Through a broad-ranging survey of the allegory, utopia, the historical novel and the epic in post-colonial literature, Jean-Pierre Durix proposes a critical reassessment of the theory of genres. He argues that, in the New Literatures which are often rooted in hybrid aesthetics, the often decried mimesis must be viewed from a completely different angle. Analysing texts by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Salman Rushdie, Alejo Carpentier, Wilson Harris and Edouard Glissant, he pleads for the redefinition of 'magic realism' if the term is to retain generic relevance.

These four volumes are part of the forty-one volume set New Accents. First launched in 1977 the New Accents Series rapidly changed the face of literary studies.

Includes individual volumes on William Blake, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (2 volume set), Robert Southey, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats. The Critical Heritage gathers together a large body of critical sources on major figures in literature. Each volume presents contemporary responses to a writer's work, enabling students and researchers to read for themselves, for example, comments on early performances of Shakespeare's plays, or reactions to the first publication of Jane Austen's novels. The carefully selected sources range from landmark essays in the history of criticism to journalism and contemporary opinion, and little published documentary material such as letters and diaries. Significant pieces of criticism from later periods are also included, in order to demonstrate the fluctuations in an author's reputation. Each volume contains an introduction to the writer's published works, a selected bibliography, and an index of works, authors and subjects. The Collected Critical Heritage set will be available as a set of 68 volumes and the series will also be available in mini sets selected by period (in slipcase boxes) and as individual volumes.

This book gives an in-depth and invigorating analysis of reflexivity in recent British drama - the way drama comments on drama. The interplay of dramatic forms, the cross-fertilization of historical traditions are explored in relation to major contemporary authors and theatrical practices. When drama takes itself as its own object of study it paradoxically highlights the most vital issues of its time. Key questions are raised about the nature of theatricality in play-writing and performance in this the first full-length treatment of the subject.

Literature, Money and the Market: From Trollope to Amis, argues that literary institutions have been saturated with hostility to commerce and the market that goes back to Plato. It traces the division in English culture between the prestige values of the aristocracy and the material values of the commercial class. The book is a fresh look at both the representation of money in English literature, and the economic situation of writers.

In the early twentieth century the Modernist novel tested literary conventions and expectations, challenging representations of reality, consciousness and identity. These novels were not simply creative masterpieces, however, but also crucial articulations of revolutionary developments in critical thought.
Tracing the developing modernist aesthetic in the thought and writings of James Joyce, Dorothy Richardson and Virginia Woolf, Deborah Parsons considers the cultural, social and personal influences upon the three writers. Exploring the connections between their theories, Parsons pays particular attention to their work on:
- forms of realism
- characters and consciousness
- gender and the novel
- time and history.
An understanding of these three thinkers is fundamental to a grasp on modernism, making this an indispensable guide for students of modernist thought. It is also essential reading for those who wish to understand debates about the genre of the novel or the nature of literary expression, which were given a new impetus by the pioneering figures of Joyce, Richardson and Woolf.

Die mens se kommer oor die omgewing is een van die dominante temas van die laaste dekades van die 20ste eeu. In die Weste (en in Europa) het omgewingsbewustheid wyd posgevat en selfs 'n modeverskynsel geword. Ofskoon daar in bree verband nog nie genoeg begrip vir die mens se bydrae tot die krisis en sy reaksie op die globale veranderinge is nie, geniet hierdie kwessies toenemend aandag in die kunste. Ook in die letterkunde kan die "groen gesprek" as 'n belangrike groeipunt beskou word.

Whereas trauma and memory have come to dominate discussions of World War Two, Lyndsey Stonebridge suggests that it was in fact the representation of anxiety - a state in which we look forwards as well as backwards - that emerged most forcefully in mid-century wartime culture. For two crucial but understudied second generations, the psychoanalysts who came after Freud and whose work thrived in 1940s Britain, and the later modernists who had cut their teeth on the expressive verve of their First World War-shocked elders, thinking about anxiety, she argues, was a way of imagining how it might be possible to stay within a history that frequently undermined a sense of self and agency.

Disputation literature is a type of text in which usually two non-human entities (such as trees, animals, drinks, or seasons) try to establish their superiority over each other by means of a series of speeches written in an elaborate, flowery register. As opposed to other dialogue literature, in disputation texts there is no serious matter at stake only the preeminence of one of the litigants over its rival. These light-hearted texts are known in virtually every culture that flourished in the Middle East from Antiquity to the present day, and they constitute one of the most enduring genres in world literature. The present volume collects over twenty contributions on disputation literature by a diverse group of world-renowned scholars. From ancient Sumer to modern-day Bahrain, from Egyptian to Neo-Aramaic, including Latin, French, Middle English, Armenian, Chinese and Japanese, the chapters of this book study the multiple avatars of this venerable text type.

