Originally published in 1991. This book explicitly examines rhetoric as the art of persuasion in the practical world, and as in the expression of thinking in the language a speaker uses. It presents Leviathan in terms of the philosophical character of the work considered through Hobbes' use of language to express and organise his thought. Throughout, the nature of the relationship between rhetoric and philosophy is discussed and the problems of language in philosophical understanding. The book is concerned with Hobbes' political philosophy and his views on figurative language, interest in literary theory and particularly his allegory. A special feature is the chapter on engraved title pages in Leviathan and other texts of the era.

Jane Austen was one of the most adventurous thinkers of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, but one would probably never guess that by reading her critics. Perhaps no canonical author in English literature has proven, until now, more resistant to theory. Tracing the political motives for this resistance, Jane Austen and Literary Theory proceeds to counteract it. The book's detailed interpretations guide readers through some of the important intellectual achievements of Austen's career-from the stunning teenage parodies "Evelyn" and "The History of England" to her most accomplished novels, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, and Emma. While criticism has largely been content to describe the various ways Austen was a product of her time, Jane Austen and Literary Theory reveals how she anticipated the ideas of formidable literary thinkers of the twentieth century, especially Jacques Derrida and Paul de Man. Gift and exchange, speech and writing, symbol and allegory, stable irony and Romantic irony-these are just a few of the binary oppositions her dazzling texts deconstruct. Although her novels are major achievements of nineteenth-century realism, critics have hitherto underestimated their rhetorical cunning and their fascination with the materiality of language. Doing justice to Austen's language requires critical methods as ruthless as her irony, and Jane Austen and Literary Theory supplies these methods. This book will enable both her devotees and her detractors to appreciate her genius in unusual ways.

A revisionist history of American liberalism, from the Great Depression to the Cold War. Finalist of the MSA First Book Prize by The Modernist Studies Association In Making Liberalism New, Ian Afflerbach traces the rise, revision, and fall of a modern liberalism in the United States, establishing this intellectual culture as distinct from classical predecessors as well as the neoliberalism that came to power by century's end. Drawing on a diverse archive that includes political philosophy, legal texts, studies of moral psychology, government propaganda, and presidential campaign materials, Afflerbach also delves into works by Tess Slesinger, Richard Wright, James Agee, John Dewey, Lionel Trilling, and Vladimir Nabokov. Throughout the book, he shows how a reciprocal pattern of influence between modernist literature and liberal intellectuals helped drive the remarkable writing and rewriting of this keyword in American political life. From the 1930s into the 1960s, Afflerbach writes, modern American fiction exposed and interrogated central concerns in liberal culture, such as corporate ownership, reproductive rights, color-blind law, the tragic limits of social documentary, and the dangerous allure of a heroic style in political leaders. In response, liberal intellectuals borrowed key values from modernist culture-irony, tragedy, style-to reimagine the meaning and ambitions of American liberalism. Drawing together political theory and literary history, Making Liberalism New argues that the rise of American liberal culture helped direct the priorities of modern literature. At the same time, it explains how the ironies of narrative form offer an ideal medium for readers to examine conceptual problems in liberal thought. These problems-from the abortion debate to the scope of executive power-remain an indelible feature of American politics.

Can we say that metaphysics is over? That we live, as post-phenomenology claims, after "end of metaphysics"? Through a close reading of Levinas's masterpiece Totality and Infinity, Raoul Moati shows that things are much more complicated. Totality and Infinity proposes not so much an alternative to Heidegger's ontology as a deeper elucidation of the meaning of "being" beyond Heidegger's fundamental ontology. The metaphor of the night becomes crucial in order to explore a nocturnal face of the events of being beyond their ontological reduction to the understanding of being. The deployment of being beyond its intentional or ontological reduction coincides with what Levinas calls "nocturnal events." Insofar as the light of understanding hides them, it is only through deformalizing the traditional phenomenological approach to phenomena that Levinas leads us to their exploration and their systematic and mutual implications. Following Levinas's account of these "nocturnal events," Moati elaborates the possibility of what he calls a "metaphysics of society" that cannot be integrated into the deconstructive grasp of the "metaphysics of presence." Ultimately, Levinas and the Night of Being opens the possibility of a revival of metaphysics after the "end of metaphysics".

