Literary theory Books

Book SynopsisThis revolutionary study presents new facts and an original theory about the source of the thought and literature which are termed `modern''.Using fifty-one new translations of sonnets from four languages spanning more than seven centuries, Oppenheimer argues that modern thought and literature were born with the invention of the sonnet in thirteenth-century Italy. In revealing the sonnet as the first lyric form since the fall of the Roman Empire meant not for music or performance but for silent reading, the book demonstrates that the sonnet was the first modern literary form deliberately intended to portray the self in conflict and to explore self-consciousness.Professor Oppenheimer traces the influences of the sonnet, as invented by Giacomo da Lentino, combining historical fact with the history of ideas and literary criticism. He illustrates, in bilingual format, the sonnet''s growing appeal and variety during the centuries that followed, with translations from Italian, German, FrenchTrade Review'Paul Oppenheimer has written a learned, well-tempered and fascinating book about the sonnet. This book is a cunningly constructed homage to its ostensible subject. Oppenheimer, the poet and the scholar, join hands to translate a book and a sonnet.' Anthony Rudolf, Chapman 60'

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Book SynopsisThis volume brings together Martha Nussbaum''s published papers, some revised for this collection, on the relationship between literature and philosophy, especially moral philosophy. It also includes two new essays and a substantial Introduction.The papers, many of them previously not readily available to non-specialist readers, explore such fundamental issues as the relationship between style and content in the exploration of ethical questions; the nature of ethical attention and ethical knowledge and their relationship to written forms and style; and the role of the emotions in deliberation and self-knowledge. The author investigates and defends a conception of ethical understanding which involves emotional as well as intellectual activity, and which gives a certain type of priority to the perception of particular people and situations rather than to abstract rule.Trade ReviewThe lucid and penetrating essays in Love's Knowledge demonstrate that Martha Nussbaum is the finest philosophic mind of her generation. * Philosophy and Literature *one of the most original books published [in 1991], a hugely stimulating read, which returns us with thoughts refreshed to some of our best-loved authors and brings philosophy back to earth in the process * Mark Archer, Observer *Table of Contents1: Introduction: Form and Content, Philosophy and Literature 2: The Discernment of Perception: An Aristotelian Conception of Private and Public Rationality 3: Plato on Commensurability and Desire 4: Flawed Crystals: James's The Golden Bowl and Literature as Moral Philosophy 5: "Finely Aware and Richly Responsible": Literature and the Moral Imagination 6: Perceptive Equilibrium: Literary Theory and Ethical Theory 7: Perception and Revolution: The Princess Casamassima and the Political Imagination 8: Sophistry About Conventions 9: Reading for Life 10: Fictions of the Soul 11: Love's Knowledge 12: Narrative Emotions: Beckett's Geneology of Love 13: Love and the Individual: Romantic Rightness and Platonic Aspiration 14: Steerforth's Arm: Love and the Moral Point of View 15: Transcending Humanity

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Book SynopsisIn an era when much of what passes for debate is merely moral posturing - traditional family values versus the cultural elite, free speech versus censorship - the terms `liberal'' and `politically correct'', are used with as much dismissive scorn by the right as `reactionary'' and `fascist'' are by the left.In There''s No Such Thing as Free Speech, Fish takes aim at the ideological gridlock paralyzing academic and political exchange in the nineties. In his witty, accessible dissections of the swirling controversies over multiculturalism, affirmative action, canon revision, hate speech, and legal reform, he takes both the left and the right equally to task. This book is essential reading for anyone with an interest in the outcome of America''s cultural wars.Trade ReviewMr Fish deflates anointed truths with joyful abandon, and he is at his best in exposing the often baleful effects wrought by mean-spirited defenders of traditional values * The New York Times Book Review *

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Trade ReviewPassionate, comprehensive, and personal defence against attacks on the Franco-Californian sage's ideas and personal life - and on Halperin's own. Strongly recommended, both as a thorough introduction to Foucault and current issues, and for many intriguing ideas and observations by the author. * Alan Sinfield, Gay Times, October 1995 *Seeks to rescue Foucault from his critics and to portray him as a model of an engaged gay life, an attempt that requires a certain intellectual sleight of hand and close reading of the sort Halperin excels at. The book is remarkably engaging, combining elements of both brilliance and silliness. * Arena Magazine *a provocative read ... Halperin's book is highly engaging. * Times Higher Education Supplement *

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Book SynopsisMark Turner makes the revolutionary claim that the basic issue for cognitive science is the nature of literary thinking. Using tools of modern linguistics, the recent work of neuroscientists, and literary masterpieces from Shakespeare, Homer, and Dante, Turner explains how story and projection are fundamental to everyday thought.Trade ReviewAn incredibly rich overview of Turner's newest ideas, offering scholars in both the humanities and cognitive sciences an excellent tutorial on the literary mind. * Raymond Gibbs, Jr., Professor of Psychology, University of California, Santa Cruz *Outstanding. This book will be a marvellous way for people to get into cognitive science. * Suzanne E. Kemmer, Professor of Linguistics, Rice University *Turner's forceful book starts by showing how we use storying and metaphor to understand everything from pouring a cup of coffee to Proust. It ends with the splendidly bold claim that this storying, literary mind comes first, before all other kinds of thought, even language itself. Adventurous and convincing, Turner's work launches a new understanding, not only of literature, but of what it is to have a human brain. To read it is to think about thinking in a way you never have. * Norman N. Holland, Marston-Milbauer Professor of English, University of Florida *A garden of many delights to be enjoyed by literary and scientific minds? An elegant bridge between two worlds? Other mixed (blended) metaphors apply to this book provided they tell the reader that this is an intelligent text, equally valuable to literary scholars and cognitive scientists. * Antonio R. Damasio, Professor of Neurology, University of Iowa, and author of "Descartes' Error" *Table of Contents1: Bedtime with Shahrazad 2: Human Meaning 3: Body Action 4: Figured Tales 5: Creative Blends 6: Many Spaces 7: Single Lives 8: Language Notes Further Reading on Image Schemas Index

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Book SynopsisFor the past forty years The Nature of Narrative has been a seminal work for literary students, teachers, writers, and scholars. Countering the tendency to view the novel as the paradigm case of literary narrative, authors Robert Scholes and Robert Kellogg in the original edition offered a compelling history of the genre narrative from antiquity to the twentieth-century, even as they carried out their main task of describing and analyzing the nature of narrative's main elements: meaning, character, plot, and point of view. Their history emphasized the broad sweep of literary narrative from ancient times to the contemporary period, and it included a chapter on the oral heritage of written narrative and an appendix on the interior monologue in ancient texts. The fortieth anniversary edition of this groundbreaking work has been revised and expanded to include a new preface and a lengthy chapter on developments in narrative theory since 1966 by James Phelan. This chapter describes the pTrade ReviewPraise for the previous edition of The Nature of Narrative "A pioneer venture into one of the richest areas in literature, this volume is worthy of comparison with the classic studies of Harry Levin and René Wellek * Modern Language Journal "Attempts to put the novel in its place, to see it as only one of a number of narrative possibilities. The authors survey all kinds of narrative forms, written and unwritten from almost all literatures, with learning and insight. Also the traditional subjects of the theory of the novel, character, type, realism, etc., are illuminated from this wider international perspective."-René Wellek, Sterling Professor of Comparative Literature, Yale University *Table of ContentsPREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION BY ROBERT SCHOLES ; PREFACE BY JAMES PHELAN ; 1. The Narrative Tradition ; 2. The Oral Heritage of Written Narrative ; 3. The Classical Heritage of Modern Narrative ; 4. Meaning in Narrative ; 5. Character in Narrative ; 6. Plot in Narrative ; 7. Point of View in Narrative ; 8. Narrative Theory, 1966-2006: A Narrative ; WORKS CITED ; APPENDIX ; NOTES ; INDEX

