👤 National and cultural identity

Published December 1994

The Habsburg Legacy: National Identity in Historical Perspective
Edited by Edward Timms and Ritchie Robertson
Austrian Studies 5

Published July 1999

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 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

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

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)

The Shtetl: Image and Reality
Edited by Gennady Estraikh and Mikhail Krutikov
Studies In Yiddish 2

Published November 2000

Italy in Crisis: 1494
Edited by Jane Everson and Diego Zancani
Legenda (General Series)

  • ‘The eight chapters are prefaced by a stimulating introduction, and rounded off by a helpful index: in all a splendid collection of original and scholarly essays.’ — Paul Diffley, Italian Studies LVII, 2002, 167-8
  • notice, The Year's Work in Modern Language Studies 62, 2000, 395

Published July 2001

Yiddish and the Left: Papers of the Third Mendel Friedman International Conference on Yiddish
Edited by Gennady Estraikh and Mikhail Krutikov
Studies In Yiddish 3

  • ‘The international roster of contributors covers an impressively broad range of topics... linked by a common thematic thread, the attempt of progressive Yiddish-language writers, intellectuals and activists to reconcile their competing allegiances to the Jewish poeple or religion and their leftist politics. The uniformly high quality of the collection and its breadth of topics and approaches makes it an important contribution to interdisciplinary Yiddish studies and to related fields of enquiry (foreign language and immigrant journalism, bilingual education, minority and exile literatures, African colonial literature, Soviet studies).’ — Elizabeth Loentz, Modern Language Review 98.4, 2003, 1066-7 (full text online)
  • ‘The quality of all the essays is no less than would be expected from the list of contributors, but particularly worthy of mention are Estraikh's analysis of the presence and representation of the Soviet Union in the New York-based communist daily Morga-frayhayt, Dafna Clifford's reflections on the Berlin period of author David Bergelson, and Efraim Zadoff's exploration of the educational systems of the Ashkenazi communities of Argentina and Mexico.’ — unsigned notice, Forum for Modern Language Studies XL.1, 2004, 120

Published January 2003

'Hitler's First Victim'? Memory and Representation in Post-War Austria
Edited by Judith Beniston and Robert Vilain
Austrian Studies 11

Published December 2003

Crossing Fields in Modern Spanish Culture
Edited by Federico Bonaddio and Xon de Ros
Legenda (General Series)

  • ‘Federico Bonaddio and Xon de Ros have put together a very useful series of short and punchy articles which span over a hundred and fifty years of Spanish culture, from the 1860s to the present day... Without doubt this collection would make an excellent addition to any university library. The essays on canonical texts may very well prove invaluable to undergraduate students while those on lesser-known writers, artists, and cinematographers will surely fulfil the same function for postgraduates and the academic community in general.’ — Jean Andrews, Modern Language Review 101.3, July 2006, 876-77 (full text online)

Published January 2004

Contemporary Greek Fiction in a United Europe: From Local History to the Global Individual
Edited by Peter Mackridge and Eleni Yannakakis
Legenda (General Series)

  • ‘The essays collected here add up to a great deal more than a shop window for recent Greek fiction. Both the editor's introduction, and the long keynote chapter by Dimitris Tziovas which follows, thoughtfully situate the new developments in the context of what has gone before. ... All the contributions, in complementary ways, explore one or more of these developing fields of interest on the part of Greek writers.’ — Roderick Beaton, The Anglo-Hellenic Review Autumn 2004, 23-4

Fact and Fiction: Representations of the Asturian Revolution
Sarah Sanchez
MHRA Texts and Dissertations 60

Configuring Community: Theories of Community Identities in Contemporary Spain
Parvati Nair
MHRA Texts and Dissertations 61

Published February 2005

Reinventing Community: Identity and Difference in Late Twentieth-Century Philosophy and Literature in French
Jane Hiddleston
Legenda (General Series)

  • ‘This is a lucid, cogently-argued work that is both extensive and focused. As such it represents an important contribution to the urgent discussion of community and the fraught relationship between "singular-plural" beings and the collectivities they form.’ — Nicole Simek, French Review 80.3, 2007, 670-71

Published September 2005

The Yiddish Presence in European Literature: Inspiration and Interaction
Edited by Joseph Sherman and Ritchie Robertson
Studies In Yiddish 5

