Download or read book Postmodern Existentialism in Mervyn Peake s Titus Books written by Lauren R. Moss and published by Universal-Publishers. This book was released on 2010-07-05 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Much of the discussion about Peake's Titus Books has been about how to place them in the lexicon of English literature. I am proposing that these books should be read as works of postmodern existentialism. Both postmodern theory and existential theory are interested in the same issues, such as the loss of grand narratives, the rejection of totalizing world views, the subjectivity of truth, the nature of one's existence, and the search for meaning in an increasingly incomprehensible world. Societal issues, such as political upheaval, the growth of major cities, war, and advances in science and technology have led both postmodern and existentialist thinkers to view the world as chaotic and intrinsically unknowable and man's place within that world as increasingly unstable. All of these concerns are addressed in Peake's texts. Peake's novels reflect the existential struggle of its hero, Titus Groan, to break free of the Hegelian world view represented by Gormenghast and its traditions, and into a world in which he is free to be an individual and to find his own truth. Peake uses images of solitude and extreme isolation to represent the essential human condition as conceived by existentialist philosophers like Kierkegaard and Nietzsche. It is when they are alone that his characters are truly free to be themselves, without the social constraints imposed by the history and traditions of the castle. Titus's rebellion against Gormenghast represents the rejection of totalizing world views, a rejection found at the heart of postmodernism and existentialism. Incredulity toward mass society and culture are also central issues in postmodernism and existentialism. Nietzsche, who is claimed by both existentialists and postmodernists as a forerunner of their respective philosophies, claimed that God is dead, a belief reflected in the distinct absence of God from the Titus books; instead God is replaced by the ritual of Gormenghast. In Titus Alone He is replaced by technology. This also demonstrates the distrust felt by existentialists and postmodernists alike of a mass society in which the individual is consumed and becomes simply a part of the faceless crowd. Peake expresses a deep suspicion of technology and scientific advancement, a distinctly postmodern suspicion, that was not uncommon among writers after the second World War. By examining closely the concepts and themes associated with both postmodern and existential theory, it is clear that Peake's Titus Books are deeply concerned with both philosophies. Though Peake does not successfully answer the philosophical questions his novels pose, it is significant that his work attempts to do so.
Download or read book Fairy Tales of London written by Hadas Elber-Aviram and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-01-28 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Finalist for the 2022 Mythopoeic Scholarship Award for Myth and Fantasy Studies From the time of Charles Dickens, the imaginative power of the city of London has frequently inspired writers to their most creative flights of fantasy. Charting a new history of London fantasy writing from the Victorian era to the 21st century, Fairy Tales of London explores a powerful tradition of urban fantasy distinct from the rural tales of writers such as J.R.R. Tolkien. Hadas Elber-Aviram traces this urban tradition from Dickens, through the scientific romances of H.G. Wells, the anti-fantasies of George Orwell and Mervyn Peake to contemporary science fiction and fantasy writers such as Michael Moorcock, Neil Gaiman and China Miéville.
Download or read book Miracle Enough written by William Gray and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2014-09-18 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To mark the centenary of Mervyn Peake's birth, the Sussex Centre for Folklore, Fairy Tales and Fantasy (University of Chichester) organized an international conference in July 2011 entitled ""Mervyn Peake and the Fantasy Tradition."" Papers were presented by scholars, artists, and writers from all over the world, and here we have a selection of them. No other comparable collection of essays on Peake has ever been published. The contributors take a wide variety of approaches to Peake's work - ...
