Jane Austen and the Creation of Modern Fiction


Book Description

Jane Austen's creative process has been largely unexamined. This book explores her development as a writer: what she adapted from tradition for her needs; what she learned novel to novel; how she used that learning in future works; and how her ultimate mastery of fiction changed the course of English literature. Jane Austen overcame the limitations of early fiction by pivoting from superficial adventures to the psychological studies that have defined the novel since. Her creativity and technique grew as she wrestled with pragmatic writing issues. This evaluation of Austen's creative process brings into focus the strengths and weaknesses of her six novels. Each is examined in its use of major fictional techniques--description, scene-building, point of view, and psychological development--to reveal unique literary attributes. The result is a revealing analysis of how world-class fiction is built from the ground up.




Redefining the Modern


Book Description

Redefining the Modern spans nearly a century and a half in a series of essays that capture the crucial shifts and transformations marking the change from the Victorian to the Modern period. At the center of the collection is the understanding that literature responds to, as well as initiates, social, intellectual, and sometimes political change. It also recognizes that historical categories, like genres, need to be realigned. The diverse material ranges from Jane Austen's laughter to female detectives and black fiction. It coheres, however, through its focus on the interaction of language and society and the way language and culture maintain a persistent and dynamic exchange. Rather than deny links between one period and another, this collection argues for continuity and development, emphasizing revision and renewal rather than rejection and refusal. No longer do critics accept fierce divides or unbridgeable paths between the work of the Victorians and moderns. Recent approaches to the period, reflecting gender, cultural studies, and new historicism, provide fresh means of assessment. Central to this reconception is the recognition that if the Victorians invented us, we, in turn, h




The Two Romanticisms and other essays


Book Description

The Romantic period is the most appealing but also the most confusing period of English literature for the student. Crucially, this book distinguishes between 'the Romantic' as modern critics use the term and 'the romantic' as it was used during the period itself. The Two Romanticisms, and Other Essays is a collection of critical essays on Romanticism and select Romantic texts, designed to help teachers and students to make sense of the period as a whole and of the poems and novels that appear most frequently on school and university curricula. Each chapter offers a self-contained reading of a different canonical work while engaging with broader themes. Through close readings of Jane Austen, Lord Byron, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, Mary Shelley, Percy Bysshe Shelley and William Wordsworth, Professor Christie explores the complexities of the Romantic period and offers fresh insights into pivotal Romantic texts.




Janespotting and Beyond


Book Description




Recreating Jane Austen


Book Description

Recreating Jane Austen is a book for readers who know and love Austen s work. Stimulated by the recent crop of film and television versions of Austen s novels, John Wiltshire examines how they have been transposed and recreated in another age and medium. Wiltshire illuminates the process of recreation through the work of the psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott, and offers Jane Austen s own relation to Shakespeare as a suggestive parallel. Exploring the romantic impulse in Austenian biography, Jane Austen as a commodity, and offering a re-interpretation of Pride and Prejudice, this book approaches the central question of the role Jane Austen plays in the contemporary cultural imagination.




After Austen


Book Description

This collection of twelve new essays examines some of what Jane Austen has become in the two hundred years since her death. Some of the chapters explore adaptations or repurposings of her work while others trace her influence on a surprising variety of different kinds of writing, sometimes even when there is no announced or obvious debt to her. In so doing they also inevitably shed light on Austen herself. Austen is often considered romantic and not often considered political, but both those perceptions are challenged her, as is the idea that she is primarily a writer for and about women. Her books are comic and ironic, but they have been reworked and drawn upon in very different genres and styles. Collectively these essays testify to the extraordinary versatility and resonance of Austen’s books.




Cataloging and Classification


Book Description

"The new edition of this essential work has raised the bar on an already excellent text about cataloguing." - Library Journal, Starred Review The fifth edition of the classic Cataloging and Classification covers the analysis and representation of methods used in describing, organizing, and providing access to resources made available in or through libraries. Since the last edition, there have new developments in cataloging, with the introduction of the IFLA Library Reference Model (LRM) and the new, official RDA, following the 3R Project. This text presents the essence of library cataloging and classification in terms of four basic functions: descriptive cataloging, authority work, subject access, and classification. Within this framework, content has been re-organized, all chapters have been rewritten, and new chapters have been introduced to incorporate the changes that have occurred during the interval between the four and fifth editions. In each part, the historical development and underlying principles of the retrieval mechanism at issue are treated first, because these are considered essential to an understanding of cataloging and classification. Discussion and examples of provisions in the standards and tools are then presented to illustrate the operations covered in each chapter. Divided into seven parts—a general overview; record production and structure, encoding formats, and metadata records; RDA (original and official); subject access and controlled vocabularies; the organization of library resources; encoding & records of bibliographic and authority data; and cataloging ethics--this book includes lists of the standards and tools used in the preparation and processing of cataloging records covered, lists of RDA elements, and sample records. Its companion website with interactive learning activities and supplementary materials located at catclassintro.org make it a true multimedia tool.




The Psychology of Modern Prejudice


Book Description

Modern prejudice refers to the subtle negative attitudes that are directed toward stigmatised groups such as African-Americans and gay men and lesbian women. Individuals categorised as high in modern prejudice deny the existence of discrimination against stigmatised groups; believe that demands made by these groups are unfair; assert that social institutions accord disproportionate attention to such groups; and reject their efforts to change the status quo. Stated simply, the ethos of an individual high in modern prejudice is: "Discrimination is a thing of the past because groups now have all the rights they need." social scientists have devoted considerable attention to studying modern prejudice; however, no book has provided comprehensive coverage of this topic-until now. It also offers students and academics, as well as the interested layperson, a thorough review of modern prejudice; a construct that is at the centre of some of the most innovative studies currently conducted by psychologists.




Jane Austen Cover to Cover


Book Description

A must-have collection of Jane Austen covers from the past two centuries—complete with fun trivia and anecdotes, fascinating insights into book design and publishing, and much more Jane Austen never goes out of style. Since the first publication of her six novels in the 19th century, she has delighted generations of fans with classic stories that have never changed—and countless covers that have. Jane Austen Cover to Cover compiles two centuries of design showcasing one of the world’s most beloved and celebrated novelists. With over 200 images, plus historical commentary, Austen trivia, and a little bit of wit, this fascinating and visually intriguing look back is a must for Janeites, design enthusiasts, and book lovers of every age.




Critical Approaches to Teaching the High School Novel


Book Description

This edited collection will turn a critical spotlight on the set of texts that has constituted the high school canon of literature for decades. By employing a set of fresh, vibrant critical lenses—such as youth studies and disabilities studies— that are often unfamiliar to advanced students and scholars of secondary English, this book provides divergent approaches to traditional readings and pedagogical practices surrounding these familiar works. By introducing and applying these interpretive frames to the field of secondary English education, this book demonstrates that there is more to say about these texts, ways to productively problematize them, and to reconfigure how they may be read and used in the classroom.




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