Literary Criticism

23210 books

Because You Have To: A Writing Life - Paperback

$40.50

by Joan Frank (Author)Part memoir, part handbook, part survey of the contemporary literary scene, Joan Frank's Because You Have To: A Writing Life is a collection of essays that, taken together, provide a walking tour of the writing life. Frank's aim is to form a coherent vision, one that may provide some communion about realities of the writer's vocation that have struck her as rarely revealed. Frank offers what she has learned as a writer not only to other writers, but to those to whom good...

Penelope's Bones: A New History of Homer's World Through the Women Written Out of It

$30.00

Report copyright infringementby Emily Hauser (Author)Weaving together literary and archaeological evidence, Emily Hauser illuminates the rich, intriguing lives of the real women behind Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. Achilles. Agamemnon. Odysseus. Hector. The lives of these and many other men in the greatest epics of ancient Greece have been pored over endlessly in the past three millennia. But these are not just tales about heroic men. There are scores of women as well--complex, fascinating wome...

AI Apocalypse: A Guide to Artificial Intelligence as Portrayed in and Predicted By SF Stories, Novels, TV, Films, Comic Books, and Video Games

$15.10

Report copyright infringementby Robert W. Bly (Author)Isabella Hermann observes: "Science fiction (SF) has become a reference point in the discourse on the ethics and risks surrounding artificial intelligence (AI). Thus, AI in SF-science-fictional AI-is considered part of a larger corpus of 'AI narratives' that shape our fears and hopes about the technology."AI Apocalypse explores that corpus through a focused examination of how artificial intelligence has been portrayed in science fiction ac...

Petrarch's Penitential Psalms and Prayers - Paperback

$63.00

by Demetrio S. Yocum (Editor), Demetrio S. Yocum (Translator), Francesco Petrarca (Author)The first English translation of Petrarch's Psalms and Prayers provides an intimate look at the personal devotions of the "Father of Humanism."Author BiographyFrancesco Petrarca (1304-1374) was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy. He is widely recognized as the "Father of Humanism" as he laid the foundation for Renaissance humanism, emphasizing the study of authors and thinkers from classical a...

A Secret History of Christianity: Jesus, the Last Inkling, and the Evolution of Consciousness - Paperback

$23.95

by Mark Vernon (Author)Christianity is in crisis in the West. The Inkling friend of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, Owen Barfield, analysed why. He developed an account of our spiritual predicament that is radical and illuminating. Barfield realized that the human experience of life shifts fundamentally over periods of cultural time. Our perception of nature, the cosmos and the divine changes dramatically across history.Mark Vernon uses this startling insight to tell the inner story of 3000 ye...

$26.00

by Various (Author), Garrison Keillor (Editor)A selection of meaningful and enjoyable poems to inspire and be enjoyed by everyone Here is an anthology of poems, chosen by Garrison Keillor for their wit, their frankness, their passion, their "utter clarity in the face of everything else a person has to deal with at 7 a.m." Good Poems includes verse organized by theme about lovers, children, failure, everyday life, death, and transcendance. It features the work of classic poets, such as Emily ...

$100.42

Report copyright infringementby Graham Pechey (Author)Presenting a commentary on Bakhtin's texts, this book focuses on the influence of Eastern Orthodox Christianity upon his thinking and Bakhtin's use of literary criticism and hermeneutics as ways of 'doing philosophy by other means'.Author BiographyGraham Pechey was born in South Africa and educated at the universities of Natal and Cambridge. He has published numerous articles on Mikhail Bakhtin, Romantic writing, literary and cultural theo...

$23.02

by Bram E. Gieben (Author)Like Black Mirror on steroids, The Darkest Timeline issues 9 vignettes of doom in the form of theoretical essays that outline not the likelihood, but the certainty of our demise as a species. Taking into account an array of apocalyptic modalities, Bram E. Gieben shows us with sardonic wit and erudition that there may be no silver lining. We are left to choose how to countenance our demise. The moment for bleak critical theory capped off with a wistful longing and sil...

