PL
Book cover Thinking Literature

Thinking Literature

Essays on Reading Literary Classics Today

Book format: 14.5 x 20,5 cm Publication date: 2024

Book description

Inspired by Mary Shelley’s conviction that reading is a socially significant communal activity, Thinking Literature. Essays on Reading Literary Classics Today is a collection of four essays whose authors discuss modern interactions with literary classics. Antigone by Sophocles, Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet and The Tempest, and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein are read anew via their modern retellings and applied to the challenges and dangers of the contemporary world. The titular phrase, thinking literature, is meant to indicate reading literature of the previous epochs in a way that allows one to contemplate human condition against the background of the past and in connection with the present. Thinking literature as practised by rewriters, adaptors and interpreters is then shared with readers, creating the sense of dialogue without which the communal aspect of reading would not be fulfilled.

The book begins with a short preface explaining the collection’s origin. In the first chapter Marcelina Połczyńska discusses Kamila Shamsie’s novel Home Fire, a contemporary retelling of Antigone by Sophocles, which transplants the ancient conflict over burial rights and the legitimacy of law to the community of British Muslims in contemporary London. The second essay, by Wiktoria Wawrzyńczyk, examines Ahmed Saadawi's Frankenstein in Baghdad. Focusing on fragmentation as the novel’s key device, the author observes that the social commitment of Saadawi’s novel is not limited to the immediate context of the novel’s setting, but pertains to a number of acute problems and crises we are facing nowadays on a global scale. The third chapter deals with the issue of suicide in Shakespeare’s plays, one of the themes nowadays seen as potentially harmful to vulnerable audiences. Anna Kwiatek analyses Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet in order to inspect the concerns voiced against Shakespeare allegedly romanticising suicidal death in his plays. Her essay confirms the unceasing topicality of the discussion on how the reception of an author so ubiquitously present in education and theatre as Shakespeare is shaped by changing sensitivities and concerns. In the last chapter Margaret Atwood’s novel Hag-Seed, a retelling of The Tempest, is discussed as an extended meta-artistic game played with Shakespeare. Agnieszka Romanowska analyses Atwood’s imaginative and multifaceted dialogue with Shakespeare’s play to argue that it takes the form of a dense and intricate web of meta-artistic interactions performed on various levels of the novel.

The book’s key feature is its direct link with how literature is read, taught and imaginatively exploited in culture. The four essays testify to the lasting relevance of works of literature created in previous epochs, to the significance of their cultural legacy and the impressive scope of their impact. The contemporary interactions with ancient Greek tragedy, Shakespeare and Frankenstein discussed here are examples of reading as a communal activity, as understood and advocated by Mary Shelley. Thinking literature by revisiting canonical texts and sharing with others the experience this brings, helps us to define, understand and confront the social and political challenges of today’s increasingly complex world. Therefore the collection will be equally interesting to students of literature, to those who teach literature on university level, and to readers of literature in general, especially those interested in adaptation of literary classics.
Language English
Edition first
Cover design Marta Jaszczuk
ISBN: 978-83-233-5407-9
e-ISBN (pdf): 978-83-233-7588-3
e-ISBN (mobi,epub): 978-83-233-7589-0
Country of producer: Poland

RECOMMENDED BOOKS

Eliane Brum

Kolekcjoner porzuconych dusz

(Paperback with flaps)

39.90 zł
31.92 zł
Lydia Pyne

Prawdziwe fałszerstwa

(Paperback with flaps)

48.90 zł
39.12 zł
Josef H. Reichholf

Motyle

(Paperback with flaps)

49.90 zł
39.92 zł
Out of stock
William R. Miller, Stephen Rollnick

Dialog motywujący. Jak pomóc ludziom w zmianie i rozwoju

(Paperback with flaps)

75.00 zł
60.00 zł

NEW BOOKS

Book cover Przekładaniec, issue 48
ed. Magda Heydel

Przekładaniec, issue 48

( Paperback )

41.04 zł
32.83 zł
Book cover Potęga języka
Viorica Marian

Potęga języka

( Paperback with flaps )

74.00 zł
59.20 zł
Book cover Perspektywa interesariuszy we współczesnych problemach zarządzania
47.25 zł
37.80 zł
Book cover Terapia rodzin oparta na mentalizacji
Eia Asen , Peter Fonagy

Terapia rodzin oparta na mentalizacji

( Paperback with flaps )

62.00 zł
49.60 zł
Book cover „(jednak z odniesieniem do awangardy)”
Tomasz Cieślak-Sokołowski

„(jednak z odniesieniem do awangardy)”

( Paperback with flaps )

48.30 zł
38.64 zł
Book cover Ewolucja koncepcji klastrów a uwarunkowania ich globalnej pozycji
Joanna Bohatkiewicz-Czaicka , Marta Gancarczyk

Ewolucja koncepcji klastrów a uwarunkowania ich globalnej pozycji

( Paperback )

48.30 zł
38.64 zł
Book cover Digital Games and the Category of Auteur
Filip Jankowski

Digital Games and the Category of Auteur

( Paperback with flaps )

51.45 zł
41.16 zł
Book cover Brak
Urszula M. Pilch

Brak

( Paperback with flaps )

50.40 zł
40.32 zł
Book cover Stille Perturbationen
Beata Gorycka

Stille Perturbationen

( Paperback )

51.45 zł
41.16 zł
Book cover Theater in the Face of War
Piotr Horbatowski

Theatre in the Face of War

( Hardcover )

51.45 zł
41.16 zł
Jeon Heyjin

Duchy i boginie

( Paperback with flaps )

58.99 zł
47.19 zł
Book cover Źródła i sensy
ed. Justyna Kiliańczyk-Zięba , Magdalena Komorowska

Źródła i sensy

( Hardcover )

61.95 zł
49.56 zł
Book cover W sieci mediów społecznościowych
Aleksandra Powierska

W sieci mediów społecznościowych

( Paperback )

51.45 zł
41.16 zł
Book cover Bohemiada konstytucyjna
Marek Bankowicz

Bohemiada konstytucyjna

( Hardcover )

51.45 zł
41.16 zł
Book cover Normatywne aspekty terapii zaawansowanych
Włodzimierz Galewicz , Wojciech Ciszewski , Olga Dryla , Piotr Grzegorz Nowak

Normatywne aspekty terapii zaawansowanych

( Paperback )

51.45 zł
41.16 zł
Book cover Poradnik dobrego starzenia się
Julie Erickson , Neil R. Rector

Poradnik dobrego starzenia się

( Paperback with flaps )

50.00 zł
40.00 zł
Book cover Antologia
Jan Stobajos

Antologia

( Paperback )

49.35 zł
39.48 zł
Book cover Siła precyzji
Simon Winchester

Siła precyzji

( Paperback with flaps )

80.99 zł
64.79 zł
Włodzimierz Cezary Włodarczyk

Szkice o zdrowiu publicznym w trudnych czasach

( Paperback )

55.99 zł
44.79 zł
Book cover Umysł ponad nastrojem. Wydanie drugie
Christine A. Padesky , Dennis Greenberger

Umysł ponad nastrojem. Wydanie drugie

( Paperback with flaps )

105.00 zł
84.00 zł

Our website uses the cookies.

Read more...