Literary studies: c 1900 to c 2000 Books

Book SynopsisPeru is a nation built on the still extant colonial divide between indigenous peoples and the descendants of their Spanish conquerors, a divide that finds expression in the short stories, novels, and essays by renowned Peruvian writers such as Jose Maria Arguedas and Mario Vargas Llosa. The Colonial Divide in Peruvian Narrative explores debates over Peru's modernisation and cultural identity in post-1940 literature, exploring how Arguedas, Vargas Llosa, and others confronted challenges of language, style, and narrative form in their attempt to write across their nation's cultural divisions. It examines how modernisation affected the relationship between Peru's white elite and its indigenous majority, how historical change stimulated the emergence of new narrative techniques, and how these in turn made possible an understanding of the historical contexts in which they arose. Though Peru is its principal focus, the text engages with current studies of modernity at the postcolonial margins of the Western world by contributing to an understanding of the class and ethnic conflicts generated by rapid modernisation in culturally heterogeneous nations. The Colonial Divide will add to the growing body of critical literature on the ways in which modernity in formerly colonised nations such as Peru is inflected by the enduring legacies of colonialism.Trade Review"Kokotovic has provided a comprehensive review of contemporary Peruvian literature - a remarkable analysis and discussion of literary theories in the field of Latin American studies and beyond. The theoretical discussions he pursues will allow his readers a better understanding of how intellectuals and cultural subjects perform within and outside academic institutions." -- Professor Guido Podesta, Dept. of Spanish and Portugueseand Director, Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies Program (LACIS), University of Wisconsin-Madison."The Colonial Divide in Peruvian Narrative strikes me as potentially the most concise and yet also the most clarifying, forthright and plainspoken study of modern Peruvian fiction in English. It enters the tangle of what has now become a very developed but also chaotic-seeming critical literature on Peruvian narrative and indigenism - especially on the central figure throughout, Arguedas - and argues without cavil or poorly-digested 'theoretical' declarations that the concept of 'transculturation', as laid out above all by Angel Rama, simply makes better sense of the field than anything else. Kokotovic has clearly mastered the critical literature he seeks to reform. By valuing coherence over novelty, he has written an intellectually satisfying, useful and informative piece of literary history and criticism." - Neil Larsen, Professor of Comparative Literature and Critical Theory, University of California, Davis."Kokotovic has provided a comprehensive review of contemporary Peruvian literature -- a remarkable analysis and discussion of literary theories in the field of Latin American studies and beyond. The theoretical discussions he pursues will allow his readers a better understanding of how intellectuals and cultural subjects perform within and outside academic institutions." -- Professor Guido Podesta, Department of Spanish and Portuguese; and Director, Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies Program (LACIS), University of Wisconsin-Madison."The Colonial Divide in Peruvian Narrative strikes me as potentially the most concise and yet also the most clarifying, forthright and plainspoken study of modern Peruvian fiction in English... Kokotovic has clearly mastered the critical literature he seeks to reform. By valuing coherence over novelty, he has written an intellectually satisfying, useful and informative piece of literary history and criticism." -- Neil Larsen, Professor of Comparative Literature and Critical Theory, University of California, Davis.Table of ContentsContents: Zen Thought: An Overview; Good and Evil; Salvation as Idolatry; Zen Existentialism; The Mechanisms of Distress; The Five Modes of Thought and the Psychological Conditions for Satori; Freedom -- Total Determinism'; The Egotistical States; The Zen Unconscious; Metaphysical' Distress; Seeing Into One's Own Nature -- The Spectator of the Spectacle; Practical Implications of the Zen Approach to Inner Work; Obedience to the Nature of Things; Emotions and Emotional States; Sensation and Feeling; Pleasure, Pain and the Affective Response; The Rider and the Horse; The Primordial Error or Original Sin'; The Immediate Presence of Satori; The Mind's Passivity and the Disintegration of Our Energy; Concerning Discipline'; Compensations; Inner Alchemy; Humility; Metaphysical Insights; The Validity of Intellect in the Domain of Metaphysics; The Noumenal Domain; The Creative Principle; The Nature of God; Are Phenomena Real?; Why Does God Manifest Himself?; Two Ways of Thinking About the Cosmos; The Genesis of Creation; The Purusha-Prakriti Duality; Divine Indifference; The Law of Interconditioning; Our Total Conditioning as Human Beings; The Role of the Demiurge; God and Man; A Critique of Systematic Methods; Theoretical Understanding at the Intellectual Level and Lived Knowledge'; Dying in order to be Re-born; The Search for Happiness; Duality and Dualism: The Possibility of Perfect Humility; Good and Evil; The Conditions which Precede Realisation; How To Bring About a Progressive Reduction in One's Pride; Benoit's Technique of Timeless Realisation; Buddha and the Intuition of the Universal; Glossary of Terms; Index.

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Book SynopsisJohn Betjeman was undoubtedly the most popular Poet Laureate since Tennyson. But beneath the thoroughly modern window on Britain that he opened during his lifetime lay the influence of his nineteenth-century forbears. This book explores his identity through such Victorianism via the verse of that period, but also its architecture, religious faith and -- more importantly -- religious doubt. It was, nevertheless, a process which took time. In the 1930s Betjeman's work was tinted with modernism and traditionalism. He found Victorian buildings 'funny' and wrote much in praise of the Bauhaus style, even though his early poetry was peppered with Victorian references. This leaning was incorporated into a greater sense of purpose during World War 2, when he transformed himself from precious humorist into propagandist. The resulting sense of cohesion grew when the dangers of post-war urban redevelopment heightened the need to critique the present via the poetics of the past, a mood which continued up to and beyond his gaining the Laureateship in 1972. This duty proved to be a millstone, so the 'official' poems are thus explored by the author more fully than hitherto. The conclusion of looks back to Betjeman's 1960 verse-autobiography, 'Summoned by Bells', which is seen as the apogee of his achievement and a snapshot of his identity. Included here is the first critical appreciation of the lyrics embodied within the text, which are taken as a map of the young poet's literary growth. Larkin's 1959 question 'What exactly is Betjeman?' then leads to a final appraisal of his originality, as evidenced by his glances towards postmodernism, feminism, and post-colonialism. The fact is that Betjeman never quite fits in anywhere. He is always a square peg in a round hole or a round peg in a square hole -- often for the sheer enjoyment of so being. In a sense, his desire to be as non-conformist as a Quaker meeting house makes him a radical, rather than the reactionary that his interests imply. He was a champion of beauty and the British Isles, and clearly did much to make us see the worth of our Victorian forebears. Greg Morse's book highlights this important facet of his work.

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Book SynopsisAccording to Oscar Wilde, the primary aim of the critic is to see the object as in itself it really is not'. Through a series of close and often unusual readings, this book endeavours to develop Wilde's remark into a detailed and creative theory of reading. Or perhaps that should be misreading: for, as this experimental work of criticism negotiates its way among the works of a number of late-nineteenth-century writers, particularly Robert Louis Stevenson and Wilde himself, Tearle uncovers some of the ways in which we as readers are prone to hallucinations while reading about, of all things, the experience of hallucination. Focusing in detail on a series of neologisms from writing of the period, such as 'handconscience', 'figmentary', and 'aftersense', and moving between a number of disciplines including literature, criticism, science, psychoanalysis, and even linguistics, Bewilderments of Vision endeavours to answer a number of questions, ranging from the urgent to the downright bizarre: What is the link between hallucination and social conscience in writing of the late-nineteenth century? Is there such a thing as textual hallucination? Why does the author of this book see a 'snake' that is not there when he 'reads' Jekyll and Hyde?Trade Review"Oliver Tearles book is based on close readings of the texts, and makes abundant references to contemporary thinkers and novelists, and to the criticism on Gothic fiction. It gives a good idea of what Gothic writing strategies are." - Nathalie Saudo-Welby, Universite de Picardie-Jules-Verne (Amiens), Cercles: Revue Pluridisciplinaire Du Monde AnglophoneTable of ContentsPreface; Parvovirus B19 (PB19); Clinical Aspects of PB19 Infection in Immunocopetent Patients; PB19 Infection in Immunodeficiency Disorders; Hematological Consequences of PB19 Infection; PB19 & Blood Transfusion; Occupational Infection by PB19; PB19 Genetic Study, Relation to Pathogenesis; Laboratory Diagnosis of PB19; Index.

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Book SynopsisJohn Betjeman was undoubtedly the most popular Poet Laureate since Tennyson. But beneath the thoroughly modern window on Britain that he opened during his lifetime lay the influence of his nineteenth-century forbears. This book explores his identity through such Victorianism via the verse of that period, but also its architecture, religious faith and -- more importantly -- religious doubt. It was, nevertheless, a process which took time. In the 1930s Betjeman's work was tinted with modernism and traditionalism. He found Victorian buildings 'funny' and wrote much in praise of the Bauhaus style, even though his early poetry was peppered with Victorian references. This leaning was incorporated into a greater sense of purpose during World War 2, when he transformed himself from precious humorist into propagandist. The resulting sense of cohesion grew when the dangers of post-war urban redevelopment heightened the need to critique the present via the poetics of the past, a mood which continued up to and beyond his gaining the Laureateship in 1972. This duty proved to be a millstone, so the 'official' poems are thus explored by the author more fully than hitherto. The conclusion of looks back to Betjeman's 1960 verse-autobiography, 'Summoned by Bells', which is seen as the apogee of his achievement and a snapshot of his identity. Included here is the first critical appreciation of the lyrics embodied within the text, which are taken as a map of the young poet's literary growth. Larkin's 1959 question 'What exactly is Betjeman?' then leads to a final appraisal of his originality, as evidenced by his glances towards postmodernism, feminism, and post-colonialism. The fact is that Betjeman never quite fits in anywhere. He is always a square peg in a round hole or a round peg in a square hole -- often for the sheer enjoyment of so being. In a sense, his desire to be as non-conformist as a Quaker meeting house makes him a radical, rather than the reactionary that his interests imply. He was a champion of beauty and the British Isles, and clearly did much to make us see the worth of our Victorian forebears. Greg Morse's book highlights this important facet of his work.Table of ContentsPreface; Introduction; A Review of the literature; The Model; Simulating the Entry of Multinationals without Profit Repatriation; Simulating the Entry of Multinationals with Profit Repatriation; Conclusions; Index.

