Cora Kaplan

The essays brought together in this book span the last quarter century of Cora Kaplan’s imaginative thinking and writing about the interrelated questions of gender, race, class and empire. They include work on feminism’s cultural politics, women’s writing on race and empire in Britain in the long nineteenth century, the reimagining of gender in modern crime writing and popular film, and the political/personal work of memoir. Linked by an historical approach to literary and cultural works, all these pieces pay keen attention to the busy crossroads of wider political, social and cultural traffic at the time of a work’s first appearance. These essays chart the changing agendas in contemporary literary studies with particular reference to the shifting profile of modern feminism, postcolonial history and theory, and the increasingly rapid circulation of narrative tropes across a variety of new and traditional media sites and settings.

"This fine collection of essays represents an important contribution to the rediscovery of Baldwin's stature as essayist, novelist, black prophetic political voice, and witness to the Civil Rights era. The title provides an excellent thematic focus. He understood both the necessity, and the impossibility, of being a black 'American' writer. He took these issues 'Beyond'---Paris, Istanbul, various parts of Africa---but this formative experience only returned him to the unresolved dilemmas. He was a fine novelist and a major prophetic political voice. He produced some of the most important essays of the twentieth century and addressed in depth the complexities of the black political movement. His relative invisibility almost lost us one of the most significant voices of his generation. This welcome 'revival' retrieves it. Close call." ---Stuart Hall, Professor Emeritus, Open University This interdisciplinary collection by leading writers in their fields brings together a discussion of the many facets of James Baldwin, both as a writer and as the prophetic conscience of a nation. The core of the volume addresses the shifting, complex relations between Baldwin as an American—“as American as any Texas GI” as he once wryly put it—and his life as an itinerant cosmopolitan. His ambivalent imaginings of America were always mediated by his conception of a world “beyond” America: a world he knew both from his travels and from his voracious reading. He was a man whose instincts were, at every turn, nurtured by America; but who at the same time developed a ferocious critique of American exceptionalism. In seeking to understand how, as an American, he could learn to live with difference—breaking the power of fundamentalisms of all stripes—he opened an urgent, timely debate that is still ours. His America was an idea fired by desire and grief in equal measure. As the authors assembled here argue, to read him now allows us to imagine new possibilities for the future.With contributions by Kevin Birmingham, Douglas Field, Kevin Gaines, Briallen Hopper, Quentin Miller, Vaughn Rasberry, Robert Reid-Pharr, George Shulman, Hortense Spillers, Colm Tóibín, Eleanor W. Traylor, Cheryl A. Wall, and Magdalena Zaborowska.

"This fine collection of essays represents an important contribution to the rediscovery of Baldwin's stature as essayist, novelist, black prophetic political voice, and witness to the Civil Rights era. The title provides an excellent thematic focus. He understood both the necessity, and the impossibility, of being a black 'American' writer. He took these issues 'Beyond'---Paris, Istanbul, various parts of Africa---but this formative experience only returned him to the unresolved dilemmas. He was a fine novelist and a major prophetic political voice. He produced some of the most important essays of the twentieth century and addressed in depth the complexities of the black political movement. His relative invisibility almost lost us one of the most significant voices of his generation. This welcome 'revival' retrieves it. Close call." ---Stuart Hall, Professor Emeritus, Open University This interdisciplinary collection by leading writers in their fields brings together a discussion of the many facets of James Baldwin, both as a writer and as the prophetic conscience of a nation. The core of the volume addresses the shifting, complex relations between Baldwin as an American—“as American as any Texas GI” as he once wryly put it—and his life as an itinerant cosmopolitan. His ambivalent imaginings of America were always mediated by his conception of a world “beyond” America: a world he knew both from his travels and from his voracious reading. He was a man whose instincts were, at every turn, nurtured by America; but who at the same time developed a ferocious critique of American exceptionalism. In seeking to understand how, as an American, he could learn to live with difference—breaking the power of fundamentalisms of all stripes—he opened an urgent, timely debate that is still ours. His America was an idea fired by desire and grief in equal measure. As the authors assembled here argue, to read him now allows us to imagine new possibilities for the future.With contributions by Kevin Birmingham, Douglas Field, Kevin Gaines, Briallen Hopper, Quentin Miller, Vaughn Rasberry, Robert Reid-Pharr, George Shulman, Hortense Spillers, Colm Tóibín, Eleanor W. Traylor, Cheryl A. Wall, and Magdalena Zaborowska.

The concept of gender continues to be a central issue in literary and cultural studies, with a significance that crosses disciplinary boundaries and provokes lively debate. In this fully revised and updated second edition, David Glover and Cora Kaplan offer a lucid and illuminating introduction to ’gender’ and its implications, including: an overview of the critical language and concepts surrounding gender from their historical inception to contemporary debates discussions of the major theorists in the field updated and extended coverage of lesbian and queer theory a new glossary of terms essential to an understanding of the debate on gender in contemporary theory. With its impressive breadth and depth of coverage, this volume offers not only a comprehensive history of this complex term, but also indicates its ongoing presence in literary and cultural theory and the new directions it is taking.

The concept of gender continues to be a central issue in literary and cultural studies, with a significance that crosses disciplinary boundaries and provokes lively debate. In this fully revised and updated second edition, David Glover and Cora Kaplan offer a lucid and illuminating introduction to ’gender’ and its implications, including: an overview of the critical language and concepts surrounding gender from their historical inception to contemporary debates discussions of the major theorists in the field updated and extended coverage of lesbian and queer theory a new glossary of terms essential to an understanding of the debate on gender in contemporary theory. With its impressive breadth and depth of coverage, this volume offers not only a comprehensive history of this complex term, but also indicates its ongoing presence in literary and cultural theory and the new directions it is taking.

