Languages & Literatures 2011 | 1 | - Peter Lang

14 English Language and Literatures · Anglistik · Langue et littératures anglaises
T
Melinda Jewell
his book is an analysis of the textual representation
of dance in the Australian
novel since the late 1890s . It examines how
the act of dance is variously portrayed, how
the word ‘dance’ is used metaphorically to
convey actual or imagined movement, and
how dance is written in a novelistic form . The
author employs a wide range of theoretical
approaches including postcolonial studies,
theories concerned with class, gender, metaphor
and dance and, in particular, Jung’s concept
of the shadow and theories concerned
P
The Representation of Dance
in Australian Novels
The Darkness Beyond the Stage-Lit Dream
Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, New York, Oxford, Wien, 2011 .
XII, 402 pp ., num . tables
pb . ISBN 978-3-0343-0417-7
CHF 91 .– / € D 62 .80 / € A 64 .60 / € 58 .70 / £ 52 .80 / US-$ 90 .95
Roy Osamu Kamada
ostcolonial Romanticisms: Landscape
and the Possibilities of Inheritance describes
the production of a new and particular
kind of postcolonial text and resituates
the notion of literary influence in the context
of postcolonial literatures . This book addresses
the ways in which Derek Walcott, Garrett
Hongo, and Jamaica Kincaid have appropriated
aspects of «colonial» culture and how
they deploy the tropes of British Romanticism
in their own texts . Postcolonial Romanticisms
argues that Walcott, Hongo, and Kincaid
radically reimagine and rewrite the various
traditions that have figured their island
landscapes as unhistoricized, unoccupied,
and marginal . The landscapes that they write
about are necessarily politicized; their own
subjectivities are intimately implicated in
both the natural beauty as well as the traumatic
history of place; they confront and engage
to varying degrees the history of their
postcolonial geographies, the history of
Postcolonial Romanticisms
Landscape and the Possibilities of Inheritance
New York, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, Oxford, Wien, 2010 .
X, 157 pp .
Postcolonial Studies . Vol . 10
General Editor: Maria C . Zamora
hb . ISBN 978-1-4331-0818-1
CHF 68 .– / € D 46 .90 / € A 48 .20 / € 43 .80 / £ 39 .40 / US-$ 67 .95
€ D includes VAT – valid for Germany · € A includes VAT – valid for Austria
with vision . Through these variegated approaches,
the study critiques the common
view that dance is an expression of joie de
vivre, liberation, transcendence, order and
beauty . This text also probes issues concerned
with the enactment of dance in Australia and
abroad, and contributes to an understanding
of how dance is ‘translated’ into literature . It
makes an important contribution because the
study of dance in Australian literature has
been minimal, and this despite the reality that
dance is prolific in Australian novels .
diaspora, of slavery, of the capitalist commod-
ification of the landscape, and the devastat-
ing consequences this history has on the in-
dividual . These postcolonial writers confront
what Derek Walcott calls the «shards of an
ancient pastoral», the literal and literary remains
of colonial cultural authority that clutter
their landscapes . Postcolonial Romanticisms
is ideally suited for courses in cultural,
literary, and postcolonial studies, specifically
courses in world literature, global literature,
postcolonial literature, Caribbean literature,
contemporary poetry, and eco-literary studies .
Roy oSaMu KaMada is Assistant Professor
in the Writing, Literature and Publishing
Department at Emerson College in Boston,
Massachusetts . He received his Ph .D . in English
literature from the University of California,
Davis . He has taught literature and creative
writing at Emerson College, the University
of Virginia, the University of California,
Davis, and for the Kearny St . Workshop .
Pamela B . June
The Fragmented Female Body
and Identity
The Postmodern, Feminist,
and Multiethnic Writings
of Toni Morrison,
Theresa Hak Kyung Cha,
Phyllis Alesia Perry, Gayl Jones,
Emma Pérez, Paula Gunn Allen,
and Kathy Acker
New York, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles,
Frankfurt am Main, Oxford, Wien, 2010 . X, 157 pp .
Modern American Literature: New Approaches .
Vol . 56
General Editor: Yoshinobu Hakutani
hb . ISBN 978-1-4331-1050-4
CHF 68 .– / € D 46 .90 / € A 48 .20 / € 43 .80 /
£ 39 .40 / US-$ 67 .95
T
he Fragmented Female Body and Identity
explores the symbol of the wounded
and scarred female body in selected postmodern,
multiethnic American women’s
novels, namely Toni Morrison’s Beloved,
Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s Dictée, Phyllis Alesia
Perry’s Stigmata, Gayl Jones’s Corregidora,
Emma Pérez’s Gulf Dreams, Paula Gunn Allen’s
The Woman Who Owned the Shadows, and
Kathy Acker’s Blood and Guts in High School
and Empire of the Senseless. In each of these
novels, disjointed, postmodern writing reflects
the novel’s focus on fragmented female
bodies . The wounded and scarred body
emerges from various, often intersecting,
forms of oppression, including patriarchy,
racism, and heteronormativity . This book
emphasizes the different and nuanced forms
of oppression each woman faces . However,
while the fragmented body symbolizes oppression
and pain, it also catalyzes resistance
through recognition . When female characters
recognize some element of a shared oppression,
they form bonds with one another .
These feminist unities, as a response to multiple
forms of oppression, become viable
means for resistance and healing .
PaMela B. June received her Ph .D . in English
literature and criticism from Indiana
University of Pennsylvania, where she has
held teaching posts . She is Assistant Professor
at Paine College in Augusta, Georgia . She
has published and presented papers on multiethnic
women’s fiction .