Literary studies: general Books

Book SynopsisSarah Elliott Novacich explores how medieval thinkers pondered the ethics and pleasures of the archive. She traces three episodes of sacred history - the loss of Eden, the loading of Noah's ark, and the Harrowing of Hell - across works of poetry, performance records, and iconography in order to demonstrate how medieval artists turned to sacred history to think through aspects of cultural transmission. Performances of the loss of Eden blur the relationship between original and record; stories of Noah's ark foreground the difficulty of compiling inventories; and engagements with the Harrowing of Hell suggest the impossibility of separating the past from the present. Reading Middle English plays alongside chronicles, poetry, and works of visual art, Shaping the Archive in Late Medieval England considers how poetic form, staging logistics, and the status of performance all contribute to our understanding of the ways in which medieval thinkers imagined the archive.Trade Review'The examples she [Novacich] chooses out of representations of sacred history in drama and poetry offer an elegant case study of how literature might explicate a historical crisis, providing a brilliant argument for even greater exchange between fields in the humanities.' Hannah Leah Crummé, Renaissance QuarterlyTable of Contents1. Model worlds; 2. Ark and archive; 3. Uxor Noe and the drowned; 4. Infernal archive; 5. The Harrowing of Hell: closure and rehearsal.

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Book SynopsisA new series of bespoke, full-coverage resources developed for the 2015 A Level English qualifications. Approved by AQA, this print Student Book is suitable for all abilities, providing stretch opportunities for the more able and additional scaffolding for those who need it. Helping bridge the gap between GCSE and A Level, the unique three-part structure focuses on texts within a particular time period and supports students in interpreting texts and reflecting on how writers make meaning. An enhanced digital version and free Teacher''s Resource are also available.Table of ContentsIntroduction; BEGINNING: 1. Overview; 2. Responding to literature; 3. Texts, contexts and time; 4. Wider reading, research and writing skills; 5. Poetry; 6. Prose; 7. Drama; DEVELOPING: 8. Love Through the Ages: Introduction; 8.1 What is love?; 8.2 Connecting love through the ages: Poetry; 8.3 Connecting love through the ages: Prose; 9. Love Through the Ages: Shakespeare; 9.1 The Elizabethan era; 9.2 Shakespeare's plays; 9.3 Othello; 9.4 The Taming of the Shrew; 9.5 Measure for Measure; 9.6 The Winter's Tale; 10. Love Through the Ages: Poetry; 10.1 Ideal, romantic love; 10.2 Love, sex and inconstancy; 10.3 Marriage and mature love; 10.4 Love, loss and taboos; 10.5 Bringing it all together; 11. Love Through the Ages: Prose; 11.1 Romantic love; 11.2 Marriage and commitment; 11.3 Love and death; 11.4 Social conventions and taboos; 11.5 Jealousy, guilt and remembrance 11.6 Bringing it all together; 12. World War I and its Aftermath: Introduction; 12.1 The Great War; 12.2 The historical and social context; 12.3 Memory and mourning; 12.4 The pre-war cultural context; 12.5 The aftermath; 13. World War I and its Aftermath: Drama; 13.1 The theatre of war and war in the theatre; 13.2 R.C. Sherriff: Journey's End; 13.3 Joan Littlewood and Theatre Workshop: Oh! What a Lovely War; 13.4 Peter Whelan: The Accrington Pals; 13.5 Richard Curtis and Ben Elton: Blackadder Goes Forth; 13.6 David Haig: My Boy Jack; 14. World War I and its Aftermath: Poetry; 14.1 Poetry and remembrance; 14.2 The age of chivalry; 14.3 Which England?; 14.4 Only connect: Finding the themes; 15. World War I and its Aftermath: Prose; 15.1 The novel before the First World War; 15.2 Understanding the set texts; 15.3 Rebecca West: The Return of the Soldier; 15.4 Erich Maria Remarque: All Quiet on the Western Front; 15.5 Ernest Hemingway: A Farewell to Arms; 15.6 Susan Hill: Strange Meeting; 15.7 Pat Barker: Regeneration; 15.8 Sebastian Faulks: Birdsong; 15.9 Sebastian Barry: A Long Long Way; 15.10 Ben Elton: The First Casualty; 15.11 Pat Barker: Life Class; 15.12 Bringing it all together; 16. Modern Times: Literature from 1945 to the Present Day: Introduction; 16.1 Introduction; 16.2 Education, education, education; 16.3 Education and social mobility; 16.4 Representation of class and gender in post-1945 literature; 16.5 Representations of gender; 16.6 The enduring influence of stereotypes; 16.7 Exploring how Sylvia Plath portrays attitudes towards women in 'The Applicant'; 17. Modern Times: Literature from 1945 to the Present Day: Drama; 17.1 Introduction; 17.2 The beginning of Miller's All My Sons; 17.3 The moral implications of plays; 17.4 Tennessee Williams: A Streetcar Named Desire; 17.5 Tennessee Williams: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; 17.6 Making connections across genres; 18. Modern Times: Literature from 1945 to the Present Day: Poetry; 18.1 Poetry today; 18.2 The poems in this unit; 18.3 Poems about family relationships; 18.4 Poems about relationships, their tensions and endings; 18.5 Two poets exploring one day from different perspectives; 18.6 Poetry about loss and grief; 18.7 Bringing it all together; 19. Modern Times: Literature from 1945 to the Present Day: Prose; 19.1 The texts in this unit; 19.2 Exploring Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit; 19.3 Exploring The Handmaid's Tale; 19.4 Exploring The Color Purple; 19.5 Structure of novels; 19.6 Prose questions in the examination paper; 19.7 Bringing it all together; 20. Texts Across Time; 20.1 Why do a non-examined assessment?; 20.2 The key requirements of the non-examined assessment; 20.3 Choosing your texts; 20.4 Selecting a theme for your comparison; 20.5 Preparing for the assignment; 20.6 Writing the first draft; 20.7 The final draft; 20.8 Unit summary; ENRICHING: 21. Love Through the Ages; 22. World War I and its Aftermath; 23. Modern Times: Literature from 1945 to the Present Day; 24. Texts Across Time; Index; Acknowledgements

