Literary studies: fiction Books

Book SynopsisDr Deborah Cartmell is Reader in English and Head of the Graduate Centre in the Faculty of Humanities at De Montfort University. She is currently co-editing the international journal Adaptation and has completed several books on Literature on Screen. She is a general editor of the Screen Adaptations series, and a founding member of the Association of Literature on Screen.Trade Review[The Screen Adaptations series] offers some meaty ideas to film studies students. -- Susan Elkin * The Stage *

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''Every American crime writer of the past 30 years owes a debt to George V Higgins. Higgins is the daddy. Read him and rejoice'' Val McDermid''This author has the talent to make every word count, ratcheting up the tension as the story unfolds. . . a novel rich in characterisation'' DAILY MAILFederal Agent Pete Riordan has two problems, and both of them could end with murder.Convicted killer Mikey-mike Magro has never made a secret of the fact that if he ever gets out of jail, he''s going to go after the man he thinks put him there, Jerry ''Digger'' Doherty. And now it seems some very influential people are trying to get Magro pardoned and out on the street.Riordan figures Bishop Paul Doherty, an old friend who also happens to be the Digger''s brother, might put him on the right track - and he might just be able to help him with his second problem too: word is that a man is over from the old country intending to buy arms for the IRA. No o

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Book SynopsisBorn in Vienna in 1881, Stefan Zweig was one of the most respected authors of his time. Zweig was an incessant correspondent but as the 1930s progressed, it became difficult for him to maintain contact with friends and colleagues. This book provides an analysis of the Zweigs' time.Trade Review"Davis and Marshall have filled a gap in Latin American literary history by presenting us with a picture of the last years of the famed author, cast adrift by the rise of Nazism and enforced exile. The letters of Stefan and Lotte Zweig cast a flickering light on the psyches of many Austrian and German Jews who, rejected by their homelands, were incapable of either adapting to a new home or of drawing sustenance from their Jewish origins. Aloof from the satisfactions of popular acclaim and paralyzed by guilt over their comfortable life in Brazil, the Zweigs broke through their emotional isolation with an act that sealed their unique place in literary history. Davis and Marshall create a coherent narrative from the episodic correspondence and bring the role of Lotte into view. But the Zweigs' brief sojourn in South America confirms the European boundaries to Stefan's oevre and his marginalization from Argentine, Brazilian, and Jewish history." -- Judith Laikin Elkin, Latin American Jewish Studies Association"These letters help to prove that definitive biographies do not exist." -- Alberto Dines, author of Morte no Paraíso - A Tragedia de Stefan Zweig (1981, 2004; Portuguese) and Tod im Paradies Die Tragödie des Stefan Zweig (2006; German)."These intimate, familial and war-haunted letters from Stefan and Lotte Zweig throw a new light on their South American years, and their last, tragic act. The informative and insightful introductory texts provided by Oliver Marshall and Darién J. Davis additionally illuminate the complex feelings both Zweigs had about their exile—a condition which they chose, but did not survive. A worthwhile addition to the annals of literary history during the darkest of Europe's periods." -- Eva Hoffman, author of Lost in Translation: A Life in a New Language (Penguin) and After Such Knowledge (PublicAffairs)."Based on hitherto unknown personal correspondence of Stefan and Lotte Zweig, this thought-provoking and magisterial work of literary-historical scholarship offers a rare blending of clarity, psychological insight, and meticulous research. Refreshing, vastly informative, and stunning in its revelations, this exemplary biographical account is an indispensable standard for many fields." Prof. Jeffrey B. Berlin, co-editor of Stefan Zweig - Friderike Zweig: Briefwechsel 1912-1942 (2006); Stefan Zweig: Briefe 1897-1942. 4 vols. (1995-2005); Stefan Zweig: Briefwechsel mit Bahr, Freud, Rilke und Schnitzler (1987), all published by S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt a/M."Biographical research has already given us quite a good deal of insight into Stefan Zweig`s and his second wife Lotte`s course of life, about their years in exile, about their voluntary death in February 1942 in Brazil. And yet there is still a lot that we do not know. Stefan and Lotte Zweig`s letters from their last two years, now published in a selection for the first time, give us a clear view of their living conditions. Never before has this been made possible in such immediacy. Now we can read these intimate letters which allow us to witness both of them at such close range and with a familiarity as has never been achieved before. These letters are as much a fascinating record of domestic felicity as they are a document of a world-historical tragedy. Finally, and for the very first time, Lotte Zweig is given a distinct voice of her own. And what we have surmised for so long turns out not to be true: the image of the shy and sickly wife, always resigned and submissive to her husband, is completely wrong. This is a thoroughly engaging and really touching book. One will not put these letters aside before having read them all through. It will be of utmost importance for future biographical research about the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig and his wife Lotte." -- Klemens Renoldner, Director of Stefan Zweig Centre, University Salzburg, AustriaThese moving letters reveal the fragility of a sensitive couple tragically caught between an imposing past and an uncertain future. -- The Times Literary Supplement... provides a personal account of the Zweig's everyday life during their last years... should be warmly welcomed since it is accessible to the reading public and will prove useful to Zweig scholars. -- Modern Austrian LiteratureStefan and Lotte Zweig's South American Letters is a timely and relevant publication and a good addition to the body of correspondence already published about Stefan Zweig... This collection of letters serves as a powerful reminder that the experience of exile posed a daunting challenge to many people, not all of whom were able to carry on with their lives and face the uncertainty and perils of their situation. -- Newsletter of the International Feuchtwanger Society, Volume 10"This is a rich, rewarding, and exciting contribution to our understanding of the final years in the life of Stefan and Lotte Zweig based on letters they wrote and received in their South American refuge from Nazism. It is also the first collection to bring to light Lotte's long-neglected epistolary voice and the central role that she played during this South American period in helping to bring to light some of her husband's greatest and most significant literary and autobiographical works." -- Leo Spitzer, author of Hotel Bolivia: The Culture of Memory in a Refuge from Nazism, Lives in Between: Assimilation and Marginality in Austria, Brazil, West Africa, and most recently, Ghosts of Home: The Afterlife of Czernowitz in Jewish Memory. "Stefan Zweig's second wife, the much younger Lotte Altmann, has been a shadowy figure until now- a dutiful secretary to the great writer, but not much more. In this valuable collection of the letters they wrote from South America in the last two years of their tragically curtailed lives, she emerges as a woman of real human warmth and spirit. Future biographers will find this book essential to their understanding of a man driven to depression by the fact that lofty ideals of universal peace cannot be sustained in the face of a tyranny such as Nazism."-- Paul Bailey, author of Uncle Rudolf: A Novel (Fourth Estate, 2002), and recipient of the E.M. Forster Award from the American Academic of Arts and Letters"Among the many merits of this compelling, carefully edited volume is the insight it provides into a problem confronting all refugees from Nazidominated Europe: How might one begin conceiving a new vision of home while 'the old country' went up in flames? They also tell the melancholy story of how, barely a year after the euphoric Bahia letter, Stefan and Lotte committed suicide in Petropolis, above Rio."-- Jewish Review of Books"Davis and Marshall offer a rare glimpse into the lives of the prolific author Stefan Zweig and his second wife, Lotte, through a collection of personal letters. [...] The editors present the vital historical knowledge of not only the infamous couple, but also the growing political turmoil that would escalate into WWII, illuminated in part by the organization of the correspondence here. Though written mostly to Lotte's brother and sister-in-law, the letters reveal a growing depression and a lack of contact with friends and family, illuminating both the general hopelessness common to that era and the importance of a sense of belonging." -- Publishers Weekly"... provides a detailed epistolary account of the life and times of one of Europe's preeminent intellectuals. [...] Ultimately, Stefan and Lotte Zweig's South American Letters reads as a cruel story of dislocation and despair: from their arrival in Rio de Janeiro to their dual-suicide in Petrópolis two years later, the Zweigs were unable to relinquish themselves of the knowledge that the people of Europe—once ‘pleasant and cultured'—were engaged in an endless conflict for racial and territorial supremacy. Through it all, however, the Zweigs continued to write, approaching their correspondence as a form of therapy—one which allowed them, rather like the tortured characters of W. G. Sebald or Joseph Roth, to come to terms with what Stefan referred to in 1942 as the ‘incertainty and isolation' of war. Their pact complete, the Zweigs succumbed to their desolation—and to the desolation of a generation robbed of its homeland."-- Rain TaxiThey give us the best insight we have yet had into the last years of this remarkable writer and of the wife who was more important than many have hitherto allowed. -- Contemporary Review…well-edited and annotated … These frank, revealing and moving letters to family members left behind in Europe, concluding with the farewell ones written shortly before the suicides, are windows into the minds and hearts of these exiles. The Zweigs’ depression is manifest, and this persistent state, along with Lotte’s health problems and Stefan’s awareness of old age awaiting him, goes a long way to elucidating what to so many, both then and now, was an inexplicable act. -- Martin Rubin * The Washington Times *Table of ContentsIntroduction; Part I: Letters from Argentina and Brazil, 1940-41; Part II: New York Interlude, 1941; Part III: Letters from Brazil, 1941-42; Part IV: Postscript: Letter from Ernst Feder, Petropolis, 1942; Dramatis Personae.