Don't Hesitate: Knowing Allen Ginsberg '72 Through '97 - Paperback

$21.60

by Marc Olmsted (Author), Bill Morgan (Introduction by)Marc Olmsted, a young poet, wrote to Allen Ginsberg in 1972 and was surprised to receive a reply from one of America's most important poets. This letter began a friendship that lasted for decades, taking Olmsted on a journey through the literary world. In this, his memoirs, Olmsted details the turbulent events of his own life, which include sex with Ginsberg, filming William S. Burroughs, and encounters with other important counterculture...

The Extravagant: Crossings of Modern Poetry and Modern Philosophy - Paperback

$48.60

by Robert Baker (Author)In The Extravagant Robert Baker explores the interplay between poetry and philosophy in the modern period, engaging a broad range of writers: Kant, Wordsworth, and Lyotard in a chapter on the sublime; Rimbaud, Nietzsche, and Bataille in a chapter on visionary quest; and Kierkegaard, Dickinson, Mallarmé, and Derrida in a chapter on apocalyptic negativity. His guiding concern is to illuminate adventures of "extravagant" or "wandering" language that, from the romantic per...

Alfred Tennyson: The Major Works - Paperback

$14.95

by Alfred Tennyson (Author), Adam Roberts (Editor)Tennyson was the chief poetic voice of his age, and he remains one of the most highly regarded masters of the music and mood of verse. This authoritative edition brings together a unique combination of Tennyson's poetry and prose, spanning his entire career, from his striking juvenilia, through his career as Poet Laureate, to the powerful poetry he wrote in his ninth decade. It contains such classics as "The Lady of Shalott," "Morte d'Arthur,"...

Local Perspectives on Globalisation: The African Case

$74.84

Report copyright infringementby Joseph Sebboja (Editor), Juma Mwapachu (Editor), Eduard Jansen (Editor)These essays review Africa's economic perfomance over the last two decades from a contemporary historical perspective and also the literature. They argue that the problem in East Africa is the lack of integration into a world economy and culture; and simultaneously, the African way of life developing as a hybrid of ideas, values and behaviour which erodes independent/national identities and ...

James Wright: The Poetry of a Grown Man: Constancy and Transition in the Work of James Wright - Hardcover

$80.91

by Kevin Stein (Author)Although some critics have identified two phases in the poetry of James Wright and have isolated particulars of his movement from traditional to more experimental forms, few have noted also the elements of constancy in the evolution of his poetry. In this first comprehensive scholarly introduction to Wright's work, Stein traces the unified growth of Wright's poetry, asserting that while stylistic changes are often more apparent than actual, Wright does undergo a continu...

Unearthing Franco's Legacy: Mass Graves and the Recovery of Historical Memory in Spain - Paperback

$64.80

by Carlos Jerez-Farran (Editor), Samuel Amago (Editor)Unearthing Franco's Legacy: Mass Graves and the Recovery of Historical Memory in Spain addresses the political, cultural, and historical debate that has ensued in Spain as a result of the recent discovery and exhumation of mass graves dating from the years during and after the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). The victor, General Francisco Franco, ruled as a dictator for thirty-six years, during which time he and his supporters had thousands of...

Wisdom of Animals: Creatureliness in Early Modern French Spirituality - Paperback

$50.40

by Catharine Randall (Author)Throughout Western civilization, animals have decorated heraldic shields, populated medieval manuscripts, and ornamented baroque pottery. Animals have also been our companions, our correctives, and our ciphers as humanity has represented and addressed issues of authority, cultural strife, and self-awareness as theological, moral, and social beings. In The Wisdom of Animals: Creatureliness in Early Modern French Spirituality, Catharine Randall traces two threads of...

The Cost of Living: A Working Autobiography - Paperback

$16.99

by Deborah Levy (Author)The bestselling exploration of the dimensions of love, marriage, mourning, and kinship from two-time Booker Prize finalist Deborah Levy. A New York Times Notable BookA New York Public Library Best Nonfiction Book of 2018 What does it cost a woman to unsettle old boundaries and collapse the social hierarchies that make her a minor character in a world not arranged to her advantage? This vibrant memoir, a portrait of contemporary womanhood in flux, is an urgent quest to ...

