"Language Through Literature" provides a definitive introduction to the English language through the medium of English literature. Through the use of illustrations from poetry, prose and drama, this book offers a lively guide to important concepts and techniques in English language study.
Among the many topics covered in the book are the form and meaning of words, the structure of narrative discourses and the organization of dialogue and conversation. Each chapter explores a specific aspect of the modern English language using a combination of exposition and practical activities. Each chapter also provides points for further discussion and includes project work for use individually, or as part of a group.
Readers will find the author's selection and presentation of topics helpful, as Paul Simpson progressively widens the scope of topics from single words to the structure of whole conversations. "Language Through Literature" is designed for the non-specialist who is new to the study of the English language and will be particularly relevant to anyone interested in the in the relationship between the English language and English literature.

In this book, ten leading commentators explore the interfaces between art and aesthetics in dialogue with a philosophical text (Theodor Adorno's draft introduction to "Aesthetic Theory"), a piece of literary writing (Franz Kafka's "A Report to an Academy"), and a major contemporary painting (Gerhard Richter's "Betty," 1988).

"Metre, Rhythm, Free Verse" is designed to explain the most important component of verse--its sound. This book provides all of the tools necessary to understanding poetry and poetry criticism, while clarifying and making accessible a number of technical terms which could otherwise be both intimidating and confusing.
In a manner which is both unpretentious and enthusiastic, Philip Hosbaum defines the difference between metre and rhythm, and provides newer and more precise definitions for terms such as blank verse, sprung verse and free verse. From the bob-wheel stanza to the iambus, from the Spenserian sonnet to modern rap, this comprehensive yet succinct volume covers the many terms and ideas which are essential to a fuller appreciation of poetry. In addition to providing this indispensable foundation for further reading, "Metre, Rhythm, Free Verse" also introduces its readers to a selection of key poets from all ages. Awelcome remedy to the complexity of poetical terminology, this book proves an invaluable introduction and an essential guide.

This book is an anthology of landmark essays in rhetorical criticism. In historical usage, a landmark marks a path or a boundary; as a metaphor in social and intellectual history, landmark signifies some act or event that marks a significant achievement or turning point in the progress or decline of human effort. In the history of an academic discipline, the historically established senses of landmark are mixed together, jostling to set out and protect the turfmarkers of academic specialization; aligning footnotes to signify the beacons that have guided thought and, against these "conservative" tendencies, attempting to contribute fresh insights that tempt others along new trails.
The editor has chosen essays for this collection that give some sense of the history of rhetorical criticism in this century, especially as it has been practiced in the discipline of speech communication. He also emphasizes materials that may illustrate where the discipline conceives itself to be going -- how it has marked its boundaries; how it has established beacons to invite safety or warn us from the rocks; and how it has sought to preserve a tradition by subjecting it to constant revision and struggle. In the hope of providing some coherence, the scope of this collection is limited to rhetorical criticism as it has been practiced and understood within the discipline of speech communication in North America in this century.

Section 1 of this volume describes three major debates about voice. They include:
* the overarching debate: discourse as text vs. discourse as voice;
* the traditional debate in rhetoric: ethos as real virtue in the real person vs. ethos as the appearance of virtue; and
* the modern debate: voice as self vs. voice as role.
These debates involve large, ideological questions about the nature of self or identity and about the relation of the text to the writer. They are all the more troublesome and unresolvable because they tend to be cast in binary, either/or terms.
Section 2 responds to these debates by showing that they don't need to be resolved in either/or terms. Looking carefully at the term "voice" shows that it has some fairly noncontroversial meanings when applied to writing. Thus, most of this section is devoted to an extended exploration of a family of five meanings for the term "voice" in writing -- audible voice or information, dramatic voice, recognizable or distinctive voice, voice with authority, and resonant voice or presence. These meanings make the concept of voice solid and usable apart from the theoretical debates.
The two theoretical debates only come up in relatively circumscribed arenas and so don't muddy most uses of the concept of voice in writing. In short, Elbow's hope is that he can make descriptive "claims" about the meanings of voice in writing about which people from various ideological camps will be able to agree.

