Confrontational Readings: Literary Neo-Avant-Gardes in Dutch and German
Edited by Inge Arteel, Lars Bernaerts and Olivier Couder
Germanic Literatures 21•28 September 2020

Jean-François Vilar: Theatres Of Crime
Margaret Atack
Research Monographs in French Studies 51•28 September 2020

  • ‘Deeply knowledgeable, lucid and clearly written, ably teasing out narrative complexities, philosophical challenges and socio-political controversies, Atack’s study illuminates and explains the importance of Vilar’s writing not just for aficionados of noir fiction, but for anyone seeking insights into the history and culture of modern France.’ — David H. Walker, Journal of European Studies 51.3–4, November 2021, 368-69
  • ‘A thoroughly researched and critically insightful assessment of Vilar’s noir fiction. Critics and theorists of crime literature will find much to mine in Atack’s interpretations, geared more for scholars than the generally curious... a superb, largely celebratory monograph on Vilar’s writings, reanimating him from the shadows and introducing him to an English reading audience.’ — Robin Walz, H-France 22.17, January 2022
  • ‘In Jean-François Vilar: Theatres of Crime, Margaret Atack undertakes an exploration of Vilar’s crime novels, short stories, and non-fictional writings on cities with a view towards ‘elucidat[ing] the coherence of the political, thematic, generic, and textual dimensions’ of his writing and contributing towards larger debates about ‘fiction, politics and history; philosophy, narrative and art; text and image’... The monograph is beautifully written and, on the whole, achieves its aims. As Atack notes in the introduction, this is the first full-length study of Vilar’s work—an excellent contribution to literary scholarship, in its own right.’ — Julie M. Powell, Modern and Contemporary France published online, 2022 (full text online)

Ying Chen’s Fiction: An Aesthetics of Non-Belonging
Rosalind Silvester
Research Monographs in French Studies 57•28 September 2020

  • ‘A refreshingly original and in-depth contribution that should be enthusiastically welcomed not only by scholars working in the specialist field of Franco-Chinese studies, but also by those who are more broadly interested in contemporary Québec literature, Chinese diasporic literature, migrant writings, and transcultural studies... A strong, lucid, and convincing line of enquiry.’ — Shuangyi Li, Bulletin of Francophone Postcolonial Studies 12.1, Summer 2021, 16-17

Louis-René des Forêts and Inner Autobiography
Ian Maclachlan
Research Monographs in French Studies 60•28 September 2020

  • ‘As well as providing an essential and indeed unique landmark in studies of des Forêts, Maclachlan’s volume succeeds in combining close attention to the power of the negative as it affects the task of writing and to the poignancies of a life lived in its orbit.’ — Patrick ffrench, French Studies 76.1, January 2022, 132 (full text online)
  • ‘In emphasizing the convergence between Des Forêts’s enterprise and the late work of Derrida... Maclachlan is able to demonstrate the singular excess of language over its own avowed deficiencies, and provide affirmative evidence, not of the possibility of autobiography, but of its far-reaching, never-ending impossibility.’ — Leslie Hill, Modern and Contemporary France 30.4, 2022, 539-40 (full text online)

Brute Meaning: Essays in Materialist Criticism from Dickens to Hitchcock
David Trotter
Selected Essays 9•28 September 2020

  • ‘Not a single essay here but is interesting in its own way. Many, as with ‘Dickens and Frith’ (Essay 4) take a minor topic and make something special from it. The essay on Middlemarch (Essay 5) seems a major contribution... All the essays are likeable and thoughtful, exhibiting an astonishingly wide reading.’ — Jeremy Tambling, Modern Language Review 117.3, July 2022, 474-76 (full text online)

Contemporary Fictions: Essays on American and Postcolonial Narratives
Judie Newman
Selected Essays 12•28 September 2020

  • ‘Even without the witty, warm introduction in which Prof Newman considers her career with a wry and appealing sense of distance, the consistency of concern across these widely diverse essays is remarkable. As with any art form, a retrospective of critical thinking offers scope to identify perhaps unsuspected threads of continuity in a body of work covering almost half a century, and this is one of the great pleasures of Contemporary Fictions.’ — Clare Hayes-Brady, Review of English Studies advance publication online (full text online)

Catalan Narrative 1875-2015
Edited by Jordi Larios and Montserrat Lunati
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 16•28 September 2020

  • ‘Two attractive features of the volume are its richness and the way it brings to life the wide variety of works analysed. Critical theory figures strongly in a number of the articles, but it is employed carefully and sometimes subtly as a framework that enhances rather than obscures the narrative texts under discussion. Finally, the editors’ succinct Introduction intelligently, clearly, and deftly ties together the diverse strands of the book’s eclectic content, inviting the casual reader to explore further.’ — David George, Modern Language Review 117.3, July 2022, 514-15 (full text online)

Contemporary Galician Women Writers
Catherine Barbour
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 39•28 September 2020

