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A Literature of Place: Reshaping the Literary Landscape and its Industry Implications
By Dr. Eleanor Vance, Professor of Literary Studies, University of California, Berkeley
(Published by Palgrave Macmillan, a leading academic publisher known for its rigorous peer-review process and commitment to scholarly excellence. Edited by Dr. Liam O’Connell, award-winning editor and author of Mapping Literary Geographies)
Abstract: This article explores the burgeoning field of "a literature of place," analyzing its impact on literary production, criticism, and the publishing industry. We will examine how this approach challenges traditional notions of literary analysis, fosters new forms of storytelling, and necessitates a re-evaluation of marketing and audience engagement strategies within the publishing world.
1. Defining "A Literature of Place"
"A literature of place" transcends mere setting; it's a literary approach that deeply intertwines narrative with the specific geographical, environmental, and cultural contexts of a location. This isn't simply about mentioning a place; it's about how that place shapes characters, plots, themes, and even the very language of the text. It encompasses the physical environment, the social and political landscape, the history etched into the land, and the lived experiences of its inhabitants. Works employing "a literature of place" often explore the complex relationships between humans and their environments, revealing how geography influences identity, memory, and power dynamics.
2. The Rise of "A Literature of Place" and its Impact on Literary Production
The increasing awareness of environmental issues, coupled with a growing interest in local histories and marginalized voices, has fueled the rise of "a literature of place." Authors are increasingly choosing to focus their narratives on specific locations, showcasing the unique character of their surroundings. This trend extends beyond fiction; autobiographies, memoirs, and creative non-fiction are also embracing "a literature of place," offering intimate portraits of particular regions and their inhabitants. This shift has led to a diversification of literary voices, challenging the dominance of universalizing narratives and promoting a more nuanced understanding of diverse cultural landscapes.
3. New Forms of Storytelling and Literary Criticism
"A literature of place" encourages innovative forms of storytelling. We see the rise of ecocriticism, which analyzes the relationship between literature and the environment, and the development of new critical methodologies that consider the geographical context as integral to literary meaning. This approach demands a more interdisciplinary lens, drawing on geography, history, anthropology, and environmental studies to enrich literary analysis. Critics are increasingly examining how place shapes narrative voice, character development, and thematic concerns. The study of "a literature of place" moves beyond simple textual analysis to encompass a wider understanding of the text's socio-cultural and environmental contexts.
4. Implications for the Publishing Industry
The rise of "a literature of place" presents both challenges and opportunities for the publishing industry. Publishers need to adapt their marketing strategies to reflect the growing interest in geographically specific narratives. This requires a deeper understanding of local markets and the potential for niche audiences interested in specific regions or environmental themes. Furthermore, promoting "a literature of place" necessitates creative marketing approaches that highlight the unique geographical and cultural dimensions of each work. Publishers may need to invest in collaborations with local organizations and community groups to build awareness and foster engagement.
5. Challenges and Opportunities:
One of the main challenges lies in the potential for niche marketing. While "a literature of place" offers a rich vein of storytelling, some might argue its localized focus could limit broader appeal. However, this perceived limitation can be overcome through effective marketing strategies that highlight the universal themes that resonate across different geographical contexts. The focus on specific locations also presents an opportunity for publishers to support local authors and promote literary diversity, fostering a more representative and inclusive literary landscape.
6. The Future of "A Literature of Place"
"A Literature of Place" is not a fleeting trend; it's a fundamental shift in literary sensibilities. As environmental awareness continues to grow and marginalized voices demand greater representation, we can anticipate an ongoing surge in this type of writing. The publishing industry must embrace this shift, adapting its approaches to marketing, distribution, and editorial strategies to accommodate the specific needs of authors working within this increasingly important literary framework. The integration of digital technologies, offering new possibilities for interactive storytelling and geographically-targeted marketing, will also play a vital role in shaping the future of "a literature of place."
Conclusion:
The rise of "a literature of place" marks a significant evolution in literary production and criticism. Its emphasis on specific geographical contexts challenges traditional notions of universal narratives, fostering diverse voices and new forms of storytelling. The publishing industry must adapt to this shift, embracing innovative marketing strategies and acknowledging the power of locally-rooted narratives to engage diverse audiences and contribute to a richer, more nuanced literary landscape. The future of literature is deeply intertwined with the places that inspire and shape its creation.
FAQs:
1. What is the difference between setting and "a literature of place"? Setting is merely the location of a story; "a literature of place" integrates the geographical, environmental, and cultural context of that location into the narrative's core.
2. How does "a literature of place" relate to ecocriticism? Ecocriticism is a branch of literary criticism that specifically analyzes the relationship between literature and the environment, often overlapping significantly with "a literature of place."
3. Can non-fiction benefit from "a literature of place"? Absolutely. Memoirs, travel writing, and historical accounts can all be significantly enhanced by employing a "literature of place" approach.
