Series edited by John Drakakis, University of Stirling, UK
The New Critical Idiom is an invaluable series of introductory guides designed to meet the needs of today's students grappling with the complexities of modern critical terminology.
Each book in the series provides:
- a clear, explanatory guide to the use (and abuse) of the term
- an original and distinctive overview by a leading literary and cultural critic
- helpful definitions of the boundaries between the literary and the non-literary
- basic guidance for the introductory reader in how the term relates to the larger field of cultural representation.
With a strong emphasis on clarity, lively debate and the widest possible breadth of examples, The New Critical Idiom is an indispensable guide to key topics in literary studies.
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Fairy Tale
Series: The New Critical Idiom
This volume offers a comprehensive critical and theoretical introduction to the genre of the fairy tale. It: explores the ways in which folklorists have defined the genre assesses the various methodologies used in the analysis and interpretation of fairy tale provides a detailed account of the...
Published May 30th 2013 by Routledge
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Grotesque
Series: The New Critical Idiom
Grotesque provides an invaluable and accessible guide to the use (and abuse) of this complex literary term. Justin D. Edwards and Rune Graulund explore the influence of the grotesque on cultural forms throughout history, with particular focus on its representation in literature, visual art and film...
Published May 23rd 2013 by Routledge
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Translation
Series: The New Critical Idiom
In a time when millions travel around the planet; some by choice, some driven by economic or political exile, translation of the written and spoken word is of ever increasing importance. This guide presents readers with an accessible and engaging introduction to the valuable position translation...
Published September 1st 2013 by Routledge
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Epic
Series: The New Critical Idiom
This student guidebook offers a clear introduction to an often complex and unwieldy area of literary studies. Tracing epic from its ancient and classical roots through postmodern and contemporary examples this volume discusses: a wide range of writers including Homer, Vergil, Ovid, Dante,...
Published January 30th 2013 by Routledge
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Spatiality
Series: The New Critical Idiom
Spatiality has risen to become a key concept in literary and cultural studies, with critical focus on the ‘spatial turn’ presenting a new approach to the traditional literary analyses of time and history. Robert T. Tally Jr. explores differing aspects of the spatial in literary studies today,...
Published September 30th 2012 by Routledge
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Temporalities
Series: The New Critical Idiom
Temporalities presents a concise critical introduction to the treatment of time throughout literature. Time and its passage represent one of the oldest and most complex philosophical subjects in art of all forms, and Russell West-Pavlov explains and interrogates the most important theories of...
Published September 26th 2012 by Routledge
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Romanticism
2nd Edition
Series: The New Critical Idiom
Romanticism was a revolutionary intellectual and artistic movement which generated some of the most popular and influential texts in British and American literary history. This clear and engaging guide introduces the history, major writers and critical issues of this crucial era. This fully updated...
Published December 12th 2011 by Routledge
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Ecocriticism
2nd Edition
Series: The New Critical Idiom
Ecocriticism explores the ways in which we imagine and portray the relationship between humans and the environment in all areas of cultural production, from Wordsworth and Thoreau through to Google Earth, J.M. Coetzee and Werner Herzog’s Grizzly Man. Greg Garrard’s animated and accessible volume...
Published July 14th 2011 by Routledge
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Intertextuality
2nd Edition
Series: The New Critical Idiom
Theories of intertextuality suggest that meaning in a text can only ever be understood in relation to other texts; no work stands alone but is interlinked with the tradition that came before it and the context in which it is produced. This idea of intertextuality is crucial to understanding...
Published May 18th 2011 by Routledge
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Travel Writing
Series: The New Critical Idiom
An increasingly popular genre – addressing issues of empire, colonialism, post-colonialism, globalization, gender and politics – travel writing offers the reader a movement between the familiar and the unknown. In this volume, Carl Thompson: introduces the genre, outlining competing...
Published May 11th 2011 by Routledge
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Dialogue
Series: The New Critical Idiom
Dialogue is a many-sided critical concept; at once an ancient philosophical genre, a formal component of fiction and drama, a model for the relationship of writer and reader, and a theoretical key to the nature of language. In all its forms, it questions ‘literature’, disturbing the singleness and...
Published April 20th 2011 by Routledge
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Autobiography
2nd Edition
Series: The New Critical Idiom
If every writer necessarily draws on their own life, is any writing outside the realm of ‘autobiography’? The new edition of this classic guide is fully updated to include: developments in autobiographical criticism, highlighting major theoretical issues and concepts different forms of the genre...
Published November 25th 2010 by Routledge
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Sexuality
2nd Edition
Series: The New Critical Idiom
Theories of sexuality and desire are commonly used in literary and cultural studies. In this illuminating study Joseph Bristow introduces readers to the fundamental critical debates surrounding the topic. This fully updated second edition includes: a historical account of sexuality from the...
