Books in the Continuum Literary Studies series

A study that introduces, conceptualises, and examines the American Adam and American Psycho paradigms while focussing on the inter-relations between the two figures. Using the American Adam as a paradigm of masculine identity formation, it examines the American Psycho as Adam's 'real' condition of existence.

Presents the analysis of the representation of London in post-war fiction from Iris Murdoch to Zadie Smith. This book explores the literary re-imagining of the city in post-war fiction and argues that the image, history, and narrative of the city has been transformed alongside the physical rebuilding and repositioning of the capital.

Undertakes a comparative analysis of the works of Iain Sinclair and Peter Ackroyd, placing the fiction and non-fiction of both writers in relation to the broader cultural, social and political contexts of London from 1979.

Provides a structured process of writing activities using imitation, variation and experimentation. This work contains practical composition techniques such as 'transformational writing', 're-writing' or 'translation'. It also includes appendices with examples of the range of activities that can be used and an indicative list of literary examples.

Presents a comparative study, which encourages a way of thinking about Joyce not as an isolated figure but, as someone who is understood in the company of others. This work places Joyce and his time in dialogue with other figures or different historical periods or languages other than English.

Looks at a range of fiction and film texts, since 1950s, in order to analyse the ways in which masculinity has been represented in popular culture in Britain and the United States. This work covers numerous genres, including spy fiction, science fiction, the Western and police thrillers.

Explains the interface between landscape and style and form in contemporary British fiction. This study examines the importance of space for the way contemporary novelists experiment with aesthetic form, offering an account of how British writers over the years have engaged with landscape depiction as a catalyst for stylistic innovation.

In contemporary academic literary studies, Lacan is often considered impenetrably obscure, due to the unavailability of his late works, insufficient articulation of his methodologies and sometimes stereotypical use of Lacanian concepts in literary theory. This study aims to explain Lacanian thought and apply it to the study of literary texts.

'Negative capability', the term John Keats used only once in a letter to his brothers, is a well-known but surprisingly unexplored concept in literary criticism and aesthetics. This book clarifies the meaning of the term and offers an anatomy of its key components, and provides an account of the history of this idea.

Investigates how the notion of incarnation has been employed in phenomenology and how this has influenced literary criticism. This book examines the interest that Joyce and Proust share in the concept of incarnation.

One of the greatest texts of both German and world literature, "Faust, Parts I and II", confronts us with questions about rebellion and suffering, faith and its loss, reality and simulation, order and chaos, weakness and power, technology and human improvement. This monograph offers us a fresh interpretation of Goethe's famous play.

Explores the study of literature and literary history in light of global changes, looking at what defines world literature in the 21st century. Surveying ideas of literature from Goethe onwards, the author devises a compelling concept of literary constellations.

Argues that a true understanding of Philip Larkin as man and poet lies beyond his enduring public appeal and the variety of criticism that has been applied to his work. This book sheds light on the hitherto ignored spiritual significance of his work. It draws upon insights gained from the history of art and the study of religion and myth.

Drawing together diverse literary, critical and theoretical texts in which the palimpsest has appeared since its inauguration by Thomas De Quincey in 1845, this work provides a genealogy of this metaphor. It also provides a reference point and critical tool for future employment of the concept of 'palimpsestuousness'.