James Williams – författare

Of all the Victorian poets, Edward Lear has a good claim to the widest audience: admired and championed by critics and poets from John Ruskin to John Ashbery, he has also been read, heard, and loved by generations of children. As a central figure in the literature of nonsense Lear has also shaped the evolution of modern literature, and his work continues to influence and inspire writers and readers today. This collection of essays, the first ever devoted solely to Lear, builds on a recent resurgence of critical interest and asks how it is that the play of Lear's poetry continues to delight, and to challenge our sense of what poetry can be. These seventeen chapters, written by established and emerging critics of poetry, seek to explore and appreciate the playfulness embodied in the poems, and to provide contexts in which it can be better understood and enjoyed. They consider how Lear's poems play off various inheritances (the literary fool, Romantic lyric, his religious upbringing), explore particular forms in which his playful genius took flight (his letters, his queer writings about love), and trace lines of Learical influence and inheritance by showing how other poets and thinkers across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries played off Lear in their turn (Stein, Eliot, Auden, Smith, Ashbery, and others).

Of all the Victorian poets, Edward Lear has a good claim to the widest audience: admired and championed by critics and poets from John Ruskin to John Ashbery, he has also been read, heard, and loved by generations of children. As a central figure in the literature of nonsense, Lear has also shaped the evolution of modern literature, and his work continues to influence and inspire writers and readers today. This collection of essays-the first ever devoted solely to Lear-builds on a recent resurgence of critical interest and asks how it is that the play of Lear's poetry continues to delight, and to challenge our sense of what poetry can be. These seventeen chapters, written by established and emerging critics of poetry, seek to explore and appreciate the playfulness embodied in the poems, and to provide contexts in which it can be better understood and enjoyed. They consider how Lear's poems play off various inheritances (the literary fool, Romantic lyric, his religious upbringing), explore particular forms in which his playful genius took flight (his letters, his queer writings about love), and trace lines of Learical influence and inheritance by showing how other poets and thinkers across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries played off Lear in their turn (Joyce, Stein, Eliot, Auden, Smith, Ashbery, and others).

The Lyotard Reader and Guide is a one-stop companion to Lyotard's thought. It covers the full range of his works, from his three main books (Discours, figure; Libidinal Economy; and The Differend) and up to his influential essays in The Inhuman and Postmodern Fables. The readings are organized into sections on philosophy, politics, art, and literature. Several have never before been translated into English. Detailed introductions to each section by two leading Lyotard scholars explain the philosopher's key ideas and provide crucial social, political, aesthetic, and philosophical context. As a sourcebook and guide, this is the most up-to-date and comprehensive volume on Lyotard. It is indispensable to students and scholars in philosophy, literature, the arts, and politics.

The Lyotard Reader and Guide is a one-stop companion to Lyotard's thought. It covers the full range of his works, from his three main books (Discours, figure; Libidinal Economy; and The Differend) and up to his influential essays in The Inhuman and Postmodern Fables. The readings are organized into sections on philosophy, politics, art, and literature. Several have never before been translated into English. Detailed introductions to each section by two leading Lyotard scholars explain the philosopher's key ideas and provide crucial social, political, aesthetic, and philosophical context. As a sourcebook and guide, this is the most up-to-date and comprehensive volume on Lyotard. It is indispensable to students and scholars in philosophy, literature, the arts, and politics.

Although many countries in sub-Saharan Africa have proclaimed it their goal to achieve free universal primary schooling to all children, few have come close to achieving it. The authors of this study describe the implementation of a major primary school reform in five countries (Benin, Ethiopia, Guinea, Malawi, and Uganda).The authors of this volume describe the efforts made in the last decade of the 20th century to reform African education, the goal of which was to achieve education for all. In a series of five case studies, the politics surrounding the planning and implementation of these reforms are considered, and their outcomes analyzed. The countries considered are Benin, Ethiopia, Guinea, Malawi, and Uganda. Although the reforms are still underway, the book covers at least their first five years, bringing together facts and judgments into coherent stories.The authors present some conclusions about the implementation of basic education reforms that deserve serious consideration by policymakers, planners, and program managers. Have our assumptions about the process of reform been correct? Have we selected the policy instruments most suitable for use in implementing various policies and programs? What should we do to change the course of reform as we continue?

