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Books > Language & Literature > Literary & linguistic reference works > Literary reference works
Europe is a broad and multifaceted construct, variously understood
as a geographical, political, legal, institutional, social, or
cultural formation. It is characterized by numerous conflicts and
processes of negotiation that have accompanied or sustained the
development of normative orders and divergent conceptions of law,
both in relation to individual states and to Europe as a whole. The
same applies to the field of literature, language, and aesthetics;
numerous myths and ideologies have shaped today's understanding of
Europe and still support it today. This volume examines how such
processes were legally structured, and literarily addressed,
criticized, and complemented. Its interdisciplinary perspective and
open and dynamic, both dialogical and dialectical format intends to
replicate the fragmented, sometimes conflicting, but always
productive mosaic of voices, ideas, and concepts that have
constituted and still constitute Europe, whether in the past,
present, or future. Instead of resolving any of the complexities
and contradictions that frame discussions on law, literature, and
Europe, it aims to induce further engagement and confrontations
with new and alternative visions of Europe.
The Price of Slavery analyzes Marx's critique of capitalist slavery
and its implications for the Caribbean thought of Toussaint
Louverture, Henry Christophe, C. L. R. James, Aime Cesaire, Jacques
Stephen Alexis, and Suzanne Cesaire. Nick Nesbitt assesses the
limitations of the literature on capitalism and slavery since Eric
Williams in light of Marx's key concept of the social forms of
labor, wealth, and value. To do so, Nesbitt systematically
reconstructs for the first time Marx's analysis of capitalist
slavery across the three volumes of Capital. The book then follows
the legacy of Caribbean critique in its reflections on the social
forms of labor, servitude, and freedom, as they culminate in the
vehement call for the revolutionary transformation of an unjust
colonial order into one of universal justice and equality.
This book, first published in 1988, reveals the great care Dickens
took with the planning and preparation of A Tale of Two Cities and
its roots. It also explores the aspects of Dickens's life,
especially his interest in private theatricals, which contributed
to the genesis of the novel. For the first time the historical
sources for the very individual account of the French Revolution
presented in A Tale of Two Cities are examined, and the book
investigates the novelist's debt to French and English
eye-witnesses. This Companion identifies the multitude of allusions
to what Dickens often regarded as the whims of eighteenth-century
justice, religion, philosophy, fashion and society. It provides the
modern reader with both fundamental sources of information and a
fascinating account of the creation of a complex historical novel.
This book, first published in 1986, explores the allusions in
Dickens's work, such as current events and religious and
intellectual issues, social customs, topography, costume, furniture
and transportation. Together with an analysis of Dickens's
imaginative responses to his culture, and their place in the
genesis and composition of the text, this book is a full-scale,
thoroughgoing annotation that The Mystery of Edwin Drood requires.
This set reissues 10 books on T. S. Eliot originally published
between 1952 and 1991. The volumes examine many of Eliot's most
respected works, including his Four Quartets and The Waste Land. As
well as exploring Eliot's work, this collection also provides a
comprehensive analysis of the man behind the poetry, particularly
in Frederick Tomlin's T. S. Eliot: A Friendship. This set will be
of particular interest to students of literature.
Some authors strongly criticized attempts to rebuild a German
literary culture in the aftermath of World War II, while others
actively committed themselves to "dealing with the German past."
There are writers in Austria and Switzerland that find other
contradictions of contemporary life troubling, while some find them
funny or even worth celebrating. German postwar literature has, in
the minds of some observers, developed a kind of split personality.
In view of the traumatic monstrosities of the previous century that
development may seem logical to some. The Historical Dictionary of
Postwar German Literature is devoted to modern literature produced
in the German language, whether from Germany, Austria, Switzerland
or writers using German in other countries. This volume covers an
extensive period of time, beginning in 1945 at what was called
"zero hour" for German literature and proceeds into the 21st
century, concluding in 2008. This is done through a list of
acronyms and abbreviations, a chronology, an introductory essay, a
bibliography, and hundreds of cross-referenced dictionary entries
on writers, such as Nobel Prize-winners Heinrich Boll, Gunter
Grass, Elias Canetti, Elfriede Jelinek, and W. G. Sebald. There are
also entries on individual works, genres, movements, literary
styles, and forms."
