over the last few centuries, but it explores fruitful questions about the ways in which literature and language, state-formation, ethnic identity, and history are intertwined. Highly informative and though-provoking. -- Tamim Ansary, author of Games Without Rules, The Often Interrupted Story of AfghanistanAfghanistan in Ink, a timely and important volume, is full of...striking illuminations...It does important service bringing to notice a variety of Afghan writers...and placing them in their literary and social contexts...An excellent attempt to provide as comprehensive an overview as possible of Afghan Literature in the modern period. -- Bijan Omrani, Asian AffairsTable of Contents1. Introduction: Afghan Literature between Diaspora and Nation Nile Green 2. Modernizing, Nationalizing, Internationalizing: How Mahmud Tarzi's Hybrid Identity Transformed Afghan Literature Nushin Arbabzadah 3. The Afghan Afterlife of Phileas Fogg: Space and Time in the Literature of Afghan Travel Nile Green 4. Demarcating Pashto: Cross-border Pashto Literature and the Afghan State, 1880-1930 Thomas Wide 5. Ambiguities of Orality and Literacy, Territory and Border Crossings: Public Activism and Pashto Literature in Afghanistan, 1930-2010 James Caron 6. The Poetry and Prose of Pazhwak: A Critical Look at Traditional Afghanistan Chaled Malekyar 7. Mastering the Ego Monster: Azhdaha-ye Khodi as an Allegory of History Wali Ahmadi 8. Lyric Realism: Poetic Reflections of Refugee Life in Iran Zuzanna Olszewska 9. Afghanistan and the Persian Epic Shahnama: Historical Agency and the Epic Imagination in Afghan and Afghan-American Literature Shafiq Shamel 10. Gnomics: Proverbs, Aphorisms, Metaphors, Key Words and Epithets in Afghan Discourses of War and Instability Margaret A. Mills

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe Beat Generation were a radical group of American writers whose relaxed, gritty and candid writing inspired generations. In his chronicle of the origins, adventures, and inner workings of the Beat movement, Christopher Gair reveals how it sparked one of the most important revolutions in American literature, influencing everything from bebop to the Beastie Boys.Trade Review"The special merit of Christopher Gair's supremely intelligent study is its awareness that the Beats still attract attention for extra literary reasons." * American Studies, Journal of *

