German Narratives of Belonging: Writing Generation and Place in the Twenty-First Century
Linda Shortt
Germanic Literatures 4•8 June 2015
- ‘The texts are frequently autobiographical, consisting of diary entries and lived family experience. Methodological approaches range from feminist, memory and cultural studies to humanist geography, engaging with the writers’ often experimental use of language. This book will appeal to all those interested in contemporary German literature and identity.’ — unsigned notice, Forum for Modern Language Studies 52.2, 2016, 239-40
- ‘A helpful overview and nuanced discussion of literary, essayistic, and autobiographical texts that explore the multiple obstacles — historical, social, political, familial, global — complicating or curtailing the human desire to belong, but that also ponder new forms of fluid or changing attachments in contemporary society.’ — Friederike Eigler, GegenwartsLiteratur 16, 2016, 350-51
- ‘In this slim and rich volume, Linda Shortt analyzes narratives of belonging in post-Wende German literature that represent a variety of generations, attitudes towards belonging (e.g., longing or anxiety), and relationships with German-speaking regions... This excellent book provides much food for thought.’ — Alexandra M. Hill, Monatshefte 109.1, 2017, 175-77
- ‘Shortt offers an engaging and convincing interrogation of belonging as a flexible and resilient concept in contemporary literature. In addressing how belonging shifts across generations and responds to change, she demonstrates new negotiations of belonging that move beyond the conceptual constraints imposed by Heimat. In doing so, Shortt articulates a concept that undoubtedly has a greater relevance beyond the texts under consideration and the immediate concerns of contemporary German Studies.’ — Richard McLelland, Modern Language Review 112.3, July 2017, 753-54 (full text online)
Imagining Terrorism: The Rhetoric and Representation of Political Violence in Italy 1969-2009
Edited by Pierpaolo Antonello and Alan O'Leary
Italian Perspectives 18•17 July 2009
- ‘This is a thought-provoking collection that requires the reader to engage with representations and form as critical sites of historical understanding.’ — Derek Duncan, Modern Language Review 106.3, 2011, 889-90 (full text online)
- ‘For many, the murder of former Prime Minister Aldo Moro in 1978 by the BR and the various neofascist bombings have become myths or legendary occurrences ones fraught with profound meaning for the human condition. Even some of the former militants and terrorists — the perpetrators, in other words — have participated in these productions (Moro’s killers, for example). In fact, one cannot help be left with the impression that the artists and the ex-militants are really talking to each other.’ — Leonard Weinberg, Journal of Modern History 84.3 (September 2012), 752-54
- ‘This broad-ranging collection of fourteen essays is innovative in offering an extremely rich and multi-faceted portrait of this complex topic... makes a real contribution to show how terrorist brutality was expressed, encoded and schematized by the people involved in these dramatic events even before the violent actions became the object of rhetorical analysis.’ — unsigned notice, Forum for Modern Language Studies 48.4 (October 2012), 490
The Italian Academies 1525-1700: Networks of Culture, Innovation and Dissent
Edited by Jane E. Everson, Denis V. Reidy and Lisa Sampson
Italian Perspectives 31•1 September 2016
- ‘With new archival research, new areas of study, and an innovative approach, Italian Academies challenges preconceived ideas about academies and successfully demonstrates the fundamental role played by these associations in disseminating ideas, culture, innovation, and dissent in the early modern period.’ — Patrizia Bettella, Quaderni d'Italianistica 39.1, 2017, 265-68
Journeys of Remembrance: Memories of the Second World War in French and German Literature, 1960-1980
Kathryn N. Jones
Legenda (General Series) •23 February 2007
- ‘A fascinating and well-structured approach to a complex subject, and its transnational focus not only provides an original insight into a range of European writers, but also shows how profitable it is to go beyond the more usual national studies of memory and war.’ — Hilary Footitt, Modern Language Review 103.3, July 2008, 817-17 (full text online)