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Book SynopsisA new series of bespoke, full-coverage resources developed for the 2015 A Level English qualifications. Endorsed for the AQA A/AS Level English Literature B specifications for first teaching from 2015, this print Student Book is suitable for all abilities, providing stretch opportunities for the more able and additional scaffolding for those who need it. Helping bridge the gap between GCSE and A Level, the unique three-part structure focuses on texts within a particular time period and supports students in interpreting texts and reflecting on how writers make meaning. An enhanced digital version and free Teacher''s Resource are also available.Table of ContentsIntroduction; BEGINNING: 1. Key concepts for literary study; 2. Poetry; 3. Drama; 4. The novel; DEVELOPING: 5. Tragedy; 5.1 Introduction to tragedy; 5.2 Development of tragedy; 5.3 Aspects of tragedy; 5.4 Voices and perspectives in tragedy; 5.5 Bringing it all together; 6. Comedy; 6.1 Introduction to comedy; 6.2 Development of comedy; 6.3 Aspects of comedy; 6.4 Voices and perspectives in comedy; 6.5 Bringing it all together; 7. Crime writing; 7.1 Introduction to crime writing; 7.2 Development of crime writing; 7.3 Elements of crime writing; 7.4 Narrative form and plot devices in crime writing; 7.5 Character types in crime writing; 7.6 Representation in crime writing; 7.7 Bringing it all together; 8. Political and social protest writing; 8.1 Introduction to political and social protest writing; 8.2 Development of political and social protest writing; 8.3 Elements of political writing; 8.4 Representation in political writing; 8.5 Bringing it all together; 9. Literary theory; 9.1 What is literary theory?; 9.2 Theoretical perspectives; 9.3 Value and the canon; 9.4 Narrative; 9.5 Feminism; 9.6 Marxism; 9.7 Eco-critical theory; 9.8 Post-colonial theory; 9.9 Approaching the non-exam assessment; 9.10 Bringing it all together; 10 Critical and creative responses to literature; 10.1 Introducing criticism and creativity; 10.2 Reading as a writer, writing as a reader; 10.3 Reading; 10.4 Writing; 11 Preparing for your exam; 11.1 Examined assessment and non-exam assessment; 11.2 Writing critical essays; 11.3 Writing creative responses to literary texts; 11.4 Bringing it all together; ENRICHING: 12 Tragedy; 13 Comedy; 14 Crime writing; 15 Political and social protest writing; 16 Literary theory; 17 Critical and creative responses to literature; Index; Acknowledgements

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Book SynopsisThe aim of this collection is to illustrate the pervasive influence of humanist rhetoric on early-modern literature and philosophy. The first half of the book focuses on the classical rules of judicial rhetoric. One chapter considers the place of these rules in Shakespeare''s The Merchant of Venice, while two others concentrate on the technique of rhetorical redescription, pointing to its use in Machiavelli''s The Prince as well as in several of Shakespeare''s plays, notably Coriolanus. The second half of the book examines the humanist background to the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes. A major new essay discusses his typically humanist preoccupation with the visual presentation of his political ideas, while other chapters explore the rhetorical sources of his theory of persons and personation, thereby offering new insights into his views about citizenship, political representation, rights and obligations and the concept of the state.Trade Review'In these beautifully crafted essays Skinner shows how Machiavelli, Shakespeare and Hobbes use the plenitude of rhetorical techniques of the humanist curriculum to craft persuasively the features of their different yet equally famous texts. Moreover, each confronts differently the chaos that ensues when these radically redescriptive techniques enter into the world they strive to characterise. A masterpiece.' James Tully, University of Victoria, British Columbia'In these brilliant essays, centered on Thomas Hobbes, Quentin Skinner presents political discourse as rhetoric, forensic and theatric. He shows how tactical maneuver established fictions which became analytical realities. A challenge and a step forward for political theorists and historians of early modern England and Europe.' J. G. A. Pocock, The Johns Hopkins University'Quentin Skinner is one of our greatest living humanists. He understands from within the classical tradition that nourished thinkers from Machiavelli to Hobbes and wields language with the force of a Renaissance rhetorician. In this timely work, he deepens his long-standing engagement with humanism and with Hobbes, expands his range to Shakespeare and Milton and sheds new light on the conceptual genealogies of virtue and liberty, representation and the state. From Humanism to Hobbes will be indispensable for intellectual historians, political theorists and early modernists alike.' David Armitage, Harvard University'Gathered as From Humanism to Hobbes: Studies in Rhetoric and Politics, these essays by Quentin Skinner add greatly to our understanding of the pedagogical and intellectual context in which Hobbes' extraordinary civil science took shape. Even more, though, they offer a masterclass in the particular method of recovering the history of political thought (often referred to as the 'Cambridge School') that has justly become synonymous with Skinner himself.' Sophia Rosenfeld, Walter H. Annenberg Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania'This is a sparkling collection of essays, elegantly constructed and written with grace and wit. It effortlessly affirms Quentin Skinner's standing as one of the leading historians and finest prose stylists of the day. Each essay considered singly illuminates and develops themes that have animated his recent work - whether the revival of the studia humanitatis and its effects, the visual representation of political ideas, rival conceptions of liberty and political representation, or the genealogy of the modern state - to sometimes striking and revisionary purpose. Considered as a whole, the collection will surely succeed in its design to persuade readers that the cultural shift 'from humanism to Hobbes' was by no means so long a march as has sometimes been supposed, even as it raises pointed questions about the long-run consequences of that shift for political understanding and for our collective well-being as citizens.' Tim Stanton, University of York'The book is more than the sum of its parts, but these parts are also each extremely valuable for their respective topics … Each chapter provides new insight, contributing to an overall impression of the importance of humanist education on the major figures of the Renaissance and Early Modern periods, including Shakespeare, Milton and Hobbes.' Joanne Paul, The English Historical Review'… [this] volume will stand the general reader and the specialist alike in good stead.' Victoria Kahn, Society'Skinner provides a masterful survey of these laws and institutions, including the canny and pragmatic use of religious observance to foster virtù among citizens.' Victoria Kahn, Springer journalsTable of ContentsList of illustrations; Acknowledgments; List of abbreviations and conventions; 1. Introduction; 2. Classical rhetoric and the personation of the state; 3. Machiavelli on misunderstanding princely virtù; 4. Judicial rhetoric in The Merchant of Venice; 5. Rhetorical redescription and its uses in Shakespeare; 6. The generation of John Milton at Cambridge; 7. Rethinking liberty in the English revolution; 8. Hobbes on civil conversation; 9. Hobbes on political representation; 10. Hobbes and the humanist frontispiece; 11. Hobbes on hereditary right; 12. Hobbes and the concept of the state; Bibliographies; Manuscript sources; Primary printed sources; Secondary sources; Index.

