Literary Criticism

27708 books

Americanist Approaches to the Book of Mormon - Paperback

$88.16

by Elizabeth Fenton (Editor), Jared Hickman (Editor)As the sacred text of a modern religious movement of global reach, The Book of Mormon has undeniable historical significance. That significance, this volume shows, is inextricable from the intricacy of its literary form and the audacity of its historical vision. This landmark collection brings together a diverse range of scholars in American literary studies and related fields to definitively establish The Book of Mormon as an indispensable ...

Diary of the Dark Years, 1940-1944: Collaboration, Resistance, and Daily Life in Occupied Paris - Paperback

$19.15

by Jean Guéhenno (Author), David Ball (Editor), David Ball (Translator)Winner of the French-American Foundation Translation Prize for Nonfiction Jean Guéhenno's Diary of the Dark Years, 1940-1945 is the most oft-quoted piece of testimony on life in occupied France. A sharply observed record of day-to-day life under Nazi rule in Paris and a bitter commentary on literary life in those years, it has also been called "a remarkable essay on courage and cowardice" (Caroline Moorehead, Wall Street ...

$62.30

by Anne Anlin Cheng (Author)Focusing on the cultural and philosophic conflation between the "oriental" and the "ornamental," Ornamentalism offers an original and sustained theory about Asiatic femininity in western culture. This study pushes our vocabulary about the woman of color past the usual platitudes about objectification and past the critique of Orientalism in order to formulate a fresher and sharper understanding of the representation, circulation, and ontology of Asiatic femininity. ...

$11.47

by Christopher Butler (Author)Postmodernism has become the buzzword of contemporary society over the last decade. But how can it be defined? In this highly readable introduction the mysteries of this most elusive of concepts are unraveled, casting a critical light upon the way we live now, from the politicizing of museumculture to the cult of the politically correct. The key postmodernist ideas are explored and challenged, as they figure in the theory, philosophy, politics, ethics and artwork...

After Babel: Aspects of Language and Translation - Paperback

$30.32

by George Steiner (Author)When it first appeared in 1975, After Babel created a sensation, quickly establishing itself as both a controversial and seminal study of literary theory. In the original edition, Steiner provided readers with the first systematic investigation since the eighteenth century of the phenomenology and processes of translation both inside and between languages. Taking issue with the principal emphasis of modern linguistics, he finds the root of the "Babel problem" in our ...

Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War - Paperback

$19.18

by Paul Fussell (Author)Winner of both the National Book Award for Arts and Letters and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism, Paul Fussell's The Great War and Modern Memory was one of the most original and gripping volumes ever written about the First World War. Frank Kermode, in The New York TimesBook Review, hailed it as "an important contribution to our understanding of how we came to make World War I part of our minds," and Lionel Trilling called it simply "one of the most...

$14.38

by Aeschylus (Author), Janet Lembke (Translator), C. J. Herington (Translator)The Persians, Aeschylus' earliest surviving tragedy, holds a fascination both for readers of Greek drama and Greek history. Not only is it the earliest existing play in the Western tradition, it is drawn directly from the playwright's own experiences at the battle of Salamis, making it theonly account of the Persian Wars composed by an eyewitness. And as pure tragedy, it is a masterpiece. Aeschylus tells the story o...

$13.42

by Euripides (Author), W. S. Merwin (Author), George E. Dimock (Author)Merwin and Dimock have provided a new translation for this celebrated tragedy, with a comprehensive introduction, notes on the text, and a glossary of mythical and geographical terms.Back JacketBased on the conviction that only translators who write poetry them-selves can properly recreate the celebrated and timeless tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, the Greek Tragedy in New Translations series offers new t...

Christians in Conversation: A Guide to Late Antique Dialogues in Greek and Syriac - Hardcover

$190.00

by Alberto Rigolio (Author)This book addresses a particular and little-known form of writing, the prose dialogue, during the Late Antique period, when Christian authors adopted and transformed the dialogue form to suit the new needs of religious debate. Connected to, but departing from, the dialogues of Classical Antiquity, these new forms staged encounters between Christians and pagans, Jews, Manichaeans, and "heretical" fellow Christians. At times fiction, at others records of, or scripts f...

The Divine Comedy: Volume 1: Inferno - Paperback

$19.18

by Dante Alighieri (Author), John D. Sinclair (Translator)An invaluable source of pleasure to those English readers who wish to read this great medieval classic with true understanding, Sinclair's three-volume prose translation of Dante's Divine Comedy provides both the original Italian text and the Sinclair translation, arranged on facing pages, andcommentaries, appearing after each canto, which serve as brilliant examples of genuine literary criticism.Back JacketMr. Sinclair's three-volume ...