Download or read book The Titus Books written by Mervyn Peake and published by . This book was released on 1983 with total page 1160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book MLA International Bibliography of Books and Articles on the Modern Languages and Literatures written by and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 1420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Pale King written by David Foster Wallace and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2011-04-15 with total page 636 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The "breathtakingly brilliant" novel by the author of Infinite Jest (New York Times) is a deeply compelling and satisfying story, as hilarious and fearless and original as anything Wallace ever wrote. The agents at the IRS Regional Examination Center in Peoria, Illinois, appear ordinary enough to newly arrived trainee David Foster Wallace. But as he immerses himself in a routine so tedious and repetitive that new employees receive boredom-survival training, he learns of the extraordinary variety of personalities drawn to this strange calling. And he has arrived at a moment when forces within the IRS are plotting to eliminate even what little humanity and dignity the work still has. The Pale King remained unfinished at the time of David Foster Wallace's death, but it is a deeply compelling and satisfying novel, hilarious and fearless and as original as anything Wallace ever undertook. It grapples directly with ultimate questions -- questions of life's meaning and of the value of work and society -- through characters imagined with the interior force and generosity that were Wallace's unique gifts. Along the way it suggests a new idea of heroism and commands infinite respect for one of the most daring writers of our time. "The Pale King is by turns funny, shrewd, suspenseful, piercing, smart, terrifying, and rousing." --Laura Miller, Salon
Download or read book Viriconium written by M. John Harrison and published by Spectra. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A magnificent city existing on the ringes of the past, and on the brink of destruction, Viriconium • With a foreword by Neil Gaiman Available to American readers for the first time, this landmark collection gathers four groundbreaking fantasy classics from the acclaimed author of Light. Set in the imagined city of Viriconium, here are the masterworks that revolutionized a genre and enthralled a generation of readers: The Pastel City, A Storm of Wings, In Viriconium, and Viriconium Nights. Back in print after a long absence, these singular tales of a timeless realm and its enigmatic inhabitants are now reborn and compiled to captivate a whole new generation. Praise for M. John Harrison’s Viriconium “The world that Harrison depicts is intricate and authentic, peopled with a multitude of strange yet lifelike characters—a combination which serves to make his richly imagined empire of Viriconium feel very real indeed. . . . This omnibus collection from the author of Light is canon-reading for those who wish to know the genre's roots, as well as the heights, to which it can aspire.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “Brilliant, beautiful, and absolutely essential reading. The breadth of vision and imagination alone in these books is unparalleled. It is truly one of a kind and will continue to haunt you in the best possible way for years.”—Jonathan Carroll, author of White Apples “Harrison’s Viriconium sequence is the jewel in the crown of 20th-century fantasy, a work that proves irrefutably that fantastic literature can be Art with a capital A, holding its own alongside the very finest writing of our time, or any other.”—Elizabeth Hand, author of Mortal Love “M. John Harrison is a true master of English prose. He possesses the eye of a painter, the ear of a bard, and a rigorous and playful intellect. The Viriconium novels and stories are infused with a haunting genius that never falters.”—K.J. Bishop, author of The Etched City
Download or read book State of Fear written by Michael Crichton and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-10-13 with total page 817 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York Times bestselling author Michael Crichton delivers another action-packed techo-thriller in State of Fear. When a group of eco-terrorists engage in a global conspiracy to generate weather-related natural disasters, its up to environmental lawyer Peter Evans and his team to uncover the subterfuge. From Tokyo to Los Angeles, from Antarctica to the Solomon Islands, Michael Crichton mixes cutting edge science and action-packed adventure, leading readers on an edge-of-your-seat ride while offering up a thought-provoking commentary on the issue of global warming. A deftly-crafted novel, in true Crichton style, State of Fear is an exciting, stunning tale that not only entertains and educates, but will make you think.
Download or read book A Comprehensive Dictionary of Literature written by and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Playing the Waves written by Jan Simons and published by Amsterdam University Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dogma 95, the avant-garde filmmaking movement founded by the Danish director Lars von Trier and three of his fellow directors, was launched in 1995 at an elite cinema conference in Paris—when von Trier was called upon to speak about the future of film but instead showered the audience with pamphlets announcing the new movement and its manifesto. A refreshingly original critical commentary on the director and his practice, Playing the Waves is a paramount addition to one of new media’s most provocative genres: games and gaming. Playing the Waves cleverly puns on the title of one of von Trier’s most famous features and argues that Dogma 95, like much of the director’s low-budget realist productions, is a game that takes cinema beyond the traditional confines of film aesthetics and dramatic rules. Simons articulates the ways in which von Trier redefines the practice of filmmaking as a rule-bound activity, and stipulates the forms and structures of games von Trier brings to bear on his films, as well as the sobering lessons he draws from economic and evolutionary game theory. Much like the director’s films, this fascinating volume takes the traditional point of view of film theory and film aesthetics to the next level and demonstrates we have much to learn from the perspective of game studies and game theory.
