A Taste for the Negative: Beckett and Nihilism
Shane Weller
Legenda (General Series) •4 February 2005
Oscar Wilde and the Simulacrum: The Truth of Masks
Giles Whiteley
Studies In Comparative Literature 35•1 July 2015
- ‘The strength of this study for the reader of Wilde is the way in which Whiteley seeks to connect Wilde’s theoretical writings with his fictions. This is central to its Deleuzian approach, its ‘active refusal of the critical either-or’, its determination to find the complementarity between Wilde the ‘producer of concepts’ and Wilde the producer of ‘percepts and affects’ (p. 24)... there is intellectual provocation at every turn, and difficulty to be celebrated.’ — Anne Varty, The OScholars April 2017
- ‘Giles Whiteley’s provocative monograph announces a reading of Wilde ‘through Deleuze and postmodern philosophical commentary on the simulacrum’. It also signals a challenge to ‘recent neo-historicist readings’ which ‘limit [Wilde’s] irruptive power’. Drawn to Deleuze’s notions of ‘disjunctive synthesis’, Whiteley emphasizes Wilde’s credentials as a ‘serious’ thinker, presenting him as a fusion of philosopher and artist. Where many recent critics have been at pains to place him in a precise historical and cultural context, Whiteley maintains that Wilde’s ‘contemporaries’ are properly determined by his intellectual outlook, and are therefore drawn from his past (Plato, Aristotle, Hegel), present (Arnold, Ruskin, Baudelaire, Nietzsche), and future (Deleuze, Blanchot, Foucault, and Klossowski, among others).’ — Nick Freeman, Modern Language Review 116.2, April 2017, 499-500 (full text online)
- ‘From the point of view of presentation, the volume is of the highest standard... Oscar Wilde and the Simulacrum is, in my opinion, an important contribution to Wilde studies in at least two respects. Firstly, it pertinently resituates Wilde’s works within the intellectual context in which they were conceived and convincingly challenges the idea according to which Wilde’s philosophy of art is simply a derivative, Platonic and Hegelian, idealism. Secondly, it stages a large number of fruitful encounters between Wilde’s texts and contemporary theory, thereby taking much further Richard Ellmann’s intuition that Wilde was ‘one of us’ and shedding new light on the Irishman’s literary production. Oscar Wilde and the Simulacrum is itself a Deleuzian event, creating ‘lines of flight’ and causing renewed delight in the reader’s apprehension of Wilde’s shimmering surfaces.’ — Xavier Giudicelli, Cahiers victoriens et édouardiens 85, Spring 2017
Towards a Cultural Philology: Phèdre and the Construction of 'Racine'
Amy Wygant
Research Monographs in French Studies 4•1 July 1999
- ‘This book approaches Racine not primarily as a classicist, but as a playwright rooted in his own time... Through references to philosophy, art and music, Wygant interrogates the meaning of frequently used phrases such as 'the music of Racine'. This study draws together many strands of research through the juxtaposition of a multiplicity of areas and details.’ — Rosemary Arnoux, New Zealand Journal of French Studies 22.2, 2001, 43-4
- ‘A fresh, clever, often entertaining book, about lots of things as well as Phèdre, and the brief volume is lavishly and revealing illustrated.’ — Richard Parish, Modern Language Review 96.1, 2001, 187-8 (full text online)
François II, roi de France
Edited by Thomas Wynn
Critical Texts 8•3 November 2006
- ‘This is a welcome edition and a particularly timely one in the context of the current reappraisal of the minores and consequent refinement of our picture of the French Enlightenment, and of the problematization of dramatic reception.’ — John Dunkley, Modern Language Review 104.4, 2009, 1145 (full text online)
Delisle de Sales, Théâtre d'amour and Baculard d’Arnaud, L’Art de foutre, ou Paris foutant
Edited by Thomas Wynn
Phoenix 3•1 June 2011
- ‘Théâtre d’amour has never been published, and so its availability in this volume will nevertheless prove invaluable to scholars of the genre in the eighteenth century, and may also encourage tutors to include extracts in a module on French drama or erotic writing of the period ... The reader will find both works accompanied and illuminated by numerous footnotes, while Wynn’s clearly written and comprehensive introduction contextualizes both works historically and in terms of the genre’s remarkable popularity.’ — John Phillips, Modern Language Review 107, 2012, 1255-56 (full text online)
An International Annotated Bibliography of Strindberg Studies 1870–2005: Volume 1: General Studies
Compiled, annotated, and edited by Michael Robinson
MHRA Bibliographies 4/1 of 3•1 October 2008
- ‘In these three volumes Michael Robinson, already a renowned Strindberg scholar, has completed an exceptional work... The concise and informative annotations are an essential part of this remarkable bibliography, and there are cross-references to facilitate research projects ... Michael Robinson has performed an invaluable service with this bibliography, not only for those readers interested in Strindberg but for everyone who wants to have a sense of the international literary and cultural interchange that his works have generated.’ — Ross Shideler, Modern Language Review 105.2, 2010, 616-17 (full text online)
An International Annotated Bibliography of Strindberg Studies 1870–2005: Volume 2: The Plays
Compiled, annotated, and edited by Michael Robinson
MHRA Bibliographies 4/2 of 3•1 October 2008
An International Annotated Bibliography of Strindberg Studies 1870–2005: Volume 3: Autobiographies, Novels, Poetry, Letters, Historical Works, Natural History and Science, Linguistics, Painting and the Other Arts, Politics, Psychopathology, Biography, Miscellaneous, Dissertations
Compiled, annotated, and edited by Michael Robinson
MHRA Bibliographies 4/3 of 3•1 October 2008
La Devineresse ou les faux enchantemens
Édition présentée, établie, et annotée par Julia Prest
Critical Texts 12•1 November 2007