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Showing 141 - 160 of 412 items
This study explores the role of fiction in the social production of the West Central district of London in the…
nineteenth century. It tells a new history of the novel from a local geographical perspective, tracing developments in the form as it engaged with Bloomsbury in the period it emerged as the city’s dominant literary zone. A neighbourhood that was subject simultaneously to socio-economic decline and cultural ascent, fiction set in Bloomsbury is shown to have reconceived the area’s marginality as potential autonomy. Drawing on sociological theory, this book critically historicizes Bloomsbury’s trajectory to show that its association with the intellectual “fraction” known as the ‘Bloomsbury Group’ at the beginning of the twentieth century was symptomatic rather than exceptional. From the 1820s onwards, writers positioned themselves socially within the metropolitan geography they projected through their fiction. As Bloomsbury became increasingly identified with the cultural capital of writers rather than the economic capital of established wealth, writers subtly affiliated themselves with the area, and the figure of the writer and Bloomsbury became symbolically conflated.By Nick Caistor, Lorenza Garcia, Andrés Neuman. 2014
"Good readers will find something that can be found only in great literature, the kind written by real poets, a…
literature that dares to venture into the dark with open eyes and that keeps its eyes open no matter what . . . . The literature of the twenty-first century will belong to Neuman and a few of his blood brothers."--Roberto BolañoPlayful, philosophizing, and gloriously unpredictable, Andrés Neuman's short stories consider love, lechery, history, mortality, family secrets, therapy, Borges, mysterious underwear, translators, and storytelling itself.Here a relationship turns on a line drawn in the sand; an analyst treats a patient who believes he's the real analyst; a discovery in a secondhand shop takes on a cruel significance; a man decides to go to work naked one day. In these small scenes and brief moments Neuman confounds our expectations with dazzling sleight of hand.With a variety of forms and styles, Neuman opens up the possibilities for fiction, calling to mind other greats of Latin American letters, such as Cortázar, Bolaño, and Bioy Casares. Intellectually stimulating and told with a voice that is wry, questioning, sometimes mordantly funny, yet always generously humane, The Things We Don't Do confirms Neuman's place as one of the most dynamic authors writing today. Andrés Neuman was born in Buenos Aires, but grew up and lives in Spain. He was included in Granta's "Young Spanish-Language Novelists" issue and is the author of almost twenty works, two of which--Traveler of the Century and Talking to Ourselves--have been translated into English. Traveler of the Century won the Alfaguara Prize, the National Critics Prize, was longlisted for the 2013 Best Translated Book Award, and was shortlisted for the 2013 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and the 2014 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.This book foregrounds the figure of the perpetrator in a selection of British, American, and Canadian comics and explores questions…
related to remembrance, justice, and historical debt. Its primary focus is on works that deliberately estrange the figure of the perpetrator—through fantasy, absurdism, formal ambiguity, or provocative rewriting—and thus allow readers to engage anew with the history of genocide, mass murder, and sexual violence. This book is particularly interested in the ethical space such an engagement calls into being: in its ability to allow us to ponder the privilege many of us now enjoy, the gross historical injustices that have secured it, and the debt we owe to people long dead.By Marcelo Mellado Suazo. 2019
Nueva edición revisada de la gran novela de Marcelo Mellado Leopoldo Tapia, maestro de educación básica y poeta con aficiones…
ferroviarias, recibe la misión de preparar un reporte sobre el acoso del que estaría siendo víctima -por parte de oscuros funcionarios públicos- la Asociación de Poetas de la Cuenca del Maipo, liderada por un tal Badilla o Padilla. El pormenorizado relato de este mundo, de las jergas en que se comunican sus personajes y de los modos en que operan, hace de Informe Tapia un fresco incomparable de un cierto Chile que bien podría ser Chile entero. Publicada originalmente hace quince años, esta novela es una pieza señera en el proyecto literario de Mellado, enfocado perspicazmente en la pequeñez humana -en particular la que puede surgir en el mundo burocrático y cultural-, pero siempre atento a la comicidad y la singularidad que son su correlato objetivo, de manera que la grisura no es aquí la tónica, sino más bien cierto tono carnavalesco, paródico, hilarante.By Tawfiq Al-Hakim. 2012