Read more less

Book SynopsisEdna Longley’s second collection of essays for Bloodaxe investigates the links between Irish literature (especially contemporary poetry), Irish culture and Irish politics. The Living Stream takes its title from Yeats’s poem ‘Easter 1916’: ‘Hearts with one purpose alone/ Through summer and winter seem/ Enchanted to a stone/ To trouble the living stream…’ By questioning the ?xed purposes of both nationalism and unionism, literature has helped to make living streams ?ow in Ireland. Edna Longley shows in particular where recent Northern Irish writing, together with the critical debates it has occasioned, ?ts into this process of change. In her introduction, which includes a hard-hitting critique of The Field Day Anthology, Edna Longley argues that it’s time for Irish literary criticism to adopt the “revisionist” approach that characterises the writing of Irish history, which would mean paying more attention to religious factors, to literary relations with Britain, and to the cultural diversity that underlies creative diversity. These ideas inform her consideration of such topics as: the historical imaginations of Northern Irish poets; Belfast in literature; Protestant writers after Irish Independence; the Thirties generation of Northern Irish writers; the in?uence of Louis MacNeice; aesthetic differences between poetry from the North and from the Republic. The book also contains a re?ection on the 75th anniversary of the Easter Rising, and Edna Longley’s controversial pamphlet From Cathleen to Anorexia: The Breakdown of Irelands.Trade ReviewUnlike many books on modern poetry, this one has a powerful, disruptive case to make and a genuine raison d’être… a fiercely unrelenting and implacable critical intelligence at work. -- Neil Corcoran * TLS *Combative, rigorously argued, passionate essays aimed at saving poetry from the politicians. -- John Banville * Sunday Independent *Table of Contents9 Introduction: Revising ‘Irish Literature’ 69 The Rising, the Somme and Irish Memory 86 ‘A Barbarous Nook’: The Writer and Belfast 109 Progressive Bookmen: Left-wing Politics and Ulster Protestant Writers 130 ‘Defending Ireland’s Soul’: Protestant Writers and Irish Nationalism after Independence 150 ‘When Did You Last See Your Father?’ Perceptions of the Past in Northern Irish Writing 1965-1985 173 From Cathleen to Anorexia: The Breakdown of Irelands 196 Poetic Forms and Social Malformations 227 No More Poems About Paintings 252 The Room Where MacNeice Wrote ‘Snow’ 271 Notes 293 Acknowledgements 295 Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisPaul Muldoon is one of the most exciting and accomplished poets writing in English. Few authors display such mastery of the language, form and measure of poetry, while at the same time opening poetry up to all the contemporary forces of disorder, contingency and confusion. But for this very reason, Muldoon’s is a complex and demanding body of work. Clair Wills's study, which covers the first 25 years of Muldoon's poetic output, is written both for the general poetry reader as well as those with a professional interest in poetry. In this highly readable book, Clair Wills takes the measure of Muldoon’s poetic gifts. She offers close readings of many of the major poems, while also assessing the general features of his unmistakeable style, and his relation to ] this is a repetitive device beyond anything which an attentive reader of the individual poem could be expected to grasp.?cant predecessors such as Robert Frost and Seamus Heaney. Her book also highlights the major themes in Muldoon’s poetry, such as autobiography and the question of origins, sexuality, Irish myth and legend, history and political violence in Northern Ireland, and the dynamics of cross-cultural encounters. Clair Wills tracks Muldoon’s poetic development, exploring the key concerns of each of his books, from New Weather (1973) to Hay (1998). Concluding with an evaluation of Muldoon’s then most recent collection, Hay, her study will be an essential reference point for discussions of this important poet. Her chapter on Hay was the first critical essay to note that Muldoon's long poem ‘Third Epistle to Timothy’ in Hay not only rhymes with two other long poems in that collection, ‘The Mud Room’ and ‘The Bangle (Slight Return)’, but also that these poems in turn "rhyme" with the two long poems in Muldoon's previous collection, Annals of Chile (1994), ‘Yarrow’ and ‘Incantata’: 'Each poem uses the same ninety rhyme words, and in the same order as they ?rst occur in ‘Yarrow’, but in different verse forms, so that the repetition is undetectable unless you are looking for it. […] this is a repetitive device beyond anything which an attentive reader of the individual poem could be expected to grasp.'

Read more less

Book SynopsisElizabeth Bishop is one of the greatest and most influential American poets of the 20th century. First published in hardback in 1998, "Five Looks at Elizabeth Bishop" is a highly illuminating reader's guide written by another leading poet, which makes full use of the letters Elizabeth Bishop wrote to Anne Stevenson from Brazil in the 1960s. Anne Stevenson is a major American and British poet who has published many books of poetry, including her "Poems 1955-2005" in 2005. Her other books include "Bitter Fame: A Life of Sylvia Plath" (1989), the first critical study of "Elizabeth Bishop" (1966), and a book of essays, "Between the Iceberg and the Ship" (1998). Each of her five chapters looks at a different aspect of Bishop's art. "In the Waiting Room" links her life-long search for self-placement to her unsettled childhood. "Time's Andromeda" shows how a youthful fascination with 17th-century baroque art ripened, in the 1930s, into a unique brand of metaphysical surrealism. "Living with the Animals" considers ways in which Bishop, like Walt Whitman, deserted the literary mode of the fable to give autonomy and authority to natural creatures. Two final chapters focus on the poet's Darwinian acceptance of evolutionary change and her steady look at the 'geographical mirror' that in her later work replaced the figure of the looking-glass as an emblem of imagination. "Five Looks at Elizabeth Bishop" represents a view of her work Bishop herself would have recognised and approved. A chronology and a set of maps serve as practical guides to the poet's life and travels.Trade ReviewA compelling book; patiently and intelligently, Stevenson elucidates and illuminates her subject, relating work and life with exemplary tact. I read it with mounting excitement and, ultimately, gratitude. In a healthy culture, it would be a bestseller. -- Lachlan Mackinnon * Thumbscrew *Biography and close reading of Bishop's poems and prose...complement each other in [this study] which must surely be the best available introduction to that marvellous poet. -- John Mole * TLS *