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Book SynopsisKarel Capek is the most important, most versatile, but also the most neglected Czech writer in the twentieth century. His plays RUR and "From the Life of Insects" created a sensation in London in the 1920s; his word "robot" was introduced into the Oxford English Dictionary while his other plays as well as novels, short stories, essays, and travelogues followed in English translations in quick succession until cultural links were broken off by the war. Because of his liberal, anti-war views Capek's works were blacklisted by the Nazis occupying his homeland, as well as later by the communists. Presenting a study of all genres Capek used, BRB's book pays the debt history owes to Capek. Both as a writer and as a journalist, Capek sought the truth: in the epistemological sense, how we acquire knowledge; in the moral one, how we apply it to our behaviour. Recognizing great differences between individuals, Capek recommends tolerance and mutual trust as the best way towards the improvement of democratic human relations. His philosophical trilogy Hordubal, Meteor and An Ordinary Life -- is the best artistic expression of these ideas; as a journalist, he conveyed them explicitly. Capek's science fiction works show his admiration for the achievements of science and technology; he forecast the use of nuclear power, but strongly warned against its abuse. His readers particularly appreciated his common sense, wit and humour. Karel Capek was a man who taught through laughter.Table of ContentsIntroduction; The Beginnings; Canada's First Large Influx of Refugees; British Immigration Transforms the Colonies; Immigration in the MacDonald Era; The Sifton Years; Forging a New Immigration Policy; Immigration Doldrums; Immigration's Post-war Boom (1947-1957); Major New Initiatives; A New Era in Immigration; The Turbulent 1980s and Beyond; Developments in the Last Decade; Index.

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Book SynopsisOutstanding essayists in Latin American literature and film explore Laura Esquivel's critical reputation, contextualise her work in literary movements, and consider her four novels and the film based on Like Water for Chocolate from diverse critical perspectives. The Editor's "An Introduction to Esquivel Criticism" reviews twenty-years of global praise and condemnation. Elena Poniatowska, in an essay provided in the original Spanish and in translation, reflects on her first reading of Like Water for Chocolate. From unique critical perspectives, Jeffrey Oxford, Patrick Duffey, and Debra Andrist probe the novel as film and fiction. The Reverend Dr Stephen Butler Murray explores the author's spiritual focus, and cultural geographer Maria Elena Christie uses words and images to compare Mexican kitchen-space and Esquivel's first novel. Elizabeth Coonrod Martinez and Lydia H Rodriguez affirm divergent readings of The Law of Love, and Elizabeth M Willingham reads contested national identity in Swift as Desire. Jeanne L Gillespie and Ryan F Long approach Malinche: A Novel through historical documents and popular and religious culture. In the closing essay of the volume, Alberto Julian Perez contextualises Esquivel's fiction within Feminist and Hispanic literary movements. A glossary and translations recommend the work to English-speaking readers and those new to studies of Hispanic fiction and film. This book is the first in-depth review and assessment of twenty years of Esquivel criticism. The comparative and theoretical views presented of each of Esquivel's four novels and the film of Like Water for Chocolate provide suggestions for future literary research.Trade ReviewLaura Esquivel's Mexican Fictions won the Harvey L. Johnson Book Award for2011 conferred by the South Central Organization of Latin American Studiesat its 44th annual Congress in Miami, Florida (March 9, 2012).Laura Esquivel's Mexican Fictions won the Harvey L. Johnson Book Award for 2011 conferred by the South Central Organization of Latin American Studies at its 44th annual Congress in Miami, Florida (March 9, 2012).Table of ContentsThe Essays; Apparatus; Translations into English; Style, notes, & chronology; Using the Works Cited; A Biography of Laura Esquivel; An Introduction to Esquivel Criticism; Like Water for Chocolate Like Water for Chocolate: The novels early critical reception; Like Water for Chocolate: The novel & the critics; Like Water for Chocolate: The film & the critics; The Law of Love; Swift as Desire; Malinche: A Novel; Future directions in Esquivel criticism; Laura Esquivels Mexican Chocolate; El chocolate mexicano de Laura Esquivel; Crossing Gender Borders: Subversion of Cinematic Melodrama in Like Water for Chocolate; Unmasked Men: Sex Roles in Like Water for Chocolate; The Absence of God & the Presence of Ancestors in Laura Esquivels Like Water for Chocolate; Gendered Spaces, Gendered Knowledge: A Cultural Geography of Kitchenspace in Central Mexico; Transformation, Code, & Mimesis: Healing the Family in Like Water for Chocolate; Cultural Identity & the Cosmos: Laura Esquivels Predictions for a New Millennium in The Law of Love; Laura Esquivels Quantum Leap in The Law of Love; The Two Mexicos of Swift as Desire; Malinche: Fleshing out the Foundational Fictions of the Conquest of Mexico; Esquivels Malinalli: Refusing the Last Word on La Malinche; Esquivels Fiction in the Context of Latin American Womens Writing; Glossary of Spanish & Nahuatl Words & Phrases ; Index.

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Book SynopsisAlthough Henry Green has been recognised by James Wood, David Lodge and John Updike as one of the most innovative writers of his time, his significant achievement remains largely neglected. Henry Green at the Limits of Modernism provides a theoretically sophisticated and historically nuanced reading of Green's novels and makes the case for Green's importance in reconsiderations of modernism, late modernism and post-war realism. This work is the most ambitious reassessment of Green's oeuvre to date and thus critical reading for scholars interested in modernism, late modernism, and the evolution of British post-war fiction. Arguing against the predominant view of Green's fiction as an autonomous literary construction, the work connects Green to a number of social and literary contexts, resulting in fresh readings of his novels and also a greater accessibility to an author long considered 'oblique' and 'elusive'. With significant investigations of Green's connection to his literary generation, his multifaceted and formally innovative handling of social class, his negotiations of narrative authority and authorship, and the importance of disability studies to understanding Green's fiction, this study charts the complex trajectories of Green's fiction against both social and literary contexts. The work also moves beyond the narrow confines of British literature to explore Green's connections to broader trends in European literature.

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Book SynopsisThis book draws parallels between literature and the arts, and between drama and painting, in terms of Time and Symbolism, as they appear in the play The Lady of the Castle by Leah Goldberg, and in a group of selected paintings by Marc Chagall, Salvador Dali, Rene Magritte, Paul Klee and Edward Munch. Discussion focuses on the connection between the written play-text and the paintings through their common visual qualities and in terms of their common thematic, structural and stylistic characteristics. In a world dominated by science and technology, which renders belief in any "absolute" problematic, two seminal events have left a permanent mark on the contemporary concept of time: Einstein's theory of relativity and Bergson's philosophy of duration (simultaneite and duree). In their wake, Time has become relative and fragmented -- a central theme in the play and in the selected works of art under discussion. Objective, scientific and chronological time is contrasted with inner, psychological time (duration), which differs from individual to individual and from culture to culture. Four categories of time are assessed: historical, physical-chronological, psychological and eternal. The primary meaning behind a symbol makes the basic assumption that a particular object or entity may represent another essence. In attempting to understand the temporal/symbolic linkages of the text and paintings, much importance is attributed to the relationship between representer' and represented' and between concrete and abstract. Through symbolic abstraction one is able to better comprehend the human and cosmic phenomena the symbol seeks to decipher. The book deals with a castle. This central symbol of the play and the paintings is multifaceted, representing what is manifest and what is hidden within the castle, revealing a magical encounter between the world of words and the world of colour.

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Book SynopsisIn spite of the fact that detective fiction has been the most popular genre utilised by Spanish authors over the last thirty or so years, the female detective has appeared in such works on relatively rare occasions. Less frequent are Spanish female authors of detective fiction who employ a female detective as their main character. One author who has broken this stereotype is Reyes Calderón, with her female juez de instrucción (examining magistrate), originally created because the author was convinced that one popular, female, main character detective that did exist was simply "a man who was wearing a skirt" (interview with author). With the creation of her Basque character who, over the series, evolves from law-school professor to member of the Spanish Supreme Court, Calderón is able to "design a normal woman who confronts abnormal situations" (interview with author). Through such, Reyes Calderón aptly portrays both how far Spanish women have come since the days/restrictions of the Franco dictatorship but yet how remnants of conservative thought still pervade their mindset. She thus uses the most popular of genres to make a myriad of cultural observations concerning her native country and the women of "her generation". This book focuses on the female detective in Hispanic literature; the Lola MacHor Series, where via the main character Lola, Calderón is conducting a cultural studies experiment/explanation of modern-day Spain; concomitant issues of characterisation and Calderón's debt to Naturalism; Spanish novel writing and narrative style; and the pervading conservative/feminist dichotomy as it transpires in Spanish social commentary and moralising.

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Book SynopsisThe two essays in the volume follow a long tradition in critical discourse that turns to Art's domain as a source of inspiration, instruction, and as material for the construction of its concepts and the development of its problems. The case study of Suite Grunewald, 159+1 variations, by the artist Titus-Carmel, returns to a subject that has been eclipsed in past decades by the imperative to remember: namely, the creation of the new as an event, or rather, the event of the new as creation. This is an especially vexatious problem following, on the one hand, the massive displacement of the subject as the author and creator of its works and, on the other, the introduction of the influential Deleuzian-Bergsonian notion of the new as immanent continuity rather than -- as the commonsense notion would have it -- a rupture, interruption, and discontinuity. The first essay develops this problematic by working alongside with Titus-Carmel variations / deconstruction of Grunewald's original painting of the "Crucifixion" as an exemplary site where the creation of the new -- at once incalculable and necessary -- finds a living and urgent expression. The second essay stages an encounter and sets free the resonances between the writing of Jean-Luc Nancy on and around the "body" and the cinema of Claire Denis as a cinema that mobilises the force of bodies that it itself invents, and to which it gives a unique form of presence.