That the works of the ancient tragedians still have an immediate
and profound appeal surely needs no demonstration, yet the modern
reader continually stumbles across concepts which are difficult to
interpret or relate to - moral pollution, the authority of oracles,
classical ideas of geography - as well as the names of unfamiliar
legendary and mythological figures. A New Companion to Greek
Tragedy provides a useful reference tool for the 'Greekless'
reader: arranged on a strictly encyclopaedic pattern, with headings
for all proper names occurring in the twelve most frequently read
tragedies, it contains brief but adequately detailed essays on
moral, religious and philosophical terms, as well as mythical
genealogies where important. There are in addition entries on Greek
theatre, technical terms and on other writers from Aristotle to
Freud, whilst the essay by P. E. Easterling traces some connections
between the ideas found in the tragedians and earlier Greek
thought.
Mysteries are among the most popular books today, and women
continue to be among the most creative and widely read mystery
writers. This book includes alphabetically arranged entries on 90
women mystery writers. Many of the writers discussed were not even
writing when the first edition of this book was published in 1994,
while others have written numerous works since then. Writers were
selected based on their status as award winners, their commercial
success, and their critical acclaim. Each entry provides
biographical information, a discussion of major works and themes,
and primary and secondary bibliographies. The volume closes with
appendices and a selected, general bibliography. Public library
patrons will value this guide to their favorite authors, while
students will turn to it when writing reports. The volume provides
alphabetically arranged entries on 90 great women mystery writers,
including: Cara Black Sarah Caudwell Mary Higgins Clark Patricia
Cornwell Amanda Cross Earlene Fowler Charlaine Harris Patricia
Highsmith Sujata Massey Janet Neel Sara Paretsky Each entry
provides a biography, a discussion of major works and themes, and
primary and secondary bibliographies. The book closes with
appendices of award winners and a selected, general bibliography.
Public library patrons will value this guide to their favorite
authors, while students will consult it when writing reports.
When an essay is due and dreaded exams loom, here's the lit-crit
help students need to succeed! SparkNotes Literature Guides make
studying smarter, better, and faster. They provide
chapter-by-chapter analysis, explanations of key themes, motifs and
symbols, a review quiz, and essay topics. Lively and accessible,
SparkNotes is perfect for late-night studying and paper writing.
This book covers the life and work of a wide range of writers from
Coleridge to Wollstonecraft, Hemans, Beckford and their
contemporaries. Also encompassing a wealth of material on contexts
from the treason trials of 1794 to the coming of gas-light to the
London stage in 1817, it provides a panorama of one of the richest
periods in British culture.
For more than 40 years, dozens of film directors, writers and
producers tried and failed to adapt John Kennedy Toole's Pulitzer
Prize-winning novel A Confederacy of Dunces. Along the way lawsuits
were filed, filming locations destroyed, friendships shattered,
reputations trashed, production companies bankrupted. Drawing on
exclusive interviews, internal documents and private
correspondence, this book tells the remarkable story of the
non-making of A Confederacy of Dunces as a breathless and absurdist
thriller. Celebrity appearances include John Belushi, Steven
Soderbergh, Stephen Fry, Robin Williams, Warren Beatty and Harvey
Weinstein, among others.
Abundance from the Desert provides a comprehensive introduction to
classi cal Arabic poetry, one of the richest of poetic traditions.
Covering the pe riod roughly from 500 c.e. to 1250 a.d., it
features original translations and illuminating discussions of a
number of major classical Arabic poems from a variety of genres.
The poems are presented chronologically, each situated within a
specific historical and literary context. Together, the selected
poems suggest the range and depth of classical Arabic poetic
expression; read in sequence, they suggest the gradual evolution of
a tradition. Moving beyond a mere chronicle, Farrin outlines a new
approach to appreciating classical Arabic poetry based on an
awareness of concentric symmetry, in which the poem's unity is
viewed not as a linear progression but as an elaborate symmetrical
plot. In doing so, the author presents these works in a broader,
comparative light, revealing connec tions with other literatures.
