Literary theory

The works of Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) are widely acclaimed as being among the most original and provocative writings of twentieth-century critical thought, and have become required reading for scholars and students in a range of academic disciplines.

In its original formulation, culture' was intended to be an agent for change, a mission undertaken with the aim of educating the people' by bringing the best of human thought and creativity to them.

This new book is a lively and original study of psychoanalysis and its relations to the arts.

In this book, Janet Todd, one of the leading authorities on seventeenth- and eighteenth century women writers, discusses gender issues from the Restoration to Romanticism investigating women authors and the fascination with culturally privileged art and with heroic death.

Not exercising as much as you should?

What is psychoanalytic criticism and how can it be justified as a type of criticism in its own right?

Since his death in 1986, Michel de Certeau's reputation as a thinker has steadily grown both in France and throughout the English-speaking world.

Since its publication in 2003, Understanding David Foster Wallace has served as an accessible introduction to the rich array of themes and formal innovations that have made Wallace's fiction so popular and influential.

The nine contributors to this collection examine rhetorician Kenneth Burke's understanding of transcendence, applying it to a wide range of social and political issues, including racial and presidential politics.

For more than 30 years and until his death in 2004, Jacques Derrida remained one of the most influential contemporary philosophers.

In this important new book the leading philosopher Jacques Ranci re continues his reflections on the representative power of works of art.

Off the Page offers a series of critical "e;scripts"e; exploring various cultural texts, and a working definition of performative criticism grounded in poststructuralist literary, cultural, and performance theory.

This book by one of Latin America s leading cultural theorists examines the place of the subject and the role of biographical and autobiographical genres in contemporary culture.

Walter Benjamin (1892-1940), one of the most original and perceptive thinkers of the twentieth century, offered a unique insight into the profound impact of the media on modern society.

This book is concerned with the complexities of defining 'place', of observing and 'seeing' place, and how we might write a poetics of place.

Rhetoric appears to be a marginal topic for the Bakhtin School and for most Bakhtin scholars, but many rhetorical critics, theorists, and teachers have nonetheless found the school's work compelling and challenging.

Argues compellingly for a new approach to ancient narrative which goes beyond narratology and is alert to its specific logic.

Since its publication in 2003, Understanding David Foster Wallace has served as an accessible introduction to the rich array of themes and formal innovations that have made Wallace's fiction so popular and influential.

Franco Moretti's Graphs, Maps, Trees: Abstract Models for Literary History is one of the most provocative recent works of literary history.

The Aesthetic and Decadent Movement of the late 19th century spawned the idea of "Art for Art's Sake," challenged aesthetic standards and shocked the bourgeosie.

Of all the topics of interest in the digital humanities, the network has received comparatively little attention.

This book is concerned with the complexities of defining 'place', of observing and 'seeing' place, and how we might write a poetics of place.

In this timely book Janet Todd offers an analysis and defence of the feminist literary history practised by Elaine Showalter and other contemporary American literary critics.

Edward Said is one of the foremost thinkers writing today.

In Roland Barthes's eyes, Philippe Sollers embodied the figure of the contemporary writer forever seeking something new.