Bøger i Literary Criticism in Perspective serien

This first book-length study of Pound criticism investigates not just what critics have had to say about Pound but also why they have asked the questions they have asked.Forty-five years after his death, and more than seventy years after his indictment for treason, Ezra Pound remains a deeply controversial figure. Today it is hard to imagine a poet sparking national debate, but Pound did just that. His receipt in 1949 of the first-ever Bollingen Award for Poetry started a hue and cry that spread to every US periodical that made even a pretense of following "e;cultural"e; issues: even Time weighed in. It took two years for things to simmer down, and when they finally did, literary study looked profoundly different. Everyone engaged in the study of poetry today, professors and students alike, works in an environment shaped by that national crisisof conscience. The present book considers this untold story, and investigates not just what critics have had to say about Pound but also why they have asked the questions they have asked. It is routine for reception histories to distinguish between professional studies and more popular responses; this book encourages us to consider why we make that distinction and what the costs of doing so might be. Unprofessional responses to Pound have often beenideologically and politically embarrassing for Pound scholars, who have in response policed the distinction between professional and popular readings with extraordinary vigilance. As a result, the history of Pound's reception unfolds as a kind of drama - perhaps the last ongoing theater for McCarthyite cultural-political anxieties. Michael Coyle is Professor of English at Colgate University and has published widely on Pound. Roxana Preda is Leverhulme Fellow in American Literature at the University of Edinburgh and President of the Ezra Pound Society.

Examines both academic and popular assessments of Conan Doyle's work, giving pride of place to the Holmes stories and their adaptations, and also attending to the wide range of his published work.

The first thorough study in English of the reception of Doeblin's novels, written by one of the foremost Doeblin scholars.

A comprehensive history of critical reactions to Charles Lamb, English critic and essayist. This study proposes that perhaps he is a literary "trickster" who delights in raising just those contradictions of modern life which those who attempt a systematic style of criticism would like to ignore.

An examination of the most significant literary criticism on Wilde at the turn of the century.

Le Guin criticism examined, showing how her reputation as a leading American writer has developed.

The first book to trace the critical reception of the great African American woman writer, attending not only to her fiction but to her nonfiction and critical writings.

Tracks the genesis and evolution of Twain's reputation as a writer, revealing how and why the writer has been "under fire" since the advent of his career.

The story of the critical reception of Crane's great Civil War novel from its publication to the present, with particular attention to the effects of later wars on that reception.

Traces Hemingway's critical fortunes over the ninety years of his prominence, telling us something about what we value in literature and why scholarly reputations rise and fall.

A contextualizing overview of the polarized critical reception of Willa Cather, one of the pre-eminent US authors of the twentieth-century.

An examination of the past half-century's critical reassessments of one of the most-studied American poets.

Survey of reception of German poet Hoelderlin in French criticism and literature, with particular attention to Heidegger and his followers.

First survey of the history of criticism on the plays of the Viennese dramatist Nestroy.

A history and analysis of 250 years of critical commentary on selected works of Samuel Johnson.

A survey of Beckett criticism in English, French and German.

Analysis of critical reception of Marston, also revealing for light it sheds on relations between dramatists of late 16c -early 17c.

A detailed critical history of McCullers's reputation and the social crosscurrents that shaped it.

How and why Fitzgerald's novel, initially called a failure, has come to be considered a masterwork of American literature and part of the fabric of the culture.

Discussion of critical response to German poet, playwright and novelist Werfel, 1890-1945.

Critical essays on contemporary German novelist.

Critical history of classic 19th-century German Romantic novel.

An historical overview of criticism of the Bildungsroman from the late 18th century to the present.

A study of the shifts of critical opinion on Musil, with special reference to The Man Without Qualities.

An analysis of the critical response to the works of Wolfgang Hildesheimer, one of the most important German writers - of plays, short stories, travelogues, biographies and longer fiction - to emerge from the postwar period.

An assessment of the critical response to Anais Nin over the past 60 years.

Analysis of the critical history of The Ship of Fools(1494) over the past 200 years reveals changing perceptions of literature and of society.

A survey of criticism of the 19th-century German writer Joseph von Eichendorff (1788-1857)

First introduction in English to the literary life of German socialism around the turn of the century.

Surveys the scholarship and criticism surrounding Dickey's work, detailing the poet's intent as well as the critical reception.