Postcolonial discourse is fast becoming an area of rich academic debate. At the heart of coloniality and postcoloniality is the contested authority of empire and its impact upon previously colonized peoples and their indigenous cultures. This book examines various theories of colonization and decolonization, and how the ideas of a British empire create networks of discourses in contemporary postcolonial cultures. The various essays in this book address the question of empire by exploring such constructs as nation and modernity, third-world feminisms, identity politics, the status and roles of exiles, exilic subjectivities, border intellectuals, and the presence of a postcolonial body in today's classrooms. Topics discussed include African-American literature, the nature of postcolonial texts in first-world contexts, jazz, films, and TV as examples of postcolonial discourse, and the debates surrounding biculturalism and multiculturalism in New Zealand and Australia.

Ralph Ellison's literary career began in 1937 with the publication of his review of Waters Edward Turpin's "These Low Grounds." Over the next 15 years he published 10 short stories and 37 essays on literary, cultural, and political topics. But when "Invisible Man" was published in 1952, Ellison received immediate acclaim from a wide variety of critics, scholars, and novelists. While his novel emerged as a major work of African American literature, it also engaged the European literary tradition and influenced an entire generation of post-World War II writers. Ellison is now one of the most studied African American writers, and the posthumous publication of his second novel, "Juneteenth, " in 1999 has drawn even more attention to his contribution.

Through previously published reviews and essays, and original material, this book charts the response to Ellison's writings. While the bulk of the volume focuses on "Invisible Man, " the book also includes sections devoted to Ellison's short fiction and nonfiction, as well as posthumous estimates of his work. A chronology highlights the most important events in his life and career, while an introductory essay overviews the broad trends in Ellison scholarship. The volume concludes with a selected bibliography of primary and secondary works.

George Eliot has been widely praised both for the richness of her prose and the universality of her themes. In this compelling study, Peggy Fitzhugh Johnstone goes beyond these traditional foci to examine the role of aggression in Eliot's fiction and to find its source in the author's unconscious sense of loss stemming from traumatic family separations and deaths during her childhood and adolescence. Johnstone demonstrates that Eliot's creative work was a constructive response to her sense of loss and that the repeating patterns in her novels reflect the process of release from her state of mourning for lost loved ones.

The world's greatest mystery writers on the world's greatest mystery novels:

Michael Connelly on "The Little Sister ." . .

Kathy Reichs on "The Silence of the Lambs . . ."

Mark Billingham on "The Maltese Falcon . . ."

Ian Rankin on "I Was Dora Suarez . . ."

With so many mystery novels to choose among, and so many new titles appearing each year, where should a reader start? What are the classics of the genre? Which are the hidden gems?

In the most ambitious anthology of its kind yet attempted, the world's leading mystery writers have come together to champion the greatest mystery novels ever written. In a series of personal essays that often reveal as much about the authors and their own work as they do about the books that they love, 119 authors from 20 countries have created a guide that will be indispensable for generations of readers and writers. From Agatha Christie to Lee Child, from Edgar Allan Poe to P. D. James, from Sherlock Holmes to Hannibal Lecter and Philip Marlowe to Lord Peter Wimsey, "Books to Die For "brings together the cream of the mystery world for a feast of reading pleasure, a treasure trove for those new to the genre and for those who believe that there is nothing new left to discover. This is the one essential book for every reader who has ever finished a mystery novel and thought . . .

"I want more "

"*** "

"Why does the mystery novel enjoy such enduring appeal? There is no simple answer. It has a distinctive capacity for subtle social commentary, a concern with the disparity between law and justice, and a passion for order, however compromised. Even in the vision of the darkest of mystery writers, it provides us with a glimpse of the world as it might be, a world in which good men and women do not stand idly by and allow the worst aspects of human nature to triumph without opposition. It can touch upon all these facets while still entertaining the reader."

