Jem Bloomfield – författare

A study of two major icons of Anglophone culture – the Bible and Shakespeare – exploring the treatment of canonicity, interpretation and appropriation.Shakespeare and the Bible are titans of English-speaking culture: their images are endlessly cited and recycled, and their language permeates everything from our public ceremonies to our private jokes. In Words of Power, Jem Bloomfield explores the cultural reverberations of these two collections of books, and how each era finds new meanings as they encounter works such as Hamlet or the Gospel of Mark.Beginning with a shrewd examination of how we have codified and standardised their canons, deciding which books and which words are included in the official collections and which are excluded, Bloomfield charts the ways in which every generation grapples with these enigmatic and complex texts. He explores the way they are read and performed in public, the institutions that use their names to legitimise their own activities, and how the texts are quoted by politicians, lords and rappers. Words of Power throws modern ideas about Shakespeare and the Bible into sharp relief by contrasting them with those of our ancestors, showing how our engagements with these texts reveal as much about ourselves as their actual meanings.

Witchcraft and paganism exert an insistent pressure from the margins of midcentury British detective fiction. This Element investigates the appearance of witchcraft and paganism in the novels of four of the most popular female detective authors of the era: Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham, Ngaio Marsh and Gladys Mitchell. The author approaches the theme of witchcraft and paganism not simply as a matter of content but as an influence which shapes the narrative and its possibilities. The 'witchy' detective novel, as the author calls it, brings together the conventions of Golden Age fiction with the images and enchantments of witchcraft and paganism to produce a hitherto unstudied mode of detective fiction in the midcentury.

Witchcraft and paganism exert an insistent pressure from the margins of midcentury British detective fiction. This Element investigates the appearance of witchcraft and paganism in the novels of four of the most popular female detective authors of the era: Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham, Ngaio Marsh and Gladys Mitchell. The author approaches the theme of witchcraft and paganism not simply as a matter of content but as an influence which shapes the narrative and its possibilities. The ''witchy'' detective novel, as the author calls it, brings together the conventions of Golden Age fiction with the images and enchantments of witchcraft and paganism to produce a hitherto unstudied mode of detective fiction in the midcentury.

Witchcraft and paganism exert an insistent pressure from the margins of midcentury British detective fiction. This Element investigates the appearance of witchcraft and paganism in the novels of four of the most popular female detective authors of the era: Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham, Ngaio Marsh and Gladys Mitchell. The author approaches the theme of witchcraft and paganism not simply as a matter of content but as an influence which shapes the narrative and its possibilities. The ''witchy'' detective novel, as the author calls it, brings together the conventions of Golden Age fiction with the images and enchantments of witchcraft and paganism to produce a hitherto unstudied mode of detective fiction in the midcentury.

A superbly rich and engrossing exploration of C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Paths in the Snow traces the literary allusions and echoes to be found in this beloved novel, drawing the reader deeper into the magic and meaning of Narnia.From Dante to The Wind in the Willows, and from medieval dream poetry to Dorothy L. Sayers, Paths in the Snow uncovers the literary connections which criss-cross Narnia. Stories, myth and literature played a central role in Lewis’ personal life and religious imagination: he was a professor of literature who came back to faith by seeing the Christian story as a “true myth” created by God. Untangling the fascinating network of literary allusions and sources in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe helps to bring Lewis’ vision into focus.This study also examines the time in which the first Narnia book was written, shedding light on its historical and cultural context, and how these shaped its meaning for its first readers. Paths in the Snow reveals why the Pevensie children are always shaking hands with each other and what a wartime recipe for whalemeat fritters can tell us about Narnian food. The book proceeds chapter by chapter through The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, making it ideal for reading groups or study sessions. It also provides an opportunity for readers to branch off into their own journey through the literary and theological sources which stocked Lewis’ mind.The perfect gift for any Narnian, and a valuable resource for groups, Paths in the Snow will appeal to all fans of C.S. Lewis’ work, and enable anyone to stand at the wardrobe door, and go further in.

Gold on the Horizon is an enthralling companion for readers revisiting C. S. Lewis’s classic Narnia tales Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. With fascinating detail and bewitching diversion, it maps these two novels’ myriad literary influences and cultural allusions to enhance our understanding of their deeper meanings and themes.Drawing on diverse sources from Hamlet to King Solomon’s Mines, and from The Odyssey to Tom Brown’s School Days, Jem Bloomfield is our guide on the Pevensie children’s memorable journeys as we venture into the second and third books Lewis wrote in the Chronicles of Narnia series. His fascinating commentary explores both literary connections and the social and cultural world of mid-century Britain. Discover how Eustace Scrubb and his family were based on a contemporary social stereotype also pilloried by Agatha Christie and George Orwell. Trace how Lucy Pevensie’s character was shaped by the “New Elizabethanism” movement of the 1950s, which also involved Benjamin Britten and Nigel Molesworth. Gold on the Horizon follows on from Bloomfield’s earlier book Paths in the Snow: A Literary Journey through The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, taking his literary and theological approach into new realms of adventure.

This fascinating book explores the numerous literary connections, themes, symbolism, and cultural and social references underlying The Silver Chair and The Horse and His Boy, the fourth and fifth books in C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia series, following the same format of Paths in the Snow and Gold on the Horizon, Jem Bloomfield's popular explorations of the first three Narnia tales (both published under the DLT imprint). In Signs Among the Stones, Bloomfield considers the significance of the very different landscapes of The Silver Chair and The Horse and His Boy - subterranean caves and arid deserts, both a world away from the more familiar forests and castles of other Narnia tales - and explores what the books can tell us about Lewis's ideas on meaning, questing and storytelling.

This study argues that allusion is a central part of classic British detective fiction. It demonstrates the fraught status of Shakespeare and the Bible during the Golden Age of the British detective novel, and the cultural currents which novelists navigated whilst alluding to them. The first part traces the complex web of allusions to Shakespeare and the Bible which appear in the novels of Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers, examining the meanings these allusions produce. The second part explores the way in which Sayers’ own collection of detective novels became a canon, on which later novelists exercised those same allusive practices. It studies allusions to Sayers’ novels throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first, from Gladys Mitchell and P.D. James to Reginald Hill and Sujata Massey.  This study reveals allusion as a shaping force at the origin of the classic British detective novel, and a continuing element in its identity.

This study argues that allusion is a central part of classic British detective fiction. It demonstrates the fraught status of Shakespeare and the Bible during the Golden Age of the British detective novel, and the cultural currents which novelists navigated whilst alluding to them. The first part traces the complex web of allusions to Shakespeare and the Bible which appear in the novels of Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers, examining the meanings these allusions produce. The second part explores the way in which Sayers’ own collection of detective novels became a canon, on which later novelists exercised those same allusive practices. It studies allusions to Sayers’ novels throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first, from Gladys Mitchell and P.D. James to Reginald Hill and Sujata Massey.  This study reveals allusion as a shaping force at the origin of the classic British detective novel, and a continuing element in its identity.