Recent work in critical theory

Style, Winter, 1998 by William Baker, Kenneth Womack

Breeze, Andrew. Medieval Welsh Literature. Dublin: Four Courts, 1997.

Breeze offers an historical introduction to the literature of medieval Wales, surveying the development of this national literature over more than a thousand years. Breeze devotes attention to the heroic poems of Aneirin and Taliesin, the tales of magic and romance in The Mabinogion, and the comic exploits of fourteenth-century writer Dafydd ap Gwilym. Breeze affords special attention to an analysis of the authorship of The Four Branches of the Mabinogi, which he ascribes to Gwenllian, the wife of a medieval prince.

Brewer, Gay. Charles Bukowski. New York: Twayne, 1997. Brewer surveys the life and work of Charles Bukowski. In addition to tracing the origins and development of the writer's novels, poems, and short fiction, Brewer addresses the themes of desolation and ennui that mark Bukowski's aesthetic. Brewer concludes the volume with useful primary and secondary bibliographies of works by and about Bukowski.

Brink, Andre. The Novel: Language and Narrative from Cervantes to Calvino. New York: New York UP, 1998.

Brink explores the postmodern novel's extremely narcissistic involvement with language through an expansive, 500-year survey of the genre from the age of Cervantes through recent works by Italo Calvino and A. S. Byatt. Brink contends that this self-consciousness has been a defining characteristic of the novel since the origins of the genre. Using recent postmodernist insights in the novel and narrative theory, Brink argues that postmodernist texts often ironically remain more firmly rooted in convention than their modernist precursors.

Burke, Frank G. Research and the Manuscript Tradition. Lanham: Scarecrow, 1997.

Burke offers an expansive study of the nuances and evolution of academic research and manuscript study. Burke provides discussion on the various uses of manuscripts for research and advice on administering manuscript and archival collections and institutions. Burke concludes his volume with a valuable bibliography that lists sources on archival records, manuscript collections, and other secondary materials regarding archival research and manuscript study.

Caygill, Howard. Walter Benjamin: The Colour of Experience. London: Routledge, 1998.

Caygill provides an introduction to the often controversial arguments of Weimar philosopher and critic Walter Benjamin. Caygill argues that Benjamin's work finds its origins in the Kantian concept of experience, which Benjamin subsequently applies to such diverse topics as urban experience, visual art, literature, and philosophy. Caygill investigates Benjamin's concept of experience in his early writings, contending that the critic's Kantian perspective develops from an engagement with visual experience, particularly in terms of color.

Chisholm, Kate. Fanny Burney: Her Life, 1752-1840. London: Chatto and Windus, 1998.

Chisholm offers a new biography of the life and work of Fanny Burney. In addition to including close readings of such works as Evelina; or The History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the Worm and Cecilia; or Memoirs of an Heiress, Chisholm traces the influence of Burney's work upon the writers of her day and beyond. Chisholm concludes her study with useful listings of published and unpublished Burney family papers, as well as a bibliography of works by and about Burney.