Although scholars have widely acknowledged the prevalence of religious reference in the work of Cormac McCarthy, this is the first book on the most pervasive religious trope in all his works: the image of sacrament, and in particular, of eucharist. Informed by postmodern theories of narrative and Christian theologies of sacrament, Matthew Potts reads the major novels of Cormac McCarthy in a new and insightful way, arguing that their dark moral significance coheres with the Christian theological tradition in difficult, demanding ways. Potts develops this account through an argument that integrates McCarthy's fiction with both postmodern theory and contemporary fundamental and sacramental theology. In McCarthy's novels, the human self is always dispossessed of itself, given over to harm, fate, and narrative. But this fundamental dispossession, this vulnerability to violence and signs, is also one uniquely expressed in and articulated by the Christian sacramental tradition. By reading McCarthy and this theology alongside postmodern accounts of action, identity, subjectivity, and narration, Potts demonstrates how McCarthy exploits Christian theology in order to locate the value of human acts and relations in a way that mimics the dispossessing movement of sacramental signs. This is not to claim McCarthy for theology, necessarily, but it is to assert that McCarthy generates his account of what human goodness might look like in the wake of metaphysical collapse through the explicit use of Christian theology.

This companion is an invaluable aid to modern readers in understanding Dickens's book, as it examines both specific details and the broader context of the story. To discover the meaning of a difficult detail or idea, the reader needs only find the appropriate chapter in DEGREESIThe Companion DEGREESR, look for the italicized phrase that identifies the relevant paragraph, and then read the discussion of the word or passage in question, which will be marked in bold. The book is the result of extensive original research and will appeal to both scholars, secondary school students and amateur Dickens enthusiasts. From details about food, costume, and transport to the political and social concerns of the day, DEGREESIThe Companion DEGREESR will open up Dickens's world in an accessible, fascinating way.

South Asian Writers in Twentieth-Century Britain is the first book to provide a historical account of the publication and reception of South Asian anglophone writing from the 1930s to the present, based on original archival research drawn from a range of publishing houses. This comparison of succeeding generations of writers who emigrated to, or were born in, Britain examines how the experience of migrancy, the attitudes towards migrant writers in the literary market place, and the critical reception of them, changed significantly throughout the twentieth century. Ranasinha shows how the aesthetic, cultural, and political context changed significantly for each generation, producing radically different kinds of writing and transforming the role of the postcolonial writer of South Asian origin.
The extensive use of original materials from publishers' archives shows how shifting political, academic, and commercial agendas in Britain and North America influenced the selection, content, presentation, and consumption of many of these texts. The differences between writers of different generations can thus in part be understood in terms of the different demands of their publishers and expectations of readers in each decade. Writers from different generations are paired accordingly in each chapter: Nirad Chaudhuri (1897-1999) with Tambimuttu (1915-83); Ambalavener Sivanandan (born 1923) with Kamala Markandaya (born 1924); Salman Rushdie (born 1947) with Farrukh Dhondy (born 1944); and Hanif Kureishi (born 1954) with Meera Syal (born 1963). Raja Rao, Mulk Raj Anand, Attia Hosain, V.S Naipaul, and Aubrey Menen are also discussed.

Did you know King Arthur had many other children besides Mordred?
Depending on which version of the legend you read, he had both sons and daughters, some of whom even survived him. From the ancient tale of Gwydre, the son who was gored to death by a boar, to Scottish traditions of Mordred as a beloved king, Tyler R. Tichelaar has studied all the references to King Arthur's children to show how they shed light upon a legend that has intrigued us for fifteen centuries.
"King Arthur's Children: A Study in Fiction and Tradition" is the first full-length analysis of every known treatment of King Arthur's children, from Welsh legends and French romances, to Scottish genealogies and modern novels by such authors as Parke Godwin, Stephen Lawhead, Debra Kemp, and Elizabeth Wein. "King Arthur's Children" explores an often overlooked theme in Arthurian literature and reveals King Arthur's bloodline may still exist today.
Arthurian Authors Praise "King Arthur's Children"
"Author Tyler R. Tichelaar has performed impeccable research into the Arthurian legend, fi nding neglected details in early sources and reigniting their significance. Great brainstorming fun I am proud to add this to my personal collection of Arthurian non-fiction."
--Debra Kemp, author of The House of Pendragon series
"Tyler R. Tichelaar's in-depth analysis of the plausibility of King Arthur's children reaffirms the importance the King Arthur legacy continues to have for society and the need of people all over the world to be able to connect to and believe in King Arthur and Camelot."
--Cheryl Carpinello, author of Guinevere: On the Eve of Legend
About the Author
Tyler R. Tichelaar, Ph.D., is the author of several historical novels, most notably "The Marquette Trilogy" and the award-winning "Narrow Lives." King Arthur's Children reveals his findings into the Arthurian legend as a precursor to his upcoming novel "King Arthur's Legacy."
Learn more at www.ChildrenOfArthur.com
from the "Reflections of Camelot" Series at Modern History Press www.ModernHistoryPress.com