Published November 25th 2010 by Routledge
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Interdisciplinarity
2nd Edition
Series: The New Critical Idiom
Interdisciplinarity covers one of the most important changes in attitude and methodology in the history of the university. Taking the study of English as its main example, this fully updated second edition examines the ways in which we have organized knowledge into disciplines, and are now...
Published February 3rd 2010 by Routledge
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The Historical Novel
Series: The New Critical Idiom
The historical novel is an enduringly popular genre that raises crucial questions about key literary concepts, fact and fiction, identity, history, reading, and writing. In this comprehensive, focused guide, Jerome de Groot offers an accessible introduction to the genre and critical debates that...
Published September 23rd 2009 by Routledge
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Allegory
Series: The New Critical Idiom
Indispensable to an understanding of Medieval and Renaissance texts and a topic of controversy for the Romantic poets, allegory remains a site for debate and controversy in the twenty-first-century. In this useful guide, Jeremy Tambling: presents a concise history of allegory, providing...
Published August 18th 2009 by Routledge
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Lyric
Series: The New Critical Idiom
The term ‘lyric’ has evolved, been revised, redefined and contested over the centuries. In this fascinating introduction, Scott Brewster: traces the history of the term from its classical origins through the early modern, Romantic and Victorian periods and up to the twenty-first century...
Published May 31st 2009 by Routledge
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Genders
2nd Edition
Series: The New Critical Idiom
The concept of gender continues to be a central issue in literary and cultural studies, with a significance that crosses disciplinary boundaries and provokes lively debate. In this fully revised and updated second edition, David Glover and Cora Kaplan offer a lucid and illuminating introduction to...
Published December 10th 2008 by Routledge
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Myth
2nd Edition
Series: The New Critical Idiom
Laurence Coupe offers students a comprehensive overview of the development of myth, showing how mythic themes, structures and symbols persist in literature and entertainment today. This introductory volume: illustrates the relation between myth, culture and literature with discussions of poetry,...
Published December 8th 2008 by Routledge
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Memory
Series: The New Critical Idiom
The concept of ‘memory’ has given rise to some of the most exciting new directions in contemporary theory. In this much-needed guide to a burgeoning field of a study, Anne Whitehead: presents a history of the concept of ‘memory’ and its uses, encompassing both memory as activity and the nature of...
Published September 4th 2008 by Routledge
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Humanism
2nd Edition
Series: The New Critical Idiom
Definitions of humanism have evolved throughout the centuries as the term has been adopted for a variety of purposes – literary, cultural and political – and reactions against humanism have contributed to movements such as postmodernism and anti-humanism. Tony Davies offers a clear...
Published March 27th 2008 by Routledge
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Modernism
2nd Edition
Series: The New Critical Idiom
The modernist movement radically transformed the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century literary establishment, and its effects are still felt today. Modernism introduces and analyzes what amounted to nothing less than a literary and cultural revolution. In this fully updated and revised...
Published October 31st 2007 by Routledge
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Rhetoric
Series: The New Critical Idiom
Rhetoric has shaped our understanding of the nature of language and the purpose of literature for over two millennia. It is of crucial importance in understanding the development of literary history as well as elements of philosophy, politics and culture. The nature and practise of rhetoric was...
Published August 28th 2007 by Routledge
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Elegy
Series: The New Critical Idiom
Grief and mourning are generally considered to be private, yet universal instincts. But in a media age of televised funerals and visible bereavement, elegies are increasingly significant and open to public scrutiny. Providing an overview of the history of the term and the different ways in which it...
Published August 20th 2007 by Routledge
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Metaphor
Series: The New Critical Idiom
Metaphor is a central concept in literary studies, but it is also prevalent in everyday language and speech. Recent literary theories such as postmodernism and deconstruction have transformed the study of the text and revolutionized our thinking about metaphor. In this fascinating volume, David...
Published June 4th 2007 by Routledge
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Performativity
Series: The New Critical Idiom
Do our writings and our utterances reflect or describe our world, or do they intervene in it? Do they, perhaps, help to make it? If so, how? Within what limits, and with what implications? Contemporary theorists have considered the ways in which the languages we speak might be ‘performative’ in...
Published November 16th 2006 by Routledge
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Mimesis
Series: The New Critical Idiom
A topic that has become increasingly central to the study of art, performance and literature, the term mimesis has long been used to refer to the relationship between an image and its ‘real’ original. However, recent theorists have extended the concept, highlighting new perspectives on key concerns...
Published February 22nd 2006 by Routledge
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Science Fiction
2nd Edition
Series: The New Critical Idiom
Science Fiction is a fascinating and comprehensive introduction to one of the most popular areas of modern culture. This second edition reflects how the field is rapidly changing in both its practice and its critical reception. With an entirely new conclusion and all other chapters fully reworked...
