Ellen Redling Livres

The articles in this volume discuss specific ways in which the Gothic transgresses boundaries, be they historical, spatial, national, aesthetic, generic, modal, medial, or sexual. Offering a wide range in every respect - from 'Proto' to 'Post-Gothic,' from mythical to digital, from national to 'Globalgothic,' from metropolitan to 'EcoGothic,' from traditional to 'Candygothic,' from novel to film and from Shakespeare to Steampunk - this collection aims to enrich as well as extend the scholarly debate on the Gothic as a multi-faceted mode of expression that goes beyond limits and, much like a vampire, constantly refreshes itself by feeding on the lifeblood of topical issues. ( Research and Science / Forschung und Wissenschaft - Vol. 19) [ Popular Culture, Literary Criticism]

This study explores Thackeray as an allegorist rather than a mere satirist. In doing so, it also enriches and extends current debates on allegorical theory. Allegorical Thackeray demonstrates that his major novels Vanity Fair, Pendennis and The Newcomes go beyond the satirical and parodic techniques used in his early works and can be interpreted as secularised successors of traditional reader-based Christian allegories. With this human-allegorical focus Thackeray stands against an excessive emphasis on the culturing of the individual self, society and the nation which can be perceived in the works of his forerunners and of other Victorian writers, such as Charles Dickens, Charlotte Bront�« and Anthony Trollope. Thackeray certainly did not believe in the idea of one single authoritarian `truth', but he seems to suggest that, if religious morality is completely replaced by national, social or idiosyncratic notions of `morality', this could lead to detrimental distortions of more lasting and encompassing values. Ellen Redling teaches English literature and culture at the University of Heidelberg. ( English/American; Anglistik / Amerikanistik) [ Literary Criticism, Literature]

The essays collected in this volume add up to a morphology of contemporary drama in English. They investigate unusal formats and experimental texts as well as innovative performance practices. Many of the fourteen international contributors, however, acknowledge the pervasise and persistent influence the well-made play exerts even in the twenty-first century.