Klaus Stierstorfer Books

Within the profile of anglistik & englischunterricht, this volume on Caribbean literature and culture offers discussions and analyses of those issues and approaches which have emerged as particularly important or, indeed, contentious in literary and cultural scholarship in the field. The Caribbean is presented as not only an eminently rich and complex area of study and research, but also as particularly accessible in educational contexts. Immediately recognizable to students in some of its stereotypical tourist images and because of the global appeal of its cultural products in music and life styles, the Caribbean will draw readers of this volume into entering further into the fascinating, multifaceted experience of its literature, art works and immensely productive, varied and lively world of culture in general. Contributions by scholars experienced in research and teaching the Caribbean range from essays on major genres and themes in Caribbean writing to discussions of language, history, theatre, music, as well as issues of translation, gender and the African rootedness of important aspects of Caribbean culture, this giving a tour d'horizon and stimulating further study and research in students and teachers alike.

After the veritable hype concerning postmodernism in the 1980s and early 1990s, when questions about when it began, what it means and which texts it comprises were apt to trigger heated discussions, the excitement has notably cooled down at the turn of the century. Voices are now beginning to be heard which seem to suggest a new episteme in the making which points beyond postmodernism, while it remains at the same time very uncertain whether what appears as newness is not rather a return to traditional concepts, theoretical premises, and authorial practices. Contributors to this volume propose to explore new openings and recent developments in anglophone literatures and cultural theories which engage with issues seen to be central in the construction of a postmodern paradigm, but deal with them in ways that promise new openings or a new Zeitgeist.

Literature, literary interpretation and criticism have always had an interestingly paradoxical relationship with fundamentalism: fundamentalisms are generally built on texts, which can be sacred and exclusive, and on a claim to exclusive authority for interpretation. Therefore they tend to see the cornucopian profusion of texts and interpretations so typical of Western concepts of Literature as a threat; a circumstance which has been widely exploited by writers and critics to engage with fundamentalism on its home turf. The volume addresses the cultural given that the term 'fundamentalism' has acquired such wide-spread currency, at least in the West. In their various approaches, the contributions examine what fundamentalism has come to signify for those who use the term so extensively and so indiscriminately; and they try to establish what this implies for reaching more productive and positive positions in negotiating fundamentalisms. In doing so, the contributors offer investigations of literary approaches to fundamentalism across a wide range of important contemporary discourses and from a number of cultural perspectives. Readers will expand their understanding of the significance of fundamentalism, and of the value of literature as a highly specialized medium for explorations in this field.

This volume covers a wide range of related and interlinked topics beginning with re-assessments of postmodernism and postmodernist literary and cultural theory. Taking postmodernism as its starting point, it ventures glimpses beyond the postmodernist paradigm and on to new ways of conceptualizing the arts and cultural developments as such. Some of these discussions lead into reflections on autobiography and travel writing, but investigations in the latter fields are by no means restricted to interdependencies with inquiries into the problematics of postmodernism. Far-flung and complex as this volume's explorations are, they can still be easily captured and summed up in a single name: Ihab Hassan - who epitomizes them all (and then, perhaps, some). To honour him on his 80th birthday, these essays have been collected, with contributors from across the globe, again pointing to the three major aspects of the book: Ihab Hassan's postmodernist, global appeal - his untiring travels around the world - and his own, migrant biography from which his autobiographical works as well as his interest in autobiographical writing take their departure.

Postmodernism has been a near-hegemonic discourse in literary and cultural theory for the last few decades: it has been discussed, attacked, maligned, forgotten about, revived and presented on most international rostra. When it comes to the teaching of literature, however, the implications of what is often referred to as a postmodern paradigm shift have never been extensively examined and, even less, thought through in their various applicabilities. This project aims at both sides of the problematics of teaching postmodernism and postmodern teaching. The question of how to bring issues of postmodernism to the attention of students is here joined together with postmodern implications for traditional educational concepts, particularly in the field of literature. Contributions cover the full range of this thematic field, from a conceptual or theoretical focus on the one hand to exemplary texts or case studies on the other, while all contributors draw on wide-ranging experience in research and teaching of their own. This volume offers essential points of reference for both lecturers and students. Everyone interested in issues of postmodernism will read this book with great profit.

John Oxenford (1812-1877) was a prominent figure in the 19th-century theatrical landscape. A successful playwright himself, he gained equal respect as theatre critic of The Times for 30 years. His literary achievements also include a number of competent translations and many contributions to periodicals on a variety of subjects. This study explores the exuberant world of his farces, identifying them as the genre best suited to his literary taste and outlook. Chapters I-III highlight his theoretical views on comedy and drama implied in his many essays and reviews. The results are then used in a close analysis of his plays in chapters IV-VIII. In the process, Oxenford's farces emerge as a highly original body of theatrical literature, based on an expert understanding of the stage, clear dramatic concepts, a Rabelaisian appreciation for fun, and an unerring sense for the expectations of a Victorian audience.

In fast allen traditionellen geisteswissenschaftlichen Disziplinen hat sich in den letzten Jahrzehnten die Kulturwissenschaft als dominantes Wissenschaftsparadigma etabliert. Dadurch ist zwar einerseits ein exzellentes gemeinsames Forum für interdisziplinäre Arbeit im Entstehen begriffen; gleichzeitig aber droht die Gefahr der Homogenisierung im kulturwissenschaftlichen Diskurs. Dieser Band bietet historische Abrisse, spezifische Fragestellungen, zentrale Forschungsbeispiele und Zukunftsperspektiven folgender, in Einzelkapiteln aufeinander bezogenen kulturwissenschaftlichen Teilbereiche: Literaturwissenschaft, Gender Studies, Postcolonial Studies, Medienwissenschaft, Geschichtswissenschaft, Soziologie, Ethnologie, Linguistik, Fachdidaktik, Anglistik / Amerikanistik, Romanistik, Germanistik und Medizingeschichte.

Nach Phasen scheinbaren Niedergangs kündigte sich spätestens seit den 1980er Jahren eine wahre Renaissance literaturgeschichtlicher Tätigkeit an, die seither nichts an Schubkraft verloren hat. Es schien deshalb an der Zeit, in reflexiver Brechung diese Gattung ihrerseits einer historischen Betrachtung zu unterziehen. Die vorliegende Studie beschreibt für die anglophone Literatur der britischen Inseln zum ersten Mal in Ausführlichkeit jenen Abschnitt der Geschichte, der im Laufe der Recherchen als konstitutiv für die Ausbildung und Festigung des heute noch geläufigen, wenn auch vieldiskutierten und weiterentwickelten literaturgeschichtlichen Paradigmas befunden wurde. Von Thomas Wartons torsohafter History of English Poetry (1773-81) bis zu den monumentalen Werken der spätviktorianischen und edwardiansichen Zeit wird das komplexe Zusammenspiel von poetologischen, gesellschaftlichen, politischen, institutionellen und pädagogischen Faktoren untersucht, aus denen sich der literaturhistoriographische Diskurs konstituierte und den immer zahlreicher erscheinenden Literaturgeschichten ihre Prägung verlieh. Ein Ausblick auf die weitere Entwicklung der Gattung und ihr mitunter unerwartetes Überleben im 20. Jahrhundert bildet den Abschluss der Studie.