Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture
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A Companion to the Literature and Culture of the American West
by Various Authors
Part 133 of the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series
“A Companion to the Literature and Culture of the American West” presents a series of essays that explore the historic and contemporary cultural expressions rooted in America's western states.
• Offers a comprehensive approach to the wide range of cultural expressions originating in the west
• Focuses on the intersections, complexities, and challenges found within and between the different historical and cultural groups that define the west's various distinctive regions
• Addresses traditionally familiar icons and ideas about the west (such as cowboys, wide-open spaces, and violence) and their intersections with urbanization and other regional complexities
• Features essays written by many of the leading scholars in western American cultural studies
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A Companion to Sensation Fiction
by Various Authors
Part 133 of the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series
This comprehensive collection offers a complete introduction to one of the most popular literary forms of the Victorian period, its key authors and works, its major themes, and its lasting legacy.
• Places key authors and novels in their cultural and historical context
• Includes studies of major topics such as race, gender, melodrama, theatre, poetry, realism in fiction, and connections to other art forms
• Contributions from top international scholars approach an important literary genre from a range of perspectives
• Offers both a pre and post-history of the genre to situate it in the larger tradition of Victorian publishing and literature
• Incorporates coverage of traditional research and cutting-edge contemporary scholarship
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A Companion to Irish Literature
by Various Authors
Part 139 of the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series
Featuring new essays by international literary scholars, the two-volume Companion to Irish Literature encompasses the full breadth of Ireland's literary tradition from the Middle Ages to the present day.
• Covers an unprecedented historical range of Irish literature
• Arranged in two volumes covering Irish literature from the medieval period to 1900, and its development through the twentieth century to the present day
• Presents a re-visioning of twentieth-century Irish literature and a collection of the most up-to-date scholarship in the field as a whole
• Includes a substantial number of women writers from the eighteenth century to the present day
• Includes essays on leading contemporary authors, including Brian Friel, Seamus Heaney, Eavan Boland, Roddy Doyle, and Emma Donoghue
• Introduces readers to the wide range of current approaches to studying Irish literature
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A Companion to the History of the Book
by Various Authors
Part 159 of the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series
From the early Sumerian clay tablet through to the emergence of the electronic text, this Companion provides a continuous and coherent account of the history of the book.
• Makes use of illustrative examples and case studies of well-known texts
• Written by a group of expert contributors
• Covers topical debates, such as the nature of censorship and the future of the book.
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A Companion to Comparative Literature
by Various Authors
Part 163 of the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series
“A Companion to Comparative Literature” presents a collection of more than thirty original essays from established and emerging scholars, which explore the history, current state, and future of comparative literature.
• Features over thirty original essays from leading international contributors
• Provides a critical assessment of the status of literary and cross-cultural inquiry
• Addresses the history, current state, and future of comparative literature
• Chapters address such topics as the relationship between translation and transnationalism, literary theory and emerging media, the future of national literatures in an era of globalization, gender and cultural formation across time, East-West cultural encounters, postcolonial and diaspora studies, and other experimental approaches to literature and culture
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A Companion to American Literary Studies
by Various Authors
Part 165 of the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series
“A Companion to American Literary Studies” addresses the most provocative questions, subjects, and issues animating the field. Essays provide readers with the knowledge and conceptual tools for understanding American literary studies as it is practiced today, and chart new directions for the future of the subject.
• Offers up-to-date accounts of major new critical approaches to American literary studies
• Presents state-of-the-art essays on a full range of topics central to the field
• Essays explore critical and institutional genealogies of the field, increasingly diverse conceptions of American literary study, and unprecedented material changes such as the digital revolution
• A unique anthology in the field, and an essential resource for libraries, faculty, graduate students, and advanced undergraduates
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A Companion to T. S. Eliot
by Various Authors
Part 168 of the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series
Reflecting the surge of critical interest in Eliot renewed in recent years, A Companion to T.S. Eliot introduces the 'new' Eliot to readers and educators by examining the full body of his works and career. Leading scholars in the field provide a fresh and fully comprehensive collection of contextual and critical essays on his life and achievement.
• It compiles the most comprehensive and up-to-date treatment available of Eliot's work and career
• It explores the powerful forces that shaped Eliot as a writer and thinker, analyzing his body of work and assessing his oeuvre in a variety of contexts: historical, cultural, social, and philosophical
• It charts the surge in critical interest in T.S. Eliot since the early 1990s
• It provides an illuminating insight into a poet, writer, and critic who continues to define the literary landscape of the last century.
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A Companion to Poetic Genre
by Various Authors
Part 171 of the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series
This eagerly awaited Companion features over 40 contributions from leading academics around the world, and offers critical overviews of numerous poetic genres. Covering a range of cultural traditions from Britain, Ireland, North America, Japan and the Caribbean, among others, this valuable collection considers ancient genres such as the elegy, the ode, the ghazal, and the ballad, before moving on to Medieval and Renaissance genres originally invented or codified by the Troubadours or poets who followed in their wake. The book also approaches genres driven by theme, such as the calypso and found poetry. Each chapter begins by defining the genre in its initial stages, charting historical developments and finally assessing its latest mutations, be they structural, thematic, parodic, assimilative, or subversive.
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A Companion to Jane Austen
by Various Authors
Part 172 of the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series
Reflecting the dynamic and expansive nature of Austen studies, A Companion to Jane Austen provides 42 essays from a distinguished team of literary scholars that examine the full breadth of the English novelist's works and career.