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Book SynopsisJohn S. Partington was the editor of The Wellsian.Trade Review'an ambitious and always informative review of European reactions to Well and his work...Parrinder and Partington collect a wealth of information, much of it translated into English for the first time, in readable essays of uniform quality.' ~ Kritikon Litterarum, 33 (2006) * Kritikon Litterarum *(FR) ‘Elinor Shaffer, grande spécialiste de littérature comparée de l'Université de Londres ..., aura eu tôt fait de rendre incontournable la récente collection d'ouvrages évoquant la réception d'auteurs britanniques, et publiée par Thoemmes Continuum dans la série « Athlone Critical Traditions ». Le remarquable volume inaugural consacré à Virginia Woolf en 2002 a été suivi, en quatre courtes années, d'une liste impressionnante de titres [qui] mobilisent la même énergie collective à l'échelle internationale. (EN)`Elinor Shaffer, an eminent specialist in comparative literature, from the University of London...will have made it impossible to circumvent the recent collection of works evoking the reception of British authors, published by Continuum in the series "Athlone Critical Traditions". The remarkable inaugural volume devoted to Virginia Woolf in 2002 was followed, in four short years, by an impressive list of titles [each] mobilising the same collective energy on an international scale. (FR)Parce qu'il tient à la fois de l'étude bibliographique à l'échelle européenne, et de l'analyse théorique de la réception de l'œuvre littéraire, ce livre fait pleinement honneur à la collection soignée qui l'abrite, tout en offrant un nouvel outil précieux au lecteur de Wells.' (EN)...because it holds the bibliographical study on a European scale, and the theoretical analysis of the reception of the literary oeuvre, this book fully honours the neat collection which shelters it, while offering a new invaluable tool to Wells readers.' Extract from Christine Huguet (Université de Lille III), Etudes Anglaises, 60.2 (2007): 246-47.‘The Reception of H. G. Wells in Europe is a landmark. The timeline, and the extensive bibliographies to each chapter, give the reader the important maps of the territory which are needed to consider just what, of Wells, was published when, and what was said about him ... Wellsians will need this research, but generalists in science fiction studies will gain a vast amount from it, and anyone interested in the construction of European science fiction will gain a great deal of knowledge (and pleasure) from browsing through it.' - Foundation Table of ContentsSeries Editor's Preface, Elinor Shaffer \ Acknowledgements \ List of Contributors \ Timeline: European Reception of H. G. Wells, Patrick Parrinder \ Abbreviations \ Introduction, Patrick Parrinder \ French \ 1. H. G. Wells's Critical Reception in France, Joseph Altairac, trans. Barbara Ghiringhelli \ 2. Henry-D. Davray and Mercure de France, Annie Escuret \ Russian \ 3. Future Perfect: H. G. Wells and Bolshevik Russia, 1917-1932, Roger Cockrell \ 4. H. G. Wells in Russian Literary Criticism, 1890s-1940s, Adelaida Lyubimova and Boris Proskurnin \ 5. Russia Revisited, Vera Shamina and Maria Kozyreva \ German \ 6. White Elephants and Black Machines: H. G. Wells and German Culture, 1920-1945, Elmar Schenkel \ 7. Ignorance, Opportunism, Propaganda, and Dissent: The Reception of H. G. Wells in Nazi Germany, Richard Nate \ Polish \ 8. H. G. Wells's Polish Reception, Andrzej Juszczyk \ 9. On Translations of H. G. Wells's Work into Polish, Julius K. Palczewski \ Czech \ 10. A Welcome Guest: the Czech Reception of H. G. Wells, Bohuslav Manek \ Hungary \ 11. Critics and Apologists of H. G. Wells in Interwar Hungary, Gabriella Voo \ 12. The Puzzle of the Connection between H. G. Wells and the Hungarian Frigyes Karinthy, Katalin Csala \ Italian \ 13. H. G. Wells, Italian Futurism and Marinetti's The Untamables (Gli Indomabili), Maria Teresa Chialant \ Catalan \ 14. An Approximation of H. G. Wells's Impact on Catalonia, Teresa Iribarren i Donadeu \ Spanish \ 15. H. G. Wells and the Discourse of Censorship in Franco's Spain, Alberto Lazaro \ Portugese \ 16. News from Nowhere: Portuguese Dialogues with H. G. Wells, Jose Manuel Mota \ IRISH \ 17. Clashing Utopias: H. G. Wells and Catholic Ireland, Lucian Ashworth \ French and Russian Science Fiction \ 18. A Tale of Two Science Fictions: H. G. Wells in France and the Soviet Union, George Slusser and Daniele Chatelain \ European Film \ 19. 'The Invisible Wells' in European Cinema and Television, Nicoletta Vallorani \ European Unification \ 20. H. G. Wells and the International Paneuropean Union, John S. Partington \ Bibliography \ Index.

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Book SynopsisAnthony Uhlmann is Professor of English in the Writing and Society Research Group at the University of Western Sydney, Australia. He is the author of Beckett and Poststructuralism (Cambridge University Press, 1999), Samuel Beckett and the Philosophical Image (Cambridge University Press, 2006) and co-editor of The Ethics of Arnold Geulincx (Brill, 2006). He is chief editor of The Journal of Beckett Studies.Trade Review"Anthony Uhlmann offers an impressively original and compelling series of interpretations that will substantially alter accepted ideas not only of Joyce, Woolf and Nabokov, but also of the epistemology and aesthetics of modernism. Uhlmann's Deleuzian approach—post-expressionist and post-representationalist—seeks to move beyond the traditional conception of modernism as an "inward turn" centered in subjectivity and interiority. Thinking in Literature accomplishes its highly innovative readings with subtlety, intelligence and insight." -- Richard Begam, Professor of English, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA"In this ambitious contribution to literary theory, Anthony Uhlmann shows how a work of literature can be said to think, and thus in what sense literature helps us to understand the world. On the way he provides exemplary analyses of Virginia Woolf and Vladimir Nabokov at work, as well as useful unfoldings of difficult material from Spinoza and Leibniz." -- J M CoetzeeAt a time when the humanities are increasingly under attack, Uhlmann’s slender volume about Thinking in Literature is a much-needed study, as it intelligently defines the value of literature and literary studies…Uhlmann’s expanded but rigorous concept of thinking is an essential contribution to modernist studies in general and Woolf studies in particular, as it provides a clear pathway for going beyond those deconstructive approaches that strand authors and readers in the abyss of the textual gap. Uhlmann has established an excellent framework that will enable scholars to think in new and more rigorous ways about literature and educators to teach students how to use modernist literature to refine their capacity to think. -- Michael Lackey, University of Minnesota, Morris * Journal of Modern Fiction *Thinking in Literature does represent a rare and robust attempt to reformulate the aesthetic and cognitive characteristics of modernism. -- David Winters * Textual Practice *Table of ContentsIntroduction Part 1: Literature and Thought 1. Spinoza and Relation 2. Leibniz's 'perception': the Incompossible, the Viewpoint, and the Composition of Sensation 3. Composition as the Externalised Expression of Sensation Part 2: Thought in Modernist Fiction 4. James Joyce: the art of Relation 5. Virginia Woolf: the art of Sensation 6. Vladimir Nabokov: the art of Composition Conclusion Bibliography

