Tag Archives: contemporary literature
Barbara Kingsolver’s World, Revised Edition
An excerpt from Barbara Kingsolver’s World, Revised Edition by Linda Wagner-Martin Demon Copperhead In recent interviews, Kingsolver has frequently introduced the theme that she loves her adopted territory of Appalachia (growing up in Kentucky put her near this region but not precisely in it). Once she married Stephen Hopp and eventually moved to his small … Read More »
Inside the New Directions in Religion and Literature series
Guest post by Emma Mason It is nearly twenty-five years since Mark and I met at the inaugural conference of the British Association of Victorian Studies in 2000. Both of us had recently completed our PhDs and, working as we did on religion and literature, experienced literary studies as not always hospitable towards Christian scholarship.… Read More »
The Dark Matter of Children’s Fantastika Literature: Speculative Entanglements
What is Fantastika? Fantastika is a word to describe fiction that deals in fantastical and speculative imaginings of all kinds. As an umbrella term used by critics and writers, Fantastika incorporates children’s and young adult literatures, as well as a range of genres and subgenres that cluster, like interconnected constellations, around the triple suns of… Read More »
On the Idea of a Handbook to the Works of J. M. Coetzee: ‘Preposterous [?]’
Guest post by Andrew van der Vlies and Lucy Valerie Graham If assembling a collection purporting to be a readers’ companion to the work of any author is a difficult undertaking – will it be up to date on publication? for how long afterwards? how comprehensive can one reasonably suggest the contents will be? – initiating… Read More »
Freedom Inc.: Gendered Capitalism in New Indian Literature and Culture, part 2
Chasing Freedom through Romantic Love in Popular and Literary Fiction In post-1990s India, romantic love is increasingly a fungible commodity. It is an emotion that is separable from the self and subject to a process of self-evaluation and rational judgment. It is evaluated because it must fulfill a function, that of confirming a revenue generating… Read More »
Freedom Inc.: Gendered Capitalism in New Indian Literature and Culture, part 1
Freedom Inc.: Gendered Capitalism in New Indian Literature and Culture documents a profound shift in the meaning of individual freedom in India. This change has occurred largely since the 1990s, when the Indian economy was liberalized. The idea of individual freedom, once capacious enough to include notions of political sovereignty, individual agency, and social and… Read More »
Dorothea Brande and Alternate History
Guest post by Jack Dann I think that most professional writers are well acquainted with the idea of synchronicity…of meaningful coincidences. I certainly am! In fact, I experienced a bit of it when the good folks at Bloomsbury asked me to write something for the Literary Studies blog about my new book, The Fiction Writer’s… Read More »
Critical Memory Studies: New Approaches
Guest post by Brett Ashley Kaplan Julie Mehretu’s multilayered, palimpsestic paintings insert memories of violence into politicized landscapes. There’s a work of unpacking that goes into experiencing these canvases as they swirl in and out of grids, colors competing with graffiti-esque spray paint, images conjured that fail to concretize. When confronted with her stunning canvases… Read More »
