From Puritanism to Postmodernism

From Puritanism to Postmodernism PDF Author: Richard Ruland
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317234146
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 438

Book Description
Widely acknowledged as a contemporary classic that has introduced thousands of readers to American literature, From Puritanism to Postmodernism: A History of American Literature brilliantly charts the fascinating story of American literature from the Puritan legacy to the advent of postmodernism. From realism and romanticism to modernism and postmodernism it examines and reflects on the work of a rich panoply of writers, including Poe, Melville, Fitzgerald, Pound, Wallace Stevens, Gwendolyn Brooks and Thomas Pynchon. Characterised throughout by a vibrant and engaging style it is a superb introduction to American literature, placing it thoughtfully in its rich social, ideological and historical context. A tour de force of both literary and historical writing, this Routledge Classics edition includes a new preface by co-author Richard Ruland, a new foreword by Linda Wagner-Martin and a fascinating interview with Richard Ruland, in which he reflects on the nature of American fiction and his collaboration with Malclolm Bradbury. It is published here for the first time.

Allegory in America

Allegory in America PDF Author: D. Madsen
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230379931
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 203

Book Description
Allegory in America surveys the history of American allegorical writing from the Puritans through the period of American romanticism to postmodernism. In a series of theoretical chapters the cultural function of allegory is discussed in relation to the mythology of American exceptionalism. Each theoretical chapter is followed by a chapter that analyzes a specific text or group of texts. Allegorical indeterminacy is seen to produce a literary tradition that both represents and subverts the ideals of American orthodoxy.

Captured by Texts

Captured by Texts PDF Author: Gary L. Ebersole
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 9780813916071
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 340

Book Description
How has the American Indian captivity narrative been used to explain the human condition? How does it serve to interpret the meaning of pain and suffering, gender, and the primitive-civilized dichotomy? In Captured by Texts, Gary L. Ebersole explores these questions, showing that our fictional interpretation of captivity can construct a world of meaning that liberates us in the face of adversity, pain, and loss of identity.

From Postmodernism to Postsecularism

From Postmodernism to Postsecularism PDF Author: Eric Walberg
Publisher: SCB Distributors
ISBN: 0986036242
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 368

Book Description
Eric Walberg's new book From Postmodernism to Postsecularism: Re-emerging Islamic Civilization provides an overview of imperialism and colonialism in the Muslim world. It elaborates on the third of the Great Games addressed in his earlier work, Postmodern Imperialism, which traced the movement of history from the colonialism of the British and other empires, through the neocolonialism of the US empire, to the current Great Game marked by the revival of Islam. Walberg reviews the Islamic reform traditions from the 19th century on (deriving from Al-Afghani, Qutb) incorporating the Islamic critique of the West as well as the Sunni/ Shia, mainstream/ Sufi/ Salafi divisions. Then he addresses the twentieth century experience of Islamic states (Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran), as well as the current dynamics of the Muslim world (Saudi, Iran, Qatar, Turkey, and now Egypt/ Tunisia/ Libya). Key actors and milestones in the struggle to free the Muslim world from the imperial yoke are discussed. While the Christian/Judaic surrender to capitalism led to Marxist secularism and the communist utopia, Walberg views the Islamic project as containing an alternative socio-economic orientation. This prevented the rise of capitalism/ imperialism in lands populated by Muslims, making them the losers in the technology race of the 19th-20th centuries, but the repository of a corrected vision of the rich lost values of the earlier monotheistic traditions. Here modernity and postmodernism are critiqued from both left and right, and Islam is discussed as both an alternative worldview and world order. However the contradictions of the Arab Spring may be resolved as the West continues its decline, Walberg projects how the understandings entrenched in Islamic civilization point toward a new-old civilizational alternative, one not derivative from the West, but indigenous to the developing world still under its heel.