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Book SynopsisAmid the complex welter of current critical theories, C. S. Lewis's wisdom is valuably down-to-earth, refreshing and stimulating in the questions it raises about the experience of reading.Table of Contents1. The few and the many; 2. False characterisations; 3. How the few and the many use pictures and music; 4. The reading of the unliterary; 5. On myth; 6. The meanings of fantasy; 7. On realisms; 8. On misreading by the literary; 9. Survey; 10. Poetry; 11. The experiment; Epilogue; Appendix.

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Book SynopsisIn this updated edition of King Richard II, Claire McEachern provides a fresh introductory section in which she discusses the most important productions and scholarly criticism of recent years. Paying particular attention to the focus on religion in contemporary interpretations of the play, McEachern also analyses the increasing number ofperformances on stage and screen. Andrew Gurr''s acclaimed introduction guides the reader through the play''s action and politics, providing a thorough and engaging grounding in its structure, language and staging. An updated reading list completes the edition.Table of ContentsIntroduction; The play; Textual analysis; Appendixes: 1. Shakespeare's use of Holinshed; 2. Extracts from Daniel's The Civil Wars; 3. 'An Homilie against Disobedience'; 4. Extracts from England's Parnassus; Reading list.

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Book SynopsisJane Austen is renowned for the economy of her art: for the close focus of her romantic plots and the precision of her writing style. Exploring that economy stylistically and structurally, this book traces Austen''s keen interest in narrative form. Anne Toner pinpoints techniques that are fundamental to the distinctiveness of Austen''s fiction, many of which have been little explored to date. Toner argues that Austen''s conciseness in terms of plotting, narrative description and in the depiction of dialogue also contributed to her innovations in representing thought, expanding the novel''s capacity to depict consciousness. Narrative and rhetorical features are presented clearly and accessibly and will open up new ways of thinking about prose style with implications for the study of fiction beyond Austen''s own.Trade Review'… in each of her chapters on the formal features of Austen's style, Toner demonstrates how the effort of writing small worked to inspire some of Austen's biggest ideas and thus to shape nineteenth-century fiction.' Megan Quinn, www.review19.org'This telescoping is well represented in discussion of Mansfield Park and of free direct discourse … the notes, bibliography, and index are extensive and provide welcome entry into the critical discussion around Austen studies and the 18th-century novel … Highly recommended.' R. Shapiro, Choice'Explicating the very long history of critical reception of Austen's exemplary, modern economy of style - its concision of plot for character, for example - Toner under-takes a detailed and thorough grammatical investigation of how exactly Austen achieves her fêted economy, and to what ends.' Kate Singer, The Wordsworth CircleTable of Contents1. Structure: selection, connection, and the picturesque; 2. Language: apophatic Austen (not saying things and saying so); 3. Dialogue: Austen's missing speakers and the case for free direct discourse.

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Book SynopsisThis agenda-setting volume on travel and drama in early modern England provides new insights into Renaissance stage practice, performance history, and theatre''s transnational exchanges. It advances our understanding of theatre history, drama''s generic conventions, and what constitutes plays about travel at a time when the professional theatre was rapidly developing and England was attempting to announce its presence within a global economy. Recent critical studies have shown that the reach of early modern travel was global in scope, and its cultural consequences more important than narratives that are dominated by the Atlantic world suggest. This collection of essays by world-leading scholars redefines the field by expanding the canon of recognized plays concerned with travel. Re-assessing the parameters of the genre, the chapters offer fresh perspectives on how these plays communicated with their audiences and readers.Trade Review'Travel and Drama in Early Modern England manages to be at once unified and multifocal.' Cecilia Lindskog Whiteley, Notes and Queries'… this important volume presents a broad discussion about travel on the early modern stage, fittingly for a subject that evoked such different emotions and was an emblem for so many different things.' Cecilia Lindskog Whiteley, Notes and Queries'Travel and Drama in Early Modern England adds significantly to ongoing conversations on travel and its dramatic afterlives during the age of exploration.' Amrita Sen, Renaissance Quarterly'This fascinating collection offers an insightful analysis of the uses and representations of travel on the early modern stage.' Jennifer Cryar, The Year's Work in English StudiesTable of ContentsIntroduction: understanding the early modern journeying play Claire Jowitt and David McInnis; 1. 'For his travailes let the Globe witnesse': venturing on the stage in early modern England Anthony Parr; 2. Seeing and overseeing the stage as map in Early Modern drama Ladan Niayesh; 3. Marlowe's Mediterranean and counter-epic forms of oceanic hybridity Steve Mentz; 4. Making the land known: Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2 and the literature of perambulation Julie Sanders; 5. Eastward Ho and the traffic of the stage Andrew Gordon; 6. Language and seafaring in Thomas Middleton and John Webster's Anything for a Quiet Life Marianne Montgomery; 7. Rogue cosmopolitans on the Early Modern stage: John Ward, Thomas Stukeley, and the Sherley brothers Daniel Vitkus; 8. Drama at sea: a new look at Shakespeare on the Dragon, 1607–8 Richmond Barbour and Bernhard Klein; 9. Strange bedfellows: the ordinary undersides of 'a true reportory' and The Tempest Emily C. Bartels; 10. Travelling characters in early modern drama David McInnis; 11. 'Constant changelings', theatrical form, and migration: stage travel in the early 1620s Clare McManus; 12. The uses of cultural encounter in Sir William Davenant's Caroline-to-Restoration voyage drama Claire Jowitt.

