Published March 2015
Louisa Waterford and John Ruskin: 'For you have not Falsely Praised'
Caroline Ings-Chambers
Legenda (General Series)
- ‘This book is a valuable revelation of a little-known figure. Lady Waterford is shown both to have been acutely sensitive to the cultural currents of her day and to have been a strong talent in her own right.’ — John Batchelor, Modern Language Review 111.4, October 2016, 1128-29 (full text online)
- ‘Ings‐Chambers builds a strong case for reintegrating this artist in the wider Pre‐Raphaelite canon. Her writing makes Waterford’s art come across as essential thanks to its charm, vision and social/gender relevance.’ — Nic Peeters, Pre-Raphaelite Society Journal XXIII, 2015, 63-66
Regarding Manneken Pis: Culture, Celebration and Conflict in Brussels
Catherine Emerson
Research Monographs in French Studies 42
- ‘In this detailed and investigative study, the multiplicity of interpretations to which the statue has been subjected comes to the fore... The iconic Manneken Pis straddles French-speaking and Flemish-speaking communities and cultures, and Emerson teases out these narratives and their ramifications.’ — unsigned notice, Forum for Modern Language Studies 52.2, 2016, 235
- ‘To arrive at the heart of understanding how this two-foot statue has come to mean so much to the people of Brussels and to express the wide variety of social relations and tensions of a complex city and a modern nation as a whole, Regarding Manneken Pis is an ideal resource.’ — Eileen M. Angelini, French Review 89.3, 2016, 60
The Art of Ana Clavel: Ghosts, Urinals, Dolls, Shadows and Outlaw Desires
Jane Elizabeth Lavery
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 6
- ‘El libro de Lavery es una obra necesaria y de actualidad para entender también el pulso de los movimientos literarios en la América de habla hispana. Es un aporte que resarce a la literatura en general y a la visibilidad de las escritoras en particular... En la narrativa de Clavel—según Lavery—, realidad, identidad y cuerpo diluyen sus fronteras dentro y fuera de la ficción, excediendo la literatura para señalar lo propio de la condición humana. Así, el trabajo de Lavery contribuye a establecer un marco teórico, o si se prefiere, el canon del acontecer de la literatura emergente no solo de México, sino de América Latina.’ — Rita Vega Baeza, Bulletin of Spanish Studies 94.10, December 2017, 1830-31
Samuel Butler against the Professionals: Rethinking Lamarckism 1860–1900
David Gillott
Studies In Comparative Literature 32
- ‘Gillott’s book provides a convincing and well-structured analysis of the work of the novelist, art historian and amateur scientist Samuel Butler in the late nineteenth-century British context, focus- ing in particular on his research on art and literature.’ — Cristiano Turbil, British Journal for the History of Science 49.2, 2006, 300-01
Byron, Shelley, and Goethe’s Faust: An Epic Connection
Ben Hewitt
Studies In Comparative Literature 33
- ‘This is not the first study of the relationship of Goethe's Faust to English Romantic writing, but it is an original contribution in its own right by virtue of the particular texts it focuses on and the wide-ranging, complex picture that emerges... the material is carefully assembled, and the twists and turns of the discussion are full of valuable insights.’ — David Hill, British Association for Romantic Studies Review 47, 2016, 32
- ‘Hewitt’s study is a thoughtful and fascinating discussion of the complex interconnections between the three authors... this thoughtful and knowledgeable study which successfully brings together a wealth of theories and innovative ideas.’ — Dagmar Paulus, Comparative Critical Studies 13.3, October 2016, 397-400
- ‘Hewitt’s approach to the relationship between these three writers is certainly speculative, not least about what Byron and Shelley knew of Faust I and how they read it. But its speculations are interesting and persuasive, and allow Hewitt to achieve something exciting and original: a comparative study of ‘similar aspects’ in the work of three major Romantic-period thinkers that has ‘nothing to do with the palpable influence of one writer upon another’ but does have ‘real significance for our understanding’ of the international ‘Romantic heritage’ handed down to our own time and especially its ‘struggle for the soul [...] not just of a modernity emergent, as it was, during our writers’ lifetimes, but of our modern world also’.’ — Alan Rawes, The Byron Journal 45.1, 2017, 97-99
