First published in 1976, this book provides a helpful introduction to the study of myth as a concept and its relationship to literature. It examines historically some of the leading theories concerning the nature and origins of myth and, with reference to a wide variety of texts, illustrates the relevance of these theories to literature. It also considers the different ways in which myths have been perceived over time, both positive and negative, and the effect this has had on the production of new mythologies. It concludes with an assessment if the problems created by the presence of myth in literature and its use as a tool of literary criticism.

Bringing some of the insights of modern critical theory to bear on a great deal of information about Pound's activities as a literary critic (some of it made available only recently), K.K. Ruthven provides a provocative re-reading of a major modernist writer who dominated the discourse of modernism.

First published in 1976, this book provides a helpful introduction to the study of myth as a concept and its relationship to literature. It examines historically some of the leading theories concerning the nature and origins of myth and, with reference to a wide variety of texts, illustrates the relevance of these theories to literature. It also considers the different ways in which myths have been perceived over time, both positive and negative, and the effect this has had on the production of new mythologies. It concludes with an assessment if the problems created by the presence of myth in literature and its use as a tool of literary criticism.

What literary historians describe as the modernist movement in literature - in which Ezra Pound doubled as a major poet and principal publicist - is currently being revalued by practitioners of various symptomatic styles of criticism who find modernism Fascist in its politics and masculinist in its sexual politics. "Ezra Pound as Literary Critic" contributes to some of those debates by which Pound came to dominate the discourse of modernism. Indeed, so successfully did he dominate that his version of it was reproduced by academic critics as an official literary history of the period beginning in 1910 with the publication of Pound's "The Spirit of Romance", and culminating in 1922 with the appearance of "Ulysses" and "The Wasteland".

Literary forgeries are usually regarded as spurious versions of genuine literature. Faking Literature argues that the production of a literary forgery is an act that reveals the spurious nature of literature itself. Literature has long been under attack because of its alliance with rhetoric (the art of persuasion) rather than with logic and ethics. One way of deflecting such attacks is to demonize literary forgery: literature acquires the illusion of authenticity by being dissociated from what are represented as ersatz approximations of the real thing.

Literary forgeries are usually regarded as spurious versions of genuine literature. Faking Literature argues that the production of a literary forgery is an act that reveals the spurious nature of literature itself. Literature has long been under attack because of its alliance with rhetoric (the art of persuasion) rather than with logic and ethics. One way of deflecting such attacks is to demonize literary forgery: literature acquires the illusion of authenticity by being dissociated from what are represented as ersatz approximations of the real thing.

The rise of feminism is undeniably one of the major events in the development of literary criticism this century. Feminist approaches have pushed forward both the theory of literary criticism and the understanding of individual works of literature. K. K. Ruthven's lucid introduction to the subject offers a broad survey, looking at the impact of Marxism, structuralism, and post-structuralism on feminist critical practice; the argument that literary language has been shaped by masculine bias; and feminist claims for distinctive styles and traditions of women's writing. As a lively contribution written by a man to a highly controversial topic dominated by women, K. K. Ruthven's study is original and even provocative, but above all serves as a valuably clear and sympathetic guide to the complexities of an important issue in modern literary studies.

This is the first volume of Oxford's three-volume edition of The Complete Poems of William Barnes. William Barnes (1801-1886) was an outstanding but undervalued dialect poet, and this will be the first critical edition of his complete poems. Volume I provides the first critical edition of his Poems of Rural Life, in the Dorset Dialect (1844), which broke new ground by memorializing in print the speech of a rapidly disappearing rural culture. Unfortunately, that 1844 volume has never been reprinted. This is partly because Barnes was persuaded to make its constituent poems more accessible to metropolitan readers of subsequent editions by spelling Dorset words in ways that approximated more closely to standard English, and partly because most editors and anthologists have reprinted only those revised versions of 1844 poems which Barnes published in his 1879 (and final) collection of his dialect poems. By restoring the integrity of Barnes's first volume, and investigating both its literary lineages and dialectological preoccupations, this annotated edition will enable readers to experience the initial products of those extraordinary years when Barnes was unwaveringly confident in the expressive adequacy of the Dorset dialect as a medium for poetry. Much of the literary, historical, and topographical information here brought to bear on the 1844 volume is drawn from rarely cited regional publications as well as from Barnes's uncollected contributions to newspapers and journals. The Editors' Introduction, which describes the origins, nature, and reception of Barnes's inaugural volume, offers historical accounts of both the kinds of poetry it represents and the dialectological interests that underpin it. This edition of Barnes's earliest poems in the Dorset dialect will prompt a reconsideration of their present status in the Victorian literary canon.

This is the second volume of Oxford's three-volume edition of The Complete Poems of William Barnes. Volume II contains all the poems Barnes wrote in the modified form of the Dorset dialect that he used from the mid 1850s onwards: those in the second and third collections of his Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect (1859 and 1862); those from the first collection (1844), originally written in the broad form of the dialect and here re-written in the modified form); The Song of Solomon in the Dorset dialect (1859); poems published in newspapers and periodicals after 1855 but not included in any of his collections; and posthumously published poems surviving in manuscript. Variants are included from all surviving versions of the poems. There are two introductions, the first general and the second textual. Notes on the poems record their provenance, describe their prosody, and add contextualizing information. The volume concludes with discursive appendices on textual, literary, and dialectological matters, a list of references cited, an annotated glossary, a glossary of place-names occurring in the poems, and an index of titles and first lines.

"Both a commentary on and a critical appreciation of the work of the early Pound. It starts off with a luci introduction to Pound's technique in general, and to his imagist phase (during which the poems commented on in this book were written) in particular. In the critical passages Mr. Ruthven steers a sage middle course between the attitudes of uncritical adoration and wholesale rejection that mar so much of the literature on Pound. . . . informative without being pedantic, and exhaustive without being long-winded. . . .To turn to Mr. Ruthven's Guide is to follow in the footsteps of an intelligent, sensitive and reliable scholar." --English Studies This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1969.

"Both a commentary on and a critical appreciation of the work of the early Pound. It starts off with a luci introduction to Pound's technique in general, and to his imagist phase (during which the poems commented on in this book were written) in particular. In the critical passages Mr. Ruthven steers a sage middle course between the attitudes of uncritical adoration and wholesale rejection that mar so much of the literature on Pound. . . . informative without being pedantic, and exhaustive without being long-winded. . . .To turn to Mr. Ruthven's Guide is to follow in the footsteps of an intelligent, sensitive and reliable scholar." --English Studies This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1969.