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Trade Review"Signs or symbols, satire or realism, closure or no closure, soluble or insoluble riddle? Responding to the challenge presented by this enigmatic short story, aware that Nabokov did not believe in what he called ‘the symbolism racket', the contributors to this excellent collection of articles have mobilized a wide spectrum of hermeneutics. Convinced, with John V. Hagopian, that ‘no legitimate artist produces randomness', they gamely attempted to quiz the author's elusive figure, developing a brand of creative paranoia, yet never claiming, except in one case (Dolinin), to play the part of the oracle. The result is a challenging exercise of ‘Practical Criticism' which touches upon the bone and structure of Nabokov's work." -- Maurice Couturier, Professor Emeritus, University of Nice, France, writer and translator, editor-in-chief of the Pléiade edtion of Nabokov's novels.The critical anthology is called “Anatomy of a Short Story” not accidentally. What we have here is not a marauding or exhuming of a senseless body, but a study of a living artistic organism. Collective dissection presupposes using various methods, diversified optics and descriptive procedures… Yuri Leving’s own array of scholarly interests turns “Anatomy” from a potentially dull registrar’s compendium into a collection of peculiar and often unexpected utterances about Nabokov’s text… This book will prove handy to anyone interested both in Nabokov as well as in studying literary texts in general. -- Mikhail Efimov * LiteraruS - Literaturnoe Slovo *Leving’s collection is a huge achievement, and its scope is impressive, with thirty articles in total, mostly previously published, spanning over thirty years of scholarship. This is the book’s foremost triumph and as such positions itself alongside the Garland Companion to Vladimir Nabokov, is a must for anyone interested in Nabokov’s story and, more generally, the historical progression of Nabokov studies. * Matthew Apperley, UCL SSEES, The Slavonic and East European Review (Vol. 92, No. 2, April 2014) *Following the success of his Keys to the Gift: A Guide to Vladimir Nabokov’s Novel (Boston, MA, 2011) Leving’s latest foray into Nabokov studies comes at a crucial moment in the field. Little has been published on Nabokov in recent years that matches the powerhouse of scholarship of the past; maybe the time is right to address where we are with Nabokov and, potentially, where we are going. In this regard Leving’s collection is a huge achievement, and its scope is impressive, with thirty articles in total, mostly previously published, spanning over thirty years of scholarship. This is the book’s foremost triumph and as such positions itself alongside the Garland Companion to Vladimir Nabokov (New York, 1995), is a must for anyone interested in Nabokov’s story and, more generally, the historical progression of Nabokov studies. -- Matthew Apperley, UCL SSEES, UK * Slavonic & East European Review *Table of ContentsContributors; Acknowledgments; INTRODUCTION; Breaking the Code: Nabokov and the Art of Short Fiction - Yuri Leving; A PRIMARY TEXT:; Heart; "Signs and Symbols" Vladimir Nabokov; FORUM: High pressure; Psychosis, Performance, Schizophrenia, Literature Hal Ackerman, Murray Biggs, John Crossley, Wayne Goodman, Yuri Leving, and Frederick White; CRITICISM; PART ONE: Bone Structure; Frameworks; Vladimir Nabokov's Correspondence with The New Yorker regarding "Signs and Symbols," 1946-1948 Olga Voronina; Lost in Revision: The Editing of "Signs and Symbols" for The New Yorker John Morris; Consulting the Oracle Michael Wood; PART TWO: Vascular System; Signs; Arbitrary Signs and Symbols Alexander N. Drescher; The Patterns of Doom Brian Quinn; Ways of Knowing in "Signs and Symbols"Terry J. Martin; A Funny Thing about "Signs and Symbols" John B. Lane; Names Yuri Leving; PART THREE: Muscles of the Story; Objects; Five Known Jars Carol M. Dole; Five Missing Jars Gennady Barabtarlo; The Last Jar Joanna Trzeciak; Trees and Birds Larry R. Andrews; Photographs Maria-Ruxanda Bontila; Cards Pekka Tammi; Telephone Andres Romero Jodar; PART FOUR: Nervous system; The Importance of Reader Response Paul J. Rosenzweig; The Jewish Quest Yuri Leving; Symbols; Signs of Reference, Symbols of Design Geoffrey Green; Sacred Dangers: Nabokov's Distorted Reflection David Field; Numbers; The Mysticism of Circle Mary Tookey; The Semiotics of Zero Meghan Vicks; PART FIVE: Dissection; Web of Contexts; "Signs and Symbols" in and out of Contexts Leona Toker; "Breaking the News" and "Signs and Symbols": Silentology Joanna Trzeciak; Pnin and "Signs and Symbols": Narrative Entrapment David H. Richter; Pnin and "Signs and Symbols": Narrative Strategies William Carroll; Pale Fire and "Signs and Symbols" Vladimir Mylnikov; PART SIX: DNA Testing; Cracking the Code; The Signs and Symbols in Nabokov's "Signs and Symbols" Alexander Dolinin; The Castling Problem in "Signs and Symbols" Yuri Leving; Reading Madly - Irving Malin; Deciphering "Signs and Symbols"Larry R. Andrews; Decoding "Signs and Symbols" John V. Hagopian; The Referential Mania: An Attempt of the Deconstructivist Reading Alvaro Garrido Moreno; A Referential Reading of Nabokov's "Signs and Symbols" Charles W. Mignon; An Afterword John Banville; Alternative Tables of Contents; Chronological Key; Alphabetical Key; Credits; Bibliography; Index.

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Book SynopsisSteven Moore (Ph.D. Rutgers, 1988) is the author of several books and essays on modern literature. From 1988 to 1996 he was managing editor of the Review of Contemporary Fiction/Dalkey Archive Press, and for decades he has reviewed books for a variety of journals and newspapers, principally The Washington Post. He lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.Trade Review"Steven Moore's recent encyclopedic study, The Novel: An Alternative History...dramatically amplifies our understanding of what the novel can and cannot do, and highlights living currents that sprang into existence 40 centuries ago and continue to flow into the contemporary novel." (Stephen Burn, The New York Times Book Review)"Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Novel Novel; Chapter 1: The Ancient Novel; Egyptian; Mesopotamian; Hebrew; Greek; Roman; Christian; Chapter 2: The Medieval Novel; Irish; Icelandic; Byzantine; Jewish; Arthurian; Chapter 3: The Renaissance Novel; Italian; Spanish; French; English; Bridge: The Mesoamerican Novel. Chapter 4: The Eastern Novel; Indian; Tibetan; Arabic; Persian; Chapter 5: The Far Eastern Novel; Japanese; Chinese; Bibliography; Chronological Index of Novels Discussed; General Index.

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Trade Review"Burn does a fantastic job of showing how the novel is put together without succumbing to the temptation of overexplaining things." -- Matt Kavanagh, The Globe and Mail"Stephen Burn's pioneering book on Wallace's masterpiece is even more valuable in this revised form. Retaining the best parts of the first edition, Burn brings a decade of fresh thinking to bear on Infinite Jest and the larger role it now plays in literary culture. Written to appeal both to fans and scholars, Burn's guide provides both an excellent introduction to Infinite Jest and (as he puts it) 'a reformulation of the coordinates of David Foster Wallace's fiction.'" -- Steven Moore, author of The Novel: An Alternative History."Burn does a terrific job of placing Infinite Jest in the tradition of the encyclopedic novel, explaining the novel's chronology, and demonstrating the subtle points of intersection and narrative intertwining among the many plots." -- Robert L. McLaughlin, The Review of Contemporary Fiction"Stephen J. Burn has a better handle on Infinite Jest than almost anyone else I've read—he spots every allusion, every handhold, and helps the reader on the lovely, thrilling, high-altitude climb up the face -- and in the new book that grip is even firmer. It's essential gear for any first time reader, and for the veteran, it's a guide to some of the wonderful meadows and views you missed. A wonderful book." -- David Lipsky, author of Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace."Although Stephen Burn's original 2003 guide to Infinite Jest instantly established itself as the indispensable Bloomsday book for the Ulysses of our era, this second edition considerably ups the ante, with two new bravura chapters that trace the rich and often overlooked literary sources of Wallace's achievement as well as the vast impact his work has had, and will continue to have, on the work of his contemporaries. In the process Burn simultaneously maps out Wallace's novel and the direction Wallace studies will pursue in the future." -- Marshall Boswell, Professor and Chair of the Department of English, Rhodes College, USA, and author of Understanding David Foster WallaceA clear indication of Wallace’s influence lies in the accessible prose of his scholars. This inviting tone is clearly evident, both in Burn’s newly-added career-overview of DFW’s poetics and his eye-opening analysis/explanation of Infinite Jest (including a chronological de-fragmentation of the novel’s main events). -- David Ball * Review of Contemporary Fiction *Table of ContentsPreface to the Second Edition; Chronology; 1. Infinite Jest and the Twentieth Century: David Foster Wallace's Legacy; 2. Problems in David Foster Wallace's Poetics; 3. The Novel; Epilogue: Wallace's Millennial Fictions; Appendix: The Chronology of Infinite Jest; Works Cited; Index.

