The Aesthetics of Murder: a Study in Romantic Literature and Contemporary Culture - Joel Black

Advantages: A short but well-done survey of Lyotard's thought
Disadvantages: For a narrow audience

...the context, influences and broader cultural environment are all important as a part of the study, something with which Nietzsche (one of the thinkers highlighted in this series) might have some argument. Why is Lyotard included in this series? Lyotard is less well known in comparison with some of the thinkers in this series, but his impact in modern critical thinking has gone far beyond narrow intellectual confines to influence in many fields impacted with the thinking of postmodernism; these include psychology, politics, literature, sociology, philosophy, linguistics, history and anthropology. Malpas indicates that Lyotard's primary focus is on issues of politics, justice and freedom; these themes come out regardless of Lyotard discussing a work of art, a philosophical or theological idea, or even grand cosmological issues. It is natural... Read review

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Advantages: Accessible and easy to read
Disadvantages: Poetry put some people off!

...movement, a loose collection of American poets and writers who managed to give an alternative voice to American youth in the early 50’s in the same way that Jazz and later Rock and Roll did in the field of music. Thom Gunn was not a fully paid up member of this literary movement but in this collection he covers the same ground. Youth angst and culture in general is the principal subject as it was for many writers of the Beat movement like Kerouac, Burroughs and Ginsberg. A BIT OF BACKGROUND Thom Gunn was born in Gravesend in 1929 and was brought up in Hampstead North London. After leaving school, Gunn did two years of National Service and then got a place at Cambridge to read English at the age of twenty-one. This was a formative period for Gunn and during his studies he published his first book of poems ‘Fighting Terms’ in 1954... Read review

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Advantages: Useful overview of this critical thinker
Disadvantages: -

...the influence of recent scholars and their diverse interests: Barbara Johnson and feminism, Spivak and post-colonial writing, ideas of the text as part of a political machine and the ethics involved with texts. While at Yale, de Man as a teacher trained a generation of scholars who occupied (or still occupy) many posts in higher education around the country. As do the other volumes in this series, McQuillan concludes with an annotated bibliography of works by de Man (primarily those available in authoritative English translation), and works on de Man by principle scholars. He also includes his own translation of the key essay, 'The Jews in Contemporary Literature' for readers to judge for themselves. While this series focuses intentionally upon critical literary theory and cultural studies, in fact this is only the starting point... Read review

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