Published July 2015
Michel-Jean Sedaine: Maillard, ou Paris sauvé et Raimond V, comte de Toulouse
Edited by John Dunkley
Phoenix 8
Oscar Wilde and the Simulacrum: The Truth of Masks
Giles Whiteley
Studies In Comparative Literature 35
- ‘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
Published March 2016
Alexis Piron, Gustave-Wasa
Edited by Derek Connon
Critical Texts 57
- ‘Connon’s rich critical edition boasts extensive contextualization and intriguing paratexts. His wide-ranging Introduction analyses the tragedic elements of pity, terror, and character self-revelation, alongside Piron’s spirited self-defence against Prévost’s accusations of plagiarism.’ — Síofra Pierse, Modern Language Review 113.1, January 2018, 244-45 (full text online)
Published May 2016
Georg Kaiser, After Expressionism: Five Plays
Translated by Fred Bridgham
New Translations 11
- ‘This volume is a valuable addition to world literature libraries, and of great interest to scholars of theatre... Scholars can be grateful to Bridgham for his efforts in placing these works before a broader public.’ — Carole J. Lambert, Translation and Literature 27, 2019, 100-07 (full text online)
Published November 2016
Gabriel-Marie Legouvé, La Mort d'Abel
Edited by Paola Perazzolo
Critical Texts 61
Published April 2017
The Cultural Legacy of María Zambrano
Edited by Xon de Ros and Daniela Omlor
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 24
- ‘Tal y como promete su tîtulo, este monográfico le ofrece al lector una visión de conjunto del legado cultural de María Zambrano. Un elenco multidisciplinar e internacional de colaboradores se reúnen en esta publicacíon para, gracias a la cuidadosa labor de selección y edición de Xon de Ros y Daniela Omlor, proporcionar una contextualización de la extensa producción zambraniana en relación a las principales corrientes del pensamiento occidental contemporáneo.’ — Beatriz Caballero Rodríguez, Revista de Hispanismo Filosófico 23, 2019, 226-28
- ‘Pioneras en su contexto... Coronan el volumen una bibliografía y un índex, dando cuenta de la vigencia del pensamiento de María Zambrano en distintas ramas del saber como la filosofía, la poesía, las artes plásticas o la política.’ — Carmen María López López, Las Torres de Lucca 12, January-June 2018, 285-92
- ‘An important contribution to Zambrano’s bibliography... focuses on Zambrano’s role as a cultural agent, looking at her impact in the following areas: avant-garde, feminism, psycho-analysis, literary comparativism, art criticism and semiotics, autobiographical writing, political theory, historical memory and exile.’ — Pilar Molina, The Year's Work in Modern Language Studies 70, 2018, 284 (full text online)
- ‘Serious and sustained academic attention in the Anglophone world is in its infancy. The Cultural Legacy of María Zambrano takes on a pioneering role by being among the first book-length studies aimed at an English-speaking readership... A coherent and rigorous body of research, inviting the reader to reassess the impact of Zambrano’s legacy alongside her place in Western intellectual history.’ — Beatriz Caballero Rodríguez, Modern Language Review 115.1, 2020, 195-96 (full text online)
Les Veuves créoles
Edited by Julia Prest
Critical Texts 34
- ‘In compiling this edition, Prest aims to reveal how the play could be ‘of considerable interest today in the context of renewed and ongoing research into the story of French colonialism and, increasingly, in colonial and créole drama’ (p. 5). This edition of Les Veuves créoles is a concise and riveting introduction to these research areas, and would in addition provide an ideal teaching tool.’ — Vanessa Lee, Bulletin of Francophone Postcolonial Studies 8.2, Autumn 2017, 26-27
Published August 2017
Commemorating Mirabeau: Mirabeau aux Champs-Elysées and other texts
Edited by Jessica Goodman
Critical Texts 58
- ‘In this fine book, Jessica Goodman provides the full corrected and modernized texts of five plays from the era of the French Revolution, three of them published in 1791 and two available only in manuscript... Goodman has done wonderful detective work, providing us with the performance history of the plays, the number of people likely to have seen them, and the amount the authors made on the productions... I hope that Goodman will continue to haunt the archives and bring more gems like these plays back into circulation, and I am confident that readers of her introduction and notes will find them useful and instructive.’ — Robert H. Blackman, H-France February 2018, 18.30
- ‘In this intriguing volume, Jessica Goodman unites five texts dating from the weeks following the death of Mirabeau on 2 April 1791... Particularly interesting is her analysis of Mirabeau aux Champs-Élysées and Gouges’s authorial strategies. This volume is an important contribution to scholarship on the Revolutionary period and, more generally, to our understanding of the commemorative practices of the late eighteenth century.’ — John R. Iverson, French Studies 72.4, October 2018, 601-02
Published September 2017
Michel-Jean Sedaine: Théâtre de la Révolution
Edited by Mark Darlow
Critical Texts 63