J.R.R. Tolkien: A Very Short Introduction - Paperback

$14.02

by Matthew Townend (Author)Very Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring J.R.R. Tolkien was the author of two of the most extraordinary, most original, and most popular books of the twentieth century: The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings. The encounter with his works has had profound and far-reaching consequences for millions of readers, who have experienced a form of re-enchantment in the midst of the modern world. Tolkien's works have opened a door to myth, folklore, and fairy tal...

$54.63

Report copyright infringementby Susan Gingell (Author)E.J. Pratt (1882-1964) is one of Canada's best-known poets. This volume collects, for the first time, his own comments on his life and work. Pratt's good humour, his sincerity, and his extraordinary capacity for friendship emerge in these pages. Number of Pages: 272 Dimensions: 0.61 x 9.21 x 6.14 IN Publication Date: December 15, 1983

Tolstoy and the Genesis of War and Peace

$79.11

Report copyright infringementby Kathryn B. Feuer (Author), Robin Feuer Miller (Editor), Donna Tussing Orwin (Editor)"The best thing ever done on how Tolstoy wrote War and Peace. Feuer shows us an incredible complexity in terms of the creative process. You see the seams and joints in the novel."--Gary Saul Morson, Northwestern University"In 1963, Kathryn B. Feuer had access to the manuscripts of the drafts for the novel, almost 4,000 pages. At Tolstoy's home, she concentrated on a dozen books ...

God's Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse - Paperback

$15.00

by James Weldon Johnson (Author), Maya Angelou (Introduction by), Henry Louis Gates (Editor)Introduced by Maya Angelou, the inspiring sermon-poems of James Weldon Johnson James Weldon Johnson was a leading figure of the Harlem Renaissance, and one of the most revered African Americans of all time, whose life demonstrated the full spectrum of struggle and success. In God's Trombones, one of his most celebrated works, inspirational sermons of African American preachers are reimagined as poetry...

Hester Thrale Piozzi: Portrait of a Literary Woman

$81.00

Report copyright infringementby William McCarthy (Author)Much has been written about Thrale, friend and hostess of Samuel Johnson, but this is the first study to focus on Piozzi as the writer. In his narrative of her life, McCarthy draws on a large body of published and unpublished sources to map Piozzi's literary development, define her literary identity, and evaluate her achievement. In addition to reexamining her best-known works, he present the first serious treatment of her poetry, polit...

Mark Twain Remembered: An Anecdotal Biography

$135.00

Report copyright infringementby Gary Scharnhorst (Author)Mark Twain's life as told by more than 200 contemporaries including Teddy Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Charles Darwin, and many more. A master storyteller, Mark Twain inspired his friends, family, fellow authors, and others to reminisce about him at every stage of his life and everywhere he lived. In Mark Twain Remembered: An Anecdotal Biography, Gary Scharnhorst transcribes and annotates over two hundred memoirs by people who knew Twa...

William Faulkner: From Jefferson to the World

$42.75

Report copyright infringementby Hyatt H. Waggoner (Author)Combining explications of William Faulkner's novels and short stories with thematic analysis, Hyatt H. Waggoner works from the close reading of a specific work outward to its most general meanings and relationships. By this method he has made a significant contribution to the understanding of Faulkner's career and artistic achievement. Waggoner examines both better and lesser-known works, which yield valuable insights into Faulkner's d...

The Conspiracy Against the Human Race: A Contrivance of Horror - Paperback

$18.00

by Thomas Ligotti (Author)In Thomas Ligotti's first nonfiction outing, an examination of the meaning (or meaninglessness) of life through an insightful, unsparing argument that proves the greatest horrors are not the products of our imagination but instead are found in reality. "There is a signature motif discernible in both works of philosophical pessimism and supernatural horror. It may be stated thus: Behind the scenes of life lurks something pernicious that makes a nightmare of our world....