Magistrale discusses the themes that turn King's fiction into morality tales.

Ervin has brought together 16 reviews and 26 essays that chronicle the literary reception of Ann Petry and her three novels in America from 1946 to the present. Collectively and individually, all of the reviews and essays gauge the historical, cultural, social, political, literary aesthetic, and theoretical depths of Petry's novels. While specific essays will offer overviews of Petry's life and works, others will name literary influences, explore and evaluate her style and structure, identify her aesthetic positions as a writer and novelist, and define her positions in larger discussions of the male and female in general and the African American female in particular. Teachers, students, critics, and others will appreciate this volume. Select reviews and essays provide an overview of Petry's life and works, style, and literary position as a novelist, while other reviews and essays present her as a writer of community, cultural traditions, literary traditions, and characters. As a social critic, she speaks for the voiceless and the maligned; her criticism is sympathic, yet frank and honest. She speaks to and for men and women, rich and poor, young and old.

The 1990s have seen a renaissance in short fiction studies. Today's short story writers are testing the boundaries of short fiction through minimalist works; extended short story cycles; narrative nonfiction forms, such as histories, memoirs, and essays; and even stories created interactively with readers on the computer. Short story critics, in turn, are viewing the short story from the perspective of genre, history, cultural studies, and even cognitive science. This volume brings together the opinions, theories, and research of many of today's best-known short story writers, theorists, and critics. Contributors include some of the most widely read contemporary authors, such as Joyce Carol Oates, John Barth, Gay Talese, W. P. Kinsella, Robert Coover, Barry Hannah, and Leslie Marmon Silko.

The authors and scholars who have contributed to the volume provide an entertaining and informative exploration of modern short fiction. The volume traces the origins of the short story back to Chaucer, the joke, and the instinct for play, and follows the development of the form through today's hyper-stories created interactively in cyberspace. Along the way, it presents essays on miminalism in short fiction, on the transformation of short stories into films, and even on AIDS and the short story. The broad scope of the volume includes a wide variety of critical approaches brought to bear on literature from around the world, including short stories from Africa, Australia, Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States.

With the publication of her first book, The Little House in the Big Woods (1932), Laura Ingalls Wilder became an almost overnight success as a writer of children's literature. This reference is a comprehensive compilation of works and research done on her from the first appearance of commentary to mid-1995. Citations are included for books, booklets, articles, theses, dissertations, and book reviews, and the annotations discuss the contents of these works. Entries are grouped in chapters devoted to critical works, biographical works, teaching studies and materials, teaching kits, serial publications, and book reviews. A brief introduction overviews the present state of Wilder studies, and detailed indexes conclude the volume. With the publication of her first book, The Little House in the Big Woods (1932), Laura Ingalls Wilder became an almost overnight success as a writer of children's literature. Her series of books consisting of autobiographical fiction have long been considered classics in the United States and have been translated into a large number of languages for their gradual migration into other countries as well. Early book reviews and articles began to comment on the importance and quality of her writings. The amount of criticism has escalated tremendously, and recent research and study have focused on the value of her works for all age groups. Because of Wilder's popularity as a children's author, her works are taught in schools and curriculum units have been designed to incorporate her writings. This reference book provides a comprehensive compilation of works and research done on Wilder from the first appearance of commentary to mid-1995. Included are citations for books, booklets, theses, dissertations, articles, and book reviews, and the annotations discuss the contents of the works. Entries are arranged in several sections to promote useful access to the materials. A brief introduction provides an overview of Wilder studies and indicates some areas where more research is needed, and several indexes enhance the accessibility of the information.

