Signs & Wonders: Essays on Literature and Culture - Hardcover

Warner, Marina

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0701173327 ISBN 13: 9780701173326

Publisher: Chatto & Windus, 2003

Synopsis

Since the early 1970s, when Marina Warner reported from Vietnam and America, in startling essays like 'The Crushed Butterflies of War', she has been one of the most challenging, subtle and profound commentators on the culture of past and present, unravelling our webs of images, ideas and beliefs. This remarkable, resonant collection draws together essays written over twenty-five years, offering a wide-ranging retrospective of her changing ideas on literature and culture - on fiction, drama, religion, language and fairy tale. The different sections range from explorations of our taste for the miraculous, whether it be the Virgin Mary and angels, or voodoo and showers of toads, to our need for heroes and villains, from Joan of Arc to Myra Hindley. Finding unexpected links between the images of literature, art and politics she turns her attention to Caliban and the Caribbean, and to fairies, myths and magic. She listens attentively, in unexpected ways, to some of the strong voices of our time, from Lewis Carroll to Angela Carter and Margaret Atwood; she unravels our fascination with language and obscenity, and questions the way we think about our bodies and minds. Penetrating, perceptive and enlightening, Signs & Wonders is not only a book of essays, but a collection of original marvels.

About this title

Product Description:

Signs and Wonders A volume of essays written over 25 years, offering a retrospective of Warner's changing ideas on literature and culture, including fiction, drama, religion, language and fairy tale. Different sections range from explorations of our taste for the miraculous to our need for heroes and villains. Full description

Review:

Twenty-five-years' worth of miscellaneous prose pieces of various length by the acclaimed critic, essayist and novelist, author of the Booker short-listed The Lost Father and the seminal study Monuments and Maidens. This is a long retrospective and only surprising in that it is the first. The subject matter will be familiar to readers from the author's long list of previously published titles: literary criticism in cultural context with a particular focus on myths old and modern, and how they permeate the societies they spring from. The author has a well established readership and her book will no doubt be respectfully and widely reviewed in the broadsheets. She is probably also due for another round of author interviews and profile treatment in the feature pages. Not one for any serious bookseller to miss out on.

About this edition

• Publisher: Chatto & Windus
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0701173327
• ISBN 13: 9780701173326
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 528