- ‘The study is about memories and impressions of the later years' holocaust... The striking photograph shows us an empty world with a bleak railway line and its sidetracks, making their way into the fearful forested world that was Auschwitz, practically a symbol of the Final Solution. And with this in mind, Kathryn Jones's study is a success.’ — John Dunmore, New Zealand Journal of French Studies 29.2, 2008, 65-66
- ‘Jones departs unequivocally from Adorno's dictat on the incompatibility of art and atrocity and, through her deft presentation of a succession of more or less metaphorical journeys, she makes a good case. This valuable book for all scholars of post-war French and Ger man culture will enhance the reader’s understanding of what Paul Ricoeur once termed 'l'événement fondateur négatif' of the last century.’ — David Platten, French Studies 63.3 (2009), 370-71
- ‘An ambitious study that succeeds in bearing out its claims about diverse yet contemporaneous literary responses to WWII. Journeys of Remembrance is a valuable introduction to a body of post-WWII French and German writing concerned with the intergenerational transmission of memory and the relation between personal identity and cultural legacy.’ — Susan Derwin, Monatshefte 102.1, 2010, 118-20
- ‘An illuminating comparative analysis... Offers much to consider concerning the development and transmission of memory, generational continuity and rupture, and fictional representation in Holocaust literature.’ — Homer B. Sutton, French Review 82.5, April 2009, 1066-67
Likenesses: Translation, Illustration, Interpretation
Matthew Reynolds
Studies In Comparative Literature 30•25 September 2013
- ‘The collection reveals an impressive breadth of scholarship, travelling between disciplines and across centuries from George Stubbs’s equestrian paintings, through the more familiar Reynoldian territory of Robert Browning, to the conspicuously contemporary, ‘Dante on the Tube’. This diversity effectively demonstrates ‘continuities’ in literature, impressing upon the reader the contemporary relevance of earlier works through juxtaposition.’ — Rebecca Butler, Modern Language Review 110.3, July 2015, 793-94 (full text online)
Making the Personal Political: Dutch Women Writers 1919-1970
Jane Fenoulhet
Legenda (General Series) •14 December 2007
- ‘Fenoulhet's project is exciting and original. It is a well-researched and informative account of how women writers in the Netherlands shaped the self at a time when self-realization was a male prerogative. And it makes you want to reread Carry van Bruggen, and that is surely a good thing.’ — Henriëtte Louwerse, Modern Language Review 104.3, 2009, 929-31 (full text online)
- ‘Eight excellent case studies... that explore how through their work individual writers reflect upon and challenge the role of women in society.’ — The Year's Work in Modern Language Studies 69, 2007, 853)
Medea in Performance 1500-2000
Edited by Edith Hall, Fiona Macintosh and Oliver Taplin
Legenda (General Series) •1 December 2000
- ‘It provides crucial insights into the constantly shifting parameters of performance... Medea in Performance analyses each stage of [Medea's] metamorphosis in theatre, opera and film, and, in a wonderful essay by Margaret Reynolds, makes the important point that the static iconography of Medea is often as dramatically charged as her stage incarnation. The result is an entertaining and informed work.’ — Jane Montgomery, Times Literary Supplement 23 March, 2001, 20
- ‘Sophisticated and elegantly argued treatments... Fills in many gaps in the performance history. Smethurst brings to her stunning close reading of Yukio Ninagawa's internationally acclaimed performance a scholarly knowledge of both Greek and traditional Japanese drama.’ — Helene P. Foley, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 27 April, 2001
- ‘While the book's scope is enormous, its overall design had clearly been thought through with care, the result being that one comes away from it with a real sense of having thoroughly reviewed the subject... a highly valuable contribution to the literature on performance.’ — Richard H. Armstrong, American Journal of Philology 123.2, 2002, 289-93
