The South African novelist and Nobel Laureate J. M. Coetzee is widely studied ...The South African novelist and Nobel Laureate J. M. Coetzee is widely studied around the world and attracts considerable critical attention. With the publication of Disgrace Coetzee began to enjoy popular as well as critical acclaim but his work can...more
Macbeth clutches an imaginary dagger; Hamlet holds up Yorick s skull; Lear ent...Macbeth clutches an imaginary dagger; Hamlet holds up Yorick s skull; Lear enters with Cordelia in his arms. Do these memorable and iconic moments have anything to tell us about the definition of Shakespearean tragedy? Is it in fact helpful to talk...more
More than a century after its beginnings modernism still has the power to shoc...More than a century after its beginnings modernism still has the power to shock alienate or challenge readers. Modernist art and literature remain thought of as complex and difficult. This introduction explains in a readable lively style how...more
Literature and philosophy have long shared an interest in questions of truth v...Literature and philosophy have long shared an interest in questions of truth value and form. And yet from ancient times to the present they have often sharply diverged both in their approach to these questions and in their relationship to one...more
Between the Civil War and the First World War realism was the most prominent f...Between the Civil War and the First World War realism was the most prominent form of American fiction. Realist writers of the period include some of America s greatest such as Henry James Edith Wharton and Mark Twain but also many lesser-known...more
Despite its indifferent reception when it was first published in 1851 Moby Dic...Despite its indifferent reception when it was first published in 1851 Moby Dick is now a central work in the American literary canon. This introduction offers readings of Melville s masterpiece but it also sets out the key themes contexts and...more
More than a century after its beginnings modernism still has the power to shoc...More than a century after its beginnings modernism still has the power to shock alienate or challenge readers. Modernist art and literature remain thought of as complex and difficult. This introduction explains in a readable lively style how...more
Proust s A la recherche du temps perdu ( In Search of Lost Time 1913─27) cha...Proust s A la recherche du temps perdu ( In Search of Lost Time 1913─27) changed the course of modern narrative fiction. This Introduction provides an account of Proust s life the socio-historical and cultural contexts of his work and an...more
Mary Shaw covers all aspects of French poetry from the Middle Ages tothe pres...Mary Shaw covers all aspects of French poetry from the Middle Ages to the present day in this text. Chapters focus on verse genres poetry politics and philosophy among other topics. Designed specifically for use in courses the volume contains a...more
Contemporary American poetry can often seem intimidating and daunting in its v...Contemporary American poetry can often seem intimidating and daunting in its variety and complexity. This engaging and accessible book provides the first comprehensive introduction to the rich body of American poetry that has flourished since 1945...more
Born in New York into a world of wealth and privilege and writing with unique ...Born in New York into a world of wealth and privilege and writing with unique insight into the lives of the rich and fashionable Edith Wharton was a best-seller in her time and is now again one of the most widely read American authors. This book...more
Samuel Johnson is a towering figure of eighteenth-century literature. As well ...Samuel Johnson is a towering figure of eighteenth-century literature. As well as the celebrated Dictionary of the English Language Johnson was the leading literary critic of his time and a celebrated author who contributed to almost every genre from...more
For readers daunted by the formal structures and rhetorical sophistication of ...For readers daunted by the formal structures and rhetorical sophistication of eighteenth-century English poetry this introduction by John Sitter brings the techniques and the major poets of the period 1700-1785 triumphantly to life. Sitter begins by...more
Victorian poetry was read and enjoyed by a much larger audience than is someti...Victorian poetry was read and enjoyed by a much larger audience than is sometimes thought. Publication in widely-circulating periodicals reprinting in book reviews and excerpting in novels and essays ensured that major poets such as Tennyson...more