Literature Now: Key Terms and Methods for Literary History - Softcover

Sascha Bru; Ben De Bruyn; Michel Delville

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0748699252 ISBN 13: 9780748699254

Publisher: Edinburgh University Press, 2016

Synopsis

What are the key issues in contemporary literary studies? What notion of 'history' is appropriate for today's study of 'modern' (post-1800) literature? How can we best understand the recent transition from theory to literary history? In 20 chapters, this book both probes and answers these questions, and more, emphasising the importance of literary history to current critical thinking. Literature Now provides a thought-provoking argument as well as an authoritative exploration of the key terms of literary studies. It will appeal to anyone who wants to epxlore theoretical issues from a historically informed perspective. The chapters cover: Archive. Book. Media. Institution. Translation. Subjects. Senses. Animals. Objects. Time. Event. Period. Invention. Generation. Politics. Popular. Beauty. Mimesis. Style. Genre.

About this title

About the Author

The Editors: Sascha Bru runs the Advanced Master in Literary Studies at the University of Leuven. Ben de Bruyn is Associate Professor of comparative literature at Maastricht University, the Netherlands. Michel Delville teaches English and American literatures, as well as comparative literature, at the University of Liege, Belgium.

From the Back Cover

‘The ingeniously organised essays in Literature Now provide an up-to-the-moment examination of recent trends in literary theory. The volume covers a comprehensive range of topics, including digital humanities and eco-critical studies, as well as welcome assessments of revisionist developments in such fields as genre studies, book history and narratology.’Professor Phillip Sicker, Fordham UniversityIntroduces the most important terms for understanding literature, past and present, in the twenty-first centuryLiterature Now argues that modern literary history is currently the main site of theoretical and methodological reflection in literary studies. Via 19 key terms, the book takes stock of recent scholarship and demonstrates how analyses of particular historical phenomena have modified our understanding of crucial notions like archive, book, event, media, objects, style and the senses. The book not only reveals a rich diversity of subjects and approaches but also identifies the most salient traits of literature and literary studies today.Leading literary critics and historians offer thought-provoking arguments as well as authoritative explorations of the key terms of literary studies providing students as well as scholars with a rich resource for exploring theoretical issues from a historically informed perspective.Key Features•Organised around the key terms used in literary studies today: archive, book, medium, translation, subjects, senses, animals, objects, politics, time, invention, event, generation, period, beauty, mimesis, style, popular and genre•Puts literary history at the forefront of theoretical and methodological reflection in literary studies•Original chapters by leading literary critics, theorists and historiansSascha Bru (MDRN) teaches modern literature and theory at the University of Leuven. His recent books include Regarding the Popular: Modernism, the Avant-Garde and High and Low Culture (2011, edited with Peter Nicholls et al.).Ben De Bruyn teaches comparative literature at Maastricht University. He is the author of Wolfgang Iser: A Companion (2012).Michel Delville teaches English and American literatures, as well as comparative literature, at the University of Liège. His latest publications include Crossroads Poetics: Text, Image, Music, Film and Beyond (2013).Cover image: www.shutterstock.comCover design: Paul Smith[EUP logo]www.euppublishing.com

Edition details

• Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0748699252
• ISBN 13: 9780748699254
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320
• Editor: Sascha Bru, Ben De Bruyn, Michel Delville