Bloomsbury Literary Studies

Times Higher Education Textbook Guide

We did a little dance of celebration around the office this week as 4 of our books were recommended in the Times Higher Education textbook guide! Below I have listed all 4 books, along with the quotes from the Times Higher Education, and specially created exclusive previews of the introduction and first chapter of each book. if you are a lecturer and interested in seeing any of these books on inspection, then please do contact the relevant member of the marketing team (details here!).

Children's Literature in Context by Fiona McCulloch

'Through close readings and a consideration of their critical and popular afterlives, this book takes students through well-known texts. It considers key issues involved in the study of children's literature and its social, cultural and literary contexts. Works by C.S. Lewis, Lewis Carroll, J.K. Rowling and Philip Pullman are examined to highlight major themes.'

The Life in Sonnets by David Fuller

'In this controversial text, David Fuller works to recover the life in Shakespeare's sonnets, and argues that the emotion that criticism often ignores should again become a central concern. First, he engages with the poems through feelings fundamental to the "young man" sequence of sonnets as presented in other writing and art by figures such as Plato, Michelangelo, Thomas Mann and Derek Jarman. Second, he recommends reading the words aloud without translating them into other terms, which brings out their expressivity and leads to a fuller understanding of their form, structure and meaning.'

The Comic Mode in English Literature by Murray Roston

'Intended as a comprehensive guide to comedy in the English literary canon, it begins with a critical exploration of historical and philosophical theories of humour, and offers close readings of a wide range of major texts, authors and genres. Among those texts considered are Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Pope's The Rape of the Lock, Austen's Emma, Dickens' The Pickwick Papers, Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest and Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary.'

The Romanticism Handbook edited by Sue Chaplin and Joel Faflak

'Furnishing case studies for reading literary and critical texts, The Romanticism Handbook is conceived as a one-stop resource. Exploring the historical and cultural context of key authors, texts and genres, the collection seeks to provide a starting point for anyone beginning a study of Romantic literature. Essays on changes in the canon, interdisciplinary approaches, consideration of race and ethnicity, and a look at current and future directions in the field are offered, while guided further reading should serve to support independent work.'

 Many thanks to the Times Higher Education and their excellent books editor Karen Shook.

European Romanticism wins 2010 International Romanticism prize

Congratulations to Stephen Prickett. The International Conference on Romanticism has just awarded European Romanticism the Jean-Pierre Barricelli Prize for the best book in Romanticism Studies in 2010.

The first anthology to place British Romanticism within a comprehensive and multi-lingual European context, European Romanticism offers a new intellectual map of Romanticism. Everything is reprinted in the original language with translations of all non-English material in parallel on the opposite page. The inclusion of essays on the North American and Japanese reception allows Romanticism to be seen as a global phenomenon.

To find out more, have a look at this free preview of the anthology.

The award will be made in October at the Conference’s annual meeting, this year to be held in Montreal.

Blake. Wordsworth. Religion.

Ok, I know it’s the 1st day of February today and Christmas seems like it was a LONG time ago already, but I’ve been wanting to blog about my Christmas reading. It’s a new book in our New Directions in Religion and Literature series that landed on my desk just before the holidays.

Although it’s a book that went to press just after my arrival on the Continuum Literary Studies list (and thus, a book that I’ve had almost no direct involvement with), I’d heard some intriguing things about Jonathan Roberts’ book Blake. Wordsworth. Religion. and I was keen to give it a closer look. In keeping with the aims of the series, the book is about the interplay of religion, spirituality and literature, in this case exploring spirituality in the work of two of the most distinctive figures of the Romantic period, William Blake and William Wordsworth. In successive chapters the book explores a different critical approach to two works (one by Blake, one by Wordsworth) depicting a profound religious experience. Starting with a straight historical-biographical account of the two poems, Jonathan Roberts goes on to consider the works from a range of perspectives from a mystical/psychedelic account through to religious and theological analyses. Most intriguing of all, is Roberts’ ‘autobiographical’ account of the kind of spiritual experience that the two poets also write about – an ‘autobiographical’ account that turns out to be not quite what it seems.

No, I’m not going to tell you more. You’ll have to buy the book. But it is a genuinely recommended read and I hope you will at least check out the free preview or the further information on the book available here.

Happy reading,
David
Senior Editor,
Continuum Literary Studies

Wordsworth and Bronte - New Reader's Guides

Hello!

I thought it was about time that I made my first post as the new Senior Editor on Continuum's Literary Studies list. Choosing a subject for my first post has proven to be quite a challenge: we're in the very fortunate position of having published some really great new books on the Literary Studies list over the last month or so, the only question is which one do I tell you about first??

After much thinking it over, I thought I'd start with the two newest books to publish in our very successful Reader's Guides series. Many of you might be familiar with these books, which take readers and students step by step through some of the great works of the literary and philosophical canon. The first of the new books takes a look at William Wordsworth's Poetry. Written by Daniel Robinson, Professor of English at Widener University, USA, the book not only takes a close look at the poetry itself (including The Prelude and Wordsworth's contributions to Lyrical Ballads), but also explores the political and cultural contexts in which Wordsworth wrote. Later chapters also cover Wordsworth's publishing history and his critical reception and  influence from his own time down to the present. You'll find a free preview by clicking through on the jacket above and you can find more information, including table of contents, here.

The second book, written by Zoe Brennan of the University of the West of England, takes a look at Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. Jane Eyre remains, of course, one of the most genuinely popular novels ever published and to this day is frequently adapted for stage and screen. Our Reader's Guide provides a thorough survey of the book's adaptations and influence in addition to exploring its themes, form, language and use of imagery. As with other titles in the series, the book also provides a full guide to further reading available on Bronte's novel. The free preview is available above and, again, you can find further details on the book here.

Happy reading!

David,
Senior Editor,
Continuum Literary Studies