- ‘A wide-ranging and stimulating account of Anglo-German Romantic literary exchange... Hewitt’s study generates a number of perceptive readings that shed new light on its primary texts. Covering an epic range of topics itself, Byron, Shelley, and Goethe’s ‘Faust’ demonstrates the potential of an approach that, taking the idea of influence as its point of departure, uses a more ‘conjectural’ or ‘suggestive’ (1) method to read texts comparatively and thus discover ‘epic connections’ where none were seen before.’ — Tim Sommer, Romanticism 23.2, July 2017, 196-98
Published June 2015
German Narratives of Belonging: Writing Generation and Place in the Twenty-First Century
Linda Shortt
Germanic Literatures 4
- ‘The texts are frequently autobiographical, consisting of diary entries and lived family experience. Methodological approaches range from feminist, memory and cultural studies to humanist geography, engaging with the writers’ often experimental use of language. This book will appeal to all those interested in contemporary German literature and identity.’ — unsigned notice, Forum for Modern Language Studies 52.2, 2016, 239-40
- ‘A helpful overview and nuanced discussion of literary, essayistic, and autobiographical texts that explore the multiple obstacles — historical, social, political, familial, global — complicating or curtailing the human desire to belong, but that also ponder new forms of fluid or changing attachments in contemporary society.’ — Friederike Eigler, GegenwartsLiteratur 16, 2016, 350-51
- ‘In this slim and rich volume, Linda Shortt analyzes narratives of belonging in post-Wende German literature that represent a variety of generations, attitudes towards belonging (e.g., longing or anxiety), and relationships with German-speaking regions... This excellent book provides much food for thought.’ — Alexandra M. Hill, Monatshefte 109.1, 2017, 175-77
- ‘Shortt offers an engaging and convincing interrogation of belonging as a flexible and resilient concept in contemporary literature. In addressing how belonging shifts across generations and responds to change, she demonstrates new negotiations of belonging that move beyond the conceptual constraints imposed by Heimat. In doing so, Shortt articulates a concept that undoubtedly has a greater relevance beyond the texts under consideration and the immediate concerns of contemporary German Studies.’ — Richard McLelland, Modern Language Review 112.3, July 2017, 753-54 (full text online)
Rome Eternal: The City As Fatherland
Guy Lanoue
Italian Perspectives 32
Published July 2015
Algernon Swinburne and Walter Pater: Victorian Aestheticism, Doubt and Secularisation
Sara Lyons
Legenda (General Series)
- ‘As British aestheticism continues to enjoy a revival of interest, it becomes ever more urgent to reassess the metaphysical work that Pater and Swinburne have done for us in their search for a way beyond doubt. Algernon Swinburne and Walter Pater is a timely reminder of our intellectual inheritance from this moment of crisis in Western religion.’ — Orla Polten, Essays in Criticism 66.3, July 2016, 390-96
- ‘Sara Lyons’s admirable monograph will prove a cornerstone in Victorian studies and will soon become invaluable to students and scholars alike working on 19th-century literature and culture.’ — Charlotte Ribeyrol, Cahiers victoriens et édouardiens 83, Printemps 2016
- ‘Lyons’s rethinking of Swinburne’s and Pater’s relationship to religion is absolutely necessary in light of recent revisions of the secularization thesis. She productively complicates the oversimplified binary between belief and unbelief that still too often plagues our readings of Victorian literature, and provocatively asks us to rethink the reasons underlying the Aesthetic Movement’s embrace of an ‘art for art’s sake’ philosophy. Algernon Swinburne and Walter Pater should be read by scholars of aestheticism, nine- teenth-century religion, and Victorian literature more generally.’ — Dustin Friedman, Review of English Studies Advance Access 4 October 2016
- ‘A valuable addition to scholarship on Swinburne, Pater and aestheticism.’ — Beth Newman, Victorian Studies 60.1, Autumn 2017, 126-28
Oscar Wilde and the Simulacrum: The Truth of Masks
Giles Whiteley
Studies In Comparative Literature 35
- ‘The strength of this study for the reader of Wilde is the way in which Whiteley seeks to connect Wilde’s theoretical writings with his fictions. This is central to its Deleuzian approach, its ‘active refusal of the critical either-or’, its determination to find the complementarity between Wilde the ‘producer of concepts’ and Wilde the producer of ‘percepts and affects’ (p. 24)... there is intellectual provocation at every turn, and difficulty to be celebrated.’ — Anne Varty, The OScholars April 2017