Lyotard and the Political is the first book to consider the full range of the political thought of the French philosopher François Lyotard and its broader implications for an understanding of the political. James Williams clearly and carefully traces the development of Lyotard's thought from his early Marxist essays on the Algerian struggle for independence to his break with the thought of Marx and Freud. This is compared with Lyotard's later, highly influental writings on the politics of desire and his attempts to base a postmodern political discourse on the sublime.An indispensable work for all who are interested in modern continental philosophy, Lyotard and the Political offers the first systematic analysis of the political dimension of the work of one of the most controversial and influential philosophers of the twentieth century.Also available in this series: Lacan and the Political Pb: 0-415-17187-3: £12.99Heidegger and the Political Pb:0-415-13064-6: £12.99Derrida and the Political Pb: 0-415-10967-1: £13.99Nietzche and the Political Pb: 0-41510069-0: £12.99Foucault and the Political Pb: 0-415-10066-6: £12.99

Lyotard and the Political is the first book to consider the full range of the political thought of the French philosopher François Lyotard and its broader implications for an understanding of the political. James Williams clearly and carefully traces the development of Lyotard's thought from his early Marxist essays on the Algerian struggle for independence to his break with the thought of Marx and Freud. This is compared with Lyotard's later, highly influental writings on the politics of desire and his attempts to base a postmodern political discourse on the sublime.An indispensable work for all who are interested in modern continental philosophy, Lyotard and the Political offers the first systematic analysis of the political dimension of the work of one of the most controversial and influential philosophers of the twentieth century.Also available in this series: Lacan and the Political Pb: 0-415-17187-3: £12.99Heidegger and the Political Pb:0-415-13064-6: £12.99Derrida and the Political Pb: 0-415-10967-1: £13.99Nietzche and the Political Pb: 0-41510069-0: £12.99Foucault and the Political Pb: 0-415-10066-6: £12.99

Set against the backdrop of the recurring waves of financial scandal and crisis to hit Canada, the US, the UK, and Europe over the last decade, this book examines the struggles of securities enforcement agencies to police the financial markets. While allegations of regulatory failure in this realm are commonplace and are well documented in policy and legal scholarship, James Williams seeks to move beyond these conventional accounts arguing that they are based on a limited view of the regulatory process and overlook the actual practices and dilemmas of enforcement work. Informed by interviews with police, regulators, lawyers, accountants, and investor advocates, along with a wealth of documentary materials, the book is rooted in a uniquely interdisciplinary social science perspective. Peering inside the black box of enforcement, it examines the organizational, professional, geographical, technological, and legal influences that shape securities enforcement as a distinctly knowledge-based enterprise. The result of these influences, Williams argues, is the production of a very particular vision of financial disorder which captures certain forms of misconduct while overlooking others, a reflection not of incompetence or capture but of the unique demands and constraints of the regulatory craft. Providing a very different, and much needed, account of the challenges faced by regulators and enforcement agencies, this book will be of enormous interest to current research on enforcement, regulation, and governance both within and beyond the financial realm.

Set against the backdrop of the recurring waves of financial scandal and crisis to hit Canada, the US, the UK, and Europe over the last decade, this book examines the struggles of securities enforcement agencies to police the financial markets. While allegations of regulatory failure in this realm are commonplace and are well documented in policy and legal scholarship, James Williams seeks to move beyond these conventional accounts arguing that they are based on a limited view of the regulatory process and overlook the actual practices and dilemmas of enforcement work. Informed by interviews with police, regulators, lawyers, accountants, and investor advocates, along with a wealth of documentary materials, the book is rooted in a uniquely interdisciplinary social science perspective. Peering inside the black box of enforcement, it examines the organizational, professional, geographical, technological, and legal influences that shape securities enforcement as a distinctly knowledge-based enterprise. The result of these influences, Williams argues, is the production of a very particular vision of financial disorder which captures certain forms of misconduct while overlooking others, a reflection not of incompetence or capture but of the unique demands and constraints of the regulatory craft. Providing a very different, and much needed, account of the challenges faced by regulators and enforcement agencies, this book will be of enormous interest to current research on enforcement, regulation, and governance both within and beyond the financial realm.

Edward Lear wrote a well-known autobiographical poem that begins ‘How pleasant to know Mr Lear!’ But how well do we really know him? On the one hand he is, in John Ashbery’s words, ‘one of the most popular poets who ever lived’; on the other hand he has often been overlooked or marginalized by scholars and in literary histories. James Williams’s account, the first book-length critical study of the poet since the 1980s, sets out to re-introduce Lear and to accord him his proper place: as a major Victorian figure of continuing appeal and relevance, and especially as a poet of beauty, comedy, and profound ingenuity. Williams approaches Lear’s work thematically, tracing some of its most fundamental subjects and situations. Grounded in attentive close readings, Williams also connects Lear’s nonsense with his various other creative endeavours: as a zoological illustrator and landscape painter, a travel writer, and a prolific diarist and correspondent.

