The Lake Poets in Prose
Focusing on their prose, this collection challenges assumptions about the Lake Poets. Far from idealistic dreamers or “Jacobins,” they consistently challenged the government, defended democratic impulses, and argued from a complex and surprising religious standpoint.
This book explores human universals in literature, cinema, and language. Scholars reveal how shared practices and concerns—from myth and trauma to identity—form a basis for intercultural communication, bridging gaps of misinformation across spatial and temporal boundaries.
Neoliberalism, Oligarchy and Politics of the Event
This book shows that today’s oligarchic politics result from the fall of mass movements. The rule is reversed into a cybernetic market where transnational corporations control states, rendering sovereignty an illusion and threatening the very essence of society.
These critical essays on Mirza Ghalib explore key themes in his poetry and letters, from his obsession with death to comparisons with Shakespeare. The book highlights the myriad shades of meaning in Ghalib’s vision of life—one that details life in all its horror and glory.
Cultural Politics in Derek Walcott’s Prose and Poetry
This book offers a new reading of Derek Walcott, introducing him as a postcolonial theoretician by focusing on his neglected essays. It singles out concepts that parallel and precede seminal views in postcolonial theory, wedding theory to practice by applying them to his poems.
Towards a Theory of Whodunits
This volume follows the evolution of detective fiction from the late eighteenth century to its contemporary multi-media expressions. Tackling well-known and forgotten authors, classic texts, and films, the book explores the impact of whodunits on highbrow and popular culture.
Despite criticism, a continuing affection for Enid Blyton’s work is apparent. This book places her work in its cultural and historical context, examining recurring themes of childhood, class, and fantasy, and asks whether she was as reactionary a writer as she appeared.
Molecular structure is fundamental to chemistry, yet no one has ever seen it, nor can it be derived from quantum mechanics. Is what chemists take to be molecular structure real? This book addresses this head-on, exploring the grounds of a core concept of chemistry.
This book details the unique 20th-century alliance between small Albania and giant China. Based on specific interests, this relationship unfolded from initial optimism to sworn animosity, cracking when China established a new affinity with the USA.
Contemporary Crime Fiction
This book presents nine compelling essays on contemporary crime fiction, bringing fresh perspectives to the vibrant genre. Topics range from domestic noir and historical crime to race and ethnicity, examining authors like Gillian Flynn, Ian Rankin, and Tana French.
Paul Valéry’s complex and graceful writing presents daunting obstacles for the translator. This volume is the culmination of 50 years devoted to bringing his poems into fluent English. It shows him as both the supreme poet of the mind and a consummate linguistic musician.
Two of the world’s most wicked writers, decadent poets Viereck and Crowley, formed an alliance in 1915 New York. Viereck was the editor of a pro-German magazine; Crowley was his new hire. But was Crowley a British secret agent sent to spy on the German network?
This study explores the work of feminist authors who responded to the Italian Risorgimento (1799-1861). Through novels, poetry, and political analyses, women from Mary Shelley to Cristina Belgiojoso championed democracy, civic justice, and gender equality.
This collection of essays examines dystopian fiction in literature, TV, and games. Capturing the dilemmas of our precarious epoch, it offers new interpretations of classics like Orwell and Atwood and pop culture phenomena like The Hunger Games and Fallout.
Elemental Encounters in the Contemporary Irish Novel
Reading is touching. Words pierce flesh like a knife. Storytelling breathes with air, fire, earth and water. This book explores how novels by Irish authors John Banville and Mary Morrissy revitalise these elements with sensual, social, and tactile textures.
The first study of its kind, this collection explores Beowulf’s extensive impact on contemporary culture. Topics range from film, television, and video games to graphic novels and children’s literature, demonstrating the epic poem’s continuing cultural power.
The Essays of Chitta Ranjan Das on Literature, Culture, and Society
The essays of Chitta Ranjan Das present a different vision of the post-colonial imagination. This book offers radical new pathways, breaking conventional boundaries between the periphery and the centre, literature and life, and East and West.
Explore the wanderings of Odysseus in books 5-13 of Homer’s Odyssey. This guide provides a readable translation, summaries, and in-depth analysis to enhance your enjoyment of the epic’s most famous segment. It also includes exercises and topics for further investigation.
Now more than ever, we must reconsider what borders and frontiers mean. This collection analyzes their representation in literature, philosophy, and cinema, drawing on global examples to find what unites us in our shared humanity, rather than what divides us.
Islam in Contemporary Literature
This volume presents authors from an Islamic background who search for a voice for individual rights. This study discusses an ongoing Reformation in Islam, focusing on the role of women, sexuality, the “clash of civilizations,” free speech, assimilation, and pluralism.