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Book SynopsisAccording to Oscar Wilde, the primary aim of the critic is to see the object as in itself it really is not'. Through a series of close and often unusual readings, this book endeavours to develop Wilde's remark into a detailed and creative theory of reading. Or perhaps that should be misreading: for, as this experimental work of criticism negotiates its way among the works of a number of late-nineteenth-century writers, particularly Robert Louis Stevenson and Wilde himself, Tearle uncovers some of the ways in which we as readers are prone to hallucinations while reading about, of all things, the experience of hallucination. Focusing in detail on a series of neologisms from writing of the period, such as 'handconscience', 'figmentary', and 'aftersense', and moving between a number of disciplines including literature, criticism, science, psychoanalysis, and even linguistics, Bewilderments of Vision endeavours to answer a number of questions, ranging from the urgent to the downright bizarre: What is the link between hallucination and social conscience in writing of the late-nineteenth century? Is there such a thing as textual hallucination? Why does the author of this book see a 'snake' that is not there when he 'reads' Jekyll and Hyde?Trade Review"Oliver Tearles book is based on close readings of the texts, and makes abundant references to contemporary thinkers and novelists, and to the criticism on Gothic fiction. It gives a good idea of what Gothic writing strategies are." - Nathalie Saudo-Welby, Universite de Picardie-Jules-Verne (Amiens), Cercles: Revue Pluridisciplinaire Du Monde AnglophoneTable of ContentsPreface; Parvovirus B19 (PB19); Clinical Aspects of PB19 Infection in Immunocopetent Patients; PB19 Infection in Immunodeficiency Disorders; Hematological Consequences of PB19 Infection; PB19 & Blood Transfusion; Occupational Infection by PB19; PB19 Genetic Study, Relation to Pathogenesis; Laboratory Diagnosis of PB19; Index.

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Book SynopsisThe two essays in the volume follow a long tradition in critical discourse that turns to Art's domain as a source of inspiration, instruction, and as material for the construction of its concepts and the development of its problems. The case study of Suite Grunewald, 159+1 variations, by the artist Titus-Carmel, returns to a subject that has been eclipsed in past decades by the imperative to remember: namely, the creation of the new as an event, or rather, the event of the new as creation. This is an especially vexatious problem following, on the one hand, the massive displacement of the subject as the author and creator of its works and, on the other, the introduction of the influential Deleuzian-Bergsonian notion of the new as immanent continuity rather than -- as the commonsense notion would have it -- a rupture, interruption, and discontinuity. The first essay develops this problematic by working alongside with Titus-Carmel variations / deconstruction of Grunewald's original painting of the "Crucifixion" as an exemplary site where the creation of the new -- at once incalculable and necessary -- finds a living and urgent expression. The second essay stages an encounter and sets free the resonances between the writing of Jean-Luc Nancy on and around the "body" and the cinema of Claire Denis as a cinema that mobilises the force of bodies that it itself invents, and to which it gives a unique form of presence.

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Book SynopsisThe world-renowned Peruvian poet César Vallejo (1892-1938) was also a journalist, essayist, novelist and would-be dramatist. The study of his life and work has encountered problems since the 1950s, stemming from the fact that half of his writing was published posthumously under editorship of doubtful accuracy. The matter is further complicated in that his non-poetic work has been neglected in favour of his verse. A Struggle between Art and Politics reviews the evidence -- literary and historical -- now reliably to hand, and assesses the often conflicting body of opinion his work has generated. Three essential questions are pertinent: Where should Vallejo be placed in the canon of twentieth-century modernism? What effect did his mid-life conversion to Communism have on his writing? How should his prose fiction, journalism and essays be assessed in relation to his poetry? There are few writers whose literary output follows the twists and turns of their lives more closely than César Vallejo's. This new, comparative study maps his career onto the cultural, social, political and historical backdrop to his life in Peru, France, Spain and Russia, and analyses his writings in the light of his life circumstances. Vallejo's journey from Peru, the cultural "periphery", to the "centre" of inter-war Paris, his experience of European capitalism during the Depression, and the confrontation of Communism and Fascism, ultimately played out in the Spanish Civil War, forced him to wage a personal struggle to reconcile art with life and politics. This challenge is fought out in different ways in his various writings, but nowhere more movingly, passionately and humanely than in his posthumous poetry.Trade Review"Bob Brittons book brings Cesar Vallejo fascinatingly to life-illuminating both the key moments and the more intimate details. Britton interweaves the life and the creative drive of this extraordinary poet with such fresh insights that you return to Vallejos work with a renewed thirst." -- Adam Feinstein, Biographer & Translator of Pablo Neruda"Complete with its own excellent translations of all material quoted from Vallejo (an achievement which deserves recognition in its own right: his translation of Trilce I is better than most), plus a judicious, non-partisan survey of scholarship on Vallejo, the book will stand as a fine, accessible guide to one of the twentieth centurys great poets." -- Adam Sharman, University of Nottingham

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Book SynopsisThe world-renowned Peruvian poet César Vallejo (1892-1938) was also a journalist, essayist, novelist and would-be dramatist. The study of his life and work has encountered problems since the 1950s, stemming from the fact that half of his writing was published posthumously under editorship of doubtful accuracy. The matter is further complicated in that his non-poetic work has been neglected in favour of his verse. A Struggle between Art and Politics reviews the evidence -- literary and historical -- now reliably to hand, and assesses the often conflicting body of opinion his work has generated. Three essential questions are pertinent: Where should Vallejo be placed in the canon of twentieth-century modernism? What effect did his mid-life conversion to Communism have on his writing? How should his prose fiction, journalism and essays be assessed in relation to his poetry? There are few writers whose literary output follows the twists and turns of their lives more closely than César Vallejo's. This new, comparative study maps his career onto the cultural, social, political and historical backdrop to his life in Peru, France, Spain and Russia, and analyses his writings in the light of his life circumstances. Vallejo's journey from Peru, the cultural "periphery", to the "centre" of inter-war Paris, his experience of European capitalism during the Depression, and the confrontation of Communism and Fascism, ultimately played out in the Spanish Civil War, forced him to wage a personal struggle to reconcile art with life and politics. This challenge is fought out in different ways in his various writings, but nowhere more movingly, passionately and humanely than in his posthumous poetry.Trade Review"Bob Brittons book brings Cesar Vallejo fascinatingly to life-illuminating both the key moments and the more intimate details. Britton interweaves the life and the creative drive of this extraordinary poet with such fresh insights that you return to Vallejos work with a renewed thirst." -- Adam Feinstein, Biographer & Translator of Pablo Neruda"Complete with its own excellent translations of all material quoted from Vallejo (an achievement which deserves recognition in its own right: his translation of Trilce I is better than most), plus a judicious, non-partisan survey of scholarship on Vallejo, the book will stand as a fine, accessible guide to one of the twentieth centurys great poets." -- Adam Sharman, University of Nottingham

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Book SynopsisThis book is a series of original, critical meditations on short stories and novels from Central America between 1995 and 2016. During the Cold War, literary art in Central America, as in Latin America in general, was strongly over-determined by the politics of the Cold War, which gave rise to popular struggle and three major armed civil wars in the 1970s and 1980s in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala. The period produced intense literary activity with political ideology central, personified by social denunciation in the testimonial novel and revolutionary poetry. Since then, though themes of violence are still at much of its core, Central American fiction has become more complex. We have witnessed a resurgence of literary writing and criticism with a focus squarely on the artistic side of narrative art: writing aware of its own figurative manoeuvres and inventiveness, its philosophical and affective dimensions, and its carefully crafted syntax. This collection of essays by Jeffrey Browitt attempts to trace some of the contours of this new literature and the contemporary subjectivities of its writers through close readings of Guatemalas Rodrigo Rey Rosa, Eduardo Halfon and Denise Phe-Funchal; Nicaraguas Franz Galich and Sergio Ramirez; Belizes David Ruiz Puga; El Salvadors Jacinta Escudos and Claudia Hernandez; and Costa Ricas Carlos Cortes. Key themes are gender, subjectivity and affect as these intersect with the deconstruction of the family, hegemonic masculinity, motherhood, revolutionary romanticism, and the relationship of humans with animals.

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Book SynopsisThis book is a series of original, critical meditations on short stories and novels from Central America between 1995 and 2016. During the Cold War, literary art in Central America, as in Latin America in general, was strongly over-determined by the politics of the Cold War, which gave rise to popular struggle and three major armed civil wars in the 1970s and 1980s in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala. The period produced intense literary activity with political ideology central, personified by social denunciation in the testimonial novel and revolutionary poetry. Since then, though themes of violence are still at much of its core, Central American fiction has become more complex. We have witnessed a resurgence of literary writing and criticism with a focus squarely on the artistic side of narrative art: writing aware of its own figurative manoeuvres and inventiveness, its philosophical and affective dimensions, and its carefully crafted syntax. This collection of essays by Jeffrey Browitt attempts to trace some of the contours of this new literature and the contemporary subjectivities of its writers through close readings of Guatemalas Rodrigo Rey Rosa, Eduardo Halfon and Denise Phe-Funchal; Nicaraguas Franz Galich and Sergio Ramirez; Belizes David Ruiz Puga; El Salvadors Jacinta Escudos and Claudia Hernandez; and Costa Ricas Carlos Cortes. Key themes are gender, subjectivity and affect as these intersect with the deconstruction of the family, hegemonic masculinity, motherhood, revolutionary romanticism, and the relationship of humans with animals.

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Book SynopsisThis book presents two systems of censorship and literary promotion, revealing how literature can be molded to support authoritarian regimes. The issue is complex in that at a descriptive level the strategies and methods new states use to control communication through the written word can be judged by how and when formal decrees were issued, and how publishing media, whether in the form of publishing companies or at the individual level, engaged with political overseers. But equally, literature was a means of resistance against an authoritarian regime, not only for writers but for readers as well. From the point of view of historical memory and intellectual history, stories of people without history and the production of their texts through the literary underground can be constructed from subsequent testimony: from books sold in secret, to the writings of women in jail, to books that were written but never published or distributed in any way, and to myriad compelling circumstances resulting from living under fascist authority. A parallel study on two fascist movements provides a unique viewpoint at literary, social and political levels. Comparative analysis of literary censorship/literary reward allows an understanding of the balance between dictatorship, official policy, and what literary acts were deemed acceptable. The regime need to control its population is revealed in the ways that a particular type of literature was encouraged; in the engagement of propoganda promotion; and in the setting up of institutions to gain international acceptance of the regime. The work is an important contribution to the history of twentieth-century authoritarianism and the development fascist ideas.