The celebrated, revolutionary novel from a pioneering Egyptian writer Tawfiq al-Hakim, now for the first time in Penguin Classics with…
a foreword by Egyptian writer Alaa Al-AswanyFirst published in Arabic in 1933, Egyptian playwright and novelist Tawfiq Al-Hakim's Return of the Spirit follows a patriotic young Egyptian and his extended family as they grapple with the events leading up to the 1919 Egyptian revolution. Though often cited as an apprenticeship novel in the vein of Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man with a touch of failed romance a la Goethe's Sorrow of Young Werther, Al-Hakim's classic is most recognized for being a trailblazing political novel that illustrates the way one man's spiritual awakening ties to a political awakening of a nation. While enthusiasm for the book was stifled in the mid-20th century due to a shift in Egyptian government rule, the 2011 Tahrir revolution in Egypt caused it to be examined anew as a strong expression of nationalist solidarity and an exposé of the heritage-stripping power of Western colonialism that resonates with 21st-century Egyptians. Return of the Spirit is considered Al-Hakim's most important novel despite writing more plays than novels, and his adept understanding of class and culture within Egyptian society has cemented his place as one of the country's most celebrated writers and cultural critics.Postmodern Time and Space in Fiction and Theory seeks to place the contemporary transformation of notions of space and time,…
often attributed to the technologies we use, in the context of the ongoing transformations of modernity. Bringing together examples of modern and contemporary fiction (from Defoe to DeLillo, Frankenstein to Finnegans Wake) and theoretical discussions of the modern and the post-modern, the author explores the legacy of modern transformations of space and time under five headings: “The Space of Nature”; “The Space of the City”; “Postmodern or Most Modern Time”; “The Time and Space of the Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction”; and “Travel: from Modernity to…?”. These five essays re-examine the meanings of modernity and its aftermath in relation to the spaces and times of the natural, the urban and the media environment.Robinson Crusoe, an adventure tale that fascinated such thinkers as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Karl Marx, Virginia Woolf, and J. M. Coetzee,…
has been an international best-seller for three hundred years. An adventure tale involving cannibals, pirates, and shipwrecks, it embodies economic, social, political, and philosophical themes that continue to be relevant today. Moreover, the notion of isolation on a deserted island and a fascination with survival continue to be central to countless popular cinema and television programs. This edition of the novel with its introduction, line notes, and full bibliographical notes provides a uniquely scholarly presentation of the novel. There has been no other edition like it. Published by Bucknell University Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.By Joseph Zobel. 1997
The semi-autobiographical, Caribbean novel that explores shifting race relations in early twentieth-century colonial Martinique, with a foreword by Martinican author…
Patrick ChamoiseauA Penguin ClassicFollowing in the tradition of Richard Wright's Black Boy, Joseph Zobel's semi-autobiographical 1950 novel Black Shack Alley chronicles the coming-of-age of José, a young boy grappling with issues of power and identity in colonial Martinique. As José transitions from childhood to young adulthood and from rural plantations to urban Fort-de-France on a quest for upward mobility, he bears witness to and struggles against the various manifestations of white supremacy, both subtle and overt, that will alter the course of his life. His ally in this struggle is his grandmother, M'man Tine, who fights her own weariness to release at least one child from the plantation village, a dirt street lined with the shacks of sugarcane workers. Zobel's masterpiece, the basis for the award-winning film Sugar Cane Alley directed by Euzhan Palcy, is a powerful testament to twentieth-century life in Martinique, with a foreword by award-winning Martinican author Patrick Chamoiseau.By Claude J Summers. 1992
This new book significantly contributes to an increased understanding of the gay and lesbian experience as it illuminates important works…