  • ‘This excellent volume makes a most welcome contribution to the field of Jewish comparative literary studies.’ — Hugh Denman, Modern Language Review 102.2, April 2007, 600-02 (full text online)

Published January 2006

Rethinking Languages in Contact: The Case of Italian
Edited by Anna Laura Lepschy and Arturo Tosi
Studies In Linguistics 2

Published July 2007

Gypsies and Orientalism in German Literature and Anthropology of the Long Nineteenth Century
Nicholas Saul
Legenda (General Series)

  • ‘Nicholas Saul’s excellent monograph traces what might be termed the prehistory of genocide... Saul discusses many of the major writers and best-known works of nineteenth-century German literature, but also unearths long-forgotten authors and texts. Most welcome is his carefully differentiated understanding of the Gypsy in German literature: most of the writers perpetuate popular myths, but not all are negative in the same way, and some actually introduce more positive images of the Gypsy or portray them as persecuted victims. Taken together, Saul's subtle analyses of individual authors and texts build to an encyclopaedic, if largely depressing, history.’ — Todd Kontje, Modern Language Review 103.4, October 2008, 1154-55 (full text online)
  • ‘In addition to providing a valuable contribution to understanding the cultural history leading up to the Romany Holocaust, the book offers a foundation for comparing representations of Gypsies and Jews in German culture, which Saul begins to consider in the context of his study.’ — Laurel Plapp, German Quarterly Fall 2008, 502-04
  • ‘In this book Nicholas Saul endeavours to "reconstruct the shifts in the representation of the Gypsy in German culture through the medium of literature and anthropology from around 1850 to the First World War"... well-written and thought-provoking.’ — Gertrud Reershemius, Romani Studies 19.2, 2009, 183-85
  • ‘Nicholas Saul widmet sich in seiner Studie einem von der literaturwissenschaftlichen Forschung lange Zeit vernachtlässigten, in den letzten zehn Jahren jedoch deutlich ins Zentrum des Interesses gerückten Thema: der Repräsentation der sogenannten 'Zigeuner' in der deutschen Literatur vor dem Hintergrund ethnographisch-anthropologischer Diskurse.’ — Stefani Kugler, Jahrbuch der Raabe-Gesellschaft 2009, 194-200
  • ‘Adds an intelligent and long overdue analysis of Romany imagery, helpful for anyone preparing a seminar on Romanticism or Realism and all the way up to Holocaust studies.’ — Roger Russi, Monatshefte 101.3, 2009, 434-36

From Art Nouveau to Surrealism: Belgian Modernity in the Making
Edited by Nathalie Aubert, Pierre-Philippe Fraiture and Patrick McGuinness
Legenda (General Series)

  • ‘Discerning insights typify this volume, that sensitively examines sixty years of visual, literary, musical, and political avant-garde expression.’ — Silvano Levy, Modern Language Review 103.4, October 2008, 1130-31 (full text online)
  • ‘A welcome and wide-ranging picture of Belgian Modernity up to the Second World War.’ — Lénia Marques, Journal of Romance Studies 8.3, Winter 2008, 77-87
  • ‘This collection of fifteen essays is the first in English to present a wide-ranging overview of Belgian modernity between 1880 and 1950. The result is a richly detailed assessment of specifically Belgian cultural production and of its European context, divided into two sections, the first spanning 1880-1918, and the second the inter-war years... an invaluable study of a period whose cultural production the editors describe as "awkward and intractable, but also enriching and full of unexpected possibilities".’ — unsigned, Forum for Modern Language Studies 46.1, January 2010, 113

The Burgtheater and Austrian Identity: Theatre and Cultural Politics in Vienna, 1918-38
Robert Pyrah
Legenda (General Series)

  • ‘This excellent volume provides an invaluable extra dimension to previous publications on Austrian theatre between the wars through the rigorous use of archival material, reinforcing and enhancingwork based mainly on texts, reports, and reviews in the Viennese press and journals. This is a work which will be important not only to literary historians, particularly of the theatre, but also to political historians, demonstrating as it does how the history of that troubled period in Austria directly affected the theatre.’ — John Warren, Modern Language Review 103.4, October 2008, 1164-65 (full text online)
  • ‘A significant and welcome contribution to the slowly expanding body of work examining the interface of culture and politics in the First Austrian Republic... Original and well-researched.’ — Forum for Modern Language Studies 231)