Published December 14th 2005 by Routledge
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The Sublime
Series: The New Critical Idiom
Often labelled as ‘indescribable’, the sublime is a term that has been debated for centuries amongst writers, artists, philosophers and theorists. Usually related to ideas of the great, the awe-inspiring and the overpowering, the sublime has become a complex yet crucial concept in many disciplines....
Published November 23rd 2005 by Routledge
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Genre
Series: The New Critical Idiom
Genre is a key means by which we categorize the many forms of literature and culture. But it is also much more than that: in talk and writing, in music and images, in film and television, genres actively generate and shape our knowledge of the world. Understanding genre as a dynamic process rather...
Published September 18th 2005 by Routledge
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Colonialism/Postcolonialism
2nd Edition
Series: The New Critical Idiom
Colonialism/Postcolonialism is a comprehensive yet accessible guide to the historical and theoretical dimensions of colonial and postcolonial studies. Ania Loomba deftly introduces and examines: key features of the ideologies and history of colonialism the relationship of colonial discourse to...
Published August 24th 2005 by Routledge
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Crime Fiction
Series: The New Critical Idiom
Crime Fiction provides a lively introduction to what is both a wide-ranging and hugely popular literary genre. Using examples from a variety of novels, short stories, films and televisions series, John Scaggs: presents a concise history of crime fiction - from biblical narratives to James Ellroy -...
Published January 26th 2005 by Routledge
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The Author
Series: The New Critical Idiom
This volume investigates the changing definitions of the author, what it has meant historically to be an 'author', and the impact that this has had on literary culture. Andrew Bennett presents a clearly-structured discussion of the various theoretical debates surrounding authorship, exploring such...
Published December 14th 2004 by Routledge
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Comedy
Series: The New Critical Idiom
What is comedy? Andrew Stott tackles this question through an investigation of comic forms, theories and techniques, tracing the historical definitions of comedy from Aristotle to Chris Morris's Brass Eye via Wilde and Hancock. Rather than attempting to produce a totalising definition of 'the comic...
Published November 24th 2004 by Routledge
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The Postmodern
Series: The New Critical Idiom
Simon Malpas investigates the theories and definitions of postmodernism and postmodernity, and explores their impact in such areas as identity, history, art, literature and culture. In attempting to map the different forms of the postmodern, and the contrasting experiences of postmodernity in the...
Published November 17th 2004 by Routledge
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Magic(al) Realism
Series: The New Critical Idiom
Bestselling novels by Angela Carter, Salman Rushdie, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and a multitude of others have enchanted us by blurring the lines between reality and fantasy. Their genre of writing has been variously defined as 'magic', 'magical' or 'marvellous' realism and is quickly becoming a core...
Published September 22nd 2004 by Routledge
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Drama/Theatre/Performance
Series: The New Critical Idiom
What is implied when we refer to the study of performing arts as 'drama', 'theatre' or 'performance'? Each term identifies a different tradition of thought and offers different possibilities to the student or practitioner. This book examines the history and use of the terms and investigates the...
Published September 15th 2004 by Routledge
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Romance
Series: The New Critical Idiom
Often derided as an inferior form of literature, 'romance' as a literary mode or genre defies satisfactory definition, dividing critics, scholars and readers alike. This useful guidebook traces the myriad transformations of 'romance' from medieval courtly love to Mills and Boon, and claims that its...
Published September 8th 2004 by Routledge
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Discourse
2nd Edition
Series: The New Critical Idiom
This volume provides a broad analysis of the term 'discourse' and a thorough examination of the many theoretical assumptions surrounding it. In the revised edition of this invaluable guidebook, Sara Mills:*examines the historical definitions and developments of discourse*analyzes Foucault's use of...
Published May 26th 2004 by Routledge
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Difference
Series: The New Critical Idiom
Difference is one of the most influential critical concepts of recent decades. Mark Currie offers a comprehensive account of the history of the term and its place in some of the most influential schools of theory of the past four decades, including: * post-structuralism* deconstruction* new...
Published February 18th 2004 by Routledge
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Subjectivity
Series: The New Critical Idiom
Explores the history of theories of selfhood, from the Classical era to the present, and demonstrates how those theories can be applied in literary and cultural criticism. Donald E. Hall: * examines all of the major methodologies and theoretical emphases of the twentieth and twenty-first...
Published February 4th 2004 by Routledge
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Irony
Series: The New Critical Idiom
In this handy volume, Claire Colebrook offers an overview of the history and structure of irony, from Socrates to the present.Students will welcome this clear, concise guide, which:*traces the use of the concept through history, from Greek times to the Romantic period and on to the postmodern era*...