This is an original volume of critical and theoretical essays that seek to interpret the current philosophical, aesthetic, and literary thinking about African American literature and language. Some of the most significant writers and thinkers in the field have contributed to analyses, critiques, and theoretical developments in every genre of literature. The widespread debate over the canon in American literature, the issue of cultural diversity, and the need to have books with critical inquiry into African American culture make this collection suitable for scholars and students in such diverse fields as literature, linguistics, and African American Studies.

Homi K. Bhabha is one of the most highly renowned figures in contemporary post-colonial studies. This volume explores his writings and their influence on postcolonial theory, introducing in clear and accessible language the key concepts of his work, such as "ambivalence," "mimicry," "hybridity" and "translation." David Huddart draws examples from a range of fields including cultural theory, film and literary studies in order to illustrate the practical application of Bhabha's thought. Offering a starting point for readers new to this crucial theorist's sometimes complex texts, or support for those deepen their understanding of his work, this guidebook is ideal for students in the fields of literary, cultural and postcolonial theory.

* Contains brief extracts from the critical works themselves so lecturers do not need to turn to multiple books/photocopies - everything needed in one book * Focuses on the most frequently studied texts in English so will fit nicely onto most existing courses * Organised chronologically and broken down into the units most commonly seen on degrees so is much more user-friendly for beginners * Provides a solid history of literary criticism but also brings it right up to date - looking at the issues that engage students right now, such as ecocriticism and queer theory * Richard Jacobs is widely praised for his tone and style which is ideal for students - clear, engaging and accessible * The author has worked alongside specialists in Early Modern studies, Contemporary Literature, and American Literature to ensure the widest possible market for the book

In this thoughtful study, Phillip Goldstein shows how the valuation of aesthetics in literary criticism has become increasingly complicated in recent decades. Contemporary readers not only need to look at the text's figures and structure, or the author's intention but must take various media, including television, movies, magazines, and newspapers; as well as the sexuality, gender, race, or nationality of the author, media, or text into account. In this context, Goldstein argues that the study of modern reading practices most effectively preserves the autonomy of aesthetics while revealing the changing social and historical contexts of American readers. Using pluralist perspectives on novels such as "Frankenstein," "Huckleberry Finn," "Native Son," "Light in August," and "Jazz," this study suggests that these new historical conditions have markedly expanded and transformed the ways in which Americans have defined and read literature in the last two hundred years.

Why is it that all interpretations are possible, and none is true? That some interpretations are just, but some are false? Lecercle draws on the resources of pragmatics, literary theory and the philosophy of language to propose a new theory of literary, but also of face to face, dialogue that charts the interaction between the five participants in the fields of dialogue and/or interpretation: author, reader, text, language and encyclopaedia. Interpretation is taken through its four stages, from glossing and enigma solving to translation and intervention.

This is the 3rd volume in the definitive guide to Lacan's work in English; Lacan is very influential in the fields of psychoanalysis, literary criticism and cultural studies, but poorly understood; Lacanian psychoanalysis is the single biggest school of thought globally

James Williams explores in this book the work of French writer and film-maker Marguerite Duras.

"Modernist Writings and Religio-scientific Discourse" explores literary modernism through the lens of cultural history. Focusing on the intersection of scientific and religious discourse in the works of H.D., Mina Loy, and Jean Toomer, Lara Vetter argues that a peculiarly modern spiritual understanding of science appealed to modernist writers as a way of negotiating the perceived threats to a radically unstable body. Analyzing literary and extraliterary writing, this study offers articulate conclusions on how these writers came to construct their own worldviews in response to the arts, science and religion of their time.

Although time traditionally dominated the perspectives of the humanities and social sciences, space has reasserted itself in the contexts of postmodernity, postcolonialism, and globalization. Today, a number of emerging critical discourses connect geography, architecture, and environmental studies, among others to literature, film, and the mimetic arts. Bertrand Westphal's "Geocriticism "explores these diverse fields, examines various theories of space and place, and proposes a new critical practice suitable for understanding our spatial condition today. Drawing on a wide array of theoretical and literary resources from around the globe and from antiquity to the present, Westphal argues for a geocritical approach to literary and cultural studies. This volume is an indispensible touchstone for those interested in the interactions between literature and space.