• Provides the most comprehensive and up-to-date array of Austen scholarship
• Functions both as a scholarly reference and as a survey of the most innovative speculative developments in the field of Austen studies
• Engages at length with changing contexts and cultures of reception from the nineteenth to the twenty-first centuries
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A Companion to Arthurian Literature
by Various Authors
Part 177 of the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series
This Companion offers a chronological sweep of the canon of Arthurian literature - from its earliest beginnings to the contemporary manifestations of Arthur found in film and electronic media. Part of the popular series, Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture, this expansive volume enables a fundamental understanding of Arthurian literature and explores why it is still integral to contemporary culture.
• Offers a comprehensive survey from the earliest to the most recent works
• Features an impressive range of well-known international contributors
• Examines contemporary additions to the Arthurian canon, including film and computer games
• Underscores an understanding of Arthurian literature as fundamental to western literary tradition
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A New Companion to the Gothic
by Various Authors
Part 179 of the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series
The thoroughly expanded and updated New Companion to the Gothic, provides a series of stimulating insights into Gothic writing, its history and genealogy. The addition of 12 new essays and a section on 'Global Gothic' reflects the direction Gothic criticism has taken over the last decade.
• Many of the original essays have been revised to reflect current debates
• Offers comprehensive coverage of criticism of the Gothic and of the various theoretical approaches it has inspired and spawned
• Features important and original essays by leading scholars in the field
• The editor is widely recognized as the founder of modern criticism of the Gothic.
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A Companion to the American Novel
by Various Authors
Part 182 of the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series
Featuring 37 essays by distinguished literary scholars, “A Companion to the American Novel” provides a comprehensive single-volume treatment of the development of the novel in the United States from the late 18th century to the present day.
• Represents the most comprehensive single-volume introduction to this popular literary form currently available
• Features 37 contributions from a wide range of distinguished literary scholars
• Includes essays on topics and genres, historical overviews, and key individual works, including “The Scarlet Letter”, “Moby Dick”, “The Great Gatsby”, “Beloved”, and many more.
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A Companion to J. R. R. Tolkien
by Various Authors
Part 189 of the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series
This is a complete resource for scholars and students of Tolkien, as well as avid fans, with coverage of his life, work, dominant themes, influences, and the critical reaction to his writing.
• An in-depth examination of Tolkien's entire work by a cadre of top scholars
• Provides up-to-date discussion and analysis of Tolkien's scholarly and literary works, including his latest posthumous book, The Fall of Arthur, as well as addressing contemporary adaptations, including the new Hobbit films
• Investigates various themes across his body of work, such as mythmaking, medieval languages, nature, war, religion, and the defeat of evil
• Discusses the impact of his work on art, film, music, gaming, and subsequent generations of fantasy writers
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A Companion to Thomas Hardy
by Various Authors
Part 190 of the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series
Through original essays from a distinguished team of international scholars and Hardy specialists, “A Companion to Thomas Hardy” provides a unique, one-volume resource, which encompasses all aspects of Hardy's major novels, short stories, and poetry
• Informed by the latest in scholarly, critical, and theoretical debates from some of the world's leading Hardy scholars
• Reveals groundbreaking insights through examinations of Hardy's major novels, short stories, poetry, and drama
• Explores Hardy's work in the context of the major intellectual and socio-cultural currents of his time and assesses his legacy for subsequent writers
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A Companion to Eighteenth-Century Poetry
by Various Authors
Part of the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series
This wide-ranging Companion reflects the dramatic transformation that has taken place in the study of eighteenth-century poetry over the past two decades. New essays by leading scholars in the field address an expanded poetic canon that now incorporates verse by many women poets and other formerly marginalized poetic voices. The volume engages with topical critical debates such as the production and consumption of literary texts, the constructions of femininity, sentiment and sensibility, enthusiasm, politics and aesthetics, and the growth of imperialism.
“The Companion” opens with a section on contexts, considering eighteenth-century poetry's relationships with such topics as party politics, religion, science, the visual arts, and the literary marketplace. A series of close readings of specific poems follows, ranging from familiar texts such as Pope's ‘The Rape of the Lock” to slightly less well-known works such as Swift's "Stella" poems and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's “Town Eclogues”. Essays on forms and genres, and a series of more provocative contributions on significant themes and debates, complete the volume. “The Companion” gives readers a thorough grounding in both the background and the substance of eighteenth-century poetry and is designed to be used alongside David Fairer and Christine Gerrard's ‘Eighteenth-Century Poetry: An Annotated Anthology” (3rd edition, 2014).
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A Companion to Literature, Film, and Adaptation
by Various Authors
Part of the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series
This is a comprehensive collection of original essays that explore the aesthetics, economics, and mechanics of movie adaptation, from the days of silent cinema to contemporary franchise phenomena. Featuring a range of theoretical approaches, and chapters on the historical, ideological and economic aspects of adaptation, the volume reflects today's acceptance of intertextuality as a vital and progressive cultural force.