Edward Lear wrote a well-known autobiographical poem that begins ‘How pleasant to know Mr Lear!’ But how well do we really know him? On the one hand he is, in John Ashbery’s words, ‘one of the most popular poets who ever lived’; on the other hand he has often been overlooked or marginalized by scholars and in literary histories. James Williams’s account, the first book-length critical study of the poet since the 1980s, sets out to re-introduce Lear and to accord him his proper place: as a major Victorian figure of continuing appeal and relevance, and especially as a poet of beauty, comedy, and profound ingenuity. Williams approaches Lear’s work thematically, tracing some of its most fundamental subjects and situations. Grounded in attentive close readings, Williams also connects Lear’s nonsense with his various other creative endeavours: as a zoological illustrator and landscape painter, a travel writer, and a prolific diarist and correspondent.

The first comprehensive anthology of Jean-François Lyotard’s writings together with a critical guide.The Lyotard Reader and Guide is designed as a one-stop companion to his thought. It covers the full range of Lyotard’s work, from beginning to end, through his three main books (Discours, figure, Libidinal Economy and The Differend) and up to his influential essays in The Inhuman and Postmodern Fables. The readings are organised in sections on philosophy, politics, art and literature for ease of use. Detailed introductions to each section explain Lyotard’s key ideas and raise criticisms, providing a clear critical introduction to Lyotard and his works. As a sourcebook and guide the book will be indispensable for the subjects touched by Lyotard’s ground-breaking conceptual innovations and ideas, notably, philosophy, critical theory, literature, art and politics.Key features *The most up-to-date and comprehensive volume available*Includes the most important as well as less well known texts and newly translated work*Carefully selected and presented by leading Lyotard scholars*Broad coverage in sections covering Philosophy, Literature, Politics and Art*Full explanatory introductions to each section as well as a General Introduction provide a critical guide to Lyotard’s work

The first comprehensive anthology of Jean-François Lyotard’s writings together with a critical guide.The Lyotard Reader and Guide is designed as a one-stop companion to his thought. It covers the full range of Lyotard’s work, from beginning to end, through his three main books (Discours, figure, Libidinal Economy and The Differend) and up to his influential essays in The Inhuman and Postmodern Fables. The readings are organised in sections on philosophy, politics, art and literature for ease of use. Detailed introductions to each section explain Lyotard’s key ideas and raise criticisms, providing a clear critical introduction to Lyotard and his works. As a sourcebook and guide the book will be indispensable for the subjects touched by Lyotard’s ground-breaking conceptual innovations and ideas, notably, philosophy, critical theory, literature, art and politics.Key features *The most up-to-date and comprehensive volume available*Includes the most important as well as less well known texts and newly translated work*Carefully selected and presented by leading Lyotard scholars*Broad coverage in sections covering Philosophy, Literature, Politics and Art*Full explanatory introductions to each section as well as a General Introduction provide a critical guide to Lyotard’s work

This book offers the first critical study of The Logic of Sense, Gilles Deleuze’s most important work on language and ethics, as well as the main source for his vital philosophy of the event. Deleuze’s philosophy has always promised a revolution in ethical theories and in our understanding of the relation between language, thought and action. This book develops a critical reading of Deleuze’s work in order to convey the potential and risks of his new approaches to questions of how to live an intense life in response to the excitement and danger of events. This interpretation covers all aspects of Deleuze’s book, including engagements with phenomenology, with analytic philosophy of language, with stoicism, with literary theory and with psychoanalysis. Its aim is to open new debates and develop current ones around Deleuze’s work in philosophy, politics, literature, linguistics and sociology.

Throughout his career, Deleuze developed a series of original philosophies of time and applied them successfully to many different fields. Now James Williams presents Deleuze's philosophy of time as the central concept that connects his philosophy as a whole. Through this conceptual approach, the book covers all the main periods of Deleuze's philosophy: the early studies of Hume, Nietzsche, Kant, Bergson and Spinoza, the two great philosophical works, Difference and Repetition and Logic of Sense, the Capitalism and Schizophrenia works with Guattari, and the late influential studies of literature, film and painting. The result is an important reading of Deleuze and the first full interpretation of his philosophy of time.

By critically analysing Deleuze's methods, principles and arguments, James Williams helps readers to engage with the revolutionary core of Deleuze's philosophy and take up positions for or against its most innovative and controversial ideas. This second edition includes a new chapter on questions of method around important concepts such as intensity, anarchic distribution, transcendental illusion and distinctness. Here, Williams reflects on the place of judgement and action in Deleuze’s work in order to explain its ethical and political dimensions.  He also engages with the foremost recent interpretations of Deleuze by Bryant, Sauvagnargues, Smith, Somers-Hall, Hughes and de Beistegui, introducing you to the key debates and oppositions.

