Howard Felperin – författare

The critical school of `new historicism' is very much at the centre of contemporary debates on literary studies and theory. Much `new historicist' writing has focused on Renaissance texts, and this book is a timely exploration of that connection and its significance for `English' as a whole. Howard Felperin subjects many of the most challenging claims of `new historicism' to rigorous analysis, distinguishes sharply between its American and British versions, and probes the causes and consequences of its politicization of literary studies. The philosophical as well as political issues central to current debates are examined and the uses served by the canonical texts at their centre analysed within a broad cultural and historical perspective. This searching reconsideration of contemporary critical theory and practice yields fresh readings of a number of classic texts - including Hamlet, The Winter's Tale, The Tempest, Shakespeare's Sonnets, More's Utopia, Donne's poetry, and Conrad's Heart of Darkness - as well as a deepened understanding of the complex and changing functions of the canon itself.

This book offers an account of the swiftly developing discipline of contemporary literary theory, and of its consequences for future literary study.

With its epic models, Homers Iliad and Odyssey, Virgils Aeneid ranks among the greatest poems, not only of classical antiquity, but of all time. It tells the story of Aeneas, who leads a band of survivors from fallen Troy through wandering and war to found the city that will become imperial Rome. Fully equal to Homer in narrative sweep, dramatic power, and lyric intensity, Virgils epic outshines its models in the passion and compassion with which its characters, even its heros formidable opponents, are delineated: Dido, the African queen and femme fatale who would hold him back from his mission; and Turnus, the proud Italian prince he must overcomeultimately in single combatto fulfill it. Even the gods above are all too human. A fairy-tale? Of course; but the grandest fairy-tale of western culture, whose later literature it has fundamentally shaped. Not surprisingly, few works have been so oftenor so inadequatelytranslated. Its not just a matter of classical Latin into modern English; in itself, thats not so hard. Its the aura of the great original: its classical flavour, cultural significance, and stately poetic style have never been, perhaps never can be, captured. Yet that is what this translation sets out to do. It begins from our side of the classics, from the western literature the poem has so deeply influenced, and reflects the narrative fluency, dazzling lyricism, and distinctive dignity of Virgils poem in a fresh and unstilted blank verse resonant with English and American tradition. The result is the most readable version ever. The problems and principles such a project involves are aired in an introduction that illuminates Virgils great work as never before. Enjoy!

In 1966, a young Ph.D. fresh from Harvard came down to New Haven to take up a teaching position in the Yale English department, then widely viewed as the best in the world. In Another Life focuses in lucid retrospect on that time, place, and career, and on that moment within it which would define his destiny. Would he succeed, through native wit, hard work, intense ambition, and sheer good luck, in rising through the ranks, pleasing senior colleagues, weathering the shifting winds of critical doctrine and storms of institutional politics, to achieve that most glittering, coveted, and rarely conferred of prizes: tenure at Yale? A campus novel, full of eccentric characters and bizarre twists and turns? Well, like his quest for tenure, its a case of yes and no. For all this actually happened. Yet its more than a personal memoir. In Another Life reflectsand reflects onthe so-called crisis in English at a time when new doctrinesstructuralism, deconstruction, theorywere bending literary studies into unaccustomed postures, particularly at Yale. But it also reflects the powerful forces at work on higher education from the wider world outside: the political and economic pressures that were transforming an older elitist culture, with literature and the humanities at its core, into the more egalitarian societyeconomistic, technological, and bureaucraticthat we all now inhabit. The author, a self-proclaimed meritocrat, finds himself deeply at odds with both worlds, and without succour or support from either as he staggers between them. But what a good read it is for those prepared to entertain the issues it raises! Trenchantly observed and written, this is the story of one mans effort to work out his separate peace with an institution he finds increasingly alienating and absurd. Its style alone will make any but the most politically correct of readers smile through her tears!

Several generations of Roman lyric poets are brought together here, freshly translated into modern English verse. What links them is the theme of love in all its variations, as much in the air then and there as it is here and now. These great poets knew each other, were conversant with one anothers work, which they echoed, parodied, and paid homage in the forms and figures they deployed. Its a classic case of influence, the process by which poetry propagates itself through all ages and cultures.Bawdy, delicate, offbeat, and often sublime, love is represented here in all its modes, thanks to the craft and tact of the translator. Catullus passionate intensity, Horaces worldly wisdom, Propertius metaphysical wit, and Ovids stylish flippancy are all on display in a disciplined English verse that might have been--and was--written yesterday. If, at school, you found Latin an affliction, here is your remedy. If you loved for its austere simplicity, here is your chance to take up with it again at a reunion banquet. If youve never studied it, its time to make its acquaintance.The full scope of love poetry is here on view in the work of these Roman masters, and their background and technique explored in their translators vivid introduction. His point is simple: the more things change, the more they stay the same.