Whether one describes them as sequential art, graphic narratives or graphic novels, comics have become a vital part of contemporary culture. Their range of expression contains a tremendous variety of forms, genres and modes from high to low, from serial entertainment for children to complex works of art. This has led to a growing interest in comics as a field of scholarly analysis, as comics studies has established itself as a major branch of criticism. This handbook combines a systematic survey of theories and concepts developed in the field alongside an overview of the most important contexts and themes and a wealth of close readings of seminal works and authors. It will prove to be an indispensable handbook for a large readership, ranging from researchers and instructors to students and anyone else with a general interest in this fascinating medium.

The essays collected in this volume highlight the narrative as a phenomenon inherent in human nature. They examine the likely purpose of artistic and literary expression and its contribution to survival in an early human environment. They also consider the developing interest in shaping experience through the narrative, and investigate the consequent significance of traits acquired throughout the ages for the production and reception of texts. In doing so, the book provides a highly diverse overview of the latest research and debates in this innovative field of research.

This study is concerned with the latest developments in the relationship between literature and the natural sciences. The first part revolves around a critical engagement with the 'science wars', and notably with the subject of 'rhetoric in the natural sciences'. Here an attempt is made to fathom the potential for productive interdisciplinary endeavour above and beyond the existing conflicts. Part Two casts a critical eye on recent positions in connection with the literary processing of scientific subjects and cultural interdependencies. This is followed by studies of literary texts in which a well-informed and creative approach to scientific concepts is discernible.

The contributors to this volume share the assumption that popular narrative, when viewed with an evolutionary lens, offers an incisive index into human nature. In theory, narrative art could take a near infinity of possible forms. In actual practice, however, particular motifs, plot patterns, stereotypical figures, and artistic devices persistently resurface, indicating specific predilections frequently at odds with our actual living conditions. Our studies explore various media and genres to gauge the impact of our evolutionary inheritance, in interdependence with the respective cultural environments, on our aesthetic appreciation. As they suggest, research into mass culture is not only indispensable for evolutionary criticism but may also contribute to our understanding of prehistoric selection pressures that still influence modern preferences in popular narrative. Contributions by David Andrews, James Carney, Mathias Clasen, Brett Cooke, Tamas David-Barrett, Tom Dolack, Kathryn Duncan, Isabel Behncke Izquierdo, Joe Keener, Alex C. Parrish, Todd K. Platts, Anna Rotkirch, Judith P. Saunders, Michelle Scalise Sugiyama, Dirk Vanderbeke, and Sophia Wege.

For years, Allan G. Turner has contributed to the academic study of the field of Fantasy literature, with special focus on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. His colleagues and friends, in co-operation with Walking Tree Publishers, have thus decided to honour him with a festschrift on the occasion of his 65th birthday. The volume comprises contributions by Tom A. Shippey, Wolfram R. Keller, Andrew 'Chunky' Liston, Julian M. Eilmann, Doreen Triebel, James Fanning, Thomas Honegger, and Dirk Vanderbeke, who explore the various aspects of the creation of secondary worlds in literature medieval to modern. Geoffrey Chaucer, Robert Burns, Jack Vance, Terry Pratchett, Jasper Fforde and H.P. Lovecraft are the subjects of individual case-studies, which are complemented by two papers looking at the connections between Romantic world-building and Tolkien's theory of "secondary worlds" and "sub-creation," and the role of London in some central texts of "urban fantasy" respectively.