Böcker i Edinburgh Studies in Culture and Society-serien

This study examines the historical relationship between tragicomedy in the modernist theatre and the performative culture of Western consumer societies. Tragicomedy is seen as unique becuae of the existential playfulness and confusion of its protagonists, and because of its muted vision of apocalypse in the nuclear age.

The first part of this book contains background information relevant to the 18th century English novel. The second part focuses upon seven diverse, yet representative, novels of the period, paying particular attention to the presentation of class, women and religion in the works examined.

Habermas' recent work makes a major claim: to be able to determine what is the most rational thing to do. The author looks at the concept of justice, as one that is both essential to Habermas and Lyotard but is also utilized in their work only in constricted and unimaginative ways.

Duality and the divided mind have been a source of perennial fascination for literary artists and especially for novelists, and this is particularly true of the Romantic generation and their later nineteenth-century heirs.