'Brave New World': Contexts and Legacies

'Brave New World': Contexts and Legacies PDF Author: Jonathan Greenberg
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137445416
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
This collection of essays provides new readings of Huxley’s classic dystopian satire, Brave New World (1932). Leading international scholars consider from new angles the historical contexts in which the book was written and the cultural legacies in which it looms large. The volume affirms Huxley’s prescient critiques of modernity and his continuing relevance to debates about political power, art, and the vexed relationship between nature and humankind. Individual chapters explore connections between Brave New World and the nature of utopia, the 1930s American Technocracy movement, education and social control, pleasure, reproduction, futurology, inter-war periodical networks, motherhood, ethics and the Anthropocene, islands, and the moral life. The volume also includes a ‘Foreword’ written by David Bradshaw, one of the world’s top Huxley scholars. Timely and consistently illuminating, this collection is essential reading for students, critics, and Huxley enthusiasts alike.

'Brave New World': Contexts and Legacies

'Brave New World': Contexts and Legacies PDF Author: Jonathan Greenberg
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137445416
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 254

Get Book

Book Description
This collection of essays provides new readings of Huxley’s classic dystopian satire, Brave New World (1932). Leading international scholars consider from new angles the historical contexts in which the book was written and the cultural legacies in which it looms large. The volume affirms Huxley’s prescient critiques of modernity and his continuing relevance to debates about political power, art, and the vexed relationship between nature and humankind. Individual chapters explore connections between Brave New World and the nature of utopia, the 1930s American Technocracy movement, education and social control, pleasure, reproduction, futurology, inter-war periodical networks, motherhood, ethics and the Anthropocene, islands, and the moral life. The volume also includes a ‘Foreword’ written by David Bradshaw, one of the world’s top Huxley scholars. Timely and consistently illuminating, this collection is essential reading for students, critics, and Huxley enthusiasts alike.

Aldous Huxley Annual

Aldous Huxley Annual PDF Author: Bernfried Nugel, Jerome Meckier
Publisher: LIT Verlag Münster
ISBN: 3643916353
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description


Science Fiction Literature through History [2 volumes]

Science Fiction Literature through History [2 volumes] PDF Author: Gary Westfahl
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1440866171
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 814

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Book Description
This book provides students and other interested readers with a comprehensive survey of science fiction history and numerous essays addressing major science fiction topics, authors, works, and subgenres written by a distinguished scholar. This encyclopedia deals with written science fiction in all of its forms, not only novels and short stories but also mediums often ignored in other reference books, such as plays, poems, comic books, and graphic novels. Some science fiction films, television programs, and video games are also mentioned, particularly when they are relevant to written texts. Its focus is on science fiction in the English language, though due attention is given to international authors whose works have been frequently translated into English. Since science fiction became a recognized genre and greatly expanded in the 20th century, works published in the 20th and 21st centuries are most frequently discussed, though important earlier works are not neglected. The texts are designed to be helpful to numerous readers, ranging from students first encountering science fiction to experienced scholars in the field.

Aldous Huxley Annual. Volume 16 (2016)

Aldous Huxley Annual. Volume 16 (2016) PDF Author: Bernfried Nugel
Publisher: LIT Verlag Münster
ISBN: 3643909799
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
Volume 16 presents a miscellany of uncollected Huxley essays, edited by James Sexton, to be followed by a first selection of papers from the Sixth International Aldous Huxley Symposium held at Almeria in April 2017. This section opens with an essay that fills a blank spot on the map of Huxley criticism, James Sexton's study of Huxley and architecture. The volume continues with several articles (including one not from Almeria) on Brave New World and its wider context and closes with essays on Huxley's lifelong struggle with his deficient eyesight and on his view of the art of dying. (Series: Aldous Huxley Annual, Vol. 16) [Subject: Literary Studies, Aldous Huxley, Literary Criticism]

The Nationality of Utopia

The Nationality of Utopia PDF Author: Maxim Shadurski
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000682870
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
Since its generic inception in 1516, utopia has produced visions of alterity which renegotiate, subvert, and transcend existing places. Early in the twentieth century, H. G. Wells linked utopia to the World State, whose post-national, post-Westphalian emergence he predicated on English national discourse. This critical study examines how the discursive representations of England’s geography, continuity, and character become foundational to the Wellsian utopia and elicit competing response from Wells’s contemporaries, particularly Robert Hugh Benson and Aldous Huxley, with further ramifications throughout the twentieth century. Contextualized alongside modern theories of nationalism and utopia, as well as read jointly with contemporary projections of England as place, reactions to Wells demonstrate a shift from disavowal to retrieval of England, on the one hand, and from endorsement to rejection of the World State, on the other. Attempts to salvage the residual traces of English culture from their degradation in the World State have taken increasing precedence over the imagination of a post-national order. This trend continues in the work of George Orwell, Anthony Burgess, J. G. Ballard, and Julian Barnes, whose future scenarios warn against a world without England. The Nationality of Utopia investigates utopia’s capacity to deconstruct and redeploy national discourse in ways that surpass fear and nostalgia.