A work by an eminent critic which addresses itself to values in literature, and attempts to answer the simple and elusive question, "Why read a work of imaginative literature?"

1) This book contains the original letters exchanged between Rabindranath Tagore and James Henry Cousins. 2) It explores their shared ideas on culture, art, and education in India along with anti-imperialism. 3) This book will be of interest to department of South Asian literature, modern history, cultural studies, comparative literature, education, India studies, South Asian Studies, Irish studies, political studies, and the Bengali diaspora across the world.

This volume is derived from presentations given at a conference hosted in Boulder, Colorado in honor of the 60th birthday of Walter Kintsch. Though the contents of the talks, and thus the chapters, varied widely, all had one thing in common -- they were inspired to some degree by the work of Walter Kintsch. When making plans for an edited book centered around this conference, the editors had a primary goal: to acknowledge the wide variety of researchers and research areas Kintsch had influenced. As a consequence, one of the more unusual elements of this volume is the diversity of the contributors.
Researchers from six different countries contributed chapters to this book which is loosely organized around three main thrusts of Kintsch's work:
* text-based representations that explain how meaning in a text is constructed,
* situation models which represent what the text is about rather than what a text literally says, and
* the construction-integration model, Kintsch's most recent work in discourse comprehension.

The language of contemporary cultural theory shows remarkable similarities to the patterns of thought which characterized the Victorian's views of race. Far from being marked by a separation from the racialized thinking of the past, "Colonial Desire" illustrates how we are operating "in complicity" with historical ways of viewing "the other," both sexually and racially.
"Colonial Desire" is a controversial and bracing study of the history of Englishness and "culture." Robert Young argues that the theories advanced today about post-colonialism and ethnicity are disturbingly close to the colonial discourse of the nineteenth century. "Englishness," Young argues, has been less fixed and stable than uncertain, fissured with difference and a desire for otherness.

How can we develop a cultural theory starting with the basic insight that human beings are "storytelling animals"? Within literary studies, narratology is a highly developed field. However, literary historians have not paid much attention to the large and small stories abounding in everyday discourse, guiding all kinds of social activity, and providing common ground for whole societies-but also fueling controversies and hostilities. Moreover, "narrative" is not only a scholarly category but has come into use in many fields of social activity as a tool for cultural self-fashioning. This book is based on the assumption that to a large extent, social dynamics is modeled in an aesthetic manner via narratives. It explores the narrative organization of cultural spaces and time-frames, the mythological shaping of communities and adversaries, and the co-production of narratives and institutions aimed at stabilizing social life. In this framework, the epistemological problem looms large of how an instrument as unreliable as narrative can participate in the creation of a social consensus regarding truth. This problem endows the general topics explored in this book with a particularly contemporary dimension.

" A clear and accessible demonstration of how contemporary literary theories can be applied to a wide range of texts, from Shakespeare, Bunyan, Sterne, Keats, to James, Stevens, Joyce, Pinter, Updike, and Arthur Miller."

The Politics and Poetics of Camp is a radical reappraisal of the meaning and discourse of camp. The contributors look at both the meaning and the uses of camp performance, and ask: is camp a style, or a witty but nonetheless powerful cultural critique? The essays investigate camp from its early formations in the seventeenth and eighteenth century to its present manifestations in queer theatre and literature. They also take a fascinating look at the complex relationship between queer discourse and decidedly un-queer pop culture appropriations on film and on the stage. The Politics and Poetics of Camp is an incisive, uncontainable and entertaining collection of essays by some of the foremost critics working in queer theory, from a number of disciplinary perspectives. This book makes a well-timed intervention into an emerging debate.