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn this innovative series of public lectures at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, leading contemporary poets speak about the craft and practice of poetry to audiences drawn from both the city and the university. The lectures are then published in book form by Bloodaxe, giving readers everywhere the opportunity to learn what the poets themselves think about their own subject. Carol Rumens' three lectures cover the poetry of Philip Larkin and Derek Mahon as well as form and music in the work of a range of contemporary women poets. Forget What Did? Philip Larkin's "Poems of Lost Childhood": What made this strange, sometimes unattractive personality a powerful poet? Putting aside the politics, this lecture draws on autobiographical material as well as early poems to suggest a possible imaginative source in childhood trauma. It also traces the younger Larkin's interest in Jung, Lawrence, Auden and others, and examines the famous 'two voices' of his maturity, the demotic and the literary. "Solitude and Sociability: An Introduction to the Poetry of Derek Mahon": Bleak North Antrim coastlines and a sense of isolation contrast with the warm intellectual companionship of other writers and artists often conjured in Derek Mahon's work. This lecture takes an overview of his themes and forms, including a look at the conversation he conducts, via his many dedicatory and epistolary poems, across the time-zones. "Line, Women and Song": Have women poets brought distinctive approaches to the music and metre of contemporary poetry? Adrienne Rich, Marilyn Hacker and Ruth Padel provide some of the material examined. Can there be a politically radical verse in traditional form? Can the English language and ancient, imported forms and metres still fruitfully work together? This is the fifth book in the "Newcastle/Bloodaxe Poetry Series".

Read more less

Book SynopsisGeorge Szirtes is a leading figure in contemporary poetry in England and in Hungary, the country of his birth. His poems explore - in a wide variety of complex, skilfully handled forms - his origins, his life, and his critical engagements with works by other poets and artists. They offer powerful and moving meditations on the roles and functions of the poet in the modern world. "Reading George Szirtes" offers the first sustained analysis of Szirtes' work, mapping his development chronologically and thematically, and paying close attention to form and technique in its analysis of each poem.Haunted by his family's knowledge and experience of war, occupation and the Holocaust, as well as by loss, danger and exile, all of Szirtes' poetry covers universal themes: love, desire and illusion; loyalty and betrayal; history, art and memory; humanity and truth. Throughout his work, there is a conflict between two states of mind, the possibility of happiness and apprehension of disaster. These are played out especially in his celebrated long poems and extended sequences, "The Photographer in Winter", "Metro", "The Courtyards", "An English Apocalypse" and "Reel". John Sears offers detailed and lucid readings of these and other key poems - including Szirtes' most recent poetry - relating them to historical events and to work by other poets. "Reading George Szirtes" is a critical companion volume to George Szirtes' "New and Collected Poems". Both books are published on Szirtes' 60th birthday.

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn this innovative series of public lectures at Newcastle University, leading contemporary poets speak about the craft and practice of poetry to audiences drawn from both the city and the university. The lectures are then published in book form by Bloodaxe, giving readers everywhere the opportunity to learn what the poets themselves think about their own subject. George Szirtes' three lectures form an arc on the nature of historical knowledge in the poem. 'Our knowledge' says Elizabeth Bishop in 'At the Fishhouses', 'is historical, flowing and flown.' The sea in her poem is so cold it burns hand and tongue, a parodox explored in his first lecture, 'Cold dark deep and absolutely clear: poetic knowledge as uncertainty'. Beginning with this understanding of knowledge, his second lecture, 'Life is Elsewhere: knowing in opposition', shifts to notions of historical responsibility, especially as perceived by poets in the West at the time of the Cold War. Szirtes considers questions of betrayal and fidelity and the role of irony and quietism. In his third lecture, 'Flowing and flown: in the world of superfluous knowledge', Szirtes seeks exemplars and connections in works by George Seferis, Derek Mahon and poets of Eastern Europe from the period immediately before 1989 as well as briefly afterwards, to enquire into the nature of repression, returning to Bishop's story 'In the Village' for its conclusion, where 'The hammer echoes with the icy black sea. Cold, dark deep and absolutely clear' ending with Bishop's affirming cry: 'Oh beautiful sound, strike again!'

