What is culture? What are cultures? Are literary texts and cultural texts different? What do literature and other fields engaged in cultural work hav in common? What can literary studies profitably do with other disciplines? What can cultural studies tell us about culture? This volume of work, fresh from the dig, presents a timely account of current thinking on central issues within and beyond the humanities today. Field Work brings together such leading figures as Sacvan Bercovitch and Helen Vendler, Anthony Appiah and Barbara Johnson, Seyla Benhabib and Norman Bryson, Martha Minow and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Marjorie Garber and Susan Suleiman, as well as scholars in areas as diverse as legal studies and Renaissance literature. From a rich variety of perspectives, these scholars excavate and explore foundational questions in their fields. Contributors: K. Anthony Appiah, Seyla Benhabib, Sacvan Bercovitch, Svetlana Boym, Norman Bryson, Lawrence Buell, Patrick Ford, Paul B. Franklin, Marjorie Garber, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Mary Gaylord, Beatrice Hanssen, Barbara Johnson, David Kennedy, Joseph Koener, Laura Korobkin, Meredith McGill, Jeffrey Masten, Jann Matlock, Martha Minow, Gregory Nagy, Stephen Owen, Judith Ryan, Elaine Scarry, Doris Sommer, Mary Steedly, Susan Suleiman, William Todd, Helen Vendler, Rebecca L. Walkowitz, Irene Winter

What is culture? What are cultures? Are literary texts and cultural texts different? What do literature and other fields engaged in cultural work hav in common? What can literary studies profitably do with other disciplines? What can cultural studies tell us about culture? This volume of work, fresh from the dig, presents a timely account of current thinking on central issues within and beyond the humanities today. Field Work brings together such leading figures as Sacvan Bercovitch and Helen Vendler, Anthony Appiah and Barbara Johnson, Seyla Benhabib and Norman Bryson, Martha Minow and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Marjorie Garber and Susan Suleiman, as well as scholars in areas as diverse as legal studies and Renaissance literature. From a rich variety of perspectives, these scholars excavate and explore foundational questions in their fields. Contributors: K. Anthony Appiah, Seyla Benhabib, Sacvan Bercovitch, Svetlana Boym, Norman Bryson, Lawrence Buell, Patrick Ford, Paul B. Franklin, Marjorie Garber, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Mary Gaylord, Beatrice Hanssen, Barbara Johnson, David Kennedy, Joseph Koener, Laura Korobkin, Meredith McGill, Jeffrey Masten, Jann Matlock, Martha Minow, Gregory Nagy, Stephen Owen, Judith Ryan, Elaine Scarry, Doris Sommer, Mary Steedly, Susan Suleiman, William Todd, Helen Vendler, Rebecca L. Walkowitz, Irene Winter

What is culture? What are cultures? Are literary texts and cultural texts different? What do literature and other fields engaged in cultural work hav in common? What can literary studies profitably do with other disciplines? What can cultural studies tell us about culture? This volume of work, fresh from the dig, presents a timely account of current thinking on central issues within and beyond the humanities today. Field Work brings together such leading figures as Sacvan Bercovitch and Helen Vendler, Anthony Appiah and Barbara Johnson, Seyla Benhabib and Norman Bryson, Martha Minow and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Marjorie Garber and Susan Suleiman, as well as scholars in areas as diverse as legal studies and Renaissance literature. From a rich variety of perspectives, these scholars excavate and explore foundational questions in their fields. Contributors: K. Anthony Appiah, Seyla Benhabib, Sacvan Bercovitch, Svetlana Boym, Norman Bryson, Lawrence Buell, Patrick Ford, Paul B. Franklin, Marjorie Garber, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Mary Gaylord, Beatrice Hanssen, Barbara Johnson, David Kennedy, Joseph Koener, Laura Korobkin, Meredith McGill, Jeffrey Masten, Jann Matlock, Martha Minow, Gregory Nagy, Stephen Owen, Judith Ryan, Elaine Scarry, Doris Sommer, Mary Steedly, Susan Suleiman, William Todd, Helen Vendler, Rebecca L. Walkowitz, Irene Winter