The Mirror and the Lamp: Romantic Theory and the Critical Tradition - Paperback

$37.98

by Meyer H. Abrams (Author)Back Jacketwith this book, M.H. Abrams has given us a remarkable study, admirably conceived and executed, a book of quite exceptional and no doubt lasting significance for a number of fields- for the history of ideas and comparative literature as well as for English literary history, criticism and anesthetics.' Number of Pages: 416 Dimensions: 1.1 x 8.5 x 5.5 IN Publication Date: September 15, 1971

King Arthur and His Knights: Selected Tales - Paperback

$33.42

by Thomas Malory (Author), Eugène Vinaver (Editor)This thoroughly readable collection of Malory's famous stories of King Arthur includes the familiar legends, plots, exploits, and characters which have become part of the cultural tradition of the English-speaking world. Number of Pages: 272 Dimensions: 0.68 x 8.03 x 5.26 IN Illustrated: Yes Publication Date: March 27, 1975 Accelerated Reader: Quiz Name: King Arthur and His Knights of the Round...

The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Volume 3: Paradiso - Paperback

$66.86

by Robert M. Durling (Editor), Robert M. Durling (Translator), Robert M. Durling (Author)Robert Durling's spirited new prose translation of the Paradiso completes his masterful rendering of the Divine Comedy. Durling's earlier translations of the Inferno and the Purgatorio garnered high praise, and with this superb version of the Paradiso readers can now traverse the entirety of Dante's epic poem of spiritual ascent with the guidance of one of the greatest living Italian-to-English translator...

Beowulf: The Oldest English Epic - Paperback

$25.82

by Charles W. Kennedy (Editor), Charles W. Kennedy (Translator)This new poetic translation brings the earliest extant English poem closer to the modern reader. Kennedy offers a translation in alliterative verse, based on Klaeber's text, of the Old English Beowulf, and provides a brief critical introduction which reviews literary and cultural discussions of the poem.Back JacketThis unique poetic rendering, available for the first time in a paperback edition, brings the experience of this earli...

Individuality and Beyond: Nietzsche Reads Emerson - Hardcover

$182.40

by Benedetta Zavatta (Author)Though few might think to connect the two figures, Ralph Waldo Emerson was an important influence on Friedrich Nietzsche. Specifically, Emerson played a fundamental role in shaping Nietzsche's philosophical ideas on individualism, perfectionism, and the pursuit of virtue, as well as his critiques of social conditioning, religious dogmatism, and anti-natural morality. With Individuality and Beyond, Benedetta Zavatta offers the first philosophical interpretation of ...

Science Fiction: A Historical Anthology - Paperback

$33.42

by Eric S. Rabkin (Author)An invaluable contribution to the serious study of science fiction as well as a highly entertaining collection, Science Fiction contains 27 chronologically-arranged stories and excerpts, ranging from such early classic works as Swift's Gulliver's Travels and Shelley's Frankenstein to recentstories such as Harlan Ellison's "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" and Ursula K. Le Guin's "Vaster Than Empires and More Slow." Including brief general essays and a separate intr...

Voices from the Harlem Renaissance - Paperback

$22.78

by Nathan Irvin Huggins (Editor)The Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s symbolized black liberation and sophistication--the final shaking off of slavery, in the mind, spirit, and character of African-Americans. It was a period when the African-American came of age, with the clearest expression of this transformation visible inthe remarkable outpouring of literature, art, and music. In these years the "New Negro" was born, as seen in the shift of black leadership from Booker T. Washington to that ...

Poetry of Sappho: An Expanded Edition, Featuring Newly Discovered Poems - Paperback

$28.86

by Jim Powell (Author)"The Sapphic impression of emotion poured out in unpremeditated speech is the product of sophisticated art. Such poetry confronts the translator with a formidable challenge.... Jim Powell is fully aware of the dangers, and speaks of the 'fluidity, ease, grace, and melodic variety' of Sappho's measures. Powell has tried to reproduce the effect. The resulting book is a brilliant success. Powell has shored her fragments against [Sappho's] ruins to give us a garland in which...

$22.78

by Susanna Rowson (Author), Cathy N. Davidson (Editor)The sentimental novels of the early national period were considered a danger to society and were criticized for the corrupting influence they had on the minds of their mostly young and female audience. They told tales of vice and intrigue that purported to be "based on fact" and also advocated the need for better female education that would prepare young women against sweet-talking seducers. Extremely popular in America after the Revolutio...

$70.38

by Arthur Power Dudden (Editor)The paramount question answered in this absorbing collection of essays is: What's so funny about American humor, and why? What are American humor's characteristics? How have they evolved and displayed themselves? Which characteristics are distinctively, or even uniquely, American? Originally appearing as an issue of the American Quarterly, these essays take a close look at American humor from revolutionary times to the present day, and focus particularly on the ...

$41.02

by Aluísio Azevedo (Author), David H. Rosenthal (Editor), Richard Graham (Editor)First published in 1890, and undoubtedly Azevedo's masterpiece, The Slum is one of the most widely read and critically acclaimed novels ever written about Brazil. Indeed, its great popularity, realistic descriptions, archetypal situations, detailed local coloring, and overall race-consciousness may well evoke Huckleberry Finn as the novel's North American equivalent. Yet Azevedo also exhibits the naturalism of Zo...

