Continuum Reception Studies – serie

This book focuses attention on the longevity and complexity of Blake's reception in Japan and elsewhere in the East. This book offers a case-study of the way in which the vigorous afterlife of Blake's work has allowed active appropriation of an inspiring presence, rather than passive succumbing to a Eurocentric or Orientalist ideology.This volume brings together research from international scholars focusing attention on the longevity and complexity of Blake's reception in Japan and elsewhere in the East. It is designed as not only a celebration of his art and poetry in new and unexpected contexts but also to contest the intensely nationalistic and parochial Englishness of his work, and in broader terms, the inevitable passivity with which Romanticism (and other Western intellectual movements) have been received in the Orient.

This volume brings together research from international scholars focusing attention on the longevity and complexity of Blake's reception in Japan and elsewhere in the East. It is designed as not only a celebration of his art and poetry in new and unexpected contexts but also to contest the intensely nationalistic and parochial Englishness of his work, and in broader terms, the inevitable passivity with which Romanticism (and other Western intellectual movements) have been received in the Orient.

"The International Reception of T. S. Eliot" brings together a wide range of international perspectives on this influential twentieth-century author, who as poet, critic, and editor did much to shape modernist poetics, not only in Europe and North America, but also world-wide. Foregrounding distinct aspects of Eliot's international reception, individual chapters of the book illuminate such topics as Eliot's complex impact on the development of modernist poetics in the post-colonial Caribbean, the emergent state of Israel, and colonial India; the insurgent potential of translated Eliot in Soviet-occupied Romania and post-war Germany; the different ways in which Eliot's work has entered the cultural life of national and emergent national contexts like Iceland, Italy, Spain, China, and Japan; the relationships forged with Eliot's poetry and criticism by such authors as Jorge Borges, Czeslaw Milosz, A.J.M. Smith, and E.R. Curtius; the unique reverberations of Eliot's work in the bi-cultural lives of contemporary scholars; and the challenges of teaching Eliot across boundaries of culture and religion.Importantly broadening the purview of Anglo-American Eliot Studies, the book should prove essential reading for scholars around the world interested in Eliot and modernism, as well as post-colonial theory and modernist translation theory.

British writers of the Romantic Period were popular in Germany throughout the nineteenth century, and translations of Scott, Burns, Moore, Hemans, and Byron (among others) became widespread. This study analyses the reception of William Wordsworth's poetry in 19th century Germany in relation to other romantic poets. Research into Anglo-German cultural relations has tended to see Wordsworth as of little or no interest to Germany but new research shows that Wordsworth was clearly of interest to German poets, translators and readers and that there was significantly more knowledge of and respect for Wordsworth's poetry, and interest in his ideas and beliefs, than has previously been recognised. Williams focuses particularly on the work of Friedrich Jacobsen, Ferdinand Freligrath and Marie Gothein, who span the early, middle, and late years of the century respectively and establishes the wider presence of many others translating, anthologising and commenting on Wordsworth poetry and beliefs.

The early reception of Laurence Sterne in France was vocal and controversial, reflecting the literary and social upheaval of the period. This monograph is the first recent full-length study of the topic, and offers original readings of Sterne and his French interpreters, such as Voltaire, Diderot, Suard, and Julie de Lespinasse, placing them within the context of eighteenth-century French culture, its critical debates and Anglo-French literary relations. Drawing on contemporary reception theory, Lana Asfour analyzes the criticism, translations and imitations of "Tristram Shandy" and "A Sentimental Journey from 1760 to 1800", and stresses key moments at which both texts were read against the expectations of audiences familiar with comic, satiric, picaresque and sentimental traditions.She also explores the role of literary celebrity, theories of translation, and ideas of originality and imagination. Recent criticism has debated whether Sterne's work should be considered in relation to older, comic-satiric forms of writing or within the context of the genre of the novel.This study shows that such a divide was already present in early French responses and yet, in presenting their diversity and complexity, it suggests that the dichotomy is reductive, and that Sterne's reception history in France can contribute to modern readings of his work.

Of all the great novelists of the Romantic period, only two, Jane Austen and Walter Scott, have been continuously reprinted, admired, argued about, and read, from the moment their works first appeared until the present day. In a pioneering study, Annika Bautz traces how Scott's nineteenth-century success among all classes of readers made him the most admired and most widely read novelist in history, only for his readership to plummet sharply downwards in the twentieth century. Austen's popularity, by contrast, has risen inexorably, overtaking Scott's, and bringing about a reversal in reputation that would have been unthinkable in the authors' own time. To assess the reactions of readers belonging to diverse interpretative communities, Bautz draws on a wide range of indicators, including editions, publisher's relaunches, sales, reviews, library catalogues and lending figures, private comments in diaries and letters, popularisations.She maps out the long-run changes in the reception of each author over two centuries, explaining literary tastes and their determinants, and illuminating the broader culture of the successive reading audiences who gave both authors their uninterrupted loyalty. The first ever comparative longitudinal study, firmly based on empirical and archival evidence, this book will be of interest to scholars in Romanticism, Victorianism, book history, reading and reception studies, and cultural history.