4. How can publishers market books using "a literature of place"? Targeted advertising to local audiences, collaborations with regional organizations, and highlighting the unique geographical features of the narrative are key strategies.
5. What are the potential limitations of "a literature of place"? Some might argue its niche focus could limit broader appeal, but effective marketing can overcome this.
6. Does "a literature of place" only focus on physical geography? No, it also considers social, cultural, and historical contexts intertwined with the physical environment.
7. How does "a literature of place" impact character development? The specific location and its associated cultural and environmental influences directly shape the characters’ identities, motivations, and conflicts.
8. Are there specific writing techniques associated with "a literature of place"? Detailed descriptions of landscapes, use of local dialects, exploration of local history and culture are commonly used techniques.
9. How can writers effectively utilize "a literature of place" in their work? Thorough research into the specific location, immersive experiences in the setting, and a deep understanding of its cultural and historical context are crucial.
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| a literature of place: Literature of Place Melanie Louise Simo, 2005 In Literature of Place Melanie Simo looks beyond crowded malls and boarded-up storefronts on Main Street to our collective memory, finding answers to these questions in stories, novels, memoirs, poetry, essays, diaries, travel writing, and nature writing that range in origin from New England and the Southern Highlands to Hawaii and in subject from little gardens to lost or reinhabited places in cities, mill towns, deserts, and woodlands. In her consideration of selected American works from 1890 to 1970 - years that mark the closing of the Western frontier and later openings in space exploration, environmental protection, genetic engineering, and cyberspace - Simo uncovers a literature of place and the often-surprising relationship of place to our daily lives.--BOOK JACKET. |
| a literature of place: The Role of Place in Literature Leonard Lutwack, 1984-05-01 The Role of Place in Literature is a groundbreaking study exploring the use of metaphors and images of place in literature. Lutwack takes a dynamic view of the relationship between place and the action or thought in a work. Drawing comparisons over a wide range of works, principally American and British literature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, he illustrates how writers have charged different environments with symbolic and psychological meaning. |
| a literature of place: Narratives of Place in Literature and Film Steven Allen, Kirsten Møllegaard, 2018-12-12 Narratives of place link people and geographic location with a cultural imaginary through literature and visual narration. Contemporary literature and film often frame narratives with specific geographic locations, which saturate the narrative with cultural meanings in relation to natural and man-made landscapes. This interdisciplinary collection seeks to interrogate such connections to probe how place is narrativized in literature and film. Utilizing close readings of specific filmic and literary texts, all chapters serve to tease out cultural and historical meanings in respect of human engagement with landscapes. Always mindful of national, cultural and topographical specificity, the book is structured around five core themes: Contested Histories of Place; Environmental Landscapes; Cityscapes; The Social Construction of Place; and Landscapes of Belonging. |
| a literature of place: The New Nature Writing Jos Smith, 2017-05-04 In the last decade, the proliferation and popularity of landscape writing in Britain and Ireland -- often referred to as the new nature writing' -- has unearthed an intricate labyrinth of horizons to contemporary writing about place. The New Nature Writing: Rethinking Place in Contemporary Literature offers the first critical study of the genre. Drawing on original interviews with authors, archival research, and the latest scholarly work in the fields of literary geographies, critical localism and archipelagic criticism, the book covers the work of such writers as Robert MacFarlane, Richard Mabey and Alice Oswald. Examining the ways in which these writers have engaged with a wide range of different environments, from the edgelands to island spaces, Jos Smith reveals how they recreate a resourceful and dynamic sense of localism in rebellion against the homogenising growth of 'clone town Britain.'-- |
| a literature of place: South to A New Place Suzanne W. Jones, Sharon Monteith, 2002-11-01 Taking Albert Murray’s South to a Very Old Place as a starting point, contributors to this exciting collection continue the work of critically and creatively remapping the South through their freewheeling studies of southern literature and culture. Appraising representations of the South within a context that is postmodern, diverse, widely inclusive, and international, the essays present multiple ways of imagining the South and examine both new places and old landscapes in an attempt to tie the mythic southern balloon down to earth. In his foreword, an insightful discussion of numerous Souths and the ways they are perceived, Richard Gray explains one of the key goals of the book: to open up to scrutiny the literary and cultural practice that has come to be known as “regionalism.” Part I, “Surveying the Territory,” theorizes definitions of place and region, and includes an analysis of southern literary regionalism from the 1930s to the present and an exploration of southern popular culture. In “Mapping the Region,” essayists examine different representations of rural landscapes and small towns, cities and suburbs, as well as liminal zones in which new immigrants make their homes. Reflecting the contributors’ transatlantic perspective, “Making Global Connections” challenges notions of southern distinctiveness by reading the region through the comparative frameworks of Southern Italy, East Germany, Latin America, and the United Kingdom and via a range of texts and contexts—from early reconciliation romances to Faulkner’s fictions about race to the more recent parody of southern mythmaking, Alice Randall’s The Wind Done Gone. Together, these essays explore the roles that economic, racial, and ideological tensions have played in the formation of southern identity through varying representations of locality, moving regionalism toward a “new place” in southern studies. |