We usually think of signs as fixed relations: a red light signifies ‘Stop’. In his bold new book, James Williams argues that signs are processes: you see the red light and think 'should I stop?', triggering a creative response. Williams develops this new process philosophy of signs through a formal model , in contrast to earlier structuralist definitions. He draws on the philosophies of Deleuze and Whitehead, criticises earlier work on the sign in biology by Jakob von Uexküll, and connects to contemporary work on process in the philosophy of biology by John Dupré. The process model has wide applications in the arts, humanities and social sciences, and informs their critical debates with science. In defining the sign as essentially political, this radical definition of the sign opens up new possibilities for social and political critique.

A collaborative close reading of 'A Thousand Plateaus' by some of the world's leading Deleuze and Guattari scholarsThis volume brings together a team of international specialists on Deleuze and Guattari to provide in-depth critical studies of each plateau of their major work, 'A Thousand Plateaus'. It combines an overview of the text with deep scholarship and brings a renewed focus on the philosophical significance of their project.'A Thousand Plateaus' represents a whole new way of doing philosophy. This collection supports the critical reception of Deleuze and Guattari's text as one of the most important and influential works of modern theory.Key FeaturesEmphasises the philosophical nature of 'A Thousand Plateaus'Provides detailed coverage of the text as a whole Brings together cutting edge research from some of the leading lights in scholarship on Deleuze and GuattariAn ideal companion to a plateau-by-plateau reading of Deleuze and Guattari's workContributorsMiguel de Beistegui, University of Warwick, UKJeffrey A. Bell, Southeastern Louisiana University, USARonald Bogue, University of Georgia, USARay Brassier, American University of Beirut, LebanonEugene W. Holland, Ohio State University, USAEmma Ingala, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, ItalySimon O'Sullivan, Goldsmiths, University of London, UKHelen Palmer, Kingston University London, UKPaul Patton, University of New South Wales, AustraliaJohn Protevi, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, USADaniel W. Smith, Purdue University, USAHenry Somers-Hall, Royal Holloway, University of London, UKAudrey Wasser, Miami University, USANathan Widder, Royal Holloway, University of London, UKJames Williams, Deakin University, Australia

A collaborative close reading of 'A Thousand Plateaus' by some of the world's leading Deleuze and Guattari scholarsThis volume brings together a team of international specialists on Deleuze and Guattari to provide in-depth critical studies of each plateau of their major work, 'A Thousand Plateaus'. It combines an overview of the text with deep scholarship and brings a renewed focus on the philosophical significance of their project.'A Thousand Plateaus' represents a whole new way of doing philosophy. This collection supports the critical reception of Deleuze and Guattari's text as one of the most important and influential works of modern theory.Key FeaturesEmphasises the philosophical nature of 'A Thousand Plateaus'Provides detailed coverage of the text as a whole Brings together cutting edge research from some of the leading lights in scholarship on Deleuze and GuattariAn ideal companion to a plateau-by-plateau reading of Deleuze and Guattari's workContributorsMiguel de Beistegui, University of Warwick, UKJeffrey A. Bell, Southeastern Louisiana University, USARonald Bogue, University of Georgia, USARay Brassier, American University of Beirut, LebanonEugene W. Holland, Ohio State University, USAEmma Ingala, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, ItalySimon O'Sullivan, Goldsmiths, University of London, UKHelen Palmer, Kingston University London, UKPaul Patton, University of New South Wales, AustraliaJohn Protevi, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, USADaniel W. Smith, Purdue University, USAHenry Somers-Hall, Royal Holloway, University of London, UKAudrey Wasser, Miami University, USANathan Widder, Royal Holloway, University of London, UKJames Williams, Deakin University, Australia

In Author Under Sail, Jay Williams offers the first complete literary biography of Jack London as a professional writer engaged in the labor of writing. It examines the authorial imagination in London’s work, the use of imagination in both his fiction and nonfiction, and the ways he defined imagination in the creative process in his business dealings with his publishers, editors, and agents. In this first installment of a three-volume biography, Williams traverses the years 1893 to 1902, from London’s “Story of a Typhoon” to The People of the Abyss.The Jack London who emerges in the pages of Author Under Sail is a writer whose partnership with publishers, most notably his productive alliance with George Brett of Macmillan, was one of the most formative in American literary history. London pioneered many author models during the heyday of realism and naturalism, blurring the boundaries of these popular genres by focusing on absorption and theatricality and the representation of the seen and unseen. London created an impassioned, sincere, and extremely personal realism unlike that of other American writers of the time.Author Under Sail is a literary tour de force that reveals the full range of London as writer, creative citizen, and entrepreneur at the same time it sheds light on the maverick side of machine-age literature.

