Books published by Peter Lang Ltd

Fictions of African Dictatorship examines the fictional representation of the African dictator and the performance of dictatorship across genres. The volume includes contributions focusing on literature, theatre and film, all of which examine the relationship between the fictional and the political. Among the questions the contributors ask: what are the implications of reading a novel for its historical content or accuracy? How does the dictator novel interrogate ideas of veracity? How is power performed and ridiculed? How do different writers reflect on questions of authority in the postcolony, and what are the effects on their stories and modes of narration? This volume untangles some of the intricate workings of dictatorial power in the postcolony, through twelve close readings of works of fiction. It interrogates the intersections between real and literary space, exploring censorship, political critique and creative resistance. Insights into a wide range of lesser known texts and contexts make this volume an original and insightful contribution to scholarship on representations of dictatorship.

This volume is an experiment: an enquiry into the possibilities and potentialities of a prospective anthropology of utopia. With different ethnographic contributions studying «empirical utopias» across the world (from ecotopias to religious havens, transnational policies, retirement homes and community agriculture), it looks beyond the commonsense understanding of utopia as a desire, an expectation, a form of imagination stemming from Western political thought. In the process, the volume explores the dynamic dialectic between human imagination and concrete action.

The GDR Today promotes interdisciplinary approaches to East Germany by gathering articles from a new generation of scholars in the fields of literary and visual studies, history, sociology, translation studies, political science, museum studies and curating practice. The contributors to this volume argue that it is necessary to transgress disciplinary boundaries to escape the gridlocked categories of GDR scholarship. Exploring East German everyday life, cultural policies, memory and memorialization, the volume aims to reinvigorate the study of the GDR. Through the combination and juxtaposition of different approaches to East Germany, it overcomes intra-disciplinary conceptual binaries and revitalizes debates about the very concepts we use to understand life under late twentieth-century state socialism.

Applied theatre is a continually growing and diversifying field. This book is the first of its kind to examine the use of applied theatre with looked-after children. It interrogates the experiences of young people in care in the UK and the potential of applied theatre as a liberation tool within these settings. Informed by twelve years of practice-based research, the book examines how a central pedagogy was initially developed with young people and front-line staff within a residential children's home. The author then critiques the ways in which this pedagogy was adapted and expanded to work with other «looked-after», misrepresented and marginalised young people in related settings.The research presented here describes a unique journey through care homes, children's prisons and inner-city estates, exploring the possibility of reclaiming childhoods through theatre practice. It asks the questions: what does it mean to be «looked after» and «cared for» by an institution? What are the challenges of developing liberatory practice within rigid and homogenising frameworks? And how can theatre forge radical creative spaces within a network of power and control?

This book argues that the Romantic movement influenced Charles Darwin and his theory of natural selection. Given that Darwin has traditionally been placed within Victorian naturalism, these Romantic connections have often been overlooked. The volume traces specific examples of Darwin¿s reliance on the Romantics ¿ such as Alexander von Humboldt¿s Personal Narrative, which he took with him on the Beagle, and the poetry of William Wordsworth, discussed in his notebooks ¿ and explores correlations in Darwin¿s own writings. When Darwin refers to the «archetype» in Origin, could he be drawing on Goethe¿s own use of the concept? And how to explain his description of all poetry as creating a feeling of «nausea»? In addition to these key figures, the book also explores the possible influence of Darwin¿s own grandfather, Erasmus Darwin. The book cleverly follows Darwin¿s form of the narrative in a search for traces of history in both science and poetry, inspired by the unique imagination of Darwin himself.

This book analyses the relationships between the writers Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Baudelaire and Machado de Assis, showing their impact on representations of literary modernity and literary national identity in the Americas. The central argument is that Machado de Assis parodied Baudelaire by criticizing the French influence on Brazilian literature of his time, as well as emulating Poe by searching for a Pan-American identity in the representation of the urban scene, nationalism, the female figure and the world of work. Pan-Americanism emerges from both Poe¿s and Machado de Assis¿s critical reflections on literary national identity in non-hegemonic contexts as a way of deconstructing the idea of literary modernity.

Dublin¿s slums were once considered the worst in Europe. The city¿s tenements were omnipresent and their inhabitants were plagued by poverty. Illuminating the intricate relationship between the «dirty» cityscape and Dublin literature from 1880 to 1920, this seminal book offers new socio-historical, cultural and political insights into one of the most interesting periods of Irish literature and history. As well as delineating the characteristics of Dublin slum literature as a genre, the book challenges general assumptions about the Literary Revival as a mainly rural movement and discusses representations of slums in a variety of texts by «Alpha and Omega», James Connolly, Fannie Gallaher, May Laffan, Seumas O¿Sullivan, Frederick Ryan, James Stephens, Katharine Tynan and many others. In addition, it reassesses W. B. Yeats¿s and James Joyce¿s literary genealogy in the context of the urban literary-historical discourse and analyses the impact of slums on their writing strategies. This work will be essential reading for scholars and students of Irish literature and cultural history.