- ‘This is an important collection, not only as a document in the history of scholarship but also because it touches on themes which demand further exploration.’ — Lorna Hardwick, Classical Review 52, 2002, 357-9
- ‘Makes a strong contribution to cultural studies... Always admirable.’ — Graham Ley, Prudentia XXXIV.2, 2002, 249-51
- ‘Absolutely outstanding chapters by Hall and Macintosh approach performance history as a complex series of interrelations between theatrical practice and audience expectations, literary trends and contemporary debates.’ — Astrid Voigt, Journal of Hellenic Studies 123, 2003, 263-5
Memory, Identity and the Historical Novel in Uruguay: Opening up the Archive 1985-2010
Karunika Kardak 
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 52•31 August 2023
Metaphor and Materiality: German Literature and the World-View of Science 1780-1955
Peter D. Smith
Studies In Comparative Literature 4•1 June 2000
- ‘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
Minding Borders: Resilient Divisions in Literature, the Body and the Academy
Edited by Nicola Gardini, Adriana X. Jacobs, Ben Morgan, Mohamed-Salah Omri and Matthew Reynolds
Transcript 5•1 November 2017
- ‘The contributors not only bring to light the long history of border-making, but also the ways in which it is possible to construct a methodological framework by which to interrogate these practices.’ — Fariha Shaikh, Modern Language Review 114.4, October 2019, 845-46 (full text online)
Moving Scenes: The Aesthetics of German Travel Writing on England 1783-1830
Alison E. Martin
Studies In Comparative Literature 13•3 October 2008
- ‘A valuable and thoughtful study of aesthetic strategies in a genre in which their role is all too frequently overlooked... Martin is to be praised for the clarity of her exposition. She displays a thorough grasp of the key points at issue in the aesthetic debate of the period both in Germany and England (with occasional glances across to France), and gives due emphasis to the process of cross-fertilisation between the two countries through translation and travel.’ — Susan Pickford, German Quarterly 2009
- ‘This study is richly researched and engagingly written, with frequent references to contemporary developments in society, politics, science and technology, the visual and theater arts, historiography, and other literary genres. It has separate bibliographies of primary and secondary sources and an excellent index of names and terms. Martin is also a sensitive, resourceful translator and has provided the English for all German quotations, titles, and terms... Points the way for other scholars of the subject.’ — Michael Ritterson, Eighteenth-Century Studies 43.2, Winter 2010, 278-80
- ‘Textnah und detailreich untersucht A. E. Martin Strategien wirkungsästhetischer und rhetorischer Modellierungen in Englandreisen aus fünf Jahrzehnten.’ — Alexander Košenina, Germanistik 50, 2009, 278-79
- ‘In this fascinating new book, Alison Martin picks out six travelogues on England and makes the case that they deserve to be treated as ‘serious’ literature... The case studies are meticulously researched, and she places each text in context with reference to an impressive array of sources, from contemporary letters and reviews (English as well as German) to modern scholarly studies on art, political history, and even geology. Her close analyses of the texts themselves are lively and sophisticated... In the end, the book puts forward convincing arguments for the complexity and seriousness of this writing, and serves to remind us that the boundaries between genres are much more fluid than often supposed. As such, it should be of interest not only to scholars of travel writing but of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literature and culture more generally.’ — Hilary Brown, Modern Language Review 105.2, 2010, 586-87 (full text online)
- ‘The six case studies presented in this volume have been meticulously researched and contextualised, and some of the research - especially that concerning Esther Gad and Carl Gottlieb Horstig - is highly original.’ — Angus Nicholls, Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen 247.162, 2010, 389-90
