In this wide ranging collection of essays, eleven literary scholars and creative writers examine authorship and authority in relation to the production and reception of cultural texts. Ranging in time from the Renaissance to the era of digital publishing, the essays invite us to reconsider the influential theories of Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, and Pierre Bourdieu for our understanding of writers such as Philip Sydney, Thomas Hardy, Laura Riding, W.B. Yeats, Gertrude Stein, and J.M. Coetzee. Shedding new light on authoritys complex role in the generation of cultural meaning, the essays will be of interest to students and teachers of literary history and critical theory alike.

This book discusses the American short story composite, or short story cycle, a neglected form of writing consisting of autonomous stories interlocking into a whole. The critical work done on this genre has so far focused on the closural strategies of the composites, on how unity is accomplished in these texts. This study takes into consideration, to a greater degree than earlier criticism, the short story composite as an open work, emphasizing the tension between the independent stories and the unified work, between the discontinuity and fragmentation, on the one hand, and the totalizing strategies, on the other. The discussion of the genre is illustrated with references to numerous American short story composites.

Addressing a phenomenon that continues to shape our culture today, Professor Lunden presents a full-length analysis of the relationship between business and religion during the 1920s. He examines both the impact of the business mentality on Protestant institutions and values and the effects of religion on business. Beginning with a discussion of business and entrepreneurship as determining factors in the development of American society, Lunden looks at the position of the Protestant churches vis-a-vis business. He next explores business attitudes toward religion. Commenting on the adoption of specific Judeo-Christian concepts, religion. Commenting on the adoption of specific Judeo-Christian concepts, he describes both how these concepts were applied in a business context and what concessions were made by business when Protestant values came into conflict with those of the commercial world. In his final chapter he considers the implications of the business community's appropriation of religious functions and the widespread belief that its mission was linked to the redemption of society.