The reader is invited to examine these classical Arabic works not
as isolated phenomena-notwithstanding their unique ness and their
association with a discrete tradition-but rather as part of a great
multicultural heritage. This pioneering book marks an important
step forward in the study of Arabic poetry. At the same time, it
opens the door to this rich poetic tradi tion for the general
reader.
War and Literary Studies poses two main questions: First, how has
war shaped the field of literary studies? And second, when scholars
today study the literature of war what are the key concepts in
play? Seeking to complement the extant scholarship, this volume
adopts a wider and more systematic approach as it directs our
attention to the relation between warfare and literary studies as a
field of knowledge. What are the key characteristics of the
language of war? Of gender in war? Which questions are central to
the way we engage with war and trauma or war and sensation? In
which ways were prominent 20th century theories such as critical
theory, French postwar theory, postcolonial theory shaped by war?
How might emergent concepts such as 'revolution,' 'the
anthropocene' or 'capitalism' inflect the study of war and
literature?
This book examines the transmission processes of the Aristotelian
Mechanics. It does so to enable readers to appreciate the value of
the treatise based on solid knowledge of the principles of the
text. In addition, the book's critical examination helps clear up
many of the current misunderstandings about the transmission of the
text and the diagrams. The first part of the book sets out the
Greek manuscript tradition of the Mechanics, resulting in a newly
established stemma codicum that illustrates the affiliations of the
manuscripts. This research has led to new insights into the
transmission of the treatise, most importantly, it also
demonstrates an urgent need for a new text. A first critical
edition of the diagrams contained in the Greek manuscripts of the
treatise is also presented. These diagrams are not only significant
for a reconstruction of the text but can also be considered as a
commentary on the text. Diagrams are thus revealed to be a powerful
tool in studying processes of the transfer and transformation of
knowledge. This becomes especially relevant when the manuscript
diagrams are compared with those in the printed editions and in
commentaries from the early modern period. The final part of the
book shows that these early modern diagrams and images reflect the
altered scope of the mechanical discipline in the sixteenth
century.
First published in 1980, The Anatomy of Literary Studies provides
students of English Literature with a clearer understanding of the
significance and scope of the subject and a comprehensive
background to its study. It gives pointers towards intellectual
integrity and advice on independent study, libraries, essay writing
and examinations. This reissue of Marjorie Boulton's classic work
will be of particular value to students studying English at
university or those applying to a course who would like a fuller
understanding of what it might entail.
Road trips loom large in the American imagination, and stories from
the road have been central to crafting national identities across
North and South America. Tales of traversing this vast geography,
with its singular landscape, have helped foster a sense of American
exceptionalism. Examining three turning points that shaped
exceptionalism in both Americas the late colonial and early
Republican period, expansion into the frontier, and the Cold War
John Ochoa pursues literary travelers across landscapes and
centuries. At each historical crossroads, the nations of North and
South invented or reinvented themselves in the shadow of empire.
Travel accounts from these periods offered master narratives that
shaped the notion of America's postimperial future.Fellow Travelers
recounts the complex, on-the-road relationships between travelers
such as Lewis and Clark, Alexander von Humboldt and Aimei Bonpland,
Huckleberry Finn and Jim, Kerouac's Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty,
and the Che Guevara and Alberto Granado of The Motorcycle Diaries.
Such journeys reflect concerns far larger than their characters:
tensions between the voices of the rugged individual and the
democratic many, between the metropolis and the backcountry, and
between the intimate and the vast. Working across national
literatures, Fellow Travelers offers insight into a shared process
of national reinvention and the construction of modern national
imaginaries.
This is a selectively comprehensive bibliography of the vast
literature about Samuel Beckett's dramatic works, arranged for the
efficient and convenient use of scholars on all levels. The
scholarship devoted to the dramatic writings of Samuel Beckett is
so vast that there is a real need for a full and easy-to-use
secondary bibliography enabling students and scholars at all levels
to locate and select what they need. This requires comprehensive
coverage of those publications which can be deemed both substantial
and accessible treatments of topics relevant to his career as a
dramatist. In Beckett's case, full coverage extends from the
influences and origins of his great variety of plays to their
presentations on stage, television, film, and radio, in many
countries and venues. This essential bibliography offers
comprehensive coverage of the thousands of substantial studies in
all Roman-alphabet languages, a clear and helpful arrangement by
topics and individual plays, and a lucid, uncluttered
bibliographical format to make it as user-friendly as possible.