- ‘Giles Whiteley’s provocative monograph announces a reading of Wilde ‘through Deleuze and postmodern philosophical commentary on the simulacrum’. It also signals a challenge to ‘recent neo-historicist readings’ which ‘limit [Wilde’s] irruptive power’. Drawn to Deleuze’s notions of ‘disjunctive synthesis’, Whiteley emphasizes Wilde’s credentials as a ‘serious’ thinker, presenting him as a fusion of philosopher and artist. Where many recent critics have been at pains to place him in a precise historical and cultural context, Whiteley maintains that Wilde’s ‘contemporaries’ are properly determined by his intellectual outlook, and are therefore drawn from his past (Plato, Aristotle, Hegel), present (Arnold, Ruskin, Baudelaire, Nietzsche), and future (Deleuze, Blanchot, Foucault, and Klossowski, among others).’ — Nick Freeman, Modern Language Review 116.2, April 2017, 499-500 (full text online)
- ‘From the point of view of presentation, the volume is of the highest standard... Oscar Wilde and the Simulacrum is, in my opinion, an important contribution to Wilde studies in at least two respects. Firstly, it pertinently resituates Wilde’s works within the intellectual context in which they were conceived and convincingly challenges the idea according to which Wilde’s philosophy of art is simply a derivative, Platonic and Hegelian, idealism. Secondly, it stages a large number of fruitful encounters between Wilde’s texts and contemporary theory, thereby taking much further Richard Ellmann’s intuition that Wilde was ‘one of us’ and shedding new light on the Irishman’s literary production. Oscar Wilde and the Simulacrum is itself a Deleuzian event, creating ‘lines of flight’ and causing renewed delight in the reader’s apprehension of Wilde’s shimmering surfaces.’ — Xavier Giudicelli, Cahiers victoriens et édouardiens 85, Spring 2017
Comparative Encounters between Artaud, Michaux and the Zhuangzi: Rationality, Cosmology and Ethics
Xiaofan Amy Li
Transcript 4
- ‘This intelligent book raises important issues about comparative literature at its most challenging... All three thinkers are concerned with expression and performativity rather than with self-justification. The justification of this three-part comparison is clearly in the fluidity of thinking and its non-limitation.’ — Mary Ann Caws, French Studies 70.2, April 2016, 278-79
- ‘The philosophical, rather than literary approach undertaken here offers valuable and well-founded insights into enduring modes of thought and existence.’ — unsigned notice, Forum for Modern Language Studies 52.4, October 2016, 473-74
Goethe's Poetry and the Philosophy of Nature: Gott und Welt 1798-1827
Regina Sachers
Germanic Literatures 7
- ‘Although the twenty-one poems of the original collection were composed over as many years or more, Regina Sachers rejects the ‘autonomous’ approach taken by Theodor Adorno, David Wellbery, and others, pointing out that by deliberately placing them together, Goethe must have wished the reader to view them as a single entity.’ — Osman Durrani, Modern Language Review 112.1, January 2017, 279-80 (full text online)
- ‘Each of these poems has a history, and the combination of histories sheds new light on Goethe’s intellectual development, in particular the increased awareness of the image of a self that he was projecting.’ — David Hill, The Year's Work in Modern Language Studies 77, 2017, 269
Dada as Text, Thought and Theory
Stephen Forcer
Research Monographs in French Studies 39
- ‘Stephen Forcer’s original, timely and impeccably researched monograph is an adventurous and therefore provocative attempt to combine close readings of verbal and visual Dada texts with an imaginative analytical conspectus of the ‘rich inner life’ of the Paris Lodge... Dada wisdom is finally reaching a large audience, both inside and outside universities, during a dürtiger Zeit when that unconventional commodity is becoming more behovely than ever.’ — Richard Sheppard, Journal of European Studies 46.1, 74-75
- ‘This cogent and wide-ranging study... challenges the reader to reassess Dada as a far from simplistic phenomenon exerting a radical influence on contemporary culture.’ — unsigned notice, Forum for Modern Language Studies 52.2, 2016, 235
- ‘A perceptive reappraisal of the movement... Forcer’s study uncovers convincingly, through a close and sensitive study of diverse intersections, the semantic plurality and allusive density of Dada texts; and thus confirms his conclusion that, even when meaning appears to collapse, it ‘inevitably re-emerges, playfully and gloriously’.’ — Elza Adamowicz, Modern Language Review 111.4, October 2016, 1139-40 (full text online)
