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This 2007 Companion offers a wide-ranging picture of the performance conditions and background of theatre in the classical world from Homer to the end of the Roman Empire. It will be of interest to students of drama and classics, and also readers with an interest in the theatre's history and practice.
Alexander Pope was the greatest poet of his age and the dominant influence on eighteenth-century British poetry. This is the first overview for students to analyse the full range of Pope's work and to set it in its historical and cultural context.
This 2007 Companion is both an introduction to, and a series of thought-provoking essays on, one of the greatest of Latin poets, Lucretius. It gives equal space to Lucretius' ancient contexts and to his post-classical reception and is completely accessible to the reader who has only read Lucretius in translation.
This Companion examines the slave narrative in relation to its historical context as well as the African American literary tradition. With its chronology and guide to further reading, the Companion provides both an easy entry point for students new to the subject and comprehensive coverage for scholars in the field.
Frances Burney (1752-1840) was the most successful female novelist of the eighteenth century. This Companion is the first volume to cover all her works in a comprehensive and accessible way. It also includes discussion of her critical reputation, and a guide to further reading.
This Companion charts the shape of DeLillo's career and provides in-depth assessments of his best-known novels, White Noise, Libra, and Underworld, which have become required reading not only for students of American literature, but for all interested in the history and the future of American culture.
This Companion brings together sixteen new essays which examine, from various perspectives, the social and cultural role of the actress throughout history and across continents. Each essay focuses on a particular stage in her development, for example professionalism in the seventeenth century; the emergence of the actress/critic during the Romantic period and, later on, of the actress as best selling autobiographer; the coming of the drama schools which led to today's emphasis on the actress as a highly-trained working woman. Chapters consider the image of the actress as a courtesan, as a 'muse', as a representative of the 'ordinary' housewife, and as a political activist. The collection also contains essays on forms, genres and traditions - on cross dressing, solo performance, racial constraints, and recent Shakespeare - as well as on the actress in early photography and on film. Its unique range will fascinate, surprise and instruct theatre-goers and students alike.
Situated between the Victorians and Modernism, the fin de siecle is an exciting and rewarding period to study. This volume will be of great interest to students of Victorian and twentieth-century literature, art and cultural history.
This Companion offers the most comprehensive overview available of modernist poetry. While modernist poets are often thought of as difficult, these essays will help students understand and enjoy their experimental, playful and fascinating responses to contemporary social and cultural change and their dialogue with the arts and with each other.
The Harlem Renaissance (1918-1937) was the most influential single movement in African American literary history. Its key figures include Du Bois, Larsen, Hurston, McKay, and Hughes. This 2007 Companion presents a set of new readings encouraging further exploration of this dynamic field.
This Companion addresses the work of one of the most important modern British playwrights, David Hare. The first book of its kind to offer such comprehensive critical treatment, it examines his stage plays, television plays and cinematic films, and includes an essay by Sir Richard Eyre, on directing Hare's plays.
The novel of the Romantic period has attracted many more readers and students in recent years. This Companion offers an overview of British fiction written between the mid-1760s and the early 1830s and is an ideal guide to the major authors, historical and cultural contexts, and later critical reception.
Generations of authors, scholars and students have embraced the sophisticated scurrility of Apuleius and Petronius, the elegance of Chariton and Longus, the narrative fireworks of Achilles Tatius and Heliodorus. This volume presents nineteen new essays on these wonderful works accessible to students and non-specialists by internationally renowned experts.
Alexander Pope was the greatest poet of his age and the dominant influence on eighteenth-century British poetry. This is the first overview for students to analyse the full range of Pope's work and to set it in its historical and cultural context.
A group of the world's most authoritative scholars of classical myth present a thorough treatment of all aspects of Greek mythology. Sixteen original articles guide the reader through the fascinating field of ancient Greek mythic tradition from its origins in ancient Greek literature to its modern interpretations in writing and film.
