Time and the Moment in Victorian Literature and Society

Time and the Moment in Victorian Literature and Society

Sudden changes, opportunities or revelations have always carried a special significance in western culture, from the Greek and later the Christian kairos to Evangelical experiences of conversion. This fascinating book explores the ways in which England, under the influence of industrializing forces and increased precision in assessing the passing of time, attached importance to moments and events that compress great significance into small units of time. Sue Zemka questions the importance that modernity invests in momentary events, from religion to aesthetics and philosophy. She argues for a strain in Victorian and early modern novels critical of the values the age invested in moments of time, and suggests that such novels also offer a correction to contemporary culture and criticism, with its emphasis on the momentary event as an agency of change.

Time and the Moment in Victorian Literature and Society

Criticism and Truth

Criticism and Truth

Roland Barthes (1915-1980) was a major French writer, literary theorist and critic of French culture and society. His classic works include Mythologies and Camera Lucida.

Criticism and Truth

Culture Jamming

Culture Jamming

In this pioneering work of social criticism, Kalle Lasn, the publisher of Adbusters magazine, lays the foundation for the most significant social movement of the next 20 years. Culture jammers are a global network of media activists waging a protracted war against the mass media and against the consumerism that is overtaking America and the world. In Culture Jam, Lasn assesses the current situation, discusses whether spontaneity and individuality can be restored, explores, possibilities for renewal, and offers a glimpse of what could happen if citizens band together to fight.

Culture Jamming

The Post-Historical Middle Ages

The Post-Historical Middle Ages

This collection of original essays repositions medieval literary studies after an era of historicism. Analyzing the legacy of Marxist and materialist theory on medieval literary criticism, the collection offers new ways of reading texts historically. Drawing upon aesthetic, ethical, and cultural vantage points and methods, these essays demonstrate that a variety of approaches and theories are ‘historical’ and can change what it means to historicize medieval literature. By defining our post-historical moment in medieval English literary studies in terms of new possibilities, this collection will have broad appeal to those interested in the English Middle Ages, history, culture, and reading itself.

The Post-Historical Middle Ages