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Book SynopsisJulian Murphet is Professor of Modern Film and Literature at the University of New South Wales, Australia. He is the author of Multimedia Modernism (Cambridge University Press, 2009), Literature and Race in Los Angeles (Cambridge University Press, 2001), co-author of Narrative and Media (Cambridge University Press, 2005), and co-editor of Literature and Visual Technologies (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003). Mark Steven is a PhD Candidate at the University of Sydney, Australia, where he teaches media, popular culture, and cultural theory and convenes the Modern and Contemporary Literature and Culture research cluster. He has published articles and chapters on literature, cinema, and philosophy.Trade Review"A timely study of McCarthy, featuring an excellent line-up of some of the very best emerging and established scholars working in literary studies, film studies, and philosophy." -- Alex Houen, University Lecturer and Fellow of Pembroke College Faculty of English University of Cambridge, UK."A series of brilliant illuminations of McCarthy's great darkness, and great literary power. This book carries the fire." -- Michael Zeitlin, Associate Professor, Department of English, University of British Columbia, Canada Table of ContentsIntroduction; Part One: The Aesthetics of Politics; 1. The Late World of Cormac McCarthy; Mark Steven; 2. All the Trees in the World: Cormac McCarthy and the Politics of the Worst; Paul Sheehan; 3. The Road and 'The End of Capitalism'; Julian Murphet; Part Two: The Politics of Aesthetics; 4. McCarthy's Rhythm; Sean Pryor; 5. The Cold Illucid World: Cormac McCarthy's Poetics of Gray; Chris Danta; 6. TBC: chapter on film adaptation; 6. Spring Has Lost its Scent: Allegory, Ruination, and Suicidal Melancholia; Grace Hellyer; 7. McCarthy's Fire; Paul Patton; Index; Bibliography.

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Book SynopsisHernan Diaz is Managing Editor of Revista Hispánica Moderna and Associate Director of the Hispanic Institute at Columbia University, USA. Formerly he has been a professor at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and the State University of New York (Albany), USA.Trade ReviewA splendid book. Intelligent, illuminating, original, worthy of its ambitious subject. I have read it with increasing pleasure, and finished it feeling I now had a better understanding of Borges's seemingly simple and apparent, but in fact deeply mysterious intelligence. -- Alberto ManguelThe arena of Borges criticism is a crowded firmament and some of its stars are very dim indeed; by mediating two hardline critical positions, Díaz's book adds to the luster and depth of the field. * Publishers Weekly *Just when all seemed lost, Borges, Between History and Eternity proves there's still life in the Borges studies galaxy. Life of the best kind, which in the world of literary criticism means precision, intellectual agility, microscopically close reading and, above all, the will to go against the grain of the most respected conventional wisdom. To dismantle the old dilemma of Borges studies—Borges, universal or local? Metaphysical or down-to-earth? Abstract or political?—Hernán Díaz exhumes a critical dagger that in his hands shines as though drawn for the first time: the chiasmus. Which is to say the swinging operation that requires crossing and interchanging the terms of an opposition that once seemed ironclad. Thus Díaz finds the Borges most engaged with history in his most conceptual texts, and the most conceptual Borges in those fictions most deeply rooted in national identity. History and eternity, as Díaz sees them in Borges, are no longer antithetical terms: they are poles linked by a healthy and diabolic reciprocal equivalence that can't help but disquiet us. To take a writer about whom we thought we knew everything and render him disquieting—what more can we ask from a book of criticism? -- Alan PaulsThis book explores two aspects of the work of Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges. The first part of the book examines the relationship between politics and metaphysics in some of Borges' works. The second part analyses how two American writers, Edgar Allan Poe and Walt Whitman, figure into Borges's oeuvre. Additionally, the book discusses Borges's influence on some North American writers - for example, Thomas Pynchon and John Barth. Diaz (Columbia Univ.) wants to show how Borges's metaphysical discussions have, to a large extent, political connotations, and conversely, how his historical and social concerns are informed and influenced by metaphysical ideas. The study aims to reveal that the most common ("framed") literary structure in Borges's fiction, one that encapsulates another fiction inside another one, and so on, has political connotations: power consists in imposing fictions as realities. Valuable for anyone interested in Borges, this book includes an excellent up-to-date bibliography and a detailed index. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, faculty. * Choice (J.S. Bottaro, Medgar Evers College of The City University of New York) *Borges, between History and Eternity is a meticulously argued, intelligent and expertly articulated reading of Borges. It offers an important addition to Borges criticism, and should be valued as such. * Bulletin of Spanish Studies *Table of ContentsForeword South, North, Beyond I. POLITICAL THEOLOGY Introduction 1. God and Country 2. When Fiction Lives in Fiction II. THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Introduction 1. Edgar Allan Poe (On Murder Considered as Metaphysics) 2. Walt Whitman, an American, a Kosmos Afterword El vaivén Note on the Translations Abbreviation of Borges's Titles Works Cited Acknowledgements

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Book SynopsisIn this profile, Emma Donoghue tells the story of two eccentric Victorian spinsters: Katherine Bradley (1846-1914) and her niece Edith Cooper (1862-1913); poets and lovers, who wrote together under the name of Michael Field.They wrote eleven volumes of poetry and thirty historical tragedies, but perhaps their best work - richest in emotional honesty and wit - was the diary that the two women shared for a quarter of a century, and these unpublished journals and letters form the basis for the groundbreaking We are Michael Field.The Michaels lived in a contradictory world of inherited wealth and terrible illness, silly nicknames and religious crises. They preferred men to women, and yet their greatest devotion was saved for their dog. Snobbish, arrogant eccentrics who faced bereavement and death with great courage, the Michaels never lost their appetite for life or their passion for each other.

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Table of ContentsPrefatory Note Introduction 1 Father and Son 2 Aix-en-province 3 Lost Illusions 4 Cezanne and Gabrielle 5 The Publishing Business 6 The Art Critic 7 Zola and Manet 8 Beginnings and Endings 9 From the Commune to L'Assommoir 10 Friends and Disciples 11 The Lure of the Stage 12 Portrait of the Man 13 Portrait of the Writer 14 Zola and the Impressionists 15 Jeanne 16 A Double Life 17 London, Lourdes and Rome 18 Ends and Means: The Dreyfus Affair 19 Zola on Trial 20 The English Scene 21 A New Century Notes

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Book SynopsisJ. O. Urmson is Emeritus Professor at Stanford University and Emeritus Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Peter Lautner is a fellow of the Research Group for Classical Studies at the Hungarian Academy of Science.Table of ContentsPreface Introduction Textual Emendations TRANSLATION Notes Bibliography English-Greek Glossary Greek-English Index Index of Passages Cited Subject Index

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Table of ContentsPreface Introduction Textual Emendations TRANSLATION Notes Bibliography English-Greek Glossary Greek-English Index Index of Passages Cited Subject Index

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Book SynopsisLouise Joy is Fellow and Director of Studies in English at Homerton College, University of Cambridge, UK. She is co-editor of The Aesthetics of Children's Poetry (2015) and Poetry and Childhood (2010).Trade ReviewCritically robust enough for seasoned scholars yet easily understandable for those new to the subject, this volume will be indispensable for everyone who studies or teaches children's literature. * CHOICE *Table of ContentsIntroduction Part I: The Critical Child 1. Eighteenth-century poetry and the complexity of the child's mind 2. Laughter and the permission to critique Part II: The Art of Idealisation 3. On seeing: Kate Greenaway's Under the Window 4. On crying: E. Nesbit's The Railway Children 5. On being (bored): Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows 6. On talking: J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit 7. On loving: Malcolm Saville's Lone Pine Series Coda Works Cited Index