The Routledge Companion to Postmodernism

The Routledge Companion to Postmodernism PDF Author: Stuart Sim
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136698337
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 345

Book Description
This fully revised third edition of The Routledge Companion to Postmodernism provides the ideal introduction to postmodernist thought. Featuring contributions from a cast of international scholars, the Companion contains 19 detailed essays on major themes and topics along with an A-Z of key terms and concepts. As well as revised essays on philosophy, politics, literature, and more, the first section now contains brand new essays on critical theory, business, gender and the performing arts. The concepts section, too, has been enhanced with new topics ranging from hypermedia to global warming. Students interested in any aspect of postmodernism will continue to find this an indispensable resource.

The Puritan Origins of American Sex

The Puritan Origins of American Sex PDF Author: Tracy Fessenden
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136692290
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 321

Book Description
From witch trials to pickaxe murderers, from brothels to convents, and from slavery to Toni Morrison's Paradise, these essays provide fascinating and provocative insights into our sexual and religious conventions and beliefs.

Beginning Postmodernism

Beginning Postmodernism PDF Author: Tim Woods
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 9780719052118
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 308

Book Description
"Postmodernism" has become the buzzword of contemporary society. Yet it remains baffling in its variety of definitions, contexts and associations. Beginning Postmodernism aims to offer clear, accessible and step-by-step introductions to postmodernism across a wide range of subjects. It encourages readers to explore how the debates about postmodernism have emerged from basic philosophical and cultural ideas. With its emphasis firmly on "postmodernism in practice," the book contains exercises and questions designed to help readers understand and reflect upon a variety of positions in the following areas of contemporary culture: philosophy and cultural theory; architecture and concepts of space; visual art; sculpture and the design arts; popular culture and music; film, video and television culture; and the social sciences.

Postmodernism and Notions of National Difference

Postmodernism and Notions of National Difference PDF Author: Geoffrey William Lord
Publisher: Rodopi
ISBN: 9789042001169
Category : American fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 196

Book Description
Postmodernism and Notions of National Differenceexamines the critical construction of postmodern fiction raising the question of whether the construction of postmodernism has sufficiently accounted for national difference. Geoffrey Lord argues that current meta-national conceptions of postmodernism need serious reconsideration to take national cultural contexts into account. Through a comparative investigation of the theoretical debate, literary traditions and close textual reading of a number of postmodern texts, Lord makes a persuasive case for his broad claim that national cultural differences are more persistent and powerful than usually allowed by established theories of postmodernity which claim a general collapse of traditional cultural orders and the meta-narratives that justify them.

Kurt Vonnegut's Crusade; or, How a Postmodern Harlequin Preached a New Kind of Humanism

Kurt Vonnegut's Crusade; or, How a Postmodern Harlequin Preached a New Kind of Humanism PDF Author: Todd F. Davis
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 0791482138
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 178

Book Description
"I've worried some about why write books when presidents and senators and generals do not read them, and the university experience taught me a very good reason: you catch people before they become generals and senators and presidents, and you poison their minds with humanity. Encourage them to make a better world." — Kurt Vonnegut Kurt Vonnegut's desire to save the planet from environmental and military destruction, to enact change by telling stories that both critique and embrace humanity, sets him apart from many of the postmodern authors who rose to prominence during the 1960s and 1970s. This new look at Vonnegut's oeuvre examines his insistence that writing is an "act of good citizenship or an attempt, at any rate, to be a good citizen." By exploring the moral and philosophical underpinnings of Vonnegut's work, Todd F. Davis demonstrates that, over the course of his long career, Vonnegut has created a new kind of humanism that not only bridges the modern and postmodern, but also offers hope for the power and possibilities of story. Davis highlights the ways Vonnegut deconstructs and demystifies the "grand narratives" of American culture while offering provisional narratives—petites histoires—that may serve as tools for daily living.

Explaining Postmodernism

Explaining Postmodernism PDF Author: Stephen R. C. Hicks
Publisher: Scholargy Publishing, Inc.
ISBN: 9781592476428
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 250

Book Description