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Book SynopsisThe theatre was a crucial forum for the representation of Irish civility and culture for the eighteenth-century English audience. Irish actors and playwrights, operating both as individuals and within networks, were remarkably popular and potent during this period, especially in London. As ideas of Enlightenment percolated throughout Britain and Ireland, Irish theatrical practitioners - actors, managers, playwrights, critics and journalists - exploited a growing receptivity to Irish civility, and advanced a patriot agenda of political and economic autonomy. Mobility, toleration and the capacity to negotiate multiple allegiances are marked features of this Irish theatrical Enlightenment, whose ambitious participants saw little conflict between their twin loyalties to the Crown and to Ireland. This collection of essays responds to recent work in the areas of eighteenth-century theatre studies, Irish studies and Enlightenment studies. The volume''s discussions of genre, colonialism, gendeTrade Review'Ireland, Enlightenment and the English Stage makes a bold and necessary intervention in the field. Its essays shed important new light on the dynamic contribution to English theatrical culture made by a multitude of Irish practitioners and also productively challenge the foundations of what we take 'the Enlightenment' to be in relation to ideas of nation, cosmopolitanism, and cultural production.' David Taylor, University of OxfordBurke's essay … strikes a note that synthesizes the volume. Theater, she writes, becomes a crucial vehicle for the spread of Enlightenment as it enables 'a broadening of horizons [that] did not require a jettisoning of the past'. In this volume, whose essays consistently pair careful historicist research with innovative thought, O'Shaughnessy and his fellow contributors exemplify this achievement for current scholarship as well.' Emily Hodgson Anderson, Review 19'Reconstructing and analysing the world of eighteenth-century theatre moreover demands research that extends beyond literary texts and is attentive to the contexts and the meanings of performance, and the different ways in which both text and performance were mediated and remediated in the period. The essays in this impressive collection not only navigate these challenges, they showcase an impressive sophistication in both the methods and approach employed, and in their nuanced conceptualization of the issues of identity on which the collection is focused ... This superb collection makes an important intervention in a number of different fields and should be considered essential reading for scholars of eighteenth-century Ireland across a range of disciplines, as well as for critics and historians of theatre in the long eighteenth century.' Clíona Ó Gallchoir, Eighteenth-Century Ireland'[an] impressive overview of a missing Irish theater history …' Misty G. Anderson, ECS ReviewTable of ContentsIntroduction: staging an Irish Enlightenment David O'Shaughnessy; Part I. Representations and Resistance: 1. Straddling: London-Irish actresses and their characters Felicity Nussbaum; 2. John Johnstone and the possibilities of Irishness, 1783–1820 Jim Davis; 3. The diminution of 'Irish' Johnstone Oskar Cox Jensen; Part II. Symbiotic Stages: Dublin and London: 4. Midas, Kane O'Hara and the Italians: an interplay of comedy between London and Dublin Michael Burden; 5. Trading loyalties: Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal and the Irish propositions Robert W. Jones; 6. Sydney Owenson, Alicia Sheridan Le Fanu and the domestic stage of post-inion politics Colleen Taylor; Part III. Enlightened Perspectives: 7. Civility, patriotism and performance: Cato and the Irish history play David O'Shaughnessy; 8. From Ireland to Peru: Arthur Murphy's (anti)-imperial dramaturgy Bridget Orr; 9. The provincial commencement of James Field Stanfield Declan Mccormack; 10. Worlding the village: John O'Keeffe's 'Excentric' pastorals Helen Burke.

