Books in the New Comparative Criticism series

This volume reflects how the field of comparative literary scholarship and study is itself faced with the reality of transition: the included contributions, ranging from medieval literature to digital humanities, highlight the diversity of discourse involved, depicting comparative literature as both a transitive and transnational process.

Why do revivals and adaptations of Greek tragedy still abound in European national theatres, fringe stages and international festivals in the twenty-first century? Taking as its starting point the concepts of myth developed by Jean-Luc Nancy and Roland Barthes and the notion of the 'classical' outlined by Salvatore Settis, this book analyses discourses around community, democracy, origin and Western identity in stage adaptations of Greek tragedy on contemporary European stages. The author addresses the ways in which the theatre produces and perpetuates the myth of 'classical' Greece as the origin of Europe and how this narrative raises issues concerning the possibility of a transnational European community. Each chapter explores a pivotal problem in modern appropriations of Greek tragedy, including the performance of the chorus, the concept of the 'obscene' and the audience as the demos of democracy. Modern versions of Women of Troy, Hippolytus and Persians performed in Britain, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Poland and Greece are analysed through a series of comparative case studies. By engaging with the work of prominent theatre-makers such as Mark Ravenhill, Michel Vinaver, Katie Mitchell, Sarah Kane, Krzysztof Warlikowski, Romeo Castellucci, Calixto Bieito and Rimini Protokoll, this volume offers a critique of contemporary democratic Europe and the way it represents itself onstage.

Is utopian literature a dream of harmony and justice or a nightmare of a controlled world with no ambivalence or discretion? Engaging with a wide range of texts from different periods and national traditions, leading scholars rethink 'the good place' and suggest that utopia, in the realm of fiction, is more than just a philosophical abstraction.

This book explores the rich variety of non-human figures in contemporary science fiction literature and film and considers what these figures tell us about our notions of humankind. The posthuman ultimately comes to serve as the symbol of a revolutionary vision of humanity that embraces a new, more humble way of being and living.

The last two decades have witnessed an upsurge in scholarship on world literature. In most of this work world literature is understood as a concept in intellectual history, as a cultural system or as a curriculum to be taught. Grounded in three empirical case studies, this book complements such approaches by asking what world literature in English is or has been and what role authoritative readers (translators, editors, publishers, academics and literary critics) play in constituting it as a field for others. The ambivalent position of English as a roadblock to international visibility and as a necessary intermediary for other literary languages justifies a particular attention to what is presented as world literature in English. By emphasizing the constitutive function of cross-cultural reading, the book encourages reflection on the discrepancy between what is actually read as world literature and what might potentially be read in this way.

This book investigates twentieth- and twenty-first-century Caribbean literatures in translation. Covering English-, French- and Spanish-language texts, the book applies Glissantian relational thinking to the study of translation and literary circulation, challenging core-periphery models in favour of alternative pathways of cultural exchange.

We live in an era of global anxiety, so it's no surprise that we also seek transcendence of our material circumstances. This book explores the immanence-transcendence problem in works of French, German, Italian, and Russian literature and philosophy, with the aim of helping us navigate our global future.