Literary Theory 2010 Leaflet (UK)

Alex Murray, University of Exeter, UK

Routledge Critical Thinkers are designed for students who need an accessible introduction to the key figures in contemporary critical thought. The books provide crucial orientation for further study and equip readers to engage with theorists’ original texts.

• presents a useful glossary of relevant terms and a section suggesting further reading.

• theories of ethics and ‘witnessing’ • the relationship between Agamben’s political writing and his work on aesthetics and poetics.

April 2010: 198x129: 144pp Hb: 978-0-415-45168-0: $95.00 Pb: 978-0-415-45169-7: $22.95

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Jean-Paul Sartre Christine Daigle, Brock University, Cananda

With a significance that crosses disciplinary boundaries from literary theory and philosophy through to cultural studies and media, Gadamer’s pioneering work on hermeneutic theory remains of crucial importance to the study of texts in the humanities.

Christine Daigle sets Sartre’s thought in context, and considers a number of key ideas in detail, charting their impact and continuing influence, including:

October 2010: 198x129: 144pp Hb: 978-0-415-49308-6: $95.00 Pb: 978-0-415-49309-3: $22.95

• the ethics of authenticity and absolute responsibility

• Sartre’s theories of consciousness, being and freedom as outlined in Being and Nothingness and other texts • concrete relations, sexual relationships and gender difference, focusing on the significance of the alienating look of the Other • the social and political role of the author

For more information on the wide range of titles in this Series, visit the Series website: www.routledge.com/books/series/ Routledge_Critical_Thinkers

• the legacy of Sartre’s theories and their relationship to structuralism and philosophy of mind.

Introducing both literary and philosophical texts by Sartre, this volume makes Sartre’s ideas newly accessible to students of literary and cultural studies as well as to students of continental philosophy and French.

October 2009: 198x129: 192pp Hb: 978-0-415-43564-2: $95.00 Pb: 978-0-415-43565-9: $22.95

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The Routledge Companion to Literature and Science

Contributors include: Rey Chow, Claire Colebrook, Roberto Esposito, Simon Gikandi, Martin Hägglund, Peter Hallward, Brian Massumi, Jasbir Puar, Peter Osborne, Bernard Stiegler, Eugene Thacker, Cary Wolfe and Linda Zerilli.

December 2010: 246x174: 320pp Hb: 978-0-415-48418-3: $135.00 Pb: 978-0-415-48419-0: $42.95

Edited by Bruce Clarke, Texas Tech University, USA and Manuela Rossini, Swiss Academies of the Arts and Sciences, Switzerland Series: Routledge Literature Companions

With over forty newly commissioned essays from leading scholars, The Routledge Companion to Literature and Science traces interaction, reaction and conflict between these two disciplines. Divided into three main sections, this volume: • uncovers links between literature and diverse areas of science, from Artificial Intelligence to thermodynamics

• provides a broad survey of current theoretical and disciplinary approaches • considers the interaction between literature and science within diverse cultures and different periods.

Ranging from the ‘two cultures’ debate to the ‘posthumanities’ arguments of the present day, this volume offers a comprehensive and indispensible resource for undergraduates, postgraduates and researchers.

July 2010: 246x174: 560pp Hb: 978-0-415-49525-7: $175.00 for three months post publication price then rising to $199.00 thereafter

NEW 2nd Edition

American Literary Criticism Since the 1930s Vincent B. Leitch, University of Oklahoma, USA Now fully updated Vincent B. Leitch’s classic book follows the development of the American academy right up to the present day.

Updated throughout and with a brand new chapter, this second edition: • provides a critical history of American literary theory and practice, discussing the impact of major schools and movements • examines the social and cultural background to literary research, considering the role of key theories and practices

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• provides a guide to the practical application of Gadamer’s thought to the interpretation of texts

• clear analysis of Agamben’s philosophy of language and life

• Order Complimentary Exam Copies

• explains and puts into context his key ideas, including the importance of ‘symbol’ and ‘festival’ to his work on beauty

• an overview of his work from first publication to the present

• Browse by: new, forthcoming, discipline, textbooks, catalogs, special offers and many other exciting products

• presents an overview of his life and works, outlining his importance to phenomenological theory and its place in literary studies

Alex Murray explains Agamben’s key ideas, including:

Investigating the relationship between politics, language, literature, aesthetics and ethics, this guide is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand the complex nature of modern political and cultural formations.

Theory After ‘Theory’ This volume argues that theory, far from being dead, has undergone major shifts in order to come to terms with the most urgent cultural and political questions of today. Offering an overview of theory’s new directions, this groundbreaking collection includes essays on affect, biopolitics, biophilosophy, the aesthetic, and neoliberalism, as well as examinations of established areas such as subaltern studies, the postcolonial, and queer theory.

Influential figures such as Agamben, Arendt, Schmitt and Badiou are examined in a range of contexts. Gathering together some of the top thinkers in the field, this volume not only speculates on the fate of theory but shows its current diversity, encouraging conversation between divergent strands. Each section includes an accessible, clear introduction that places the essays in their contexts and stages a comparison between different but ultimately related ways in which key thinkers are moving beyond poststructuralism.