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Book SynopsisA long line of traditional, often conservative, criticism and cultural commentary deplored Byron as a slipshod poet. This pithy yet aptly poetic book, written by one of the world''s foremost Romantic scholars, argues that assessment is badly mistaken. Byron''s great subject is what he called ''Cant'': the habit of abusing the world through misusing language. Setting up his poetry as a laboratory to investigate failures of writing, reading, and thinking, Byron delivered sharp critical judgment on the costs exacted by a careless approach to his Mother Tongue. Perspicuous readings of Byron alongside some of his Romantic contemporaries Burns, Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley reveal Byron''s startling reconfiguration of poetry as a ''broken mirror'' and shattered lamp. The paradoxical result was to argue that his age''s contradictions, and his own, offered both ethical opportunities and a promise of poetic broadly cultural emancipation. This book represents a major contribution to Trade Review'A new book by Jerome McGann is an event, though there have been many such events over his long career. But a new book by him about Byron is a special kind of event. No other scholar has done as much for Byron as McGann has, and few living scholars as much for any single author as he has done for Byron. This book marks a kind of return to origins since, like McGann's first book, Fiery Dust, this one focuses on Byron's work before Don Juan. The new emphasis, however, falls on Byron's relationship to language and poetic craft and on how it differs from that of his major contemporaries. Playful, allusive, and itself 'adverse,' McGann's style in this book, like Byron's own, means to set our language free.' James K. Chandler, William K. Ogden Distinguished Service Professor, University of Chicago'Take physic, cant. The words are nowhere, the command everywhere in Byron and McGann. The physic is philology: a word-loving that embraces the cunning, ambivalence, and enthrallments of language along with its beauties and benevolences. If words are actions (and who today could doubt that), McGann's 'inner standing point' (D. G. Rossetti) on Byron is as a sword that divides, setting fiction against factitiousness, expressive contradiction against the suavities of doublespeak. McGann's 'little book,' as he calls it, is a work of pity and rage; its perfectly measured disorders a min(e)d-field to blast the pieties of the present. Go litel book…' Marjorie Levinson, F. L. Huetwell Professor, University of Michigan'This is a book written with much of Byron's own intelligence, wit, and passion. It pays particular and welcome attention to the 'dark' poems which Professor McGann sees as 'in some ways more impressive than the ottava rima masterpieces'. It moves between very wide perspectives and sustained, often dazzling, close reading helped by his unrivalled knowledge of the textual history.' Bernard Beatty, Bernard Beatty, Senior Fellow in English, Liverpool University and Editor of The Byron Journal 1987–2004'Combative, liberatory, and dazzling, Byron's poetics receive the close attention they deserve in McGann's beautiful book. Byron and the Poetics of Adversity illuminates the full sweep of Byron's poetic experimentation and ruthless unveiling of his culture's cherished illusions in poems such as Manfred, The Giaour, Lara, and Cain, difficult poems often undervalued in favor of the poetic pyrotechnics of the epic Don Juan. McGann's scholarly and playful close readings of the full range of Byron's 'perversifications' and their 'disastered heroes' reveal new dimensions of what made these poems both scandalous and brilliant, and how they engaged with leading writers of the age like Blake and Goethe.' Adriana Craciun, Emma MacLachlan Metcalf Chair of Humanities, Boston University'Byron and the Poetics of Adversity is a genuinely revolutionary book in which Professor McGann returns to the textual entanglements of Byron's prosody and looks afresh at the two phases of Byron's poetic career in 1808-16 and 1817-24. Seven brilliant, compelling essays trace the poetic offensives that connect The Giaour, The Corsair, Lara, The Siege of Corinth, shorter lyrics and Manfred with the offensive poetics of Don Juan. Identifying practical criticism as the vital, oppositional act which Byron's poetry commits on its readers and demands from them, this bold and provocative study goes back to where all the ladders start - in close readings of some of the most perverse lines in Romantic period poetry.' Jane Stabler, University of St Andrews'Jerome McGann shows that Byron's 'treasonous' attitude to poetry, his 'perversification,' his unfit and shifty tones, his Blakean refusal of invariable aesthetic systems, his 'spoiler's art' is as pertinent now as it was 200 years ago. By repeatedly exposing the shibboleths of lyric and Romantic verse culture, McGann's sweeping advocacy of Byron's inventive, performative, rhetorical, and adversive genius is a defense of poetry for our time as well.' Charles Bernstein, author of Topsy-TurvyTable of Contents1. Don Juan and the English language; 2. Byron Agonistes, 1809–1816; 3. Manfred: one word for mercy; 4. Byron and the 'Wrong Revolutionary Poetical System'; 5. Byron, Blake, and the adversity of poetics; 6. The stubborn foe: bad verse and the poetry of action.

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Book SynopsisIn the introduction to this 1833 work on the 'lives of distinguished northerns' - including Andrew Marvell, Anne Clifford, Richard Arkwright, and James Cook - Hartley Coleridge makes a distinction between biography as part of public history and as personal, local or family history: these sketches definitely fall into the latter category.Table of ContentsAdvertisement; Introductory essay; Andrew Marvell; Richard Bentley; Thomas Lord Fairfax; James, seventh earl of Derby; Lady Anne Clifford; Roger Ascham; John Fisher; Rev. Wiliam Mason; Sir Richard Arkwright; William Roscoe; Captain Cook; William Congreve; Dr John Fothergill.

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Book SynopsisContributors: Anne J. Duggan, Peter Dronke, Cyril Edwards, Julia Walworth

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Book SynopsisA substantial collection of original work from an authoritative international cast. Main themes are: the detail and development of Athenian law; the life and work of the Attic orators in their political contexts; the implications of recent papyrus discoveries for the texts of major authors; the intersection of Attic Old Comedy with Athenian law, politics and society.

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Book SynopsisBertolt Brecht continues to be regarded as one of the twentieth century's most controversial and influential writers. His life and work raise important questions about the nature and function of literature and theater, about perception and commitment, about feminist approaches to politics and literature, and about intellectual property rights. The Brecht Yearbook is a venue for discussion about aspects of theater and literature that were of particular interest to Brecht, especially the politics of literature and the politics of theater in a global context. The articles in this volume shed new light on Brecht's concept of alienation, Verfremdung, and his relation to cinema, mass media, and dance. The volume also contains extensive work on his collaborators Helene Weigel and Käthe Reichel.

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Book SynopsisThis magnificent act of scholarship is a comprehensive author index of poetry, prose (fiction and non-fiction) and drama from the eastern Caribbean island of Saint Lucia. It also includes supporting materials, such as dissertations and critical works, which offer studies of the works of Saint Lucian writers.Trade Review"A magnificent act of scholarship." Professor Alison Donnell, University of East Anglia, UK. "Here you can see everything - the things that didn't last, the things that did, the things that should have but didn't. Here is the heft of a fierce and devoted memory of all of our literature." Vladimir Lucien, poet, Saint Lucia. "This bibliography is an ark. And gratitude is joyfully rendered to its builder." Kendel Hippolyte, poet/playwright, Saint Lucia

