English: Literary Criticism of Frankenstein and Gone with the Wind & Literary and Cultural Theory

Audience-Citizens: The Media, Public Knowledge and Interpretive Practice (BOOK): by Ramaswami Harindranath

Explore media and democracy from the audience perspective and provide a unique conceptual framework for the analysis of audiences, consumption and citizenship. The author develops a fresh approach towards the examination of media and politics in contemporary India and in the developing world. Though several audience studies have demonstrated links between interpretive practice and audience's socio-cultural contexts, there is little available literature on how these are related. This book explores how sociological and cultural factors affect interpretations of mediated knowledge. Using concepts from contemporary hermeneutics-in particular Gadamer-it examines the notion that understanding is irretrievably linked to the interpreter's socio-cultural positioning. The book also borrows Schultz's conceptual framework to explain the influence of socio-cultural factors on the capacity for understanding.

Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory (BOOK): by Peter Barry

“It is no surprise to learn that Beginning theory has already been reprinted nine times. There is no other book that offers such a comprehensive account of the field, combined with thoughtful, detailed exposition of the theoretical approaches under discussion. Far from being a modest survey of contemporary literary theory, it has had a vital role in shaping the way that theory is taught in Britain and North America.” –English Association Newsletter

Darwin's Plots: Evolutionary Narrative in Darwin, George Eliot and Nineteenth-Century Fiction (BOOK): by Gillian Beer

Gillian Beer's classic Darwin's Plots, one of the most influential works of literary criticism and cultural history of the last quarter century, is here reissued in an updated edition to coincide with the anniversary of Darwin's birth and of the publication of The Origin of Species. Its focus on how writers, including George Eliot, Charles Kingsley and Thomas Hardy, responded to Darwin's discoveries and to his innovations in scientific language continues to open up new approaches to Darwin's thought and to its effects in the culture of his contemporaries. This third edition includes an important new essay that investigates Darwin's concern with consciousness across all forms of organic life. It demonstrates how this fascination persisted throughout his career and affected his methods and discoveries. With an updated bibliography reflecting recent work in the field, this book will retain its place at the heart of Victorian studies.

Film Noir and the Cinema of Paranoia (BOOK): by Wheeler Winston Dixon

Wheeler Winston Dixon engages readers in an overview of noir and fatalist film from the mid-twentieth century to the present, ending with a discussion of television, the Internet, and dominant commercial cinema. Beginning with the 1940s classics, Film Noir and the Cinema of Paranoia moves to the "Red Scare" and other ominous expressions of the 1950s. The dark cinema of the 1960s reflected the tensions of a society facing a new and, to some, menacing era of social expression.

Frankenstein's Science: Experimentation and Discovery in Romantic Culture, 1780-1830 (BOOK): edited by Christa Knellwolf and Jane Goodall

While "Frankenstein" is all too often read as a cautionary tale of the inherent dangers of uncontrolled scientific experimentation, the essays here take the reader back to a period when experimenters and radical thinkers viewed science as the harbinger of social innovation that would counter the virulent conservative backlash following the French Revolution. The collection will be an invaluable resource for students and scholars specializing in Romanticism, cultural history, philosophy, and the history of science.

Frankly, My Dear: Gone with the Wind Revisited (BOOK): by Molly Haskell

In time for the 70th anniversary of the film version, author and movie critic Haskell brings a scholar's rigor to her loving history of Gone With the Wind. Vivid profiles of author Margaret Mitchell, starlet Vivien Leigh, and film producer David Selznick re-humanize the work, now known more for its epic grandeur, iconic moments and controversial politics. Haskell draws thoughtful parallels between Mitchell and her protagonist, Scarlett O'Hara, and her affection for these women drives a narrative that gets occasionally bogged down in film production minutiae. Though perhaps too finely focused for casual readers, this sincere, detailed celebration should interest long-time fans and students.