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Literature as History
Literature as History presents a selection of specially commissioned essays by a range of key contemporary thinkers on the interdisciplinary study of literature and history. The unifying theme is the interrelationship between literary / cultural production and its historical moment. The essays in the collection are astute and exciting in terms of their engagement with ever-changing developments in critical and theoretical practice while retaining an invaluable focus on familiar and engaging texts and authors. The contributors offer a reappraisal of the nature of literary studies today, looking back over the thirty-five years of Peter Widdowson's career - a career which has coincided with the emergence of, challenges to, and reformulations of critical theory - and ask what the future holds, particularly for the interdisciplinary ways of working which Widdowson pioneered. Bringing together distinguished scholars in the interdisciplinary study of English and History, it seizes the opportunity to take stock of the current field of literary studies and to ask searching questions about its future development.
Literature
This brilliant guide provides an introductory overview of the history of 'literature' as a cultural concept, reflecting on its contemporary nature, place and function, and what the literary might mean for us today.
The Cambridge Companion to Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy's fiction has had a remarkably strong appeal for general readers for decades, and his poetry has been acclaimed as among the most influential of the twentieth century. His work still creates passionate advocacy and opposition. The Cambridge Companion to Thomas Hardy is an essential introduction to this most enigmatic of writers. These commissioned essays from an international team of contributors comprises a general overview of all Hardy' s work and specific demonstrations of Hardy's ideas and literary skills. Individual essays explore Hardy's biography, aesthetics, his famous attachment to Wessex, and the impact on his work of developments in science, religion and philosophy in the late nineteenth century. Hardy's writing is also analysed against developments in contemporary critical theory and issues such as sexuality and gender. The volume also contains a detailed chronology of Hardy's life and publications, and a guide to further reading.
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy still seems to speak to us, in fiction and in poetry, as 'our contemporary'. This second edition of Peter Widdowson's study identifies the elements in Hardy's work which enable him to be read thus: the focus on unstable class and sexual relationships in a society undergoing rapid change; the highly-charged representations of women at the heart of this process; the self-reflexive artifice of the writing itself as an aspect of Hardy's 'satiric' view of a 'new Dark Age'. Professor Widdowson shows where this radical and destabilizing Hardy is to be located in the texts, while also seeking to recast our conventional conception of Hardy the Poet. For this new edition, the author has updated the bibliography and included a 'Postscript" on film and TV adaptations of Hardy's fiction, since many newcomers to it now first experience his work in this medium. This study offers a comprehensive guide to reading Hardy anew as a writer who challenges our assumptions about art and life.
The Palgrave Guide to English Literature and Its Contexts
This comprehensive guide to the historical and cultural context of English literature covers the core periods of literature, and history, from the English Renaissance to the present. Peter Widdowson introduces and outlines key terms, concepts and developments and provides a series of timelines showing political, social, cultural and literary events for each year. Together, this indispensable reference work offers a concise history of Britain for literature students at all levels and provides readers with the context for any literary work from 1500 to 2000. The Palgrave Guide to English Literature and its Contexts, 1500-2000 - Overs a wide range of canonical British authors and works but also provides contextualising examples of works from other countries - Each chapter focuses on a key period in English Literature and History, gives a brief overview of that period, and defines the main terms and ideas of the age - Contains easy-to-follow timelines which may be viewed either horizontally or vertically, allowing readers to track a chronological history, or single out the developments and events of a specific year
Studying British Cultures
British Studies' and 'British Cultural Studies' cover a wide range of facets of contemporary Britain. Studying British Cultures: An Introduction is a unique collection of essays which examine the most significant aspects of this quickly developing area of study, analyzing the ways of teaching and reading British culture. The work covers the contemporary and key issues, including: the terminological distinction between 'British Studies' and 'British Cultural Studies' the problem of national cultures and identities in contemporary Britain studying language and literature from a British Studies perspective models for studying the historical context of the development of ideas of `Britishness' studying contemporary Britain overseas The contributors are some of the key names in current debates surrounding British Studies, and Susan Bassnett holds together their work with a substantial and accessible introduction. Studying British Cultures: An Introduction will be essential reading for students and teachers concerned with the study of contemporary Britain.
A Practical Reader in Contemporary Literary Theory
This introduction to practicing literary theory is a reader consisting of extracts from critical analyses, largely by 20th century Anglo-American literary critics, set around major literary texts that undergraduate students are known to be familiar with. It is specifically targeted to present literary criticism through practical examples of essays by literary theorists themselves, on texts both within and outside the literary canon. Four example essays are included for each author/text presented.
Men Alone
This study examines masculinity and individualism in four American novels of the 1920s and 1930s usually regarded as belonging to the genre of hard-boiled fiction. The novels under study are Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett, The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain, They Shoot Horses, Don't They? by Horace McCoy, and To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway. In this first full-length study of gender in hard-boiled fiction the genre is discussed as a representation of the ideologies of masculinity and individualism. Hard-boiled fiction is located in its historical and cultural context and it is argued that the genre, with its explicit emphasis on masculinity and masculine virtues, attempts to reaffirm a masculine order. The study argues that this emphasis is a counter-reaction to more general changes in the gender relations of the period. Indeed, hard-boiled fiction is argued to be an attempt to reconstruct a masculine identity based on anti-modern values generally accepted in the cultural context of the genre.
Unusable Past
First Published in 2002. Amongst a time of rapid and radical social change, New Accents is a positive response to change, with each volume seeking to encourage rather than resist the process of change, to stretch rather than reinforce boundaries that currently define literature and its academic study. This study offers the authors’ theories of American literature and more specifically, his interest here is in how those theories define the canon of American literature and how those definitions influence our understanding and teaching of that canon.
Reading Television
Reading Television was the first book to push the boundaries of television studies beyond the insights offered by cultural studies and textual analysis, creating a vibrant new field of study. Using the tools and techniques in this book, it is possible for everyone with a television set to analyze both the programmes, and the culture which produces them. In this edition, Hartley reflects on recent developments in television studies, and includes suggestions for further reading. His new foreword underlines the continuing relevance of this foundational text in the study of contemporary culture.