This volume investigates the changing definitions of the author, what it has meant historically to be an 'author', and the impact that this has had on literary culture. Andrew Bennett presents a clearly-structured discussion of the various theoretical debates surrounding authorship, exploring such concepts as authority, ownership, originality, and the 'death' of the author. Accessible, yet stimulating, this study offers the ideal introduction to a core notion in critical theory.

The essays collected in The Selfless Ego propose an innovative approach to one of the most fascinating aspects of Tibetan literature: life writing. Departing from past schemes of interpretation, this book addresses issues of literary theory and identity construction, eluding the strictures imposed by the adoption of the hagiographical master narrative as synonymous with the genre. The book is divided into two parts. Ideally conceived as an 'introduction' to traditional forms of life writing as expressed in Buddhist milieus, Part I. Memory and Imagination in Tibetan Hagiographical Writing centres on the inner tensions between literary convention and self-expression that permeate indigenous hagiographies, mystical songs, records of teachings, and autobiographies. Part II: Conjuring Tibetan Lives explores the most unconventional traits of the genre, sifting through the narrative configuration of Tibetan biographical writings as 'liberation stories' to unearth those fragments of life that compose an individual's multifaceted existence. This volume is the first to approach Tibetan life writing from a literary and narratological perspective, encompassing a wide range of disciplines, themes, media, and historical periods, and thus opening new and vibrant areas of research to future scholarship across the Humanities. The chapters in this book were originally published as two special issues of Life Writing.

This book provides a study of Walter Benjamin's first philosophy in two senses: it focuses on his early philosophy as a source of insight into his later works, and it explores his thinking about the nature of truth, method, experience, the relation of body and mind, and the limits of human knowledge. While most attention is paid to Benjamin's later works, his writings from roughly 1914-1925 explore philosophical themes and develop a critical method. This book argues that this early work founds a series of original and lasting questions and insights. Benjamin understands experience as a broken continuum of diverse forms of spiritual expression, each of which is ephemeral. This leads Benjamin to a series of thought figures: the notion of language as a medium of experience; a philosophy of perception based in the natural history of the human body; an emphasis on mimesis as a faculty of creative assimilation; and a discovery of memory as a power for excavation of meaning in past experience. This book demonstrates that the need for a new understanding of the metaphysical structure of experience, as well as a new conception of truth, play a special role in shaping Benjamin's subsequent work. Walter Benjamin's First Philosophy will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working on the thought of Walter Benjamin, 20th-century Continental philosophy, comparative literature, and modern German thought.

Combining literary criticism and theory with anthropology and cognitive science, this highly relevant book argues that we are fundamentally shaped by dialogue. Patrick Grant looks at the manner in which dialogue informs and connects the personal, political, and religious dimensions of human experience and how literacy is being eroded through many factors, including advances in digital technology. The book begins by tracing the history of evolved communication skills and looks at ways in which interconnections among tragedy, the limits of language, and the silence of abjection contribute to an adequate understanding of dialogue. Looking at examples such as "truth decay" in journalism and falling literacy levels in school, alongside literary texts from Malory and Shakespeare, Grant shows how literature and criticism embody the essential values of dialogue. The maintenance of complex reading and interpretive skills is recommended for the recuperation of dialogue and for a better understanding of its fundamental significance in the shaping of our personal and social lives. Tapping into debates about the value of literature and the humanities, and the challenges posed by digitalization, this book will be of interest and significance to people working in a wide range of subjects, including literary studies, communication studies, digital humanities, social policy, and anthropology.

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.

Originally published in 1994, The Short Lyric Poems of Jean Froissart is a meticulous reading of the important but generally neglected short lyric poems of Jean Froissart. The book situates Froissart within the cultural and literary context of fourteenth-century Europe and examines a representative number of his lyric forms (pastourelles, chansons royales, ballades, virelais, and rondeaux) demonstrating their richness of theme and poetic virtuosity. The book provides a readable and reliable English translation, making it possible for English scholars unfamiliar with the original Middle French forms to understand and appreciate the influence Froissart had on Chaucer and other authors of the age. The book focuses on themes, techniques, meters, and rhythms that Froissart employed in his poetry, on how his poetry fits poetic tradition, and on the place of Froissart in literary history.