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Book SynopsisHistory writing in the Middle Ages did not belong to any particular genre, language or class of texts. Its remit was wide, embracing the events of antiquity; the deeds of saints, rulers and abbots; archival practices; and contemporary reportage. This volume addresses the challenges presented by medieval historiography by using the diverse methodologies of medieval studies: legal and literary history, art history, religious studies, codicology, the history of the emotions, gender studies and critical race theory. Spanning one thousand years of historiography in England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland, the essays map historical thinking across literary genres and expose the rich veins of national mythmaking tapped into by medieval writers. Additionally, they attend to the ways in which medieval histories crossed linguistic and geographical borders. Together, they trace multiple temporalities and productive anachronisms that fuelled some of the most innovative medieval writing.Trade Review'The collection as a whole works to resist the potentially dangerous oversimplification of histories and historiography by highlighting their ongoing shaping as transmitted and interpreted texts.' D. W. Hayes, Choice'… this very fine book is a radical departure from Gransden's earlier work and one that deserves to sit alongside it as a very different but equally important contribution to the study of medieval historiography.' Helen Fulton, Studies in the Age of Chaucer'The essays presented here are a useful introduction to medieval historical writing for any student, and they provide access points for a number of areas for further research.' Claire Macht, Journal of British Studies'The expert editors of this rich, cohesive collection have worked hard to organize the twenty-seven essays gathered here so that each chapter contributes to an ongoing discussion and to the larger whole … [a] serious, keenly engineered, and informative model of research and humanist scholarship. It is accessible, clearly purposed, and trenchantly researched.' Michael Calabrese, Modern PhilologyTable of ContentsIntroduction Jennifer Jahner, Emily Steiner and Elizabeth M. Tyler; Part I. Time: 1. Gildas Magali Coumert; 2. Monastic history and memory Thomas O'Donnell; 3. Apocalypse and/as history Richard K. Emmerson; 4. The Brut: legendary British history Jaclyn Rajsic; 5. Genealogies Marie Turner; 6. Anglo-Saxon futures: writing England's ethical past, before and after 1066 Cynthia Turner Camp; 7. Pagan histories/Pagan fictions Christine Chism; Part II. Place: 8. Mental maps: sense of place in medieval British historical writing Sarah Foot; 9. Viking armies and their historical legacy across England's North-South divide, c.790–c.1100 Paul Gazzoli; 10. Cross-channel networks of history writing: the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Elizabeth M. Tyler; 11. Creating and curating an archive: Bury St Edmunds and its Anglo-Saxon past Kathryn A. Lowe; 12. Historical writing in medieval Wales Owain Wyn Jones and Huw Pryce; 13. Scotland and Anglo-Scottish border writing Kate Ash-Irisarri; 14. London histories George Shuffelton; 15. History at the Universities: Oxford, Cambridge and Paris Charles F. Briggs; Part III. Practice: 16. The professional historians of medieval Ireland Katherine Simms; 17. Gender and the subjects of history in the early Middle Ages Clare A. Lees; 18. Historical writing in medieval Britain: the case of Matthew Paris Björn Weiler; 19. Vernacular historiography Matthew Fisher; 20. Tall tales from the archive Andrew Prescott; 21. History in print from Caxton to 1543 A. S. G. Edwards; Part IV. Genre: 22. Chronicle and romance Robert Rouse; 23. Forgery as historiography Alfred Hiatt; 24. Hagiography Catherine Sanok; 25. Writing in the tragic mode Thomas A. Prendergast; 26. Crisis and nation in fourteenth-century English chronicles Andrew Galloway; 27. Polemical history and the Wars of the Roses Sarah L. Peverley.

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Book SynopsisFantasy has been an important and much-loved part of children''s literature for hundreds of years, yet relatively little has been written about it. Children''s Fantasy Literature traces the development of the tradition of the children''s fantastic - fictions specifically written for children and fictions appropriated by them - from the sixteenth to the twenty-first century, examining the work of Lewis Carroll, L. Frank Baum, C. S. Lewis, Roald Dahl, J. K. Rowling and others from across the English-speaking world. The volume considers changing views on both the nature of the child and on the appropriateness of fantasy for the child reader, the role of children''s fantasy literature in helping to develop the imagination, and its complex interactions with issues of class, politics and gender. The text analyses hundreds of works of fiction, placing each in its appropriate context within the tradition of fantasy literature.Trade Review'Levy and Mendlesohn give a convincing explanation for a distinctively post-Second World War literature where children are unprotected, where they have agency and responsibility, where they face true and terrible evil. As time goes on, the stakes continue to rise. Compare Nesbit's world to Narnia - do our young protagonists have a small, limited quest to complete, or do we expect them to save the world?' Daniel Hahn, The Spectator'Children's Fantasy Literature: An Introduction is an immense work in scope and scholarship. As befits its authors, Michael Levy and Farah Mendlesohn - two prominent figures in the world of children's literature criticism - this latest work is a far-reaching feat that grasps the tenuous strings of the inception of both fantasy and children's literature and weaves them from the sixteenth through the twenty-first centuries into a tremendous narrative tapestry.' Joli Barham McClelland, Children's Literature Association Quarterly'Sharing their extensive knowledge of the topic, Michael Levy and Farah Mendlesohn have made a relevant contribution to the study of this field with their monograph Children's Fantasy Literature: An Introduction. Published in 2016 by Cambridge University Press, the book is a result of the continuing collaboration of the authors, their colleagues, and students … Levy and Mendlesohn have succeeded in finding a manner of expression which can easily be understood by scholars and experts, but also those whose knowledge of fantasy is not yet extensive.' Katarina Kralj, Libri & LiberiTable of ContentsIntroduction; 1. How fantasy became children's literature; 2. Fairies, ghouls and goblins: the realms of Victorian fancy; 3. The American search for an American childhood; 4. British and Empire fantasy between the wars; 5. The changing landscape of post-war fantasy; 6. Folklore, fantasy and indigenous fantasy; 7. Middle-earth, medievalism and mythopoeic fantasy; 8. Harry Potter and children's fantasy since the 1990s; 9. Romancing the teen; Further reading.