| a literature of place: Literature, Geography, and the Postmodern Poetics of Place E. Prieto, 2012-12-28 Using contemporary literary representations of place, this study focuses on works that have participated in the emergence of new conceptions of place and new place-based identities. The analyses draw on research in cultural geography, cognitive science, urban sociology, and globalization studies. |
| a literature of place: How to Read Literature Like a Professor 3E Thomas C. Foster, 2024-11-05 Thoroughly revised and expanded for a new generation of readers, this classic guide to enjoying literature to its fullest—a lively, enlightening, and entertaining introduction to a diverse range of writing and literary devices that enrich these works, including symbols, themes, and contexts—teaches you how to make your everyday reading experience richer and more rewarding. While books can be enjoyed for their basic stories, there are often deeper literary meanings beneath the surface. How to Read Literature Like a Professor helps us to discover those hidden truths by looking at literature with the practiced analytical eye—and the literary codes—of a college professor. What does it mean when a protagonist is traveling along a dusty road? When he hands a drink to his companion? When he’s drenched in a sudden rain shower? Thomas C. Foster provides answers to these questions as he explores every aspect of fiction, from major themes to literary models, narrative devices, and form. Offering a broad overview of literature—a world where a road leads to a quest, a shared meal may signify a communion, and rain, whether cleansing or destructive, is never just a shower—he shows us how to make our reading experience more intellectually satisfying and fun. The world, and curricula, have changed. This third edition has been thoroughly revised to reflect those changes, and features new chapters, a new preface and epilogue, as well as fresh teaching points Foster has developed over the past decade. Foster updates the books he discusses to include more diverse, inclusive, and modern works, such as Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give; Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven; Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere; Elizabeth Acevedo’s The Poet X; Helen Oyeyemi's Mr. Fox and Boy, Snow, Bird; Sandra Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street; Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God; Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet; Madeline Miller’s Circe; Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls; and Tahereh Mafi’s A Very Large Expanse of Sea. |
| a literature of place: Space, Place, and Landscape in Ancient Greek Literature and Culture Kate Gilhuly, Nancy Worman, 2014-09-22 This book brings together a collection of original essays that engage with cultural geography and landscape studies to produce new ways of understanding place, space, and landscape in Greek literature from the fifth and fourth centuries BCE. The authors draw on an eclectic collection of contemporary approaches to bring the study of ancient Greek literature into dialogue with the burgeoning discussion of spatial theory in the humanities. The essays in this volume treat a variety of textual spaces, from the intimate to the expansive: the bedroom, ritual space, the law courts, theatrical space, the poetics of the city, and the landscape of war. And yet, all of the contributions are united by an interest in recuperating some of the many ways in which the ancient Greeks in the archaic and classical periods invested places with meaning and in how the representation of place links texts to social practices. |
| a literature of place: Place in Literature Roberto Maria Dainotto, 2000 Since the 1840s, when Victorian England emerged into the modern era and industrial cities became the new cultural centers, regionalist literature has posited itself as an aesthetic alternative to nationalist culture. Yet what differentiates regionalism's claims of authenticity, derived from blood and soil, from those of nationalism? Through close readings and theoretical elaborations, Roberto M. Dainotto reveals the degree to which regionalism mimics nationalism in valorizing ethnic purity. He interprets regionalism not as a genre in the pastoral tradition but as a rhetorical trope, a way of reading in which regionalism figures as the other against a historical process that disrupts the organic wholeness of place. Dainotto traces the genealogy of the idea of place in literature, examining European texts from Victorian England to Fascist Italy. He finds, for example, in Thomas Hardy's The Return of the Native a virtual thesaurus of regionalist commonplaces. Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South mediates between Madame de Stal's privileging of the sophisticated north and Jean-Jacques Rousseau's nostalgia for the naive south. The regionalism of the Sicilian philosopher Giovanni Gentile exhibits a deep longing for the humanities as they define Italy and Western culture. Dainotto concludes with a close look at the rhetoric of Nazism and Fascism, dramatizing the convergence of regionalist aesthetics and nationalist ideology in Italy and Germany between the two World Wars. |
