Beginning theory has been helping students navigate through the thickets of literary and cultural theory for over two decades. This new and expanded fourth edition continues to offer readers the best single-volume introduction to the field. The bewildering variety of approaches, theorists and technical language is lucidly and expertly unravelled. Unlike many books which assume certain positions about the critics and the theories they represent, Beginning theory allows rea...

Ever wondered how to transform your garden harvest into flavorful and healthy delights? Are you yearning to unlock the secrets of fermentation to elevate your culinary creations? Do you often ponder: How can I make the most of my garden produce and create unique and delicious flavors? What are the steps to master the art of fermentation and infuse my dishes with complexity and richness? Is there a comprehensive guide that simplifies the magic of vegetable alchemy from garden to plate? Meet...

Witty, direct and articulate, Peter Barry illustrates the key elements of poetry at work, covering many different kinds of verse, from traditional forms to innovative versions of the art, such as ‘concrete’ poetry, minimalism and word-free poems. The emphasis is on meanings rather than words, looking beyond technical devices like alliteration and assonance so that poems are understood as dynamic structures creating specific ends and effects.The three sections cover progressively ex...

It is 1987, two years after Live Aid and PR expert Adrian Burles, working with charity Africa Assist has a Big Idea that he thinks will keep Ethiopian hunger in the headlines and touch heartstrings (and purse strings) of people in the West.Aided by Anne Chaffey, an experienced nurse who has worked at the famine frontline for many years, he locates a young, malnourished Afar man called Mujtabaa wandering alone in the desert and flies him back to London.The world's media are ...

Postcolonialism has become one of the most exciting, popular and stimulating fields of literary and cultural studies in recent years. Yet the variety of approaches, the range of debate and the critical vocabularies often used may make it challenging for new students to establish a firm foothold in this area. Beginning Postcolonialism is a vital resource for those taking undergraduate courses in postcolonial studies for the first time and has become an established international best-seller ...

General Editor's Preface.- Introduction.- PART 1 EARLY MODERN VIEWPOINTS: CRITICAL BACKGROUND TO CONTEMPORARY DEBATES.- PART 2 THE MAJOR ISSUES IN CONTEMPORARY DEBATES.- Is Theory Necessary ? (Empiricism vs Theoreticism).- What Does the Literary Work Represent'.- Is Literature Language? (The Claims of Stylistics).- What is Deconstruction'.- What is the Reader's Place'.- PART 3 THE NEW THEORIES IN PRACTICE.- Fiction Poetry Drama.- Select Bibliography.- Notes on Contributors.- Acknowledgemen...

This volume of essays explores the scope for a further extension of ecocriticism across the environmental humanities. Contributors, who include both established academics and early career researchers in the humanities, were given free rein to interpret the brief. The collection is unusual in that it considers collaboration between individuals both in the same discipline and across creative disciplines. Subjects include familiar environments close to home and those such as Iceland and Antar...

Fully revised and updated, this new edition of English in Practice continues to be an essential practical guide to studying English at University. It is for all those who are about to embark on an English degree or are in the midst of completing one, and for those who want to re-engage with their reasons for teaching it.The second edition now includes new chapters offering practical advice on writing undergraduate dissertations and on taking your studies beyond undergradua...

Realism is an essential concept in literary studies, yet for a variety of reasons it has not received the attention and clarity it deserves, often being dismissed as ‘too slippery’ to be of use. This accessible study remedies that failing for students and scholars of English Literature and Literary Theory alike, plainly setting out what realism is, the issues surrounding it, and its role in other major literary modes such as modernism and postmodernism. Beginning Realism gives detailed cov...

Beginning classical social theory introduces students and educated general readers to thirteen key social theorists by way of examining a single, exemplary text by each author, ranging from Comte to Adorno. It answers the need for a book that helps students develop the skill to critically read theory. Rather than learning how to admire the canonical theorists, readers are alerted to the flow of their arguments and the texts’ contradictions and limitations. Having gotten ‘...

We All Fall Down is a vivid and compelling narrative of middle class friends and families, relationships and the contemporary workplace. Kate andHugh Drysdale like many couples buy a house that stretches them to thelimits financially. Hugh looks at the soaring property market, the fact he'searning a good salary, and all the signs of a booming economy and believeseverything will be fine. And it is, until the advertising company he works forhits a rough patch: two major pieces of bu...

Winner of the Victorian Premier's Literary Award ‘Dark and troubling, distressingly funny. It is one of the best debut novels I’ve read. Peter Barry is a massive talent. Exciting, original and dangerous.' - Wayne Macauley, author of Blueprints for a Barbed-Wire Canoe. It is 1995. Milan Zorec, an aspiring yet rejected novelist, travels from England to Bosnia to join the Serbian forces as a sniper in Sarajevo, in the final months of the longest si...