Rising from the Ruins
John Dyer’s The Ruins of Rome (1740) revived a subgenre of landscape poetry dealing with the ancient world. Viewing relics as monuments of grandeur and impending death, these poets included personal emotions, a key element in the development of Romanticism.
Byron and Scott
Though traditionally seen as opposites, the writers Scott and Byron cherished a lifelong friendship. This study reveals how Scott’s invention of the historical novel was crucial to Byron’s later work, shaping the evolution of the Byronic Hero and Byron himself.
Craven uncovers Apostle Paul’s ethics hidden in Hamlet, a discovery that unlocks seismic shifts in American culture and illuminates his own quest for power.
Ungrateful Daughters
Has the third wave of feminism spawned a literary movement? This book analyzes the fiction, memoirs, and anthologies of third wave writers like Rebecca Walker and Michelle Tea, defining a unique “third wave sensibility” and asking: does literary success help women’s liberation?
This collection of essays analyzes environmental and ecocritical themes in science fiction and fantasy. It investigates how these genres address today’s ecological crises and the detrimental effects of environmental destruction, while also considering solutions.
One is Never Alone with a Rubber Duck
Douglas Adams’s Hitchhiker Series is not merely light-hearted comedy, but is underpinned by philosophical ideas like Existentialism and absurdity. It investigates madness as subjective reality and uses aliens to satirise the human condition.
This study explores the complex term reconciliation in Shakespeare’s dramas. Contributors examine its theological, social, and political dimensions, including reconciliation with God, between persons, and its narrative significance in the plays.
This collection of essays bridges European and US approaches to children’s literature studies. Two main themes surface: ideology in children’s literature and images of childhood, alongside globalisation and the tension between pedagogy and aesthetics.
“The Given Note”
This book examines how traditional Irish music and song have influenced Irish poets. It looks at this influence historically and in contemporary work, focusing on six key poets, including Seamus Heaney, Ciaran Carson, and Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill.
Narrative is the Essence of History
The historical novel was once admired, then disparaged by critics, though it always remained popular. Now, it is again receiving critical praise. What is the essence of historical fiction? Why is it such a resilient genre? What is its future?
This collection provides a critical introduction to celebrated novelist David Peace. It explores his writings on the Yorkshire Ripper, the 1984 miners’ strike, and post-war Japan, offering an essential guide and unique insight into his canon to date.
Manikin Plays
Two plays reflecting on contemporary Indian society. Stone Idols deconstructs the Buddha myth to explore identity. The Beauty Parlour shows a woman victimized by the male gaze. The collection addresses sexuality and gender with innovative style and insight.
Wretched Refuge
This book reimagines the immigrant experience as part of a larger motif: the postmodern itinerant. As a figure of displacement and dispersion, the itinerant suggests a cosmopolitan response to anxieties about global hegemony in works by Diaz, Lahiri, and others.
In the French Third Republic (1870-1914), literature was mobilized for political and social warfare. These essays analyze how literature became the site for fierce culture wars over national identity, secular education, women’s liberation, and more.
Shakespeare on Love
Plato’s vision of universal love, alchemy, and Christian ideas strongly influenced Shakespeare’s Sonnets. He inserted these themes into his plays, creating a paradoxical combination of erotic mysticism with real lovers. The Dark Lady finds her supreme realisation in Cleopatra.
“The Turn of the Hand”
This memoir, written by an “insider,” recalls the lives of the Irish Traveller community during an era of enormous social and cultural change. It tells the stories of a people whose history has often been forgotten or relegated to the cultural margins.
New Literatures of Old
Artistic creativity is fuelled by dialogues between the past and the present. This book explores how these exchanges become active agents of intervention, creating spaces of dialogue and confrontation when establishing the cultural identity of a community.
This collection tackles the problem of fictionality and reality in contemporary theatre. It analyzes how phenomena like new media and post-dramatic forms challenge the basic dichotomy between the fictional and the real on which Western theatre is based.
Region, Nature, Frontiers
This collection of essays explores regional and national identities in literature from South Africa to the United States. Discussions include the American frontier, the relationship between non-fiction and place, and linguistic and postcolonial boundaries.
The articles in this volume vitalize diaspora studies, challenging how we understand ‘culture’ beyond the nation-state. They examine recent literature, film, and art, interrogating seminal thinkers and offering alternative perspectives on diaspora theory.