• Incorporates new research in adaptation studies
• Features a chapter on the Harry Potter franchise, as well as other contemporary perspectives
• Showcases work by leading Shakespeare adaptation scholars
• Explores fascinating topics such as 'unfilmable' texts
• Includes detailed considerations of Ian McEwan's Atonement and Conrad's Heart of Darkness
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A Companion to the Global Renaissance
Literature and Culture in the Era of Expansion, 1500-1700
by Various Authors
Part of the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series
An innovative collection of original essays providing an expansive picture of globalization across the early modern world, now in its second edition
“A Companion to the Global Renaissance: Literature and Culture in the Era of Expansion, 1500—1700”, Second Edition provides readers with a deeper and more nuanced understanding of both macro and micro perspectives on the commercial and cross-cultural interactions of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Covering a uniquely broad range of literary and cultural materials, historical contexts, and geographical regions, the Companion's varied chapters offer interdisciplinary perspectives on the implications of early modern concepts of commerce, material and artistic culture, sexual and cross-racial encounters, conquest and enslavement, social, artistic, and religious cross-pollinations, geographical "discoveries," and more.
Building upon the success of its predecessor, this second edition of “A Companion to the Global Renaissance” radically extends its scope by moving beyond England and English culture. Newly-commissioned essays investigate intercultural and intra-cultural exchanges, transactions, and encounters involving England, European powers, Eastern kingdoms, Africa, Islamic empires, and the Americas, within cross-disciplinary frameworks. Offering a complex and multifaceted view of early modern globalization, this new edition:
• Demonstrates the continuing global "turn" in Early Modern Studies through original essays exploring interconnected exchanges, transactions, and encounters
• Provides significantly expanded coverage of global interactions involving England, European powers such as Portugal, Spain, and The Netherlands, Eastern empires such as Japan, and the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal empires
• Includes a Preface and Afterword, as well as a revised and expanded Introduction summarizing the evolving field of Global Early Modern Studies and describing the motifs and methodologies informing the essays within the volume
• Explores an array of new subjects, including an exceptional woman traveler in Eurasia, the Jesuit presence in Mughal India and sixteenth-century Japan, the influence of Mughal art on an Amsterdam painter-cum-poet, the cultural impact of Eastern trade on plays and entertainments in early modern London, Safavid cultural disseminations, English and Portuguese slaving practices, the global contexts of English pattern poetry, and global lyric transmissions across cultures
A wide-ranging account of the global expansions and interactions of the period, “A Companion to the Global Renaissance: Literature and Culture in the Era of Expansion, 1500—1700”, Second Edition remains essential reading for early modern scholars and students ranging from undergraduate and graduate students to more advanced scholars and specialists in the field.
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A Companion to the English Novel
by Various Authors
Part of the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series
This collection of authoritative essays represents the latest scholarship on topics relating to the themes, movements, and forms of English fiction, while chronicling its development in Britain from the early 18th century to the present day.
• Comprises cutting-edge research currently being undertaken in the field, incorporating the most salient critical trends and approaches
• Explores the history, evolution, genres, and narrative elements of the English novel
• Considers the advancement of various literary forms — including such genres as realism, romance, Gothic, experimental fiction, and adaptation into film
• Includes coverage of narration, structure, character, and affect, shifts in critical reception to the English novel, and geographies of contemporary English fiction
• Features contributions from a variety of distinguished and high-profile literary scholars, along with emerging younger critics
• Includes a comprehensive scholarly bibliography of critical works on and about the novel to aid further reading and research
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A New Companion to Renaissance Drama
by Various Authors
Part of the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series
“A New Companion to Renaissance Drama” provides an invaluable summary of past and present scholarship surrounding the most popular and influential literary form of its time. Original interpretations from leading scholars set the scene for important paths of future inquiry.
• A colorful, comprehensive and interdisciplinary overview of the material conditions of Renaissance plays, England's most important dramatic period
• Contributors are both established and emerging scholars, with many leading international figures in the discipline
• Offers a unique approach by organizing the chapters by cultural context, theatre history, genre studies, theoretical applications, and material studies
• Chapters address newest departures and future directions for Renaissance drama scholarship
• Arthur Kinney is a world-renowned figure in the field
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A Companion to American Poetry
by Mary McAleer Balkun
Part of the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series
A COMPANION TO AMERICAN POETRY
A COMPANION TO AMERICAN POETRY
A Companion to American Poetry brings together original essays by both established scholars and emerging critical voices to explore the latest topics and debates in American poetry and its study. Highlighting the diverse nature of poetic practice and scholarship, this comprehensive volume addresses a broad range of individual poets, movements, genres, and concepts from the seventeenth century to the present day.
Organized thematically, the Companion's thirty-seven chapters address a variety of emerging trends in American poetry, providing historical context and new perspectives on topics such as poetics and identity, poetry and the arts, early and late experimentalisms, poetry and the transcendent, transnational poetics, poetry of engagement, poetry in cinema and popular music, Queer and Trans poetics, poetry and politics in the 21st century, and African American, Asian American, Latinx, and Indigenous poetries.
Both a nuanced survey of American poetry and a catalyst for future scholarship, A Companion to American Poetry is essential reading for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, academic researchers and scholars, and general readers with interest in current trends in American poetry.
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A Companion to Romantic Poetry
by Various Authors
Part of the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series
Through a series of 34 essays by leading and emerging scholars, A Companion to Romantic Poetry reveals the rich diversity of Romantic poetry and shows why it continues to hold such a vital and indispensable place in the history of English literature.
• Breaking free from the boundaries of the traditionally-studied authors, the collection takes a revitalized approach to the field and brings together some of the most exciting work being done at the present time
• Emphasizes poetic form and technique rather than a biographical approach
• Features essays on production and distribution and the different schools and movements of Romantic Poetry
• Introduces contemporary contexts and perspectives, as well as the issues and debates that continue to drive scholarship in the field
• Presents the most comprehensive and compelling collection of essays on British Romantic poetry currently available.
