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| ARISTOTLE & MODERNISM : Aesthetic Affinities of T S Eliot, Wallace Stevens & Virginia Woolf [Edna Rosenthal] Examines literary modernism in its relation to the history of criticism by analysing the role of Aristotelian principles, primarily the notion of formal affectivism, in the critical writings of these three modernists who have invariably been thought to uphold incompatible aesthetic beliefs: whereas Eliot saw himself as a classicist modernist, Stevens and Woolf shared a marked anti-classicist stance. Despite their initially incompatible attitudes to literary history and criticism, this study discloses their convergence on the Aristotelian notion of formal affectivism, demonstrated through specific conceptual shifts. The main feature of the book is its originality of approach, which seeks a ‘diachronic’ solution to a ‘synchronic’ problem -- the debate about the Modern, reflected in the claims and counterclaims made by the modernists themselves and by subsequent literary critics and theorists. This methodology was largely dictated by the nature of the subject: the adversarial critical orientation of three modernists, who have never been studied as a group before, and the attempt to reconcile their differences by reconfiguring them in terms of the Aristotelian critical tradition. The author demonstrates conclusively how Eliot incorporated central Aristotelian dramatic principles into his view of literary history and criticism, and, similarly, how both Stevens and Woolf, through historically determined conceptual shifts, endorse and use formal affectivism and dramatic criteria, which, as may be expected, they almost never refer back to Aristotle or to his foremost modernist defender, Eliot. { 236pp, 152x229mm, June 2008; HB, £55.00, 1845191714:9781845191719 , Sussex Academic Press } |
| ARTHUR MERVYN; OR, MEMOIRS OF THE YEAR 1793 : With Related Texts [Charles Brockden Brown; Edited, with an Introduction, by Philip Barnard & Stephen Shapiro] An influential classic of American gothic and urban literature, Charles Brockden Brown's ARTHUR MERVYN; OR, MEMOIRS OF THE YEAR 1793 (1799-1800) memorialises the epic Philadelphia Yellow Fever epidemic of 1793 and connects it to the upheavals of the revolutionary era and the murderous financial networks of Atlantic slavery. This edition of Brown's widely-read novel offers selections from key contemporary texts -- including Richard Allen and Absalom Jones' Narrative (1794) defending the city's Free Black community, Godwin's Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793), Laurence Sterne's Sentimental Journey (1768), 1790s abolitionist tracts by members of Brown's circle, and popular poetry on the slave trade and imperial commerce -- as well as excerpts from Brown's own writings on slavery, race, and the uses of history in fiction. { 400pp, April 2008; PB, £12.95, 0872209210:9780872209213 / HB, £35.00, 0872209229:9780872209220 , Hackett Publishing } |
| DENNIS COOPER : Writing at the Edge [Paul Hegarty & Danny Kennedy] Dennis Cooper’s writing has acquired a ferocious reputation for its bold experimentation, its transgressive content, and its emotional content, which is both Romantic and touching, whilst cold and hard-edged. For over twenty years Cooper has explored the boundaries of human living, and sexuality’s centrality to that living. The extreme situations he develops in his writing bring out parts of gay experience that a consensual ‘community’ often shies away from, likewise the heterosexual mainstream. His most important genre is undoubtedly fiction, but Cooper has also written poetry, large quantities of journalistic works, notably for 'Artforum' and 'Spin', and, recently has had great success and recognition with theatrical works. The book enters deep into the worlds Cooper fabricates -- and into the coolness of his expression. This challenging work is addressed by a group of mostly young and new critical writers and academics who provide creative responses to Cooper’s artistry. The contributions, which cover the breadth of Cooper’s work, develop themes and devices that advance his profound and disturbing world view. In addition to the artistic responses, the topics in the critical pieces range from sexuality in the suburbs, to neurological responses to the work, via the limits and possibilities of bodies. Others look at the implications of contemporary electronic communication as outlined in Cooper’s recent work, or the use of space. Cooper’s writing receives a multi-faceted contextualisation, and his literary ideas are made accessible to any reader interested in learning why Cooper is today regarded as one of the foremost writers in expressing the psychological point behind the centrality of sexual expression. { 240pp, 152x229mm, June 2008; HB, £55.00, 1845191870:9781845191870 , Sussex Academic Press } |