Read more less

Book SynopsisBarry MacSweeney was described as 'a contrary, lone wolf...[whose] ear for a soaring lyric melody was unmatched' (Nicholas Johnson, Independent). MacSweeney found fame with his first book, The Boy from the Green Cabaret Tells of his Mother, which appeared when he was just nineteen years old. But he soon retreated from the publicity, and for almost thirty years his poetry appeared only in small press publications. Identifying himself with Chatterton and Rimbaud, MacSweeney developed a poetics based on experiment and excess, from the fragmented lyricism of 'Brother Wolf' to the political anger of 'Jury Vet'; from the dizzying historical perspectives of Ranter to the nightmarish urban landscape of Hellhound Memos. In 1997, MacSweeney once again found a wider audience, with the publication of his last full-length book, The Book of Demons, which recorded his fierce fight against alcoholism. This book also included Pearl, a sequence of tender lyrics celebrating the poet's first love and his rural Northumbrian childhood. At the time of his death in 2000, MacSweeney was preparing a retrospective selection of his work for publication. When Wolf Tongue: Selected Poems 1965-2000 appeared in 2003, it brought a wealth of poetry back into print, displaying the incredible range, ambition and quality of MacSweeney's work. Reading Barry MacSweeney is the first book of essays to assess MacSweeney's achievement. Bringing together academic critics, poets and friends of the poet, the book considers many aspects of MacSweeney's career, including his political verse, his re-imagining of pastoral poetry, his love of popular music, and his mapping of Northumberland. Contributors include Professor W.N. Herbert, Matthew Jarvis, Peter Riley, Professor William Rowe, Harriet Tarlo and Professor John Wilkinson, as well as MacSweeney's journalist friend Terry Kelly, and poet S.J. Litherland, MacSweeney's former partner.Trade Review'Barry MacSweeney was a contrary, lone wolf. For 25 years his work was marginalised and was absent from official records of poetry - MacSweeney's ear for a soaring, lyric melody was unmatched - his poetry became dark as blue steel, edging towards what became his domain: the lament' - Nicholas Johnson, Independent. 'His notion of the artist was formed around a myth of exemplary failure and belated recognition: Rimbaud was an early model for this - Such identifications were the basis for a poetics of direct utterance in which MacSweeney's voice mixed with others to inveigh, to celebrate or entreat - Pearl, a work of redemptive pathos, evoking the figure of a childhood sweetheart as a presence in nature, on the confines of social existence, was reprinted in The Book of Demons, where he projects himself as maimed and abject, hapless yet percipient victim of the demon drink, in writing that is both comic and terrifying' - Andrew Crozier, Guardian. 'MacSweeney's poetry places a radical, critical energy, unsparing of illusions, and bitter and comic in its self-appraisal, at the disposal of a clear-eyed celebration of the world. In lyrical and experimental forms the poet bears outraged witness to a culture in decline - as battered prophet, demonic wanderer and clown of misspent desire' - Clive Bush.