Originally published by 1984 Justice and Mercy in Piers Plowman provides a clear and informative introduction to the complexities of Langland's Piers Plowman. It identifies Langland's major concerns and shows in detail, passus by passus, how these are developed by him in the first part of the poem - the Visio. It offers a close reading of the text and draws parallels where relevant with other medieval writings. There is a final brief chapter on the Vita which outlines the chief ways in which the themes of justice, mercy and law that have been followed through Visio continue to be of major importance in the rest of the poem. By concentrating on the philosophical core of the work, the climate of thought in which Langland wrote and the thematic integrity of the poem as a whole, the author makes a difficult, but unique and fascinating poem more accessible.

Originally published in 1988, The Protean Text looks at the shifting evolution of medieval texts and how changing social and aesthetic values were depicted in the literature of the period. The book examines how this was reflected in the reworking and rewriting of texts - a common practice in medieval literature - as various groups adapted existing legends to their own socio-aesthetic needs. Such textual fluidity often resulted in a proliferation of versions. This tendency to experience the text in protean terms is intrinsic to medieval literary expression. This book uses the legend of "Doon and Olive", to discuss the protean text, and uses the diverse series of extant versions available, to enhance our understanding of the possibilities of literary shift and modulation through this period.

Originally published as an English translation in 1981, The Middle English Mystics is a crucial contribution to the study of the literature of English mysticism. This book surveys and analyses the language of metaphor in the writings of such mystics as Richard Rolle, Walter Hilton, Julian of Norwich, and in such anonymous works as The Cloud of Unknowing and the Ancrene Wisse. The main emphasis of this comparative and stylistic study is not theological but rather the means by which theological concepts are communicated through language. The book sets the English mystics in perspective by establishing their place in the European mystical movement of the Middle Ages. It shows how intricate the relationship between English, and continental mysticism really is. The book suggests that there is clear links between English and German female mysticism, yet the mysticism is in the main due not so much to specific influences as to the common background of Christian theology and mysticism.

Originally published in 1991, Piers Plowman: An Approach to the C-Text studies what might be called the "mindscape" of Piers Plowman. The book argues that the C-text poem is inspired by the writings of the biblical prophets. The book outlines the fourteenth-century background and discusses the idea of prophecy and how the biblical prophets were read, as well as the role of literary models such as Wyclif and Joachim of Fiore. By examining the specific aspects of the poem, the book shows imaginative connections between the poem and the prophets, offering a unique perspective that Langland's prophetic stance is complementary to other approaches to the poem.

Originally published in 1952 The Lost Literature of Medieval England provides an account of lost masterpieces of medieval English literature. The book examines the evidence for their existence and pieces together a fuller understanding of the literary traditions of the period. In more specific detail, the book looks at the concept of Christian epics and religious and didactic literature, as well as the drama and the lyrical poetry of the period.

Originally published in 1990, Memorization in the Transmission of the Middle English Romances tackles the long-standing issue of the role of memorization in the transmission of Middle English romances. The book addresses the lack of consensus on the issue, despite extensive discussion, putting forth the theory that the heterogeneity of the poems of this period, grouped under the general heading of 'medieval romance', makes generalizations about the history of transmissions unreliable. The book suggests that oral-formulaic theory has been applied over-literally to oral or oral derived works, through the assumption that all poems answer the same structural criteria. The book also looks at the aspects of orality and performance theory alongside the textuality and intertextuality of these medieval texts.

Originally published in 1992, Margery Kempe looks at one of the most appealing mystics and pilgrims of 15th-century England. The book looks at Margery Kempe, and her book The Book of Margery Kempe, thought to be the first vernacular autobiography in medieval Britain. Original essays in the book examines Kempe's spirituality, cultural context, and the autobiography itself, The Book of Margery Kempe. The essays in the book represent detail literary analysis on Kempe and the critical history of her words.