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Book SynopsisAn Open Access edition of this book is available on the Liverpool University Press website and the OAPEN library.Ranging across novels and poetry, critical theory and film, comics and speeches, Race, Ethnicity and Nuclear War: Representations of Nuclear Weapons and Post-Apocalyptic Worlds explores how writers, thinkers, and filmmakers have answered the following question: are nuclear weapons ‘white’? Many texts respond in the affirmative, and arraign nuclear weapons for defending a racial order that privileges whiteness. They are seen as a reminder that the power enjoyed by the white western world imperils the whole of the Earth. Furthermore, the struggle to survive during and after a speculated nuclear attack is often cast as a contest between races and ethnic groups. Race, Ethnicity and Nuclear War listens to voices from around the Anglophone world and the debates followed do not only take place on the soil of the nuclear powers. Filmmakers and writers from the Caribbean, Australia, and India take up positions shaped by their specific place in the decolonizing world and their particular experience of nuclear weapons. The texts considered in Race, Ethnicity and Nuclear War encompass the many guises of representations of nuclear weapons: the Manhattan Project that developed the first atomic weapons, the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nuclear tests taking place around the world, and the anxiety surrounding the superpowers’ devastating arsenals. Of particular interest to SF scholars are the extensive analyses of films, novels, and short stories depicting nuclear war and its aftermath. New thoughts are offered on the major texts that SF scholars often return to, such as Philip Wylie’s Tomorrow! and Pat Frank’s Alas Babylon, and a host of little known and under-researched texts are scrutinized too. Trade ReviewA good book, addressing itself to a neglected area of an important topic. Williams draws on an impressively broad and diverse range of nuclear texts for his study and has some intelligent observations to make. His readings of literary and filmic texts are detailed and enlightening. Daniel CordleTable of Contents Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Race, War and Apocalypse before 1945 2. Inverted Frontiers 3. Soft Places and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome 4. Fear of a Black Planet 5. White Rain and the Black Atlantic 6. Race and the Manhattan Project 7. 'The Hindu Bomb': Nuclear Nationalism in The Last Jet-Engine Laugh 8. Third World Wars and Third-World Wars Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisCuba’s Wild East: A Literary Geography of Oriente recounts a literary history of modern Cuba that has four distinctive and interrelated characteristics. Oriented to the east of the island, it looks aslant at a Cuban national literature that has sometimes been indistinguishable from a history of Havana. Given the insurgent and revolutionary history of that eastern region, it recounts stories of rebellion, heroism, and sacrifice. Intimately related to places and sites which now belong to a national pantheon, its corpus—while including fiction and poetry—is frequently written as memoir and testimony. As a region of encounter, that corpus is itself resolutely mixed, featuring a significant proportion of writings by US journalists and novelists as well as by Cuban writers.Trade ReviewThis is the work of a mature scholar who has reflected on the subject for a long time; one who has read extensively on the matter, and one who enjoys his subject thoroughly. The merits of the book are many but the most important for me are two: one is taking all the cardinal points, north and south, east and west and putting them in contact with each other. The second is the relationships he establishes between indigenous pasts and colonial and postcolonial writings. Prof. Hulme makes the points of convergences between these stories and history magic. Ileana RodríguezThroughout all eight essays Hulme’s prose skillfully integrates close textual analysis with detailed historical and geographical contexts, making the book very accessible to readers (like this reviewer) who are allergic to pure disquisitions on texts. Reading Cuba’s Wild East feels like taking an actual trip through the region. The book constitutes a truly exceptional, readable, informative, and significant contribution to the study of Cuban history, culture, and politics. Raul Fernandez, New West Indian GuideTable of Contents List of illustrations and maps Note on language and translations Introduction 1. James J. O’Kelly at Jiguaní (1873) 2. José Martí at Vega del Jobo (1895) 3. Richard Harding Davis in Santiago de Cuba (1897) 4. Edward Stratemeyer at Siboney (1898) 5. Andrew Summers Rowan in Bayamo (1898) 6. Josephine Herbst in Realengo 18 (1935) 7. Antonio Núñez Jimenez on Pico Turquino (1945) 8. ‘Less than human’: Guantánamo Bay (2002) Envoi Glossary Acknowledgements Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisAn Open Access edition of this book is available on the Liverpool University Press website and the OAPEN library. The Francophone Caribbean and the American South are sites born of the plantation, the common matrix for the diverse nations and territories of the circum-Caribbean. This book takes as its premise that the basic configuration of the plantation, in terms of its physical layout and the social relations it created, was largely the same in the Caribbean and the American South. Essays written by leading authorities in the field examine the cultural, social, and historical affinities between the Francophone Caribbean and the American South, including Louisiana, which among the Southern states has had a quite particular attachment to France and the Francophone world. The essays focus on issues of history, language, politics and culture in various forms, notably literature, music and theatre. Considering figures as diverse as Barack Obama, Frantz Fanon, Miles Davis, James Brown, Edouard Glissant, William Faulkner, Maryse Condé and Lafcadio Hearn, the essays explore in innovative ways the notions of creole culture and creolization, terms rooted in and indicative of contact between European and African people and cultures in the Americas, and which are promoted here as some of the most productive ways for conceiving of the circum-Caribbean as a cultural and historical entity.Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction - Martin Munro and Celia Britton Creolizations Lafcadio Hearn's American Writings and the Creole Continuum - Mary Gallagher Auguste Lussan's La Famille creole: How Saint-Domingue Emigres Bcame Louisiana Creoles - Typhaine Leservot Caribbean and Creole in New Orleans - Angle Adams Parham Creolizing Barack Obama - Valerie Loichot Richard Price or the Canadian from Petite-Anse: The Potential and the Limitations of a Hybrid Anthropology - Christina Kullberg Music 'Fightin' the Future': Rhythm and Creolization in the Circum-Caribbean - Martin Munro Leaving the South: Frantz Fanon, Modern Jazz, and the Rejection of Negritude - Jeremy F. Lane The Sorcerer and the Quimboiseur: Poetic Intention in the Works of Miles Davis and Edourard Glissant - Jean-Luc Tamby Creolizing Jazz, Jazzing the Tout-monde: Jazz, Gwoka and the Poetics of Relation - Jerome Camal Intertextualities: Faulkner, Glissant, Conde Go Slow Now: Saying the Unsayable in Edouard Glissant's Reading of Faulkner - Michael Wiedorn Edouard Glissant and the Test of Faulkner's Modernism - Hugh Azerad The Theme of the Ancestral Crime in the Novels of Faulkner, Glissant, and Conde - Celia Britton An American Story - Yanick Lahen Notes on Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisThe subject of this timely book is that body of fiction which speculates in narrative form about the nature of wars likely to break out in the near or distant future. Although earlier instances occur, the origins of this mode lie primarily in the late nineteenth century but writing about future wars continues to this day with notable fiction on the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ranging widely across periods and conflicts real and imagined, and boasting contributions from the late I. F. Clarke, H. Bruce Franklin and Patrick Parrinder, Future Wars explores the fascinating process of interaction between politics and literature, science fiction and war in a range of classic texts. Individual essays explore Reagan’s ‘star wars’ project, nuclear fiction, Martian invasion, and the Pax Americana among other topics. The use of future war scenarios in military planning dates back to the nineteenth century. Future Wars concludes with an assessment by an officer in the U.S. Army of the continuing usefulness of future wars fiction.Trade ReviewFuture Wars is a collection of rich, contextualised historical studies. It is a testament to the legacy of I. F. Clarke that the book consists of such strong, original, scholarly work.Table of Contents Introduction - David Seed 1. Future-War Fiction: The First Main Phase, 1871-1900 - I. F. Clarke 2. How America's Fictions of Future War Have Changed the World - H. Bruce Franklin 3. War Is Peace: Conscrption and Mobilization in the Modern Utopia - Patrick Parrinder 4. From Unvasion to Liberation: Alternative Visions of Mars, Planet of War - Robert Crossley 5. John Henry Palmer's The Invasion of New York, or, How Hawaii Was Annexed: Political Discourse and Emergent Mass Culture in 1897 - John Rieder 6. John Wyndham's World War III and his Abandoned Fury of Creation Trilogy - David Ketterer 7. Prophesying Neocolonial Wars in 1950s American Science Fiction - Rob Latham 8. On the Beach: British Nuclear Fiction and the Spaces of Empire's End - Brian Baker 9. Adapting the Absurd Apocalypse: Eugene Burdick's and Harvey Wheeler's Fail-Safe and its Cinematic Progeny - Nicholas Ruddick 10. The Strategic Defence Initiative: A Utopian Fantasy - David Seed 11. When All Wars Are Done: The Transcendent Humanity of Iain M. Banks - Patricia Kerslake 12. 'The Benefit and the Handicap of Hindsight': Modelling Risk and Reassessing Future-War Fiction after the 9/11-Induced Shft to a US National Security Strategy of Pre-emptive Attack - A. Michael Matin 13. The War after Next: Anticipating Future Conflict in the New Millennium - Antulio J. Echevaria II The Writings of I. F. Clarke: A Checklist Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisIn a time of protracted economic crisis, failing political systems, and impending environmental collapse, one strand in our collective cultural myth of Progress – the technological – remains vibrantly intact, surging into the future at ramming speed. Amid the seemingly exponential proliferation of machine intelligence and network connectivity, and the increasingly portentous implications of emerging nanotechnology, futurists and fabulists look to an imminent historical threshold whereupon the nature of human existence will be radically and irrevocably transformed. The Singularity, it is supposed, can be no more than a few years off; indeed, some believe it has already begun. Technological Singularity – a trope conceived in science fiction and subsequently adopted throughout technocultural discourse and beyond – is the primary site of interpenetration between technoscientific and science-fictional figurations of the future, a territory where longstanding binary oppositions between science and fiction, and between present and future, are rapidly dissolving. In this groundbreaking volume, the first to mount a sustained and wide-ranging critical treatment of Singularity as a subject for theory and cultural studies, Raulerson draws SF texts into a complex dialogue with contemporary digital culture, transhumanist movements, political and economic theory, consumer gadgetry, gaming, and related vectors of high-tech postmodernity. In theorizing Singularity as a metaphorical construct lending shape to a range of millennial anxieties and aspirations, Singularities also makes the case for a recent and little-understood subgeneric formation – postcyberpunk SF – as a cohesive body of work, engaged in a shared literary project that is simultaneously shaping, and shaped by, purportedly nonfictional technoscientific discourses.Trade ReviewReviews'Dazzling ideas come flying in quick succession on each page of this manuscript, and the writing itself is absolutely delightful. It promises to become a highly regarded work in science fiction studies, science and technology studies, and cultural studies.' Colin Milburn, UCD'Elegant, wry, and profoundly topical, Joshua Raulerson’s Singularities is a masterful study of the many connections between postcyberpunk science fiction and posthumanist culture. Examining the historical, philosophical, political and economic dimensions of our most modern technological myth, Raulerson describes how deeply our technology-saturated world is itself saturated by science fiction. If a work of sophisticated literary criticism can be called a thrilling ride, this it is.' Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, DePaul University'Singularitiesis an exhilarating examination of the multiple ways that post-cyberpunk fiction matters, not only for discussions of the posthuman, but also for discussions of the bodily, environmental, political, and socioeconomic implications of Singularity discourses and agendas that 'demand ideological scrutiny.'Mary Catherine Foltz, Year's Work in English Studies, Vol. 94, No. 1, 2015Table of Contents Acknowledgments Preface PART I - NAKED SINGULARITIES Introduction 1. The Punchbowl and the Fishbowl 2. Two Posthumanisms, Three Singularities PART II - HOW WE BECAME POST-POSTHUMAN: POSTCYBERPUNK BODIES AND THE NEW MATERIALITY 3. Mind, Matter, Markets 4. Self and Skin: Virtuality and its Discontents 5. The Other Side of the Screen: the Materiality of the Hyperreal PART III - ECONOMICS 2.0 6. The Most Radical Break 7. Cracking the Code 8. Toward a Postsingular General Economy PART IV - THE LAST QUESTION 9. Entropy, Extropy, and Transhumanist Eschatology 10. Beyond Extropy, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Singularity Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisAn Open Access edition of this book is available on the Liverpool University Press website and the OAPEN library.The question ‘What is Québécois literature?’ may seem innocent and answerable, yet Rosemary Chapman's compelling study shows that to answer it is to chart the cultural history of French Canada, to put francophone writing in Canada in postcolonial context and to ask whether literary history, with its focus on the nation, is in fact obsolete. This remarkable book will be compulsory reading for scholars well-versed in francophone postcolonial studies and will also act as an ideal introduction for Anglophone scholars of Canadian literature.Trade ReviewChapman writes with authority and clarity, brilliantly examining the historiography of francophone Canadian writing in relation to other colonial and postcolonial national literatures... the book will, I am sure, introduce Anglophone readers not only to francophone Canadian literature, but also to the intellectual, social, and political history of French Canada. Jane MossThe author has intelligently used the results of extensive research to provide a unique insight into what has been defined as “Québécois literature” as well as other literatures of francophone Canada. This book will be appealing to specialists in Quebec literature, as well as those involved in French and francophone literary studies and, more generally, postcolonial studies. Mary Jean GreenTable of Contents Acknowledgements Introduction Chronology 1. How has the literary history of francophone Canada been told in the twentieth century? 2. Literary history in the curriculum 3. The literary anthology as a tool of literary history 4. What does a nation-shaped literary history exclude from within and beyond Quebec? Two case studies Conclusion Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisIn May 1956, aged just 24, Colin Wilson achieved success and overnight fame with his philosophical study of alienation and transcendence in modern literature and thought, The Outsider. Fifty-four years on, and never out of print in English, the book is still widely read and discussed, having been translated into over thirty languages. In a remarkably prolific career, Wilson, a true polymath, has since written over 170 titles: novels, plays and non-fiction on a variety of subjects. This volume brings together twenty essays by scholars of Colin Wilson's work worldwide and is published in his honour to mark the author's 80th birthday. Each contributor has provided an essay on their favourite Wilson book (or the one they consider to be the most significant). The result is a varied and stimulating assessment of Wilson's writings on philosophy, psychology, literature, criminology and the occult with critical appraisals of four of his most thought-provoking novels. Altogether a fitting tribute to a writer and thinker who, as one contributor, George C. Poulos, predicts: Looking back..., will be acknowledged as the philosopher to have most influenced events in the 21st century.A"