| FLAUBERT & DON QUIJOTE : The Influence of Cervantes on Madame Bovary [Soledad Fox] This book tells the story of how Flaubert’s admiration for Cervantes’ Don Quijote unfolded, and how profoundly it shaped and influenced Flaubert’s ambition and his approach to all his major works, beginning with his breakthrough novel Madame Bovary. It thus fills a major gap in the history of the novel and explores, for the first time, just what Flaubert meant when he said, while writing Bovary: “Je retrouve toutes mes origins dans le livre que je savais par coeur avant de savoir lire, Don Quichotte” (I can trace all my origins back to the book I knew by heart... ). Several cultural and personal factors converged to establish the prominent place of Don Quijote in Flaubert’s imagination, and these are dealt with in depth in the book. But it is the profound parallels between the two novels that clearly illustrate how Don Quijote permeates Madame Bovary in both subject and approach. One such parallel is Alonso Quijano and Emma Bovary’s desire to imitate fiction, which reflects a kind of literary madness in which the attempt to impose the narrative conventions of romances on life only leads hero and heroine, respectively, to destruction, disappointment, and ultimately death. The borrowings and the transpositions are substantial and endless; and indeed the influence did not stop at Bovary, for Flaubert’s later grands romans, including the rewritten Education Sentimentale and Bouvard et Pécuchet, also display the quixotic hallmark. This study situates each author in his respective historical and aesthetic context, and provides key examples from Don Quijote and Madame Bovary, Flaubert’s Correspondence, as well as his earlier novels. Flaubert’s letters and novels show how the French author penetrated deeply into Cervantes’ novelistic approach and how his relationship to Don Quijote directly shaped his success at the crux of his career. { 224pp, 152x229mm, May 2008; HB, £44.95, 1845192575:9781845192570 , Sussex Academic Press } |
| FROM HISTORY TO STORYTELLING : Confession & Redemption in the Novels of Graham Swift [Anastasia Logotheti] In an Appendix, in conversation with the author in London in February 2005, Graham Swift comments extensively on his fiction, past and future, as well as the laborious process of exploration which constitutes writing a novel. Graham Swift documents the disillusionment of late twentieth-century British urban middle class as it strives to recover after losing faith in myths of power and progress. Swift's seven novels to date tell family stories: intergenerational strife, marital disharmony and the inability to communicate are related to significant moments in nineteenth- and twentieth-century history, especially the two world wars. As a postmodern author, Swift self-consciously pays homage to tradition through polyphony and metafiction: in his novels the moral imperatives of nineteenth-century realism are combined with fragmented tales of alienation typical of modernism and the questioning of representation characteristic of contemporary fiction. 'From History to Storytelling' focuses on Swift's insistent exploration of first-person narratives of trauma and examines the power of storytelling to relieve guilt. Overwhelmed by painful memories reconstructed through telling, Swift's ageing protagonists are hesitant and frequently unreliable storytellers. Through narrative they seek to comprehend their place in history, personal and national. Haunted by their choices, they feel persecuted by socio-political and natural forces. Swift's narrators resort to confession, seeking to accommodate guilt which stems from their failure as sons, fathers and husbands. By telling stories his characters learn to explore their suffering for meaning and reconnect with the world: confessing their guilt redeems them and restores their faith in life. In novel after novel Swift progressively reinforces his belief in storytelling as a fundamental human instinct and a therapeutic ritual. { 256pp, 152x229mm, September 2008; HB, £45.00, 1845190688:9781845190682 , Sussex Academic Press } |
| MEDEA [Diane Arnson Svarlien] Introduction and Notes by Robin Mitchell-Boyask. REVIEW: "The excellent Introduction by Robin Mitchell-Boyask displays an admirable command of up-to-date scholarship and judiciously leaves controversial matters open to one's own interpretation. Arnson Svarlien's verse translation has both elegance and power -- it reads well, not just to the eye, but (happily for the director and actors) also to the ear." -- Ian Storey, Department of Classics, Trent University { 112pp, April 2008; PB, £4.45, 0872209237:9780872209237 / HB, £14.95, 0872209245:9780872209244 , Hackett Publishing } |
| NEW POETICS OF CHEKHOV'S MAJOR PLAYS : Presence Through Absence [Harai Golomb] One century after the death of Anton Chekhov (1860-1904), his plays are celebrated throughout the world as a major milestone in the history of theatre and drama. Outside the Russian-speaking community, he is undoubtedly the most widely translated, studied and performed of all Russian writers. His plays are characterised by their evasiveness: tragedy and comedy, realism and naturalism, symbolism and impressionism, as well as other labels of school and genre -- all fail to account for the uniqueness of ‘Chekhovism', (i.e., the essence of his artistic system and world view). Presence through Absence is a bold attempt to map the unique structure and meaning that comprise Chekhov's immensely rich artistic universe. Golomb's text is an incursion into Chekhov's vision of unrealised potentials and present absences. His timeless works are shown with rare insight and clarity to have artistic principles and coherence above and beyond the scope of the individual play. { 252pp, 152x229mm, September 2008; HB, £49.50, 1903900476:9781903900475 / PB, £16.95, 1903900484:9781903900482 , Sussex Academic Press } |