Landscapes of Irish and Greek Poets juxtaposes two countries on the margins of Europe that display many affinities: Ireland and Greece. It investigates the ways in which contemporary poetry from both countries engages with external and internal landscapes, bringing together essays by poets and scholars, poems in English and Greek and interviews with the Irish poets Paula Meehan and Theo Dorgan. The topics explored include travel, nature, suburban areas, cultural and political landscapes, the perception of wilderness and the influence of technology in the digital age. Especially relevant at a time of ecological and social crisis, the correlation of external landscapes with the landscapes of the mind, mediated by poetry, offers a powerful insight into the world in which we live.

This book examines the struggles encountered by multilingual scholars pursuing careers within global academia, particularly in Spain and Latin American countries. These writers face the disadvantage of having to read and write in a language other than their own. The traditional model of Anglophone universities under which academics have to «publish or perish» has ensured that English is an indicator of excellence in knowledge construction. Given this linguistic inequality, it is important that scholars from non-Anglophone countries are empowered in their efforts to publish in English in international journals, so that new knowledge can be brought to the fore.By highlighting the dominant English medium conventions, this book provides such scholars with valuable support in ensuring that their research is publishable. It explores the different ways of structuring languages and illuminates the complexities of writing an academic text in a second language. The central message of the book is that the voices of multilingual scholars can make unique and substantial contributions to the reform, expansion, democratization and enrichment of English-dominated academia.

What is the Gothic?From ghosts to vampires, from ruined castles to steampunk fashion, the Gothic is a term that evokes all things strange, haunted and sinister.This volume offers a new look at the world of the Gothic, from its origins in the eighteenth century to its reemergence today. Each short essay is dedicated to a single text ¿ a novel, a film, a comic book series, a festival ¿ that serves as a lens to explore the genre. Original readings of classics like The Mysteries of Udolpho (Ann Radcliffe) and Picnic at Hanging Rock (Joan Lindsay) are combined with unique insights into contemporary examples like the music of Mexican rock band Caifanes, the novels Annihilation (Jeff VanderMeer), Goth (Otsuichi) and The Paying Guests (Sarah Waters), and the films Crimson Peak (Guillermo del Toro) and Ex Machina (Alex Garland).Together the essays provide innovative ways of understanding key texts in terms of their Gothic elements. Invaluable for students, teachers and fans alike, the book¿s accessible style allows for an engaging look at the spectral and uncanny nature of the Gothic.

This book is about exciting ethnographic happenings in the Global South. It brings together a wide range of authors who explore the spatial and temporal forms of various ethnographic projects, examining how individuals relate to their homes, their nation-states and their «moments» and trajectories. It also seeks to contest the twenty-first-century hegemonic colonialist project: to this end, the book includes a number of shorter chapters that are presented in both English and non-English versions. Finally, a clear contemporary Indigenous voice runs through the volume, reminding us of non-dominant ways of being in the world.

Winner of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature¿s Alvie Egan Award 2019!Winner of the Association for Anglophone Postcolonial Studies (GAPS) Dissertation Award 2018This is the first in-depth, broad-based study of the impact of the Australian High Court¿s landmark Mabo decision of 1992 on Australian fiction. More than any other event in Australiäs legal, political and cultural history, the Mabo judgement ¿ which recognised indigenous Australians¿ customary «native title» to land ¿ challenged previous ways of thinking about land and space, settlement and belonging, race and relationships, and nation and history, both historically and contemporaneously. While Mabo¿s impact on history, law, politics and film has been the focus of scholarly attention, the study of its influence on literature has been sporadic and largely limited to examinations of non-Aboriginal novels.Now, a quarter of a century after Mabo, this book takes a closer look at nineteen contemporary novels ¿ including works by David Malouf, Alex Miller, Kate Grenville, Thea Astley, Tim Winton, Michelle de Kretser, Richard Flanagan, Alexis Wright and Kim Scott ¿ in order to define and describe Australiäs literary imaginary as it reflects and articulates post-Mabo discourse today. Indeed, literature¿s substantial engagement with Mabo¿s cultural legacy ¿ the acknowledgement of indigenous people¿s presence in the land, in history, and in public affairs, as opposed to their absence ¿ demands a re-writing of literary history to account for a ¿Mabo turn¿ in Australian fiction.

John Sparrow, Warden of All Souls, was a notable character in post-war Oxford. He was educated in the old-time classical humanist tradition, and this remained his field even as the world about him changed. A man with a brilliant mind, he is often remembered negatively ¿ as a bogeyman to progressives because of his outspoken conservatism ¿ and as a disappointment to those who expected a more solid academic achievement. It was felt that his talents were too widely scattered.Presenting hitherto unpublished letters and papers which vividly evoke the contemporary Oxford scene, Peter Raina traces this scattering of talent. Sparrow may have been a generalist, but he dabbled in depth in many disciplines. He was an expert on Latin, on law, on inscriptions, on rare books and on poetry. Above all he was a tireless supporter and friend of other academics and poets in a special generation. The book gives context to his circles of influence and to his uncompromising intelligence and distinct charm.