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Book SynopsisBrenda Cooper examines the work of the new generation of African writers who have placed migration as central to their writing

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Book SynopsisInternational scholars explore one of the most important postcolonial novels of African literature. Joint winner of Best Non-Fiction Biography, Humanities and Social Sciences Awards 2020 Sol Plaatje's Mhudi is the first full-length novel in English to have been written by a black South African and is widely regarded as one of Africa's most important literary works. Drawing upon both oral and literary traditions, Plaatje uses the form of the historical novel, and romance genre, to explore the 19th-century dispossession of his people, to provide a novel black perspective on their history. It is a book that speaks to present-day concerns, to do with land, language, history and decolonisation. Today the novel has iconic status, not only in South Africa, but worldwide - it has been translated into a number of languages - and its impact on other writers has been profound. The novelist Bessie Head described it as "more than a classic; there is just no other book on earth like it. All the stature and grandeur of the author are in it." A century after its writing in London in 1920 [it was published in South Africa in 1930, for reasons explained in the book], and at a time of intellectual ferment, with debates on decolonisation to the fore, in popular culture as much as in the academy, this book celebrates Mhudi's place in African literature, reviews its critical reception, and offers fresh perspectives. The contributors discuss Mhudis genesis, writing and publication; its reception by literary critics from the 1930s to thepresent; Mhudi as a feminist novel; Mhudis use of oral tradition; issues of translation; Mhudi in the context of African literature and history, and the decolonisation of the curriculum. An authoritative listing of all editions of Mhudi, translations as well as in English completes the book. SABATA MOKAE is a novelist and lecturer in creative writing at Sol Plaatje University, Kimberley, and the author of The Story of Sol T. Plaatje (2010). BRIAN WILLAN is Senior Research Fellow at Rhodes University, Extraordinary Professor at Sol Plaatje and North West Universities. He is the author of Sol Plaatje: a life of Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje,1876-1932 (2018), and co-editor (with Janet Remmington and Bheki Peterson) of Sol Plaatje's Native Life in South Africa: Past and Present (2016). Africa: JacanaTable of ContentsBra Sol Othandekayo, a poem by Siza Nkosi-Makhele Introduction: Mhudi at one hundred - Sabata-mpho Mokae and Brian Willan Mhudi's genesis: The writing and publication of Mhudi - Brian Willan On writing historical fiction vs fictionalised history: Lessons from Sol Plaatje's Mhudi"In front as at the rear": Black soldiers, white imperialism and Mhudi - Chris Thurman "The glory of the silver trees": Mhudiand the Union celebrations of 1910 - Laurence Wright Comets, porcupine holes, chiefs and wagons: A complete interconnected universe in Mhudi - Antjie Krog Sol Plaatje's MhudiReasoning creatively in Mhudi - Bheki Peterson Maropeng: On repatriating MhudiWomen's solidarity in Sol T. Plaatje's Mhudi - Jenny Bozena du Preez Mhudi and the critics, by Brian Willan - Brian Willan Deferred hopes and dreams: A reflection on Plaatje's dedication to Olive Ngwetsi - Karen Haire When the bones call - Sabata-mpho Mokae Bibliography: Editions of Mhudi - Brian Willan and Sabata-mpho Mokae

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Book SynopsisEssays examining isiXhosa oral literature, novels and journalism and the interconnections between them in the nineteenth and twentieth centuriesXhosa Literature: Spoken and Printed Words consists of fourteen essays addressing Xhosa literature in three media - the spoken word, newspapers and books. Literary critics tend to focus on Xhosa literature published in books; some attention has been paid to Xhosa oral poetry and tales, but by and large the contribution of newspapers to the development of Xhosa literature has been overlooked. This book explores aspects of Xhosa literature in all three media, and their interconnections.Six of the essays treat historical narratives (amabali) and praise poetry (izibongo), setting out the social and ritual function of poetry and the poet (imbongi), mapping changes in the izibongo of three poets as South Africa moved towards democracy in the 1990s, and analysing recordings of two poems recited by S.E.K. Mqhayi. Three essays are devoted to the first Xhosa novel, Mqhayi's U-Samson (1907), to the publication of the greatest novel in Xhosa, A.C. Jordan's Ingqumbo yeminyanya (1940), and to the first published poem in praise of Nelson Mandela, D.L.P. Yali-Manisi's 'UNkosi Rolihlahla Nelson Mandela' (1954). There follow accounts of Xhosa literature in the nineteenth century and the appropriation of the press by Xhosa editors towards the end of that century, of Nontsizi Mgqwetho's fiery poetry published in Umteteli wa Bantu and of poems by Mgqwetho and Mqhayi published in Abantu-Batho, two Johannesburg newspapers. The volume concludes with an exposition of an imaginative response to David Yali-Manisi and his poetry.University of KwaZulu-Natal Press: Southern African Development Community

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Book SynopsisOxford held a special place in Evelyn Waugh’s imagination. So formative were his Oxford years that the city never left him, appearing again and again in his novels in various forms. This book explores in rich visual detail the abiding importance of Oxford as both location and experience in his literary and visual works. Drawing on specially commissioned illustrations and previously unpublished photographic material, it provides a critically robust assessment of Waugh’s engagement with Oxford over the course of his literary career. Following a brief overview of Waugh’s life and work, subsequent chapters look at the prose and graphic art Waugh produced as an undergraduate together with Oxford’s portrayal in Brideshead Revisited and A Little Learning as well as broader conceptual concerns of religion, sexuality and idealised time. A specially commissioned, hand-drawn trail around Evelyn Waugh’s Oxford guides the reader around the city Waugh knew and loved through locations such as the Botanic Garden, the Oxford Union and The Chequers. A unique literary biography, this book brings to life Waugh’s Oxford, exploring the lasting impression it made on one of the most accomplished literary craftsmen of the twentieth century.Trade Review'A decent guide for those longing to fall in love with the Brideshead dream for the first time.' - The Times 'A fascinating exploration of the effect which man and city had on each other.' - The Tablet 'An enjoyable and informative introduction to the Oxford of AP's years … highly recommended.' - Anthony Powell Society Newsletter 'Handsomely produced volume … Superlatively well illustrated … its overall effect is to emphasise Waugh's talent as a comic draughtsman.' - The Oldie 'This succinct and highly perceptive book …, although not part of the Oxford Complete Works, can be regarded as a useful companion volume to it, or can simply be enjoyed on its own.' - British Art Journal