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Book SynopsisFor the past forty years The Nature of Narrative has been a seminal work for literary students, teachers, writers, and scholars. Countering the tendency to view the novel as the paradigm case of literary narrative, authors Robert Scholes and Robert Kellogg in the original edition offered a compelling history of the genre narrative from antiquity to the twentieth-century, even as they carried out their main task of describing and analyzing the nature of narrative's main elements: meaning, character, plot, and point of view. Their history emphasized the broad sweep of literary narrative from ancient times to the contemporary period, and it included a chapter on the oral heritage of written narrative and an appendix on the interior monologue in ancient texts. The fortieth anniversary edition of this groundbreaking work has been revised and expanded to include a new preface and a lengthy chapter on developments in narrative theory since 1966 by James Phelan. This chapter describes the pTrade ReviewA pioneer venture into one of the richest areas in literature, this volume is worthy of comparison with the classic studies of Harry Levin and René Wellek. * Modern Language Journal (review from previous edition) *Attempts to put the novel in its place, to see it as only one of a number of narrative possibilities. The authors survey all kinds of narrative forms, written and unwritten from almost all literatures, with learning and insight. Also the traditional subjects of the theory of the novel, character, type, realism, etc., are illuminated from this wider international perspective. * René Wellek, Sterling Professor of Comparative Literature, Yale University *Table of ContentsPreface to the Second Edition by Robert Scholes Preface by James Phelan 1: The Narrative Tradition 2: The Oral Heritage of Written Narrative 3: The Classical Heritage of Modern Narrative 4: Meaning in Narrative 5: Character in Narrative 6: Plot in Narrative 7: Point of View in Narrative 8: Narrative Theory, 1966-2006: A Narrative Works Cited Appendix Notes Index

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Book SynopsisDoes reading novels evoking empathy with fictional characters really cultivate our sympathetic imagination and lead to altruistic actions on behalf of real others? Empathy and the Novel presents a comprehensive account of the relationships among novel reading, empathy, and altruism. Though readers'' and authors'' empathy certainly contribute to the emotional resonance of fiction and its success in the marketplace, Keen finds the case for altruistic consequences of novel reading inconclusive (and exaggerated by defenders of literary reading). She offers instead a detailed theory of narrative empathy, with proposals about its deployment by novelists and its results in readers. Empathy and the Novel engages with neuroscience and contemporary psychological research on empathy, bringing affect to the center of cognitive literary studies'' scrutiny of narrative fiction. Drawing on narrative theory, literary history, philosophy, and contemporary scholarship in discourse processing, Keen brinTrade ReviewThis work's forte is its willingness to range across a series of disciplines and to locate itself at the interconnection between science and literature. Well illustrated...It is an extremely stimulating, clearly written and accessible work which will be of interest to scholars of literature, psychology and neuroscience alike. * Alison E. Martin, Anglistik: International Journal of English Studies *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Preface 1: Contemporary Perspectives on Empathy 2: The Literary Career of Empathy 3: Readers' Empathy 4: Empathy in the Marketplace 5: Authors' Empathy 6: Contesting Empathy Appendix: A Collection of Hypotheses about Narrative Empathy Work Cited Index

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Book SynopsisThe twelve essays by Kendall Walton in this volume address a broad range of issues concerning the arts. Walton introduces an innovative account of aesthetic value, and explores relations between aesthetic value and values of other kinds. His classic ''Categories of Art'' is included, as is ''Transparent Pictures'', his controversial account of what is special about photographs. A new essay investigates the fact that still pictures are still, although some of them depict motion. New postscripts have been added to several of the reprinted essays.Trade ReviewThe collection is indeed a joy to read... Each essay gives the tangible impression hearing an outstanding philosopher in direct engagement with the issues... For all the freshness and directness of style, there is an extraordinary level of subtle nuance and fine distinction... It is a principal conclusion of the opening chapter, which gives the collection its title, that a distinctive mark of aesthetic pleasure is the fact we take pleasure, not just in the object itself, but also in our admiration for the object. Just such a pleasure will be occasioned by this admirable volume. Marvelous indeed. * Ian Ground, Philosophy *Table of ContentsIntroduction Part I: Aesthetic and Moral Values 1: "How Marvelous": Toward a Theory of Aesthetic Value Postscripts to "How Marvelous!" 2: The Test of Time 3: Morals in Fiction and Fictional Morality 4: On the (So-Called) Puzzle of Imaginative Resistance Part II: Pictures and Photographs 5: Pictures & Hobby Horses: Make-Believe Beyond Childhood 6: Transparent Pictures: On the Nature of Photographic Realism Postscripts to "Transparent Pictures" 7: On Pictures & Photographs: Objections Answered 8: Seeing In and Seeing Fictionally 9: Depiction, Perception, & Imagination: Responses to Richard Wollheim 10: Experiencing Still Photographs: What Do You See and How Long Do You See It? Part III: Categories and Styles 11: Categories of Art 12: Style and the Products and Processes of Art

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Book SynopsisInterdisciplinary Barthes addresses the enduring stimulus that Barthes offers to intellectually adventurous work across the human sciences. It contextualises his creative engagements with ethnology, historiography, philosophy, ethics, music, photography, and literature, and traces the distinctive ways which he unsettled disciplinary boundaries.Trade ReviewAs one might imagine in picking up any hardback publication from Oxford University Press, Interdisciplinary Barthes is a satisfying book to behold * Sunil Manghani, Barthes Studies *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Notes on Contributors Preface Introduction 1: DIANA KNIGHT: Roland Barthes, An Interdisciplinary Subject Part I: Myths, History, and Images 2: PHILIPPE ROGER: Barthes's Frenchness 3: JONATHAN CULLER: Barthes's Myths of America 4: STEPHEN BANN: The Intelligible Versus the Real: Barthes's Historiographical Option 5: MARIA O'SULLIVAN: Time and Space: Barthes and the Discourse of History 6: ÉRIC MARTY: Barthes and the Visibility Turn: For a Non-Mimetic Image 7: KATHRIN YACAVONE: Picturing Barthes: The Photographic Construction of Authorship Part II: Religion, Philosophy, and Ethics 8: MICHAEL MORIARTY: Barthes and Religion 9: LUCY O'MEARA: Barthes and the Lessons of Ancient Philosophy 10: MARIELLE MACÉ: Barthes and 'Subtle Forms of Living' 11: KRIS PINT: 'A Country Free by Default': Barthes and the Atmospheric Experience of Literature 12: FRANÇOIS NOUDELMANN: Barthes and Insignificant Music 13: PATRIZIA LOMBARDO: Barthes and the Emotions Part III: Writing, Criticism, and the Archive 14: ANTOINE COMPAGNON: Barthes and Commissioned Writing 15: ANDY STAFFORD: Barthes's Menippean Moment: Creative Criticism 1966-70 16: CLAUDE COSTE: From Fichier to OEuvre: Barthess 'Our Literature' project 17: ANNE HERSCHBERG PIERROT: Barthes, the Desire to Write, and the Prevision of the Work 18: TIPHAINE SAMOYAULT: Barthes's Ordinary Writing Index

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Book SynopsisThe Romantic myth of Bohemia originated in the early nineteenth century as a way of describing the new conditions faced by artists and writers when the previous system of aristocratic patronage collapsed in the wake of the Age of Revolution. Without the patron system, the artist was free to move around, to seek an audience wherever fortune beckoned. This marketing model likening the artist''s vagabond career to the gypsy life helps to explain part of the bohemian myth, but not all of it. Most bohemians have scant interest in commercial gain and are not so itinerant after all, confining their movements to down-market urban neighbourhoods where the rent is cheap and the morals are loose.This Very Short Introduction traces the myth of Bohemia through its various fictional manifestations, from Henry Murger''s novel Scenes of Bohemian Life (1851) and Giacomo Puccini''s opera La Bohème (1896) to Aki Kaurismäki''s film La vie de Bohème (1992), and Jonathan Larson''s musical Rent (1996). It goes on to examine the history of different bohemian communities, including those in the Latin Quarter of Paris, the Schwabing section of Munich, and the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York. David Weir also considers the politics of Bohemia and traces the careers of the artists Gustave Courbet and Pablo Picasso and the great chanteuses Yvette Guilbert, Fréhel, and Edith Piaf in the Montmartre neighborhood of Paris, where a rich tradition of popular culture indebted to Bohemia also developed. Weir concludes with a discussion of the legacy of Bohemia today as something outworn and dying, an exhausted tradition that somehow continues.Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Introduction Chapter 1: Fictional Bohemias Chapter 2: Historical Bohemias Chapter 3: Political Bohemias Chapter 4: Artistic Bohemias Conclusion References Further reading Index