In this important new book, Laura Gillman suggests that by acknowledging differences among feminists, it is possible to enhance knowledge and feminist/womanist solidarity. Gillman refutes postmodern feminist approaches that dismantle identity while advancing a material account of social identity, emerging from within spatial-temporal relations. Focusing on womanist and mestiza feminist thought, literary writings, and cultural representations, "Unassimilable Feminisms" offers a compelling analysis of the debates around identity politics in late twentieth century theoretical discourse.

Combining literary analysis with a practical introduction to interdisciplinary literary geography, Literary Geograp hie s examines key elements of Colum McCann's 2009 novel, Let the Great World Spi n . Hones examines concepts such as narrative space, literary and academic collaboration, and the geographies of creation, production, and reception.

"Literature cultivates "deep selves" for whom books matter because they take over from religion fundamental questions about the meaning of existence. This volume embraces and questions this perspective, while also developing a "new humanist' critical vocabulary which specifies, and therefore opens to debate, the human significance of literature"--

This book explores the work of Cervantes in relation to the ideas about the mind that circulated in early modern Europe and were propelled by thinkers such as Juan Luis Vives, Juan Huarte de San Juan, Oliva Sabuco, Andres Laguna, Andres Velasquez, Marsilio Ficino, and Gomez Pereira. The editors bring together humanists and scientists: literary scholars and doctors whose interdisciplinary research integrates diverse types of sources (philosophical and medical treatises, natural histories, rhetoric manuals, pharmacopoeias, etc.) alongside Cervantes's works to examine themes and areas including emotion, human development, animal vs. human consciousness, pathologies of the mind, and mind-altering substances. Their chapters trace the cognitive themes and points of inquiry that Cervantes shares with other early modern thinkers, showing how he both echoes and contributes to early modern views of the mind.

In this introduction to the semiotic theory of one of the most innovative theorists of the twentieth century, the Russian literary scholar and semiotician Yuri Lotman, offers a new look at Lotman's profound legacy by conceptualizing his ideas in modern context and presenting them as a useful tool of cultural analysis. Semenenko demonstrates how Lotman's holistic theory, transcending the traditional boundaries of academic disciplines, offers a genuinely interdisciplinary approach to culture. This study covers a wide range of topics, from artificial intelligence to the role of an individual in history.

As the first study to examine the concept of uncertainty of meaning as it relates to modern and contemporary literature and literary theory, Literary Theories of Uncertainty demonstrates how this notion functions as a literary feature, narrative device and theoretical concept in 20th and 21st-century texts. Calling upon theories of interpretation and challenging the distinction between literature and theory, this exploration is broken down into three sections: Poststructuralist legacies of uncertainty; life-writing and uncertainty; and contemporary literary uncertainties. The volume takes into account related terms such as undecidability, indeterminacy, ambiguity, unreadability, and obscurity, and the topics examined include: undecidability and the motif of suspension in deconstruction; Derrida and Bataille; poetry as a mode of critical discourse and point of convergence between logico-mathematical ideas of undecidability and literary forms of uncertainty; uncertainty in relation to speech and the impact of Robert Antelme on Mascolo and Blanchot; Proust and temporal uncertainty; uncertainty in relation to death, trauma and autobiography; moral uncertainty in the Scandinavian welfare state and Nordic Noir; the aesthetically disruptive and anti-authorian effect of uncertainty in in the works of German-Turkish writer Emine Sevgi Ozdamar; uncertainty in the form of 'the double' and in relation to meta-fiction; and many more. Literary Theories of Uncertainty collates original and diverse discussions by some of the most prominent, inquiring minds in literary, cultural and critical theory today to map out the contours of the field of 'theory of uncertainty'.