Murderous Schemes: An Anthology of Classic Detective Stories - Paperback

$52.78

by Donald E. Westlake (Editor), J. Madison Davis (With)When plotting a murder (figuratively speaking), the mystery writer has at hand any number of M.O.s, including such tried and true conventions as the locked room, the unbreakable alibi, the double bluff, and the mistaken identity. Now, in Murderous Schemes, renowned mystery writers Donald E. Westlake and J. Madison Davis offer an illuminating look at eight such mystery conventions, illustrating each with four short stories written by some ...

$14.38

by Sophocles (Author), Herbert Golder (Translator), Richard Pevear (Translator)Based on the conviction that only translators who write poetry themselves can properly recreate the celebrated Greek tragedies, the Greek Tragedy in New Translation series offers new translations that go beyond the literal meaning of the Greek in order to evoke the poetry of the originals.Under the general editorship of Peter Burian and Alan Shapiro, each volume includes a critical introduction, commentary on the t...

The Oxford Book of Latin American Short Stories - Paperback

$21.07

by Roberto Gonzalez Echevarria (Editor)When Latin American writers burst onto the world literary scene in the now famous "Boom" of the sixties, it seemed as if an entire literature had invented itself over night out of thin air. Not only was the writing extraordinary but its sudden and spectacular appearance itself seemed magical. In fact, Latin American literature has a long and rich tradition that reaches back to the Colonial period and is filled with remarkable writers too little known in ...

The Machine in the Garden: Technology and the Pastoral Ideal in America - Paperback

$33.42

by Leo Marx (Author)For over four decades, Leo Marx's work has focused on the relationship between technology and culture in 19th- and 20th-century America. His research helped to define--and continues to give depth to--the area of American studies concerned with the links between scientific and technological advances, and the way society and culture both determine these links. The Machine in the Garden fully examines the difference between the "pastoral" and "progressive" ideals which charac...

The Sense of an Ending: Studies in the Theory of Fiction with a New Epilogue - Paperback

$35.18

by Frank Kermode (Author)Frank Kermode is one of our most distinguished critics of English literature. Here, he contributes a new epilogue to his collection of classic lectures on the relationship of fiction to age-old concepts of apocalyptic chaos and crisis. Prompted by the approach of the millennium, he revisitsthe book which brings his highly concentrated insights to bear on some of the most unyielding philosophical and aesthetic enigmas. Examining the works of writers from Plato to Willi...

The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of African American Literary Criticism - Paperback

$19.15

by Henry Louis Gates Jr (Author)Hailed in The New York Times Book Review as "eclectic, exciting, convincing, provocative" and in The Washington Post Book World as "brilliantly original," Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s The Signifying Monkey is a groundbreaking work that illuminates the relationship between the African andAfrican-American vernacular traditions and black literature. It elaborates a new critical approach located within this tradition that allows the black voice to speak for itself. Exa...

$14.38

by Sophocles (Author), Carl Phillips (Translator), Diskin Clay (Introduction by)Based on the conviction that only translators who write poetry themselves can properly re-create the celebrated and timeless tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, the Greek Tragedy in New Translations series offers new translations that go beyond the literal meaning of the Greek in order to evoke the poetry of the originals. Under the general editorship of Peter Burian and Alan Shapiro, each volume inc...

How to Kill a Dragon: Aspects of Indo-European Poetics - Paperback

$107.20

by Calvert Watkins (Author)In How to Kill a Dragon Calvert Watkins follows the continuum of poetic formulae in Indo-European languages, from Old Hittite to medieval Irish. He uses the comparative method to reconstruct traditional poetic formulae of considerable complexity that stretch as far back as the original common language. Thus, Watkins reveals the antiquity and tenacity of the Indo-European poetic tradition. Watkins begins this study with an introduction to the field of comparative Ind...

Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class - Paperback

$54.70

by Eric Lott (Author), Greil Marcus (Foreword by)For over two centuries, America has celebrated the same African-American culture it attempts to control and repress, and nowhere is this phenomenon more apparent than in the strange practice of blackface performance. Born of extreme racial and class conflicts, the blackface minstrel show appropriated black dialect, music, and dance; at once applauded and lampooned black culture; and, ironically, contributed to a "blackening of America." Drawing...

$37.98

by Raymond Williams (Author)As a brilliant survey of English literature in terms of changing attitudes towards country and city, Williams' highly-acclaimed study reveals the shifting images and associations between these two traditional poles of life throughout the major developmental periods of English culture. Number of Pages: 352 Dimensions: 1.1 x 7.9 x 5.2 IN Publication Date: March 27, 1975

The Hebrew Bible as Literature: A Very Short Introduction - Paperback

$11.47

by Tod Linafelt (Author)The Hebrew Bible, or Christian Old Testament, contains some of the finest literature that we have. This biblical literature has a place not only in the synagogue or the church but also among the classics of world literature. The stories of Jacob and David, for instance, present the earliest surviving examples of literary characters whose development the reader follows over the length of a lifetime. Elsewhere, as in the books of Esther or Ruth, readers find a snapshot o...