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Book SynopsisTracks the emergence and vicissitudes of attitudes to wrongdoing in Spain from the 19th century through the decades before the Civil War. The international contributors to this volume explore the rich diversity of cultures and representations of wrongdoing in Spain through the 19th century and the decades up to the Civil War. Their line of enquiry is predicated on the belief that cultural constructions of wrongdoing are far from simple reflections of historical or social realities, and that they reveal not a line of historical development, but rather variation and movement. Voices and discourses arise in response to the social phenomena associated with wrongdoing. They set out to persuade, to shock, to entice, and in so doing provide complex windows on to social aspiration and desire. The book's three sections (Realities, Representations, and Reactions) offer distinct points of focus, and move between areas where control is paramount and on the agenda from above and those where the subtleties of emotional response take pride of place. Alison Sinclair was Professor of Modern Spanish Literature and Intellectual History at the University of Cambridge until retirement in 2014. Samuel Llano is a Lecturer in Spanish Cultural Studies at the Universityof Manchester.Trade ReviewA suggestive and brilliant take on the broad relations between literature, society and law. * FORUM FOR MODERN LANGUAGE STUDIES *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction - Alison Sinclair and Samuel Llano The Lawyers' Reality: Wrongdoing in Spain in the Era of Codification - Matt Dyson and Aniceto Masferrer Murder in the Batey: Spanish Justice in the Atlantic Colony (1890-92) - Wadda C. Ríos-Font Crime, psychology, and 'being a medium' in Spain in the Early Twentieth Century - Belén Jiménez Alonso Brain States, Sanity, and Wrongdoing: The Neurophilosophy of Pedro Mata - Andrew Ginger Between the Lunatic Asylum and the Street: Illness, Crime and Dissidence in El caso clínico by Antonio de Hoyos y Vinent - Isabel Clúa Ginés Against Seemliness: Excess and Its Limitations in Popular Literature - Alison Sinclair Dubious identity: the Fontanellas Case (1861-1865) - Raquel Sánchez Mad, Bad or Typically Spanish? Don Benito: Chronotope of a Crime and Its Significance - Patricia McDermott Fantasies of Passing: The Bandit as Cultural Motif in Late 1920s and Early 1930s Spain - Jo Labanyi Sacrificial Performances: Confronting discourses on Prostitution in Dulce Dueño - Nuria Godón Street Music, Honour and Degeneration: The Case of Organilleros - Samuel Llano Fear in the City: Social Change and Moral Panic in Madrid in the Early Twentieth Century - Rubén Pallol Journeys to the Catacombs: Forbidden People and Spaces in Modern Madrid (1900-1936) - Fernando Vicente Albarrán Against the Death Penalty: a Campaign for Clemency in 1914 - Óscar Bascuñán Añover Index

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Book SynopsisA new and innovative approach to Latin American Studies which makes an important contribution to contemporary debates about cultural appropriation and the integration of immigrant communities Winner of the 2016-17 AHGBI/Spanish Embassy Publication Prize This book focuses on the contemporary production and consumption of Latin American culture in the UK through the lens of the ¡Viva! Film Festival in Manchester. It offers a comprehensive analysis of how the British press has used the framework of magical realism to interpret Latin America for readers and applies these findings to the festival in order to explore deeper questions of identity formation and cultural appropriation. The book traces the growth of Latin American communities in Britain; the popularity of Latin American literature, music, and film in many of the country's largest cities, including London and Manchester; and shows how people in Britain who do not have Latin American origins consume Latin American culture to reconcile issues of self-identity and cosmopolitanism. Imagining Latin America presents a new and innovative approach to Latin American Studies and makes an important contribution to contemporary debates about the cultural integration of immigrant communities and transnational exchange.Table of ContentsIntroduction: Latin American culture in the UK Chapter One: British Identity, Cosmopolitan Anxieties and the Latin American Other Chapter Two: Latin America and Magical Realism in the British Press (1940-2015) Chapter Three: Cultural Consumption in Manchester Chapter Four: The Production of Latin America through ¡Viva! Chapter Five: Consuming Latin America through ¡Viva! Conclusion Appendix 1: Analysis of the British Press (1940-2015) Appendix 2: ¡Viva! Post-Screening Questionnaires and Interviews

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Book SynopsisA sophisticated introduction to contemporary Basque literature that chronicles its growth and success after the death of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco. By developing a new theory of postnationalism about the relationship between minor and major literatures, this book chronicles the growth and success of Basque literature after the death of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco (1975), and the historical and literary struggles that took place in its aftermath in order to achieve global recognition: the reduction of Basque literature to a representation of an exotic and magic place and people (the Basque Country), best exemplified by Bernardo Atxaga's novel Obabakoak (1988). The book also deploys postnationalist theory in order to chronicle the way in which women's literature challenged and changed this model in the 1990s and paved the way for what is now a complex and diverse literature. JOSEBA GABILONDO is an Associate Professor in the Department of Romance and Classical Studies, Michigan State University.Trade ReviewGabilondo's compilation and translations are essential to understand Basque literature and its postnational context. His well-researched monographs are crucial references to any serious study of minority literatures in general and Basque letters in particular, and Remnants of a Nation is indeed a significant contribution. * Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature *Table of ContentsIntroduction: On the English Translation Postnationalism and Basque Literary History Minor and Major Literatures: A Postnationalist Approach From National to Postnational: A Postnational History of Twentieth-Century Basque Literature Postcolonial and Postnational Literatures: Obabakoak (1988-92) On Canon Formation: Ethiopia (1978) The Legacy of Modernism: from Ethiopia to Obabakoak Before Babel: Globalization, Ethnic Hybridity, and Enjoyment Terrorism as Memory: Historical Novels and Masochist Masculinity Maternal Exile: Women Writers, Cultural Politics, and Individual Utopia Melancholic Migrancy: Writing a Postnational Lesbian Self Nationalist Crisis: Women's Literature and Neoliberalism Epilogue: Basque Literatures 2001-17 Works Cited

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Book SynopsisPresents research conducted in three difficult-to-access Cuban archives with rare textual resources, upon which very little analysis has ever previously been published. This book offers an innovative and provocative analysis of the much-studied Cuban Revolution by reminding us that Fidel Castro's was actually the second of the island's twentieth-century revolutions. By bringing 1959 into criticalcommunication with the revolution of 1933, the book explores Cuba's trajectory from colony to republic to revolution, not as a linear inevitability, but as a rite of collective passage punctuated by turning points in which publicdebate turned to almost obsessive reflection on national 'identity' and national 'destiny'. In re-reading important works of many of Cuba's most significant intellectual and political figures, whilst also revealing little known but truly transcendental contributions to the collective narrative during both revolutionary periods, this book makes a major contribution to a more complex, nuanced and sophisticated understanding of Cuban cultural history and Cuban national identity in the twentieth century. In both periods, the book reveals revolutionary zeal challenged by dogged ambivalence, nihilism undercut by remembrance, the teleological pursuit of 'The End' of the national narrative displaced by 'An End', always and forever 'to be continued'. STEPHEN M. FAY is a Lecturer in Spanish at Aston University.Table of ContentsIntroduction 1923: Annus mirabilis 1927: Nihil admirari? 1933: Un dérèglement de tous les sens 1953: José Martí and Cuba's Centennial conciencia 1957: A moment in and out of time 1959-60: The turning of all tides 1965: Post-liminal Cuba? Conclusion Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisAn affective reading of twentieth-century Afro-Cuban literature focussing on a set of concerns ranging from the filial to the erotic. This book proposes an affective reading of twentieth-century Afro-Cuban literature through its focus on a set of concerns ranging from the filial to the erotic. Existing scholarship on black Cuban literature tends to privilege national political and economic discourses often focusing solely on the dynamics of race in the Revolution and the place of the black writer/artist within the nation's cultural institutions. And while there is substantial engagementwith feminist and queer articulations of desire within Cuban literary studies, there remains an urgent need for a sustained analysis of black Cuban writing which investigates its preponderant concerns with themes of family, love and erotic politics-a need fully addressed in this timely book. CONRAD MICHAEL JAMES is Associate Professor of World Cultures and Literatures at the University of Houston.Table of ContentsIntroduction The Poetry of Race and Sex in the Early Twentieth Century: Nicolás Guillén's Libidinal Politics Crisis and Transgression in the Poetry of Excilia Saldaña Dangerous Patriarchs: Sex and the Dynamics of Literary Vengeance Rebellious Women and Men Without Futures Mothers, Maids and Mistresses: Las criadas de La Habana Afterword Bibliography

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Book SynopsisHow were Moroccan Muslim and Jewish cultures depicted in Spanish literature, journalism, and photography during the Rif War and what did this portrayal reveal about conflicting visions of Spanish identity? Runner-up for the 2017-18 AHGBI-Spanish Embassy Publication Prize This book examines how anxieties about colonial power and national identity are reflected in Spanish literature, journalism, and photography of Moroccan Muslim and Jewish cultures during the Spanish colonisation of Northern Morocco from 1909 to 1927. This understudied period, known as the Rif War, is highly significant because of its role in shaping the identities that came into conflict in the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). Furthermore, the book makes a key contribution to Spanish colonial studies by offering a comparative analysis of Spanish representations of the Iberian Peninsula's cultural and historical relationship with Moroccan Muslims and Jews in this context, showing how conflicting visions of Spanish identity are portrayed through and in relation to them.Table of ContentsIntroduction: Muslims, Jews, and the Boundaries of the Spanish Nation 1. An Anxious Nation: The Rif War, National Identity, and Print Culture 2. 'Muslim Brothers and Spanish Jews': Race, Literature, and History in Discourses of Affinity between Spain and North Africa 3. 'Just as Uncivilised as We are': Affinity, National Fragility, and Socialist and Fascist Narratives of Colonialism in La ruta and Notas marruecas de un soldado 4. The 'Other' Races that Define Us: Islamophobia, Anti-Semitism, and National Anxieties in Catholic Traditionalism and Africanist Orientalism 5. Un-making Spanish Men in Literature and Photography of the Colonial 'Disasters' 6. Conquering the 'Indecipherable Soul' of Morocco: Women behind the Veil, Urban Spaces, and Colonial Power Afterword: Theorising Cultural Vulnerability in a Multicultural World Bibliography

