Published May 1998

Proust: Questions d'identité
Julia Kristeva
Special Lecture Series 1

  • ‘Raises some intriguing questions... which must clearly be meditated over by serious students of Proust.’ — Nola M. Leov, New Zealand Journal of French Studies 22.1, 2001, 29
  • ‘The questions addressed in this short text are all compelling and fascinating.’ — Marion Schmid, Modern Language Review 95.3, 2000, 844 (full text online)
  • ‘Kristeva presents Proust as the first writer to show - not unambiguously, yet to devastating effect - the sado-masochistic basis of identity pursued as a form of belonging.’ — unsigned notice, Forum for Modern Language Studies 37.1, 2001, 103
  • ‘An incisive examination of the complex nature of identity, whether it be national, religious or sexual.’ — notice, The Year's Work in Modern Language Studies 60, 1998, 166

Published July 1999

Aeneas Takes the Metro: The Presence of Virgil in Twentieth-Century French Literature
Fiona Cox
Studies In Comparative Literature 3

  • unsigned notice, Forum for Modern Language Studies 37.3, 2001, 341
  • ‘Affirms that Virgil's 'flexibility and openness to reception' has ensured his continuing relevance for writers of widely differing persuasions.’ — Julian Cowley, The Year's Work in English Studies 80, 2002, 615
  • ‘The fine chapters on Pierre Klossowski's controversial Aeneid translation and on the nouveau roman constitute in their grouping a genuine contribution to our understanding of Virgil's postwar reception... the coherence of traditional heroic and imperialistic readings gives way to a postmodern view of Aeneas as exile.’ — Theodore Ziolkowski, French Studies LV.2, 2001, 269-70
  • ‘Wide-ranging and illuminating... In sum, Aeneas Takes The Metro illustrates, if proof were needed, the ability of a well-informed and scholarly comparative study to transcend linguistic, formal and temporal barriers successfully and productively.’ — Kiera Vaclavik, New Comparison 31, 2002, 202-3

Yiddish in the Contemporary World: Papers of the First Mendel Friedman International Conference on Yiddish
Edited by Gennady Estraikh and Mikhail Krutikov
Studies In Yiddish 1

Published August 1999

Anglo-German Interactions in the Literature of the 1890s
Patrick Bridgwater
Legenda (General Series)

  • ‘The author is to be congratulated for shedding new light on a wide range of Anglo-German cross-currents... His study weaves a multi-faceted web of historical and inter-personal connections, and is at its best when it forges links between the approaches of different authors and diverse forms of art.’ — Susanne Stark, Modern Language Review 97.2, 2002, 523-4 (full text online)
  • ‘This well-documented volume provides new insights into the key social and cultural issues of the 1890s, including the truth and morality of artistic writing.’ — Crocker and Womack, The Year's Work in English Studies 2000, 532

Published December 1999

Assuming the Light: The Parisian Literary Apprenticeship of Miguel Angel Asturias
Stephen Henighan
Legenda (General Series)

  • ‘The combination of close textual analysis of Asturias's own work, both fictional and journalistic, with that of other discourses, including the work of his contemporaries as well as his critics, is, in my view, one of the many strengths of Assuming the Light. Frequently provocative and meticulously researched, this book will be of interest therefore not only to Asturias specialists but also more generally to scholars engaged in Latin American cultural studies, particularly those interested in questions of cultural identity.’ — Claire Lindsay, Modern Language Review 97.3, 2002, 742-3 (full text online)
  • ‘Lucid, sophisticated, beautifully written, it provides a valuable and thought-provoking introduction to the writer's extraordinary sojourn in Paris... Stephen Henighan seems destined to make an outstanding contribution to Asturias studies.’ — Gerald Martin, Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 79, 2002
  • ‘Valuable, problematic insights for those conversant with Asturias's work and its criticism.’ — Paul Jordan, Bulletin of Spanish Studies LXXIX, 2002, 826-8

Critical Fictions: Nerval's Les Illuminés
Meryl Tyers
Research Monographs in French Studies 3

