COML 200: Introduction to Comparative Literature (BMC)

What is literary theory? Is there a relationship between literature and culture? In fact, what is literature, and does it matter? These are some of the questions addressed by Jonathan Culler in this Very Short Introduction to literary theory. Often a controversial subject, said to have transformed the study of culture and society in the past two decades, literary theory is accused of undermining respect for tradition and truthand encouraging suspicion about the political and psychological implications of cultural projects rather than admiration for great literature. Here, Jonathan Culler explains "theory", not by describing warring "schools" but by sketching key "moves" theory has encouraged, and speaking directly about the implications of theory for thinking about literature, human identity, and the power of language. In this new edition Culler takes a look atnew material, including the "death of theory", the links between the theory of narrative and cognitive science, trauma theory, ecocriticism, and includes a new chapter on "Ethics and aesthetics". This lucid introduction is useful for anyone who has wondered what all the fuss is about or who wants tothink about literature today.

Introducing Comparative Literature is a comprehensive guide to the field offering clear, concise information alongside useful analysis and examples. It frames the introduction within recent theoretical debates and shifts in the discipline whilst also addressing the history of the field and its practical application. Looking at Comparative Literature within the context of globalization, cosmopolitanism and post or transnationalism, the book also offers engagement and comparison with other visual media such as cinema and e-literature. The first four chapters address the broad theoretical issues within the field such as #65533;interliterary theory#65533;, decoloniality, and world literature, while the next four are more applied, looking at themes, translation, literary history and comparison with other arts. This engaging guide also contains a glossary of terms and concepts as well as a detailed guide to further reading.

The most comprehensive anthology of theory and criticism, now up-to-date and global. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism is the gold standard for anyone who wishes to understand the development and current state of literary theory. Offering 185 pieces (31 of them new) by 148 authors (18 of them new), The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism, Second Edition, is more comprehensive, and more varied, in its selection than any other anthology. New selections from non-western theory and a thoroughly updated twentieth century selection make the book even more diverse and authoritative.

Theories of Memory provides a comprehensive introduction to the rapidly expanding field of memory studies. It is a resource through which students of literature will be able both to broaden their knowledge of contemporary theoretical perspectives and to trace the development of ideas about memory from the classical period to the present. The reader is organized into three parts: Part I, Beginnings, is historical in scope. Its three sections, Classical and Early Modern Ideas of Memory, Enlightenment and Romantic Memory, and Memory and Late Modernity, lay out key psychological, rhetorical, and cultural concepts of memory in the work of a range of thinkers from Plato to Walter Benjamin. Part II, Positionings, identifies three major perspectives through which memory has been defined and debated more recently: Collective Memory, Jewish Memory Discourse, and Trauma. Part III, Identities, examines the key role of memory in contemporary constructions of identity under the headings of Gender, Race/Nation, and Diaspora.

The Translation Studies Reader provides a definitive survey of the most important and influential developments in translation theory and research, with an emphasis on twentieth-century developments. With introductory essays prefacing each section, the book places a wide range of seminal and innovative readings within their thematic, cultural and historical contexts. The third edition of this classic reader has been fully revised and updated and adds a new section: 2000 and beyond , which includes five new readings. These new readings bring the Reader up to date with recent developments in the field and include articles on translation and world literature and translation and the internet.  

This new anthology brings together the most diverse and recent voices in postcolonial theory to emerge since 9/11, alongside classic texts in established areas of postcolonial studies. Brings fresh insight and renewed political energy to established domains such as nation, history, literature, and gender Engages with contemporary concerns such as globalization, digital cultures, neo-colonialism, and language debates Includes wide geographical coverage from Ireland and India to Israel and Palestine Provides uniquely broad coverage, offering a full sense of the tradition, including significant essays on science, technology and development, education and literacy, digital cultures, and transnationalism Edited by a distinguished postcolonial scholar, this insightful volume serves scholars and students across multiple disciplines from literary and cultural studies, to anthropology and digital studies

This second edition of Postcolonial Ecocriticism, a book foundational for its field, has been updated to consider recent developments in the area such as environmental humanities and animal studies. Graham Huggan and Helen Tiffin examine transverse relations between humans, animals and the environment across a wide range of postcolonial literary texts and also address key issues such as global warming, food security, human over-population in the context of animal extinction, queer ecology, and the connections between postcolonial and disability theory. Considering the postcolonial first from an environmental and then a zoocritical perspective, the book looks at: Narratives of development in postcolonial writing Entitlement, belonging and the pastoral Colonial 'asset stripping' and the Christian mission The politics of eating and the representation of cannibalism Animality and spirituality Sentimentality and anthropomorphism The changing place of humans and animals in a 'posthuman' world. With a new preface written specifically for this edition and an annotated list of suggestions for further reading, Postcolonial Ecocriticism offers a comprehensive and fully up-to-date introduction to a rapidly expanding field.

The Oxford Handbook of Ecocriticism provides a broad survey of the longstanding relationship between literature and the environment. The moment for such an offering is opportune in many respects: multiple environmental crises are increasingly inescapable at both transnational and local levels;the role of the humanities in addition to technology and politics is increasingly recognized as central for exploring and finding solutions; and the subject of ecocriticism has reached a kind of critical mass, both within its Anglo-American heartlands and beyond. From its origins in the study of American Nature Writing and British Romanticism, ecocriticism has developed along numerous theoretical, historical, cultural and geographical axes, the most contemporary and exciting of which will be represented in the Handbook. The contributors include eminentfounders of the field, including Cheryll Glotfelty and Jonathan Bate, a number of key "second-wave" ecocritics, and the best up-and-coming scholars. Topics covered include: Green Shakespeare-the Bard's subversive uses of the pastoral; John Clare's sacred relationship with the land; Thoreau'sprofound political passion; the natural landscape as symbol of postcolonial resistance in works by Lessing, Naipaul, and Coetzee; the relation between feminism and environmentalism; language and the concept of biosemiotics; and concerns over pollution and toxicity in films like Erin Brockovitch,Michael Clayton, and Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth.

Since its first publication in English in 1985, Mieke Bal's Narratology has become the international classic and comprehensive introduction to the theory of narrative texts. Narratology is a systematic account of narrative techniques, methods, their transmission, and reception, in which Bal distills years of study of the ways in which we understand both literary and non-literary works. In this third edition, Bal updates the book to include more analysis of film narratives while also sharpening and tightening her language to make it the most readable and student-friendly edition to date. Bal also introduces new sections that treat and clarify several modernist texts that pose narratological challenges. With changes prompted by ten years of feedback from scholars and teachers, Narratology remains the most important contribution to the study of the way narratives work, are formed, and are received.