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What happens to books as they live in our long-term memory? Why do we find some books entertaining and others not? And how does literary influence work on writers in different ways? Grounded in the findings of empirical psychology, this book amends classic reader-response theory and attends to neglected aspects of reading that cannot be explained by traditional literary criticism. Reading arises from a combination of two kinds of mental work: automatic and controlled processes. Automatic processes, such as the ability to see visual symbols as words, are the result of constant practice; controlled processes, such as predicting what might occur next in a story, arise from readers' conscious us...
Elfenbein takes on the absorbing subject of homosexuality in British Romantic writing, showing the centrality of disreputable desires to the works of Romantic male authors--from William Beckford to Samuel Taylor Coleridge to William Blake--as well as to the writings of lesser-known but equally significant female authors of the period.
"This is the first full-length study of Byron's influence on Victorian writers, concentrating on Carlyle, Emily Bronte, Tennyson, Bulwer Lytton, Disraeli, and Wilde. Rather than treating influence in terms of source study or of intersubjective struggle, it demonstrates how institutions of cultural production mediate the access that later writers have to earlier ones."--BOOK JACKET.
Named a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title for 2009 Romanticism and the Rise of English addresses a peculiar development in contemporary literary criticism: the disappearance of the history of the English language as a relevant topic. Elfenbein argues for a return not to older modes of criticism, but to questions about the relation between literature and language that have vanished from contemporary investigation. His book is an example of a kind of work that has often been called for but rarely realized—a social philology that takes seriously the formal and institutional forces shaping the production of English. This results not only in a history of English, but also in a recovery of major events shaping English studies as a coherent discipline. This book points to new directions in literary criticism by arguing for the need to reconceptualize authorial agency in light of a broadened understanding of linguistic history.
-- Lisa Moore, Albion
This book offers a radically new reading of Dickens and his major works. It demonstrates that, rather than representing a largely conventional, conservative view of sexuality and gender, he presents a distinctly queer corpus, everywhere fascinated by the diversity of gender roles, the expandability of notions of the family, and the complex multiplicity of sexual desire. The book examines the long overlooked figures of bachelor fathers, maritally resistant men, and male nurses. It explores Dickens's attention to a longing, not to reproduce, but to nurture, his interest in healing touch, and his articulation, over the course of his career, of homoerotic desire. Holly Furneaux places Dickens's ...
Named in many surveys as Britain's best-loved work of fiction, Pride and Prejudice is now a global brand, with film and television adaptations making Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy household names. With a combination of original readings and factual background information, this Companion investigates some of the sources of the novel's power. It explores key themes and topics in detail: money, land, characters and style. The history of the book's composition and first publication is set out, both in individual essays and in the section of chronology. Chapters on the critical reception, adaptations and cult of the novel reveal why it has become an enduing classic with a unique and timeless appeal.
Byron s life and work have fascinated readers around the world for two hundred years, but it is the complex interaction between his art and his politics, beliefs and sexuality that has attracted so many modern critics and students. In three sections devoted to the historical, textual and literary contexts of Byron s life and times, these specially commissioned essays by a range of eminent Byron scholars provide a compelling picture of the diversity of Byron s writings. The essays cover topics such as Byron s interest in the East, his relationship to the publishing world, his attitudes to gender, his use of Shakespeare and eighteenth-century literature, and his acute fit in a post-modernist world. This Companion provides an invaluable resource for students and scholars, including a chronology and a guide to further reading.
The earliest letter dates from 1800, not long after Baillie had announced her authorship of the first volume of Plays on the Passions. The last dates only a few weeks before her death in 1851. --
This book is the first major study of the theme of misanthropy, its history, arguments for and against it, and its importance for us today. Misanthropy is not strictly a Philosophy, it is an inconsistent thought that has often been mocked. But from Timon of Athens to Motörhead it has proven durable and irresistible, and attracted a huge range of fascinating figures. Human beings have always deeply distrusted who and what they are. This book does not seek to explain that distrust away or pour scorn on it. It asks, instead, how far misanthropy might have reason on its side -albeit a confused reason- with more appeal than many people might have first supposed.