| PRINCE [Niccolo Machiavelli; Edited & Translated by James B Atkinson] The best-annotated translation of The Prince available. REVIEW: "This edition of the The Prince has three distinct and disparate objectives: to provide a fresh and accurate translation; to analyze and find the roots of Machiavelli's thought; and to collect relevant extracts from other works by Machiavelli and some contemporaries, to be used to illuminate and explicate the text. The objectives are all reached with considerable and admirable skill. Professor Atkinson has done a great service to students and teachers of Machiavelli, who should certainly welcome this as the most useful edition of The Prince in English." -- Mario Domandi, Vassar College. { 448pp, April 2008; PB, £11.95, 0872209199:9780872209190 / HB, £29.95, 0872209202:9780872209206 , Hackett Publishing } |
| RAPTURE : Literature, Secrecy, Addiction ((Critical Inventions Series)) [David Punter; John Schad, Series Editor] ‘Rapture’: The act of seizing or carrying off as prey or plunder; the act of carrying or being carried; and the expression of ecstasy or euphoria in words. The concept of rapture in literature navigates along a specific trajectory, from rapine status through to ‘being carried (away)’. This book identifies the apparent impossibility of recounting such ‘rapturous states’, and of fixing them in words or in time within cultural expectations, while questioning what we can do with those who are ‘enrapt’, and what we do inside ourselves with reading moments of rapture. "Rapture: Literature, Secrecy, Addiction" engages with the ‘states of heightened awareness’, and seeks to connect with the notion of addiction as an alternative to the moral law. Punter deals with notions of writing as itself a kind of ‘seizure’, writing as a ‘fit’, in the works of Blake, Hölderlin, Novalis, Nietzsche, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Genet, and Ballard. ‘Writing it down’ -- the process of returning from states of exaltation to find oneself writing in often bleak locations, underlines the relationship between rapture and literature. The author concludes that the very possibility of communication and interpretation is radically open to doubt. The addict-writer becomes representative of the dialectic of writing as an act of communication; an act which is tragically doomed from the outset. { 272pp, 152x229mm, October 2008; HB, £55.00, 1845191021:9781845191023 / PB, £19.95, 184519103X:9781845191030 , Sussex Academic Press } |
| RENAISSANCE ECOLOGY : Imagining Eden in Milton's England [Ken Hiltner (ed)] The essays in Renaissance Ecology consider how writers and artists such as John Milton imagined, by way of Eden, a future where human beings would live in greater peace with the natural world. This impressive collection, which includes contributions by such eminent scholars as Barbara Lewalski and Diane McColley, takes an exciting, new, 'green' approach to representations of Eden, while also considering the role of gender, politics, and poetics, discussing relevant issues of both literature and culture. { May 2008; HB, £49.99, 0820704024:9780820704029 , Duquesne University Press } |
| TRAS LOS MURMULLOS : Lecturas mexicanas y escandinavs de Pedro Páramo [Anne Marie Ejdesgaard Jeppesen (ed)] Text in Spanish. Pedro Páramo, the only novel published by the Mexican writer Juan Rulfo, is a masterpiece. Tras los murmullos offers six different readings and analyses of the novel by Mexican and Scandinavian scholars. Contrary to what might be expected, the Scandinavian reader is able to identify with the solitude of the characters in the novel, the language of few words of the peasants and the careful linguistic awareness of Rulfo. This may not be surprising since Rulfo was, as discussed in one of the chapters, inspired by Scandinavian literature, which he admired. Also discussed here is Rulfo's process of re-writings of his manuscript, the difficulties in translating Rulfo's universe to Danish, and the religious and indigenous aspects inherent in Rulfo's text. Together the contributions of this book offer new insight into the world behind the murmurs, new knowledge about the creative and surprising text of Juan Rulfo. { 160pp, May 2008; PB, £20.00, 8763505509:9788763505505 , Museum Tusculanum Press } |
| WITNESS : Memory, Representation & the Media in Question ((Carsten Niebhur Institute Publications)) [Frederik Tygstrup & Ulrik Ekman (eds)] This book offers a complex and thought-provoking anthology of critical essays respecting the notion of the witness and phenomena of witnessing in Western culture since the Holocaust. 'Witness' presents a new body of work in the field by an international collective of scholars concerned with resituating witnessing in its specifically contemporary problematic. This volume thus not only establishes links with existing, currently canonical contributions to witness literature -- from Primo Levi through Victor Klemperer to Imre Kertész -- it also goes on to provide a set of analyses of exemplary and very recent literary works in that area. Most significantly, Witness extends and changes the previous scholarly tendency to focus strongly on historical evidence and the witness’ vocalisation of true remembrance so as to include difficult theoretical and interpretative questions posed by studies today of traumatic experience, amnesia, visual culture, new media, and technology. Amongst others, the book includes contributions from the acclaimed Romanian-German author Herta Müller, and such an internationally recognised scholar in trauma studies as Cathy Caruth. { 420pp, March 2008; PB, £35.00, 8763504251:9788763504256 , Museum Tusculanum Press } |