of literature and clarifies the status of same-sex desire in English literature from 1500--1760. Homosexual themes can be found throughout the literature of the English Renaissance and Enlightenment, but only rarely are they direct and unambiguous. The essays here are engaged in a vital and necessary process of re-historicizing and re-contextualizing literature. Utilizing a variety of critical methods and proceeding from several different theoretical and ideological presuppositions, these essays raise important questions about the methodology of gay studies, about the conception of same-sex desire, about the depiction of homoerotics, and about the relationship of sexuality and textuality, even as they shed new light on the homosexual import of a number of significant works of literature. Among the authors studied are Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, John Donne, Lady Mary Wroth, Katherine Philips, Aphra Behn, John Cleland, and Thomas Gray. The collection attests both the current intellectual ferment in gay studies and the richness of English Renaissance and eighteenth-century literary representations of homosexuality.Homosexuality in Renaissance and Enlightenment England provides numerous insights into important works of literature and into significant theoretical issues implicit in the process of discerning and defining homosexuality in texts of earlier ages. All the contributors locate their texts in carefully delineated cultural and historical milieux. But they are not unduly constrained by either the tyranny of theory or the anxieties of anachronism. Rather than proceeding from hidebound or fashionably current ideologies, they sift the texts they study for the concrete evidence from which theories of sexuality might be constructed or modified. Hence, the collection will be valuable both for its practical criticism and for its theoretical contributions. It vividly illustrates the variety of gay studies in literature, especially as applied to works of earlier ages.By Professor Michael D. Jackson. 2015
We all experience qualms and anxieties when we move from the known to the unknown. Though our fulfillment in life…
may depend on testing limits, our faintheartedness is a reminder of our need for security and our awareness of the risks of venturing into alien worlds. Evoking the hot, dust-filled Harmattan winds that blow from the Sahara to the Gulf of Guinea, this book creatively explores what it means to be buffeted by the unforeseen and the unknown. Celebrating the life-giving potential of people, places, and powers that lie beyond our established worlds, Harmattan connects existential vitality to the act of resisting prescribed customs and questioning received notions of truth. At the book's heart is the fictional story of Tom Lannon, a graduate student from Cambridge University, who remains ambivalent about pursuing a conventional life. After traveling to Sierra Leone in the aftermath of its devastating civil war, Tom meets a writer who helps him explore the possibilities of renewal. Illustrating the fact that certain aspects of human existence are common to all people regardless of culture and history, Harmattan remakes the distinction between home and world and the relationship between knowledge and life.By Franklin W. Dixon. 1972
Retired FBI Special Agent William F. Flynn provides young would-be detectives with tips on how to investigate cases just like…
the Hardy Boys. Includes information on crime solving techniques and how investigations are conducted.Drawing on theories of historiography, memory, and diaspora, as well as from existing genre studies, this book explores why contemporary…
writers are so fascinated with history. Pei-chen Liao considers how fiction contributes to the making and remaking of the transnational history of the U.S. by thinking beyond and before 9/11, investigating how the dynamics of memory, as well as the emergent present, influences readers’ reception of historical fiction and alternate history fiction and their interpretation of the past. Set against the historical backdrop of WWII, the Vietnam War, and the War on Terror, the novels under discussion tell Jewish, Japanese, white American, African, Muslim, and Native Americans’ stories of trauma and survival. As a means to transmit memories of past events, these novels demonstrate how multidirectional memory can be not only collective but connective, as exemplified by the echoes that post-9/11 readers hear between different histories of violence that the novels chronicle, as well as between the past and the present.By Sharon Rudahl. 2021
The first-ever graphic biography of Paul Robeson, Ballad of an American, charts Robeson’s career as a singer, actor, scholar, athlete,…
and activist who achieved global fame. Through his films, concerts, and records, he became a potent symbol representing the promise of a multicultural, multiracial American democracy at a time when, despite his stardom, he was denied personal access to his many audiences. Robeson was a major figure in the rise of anti-colonialism in Africa and elsewhere, and a tireless campaigner for internationalism, peace, and human rights. Later in life, he embraced the civil rights and antiwar movements with the hope that new generations would attain his ideals of a peaceful and abundant world. Ballad of an American features beautifully drawn chapters by artist Sharon Rudahl, a compelling narrative about his life, and an afterword on the lasting impact of Robeson’s work in both the arts and politics. This graphic biography will enable all kinds of readers—especially newer generations who may be unfamiliar with him—to understand his life’s story and everlasting global significance. Ballad of an American: A Graphic Biography of Paul Robeson is published in conjunction with Rutgers University’s centennial commemoration of Robeson’s 1919 graduation from the university. View the blad for Ballad of an American.By Maarit Piipponen, Helen Mäntymäki, Marinella Rodi-Risberg. 2020
