Böcker i Theory and History of Literature-serien

Since the publication of Visions of Excess in 1985, there has been an explosion of interest in the work of Georges Bataille. The French surrealist continues to be important for his groundbreaking focus on the visceral, the erotic, and the relation of society to the primeval. This collection of prewar writings remains the volume in which Batailles¿s positions are most clearly, forcefully, and obsessively put forward.This book challenges the notion of a ¿closed economy¿ predicated on utility, production, and rational consumption, and develops an alternative theory that takes into account the human tendency to lose, destroy, and waste. This collection is indispensible for an understanding of the future as well as the past of current critical theory.Georges Bataille (1897-1962), a librarian by profession, was founder of the French review Critique. He is the author of several books, including Story of the Eye, The Accused Share, Erotism, and The Absence of Myth.

The texts that comprise this volume were selected from Cixous' seminars on the work of Clarice Lispector. They reflect Cixous' meditations on the art of reading, writing and related themes such as giving and loving as well as trace the influence of Lispector on Cixous' own development.

This book is not only a major twentieth-century contribution to Dostoevsky’s studies, but also one of the most important theories of the novel produced in our century. As a modern reinterpretation of poetics, it bears comparison with Aristotle.“Bakhtin’s statement on the dialogical nature of artistic creation, and his differentiation of this from a history of monological commentary, is profoundly original and illuminating. This is a classic work on Dostoevsky and a statement of importance to critical theory.” Edward Wasiolek“Concentrating on the particular features of ‘Dostoevskian discourse,’ how Dostoevsky structures a hero and a plot, and what it means to write dialogically, Bakhtin concludes with a major theoretical statement on dialogue as a category of language. One of the most important theories of the novel in this century.” The Bloomsbury Review

In Kafka Deleuze and Guattari free their subject from his (mis)intrepreters. In contrast to traditional readings that see in Kafka's work a case of Oedipalized neurosis or a flight into transcendence, guilt, and subjectivity, Deleuze and Guattari make a case for Kafka as a man of joy, a promoter of radical politics who resisted at every turn submission to frozen hierarchies.

This work considers the role literature played in the construction of a national culture - that sphere of shared sentiments, values, and beliefs that define the nation-state in Greece during the last two centuries.

A critique of high modernism from a newly formulated Marxist perspective, achieved through analyses of texts by Marx and Adorno, Manet's paintings, and the works of several Latin American writers.

Using a wide range of examples, Cottom argues for the necessity of multiple readings of text and culture, and against the repression of historical differences, conflicts, and possibilities.

The fourteen contributors to this volume address de Man's theory and practice of reading, the nature of those readings and what they signify for reading in general, not just literary texts.

Costa Lima examines European literary traditions from the perspective of a Latin American who sees the culture of his native Brazil haunted by unresolved questions from the Northern Hemisphere.

A paradigmatic contribution to literary theory and interpretation from Latin American writing.

Explores the symbiosis of philosophy and literature in understanding negativity.

What is multiculturalism? This collection offers critiques of the term and its uses. The contributors look at the current use of the rubric "multicultural" and offer analyses of complex relationships between popular culture, political events and intellectual trends.

Bringing together a variety of texts about modern China, Chow examines the relationship of "woman" with issues of non-Western culture, including ethnic spectatorship, popular literature, the construction of literary history and the revolutionary production and reception of national literature.

Presents a sustained examination of the relation between literature and philosophy with special emphasis on the problem of the subject and of representation.