  • ‘These six mavericks reflect aspects of Nerval himself, who thus becomes the implicit seventh in the series... Tyers's writing is as lively as it is bedazzling.’ — Roger Cardinal, Modern Language Review 96.1, 2001, 195-6 (full text online)
  • ‘As Meryl Tyers argues throughout this monograph, Nerval's Les Illuminés is one of his most intriguing but also most neglected works... Tyers examines the author's textual folie, an imaginary library in which the self loses itself.’ — unsigned notice, Forum for Modern Language Studies 37.1, 2001, 115
  • ‘On retiendra aussi une hypothèse intéressante - et neuve, semblable-t-il - sur les sens du titre, Les Illuminés, que l'on peut rapprocher des 'livres illuminés', c'est-a-dire orné d'illuminations, ou d'enluminures.’ — Michel Brix, Studi francesi 130.1, 2000, 189

Published January 2000

Divided Loyalties: East German Writers and the Politics of German Division 1945-1953
Peter Davies
Bithell Series of Dissertations 24 / MHRA Texts and Dissertations 49

Mapping a Tradition: Francophone Women's Writing from Guadeloupe
Sam Haigh
MHRA Texts and Dissertations 48

  • ‘This scholarly work is a valuable resource for students, at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels as well as for the broader academic community, for it offers various points of entry for the reader, including those interested in Caribbean literatures, francophone literatures, postcolonial theory and criticism, feminist theories, popular culture, and the politics of identity, among other related fields.’ — Suzanne Crosta, International Journal of Francophone Studies 8, 2005, 105-08

Another Country: Sexuality and National Identity in Catalan Gay Fiction
Josep-Anton Fernàndez
MHRA Texts and Dissertations 50

Mining for Jewels: Evgenii Zamiatin and the Literary Stylization of Rus'
Philip Cavendish
MHRA Texts and Dissertations 51

Time and Narrative
Edited by Nicola Bradbury
Yearbook of English Studies 30

Published March 2000

Expressivism: The Vicissitudes of a Theory in the Writings of Proust and Barthes
Johnnie Gratton
Research Monographs in French Studies 6

  • ‘Refreshing... This book is a must for graduates coming new to this debate and to these authors, and for the wider reader it is an engaging and polished addition to an excellent series.’ — Timothy Mathews, French Studies LVI.3, 2002, 421-2
  • ‘Gratton's conclusion is that we should remember that words have matted, contradictory histories, to guard ourselves against believing wholeheartedly in unmediated expression... Repays attentive reading.’ — Ingrid Wassenaar, Fabula April, 2001
  • ‘Nel corso della sua attenta analisi.’ — Antonella Arrigoni, Studi francesi XLVI, 2002, 2

Published June 2000

Metaphor and Materiality: German Literature and the World-View of Science 1780-1955
Peter D. Smith
Studies In Comparative Literature 4

  • ‘Smith is able to show convincingly how ambivalence about the role of science or scientific tendencies permeates these literary works, and he offers interesting insights into the sometimes subtle thematization of scientific ideas in literature.’ — Elizabeth Neswald, British Journal for the History of Science 35, 2002, 363-4
  • ‘Smith's mastery of both primary and secondary sources is remarkable, and his bibliographies provide a useful guide to the (often vast) secondary literature... Demonstrates the extraordinary richness and importance of the vein of research into which Smith has tapped, and puts much other work in so-called Cultural Studies to shame.’ — Paul Bishop, Modern Language Review 97.2, 2002, 505-7 (full text online)
  • ‘In this thorough study of the exchange between science and literature, Peter D. Smith skillfully argues that the idea of these Two Cultures existing in isolation from one another is overly simplistic... An excellent contribution to the vital research currently examining the interdisciplinary nature of scientific and literary works.’ — Heather I. Sullivan, Monatshefte 94.4, 2002, 541-2

Published July 2000

Language, the Novelist and National Identity in Post-Franco Catalonia
Kathryn Crameri
Legenda (General Series)

  • Modern Language Review 97.3, 2002, 741-42) (full text online)
  • ‘The global rebirth of nationality studies in the humanities, now well into its second decade, has largely coincided with attempts in Catalonia to flesh out the decentralizing provisions of Spain's 1978 Constitution... Crameri provides us with a valuable new tool for enhancing our understanding of these important and ongoing processes.’ — Bulletin of Spanish Studies LXXX, 2003, 385-7)

Pierre Klossowski: The Persistence of a Name
Ian James
Legenda (General Series)