- ‘This is a lively, incisive, and thought-provoking book substantially based on original archive work, which injects new and proliferating life into the study of Dada... With excellent English translations of quotations throughout, and well-chosen monochrome illustrations, the book is fully accessible to non-francophone readers and is an absolute must for anyone with a serious interest in Dada.’ — Andrew Rothwell, French Studies 71.1, Winter 2017, 133-34
Adapted Voices: Transpositions of Céline’s Voyage au bout de la nuit and Queneau’s Zazie dans le métro
Armelle Blin-Rolland
Transcript 2
- ‘Overall, this study displays great skill in the handling of diverse materials across different media, proposing convincing readings of specific works and transpositions within a persuasive overall argument about the centrality of ‘voice’ to debates around adaptation.’ — Douglas Smith, Irish Journal of French Studies 16, 2016
Published September 2015
The Somali Within: Language, Race and Belonging in ‘Minor’ Italian Literature
Simone Brioni
Italian Perspectives 33
- ‘A very welcome and significant contribution to the growing field of Italian postcolonial studies... offering a convincing in-depth textual analysis of a specifically postcolonial literature (though many of his insights could usefully also be stretched out to apply to the wider ‘migration’ field), as well as contributing an important linguistic study, which draws Translation Studies into productive proximity with a potential transcultural turn in Italian Studies in general.’ — Emma Bond, Modern Language Review 116.2, April 2017, 524-25 (full text online)
- ‘inserisce pienamente all'interno degli studi postcoloniali che negli ultimi vent'anni hanno iniziato a interessare la critica letteraria italiana. Attraverso l'analisi di un corpus eterogeneo di testi, Brioni esamina il ruolo che nel grande quadro della letteratura nazionale italiana ha la letteratura italo-somala, cioè scritta in italiano da autori e autrici italiani che provengono dalla Somalia, o le cui origini familiari sono somale.’ — Serena Alessi, Incontri 31.2, 2016, 152-54
- ‘A new and original analysis... From how the Somali writers describe race and colour it is, in fact, possible to start a reflection that, from the colonial adventures and through the racial laws of 1938 and the apparent neglect of the colonies after World War II, reaches contemporary Italy and the current problems with racism.’ — Daniele Comberiati, Crossings: Journal of Migration & Culture 2016, 247-49
- ‘The postcolonial and transnational perspective of this work... calls for fresh and stimulating elaborations, making it a com- pelling reading also for readers who are not well acquainted with the body of literature here analysed.’ — Lorenzo Mari, Interventions 2 September 2016 (full text online)
- ‘Una delle questioni più rilevanti risulta essere sicuramente quello del colore della pelle: particolare importanza viene data da Brioni ai personaggi meticci presenti nei diversi romanzi presi in esame e che diventano sempre più numerosi nel corso delle successive pubblicazioni. Questi testimoniano la presenza di una problematica culturale che era rimasta relegata nella penombra della memoria storica del colonialismo italiano.’ — Michele Pandolfo, Between VI.11, May 2016
- ‘The Somali Within is an innovative volume that discusses the Somali-Italian encounter, from the colonial period to the subsequent historical events intertwining the histories of Somalia and Italy well into their postcolonial present... Brioni’s volume is indeed a much needed and complex contribution to the study of Italian Somali literature which engages masterfully with these texts while redefining multiple theoretical problems.’ — Elena Benelli, Italian Studies Online, 3 October 2018 (full text online)
- ‘Simone Brioni’s The Somali Within signals perhaps a new direction in the field of Italian migration literature in Italy... A valuable resource to scholars of Italian, minor, post-colonial, and migration literatures as well as those interested in how Italy’s colonial past can help explain contemporary views in Italy of language, race, and identity.’ — Francesca Minonne, Quaderni d'Italianistica 38.2, 2018, 277-79
- ‘Rich in its theoretical approaches, Brioni’s study will be of immense interest to scholars of contemporary Italian culture, Italian postcolonialism and, indeed, to anyone interested in the ongoing debates surrounding ‘minor literature.’’ — Renata Redford, Italica 93.4, Winter 2016, 849-51
Leopardi and Shelley: Discovery, Translation and Reception
Daniela Cerimonia
Studies In Comparative Literature 34
Published October 2015
Laughter from Realism to Modernism: Misfits and Humorists in Pirandello, Svevo, Palazzeschi, and Gadda
Alberto Godioli
Italian Perspectives 34
