Literary criticism
January 1, 1999
Inaugural Lecture delivered on 10 June 1999 at the University of London Senate House.
January 1, 1997
Heinrich Böll on Page and Screen makes available the papers given
at the symposium held at the Institute of Germanic Studies and the Goethe Institute,
London, in December 1995, to commemorate the tenth anniversary of Böll's
death. The articles present new critical perspectives on a writer who is now
generally accepted as one of the most important literary figures in Germany
during the second half of the twentieth century, and some essays pay particular
attention to the hitherto neglected area of Böll's contribution to radio
and film, examining the work of a number of renowned directors who have translated
his scenarios and characters into the language of the popular mass media.
March 1, 1996
Depuis
quelque temps la ‘pensée’ de Joubert est connue et étudiée, mais ce qu’on
ignore est l’importance qu’il donne à l’acte même d’écrire et
son scepticisme à l’égard du ‘livre’. Joubert ne
destine pas ses écrits à la publication. Il s’attache dans
son manuscript à designer la singularité absolue, ‘infracasable’,
de chaque moment et de chaque fragment d’écriture. Mais ce qu’aucune edition n’a
pu montrer jusqu’à present, c’est que Joubert était
non moins fascine et troublé par l’acte même de l’écriture
et la nature epistémologique du livre que par la nécessité d’élaborer une esthétique
cohérente. Les éditeurs actuels ont préféré typographier ces carnets, tout en
reproduisant, autant que possible, l’inscription du texte sur la page. Les...
January 1, 1996
Stendhal et la Hollande présente au
lecteur quelque 200 documents inédits rédigés par Stendhal. Accompagnés de notes et
commentaires autographes ils illustrent une étape essentielle de la genèse de
son style. Elaine Williamson, qui a découvert ces documents, montre dans son introduction
comment les techniques de composition utilisées par Stendhal dans son travail administrative
préfigurent son œuvre de romancier. Ces documents
datent du temps où Stendhal, auditeur au Conseil d’Etat, était chargé de l’administration
des domaines et des bâtiments de la Couronne en Hollande, territoire réuni à la
France en 1810 par Napoléon. Ils situent son œuvre dans l’univers du Premier Empire et s’appuient sur
des notes identifiant ses sources, matière...
January 1, 1995
This long-awaited
edition brings together for the first time 366 letters, cards and telegrams
exchanged between Craig and his patron the cosmopolitan Count Kessler. An
important primary source, illuminated by Dr Newman's commentary, it focuses on
three areas of particular importance:- 1. Craig's artistic ideas and the spread
of his influence through exhibitions and books; proposals are developed for
work with Otto Brahm, Eleonora Duse, Max Reinhardt, Henry van de Velde, Eduard
Verkade, Leopold Jessner, Dyaghilev, Beerbohm Tree, C. B. Cochran, and others.
2. Kessler's Cranach Press Hamlet
with wood-engraved illustrations by Craig; this is a landmark in the history of
twentieth-century book design and printing whose genesis is now fully...
January 1, 1994
Forced to take religious vows in 1620, aged sixteen, Arcangela Tarabotti lived and died in the convent of Sant' Anna in Venice. Her works are mainly attacks on the social, political, and religious subordination of women. Her Tirannia paterna and L'Inferno monacale were not allowed publication in her lifetime. Without formal education, Tarabotti found some encouragement from members of the libertine Accademia degli Incogniti, especially its founder G.F. Loredan. He promoted the translation into Italian and publication of a notorious, though anonymous, Latin treatise which claimed Scriptural proof that women did not have a rational soul, and were not redeemed by Christ: like animals, they lacked moral responsibility. In the name of her sex,...
January 1, 1994
Jodelle's startling originality as a lyric poet has only been recognised recently. His reputation in this century has mainly depended on his play Cléopâtre, the first regular tragedy based upon the Classical model to be performed in French. But while his lyric poetry was much appreciated by contemporaries, he was dismissed by intervening generations of critics, who, searching for norms, mistook his originality and vigour for amateurishness and incapability. This edition of the Amours, which were first printed in 1574, after Jodelle's death, is the first modern edition to produce the complete collection in the order originally printed. Richard Griffiths shows that, within the sonnets, this order reflects a structure of well-organized suites...
January 1, 1994
Six years after achieving fame as the first woman ever to reach the unexplored Arctic islands of Spitzbergen, Léonie d'Aunet's distinction was transformed into notoriety when she was found in the act of adultery with Victor Hugo. In the 1840s, adultery was, for women at least, a criminal act, and Léonie d'Aunet was committed to prison and then to a period of confinement in a convent. Having lost children, friends, and financial support, she turned, on her release, to writing as a means of making a living. Perhaps reflecting her own experiences, the status of women in society is a theme central to all her work. Jane Osborn was first staged in Paris in 1855. Although it received favourable reviews in the press, it is clear that the critics...
January 1, 1994
First published in 1690, and one of the most popular novels in the eighteenth century, L'Histoire d'Hypolite, Comte de Duglas, was subsequently expunged from the literary canon. L'Histoire d'Hypolite confronts us with the novel at the dawn
of the eighteenth century, and with the problems of a woman writer.
Madame d'Aulnoy shows her powers as a literary artist in her image of
England as a land of violence and passion, in the creation of the
heroine Julie, a subtle mixture of subversiveness and passive acceptance
of a morally compromised social order, and, above all, in the character
of Hypolite, the archetype of the passionate rebel who was at one with
the natural world. The historical disenfranchisement of the woman writer...