'A gritty powerful story. A must read for fans of gangland crime.' Bestselling author Kerry Kaya. From rags... Single mother Francesca is struggling to get by when an act of desperation leads to her owing a debt to notorious gangland boss, Tony Lambrianu. Tony has his own troubles - a change of image from playboy to respectable married man is needed to further his criminal career. He has women falling at his feet, but none he wants to make his wife. To riches. As Francesca is drawn deeper into the dark underworld dealings of Tony and his associates, she has to make alliances of her own to survive. And she'll do whatever it takes to protect her small son. But at what cost? Please note this is a re-release of Francesca previously published by Gillian Godden What people are saying about Gillian Godden! 'Characters were so real I'm still looking over my shoulder! Bestselling author Owen Mullen

This book provides a concise and highly readable reassessment of Iris Murdoch's engagement with philosophy throughout her life and proposes that she was, most importantly, a philosophical novelist. By investigating her use of philosophical argument in her fictional writing, it becomes clear that her narratives always depend upon a strong metaphysical underpinning. Leeson proceeds thematically through the philosophical phases of Murdoch's life and develops a clear argument that Murdoch reacts against the philosophies of Sartre, Plato, Nietzsche and Heidegger not only in her philosophical writings but also in her fiction. Indeed, it is in her fiction that her philosophical argument is most persuasive and accessible. This timely study provides new information regarding Murdoch's engagement with Martin Heidegger and also provides a detailed critique of critics who have overlooked Murdoch's engagement with philosophy within her fiction.

This volume provides a critical introduction to eight landmark novels in 19th- and 20th-century French literature, including The Plague, Madame Bovary, and The Little Prince. Timeless literary masterpieces-such as Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831) and The Miserables (1862), Flaubert's Madame Bovary (1857), and Camus' The Stranger (1942) and The Plague (1947)-have been the subject of copious literary criticism since their publications. This volume has been developed specifically to help students and general readers reach a deeper understanding of eight French novels, enabling them to develop a true appreciation for why the works have been regarded as masterpieces. Lucid yet challenging literary analysis focuses on plot and character development, themes, style, and biographical and historical context. This guide offers a fuller sense of the historical and literary environment in which each author worked. Librarians and educators were consulted in determining which eight novels to include. In addition to those listed above, full treatment is given to Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, and the perennially popular tale The Little Prince. These eight works cover a time period of more than 100 years, reflecting the development of the French novel and the literary movements of this era. An introductory essay provides a concise overview of French literature through the 1800's and early 1900's, identifying additional seminal works beyond those fully discussed here. For readers desiring to pursue further research, an extensive bibliography has been compiled, offering sources for additional novels, criticism, reviews from the time of publication, and biographical information.

Children's literature continues to receive growing scholarly attention, and this is due, in part, to the increased awareness of the complexity of these works and their importance in the curriculum. While some books may become classics and continue to be read long after their publication, others are the product of contemporary society and reflect the changing values of modern American culture. So, too, those titles that have been singled out for recognition reveal the standards of awards committees. This reference is a guide to works of American children's fiction that have won awards between 1995 and 1999.

Some of the books were published before that period, and thus their recent recognition affirms their enduring value. Included are more than 750 alphabetically arranged entries for authors, titles, characters, and settings related to nearly 250 books. Entries for novels provide plot summaries and critical commentary, while those for authors give biographical information. The volume demonstrates the growing number of multicultural novels and books about nontraditional families, while it also shows the continuing importance of historical fiction and the waning appeal of traditional adventure novels. While the volume will be valuable to librarians and teachers and to scholars of children's literature, it will also be useful to anyone interested in these works as a commentary on American culture at the close of the twentieth century.