Negotiating Sainthood: Distinction, Cursilería and Saintliness in Spanish Novels
Kathy Bacon
Legenda (General Series)

  • ‘Altamente recomendable para los estudiosos interesados en el análisis del complejo engarce socio-estético del género sexual, las prácticas religiosas y la modernidad. [Highly recommended for scholars interested in analysis of the complex socio-aesthetic interweaving of gender, religious practices, and modernity.]’ — Iñigo Sánchez-Llama, Iberoamericana 8.29, March 2008, 228-31
  • ‘Comprehensive studies of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century religious discourse have been rare in contemporary Spanish literary studies. Kathy Bacon’s Negotiating Sainthood seeks to alter this imbalance by contributing original, at times surprising, and ultimately convincing interpretations in this area. The text’s insightful connections between Bourdieu’s social theories, cursilería, and aspirations for saintly distinction provide invaluable theoretical tools and concepts for untangling the complexities of an historically polemical era.’ — Ruth J. Hoff, Bulletin of Spanish Studies 86, 2009, 551-52
  • ‘El manejo de una nutrida bibliografía que abarca diferentes disciplinas, así como el brillante análisis individual de cada novela, redundan asimismo en la coherencia de los argumentos esgrimidos por la profesora Bacon. Estamos, en suma, ante un libro que destaca por el rigor metodológico y que arroja nueva luz sobre las variadas manifestaciones del culto a la santidad en la novela española moderna.’ — Toni Dorca, Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 86.3 (2009), 446-47
  • ‘In short, Bacon casts a refreshingly new light on the novels in question, highlighting the complexities therein and inviting readers to revisit them. The study, as a whole, is a fascinating piece of work of clear relevance not merely for those interested in fin de siglo culture, but for a wide range of readers from disciplines both within and outside Hispanic Studies.’ — Rhian Davies, Modern Language Review 106.1, 2011, 269-70 (full text online)

The French Language and Questions of Identity
Edited by Wendy Ayres-Bennett and Mari C. Jones
Studies In Linguistics 4

  • ‘All in all, this volume is a stimulating contribution to the sociolinguistics of French.’ — Aidan Coveney, Modern Language Review 104.3, 2009, 855-56 (full text online)
  • ‘All of these excellent articled examine important aspects of identity. However [...] only the hexagon is explored in detail.’ — Helene Ossipov, French Review 82.3, 2009, 678-79
  • ‘En conclusion, on devra tout d'abord admirer les efforts des éditeurs pour intégrer en quatre parties ces dix-sept articles sensiblement variés... Le présent volume en est d'autant plus précieux.’ — Yuji Kawaguchi, Zeitschrift für französische Sprache und Literatur 118.3, 2008, 267-69
  • ‘This is an exciting book because it looks at various sociolinguistic problems from an unusual angle: instead of explaining them in terms of social and demographic factors, the aim is to study the attitudes they evoke... Altogether a delightful book, full of fascinating information and new insights, presented in a highly readable form.’ — Anne Judge, French Language Studies 19, 2009, 135-50
  • ‘This well-produced hardback presents 19 chapters written by scholars from a variety of backgrounds around the theme of the title... very enjoyable and very readable.’ — Richard Towell, French Studies 63.1, 2009, 125-26
  • ‘Der sorgfältig redigierte Sammelband behandelt facettenreich die aktuellen Probleme der sprachlich-kulturellen Identifikation an überzeugenden Beispielen und macht verständlich, warum in Frankreich, wo er Staat für die Nationalsprache verantwortlich zu machen ist, vieles sich anders darstellt als in den übrigen mittel- und westeuropäischen Staaten.’ — Christian Schmitt, Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie 125.4 (2009), 638-44

Published August 2007

France/China: Intercultural Imaginings
Alex Hughes
Research Monographs in French Studies 22

  • ‘The author's scholarly and intriguing readings could be seen to invite us to look beyond the French framings of China to the texts of writers who know the country intimately.’ — Rosalind Silvester, Modern and Contemporary France 497-98

Published November 2007

Literary Scholarship in Late Imperial Russia: Rituals of Academic Institutionalization
Andy Byford
Legenda (General Series)