This 2007 Companion is both an introduction to, and a series of thought-provoking essays on, one of the greatest of Latin poets, Lucretius. It gives equal space to Lucretius' ancient contexts and to his post-classical reception and is completely accessible to the reader who has only read Lucretius in translation.
This Companion addresses the work of one of the most important modern British playwrights, David Hare. The first book of its kind to offer such comprehensive critical treatment, it examines his stage plays, television plays and cinematic films, and includes an essay by Sir Richard Eyre, on directing Hare's plays.
This wide-ranging and stimulating Companion covers literature composed in French from the ninth century to the Renaissance, including the Chanson de Roland, the Roman de la Rose, Christine de Pisan and the Tristan romances. This is the ideal starting-point to discover the riches of the French medieval tradition.
Nobel laureate Toni Morrison is one of the most widely studied of contemporary American authors. This comprehensive and accessible 2007 Companion, featuring a chronology and guide to further reading, was the first guide to her work to discuss her entire career as a writer, critic, editor and teacher.
The novel of the Romantic period has attracted many more readers and students in recent years. This Companion offers an overview of British fiction written between the mid-1760s and the early 1830s and is an ideal guide to the major authors, historical and cultural contexts, and later critical reception.
Generations of authors, scholars and students have embraced the sophisticated scurrility of Apuleius and Petronius, the elegance of Chariton and Longus, the narrative fireworks of Achilles Tatius and Heliodorus. This volume presents nineteen new essays on these wonderful works accessible to students and non-specialists by internationally renowned experts.
One of America's most powerful and original dramatists, August Wilson offered an alternative history of the twentieth century, as seen from the perspective of black Americans. He celebrated the lives of those seemingly pushed to the margins of national life, but who were simultaneously protagonists of their own drama and evidence of a vital and compelling community. Decade by decade, he told the story of a people with a distinctive history who forged their own future, aware of their roots in another time and place, but doing something more than just survive. Wilson deliberately addressed black America, but in doing so discovered an international audience. Alongside chapters addressing Wilson's life and career, and the wider context of his plays, this Companion dedicates individual chapters to each play in his ten-play cycle, which are ordered chronologically, demonstrating Wilson's notion of an unfolding history of the twentieth century.
The last century was characterised by an extraordinary flowering of the art of poetry in Britain. These specially commissioned essays by highly regarded poetry critics offer a stimulating and reliable overview of English poetry of the twentieth century.
Alexander Pushkin holds a unique position as the founding father of Russian literature. In this Companion, leading scholars discuss Pushkin's work in its political, literary, social and intellectual contexts. No other volume available brings together such a range of material and such comprehensive coverage of Pushkin's major and minor writings.
This Companion serves both as an introduction for the interested reader and as a source of the best recent scholarship on the author and his works. In addition to analysing his major texts, these chapters provide insight on Hemingway's relationship with gender history, journalism, fame and the political climate of the 1930s.
The Harlem Renaissance (1918-1937) was the most influential single movement in African American literary history. Its key figures include Du Bois, Larsen, Hurston, McKay, and Hughes. This 2007 Companion presents a set of new readings encouraging further exploration of this dynamic field.
George Orwell is regarded as the greatest political writer in English of the twentieth century. Chapters in this 2007 Companion address his positions on war and pacifism, patriotism, his anti-Communism and his status in the literary academy, among other topics. A detailed chronology of Orwell's life and work is also included.
This is the most accessible guide available both for students of literature new to this developing field, and for students of gender studies and readers interested in the interactions of feminism, literary criticism and literature.
This 2006 collection of original essays is a comprehensive survey of the life, works and times of this radical Romantic poet. With its chronology and guide to further reading, this lively and accessible Companion is an invaluable guide for students and scholars of Shelley and of Romanticism.
Charles Baudelaire's place among the great poets of the Western world is undisputed, and his influence enormous. Featuring a guide to further reading and a chronology, this Companion provides students and scholars of Baudelaire and nineteenth-century French and European literature with a comprehensive and stimulating overview of this extraordinary poet.
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