Read more less

Book SynopsisJewish American writing is an exciting and controversial genre within post-war literature. In this book Stephen Wade offers a student guide to major writers, their key works and to influential background factors including the postmodern, the masternarrative and metafiction. The themes, issues and philosophies of writers including Saul Bellow, Philip Roth and Isaac Bashevis Singer are inter-related and wider literary and historical topics are alluded to and explained. Covering women's writing, novels, poetry and drama, the author offers a readable guide to the achievements of a key group of writers in twentieth-century American literature. Key Features * A student guide to major writers in post-war American literature * A chapter on each of the 5 main writers * Covers theoretical aspects -- the postmodern, the masternarrative and metafiction -- in an easily accessible way * Offers background material to situate the work of the writersTrade ReviewA broad-ranging student guide which offers a comprehensive and accessible introduction to major writers and their cultural and philosophical backgrounds. A broad-ranging student guide which offers a comprehensive and accessible introduction to major writers and their cultural and philosophical backgrounds.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisNICOLAS TREDELL teaches American and English literature, art history, and cultural and film studies for Sussex University.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe Guyanese poet Martin Carter was without question one of the major poets of the English language of our time. In the Caribbean, Carter has long been regarded as one of the great poets who chronicled the journey from colonialism to independence, alongside such figures as Aime Cesaire, Derek Walcott, Nicholas Guillen and Kamau Brathwaite. While his earlier poems have become classics of socialist literature, translated into many languages, and are among the foundation stones of Caribbean poetry, they have hardly been acknowledged in more general accounts of poetry in English. It was too easy for lazy critics and anthologists to dismiss him as 'merely' a political poet, one who swore, as he put it in one poem, to use his shirt as 'a banner for the revolution.'In fact, looking at Carter's work overall it is hard to think of a contemporary poet writing in English who showed more concern for craft, who measured his utterance with greater care. His later work, while it never lost its political edge, was more oblique and cerebral than the overtly political poems of his youth. It sits comfortably alongside that of fellow South American poets Valejo, Neruda and Paz. They are his contemporaries in every sense; his work is of that originality, stature and elemental force.This book sets out to celebrate Martin Carter's life and work and to establish a context for reading his poetry. It locates the several facets of Carter's work in the historical and cultural circumstances of his time, in Guyana, in the Caribbean. It includes essays by many leading academics and scholars of Caribbean literature and history. It is distinguished particularly by a collection of responses to Carter's work by other creative writers, both his contemporaries and a younger generation for whom Carter's work and commitment has been a powerful influence on their own thinking and practice. As well as demonstrating the profound respect in which he is held as a writer, what emerges most strongly from this group of essays and poems from his fellow writers is the extent to which he was loved and admired as a man who - despite the turmoil Guyana has experienced over the last fifty years - remained true to his fundamental belief in the dignity of humankind.Contributors include John Agard, Edward Baugh, Kamau Brathwaite, Stewart Brown, Jan Carew, David Dabydeen, Fred D'Aguiar, Kwame Dawes, Michael Gilkes, Stanley Greaves, Wilson Harris, Roy Heath, Kendel Hippolyte, Louis James, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Eusi Kwayana, George Lamming, Ian McDonald, Mark McWatt, Mervyn Morris, Grace Nichols, Ken Ramchand, Gordon Rohlehr, Rupert Roopnaraine, Andew Salkey and many others."All Are Involved is a difficult book to review. Its contents are so packed, so vital, the statements so well made that paraphrasing them becomes an act of egregious violence. Here is Martin Carter, that "gifted, paradoxical man" (p.45), that "friendly, dreamful, dangerous man" (p.370), analysed, extolled, lavished with the recognition which eluded him in life because of the politics of his poetry, and the poignant truth and moral force of that politics. This book demonstrates how wrong we were to have neglected Carter's voice, how diminished. All Are Involved is a treasure so empowering, a tribute we pay through Martin Carter to all that is human in us. It is a most enduring legacy."Niyi Osundare, World Literature TodayStewart Brown is the editor of several major anthologies as well as critical studies of Derek Walcott, Kamau Brathwaite and Martin Carter.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis study traces Virgil's journey through twentieth-century France by examining his profile in the works of Gide, Aragon, Valery, Pagnol, Klossowski, Butor, Simon and Pinget, and by looking at how their Virgilian appropriations complement and modify current readings of the "Aeneid" and other works. His presence in these works provides insights not only into modern French culture but into the Virgilian oeuvre itself. This process of mutual illumination is highlighted in Cox's argument by theories of intertextuality and dialogism. Although Virgil's presence in French literature is characterized by its focus on exile and uncertainty, Cox's study reaffirms the multivalency of this great European poet and his continuing relevance at the turn of the millennium.Table of ContentsThe Presence of the Past: Fama and Fata in the Shield of Aeneas; Intertextual Virgil; French Virgilian Criticism and the Importance of Broch; Arma virumque cano: Songs of War; The French Bucoliasts; Translating the Aetieid to the Nouveau Roman: Pierre Klossowski’s Translation; A Modern-Day Aeneas: Virgil’s Journey through Butor’s ha Modification; ‘La Bataille de la phrase’ : Virgil in the Novels of Claude Simon; The Good Shepherd: Virgil in the Novels of Robert Pinget, Conclusion

