Literary Studies
and Media Studies
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Literary
Fordham University Press
2546 Belmont Avenue University Box L Bronx, NY 10458
Studies 2 0 1 2
and media studie s
2012
L i terary Studie s
l iterary studie s
Wild Materialism
The Pain of Reformation
The Ethic of Terror and the Modern Republic Jacques Lezra “Wild Materialism is a theoretical event. Not only is it one of the most brilliant, rigorous and transformative books since DeMan’s Allegories of Reading or Jameson’s Political Unconscious, in it we witness what Althusser would call ‘an unexpected birth.’ Like other wild children, when Lezra had to think the political-philosophic condition of present democracy, he had to work through and past the critical impasses of biopolitics, sovereignty, radical democratic theory, and post-politics, to inventively refigure an ethic of terror as fright. Here at last is the affirmative secular response to the challenges of a post 9/11 present, where, as Lezra so effectively argues, only wounded sovereignty, weak concepts, unbounded events, and defective social universals might save us.”—Diane Rubenstein, Cornell University 400 Pages 978-0-8232-3236-9 Paper, $28.00
A Local Habitation and a Name
Imagining Histories in the Italian Renaissance Albert Russell Ascoli “Combining uncommon erudition with a rigorous commitment to critical theory, Albert Ascoli masterfully illuminates the cultural interlacing of power and knowledge—of ‘cesare’ and ‘poeta’—in early modern Italy. Whether showing how Petrarch uses his letters to define the place of the man of letters in relation to those in power, examining the literary dimension of Machiavelli’s anti-literary treatise, The Prince, or considering the construction of masculinity in Ariosto’s Orlando furioso, Ascoli’s essays in this elegant collection meditate on the twin problems of historicizing literature and writing literary history.”—Teodolinda Barolini, Columbia University 384 Pages 978-0-8232-3429-5 Paper, $35.00
240 Pages, 8 b/w illustrations 978-0-8232-3910-8 Cloth, $55.00
Enlightened Sentiments
Judgment and Autonomy in the Age of Sensibility Hina Nazar “A major reference for the application of Arendtian thinking to modern British literary history.”—David Thomas, University of Notre Dame 192 Pages 978-0-8232-4007-4 Cloth, $45.00
Around the Book
Systems and Literacy Henry Sussman “A splendid addition to the now long list of Professor Sussman’s admirable books.”—J. Hillis Miller, University of California, Irvine 352 Pages, 20 b/w illustrations 978-0-8232-3284-0 Paper, $30.00 eBOOK AVAILABLE
The Pleasures of Memory
The Stelliferous Fold
Toward a Virtual Law of Literature’s Self-Formation Rodolphe Gasché “An important intellectual event . . . Gasché develops a distinctive theory of literature or way to read literary works.”—J. Hillis Miller, University of California, Irvine 406 Pages 978-0-8232-3435-6 Paper, $35.00
Irony on Occasion
From Schlegel and Kierkegaard to Derrida and de Man Kevin Newmark “Irony on Occasion is perhaps the best book on irony written since Kierkegaard’s The Concept of Irony in the early nineteenth century. Newmark’s focus is always on innovative close readings of specific passages or short texts in the authors he is discussing. This means tactful attention to the original language in which the texts were written . . . as well as attention to wordplay, turns of phrase, and even to ‘the materiality of the letter,’ those marks on the page.”—J. Hillis Miller, University of California, Irvine 320 Pages 978-0-8232-4013-5 Paper, $28.00
Learning to Read with Charles Dickens Sarah Winter “It is well known that Dickens established an ‘imagined community’ founded on his own writing and authorial presence; in her intriguing book, Sarah Winter reveals how he did it. Analyzing the relation between serialization, reading, and memory, and detailing the extraordinary means by which Dickens made himself an institution by appearing to subvert the very nature of institutions, Winter shows how Dickens installed his works, his memories, his authorial presence, and perhaps most influentially, his method of publication—seriality itself—at the center of our collective modern consciousness.”—Audrey Jaffe, University of Toronto 448 Pages 978-0-8232-3352-6 Cloth, $60.00
Impure Worlds
The Institution of Literature in the Age of the Novel Jonathan Arac “Jonathan Arac is incapable of writing an essay that is not fresh, engaged, and lucid, and his unsurpassed eye for detail supports a rich and multi-voiced social vision. Impure Worlds, which gathers his finest uncollected essays, confirms his status as a Bakhtin for the twentyfirst century.”—Marshall Brown, University of Washington 224 Pages 978-0-8232-3179-9 Paper, $27.00
Toni Morrison Nonprofit U.S. Postage Paid Bronx, NY Permit No. 167025
An Ethical Poetics Yvette Christiansë “A rich, powerful, and refreshing contribution to the study of Toni Morrison’s oeuvre. This book engages the Nobel laureate’s work with uncommon clarity and command, while brilliantly situating language and its ethical dimensions at the center of its inquiry. Blending convincing and careful close readings with critical theory, Yvette Christiansë crafts a fine, durable interpretive lens through which we may more intelligently view the challenges and power of Morrison’s art.”—Stéphane Robolin, Rutgers University 224 Pages 978-0-8232-3916-0 Paper, $23.00
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Spenser, Vulnerability, and the Ethics of Masculinity Joseph Campana “This splendid book makes a fresh and original entry into the burgeoning criticism on Renaissance selfhood. Campana brilliantly links the motif of vulnerability to the social and physiological precariousness of early modern masculinity.”—Michael Schoenfeldt, University of Michigan
Succeeding King Lear
Literature, Exposure, and the Possibility of Politics Emily Sun “An excellent work of theoretical synthesis applied to thoughtful, continuously challenging readings of texts that at once form an intuitive unity and at the same time consistently resist and correct preconception through Sun’s circumspect, nimble critical strategies.”—Paul Fry, Yale University 176 Pages, 7 b/w illustrations 978-0-8232-3280-2 Cloth, $50.00
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