In this volume, we approach the phenomenon of slavery and other types of strong asymmetrical dependencies from two methodologically and theoretically distinct perspectives: semantics and lexical fields. Detailed analyses of key terms that are associated with the conceptualization of strong asymmetrical dependencies promise to provide new insights into the self-concept and knowledge of pre-modern societies. The majority of these key terms have not been studied from a semantic or terminological perspective so far. Our understanding of lexical fields is based on an onomasiological approach - which linguistic items are used to refer to a concept? Which words are used to express a concept? This means that the concept is a semantic unit which is not directly accessible but may be manifested in different ways on the linguistic level. We are interested in single concepts such as 'wisdom' or 'fear', but also in more complex semantic units like 'strong asymmetrical dependencies'. In our volume, we bring together and compare case studies from very different social orders and normative perspectives. Our examples range from Ancient China and Egypt over Greek and Maya societies to Early Modern Russia, the Ottoman Empire and Islamic and Roman law.

In "English Inside Out" prominent proponents of literary studies take a close look at the current state of the discipline and envisage its future. How has the rise of "political correctness" or "the closing of the American mind" affected the study of literature? Amid diverse theoretical debates about the canon in the media and in academia, these essays explore where the profession is going and what its responsibilities are. The collected essays range through a variety of topical issues: the problem of negotiating between intellectual and political forces; current controversies within Afro-American and feminist criticism; the influence of cultural and gay studies on the profession. Together they explore the interaction of literary studies with modern cultural developments and present the state of the art in literary criticism. Selected contributors are Henry Louis Gates Jr, Jane Gallop, Jonathon Goldberg, Stanley Fish, Eve Kosofsky Sedgewick, Geoffrey Hartman.

The Routledge Global Haiku Reader provides a historical overview and comprehensive examination of haiku across the world in numerous languages, poetic movements, and cultural contexts. Offering an extensive critical perspective, this volume provides leading essays by poets and scholars who explore haiku's various global developments, demonstrating the form's complex and sometimes contradictory manifestations from the twentieth century to the present. The sixteen chapters are carefully organized into categories that reflect the salient areas of practice and study: Haiku in Transit, Haiku and Social Consciousness, Haiku and Experimentation, The Future of Global Haiku. An insightful introduction surveys haiku's influence beyond Japan and frames the collection historically and culturally, questioning commonly held assumptions about haiku and laying the groundwork for new ways of seeing the form. Haiku's elusiveness, its resistance to definition, is partly what keeps it so relevant today, and this book traces the many ways in which this global verse form has evolved. The Routledge Global Haiku Reader ushers haiku into the twenty-first century in a critically minded and historically informed manner for a new generation of readers and writers and will appeal to students and researchers in literary studies, Asian studies, comparative literature, cultural studies and creative writing.

Teaching Literature in Times of Crisis looks at the range of different crises currently affecting students - from climate change and systemic racism, to the global pandemic. Addressing the impact on students' ability and motivation to learn as well as their emotional wellbeing, this volume guides teachers toward strategies for introducing both canonical and contemporary literature in ways that demonstrate the future relevance of sophisticated and targeted literacy skills. These reading practices are invaluable for framing and critically examining the challenges associated with crisis in order to help cope with grief and as a means to impart the skills needed to deal with crisis, such as adaptability, flexibility, resilience, and resistance. Providing necessary background theory, alongside practical case studies, the book addresses: Reading practices for demonstrating how literature explores ethical issues in specific and concrete rather than abstract terms Making connections between disparate phenomena, and how literature mobilises affect in individual and collective human lives Supporting teachers in considering new, imaginative ways students can learn from literary content and form in online or remote learning environments as well as face to face Combining close and distant reading with creative and hands-on strategies, presenting the principles of a transitional pedagogy for a world in flux. This book introduces teachers to methods for reading and studying literature with the aim of strengthening and promoting resilience and resourcefulness in and out of the literature classroom and empower students as global citizens with local roles to play.

In A Splendor of Letters, Nicholas A. Basbanes continues the lively, richly anecdotal exploration of book people, places, and culture he began in 1995 with A Gentle Madness (a finalist that year for the National Book Critics Circle Award) and expanded in 2001 with Patience & Fortitude, a companion work that prompted the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and biographer David McCullough to proclaim him "the leading authority of books about books." In this beautifully packaged edition, Basbanes brings to a close his wonderful trilogy on the remarkable world of books and bibliophiles.