Literary Geography

Literary Geography PDF Author: Lynn M. Houston
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1440842558
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 409

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Book Description
This reference investigates the role of landscape in popular works and in doing so explores the time in which they were written. Literary Geography: An Encyclopedia of Real and Imagined Settings is an authoritative guide for students, teachers, and avid readers who seek to understand the importance of setting in interpreting works of literature, including poetry. By examining how authors and poets shaped their literary landscapes in such works as The Great Gatsby and Nineteen Eighty-Four, readers will discover historical, political, and cultural context hidden within the words of their favorite reads. The alphabetically arranged entries provide easy access to analysis of some of the most well-known and frequently assigned pieces of literature and poetry. Entries begin with a brief introduction to the featured piece of literature and then answer the questions: "How is literary landscape used to shape the story?"; "How is the literary landscape imbued with the geographical, political, cultural, and historical context of the author's contemporary world, whether purposeful or not?" Pop-up boxes provide quotes about literary landscapes throughout the book, and an appendix takes a brief look at the places writers congregated and that inspired them. A comprehensive scholarly bibliography of secondary sources pertaining to mapping, physical and cultural geography, ecocriticism, and the role of nature in literature rounds out the work.

The Art and Science of Making the New Man in Early 20th-Century Russia

The Art and Science of Making the New Man in Early 20th-Century Russia PDF Author: Yvonne Howell
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350232858
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
The idea that morally, mentally, and physically superior 'new men' might replace the currently existing mankind has periodically seized the imagination of intellectuals, leaders, and reformers throughout history. This volume offers a multidisciplinary investigation into how the 'new man' was made in Russia and the early Soviet Union in the first third of the 20th century. The traditional narrative of the Soviet 'new man' as a creature forged by propaganda is challenged by the strikingly new and varied case studies presented here. The book focuses on the interplay between the rapidly developing experimental life sciences, such as biology, medicine, and psychology, and countless cultural products, ranging from film and fiction, dolls and museum exhibits to pedagogical projects, sculptures, and exemplary agricultural fairs. With contributions from scholars based in the United States, Canada, the UK, Germany and Russia, the picture that emerges is emphatically more complex, contradictory, and suggestive of strong parallels with other 'new man' visions in Europe and elsewhere. In contrast to previous interpretations that focused largely on the apparent disconnect between utopian 'new man' rhetoric and the harsh realities of everyday life in the Soviet Union, this volume brings to light the surprising historical trajectories of 'new man' visions, their often obscure origins, acclaimed and forgotten champions, unexpected and complicated results, and mutual interrelations. In short, the volume is a timely examination of a recurring theme in modern history, when dramatic advancements in science and technology conjoin with anxieties about the future to fuel dreams of a new and improved mankind.

Dystopian States of America

Dystopian States of America PDF Author: Matthew B. Hill
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 528

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Book Description
Dystopian States of America is a crucial resource that studies the impact of dystopian works on American society-including ways in which they reflect our deep and persistent fears about environmental calamities, authoritarian governments, invasive technologies, and human weakness. Dystopian States of America provides students and researchers with an illuminating resource for understanding the impact and relevance of dystopian and apocalyptic works in contemporary American culture. Through its wide survey of dystopian works in numerous forms and genres, the book encourages readers to connect with these works of fiction and understand how the catastrophically grim or disquieting worlds they portray offer insights into our own current situation. In addition to providing more than 150 encyclopedia articles on a large and representative sample of dystopian/apocalyptic narratives in fiction, film, television, and video games (including popular works that often escape critical inquiry), Dystopian States of America features a suite of critical essays on five themes-war, pandemics, totalitarianism, environmental calamity, and technological overreach-that serve as the foundation for most dystopian worlds of the imagination. These offerings complement one another, enabling readers to explore dystopian conceptions of America and the world from multiple perspectives and vantage points.

Utopian Literature and Science

Utopian Literature and Science PDF Author: Patrick Parrinder
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137456787
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Book Description
Scientific progress is usually seen as a precondition of modern utopias, but science and utopia are frequently at odds. Ranging from Galileo's observations with the telescope to current ideas of the post-human and the human-animal boundary, this study brings a fresh perspective to the paradoxes of utopian thinking since Plato.

Futures of the Human Subject

Futures of the Human Subject PDF Author: Sławomir Kozioł
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 100063809X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 235

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Book Description
Futures of the Human Subject focuses on the representation of the effects of technology use on human subjectivity in several recent near-future science fiction novels. Sharing the idea that human subjects are constructed in the world in which they exist, this volume inscribes itself in the wider field of posthumanism which contests the liberal humanist notion of people as self-contained, autonomous agents. At the same time, it is the first substantial study of literary representations of the human subject carried out within the conceptual framework of Foucault-inflected philosophy of technical mediation, which examines the nature of the relation between people and specific technologies as well as the way in which this relation affects human subjectivity. As such, the book may help readers to exercise more effective control over the way in which they are constituted as subjects in this technologically saturated world.