Showing results for "Politics and the English Language" in Literary History & Criticism

With a language disappearing every two weeks and neologisms springing up almost daily, an understanding of the origins and currency of language has never seemed more relevant. In this charming volume, a narrative history written explicitly for a young audience, expert linguist David Crystal proves why the story of language deserves retelling. From the first words of an infant to the peculiar modern dialect of text messaging, A Little Book of Language ranges widely, revealing language's myriad intricacies and quirks.

Do you worry that you've lost patience for anything longer than a tweet? If so, you're not alone. Digital-age pundits warn that as our appetite for books dwindles, so too do the virtues in which printed, bound objects once trained us: the willpower to focus on a sustained argument, the curiosity to look beyond the day's news, the willingness to be alone. The shelves of the world's great libraries, though, tell a more complicated story. Examining the wear and tear on the books that they contain, English professor Leah Price finds scant evidence that a golden age of reading ever existed.

Narrative Structures and the Language of the Self by Matthew Clark offers a new way of thinking about the interrelation of character and plot. Clark investigates the characters brought together in a narrative, considering them not as random collections but as structured sets that correspond to various manifestations of the self. The shape and structure of these sets can be thought of as narrative geometry, and various geometries imply various theories of the self.

"Anything can be literature, and anything which is regarded as unalterably and unquestionably literature - Shakespeare, for example - can cease to be literature". These are the words of Terry Eagleton, the working-class Irish Marxist critic of English literature who believes that all literary theory is political. Not only is his observation quite banal, but it does not qualify as literary criticism. It is journalistic writing, and its validity depends merely upon our definition of literature. Perhaps his definition is so generic as to encompass any random piece of published writing.

"We must leave for Zenda at once, to find the King!" cried Sapt. "If we’re caught, we’ll all be killed!" So Rudolf Rassendyll and Sapt gallop through the night to find the King of Ruritania. But the King is now a prisoner in the Castle of Zenda. Who will rescue him from his enemies, the dangerous Duke Michael and Rupert of Hentzau? And who will win the heart of the beautiful Princess Flavia? An Oxford Bookworms Library reader for learners of English, adapted from the Anthony Hope original by Diane Mowat.

The first episode begins with Q&A Session with my readers on my books in general and my new book A NOVEL. It was put up on youtube and my other sites last month. The rest of the episodes will be a general take on life, society, people, culture, humanity and how I incorporate them in my books, expanding on these thoughts.Post Frequency: intermittent to rare.