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A Companion to Latin American Literature and Culture
by Various Authors
Part of the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series
Cutting-edge and insightful discussions of Latin American literature and culture
In the newly revised second edition of A Companion to Latin American Literature and Culture, Sara Castro-Klaren delivers an eclectic and revealing set of discussions on Latin American culture and literature by scholars at the cutting edge of their respective fields. The included essays-whether they're written from the perspective of historiography, affect theory, decolonial approaches, or human rights-introduce readers to topics like gaucho literature, postcolonial writing in the Andes, and baroque art while pointing to future work on the issues raised.
This work engages with anthropology, history, individual memory, testimonio, and environmental studies. It also explores:
• A thorough introduction to topics of coloniality, including the mapping of the pre-Columbian Americas and colonial religiosity
• Comprehensive explorations of the emergence of national communities in New Imperial coordinates, including discussions of the Muisca and Mayan cultures
• Practical discussions of global and local perspectives in Latin American literature, including explorations of Latin American photography and cultural modalities and cross-cultural connections
• In-depth examinations of uncharted topics in Latin American literature and culture, including discussions of femicide and feminist performances and eco-perspectives
Perfect for students in undergraduate and graduate courses tackling Latin American literature and culture topics, A Companion to Latin American Literature and Culture, Second Edition will also earn a place in the libraries of members of the general public and PhD students interested in Latin American literature and culture.
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A Companion to Latin American Literature and Culture
by Various Authors
Part of the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series
A COMPANION TO LATIN AMERICAN LITERATURE AND CULTURE
A Companion to Latin American Literature and Culture reflects the changes that have taken place in cultural theory and literary criticism since the latter part of the twentieth century.
Written by more than thirty experts in cultural theory, literary history, and literary criticism, this authoritative and up-to-date reference places major authors in the complex cultural and historical contexts that have compelled their distinctive fiction, essays, and poetry. This allows the reader to more accurately interpret the esteemed but demanding literature of authors such as Jorge Luis Borges, Mario Vargas Llosa, Octavio Paz, and Diamela Eltit. Key authors whose work has defined a period, or defied borders, as in the cases of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, César Vallejo, and Gabriel García Márquez, are also discussed in historical and theoretical context. Additional essays engage the reader with in-depth discussions of forms and genres, and discussions of architecture, music, and film
This text provides the historical background to help the reader understand the people and culture that have defined Latin American literature and its reception. Each chapter also includes short selected bibliographic guides and recommendations for further reading.
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Companion to the History of the Book
by Various Authors
Part of the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series
The celebrated text on the history of the book, completely revised, updated and expanded
The revised and updated edition of The Companion to the History of the Book offers a global survey of the book's history, through print and electronic text. Already well established as a standard survey of the historiography of the book, this new, expanded edition draws on a decade of advanced scholarship to present current research on paper, printing, binding, scientific publishing, the history of maps, music and print, the profession of authorship and lexicography.
The text explores the many approaches to the book from the early clay tablets of Sumer, Assyria and Babylonia to today's burgeoning electronic devices. The expert contributions delve into such fascinating topics as archives and paperwork, and present new chapters on Arabic script, the Slavic, Canadian, African and Australasian book, new textual technologies, and much more.
Containing a wealth of illustrative examples and case studies to dramatize the exciting history of the book, the text is designed for academics, students and anyone interested in the subject.
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A Companion to Renaissance Poetry
by Various Authors
Part of the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series
The most comprehensive collection of essays on Renaissance poetry on the market
Covering the period 1520—1680, A Companion to Renaissance Poetry offers 46 essays which present an in-depth account of the context, production, and interpretation of early modern British poetry. It provides students with a deep appreciation for, and sensitivity toward, the ways in which poets of the period understood and fashioned a distinctly vernacular voice, while engaging them with some of the debates and departures that are currently animating the discipline.
A Companion to Renaissance Poetry analyzes the historical, cultural, political, and religious background of the time, addressing issues such as education, translation, the Reformation, theorizations of poetry, and more. The book immerses readers in non-dramatic poetry from Wyatt to Milton, focusing on the key poetic genres-epic, lyric, complaint, elegy, epistle, pastoral, satire, and religious poetry. It also offers an inclusive account of the poetic production of the period by canonical and less canonical writers, female and male. Finally, it offers examples of current developments in the interpretation of Renaissance poetry, including economic, ecological, scientific, materialist, and formalist approaches.
• Covers a wide selection of authors and texts
• Features contributions from notable authors, scholars, and critics across the globe
• Offers a substantial section on recent and developing approaches to reading Renaissance poetry
A Companion to Renaissance Poetry is an ideal resource for all students and scholars of the literature and culture of the Renaissance period.
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A Feminist Companion to Shakespeare
by Various Authors
Part of the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series
The question is not whether Shakespeare studies needs feminism, but whether feminism needs Shakespeare. This is the explicitly political approach taken in the dynamic and newly updated edition of A Feminist Companion to Shakespeare.
