How does new writing emerge and find readers today? Why does one writer's work become famous while another's remains invisible? Making Literature Now tells the stories of the creators, editors, readers, and critics who make their living by making literature itself come alive. The book shows how various conditions—including gender, education, business dynamics, social networks, money, and the forces of literary tradition—affect the things we can choose, or refuse, to read. Amy Hungerford focuses her discussion on literary bestsellers as well as little-known traditional and digital literature from smaller presses, such as McSweeney's. She deftly matches the particular human stories of the makers with the impersonal structures through which literary reputation is made. Ranging from fine-grained ethnography to polemical argument, this book transforms our sense of how and why new literature appears—and disappears—in contemporary American culture.
Literature in the Making by Joyce Kilmer: Embark on a journey through the creative process with editor Joyce Kilmer, as this anthology provides a glimpse into the inner workings of renowned writers' minds, offering insights, reflections, and personal anecdotes that illuminate the art of writing and the magic of literature. Key points: Behind the Scenes: Gain access to the minds of celebrated authors as Kilmer presents a collection of essays, interviews, and reflections, shedding light on the inspirations, challenges, and techniques that shape the writing process, revealing the intricate journey from concept to finished work. Literary Influences: Explore the diverse range of authors featured in the anthology, each contributing their unique perspectives on the craft of writing, drawing from their own experiences, literary influences, and personal philosophies, providing aspiring writers and literature enthusiasts with a wealth of knowledge and inspiration. Celebrating Literature: Immerse yourself in the world of literature as Kilmer's anthology pays homage to the beauty and significance of written works, fostering a deeper appreciation for the art of storytelling and the profound impact that literature can have on our lives. Literature in the Making edited by Joyce Kilmer: Literature in the Making is an insightful anthology edited by Joyce Kilmer, showcasing a diverse range of literary works and the creative processes behind them. This collection offers a unique behind-the-scenes glimpse into the minds of renowned authors, poets, and playwrights. Through essays, interviews, and personal reflections, the contributors share their inspirations, struggles, and techniques, providing invaluable insights into the art of writing. From the poetic musings of Wordsworth to the imaginative tales of Poe, Literature in the Making celebrates the beauty and craftsmanship of literature. Whether you're an aspiring writer or a devoted reader, this anthology invites you to explore the creative minds of literary giants and gain a deeper appreciation for the power of words.
Using the US as a case study, this study examines the public life of literature between the late 18th and the early 20th centuries, bringing together the development of literature's intellectual infrastructure, its operation in print culture, its changing status in higher education, and the surprisingly rich and interesting history of public literary culture.
The Making of Indian English Literature brings together seventeen well-researched essays of Subhendu Mund with a long introduction by the author historicising the development of the Indian writing in English while exploring its identity among the many appellations tagged to it. The volume demonstrates, contrary to popular perceptions, that before the official introduction of English education in India, Indians had already tried their hands in nearly all forms of literature: poetry, fiction, drama, essay, biography, autobiography, book review, literary criticism and travel writing. Besides translation activities, Indians had also started editing and publishing periodicals in English before 1835. Through archival research the author brings to discussion a number of unknown and less discussed texts which contributed to the development of the genre. The work includes exclusive essays on such early poets and writers as Kylas Chunder Dutt, Shoshee Chunder Dutt, Toru Dutt, Mirza Moorad Alee Beg, Krupabai Satthianadhan, Swami Vivekananda, H. Dutt, and Sita Chatterjee; and historiographical studies on the various aspects of the genre. The author also examines the strategies used by the early writers to indianise the western language and the form of the novel. The present volume also demonstrates how from the very beginning Indian writing in English had a subtle nationalist agenda and created a space for protest literature. The Making of Indian English Literature will prove an invaluable addition to the studies in Indian writing in English as a source of reference and motivation for further research. Please note: Taylor & Francis does not sell or distribute the Hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
Lucy Pearson’s lively and engaging book examines British children’s literature during the period widely regarded as a ’second golden age’. Drawing extensively on archival material, Pearson investigates the practical and ideological factors that shaped ideas of ’good’ children’s literature in Britain, with particular attention to children’s book publishing. Pearson begins with a critical overview of the discourse surrounding children’s literature during the 1960s and 1970s, summarizing the main critical debates in the context of the broader social conversation that took place around children and childhood. The contributions of publishing houses, large and small, to changing ideas about children’s literature become apparent as Pearson explores the careers of two enormously influential children’s editors: Kaye Webb of Puffin Books and Aidan Chambers of Topliner Macmillan. Brilliant as an innovator of highly successful marketing strategies, Webb played a key role in defining what were, in her words, ’the best in children’s books’, while Chambers’ work as an editor and critic illustrates the pioneering nature of children's publishing during this period. Pearson shows that social investment was a central factor in the formation of this golden age, and identifies its legacies in the modern publishing industry, both positive and negative.
In Schools of Fiction, Morgan Day Frank considers a bizarre but integral feature of the modern educational experience: that teachers enthusiastically teach literary works that have terrible things to say about school. From Ishmael's insistence in Herman Melville's Moby-Dick that a whale-ship was my Yale College and my Harvard, to the unnamed narrator's expulsion from his southern college in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, the most frequently taught books in the English curriculum tend to be those that cast the school as a stultifying and inhumane social institution. Why have educators preferred the anti-scholasticism of the American romance tradition to the didacticism of sentimentalists? Why have they organized African American literature as a discursive category around texts that despaired of the post-Reconstruction institutional system? Why did they start teaching novels, that literary form whose very nature, in Mikhail Bakhtin's words, is not canonic? Reading literature in class is a paradoxical undertaking that, according to Day Frank, has proved foundational to the development of American formal education over the last two centuries, allowing the school to claim access to a social world external to itself. By drawing attention to the transformative effect literature has had on the school, Schools of Fiction challenges some of our core assumptions about the nature of cultural administration and the place of English in the curriculum. The educational system, Day Frank argues, has depended historically on the cultural objects whose existence it is ordinarily thought to govern and the academic subject it is ordinarily thought to have marginalized.
Textual Imitation offers a new critique of the space between fiction and truth, poetry and philosophy. In a nimble, yet startlingly wide-ranging argument, esteemed scholar Jonathan Hart argues that recognition and misrecognition are the keys to understanding texts and contexts from the Old World to the New World.