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Book SynopsisThis is the first biography of a gay American novelist, story writer, and playwright who in the early 1960s was considered a major talent and whose work was praised by Jonathan Franzen, Susan Sontag, Langston Hughes, and Tennessee Williams.Trade ReviewThrough his writing, Purdy offers his readers a window on the sexual experiences of an America that remains largely hidden from view. * Looi van Kessel, an assistant professor of Literary Studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands, The Gay & Lesbian Review *This biography of a cult writer and pioneer of queer fiction tries to reconcile mainstream neglect of his work with the acclaim he received from authors including Tennessee Williams and Susan Sontag....Snyder takes us from Purdy's childhood on an Ohio farm to his final years in New York, in a tantalizing portrait of a man with a talent for alienating colleagues, but also for conveying 'a tragic sense of life couched in dark laughter.' * New Yorker (Briefly Noted) *For Purdy fans, it [Snyder's biography] offers a welcome trove of new details about a man who was as ornery in life as he was on the page. For everyone else, it offers something even better: a cornucopia of literary gossip. * Jon Michaud, New Yorker *Meticulously researched.... Snyder deserves applause for having delivered James's important and ramshackle life in so neat of a volume...with enough novel detail that even a reader like me, who knew James for two decades, will find value and pleasure in reading the book....I recommend that you go out and buy [James Purdy:] Life of a Contrarian Writer from your local independent bookstore and devote however many days and hours you need to read it. You won't be wasting your time. * Matthew Stadler, Los Angeles Review of Books *Snyder makes a strong case for Purdy as a visionary American Genius * Looi Van Kessel, Gay and Lesbian Review *James Purdy was out of category, out of this world, and hence, often out of print. He was also, without question, one of the most original American writers of the twentieth century. Michael Snyder has performed an essential public service by bringing this to your attention. So please heed it. * Fran Lebowitz *With his crazy prose and graveside view of life, James Purdy felt to generations of young writers under his bewitching spell like a moral compass, though one that never stopped spinning. In the black-diamond tradition of Denton Welch, Paul Bowles, even the later Herman Melville, he revealed what strange, crooked marvels the imagination might discover if left alone. Thank you, Michael Snyder, for framing, for a new generation, the fitfully forgotten but never forgettable life and fiction of James Purdy. * Brad Gooch, author of Flannery: A Life of Flannery O'Connor *A beautifully in-depth literary biography of a maddening, inflammatory, eccentric, and very important writer. James Purdy is probably the most important writer you've never heard of, and Michael Snyder makes an impeccable case for why American fiction wouldn't be what it is without him. * Brian Evenson, author of Song for the Unraveling of the World *Snyder presents Purdy as an artist well worth knowing and appreciating...Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers. * Choice *Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Mystery of Purdy Ch. 1: Hicksville, Ohio Ch. 2: A Day after the Fair Ch. 3: The Nephew Ch. 4: Dream Palaces Ch. 5: The Running Sons Ch. 6: The Professor Ch. 7: James Purdy Begins Ch. 8: Success Story Ch. 9: Threshold of Assent Ch. 10: The Mourner Below Ch. 11: Maggoty Urgings Ch. 12: The Sun at Noon Ch 13: Sleepers in Moon-Crowned Valleys Ch. 14: Elijah Thrush Ch. 15: Solitary Confinement Ch. 16: Lighting Out Ch. 17: On Glory's Course Ch. 18: Color of Darkness Ch. 19: The Acolytes Acknowledgments Notes Select Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThe Qur''an is a text of extraordinary depth and complexity. In How the Qur''an Works, Leyla Ozgur Alhassen takes the reader on a journey through the Qur''an, moving from one verse to another, one story to another, focusing on narratological elements while conducting a close reading in order to understand particular Qur''anic stories and to show how the text''s literary techniques enhance its theological agenda. She unpacks the text by focusing on Qur''anic narrative, and specifically, repetition in Qur''anic stories. Repetition is an important part of the Qur''an''s literary technique. Ozgur Alhassen traces the use of repetition as a narrative device from the text''s overall structure to individual letters. She compares different Qur''anic stories and explores the kinds of repetition that occur in them and what purposes they serve. Repetition, she shows, forges patterns, connections, and layers of meaning that develop, complicate, and comment on the Qur''an''s messages.Table of ContentsList of Figures and Tables Acknowledgements 1. Introduction: Why Repetition? 2. Chapter Two: Repetition in Structure: Parallels, Reversals and Triangles 3. Chapter Three: Repetition in the Qur'anic Story of Musa 4. Chapter Four: Repetition and the Portrayal of Time in the Story of Musa and Harun in the Qur'an 5. Chapter Five: Echoing Phrases, Words and Actions in Qur'anic Stories: Exchange Encounters, Fasting, Feasting and Faith 6. Chapter Six: Repetition in Surat al-Shu'ara: Prophethood, Power and Inspiration 7. Chapter Seven: Repetition in Sarat al-Qamar and a Comparison with Surat al-Shu'ara 8. Conclusion: Connections, Narrative and Power 9. Appendices Appendix A: Musa Appendix B: Surat al-Shu'ara Appendix C: Surat al-Qamar and Comparisons of Surat al-Shu'ara with Surat al-Qamar

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Book SynopsisThe aim of this book is to reconstruct ancient Greek assumptions about literary unity. It discusses some literary examples, but its main concern is with ancient secondary texts - literary theory and criticism, undertaking a systematic survey from Plato and Aristotle down to the later Neoplatonists.Table of ContentsIntroduction; Plato; Fourth-century rhetoric; Aristotle; Epic after Aristotle; Dionysus and historiography; Later rhetoric; The Homeric Scholia; The Neoplatonist Turn; Some post-classical developments; Conclusion; Appendices: A. Epeisodion before Aristotle; B. Other poetic scholia; Bibliography; Indexes

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Book SynopsisThis book makes a radical break with earlier interpretations of Bakhtin''s work. Using recent Russian scholarship, Ken Hirschkop explodes many of the myths which have surrounded Bakhtin and his work and lays the ground for a new, more historically acute sense of his achievement. Through a comprehensive reading of Bakhtin''s work, Hirschkop demonstrates that his discussion of the philosophy of language, literary history, popular-festive culture, and the phenomenology of everyday life revolved around a lifelong search for a new kind of modern ethical culture. A detailed examination of the major works reveals the careful interweaving of philosophical and historical argument which makes Bakhtin at once so compelling and so frustrating a writer. Hirschkop treats Bakhtin not as a metaphysician or a philosopher for the ages, but as a writer inevitably drawn into the historical conflicts produced by a modernizing and democratizing Europe. As a consequence, Bakhtin becomes a more sober but alsoTrade ReviewHirschkop's study excels on numerous levels: meticulous and elegant in execution and style, exhaustively researched, acribically documented, and rigorously argued, it betrays its author's masterful grip of his subject - both biographical-historical and conceptual-philosophical ... has certainly set new critical standards for Bakhtin scholarship to come. * Poetics Today *This is an important and long-awaited book by one of the country's leading experts on Bakhtin and Bakhtinian theory. * Forum for Modern Language Studies *The book is rounded off with an extremely useful and up-to-date bibliography which includes a detailed bibliography of Bakhtin's writings organised according to genre and chronology and also those of his "circle". * Forum for Modern Language Studies *Very illuminating on Bakhtin's relationship with Saussure and linguistics. * The Yearbook of English Studies *Undoubtedly the most reliable and up-to-date biographical excursus on Bakhtin and the Bakhtin circle available in English. * Galin Tihanov, Times Higher Education Supplement *Intellectually vigorous ... subtle and wide-ranging interpretation ... asks several compelling qustions. * Galin Tihanov, Times Higher Education Supplement *