The interconnected themes of land and labour were a common recourse
for English literary writers between the sixteenth and twentieth
centuries, and in the twenty-first they have become pressing again
in the work of nature writers, environmentalists, poets, novelists
and dramatists. Written by a team of sixteen subject specialists,
this volume surveys the literature of rural working lives and
landscapes written in English between 1500 and the present day,
offering a range of scholarly perspectives on the georgic
tradition, with insights from literary criticism, historical
scholarship, classics, post-colonial studies, rural studies and
ecocriticism. Providing an overview of the current scholarship in
georgic literature and criticism, this collection argues that the
work of people and animals in farming communities, and the land as
it is understood through that work, has provided writers in English
with one of their most complex and enduring themes.
Here are blank verse translations of ten of the best tragedies by
French dramatists contemporary with Corneille and Racine, and two
by the most noted successors. No great dramatist can be properly
understood and appreciated without some knowledge of the lesser
playwrights surrounding him. The fact has long been realized as
regards to Shakespeare; but the lesser figures of the great age of
French drama--men comparable to such Elizabethans as Middleton and
Fletcher and Massinger--have been generally neglected. This book
makes a selection of their best works available to English readers.
French students who do not have access to the frequently rare
French texts of these plays will find it valuable. No play by any
of these dramatists, except Voltaire, has ever before been
translated into English. The faithfulness and literary qualities of
Dr. Lockert's translations are avouched by his two previous volumes
in this field, The Chief Plays of Corneille and The Best Plays of
Racine.
Although many Americans think of Jackie Robinson when considering
the story of segregation in baseball, a long history of tragedies
and triumphs precede Robinson's momentous debut with the Brooklyn
Dodgers. From the pioneering Cuban Giants (1885-1915) to the Negro
Leagues (1920-1960), black baseball was a long-standing staple of
African American communities. While many of its artifacts and
statistics are lost, black baseball figured vibrantly in films,
novels, plays, and poems. In Invisible Ball of Dreams: Literary
Representations of Baseball behind the Color Line, author Emily
Ruth Rutter examines wide-ranging representations of this history
by William Brashler, Jerome Charyn, August Wilson, Gloria Naylor,
Harmony Holiday, Kevin King, Kadir Nelson, and Denzel Washington,
among others. Reading representations across the literary color
line, Rutter opens a propitious space for exploring black cultural
pride and residual frustrations with racial hypocrisies on the one
hand and the benefits and limitations of white empathy on the
other. Exploring these topics is necessary to the project of
enriching the archives of segregated baseball in particular and
African American cultural history more generally.
This volume examines the literature and culture of nineteenth
century America, covering genres such as the early American novel,
realist fiction and historical romance.
Goddess characters are revered as feminist heroes in the popular
media of many cultures. However, these goddess characters often
prove to be less promising and more regressive than most people
initially perceive. Goddesses in film, television, and fiction
project worldviews and messages that reflect mostly patriarchal
culture (included essentialized gender assumptions), in contrast to
the feminist, empowering levels many fans and critics observe.
Building on critiques of other skeptical scholars, this feminist,
folkloristic approach deepens how our remythologizing of the
ancient past reflects a contemporary worldview and rhetoric.
Structures of contemporary goddess myths often fit typical extremes
as either vilified, destructive, dark, and chaotic (typical in film
or television); or romanticized, positive, even utopian (typical in
women's speculative fiction). This goddess spectrum persistently
essentializes gender, stereotyping women as emotional, intuitive,
sexual, motherly beings (good or bad), precluded from complex
potential and fuller natures. Within apparent good-over-evil,
pop-culture narrative frames, these goddesses all suffer
significantly. However, a few recent intersectional writers, like
N. K. Jemisin, breakthrough these dark reflections of contemporary
power dynamics to offer complex characters who evince "hopepunk."
They resist typical simplified, reductionist absolutes to offer
messages that resonate with potential for today's world. Mythic
narratives featuring goddesses often do, but need not, serve merely
as ideological mirrors of our culture's still problematically
reductionist approach to women and all humanity.
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