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Book SynopsisExplores Borges's supreme literary craftsmanship and the intimate puzzles of his fictions. Borges once stated that he had never created a character: 'It's always me, subtly disguised'. This book focuses on the ways in which Borges uses events and experiences from his own life, in order to demonstrate how they become the principal structuring motifs of his work. It aims to show how these experiences, despite being 'heavily disguised', are crucial components of some of Borges's most canonical short stories, particularly from the famous collections Ficciones and El Aleph. Exploring the rich tapestry of symmetries, doubles and allusions and the roles played by translation and the figure of the creator, the book provides new readings of these stories, revealing their hidden personal, emotional and spiritual dimensions. These insights shed fresh light on Borges's supreme literary craftsmanship and the intimate puzzles of his fictions.Trade ReviewStephens's hypothesis is tantalizing not in spite of its simplicity, but precisely because of it. For a writer so famed for his cosmopolitan erudition, what could be more counterintuitive - and indeed more refreshing - than locating within the "intellectually dense structure" of Borges's oeuvre "hidden personal gems ... an emotionally intimate expression"? * TLS *The book provides a wealth of detail and is strongly recommended for anyone wishing to gain a deeper knowledge of the rich, strange worlds [Borges] created. * THE LINGUIST *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements List of Abbreviations and Note on Translations Introduction Chapter 1: The 'Real' Borges Chapter 2: Symmetries Chapter 3: Doubles Chapter 4: Allusiveness Chapter 5: Translation Chapter 6: The Creator Conclusion Bibliography

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Book SynopsisA detailed and lively discussion and analysis of the novels, short stories, newspaper columns, and other works of one of the most important and popular writers in Spain today. This book provides the most comprehensive study to date of the full range of Marías' writing, including discussion and analysis of his literary and intellectual formation, his development as a novelist and short story writer, andhis unique perspective offered in nearly twenty-five years of newspaper columns on topics ranging from religion to football. Above all, Marías is examined as a writer of fictions. As a translator of several canonical works from English to Spanish, Marías came to appreciate the preciseness of words as well as their ambiguity, their capacity to represent as well as their propensity to distort. The author examines Marías's constant awareness of how languagecan be used to construct stories as the foundation for engaging the world as well as for imagining it. The nature of Marías's storytelling, and the way in which he imagines, form the principal focus of this Companion. David K. Herzberger is Professor and Chair of the Department of Hispanic Studies at the University of California, Riverside.Trade ReviewVery good insights ... a very sound in-depth study of Marías' work ... Should be sought after by all with a scholarly interest in Marías' work. * BULLETIN OF SPANISH STUDIES *A splendid overview [...] the most comprehensive analysis to date on the narrative of Javier Marias. The book is informative, illuminating and admirably clear. * HISPANIA *Table of ContentsIntroduction Writing in the Newspapers: Everything Under the Sun Two Early Novels: Dominios del lobo and Travesías del horizonte Two Transitional Novels: El siglo and El hombre sentimental On Oxford, Redonda, and the Practice of reading: Todas las almas and Negra espalda del tiempo Two Shakespearean Novels Tu rostro mañana Other Writings Suggested Further Reading Bibliography

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Book SynopsisPor razones que aquí se revelan, César Vallejo ocultó la condición vanguardista de Trilce, obra maestra de la lírica hispánica, publicada en Lima en octubre de 1922. Muchos poemas de este enigmático libro dejan, sin embargo, pocas dudas al respecto: estamos ante la cima de este estilo histórico en nuestra lengua. El juego con el lenguaje del afamado poeta peruano incorpora neologismos, innovaciones tipográficas, símbolos e imágenes chocantes que son centrales para un tejido lingüístico que desafía con frecuencia las formas ortodoxas de la coherencia. Esta monografía examina la organización de Trilce en detalle, sitúa la obra en su contexto literario y en la trayectoria de Vallejo; además, investiga las circunstancias que rodearon la composición de Trilce y produce un análisis de la cubierta, el prólogo y los poemas de la primera edición y sus ascendientes poéticos. El libro argumenta que el encuentro de Vallejo con dadá París tuvo un impacto decisivo en la poética de Vallejo y, por consiguiente, en Trilce. A lo largo de sus páginas, defiende, incluso frente a algunas declaraciones de Vallejo mismo el lugar preeminente de Trilce entre la poesía de vanguardia y, especialmente, entre las obras de filiación dadaísta. César Vallejo hid the avant-garde status of Trilce, a masterpiece of Hispanic poetry published in Lima in October 1922. Many of the poems in his enigmatic book, however, leave little doubt that it is the pinnacle of this historical style in the Spanish language. The language games of the famous Peruvian poet incorporate neologisms, typographical innovations, symbols and images that are central to a linguistic texture that frequently defies orthodox forms of coherence. This book examines the creation of Trilce in detail, setting the work in its literary context and the trajectory of Vallejo's own poetic development. Investigating the circumstances surrounding Trilce's composition and providing a close analysis of the cover, prologue and poems of first edition as well as its filiations, the book argues that Vallejo's encounter with Dada Paris had a major impact on his aesthetics and, accordingly, on Trilce. Throughout, it argues, pace Vallejo himself, for Trilce's pre-eminent place in avant-garde and, especially, Dadaist poetics.Table of ContentsIntroducción: La hazaña poética de Trilce 1. ¿Una leve rastro vanguardista en Los heraldos negros? 2. Nuevas claves para una recreación depurada del camino a Trilce 3. Algunas huellas del estímulo de dadá París en Trilce 4. Obstáculos para dilucidar el ascendiente dadaísta de Trilce en la crítica fundacional Conclusiones Bibliografía Índice de autores, títulos y temas

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Book SynopsisMendele Mocher Sefarim's seven novels constitute the most important and influential body of work in modern Jewish prose fiction written prior to the First World War. These novels-five of which he wrote twice, once in Yiddish and once in Hebrew-are devastating satiric portraits of Jewish life in nineteenth-century Russia. They are permeated by Mendele's passion for social change, and an often equally passionate contempt for his own people for failing to achieve it. David Aberbach, exploring these passions in terms of the psychology of prejudice and self-hate, provides the first full-length analysis of the tension between realism and caricature in Mendele's descriptions of his fellow-Jew. At the same time, his analysis conveys Mendele's fascinating social and psychological insights into the forces which led to the mass emigration of Jews from Russia before the First World War, to the rise of Zionism, and to Jewish involvement in the socialist and revolutionary movements in Russia at the turn of the century. The picture is broadened through references to contemporary Russian literature so as to portray these forces in the context of Russian society at the time. Aberbach's skilful presentation allows the reader to gain access to Mendele's works through many tantalizing excerpts, with some of the key passages provided in Hebrew and Yiddish as well as in Aberbach's lively translation. He also makes available the considerable body of Mendele scholarship that has been published in Hebrew in recent years. From this fascinating and lucid work, scholars and general readers alike will gain a new understanding not only of the social realities of Jewish life in tsarist Russia but also of how the self-image of an ethnic minority may be affected and even determined by the character and social problems of the majority culture.Trade Review'A useful introduction ... Aberbach is rightly critical of, as well as enthusiastic about, his author. Transliterations of Hebrew and translations of Yiddish help the non-specialist.' Forum for Modern Language Studies 'There is much in this book on Mendele's confused psychological state of mind, even seeking to interpret the dreams described in his stories as indicative of that state ... This book will do much to take readers beyond the stereotypical image of Mendele as the amusing satirist of shtetl mores and provoke interest in him as a key figure in modern Jewish literature.' Barry Davis, Jewish Book News & Reviews 'Considerable achievement in making Mendele's writing more accessible to English readers.' Risa Domb, Jewish Chronicle 'Aberbach has now performed the difficult and vastly important feat of rendering a mass of remote material accessible to the general public, offering an account of the sources and their versions, summarizing their contents, and also making it available to the English-speaking reader. There are also very valuable extracts presented in the original languages, together with an account of the editions.' Leon I. Yudkin, Journal of Semitic StudiesTable of ContentsNote on transliteration Map: The World of Mendele Mocher Sefarim Introduction 1 The Five Twice-Told Novels 2 Mendele and Abramowitz: Anatomy of Self-Caricature 3 Antisemitism and Jewish Self-Hate in Mendele 4 Mendele's Realism and the Struggle for Change 5 Loss and Wandering in Mendele Conclusion Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisFocusing on dramatic works by contemporary British and American playwrights, in conjunction with feminist political and theoretical texts, this book discusses feminist constructions of the category "Woman".Trade Review"With a shrewd grasp of theory and a comprehensive knowledge of British and American plays, Mary Brewer homes in on controversial issues among women - pornography, rape, mothering, domesticity and work, and debates about the butch/fem model and gender-bending among lesbians." -- From the Foreword by Alan Sinfield, Professor of Literature, University of Sussex.Table of ContentsContents: Foreword by Alan Sinfield; Introduction: Women and Representation; Contemporary Women's Theatre: The Plays; Feminist Constructions of Difference; Defining Race Organisation; Representations of Motherhood; And Who Would Call Her Mother?: Carers Without Control; Courts of Flaw: Representations of Lesbians and the Rights of Lesbian Mothers; Fortunes at Low Tide; The Politics of Lesbian Motherhood: Strategies for Resistance; Conformity or Rebellion: Lesbian Families at Risk; OtherMothers; The Sexgender/Racegender System; Survival as Resistance: Black Women and the Family; Black Women and the Race: Lifting as We Climb'; Re-constructing the Chitlin-Circuit': Race, Representation, and OtherMothers; Friedan's Daughters: Representations of Woman' at Work; The Return of the Happy Housewife: Feminists Re-forming Woman'; Resurrecting the Cult of Domesticity; Who's On Top? White Women, Work, and the Family; Power Feminism: The Genderquake; Working Across the Racial Divide: Imitating Anita; Woman' as Object; Universal Woman': The Trojan Horse of Feminism; Colourising Joan of Arc: Radicalised Femininity and the Politics of Appearance; The Pornography of Representation: Sex, Gender, Race, and Rape; Erotophobes; Black Women and the Sexual Politics of Rape; Woman' as Subject: Negotiating Multiple Identities; A Movement Out of Step With Itself; Women on the Borders of Womanhood': Negotiating Race, Sex, and Gender(s); Difference: What Makes a House a Home; Learning to Dance as Sisters; Infiltrating Woman': Butch/Fem Lesbian Subjectivity; Woman as Discursive Subject; The Butch/Fem Debate; Signs and Seduction; Butch, Fem, and the Mask of Womanliness; Performing Gender(s); Conclusion: Toward a Progressive Feminist Politics; A House of Difference; Index.

