Languages & Literatures 2011 | 1 | - Peter Lang

T
Philipp Kneis
his book analyzes the mythological content
of five television franchises within
the genre of science fiction, fantasy and horror:
The X-Files & Millennium, Babylon 5 & Crusade,
Buffy the Vampire Slayer & Angel, Stargate
and Star Trek . The central themes are errand
into the wilderness, emancipation from
larger powers, individual responsibility,
prophecy, apocalyptic scenarios, fundamen-
Barbara Kowalik
Betwixt engelaunde
and englene londe
Dialogic Poetics in Early English
Religious Lyric
Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles,
New York, Oxford, Wien, 2010 . 256 pp .
Studies in English Medieval Language
and Literature . Vol . 31
Edited by Jacek Fisiak
hb . ISBN 978-3-631-61695-6
CHF 73 .– / € D 49 .80 / € A 51 .20 / € 46 .50 /
£ 41 .90 / US-$ 72 .95
T
his study explores the somewhat neglected
area of dramatic genres of early
English religious lyric and illuminates the
functions of dialogue as an instrument of
devotion and cognition in the context of medieval
culture .
The book focuses on short poems in dialogue
form, semi-dialogic prayers and dramatic
monologues, and alleged dialogic configurations
of the lyrics, stressing their potential
for performance . Devotional dialogues,
as between Jesus and Mary, are shown to have
the form of mutual begging, in accordance
with the central medieval ritual of supplication
. Dialogue as heteroglossia provides the
basis for readings of selected prayers from
Cædmon to Lydgate, highlighting a variety
of cultural transactions involved in addressing
heaven . Tracing the ways the poems overcome
the limits of language in search of transcendent
communication leads to insights
into vernacular poetics and theology inherent
in early English religious verse .
The Emancipation of the Soul
Langue et littératures anglaises · Anglistik · English Language and Literatures
Memes of Destiny in American Mythological Television
Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Wien, 2010 .
153 pp .
hb . ISBN 978-3-631-60817-3
CHF 48 .– / € D 32 .80 / € A 33 .80 / € 30 .70 / £ 27 .60 / US-$ 47 .95
talism, artificial intelligence, as well as hybridity,
gender roles, psychotic narration,
and others . The theoretical basis for this work
are both a conventional cultural studies perspective
as well as memetics, an evolutionary
perspective of culture and literature that
is utilized in this volume as an approach to
studying genre at the example of the five case
studies .
BaRBaRa KowaliK is Professor of English
literature at the University of Warsaw . For
many years she taught at Maria Curie-
Skłodowska University of Lublin . She was a
visiting scholar at St . Hilda’s College, Oxford
and taught Polish literature at American universities
. She is a member of The European
Society for the Study of English and the International
Association of the University Professors
of English, and is currently the editor of
Acta Philologica at the University of Warsaw .
She has authored a book on the symbolism
of space in the Pearl manuscript (1997), a book
on woman’s pastoral in Barbara Pym’s fiction
(2002), and numerous articles and reviews .
Ulrike Küpper
William Shakespeare’s
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
in the History of Music Theater
Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles,
New York, Oxford, Wien, 2011 . XII, 280 pp .,
num . coloured ill ., tables and examples of notes
Literary Studies . Vol . 7
Edited by Heinrich F . Plett
hb . ISBN 978-3-631-60934-7
CHF 77 .– / € D 52 .80 / € A 54 .20 / € 49 .30 /
£ 44 .40 / US-$ 76 .95
W
illiam Shakespeare’s comedy A Midsummer
Night’s Dream (1595) has survived
and flourished as a drama for over five
centuries . The work has also enjoyed immense
popularity in music . Its lyrical verse,
its constant use of musical terminology, and
its references to and deployment of songs
and dances have served to attract major com-
posers over more than four centuries . The
book compares their libretti with the ori ginal
text, and analyzes how alterations in text
and structure have affected the nature of
Shakespeare’s original play – its plot, characterization
and lyricism . The study also deals
with the constituent elements of music theater,
including instrumental music, and, to
a lesser extent, with artistic and cinematic
representations of Shakespeare’s comedy .
Heather Levy
The Servants of Desire in
Virginia Woolf’s Shorter Fiction
New York, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles,
Frankfurt am Main, Oxford, Wien, 2010 . X, 220 pp .
Studies in Twentieth-Century British Literature .
Vol . 8
General Editor: Karen Marguerite Radell
hb . ISBN 978-1-4331-0940-9
CHF 75 .– / € D 51 .70 / € A 53 .10 / € 48 .30 /
£ 43 .50 / US-$ 74 .95
T
he Servants of Desire in Virginia Woolf’s
Shorter Fiction proposes an insight into
the ways in which Virginia Woolf engaged with
the questions of how class influences working
women’s occupation of private and public
space and how material privilege or economic
distress inhibits or encourages their likelihood
of obtaining their intellectual, spiritual, and
physical desires . This groundbreaking book
uses class as the determining factor to assess
how servants and working class women occupy
private and public space and articulate
or fail to realize their desires . Drawing upon
published and unpublished holograph and
typescript drafts of the shorter fiction in The
Monks House Papers as well as the Berg Collection,
this book examines Woolf’s oscillating
patterns of elision, idealization, and contempt
for the voices and desires of female
servants, lesbians, gypsies, and other disenfranchised
women . The Servants of Desire in
Virginia Woolf’s Shorter Fiction also assesses
how the portrayal of working class women in
the shorter fiction becomes a vital template
for the representation of working class women
in Woolf’s novels and essays . This study of the
cumulative portrayal of the working class
woman in all of Virginia Woolf’s shorter fiction
will also be compelling for anyone interested in
social justice, especially for advocates of equality
in gender/race/class/sexuality conflicts .
heatheR levy teaches twentieth-century
British and American literature at Western
Connecticut State University in Danbury,
Connecticut . She received her Ph .D . in English
literature from Binghamton University .
Our complete backlist is available at www.peterlang.com
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