Focusing on contemporary crime narratives from different parts of the world, this collection of essays explores the mobility of crimes,…
criminals and investigators across social, cultural and national borders. The essays argue that such border crossings reflect on recent sociocultural transformations and geopolitical anxieties to create an image of networked and interconnected societies where crime is not easily contained. The book further analyses crime texts’ wider sociocultural and affective significance by examining the global mobility of the genre itself across cultures, languages and media. Underlining the global reach and mobility of the crime genre, the collection analyses types and representations of mobility in literary and visual crime narratives, inviting comparisons between texts, crimes and mobilities in a geographically diverse context. The collection ultimately understands mobility as an object of study and a critical lens through which transformations in our globalised world can be examined.By Lisa Hopkins. 2021
Burial Plots in British Detective Fiction offers an overview of the ways in which the past is brought back to…
the surface and influences the present in British detective fiction written between 1920 and 2020. Exploring a range of authors including Agatha Christie, Patricia Wentworth, Val McDermid, Sarah Caudwell, Georgette Heyer, Dorothy Dunnett, Jonathan Stroud and Ben Aaronovitch, Lisa Hopkins argues that both the literal and literary disinterment of the past use elements of the national past to interrogate the present. As such, in the texts discussed, uncovering the truth about an individual crime is also typically an uncovering of a more general connection between the present and the past. Whether detective novels explore murders on archaeological digs, hauntings, cold crimes or killings at Christmas, Hopkins explores the underlying message that you cannot understand the present unless you understand the past.By Yaniv Iczkovits. 2020
A SUNDAY TIMES MUST READS PICK"Boundless imagination and a vibrant style . . . a heroine of unforgettable grit" DAVID…
GROSSMAN"A story of great beauty and surprise" GARY SHTEYNGARTThe townsfolk of Motal, an isolated, godforsaken town in the Pale of Settlement, are shocked when Fanny Keismann - devoted wife, mother of five, and celebrated cheese-maker - leaves her home at two hours past midnight and vanishes into the night.True, the husbands of Motal have been vanishing for years, but a wife and mother? Whoever heard of such a thing. What on earth possessed her?Could it have anything to do with Fanny's missing brother-in-law, who left her sister almost a year ago and ran away to Minsk, abandoning their family to destitution and despair?Or could Fanny have been lured away by Zizek Breshov, the mysterious ferryman on the Yaselda river, who, in a strange twist of events, seems to have disappeared on the same night?Surely there can be no link between Fanny and the peculiar roadside murder on the way to Telekhany, which has left Colonel Piotr Novak, head of the Russian secret police, scratching his head. Surely a crime like that could have nothing to do with Fanny Keismann, however the people of Motal might mutter about her reputation as a vilde chaya, a wild animal . . .Surely not.Translated from the Hebrew by Orr ScharfBy Gretchen Berg. 2020
'What if you could listen in on any phone conversation in town? Irresistible!' Kathryn Stockett, bestselling author of THE HELP'Glorious,…
gossipy, delicious and perfect' Jill Mansell, bestselling author of AND NOW YOU'RE BACKREADERS LOVE THIS BOOK!* 'Unique and quirky . . . You will definitely see Vivian and co. in your mind's eye!' THE BOOKTRAIL* 'Moving and ultimately uplifting . . . A wonderful novel' JO'S BOOK BLOG* 'The small town feeling is portrayed really well . . . Great' SHORT BOOK AND SCRIBES* 'A joy to read . . . Wonderful, witty, intriguing and heart-felt' EMMA'S BIBLIO TREASURES* 'Delightfully written and cleverly woven. I enjoyed getting to know all the characters and learning their secrets' LOCKY LOVES BOOKS>It's 1952. The switchboard operators in Wooster, Ohio, love nothing more than to eavesdrop on their neighbours' conversations, and gossip about what they learn. Vivian Dalton is no different (despite her teenage daughter's disapproval), and always longs to hear something scandalous. But on the night of December 15th, she wishes she hadn't. The secret that's shared by a stranger on the