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Book SynopsisAfter the Modernist literary experiments of her earlier work, Virginia Woolf became increasingly concerned with overt social and political commentary in her later writings, which are preoccupied with dissecting the links between patriarchy, patriotism, imperialism and war. This book unravels the complex textual histories of The Years (1937), Three Guineas (1938) and Between the Acts (1941) to expose the genesis and evolution of Virginia Woolf's late cultural criticism. Fusing a feminist-historicist approach with the practices and principles of genetic criticism, this innovative study scrutinizes a range of holograph, typescript and proof documents within their historical context to uncover the writing and thinking processes that produced Woolf's cultural analysis during 1931-1941. By demonstrating that Woolf's late cultural criticism developed through her literary experimentalism as well as in response to contemporary social, political and economic upheavals, this Trade ReviewAlice Wood’s Virginia Woolf’s Late Cultural Criticism: The Genesis of ‘The Years’, ‘Three Guineas’ and ‘Between the Acts’ illuminates the formation of Virginia Woolf’s last three major works within larger literary and historical contexts. Wood’s approach to Woolf’s writings is refreshing, which integrates 'feminist-historicist' analysis with genetic criticism, a French school of textual studies that reconstructs the genesis of literary texts through published and pre-publication materials, or what geneticists have called 'avant-textes' (pre-texts) … Examining an extensive gathering of sources, ranging from Woolf’s reading notes, research scrapbooks, holograph and typescript drafts, manuscripts, and proofs to her diaries, essays, and correspondence, Wood deftly synthesizes critical interpretations of Woolf’s evolving aesthetic practices and political stance with detailed analysis of authorial considerations under the influence of contemporary writing and political climate in the last decade of Woolf’s life. * Journal of Modern Literature *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements 1. Introduction 2. Critiquing Patriarchy in the Years of The Years 3. The Evolution of Woolf's Feminist-Pacifism in Three Guineas 4. Writing Art in Times of Chaos in Between the Acts 5. Conclusion Notes Appendices Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisAndrew J. Kunka is Professor of English at University of South Carolina Sumter, USA. He is co-editor of May Sinclair: Moving Towards the Modern (2006).Trade ReviewBloomsbury has launched a Comics Studies Series that has kicked off with Andrew Kunka's Autobiographical Comics ... It's an excellent resource, combining a brief history of this sub-genre with critical questions, key texts and a glossary. Kunka shows us that you can learn a lot about comics by how cartoonists organize their lives on the page. * Times Literary Supplement *Kunka offers a useful overview of the subject, with an inclusive approach that includes everything from "proto-autobiographical comics" (such as Winsor McCay's inclusion of a cartoonist character in his early strips) to the latest web comics, and scrupulously cites his sources, making it easy to locate relevant literature on any of the topics he discusses … [The book] offer[s] insightful and specific analysis that can be comprehended without requiring total immersion in the latest and trendiest academic jargon. * PopMatters *Autobiographical Comics is a well-informed, highly readable, and perceptive overview that will be extremely useful for students and teachers looking for introductory material and bibliographic references for further study … Kunka balances depth and brevity with skill … The endnotes, glossary, and extensive bibliography highlight the author’s deep knowledge of the field and are indispensable tools for further scholarship. As a studying and teaching tool, Autobiographical Comics is a superb introduction to the field that achieves accessibility without diminishing scholarly rigor … Autobiographical Comics is the best study guide available, and Kunka’s generosity of scholarship and tone provides a robust platform for teaching and researching graphic life narratives. * Biography *As an introduction to a genre, a reference guide, and a critical study, Andrew J. Kunka’s Autobiographical Comics represents a necessary foray into the particulars of autobiographical graphic narratives. His book contributes to the Bloomsbury Comics Studies series, upholding its commitment to expansive and accessible introductions to comics and Comics Studies. Kunka deftly juggles concepts new and familiar to Comics Studies, as his thorough survey of this genre takes up questions of reliability, authenticity, and objectivity … A tremendous resource for anyone crafting a syllabus and hoping to include popular or lesser known works. Kunka’s introduction guides and helps us interrogate the genre of autobiographical comics. His careful survey and his attention to texts and critical questions both popular and lesser known make this book a clear and compelling resource for readers of comics who might wonder about the narrative, stylistic, or thematic questions behind comics that represent, in so many different ways, autobiographical experiences. * Studies in Twentieth & Twenty-First Century Literature *Table of ContentsList of Figures Acknowledgements 1. Introduction: What Are Autobiographical Comics? 2. The History of Autobiographical Comics 3. Critical Questions 4. Social and Cultural Impact Trauma Adolescence The Quotidian and the Confessional Gender and Sexuality Race and Ethnicity Graphic Medicine Censorship and Controversy Self-Publishing and Web Comics 5. Key Texts Justin Green, Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary Robert Crumb and Aline Kominsky-Crumb Harvey Pekar, et al, American Splendor Keiji Nakazawa, Barefoot Gen: A Cartoon Story of Hiroshima Art Spiegelman, Maus and In the Shadow of No Towers Phoebe Gloeckner, A Child’s Life and The Diary of a Teenage Girl Joe Matt, Chester Brown, and Seth Lynda Barry, One Hundred Demons Craig Thompson, Blankets Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis Alison Bechdel, Fun Home 6. Appendix Appendix 1: Autobiographical Comics Panel Appendix 2: Interview with Jennifer Hayden Appendix 3: David Chelsea Appendix 4: Ryan Claytor 7. Glossary 8. Resources Primary Texts Critical Bibliography 9. Index