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe 1997 London Heine Conference brought together leading scholars and critics from Austria, Britain and Germany. The essays collected in this volume offer a broad canvas of Heine's themes and techniques, his debts and his influence, the ancient and modern connections of his work, its epic and lyrical forms, together with materials and comparisons drawn from English, German, Russian, Jewish and Islamic sources, and the musical settings of his poems. The collection complements recent scholarship, much of which has explored Heine's theoretical and other prose works, by paying close attention once more to the inexhaustible riches of his poetry.Table of Contents1. 'In der Literatur wie im Leben hat jeder Sohn einen Vater': Heinrich Heine zwischen Bibel und Homer, Cervantes und Shakespeare (Joseph A. Kruse); 2. From Battlefield to Paradise: A Reassessment of Heinrich Heine's Tragedy Almansor, its Sources, and their Significance for his Later Poetry and Thought (Nigel Reeves); 3. Heine and Shakespeare (Roger Paulin); 4. 'A World of Fine Fabling': Epic Traditions in Heine's Atta Troll (Ritchie Robertson); 5. Nachgetragene Ironie: Moritz Hartmann und Heinrich Heine (Hubert Lengauer); 6. Grillparzer und Heine (Hans Holler); 7. Judische Dichter-Bilder in Heines 'Jehuda ben Halevy' (Hartmut Steinecke); 8. Heine and the Lied (Peter Branscombe); 9. Heine and the Russian Poets from Lermontov to Blok (Alexander Stillmark); 10. Topical Poetry and Satirical Rhyme: Karl Kraus's Debt to Heine (Edward Timms); 11. Heines Korperteile: Zur Anatomie des Dichters (T. J. Reed); 12. Heine's Lazarus Poems (David Constantine); 13. The Tribe of Harry: Heine and Contemporary Poetry (Anthony Phelan).

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn the second half of the twentieth century, the Italian historical novel provided an unrivalled number of best sellers and publishing 'phenomena'. The success of the genre is closely related to a more general interest in revisiting the past in the light of a changed understanding of the nature, or philosophy, of history. This study aims to explore the particularly marked increase in the production and popularity of the historical novel in the period between the mid-1960s and the early 1990s, with reference to current debates on the nature of history. It presents a theoretical framework which establishes the centrality of philosophy of history to the development of the genre. The employment of this framework opens out the discussion of literary change to the consideration of historiographical developments and wider critical debate. The theoretical insights gained inform the close textual analysis provided in the chapters dealing with novels written by five of Italy's foremost contemporary writers: Leonardo Sciascia, Vincenzo Consolo, Sebastiano Vassalli, Umberto Eco, and Luigi Malerba.Table of ContentsIntroduction 1 Theorizing the Historical Novel 2 From Illusionism to Anti-Illusionism 3 II Consiglio d ’Egitto, Leonardo Sciascia 4 II sorriso del Vignoto marinaio, Vincenzo Consolo 5 La chimera, Sebastiano Vassalli 6. II nome della rosa, Umberto Eco 7 Il fuoco greco, Luigi Malerba, Afterword