  • ‘A thoroughly researched, thoughtfully conceptualized, and highly informative book that will hopefully lead to further interest in the remarkable yet in many cases still underrecognized scholarship that emerged just before and after the turn of the twentieth century.’ — Barry P. Scherr, Russian Review 67.3, July 2008, 500-01
  • ‘This elegantly written account of the development of Russian literary scholarship is distinctive for its focus on academics and university professors (kabinetnye uchenye) rather than the more familiar, civic-minded criticism associated with the names of Chernyshevskii or Belinskii... it affords a number of extremely valuable insights that are highly pertinent for the student of Russian intellectual culture more broadly.’ — Frances Nethercott, Revolutionary Russia 22.1, 2009, 97-99
  • ‘Byford’s monograph makes two extremely important systemic contributions. First, it is part of a process of reassessment of the Russian nineteenth century, whereby cultural historians attempt to step out of the teleological shadow cast by the gargantuan events of the early twentieth century, and indeed, to redress the methodological blindspots that grew from the Soviet era; second, Byford also joins those few (in the UK, largely Bakhtin Circle-oriented Russianists) who strive to contextualize the insights of early twentieth-century Russian literary theorists.’ — Carol Adlam, Modern Language Review 105.2, 2010, 620-21 (full text online)
  • ‘Ces quelques remarques n'enlèvent rien à la qualité de cet ouvrage, le premier à aborder les études littéraires en Russie sous l'angle des processus d'institutionnalisation et qui, à ce titre, constitue une étude véritablement pionnière.’ — Catherine Depretto, Cahiers du Monde Russe 2010, 794-96

Published July 2009

Wilhelm Raabe: Global Themes - International Perspectives
Edited by Dirk Göttsche and Florian Krobb
Legenda (General Series)

  • ‘Wenn die Zuschreibung von 'Internationalität' zuweilen etwas sehr allgemein und unkonkret bleibt, dann ist dies der gewiss gut gemeinten Absicht, aus einem nationalen Dichter einen Autor der Weltliteratur zu machen, geschuldet. Dass nun ein exzellentes Handbuch zu Raabe in englischer Sprache vorliegt, mag die Internationalität eines Autors und der Forschung zu seinem Werk eigentlich bereits hinreichend belegen. Somit bleibt nur zu hoffen, dass es die Übersetzung weiterer Werke Raabes ins Englische ebenso befördert wie die Publikation eines Raabe-Handbuchs in deutscher Sprache. Denn für letzteres liegt nun ein gelungenes Vorbild vor.’ — Lucas Marco Gisi, Jahrbuch der Raabe-Gesellschaft 2010, 137-43
  • ‘There is a potentially massive argument to be engaged here regarding the future of arts and humanities research. The editors of this book are to be congratulated for setting the terms of that debate and for showing a good deal of what might be done. It is a fine beginning to our oncoming work.’ — Thomas Docherty, Comparative Critical Studies 7.2–3, 2010, 401-04
  • ‘An excellent anthology of essays... Whether or not one agrees with Jeffrey L. Sammons’s contention that Wilhelm Raabe ‘was the major nineteenth-century novelist in the German language between Goethe and Fontane’..., one leaves this volume convinced that he was certainly one of the most attuned to the impact of Germany’s forays into the wider world on those who travelled abroad and even on those who remained at home.’ — Todd Kontje, Modern Language Review 106.2, April 2011, 584-86 (full text online)
  • ‘Whether the three volumes reviewed here represent the end of Raabe's rehabilitation or the beginning of a new phase, a global phase, of Raabe scholarship remains to be seen, but their publication is indeed equicklich - refreshing.’ — Robert L. Jamison, Monatshefte 103.1, 2011, 126-31

Published February 2010

Ismail Kadare: The Writer and the Dictatorship 1957-1990
Peter Morgan
Legenda (General Series)

  • ‘Morgan shows convincingly why Kadare experienced this change of direction [from attempting to influence Hoxha to a more subversive approach], explaining the zigs and zags of Albanian politics which shaped the environment in which the writer worked, and in particular Hoxha’s ambiguous role as protector and persecutor... Thorough, erudite, and readable, with interesting photographs. Both Kadare and the Albanian Communist regime remain mysterious in many ways, but Morgan’s book sheds considerable light on both, and will be an invaluable companion to the novels.’ — Anne White, Modern Language Review 106.4, 2011, 1203-05 (full text online)