• Provides the definitive feminist statement on Shakespeare for the 21st century
• Updates address some of the newest theatrical and creative engagements with Shakespeare, offering fresh insights into Shakespeare's plays and poems, and gender dynamics in early modern England
• Contributors come from across the feminist generations and from various stages in their careers to address what is new in the field in terms of historical and textual discovery
• Explores issues vital to feminist inquiry, including race, sexuality, the body, queer politics, social economies, religion, and capitalism
• In addition to highlighting changes, it draws attention to the strong continuities of scholarship in this field over the course of the history of feminist criticism of Shakespeare
• The previous edition was a recipient of a Choice Outstanding Academic Title award, this second edition maintains its coverage and range, and brings the scholarship right up to the present day
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A Companion to Creative Writing
by Various Authors
Part of the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series
A COMPANION TO CREATIVE WRITING
A Companion to Creative Writing is a comprehensive collection covering myriad aspects of the practice and profession of creative writing in the contemporary world. The book features contributions from an international cast of creative writers, publishers and editors, critics, translators, literary prize judges, and many other top professionals. Chapters not only consider the practice of creative writing in terms of how it is "done," but also in terms of what occurs in and around creative writing practice. Chapters address a wide range of topics including the writing of poetry and fiction; playwriting and screenwriting; writing for digital media; editing; creative writing and its engagement with language, spirituality, politics, education, and heritage. Other chapters explore the role of literary critics and ideas around authorship, as well as translation and creative writing, the teaching of creative writing, and the histories and character of the marketplace, prizes, awards, and literary events. With its unprecedented breadth of coverage, A Companion to Creative Writing is an indispensable resource for those who are undertaking creative writing, studying creative writing at any level, or considering studying creative writing.
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A Companion to Literary Theory
by Various Authors
Part of the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series
Introduces readers to the modes of literary and cultural study of the previous half century
“A Companion to Literary Theory” is a collection of 36 original essays, all by noted scholars in their field, designed to introduce the modes and ideas of contemporary literary and cultural theory. Arranged by topic rather than chronology, in order to highlight the relationships between earlier and most recent theoretical developments, the book groups its chapters into seven convenient sections: I. Literary Form: Narrative and Poetry; II. The Task of Reading; III. Literary Locations and Cultural Studies; IV. The Politics of Literature; V. Identities; VI. Bodies and Their Minds; and VII. Scientific Inflections.
Allotting proper space to all areas of theory most relevant today, this comprehensive volume features three dozen masterfully written chapters covering such subjects as: Anglo-American New Criticism; Chicago Formalism; Russian Formalism; Derrida and Deconstruction; Empathy/Affect Studies; Foucault and Poststructuralism; Marx and Marxist Literary Theory; Postcolonial Studies; Ethnic Studies; Gender Theory; Freudian Psychoanalytic Criticism; Cognitive Literary Theory; Evolutionary Literary Theory; Cybernetics and Posthumanism; and much more.
• Features 36 essays by noted scholars in the field
• Fills a growing need for companion books that can guide readers through the thicket of ideas, systems, and terminologies
• Presents important contemporary literary theory while examining those of the past
“The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Literary Theory” will be welcomed by college and university students seeking an accessible and authoritative guide to the complex and often intimidating modes of literary and cultural study of the previous half century.
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A Companion to Literary Biography
by Various Authors
Part of the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series
An authoritative review of literary biography covering the seventeenth century to the twentieth century
“A Companion to Literary Biography” offers a comprehensive account of literary biography spanning the history of the genre across three centuries. The editor — an esteemed literary biographer and noted expert in the field — has encouraged contributors to explore the theoretical and methodological questions raised by the writing of biographies of writers. The text examines how biographers have dealt with the lives of classic authors from Chaucer to contemporary figures such as Kingsley Amis.
The Companion brings a new perspective on how literary biography enables the reader to deal with the relationship between the writer and their work. Literary biography is the most popular form of writing about writing, yet it has been largely neglected in the academic community. This volume bridges the gap between literary biography as a popular genre and its relevance for the academic study of literature. This important work:
• Allows the author of a biography to be treated as part of the process of interpretation and investigates biographical reading as an important aspect of criticism
• Examines the birth of literary biography at the close of the seventeenth century and considers its expansion through the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries
• Addresses the status and writing of literary biography from numerous perspectives and with regard to various sources, methodologies and theories
• Reviews the ways in which literary biography has played a role in our perception of writers in the mainstream of the English canon from Chaucer to the present day
Written for students at the undergraduate level, through postgraduate and doctoral levels, as well as academics, A Companion to Literary Biography illustrates and accounts for the importance of the literary biography as a vital element of criticism and as an index to our perception of literary history.
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A Companion to Digital Literary Studies
by Various Authors
Part of the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series
This Companion offers an extensive examination of how new technologies are changing the nature of literary studies, from scholarly editing and literary criticism, to interactive fiction and immersive environments.
• A complete overview exploring the application of computing in literary studies
• Includes the seminal writings from the field
• Focuses on methods and perspectives, new genres, formatting issues, and best practices for digital preservation
• Explores the new genres of hypertext literature, installations, gaming, and web blogs
• The Appendix serves as an annotated bibliography
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A Companion to Translation Studies
by Various Authors
Part of the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series
This companion offers a wide-ranging introduction to the rapidly expanding field of translation studies, bringing together some of the best recent scholarship to present its most important current themes
• Features new work from well-known scholars
• Includes a broad range of geo-linguistic and theoretical perspectives
• Offers an up-to-date overview of an expanding field
• A thorough introduction to translation studies for both undergraduates and graduates
• Multi-disciplinary relevance for students with diverse career goals.