Recent developments in cognitive narrative theory have called attention to readers' active participation in making sense of narrative. However, while most psychologically inspired models address interpreters' subpersonal (i.e., unconscious) responses, the experiential level of their engagement with narrative remains relatively undertheorized. Building on theories of experience and embodiment within today's "second-generation" cognitive science, and opening a dialogue with so-called "enactivist" philosophy, this book sets out to explore how narrative experiences arise from the interaction between textual cues and readers' past experiences. Caracciolo's study offers a phenomenologically inspired account of narrative, spanning a wide gamut of responses such as the embodied dynamic of imagining a fictional world, empathetic perspective-taking in relating to characters, and "higher-order" evaluations and interpretations. Only by placing a premium on how such modes of engagement are intertwined in experience, Caracciolo argues, can we do justice to narrative's psychological and existential impact on our lives. These insights are illustrated through close readings of literary texts ranging from Emile Zola's Germinal to Jose Saramago's Blindness.

Explores the history of theories of selfhood, from the Classical era to the present, and demonstrates how those theories can be applied in literary and cultural criticism. Donald E. Hall:

* examines all of the major methodologies and theoretical emphases of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, including psychoanalytic criticism, materialism, feminism and queer theory
* applies the theories discussed in detailed readings of literary and cultural texts, from novels and poetry to film and the visual arts
* offers a unique perspective on our current obsession with perfecting our selves
* looks to the future of selfhood given the new identity possibilities arising out of developing technologies.

Examining some of the most exciting issues confronting cultural critics and readers today, Subjectivity is the essential introduction to a fraught but crucial critical term and a challenge to the way we define our selves.

Difference is one of the most influential critical concepts of recent decades and in this book Mark Currie offers a comprehensive account of the history of the term and its place in some of the most influential schools of theory of the past four decades, including:
* post-structuralism
* deconstruction
* new historicism
* psychoanalysis
* French feminism
* postcolonialism.
Employing literary case studies throughout, Difference provides an accessible introduction to a term at the heart of today's critical idiom.

"Relating Events in Narrative, Volume 2: Typological and Contextual Perspectives" edited by Sven Stro mqvist and Ludo Verhoeven, is the much anticipated follow-up volume to Ruth Berman and Dan Slobin's successful "frog-story studies" book, "Relating Events in Narrative: A Crosslinguistic Developmental Study" (1994).
Working closely with Ruth Berman and Dan Slobin, the new editors have brought together a wide range of scholars who, inspired by the 1994 book, have all used Mercer Mayer's "Frog, Where Are You?" as a basis for their research. The new book, which is divided into two parts, features a broad linguistic and cultural diversity. Contributions focusing on crosslinguistic perspectives make up the first part of the book. This part is concluded by Dan Slobin with an analysis and overview discussion of factors of linguistic typology in frog-story research.
The second part offers a variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives, all dealing with contextual variation of narrative construction in a wide sense: variation across medium/modality (speech, writing, signing), genre variation (the specific frog story narrative compared to other genres), frog story narrations from the perspective of theory of mind, and from the perspective of bilingualism and second language acquisition. Several of the contributions to the new book manuscript also deal with developmental perspectives, but, in distinction to the 1994 book, that is not the only focused issue. The second part is initiated by Ruth Berman with an analysis of the role of context in developing narrative abilities.
The new book represents a rich overview and illustration of recent advances intheoretical and methodological approaches to the crosslinguistic study of narrative discourse. A red thread throughout the book is that crosslinguistic variation is not merely a matter of variation in form, but also in content and aspects of cognition. A recurrent perspective on language and thoughtis that of Dan Slobin's theory of "thinking for speaking," an approach to cognitive consequences of linguistic diversity. The book ends with an epilogue by Herbert Clark, "Variations on a Ranarian Theme."

This exploration of seminal French theoretical writings approaches them as coherent philosophical fictions and brings to light their contradictory political, social and pedagogical implications and their complex historicity.;Because Lacan, Barthes, Foucault and Derrida have been so innovative and challenging in the different disciplines they worked with, their writings have been widely and selectively pillaged. But, as they well knew, ideas, methods, structures and styles of writing are never "neutral" or "innocent"; they always have pedagogical, social and political consequences. Pillaging does not neutralize those consequences; it merely allows them to operate unchosen, unquestioned and unchecked.;By replacing them in very various French contexts, this book indicates important differences between the situation of university intellectuals in France and those in England or America. Eve Tavor Bannet not only sheds new light on influential theoretical texts; she also raises questions about academic writing and about the intellectual's role in the university and in the modern world.;Eve Tavor Bannet is the author of "Scepticism, Society and the Eighteenth Century Novel".