Dante and the Other brings together noted and emerging Dante scholars with theologians, philosophers, psychoanalysts, and psychotherapists, bridging the Florentine's premodern world to today's postmodern context. Exploring how alterity has become a potent symbol in religion, philosophy, politics, and culture, this book will be of interest to many related fields. The book offers a thorough foundation in approaching Dante as proto-phenomenologist. It includes an informative review of literature, historical insight into Dante's poetics-toward-ineffability as alternative to modern scientism, a foray into science fiction, existential elaborations, phenomenological analyses of Inferno's Canto I, and applications to psychotherapy and qualitative research. It also contains a poem from an imagined Virgil retiring in Limbo, and a meditation on Dante's complicated relationship to homosexuality. Dante and the Other presents the mystical passion of apophatic spirituality, the millennia-spanning Augustinianism of radical orthodoxy, Levinas, Heidegger, and many others-all driven by Dante's Labors of Love. It is essential reading for Dante scholars, as well as readers interested in his works.

Originally published in 1951 Middle English Literature applies methods of literary evaluation to certain Middle English works. Arguing that previous literary criticism has largely focused on the commentary of their historical, social, philological and religious content, the book suggests that it has led to a thinking that Middle English literature is without artistic value and therefore cannot be compared effectively with later works of the fourteenth and fifteenth century. While traditional analysis has been beneficial to scientific and historical findings, this text seeks to look deeper into the artistic merits of the works and the authors that wrote them, arguing that the authors of these Middle English texts, wrote with the same motivations and experiences of these later authors which in turn informed the artistic basis of these Middle English works. The book looks at Middle English texts through three main areas: the Metrical Romances, the Religious Lyrics and Piers Plowman.

Originally published in 1939, Early Middle English Literature is a comprehensive overview of various aspects of early Middle English literature. The book examines authorship and provenance and the effect this had upon the literature of the period. This text examines literature from the period of 1066 to 1300 and addresses the transition between Old and Middle English and looks at the effect the transition of language during this period from Anglo-French to English, had on the literature of the time.

This study introduces the history, themes, and critical responses to Canadian fantastic literature. Taking a chronological approach, this volume covers the main periods of Canadian science fiction and fantasy from the early nineteenth century to the first decades of the twenty-first century. The book examines both the texts and the contexts of Canadian writing in the fantastic, analyzing themes and techniques in novels and short stories, and looking at both national and international contexts of the literature's history. This introduction will offer a coherent narrative of Canadian fantastic literature through analysis of the major texts and authors in the field and through relating the authors' work to the world around them.

This study introduces the history, themes, and critical responses to Canadian fantastic literature. Taking a chronological approach, this volume covers the main periods of Canadian science fiction and fantasy from the early nineteenth century to the first decades of the twenty-first century. The book examines both the texts and the contexts of Canadian writing in the fantastic, analyzing themes and techniques in novels and short stories, and looking at both national and international contexts of the literature's history. This introduction will offer a coherent narrative of Canadian fantastic literature through analysis of the major texts and authors in the field and through relating the authors' work to the world around them.

Dante and the Other brings together noted and emerging Dante scholars with theologians, philosophers, psychoanalysts, and psychotherapists, bridging the Florentine's premodern world to today's postmodern context. Exploring how alterity has become a potent symbol in religion, philosophy, politics, and culture, this book will be of interest to many related fields. The book offers a thorough foundation in approaching Dante as proto-phenomenologist. It includes an informative review of literature, historical insight into Dante's poetics-toward-ineffability as alternative to modern scientism, a foray into science fiction, existential elaborations, phenomenological analyses of Inferno's Canto I, and applications to psychotherapy and qualitative research. It also contains a poem from an imagined Virgil retiring in Limbo, and a meditation on Dante's complicated relationship to homosexuality. Dante and the Other presents the mystical passion of apophatic spirituality, the millennia-spanning Augustinianism of radical orthodoxy, Levinas, Heidegger, and many others-all driven by Dante's Labors of Love. It is essential reading for Dante scholars, as well as readers interested in his works.

Originally published in 1994, Oral Tradition in Middle English is an edited collection providing a multidisciplinary look at the importance and nature of oral tradition in Middle English literature. The book offers a discussion of the gradual problemization of orality and literacy in works of verbal art from this period. It shows how early typographies proved too exclusive to explain the heterogeneity of relevant texts, bringing to bear the new and potentially productive concepts of "vocality" and developing literacy. This book establishes a new interpretive paradigm for Middle English poetry.