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A Companion to Modernist Poetry
by Various Authors
Part of the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series
“A Companion to Modernist Poetry” presents contemporary approaches to modernist poetry in a uniquely in-depth and accessible text. The first section of the volume reflects the attention to historical and cultural context that has been especially fruitful in recent scholarship. The second section focuses on various movements and groupings of poets, placing writers in literary history and indicating the currents and countercurrents whose interaction generated the category of modernism as it is now broadly conceived. The third section traces the arcs of twenty-one poets' careers, illustrated by analyses of key works.
The Companion thus offers breadth in its presentation of historical and literary contexts and depth in its attention to individual poets; it brings recent scholarship to bear on the subject of modernist poetry while also providing guidance on poets who are historically important and who are likely to appear on syllabi and to attract critical interest for many years to come.
Edited by two highly respected and notable critics in the field, “A Companion to Modernist Poetry” boasts a varied list of contributors who have produced an intense, focused study of modernist poetry.
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A Companion to American Literature
by Various Authors
Part of the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series
A comprehensive, chronological overview of American literature in three scholarly and authoritative volumes
“A Companion to American Literature” traces the history and development of American literature from its early origins in Native American oral tradition to 21st century digital literature. This comprehensive three-volume set brings together contributions from a diverse international team of accomplished young scholars and established figures in the field. Contributors explore a broad range of topics in historical, cultural, political, geographic, and technological contexts, engaging the work of both well-known and non-canonical writers of every period.
Volume One is an inclusive and geographically expansive examination of early American literature, applying a range of cultural and historical approaches and theoretical models to a dramatically expanded canon of texts. Volume Two covers American literature between 1820 and 1914, focusing on the development of print culture and the literary marketplace, the emergence of various literary movements, and the impact of social and historical events on writers and writings of the period. Spanning the 20th and early 21st centuries, Volume Three studies traditional areas of American literature as well as the literature from previously marginalized groups and contemporary writers often overlooked by scholars. This inclusive and comprehensive study of American literature:
• Examines the influences of race, ethnicity, gender, class, and disability on American literature
• Discusses the role of technology in book production and circulation, the rise of literacy, and changing reading practices and literary forms
• Explores a wide range of writings in multiple genres, including novels, short stories, dramas, and a variety of poetic forms, as well as autobiographies, essays, lectures, diaries, journals, letters, sermons, histories, and graphic narratives.
• Provides a thematic index that groups chapters by contexts and illustrates their links across different traditional chronological boundaries
“A Companion to American Literature” is a valuable resource for students coming to the subject for the first time or preparing for field examinations, instructors in American literature courses, and scholars with more specialized interests in specific authors, genres, movements, or periods.
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A Companion to Literary Evaluation
by Various Authors
Part of the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series
The first critical survey of its kind devoted solely to literary evaluation
Companion to Literary Evaluation bridges the gap between the non-academic literary world, where evaluation is deeply ingrained, and the world of academia, where evaluation is rarely considered. Encouraging readers to formulate and articulate arguments that balance instinctive judgment and reasoned assessment, this unique volume addresses key issues regarding literary values from the perspective of analytical aesthetics and the philosophy of literature.
Bringing together a diverse panel of contributors, the Companion explores competing theories of literary evaluation, the reasons for evaluating theater and lyric poetry in performance, the question of value in literary theory, debates over Modernism's negative impact on literature, the possibility of evaluating aesthetic beauty through scientific and formalist methods, the nature and status of literary evaluation as a branch of criticism, aesthetics in applied and community theater, evaluation outside academia, the perils of extreme relativism and subjectivism in literary evaluation, evaluation in schools and much more. Contributors question and reassess the reputations of authors across the canon, from Shakespeare and James Shirley to T S Eliot, Kathleen Raine, Virginia Woolf, Joyce and Beckett amongst others. The Companion:
• Illustrates how seemingly divergent perspectives on the artistic qualities and value of literature can sometimes overlap
• Covers the standard range of literary genres, while including others such as unfinished novels, freelance journalism, and lyric poetry in performance
• Offers methodologies that demonstrate why literature can be treated as something different from other forms of language and therefore assessed as art
• Explores the importance of maintaining clarity and specificity in the evaluation of literary works
Companion to Literary Evaluation is a must-read for undergraduates, research students, lecturers, and academics in search of fresh perspectives on standard literary critical issues.
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A Companion to Modern Chinese Literature
by Various Authors
Part of the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series
This wide-ranging Companion provides a vital overview of modern Chinese literature in different geopolitical areas, from the 1840s to now. It reviews major accomplishments of Chinese literary scholarship published in Chinese and English and brings attention to previously neglected, important areas.
• Offers the most thorough and concise coverage of modern Chinese literature to date, drawing attention to previously neglected areas such as late Qing, Sinophone, and ethnic minority literature
• Several chapters explore literature in relation to Sinophone geopolitics, regional culture, urban culture, visual culture, print media, and new media
• The introduction and two chapters furnish overviews of the institutional development of modern Chinese literature in Chinese and English scholarship since the mid-twentieth century
• Contributions from leading literary scholars in mainland China and Hong Kong add their voices to international scholarship
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A Companion to the Harlem Renaissance
by Various Authors
Part of the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series
A Companion to the Harlem Renaissance presents a comprehensive collection of original essays that address the literature and culture of the Harlem Renaissance from the end of World War I to the middle of the 1930s.