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Book SynopsisIs literary biography widely read for popular, "prurient" reasons, or for "reputable" intellectual reasons? Leading critics and professional biographers here attempt to answer this and other questions by examining the biographies of such authors as Virginia Woolf, Aldous Huxley and others.Trade Review`sprightly collection of essays' Sunday Times`deftly edited ... the collection as a whole is refreshingly free from the excesses of lit-crit gobbledegook.' Literary Review`excellent book of essays' New Statesman and Society'a most attractive seminar on the art, or craft, of telling the story of story-tellers' existences' Valentine Cunningham, The Observer'the best of these writers highlight what fun biography can be, and so shed light on a fascinating cultural phenomenon' Jackie Wullschlager, Financial Times'sprightly collection of essays on the art of biography' Anthony Quinn, Sunday Times'in this excellent book of essays 17 important biographers wrestle with their own practice' Kathryn Hughes, New Statesman & Society'contains some excellent essays' Hilary Spurling, Daily Telegraph...excellent book...The Art of Literary Biography offers an intriguing look at variety within the genre. * IsisKeith Peirson Scene Dec. 1995 *it is of eminent appeal not only to academics and students of literature, formal or not, but should be must reading for journalists, essayists, writers and serious readers of all kinds. As a handbook on the theory of writing biographies, it is essential and one of the best books on the subject we have seen to date. * Scene *this collection is notable in general for its cheerful indifference to theory ... There is a widespread awareness that most theoretical approaches do not describe or illuminate what biographers do ... lively collection. * Peter Hollindale, University of York, Review of English Studies, Vol. XLVIII, No. 189, Feb '97 *an agreeable collection of essays ... with contributions from many distinguished practitioners ... This is an excellent collection which forces us to ponder the implications of the word 'art' in its title; for if biography can be so many kinds of art, what identity is it left with itself? * English Studies *

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Book SynopsisStates of Fantasy is Jacqueline Rose''s much-praised contribution to the current controversy over the limits of English Studies. Arguing for an expansion of the new boundaries of `English'', and for the importance of psychoanalysis to the understanding of our literary and historical lives, Rose looks at Israel/Palestine and South Africa, and their place in the English literary and cultural imagination.Jacqueline Rose''s fundamental question is the place of fantasy in public and private identities, and in these pages she pushes her investigation further into what might at first glance seem unlikely places. In September 1993, Israel and the PLO signed their first peace treaty; in April 1994, South Africa held its first non-racial democratic elections. States of Fantasy persuasively puts the case that nowhere demonstrates more clearly than these two arenas of historic conflict the need for a psychoanalytically informed understanding of historical process. In so doing, this book shows how Trade ReviewJacqueline Rose, with verve, imagination and ingenuity, argues that fantasy is central to modern politics: it is the psychic glue that holds together our social reality. Rose writes with engaging directness. * New Statesman and Society *The governing metaphor in Rose's study, deployed with splendid resourcefulness, is of unconscious histories, buried affiliations, broken and rejoined lines of influence...this is a work intimate with the detail of Israeli politics as it is with Jacques Lacan. Rose is an intellectual of the diaspora who, after a long detour through theory, has turned back to base in order to know the place for the first time, in all of its embracing, excluding the difference. * London Review of Books *It is the great virtue of Jacqueline Rose's new book ... that in it the reader is bracingly confronted with a genuinely innovative and adventurous style of investigating literary texts. Although she writes with in a recognizable psychoanalytic tradition solidly based in Freud, there is no jargon to get past. Rose's argument is both daring and convincing. Above all, I think it is her critical intelligence that impresses one the most. This isn't a mawkish kind of "personal criticism" - autobiographical meanderings through one's soul - but a capably expressed energy that takes her reader through the moral, cultural and psychological experiences that matter most to her. That we, too, feel them as important and consequential is a mark of her achievement. * Times Literary Supplement *a good and important read, politically engaged, personal and intellectual all in one. * Radical Philosophy 84, July/August 1997 *States of Fantasy is a brilliant, stimulating book, which exhibits a refreshing disregard for literary canon ... more provocative is its terminological novelty: the book's title heralds a departure from the more conventional 'culture and identity' approach. * Alasdair Pettinger, New Formations, 30 Winter 96/97 *Table of ContentsPART I. THE CLARENDON LECTURES ; PART II. THE LIMITS OF CULTURE

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Book SynopsisStephen Mulhall presents the first full-length philosophical study of the work of Stanley Cavell, best known for his highly influential contributions to the fields of film studies, Shakespearian literary criticism, and the confluence of psychoanalysis and literary theory. It is not properly appreciated that Cavell''s project originated in his interpretation of Austin''s and Wittgenstein''s philosophical interest in the criteria governing ordinary language, and is given unity by an abiding concern with the nature and the varying cultural manifestations of the sceptical impulse in modernity. This book elucidates the essentially philosophical roots and trajectory of Cavell''s work, traces its links with Romanticism and its recent turn towards a species of moral pefectionism associated with Thoreau and Emerson, and concludes with an assessment of its relations to liberal-democratic political theory, Christian religious thought, and feminist literary studies. It will be of interest to anyonTrade ReviewDespite what his book's title might suggest, Stephen Mulhall's thorough explication of Stanley Cavell's philosophy is anything but ordinary. At the outset Mulhall makes it clear that he intends to address Cavell's exceptional formidability, and set himself `not to attempt to do what can and must only be done by Cavell's own prose, but to clear the space that is required for it to do so'....to Mulhall's credit...he has cleared the space for such a return. * Philosophy and Literature *Table of ContentsPART I: PATTERNS, AGREEMENT, AND RATIONALITY ; PART II: CRITERIA, SCEPTICISM, AND ROMANTICISM ; PART III: COMMON THEMES, COMPETING PERSPECTIVES ; PART IV: PHILOSOPHY, PEFECTIONISM, AND RELIGION

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Book SynopsisThe kinship between modernism and close reading has long between taken for granted. But for that reason, it has also gone unexamined. As the archives, timeframes, and cultural contexts of global modernist studies proliferate, the field''s rapport with close reading no longer appears self-evident or guaranteed--even though for countless students studying literary modernism still invariably means studying close reading. This authoritative collection of essays illuminates close reading''s conceptual, institutional, and pedagogical genealogies as a means of examining its enduring potential. David James brings together a cast of world-renowned scholars to offer an account of some of the things we might otherwise know, and need to know, about the history of modernist theories of reading, before then providing a sense of how the futures for critical reading look different in light of the multiple ways in which modernism has been close read. Modernism and Close Reading responds to a contemporary climate of unprecedented reconstitution for the field: it takes stock of close reading''s methodological possibilities in the wake of modernist studies'' geographical, literary-historical, and interdisciplinary expansions; and it shows how the political, ethical, and aesthetic consequences of attending to matters of form complicate ideological preconceptions about the practice of formalism itself. By reassessing the intellectual commitments and institutional conditions that have shaped modernism in criticism as well as in the classroom, we are able to ask new questions about close reading that resonate across literary and cultural studies. Invigorating that critical venture, this volume enriches our vocabulary for addressing close reading''s perpetual development and diversification.Trade ReviewModernism and Close Reading is a valuable addition to our current reading method debate. It comes at a time when a reassessment of the past is crucial if our discussions are to be productive and historically grounded. The book counters the dismissal of close reading as a relic of the modernist past and shows this method to be essential to the future of literary studies. * Ali AlYousefi, University of Pennsylvania, Journal of Modern Literature *This landmark collection of essays takes the seemingly established combination of modernism and close-reading and probes it until new conceptual and theoretical genealogies emerge...This is a book with real things to say about the history of criticism, the quality of attentiveness, and their relationship to the practice and study of modernism right now. It is going to be an inescapable book for some time to come * Honourable Mention, 2020 MSA Book Prize Shortlist: Edition, Anthology, or Essay Collection *The collection is highly serviceable for all academics not only as a handy refresher—or a primer for what some literature departments might have removed from their curricula—but also for its invaluable look into the very recent developments in the discipline. * Jolanta Wawrzycka, James Joyce Quarterly *One of the many strengths of Modernism and Close Reading is how it stages and instrumentalizes this challenge—how it organizes all those moving parts but without comprising complexity or specificity. This volume does not shy away from conceptual or disciplinary messiness... For those interested in modernism, close reading, or the history of criticism—for those willing to immerse themselves in the innumerable, still expanding relations entailed therein—this collection is absolutely worth reading. * Joshua Gang, The Review of English Studies *Table of ContentsIntroduction PART I: HISTORIES OF MODERNISM AND CLOSE READING 1: Max Saunders: Modernist Close Reading 2: Peter Howarth: Close Reading as Performance 3: Rachel Sagner Buurma and Laura Heffernan: Poetry Explication: The Making of a Method 4: Joseph Brooker: Slow Revelations: James Joyce and the Rhetorics of Reading 5: Jean-Michel Rabaté: When Did Close Reading Acquire a Bad Name? PART II: FUTURES FOR CLOSE READING MODERNISM 6: Jesse Matz: Queer Surrealism 7: Vidyan Ravinthiran: Nabokov and the Privilege of Style 8: Paige Reynolds: Bird Girls: Modernism and Sexual Ethics in Contemporary Irish Fiction 9: Derek Attridge: Tom McCarthy's Modernism: Close Encounters of a Pleasurable Kind 10: Melba Cuddy-Keane: Experiencing the Modernist Storymind: A Cognitive Reading of Narrative Space 11: Hannah Freed-Thall: Thinking Small: Ecologies of Close Reading