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Book SynopsisFiction, including novels, plays, and films, can be a powerful force in educating students and employees in ways that lectures, textbooks, articles, case studies, and other traditional teaching approaches cannot. Works of fiction can address a range of issues and topics, provide detailed real-life descriptions of the organizational contexts in which workers find themselves, and tell interesting, engaging, and memorable stories that are richer and more likely to stay with the reader or viewer longer than lectures and other teaching approaches. For these reasons, Exploring Capitalist Fiction: Business through Literature and Film analyzes 25 films, novels, and plays that engage the theories, concepts, and issues most relevant to the business world. Through critical examinations of works such as Atlas Shrugged and Wall Street, Younkins shows how fiction is a powerful teaching tool to sensitize business students without business experience and to educate and train managers in real businesseTrade ReviewThis richly annotated bibliography of novels, films, and plays could be read in conjunction with studying business. Arguing that these imaginative works offer insights not found in textbooks or case studies, Younkins explicates their power to represent as well as entertain. After a summary introduction, the author presents 25 brief, chronological chapters, each focusing on a separate work, beginning with William Dean Howells's The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885) and ending with Oliver Stone's film Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010). In summarizing these works, Younkins emphasizes universal themes, such as amorality in Theodore Dreiser's The Financier, the American Dream in Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, individualism in Ken Kesey's Sometimes a Great Notion, and competition in David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross. After a brief conclusion that again summarizes the content, the book ends with appendixes that list additional business novels, plays, and films . . . [T]his volume serves as an ideal primer for an instructor who wishes to include literature in a business course. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates; faculty; general readers. * CHOICE *Exploring Capitalist Fiction, a new volume of literary analysis by Dr. Edward W. Younkins, offers perceptive, relevant, and engaging commentaries on 25 works of fiction which portray the business world and its relationship to all areas of human life. . .Younkins is to be commended for emphasizing the value of fiction as a teaching tool for both students of business and individuals immersed in the business world. . . .Exploring Capitalist Fiction is an excellent means to appreciate the richness and variety of fictional portrayals of business, especially since the Second Industrial Revolution of the late 19th century. The book offers a concise introduction to many works and endeavors to motivate readers to seek out and experience the original novels, plays, and films. * The Rational Argumentator *Exploring Capitalist Fiction may not sound like a page-turner. But Edward W. Younkins, a professor of accountancy and director of graduate programs in the Department of Business at Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virginia, has produced a most appealing and useful text, one that can satisfy a variety of interests. ... Younkins gives the reader a good mix of works. There are novels, plays and movies, and in some cases such as "The Great Gatsby," novels that have been made into movies a number of times—1949, 1974, 2000, 2003—an indication, perhaps, of the story's enduring attraction. ... In sum, there is a lot to like and a lot of learn in Exploring Capitalist Fiction. * El Paso Times *Younkins puts together a canon of economics-themed fiction here and does not stop with works that are just still popular today. ... Anyone who teaches business or economics will find in Younkins’s book an extremely helpful guide to expanding one’s teaching beyond the usual non-fiction standards to connect with students on a level that goes beyond mere concepts and into the illustrations of how humans truly interact with the economic systems around them. In other words, this book will help instructors use art to improve instruction while helping students consume popular culture more insightfully. * Mises Review *Although his prior books establish Dr. Younkins as a scholarly and prolific philosopher of liberty, Exploring Capitalist Fiction focuses not on the philosophy of business but on the complex lives of fictional men who implement it. Its twenty-five plot summaries illustrate, unsurprisingly, that businessmen are neither more nor less moral or confused than the rest of us, from the crony-capitalist railroaders in Norris's The Octopus, Cahan's wealthy but unhappy David Levinsky, and Lewis's terrified conformist Babbitt to more heroic, less conflicted figures like Hawley's Cash McCall, Kesey's Stamper family, and King Vidor's Steve Dangos. Dr. Younkins occasionally offers a valuable philosophical or economic insight, but the book is principally a welcome, fascinating, even-handed study of business and capitalism in literature. -- John Egger, Towson UniversityExploring Capitalist Fiction is one of those books I have needed for a long time, but just didn’t know it. In this volume, Younkins assembles a remarkable collection of insights about how business is portrayed in literature and film. Perhaps the most remarkable feature of the book is Younkins’s ability to balance historical viewpoints with contemporary and whimsical perspectives with serious ones, across both film and print. And he does so while striking a balance between supportive and critical outlooks on business and capitalism that I would not have thought possible. This is an excellent book. -- Marshall Schminke, University of Central FloridaPerhaps no subject has been so much discussed in literature and film yet so under-analyzed and examined as business. This volume is a virtual pioneer in remedying this situation. Drawing from novels, plays, and films, and ranging over a variety of attitudes towards business, Younkins selects works of depth and importance for anyone interested in exploring the treatment of business in fiction and thereby coming to appreciate its cultural and moral significance. Especially refreshing is Younkins’s selection process which avoids the temptation to concentrate on contemporary works. Instead we see selections from a number of different eras with attention paid to lesser known works as well as some obvious favorites. I have little doubt that this book will become a standard reference work for those interested in the treatment of business through creative fiction. -- Douglas Den Uyl, Vice President of Educational Programs, Liberty FundI am a testament to the validity of the theme of this book, which is that fiction can be a powerful tool for business education. A novel, Atlas Shrugged, changed my life and was far more important to me in successfully leading a business than any nonfiction book or college course. -- John A. Allison, President and CEO, Cato InstituteProfessor Younkins makes another contribution to the literature of freedom, this time by showing us what pro-capitalist fiction—and anti-capitalist, too—can teach us about business and its enemies. -- Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr., Chairman and CEO, Ludwig von Mises InstituteWhy do critics of laissez faire capitalism have all the good folk songs? All the good novels (well, most of them)? Ditto for poems, plays, stories. Why is virtually all of literature, music and art almost a wholly owned subsidiary of those who oppose economic freedom? Probably, because they work harder at it than we do. It is all the more important, then, that those of us who treasure the free marketplace and private property rights get into this ‘industry’ as well. Now along comes a very important contribution in this regard: Edward Younkins’s new book: Exploring Capitalist Fiction: Business Through Literature and Film. He unerringly explores, contemplates and analyzes twenty-five important books and movies that deal with business. I cannot possibly overestimate the importance of this initiative in promoting liberty and the free society. I have been a fan of Ed’s for many years now. I greatly admire his previous works, and this one fully lives up to his previous contributions. I am delighted to recommend this book, highly, to all those with an interest in both literature and freedom. A note to English majors: read this book! It will give you a perspective on literature you are unlikely, in the extreme, to have ever seen before. It will be a real thrill to see these books and movies not from the eyes of your typical leftish literature professor, but from the vantage point of someone who celebrates liberty. -- Walter Block, Loyola University, New OrleansMost people today spend at least a third of their weekday lives in the business world. Some view that world as a second family. Younkins' superb summaries and analyses of twenty-five works of capitalist fiction create the feel of what it is like to work in the modern institution known as business. In all of these fictional cases there are many complex personal, ethical, and psychological interactions: government vs. business, employer vs. employee, supplier vs. client, and, of course, fellow entrepreneur/employee vs. fellow entrepreneur/employee. Ethical issues are the star. Indeed, the book could easily be used as a text in business ethics courses. -- Jerry Kirkpatrick, California State Polytechnic UniversityThe struggle for liberty must consist of more than an intellectual appeal. As Ayn Rand demonstrated in her novels, the establishment of a free society will succeed only if people have an emotional investment in such an outcome. It is art that creates and supports the level of personal involvement required to motivate and sustain people in the face of unrelenting and unforgiving opposition. In his book Exploring Capitalist Fiction: Business Through Literature and Film, Edward Younkins recognizes the power of art as a force both for and against the ideals necessary for a world in which we can exist fully as human beings. Tapping into a wide range of source material, Younkins explores the role of fiction in sustaining or retarding the course the Founders set for our nation. Providing clear yet succinct summaries of a variety of works—including The Great Gatsby, Death of a Salesman, Atlas Shrugged, and the movie Wall Street— Younkins succeeds in explaining and analyzing these twenty-five diverse works in the context of his book's themes. Readers of Exploring Capitalist Fiction will enjoy these bite-sized introductions to unfamiliar works as well as explorations of fiction they have already enjoyed. With luck, Younkins's efforts here will spark more interest in expanding the arguments for freedom beyond dry academic journals to include art that moves us, involves us, and provides us emotional fuel in the face of the greatest task of our lives. -- Russell Madden, Author of the novel, Death is EasyEd Younkins’s newest book will be indispensable to anyone either teaching or studying the portrayal of business in American fiction, plays, and films over the past century and a quarter. His admirably evenhanded summaries of twenty-five important works in this tradition, and his exhaustive lists of other titles not discussed at length, will be useful also to the general reader who simply wants to discover more about how commercial enterprise has been depicted in novels, plays, and movies over the past hundred years or so. -- Jeff Riggenbach, Author of In Praise of Decadence, and Why American History Is Not What They Say: An Introduction to RevisionismLawyer and statesman St. Thomas More argued that the study of literature provides greater moral understanding than does the study of law. Edward Younkins strengthens that argument through his perceptive and insightful examination of both pro- and anti-business fiction and film. -- Samuel Bostaph, Emeritus Professor of Economics, University of DallasThis work includes essays on an amazingly wide range of American novels, plays, and films from the past two centuries, all containing business and economic themes and content. Younkins’s insightful reading of many of the major texts that explore issues of business and capitalism is a welcome addition to interdisciplinary studies. It can easily serve as a guideline for a course in either a College of Business or a College of Liberal Arts. -- Mimi R. Gladstein, University of Texas at El PasoOnce more Ed Younkins has come up with an insightful discussion of an important topic. Professor Younkins writes in a way that is intelligible to the general audience while retaining the rigor of thought expected of an academic. Exploring Capitalist Fiction is fun to read and will change the way you look at a film, read a book or watch a play. -- Gary Wolfram, Hillsdale CollegeTable of ContentsPreface Introduction Chapter 1. The Rise of Silas Lapham: A Story of Self-Identity, Self-Respect, and Morality Chapter 2. Taking a Look at Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward Chapter 3. Frank Norris's The Octopus: An Epic of Wheat and Railroads Chapter 4. The Financier: Theodore Dreiser's Portrait of a Darwinian Businessman Chapter 5. Abraham Cahan's The Rise of David Levinsky Chapter 6. Babbitt: Sinclair Lewis's Portrait of a Middle-Aged Middle Class Businessman Chapter 7. "Who is Henry M. Galt?": A Review of Garet Garrett's The Driver Chapter 8. F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby Chapter 9. An American Romance: King Vidor's Epic Film of Immigration and the American Dream Chapter 10. Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman: A Case of Self-Delusion Chapter 11. John P. Marquand's Point of No Return Chapter 12. Henry Hazlitt's Time Will Run Back: A Tale of the Reinvention of Capitalism Chapter 13. Executive Suite: A Story of Corporate Success and Succession Chapter 14. Cash McCall: The Story of a Heroic Corporate Rider Chapter 15. Sloan Wilson's The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit Chapter 16. Atlas Shrugged: An Epic Story of Heroic Businessmen Chapter 17. Sometimes a Great Notion: The Story of a Family Who Would Never Give an Inch Chapter 18. Wilfrid Sheed's Office Politics: A Lesson about Organizational Conflict Chapter 19. The Franchiser: Stanley Elkin's Tale of a Man Who Wanted to Costume the Country Chapter 20. Glengarry Glen Ross: A David Mamet Word Play Chapter 21. Wall Street: Oliver Stone's Zero-Sum Vision of Capitalism Chapter 22. Tucker: The Man and His Dream Chapter 23. David Lodge's Nice Work: A Tale of Two Cultures Chapter 24. Other People's Money: A Tale of Capitalism and Creative Destruction Chapter 25: Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps Conclusion

