Search results for ""Author Lynne Pearce""

Romance Writing explores the changing nature of both the romance genre and the discourse of romantic love from the seventeenth century to the present day. Indeed, it is one of the first studies to approach romantic love as both genre and discourse in more than sixty years. Faced with the challenge of writing a cultural history for what is commonly understood to be one of lifes most universal, a-historical and cross-cultural phenomena, Lynne Pearce has invoked the concept of the gift to calculate loves added value at different cultural/historical moments. Building upon those philosophical traditions which have argued for the powerfully transformative nature of romantic love, Pearce shows how in the history of literature lovers have utilized its spark to change not only themselves, but also their worlds, through acts of creativity and heroism. The gift of love ranges from the simple gift of a name in the seventeenth century, through notions of immortality, self-sacrifice and selfhood in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, through to the liberating temporal and spatial dislocations of the postmodern age. The opening chapter, The Alchemy of Love, also undertakes an in-depth engagement of the changing nature, and meaning, of romantic love. Providing a judicious blend of close reading and cultural history, Romance Writing will be essential reading for undergraduate students as well as postgraduates and scholars working in the field, while also offering much of interest to the general reader.

Read more less

This book explores the formative role of mobilities in the production of our close relationships, proposing that the tracks—both literal and figurative— we lay down in the process play a crucial role in generating and sustaining intimacy. Working with diaries, journals and literary texts from the mid- to late-twentieth century, the book pursues this thesis through three phases of the lifecourse: courtship (broadly defined), the middle years of long-term relationships and bereavement. Building upon the author’s recent research on automobility, the text’s case studies reveal the crucial role played by many different types of transport—including walking—in defining our most enduring relationships. Conceptually, the book draws upon the writings of the philosopher, Henri Bergson, the anthropologist, Tim Ingold and the geographer, David Seamon, engaging with topical debates in cultural and emotional geography (especially work on landscape, memory and mourning), mobilities studies and critical love studies.

Read more less

What sorts of things do we think about when we're driving or being driven in a car? Drivetime seeks to answer this question by drawing upon a rich archive of British and American texts from 'the motoring century' (1900-2000), paying particular attention to the way in which the practice of driving shapes and structures our thinking. While recent sociological and psychological research has helped explain how drivers are able to think about 'other things' while performing such a complex task, little attention has, as yet, been paid to the form these cognitive and affective journeys take. Pearce uses her close readings of literary texts ranging from early twentieth-century motoring periodicals, Modernist and inter-war fiction , American 'road-trip' classics , and autobiography in order to model different types of 'driving-event' and, by extension, the car's use as a means of phenomenological encounter, escape from memory, meditation, problem-solving and daydreaming.

Read more less

Romance Writing explores the changing nature of both the romance genre and the discourse of romantic love from the seventeenth century to the present day. Indeed, it is one of the first studies to approach romantic love as both genre and discourse in more than sixty years. Faced with the challenge of writing a cultural history for what is commonly understood to be one of lifes most universal, a-historical and cross-cultural phenomena, Lynne Pearce has invoked the concept of the gift to calculate loves added value at different cultural/historical moments. Building upon those philosophical traditions which have argued for the powerfully transformative nature of romantic love, Pearce shows how in the history of literature lovers have utilized its spark to change not only themselves, but also their worlds, through acts of creativity and heroism. The gift of love ranges from the simple gift of a name in the seventeenth century, through notions of immortality, self-sacrifice and selfhood in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, through to the liberating temporal and spatial dislocations of the postmodern age. The opening chapter, The Alchemy of Love, also undertakes an in-depth engagement of the changing nature, and meaning, of romantic love. Providing a judicious blend of close reading and cultural history, Romance Writing will be essential reading for undergraduate students as well as postgraduates and scholars working in the field, while also offering much of interest to the general reader.