Martin Luis Guzman was many things throughout his career in twentieth-century Mexico: a soldier in Pancho Villa's revolutionary army, a journalist-in-exile, one of the most esteemed novelists and scholars of the revolutionary era, and an elder statesman and politician. In The Man Who Wrote Pancho Villa, we see the famous author as he really was: a careful craftsman of his own image and legacy. His five-volume biography of Villa propelled him to the heights of Mexican cultural life, and thus began his true life's work. Nicholas Cifuentes-Goodbody shapes this study of Guzman through the lens of ""life writing"" and uncovers a tireless effort by Guzman to shape his public image. The Man Who Wrote Pancho Villa places Guzman's work in a biographical context, shedding light on the immediate motivations behind his writing in a given moment and the subsequent ways in which he rewrote or repackaged the material. Despite his efforts to establish a definitive reading of his life and literature, Guzman was unable to control that interpretation as audiences became less tolerant of the glaring omissions in his self-portrait.

This title offers a new critical approach to E.M. Forster's legacy. It examines key themes in Forster's work (homosexuality, humanism, modernism, liberalism) and their relevance to post-imperial and postcolonial novels by important contemporary writers. This is a unique and fresh addition to the changing field of postcolonial studies and offers new insight into the controversial relationship between colonial and postcolonial writing.

There has been a dramatic increase in the amount of narrative work published by Chicana and Latina authors in the past 5 to 10 years. Nonetheless, there has been little attempt to catalog this material. This reference provides convenient access to all forms of narrative written by Chicana and Latina authors from the early 1940s through 2002. In doing so, it helps users locate these works and surveys the growth of this vast body of literature. The volume cites more than 2,750 short stories, novels, novel excerpts, and autobiographies written by some 600 Mexican American, Puerto Rican, Cuban American, Dominican American, and Nuyorican women authors. These citations are grouped in five indexes: an author/title index, title/author index, anthology index, novel index, and autobiography index. Short annotations are provided for the anthologies, novels, and autobiographies. Thus the user who knows the title of a work can discover the author, the other works the author has written, and the anthologies in which the author's shorter pieces have been reprinted, along with information about particular works.

Reading Hardy's Landscapes locates the essential energy of the novels in the descriptive details as much as in the story. The emphasis is on the author's habits of vision and imagination. It is instinctive in Hardy to locate his tales between the huge abstractions of time and space and the minute particularities of nature - a leaf, a minnow, a gnat. His human dramas unfold in a landscape and are part of that landscape, caught up in larger patterns of movement and change.

This book introduces "Heart of Darkness" through its key characters - an ideal framework for students looking to develop an advanced understanding of the text.Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" (1899) is one of the most important literary works of the early twentieth century. It has provoked much critical debate, on issues such as fin de siecle doubt and pessimism, European colonialism, racism, and misogyny. Engaging with the novel's characters is crucial to understanding its complexity and its critical history. This study includes: an overview of the novel, including an account of its late nineteenth-century context; discussions of the narrative structure and the narrators; chapters analysing in detail the key characters in relation to the text's themes, issues and historical context; engagement with a range of literary criticism and theory; a conclusion reminding students of the potential of detailed character analysis and close critical reading; and a guide to secondary texts and a comprehensive bibliography. This is an ideal introduction for students wanting to develop an advanced understanding of Joseph Conrad's challenging novel.The Character Studies aims to promote sophisticated literary analysis through the concept of character. It demonstrates the necessity of linking character analysis to texts' themes, issues and ideas, and encourages students to embrace the complexity of literary characters and the texts in which they appear. The series thus fosters close critical reading and evidence-based discussion, as well as an engagement with historical context, and with literary criticism and theory.Designed for first year students, the series builds on the usual knowledge base of students beginning literary study in HE by focusing on the familiar characters but introducing more sophisticated analysis.