S ER RD B O $35 E E W VER FRE O IVE US IN CE RE PING ADA N IP SH D CA AN

Hans-Georg Gadamer’s theory of hermeneutics is one of the most important modern theories of reading, offering both a framework for understanding the practice and a method for its interpretation. In this clear and comprehensive guide to Gadamer’s thought, Karl Simms:

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Qualifying Professors, request your complimentary exam copy at: www.routledge.com or call customer service: 1-800-634-7064

Karl Simms, University of Liverpool, UK

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Hans-Georg Gadamer

Giorgio Agamben is one of the most important and controversial figures in contemporary continental philosophy and critical theory. His work covers a broad array of topics from biblical criticism to Guantanamo bay and the ‘war on terror’.

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New Titles for 2010

Giorgio Agamben

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Series edited by Robert Eaglestone, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK

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Literary and Critical Theory

Routledge Critical Thinkers

Literary and Critical Theory

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Available as Complimentary Exam Copies

• provides profiles of major figures and influential texts, outlining the connections among theorists • presents a new chapter on developments since the 1980s, including discussions of feminist, queer, postcolonial and ethnic criticism.

August 2009: 234x156: 432pp | Hb: 978-0-415-77817-6: $135.00 | Pb: 978-0-415-77818-3: $35.95

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This is just a selection of our titles in Literary & Critical Theory, visit www.routledge.com/literature for more information NEW

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The History of Reading Edited by Shafquat Towheed and Rosalind Crone, both at The Open University, UK and Katie Halsey, University of Stirling, UK Series: Routledge Literature Readers

The History of Reading offers an engaging and accessible overview of this developing discipline from the rise of literacy through to the current trend of ‘book clubs’. The editors offer a variety of extracts crucial to the understanding of the history of reading and to the social, political and cultural implications involved.

The Reader is divided into seven sections, each with a useful introduction explaining the context and interaction of the pieces. Offering a comprehensive overview of the field, the sections:

The Literature and Globalization Reader Edited by Liam Connell, the University of Winchester, UK and Nicky Marsh, University of Southampton, UK Series: Routledge Literature Readers

‘I wonder how we have managed without such a text.’ - Rita Raley, USBC, USA ‘Globalization’ has had a huge impact on thinking across the humanities, redefining the understanding of fields such as communication, culture, politics, and literature.

• summarise the main debates and perspectives shaping the field

This groundbreaking Reader is the first to chart significant moments in the emergence of contemporary thinking about globalization and explore their significance for and impact on literary studies. The book’s three sections look in turn at:

• introduce the most important theorists such as Iser, Fish and Bakhtin

• an overview of globalization theory and influential works in the field

• survey the most influential works in the history of literacy

• the impact of globalization on literature and our understanding of the ‘literary’

• provide an outline of important studies on mass reading in a variety of countries including India, Russia, China, England and Australia • focus on specific communities such as Welsh miners, African American library users and Australian convicts • look at individual readers from a variety of countries, classes and historical periods • look at current research in the history of reading.

Providing both a clear introduction to the history of the field and a taste of the breadth, diversity and vitality of current debates, this Reader is an essential resource for undergraduates, graduates, and researchers.

Selected Contents: Section 1: Defining the Field: What is the History of Reading? Section 2: Theorising the Reader Section 3: Researching and Using Literacy Section 4: Reading the Masses Section 5: Reading Communities Section 6: Individual Readers Section 7: New Directions and Methods in the History of Reading July 2010: 246x174: 620pp Hb: 978-0-415-48420-6: $135.00 Pb: 978-0-415-48421-3: $54.95

• how issues in globalization can be used to read specific literary texts.

Containing essays by leading critics including Arjun Appadurai, Timothy Brennan, Simon Gikandi, Graham Huggan, Amitav Kumar, Franco Moretti and Gayatri Spivak, this volume outlines the relationship between globalization and literature, offering a key sourcebook for and introduction to an exciting, emerging field.

June 2010: 246x174: 400pp Hb: 978-0-415-49667-4: $135.00 Pb: 978-0-415-49668-1: $48.95

The New Critical Idiom Series Editor: John Drakakis, University of Stirling, UK The well-established New Critical Idiom series continues to provide students with clear introductory guides to the most important terms in use today. With a strong emphasis on clarity, lively debate and the widest possible breadth of examples the series is an indispensable guide to key topics in literary studies.

Dialogue Peter Womack, University of East Anglia, UK Dialogue is a form that has been used in varying ways at different cultural moments, adapting to the needs of the time and of its speakers. Playful and allusive, it has often been the mode of expression for eccentrics and provocateurs, but can also claim to be the original format for Western Philosophy.

Travel Writing Carl Thompson, University of Nottingham, UK An increasingly popular genre, addressing issues of space, language, colonialism, globalization and politics, travel writing offers the reader a movement between the familiar and the unknown.

In this volume, Carl Thompson: • introduces the genre, outlining competing definitions and key debates • provides a broad historical survey from the medieval period to the present day • considers contemporary issues of tourism, migration and displacement • looks both at canonical and more marginal works in women’s writing, colonial and postcolonial writing • examines the place of travel writing in the construction of ‘pioneering’ narratives of America.