• Represents the most comprehensive coverage of themes and unique new perspectives on the Harlem Renaissance available
• Features original contributions from both emerging scholars of the Harlem Renaissance and established academic "stars" in the field
• Offers a variety of interdisciplinary features, such as the section on visual and expressive arts, that emphasize the collaborative nature of the era
• Includes "Spotlight Readings" featuring lesser known figures of the Harlem Renaissance and newly discovered or undervalued writings by canonical figures
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A Companion to Mark Twain
by Various Authors
Part of the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series
This broad-ranging companion brings together respected American and European critics and a number of up-and-coming scholars to provide an overview of Twain, his background, his writings, and his place in American literary history.
• One of the most broad-ranging volumes to appear on Mark Twain in recent years
• Brings together respected Twain critics and a number of younger scholars in the field to provide an overview of this central figure in American literature
• Places special emphasis on the ways in which Twain's works remain both relevant and important for a twenty-first century audience
• A concluding essay evaluates the changing landscape of Twain criticism
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A Companion to William Faulkner
by Various Authors
Part of the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series
This comprehensive Companion to William Faulkner reflects the current dynamic state of Faulkner studies.
• Explores the contexts, criticism, genres and interpretations of Nobel Prize-winning writer William Faulkner, arguably the greatest American novelist
• Comprises newly-commissioned essays written by an international contributor team of leading scholars
• Guides readers through the plethora of critical approaches to Faulkner over the past few decades
• Draws upon current Faulkner scholarship, as well as critically reflecting on previous interpretations
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A Companion to James Joyce
by Various Authors
Part of the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series
“A Companion to James Joyce” offers a unique composite overview and analysis of Joyce's writing, his global image, and his growing impact on twentieth-and twenty-first-century literatures.
• Brings together 25 newly commissioned essays by some of the top scholars in the field
• Explores Joyce's distinctive cultural place in Irish, British and European modernism and the growing impact of his work elsewhere in the world
• A comprehensive and timely Companion to current debates and possible areas of future development in Joyce studies
• Offers new critical readings of several of Joyce's works, including Dubliners, “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”, and “Ulysses”.
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A Companion to African Literatures
by Various Authors
Part of the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series
Rediscover the diversity of modern African literatures with this authoritative resource edited by a leader in the field.
How have African literatures unfolded in their rich diversity in our modern era of decolonization, nationalisms, and extensive transnational movement of peoples? How have African writers engaged urgent questions regarding race, nation, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality? And how do African literary genres interrelate with traditional oral forms or audio-visual and digital media? “A Companion to African Literatures” addresses these issues and many more.
Consisting of essays by distinguished scholars and emerging leaders in the field, this book offers rigorous, deeply engaging discussions of African literatures on the continent and in diaspora. It covers the four main geographical regions (East and Central Africa, North Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa), presenting ample material to learn from and think with.
A Companion To African Literatures is divided into five parts. The first four cover different regions of the continent, while the fifth part considers conceptual issues and newer directions of inquiry. Chapters focus on literatures in European languages officially used in Africa-English, French, and Portuguese-as well as homegrown African languages: Afrikaans, Amharic, Arabic, Swahili, and Yoruba. With its lineup of lucid and authoritative analyses, readers will find in A Companion to African Literatures a distinctive, rewarding academic resource.
Perfect for undergraduate and graduate students in literary studies programs with an African focus, A Companion to African Literatures will also earn a place in the libraries of teachers, researchers, and professors who wish to strengthen their background in the study of African literatures.
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A New Companion to Chaucer
by Various Authors
Part of the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series
The extensively revised and expanded version of the acclaimed Companion to Chaucer
An essential text for both established scholars and those seeking to expand their knowledge of Chaucer studies, “A New Companion to Chaucer” is an authoritative and up-to-date survey of Chaucer scholarship. Rigorous yet accessible, this book helps readers to identify current debates, recognize historical and literary context, and to understand how particular concepts and theories affect the interpretation of Chaucer's texts. Chaucer specialists from around the globe offer contributions that range from updates of long-standing scholarship on biography, language, women, and social structures, to original research in new areas such as ideology, the afterlife, patronage, and sexuality. In presenting conflicting perspectives and ideological differences, this stimulating volume encourages readers to explore additional paths of inquiry and engage in lively and informed debate.
Each chapter of the Companion, organized by issues and themes, balances textual analysis and cultural context by grounding the reader in existing scholarship. Key issues from specific passages are discussed with an annotated bibliography provided for reference and further reading. Compiled with all students of Chaucer in mind, this important volume:
• Presents contributions from both established and emerging specialists
• Explores the circumstances in which Chaucer wrote, such as the political and religious issues of his time
• Includes numerous close readings of selected poems
• Provides points of entry to a wide range of approaches to Chaucer's works
• Incorporates original research, fresh perspectives, and updated additions to Chaucer scholarship
“A New Companion to Chaucer” is a valuable and enduring resource for scholars, teachers, and students of medieval literature and medieval studies, as well as the general reader interested in interpretations and historical contexts of Chaucer's writings.
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A Companion to George Eliot
by Various Authors
Part of the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series
This collection offers students and scholars of Eliot's work a timely critical reappraisal of her corpus, including her poetry and non-fiction, reflecting the latest developments in literary criticism. It features innovative analysis exploring the relation between Eliot's Victorian intellectual sensibilities and those of our own era.
