Brian Docherty – författare

"Insights" brings contemporary criticism on neglected literary and cultural areas. Each contribution concentrates on a study of a particular work, author or genre in its artistic, historical and cultural context. This criticism on American horror fiction 1798-1983 offers critical and theoretical perspectives. Each essay deals with a major figure in the genre from Gothic to modern feminist reworkings and aim to illustrate the fact that modern theory can usefully be applied to any text or genre. The essays discuss the work of Charles Brockden Brown, Edgar Allan Poe, H.P.Lovecraft, William Faulkner, Robert Bloch, Patricia Highsmith, Shirley Jackson, Stephen King and S.M.Charnas.

This collection looks at the developments in British poetry from the Movement until the present. The introduction not only provides a context for these changes but also argues that poetry criticism has been debilitated by the quest for political respectability, a trend which can only be reversed by reconsidering the idea of tradition.

This volume offers critical and theoretical perspectives on some of the major figures in European drama in the 20th century. There are 13 essays, covering Luigi Pirandello, Bertolt Brecht, Stanislaw Witkiewicz, Samuel Beckett, Antonin Artaud, Eugene Ionesco, Jean Anouilh, Fernando Arrabal, Jean Genet, Peter Weiss, Vaclav Havel, contemporary German theatre, and Dario Fo and Franca Fame. These essays combine contemporary theory with a discussion of the dramatic work and theories of theatre and drama of the playwrights who created modern drama in Europe. Brian Docherty is the co-editor of "Nineteenth-Century Suspense: From Poe to Conan Doyle", and editor of "American Crime Fiction: Studies in the Genre", "American Horror Fiction: From Brockden Brown to Stephen King", "Twentieth Century American Drama", "American Modernist Poetry", "Twentieth Century British Poetry 1900-50", Twentieth Century British Poetry 1950-90" and "The Beat Generation".

This collection of specially commissioned essays brings together leading scholars and critics to define the American modernist canon. Tracing its origins back to Walt Whitman, this radical poetry is inspired by the concept of democracy vital to the American dream and extends across America from east to west and in varying hues - imagist, objectionist, Beat. New theoretical approaches applied to a wide range of poets make this the most comprehensive survey of American modernist poetry available.