Read more less

Book SynopsisDefective Inspectors: Crime-fiction Pastiche in Late Twentieth-century French LiteratureTrade Review...offers a unique perspective from which to approach the crime fiction genre and its pastiches. The insightful footnotes, detailed bibliography and lengthy index, moreover, stand as a testament to the authors deep understanding of his subject. The reader comes away with an understanding of the pasticheurs true purpose...' -- The French Review The French ReviewTable of ContentsDefective Inspectors: Crime-fiction Pastiche in Late Twentieth-century French Literature

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn July 1943, the young Welsh poet and soldier Alun Lewis, already recognised as one of the outstanding writers of his generation, arrived on sick leave at the house near Madras of Freda Aykroyd, a devotee of literature and the wife of a British scientist. Lewis and Aykroyd fell in love instantly, recognising in each other similar temperaments and artistic interests. Their affair, which lasted until Lewis' mysterious death on the Arakan Front in March 1944, inspired some of the finest of his wartime poems as well as an extraordinary cache of letters published here for the first time. The letters throw fresh light on Lewis' passionate and troubled nature and the background to his literary output at a time when he was at the height of his creative powers. In her preface, Freda Aykroyd charts the haunting story of their relationship and its tragic outcome.Trade Review'Enthralling' - The Guardian 'A wonderful collection of letters...[they] offer an extraordinary inisght into the final year of [Alun Lewis's] life.' - The Saturday Guardian

Read more less

Book SynopsisDuring recent years critics have increasingly expressed their loss of faith in existing cultural and political collective frameworks, drawing attention instead to irreducible singularity and to radical incommensurability between diverse positions or groups. Hiddleston analyses and challenges this trend, bringing together political, theoretical and literary analysis and juxtaposing the works of critical theorists such as Derrida, Lyotard and Nancy with literature by writers of North African immigrant origin. She presents a critique of those writers who underline the absence of communal identification, proposes a new emphasis on relational networks interconnecting diverse cultural groups, and argues for a more subtle understanding of the complex interplay of the singular and the collective in contemporary French writing.Table of ContentsIntroduction; 1: The Deconstruction of Community; 2: Communities of Difference; 3: The Identity of the French Language and the Language of French Identity; 4: Cultural Oppositions in 'First-Generation' Immigrant Literature; 5: Leïla Sebbar between Exile and Polyphony; 6: Resistance and Subversion in 'Beur' Literature; Conclusion

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis book presents a series of detailed textual analyses of a range of Tzaras poetry. It explores use theories of French versification developed by Jean Cohen to argue that Tzara's Dada poetry displays a surprising affinity with conventions of poetry as an established representational practice.Table of Contents1. Introduction 2. Talking Nonsense: Glossolalia and Freudian Condensation in Vingt-cinq poèmes (1918) 3. Tristan Tzaras Silent Circus: Towards a Stylistics of Sense Fields in De nos oiseaux (1923) 4. The Surrealist Song-Man: The Glossolalia of Abjection in L'Homme approximatif (1931) 5. The Tears of the Clown: Loss and Nationhood in Où boivent les loups (1932) and Midis gagnés (1939) 6. ‘Parler Seul’: Memory, Syntax, and the Prose Poem in De mémoire d'homme (1950) and Miennes (1955) 7. Conclusion

Read more less

Book SynopsisAn extraordinary collection of essays on literature and contemporary culture. Gripping, irreverent, smart and entirely original. Passionate about literature, O'Joyce frequently goes out of his way to antagonize a literary establishment that places profit and political correctness before artistic vision. His blunt language may put off some readers, but Joyce will not put anyone to sleep. The health of literary criticism in America today depends on voices like his. Library Journal

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisWanderers Across LanguageTrade ReviewThis book is perhaps most interesting in the account given of key Polish journals such as Kultura, and the contexts in which specific debates took place; and in the translations of Polish texts that underpin the argument. -- Modern Language Review Modern Language ReviewTable of ContentsWanderers Across Language

Read more less