Peter Widdowson

A Reader’s Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory is a classic introduction to the complex yet crucial area of literary theory. This book is known for its clear, accessible style and its thorough, logical approach, guiding the reader through the essentials of literary theory. It includes two new chapters: ‘New Materialisms’ which incorporates ecocriticism, animal studies, posthumanism and thing theory; ‘21st Century and Future Developments’ which includes technology, digital humanities, ethics and affect.

A Reader’s Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory is a classic introduction to the complex yet crucial area of literary theory. This book is known for its clear, accessible style and its thorough, logical approach, guiding the reader through the essentials of literary theory. It includes two new chapters: ‘New Materialisms’ which incorporates ecocriticism, animal studies, posthumanism and thing theory; ‘21st Century and Future Developments’ which includes technology, digital humanities, ethics and affect.

Reflecting the continuing change and development in modern literary theory, the key features of this book includes its clarity, brevity, equal coverage of the main literary theories and useful bibliographies of further reading.Literature students will find its clearly defined sections easy to navigate and whilst avoiding over-simplification, it makes a complex subject accessible.Features-Accesible, easy to use guideC-onsiders 'New Aestheticism' and engages with the ideas of 'Post-Theory'-Contains extensive guides to further reading, web and electronic resources to ensure the quality of students' research-A glossary defines key theoretical and critical terms-Contains a guide to relevant journalsNew to this Edition-Coverage of 'new aestheticism'-Updated and expanded Derrida section-More historical context included in the introduction-Marxism section to include updated material on Benjamin-Postcolonial section updated and expanded-Annotated reading lists, including web and electronic resources-New glossary of terms-Updated and expanded further reading section

First published in 1989, this study investigates Hardy not so much in terms of his novels but as he has been constituted as a major figure in English literature. Using Hardy as a case-study, it looks at how a ‘great writer’ is produced in sociological terms, analysing the critical, cultural and ideological factors involved. By exposing this construction, the book seeks to release Hardy from the constraints imposed by orthodox literary history.This book will be of interest to those studying nineteenth-century literature.

First published in 1989, this study investigates Hardy not so much in terms of his novels but as he has been constituted as a major figure in English literature. Using Hardy as a case-study, it looks at how a ‘great writer’ is produced in sociological terms, analysing the critical, cultural and ideological factors involved. By exposing this construction, the book seeks to release Hardy from the constraints imposed by orthodox literary history.This book will be of interest to those studying nineteenth-century literature.

This introduction to practicing literary theory is a reader consisting of extracts from critical analyses, largely by 20th century Anglo-American literary critics, set around major literary texts that undergraduate students are known to be familiar with. It is specifically targeted to present literary criticism through practical examples of essays by literary theorists themselves, on texts both within and outside the literary canon. Four example essays are included for each author/text presented.

First Published in 2002. Amongst a time of rapid and radical social change, New Accents is a positive response to change, with each volume seeking to encourage rather than resist the process of change, to stretch rather than reinforce boundaries that currently define literature and its academic study. All the essays collected here deal in their different ways with 'popular fictions', but they were all, also, first published in the journal Literature and History. In that sense, then, they are quite literally 'essays in literature and history'.

First Published in 2002. It is easy to see that we are living in a time of rapid and radical social change. It is much less easy to grasp the fact that such change will inevitably affect the nature of those disciplines that both reflect our society and help to shape it. Yet this is nowhere more apparent than in the central field of what may, in general terms, be called literary studies. ‘New Accents’ is intended as a positive response to the initiative offered by such a situation. Each volume in the series will seek to encourage rather than resist the process of change. To stretch rather than reinforce the boundaries that currently define literature and its academic study.

Graham Swift is among the foremost contemporary British writers, having published seven highly acclaimed novels which are widely read by students and general public alike. Waterland has become a modern classic, and Last Orders won the Booker prize for fiction in 2006. This study covers all Swift’s novels to The Light of Day: it offers a close reading of each of the novels, exploring the innovative formal strategies and identifying such recurrent themes as the presence of the past in the present, the blurring of distinctions between ‘history’ and ‘story’, fact and fiction, and the possibilities of redemption in a contemporary social and emotional wasteland. For the most part set in an urban, middle-class, claustrophobic and loveless present, and focused on usually fraught relationships between husbands and wives, parents and children, these recognisably postmodern novels are seen here as symptomatic of contemporary Britain: a world where, in the shadow of the nuclear holocaust, we approach ‘the End of History, and only ‘telling stories’ seems to offer solace.

Widely popular throughout the world, Hardy still seems to speak to us, in fiction and in poetry, as our contemporary. In this new edition of his popular study, Peter Widdowson identifies the elements in his work which enable Hardy to be read in this way: the focus on unstable class and sexual relations in a society undergoing rapid change; the highly-charged and contradictory representations of women at the heart of this dangerously ‘metamorphic’ social process; the self-reflexive artifice of the writing itself as an aspect of Hardy’s ‘satiric’ worldview; his ironic humanism in the ‘new Dark Age’ of the modern world. Drawing on contemporary approaches to literary study in an accessible way, the author shows where this radical and destabilizing Hardy is to be located in the texts; and similarly seeks to recast our conception of Hardy the Poet by showing how preconceived and selective it is. For this edition, Professor Widdowson has updated the Select Bibliography and has also included a ‘Postscript’ on film and TV adaptation of Hardy’s fiction, since many newcomers to Hardy may these days experience his work for the first time in this medium. This lucid and engaging study offers a comprehensive guide to reading Hardy anew as a writer who continues to challenge our assumptions about art and life.

