Books in the Polity Cultural History of Literature Series series

This authoritative and vividly written book brings readers into the heart of Italian literary culture from the 1690s to the present, establishing the continuities as well as the discontinuities of the Italian literary tradition.

* Provides an accessible and fresh account of German writing since 1750. * Achieves a balance between textual analysis and cultural theory that gives the book value as both a key introductory text and a cutting edge original study.

* The first book to offer a cultural history of French literature from its very beginnings. * Highlights the unique nature of the society that, over a millennium, has produced French culture .

Fresh introduction to the dramatic and festive practices of England in the late Middle Ages. Covers a wide range of canonical and lesser known dramatic practices, with an emphasis on their social and cultural historical contexts.

Renaissance Drama provides a comprehensive and engaging new account of one of the richest periods of theatre history: the drama of early modern England produced for the professional theatre. It brings new insights to bear by exploring the plays in their relation to the culture and society of the period.

Written in a clear, accessible, storytelling style, Black Theater: A Cultural Companion 1850 - Today will shine a bright new light on the culture which has historically nurtured and inspired Black Theater. The book takes the reader on a journey to discover how social realities impacted the plays dramatists wrote and produced.

Through analysis of both major Irish dramas and the artists and companies that performed them, Modern Irish Theatre provides an engaging and accessible introduction to 20th century Irish theatre: its origins, dominant themes, relationship to politics and culture, and influence on theatre movements around the world.

This book provides a boldly original account of Middle English literature from the Norman Conquest to the beginning of the sixteenth century.

Romance Writing explores the changing nature of both the romance genre and the discourse of romantic love from the seventeenth century to the present day. Indeed, it is one of the first studies to approach romantic love as both genre and discourse in more than sixty years.

In this book, Tim Whitmarsh offers an innovative new introduction to ancient Greek literature. The volume integrates cutting--edge cultural theory with the latest research in classical scholarship, providing a comprehensive, sophisticated and accessible account of literature from Homer to late antiquity.

* A wide-ranging overview of Detective Fiction from its origins to the present day. * Combines general socio-historical background with 'casebook' chapters, providing students with close readings of key texts and introducing them to a variety of critical approaches.

* Provides comprehensive background material on the contexts in which early modern literary texts were produced and consumed. * Unlocks the distinctive social practices, economic structures and modes of behaviour that give texts of the period their meaning.

* This is the first volume to cover science fiction right up to the present day and includes a substantial last chapter on the rejuvenation of science fiction in the 1990s. * Written specifically for students and non-specialists, in an accessible style throughout.

This book offers an informative and accessible cultural history of the European avant--garde in its early twentieth--century heyday. It provides comparative coverage of cultural experimentation across the major European languages, including English, French, German, Russian, Spanish and Italian.

* Introduction to the literature of the eighteenth century and its cultural, social and political contexts. * Ties literary developments to the shaping of modernity during the period, including the growth of cities, global trade and travel, and rights for women, workers and slaves.