Thinking Literature across Continents finds Ranjan Ghosh and J. Hillis Miller— two thinkers from different continents, cultures, training, and critical perspectives— debating and reflecting upon what literature is and why it matters. Ghosh and Miller do not attempt to formulate a joint theory of literature; rather, they allow their different backgrounds and lively disagreements to stimulate…
Motive and Intention is a critique of certain conceptual foundations of the description and judgment of human action. Drawing on sources such as narrative history, Roy Lawrence analyzes examples of such assessments and provides and independent base for appraising familiar and tenacious theoretical presumptions. In so doing he illuminates many persistent issues of common interest in the social s…
In the story of the three baseball umpires, two novice umpires compete in boasting how they respect «truth» and the way things «really» are. One says, «I call them the way I see them»; the other, trying to trump this remark, responds, «I call them the way they are». Then enters the third, most seasoned umpire, saying, «They aren’t, until I call them». This book deals with two widel…
A philosopher-filmmaker, Kathleen Collins decisively redefined the parameters of African American film with Losing Ground (1982). This book uses detailed analyses of Collins’s films to contextualise her work in the African American, feminist and world film traditions, and it highlights her contribution to each of these canons.
Research that deals with metaphors and linguistic imagery has increased in the last thirty years. However, studies that question existing theories of metaphor from a comparative perspective are less common. The reason for the present theoretical sketch was the metaphorical model of conceptualism, alias the cognitive theory of metaphor: at least with this theory, `metaphor' itself has become a m…
First published in German in 1940 and widely recognized as a classic of philosophical anthropology, Laughing and Crying considers this significant pair of types of expressive behavior, considering them both in themselves and in their relation to the fundamental nature of humanity.
In Brenda Murphy's major study of his work she examines Williams' life and career and provides an analysis of more than a score of his key plays, including in-depth studies of major works such as A Streetcar Named Desire, The Glass Menagerie, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and others. She traces the artist figure who features in many of Williams' plays to broaden the discussion beyond the normal referen…
The writer Marguerite Duras was a key figure in post-war French cinema, pioneering innovations such as the disjunction of film and image, and the primacy given to voices, silence and music. Her multisensorial approach opened up new spaces for the female experience to be expressed. Although she worked with some of the best French visual technicians and musicians of her time, critiques have often…
Kant, Ontology, and the A Priori is a close study of Kant’s conception of metaphysical propositions. In it Moltke Gram aims to show in what sense Kant is offering a theory of metaphysical propositions about objects in general. Gram presents a criticism of the tendency to focus on Kant’s theory of dialectic as the source of paradigm cases of metaphysical propositions.
Thackeray: The Sentimental Cynic chronicles British novelist William Thackeray’s ambivalent attitudes toward society and traces his conduct during the major crises of his life in terms of those attitudes. Lambert Ennis examines the emotional tensions in Thackeray’s life and the impact they had in his work. In so doing, he illustrates key themes in Victorian studies more broadly: the questio…