Read more less

Engages literary texts in order to theorise the distinctive cognitive and affective experiences of driving What sorts of things do we think about when we’re driving – or being driven – in a car? Drivetime seeks to answer this question by drawing upon a rich archive of British and American texts from `the motoring century’ (1900-2000), paying particular attention to the way in which the practice of driving shapes and structures our thinking. While recent sociological and psychological research has helped explain how drivers are able to think about `other things’ while performing such a complex task, little attention has, as yet, been paid to the form these cognitive and affective journeys take. Pearce uses her close readings of literary texts – ranging from early twentieth-century motoring periodicals, Modernist and inter-war fiction , American `road-trip’ classics , and autobiography – in order to model different types of `driving-event’ and, by extension, the car’s use as a means of phenomenological encounter, escape from memory, meditation, problem-solving and daydreaming. Key Features Brings Humanities-based perspectives to bear upon topical debates in automobilities research Introduces a new concept for understanding our journeys made my car by focusing on the driver’s automotive consciousness rather than utility/function Makes use of auto-ethnography to explore and theorise automotive consciousness Draws upon a rich archive of literary texts from across the twentieth-century including original research into unknown writers featured in the early twentieth-century texts/motoring periodicals

Read more less

Outlines the key feminist debates on British women's fiction since the 'second wave' and grounds them in examples of women's writingThis book introduces you clearly and succinctly to the ways in which feminist ideas have transformed the form and content of British women's fiction and non-fiction writing. The Introduction sets out the critical background and the main feminist critical approaches to literature. This is followed by 5 chapters which outline feminist engagements with the canon, gender, the body, sexual difference and ethnicity to demonstrate the ways in which feminist ideas have affected the 'content' of women's literature. The next 5 chapters examine types of fiction writing: romance, crime, science fiction, life-writing and historical fiction, to show the effect of feminist ideas on the 'form' of women's literature.The text also provides a wide range of illuminating case studies which include: Virago Modern Classics, The Women Prize for Fiction, Charlotte Perkins Gilman's 'Herland', Angela Carter's 'The Passion of New Eve', Margaret Attwood's 'The Edible Woman', Lucy Ellmann's 'Sweet Desserts', Barbie dolls, French feminism and sexuality, trans identities, feminist publishing and ethnicity, black and minority ethnic women's writing, Zadie Smith's novels, Toni Morrison's 'Beloved', Eimear McBride's 'A Girl is a Half Formed Thing', Val McDermid and lesbian crime writing, Ruth Rendell and the invention of the 'whydunit', Margaret Atwood's 'Maddaddam' sci fi trilogy, Jeanette Winterson's 'Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit' and 'The Passion', Pat Barker's 'Regeneration' trilogy and Hilary Mantel's 'Wolf Hall' and 'Bring Up The Bodies'. Each chapter ends with a list of primary texts and recommended further reading.Key FeaturesProvides a clear overview of changing feminist debates and terms in the 20th and 21st centuriesShows the changing form of women's fiction and non-fiction during this periodAssesses the ways in which literary, political and mainstream cultures, as well as the book industry, have impacted on the work and ideas of female writersIncludes a wide range of case studies as well as recommended further reading and a list of primary texts with each chapter

Read more less

Postcolonial Manchester offers a radical new perspective on Britain’s devolved literary cultures by focusing on Manchester’s vibrant, multicultural literary scene. Referencing Avtar Brah’s concept of ‘diaspora space’, the authors argue that Manchester is, and always has been, a quintessentially migrant city to which workers of all nationalities and cultures have been drawn since its origins in the cotton trade and the expansion of the British Empire. This colonial legacy – and the inequalities upon which it turns – is a recurrent motif in the texts and poetry performances of the contemporary Mancunian writers featured here, many of them members of the city’s long-established African, African-Caribbean, Asian, Chinese, Irish and Jewish diasporic communities. By turning the spotlight on Manchester’s rich, yet under-represented, literary tradition in this way, Postcolonial Manchester also argues for the devolution of the canon of English Literature and, in particular, recognition for contemporary black and Asian literary culture outside of London.

Read more less