The correlated concepts of the déjà-vu and the authentic suggest that all cultural productions are per se palimpsests whose construction is the result of such processes as reprise, recycling, and recuperating. Reprise is approached as various forms of citation, reference and intertextuality; recycling is defined as commodification and intellectual impoverishment; while recuperating implies the ideological process that makes reappropriation possible. By covering a wide spectrum of research interests, from literature to music, art and the cinema, the seventeen contributions in English or in French explore the political and ethical implications inherent in the creation of culture.
Brill’s Companion to the Reception of Aeschylus explores the various ways Aeschylus’ tragedies have been discussed, parodied, translated, revisioned, adapted, and integrated into other works over the course of the last 2500 years. Immensely popular while alive, Aeschylus’ reception begins in his own lifetime. And, while he has not been the most reproduced of the three Attic tragedians on the stage since then, his receptions have transcended genre and crossed to nearly every continent. While still engaging with Aeschylus’ theatrical reception, the volume also explores Aeschylus off the stage--in radio, the classroom, television, political theory, philosophy, science fiction and beyond.
Recycling Virginia Woolf in Contemporary Art and Literature exam>ines Woolf’s life and oeuvre from the perspective of recycling and pro>vides answers to essential questions such as: Why do artists and writers recycle Woolf’s texts and introduce them into new circuits of meaning? Why do they perpetuate her iconic fgure in literature, art and popular culture? What does this practice of recycling tell us about the endurance of her oeuvre on the current literary, artistic and cultural scene and what does it tell us about our current modes of production and consumption of art and literature? This volume offers theoretical defnitions of the concept of recycling applied to a multitude of specifc case studies. The reasons why Woolf’s work and authorial fgure lend themselves so well to the notion of recy>cling are manifold: frst, Woolf was a recycler herself and had a personal theory and practice of recycling; second, her work continues to be a prolifc compost that is used in various ways by contemporary writers and artists; fnally, since Woolf has left the original literary sphere to permeate popular culture, the limits of what has been recycled have ex>panded in unexpected ways. These essays explore today’s trends of fab>ricating new, original artefacts with Woolf’s work, which thus remains completely relevant to our contemporary needs and beliefs
Although it seems that erotic love generally was the prevailing topic in the medieval world and the Early Modern Age, parallel to this the Ciceronian ideal of friendship also dominated the public discourse, as this collection of essays demonstrates. Following an extensive introduction, the individual contributions explore the functions and the character of friendship from Late Antiquity (Augustine) to the 17th century. They show the spectrum of variety in which this topic appeared ‐ not only in literature, but also in politics and even in painting.
La 4ème de couverture indique : "Périple des corps ou des esprits, le voyage est paradigme de diffusion et de production des croyances et des idées, du pèlerinage pédagogique ou spirituel à l'ouverture du champ des possibles vers l'utopie ou le monde marchand. Dix chercheurs européens examinent en anglais et en français le voyage et sa mise en texte, elle-même « tension entre littéralité et littérarité », de la Renaissance aux Lumières, lorsque l'Europe actuelle prend forme sur le plan intellectuel et que l'Angleterre, puis le Royaume-Uni, en deviennent des acteurs majeurs. Whether real or imaginary, travel stands as a paradigm for the circulation and the production of beliefs and ideas, and can have as much to do with education or spirituality as with utopian politics or the development of trade. Ten European researchers focus in English and in French on real or fictional, experienced or narrated journeys, from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, a period that witnessed the intellectual construction of modern Europe, and the rise to prominence of England and the United Kingdom"
Postmodernism’s ‘end’ is a complex and contentious topic. Yet, one overarching consensus emerges: the postmodern has been surpassed. This book poses a thought experiment challenging this position – what if postmodernism persists within the twenty-first century? Rather than designate a new epoch or coherent movement, this book interrogates the fragmented, contradictory, and counterintuitive endurance of postmodern aesthetics within post-Cold War America. An alternative use of postmodern aesthetics becomes possible when they are decoupled from their twentieth-century historical location. Collectively, these repetitions posit a postmodern continuum, contrasting the widely called-for succession of postmodernism via this decoupling. When postmodern aesthetics are no longer unconsciously repeated within their cultural moment, this emergent shift within a period ‘after’ postmodernism presents an alternative historical positioning and use. After their cultural vanguard, postmodern aesthetics become a confrontation of the chaotic realism of an inescapable post-Cold War capitalism, tapping into this cultural zeitgeist through literature.
Don DeLillo, Paul Auster, Cormac McCarthy, Rolando Hinojosa, E. Annie Proulx, Bret Easton Ellis, Douglas Coupland, and Thomas Pynchon: An Introduction to Contemporary American Fiction introduces the work of a range of key American authors, all of whom can be said to engage with postmodernism. Exploring the vitality and energy of contemporary writing in light of pessimistic proclamations on the state of postmodern American culture, Bilton highlights the tension between "realistic" description and linguistic self-consciousness in contemporary fiction. In addition, by addressing a central problem in literary theory—its neglect of literary discussion and the practice of reading—An Introduction to Contemporary American Fiction is able to present a working model for reading a text theoretically. As an introductory text, it assumes no prior knowledge of the authors of the novels discussed. To encourage understanding and aid further study, the following features are included: * GLOSSARY OF CRITICAL AND LITERARY TERMS * BIBLIOGRAPHY OF EACH AUTHOR'S WORKS * BIOGRAPHY OF EACH AUTHOR * GUIDE TO FURTHER READING * THEMATIC AND AUTHOR INDICES
Referring to a past that never was, dij vu shares a structure not only with fiction, but also with the ever more sophisticated effects of media technology. Tracing the term from the end of the nineteenth century, when it was first popularized in the pages of the Revue philosophique, Peter Krapp examines the genealogy and history of the singular and unrepeatable experience of dij vu. This provocative book offers a refreshing counterpoint to the clichid celebrations of cultural memory and forces us do a double take on the sanctimonious warnings against forgetting so common in our time. Disturbances of cultural memory-screen memories, false recognitions, premonitions-disrupt the comfort zone of memorial culture: strictly speaking, dij vu is neither a failure of memory nor a form of forgetting. Krapp's analysis of such disturbances in literature, art, and mass media introduces, historicizes, and theorizes what it means to speak of an economy of attention or distraction. Reaching from the early psychoanalytic texts of Sigmund Freud to the plays of Heiner M]ller, this exploration of the effects of dij vu pivots around the work of Walter Benjamin and includes readings of kitsch and aura in Andy Warhol's work, of cinematic violence and certain exaggerated claims about shooting and cutting, of the memorial character of architecture, and of the high expectations raised by the Internet. Peter Krapp, lecturer in the Department of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature at the University of Minnesota, coedited "Medium Cool," a special issue of the South Atlantic Quarterly on contemporary media theory. He has published in the fields of German studies, media studies, and literary theoryand, since 1995, has acted as editor of the Hydra Web site for theories of literature and media.