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Book SynopsisCynicism is usually seen as a provocative mode of dissent from conventional moral thought, casting doubt on the motives that guide right conduct. When critics today complain that it is ubiquitous but lacks the serious bite of classical Cynicism, they express concern that it can now only be corrosively negative. The Function of Cynicism at the Present Time takes a more balanced view. Re-evaluating the role of cynicism in literature, cultural criticism, and philosophy from 1840 to the present, it treats cynic confrontationalism as a widely-employed credibility-check on the promotion of moral ideals--with roots in human psychology. Helen Small investigates how writers have engaged with Cynic traditions of thought, and later more gestural styles of cynicism, to re-calibrate dominant moral values, judgements of taste, and political agreements. The argument develops through a series of cynic challenges to accepted moral thinking: Friedrich Nietzsche on morality; Thomas Carlyle v. J. S. Mill on the permissible limits of moral provocation; Arnold on the freedom of criticism; George Eliot and Ford Madox Ford on cosmopolitanism; Bertrand Russell, John Dewey, and Laura Kipnis on the conditions of work in the university. The Function of Cynicism treats topics of present-day public concern: abrasive styles of public argument; debasing challenges to conventional morality; free speech, moral controversialism; the authority of reason and the limits of that authority; nationalism and resistance to nationalism; and liberty of expression as a core principle of the university.Trade ReviewAdeptly employing classic thought to evaluate modern works, Small presents strategies that will prompt thoughtful discussion and could also veer into nihilism. Adroitly moving between ancient and modern ethics, this insightful volume will interest a broad audience. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers. * R. Mulligan, Christopher Newport University, CHOICE *"[Professor Small] puts the breadth of her learning to good use in helping us understand that cynics great and small can serve an important role in tapping the walls of our social edifice for tell-tale signs of hollowness. * Daniel Akst, Wall Street Journal *Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Function of Cynicism 1: On Nietzsche and Doing Less with Cynicism 2: Speech beyond Toleration: Moral Controversialism Then and Now (Mill v. Carlyle) 3: The Freedom of Criticism: Arnold's Cynicisms 4: Cosmopolitan Cynicisms: George Eliot and Ford Madox Ford 5: In Praise of Idleness? Cynicism and the Humanities (Bertrand Russell, John Dewey, Laura Kipnis) Coda: Last and First Things

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Book SynopsisThe Other Virgil tells the story of how a classic like the Aeneid can say different things to different people. As a school text it was generally taught to support the values and ideals of a succession of postclassical societies, but between 1500 and 1800 a number of unusually sensitive readers responded to cues in the text that call into question what the poem appears to be supporting. This book focuses on the literary works written by these readers, to show how they used the Aeneid as a model for poems that probed and challenged the dominant values of their society, just as Virgil had done centuries before. Some of these poems are not as well known today as they should be, but others, like Milton''s Paradise Lost and Shakespeare''s The Tempest, are; in the latter case, the poems can be understood in new ways once their relationship to the ''other Virgil'' is made clear.Trade Reviewimportant, timely and well-written * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *The book [is] one which any student of Virgil will find durable valuableTable of ContentsIntroduction ; 1. Marginalization ; 2. Colonization ; 3. Revolution ; Conclusion

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Book SynopsisThis book is a comprehensive guide to the richness and diversity of the Romantic field. It includes 46 specially commissioned chapters by an international team of leading scholars and combines chapters offering background and contextual information with detailed readings of Romantic texts. The volume is divided into four parts - ''Romantic Orientations'', ''Reading Romanticism'', ''Romantic Forms'' and ''Romantic Afterlives''.Table of ContentsPART 1 ; ROMANTIC ORIENTATIONS ; 1. The Historical Context ; 2. The Literary Background ; 3. Classical Inheritances ; 4. Sensibility ; 5. The Visual Arts and Music ; 6. Print Culture ; 7. Romanticism and Science ; 8. Religion and Philosophy ; 9. England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland ; 10. Europe ; 11. Easts ; 12. Americas ; PART 2 ; READING ROMANTICISM ; 13. Historicist/Marxist Approaches ; 14. Feminist Approaches ; 15. Ecological Approaches ; 16. Psychoanalytic Approaches ; 17. Postcolonial Approaches ; 18. Formalist Approaches ; PART 3 ; ROMANTIC FORMS ; 19. Introduction to Romantic Forms ; 20. The Lyric ; 21. Epic ; 22. The Sonnet ; 23. Narrative Poetry ; 24. The Novel ; 25. Satire ; 26. Drama ; 27. Essays, Newspapers and Magazines ; 28. Biography and Autobiography ; 29. Romance ; 30. Gothic ; 31. Fragments ; 32. Forgeries ; 33. Non-Fictional Prose ; 34. Travel Writing ; 35. Letters, Diaries and Journals ; PART 4 ; ROMANTIC AFTERLIVES ; 36. Literary Criticism and Theory ; 37. The Poetic Tradition ; 38. The Novel ; 39. Film ; 40. Romantic Afterlives and Legacies in the Theatre ; 41. Idea of the Author ; 42. Modernism and Postmodernity ; 43. Politics ; 44. Science ; 45. Environmentalism ; 46. Romanticism in the Electronic Age

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Book SynopsisThe Oxford Handbooks series is a major new initiative in academic publishing. Each volume offers an authoritative and up-to-date survey of original research in a particular subject area. Specially commissioned essays from leading figures in the discipline give critical examinations of the progress and direction of debates. Oxford Handbooks provide scholars and graduate students with compelling new perspectives upon a wide range of subjects in the humanities and social sciences. The Oxford Handbook of Aesthetics brings the authority, liveliness, and multi-disciplinary scope of the Handbook series to the area where philosophy meets the arts. Jerrold Levinson has assembled a hugely impressive range of talent to contribute 48 brand-new essays, making this the most comprehensive guide available to the theory, application, history, and future of the field. This Handbook will be invaluable to academics and students across philosophy and all branches of the arts, both as the reference work of Trade Reviewthe philosophy of emotion as a whole is considerably richer as a result of this comprehensive, skilfully edited collection of high-quality philosophical work ... essential reading for those with an interest in the emotions * Michael Brady, British Journal of Aesthetics *This Handbook is a timely response to a growing interest in aesthetics ... it covers a good deal of ground, provides much interesting information and abounds in interesting quotations. * Peter Rickman, Philosophy Now *Levinson has achieved his intention to provide a collection from which both the professional philosopher and the enthusiastic non-professional can derive instruction and pleasure. . . . he has brought together many of the key practitioners in the field of philosophical aesthetics and this is reflected in the depth of subjects and the lucid quality of the writing. * British Journal of Aesthetics *Table of ContentsPreface ; 1. Philosophical Aesthetics: an Overview ; 2. History of Modern Aesthetics ; 3. Aesthetic Realism 1 ; 4. Aesthetic Realism 2 ; 5. Aesthetic Experience ; 6. Beauty ; 7. Aesthetics of Nature ; 8. Definition of Art ; 9. Ontology of Art ; 10. Medium in Art ; 11. Representation in Art ; 12. Expression in Art ; 13. Style in Art ; 14. Creativity in Art ; 15. Authenticity in Art ; 16. Intention in Art ; 17. Interpretation in Art ; 18. Value in Art ; 19. Humour ; 20. Metaphor ; 21. Fiction ; 22. Narrative ; 23. Tragedy ; 24. Art and Emotion ; 25. Art and Knowledge ; 26. Art and Morality ; 27. Art and Politics ; 28. Music ; 29. Painting ; 30. Literature ; 31. Architecture ; 32. Sculpture ; 33. Dance ; 34. Theatre ; 35. Poetry ; 36. Photography ; 37. Film ; 38. Feminist Aesthetics ; 39. Environmental Aesthetics ; 40. Comparative Aesthetics ; 41. Aesthetics and Evolutionary Psychology ; 42. Aesthetics and Cognitive Science ; 43. Aesthetics and Ethics ; 44. Aesthetics of Popular Art ; 45. Aesthetics of the Avant-Garde ; 46. Aesthetics of the Everyday ; 47. Aesthetics and Postmodernism ; 48. Aesthetics and Cultural Studies