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Book SynopsisSparky Sweets, PhD, and Wisecrack proudly present this outrageously funny, ultra-sharp guide to literature based on the hit online series, Thug Notes. Inside, you'll find hilarious plot breakdowns and masterful analyses of sixteen of literature's most beloved classics, including: Things Fall Apart, To Kill a Mockingbird, Hamlet, The Catcher in the Rye, Lord of the Flies, Pride and Prejudice, and more!  The series Thug Notes has been featured on BET, PBS, and NPR and has been used in hundreds of classrooms around the world. Whether you’re a student, teacher, or straight-up literary gangster like Dr. Sweets, Thug Notes has got you covered. You'll certainly never look at literature the same way again.

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Book SynopsisA new hardcover selection of the best writings of the visionary German naturalist whose ideas changed the way we see the natural world. Selected and introduced by Andrea Wulf.Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) was an intrepid explorer and the most famous scientist of his age. His life was packed with adventure and discovery, whether he was climbing volcanoes in the Andes, racing through anthrax-infected Siberia, or publishing groundbreaking bestsellers. Ahead of his time, he recognized nature as an interdependent whole and he saw before anyone else that humankind was on a path to destroy it. His visits to the Americas led him to argue that the indigenous peoples possessed ancient cultures with sophisticated languages, architecture, and art, and his expedition to Cuba prompted him to denounce slavery as “the greatest evil ever to have afflicted humanity.” To Humboldt, the melody of his prose was as important as its empirical content, and this selection from his most famous works—including Cosmos, Views of Nature, and Views of the Cordilleras and Monuments of the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas, among others—allows us the pleasure of reading his own accounts of his daring explorations. Humboldt’s writings profoundly influenced naturalists and poets including Darwin, Thoreau, Muir, Goethe, Wordsworth, and Whitman. The Selected Writings is not only a tribute to Humboldt’s important role in environmental history and science, but also to his ability to fashion powerfully poetic narratives out of scientific observations.

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Book SynopsisThe second volume in the life of literary giant Saul Bellow, vividly capturing a personal life that was always tumultuous and career that never ceased being triumphant.Bellow, at forty-nine, is at the pinnacle of American letters--rich, famous, critically acclaimed. The expected trajectory is one of decline: volume 1, rise; volume 2, fall. Bellow never fell, producing in the latter half of his life some of his greatest fiction (Mr. Sammler's Planet, Humboldt's Gift), winning two more National Book Awards, a Pulitzer Prize, and the Nobel Prize. At eighty, he wrote his last story; at eighty-five, he wrote Ravelstein. In this volume, his life away from the desk, including his love life, is if anything more dramatic than in the first. In the public sphere, he is embroiled in controversy over foreign affairs, race, religion, education, social policy, the state of culture, the fate of the novel. In this stunning second volume, Zachary Leader shows

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Book SynopsisWhat is this thing called literature? Why study it? And how? Relating literature to topics such as dreams, politics, life, death, the ordinary and the uncanny, This Thing Called Literature establishes a sense of why and how literature is an exciting and rewarding subject to study. Andrew Bennett and Nicholas Royle expertly weave an essential love of literature into an account of what literary texts do, how they work and the sort of questions and ideas they provoke. The book's three parts reflect the fundamental components of studying literature: reading, thinking and writing. The authors use helpful and wide-ranging examples and summaries, offering rich reflections on the question What is literature?' and on what they term creative reading'. The new edition has been revised throughout with extensive updates to the further reading and a new chapter on creative non-fiction. Bennett and Royle's accessible and thought-provoking style encourages a deep engagemTrade ReviewPraise for the first edition:‘Literature, it turns out in Bennett and Royle's invigorating introduction to the topic, is anything but a thing: it is an activity, a provocation, an experience, a conundrum. This highly readable book is an important contribution to debates about why literature matters at the same time as offering a practical guide to the understanding and enjoyment of literary works, the task of writing about them, and the challenge of creating them.’ Derek Attridge, Professor of English, University of York, UK‘Some versions of Cole Porter’s ‘What is This Thing Called Love?’ open with references to the humdrum. There is, however, nothing remotely humdrum about Bennett and Royle’s This Thing Called Literature—a playful, pleasurable, passionate defence of "what is strange and slippery about literature". In light and lucid prose, and with plenty of well-chosen examples, the authors offer a timely and provocative introduction to literary study and creative-critical response.’ Neil Badmington, Professor of English Literature, Cardiff University, UK‘The seasoned authorial duo of Bennett and Royle has pulled it off again. Avoiding both simplification on one side, and over-abstraction on the other, this new book will engage and appeal to all readers with doubts or hopes about studying literature seriously.’ Rachel Bowlby, Professor of Comparative Literature, University College, London, UK‘A very shrewd, lively, and at times irreverent introduction to literary study, which explains that thinking about literature is thinking about everything else, including thinking.’ Jonathan Culler, Class of 1916 Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Cornell University, USA‘Combining a precis of literary theory with advice on how to read and write creatively, This Thing Called Literature, the third book from Andrew Bennett and Nicholas Royle, is a neat little guide for undergraduates, or anyone who wants to know more about literary studies. It is the kind of book tutors and lecturers could enjoy and learn from, as well as their students.’ Rachel Darling, TLS‘Clear, fair-minded, and patiently elaborating, this is an invaluable field guide for seasoned teachers and scholars as well as beginning students.’ Wai Chee Dimock, William Lampson Professor of English & American Studies, Yale University, USA ‘This Thing Called Literature is another triumph by Andrew Bennett and Nicholas Royle. They are our most trusted guides to literary study writing today. Their exemplary pedagogy opens up the wonders and complexity of both literature and study itself. The future of reading has been given a fighting chance by this wonderful book, which will benefit everyone who reads it from the A Level student to the Emeritus Professor.’ Martin McQuillan, Professor and Director of ICE, Edge Hill University, UK‘What the duo of Strunk and White is to writing well the duo of Bennett and Royle is to reading carefully and, especially, to thinking deeply about literature. This Thing Called Literature is a fun, fresh take on why we study literature and how to do it and is a useful and accessible read for students just beginning their study; it is also a rewarding, heartening read for those of us who got into the business of literary study for the love of reading, thinking, and writing.’ Daniel Robinson, Homer C. Nearing Jr. Distinguished Professor of English, Widener University, USA‘Reports on the so-called "death of literature"—its increasing irrelevance in an age of digital reason—are, we have long suspected, greatly exaggerated. Andrew Bennett and Nicholas Royle confirm this with a timely and robust case for the defence, repositioning literary studies at the centre of the humanities. With their eloquent readings, witty aperçus and compendious range of reference, the authors provide the kinds of insightful pleasures that, they argue, are central to the literary arts themselves. The book’s brevity is no indication of its ambition: if This Thing Called Literature does not make you a better reader, writer, critic and thinker, you haven’t been reading it closely enough.’Paul Sheehan, Associate Professor in English, Macquarie University, Sydney, AustraliaTable of ContentsList of figuresAcknowledgements Studying Literature PART I: Reading Reading a poem Reading a novel Reading a short story Reading a play Reading creative non-fiction PART II: Thinking Thinking about literature Thinking critically PART III: Writing Writing an essay Creative writing: the impossible Writing short fiction Appendix: the wordbookGlossaryBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisIn recent years, manga and anime have attracted increasing scholarly interest beyond the realm of Japanese studies. This Companion takes a unique approach, committed to exploring both the similarities and differences between these two distinct but interrelated media forms. Firmly based in Japanese sources, this volume offers a lively and accessible introduction, exploring the local contexts of manga and anime production, distribution, and reception in Japan, as well as the global influence and impact of these versatile media. Chapters explore common characteristics such as visuals, voice, serial narrative and characters, whilst also highlighting distinct challenges and histories. The volume provides both a basis for further research in this burgeoning field and a source of inspiration for those new to the topic.