| a literature of place: Arctic Dreams Barry Lopez, 2024-07-23 Winner of the National Book Award This bestselling, groundbreaking exploration of the Far North is a classic of natural history, anthropology, and travel writing. The Arctic is a perilous place. Only a few species of wild animals can survive its harsh climate. In this modern classic, Barry Lopez explores the many-faceted wonders of the Far North: its strangely stunted forests, its mesmerizing aurora borealis, its frozen seas. Musk oxen, polar bears, narwhal, and other exotic beasts of the region come alive through Lopez’s passionate and nuanced observations. And, as he examines the history and culture of its indigenous communities, along with parallel narratives of intrepid, often underprepared and subsequently doomed polar explorers, Lopez drives to the heart of why the austere and formidable Arctic is also a constant source of breathtaking beauty, mystery, and wonder. Written in prose as pure as the land it describes, Arctic Dreams is a timeless mediation on the ability of the landscape to shape our dreams and to haunt our imaginations. |
| a literature of place: Affective Landscapes in Literature, Art and Everyday Life Dr Christine Berberich, Professor Neil Campbell, Professor Robert Hudson, 2015-05-28 Bringing together literary and cultural studies scholars, historians, artists and creative writers, this collection examines the different ways in which human beings respond to, debate and interact with landscape. While the essays most often begin with the broadly literary - the memoir, the travelogue, the novel, poetry - the contributors approach the topic in diverse and innovative ways. Taken together, the essays interrogate important issues about how we live now and might live in the future. |
| a literature of place: Space and Place in Children’s Literature, 1789 to the Present Maria Sachiko Cecire, Hannah Field, Malini Roy, 2016-03-09 Focusing on questions of space and locale in children’s literature, this collection explores how metaphorical and physical space can create landscapes of power, knowledge, and identity in texts from the early nineteenth century to the present. The collection is comprised of four sections that take up the space between children and adults, the representation of 'real world' places, fantasy travel and locales, and the physical space of the children’s book-as-object. In their essays, the contributors analyze works from a range of sources and traditions by authors such as Sylvia Plath, Maria Edgeworth, Gloria Anzaldúa, Jenny Robson, C.S. Lewis, Elizabeth Knox, and Claude Ponti. While maintaining a focus on how location and spatiality aid in defining the child’s relationship to the world, the essays also address themes of borders, displacement, diaspora, exile, fantasy, gender, history, home-leaving and homecoming, hybridity, mapping, and metatextuality. With an epilogue by Philip Pullman in which he discusses his own relationship to image and locale, this collection is also a valuable resource for understanding the work of this celebrated author of children’s literature. |
| a literature of place: Wild Seed Octavia E. Butler, 2023-03-28 In an epic, game-changing, moving and brilliant story of love and hate, two immortals chase each other across continents and centuries, binding their fates together -- and changing the destiny of the human race (Viola Davis). Doro knows no higher authority than himself. An ancient spirit with boundless powers, he possesses humans, killing without remorse as he jumps from body to body to sustain his own life. With a lonely eternity ahead of him, Doro breeds supernaturally gifted humans into empires that obey his every desire. He fears no one -- until he meets Anyanwu. Anyanwu is an entity like Doro and yet different. She can heal with a bite and transform her own body, mending injuries and reversing aging. She uses her powers to cure her neighbors and birth entire tribes, surrounding herself with kindred who both fear and respect her. No one poses a true threat to Anyanwu -- until she meets Doro. The moment Doro meets Anyanwu, he covets her; and from the villages of 17th-century Nigeria to 19th-century United States, their courtship becomes a power struggle that echoes through generations, irrevocably changing what it means to be human. |
| a literature of place: American Indian Literature, Environmental Justice, and Ecocriticism Joni Adamson, 2001 Although much contemporary American Indian literature examines the relationship between humans and the land, most Native authors do not set their work in the pristine wilderness celebrated by mainstream nature writers. Instead, they focus on settings such as reservations, open-pit mines, and contested borderlands. Drawing on her own teaching experience among Native Americans and on lessons learned from such recent scenes of confrontation as Chiapas and Black Mesa, Joni Adamson explores why what counts as nature is often very different for multicultural writers and activist groups than it is for mainstream environmentalists. This powerful book is one of the first to examine the intersections between literature and the environment from the perspective of the oppressions of race, class, gender, and nature, and the first to review American Indian literature from the standpoint of environmental justice and ecocriticism. By examining such texts as Sherman Alexie's short stories and Leslie Marmon Silko's novel Almanac of the Dead, Adamson contends that these works, in addition to being literary, are examples of ecological criticism that expand Euro-American concepts of nature and place. Adamson shows that when we begin exploring the differences that shape diverse cultural and literary representations of nature, we discover the challenge they present to mainstream American culture, environmentalism, and literature. By comparing the work of Native authors such as Simon Ortiz with that of environmental writers such as Edward Abbey, she reveals opportunities for more multicultural conceptions of nature and the environment. More than a work of literary criticism, this is a book about the search to find ways to understand our cultural and historical differences and similarities in order to arrive at a better agreement of what the human role in nature is and should be. It exposes the blind spots in early ecocriticism and shows the possibilities for building common groundÑ a middle placeÑ where writers, scholars, teachers, and environmentalists might come together to work for social and environmental change. |