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Book SynopsisThis revisionary study of Wallace Stevens queries the dominant interpretations of the poet's career.

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Book SynopsisSamuel Beckett's Self-Referential Drama - The Sensitive Chaos, 2nd EditionTrade Review"... the book's principal value lies in Levy's penetrating observations about the ontology of the plays in performance, the reflexive, prism-like conundrums in them that fascinate and frustrate intelligent and attentive spectators and theater practitioners alike... Among the main virtues of this revised and enlarged edition is the addition of production anecdotes and performer-interviews that set Levy's critical ideas in newly illuminating practical context..." -- Journal of Beckett Studies."An intelligent, often fascinating analysis of Beckett's work." -- Choice."This current collection of essays is divided almost equally between theory and performance, but as often Shimon Levy treats the two as a single field as he explores the possibilities of chaos theory as a model for the theatrical experience, where 'even the tiniest detail may influence the presentation,' and moves on to explore the implications of Logical Positivism and Existentialism, all under the umbrella of the Cartesian Cogito. The essay on 'The Poetics of Offstage' is exemplary and should be required reading for theater directors." -- S. E. Gontarski, Sarah Herndon Professor of English, Florida State University; Editor, Journal of Beckett Studies.Table of ContentsContents: Preface; Introduction: Self-Organisation in the Middle of Chaos; Philosophical Notions; The Message of the Medium -- Theatrical Techniques; The Poetics of Offstage; The Radioplays; "Spirit Made Light" -- Film and TV Plays; Godot -- Resolution or Revolution?; I's and Eyes: A Hermeneutical Circle; Epilogue: Six She's and other Not I Proxies; Index.

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Book SynopsisSamuel Beckett's Self-Referential Drama - The Sensitive Chaos, 2nd EditionTrade Review"... the book's principal value lies in Levy's penetrating observations about the ontology of the plays in performance, the reflexive, prism-like conundrums in them that fascinate and frustrate intelligent and attentive spectators and theater practitioners alike... Among the main virtues of this revised and enlarged edition is the addition of production anecdotes and performer-interviews that set Levy's critical ideas in newly illuminating practical context..." -- Journal of Beckett Studies."An intelligent, often fascinating analysis of Beckett's work." -- Choice."This current collection of essays is divided almost equally between theory and performance, but as often Shimon Levy treats the two as a single field as he explores the possibilities of chaos theory as a model for the theatrical experience, where 'even the tiniest detail may influence the presentation,' and moves on to explore the implications of Logical Positivism and Existentialism, all under the umbrella of the Cartesian Cogito. The essay on 'The Poetics of Offstage' is exemplary and should be required reading for theater directors." -- S. E. Gontarski, Sarah Herndon Professor of English, Florida State University; Editor, Journal of Beckett Studies.Table of ContentsContents: Preface; Introduction: Self-Organisation in the Middle of Chaos; Philosophical Notions; The Message of the Medium -- Theatrical Techniques; The Poetics of Offstage; The Radioplays; "Spirit Made Light" -- Film and TV Plays; Godot -- Resolution or Revolution?; I's and Eyes: A Hermeneutical Circle; Epilogue: Six She's and other Not I Proxies; Index.

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Book SynopsisA lucid and balanced appraisal of some of the best Czech fiction of the twentieth century.Trade Review"... important, useful. Students will love it. Afficionados of Czech literature even more. Arnost Lustig

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Book SynopsisAlthough Camus was called the "conscience of his age", no writer has continued to be both more vilified and exalted in the West. His writings are not only a devastating critique of Western philosophy, but Camus' cultural horizons are infused with heartfelt insights of Eastern wisdom. Western culture is vulnerable to dilemmas of existence because it seeks to make abstract certain absolutes: The West has failed to come to grips with our finite existential condition. Indian thought distinguishes social, political, scientific and philosophical views of Reality from Reality itself. And this distinction evokes a hope, humility and spirituality that promotes a courage to live with truths not faced by the West. This book is a gateway to investigating whether Camus' ideal of living without conceptual absolutes is an attainable goal. Intriguingly, his writings touch upon a freedom from the anxiety of living that raise a spectre of Eastern philosophical horizons. Camus' insights in terms of the East are present in his fictional illustrations of alienated twentieth-century outsiders (The Stranger); the pursuit of truths that are not immutable and absolute (The Myth of Sisyphus); plays that highlight the absurdity of irrational views of Reality (Caligula); culminating in The Rebel, which warned of illusory dogmas of absolutist philosophies.Trade Review"A fine explanation of the various meanings of Camus' concept of the absurd. A useful introduction to Camus' thought." -- Choice.Table of ContentsIntroduction: Experience of the Absurd; Logic that Reassures; The Absurdity of Existence; From Existential to Logical Absurdity; An Absurdity of Excessive Logic; Living Without an Excess of Logic; Disquietude that Cannot be Distilled; Maintaining a Tension of Existence; Existential Conflict; Conflict and Metaphysical Why; A Metaphysical Answer; Answers and Nostalgia for the Absolute; Camus' Own Revolt Against Absurdity; Absurdity in the Absence of Conflict?; Conflict and the Search for Meaning; The Meaning of Nothingness; Politeness and Politics; Politeness: The First Degree of Justice; Loving Abstract Humanity; A Contagion of Group Think; Self-Refuting Political Thought; Utopias Which Destroy Themselves; The Longing to be Free From Pain; A Politicised Existentialism; Flirtation and Revulsion; Intoxicating Paradoxes at a Cafe; From Paradox to Moral Anarchy; Ensuing Orthodoxies of Modernism; An Aftermath of Postmodernism; Rise of the Bourgeois Bohemians; A Mean Between Extremes; An Extremism of Success; Sacrifice to the Ever-Pressing They'; Bourgeois Anxiety and Existential Angst; Experience Defined Rationally; Contrast to an Eastern Position; Nostalgia for the Absolute; Quest for an Absolutist Epistemology; From Epistemology to Political Ideology; Rationalism Par Excellence; Independence of the World for Intelligibility; A Search for Intelligibility Ends in Paradox; A Paradox of the One over Many; From the Many to a Critique of Pure Reason; Reason and Absolutism in the Final Analysis; Need Reality Conform to Reason?; Psychological and Logical Thirst for Reality; Reality and Verbal Limitations; Limitations in terms of the Madhyamika; The Madhyamika and Misunderstanding; Misunderstanding an Eastern Existentialism; From the Existential to the Logical; Logical Consequences; Beyond the Conceptual and Linguistic; Index.

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Book SynopsisAlthough Camus was called the "conscience of his age", no writer has continued to be both more vilified and exalted in the West. His writings are not only a devastating critique of Western philosophy, but Camus' cultural horizons are infused with heartfelt insights of Eastern wisdom. Western culture is vulnerable to dilemmas of existence because it seeks to make abstract certain absolutes: The West has failed to come to grips with our finite existential condition. Indian thought distinguishes social, political, scientific and philosophical views of Reality from Reality itself. And this distinction evokes a hope, humility and spirituality that promotes a courage to live with truths not faced by the West. This book is a gateway to investigating whether Camus' ideal of living without conceptual absolutes is an attainable goal. Intriguingly, his writings touch upon a freedom from the anxiety of living that raise a spectre of Eastern philosophical horizons. Camus' insights in terms of the East are present in his fictional illustrations of alienated twentieth-century outsiders (The Stranger); the pursuit of truths that are not immutable and absolute (The Myth of Sisyphus); plays that highlight the absurdity of irrational views of Reality (Caligula); culminating in The Rebel, which warned of illusory dogmas of absolutist philosophies.Trade Review"A fine explanation of the various meanings of Camus' concept of the absurd. A useful introduction to Camus' thought." -- Choice.Table of ContentsIntroduction: Experience of the Absurd; Logic that Reassures; The Absurdity of Existence; From Existential to Logical Absurdity; An Absurdity of Excessive Logic; Living Without an Excess of Logic; Disquietude that Cannot be Distilled; Maintaining a Tension of Existence; Existential Conflict; Conflict and Metaphysical Why; A Metaphysical Answer; Answers and Nostalgia for the Absolute; Camus' Own Revolt Against Absurdity; Absurdity in the Absence of Conflict?; Conflict and the Search for Meaning; The Meaning of Nothingness; Politeness and Politics; Politeness: The First Degree of Justice; Loving Abstract Humanity; A Contagion of Group Think; Self-Refuting Political Thought; Utopias Which Destroy Themselves; The Longing to be Free From Pain; A Politicised Existentialism; Flirtation and Revulsion; Intoxicating Paradoxes at a Cafe; From Paradox to Moral Anarchy; Ensuing Orthodoxies of Modernism; An Aftermath of Postmodernism; Rise of the Bourgeois Bohemians; A Mean Between Extremes; An Extremism of Success; Sacrifice to the Ever-Pressing They'; Bourgeois Anxiety and Existential Angst; Experience Defined Rationally; Contrast to an Eastern Position; Nostalgia for the Absolute; Quest for an Absolutist Epistemology; From Epistemology to Political Ideology; Rationalism Par Excellence; Independence of the World for Intelligibility; A Search for Intelligibility Ends in Paradox; A Paradox of the One over Many; From the Many to a Critique of Pure Reason; Reason and Absolutism in the Final Analysis; Need Reality Conform to Reason?; Psychological and Logical Thirst for Reality; Reality and Verbal Limitations; Limitations in terms of the Madhyamika; The Madhyamika and Misunderstanding; Misunderstanding an Eastern Existentialism; From the Existential to the Logical; Logical Consequences; Beyond the Conceptual and Linguistic; Index.

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