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Book SynopsisThis collection reappraises and retheorizes Marie Corelli’s diverse fictional writings and locates them in their contemporary literary and social context.Marie Corelli (1855-1924) was a fabulously popular novelist in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Yet, in her day, critics railed against her taste for sentimentality, melodrama, supernatural worlds, and overt didacticism. Many critics are still ambivalent about her writing. However, in their reappraisal, the contributors to this volume largely circumvent the earlier critics and engage afresh with Corelli’s writing strategies; genre choices; representations of social issues; and ideas about science, metaphysics, and morality. Moving beyond the now outdated project of recovery, the volume also discusses Corelli’s literary market place, analysing both her publishing successes and her decline in popularity. An important theme throughout is Corelli’s troubled relTable of Contents1. Introduction – Marie Corelli: A Critical Reappraisal 2. Moral Uncertainty and the Afterlife: Explaining the Popularity of Marie Corelli’s Early Novels 3. The Corellian Romance contra Modernity: The Treasure of Heaven and Innocent 4. ‘‘Je t’aime . . . moi non plus’’: Deconstructing Love in Open Confession to a Man from a Woman 5. The Genius in Ardath: The Story of A Dead Self 6. Marie Corelli’s Best-selling Electric Creed 7. Morals and Metaphysics: Marie Corelli, Religion and the Gothic 8. Marie Corelli’s Barabbas, The Sorrows of Satan and Generic Transition

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Book SynopsisThis Element argues for the importance of extended reality as an innovative force that changes our understanding of theatre and Shakespeare. It shows how the inclusion of augmented and virtual realities in performance can reconfigure the senses of the experiencers, enabling them to engage with technology actively.

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Book SynopsisThis Element presents new cultural, social, and economic perspectives on the eighteenth-century London masquerade through an in-depth analysis of the classic domino costume. It examines the domino's physical and figurative movements from the masquerade warehouse into print and visual culture.Table of ContentsIntroduction; 1. The masquerade and the domino; 2. Three dominos; 3. The domino as a commodity; 4. Everywhere and nowhere; Conclusion; References.

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Book SynopsisThis Element interrogates the scepticism that Shakespeare's visionary women face and considers the ways in which they perform the truth of their experiences to a hostile onstage audience. It concludes that prophecy gives women a brief access to political conversations in which they are not welcome as they wrest narrative control from male speakers.Table of Contents1. Introduction: given to lie; 2. The art of dissuasion; 3. Ambitious visions and/as sinful thought; 4. Believe not every spirit; 5. Sooth-Dreams; 6. Conclusion: looking back; References.

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Book SynopsisIn the first comprehensive English-language portrait of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm as political thinkers and actors, Jakob Norberg reveals how history''s two most famous folklorists envisioned the role of literary and linguistic scholars in defining national identity. Convinced of the political relevance of their folk tale collections and grammatical studies, the Brothers Grimm argued that they could help disentangle language groups from one another, redraw the boundaries of states in Europe, and counsel kings and princes on the proper extent and character of their rule. They sought not only to recover and revive a neglected native culture for a contemporary audience, but also to facilitate a more harmonious and enduring relationship between the traditional political elite and an emerging national collective. Through close historical analysis, Norberg reconstructs how the Grimms wished to mediate between sovereigns and peoples, politics and culture. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

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Book SynopsisThis study provides an accessible overview of the range of reading spaces in modern Japan, and the evolution thereof from a historical perspective. It considers the transformation of public reading spaces, explaining how socio-economic factors and changing notions of space informed reading practices from the early modern era to the present.Table of Contents1. Introduction; 2. Kanda-Jinbōchō: Tokyo's Book Town; 3. The Ongoing Transformation of Public Reading Spaces; 4. Virtual Reading Spaces; 5. Conclusion.

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