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Book SynopsisNiklas Forsberg is Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at Uppsala University, Sweden. He has previously written on Wittgenstein, Cavell, Murdoch, Austin and Derrida.Trade ReviewThis fascinating book offers a valuable explication of Murdoch's relentless attempts to reveal what is missing in contemporary moral philosophy and culture. Greatly influenced by Kierkgaard, Wittgenstein, and Simone Weil, the complexity and messiness of ordinary life, and with one's deepest commitments-many of which cannot be accessed, or altered by means of arguments intended to defend philosophical "positions." Forsberg (Univ. of Uppsala, Sweden) makes excellent use of the work of Stanley Cavell, Cora Diamond, and Stephen Mulhall, who show how one might avoid the tendency of philosophers toward "deflection" from the "difficulties of reality." These are difficulties that people have when language fails in the face of experiences that refuse reduction to the abstraction of the clearly defined concepts sought after in philosophy--what Murdoch called its "dryness." Novelists like what it is like to struggle with the deeply confusing, distressing issues of the present without stepping aside from the emotional intensity of the encounters. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.-- -- S.A. Mason, Concordia University * Choice *A fair bang in the philosophy of literature ... Forsberg's addition to this scene is brilliant and necessary ... This [book] will reverberate. * British Journal of Aesthetics *This is one of the most philosophically sophisticated contributions to these interlinked issues that I have come across in the last decade; the care, charity and ease with which Forsberg contests and dismantles one of the most influential current readings of Murdoch (that advanced by Nussbaum) is enough on its own to make it clear that standards in this area have just been raised. -- Stephen Mulhall, Professor of Philosophy, New College, University of Oxford, UKCan we lose our moral concepts? Can our culture and our understanding of the human occlude the background that alone makes sense of the ideals we want to live by? Niklas Forsberg argues that this is a basic insight of Iris Murdoch’s philosophy. Moreover, this gives us the key to understanding the relation of Murdoch’s philosophical writings to her novels. The latter hold a mirror to our lives, in which we could potentially become aware of this loss. This book is full of philosophical insight, not only about contemporary moral thinking but also about the relation of literature to philosophical thought. -- Charles Taylor, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, McGill University, CanadaTable of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction 1 Chapter 1 Apparent Paradoxes 1.1 The Received View and its Complications 24 1.2 Approaching “The Black Prince” 36 1.3 Localizing Murdoch 52 1.4 A Fatty Pâté and a Plateful of Cherries: On Nussbaum (on Literature) 64 1.5. The Commonplaceness of the Approach 75 1.6 Preparatory Summary: The Appearance of Paradox 90 Chapter 2 How to Make a Mirror 2.1 Murdoch on Art and Literature and Love 94 2.2 What is a Mirror? 128 2.3 Wittgenstein and the Difficulty of Acknowledging Illusions of Sense 135 2.4 Kierkegaard and Grammatical Illusions 144 2.5 Mirroring Illusions: The Thought of the Indirect Communication 152 2.6 Inheriting Wittgenstein (and Kierkegaard) 161 Chapter 3 Sensing a Sense Lost 3.1 Loss of Concepts, Loss of Questions 191 3.2 Contrasting Pictures of the Human 215 3.3 Vision over Choice 230 3.4 Making Pictures (Perfectionism and Vision) 235 Chapter 4 Reading The Black Prince 4.1 “Murdoch’s Most Self-Consciously Platonic Kierkegaardian Love Story” 257 4.2 In the Context of Bradley Pearson’s Form of Life 269 4.3 Passing Verdict: Who did it? 302 4.4 In Disagreement with Oneself: A Failure to Mean 310 Chapter 5 What is it Like to Be a Corpse? 5.1 Introduction: Running Out of Arguments? 318 5.2 Costello’s Speechlessness and Diamond’s Concerns 321 5.3 The Exemplary Bat 334 5.4 Understanding Deflection 343 5.5 Concluding Remarks 355 Chapter 6 Smashing Mirrors, Collecting the Pieces, Returning Our Words 6.1 The Concept of a Concept and the Loss of Concepts 358 6.2 Smashing Mirrors, Returning to the Ordinary 371 6.3 Literature, Distance and the Return of Our Words 376 Bibliography 389