Published September 17th 2003 by Routledge
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Dramatic Monologue
Series: The New Critical Idiom
The dramatic monologue is traditionally associated with Victorian poets such as Robert Browning and Alfred Tennyson, and is generally considered to have disappeared with the onset of modernism in the twentieth century. Glennis Byron unravels its history and argues that, contrary to belief, the...
Published July 23rd 2003 by Routledge
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Realism
Series: The New Critical Idiom
Coming to prominence with the nineteenth-century novel, literary realism has most often been associated with the insistence that art cannot turn away from the more sordid and harsh aspects of human existence. However, because realism is unavoidably tied up with the gnarly concept of 'reality' and '...
Published July 9th 2003 by Routledge
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Ideology
2nd Edition
Series: The New Critical Idiom
This new revised edition includes an updated bibliography, a new glossary and index and fresh suggestions for further reading, as well as a discussion of ideology after September 11.Ideology:*traces the history of the term and the debates which surround it, from Machiavelli to the present day*asks...
Published May 28th 2003 by Routledge
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Historicism
2nd Edition
Series: The New Critical Idiom
Historicism is the essential introduction to this crucial concept in literary studies. This edition has been fully revised and includes a new glossary of critical terms, fully updated bibliography, clear suggestions for additional reading, as well as new discussion of Historicism's relation to the...
Published May 21st 2003 by Routledge
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Narrative
Series: The New Critical Idiom
This comprehensive, accessible guidebook traces the ways in which human beings have used narrative to make sense of time, space and identity over the centuries. Particular attention is given to:* early narrative, from Hellenic and Hebraic* the rise of the novel* realist representation* imperialism...
Published September 19th 2001 by Routledge
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Class
Series: The New Critical Idiom
This book traces the phenomenon of class from the medieval to the postmodern period, uniquely examining its relevance to literary and cultural analysis. Drawing on historical, sociological and literary writings, Gary Day:* gives an account of class at different historical moments* shows the role of...
Published April 25th 2001 by Routledge
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Parody
Series: The New Critical Idiom
Parody is part of all our lives. It occurs not only in literature, but also in everyday speech, in theatre and television, architecture and films. Drawing on examples from Aristophanes to The Simpsons, Simon Dentith explores:* the place of parody in the history of literature* parody as a...
Published June 14th 2000 by Routledge
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Culture/Metaculture
Series: The New Critical Idiom
Culture/Metaculture is a stimulating introduction to the meanings of 'culture' in contemporary Western society. This essential survey examines: * culture as an antidote to 'mass' modernity, in the work of Thomas Mann, Julien Benda, José Ortega y Gasset, Karl Mannheim and F. R. Leavis* changing...
Published March 22nd 2000 by Routledge
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Pastoral
Series: The New Critical Idiom
Pastoral is a succinct and up-to-date introductory text to the history, major writers and critical issues of this genre. Terry Gifford clarifies the different uses of pastoral covering: * the history of the genre from its classical origins to Elizabethan drama, through eighteenth-century pastoral...
Published August 4th 1999 by Routledge
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The Unconscious
Series: The New Critical Idiom
The unconscious is a term which is central to the understanding of psychoanalysis, and, indeed everyday life. In this introductory guide, Antony Easthope provides a witty and accessible overview of the subject showing the reality of the unconscious with a startling variety of examples. He takes us...
Published June 23rd 1999 by Routledge
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Literature
Series: The New Critical Idiom
This introductory volume provides an overview of the history of Literature as a cultural concept, and reflects on the contemporary nature, place and function of what the literary might mean for us today. Literature: * offers a concise history of the canonic concept of 'literature' from its earliest...
Published December 9th 1998 by Routledge
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Stylistics
Series: The New Critical Idiom
Richard Bradford provides a definitive introductory guide to modern critical ideas on literary style and stylistics. It will provide students with a basic grasp of stylistics and literary analysis.This comprehensive and accessible guidebook for undergraduates examines:* the terminology of literary...
Published February 26th 1997 by Routledge
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Gothic
Series: The New Critical Idiom
Tailored specifically for students new to the daunting field of literary theory, Fred Botting's Gothic is a clear and welcome introduction to the study of this compelling genre. This lucid, easy-to-follow guide: * Explains the transformations of the genre through history * Outlines all the major...
Published November 22nd 1995 by Routledge
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Metre, Rhythm and Verse Form
Series: The New Critical Idiom
Poetry criticism is a subject central to the study of literature. However, it is laden with technical terms that, to the beginning student, can be both intimidating and confusing. Philip Hobsbaum provides a welcome remedy, illuminating terms ranging from the iambus to the bob-wheel stanza, and...
Published November 15th 1995 by Routledge