From a Modernist/Postmodernist perspective, this title addresses questions of literary and cultural nationalism. The authors reveal that since the seventeenth century, American writing has reflected the political and historical climate of its time and helped define America's cultural and social parameters. Above all, they argue that American literature has always been essentially 'modern', illustrating this with a broad range of texts: from Poe and Melville to Fitzgerald and Proud, to Wallace and Stevens, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Thomas Pynchon.

Experts from five continents provide a thorough exploration of cultural studies, looking at different ideas, places and problems addressed by the field.

• Brings together the latest work in cultural studies and provides a synopsis of critical trends
• Showcases thirty contributors from five continents
• Addresses the key topics in the field, the relationship of cultural studies to other disciplines, and cultural studies around the world

A Companion to Creative Writing comprehensively considers key aspects of the practice, profession and culture of creative writing in the contemporary world.

 The most comprehensive collection specifically relating to the practices and cultural and professional place of creative writing

Covers not only the “how” of creative writing, but many more topics in and around the profession and cultural practices surrounding creative writing

A Companion to the Literature and Culture of the American West presents a series of essays that explore the historic and contemporary cultural expressions rooted in America's western states.

• Offers a comprehensive approach to the wide range of cultural expressions originating in the west
• Focuses on the intersections, complexities, and challenges found within and between the different historical and cultural groups that define the west's various distinctive regions
• Features essays written by many of the leading scholars in western American cultural studies

This volume brings together some of the most exciting renaissance scholars to suggest new ways of thinking about the period and to set a new series of agendas for Renaissance scholarship.

• Overturns the idea that it was a period of European cultural triumph and highlights the negative as well as the positive.
• Looks at the Renaissance from a world, as opposed to just European, perspective.
• Views the Renaissance from perspectives other than just the cultural elite.
• Gender, sex, violence, and cultural history are integrated into the analysis.