Critical Perspectives In The Late Twentieth Century

Critical Perspectives on Conflict in Caribbean Societies of the Late 20th and Early 21st Centuries intervenes to enrich existing scholarship on postcolonial Caribbean literature and art. Using interdisciplinary, cultural studies and Caribbean cultural studies methodologies, in addition to more classical literary readings of works, this book adopts a fresh approach to conflict, bringing a variety of new perspectives to the analysis of conflict dynamics in the Caribbean. Focusing on issues of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, as well as on contemporary representation and analysis of conflict related to other periods in the development of Caribbean societies, this volume provides explorations of conflict in the Caribbean region, in the transnational relationships between this region and North America, and in the transcolonial relationships between the French Caribbean and France. This bi-lingual publication will particularly appeal to scholars and students of Caribbean Literature in English and French, Postcolonial and African Diasporic Literatures and Cultures, Feminist Literary Studies, and Contemporary Art Studies. Critical Perspectives on Conflict in Caribbean Societies of the Late 20th and Early 21st Centuries offers studies of recent fiction and works of art by established and emerging Caribbean writers and artists. In addition, as articles are dedicated to discussions of particular authors, such as Earl Lovelace, Ramabai Espinet, Edwidge Danticat, Raphaël Confiant, Patrick Chamoiseau, Gerty Dambury, and Gisèle Pineau, the range of perspectives found in this volume covers fiction published by male and female writers from both the Francophone and Anglophone Caribbean.

Poets have written about wars throughout the 20th century - questioning, protesting and, sometimes, celebrating the nature and purpose of conflict. Attracting an enthusiastic popular readership, war poetry has often been seen as a way of remembering and re-imagining wars. Today, war poems are not only part of our memorial culture, on epitaphs and in Remembrance Day services, but have inspired books and films and become studied widely around the world. This Guide examines the genesis and development of the important genre of war poetry in the twentieth century, focusing in particular on the role of the two world wars in the literary and cultural construction of a 'war poetry' category. Philippa Lyon draws upon a range of key historical and contemporary critical responses, from poetic memoir and journalism to sophisticated academic criticism, to demonstrate the rich diversity of expectations and evaluations elicited by the developing genre.

How did social, cultural and political events in Britain during the 1980s shape contemporary British fiction? Setting the fiction squarely within the context of Conservative politics and questions about culture and national identity, this volume reveals how the decade associated with Thatcherism frames the work of Kazuo Ishiguro, Martin Amis, and Graham Swift, of Scottish novelists and new diasporic writers. How and why 1980s fiction is a response to particular psychological, social and economic pressures is explored in detail. Drawing on the rise of individualism and the birth of neo-liberalism, contributors reflect on the tense relations between 1980s politics and realism, and between elegy and satire. Noting the creation of a 'heritage industry' during the decade, the rise of the historical novel is also considered against broader cultural changes. Viewed from the perspective of more recent theorisations of crisis following both 9/11 and the 21st-century financial crash, this study makes sense of why and how writers of the 1980s constructed fictions in response to this decade's own set of fundamental crises.

This book gives a critique of the contemporary global capitalist system and the adverse consequences suffered by the developing countries as a result of their 'integration' into this system. The current neoliberal paradigm of capitalist development as the only or the best alternative for the economic, social and political development of the developing countries is rejected. The authors search for more human and ecologically sustainable alternatives, focusing on Latin America, Asia and women. Contributors are David Barkijn, Robert N. Gwynne, Richard L. Harris, Cristóbal Kay, Jorge Nef, Mustapha Kamal Pasha, Cathy A. Rakowski, Wilder Robles, Melinda J. Seid, and John Weeks.

This thoroughly revised edition includes updated essays on cultural themes and literary analysis, and its new essays analyze the full scope of the seven-book series as both pop cultural phenomenon and as a set of literary texts. Critical Perspectives on Harry Potter, Second Edition draws on a wider range of intellectual traditions to explore the texts, including moral-theological analysis, psychoanalytic perspectives, and philosophy of technology. The Harry Potter novels engage the social, cultural, and psychological preoccupations of our times, and Critical Perspectives on Harry Potter, Second Edition examines these worlds of consciousness and culture, ultimately revealing how modern anxieties and fixations are reflected in these powerful texts. ("DISCLAIMER: This book is not authorized, approved, licensed, or endorsed by J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., or anyone associated with the Harry Potter books or movies.")

Critical Perspectives on J.M. Coetzee is one of the first collections of critical essays on this major contemporary writer. The essays, written by an international cast of contributors, adopt a variety of approaches to Coetzee's often controversial work, taking care to place that work within its wider cultural context. Contributions include essays of more general import, ranging across Coetzee's oeuvre, as well as essays that analyse in more detail individual Coetzee novels. The collection also includes a preface by Coetzee's fellow South African, the internationally acclaimed writer Nadine Gordimer.

The composer and pianist Michael Finnissy (b. 1946) is an unmistakeable presence in the British and international new music scene, both for his immeasurable generosity as prolific composer for many different types of musicians, major advocate for the works of others, and performer and conductor who has also been a driving force behind ensembles; he was also President of the International Society for Contemporary Music from 1990 to 1996. His vast and enormously varied output confounds those who seek easy categorisations: once associated strongly with the ‘new complexity’, Finnissy is equally known as composer regularly engaged with many different folk musics, for working with amateur and community musicians, for a long-term engagement with sacred music, or as an advocate of Anglo-American ‘experimental’ music. Twenty years ago, a large-scale volume entitled Uncommon Ground: The Music of Michael Finnissy gave the first major overview of the output of any ‘complex’ composer. This new volume brings a greater plurality of perspectives and critical sensibility to bear upon an output which is almost twice as large as it was when the earlier book was published. A range of leading contributors – musicologists, composers, performers and others – each grapple with particular questions relating to Finnissy’s music, often in ways which raise questions relating more widely to new music, and provide theoretical foundations for further of study both of Finnissy and other composers.