- ‘Martin is able to cover an impressive amount of ground, encompassing visual, oral and literary elements, as well as addressing key gender and socio-critical questions... The volume also constitutes a plea for the literary value of such travel narratives... It is this aspect in particular which makes this excellent volume stand out as an important and innovative contribution to European travel writing scholarship.’ — Carol Tully, Angermion 3, 2010, 207-10
Pastoral Drama in Early Modern Italy: The Making of a New Genre
Lisa Sampson
Italian Perspectives 15•5 September 2006
- ‘Handsomely produced (a tribute to its publishers and copy-editor), meticulously researched, agreeably written,with copious notes, a generous bibliography, and English translationsof all the original quotations, it is packed full with fascinating and thought-provoking information.’ — Eric Haywood, Modern Language Review 103.4, October 2008, 1138 (full text online)
- ‘Vanno complimentati, infine, anche gli editori di Legenda (la fruttuosa collaborazione tra Maney Publishing e la Modern Humanities Research Association) che hanno curato questa pubblicazione impeccabile, e che hanno dato ampio spazio — scelta felice — ai citati originali in italiano (provveduti sempre di una traduzione inglese della stessa studiosa). In aggiunta alle note concise poste alla fine di ogni capitolo, la bibliografia e l’indice generale che concludono il libro costituiranno un utile strumento di consultazione ai molti studenti e ricercatori che troveranno una ricchissima fonte d’informazioni preziose (dalla descrizione meticolosa delle innumerevoli opere individuali, al contesto sociale, culturale e politico sempre ottimamente documentato) in questa monografia, la quale combina una chiarezza di argomentazione con un’analisi sfaccettata di un fenomeno significativo — se non proprio determinante — nel campo culturale della prima epoca moderna.’ — Rolien Scheffer, Italian Studies 64.2, Autumn 2009
Reading Literature in Portuguese: Commentaries in Honour of Tom Earle
Cláudia Pazos Alonso and Stephen Parkinson
Legenda (General Series) •25 September 2013
Reception and Renewal in Modern Spanish Theatre: 1939-1963
John London
MHRA Texts and Dissertations 45•1 January 1997
The Reinvention of Theatre in Sixteenth-Century Europe: Traditions, Texts and Performance
Edited by T. F. Earle and Catarina Fouto
Legenda (General Series) •8 June 2015
- ‘Sem dúvida, uma perspectiva rica e bastante abrangente do fenómeno teatral na Europa do séc. XVI.’ — Manuel José De Sousa Barbosa, Euphrosyne 45, 2017, 658-60
Rewriting Les Mystères de Paris: The Mystères Urbains and the Palimpsest
Amy Wigelsworth
Legenda (General Series) •1 September 2016
- ‘Presentant des demonstrations dont Jes etapes sont habilement resumees pour clore chaque chapitre, Rewriting Les Mysteres de Paris offre des etudes fouillees d'reuvres riches mais rarement traitees par la critique... La demonstration est convaincante et stimulante par Jes avenues de reflexion qu'elle ouvre.’ — Nicolas Gauthier, L'Esprit Créateur 57.1, 2017, 141
The Rise of Spanish American Poetry 1500-1700: Literary and Cultural Transmission in the New World
Edited by Rodrigo Cacho Casal and Imogen Choi
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 22•23 April 2019
- ‘En conjunto, The Rise of Spanish American Poetry supone una extraordinaria selección de aportaciones al estudio de los textos coloniales y sus relaciones culturales en un contexto transatlántico.’ — Víctor Sierra Matute, Bulletin of Spanish Studies 97.6, 2020, 1070-1071
- ‘La publicación no sólo resulta novedosa por la articulación multidisciplinaria de sus aproximaciones, sino por incorporar nuevas e interesantes interpretaciones... Sin duda, esta publicación constituye una aportación para el hispanismo que establece nuevas vías de interpretación dignas de ser atendidas y continuadas. Valga mencionar la hermosa factura del volumen y la esmerada edición, en la que el puñado de erratas detectadas no minimiza sus enormes aportaciones.’ — Andrés Iñigo Silva, Creneida 8, 2020, 394-400