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Book SynopsisNever has contemporary fiction been more widely discussed and passionately analysed; recent years have seen a huge growth in the number of reading groups and in the interest of a non-academic readership in the discussion of how novels work. Drawing on his weekly Guardian column, ''Elements of Fiction'', John Mullan examines novels mostly of the last ten years, many of which have become firm favourites with reading groups. He reveals the rich resources of novelistic technique, setting recent fiction alongside classics of the past. Nick Hornby''s adoption of a female narrator is compared to Daniel Defoe''s; Ian McEwan''s use of weather is set against Austen''s and Hardy''s; Carole Shield''s chapter divisions are likened to Fanny Burney''s. Each section shows how some basic element of fiction is used. Some topics (like plot, dialogue, or location) will appear familiar to most novel readers; others (metanarrative, prolepsis, amplification) will open readers'' eyes to new ways of understanding and appreciating the writer''s craft. How Novels Work explains how the pleasures of novel reading often come from the formal ingenuity of the novelist. It is an entertaining and stimulating exploration of that ingenuity. Addressed to anyone who is interested in the close reading of fiction, it makes visible techniques and effects we are often only half-aware of as we read. It shows that literary criticism is something that all fiction enthusiasts can do. Contemporary novels discussed include: Monica Ali''s Brick Lane; Martin Amis''s Money; Margaret Atwood''s The Blind Assassin; A.S. Byatt''s Possession; Jonathan Coe''s The Rotters'' Club; J.M. Coetzee''s Disgrace; Michael Cunningham''s The Hours; Don DeLillo''s Underworld; Michel Faber''s The Crimson Petal and the White; Ian Fleming''s From Russia with Love; Jonathan Franzen''s The Corrections; Mark Haddon''s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time; Patricia Highsmith''s Ripley under Ground; Alan Hollinghurst''s The Spell; Nick Hornby''s How to Be Good; Ian McEwan''s Atonement; John le Carré''s The Constant Gardener; Andrea Levy''s Small Island; David Mitchell''s Cloud Atlas; Andrew O''Hagan''s Personality; Orhan Pamuk''s My Name Is Red; Ann Patchett''s Bel Canto; Ruth Rendell''s Adam and Eve and Pinch Me; Philip Roth''s The Human Stain; Jonathan Safran Foer''s Everything Is Illuminated; Carol Shields''s Unless; Zadie Smith''s White Teeth; Muriel Spark''s Aiding and Abetting; Graham Swift''s Last Orders; Donna Tartt''s The Secret History; William Trevor''s The Hill Bachelors; and Richard Yates''s Revolutionary Road .Trade ReviewIt strikes me that none of our readers can afford to be without this book! I'm an admirer of John Mullan's 'Guardian' columns, and this is definitely something that we should be reviewing. * Edward Fenton. 'The Oxford Writer *A brilliant crash course in contemporary fiction * Waterstones Books Quarterly *Table of ContentsIntroduction ; 1. Beginning ; 2. Narrating ; 3. People ; 4. Genre ; 5. Voices ; 6. Structure ; 7. Detail ; 8. Style ; 9. Devices ; 10. Literariness ; 11. Ending

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Book SynopsisHomer''s Iliad is one of the foundational texts of Western Civilization. The timelessness of its story, of men battling fate amidst the horrors of war, still stirs the imaginations of readers year after year. What is offered here is the first translation by someone who is both an eminent scholar and published poet. Based on his thorough familiarity with Homeric language, Powell''s free verse translation preserves the clarity and simplicity of the original, while recreating the original feel and sound of the oral-formulaic style. By avoiding the stylistic formality of earlier translations, and the colloquial and sometimes exaggerated effects of recent attempts, he deftly captures and conveys the most essential truths of this vital text. Helpfully included in this edition are a detailed introduction, illustrations, maps, and notes. Modern and pleasing to the ear while accurately reflecting the meaning of the Greek, Powell steers a middle path between the most well-known translations and Trade Reviewcomprehensive and authoritative ... user friendly ... This generous scholarly gift will be joined by Powell's forthcoming Odyssey (2014) ... Highly recommended. * R. Cormier, CHOICE *Table of ContentsTable of Contents ; List of Maps ; List of Figures ; Preface ; Introduction ; Acknowledgments ; About the Translator ; Maps ; Homeric Timeline ; Book 1: The Anger of Achilles ; Book 2: False Dream and the Catalog of Ships ; Book 3: A Duel to the Death ; Book 4: Trojan Treachery, Bitter War ; Book 5: The Glory of Diomedes ; Book 6: Hector and Andromache Say Goodbye ; Book 7: The Duel Between Hector and Ajax ; Book 8: Zeus Fulfills his Promise ; Book 9: The Embassy to Achilles ; Book 10: The Exploits of Dolon ; Book 11: The Glory of Agamemnon and The Wounding of the Captains ; Book 12: Attack on the Wall ; Book 13: The Battle at the Ships ; Book 14: Zeus Deceived ; Book 15: Counterattack ; Book 16: The Glory of Patroklos ; Book 17: Fight Over the Corpse of Patroklos ; Book 18: The Shield of Achilles ; Book 19: Agamemnon's Apology ; Book 20: The Dual Between Hector and Ajax ; Book 21: Fight with the River; Battle of the Gods ; Book 22: The Killing of Hector ; Book 23: The Funeral of Patroklos ; Book 24: The Ransom of Hector ; Bibliography ; Credits ; Pronouncing Glossary/Index

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Book SynopsisThe heritage of literature in the French language is rich, varied, and extensive in time and space; appealing both to its immediate public, readers of French, and also to a global audience reached through translations and film adaptations. The first great works of this repertory were written in the twelfth century in northern France, and now, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, include authors writing in many parts of the world, ranging from the Caribbean to Western Africa. French Literature: A Very Short Introduction introduces this lively literary world by focusing on texts - epics, novels, plays, poems, and screenplays - that concern protagonists whose adventures and conflicts reveal shifts in literary and social practices. From the hero of the medieval Song of Roland to the Caribbean heroines of I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem or the European expatriate in Japan in Fear and Trembling, these problematic protagonists allow us to understand what interests writers and readers across the wide world of French.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Table of Contents1. Werewolves, Saints, Knights, and a Poete Maudit ; 2. The Last Roman, "Cannibals", Heroines of Modern Life, and Giants ; 3. Society and Its Demands ; 4. Nature and its Possibilities ; 5. Around the Revolution ; 6. The Hunchback, the Housewife, and the Stroller ; 7. From Marcel to Rrose Selavy ; 8. Self-Centered Consciousness ; 9. French-speaking heroes without borders?

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Book SynopsisA series of essays exploring aspects of the literary and intellectual culture of Britain from the early twentieth century to the present, focussing on critics and historians who wrote for a non-specialist readership, and on the periodicals and other genres through which they attempted to reach that readership.Trade ReviewCollini is the reviewer par excellence of our age. * David Stack, English Historical Review. *These chapters are erudite, beautifully written, and impressive in their historical breadth. * English *Collini...writes with lively wit and insight. Penetrating, down-to-earth, often hilarious, these essays are perfect brain food * Christopher Hirst, The Independent *The chapters are erudite, beautifully written, and impressive in their historical breadth... this book... represents clear proof that had he written nothing else, Collini would still be one of the few academics reviewing today whose work deserves reprinting in collected form. * Mary Hammond, English *Books do furnish a mind, and in a form that bailiffs cannot repossess. Collini is that rare bird, a don who can be read with pleasure by the non-specialist reader, to whom this book is addressed. * Michael Barber, Books of the Year, The Tablet *Table of ContentsPART ONE: WRITING LIVES ; 1. On not getting on with it: the criticism of Cyril Connolly ; 2. Rolling it out: V. S. Pritchett's writing life ; 3. The Great Seer: Aldous Huxley's visions ; 4. Performance: the critical authority of Rebecca West ; 5. Man of letters as hero: the energy of Edmund Wilson ; 6. Plain speaking: the lives of George Orwell ; 7. Believing in oneself: the career of Stephen Spender ; 8. Smacking: the letters of William Empson ; 9. Disappointment: A. L. Rowse in his diaries ; 10. Believing in England: Arthur Bryant, historian as man of letters ; 11. Believing in history: Herbert Butterfield, Christian and Whig ; 12. The intellectual as realist: the puzzling career of E. H. Carr ; 13. Enduring passion: E. H. Thompson's reputation ; 14. Olympian universalism: Perry Anderson as essayist ; 15. Hegel in green wellies: Roger Scruton's England ; PART TWO: READING MATTERS ; 16. 'The Great Age': the idealizing of Victorian culture ; 17. Always dying: the idea of the general periodical ; 18. Boomster and the Quack: the author as celebrity ; 19. Private reading: the autodidact public ; 20. The completest mode: the literary critic as hero ; 21. From deference to diversity: 'culture' in Britain 1945-2000 ; 22. Well connected: biography and intellectual elites ; 23. National lives: The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography ; 24. HiEdBiz: universities and their publics ; References ; Acknowledgements ; Index

