"culture" and the problem of the disciplines

What is the university's role in the production of cultural ideals? With increasingly interdisciplinary approaches being employed in scholarship, can we speak of discrete fields of study? The results of a collaborative research project by the Critical Theory Institute at the University of Califor...

'a midsummer night’s dream' in context

How might Shakespeare’s audiences have responded to this enduringly popular comedy? This guide to the various contexts that situate 'A Midsummer Night’s Dream' in its time, explains the Christian ethics, the contemporary socio-political scene, the literary atmosphere and requirements of comedy th...

'volpone' in context

What would a Jacobean audience have made of this grim exposure of human greed? This guide to the various contexts that situate 'Volpone' in its time, explains the Christian ethics, the contemporary socio-political scene, the literary atmosphere and requirements of comedy that inform the backgroun...

A companion to chimamanda ngozi adichie

A critical examination of the engaging voice and multiple stories of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on war, feminism, art, ideology, hair, complex human identities and the challenges of multicultural existence.Easily the leading and most engaging voice of her era and generation, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi...

A companion to the early printed book in britain, 1476-1558

First full-scale guide to the origins and development of the early printed book, and the issues associated with it.The history of the book is now recognized as a field of central importance for understanding the cultural changes that swept through Tudor England. This companion aims to provide a c...

A cultural history of causality

This pioneering work is the first to trace how our understanding of the causes of human behavior has changed radically over the course of European and American cultural history since 1830. Focusing on the act of murder, as documented vividly by more than a hundred novels including Crime and Punis...

A politics of melancholia

Why melancholia is a vital form of social critique and a catalyst for political renewalMelancholia is wrongly condemned as a condition of withdrawal and despair that alienates its sufferer from community. Countering that misconception, A Politics of Melancholia reclaims an understanding of melanc...

A theory of narrative

Narrative is a powerful element of human culture, storing and sharing the cherished parts of our personal memories and giving structure to our laws, entertainment, and history. We experience narrative in words, pictures, and film, yet regardless of how the tale is told, story remains independent ...

Actors and networks in the megacity

This study is a concise introduction to Bruno Latour's Actor-Network Theory and its application in a literary analysis of urban narratives of the 21st century. We encounter well-known psycho-geographers such as Iain Sinclair and Sam Miller, and renowned authors, Patrick Neate and Suketu Mehta. Pr...

Affective worldmaking

This edited collection brings together essays on affect and narrative theory with a focus on the topics of gender and sexuality. It explores the power of narrative in literature, film, art, performance, and mass media, the construction of subjectivities of gender and sexuality, and the role of af...

After the last sky

A searing portrait of Palestinian life and identity that is at once an exploration of Edward Said's unclaimable past and a testimony to the lives of those living in exile.

Aging and self-realization

Hanne Laceulle outlines counternarratives about later life that acknowledge both its potentials and vulnerabilities. She explores the significance of ethical concepts essential to the process of growing old such as autonomy, authenticity, and virtue, aiming to support older individuals in their s...

American literature’s aesthetic dimensions

Rethinking the category of aesthetics in light of recent developments in literary theory and social criticism, the contributors to this volume showcase the interpretive possibilities available to those who bring politics, culture, ideology, and conceptions of identity into their critiques. Essays...

An eclectic bestiary

The essays, poetry, and visual art collected here consider the more-than-human cultures of our multispecies world. At a time when humanity’s impact has put our planet’s ecosystems into great jeopardy, the book explores literary, sonic, and visual imaginaries that feature encounters between and ac...

Andererseits – yearbook of transatlantic german studies

In this book, Andererseits provides a forum for research and reflection on topics related to the German-speaking world and the field of German Studies.

Anita desai’s india

This book provides an interdisciplinary framework, seamlessly weaving together historical inquiry and literary exploration to offer a holistic understanding of the enduring impacts of Partition.

Archives, access and artificial intelligence

Born-digital archives are now better preserved and managed thanks to the development of open-access and commercial software. This book explores crossovers between various disciplines to improve the discoverability, accessibility, and use of born-digital archives and other cultural assets.

Art's visionary moment

In describing their personal encounters with works that have stayed with them, scholars and artists here address the aesthetic, philosophical, and historical reasons that inform what T. Eliot has called great art’s “experience both of a moment and of a lifetime.”