--From the introduction of "Books to Die For"

After the publication in 1932 of Angela Thirkell's first Barsetshire novel, her fans eagerly awaited a new book in the series, and they were rewarded annually for the next 27 years. Drawing upon the entire body of Barsetshire novels (set in Trollope's imaginary county whose seat, Barchester, is a cathedral town), Laura Collins shows Angela Thirkell's larger purposes in chronicling the daily lives of the rural English. English Country Life demonstrates Thirkell's conviction that loyalty to family, county, and country is the essential bond that strengthens middle-class culture; her close acquaintance with the English countryside, her high regard for the wit and wisdom of its people, and her firm conviction that the strong family unit is the backbone of the nation, are recurrently illustrated in the Barsetshire series. Collins traces the development of representative county families and their responses to the forces of political and economic decline. The book conveys Thirkell's mastery of detail in recreating life on the county's estates and farms, and in towns and villages, reflecting the cultural changes forced upon all social classes by the two World Wars and their aftermath. Collins shows how Thirkell's own life is reflected in her county chronicles. Perhaps most significantly, Collins believes Thirkell's own experiences as a daughter and as a mother to three sons is reflected throughout the novels, revealing largely in hindsight the touching ironies as well as the comedy of these relations. In the course of these narratives, her sharp sense of human nature is seen at its best when she introduces readers to the many babies, toddlers, and adolescents who grow up in Barsetshire. Makingextensive use of the series, Collins demonstrates convincingly that Thirkell presents an authentic record of upper middle-class English country life. For public libraries and research collections where Angela Thirkell's novels are read, enjoyed, and studied.

This book addresses the representation of masculinities in the work of J. M. Coetzee, with a particular focus on the writer's trilogy: Boyhood (1997), Youth (2002) and Summertime (2009). Provocatively dealing with questions of autobiography, Coetzee's trilogy provides a panoramic view of a man's development through various stages of life and, equally, different geographical locations, such as apartheid South Africa, sixties London and South Africa in the throes of democratic revolution. Attentive to the masculine formations that the trilogy represents, this work draws on conceptual frameworks and methodologies provided by the joint critique of gender and postcolonial studies, and is particularly animated by the discussions raised by men's studies, a field that is nowadays patently interested in postcolonial / transnational masculinities. In this vein, the work discusses not only aspects related to violence and gendered formations as they occur and manifest themselves in the intersections of the local and global, but also the possibilities of refashioning identities increasingly attentive to an ethics of Otherness, one of the staples of Coetzee's writing.

The Documentary Imagination in Twentieth-Century French Literature identifies a documentary impulse in French literature that emerges at the end of the nineteenth century and culminates in a proliferation of factual writings in the twenty-first. Focusing on the period bookended by these two moments, it highlights the enduring concern with factual reference in texts that engage either with current events or the historical archive. Specifically, it considers a set of ideas and practices centered on the conceptualization and use of documents. In doing so, it contests the widespread narrative that twentieth-century French literature abandons the realist enterprise, and argues that writers instead renegotiate the realist legacy outside, or at the margins of, the fictional space of the novel. Analyzing works by authors including Gide, Breton, Aragon, Yourcenar, Duras, and Modiano, the book defines a specific documentary mode of literary representation that records, assembles, and investigates material traces of reality. The document is a textual, visual, or material piece of evidence repurposed through its visual insertion, textual transcription, or description within a literary work. It is a fact, but it also becomes a figure, standing for literature's confrontation with the real. The documentary imagination involves a fantasy of direct access to a reality that speaks for itself. At the same time, it gives rise to concrete textual practices that open up new directions for literature, by interrogating the construction and interpretation of facts.

Half a dozen young men find themselves at the end of their university years facing the awful prospect that they must now support themselves. They decide to found an Ideal Commonwealth, in the Navigator Islands - Samoa (where, by a wonderful coincidence, a decade later, Stevenson himself eventually settled and where he died and is buried). Here - they reason - work and money, dreary offices and dreary jobs, will not be known or needed. But capital is required to start even an Ideal Commonwealth. One of their number knows of "a real, glowing, gaudy, old-high treasure" - gold and jewels in a trunk in a family castle in the Scottish Highlands, theirs for the stealing, and ...Robert Louis Stevenson began writing this comic novel in April or May 1877, when he was twenty-six, and left it unfinished - after 30,000 words, in nine chapters - two years later. It shows a side of him whom most readers have never known existed: a satirical Stevenson making great fun, in a manner worthy of his contemporaries Gilbert and Sullivan, of the events and passions, the personalities and the predicaments, of his day. Previously published only in a French translation, it now takes its rightful place among his memorable early works of fiction. Transcribed, introduced, and annotated by the noted scholar Roger G. Swearingen from Stevenson's unpublished manuscript (now in the Huntington Library, San Marino, California), this edition reveals glimpses of the author's developing literary skills and of his complex and often madcap personal temperament. The extensive and illustrated annotations are fascinating in themselves, not least for the references to the contemporary late-Victorian scene.