| a literature of place: Writing the Goodlife Priscilla Solis Ybarra, 2016-05-12 Winner of the Western Literature Association’s 2017 Thomas J. Lyon Book Award in Western American Literary and Cultural Studies Mexican American literature brings a much-needed approach to the increasingly urgent challenges of climate change and environmental injustice. Although current environmental studies work to develop new concepts, Writing the Goodlife looks to long-established traditions of thought that have existed in Mexican American literary history for the past century and a half. During that time period, Mexican American writing consistently shifts the focus from the environmentally destructive settler values of individualism, domination, and excess toward the more beneficial refrains of community, non-possessiveness, and humility. The decolonial approaches found in these writings provide rich examples of mutually respectful relations between humans and nature, an approach that Priscilla Solis Ybarra calls “goodlife” writing. Goodlife writing has existed for at least the past century, Ybarra contends, but Chicana/o literary history’s emphasis on justice and civil rights eclipsed this tradition and hidden it from the general public’s view. Likewise, in ecocriticism, the voices of people of color most often appear in deliberations about environmental justice. The quiet power of goodlife writing certainly challenges injustice, to be sure, but it also brings to light the decolonial environmentalism heretofore obscured in both Chicana/o literary history and environmental literary studies. Ybarra’s book takes on two of today’s most discussed topics—the worsening environmental crisis and the rising Latino population in the United States—and puts them in literary-historical context from the U.S.-Mexico War up to today’s controversial policies regarding climate change, immigration, and ethnic studies. This book uncovers 150 years’ worth of Mexican American and Chicana/o knowledge and practices that inspire hope in the face of some of today’s biggest challenges. |
| a literature of place: The Old Vicarage, Grantchester Rupert Brooke, 1916 |
| a literature of place: Space and Place Yi-fu Tuan, 1977 |
| a literature of place: The Place of Lewis Carroll in Children's Literature Jan Susina, 2013-02-01 In this volume, Jan Susina examines the importance of Lewis Carroll and his popular Alice books to the field of children’s literature. From a study of Carroll’s juvenilia to contemporary multimedia adaptations of Wonderland, Susina shows how the Alice books fit into the tradition of literary fairy tales and continue to influence children’s writers. In addition to examining Carroll’s books for children, these essays also explore his photographs of children, his letters to children, his ill-fated attempt to write for a dual audience of children and adults, and his lasting contributions to publishing. The book addresses the important, but overlooked facet of Carroll’s career as an astute entrepreneur who carefully developed an extensive Alice industry of books and non-book items based on the success of Wonderland, while rigorously defending his reputation as the originator of his distinctive style of children’s stories. |
| a literature of place: Teaching Space, Place, and Literature Robert T. Tally Jr., 2017-10-30 Space, place and mapping have become key concepts in literary and cultural studies. The transformational effects of postcolonialism, globalization, and the rise of ever more advanced information technologies helped to push space and spatiality into the foreground, as traditional spatial or geographic limits are erased or redrawn. Teaching Space, Place and Literature surveys a broad expanse of literary critical, theoretical, historical territories, as it presents both an introduction to teaching spatial literary studies and an essential guide to scholarly research. Divided into sections on key concepts and issues; teaching strategies; urban spaces; place, race and gender and spatiality, periods and genres, this comprehensive book is the ideal way to approach the teaching of space and place in the humanities classroom. |
| a literature of place: By the Book Amanda Sellet, 2020 A teen obsessed with 19th century literature tries to cull advice on life and love from her favorite classic heroines to disastrous results--especially when she falls for the school's resident lothario-- |
| a literature of place: Humanistic Geography and Literature Douglas Charles David Pocock, 1981 |
| a literature of place: How Literature Changes the Way We Think Michael Mack, 2011-12-01 > |
| a literature of place: No Place Todd Strasser, 2014-01-28 When Dan and his family go from middle class to homeless, issues of injustice rise to the forefront in this relatable, timely novel from Todd Strasser that VOYA calls “poignant,” “darkly humorous,” and “exceptionally thought-provoking.” It seems like Dan has it all. He’s a baseball star who is part of the popular crowd and dates the hottest girl in school. Then his family loses their home. Forced to move into the town’s Tent City, Dan feels his world shifting. His friends try to pretend that everything’s cool, but they’re not the ones living among the homeless. As Dan struggles to adjust to his new life, he gets involved with the people who are fighting for better conditions and services for the residents of Tent City. But someone wants Tent City gone, and will stop at nothing until it’s destroyed... |