The Humanities and the Understanding of Reality

$25.65

Report copyright infringementby Thomas B. Stroup (Editor)In their concern with the perennial controversy between the two great areas in which men seek knowledge, three eminent literary scholars and a distinguished journalist in these essays address themselves to the question, ""Do the humanities provide a form of understanding of reality that the sciences do not?"" Monroe C. Beardsley maintains that the humanities considered as contributors to knowledge must deal with the same subject matter ...

Tradition and Desire: From David to Delacroix

$73.44

Report copyright infringementby Norman Bryson (Author), Michael Sheringham (Editor)In this highly original book Norman Bryson applied 'structuralist' and 'post-structuralist' approaches to French Romantic Painting. He considers the work of David, Ingres and Delacroix as artists who found themselves within an artistic tradition that had nothing creative to offer them. Number of Pages: 252 Dimensions: 0.53 x 9.61 x 6.69 IN Illustrated: Yes Pub...

The Power of Women: A Topos in Medieval Art and Literature

$129.98

Report copyright infringementby Susan L. Smith (Author)Eve tempting Adam with the apple, Delilah shearing Samson's hair, Phyllis riding the philosopher Aristotle like a horse--from the patristic period through the sixteenth century, examples of disorderly women such as these from the Bible, antiquity, and romance were cited to prove beyond any doubt that women exercise a power that no man, however superior his moral and physical qualities, can resist. An example of Latin topica, loci, or loci...

Mark! My Words (How to Discover the Joy of Music, the Delight of Language, and the Pride of Achievement in the Age of Trash Talk and MTV)

$35.93

Report copyright infringementby Mark Evans (Author)Classical music, jazz, film scores, and the masterpieces of musical theater are in danger of fading into an undeserved oblivion. This crisis extends not only to music, but also to an ignorance of good books, art, theater, and films. This crisis is exacerbated by our vanishing history, a decline in language, and a pervasive celebrity culture. If this problem is not solved, our nation's cultural and artistic heritage will be irretrievably lost....

Travestismos culturales. Literatura y etnografía en Cuba y el Brasil - Paperback

$70.56

by Jossianna Arroyo (Author)Los modelos de democracia racial en Cuba y Brasil parten de un consenso cultural compartido por las ciencias sociales, el arte y la literatura. Travestismos culturales analiza cr ticamente estos modelos de consenso nacionalista y cultural, que se consolidan en las vanguardias latinoamericanas. a fin de evaluar la intersecci n entre raza, g nero y sexualidad en la obra de Fernando Ortiz (Cuba), Gilberto Freyre (Brasil) y varias novelas y ensayos desde 1840-1930. En ...

$20.00

by Derek Walcott (Author)Omeros is the grand epic poem told in multiple chapters from Nobel Prize-winning poet and playwright Derek Walcott.With circular narrative design, titled with the Greek name for Homer, Omeros simultaneously charts two currents of history: the visible history charted in events--the tribal losses of the American Indian, the tragedy of African enslavement--and the interior, unwritten epic fashioned from the suffering of the individual in exile. "One of the great poems of...

$13.99

by Virgil (Author), Peter Fallon (Author), Elaine Fantham (Introduction by)Virgil's affectionate poem of the land brings us the disappointments as well as the rewards of the countryman's year-round devotion to his crops, his vines and olives, livestock great and small, and the complex society of his bees. Part agricultural manual, part political poem and allegory, The Georgics' scenes are real and vivid, allowing the reader to feel the sights, sounds, and textures of the ancient Italian lands...

$15.07

Report copyright infringementby Federico García Lorca (Author), John Edmunds (Author), Nicholas Round (Introduction by)In his four last plays (Blood Wedding, Yerma, The House of Bernarda Alba, Dona Rosita the Spinster) Federico García Lorca offered his disturbed and disturbing personal vision to Spanish audiences of the 1930s---unready, as he thought them, for the sexual frankness and surreal expression of his more experimental work. The authentic sense of danger of Lorca's theatre is finely ...