"A Companion to the British and Irish Novel 1945-2000 "serves as an extended introduction and reference guide to the British and Irish novel between the close of World War II and the turn of the millennium.
Covers a wide range of authors from Samuel Beckett to Salman Rushdie
Provides readings of key novels, including Graham Greene's '"Heart of the Matter'," Jean Rhys's '"Wide Sargasso Sea'" and Kazuo Ishiguro's '"The Remains of the Day"'
Considers particular subgenres, such as the feminist novel and the postcolonial novel
Discusses overarching cultural, political and literary trends, such as screen adaptations and the literary prize phenomenon
Gives readers a sense of the richness and diversity of the novel during this period and of the vitality with which it continues to be discussed

Jane Eyre ranks as one of the greatest and most perennially popular works of English fiction. Although the poor but plucky heroine is outwardly of plain appearance, she possesses an indomitable spirit, a sharp wit and great courage. She is forced to battle against the exigencies of a cruel guardian, a harsh employer and a rigid social order. All of which circumscribe her life and position when she becomes governess to the daughter of the mysterious, sardonic and attractive Mr Rochester. However, there is great kindness and warmth in this epic love story, which is set against the magnificent backdrop of the Yorkshire moors. Ultimately the grand passion of Jane and Rochester is called upon to survive cruel revelation, loss and reunion, only to be confronted with tragedy.

For more than 25 years, York Notes have been helping students throughout the UK to get the inside track on the written word. Firmly established as the nation's favourite and most comprehensive range of literature study guides, each and every York Note has been carefully researched and written by experts to make sure that you get the most wide-ranging critical analysis, the most detailed commentary and the most helpful key points and checklists. York Notes Advanced offer a fresh and accessible approach to English Literature. Written by established literature experts, they introduce students to a more sophisticated analysis, a range of critical perspectives and wider contexts.

In this original, interdisciplinary approach to evil in French literature, Damian Catani links literary depictions of evil with cultural events to chart a history of the concept in some of the most important texts in modern literature. Beginning with Balzac and Baudelaire, Catani covers the restoration and the Second Empire before interpreting how Catholic stereotypes of the 'evil feminine' and new scientific theories impacted the work of Lautreamont and Zola. Moving into the twentieth century, evil is then explored in terms of the Self, power, knowledge and politics through readings of Proust, Celine, Sartre and Foucault. By seamlessly bringing together aesthetic, philosophical, historical and ideological concerns to read key French writers from the 18th to the 21st century, this study argues why a broader treatment of literary evils is vital to understanding our contemporary moral and political climate.

Joseph Conrad ingeniously buried images from Polish literature and culture into his works. Once recognized, these references alter the accepted meanings of the texts. In an interview that was published in Kuryer Polski (in the then Polish city of Ostrawa, now in the Czech Republic) on 26 August 1915, Conrad himself declared about the nineteenth-century Polish poets: "Krasinski, Mickiewicz and Slowacki. Their words are everything for me. I was raised and formed by them." Yet, the Polish sources deeply rooted in Conrad's works have been scantily acknowledged and hardly explored, although notable intertextual theorists have argued that the ultimate understanding of the text comes from the intertext(s). The first part of this book analyzes Conrad's first novel, Almayer's Folly, and four of his greatest works: Lord Jim, Nostromo, The Secret Agent and Under Western Eyes. Unearthing the cache of Polish references in these works enhances our intellectual and aesthetic appreciation of Conrad as an artist par excellence. The signs recall literary and artistic works as well as aspects of social behavior, as Kristeva and Riffaterre explain. Bloom provides additional insight regarding the writer's struggle to supersede his predecessors. The second part of the book looks at two autobiographical works: A Personal Record and "A Familiar Preface." With poetic eloquence, Conrad proclaims his victory over his tragic past in A Personal Record. A tone of gaiety rises stubbornly in the midst of complete awareness of sorrow. The tone of "A Familiar Preface" is also unmistakably triumphant. More than joyous, the merriment in these self-portraits celebrates many worldly achievements, but ultimately one great triumph. In his writings the English author has transcended bitter adversities by transfiguring dreadful facts into the perfection and permanence of art.

From David Lean's big screen Great Expectations to Alejandro Amenabar's reinvention of The Turn of the Screw as The Others, adaptations of literary classics are a constant feature of popular culture today. The Bloomsbury Introduction to Adaptation Studies helps students master the history, theory and practice of analysing literary adaptations. Following an introductory overview of major debates and concepts, each chapter focuses on a canonical text and features: - Case study readings of adaptations in a variety of media, from film to opera, televised drama to animated comedy show, YA fiction to novel/graphic novel. - Coverage of popular appropriations and re-imaginings of the text. - Discussion questions and creative exercises throughout to guide students through their own analyses. - Annotated guides to further reading and viewing plus online resources. - The book also includes chapter overviews and a glossary of critical terms to give students quick access to key information for further study, reference and revision. The Bloomsbury Introduction to Adaptation Studies covers adaptations of: Jane Eyre; Great Expectations; The Turn of the Screw; The Great Gatsby.

Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) is one of 20th-century America's foremost fiction and folklore writers. Though she was criticized by some of her contemporaries, including Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison, her works are now frequently taught in literature courses and are widely admired for their style and substance. This reference book is a comprehensive guide to the large body of work written about her in the last 75 years. Included are annotated entries for books, dissertations, and theses written about Hurston's life and literary career. The volume also looks at hundreds of articles, book chapters, conference papers, reviews, children's books, and web sites. The bibliography additionally points the reader to guides and biographical sources and to anthologies where her works are collected. Finally, an exhaustive list of works by Hurston is provided, along with a catalog of the special collections where her manuscripts, correspondence, and ephemera are stored.

Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) is one of 20th-century America's foremost fiction and folklore writers. One of the most important authors of the Harlem Renaissance and one of the first black anthropologists, she received little recognition during her lifetime. She was criticized by some of her contemporaries, including Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison, and her works were largely neglected until the early 1970s. Her works are now frequently taught in literature courses and are widely admired for their style and substance. Her anthropological study, "IMules and Men" (1935), is a pioneering examination of Voodoo and related folklore. As a novelist, she is best known as the author of "Jonah's Gourd Vine" (1934) and "Their Eyes Were Watching God" (1937). In addition, she was a prolific journalist who contributed to the most popular magazines and newspapers of her time.

Though long neglected, Hurston has become firmly established in the literary canon, and scores of books and articles have been written about her. This reference book is a comprehensive guide to the large body of work written about her in the last 75 years. Included are annotated entries for books, dissertations, and theses written about Hurston's life and literary career. The volume also looks at hundreds of articles, book chapters, conference papers, reviews, children's books, and web sites. The bibliography additionally points the reader to guides and biographical sources and to anthologies where her works are collected. Finally, an exhaustive list of works by Hurston is provided, along with a catalog of the special collections where her manuscripts, correspondence, and ephemera are stored.

Exam Board: AQA, Edexcel, WJEC, Eduqas & CCEA Level: AS/A-level Subject: Modern Languages First Teaching: September 2017 First Exam: June 2018 Literature analysis made easy. Build your students' confidence in their language abilities and help them develop the skills needed to critique their chosen work: putting it into context, understanding the themes and narrative technique, as well as specialist terminology. Breaking down each scene, character and theme in Como agua para chocolate (Like Water for Chocolate), this accessible guide will enable your students to understand the historical and social context of the novel and give them the critical and language skills needed to write a successful essay. - Strengthen language skills with relevant grammar, vocab and writing exercises throughout - Aim for top marks by building a bank of textual examples and quotes to enhance exam response - Build confidence with knowledge-check questions at the end of every chapter - Revise effectively with pages of essential vocabulary and key mind maps throughout - Feel prepared for exams with advice on how to write an essay, plus sample essay questions, two levels of model answers and examiner commentary

What does the story of "Robinson Crusoe "have to do with understanding past and present women's lives? "The Female Crusoe: Hybridity, Trade and the Eighteenth-Century Individual "investigates the possibility that Daniel Defoe's famous work was informed by qualities attributed to trade, luxury and credit and described as feminine in the period. In this volume, "Robinson Crusoe "and the female castaway narratives published in its wake emerge as texts of social criticism that draw on neglected values of race and gender to challenge the dominant values of society. Such narratives worked to establish status and authority for marginalised characters and subjects who were as different, and as similar, as Defoe's gentleman-tradesman and Wollstonecraft's independent woman. "The Female Crusoe "goes on to address the twentieth-century engagement with the castaway tale, showing how three contemporary authors, in their complex and gendered negotiations of power and identity, echo, even while they challenge, the concerns of their eighteenth-century predecessors. This work will be of interest to students interested in literary engagements with individualism and women's rights in the eighteenth and twentieth centuries.