line threatens to rip the rug of Vivian's life from under her. Vivian may be mortified, but she's not going to take this lying down. She wants the truth, no matter how painful it may be. But one secret tends to lead to another . . . This moving, heart-felt and ultimately uplifting novel brilliantly weaves together an irresistible portrayal of a town buzzing with scandal, and an unforgettable story of marriage, motherhood and the unbreakable ties of family.'Funny, sweet, secretive, and full of fascinating 1930s, 40s, and 50s period details... a poignant look at life in a small town with its nosy neighbors, thorny families, imperfect romances, scandalous pasts, and gratifyingly just deserts' Laurie Frankel, bestselling author of THIS IS HOW IT ALWAYS IS'Funny and fast-paced' HeatBy Northwestern Shoshone Nation. 2005
"Coyote was tired of being cold," begins this traditional Shoshone tale about the arrival of fire in the northern Wasatch…
region. Members of the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation developed the concept for this retelling, in collaboration with book arts teacher, Tamara Zollinger. Together, they wrote and illustrated the book. Bright watercolor-and-salt techniques provide a winning background to the hand-cut silhouettes of the characters. The lively, humorous story about Coyote and his friends is complemented perfectly by later pages written by Northwestern Shoshone elders on the historical background and cultural heritage of the Shoshone nation. An audio CD with the voice of Helen Timbimboo telling the story in Shoshone and singing two traditional songs makes this book not only good entertainment but an important historical document, too. Sure to delight readers of all ages, Coyote Steals Fire will be a valuable addition to the family bookshelf, the elementary classroom, the school or public library.By Lena Mattheis. 2021
Translocality in Contemporary City Novels responds to the fact that twenty-first-century Anglophone novels are increasingly characterised by translocality—the layering and…
blending of two or more distant settings. Considering translocal and transcultural writing as a global phenomenon, this book draws on multidisciplinary research, from globalisation theory to the study of narratives to urban studies, to explore a corpus of thirty-two novels—by authors such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dionne Brand, Kiran Desai, and Xiaolu Guo—set in a total of ninety-seven cities. Lena Mattheis examines six of the most common strategies used in contemporary urban fiction to make translocal experiences of the world narratable and turn them into relatable stories: simultaneity, palimpsests, mapping, scaling, non-places, and haunting. Combining and developing further theories, approaches, and techniques from a variety of research fields—including narratology, human geography, transculturality, diaspora spaces, and postcolonial perspectives—Mattheis develops a set of cross-disciplinary techniques in literary urban studies.By Jennie Felton. 2019
'One of the nation's favourite saga writers' Lancashire Post'A real heartbreaker' Peterborough Telegraph'Brimming with high drama, anguish, love, loss, tragedy,…
and gripping twists and turns, this is an absorbing and poignant story... Felton, a born storyteller, has a warm and compassionate heart...and an eye for the rich period detail that brings the past to life' Lancashire PostA powerful new saga from Jennie Felton in the grand tradition of Josephine Cox, Dilly Court, Maggie Hope and Rosie Goodwin of love, loss, tragedy, drama, secrets and twists and turns.Readers are hooked by The Stolen Child!'Like the twists and turns...a great read' 5* reader review'Keeps you on the edge...could not put it down' 5* reader review'A heartbreaking read. 5 stars' 5* reader review'A must read' 5* reader reviewWill anyone believe her baby is gone?When Stella Swift is discovered holding a shard of broken glass near her newborn baby boy, fears that she might harm William result in her being taken to Catcombe - the local asylum. Although the regime is not as harsh as it once was, it's not somewhere that Tom wants to send his wife - but he has no choice.Turning to his kind-hearted sister-in-law Grace for help taking care of his other three children whilst he keeps working at the mine seems like the simplest solution until Stella is well - if only there wasn't the shared history between Tom and Grace...At first Catcombe seems to offer the respite Stella needs - until one day she becomes convinced that the baby the nurses have given to her is not William. Is Stella losing her mind? Or is it true that a mother will always know her own child?Don't miss Jennie's Families of Fairley Terrace series, which began with Maggie's story in All The Dark Secrets and continued with Lucy's story in The Miner's Daughter, Edie's story in The Girl Below Stairs, Carina's story in The Widow's Promise and Laurel's story in The Sister's Secret.