- ‘Théâtre de la Révolution is an impeccably researched edition of Michel-Jean Sedaine’s last operatic works... Sedaine’s Théâtre de la Révolution will be required reading for scholars of eighteenth-century theatre and music. Thanks to Darlow’s introduction, the work is also an essential contribution to scholarship on cultural production and policy during the Revolution... Overall, eighteenth-century French musical theatre, ignored by dix-huitièmistes for generations, has a champion in Mark Darlow and a welcome new title in his edition of Sedaine’s last librettos.’ — Logan Connors, H-France 18.95, April 2018
- ‘This is another admirable critical edition from Darlow which sheds new light on a playwright’s transition from Ancien Régime to Revolution.’ — Clare Siviter, Modern Language Review 114.1, January 2019, 144-45 (full text online)
Foreign Parts: German and Austrian Actors on the British Stage 1933-1960
Richard Dove
Germanic Literatures 15
- ‘Readers with high expectations will not be disappointed by Foreign Parts. It is a fascinating presentation of the careers of five actors who, forced to leave Germany and Austria by Hitler, set about plying their trade on the stage in Britain... Dove’s account of the actors’ careers in pre-war and wartime Britain is exemplary.’ — Anthony Grenville, AJR Journal 2018
- ‘The stories that unfold are engaging when viewed as biographies, because of the different challenges and problems each of the actors had to confront. Their different treatment when Britain decided to intern ‘enemy aliens’ reflects the chaotic and sometimes extreme nature of wartime bureaucracy, and their choices after the war are fascinating, with only Mannheim choosing to return to Germany.’ — David Barnett, Modern Language Review 114.2, April 2019, 411-12 (full text online)
Published February 2018
Maud Beerbohm Tree: Lady of the Stage
Susana Cory-Wright
Legenda (General Series)
- ‘This is a beautifully presented work, with an attractive cover and illustrations... There is much emphasis upon the personal life and career of Maud, but the book is also good on the sociopolitical changes taking place in the theatre at this time, and on the role of women in society.’ — unsigned notice, The Year's Work in English Studies 98.1, 2019, 657-58
Published May 2018
Franz Grillparzer’s Dramatic Heroines: Theatre and Women’s Emancipation in Nineteenth-Century Austria
Matthew McCarthy-Rechowicz
Germanic Literatures 1
Published September 2018
A 'New' Woman in Verga and Pirandello: From Page to Stage
Enza De Francisci
Italian Perspectives 40
- ‘Effectively demonstrates that the two Sicilian writers, conventionally thought of as patriarchal figures, have, in their dramatic works, an affinity with the emerging ‘new woman’.’ — Mary Ann Frese Witt, Modern Language Review 115.2, 2020, 470-71 (full text online)
Published February 2019
Gravity and Grace: Essays for Roger Pearson
Edited by Charlie Louth and Patrick McGuinness
Legenda (General Series)
- ‘A core series of contributions offers a remarkably sustained and rich reflection on the interplay between the aesthetic and ethical notions of gravity and grace.’ — Scott M. Powers, H-France 20, June 2020, no. 92
- ‘Works of art function by allowing something to happen, rather than by making something happen, and are nothing without our active participation. The prescriptive weightiness of words in practical discourse is not what poetry, especially, puts in play. That certainly makes this book a fitting tribute to the wonderful work of Roger Pearson, whose own writing is never heavy, never pedantic, but always invites and inspires the reader to continue thinking beyond the page.’ — Peter Dayan, Modern Language Review 116.1, 2020, 188-89 (full text online)
Santería, Vodou and Resistance in Caribbean Literature: Daughters of the Spirits
Paul Humphrey
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 12
- ‘Humphrey does not argue for the homogenization of [Vodou and Santería], but for the honest recognition and acceptance of their differences. Moving past the violent stereotyping [...], he encourages us to treat these religions as ‘living systems’ in which slavery, colonialism, creolization and hybridity intersect in a dynamic negotiation of all the complexities that create what would be a ‘postcolonial’ Caribbean.’ — Janelle Rodriques, Bulletin of Spanish Studies 97.2, 2020, 294-95
Published May 2019
Marmontel and Demoustier, Le Misanthrope corrigé: Two Eighteenth-Century Sequels to Molière’s ‘Le Misanthrope’
Edited by Joseph Harris
Critical Texts 65
- ‘This volume is an important addition to the corpus of Molière reception in the Enlightenment. The arc of Le Misanthrope’s reception can be traced back to the play’s first appearance with critical responses such as Donneau de Visé’s Lettre écrite sur la comédie du Misanthrope; but this new comparative and elucidating edition of two eighteenth-century sequels will encourage scholars and students to encompass a wider range of texts in their reflections on Molière’s audiences and adaptors.’ — Suzanne Jones, H-France 20.54, April 2020
- ‘Harris’s Introduction is essential reading. It provides a nuanced and fine-grained analysis of the two treatments, placing them into the context of the respective authors’ careers and the wider context of eighteenth-century ideas... the volume is a very welcome publication and is sure to be of great interest to a wide audience interested in Molière and his literary posterity.’ — Mark Darlow, Modern Language Review 115.4, October 2020, 917-18 (full text online)
Published September 2020