In Author Under Sail: The Imagination of Jack London, 1902–1907, Jay Williams explores Jack London’s necessity to illustrate the inner workings of his vast imagination. In this second installment of a three-volume biography, Williams captures the life of a great writer expressed though his many creative works, such as The Call of the Wild and White Fang, as well as his first autobiographical memoir, The Road, some of his most significant contributions to the socialist cause, and notable uncompleted works. During this time, London became one of the most famous authors in America, perhaps even the author with the highest earnings, as he prepared to become an equally famous international writer.Author Under Sail documents London’s life in both a biographical and writerly fashion, depicting the importance of his writing experiences as his career followed a trajectory similar to America’s from 1876 to 1916. The underground forces of London’s narratives were shaped by a changing capitalist society, media outlets, racial issues, increases in women’s rights, and advancements in national power. Williams factors in these elements while exploring London’s deeply conflicted relationship with his own authorial inner life. In London’s work, the imagination is figured as a ghost or as a ghostlike presence, and the author’s personas, who form a dense population among his characters, are portrayed as haunted or troubled in some way.Along with examining the functions and works of London’s exhaustive imagination, Williams takes a critical look at London’s ability to tell his stories to wide arrays of audiences, stitching incidents together into coherent wholes so they became part of a raconteur’s repertoire. Author Under Sail provides a multidimensional examination of the life of a crucial American storyteller and essayist.

African American records of the Gold Rush are rare, as are underground railroad accounts from those fleeing to freedom; yet here is the account of a self-taught escaped slave and underground railroad worker who also succumbed to the lure of the California Gold Rush. James Williams was all of these things and more, a fascinating individual who in this memoir manages to cram more life into fewer pages than almost anyone has before or since – a habit of traveling light that served him well. We learn about Williams's birth and escape from the South and his travels and exciting experiences on the West Coast in the mid-nineteenth century. We become privy to his views on the many people he met, including Chinese immigrants, and his observations on notable events of his time, such as the Modoc War in California.

In Author Under Sail, Jay Williams offers the first complete literary biography of Jack London as a professional writer engaged in the labor of writing. It examines the authorial imagination in London’s work, the use of imagination in both his fiction and nonfiction, and the ways he defined imagination in the creative process in his business dealings with his publishers, editors, and agents. In this first installment of a three-volume biography, Williams traverses the years 1893 to 1902, from London’s “Story of a Typhoon” to The People of the Abyss.The Jack London who emerges in the pages of Author Under Sail is a writer whose partnership with publishers, most notably his productive alliance with George Brett of Macmillan, was one of the most formative in American literary history. London pioneered many author models during the heyday of realism and naturalism, blurring the boundaries of these popular genres by focusing on absorption and theatricality and the representation of the seen and unseen. London created an impassioned, sincere, and extremely personal realism unlike that of other American writers of the time.Author Under Sail is a literary tour de force that reveals the full range of London as writer, creative citizen, and entrepreneur at the same time it sheds light on the maverick side of machine-age literature.

This book brings back into print, for the first time since the 1830s, a text that was central to the transatlantic campaign to fully abolish slavery in Britain’s colonies. James Williams, an eighteen-year-old Jamaican “apprentice” (former slave), came to Britain in 1837 at the instigation of the abolitionist Joseph Sturge. The Narrative he produced there, one of very few autobiographical texts by Caribbean slaves or former slaves, became one of the most powerful abolitionist tools for effecting the immediate end to the system of apprenticeship that had replaced slavery.Describing the hard working conditions on plantations and the harsh treatment of apprentices unjustly incarcerated, Williams argues that apprenticeship actually worsened the conditions of Jamaican ex-slaves: former owners, no longer legally permitted to directly punish their workers, used the Jamaican legal system as a punitive lever against them. Williams’s story documents the collaboration of local magistrates in this practice, wherein apprentices were routinely jailed and beaten for both real and imaginary infractions of the apprenticeship regulations. In addition to the complete text of Williams’s original Narrative, this fully annotated edition includes nineteenth-century responses to the controversy from the British and Jamaican press, as well as extensive testimony from the Commission of Enquiry that heard evidence regarding the Narrative’s claims. These fascinating and revealing documents constitute the largest extant body of direct testimony by Caribbean slaves or apprentices.