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Book SynopsisWhether you are a novice writer or a veteran who has already had your work published, rejection is often a frustrating reality. Literary agents and editors receive and reject hundreds of manuscripts each month. While it''s the job of these publishing professionals to be discriminating, it''s the job of the writer to produce a manuscript that immediately stands out among the vast competition. And those outstanding qualities, says New York literary agent Noah Lukeman, have to be apparent from the first five pages.The First Five Pages: A Writer''s Guide to Staying Out of the Rejection Pile reveals the necessary elements of good writing, whether it be fiction, nonfiction, journalism, or poetry, and points out errors to be avoided, such as:- A weak opening hook- Overuse of adjectives and adverbs- Flat or forced metaphors or similes- Undeveloped characterizations and lifeless settings- Uneven pacing and lack of progressionWith exercises at the end of each chapter, this invaluable reference wTrade ReviewReview from previous edition Intelligent, important, valuable, and entertaining instructions. . . . It should be read by all novice writers - and by those whose books are already published but intend to write more. * Richard Marek, former editorial director of Kirkus Reviews *Mr. Lukeman has written a definitive handbook on the pitfalls to avoid in your work. . . . I highly recommend The First Five Pages to anyone who is serious about their writing. * PlanetShowbiz.com *Tricks of the trade add to The First Five Pages' value, as do tips on grammar, style, voice and dialogue, and writing exercises. . . . A bargain when you consider all the information packed into [it]. * San Antonio Express-News *Novice and amateur writers alike will benefit from literary agent Lukeman's lucid advice in this handy, inexpensive little book. Carrying the craft of writing beyong Strunk and White's classic Elements of Style, this book should find a wide audience. . . . Writers' groups and workshops will want multiple copies. * Library Journal *Table of ContentsACKNOWLEDGEMENTS; INTRODUCTION; PART I: PRELIMINARY PROBLEMS; PART II: DIALOGUE; PART III: THE BIGGER PICTURE; EPILOGUE; INDEX

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Book SynopsisMedieval Grammar and Rhetoric: Language Arts and Literary Theory, AD 300-1475 contributes to two fields, the history of the language arts and the history of literary theory. It brings together essential sources in the disciplines of grammar and rhetoric which were used to understand literary form and language and teach literary composition. Grammar and rhetoric, the language disciplines, formed the basis of any education from antiquity through the Middle Ages, no matter what future career a student would want to pursue. Because literature was also the subject matter of grammatical teaching, and because rhetorical teaching gave great attention to literary form, these were also the disciplines that would prepare students for an understanding of literary language and form. These arts constituted the abiding theoretical toolbox for anyone engaged in a life of letters.The book brings together more than fifty primary texts from the medieval history of grammar and rhetoric, well over half of Trade ReviewMonumental ... In their heroic labour of translation and scholarship, Copeland and Sluiter provide an entrée to the millennium of pedagogy that formed countless priests, monks, bishops, intellectuals, courtiers and secular bureaucrats. * Barbara Newman, London Review of Books *Table of ContentsPART 1 ARTS OF LANGUAGE, AD CA. 300-CA. 950; PART 2 DOSSIERS ON THE ABLATIVE ABSOLUTE AND ETYMOLOGY; PART 3 SCIENCES AND CURRICULA OF LANGUAGE IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY; SECTION 4 PEDAGOGIES OF GRAMMAR AND RHETORIC, CA. 1150-1280; PART 6 RECEPTIONS OF THE TRADITIONS: THE LANGUAGE ARTS AND POETICS IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES, CA. 1369-CA. 1475

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Book SynopsisIn this updated edition of his brief, engaging book, Robert J. Fogelin examines figures of speech that concern meaning-irony, hyperbole, understatement, similes, metaphors, and others-to show how they work and to explain their attraction.Table of ContentsPREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION; PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION; A CONCLUDING NOTE 134; WORKS CITED 135-37; INDEX

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Book SynopsisDoes empathy felt while reading fiction actually cultivate a sense of connection, leading to altruistic actions on behalf of real others? Empathy and the Novel presents a comprehensive account of the relationships among novel reading, empathy, and altruism. Drawing on psychology, narrative theory, neuroscience, literary history, philosophy, and recent scholarship in discourse processing, Keen brings together resources and challenges for the literary study of empathy and the psychological study of fiction reading. Empathy robustly enters into affective responses to fiction, yet its role in shaping the behavior of emotional readers has been debated for three centuries. Keen surveys these debates and illustrates the techniques that invite empathetic response. She argues that the perception of fictiveness increases the likelihood of readers'' empathy in part by releasing them from the guarded responses necessitated by the demands of real others. Narrative empathy is a strategy and subject Trade ReviewEmpathy and the Novel belongs in the company of Peter Brooks' Reading for the Plot as an exciting and lucid reflection on empathy in the novel and on the empathetic effects of narrative on readers. Working at the cross-section of literature, neuroscience, and psychology, the book is a stunningly original, broad-ranging contribution to narrative ethics and to the meanings of emotion in literature, life, and human society. * Susan Stanford Friedman, Virginia Woolf Professor of English and Women's Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison *Table of ContentsCONTENTS; ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS; PREFACE; APPENDIX: A COLLECTION OF HYPOTHESES ABOUT NARRATIVE EMPATHY; WORK CITED; INDEX

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Book SynopsisThough literature is not a technology, the historical models literary scholars use to describe literary history owe a great deal to the languages of originality, novelty, progress, and invention that core of the idea of technological development. No real surprise: putting progress at the center of historicity is one of the things that makes us moderns. But if you think like a modern person then it''s very hard to ever really make a good case for why someone interested in the history of modern literary aesthetics ought to read the literature of the non-Western world.On Literary Worlds makes that case. It does so by rethinking from the ground up our concepts of literary history and progress, redescribing the history we know (or think we know) in a new language that requires us to be far more worldly and global in our arguments about literary change. To do, so, the book begins with an argument that literature is a world-creating activity. If that is true, then a number of scientific and eTrade Reviewhighly informed, provocative, and relevant to advanced readers engaged in the study of linguistics and world literature from the perspective of postmodern theory. * L. A. Brewer, Choice *This is cleary meant to be a thought-provoking book, and it succeeds in that ambition. * Alexander Beecroft, Clio: A Journal of Literature, History, and the Philosophy of History *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ; Preface ; Part I: Literary Worlds ; 1 The World and the Work of Art ; 2 Worlds, Literature, Systems ; 3 Literary Worlds ; 4 First Propositions ; 5 Aspects of Worldedness ; Part II: Modes of Modern Literature ; 6 The Planet and the World ; 7 Universalism as a World View ; 8 Realism, Romanticism, Modernism ; 9 Six Variables, Three Modes ; Part III: Ideologies of the Institution ; 10 Against Periodization ; 11 Institutional Problems Require Institutional Solutions ; Part IV: 4 Appendices ; 12 The Empty Quadrant ; 13 Medium and Form ; 14 On the History of Reality ; 15 Beyond the Modern