- ‘Some of the strongest essays draw attention to authors, texts or topics that have for the most part received limited attention from scholars. The range of subjects covered is noteworthy and the editors and contributors deserve praise for their ability to bring into the realm of poetic signification issues as diverse as exploration, evangelization, natural disasters, ideological debates, literacy, humanism, print culture, theology, music theory, humor, Jesuit edu- cation, historiography, mourning, astrology, piracy or racialized discourses.’ — Emiro Martínez-Osorio, Colonial Latin American Review 29.4, 2020, 662-64 (full text online)
- ‘La proposition portée par Rodrigo Cacho, Imogen Choi et les onze contributeurs du volume présente, en définitive, de multiples mérites. Dans son approche de la poésie moderne, d’abord, elle promeut une lecture historique des corpus qui cherche et met en valeur les mécanismes d’hybridité depuis un regard résolument comparatiste entre les études hispanistes et les études américanistes. Dès lors, elle tire parti de la variété et de la variabilité idéologique et de positionnement politique des poètes et des poèmes plutôt que de l’ignorer en la réduisant à l’une ou l’autre des positions antagonistes. Le volume resitue aussi avec soin et de façon systématique les corpus abordés dans le contexte social et pragmatique de leur composition, dans leur lien avec ce que l’on pourrait appeler les usages de la poésie – y compris le véhicule musical, si rarement abordé dans les travaux des philologues. Ainsi la poésie peut-elle servir tout à la fois à édifier, à louer ou à décrédibiliser l’action des contemporains. L’ensembl’ — Aude Plagnard, Bulletin Hispanique 124.1, 2022, 365-69
Spanish Romanticism and the Uses of History: Ideology and the Historical Imagination
Derek Flitter
Legenda (General Series) •17 January 2006
- ‘La perspectiva de Flitter elabora perspicaces análisis de un proyecto intelectual, el historiocismo schlegeliano al hispánico modo, con cierto recorrido histórico en la cultura española moderna.’ — Íñigo Sánchez Llama, Iberoamericana 8.30, 2008, 263-65
Spirit of the Totem: Religion and Myth in Soviet Fiction 1964-1988
Irena Maryniak
MHRA Texts and Dissertations 39•1 January 1995
Spring Shoots: Young Belarusian Poets in the Early Twenty-First Century
Arnold McMillin
Publications of the Modern Humanities Research Association 19•1 October 2015
- ‘Spring Shoots is a highly engaging and stimulating book written by a scholar with an infectious enthusiasm for his subject.’ — Jim Dingley, Slavonic and East European Review 94, 2016, 527 (full text online)
- ‘This collection illustrates a meticulous approach, significant effort, dedication and passion for Belarusian verse. By bringing together the work of Belarusian poets, which is not always easy to find, especially for specialists from abroad, McMillin has produced a unique volume within post-Soviet literature which should inspire readers to read more works by these young poets, who are convincingly carving a distinct niche in future Belarusian poetic culture.’ — Galina Miazhevich, Slavic Review 75.4, Winter 2016, 1020-21
Theatre and Performance in Austria From Mozart to Jelinek
Edited by Edward Timms and Ritchie Robertson
Austrian Studies 4•8 November 1993
The Tradition of the Actor-Author in Italian Theatre
Edited by Donatella Fischer
Italian Perspectives 27•25 September 2013
- ‘This is a broad-ranging collection of essays from expert contributors... All sixteen articles, while serving to highlight different periods of theatrical history, revolve around what is widely recognized by now as a constant and distinctive feature of Italian theatre: the centrality of the players and their fundamental dramaturgic role.’ — Francesca Savoia, Modern Language Review 110.3, July 2015, 885-87 (full text online)
Traditions of Heroic and Epic Poetry, Volume One: The Traditions
Edited by A. T. Hatto
Publications of the Modern Humanities Research Association 9/1 of 2•1 January 1980
Traditions of Heroic and Epic Poetry, Volume Two: Characteristics and Techniques
Edited by J. B. Hainsworth, under the General Editorship of A. T. Hatto
Publications of the Modern Humanities Research Association 13/2 of 2•1 January 1989
Translating Myth
Edited by Ben Pestell, Pietra Palazzolo and Leon Burnett
Studies In Comparative Literature 37•1 September 2016