"Explosive Narratives: Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola "explores the genealogy of modern day terrorism through a close study of the anarchist figure in three of Emile Zola's novels: "Germinal," " Paris," and "Travail." The study links the crisis of representation registered at the end of the 19th century with the rise of terrorism embodied in the bomb-throwing anarchist. It thereby traces Zola's evolving thoughts on anarchy from the terrorist to the humanitarian reformer, from class warfare to a peaceful artisan commune, from a naturalist depiction of an elusive reality to a utopian writing fleeing the contingencies of the historical. The volume brings together aesthetic, political, urban, and scientific debates of Belle Epoque France and it will thus be of great interest not only to Zola scholars, but also to students of late 19th-century politics and art.

One day, five lives, but whose heart will be broken by nightfall? It started like any other day in the picturesque village of Weirbridge. Tress Walker waved her perfect husband Max off to work, with no idea that she was about to go into labour with their first child. And completely unaware that when she tried to track Max down, he wouldn't be where he was supposed to be. At the same time, Max's best friend Noah Clark said goodbye to his wife, Anya, blissfully oblivious that he would soon discover the woman he adored had been lying to him for years. And living alongside the two couples, their recently widowed friend, Nancy Jenkins, is getting ready to meet Eddie, her first true love at a school reunion. Will Nancy have the chance to rekindle an old flame, or will she choose to stay by Tress's side when she needs her most? One Day with You - two fateful goodbyes, two unexpected hellos, and 24 hours that change everything.

This is an up-to-date readers guide to Atwood's contemporary classic covering contexts, themes and criticism. Margaret Atwood's popular dystopian novel "A Handmaid's Tale", engages the reader with a broad range of issues relating to power, gender and religious politics. This guide provides an overview of the key critical debates and interpretations of the novel and encourages you to engage with key questions and readings in your reading of the text. It includes discussion of key themes and concepts including: representation of women's roles, gender, sexuality and power; language, style and form; dystopias and genre fictions; and, power, control and religious fundamentalism. Combining helpful guidance on reading Atwood's text with overviews of significant stylistic and thematic issues and an introduction to criticism, this is an ideal companion to reading and studying "A Handmaid's Tale". "Continuum Reader's Guides" are clear, concise and accessible introductions to key texts in literature and philosophy. Each book explores the themes, context, criticism and influence of key works, providing a practical introduction to close reading, guiding students towards a thorough understanding of the text. They provide an essential, up-to-date resource, ideal for undergraduate students.

London's adventure tale The Call of the Wild explores the complex relationships between man and nature, and animals' struggle with their own nature in man's world. In this interdisciplinary study, a rich collection of primary documents point out the many issues that make this story as poignant and pertinent today as when it was written nearly a century ago. Compiled here for the first time is documentation from sources as varied as century-old newspaper accounts, legislative materials, advertisements, poetry, journals, and other startling firsthand accounts. The story's historical setting, the Yukon Gold Rush, is brought vividly into focus for readers, with firsthand accounts of the unimaginable hardships faced by the prospectors in the Klondike and Alaskan Gold Fields. Central to their story and to their very survival were the dogs that served man's ambitions. Tribute to the sled dog is given in an historical 1879 piece The Value of Dogs from the Sketches of Life in the Hudson Bay Territory. This casebook also investigates endangered species legislation and the history of animal welfare concerns, focusing on the treatment of dogs in particular, surveying over a century of public sentiment. Students are introduced to The Call of the Wild with an insightful literary analysis exploring a mythological interpretation and a discussion of its main thematic premise, the fundamental struggle for freedom. Each subsequent chapter of this casebook focuses on an important topic, such as animal welfare, contextualizing these issues with primary documents. Students will find these materials and the related essays invaluable in understanding not only The Call Of the Wild but also the historical and pertinent social issues it addresses. Each topic section of this casebook offers ideas for thought-provoking class discussions, debates, and further research. Suggestions for further reading on these topics are also given.

The late 19th and early 20th century was a key period of cultural transition in Ireland. Fiction was used in a plainly partisan or polemical fashion to advance changes in Irish society. Murphy explores the outlook of certain important social classes during this time frame through an assessment of Irish Catholic fiction. This highly original study provides a new context for understanding the works of canonical authors such as Joyce and George Moore by discussing them in light of the now almost forgotten writing from which they emerged--the several hundred novels that were written during the period, many of them by women writers.

Streetwalking the Metropolis makes an important contribution to ongoing debates on gender, the city and modernity. Re-drawing the gendered map of urban modernism, it offers stimulating accounts of a range of writers including Amy Levy, Dorothy Richardson, Virginia Woolf, Rosamund Lehmann. Jean Rhys, Janet Flanner, Djuna Barnes, Anais Nin, Elizabeth Bowen and Doris Lessing.