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Language & Linguistics
Nabil Baazizi
Baturay Erdal
The Problematics of Writing Back to the Imperial Centre
Deciphering Radical Ecology in Contemporary British Fiction
Joseph Conrad, Chinua Achebe and V. S. Naipaul in Conversation
Julian Barnes, David Mitchell and John Fowles Berlin, 2020. 182 pp.
New York, 2021. X, 236 pp. hb. • ISBN 978-1-4331-8237-2 CHF 98.– / €D 83.95 / €A 87.10 / € 79.20 / £ 64.– / US-$ 94.95 eBook (SUL) • ISBN 978-1-4331-8238-9 CHF 98.– / €D 83.95 / €A 87.10 / € 79.20 / £ 64.– / US-$ 94.95
In the wake of decolonization, colonialist narratives have systematically been rewritten from indigenous perspectives. This phenomenon is referred to as “the Empire writes back to the centre”—a trend that asserted itself in late twentieth-century postcolonial criticism. The aim of such acts of writing back is to read colonialist texts in a Barthesian way inside-out or à l’envers, to deconstruct the Orientalist and colonialist dogmas, and eventually create a dialogue where there was only a monologue. Turning the colonial text inside-out and rereading it through the lens of a later code allows the postcolonial text to unlock the closures of its colonial precursor and change it from the inside. Under this critical scholarship, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (1899) has been a particularly influential text for Chinua Achebe and V. S. Naipaul. Their novels Things Fall Apart (1958) and A Bend in the River (1979) can be seen as a rewriting of Conrad’s novella. However, before examining their different rewriting strategies, it would be fruitful to locate them within the postcolonial tradition of rewriting. While Achebe clearly stands as the leading figure of the movement, the Trinidadian novelist is, in fact, difficult to pigeonhole. Does Naipaul write back to, that is criticize, or does he rewrite, and in a way adopt and justify, imperial ideology? Since not all rewriting involves writing back in terms of anti-colonial critique, Naipaul’s position continues to be explored as the enigmatic in-betweenness and double-edgedness of an “insider” turned “outsider.” Taking cognizance of these different critical perceptions can become a way to effectively highlight Achebe’s “(mis)-reading” and Naipaul’s “(mis)-appropriation” of Conrad, a way to set the framework for the simulated conversation this book seeks to create between the three novelists.
hb. • ISBN 978-3-631-84049-8 CHF 51.– / €D 42.95 / €A 43.– / € 40.90 / £ 34.– / US-$ 49.95 eBook (SUL) • ISBN 978-3-631-84334-5 CHF 51.– / €D 42.95 / €A 43.– / € 40.90 / £ 34.– / US-$ 49.95
This book indicates that postmodern literature might reveal much in common with radical environmental movements. It also offers discussions for how an ecological postmodern literary theory can provide significant contributions to the paradigm shift in social and individual dimensions before the extant environmental crisis turns into a deeper turmoil. In this context, concerning ecological images and environmental discussions they provide, A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters by Julian Barnes, Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell and The Collector by John Fowles are analyzed through the lens of such radical ecological movements like deep ecology, social ecology and ecofeminism.
Rodrigo Pérez Lorido • Carlos Prado Alonso • Paula RodríguezPuente (eds.)
Of ye Olde Englisch Langage and Textes: New Perspectives on Old and Middle English Language and Literature Berlin, 2020. 344 pp., 25 fig. b/w, 56 tables. Studies in English Medieval Language and Literature. Vol. 57 hb. • ISBN 978-3-631-81795-7 CHF 75.– / €D 59.95 / €A 66.– / € 60.– / £ 49.– / US-$ 72.95 eBook (SUL) • ISBN 978-3-631-82132-9 CHF 70.– / €D 59.95 / €A 61.70 / € 56.10 / £ 46.– / US-$ 67.95
This book provides new insights on different aspects of Old and Middle Eng-lish language and literature, presenting state-of-the-art analyses of linguistic phenomena and literary developments in those periods and opening up new directions for future work in the field. The volume tackles aspects of English diachronic linguistics such as the development of binominals and collective nouns in Old and Middle English, the early history of the intensifiers ‘deadly’ and ‘mortally’, the articulatory-acoustic characteristics of approximants in English, Old English metrics, some aspects of the methodology of corpus research with paleography in focus, studies of the interplay language-register, and a chapter discussing the periodology of Older Scots. The last section of the book ad-dresses literary and trans-