At the crossroads

Shortlisted for the SAUK Fage & Oliver Prize 2020'Honorable Mention' for the ALA First Book Award - Scholarship 2021 A path-breaking contribution to the critical literature on African travel writing.Throughout the twentieth century, Nigerians have been writing about their travels within Niger...

Authority and authorship in medieval and seventeenth century women's visionary writings

In the medieval and early modern eras, female visionary writers used the mode of prophecy to voice their concerns and ideas. Deborah Frick analyzes medieval writings by Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe in comparison to seventeenth-century writings by authors such as Anna Trapnel, Mary Cary, An...

Autosociobiography

An extension of the scope of the literary phenomenon of autosociobiography beyond social class and a discussion of its validity in diverse cultural and historical contexts.

B-side books

Leading writers, critics, and scholars show why their favorite forgotten books deserve a new audience. In these thoughtful, often personal essays, contributors—including Caleb Crain, Merve Emre, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Namwali Serpell—read books by writers such as Helen DeWitt, Shirley Jackson, St...

Beautiful circuits

Considering texts by Henry James, Gertrude Stein, James Weldon Johnson, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ralph Ellison, Richard Wright, James Agee, and William Carlos Williams, alongside film, painting, music, and popular culture, Mark Goble explores the development of American modernism as it was shaped by ...

Because of you: understanding second-person storytelling

Evgenia Iliopoulou rethinks second-person storytelling, starting from the essentials of grammar and rhetoric. In its various forms and typologies, the second person amplifies and expands the limits of representation.

Beginning theory

Beginning theory has been helping students navigate through the thickets of literary and cultural theory for over two decades. This new and expanded fourth edition continues to offer readers the best single-volume introduction to the field. The bewildering variety of approaches, theorists and tec...

Belonging and narrative

Against the current emphasis on metaphors of movement and destabilization, Laura Bieger explores the salience and significance of home. Challenging views of narrative as a mechanism of ideology, she approaches narrative as a practical component of dwelling in the world, with the novel a primary p...

Between words and sounds

This book's aim is to shed new light on cultural misunderstanding, examining both the obstacles and outcomes it can entail.

Beyond the original

The contributors to this book delve into the playful and performative nature of translations that embrace ambiguity, confusion, and even failure.

British encounters with syrian-mesopotamian overland routes to india, 1751-1795

The book examines the relationship between the Enlightenment idea of improvement and eighteenth-century travel writings about Middle Eastern overland routes to India.

Buried treasures

Fascinating profiles of modern writers and artists who tapped the political potential of fairy talesJack Zipes has spent decades as a “scholarly scavenger,” discovering forgotten fairy tales in libraries, flea markets, used bookstores, and internet searches, and he has introduced countless reader...

Children of prometheus: romanticism and its legacy

In these nine related essays, Gregory Maertz investigates the expression of Romanticism in literature, philosophy, and cultural politics from the Renaissance to Modernism. Other essays are clustered around the literary activity of writers and philosophers associated with radicalism in Britain and...

Chinese shakespeares

For close to two hundred years, the ideas of Shakespeare have inspired incredible work in the literature, fiction, theater, and cinema of China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. From the novels of Lao She and Lin Shu to Lu Xun's search for a Chinese "Shakespeare," and from Feng Xiaogang's martial arts film...

Cities of the dead

The colorful handmade costumes of beads and feathers swirl frenetically, as the Mardi Gras Indians dance through the streets of New Orleans in remembrance of a widely disputed cultural heritage. Iroquois Indians visit London in the early part of the eighteenth century and give birth to the "feath...

Classic writings on poetry

The poet is the sayer, the namer, and represents beauty. He is a sovereign, and stands on the centre.—Ralph Waldo Emerson, from "The Poet""[The poet] is a seer.... he is individual... he is complete in himself.... the others are as good as he, only he sees it and they do not. He is not one of the...

Colonialism and gender relations from mary wollstonecraft to jamaica kincaid

Comfort in contemporary culture

Comfort is a prominent and highly loaded concept, as popular discourses on cozy environments, safe spaces, but also the importance of “getting out of your comfort zone” attest. This volume is the first to investigate “comfort” as a cultural narrative and emotional touchstone in contemporary culture.

Coming to terms with a crisis

This book explores how various actors reacted to this pandemic through specific forms of representation and storytelling in popular culture, public discourse, and science communication.