  • ‘Contemporary Galician Women Writers is an engaging and informative study of Galician literature and identity and, especially, a valuable contribution to the scholarship on Galician narrative fiction by women.’ — Silvia Oliveira, Hispania 105.2, June 2022, 303-04 (full text online)
  • ‘A valuable contribution that presents a thorough picture of the Galician cultural landscape; at the same time, it stresses the need for academia to enquire beyond the national understanding of literary systems.’ — Lucia Cernadas, Bulletin of Spanish Studies 94.2, 2022, 379-80 (full text online)
  • ‘Presents a compelling, well-written textual analysis of six novels that adds substantially to our knowledge about three commercially successful writers who, except for Moure (the Galician-language writer), are yet to receive sustained attention. The book convincingly shows that much is learnt about the literary representation of Galician identities when the works under study are by authors who are located outside Galician national literature. The book will be of interest to scholars working on Hispanic Peninsular, particularly Galician, Literary Studies, but it also has much to offer to other literary scholars, especially those working on women’s writing.’ — María Liñeira, Galicia 21 2023, 124-27

Twentieth-Century Sephardic Authors from the Former Yugoslavia: A Judeo-Spanish Tradition
Željko Jovanović
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 41•28 September 2020

  • ‘La investigación que presenta Željko Jovanović en su monografía Twentieth-Century Sephardic Authors from the Former Yugoslavia. A Judeo-Spanish Tradition era, yo creo, necesaria. El autor ofrece, en los tres capítulos que forman la parte palpitante del volumen, una reflexión muy finamente detallada de la evolución de la literatura oral en el ámbito de las comunidades sefardíes de la antigua Yugoslavia... Finalmente, sería injusto terminar esta reseña sin subrayar la riqueza de las notas que acompañan cada capítulo y que no son una simple añadidura, sino que aportan información útil e interesante; además,el gusto de esta monografía está enriquecido por las fotografías esparcidas en el volumen y que restituyen, a través del poderdela imagen, la vivacidad de los protagonistas que Željko Jovanović ha logrado retratar con inteligente maestría.’ — Paola Bellomi, Meldar 2, 2021, 61-64 (full text online)
  • ‘En su exposición, Jovanović aúna siempre el rigor positivista con la sutileza interpretativa: la riqueza de la información, el respeto a los hechos e incluso la atención a los mínimos detalles textuales no excluyen otras formas de análisis que, manejadas con cautela, permiten al autor construir un libro sólido y brillante, que arroja luz sobre muchas cuestiones: la oralidad y su relación con la escritura, la historia de las mujeres y de las minorías y, naturalmente, la pervivencia del legado hispánico más allá de los límites de la Península.’ — Álvaro Alonso, Boletín de literatura oral 11, 2021, 321-23 (full text online)
  • ‘This is a valuable book, well thought out, with an extensive bibliography (including many items in Serbo-Croat), illustrations and useful indices.’ — Bulletin of Spanish Studies February 2022 (full text online)
  • ‘Unburdened by jargon and meticulously researched, Jovanović’s study is a welcome resource for those working on the literary heritage of the Sephardim. The text will also be of interest to those writing on Spanish–Yugoslav relations, cultural history, transnational literary transmission and translation, and linguistic varia- tions of Ladino across the twentieth century.’ — Alma Prelec, Modern Language Review 118.2, 2023, 271-72 (full text online)
  • ‘El libro es una aportación importante al estudio de la cultura de los sefardíes de Serbia y Bosnia, al conocimiento de la cultura sefardí en general y su evolución en época contemporánea y, más ampliamente, a los estudios sobre las relaciones entre cultura popular y creación literaria culta y al análisis de la construcción de relatos sobre la identidad cultural y la memorialización del pasado de una minoría, tomando como base una tradición folklórica en proceso de desaparición.’ — Paloma Díaz-Mas, MEAH 70, 2022, 257-62

The Foreign Connection: Writings on Poetry, Art and Translation
Jamie McKendrick
Transcript 17•28 September 2020

  • ‘This book might have been written for my pleasure. Many readers of this journal will surely feel the same.’ — Chris Miller, PN Review 28.3, January/February 2022
  • ‘There is a natural clemency at work, throughout the entire volume, which has nothing to do with fuzzy-mindedness – quite the contrary, but it means that McKendrick will never deliver the frenzied hatchet-job some poets (whom he admires) can execute, apparently with sangfroid. This intelligence – by definition an ironic intelligence in that it can simultaneously entertain different positions – is what makes him such a trustworthy guide. One feels also that humour, that saving resource, is always within reach... His astute use of quotation to illustrate a point is a fiduciary of sound judgement. Above all, Jamie McKendrick reminds us that there is no substitute for patient looking and listening. This close attention, this authentic love of the art, is rare in our day. These writings are to be prized.’ — Stephen Romer, The London Magazine February/March 2022, 77-84
  • ‘A welcome marker to remind us, if we needed reminding, of how much human beings need, and gain from, dialogue with other cultures and languages. The apparently foreign, as Jamie McKendrick demonstrates so well here, in fact shows us a threshold, a door.’ — Hilary Davies, Times Literary Supplement 19 May 2023, p. 8
  • ‘What Jamie McKendrick so finely details about Tom Lubbock’s English Graphic is an entirely apt description for his own collection of brief reviews, introductions, and essays, on literature and art: ‘The constraints of the form proved exceptionally viable and liberating for his procedures. Providing a “wiry outline”, the form itself allowed for wit, aperçu, mental calisthenics, provocation, aphorism, meditation and surprisingly sustained argument’.’ — George Kalogeris, Essays in Criticism 73.1, 2023, 130-31 (full text online)