Modernism: A Short IntroductionDavid Ayers provides the reader with a series of interlacing readings – all of them original and provocative – of some major texts of Anglo-American modernism. Ayers’s central theme is the relation of the linguistic to the social in all its complex “modernist” manifestations. The theories of Benjamin and Adorno, as well as of Derrida, provide an important base for understanding the great poetries and fictions of the period.
Jean-Michel Rabaté offers a systematic genealogy of Lacan's theory of literature, reconstructing an original doctrine based upon Freudian insights and revitalized through close readings of authors as diverse as Poe, Gide, Shakespeare, Plato, Claudel, Sophocles, Sade, Genet, Duras, and Joyce. Not simply an essay about Lacan's influences or style, this book shows how the emergence of terms like the "letter" and the "symptom" would not have been possible without innovative readings of literary texts. Lacan's critique of "applied psychoanalysis" entails a new practice of psychoanalysis understood as a type of textual reading of the Unconscious.
An Introduction to Sylvia PlathSylvia Plath is widely recognized as one of the leading figures in 20th century Anglo-American literature and culture. The Cambridge Introduction to Sylvia Plath provides an authoritative and comprehensive guide to the poetry, prose and autobiographical writings of Sylvia Plath. It offers a critical overview of key readings, debates and issues from almost fifty years of Plath scholarship, draws attention to the historical, literary, national and gender contexts which frame her writing and presents informed and attentive readings of her own work.
Vocabulary and grammatical structures have been carefully controlled and graded over the three levels of the series to allow students a comfortable progression from easily accessible readings to more challenging readings. Exercises in the series have been designed to practice reading and comprehension skills useful for students interested in test-taking strategies. Reading Challenge is suitable for both classroom use and self-study, although students in the classroom will benefit from the additional activities presented in each unit focused on developing speaking, listening, and writing skills.
The Chronologers' Quest: The Search for the Age of the Earth
The history of geology and how we learned about the age of the Earth is a fascinating subject, but Jackson, a geologist at Trinity College, Dublin, is unable to explain and pass along his enthusiasm. Aficionados might appreciate the tour through attempts to arrive at the planet's age from ancient myths, the Bible, the salinity of the oceans, temperature readings, fossils, geology, biology, radiology and cosmology. Each chapter ends with a "close but no cigar" statement of why a given theory was a good idea at the time.
Vocabulary and grammatical structures have been carefully controlled and graded over the three levels of the series to allow students a comfortable progression from easily accessible readings to more challenging readings. Exercises in the series have been designed to practice reading and comprehension skills useful for students interested in test-taking strategies. Reading Challenge is suitable for both classroom use and self-study, although students in the classroom will benefit from the additional activities presented in each unit focused on developing speaking, listening, and writing skills.
