English Literature

Written over the last thirty years, this collection of Professor Peter Verdonk's most important work on the stylistics of poetry clearly shows that the stylistics of poetic discourse is a diverse and valuable interdiscipline. Discussing the poetry...

Writing autobiography is a complicated, often fraught activity for both writer and reader. We can find many recent examples of the way such writing calls into question the author's truthfulness or their authority to present as definitive their 've...

The Critic in the Modern World explores the work of six influential literary critics-Samuel Johnson, William Hazlitt, Matthew Arnold, T.S. Eliot, Lionel Trilling and James Wood-each of whom occupies a distinct historical moment. It considers how t...

An introduction to literary theory unlike any other, Ten Lessons in Theory engages its readers with three fundamental premises. The first premise is that a genuinely productive understanding of theory depends upon a considerably more sustained enc...

Through close readings of a wide range of plays and poems, Kiernan Ryan's compelling polemic sets out to reclaim the idea of Shakespeare's timeless universality from reactionary and radical critics alike. Its argument is driven throughout by the b...

An introductory critical study for first year undergraduates which bridges the gap between A Level and university study. The book offers an accessible overview of key critical perspectives, early modern contexts, and methods of close reading, as w...

This book considers the relationship between theory and practice in creative acts. In particular it addresses the work of theorists who also create and makers who have an avowed relation to theory.

Taking an interdisciplinary approach to phonological theory and analysis, A Critical Introduction to Phonology introduces the key aspects of the discipline. Departing from the mainstream tradition, Daniel Silverman argues that the nature of lingui...