Download or read book X ed Out written by Charles Burns and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the creator of the cult classic Black Hole, a graphic narrative that will delight and surpass the expectations of his fans. X'ed Out is most easily described as 'Hergé meets William S. Burroughs.' We are back in that spectral, surreal terrain that Burns has made his own - only now the seamless weaves of the erotic and horrifying is played out in parallel worlds of adolescent longing and dreamscape set in China.
Download or read book Possible Worlds Theory and Contemporary Narratology written by Alice Bell and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2019 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The notion of possible worlds has played a decisive role in postclassical narratology by awakening interest in the nature of fictionality and in emphasizing the notion of world as a source of aesthetic experience in narrative texts. As a theory concerned with the opposition between the actual world that we belong to and possible worlds created by the imagination, possible worlds theory has made significant contributions to narratology. Possible Worlds Theory and Contemporary Narratology updates the field of possible worlds theory and postclassical narratology by developing this theoretical framework further and applying it to a range of contemporary literary narratives. This volume systematically outlines the theoretical underpinnings of the possible worlds approach, provides updated methods for analyzing fictional narrative, and profiles those methods via the analysis of a range of different texts, including contemporary fiction, digital fiction, video games, graphic novels, historical narratives, and dramatic texts. Through the variety of its contributions, including those by three originators of the subject area--Lubomír Doležel, Thomas Pavel, and Marie-Laure Ryan--Possible Worlds Theory and Contemporary Narratology demonstrates the vitality and versatility of one of the most vibrant strands of contemporary narrative theory.
Download or read book The Enchantress of Florence written by Salman Rushdie and published by Knopf Canada. This book was released on 2009-02-24 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A tall, yellow-haired young European traveller calling himself “Mogor dell’Amore,” the Mughal of Love, arrives at the court of the real Grand Mughal, the Emperor Akbar, with a tale to tell that begins to obsess the whole imperial capital. The stranger claims to be the child of a lost Mughal princess, the youngest sister of Akbar’s grandfather Babar: Qara Köz, ‘Lady Black Eyes’, a great beauty believed to possess powers of enchantment and sorcery, who is taken captive first by an Uzbeg warlord, then by the Shah of Persia, and finally becomes the lover of a certain Argalia, a Florentine soldier of fortune, commander of the armies of the Ottoman Sultan. When Argalia returns home with his Mughal mistress the city is mesmerised by her presence, and much trouble ensues. The Enchantress of Florence is a love story and a mystery – the story of a woman attempting to command her own destiny in a man’s world. It brings together two cities that barely know each other – the hedonistic Mughal capital, in which the brilliant emperor wrestles daily with questions of belief, desire and the treachery of sons, and the equally sensual Florentine world of powerful courtesans, humanist philosophy and inhuman torture, where Argalia’s boyhood friend ‘il Machia’ – Niccolò Machiavelli – is learning, the hard way, about the true brutality of power. These two worlds, so far apart, turn out to be uncannily alike, and the enchantments of women hold sway over them both. But is Mogor’s story true? And if so, then what happened to the lost princess? And if he’s a liar, must he die?
Download or read book The Two Cultures written by C. P. Snow and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012-03-26 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The importance of science and technology and future of education and research are just some of the subjects discussed here.
Download or read book Derek Jarman written by Rowland Wymer and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 2019-01-04 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book gives detailed and original critical readings of all eleven of Derek Jarman's feature-length films, arguing that he occupies a major and influential place in European and world cinema rather than merely being a cult figure. It places particular emphasis on the importance of Renaissance art and literature for Jarman, and emphasises his interest in Jungian psychology. Wymer shows how Jarman used his films to take his audience with him on an inner journey in search of the self, whilst remaining fully aware of the dangers of such a journey. Making substantial use of Jarman's unpublished papers as well as all his published works, Wymer argues that the films are orientated towards a much wider audience than is often supposed. They are addressed to anyone, of whatever gender or sexuality, who is prepared to go on a journey in search of him or her self and to become Jarman's accomplice in 'the dream world of the soul'.
Download or read book Death of a Hero written by Richard Aldington and published by Dundurn. This book was released on 1998-05-15 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Death of a Hero", published in 1929 was the author’s literary response to the war. He went on to publish several works of fiction. In 1942, having moved to the United States, he began to write biographies. This last work was very controversial, as it was highly critical of the man still regarded as a war hero.
Download or read book Crossword Lists written by Anne Stibbs and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