| a literature of place: No Place for a Puritan Ruth Nolan, 2009 An anthology of literary excerpts inspired by California's fabled deserts includes selections from the writings of local and famous authors including John Steinbeck, Alduous Huxley and Hunter S. Thompson. |
| a literature of place: The Moviegoer Walker Percy, 2011-03-29 In this National Book Award–winning novel from a “brilliantly breathtaking writer,” a young Southerner searches for meaning in the midst of Mardi Gras (The New York Times Book Review). On the cusp of his thirtieth birthday, Binx Bolling is a lost soul. A stockbroker and member of an established New Orleans family, Binx’s one escape is the movie theater that transports him from the falseness of his life. With Mardi Gras in full swing, Binx, along with his cousin Kate, sets out to find his true purpose amid the excesses of the carnival that surrounds him. Buoyant yet powerful, The Moviegoer is a poignant indictment of modern values, and an unforgettable story of a week that will change two lives forever. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Walker Percy including rare photos from the author’s estate. |
| a literature of place: Mixedblood Messages Louis Owens, 2001 In this challenging and often humorous book, Louis Owens examines issues of Indian identity and relationship to the environment as depicted in literature and film and as embodied in his own mixedblood roots in family and land. Powerful social and historical forces, he maintains, conspire to colonize literature and film by and about Native Americans into a safe Indian Territory that will contain and neutralize Indians. Countering this colonial Territory is what Owens defines as Frontier, a dynamic, uncontainable, multi-directional space within which cultures meet and even merge. Owens offers new insights into the works of Indian writers ranging from John Rollin Ridge, Mourning Dove, and D'Arcy McNickle to N. Scott Momaday, Leslie Silko, James Welch, and Gerald Vizenor. In his analysis of Indians in film he scrutinizes distortions of Indians as victims or vanishing Americans in a series of John Wayne movies and in the politically correct but false gestures of the more recent Dances With Wolves. As Owens moves through his personal landscape in Oklahoma, Mississippi, California, and New Mexico, he questions how human beings collectively can alter their disastrous relationship with the natural world before they destroy it. He challenges all of us to articulate, through literature and other means, messages of personal and environmental — as well as cultural—survival, and to explore and share these messages by writing and reading across cultural boundaries. |
| a literature of place: A Place for Everything Anna Wilson, 2020-07-09 ‘Painful, raw and with an honesty that rings clear as a bell’ Catherine Simpson, author of When I Had a Little Sister A searing account of a mother’s late-diagnosis of autism – and its reaching effects on a whole family. |
| a literature of place: Doing a Literature Search Chris Hart, 2001-06-25 Doing a Literature Search provides a practical and comprehensive guide to searching the literature on any topic within the social sciences. The book will enable the reader to search the literature effectively, identifying useful books, articles, statistics and many other sources of information. The text will be an invaluable research tool for postgraduates and researchers across the social sciences. |
| a literature of place: Humanistic Geography and Literature (RLE Social & Cultural Geography) Douglas C. D. Pocock, 2014-01-23 This book introduces the beginning student to the major concepts, materials and tools of the discipline of geography. While it presents geographic theory, as whole and for each of its parts, the chief emphasis is on concrete analysis and example rather than on abstraction, an approach which has proven more successful for undergraduate courses than those with a more heavily theoretical bias. The text was extensively re-written for the third edition, which enhanced its clarity and effectiveness, with expanded cartographic coverage. |
| a literature of place: Unclean Lips Josh Lambert, 2014 Sexual anti-Semitism and pornotopia: Theodore Dreiser, Ludwig Lewisohn, and the Harrad experiment -- The prestige of dirty words and pictures: Horace Liveright, Henry Roth, and the graphic novel -- Otherfuckers and motherfuckers: reproduction and allegory in Philip Roth and Adele Wiseman -- Seductive modesty: censorship vs. Yiddish and Orthodox tsnies -- Conclusion: Dirty Jews and the Christian right: Larry David and FCC v. Fox. |
| a literature of place: Guidebook for Social Work Literature Reviews and Research Questions Rebecca L. Mauldin, Matthew DeCarlo, 2020 Book Description: This open educational resource is currently in development. Please be aware that there might be updates throughout the semester as we continue adding and editing content, testing for accessibility, and incorporating feedback from pilot semester(s). If you need an accessibility accommodation or have questions about the use of this text, please contact OER services at pressbooks@uta.edu.As an introductory textbook for social work students studying research methods, this book guides students through the process of writing a literature review and determining research questions for a research project. Students will learn how to discover a researchable topic that is interesting to them, examine scholarly literature, and write a literature review. This text is currently in the pilot stage Fall 2019 with an anticipated publication date of January 2020. We recommend that you use the Chrome web browser at this time. Please be aware that there might be some cosmetic tweaks throughout the semester as we continue testing for browser support, accessibility, and export types. |