Over the last decade, Samuel Beckett's popularity has rocketed around the world and he is increasingly recognised as one of the most important and influential writers of the twentieth century but there has been very little scholarly work on Beckett's reception outside Europe. This comprehensive volume brings together essays from leading critics on Beckett's international critical reception. Due to Beckett's linguistic and artistic abilities, he was intimately involved in the translation and production of his writings in German, French, English and Spanish; and consequently countries using these languages have sophisticated critical traditions. However, many other countries have adopted Beckett as their own, from places where he lived for lengthy periods of his life (England, France, Ireland and Germany), to those finding directly applicable political messages in his work (such as ex-Soviet states including the Czech Republic and Romania), and those countries whose national literary traditions bear heavily upon his work (e.g. Norway and Italy). This fascinating volume reveals Beckett's evolving critical reception from contemporary reviews to the present.

Emily Dickinson's poetry is known and read worldwide but to date there have been no studies of her reception and influence outside America. This collection of essays brings together international research on her reception abroad including translations, circulation and the responses of private and professional readers to her poetry in different countries. The contributors address key translations of individual poems and lyric sequences; Dickinson's influence on other writers, poets and culture more broadly; biographical constructions of Dickinson as a poet; the political cultural and linguistic contexts of translations; and adaptations into other media. It will appeal to all those interested in the international reception of Dickinson and nineteenth-century American literature more widely.

This is a study of allusions to Alfred Tennyson's poetry in works of fiction from the Victorian period to the present day. Until now, the study of literary allusion has focused on allusions made by poets to other poets. In "Tennyson Among the Novelists", John Morton presents the first book-length account of the presence of a poet's work in works of prose fiction. As well as shedding new light on the poems of Tennyson and their reception history, Morton covers a wide variety of novelists including Thomas Hardy, James Joyce, Evelyn Waugh, and Andrew O'Hagan, offering a fresh look at their approach to writing. Morton shows how Tennyson's poetry, despite its frequent depreciation by critics, has survived as a vivifying presence in the novel from the Victorian period to the present day.

Emily Dickinson's poetry is known and read worldwide but to date there have been no studies of her reception and influence outside America. This collection of essays brings together international research on her reception abroad including translations, circulation and the responses of private and professional readers to her poetry in different countries. The contributors address key translations of individual poems and lyric sequences; Dickinson's influence on other writers, poets and culture more broadly; biographical constructions of Dickinson as a poet; the political cultural and linguistic contexts of translations; and adaptations into other media. It will appeal to all those interested in the international reception of Dickinson and nineteenth-century American literature more widely.

Over the last decade, Samuel Beckett's popularity has rocketed around the world and he is increasingly recognised as one of the most important and influential writers of the twentieth century but there has been very little scholarly work on Beckett's reception outside Europe. This comprehensive volume brings together essays from leading critics on Beckett's international critical reception. Due to Beckett's linguistic and artistic abilities, he was intimately involved in the translation and production of his writings in German, French, English and Spanish; and consequently countries using these languages have sophisticated critical traditions. However, many other countries have adopted Beckett as their own, from places where he lived for lengthy periods of his life (England, France, Ireland and Germany), to those finding directly applicable political messages in his work (such as ex-Soviet states including the Czech Republic and Romania), and those countries whose national literary traditions bear heavily upon his work (e.g. Norway and Italy). This fascinating volume reveals Beckett's evolving critical reception from contemporary reviews to the present.

British writers of the Romantic Period were popular in Germany throughout the nineteenth century, and translations of Scott, Burns, Moore, Hemans, and Byron (among others) became widespread. This study analyses the reception of William Wordsworth's poetry in 19th century Germany in relation to other romantic poets. Research into Anglo-German cultural relations has tended to see Wordsworth as of little or no interest to Germany but new research shows that Wordsworth was clearly of interest to German poets, translators and readers and that there was significantly more knowledge of and respect for Wordsworth's poetry, and interest in his ideas and beliefs, than has previously been recognised. Williams focuses particularly on the work of Friedrich Jacobsen, Ferdinand Freligrath and Marie Gothein, who span the early, middle, and late years of the century respectively and establishes the wider presence of many others translating, anthologising and commenting on Wordsworth poetry and beliefs.

This major interdisciplinary collection captures the vitality and increasingly global significance of the Faust figure in literature, theatre and music. Bringing together scholars from around the world, International Faust Studies examines questions of adaptation, reception and translation centering on Faust discourse in a diversity of cultural contexts, including the Chinese, Japanese, Indian, African, Brazilian and Canadian, as well as the European, British and American. It broadens the field by including studies of lesser known or neglected Faust discourse, including the translation of Goethe's Faust recently attributed to Coleridge, in addition to the canonical.