The First English Translations of Molière: Drama in Flux 1663-1732
Suzanne Jones
Transcript 13
Published November 2021
Francisco Nieva: Coronada y el toro
Edited by Komla Aggor
Critical Texts 64
- ‘La prestigiosa editorial asentada en Cambridge Modern Humanities Research Association acaba de publicar una edición de la obra del genio español Francisco Nieva, «Coronada y el Toro», con una magnífica introducción y estudio del especialista en Nieva Komla Aggor, profesor de la Texas Christian University. «Coronada y el Toro» es una obra maestra.’ — Martín-Miguel Rubio Esteban, ABC 29 September 2020, 14
- ‘La Modern Humanities Research Association acaba de publicar una excelente edición de la obra de Francisco Nieva, Coronada y el toro, preparada por el investigador experto en la obra de Nieva, Komla Aggor.’ — www.francisconieva.com September 2020
Published December 2021
Hamlet Translations: Prisms of Cultural Encounters across the Globe
Edited by Márta Minier and Lily Kahn
Transcript 16
- ‘This is a rich and valuable anthology about a fascinating topic. It should be useful not just to scholars of translation, but also to research on the play in general, as each of these iterations teaches us about this strange and manifold tragedy.’ — Michael Saenger, Translation Studies advance publication online (full text online)
Published February 2022
Poetics, Performance and Politics in French and Italian Renaissance Comedy
Lucy Rayfield
Transcript 18
- ‘[Rayfield] provides in-depth socio-cultural and cross-cultural context. She has contributed an unusual study of the very small world of French humanist comedy, stimulatingly expanding it both from the inside and from the outside, schoolboys, polygraphs, and printers brushing elbows with French royals and wealthy Florentines.’ — Corinne Noirot, H-France 23 (May 2023), no. 86
Published March 2022
Queering Lorca’s Duende: Desire, Death, Intermediality
Miguel García
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 49
Published June 2022
Residual Figuration in Samuel Beckett and Alberto Giacometti
Lin Li
Studies In Comparative Literature 53
- ‘In this ambitious yet focused study of the relationship between certain formal characteristics in Samuel Beckett’s dramatic works and Alberto Giacometti’s art, Lin Li not only clarifies these two artists’ shared milieu, but also sheds light on new ways to understand both subjecthood and reading more generally.’ — Charlie Clements, Modern Language Review 2024, 119.1, 139-41 (full text online)
Published September 2022
Last Scene of All: Representing Death on the Western Stage
Edited by Jessica Goodman
Legenda (General Series)
The Experience of Colour in Lorca's Theatre
Jade Boyd
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 54
- ‘Boyd is sensitive to what is left out as well as what is explicit. She thus underlines the absence in this tragedy of stage directions regarding lighting. She also reads ‘verbal colour’ into objects, food and animals, so the mention of frogs, chocolate, earth, fire and goldfinches becomes part of an imagined canvas of images, sometimes as potent as what we can see on stage.’ — John London, Bulletin of Spanish Studies 100.6, 2023, 930-32 (full text online)
Published October 2022
Uruguayan Theatre in Translation: Theory and Practice
Sophie Stevens
Transcript 15
- ‘A welcome and much needed contribution to Uruguayan theatre studies and translation... Stevens’ translations are thoughtfully crafted, beautifully articulated, clear, and amply tested for the stage. They reveal the careful and meticulous work of a researcher who has investigated thoroughly the context, formal aspects of language use, rhetorical devices, and style of the target text in collaboration with playwrights, actors, directors, scholars and students in workshops, rehearsals, table readings and seminars. Virtually unknown to most English audiences, the translated plays included in this book are true gems and will be of great interest to theater scholars, students, and practitioners. Through juxtaposing analysis and translation of theater in one study, Stevens pioneers dialogue between the fields of Uruguayan theater and translation studies in a book that will hold great appeal to theater scholars, translators, students and practitioners.’ — The Mercurian 14 November 2023
- ‘Overall, this book is exemplary in offering insight into the decisions made by translators alongside directors, playwrights, and actors. The focus on praxis and self-reflection constitutes a novel and creative way of engaging with Uruguayan theatre as both national and transnational. The practical and theoretical considerations proposed by Stevens will be of use to translators, dramatists, and theatre scholars alike.’ — Cara Levey, Modern Language Review 2024, 119.1, 167-69 (full text online)
- ‘This volume already fills a need because there are never enough translations of plays from Spanish into English for academic and practical purposes such as research, teaching and staging. Beyond fulfilling a basic need, however, Stevens’ book explores a deeper inquiry into the act of translation by linking it to thematic, cultural and dramatic concepts. For Stevens the process of translation practice is not merely technical; rather it is a methodology that informs scholarship on the dramatic text in new ways.’ — Sarah M. Misemer, Bulletin of Spanish Studies 100.5, 2023, 773-75 (full text online)