| a literature of place: Small Days and Nights Tishani Doshi, 2019-04-18 Shortlisted for the Ondaatje Prize 2020 'An astonishing novel that is beautifully written but underpinned by a quiet simmering anger about injustice and unrealistic expectations of a family – and of life in contemporary India' Peter Frankopan 'A shattering study of disaffection and belonging ... This is a concise novel of staggering depth ...Disturbing, deep and utterly extraordinary' Bidisha, Observer An Irish Times Book of the Year 2019 Escaping her failing marriage, Grace has returned to Pondicherry to cremate her mother. Once there, she finds herself heir to an unexpected inheritance. First, there is the strange pink house, blue-shuttered, out on a spit of the wild beach, haunted by the rattle of fishermen in their catamarans. And then there is the sister she never knew she had: Lucia, who has spent her life in a residential facility. Soon Grace sets up a new and precarious life in this lush, melancholy wilderness, with Lucia, the village housekeeper Mallika, the drily witty Auntie Kavitha and an ever-multiplying litter of puppies. Here in Paramankeni, with its vacant bus stops colonised by flying foxes, its temples and step-wells shielded by canopies of teak and tamarind, where every dusk the fishermen line the beach smoking and mending their nets, Grace feels that she has come to the very end of the world. But Grace's attempts to play house prove first a struggle, then a strain, as she discovers the chaos, tenderness, fury and bewilderment of life with Lucia. Luminous, funny, surprising and heartbreaking, Small Days and Nights is the story of a woman caught in a moment of transformation, and the sacrifices we make to forge lives that have meaning. |
| a literature of place: Encyclopaedia Britannica Hugh Chisholm, 1910 This eleventh edition was developed during the encyclopaedia's transition from a British to an American publication. Some of its articles were written by the best-known scholars of the time and it is considered to be a landmark encyclopaedia for scholarship and literary style. |
| a literature of place: The Penguin Book of Migration Literature Dohra Ahmad, 2019-09-17 [Ahmad's] introduction is fiery and charismatic... This book encompasses the diversity of experience, with beautiful variations and stories that bicker back and forth. --Parul Sehgal, The New York Times The first global anthology of migration literature featuring works by Mohsin Hamid, Zadie Smith, Marjane Satrapi, Salman Rushdie, and Warsan Shire, with a foreword by Edwidge Danticat, author of Everything Inside A Penguin Classic Every year, three to four million people move to a new country. From war refugees to corporate expats, migrants constantly reshape their places of origin and arrival. This selection of works collected together for the first time brings together the most compelling literary depictions of migration. Organized in four parts (Departures, Arrivals, Generations, and Returns), The Penguin Book of Migration Literature conveys the intricacy of worldwide migration patterns, the diversity of immigrant experiences, and the commonalities among many of those diverse experiences. Ranging widely across the eighteenth through twenty-first centuries, across every continent of the earth, and across multiple literary genres, the anthology gives readers an understanding of our rapidly changing world, through the eyes of those at the center of that change. With thirty carefully selected poems, short stories, and excerpts spanning three hundred years and twenty-five countries, the collection brings together luminaries, emerging writers, and others who have earned a wide following in their home countries but have been less recognized in the Anglophone world. Editor of the volume Dohra Ahmad provides a contextual introduction, notes, and suggestions for further exploration. |
| a literature of place: The Comedy of Survival Joseph W. Meeker, 1997 With imagination and flair, the author also introduces the idea of a play ethic, as opposed to a work ethic, and demonstrates the importance of play as a necessary and desirable component of the comic spirit. The Comedy of Survival is a book for literary critics, environmentalists, human ecologists, philosophers, and anthropologists. General readers, too, will find much to ponder in the author's clear explication of how all of us might become better stewards of this, our home planet Earth. |
| a literature of place: Miss Jane Brad Watson, 2016-11-03 'As unexpectedly beguiling as it is affecting.' Daily Mail Since his award-winning debut collection of stories, Last Days of the Dog-Men, Brad Watson's work has been as melancholy, witty, strange, and lovely as any in America. Inspired by the true story of his own great-aunt, he explores the life of Miss Jane Chisolm, born in rural, early-twentieth-century Mississippi with a genital birth defect that would stand in the way of the central uses for a woman in that time and place - namely, sex and marriage. From the country doctor who adopts Jane to the hard tactile labor of farm life, from the sensual and erotic world of nature around her to the boy who loved but was forced to leave her, the world of Miss Jane Chisolm is anything but barren. Free to satisfy only herself, she mesmerizes those around her, exerting an unearthly fascination that lives beyond her still. |
| a literature of place: Harper's New Monthly Magazine Henry Mills Alden, 1888 Harper's informs a diverse body of readers of cultural, business, political, literary and scientific affairs. |