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Book SynopsisThe Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Literary Studies applies developments in cognitive science to a wide range of literary texts that span multiple historical periods and numerous national literary traditions. The volume is divided into five parts: (1) Narrative, History, Imagination; (2) Emotions and Empathy; (3) The New Unconscious; (4) Empirical and Qualitative Studies of Literature; and (5) Cognitive Theory and Literary Experience. Most notably, the volume features case studies representing not just North American and British literary traditions, but also Argentinian (Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar), Chinese (Cao Xueqin), Colombian (García Márquez), Dominican (Junot Díaz), German (Theodore Fontane), French (Marcel Proust, Gustave Flaubert), Indian (Mirabai, Rabindranath Tagore, Kamala Markandaya, Mani Ratnam, Tito Mukhopadhyay), Mexican (Fernando del Paso), Polish (Krystof Kieslowski), Puerto Rican (Giannina Braschi), Russian (Lev Tolstoi), South African (J. M. Coetzee), and SpanisTable of ContentsLisa Zunshine, "Introduction to Cognitive Literary Studies" ; Part I: Narrative, History, Imagination ; Cognitive Historicism ; 1. Mary Thomas Crane, "Cognitive Historicism: Intuition in Early Modern Thought" ; 2. Ellen Spolsky, "The Biology of Failure, the Forms of Rage, and the Equity of Revenge" ; 3. Natalie M. Phillips, "Literary Neuroscience and History of Mind: An Interdisciplinary fMRI Study of Attention and Jane Austen" ; Cognitive Narratology ; 4. Peter Rabinowitz, "Toward a Narratology of Cognitive Flavor" ; 5. H. Porter Abbott, "How Do We Read What Isn't There to Be Read? Shadow Stories and Permanent Gaps" ; 6. James Phelan, "Rhetorical Theory, Cognitive Theory, and Morrison's 'Recitatif': From Parallel Play to Productive Collaboration" ; 7. Alan Palmer, "Listen to the Stories!:" Narrative, Cognition and Country and Western Music" ; 8. Monika Fludernik, "Blending in Cartoons: The Production of Comedy" ; 9. Lisa Zunshine, "From the Social to the Literary: Approaching Cao Xueqin's The Story of the Stone from a Cognitive Perspective" ; Cognitive Queer Theory ; 10. J. Keith Vincent, "Sex on the Mind: Queer Theory Meets Cognitive Theory" ; Neuroaesthetics ; 11. Alan Richardson, "Imagination: Literary and Cognitive Intersections" ; 12. Gabrielle Starr, "Theorizing Imagery, Aesthetics and Doubly-Directed States" ; Part II: Emotions and Empathy ; Emotions in Literature, Film, and Theater ; 13. Patrick Colm Hogan, "What Literature Teaches Us About Emotion: Synthesizing Affective Science and Literary Study" ; 14. Carl Plantinga, "Facing Others: Close-ups of Faces in Narrative Film and in The Silence of the Lambs" ; 15. Noel Carroll, "Theater and the Emotion" ; Cognitive Postcolonial Studies ; 16. Patrick Colm Hogan, "The Psychology of Colonialism and Postcolonialism: Cognitive Approaches to Identity and Empathy" ; 17. Suzanne Keen, "Human Rights Discourse and Universals of Cognition and Emotion: Postcolonial Fiction" ; Decision Theory and Fiction ; 18. William Flesch, "Reading and Bargaining" ; Cognitive Disability Studies ; 19. Ralph James Savarese, "What Some Autistics Can Teach Us About Poetry: A Neurocosmopolitan Approach" ; Moral Emotions ; 20. Margrethe Bruun Vaage, "On the Repulsive Rapist, and the Difference Between Morality in Fiction and Real Life" ; 21. Fritz Alwin Breithaupt, "Empathic Sadism. How Readers Get Implicated" ; Part III: The New Unconscious ; 22. Blakey Vermeule, "The New Unconscious: A Literary Guided Tour" ; 23. Jeff Smith, "Filmmakers as Folk Psychologists: How Filmmakers Exploit Cognitive Biases as an Aspect of Film Narration, Characterization and Spectatorship" ; Part IV: Empirical and Qualitative Studies of Literature ; 24. Laura Otis, "The Value of Qualitative Research for Cognitive Literary Studies" ; 25. Marisa Bortolussi and Peter Dixon, "Revisiting the Metaphor of 'Transportation'" ; 26. Peter Dixon and Marisa Bortolusi, "Fluctuation in Literary Reading: The Neglected Dimension of Time" ; Part V: Cognitive Theory and Literary Experience ; 27. Joshua Landy, "Mental Calisthenics and Self-Reflexive Fiction" ; 28. Elaine Auyoung, "Rethinking the Reality Effect: Detail and the Novel" ; 29. Mark Bruhn, "Time as Space in the Structure of (Literary) Experience: The Prelude" ; 30. Nancy Easterlin, "Thick Context: Novelty in Cognition and Literature"

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Book SynopsisThis work offers not only important statements by composers and critics, but also musical speculations by poets, novelists, philosophers, and others - all of which combine with Daniel Albright's commentary to place modernist music in the context of a broader intellectual history.

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Book SynopsisThis work argues that pastoral is based upon a fundamental fiction - that the lives of shepherds or other socially humble figures represent the lives of human beings in general. It explores texts ranging from Shakespeare and Cervantes to Hardy and Frost.Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments Frequently Cited Works Prologue 1: Representative Anecdotes and Ideas of Pastoral 2: Mode and Genre 3: Pastoral Convention 4: Representative Shepherds 5: Pastoral Speakers 6: Pastoral Lyrics and Their Speakers 7: Modern Pastoral Lyricism 8: Pastoral Narration 9: Pastoral Novels Index

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Book SynopsisLiterary scholars often avoid category of aesthetic in discussions of ethics, believing that aesthetic judgments can vitiate analyses of a literary work's sociopolitical heft. This title reveals that aesthetics formal aspects of literary language that make it senseperceptible are indeed inextricable from ethics in writing of medieval literature.Trade Review"Eleanor Johnson is a kind of literary-critical mechanic, revealing with brilliance and skill how particular formal and rhetorical elements work discretely and together to shape the readerly process - not for its own sake, but for the larger premodern project of personal ethical transformation. The research is first-rate and the arguments are original. The book will have an immediate and lasting effect on the study of medieval literature." (Bruce Holsinger, University of Virginia)"

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Book SynopsisMieke Bal has had a significant impact on every field she has touched. This work reflects the fields that Bal has most profoundly influenced: literary study, interdisciplinary methodology, visual analysis, and postmodern theology. This work brings together a collection of her work that distills her broad interests and areas of expertise.Trade Review"Quoting Caravaggio "Stimulating and intelligently written.... [Quoting Caravaggio] is very interesting to read, and is a useful additional example of contemporary artists' and critics' identification with the Baroque as a world of sensuality in pre-Enlightenment modernity." - Art Book Louise Bourgeois' "Spider" "Bal is exceptionally skilled at close reading, and the subjects she chooses to take on are commensurate in complexity to that skill." - Common Knowledge"

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Book SynopsisRobert C. Benchley's sketches and articles, published in periodicals like "Life", "Vanity Fair" and "The New Yorker", earned him a reputation as one of the sharpest humourists of his time. This is a collection of pieces, selected by his son Nathaniel.

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Book SynopsisA full-length study of the visual poetry of the early twentieth century. Bohn illuminates the works of Apollinaire, Josep-Maria Junow, Guillermo de Torre, and others.

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisThese essays include discussions of the Odyssey and Ulysses, the Metamorphoses of Ovid and Apuleius, Mallarme's English and T.S. Eliot's religion, and the mutually antipathetic minds of Edmund Burke and Thomas Jefferson.

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Book SynopsisBrown makes elegant use of sociological theory and of insights from language philosophy, literary criticism, and rhetoric to articulate a new theory of the human sciences, using the powerful metaphor of society as text.

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Book SynopsisExplores the intersection of beauty and violence by examining university lectures and course materials on aesthetics along with riots, acts of domestic terrorism, and magic lantern exhibitions. This work suggests that the distance separating academic thinking and popular wisdom about social transformation is narrower than we generally suppose.Trade Review"Beautiful Democracy is an important book, reestablishing aesthetics as a vital issue both within the immediate field of American literature and far beyond it. It engages a long and complexly developed conversation on the politics of form, using rich archival material, ranging from college curricula, black print culture, and the history of film." - Wai Chee Dimock, Yale University"

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