Concise and practical, Travel Writing is the ideal introduction for those new to the subject, as well as a crucial overview of the terminology, history and debates within the field.

December 2010: 198x129: 160pp Hb: 978-0-415-44464-4: $95.00 Pb: 978-0-415-44465-1: $22.95

For more information on the wide range of titles in this Series, visit the Series website: www.routledge.com/books/series/ The_New_Critical_Idiom

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The Historical Novel

2nd Edition

Jerome de Groot, University of Manchester, UK

Autobiography

Linda Anderson, Newcastle University, UK

The historical novel is an enduringly popular genre that raises crucial questions about key literary concepts, fact and fiction, identity, history, reading, and writing. In this comprehensive, focused guide, Jerome de Groot offers an accessible introduction to the genre and critical debates the surround it, including:

In this clear and concise guide to the historical and contemporary significance of the term, Peter Womack: • considers the history of the dialogue form, looking at Platonic, Renaissance, Enlightenment and Modern examples • examines questions of writing versus conversation and public versus private, and how literary dialogue moves between the two • illustrates the use of dialogue in the many ‘voices ‘of the novel and considers the place of dramatic dialogue

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• looks at the influential dialogic theories of Mikhail Bakhtin.

Practical and thought-provoking, this volume is the ideal springboard for those first encountering this diverse and fascinating literary form.

December 2010: 198x129: 192pp Hb: 978-0-415-32921-7: $95.00 Pb: 978-0-415-32922-4: $22.95

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the development of the historical novel from early eighteenthcentury works through to postmodern and contemporary historical fiction

• different genres, such as sensational or ‘low’ fiction, crime novels, literary works, counterfactual writing and related issues of audience, value, and authenticity • the many functions of historical fiction, particularly the challenges it poses to accepted histories and postmodern questioning of ‘grand narratives’ • the relationship of the historical novel to the wider cultural sphere with reference to historical theory, the internet, television, and film • key theoretical concepts such as the authentic fallacy, postcolonialism, Marxism, queer and feminist reading.

2nd Edition

Interdisciplinarity Joe Moran, Liverpool John Moores University, UK

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Interdisciplinarity covers one of the most important changes in attitude and methodology in the history of the university.

Taking the study of English as its main example, this fully updated second edition examines the ways in which we have organized knowledge into disciplines, and are now reorganizing it into new configurations as existing structures come to seem restrictive. Joe Moran traces the history and use of the term ‘interdisciplinarity’, tackling such vital topics as the rise of the disciplines; interdisciplinary English; Literary and Cultural Studies; ‘theory’ and the disciplines; texts and histories; literature and science, space and nature.

Including an updated further reading section and new concluding chapter, Interdisciplinarity is the ideal entry point into one of today’s most heated critical debates.

February 2010: 198x129: 240pp Hb: 978-0-415-56006-1: $95.00 Pb: 978-0-415-56007-8: $22.95

Drawing on a wide range of examples from across the centuries and around the globe The Historical Novel is essential reading for students exploring the interface of history and fiction.

September 2009: 198x129: 208pp Hb: 978-0-415-42661-9: $95.00 Pb: 978-0-415-42662-6: $22.95

If every writer necessarily draws on their own life, is any writing outside the realm of ‘autobiography’? The new edition of this classic guide is fully updated to include: • developments in autobiographical criticism, highlighting major theoretical issues and concepts • different forms of the genre, from confessions and narratives to memoirs and diaries

• uses of the genre in their historical and cultural contexts • major autobiographical writers, including St Augustine, Bunyan, Boswell, Rousseau and Wordsworth, alongside non-canonical autobiographies by women • twentieth-century autobiography, including women’s writing, black and postcolonial writing, and personal criticism • a new chapter and expanded sections examining recent trends in autobiography such as blogs, the popularity of literary memoirs and recent developments in theory on testimonial writing.

Combining theoretical discussion with thought-provoking readings of major texts, this is the ideal introduction to the study of a fascinating genre.

August 2010: 198x129: 208pp Hb: 978-0-415-57213-2: $95.00 Pb: 978-0-415-57214-9: $22.95

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Satire John Gilmore, University of Warwick, UK What is Satire? How can we define it? Is it a comic tool or a political weapon? Is Satire funny or cruel? Does it always need a target or victim?

Combining thematic, theoretical and historical approaches, John Gilmore introduces and investigates the tradition of Satire from classical models through to the present day. In a lucid and engaging style, Gilmore explores: • the moral politics of Satire • whether Satire is universal, historically or geographically limited • how Satire translates across genres and media • the boundaries of free speech and legitimacy.

Using examples including the literature of Roman Satire, Chaucer, Dryden and Orwell, the films of Monty Python and Borat, and TV programmes such as Brass Eye and Spitting Image, this comprehensive volume should be of interest to students and scholars of literature, media and cultural studies as well as politics and philosophy.

December 2010: 198x129: 160pp | Hb: 978-0-415-48081-9: $95.00 | Pb: 978-0-415-48082-6: $22.95

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