Literary Studies: Plays & Playwrights
Literary Studies: Poetry & Poets
Golnaz Shams
Tai-Chun Ho
Social Minds in Drama
The Crimean War in Victorian Poetry
The Delineation of Mentalities and Collectives Berlin, 2020. 238 pp., 2 fig. b/w. Literary and Cultural Studies, Theory and the (New) Media. Vol. 4 hb. • ISBN 978-3-631-81012-5 CHF 66.– / €D 55.95 / €A 56.– / € 53.30 / £ 44.– / US-$ 64.95 eBook (SUL) • ISBN 978-3-631-81900-5 CHF 42.– / €D 36.95 / €D 35.39 / €A 37.– / €A 37.07 / € 33.70 / £ 28.– / US-$ 40.95
This study provides a new model for the construction of mentalities and intermental thought of characters in playscripts. It introduces a model that facilitates the analysis of the construction of consciousness, instances of collective thought, and the dynamics of group formation in late-Victorian drama. It can be placed within the framework of cognitive studies because cognitive studies are interested in examining the mental state and the relationship between minds involved in cognitive interaction in narratives. For a long time narrative studies have neglected drama as a genre and, even after the long overdue acceptance of plays in the family of narratives, most critics were eager to focus on performance rather than on playscripts. This book introduces a model through which the analysis of playscripts will be rewarding and worthwhile.
Oxford, 2021. XII, 304 pp., 14 fig. b/w. Writing and Culture in the Long Nineteenth Century. Vol. 9 hb. • ISBN 978-1-78874-179-8 CHF 85.– / €D 71.95 / €A 71.30 / € 67.90 / £ 55.– / US-$ 82.95 eBook (SUL) • ISBN 978-1-78874-180-4 CHF 85.– / €D 71.95 / €A 71.30 / € 67.90 / £ 55.– / US-$ 82.95
Cast in the shadow of the soldier-poets of the First World War, Victorian war poets have often been disparaged as «armchair patriots» glorifying military action in an unthinking fashion. Challenging this long-standing assumption, The Crimean War in Victorian Poetry considers the evolution of the figure of the homefront poet and explores the daunting task of representing war from a civilian perspective. By virtue of the medium of modern reportage, the Crimean War (1854-1856) witnessed the inauguration of the civilian spectatorship of distant suffering, provoking a heated debate over the concept of the war poet and the function of war poetry during moments of national crisis. Confronted with news of soldiers’ hardships and of the distress caused by the government’s mismanagement of war, the so-called armchair poet sought ways of addressing the problem of pain and adversity from a distance and of engaging with the politics of war by composing lines of verse at home. This is the first book-length study to examine the predicaments and achievements of mid-Victorian war poets. It provides historically nuanced readings of how a diverse group of British poets – ranging from the Poet Laureate Alfred, Lord Tennyson to the highly acclaimed female poet Louisa Stuart Costello – fought a literary war as they reworked the established traditions of war poetry and experimented with poetic forms in response to news of distant combat.
David Spurr
The Consolation of Poetry Ten Lessons on Life and Death Bern, 2021. 140 pp. pb. • ISBN 978-3-0343-4211-7 CHF 39.– / €D 32.95 / €A 33.90 / € 30.80 / £ 26.– / US-$ 37.95 eBook (SUL) • ISBN 978-3-0343-4347-3 CHF 39.– / €D 32.95 / €A 34.10 / € 31.– / £ 26.– / US-$ 37.95
How can poetry help us live our lives? From Shakespeare’s time to the present, poets have faced the questions of love, discovery, centering, parting, forgiveness, and our common, mortal destination. They have much to say to us, and they say it well. This is a book for the general reader who seeks solace and inspiration in the words poets have left us.
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