In Victoriana, leading feminist cultural critic Cora Kaplan reflects on our modern obsession with Victorian culture. She considers evocations of the nineteenth century in literature (The French Lieutenants' Woman by John Fowles, Possession by A. S. Byatt, Nice Work by David Lodge, The Master by Colm Toibin, Fingersmith by Sarah Waters, The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst), film (Jane Campion's The Piano), and biography (Peter Ackroyd's Dickens). Why, she asks, does Jane Eyre still evoke tears and rage from its readers, and why has Henry James become fiction's favorite late-Victorian author? Within Victoriana, Kaplan argues, lies a modern history of its own that reflects the shifting social and cultural concerns of the last few decades. Distance has lent a sense of antique charm and exoticism to even the worst abuses of the period, but it has also allowed innovative writers and filmmakers to use Victorian settings and language to develop a new and challenging aesthetic. Issues of class, gender, empire, and race are explored as well as the pleasures and dangers of imitating or referencing narrative forms, individual histories, and belief systems. As Kaplan makes clear, Victoriana can be seen as a striking example of historical imagination on the move, restless and unsettled.

In Victoriana, leading feminist cultural critic Cora Kaplan reflects on our modern obsession with Victorian culture. She considers evocations of the nineteenth century in literature (The French Lieutenants' Woman by John Fowles, Possession by A. S. Byatt, Nice Work by David Lodge, The Master by Colm Toibin, Fingersmith by Sarah Waters, The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst), film (Jane Campion's The Piano), and biography (Peter Ackroyd's Dickens). Why, she asks, does Jane Eyre still evoke tears and rage from its readers, and why has Henry James become fiction's favorite late-Victorian author? Within Victoriana, Kaplan argues, lies a modern history of its own that reflects the shifting social and cultural concerns of the last few decades. Distance has lent a sense of antique charm and exoticism to even the worst abuses of the period, but it has also allowed innovative writers and filmmakers to use Victorian settings and language to develop a new and challenging aesthetic. Issues of class, gender, empire, and race are explored as well as the pleasures and dangers of imitating or referencing narrative forms, individual histories, and belief systems. As Kaplan makes clear, Victoriana can be seen as a striking example of historical imagination on the move, restless and unsettled.

A series of astute critical reflections on our enduring fascination with all things Victorian. In this book Cora Kaplan looks at the politics of 'Victoriana' from the 1970s to the present, a politics that emerges from the alternation between nostalgia and critique in fiction, film, biography and literary studies. She asks how Jane Eyre can still evoke tears and rage, as well as inspiring imitation and high art, and why Henry James has become fiction's favourite late Victorian character in the new millennium? 'Victoriana', the book argues, has developed a modern history of its own in which we can trace the shifting social and cultural concerns of the last few decades. Through the constant interrogation of 'history' in such innovative works as John Fowles's The French Lieutenant's Woman, A.S. Byatt's Possession, David Lodge's Nice Work, Peter Ackroyd's Dickens, Jane Campion's The Piano, Colm Toibin's The Master, Sarah Waters's Fingersmith, Alan Hollinghurst's The Line of Beauty and Julian Barnes's Arthur and George, 'Victoriana' maps out a very particular postmodern temporality. Features * Uses the Victorian as a touchstone for late 20th and early 21st century writers helping readers to understand the changing meaning of Victorian literature and culture across time. * Explores different genres of Victoriana showing the differences and convergences in the ways in which criticism, biography, fiction and film rewrite the Victorian. * Analyses the pleasures and politics of reading or viewing the recycling of the Victorian past highlighting the relationship between the act of reading and the social and political elements of the texts. * Focuses on work by well-known writers, critics, filmmakers and artists such as A S Byatt, David Lodge, ColmToibin and Sarah Waters in relationship to nineteenth-century authors such as Charlotte Bronte, Elizabeth Gaskell, Charles Dickens and Henry James.

A series of astute critical reflections on our enduring fascination with all things Victorian. In this book Cora Kaplan looks at the politics of 'Victoriana' from the 1970s to the present, a politics that emerges from the alternation between nostalgia and critique in fiction, film, biography and literary studies. She asks how Jane Eyre can still evoke tears and rage, as well as inspiring imitation and high art, and why Henry James has become fiction's favourite late Victorian character in the new millennium? 'Victoriana', the book argues, has developed a modern history of its own in which we can trace the shifting social and cultural concerns of the last few decades. Through the constant interrogation of 'history' in such innovative works as John Fowles's The French Lieutenant's Woman, A.S. Byatt's Possession, David Lodge's Nice Work, Peter Ackroyd's Dickens, Jane Campion's The Piano, Colm Toibin's The Master, Sarah Waters's Fingersmith, Alan Hollinghurst's The Line of Beauty and Julian Barnes's Arthur and George, 'Victoriana' maps out a very particular postmodern temporality. Features * Uses the Victorian as a touchstone for late 20th and early 21st century writers helping readers to understand the changing meaning of Victorian literature and culture across time. * Explores different genres of Victoriana showing the differences and convergences in the ways in which criticism, biography, fiction and film rewrite the Victorian. * Analyses the pleasures and politics of reading or viewing the recycling of the Victorian past highlighting the relationship between the act of reading and the social and political elements of the texts. * Focuses on work by well-known writers, critics, filmmakers and artists such as A S Byatt, David Lodge, ColmToibin and Sarah Waters in relationship to nineteenth-century authors such as Charlotte Bronte, Elizabeth Gaskell, Charles Dickens and Henry James.