Margaret Atwood is arguably the most renowned and internationally acclaimed Canadian writer, poet, novelist, short story writer, literary critic, and environmental activist. In this incisive interpretation of Atwood's prose, Candy D'Cunha argues that the novelist's ecosophical vision provides valuable lessons that could help in creating a greater and more responsible awareness in the modern psyche about the environment. By exploring the works of Atwood, one can understand the need for a deeper rethinking and a clearer re-orientation in this area. Select novels, namely Surfacing (1972), The Handmaid's Tale (1985), Oryx and Crake (2003), The Year of the Flood (2009), and MaddAddam (2013), bring out the principles of ecological philosophy by describing various aspects of the current ecological crisis. Duplicity in the norms and recognition, the degradation of the environment, consequent tragic dilemmas, and the general ghastliness of life are all found in Atwood's oeuvre. A number of studies have been made on the thematic works of Atwood, such as feminism, quest for identity, power and politics, dystopian and utopian elements, but this book is the first ecosophical exploration of Atwood's themes and concerns. This volume enables readers to propagate the requisite ecological wisdom for self-realization for the harmonious and just development of society. Interpreting Atwood's works from an Indian perspective also helps to promote Indian ecological justice.

Although best known for "The Thorn Birds," her blockbuster family saga set in her native Australia, Colleen McCullough is a versatile novelist who has written in a variety of genres. This is the first full-length examination of her work. It highlights her versatility and her refusal to be confined to any one genre or type of writing, even though that refusal has lost her part of the wide readership she gained with DEGREESIThe Thorn Birds DEGREESR. DeMarr discusses, analyzes, and evaluates each of McCullough's eight novels in turn, relates it to the genre to which it belongs, and compares it to her other work. This study also features a biographical chapter and a chapter which discusses the variety of genres in which McCullough has written.

DeMarr shows how McCullough's romances ("Tim" and "The Ladies of Missalonghi") and her other novels which make heavy use of romance elements ("The Thorn Birds" and "An Indecent Obession") differ dramatically from each other. She also compares McCullough's novels of ideas ("A Creed for the Third Millennium DEGREES" and the three recent historical novels set in ancient Rome, The Masters of Rome series). Each novel or series is discussed in a separate chapter, which contains sections on plot development and structure, character development, setting, style, and themes. Each novel is also examined from an alternate critical approach, such as feminist, allegorical, anti-generic, and deconstructionist criticism, to widen the reader's perspective. A complete bibliography of McCullough's work, general criticism, and listings of reviews of each novel complete the work. This work will be of particular interest to public and school libraries.

This book examines the writing of David Foster Wallace, hailed as the voice of a generation on his death. Critics have identified horror of solipsism, obsession with sincerity and a corresponding ambivalence regarding postmodern irony, and detailed attention to contemporary culture as the central elements of Wallace's writing. Clare Hayes-Brady draws on the evolving discourses of Wallace studies, focusing on the unifying anti-teleology of his writing, arguing that that position is a fundamentally political response to the condition of neo-liberal America. She argues that Wallace's work is most unified by its resistance to closure, which pervades the structural, narrative and stylistic elements of his writing. Taking a broadly thematic approach to the numerous types of 'failure', or lack of completion, visible throughout his work, the book offers a framework within which to read Wallace's work as a coherent whole, rather than split along the lines of fiction versus non-fiction, or pre- and post-Infinite Jest, two critical positions that have become dominant over the last five years. While demonstrating the centrality of 'failure', the book also explores Wallace's approach to sincere communication as a recurring response to what he saw as the inane, self-absorbed commodification of language and society, along with less explored themes such as gender, naming and heroism. Situating Wallace as both a product of his time and an artist sui generis, Hayes-Brady details his abiding interest in philosophy, language and the struggle for an authentic self in late-twentieth-century America.

For decades now literary critics have universally praised Faulkner as one of the greatest writers of the modern era, yet students assigned to read his novels in university, college, and high school classes continue to struggle to make sense of his convoluted plots, prolix style, and complex characterizations. The broadest treatment to date of a topic of increasing concern, this book is designed to provide fresh strategies and practical suggestions for the classroom study of several of Faulkner's finest novels and stories, including "The Sound and the Fury, Absalom, Absalom , Light in August, The Unvanquished, " and "Go Down, Moses."

The contributors, all noted Faulkner scholars who regularly teach Faulkner works in their courses, employ a variety of critical theories and approaches. In each chapter, theory is subordinated to tested classroom methods that both motivate and assist students in reading the texts and in understanding why Faulkner remains relevant for contemporary readers. The teaching strategies described in this book draw upon such diverse matters as cultural and social analysis, historical context, reading and rhetorical theory, film and stage techniques, comparative studies, and race, class, and gender issues.