Graham Swift is among the foremost contemporary British writers, having published seven highly acclaimed novels which are widely read by students and general public alike. Waterland has become a modern classic, and Last Orders won the Booker prize for fiction in 2006. This study covers all Swift’s novels to The Light of Day: it offers a close reading of each of the novels, exploring the innovative formal strategies and identifying such recurrent themes as the presence of the past in the present, the blurring of distinctions between ‘history’ and ‘story’, fact and fiction, and the possibilities of redemption in a contemporary social and emotional wasteland. For the most part set in an urban, middle-class, claustrophobic and loveless present, and focused on usually fraught relationships between husbands and wives, parents and children, these recognisably postmodern novels are seen here as symptomatic of contemporary Britain: a world where, in the shadow of the nuclear holocaust, we approach ‘the End of History, and only ‘telling stories’ seems to offer solace.

This comprehensive guide to the historical and cultural context of English literature covers the core periods of literature, and history, from the English Renaissance to the present. Peter Widdowson introduces and outlines key terms, concepts and developments and provides a series of timelines showing political, social, cultural and literary events for each year. Together, this indispensable reference work offers a concise history of Britain for literature students at all levels and provides readers with the context for any literary work from 1500 to 2000.The Palgrave Guide to English Literature and its Contexts, 1500-2000- covers a wide range of canonical British authors and works but also provides contextualising examples of works from other countries- each chapter focuses on a key period in English Literature and History, gives a brief overview of that period, and defines the main terms and ideas of the age- contains easy-to-follow timelines which may be viewed either horizontally or vertically, allowing readers to track a chronological history, or single out the developments and events of a specific year

This comprehensive guide to the historical and cultural context of English literature covers the core periods of literature, and history, from the English Renaissance to the present. Peter Widdowson introduces and outlines key terms, concepts and developments and provides a series of timelines showing political, social, cultural and literary events for each year. Together, this indispensable reference work offers a concise history of Britain for literature students at all levels and provides readers with the context for any literary work from 1500 to 2000.The Palgrave Guide to English Literature and its Contexts, 1500-2000- covers a wide range of canonical British authors and works but also provides contextualising examples of works from other countries- each chapter focuses on a key period in English Literature and History, gives a brief overview of that period, and defines the main terms and ideas of the age- contains easy-to-follow timelines which may be viewed either horizontally or vertically, allowing readers to track a chronological history, or single out the developments and events of a specific year

First Published in 2002. Amongst a time of rapid and radical social change, New Accents is a positive response to change, with each volume seeking to encourage rather than resist the process of change, to stretch rather than reinforce boundaries that currently define literature and its academic study. All the essays collected here deal in their different ways with 'popular fictions', but they were all, also, first published in the journal Literature and History. In that sense, then, they are quite literally 'essays in literature and history'.

First Published in 2002. It is easy to see that we are living in a time of rapid and radical social change. It is much less easy to grasp the fact that such change will inevitably affect the nature of those disciplines that both reflect our society and help to shape it. Yet this is nowhere more apparent than in the central field of what may, in general terms, be called literary studies. ‘New Accents’ is intended as a positive response to the initiative offered by such a situation. Each volume in the series will seek to encourage rather than resist the process of change. To stretch rather than reinforce the boundaries that currently define literature and its academic study.

This introductory volume provides an overview of the history of Literature as a cultural concept, and reflects on the contemporary nature, place and function of what the literary might mean for us today. Literature: * offers a concise history of the canonic concept of 'literature' from its earliest origins * illustrates the kinds of theoretical issues which are currently invoked by the term 'literary' * provides a definition of the 'literary' for the twenty-first century With Literature Peter Widdowson provides a thought-provoking essay on the contemporary relevance of the 'literary' for students.

This introductory volume provides an overview of the history of Literature as a cultural concept, and reflects on the contemporary nature, place and function of what the literary might mean for us today. Literature: * offers a concise history of the canonic concept of 'literature' from its earliest origins * illustrates the kinds of theoretical issues which are currently invoked by the term 'literary' * provides a definition of the 'literary' for the twenty-first century With Literature Peter Widdowson provides a thought-provoking essay on the contemporary relevance of the 'literary' for students.

The author, a leading and influential critic of Thomas Hardy, brings together for the first time essays representing both his major critical work over the last fifteen years and three entirely new pieces. This volume allows readers to test the force of Widdowson's critical polemic in undispersed form. Readable, engaged and, no doubt, often infuriating, this is a book for all those who still regard Hardy as 'our contemporary'.