• A comprehensive collection of essays written by leading Eliot scholars
• Offers a contemporary reappraisals of Eliot's work reflecting a broad range of current academic interests, including religion, science, ethics, politics, and aesthetics
• Reflects the very latest developments in literary scholarship
• Traces the revealing links between Eliot's Victorian intellectual concerns and those of today
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A New Companion to Milton
by Various Authors
Part of the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series
“A New Companion to Milton” builds on the critically-acclaimed original, bringing alive the diverse and controversial world of contemporary Milton studies while reflecting the very latest advances in research in the field.
• Comprises 36 powerful readings of Milton's texts and the contexts in which they were created, each written by a leading scholar
• Retains 28 of the award-winning essays from the first edition, revised and updated to reflect the most recent research
• Contains a new section exploring Milton's global impact, in China, India, Japan, Korea, in Spanish speaking American and the Arab-speaking world
• Includes eight completely new full-length essays, each of which engages closely with Milton's poetic oeuvre, and a new chronology which sets Milton's life and work in the context of his age
• Explores literary production and cultural ideologies, issues of politics, gender and religion, individual Milton texts, and responses to Milton over time
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A Companion to Emily Dickinson
by Various Authors
Part of the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series
This companion to America's greatest woman poet showcases the diversity and excellence that characterize the thriving field of Dickinson studies.
• Covers biographical approaches of Dickinson, the historical, political and cultural contexts of her work, and its critical reception over the years
• Considers issues relating to the different formats in which Dickinson's lyrics have been published- manuscript, print, halftone and digital facsimile
• Provides incisive interventions into current critical discussions, as well as opening up fresh areas of critical inquiry
• Features new work being done in the critique of nineteenth-century American poetry generally, as well as new work being done in Dickinson studies
• Designed to be used alongside the Dickinson Electronic Archives, an online resource developed over the past ten years
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A Companion to the Modern American Novel, 1900 - 1950
by Various Authors
Part of the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series
This cutting-edge Companion is a comprehensive resource for the study of the modern American novel. Published at a time when literary modernism is being thoroughly reassessed, it reflects current investigations into the origins and character of the movement as a whole.
• Brings together 28 original essays from leading scholars
• Allows readers to orient individual works and authors in their principal cultural and social contexts
• Contributes to efforts to recover minority voices, such as those of African American novelists, and popular subgenres, such as detective fiction
• Directs students to major relevant scholarship for further inquiry
• Suggests the many ways that "modern", "American" and "fiction" carry new meanings in the twenty-first century.
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A Companion to Multiethnic Literature of the United States
by Various Authors
Part of the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series
Provides the most comprehensive collection of scholarship on the multiethnic literature of the United States
A Companion to the Multiethnic Literature of the United States is the first in-depth reference work dedicated to the histories, genres, themes, cultural contexts, and new directions of American literature by authors of varied ethnic backgrounds. Engaging multiethnic literature as a distinct field of study, this unprecedented volume brings together a wide range of critical and theoretical approaches to offer analyses of African American, Latinx, Native American, Asian American, Jewish American, and Arab American literatures, among others.
Chapters written by a diverse panel of leading contributors explore how multi-ethnic texts represent racial, ethnic, and other identities, center the lives and work of the marginalized and oppressed, facilitate empathy with the experiences of others, challenge racism, sexism, homophobia, and other hateful rhetoric, and much more. Informed by recent and leading-edge methodologies within the field, the Companion examines how theoretical approaches to multiethnic literature such as cultural studies, queer studies, ecocriticism, diaspora studies, and posthumanism inform literary scholarship, pedagogy, and curricula in the US and around the world.
• Explores the national, international, and transnational contexts of US ethnic literature
• Addresses how technology and digital access to archival materials are impacting the study, reception, and writing of multiethnic literature
• Discusses how recent developments in critical theory impact the reading and interpretation of multiethnic US literature
• Highlights significant themes and major critical trends in genres including science fiction, drama and performance, literary nonfiction, and poetry
• Includes coverage of multiethnic film, history, and culture as well as newer art forms such as graphic narrative and hip-hop
• Considers various contexts in multiethnic literature such as politics and activism, immigration and migration, and gender and sexuality
A Companion to the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States is an invaluable resource for scholars, researchers, undergraduate and graduate students, and general readers studying all aspects of the subject
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A New Companion to Victorian Literature and Culture
by Various Authors
Part of the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series
The Victorian period was a time of rapid cultural change, which resulted in a huge and varied literary output. A New Companion to Victorian Literature and Culture offers experienced guidance to the literature of nineteenth-century Britain and its social and historical context. This revised and expanded edition comprises contributions from over 30 leading scholars who, approaching the Victorian epoch from different positions and traditions, delve into the unruly complexities of the Victorian imagination.
Divided into five parts, this new companion surveys seven decades of history before examining the keys phases in a Victorian life, the leading professions and walks of life, the major Victorian literary genres, and the way Victorians defined their persons, their homes, and their national identities. Important topics such as sexuality, denominational faith, social class, and global empire inform each chapter's approach. Each chapter provides a comprehensive bibliography of established and emerging scholarship.
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A Companion to Henry James
by Various Authors
Part of the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series
Written by some of the world's most distinguished Henry James scholars, this innovative collection of essays provides the most up-to-date scholarship on James's writings available today.
• Provides an essential, up-to-date reference to the work and scholarship of Henry James
• Features the writing of a wide range of James scholars
• Places James's writings within national contexts-American, English, French, and Italian
• Offers both an overview of contemporary James scholarship and a cutting edge resource for studying important individual topics