At the Violet Hour argues that the literature of the early twentieth-century in England and Ireland was deeply organized around a reckoning with grievous violence, imagined as intimate, direct, and often transformative. The book aims to excavate and amplify a consistent feature of this literature, which is that its central operations (formal as well as thematic) emerge specifically in reference to violence. At the Violet Hour offers a variety of new terms and paradigms for reading violence in literary works, most centrally the concepts it names "enchanted and disenchanted violence." In addition to defining key aspects of literary violence in the period, including the notion of "violet hour," the book explores three major historical episodes: dynamite violence and anarchism in the nineteenth century, which provided a vibrant, new consciousness about explosion, sensationalism, and the limits of political meaning in the act of violence; the turbulent events consuming Ireland in the first thirty years of the century, including the Rising, the War of Independence, and the Civil War, all of which play a vital role in defining the literary corpus; and the 1930s build-up to WWII, including the event that most enthralled Europe in these years, the Spanish Civil War. These historical upheavals provide the imaginative and physical material for a re-reading of four canonical writers (Eliot, Conrad, Yeats, and Woolf), understood not only as including violence in their works, but as generating their primary styles and plots out of its deformations. Included also in this panorama are a host of other works, literary and non-literary, including visual culture, journalism, popular novels, and other modernist texts.

New essays exploring the resurgence of the theme of romantic relationships and love in German literature since around the turn of the millennium. While sociologists have long agreed that the problems of modern and contemporary subjectivity crystallize in the issue of romantic relationships and love (e.g., Luhmann, Illouz, Beck, etc.), the theme of love, so crucial to the foundational text of modern German literature, Goethe's Werther, all but disappeared from German prose literature in the second half of the twentieth century. Yet over the past fifteen years German-language literature has witnessed an explosion of novels with "Liebe" in their titles as well as novels that centrally focus on intersubjective erotic and emotional relationships. A number of major contemporary writers (Treichel, Walser, Kermani, Ortheil, Maron, Zaimoglu, Genazino) have written Liebesromane or novels in which significant sociohistorical questions are refracted through the love relationships of their protagonists. German film likewise has increasingly thematized love relationships under postromantic conditions, e.g. in the films of the Berlin school. Simultaneously, the development of both feminist and LGBTQ politics over the past decades has exploded the heteronormative discourses ofdesire in a way that has both expanded and enriched the lovers' discourse, while recent developments of urban (hetero)sexuality have expanded the previously available models of expressing erotic relationships in ways that are reminiscent of the utopian ending of Goethe's first version of Stella. The present collection offers a wide-ranging set of essays on these developments. Contributors: Esther K. Bauer, Sven Glawion, Silke Horstkotte,Sarra Kassem, Maria Roca Lizarazu, Helmut Schmitz, Angelika Vybiral. Helmut Schmitz is Reader in German at the University of Warwick. Peter Davies is Professor and Head of German at the University of Edinburgh.

Ruskin Bond is known internationally as one of India's most prolific writers in English for children, young adults, and adults. This literary biography analyzes the impact of personal, social, geographical, political, and literary influences on Bond's worldview, aesthetic principles, and writings. Connecting the development of Bond's writing career over the past 50 years to the evolution of the publishing industry in India, Khorana details the author's pioneering work in the field of children's and young adult literature, and his contribution to diasporic and postcolonial/post-independence literatures. She concludes that it is Bond's versatile, original, and elegant writing in a variety of genres that continue to endear him to readers around the world. According to the author, despite Bond's British background, he does not write about India from a Eurocentric perspective. Having lived the majority of his life in India, he knows the country as an insider, writing with an authenticity and emotional engagement about the land and the people of the Himalayas and small-town India. Khorana analyzes his novels and short stores, and highlights his juxtaposition of his protagonists' individual dramas against larger social, moral, and metaphysical issues. In addition, she reveals how the autobiographical and regional elements in Bond's work provide insight into universal themes such as the tension between past and present, city life versus rural values, the dignity of ordinary folk, preservation of the environment, and living in harmony with nature.