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Book SynopsisMatthew L. Potts is Assistant Professor of Ministry Studies at the Divinity School of Harvard University, USA. His teaching and research focuses on Christianity and contemporary American literature.Trade ReviewIt might seem, at first glance, willfully counterintuitive to scour McCarthy’s resolutely horrific fiction for signs of grace. Yet this is precisely what makes McCarthy such a rewarding case study for a literature of sacrament … This book warrants careful reading and critical attention. Given the various ways Potts is alive to the subtleties of Christian theology—especially to the semiotics of sacrament—and given how dexterously he transposes that thought into the space of literature, this book will surely be of value in ongoing debates about the postsecularism of American letters. Moreover, the book’s value within the more specialist discourse of McCarthy criticism will be doubly pronounced. While Potts delivers new and significantly revised readings of well-known moments within McCarthy’s canon, the polemical edge given to some of his claims is certainly justified. Inattention to sacrament is ‘regrettable,’ we are told, because it ‘impoverishes interpretation’ (1). The truth of this claim is born out in its antipode: a newfound knowledge of the sacrament, made perfectly legible here, will certainly enrich our reading. * Modern Fiction Studies *Cormac McCarthy and the Signs of Sacrament is and will for a long time remain the best treatment we have of McCarthy as proto-postmodern theologian. Matthew Potts' readings recuperate the category of 'story' for postmodernity. * Richard A. Rosengarten, Associate Professor of Religion and Literature, The University of Chicago Divinity School, USA *Matthew Potts's book is sometimes as dark and haunting as McCarthy's novels themselves. It is a complex meditation through close readings of the books and their characters, contained within careful readings of Nietzsche, Arendt, Adorno, Auerbach, Judith Butler and others. Against the background of the failure of religious institutions in which deep and sacramental elements rise to the surface of life known often as mere violence, Potts offers a reading of these fictions which avow the profound vulnerability at the heart of God and make space for a sacramental understanding of the world in which nihilism and decay are never far away. * David Jasper, Professor of Literature and Theology, University of Glasgow, UK *Cormac McCarthy’s work is fraught with Christian imagery, but often Christianity becomes a dark, moral undertow in the works, seemingly designed to highlight a nihilistic, violent view of the world. Churches most often lie in ruin, talismans scattered. Prayers go unanswered. The morally ‘good’ often brutally die. Though Potts (ministry studies, Harvard Divinity School) acknowledges the validity of Gnostic, nihilistic, and existential readings of the novels, he systematically and deliberately guides readers through a theological approach, examining McCarthy’s frequent invocations of sacrament (the Eucharist in particular) in a nonreductive context and using postmodern theory as critical ballast. In doing so, Potts provides a revelatory bright stroke in the rapidly expanding field of McCarthy scholarship. Of particular interest is Potts's reading of The Road, as he casts, for example, new light on the baptismal images in the text. In places, Potts’s mode could be more integrative: he tends to use subheadings within chapters to ‘flip’ between direct textual analysis and contextual development (rather than intertwining these modes). For example, a discussion of the father and son in The Road stops dead in its tracks to develop subsequent sections on ‘divine dispossession’ and ‘narration and incarnation.’ Overall, however, Potts's immersion in McCarthy yields fresh insights and previously unexplored theological angles. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty. -- E. Hage, SUNY Cobleskill * CHOICE *McCarthy readers will find that Potts’ focused reading of the philosophical and Christian allusions in McCarthy helps him elucidate particular scenes and then weave his insights into a careful, broader argument about McCarthy’s worldview. This approach provides a clearer understanding of McCarthy’s persistent scenes of human kindness amidst violence and inhumanity. -- Mark Busby, Texas State University, USA * Southwestern American Literature *Potts offers a valuable contribution to McCarthy studies as well as scholarship in Christian theology, noting that scholarship on the novels, for all its attention to McCarthy’s treatment of religious themes, pays too little attention to this trope ... One of the most notable achievements of this text is its engagement with an impressive roster of postmodern theorists, including Theodor Adorno, Hannah Arendt, Adriana Cavaerero, Karl Barth, and Judith Butler, while also conducting careful, insightful readings of McCarthy and his critics ... [T]he question of how to locate value and meaning in these novels has remained one of the foremost concerns for McCarthy scholarship. Without retreating into a reductive, totalizing account, Potts manages to bring a fresh perspective on these enduring questions. -- Nicholas Lawrence * The Cormac McCarthy Journal *This meticulously thought-out and presented discussion of the sacramentality within the works of Cormac McCarthy is both engaging and convincing, leaving me to wonder how McCarthy scholars will respond to the insights and analysis Potts has taken such great care to lay out. Regardless of whether those scholars agree or disagree with Potts, they certainly must engage with him, as his reading of McCarthy suggests shortcoming in much of what has already been written. * Reviews in Religion and Theology *To those interested in the dynamic relationship between theology and literature, the work of novelist Cormac McCarthy has long been begging for a sustained critical treatment. With the recent release of Mathew Potts’s Cormac McCarthy and the Signs of Sacrament, we are treated to such a book—a study that is to be particularly commended for mining the theological content so prevalent in McCarthy’s work … Pott’s beautifully written text makes choice contributions not only to sacramental aesthetics, but to the fields of ethics and narrative theory as well. -- Michael Murphy * Reading Religion *Matthew L. Potts attempts in Cormac McCarthy and the Signs of Sacrament to treat a surprisingly understudied aspect of McCarthy’s fiction, namely, his use of sacramental imagery in his novels. … Potts deftly balances exposition of McCarthy’s novels and analysis of those narratives, and he brings a sophisticated set of hermeneutical tools to McCarthy’s texts. The result is an engaging study from which both the newcomer to McCarthy and the reader familiar with his fiction can learn a great deal. * Arts: The Arts in Religious and Theological Studies *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction 1. Knowledge 2. Fate 3. Action 4. Story 5. Sacrament Epilogue Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThe place of the editor in literary production is an ambiguous and often invisible one, requiring close attention to publishing history and (often inaccessible) archival resources to bring it into focus. In The Art of Editing, Tim Groenland shows that the critical tendency to overlook the activities of editors and to focus on the solitary author figure neglects important elements of how literary works are acquired, developed and disseminated. Focusing on selected works of fiction by Raymond Carver and David Foster Wallace, authors who represent stylistic touchstones for US fiction of recent decades, Groenland presents two case studies of editorial collaboration. Carver's early stories were integral to the emergence of the Minimalist movement in the 1980s, while Wallace's novels marked a generational shift towards a more expansive, maximal mode of narrative. The role of their respective editors, however, is often overlooked. Gordon Lish's part in shaping the form of Carver's earlTrade ReviewThoroughly researched and elegantly written ... Groenland has done a service to scholars of both Carver and Wallace in telling the stories of their relationships with Lish and Pietsch in such intricate detail. * The Review of English Studies *A refreshing and overdue exercise in cultural iconoclasm ... [A] compelling study. * ASAP Journal *In this groundbreaking book, Tim Groenland shines a light on that most elusive figure, the literary editor. Digging deep into the work of two high-profile editors – Gordon Lish and Michael Pietsch – as they collaborated with two major writers – Raymond Carver and David Foster Wallace – The Art of Editing combines in-depth archival research with perceptive close readings. The book not only offers a revelatory account of the editor’s art; it also tells a fresh story about the minimalist and maximalist styles of contemporary American fiction. We may live in an age of celebrity authors, but The Art of Editing shows us conclusively that, as Groenland memorably puts it, 'even extraordinary minds never work alone'. * Adam Kelly, Senior Lecturer in American Literature, University of York, UK, and author of American Fiction in Transition: Observer-Hero Narrative, the 1990s, and Postmodernism (Bloomsbury, 2013) *Under precepts of genetic criticism and a conception of the social dimension of the production of literature, Tim Groenland reads closely in contrast the authorial-only versus the authorial-and-editorial prose of Raymond Carver with Gordon Lish and David Foster Wallace with Michael Pietsch. His study is a searching investigation of the convergence and overlap of authorial and editorial creativity in literary writing and commercial publishing. * Hans Walter Gabler, Professor Emeritus of English and Editorial Scholarship, Ludwig Maximilians Universität Munich, Germany *The Art of Editing is an outstanding account of the role of the modern editor from the beginning of the twentieth century onwards, as well as a major contribution to scholarship on the work of Raymond Carver and David Foster Wallace. Groenland offers an innovative approach to identifying the paradoxes of the fiction editor that will be an indispensable book for scholars interested in both the publishing history of modern fiction and in theoretical questions of authorship and literary production. * Alice Bennett, Senior Lecturer of English, Liverpool Hope University, UK, and author of Contemporary Fictions of Attention (Bloomsbury, 2018) *Table of ContentsPreface: The Art of Editing Acknowledgments 1. “Stuff that editors do” 2. “My only fear is that it is too thin”: The Roots of the Carver Controversy 3. Minimalism in Action: Making What We Talk About When We Talk About Love 4. “It is His World and No Other”: Gordon Lish, Authorship, and Minimalism 5. “Your Devoted Editee”: David Foster Wallace and Michael Pietsch 6. Consider the Editor: Assembling The Pale King 7. “Magical Compression”: Wallace’s return to Minimalism 8. The Anxiety of Editorial Influence Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisA model of academic praxis. - Public BooksElena Ferrante as World Literature is the first English-language monograph on Italian writer Elena Ferrante, whose four Neapolitan Novels (2011-2014) became a global phenomenon. The book proposes that Ferrante constructs a theory of feminine experience which serves as the scaffolding for her own literary practice. Drawing on the writer's entire textual corpus to date, Stiliana Milkova examines the linguistic, psychical, and corporeal-spatial realities that constitute the female subjects Ferrante has theorized. At stake in Ferrante's theory/practice is the articulation of a feminine subjectivity that emerges from the structures of patriarchal oppression and that resists, bypasses, or subverts these very structures. Milkova's inquiry proceeds from Ferrante's theory of frantumaglia and smarginatura to explore mechanisms for controlling and containing the female body and mind, forms of female authorship andTrade ReviewStiliana Milkova has written a compelling and highly readable study of Ferrante’s fiction [that] is interested more than anything about what the text itself reveals about Ferrante’s poetics and politics, explaining as a result, what makes Ferrante’s texts so addictive to read and such a pleasure to analyze. This one is for the academics and casual fans alike. * EuropeNow *Written with remarkable competence and flair, and accompanied by a rich bibliography, Elena Ferrante as World Literature constitutes an essential reference for Ferrante scholars and an ideal textbook for any university course on Elena Ferrante in the anglophone world. * Italian Studies *Stiliana Milkova leads us on a tour through Ferrante’s world of women and female subjectivity, exploring the themes of mothers and daughters, friendships between women, women and their bodies, girls and their dolls, women reading and writing--and their connections from novel to novel--in a fascinating and thought-provoking way that makes us want to go back to the books with a new understanding. * Ann Goldstein, English Translator of Elena Ferrante’s novels *A very rich and original perspective. * Leggendaria (trans. by Bloomsbury Academic) *Milkova stands as a rightful successor to the Ferrantean exegetic legacy. She does not read against Ferrante, but alongside her, turning what others might perceive as an intrusive presence into a stamp of approval. * Public Books *Essential for exploring the urban and topographical plan of Ferrante's work. * Bollettino '900 (trans. by Bloomsbury Academic) *Elena Ferrante as World Literature makes a compelling argument for the exceptionality of Elena Ferrante's work as a site of entanglement of multiple cultural traditions, interdisciplinary lines of enquiry, and trans-linguistic negotiation. While engaging in productive dialogue with existing scholarship, this book proposes its own profoundly original reading of the entire Ferrante corpus. Subverting traditional discourses of motherhood and femininity by de-constructing and de-framing women's bodies, Ferrante's new subjects emerge, in Stiliana Milkova's powerful account, from the 'male cage' of patriarchal structures to build new genealogies of women as creators, authors, translators. This is a milestone in Ferrante scholarship and an essential tool for teachers and students of Ferrante's oeuvre. * Enrica Maria Ferrara, Teaching Fellow of Italian, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, and editor of Posthumanism in Italian Literature and Film: Boundaries and Identity (2019) *Stiliana Milkova masterfully leads her readers through the 'feminine labyrinth-polis' that Elena Ferrante has created. Like the figure of Ariadne that she examines, Milkova meticulously traces the rich web of motifs that generate Ferrante's 'universal feminine imaginary,' deftly accounting for the power of these novels. * Maria Truglio, Professor of Italian and Women's, Gender & Sexuality Studies, Pennsylvania State University, USA, and author of Italian Children’s Literature and National Identity: Childhood, Melancholy, Modernity (2017) *Elena Ferrante as World Literature descends into the depths of Ferrante's novels to trace hitherto unexplored continuities between them and their dialogue with texts of other nations on themes and issues of transnational significance. Milkova's brilliant analysis sanctions Ferrante's socially, culturally, and spatially profoundly Italian stories as World Literature, thus providing scholarly foundations for an understanding of their high capacity for circulation across national borders and their resounding global success. This book will not only be an indispensable tool for scholars and students of Italian, comparative, and world literature worldwide; it will also appeal to the common readers and enthusiasts of Ferrante's fiction. * Adalgisa Giorgio, Senior Lecturer in Italian Studies, University of Bath, UK, and co-editor of Motherhood in Literature and Culture: Interdisciplinary Perspectives from Europe (2017) *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Chronology of Elena Ferrante’s Works and Abbreviations 1. Introduction: Elena Ferrante, World Literature, and the Work of Literary Translation World Literature and the Creation of Elena Ferrante Ferrante’s Feminine Imaginary Ferrante’s Female Genealogies The Translator as Seamstress: Figures of Translation from the Periphery to the Center Elena Ferrante as World Literature: An Overview 2. Frantumaglia and Smarginatura: The Borders of a Universal Feminine Imaginary Incisions and Inscriptions of the Body The Parameters of Frantumaglia Smarginatura in the Neapolitan Novels The “Mothers” of Smarginatura Women Who Write 3. Binding and Unbinding the Maternal Body and Voice Desire and Disgust for the Mother Conflations and Inversions: Mothers, Daughters, Dolls Enclosing the Maternal Body: Cellars, Locked Apartments, Clothes Laughing Bodies and Grotesque Gestures Dead Mothers and Corporeal Flows 4. Outside the Frame: The Aesthetics of Female Creativity and Authorship Inside the Frame: The (Nude) Female Body-as-Parts Inside the Frame: Mirrors, Collages, Still Lifes Outside the Frame: Creating a Female Artistic Legacy The Neapolitan Novels and Female Friendship, Writing, Authorship 5. Mapping Urban Feminine Topographies Walking the Streets of Topographic Memory in Troubling Love Symbolic and Literal Labyrinth in the Neapolitan Novels From Naples to Turin: Urban Itineraries of Abandonment Epilogue: Reverse Maps, Familial Objects, and Open Frames in The Lying Life of Adults Notes Works Cited Index

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