Baudelaire and Photography: Finding the Painter of Modern Life
Timothy Raser
Research Monographs in French Studies 45
- ‘Writing on the cusp of modernity, runs Raser’s overarching argument, Baudelaire is struggling to leave behind the traditional world, abandoning a search for beauty in a quest for a theory of modernity.’ — unsigned notice, Forum for Modern Language Studies 52.4, October 2016, 476-77
- ‘Highlights exciting aspects of Baudelaire’s work and illuminates his stance on modernity. One of Raser’s achievements is to take seriously the fact that Baudelaire transcended the boundaries between various arts and media. Exploring the relations between painting, poetry, engravings, and photography, he shows to what degree Baudelaire’s work is characterized by intertextual and intermedial tensions.’ — Marit Grøtta, Modern Language Review 112.1, January 2017, 254-56 (full text online)
- ‘As always with Raser’s writing, this is an intelligently and cogently argued book. His deep knowledge of Baudelaire’s art criticism firmly grounds his arguments about aesthetic theory. Raser’s literary interpretations, such as that of Hugo’s poem, are interesting and thought-provoking... This slender and elegant book has set me to thinking about Baudelaire’s “aesthetics” of the modern as I read his works — it has given me a new perspective on his poetry.’ — Dorothy Kelly, H-France 16.125, July 2016
Alejo Carpentier and the Musical Text
Katia Chornik
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 7
- ‘Como declara la autora, este ensayo se orienta a muy variados lectores potenciales: estudiosos de la obra de Carpentier, tanto desde el punto de vista estrictamente literario como desde el ángulo de la musicología. Pero su carácter explicativo y la transparencia de su prosa lo hacen asequible también a aquellos que de manera general disfrutan la obra de nuestro novelista... Ya desde este primer capítulo se evidencia el rigor de la investigadora, la amplitud de la bibliografía y de la documentación consultada y la agudeza con la que penetra en dichos textos.’ — Fundación Carpentier online, 18 January 2016)
- ‘The results of her research and scholarly publications on Carpentier, has made of her a source of consultation by other credited scholars on the subject... The author makes great contributions to Carpentier’s long list of scholarly studies... This is an excellent contribution to the vast scholarship dedicated to the works of Carpentier and his peculiar understanding of musicology, literature and musical forms.’ — Rafael E. Saumell, Bulletin of Latin American Research 36.4, October 2017, 556–557 (full text online)
- ‘A unique contribution... useful for further scholarly research on Carpentier.’ — Alira Ashvo-Muñoz, Latin American Music Review 39.1, Spring/Summer 2018, 127-29
Urban Space, Identity and Postmodernity in 1980s Spain: Rethinking the Movida
Maite Usoz de la Fuente
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 11
- ‘This is a great book for revisiting the years of cultural explosion in a Madrid—and a Spain—which had just emerged from nearly forty years of dictatorship. Madrid had always seemed to lag behind Barcelona as a culturally avant-garde city. La movida madrileña changed the way people looked at the capital, which had previously been seen as the home of conservatism and the political elite. Young people who had been born during the dictatorship and had never experienced real freedom in their lives embraced this new freedom... The book is well written, readable and accessible. The detailed analysis of La Luna de Madrid will prove to be a valuable resource for researchers studying the cultural output of la movida as well as others interested in the period of the Spanish Transition.’ — María José Blanco, Bulletin of Spanish Studies 95.4, May 2018, 370-71
- ‘A substantial reflection on an epoch that continues to deserve critical attention from both scholars and members of the public.’ — unsigned notice, Forum for Modern Language Studies 54.4, October 2018, 506-07 (full text online)
The Last Days of Humanism: A Reappraisal of Quevedo’s Thought
Alfonso Rey
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 15
- ‘A thoughtful, wide-ranging contribution from a well-known quevedista... Many interesting points are raised, for example, Quevedo’s aims in writing a wide variety of works; his indebtedness as a humanist to Greek philosophy, Roman culture and Renaissance theories; Quevedo’s aspirations in courtly circles; his commitment to his country and Catholicism; and his views on life, death, virtue and wisdom... an excellent study.’ — John A. Jones, Bulletin of Spanish Studies 95.1, January 2018, 163-64