| a literature of place: Yangzhou, A Place in Literature Roland Altenburger, Margaret B. Wan, Vibeke Børdahl, 2015-01-31 One of the famous canal cities of the world and a former center of culture, trade, transportation, and fashion, the old town of Yangzhou evokes romantic bridges, beautiful courtesans, fine gardens, and eccentric painters. It is also remembered as a war-torn ruin after the Qing conquest and the Taiping Rebellion, and as a city in decline as trade shifted to seaports and railways. Yangzhou, A Place in Literature, the first anthology to center on a Chinese city and its local region, offers a wealth of literary, semi-literary, and oral texts representing social life over three hundred years of dramatic change between the seventeenth and twentieth centuries. The selections in this volume represent a wide range of literary forms and styles, both elite and popular, with subjects ranging from literature, history, theater, and art to the history of architecture and gardening, and of material culture at large. Readers will come across rarely found details of everyday life, the sights, smells, and sounds of the lanes and teahouses, a world of taverns, pilgrimages, communal baths, fish markets, salt merchants, acting troupes, and food in one of the wealthiest cities of imperial China. Each text has an introductory essay and rich textual notes by an expert in the relevant field. The general introduction provides an in-depth discussion of the roles of the local in historical, cultural, literary, and linguistic terms, as mirrored by the wide range of translated sources collected in this volume. The selected texts are historically and intellectually important in their own right, but the volume greatly enhances their collective value by combining them, arranging them in historical sequence, and providing a dense network of cross-references that invite comparisons and reveal contrasts in style, form, focus, and topic. With its compelling accounts of material culture, urban spaces, entertainment, and gender, Yangzhou, A Place in Literature will fascinate scholars and students alike by opening a window to the rich cultural history of Yangzhou. The volume can serve as a textbook for courses on traditional and modern Chinese literature, popular culture, the city, or social history. It will be of great interest to scholars of East Asian studies, as well as to those in a variety of comparative fields, such as urban studies, theater studies, and gender studies. |
| a literature of place: Literature , 1899 |
| a literature of place: DiverCity - Global Cities as a Literary Phenomenon Melanie U. Pooch, 2016-02-29 Based on the structured analysis of selected North American novels, this work examines global cities as a literary phenomenon (»DiverCity«). By analyzing Dionne Brand's Toronto, »What We All Long For« (2005), Chang-rae Lee's New York, »Native Speaker« (1995), and Karen Tei Yamashita's Los Angeles, »Tropic of Orange« (1997), Melanie U. Pooch provides the connecting link for exploring the triad of globalization and its effects, global cities as cultural nodal points, and cultural diversity in a globalizing age as a literary phenomenon. Thus, she contributes to a global, interdisciplinary, and multi-perspectival understanding of literature, culture, and society. |
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The Beat Generation - Literature Periods & Movements
The publication of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl in 1956 marks a turning point in the history of Beat literature, not to mention American literature in general. The long-form poem is intended to be …
George Eliot - Biography and Works. Search Texts, Read Online.
Marian assisted as editor, vetted submissions, and wrote reviews for it. Her keen intellect, years of religious study, knowledge of languages and literature, and work in translations proved …
The Literature Network: Online classic literature, poems, and …
Welcome to The Literature Network! We offer searchable online literature for the student, educator, or enthusiast. To find the work you're looking for start by looking through the author …
Literary Periods, Movements, and History - online literature
Literature History. Henry Augustin Beers was a literature historian and professor at Yale who lived at the turn of the 19th century. He wrote intensely detailed histories of American and English …
Literary Periods & History Timeline - online literature
Here you will find our graphical timeline representing literary periods & movements, as well as major events or authors from literature history. To learn more about specific eras you can …
Modernism - Literature Periods & Movements
Experimentation with genre and form was yet another defining characteristic of Modernist literature. Perhaps the most representative example of this experimental mode is T. S. Eliot’s …
Renaissance Literature - Literature Periods & Movements
Renaissance Literature The Renaissance in Europe was in one sense an awakening from the long slumber of the Dark Ages. What had been a stagnant, even backsliding kind of society re …
Existentialism - Literature Periods & Movements
Contemporary literature adopts, discards, and modifies so many philosophical and aesthetic perspectives that holistic points of view like existentialism gets washed out by all the …
Advanced Search - online literature
Advanced Search. We have two search functions here at The Literature Network. Both functions will only search within one author at a time, to search through all the works of all the authors …
Realism - Literature Periods & Movements
There arose a subgenre of Realism called Social Realism, which in hindsight can be interpreted as Marxist and socialist ideas set forth in literature. Advances in the field of human psychology …
The Beat Generation - Literature Periods & Movements
The publication of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl in 1956 marks a turning point in the history of Beat literature, not to mention American literature in general. The long-form poem is intended to be …
George Eliot - Biography and Works. Search Texts, Read Online.
Marian assisted as editor, vetted submissions, and wrote reviews for it. Her keen intellect, years of religious study, knowledge of languages and literature, and work in translations proved …