  • ‘Klossowski is presented here as a key contributor to post-modern thought and aesthetics.’ — unsigned notice, Forum for Modern Language Studies xxxix/1, 2003, 106
  • Antonella Arrigoni, Studi francesi XLVI, 2002, 2
  • ‘The appearance of the first monograph in English on Klossowski is welcome, all the more so as James's study provides such a scrupulous and thoughtful account of Klossowski's diverse output, its intellectual inheritance and its contemporary resonances.’ — Ian Maclachlan, French Studies LVII.2, 2003, 270-1

Published November 2000

Speculative Identities: Contemporary Italian Women’s Narrative
Rita Wilson
Italian Perspectives 3

Elio Vittorini: The Writer and the Written
Guido Bonsaver
Italian Perspectives 4

Origin and Identity: Essays on Svevo and Trieste
Elizabeth Schächter
Italian Perspectives 5

Britain and Italy from Romanticism to Modernism: A Festschrift for Peter Brand
Edited by Martin McLaughlin
Legenda (General Series)

  • ‘The book concludes with a useful bibliography of Peter Brand's work and offers a valuable résumé of work in the field since Brand's pioneering study.’ — unsigned notice, Forum for Modern Language Studies xxxix/1, 2003, 91
  • ‘This rich and varied collection of essays... a worthy homage to Peter Brand.’ — Carmine G. di Biase, Italica 79.4, 2002, 568-72
  • ‘A volume that, with its interlacing strands, very effectively offers a picture of the complex relationship between two cultures reciprocally illuminating each other in often unpredictable ways.’ — Laura Lepschy, Modern Language Review 98.2, 2003, 482-3 (full text online)
  • ‘Une présentation très claire, dans laquelle toutefois le titre peut paraïtre trompeur, car il resterait à explorer, pendant cette même période, ce qu'apporte précisément cet autre aspect de la culture moderne italienne qu'est par exemple sa production romanesque. On songe à Manzoni (1785-1873) dont l'èuvre reflète à bien des égards le passage du Romantisme au Modernisme.’ — Annie Dubernard Laurent, Revue de littérature comparée 3, 2002, 381-3

Roger Laporte: The Orphic Text
Ian Maclachlan
Legenda (General Series)

  • ‘Maclachlan admirably pulls off the difficult task of maintaining a just tension between the demands of critical exegesis and the demands of the work itself... succeeds in opening a space for their reading and indicating the importance of this reading.’ — Patrick ffrench, French Studies LVI.3, 2002, 432-3
  • Elisa Bricco, Studi francesi XLVI, 2002, 2

Marguerite Yourcenar: Reading the Visual
Nigel Saint
Studies In Comparative Literature 5

  • ‘Scholarly and lucidly written, Saint's study will appeal both to the specialist and to readers with a broader interest in word and image research.’ — Jean H. Duffy, French Studies LVI.3, 2002, 430
  • unsigned notice, Société Internationale d'Etudes Yourcenariennes 21, 2000, 8

Italo Calvino and the Landscape of Childhood
Claudia Nocentini
Italian Perspectives 6

Published December 2000

Questions of the Liminal in the Fiction of Julio Cortázar
Dominic Moran
Legenda (General Series)

  • ‘An ambitious attempt to improve the level of sophistication of Cortázar criticism and, at the same time, to nudge the existing consensus about the meaning of Cortázar's work in a specific direction... What is important is not that Moran shows us yet again that Cortázar's fiction emphasizes the ambiguity and mystery surrounding reality and the human psyche. It is that he offers a way to put that ambiguity and mystery into the context of some modern thinking.’ — Donald L. Shaw, Bulletin of Spanish Studies LXXIX, 2002, 670-1

Published January 2001

North American Short Stories and Short Fictions
Edited by Nicola Bradbury
Yearbook of English Studies 31

Published December 2001

Conceptions of the Absurd: From Surrealism to Chestov's and Fondane's Existential Thought
Ramona Fotiade
Legenda (General Series)

  • ‘Fotiade argues persuasively that the ideas of Chestov and Fondane form the basis of a tradition of dissident thought in the 1920s and beyond... an original and illuminating contribution to French intellectual history, a clearly organized and closely argued exploration of a neglected field.’ — Douglas Smith, French Studies LVII.3, 2003, 414-15