Utopia and Dystopia in the Age of Trump:Images from Literature and Visual Arts treats literature, film, television series, and comic books dealing with utopian and dystopian worlds reflecting on or anticipating our current age. From Henry James's dreamlike utopia of "The Great Good Place" to the psychotic world of Brett Easton Ellis's American Psycho, from science fiction and recent horror films, television adaptations of books such as Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, and new series such as Black Mirror to the repressive Hitlerian dystopia of Katherine Burdekin's Swastika Night, the contributors examine the development of scenarios that either prefigure the rise of individuals such as Donald J. Trump or suggest alternatives to them. Ultimately, one might say of the worlds presented here, viewed from different social and political perspectives: one person's utopia is another's dystopia. This is the fifth in a series of books edited by Barbara Brodman and James E. Doan, and published by Rowman & Littlefield with Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. The Universal Vampire: Origins and Evolution of a Legend and Images of the Modern Vampire: The Hip and the Atavistic (both in 2013) focused on the vampire legend in traditional and modern thought. The Supernatural Revamped: From Timeworn Legends to Twenty-First-Century Chic (2016) examined a range of supernatural beings in literature, film, and other forms of popular culture. Apocalyptic Chic: Visions of the Apocalypse and Post-Apocalypse in Literature and Visual Arts (2017) dealt with legends and images of the apocalypse and post-apocalypse in film and graphic arts, literature and lore from early to modern times, and from peoples and cultures around the world.

Utopia and Dystopia in the Age of Trump treats literature, film, television series and comic books dealing with utopian and dystopian worlds reflecting on or anticipating our current age. From Henry James' dreamlike utopia of "The Great Good Place" to the psychotic world of Brett Easton Ellis' American Psycho, from science fiction and recent horror films, television adaptations of books such as Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and new series such as The Black Mirror, to the repressive Hitleria dystopia of Katherine Burdekin's Swastika Knight, the authors examine the development of scenaarios which either prefigure the rise of individuals such as Donald J. Trump or suggest alternatives to it. Ultimately, one might say of the worlds presented here, viewed from different social and political perspectives: one person's utopia is another one's dystopia. This is the fifth in a series of books edited by Brodman and Doan, and published by Rowman & Littlefied with Fairleigh Dckinson University Press. The Universal Vampire: Origins and Evolution of a Legend and Images of the Modern Vampire: The Hip and the Atavistic (both in 2013) focused on the vampire legend in tradiitonal and modern thought. The Supernatural Revamped: From Timeworn Legends to Twenty-First-Century Chic (2016) examined a range of supernatural beings in literature, film, and other forms of popular culture. Apocalyptic Chic: Visions of the Apocalypse and Post-Apocalypse in Literature and Visual Arts (2017) dealt with legends and images of the apocalypse and post-apocalypse in film and graphic arts, literature and lore from early to modern times and from peoples and cultures around the world.

This widely acclaimed book offers an introduction to the ancient novel and presents the latest research findings in the field. For this English translation, Professor Holzberg has substantially updated and expanded the German edition of 1986.
Niklas Holzberg considers the ancient novel as encompassing idealistic and comic realistic narratives with the central themes of love and adventure. He develops his definition of the genre and offers explanations for why this literary form was so popular during the Hellenistic period. He goes on to examine the individual texts in chronological order, providing a summary of the contents of each, relevant background information and interpretative pointers.

Lord Herbert of Cherbury was a flamboyant Stuart courtier, soldier, and diplomat who acquired a reputation for duelling and extravagance but also numbered among the leading intellectuals of his generation. He travelled widely in Britain and Europe, enjoyed the patronage of princely rulers and their consorts, acquired celebrity as the embodiment of chivalric values, and defended European Protestantism on the battlefield and in diplomatic exchanges. As a scholar and author of De veritate and The Life and Raigne of King Henry the Eighth, he commanded respect in the European Republic of Letters and accumulated a much-admired library. As a courtier, he penned poetry and exchanged verses with John Donne and Ben Jonson, compiled a famous lute-book, wrote a widely-read autobiography, commissioned exquisite portraits by leading court artists, and built an impressive country house. Herbert was an enigmatic Janus figure who cherished the masculine values and martial lifestyle of his ancestors but embraced the Renaissance scholarship and civility of the early modern court and anticipated the intellectual and theological liberalism of the Enlightenment. His life and writings provide a unique window into the aristocratic world and cultural mindset of the early seventeenth century and the outbreak and impact of the Thirty Years War and British Civil Wars. This volume examines his career, life-style, political allegiances, religious beliefs, and scholarship within their British and European contexts, challenges the reputation he has acquired as a dilettante scholar, boastful auto-biographer, royalist turncoat and early deist, and offers a new assessment of his life and achievement.

Samuel Johnson's life was situated within a rich social and intellectual community of friendships-and antagonisms. Community and Solitude is a collection of ten essays that explores relationships between Johnson and several of his main contemporaries-including James Boswell, Edmund Burke, Frances Burney, Robert Chambers, Oliver Goldsmith, Bennet Langton, Arthur Murphy, Richard Savage, Anna Seward, and Thomas Warton-and analyzes some of the literary productions emanating from the pressures within those relationships. In their detailed and careful examination of particular works situated within complex social and personal contexts, the essays in this volume offer a "thick" and illuminating description of Johnson's world that also engages with larger cultural and aesthetic issues, such as intertextuality, literary celebrity, narrative, the nature of criticism, race, slavery, and sensibility.

Stephen Drake was addicted to the game of poker. When the pickings were easy, the need to play came just as easy. Living the life of a professional gambler was hard; folding on a winning hand just to save his life was even harder. The young and thriving state of California was yet to be tamed and Stephen and his new friend Joseph Landry had ideas of taking the stakes of saloon poker to a new level. High stakes poker was an idea that Stephen wanted in on. Between the two men, grand ideas were born and plans were made and the independent and successful Miss Robbie Allen would have a tough time choosing between the drifter and con artist, Stephen Drake and the stable and productive, Joseph Landry.

Samuel Johnson’s life was situated within a rich social and intellectual community of friendships—and antagonisms. Community and Solitude is a collection of ten essays that explore relationships between Johnson and several of his main contemporaries—including James Boswell, Edmund Burke, Frances Burney, Robert Chambers, Oliver Goldsmith, Bennet Langton, Arthur Murphy, Richard Savage, Anna Seward, and Thomas Warton—and analyzes some of the literary productions emanating from the pressures within those relationships. In their detailed and careful examination of particular works situated within complex social and personal contexts, the essays in this volume offer a “thick� and illuminating description of Johnson’s world that also engages with larger cultural and aesthetic issues, such as intertextuality, literary celebrity, narrative, the nature of criticism, race, slavery, and sensibility. Contributors: Christopher Catanese, James Caudle, Marilyn Francus, Christine Jackson-Holzberg, Claudia Thomas Kairoff, Elizabeth Lambert, Anthony W. Lee, James E. May, John Radner, and Lance Wilcox. Published by Bucknell University Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.