Drawing on texts written by and about European and Euro-American captives in a variety of languages and genres, Lisa Voigt explores the role of captivity in the production of knowledge, identity, and authority in the early modern imperial world. The pr
George Orwell set out ‘to make political writing into an art’, and to a wide extent this aim shaped the future of English literature – his descriptions of authoritarian regimes helped to form a new vocabulary that is fundamental to understanding totalitarianism. While 1984 and Animal Farm are amongst the most popular classic novels in the English language, this new series of Orwell’s essays seeks to bring a wider selection of his writing on politics and literature to a new readership. In Why I Write, the first in the Orwell’s Essays series, Orwell describes his journey to becoming a writer, and his movement from writing poems to short stories to the essays, fiction and non-fiction we remember him for. He also discusses what he sees as the ‘four great motives for writing’ – ‘sheer egoism’, ‘aesthetic enthusiasm’, ‘historical impulse’ and ‘political purpose’ – and considers the importance of keeping these in balance. Why I Write is a unique opportunity to look into Orwell’s mind, and it grants the reader an entirely different vantage point from which to consider the rest of the great writer’s oeuvre. 'A writer who can – and must – be rediscovered with every age.' — Irish Times
Brings a new approach to the interpretation of the sources used to study the Early Christian era - reading history backwards. This book will interest teachers and students of New Testament studies from around the world of any denomination, and readers of early Christianity and Patristics.
In Early Negro Writing, first published in 1971, Dorothy Porter presents a rare and indispensable collection of writings of literary, social, and historical importance. Most of the writings contained in this collection are no longer in print. In some cases, only one or two original copies are known to exist. Early Negro Writing is rich with narratives, poems, essays, and public addresses by many of Americas's early Black literary pioneers and champions of racial equality. Represented in this work are poems by Jupiter Hammon and Phillis Wheatley and a spiritual song by Richard Allen, founder of the African Methodist Episcopal church. The essays in this collection document the fact that from the earliest days of this country, Black Americans have voiced their concerns on the subject of freedom, slavery, politics, morals, religion, education, emigration, and other issues. Confronted by an often hostile social environment Blacks learned quickly the value of mutual aid and fraternal organizations. Addresses by Masonic organizer and abolitionist Prince Hall and others highlight the importance of these early self-help efforts.
A History of Early Modern Women's Writing is essential reading for students and scholars working in the field of early modern British literature and history. This collaborative book of twenty-two chapters offers an expansive, multifaceted narrative of British women's literary and textual production in the period stretching from the English Reformation to the Restoration. Chapters work together to trace the contours of a diverse body of early modern women's writing, aligning women's texts with the major literary, political, and cultural currents with which they engage. Contributors examine and take account of developments in critical theory, feminism, and gender studies that have influenced the reception, reading, and interpretation of early modern women's writing. This book explicates and interrogates significant methodological and critical developments in the past four decades, guiding and testing scholarship in this period of intense activity in the recovery, dissemination, and interpretation of women's writing.
How is American history written? Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alan Taylor answers this question in this collection of his essays from The New Republic, where he explores the writing of early American history.
From the earliest scratches on stone and bone to the languages of computers and the internet, A History of Writing offers an investigation into the origin and development of writing throughout the world. Illustrated with numerous examples, this book offers a global overview in a format that everyone can follow. Steven Roger Fischer also reveals his own discoveries made since the early 1980s, making it a useful reference for students and specialists as well as a delightful read for lovers of the written word everywhere.