Studying English Literature in Context
Critical Readings

From early medieval times to the present, this diverse collection of thirty-one essays sets literary texts in their historical contexts.

Paul Poplawski (Edited by)

9781108479288, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 13 October 2022

674 pages
25.3 x 19.3 x 3.3 cm, 1.59 kg

'Studying English Literature in Context is a superb collection of essays by leading scholars that will foster stimulating response, reignite debate, and demand intellectual engagement by readers of representative texts from the long history of English. The authors recognise that from The Dream of the Rood's multivalence to Aphra Behn's colonial novel Oroonoko and Grace Nichols' feminist poetry, literature both contributes to, as well as reflects socio-cultural critique, linking past modes of creative expression with current conversations about form, textual ambiguity, literary resistance, and periodisation. In addition to this impressive set of critical interpretations, generous resources are provided to situate the student in the long chronology and complex range of generic, stylistic, material, and performative possibilities offered by literature. The whole volume works to ensure enhanced understanding of the significance of poetry, prose, and drama both to authors and creators and to audiences globally; as Poplawski anticipates, this book offers contextured readings, encouraging connections between eras, affect, and modalities to amplify the power of the written and spoken word.' Elaine Treharne, Stanford University

Ranging from early medieval times to the present, this diverse collection explores the myriad ways in which literary texts are informed by their historical contexts. The thirty-one chapters draw on varied themes and perspectives to present stimulating new readings of both canonical and non-canonical texts and authors. Written in a lively and engaging style, by an international team of experts, these specially commissioned essays collectively represent an incisive contribution to literary studies; they will appeal to scholars, teachers and graduate and undergraduate students. The book is designed to complement Paul Poplawski's previous volume, English Literature in Context, and incorporates additional study elements designed specifically with undergraduates in mind. With an extensive chronology, a glossary of critical terms, and a study guide suggesting how students might learn from the essays in their own writing practices, this volume provides a rich and flexible resource for teaching and learning.

Introduction Paul Poplawski
Section I. Medieval English, 500–1500: 1. Finding the dream of the rood in old English literature Emily V. Thornbury
2. The translator as author: The case of Geoffrey Chaucer's the Parliament of Fowls Filip Krajnik
3. Arthurian romance as a window onto medieval life: The Case of Ywayne and Gawayne and The Awntyrs off Arthure K. S. Whetter
Section II: The renaissance, 1485–1660: 4. The renaissance in England: A meeting point Alessandra Petrina
5. 'Mr Spencer's moral invention': The global horizons of early modern epic Jane Grogan
6. Arden of Faversham Christa Jansohn
7. 'A little touch of Harry in the night' – mysteries of kingship and the stage in Shakespeare's the life of king Henry the fifth Ina Habermann
8. Poems and contexts: The case of Henry Vaughan Robert Wilcher
Section III: The restoration and eighteenth century, 1660–1780: 9. Periodising in context: The case of the restoration and eighteenth Century Lee Morrissey
10. Truth-telling and the representation of the Surinam 'Indians' in Aphra Behn's Oroonoko Oddvar Holmesland
11. 'The pamphlet on the table': The life and adventures of sir Launcelot Greaves Richard J. Jones
Section IV: The romantic period, 1780–1832: 12. 'Transported into asiatic scenes': Romanticism and the orient Daniel Sanjiv Roberts
13. Historical fiction in the romantic period: Jane Porter, Walter Scott and the sublime hero Fiona Price
14. Jane Austen and her publishers: Northanger Abbey and the publishing context of the early nineteenth century Katie Halsey
15. 'O for a life of sensations' or 'the internal and external parts': Keats and medical materialism Paul Wright
Section V: The victorian age, 1832–1901: 16. Poetry and science in the victorian period Jordan Kistler
17. 'In characters of tint indelible': Life writing and legacy in Charlotte Brontë's Villette Maria Frawley
18. Money, narrative and representation from Dickens to Gissing Ben Moore
19. Reading and remediating nineteenth-century serial fiction: Closing down and opening up Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla Fionnuala Dillane
20. Public places, private spaces in Fin de Siècle British women's writing Sue Asbee
Section VI: The Twentieth Century, 1901–1939: 21. D. H. Lawrence's women in Love: An anthropological reading Stefania Michelucci
22. The epigraph for T. S. Eliot's Marina: Classical tradition and the modern era Anna Budziak
23. Passing as a male critic: Mary Beton's coming of age in Virginia Woolf's a room of one's own Judith Paltin
Section VII: The twentieth and twenty-first centuries, 1939–2020: 24. An ecocritical reading of the poetry of Ted Hughes Terry Gifford
25. Women publishers in the twenty-first century: Assessing their impact on new writing – and writers Catherine Riley
26. Crisis and community in contemporary British theatre Clare Wallace
Section VIII: Postcolonial literature in english: 27. Complexities and concealments of eros in the African novel: Chinua Achebe's things fall apart F. Fiona Moolla
28. Bessie Head's feminism of everyday life Loretta Stec
29. The gender politics of Grace Nichols: Joy and resistance Izabel F. O. Brandao
30. 'The all-purpose quote': Salman Rushdie's meta-contextuality Joel Kuortti
31. Postcolonial literature and the world, 2017–2019: Contemporary complexities Ulla Rahbek
Appendices
Appendix A: Glossary of critical terms
Appendix B: Study guide: Learning from the essays
Appendix C: Essays listed by genre and theme
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: general [DSB]