The Cambridge Companion to Utopian Literature

Author: Gregory Claeys
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139828428
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages :

Book Description
Since the publication of Thomas More's genre-defining work Utopia in 1516, the field of utopian literature has evolved into an ever-expanding domain. This Companion presents an extensive historical survey of the development of utopianism, from the publication of Utopia to today's dark and despairing tendency towards dystopian pessimism, epitomised by works such as George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. Chapters address the difficult definition of the concept of utopia, and consider its relation to science fiction and other literary genres. The volume takes an innovative approach to the major themes predominating within the utopian and dystopian literary tradition, including feminism, romance and ecology, and explores in detail the vexed question of the purportedly 'western' nature of the concept of utopia. The reader is provided with a balanced overview of the evolution and current state of a long-standing, rich tradition of historical, political and literary scholarship.

The Cambridge Companion to Utopian Literature

Author: Gregory Claeys
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521886651
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 317

Book Description
Using a combination of historical and thematic approaches, this volume engages with the fascinating and complex genre of utopian literature.

The Cambridge Companion to Native American Literature

Author: Joy Porter
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139827022
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 376

Book Description
Invisible, marginal, expected - these words trace the path of recognition for American Indian literature written in English since the late eighteenth century. This Companion chronicles and celebrates that trajectory by defining relevant institutional, historical, cultural, and gender contexts, by outlining the variety of genres written since the 1770s, and also by focusing on significant authors who established a place for Native literature in literary canons in the 1970s (Momaday, Silko, Welch, Ortiz, Vizenor), achieved international recognition in the 1980s (Erdrich), and performance-celebrity status in the 1990s (Harjo and Alexie). In addition to the seventeen chapters written by respected experts - Native and non-Native; American, British and European scholars - the Companion includes bio-bibliographies of forty authors, maps, suggestions for further reading, and a timeline which details major works of Native American literature and mainstream American literature, as well as significant social, cultural and historical events. An essential overview of this powerful literature.

The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction

Author: Edward James
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521016575
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 330

Book Description
Table of contents

The Cambridge Companion to the Literature of Los Angeles

Author: Kevin R. McNamara
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521514703
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 239

Book Description
Diverse, vibrant, and challenging as the city itself, this Companion is the definitive guide to LA in literature.

The Cambridge Companion to Thomas Pynchon

Author: Inger H. Dalsgaard
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521769744
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 213

Book Description
This essential Companion to Thomas Pynchon provides all the necessary tools to unlock the challenging fiction of this postmodern master.

The Cambridge Companion to Travel Writing

Author: Peter Hulme
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521786522
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 360

Book Description
Table of contents

The Cambridge Companion to Plato's Republic

Author: Giovanni R. F. Ferrari
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521839637
Category : Political science
Languages : en
Pages : 38

Book Description
This book provides a fresh and comprehensive account of this outstanding work, which remains among the most frequently read works of Greek philosophy, indeed of Classical antiquity in general.

The Cambridge Companion to W. E. B. Du Bois

Author: Shamoon Zamir
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139828134
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 292

Book Description
W. E. B. Du Bois was the pre-eminent African American intellectual of the twentieth century. As a pioneering historian, sociologist and civil rights activist, and as a novelist and autobiographer, he made the problem of race central to an understanding of the United States within both national and transnational contexts; his masterwork The Souls of Black Folk (1903) is today among the most widely read and most often quoted works of American literature. This Companion presents ten specially commissioned essays by an international team of scholars which explore key aspects of Du Bois's work. The book offers students a critical introduction to Du Bois, as well as opening new pathways into the further study of his remarkable career. It will be of interest to all those working in African American studies, American literature, and American studies generally.

Utopian Audiences

Author: Kenneth M. Roemer
Publisher: Univ of Massachusetts Press
ISBN: 9781558494213
Category : American literature
Languages : en
Pages : 328

Book Description
How do readers transform Utopia? How do they manipulate imaginary worlds to gain new perspectives of their own worlds? In order to answer these and other questions, this study employs a wide spectrum of reader-response approaches to define the nature and impact of utopian literature.