Literary studies: general

In this fascinating and erudite book, Bryan Cheyette throws new light on a wide range of modern and contemporary writers—some at the heart of the canon, others more marginal—to explore the power and limitations of the diasporic imagination after the Second World War.

A towering figure in world literature, Dante wrote his great epic poem Commedia in the early fourteenth century.

Bringing his perennially popular course to the page, Yale University Professor Paul H.

Features:* Wide chronological coverage of English literature, especially texts found in the Norton, Oxford, Blackwell and other standard anthologies* Short, punchy essays that engage with the texts, the critics, and literary and social issues* Background and survey articles* Glossaries of Bible themes, images and narratives* Annotated bibliography and questions for class discussion or personal reflection* Scholarly yet accessible, jargon-free approach - ideal for school and university students, book groups and general readersCreated for readers who may be unfamiliar with the Bible, church history or theological development, it offers an understanding of Christianity's key concepts, themes, images and characters as they relate to English literature up to the present day.

Born in Chicago in 1918, the prodigiously gifted and erudite Isaac Rosenfeld was anointed a “genius” upon the publication of his “luminescent” novel, Passage from Home and was expected to surpass even his closest friend and rival, Saul Bellow.

Spanning nearly 500 years of cultural and social history, this book examines the ways that literature and surveillance have developed together, as kindred modern practices.

A celebrated novelist and an acclaimed historian of ideas, father and daughter, unravel the chain of words at the core of Jewish life, history, and culture Why are words so important to so many Jews?

Russia’s Dangerous Texts examines the ways that writers and their works unnerved and irritated Russia’s authoritarian rulers both before and after the Revolution.

Translated here into English for the first time is a monumental work of literary history and criticism comparable in scope and achievement to Eric Auerbach’s Mimesis.

Some fifty years before Chrétien de Troyes wrote what is probably the first and certainly the most influential story of the Holy Grail, images of the Virgin Mary with a simple but radiant bowl (called a “grail” in local dialect) appeared in churches in the Spanish Pyrenees.

The question of what living is for—of what one should care about and why—is the most important question a person can ask.

A perceptive literary critic, a world-famous writer of witty and playful verses for children, a leading authority on children’s linguistic creativity, and a highly skilled translator, Kornei Chukovsky was a complete man of letters.

"e;How had the pair of elderly Jewish lesbians survived the Nazis?

Cervantes’ Don Quixote is the most widely read masterpiece in world literature, as appealing to readers today as four hundred years ago.

The acclaimed Proust biographer William C.

One hundred years after his death, Tolstoy still inspires controversy with his notoriously complex narrative strategies.

How is a classic book to be defined?

By the time she was twenty-four, Virginia Woolf had suffered a series of devastating losses that later she would describe as “sledge-hammer blows,” beginning with the death of her mother when she was thirteen years old and followed by those of her half-sister, father, and brother.

Twelfth-century French poet Chrétien de Troyes was one of the most influential figures in Western literature, for his romantic poems on the legend of King Arthur gave rise to a tradition of storytelling that continues to this day.

“A friend in history,” Henry David Thoreau once wrote, “looks like some premature soul.

A loving and admiring companion for half a century to literary titan Ezra Pound, concert violinist Olga Rudge was the muse who inspired the poet to complete his epic poem, The Cantos, and the mother of his only daughter, Mary.

What does eating have to do with aesthetic taste?

Talented and resolutely independent, Marie d’Agoult (1805–76) was one of the most remarkable women of her time.

The confusion of sin and evil, or religious and moral transgression, is the subject of Ronald Paulson’s latest book.

James Fenimore Cooper (1789–1851) invented the key forms of American fiction—the Western, the sea tale, the Revolutionary War romance.

George Santayana was unique in his contribution to American culture.

Considered one of Russia’s greatest philosophers, Vladimir Soloviev (1853–1900) was also a theologian, historian, poet, and social and political critic.

In this study intended for general readers, eminent critic Patricia Meyer Spacks provides a fresh, engaging account of the early history of the English novel.

This provocative and illuminating book provides a new perspective on the development of political thought from Homer to Machiavelli, Tocqueville, and Gertrude Stein (who is introduced here, for the first time, as a writer of political significance).

This is the first book to examine in full the interconnections between Giambattista Vico’s new science and James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake.

Realist Vision explores the claim to represent the world “as it is.

In the wake of the monstrous projects of Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and others in the twentieth century, the idea of utopia has been discredited.

In Imagined Cities, Robert Alter traces the arc of literary development triggered by the runaway growth of urban centers from the early nineteenth century through the first two decades of the twentieth.

Emerson and Thoreau are the most celebrated odd couple of nineteenth-century American literature.

George Sand was the most famous—and most scandalous—woman in nineteenth-century France.

This is the first book devoted to Horace’s Carmen Saeculare, a poem commissioned by Roman emperor Augustus in 17 B.

In this provocative challenge to prevailing views of New Testament sources, Dennis R.

Recognizing the dramatic changes in Old English studies over the past generation, this up-to-date anthology gathers twenty-one outstanding contemporary critical writings on the prose and poetry of Anglo-Saxon England, from approximately the seventh through eleventh centuries.

“I believe that it is in our interest as individuals to become crafty readers, and in the interest of the nation to educate citizens in the craft of reading.

In this lively, personal book, Robert Scholes intervenes in ongoing discussions about modernism in the arts during the crucial half-century from 1895 to 1945.

One of the twentieth century’s most important poets, W.

Award-winning videomaker, performance artist, and pop-culture provocateur Kip Fulbeck has captivated audiences worldwide with his mixture of high comedy and personal narrative.

John Trevisa (ca.

In this companion to his previous book, The Bible in Early English Literature, David Fowler completes his stimulating and broad-ranging study of medieval English literature in the light of biblical tradition.

The story of Mulian rescuing his mothers soul from hell has evolved as a narrative over several centuries in China, especially in the baojuan (precious scrolls) genre.

Forming the Early Chinese Court builds on new directions in comparative studies of royal courts in the ancient world to present a pioneering study of early Chinese court culture.

Savant Singh (16941764), the Rajput prince of Kishangarh-Rupnagar, is famous for commissioning beautiful works of miniature painting and composing devotional (bhakti) poetry to Krishna under the nom de plume Nagaridas.

Was denken Sie, wird möglich, wenn man das Know-how der Allgemeinmedizin mit der altbewährten Naturheilkunde sowie den vielfältigen Möglichkeiten der Alternativmedizin kombiniert?

This is the first ample collection of facetiae, or witty tales, from the Italian Renaissance to be published in English.