This groundbreaking new source of international scope defines the essay as nonfictional prose texts of between one and 50 pages in length. The more than 500 entries by 275 contributors include entries on nationalities, various categories of essays such as generic (such as sermons, aphorisms), individual major works, notable writers, and periodicals that created a market for essays, and particularly famous or significant essays. The preface details the historical development of the essay, and the alphabetically arranged entries usually include biographical sketch, nationality, era, selected writings list, additional readings, and anthologies

Manifestoes and public spheres: probing modernity -- Manifestoes and revolutionary discourse: women in the cross fire -- Militant allies, strange bedfellows: suffragettes and vorticists before the war -- Modernists and gatekeeping manifestoes: Pound, Loy and modern sanctions -- A second-wave problematic: how to be a radical.

This work is a comparative study of nineteenth-century English-Canadian and French Canadian novel prefaces, a previously unexplored literary topic. As a study in Comparative Literature - with the application of a specific literary framework and methodology - the study conforms to theoretical and methodological postulates formulated in and prescribed by this framework when applied. This a priori postulate necessitates that the research on and the presentation of the Canadian novel preface be carried out in a specific manner, as follows. First, the study will establish the hypothesis that the preface to nineteenth-century English-Canadian and French-Canadian novels is a genre in its own right. This hypothesis will rest on the following: 1) a taxonomical survey of related terms meaning "preface"; 2) a survey of secondary Iiterature of works dealing with the preface; 3) a discussion of the theoretical framework and methodology of the Empirical Theory of Literature and its appropriateness for the study of the preface; and 4) a discussion of the process of the compilation of the corpus of nineteenth-century Canadian novel prefaces (Chapter one). In a second step, the theoretical postulate outlined in the hypothesis will be put into practice by the development and production of a preface typology (Chapter two). In a third step, further tenets of the Empirical Theory of Literature will be tested on the corpus of the prefaces (Chapter three). In a fourth step, the prefaces will be analysed following the tenets formulated in and prescribed by the systemic framework applied (Chapter four).

This book starts from the premise that emigration is a crucial concept for the understanding of recent development in criticism and literature. For only when the contribution of non-indigenous ethnicities is taken into account such other key phenomena as globalisation and multiculturalism or -- in some parts of the world -- colonialism or post-colonialism appear in full. The essays in this collection trace the presence of an Italian heritage in the literature of the United States, Canada, Australia, Germany, and ponder the consequences. While some articles describe the texts or review the history of the literature produced by authors of Italian origin, others address the theoretical implications or situate the discussion about authors and their works within the current critical debate. The result is a volume at once informative and intellectually challenging.

The Oxford Handbook of Canadian Literature provides a broad-ranging introduction to some of the key critical fields, genres, and periods in Canadian literary studies. The essays in this volume, written by prominent theorists in the field, reflect the plurality of critical perspectives, regional and historical specializations, and theoretical positions that constitute the field of Canadian literary criticism across a range of genres and historical periods. The volume provides a dynamic introduction to current areas of critical interest, including (1) attention to the links between the literary and the public sphere, encompassing such topics as neoliberalism, trauma and memory, citizenship, material culture, literary prizes, disability studies, literature and history, digital cultures, globalization studies, and environmentalism or ecocriticism; (2) interest in Indigenous literatures and settler-Indigenous relations; (3) attention to multiple diasporic and postcolonial contexts within Canada; (4) interest in the institutionalization of Canadian literature as a discipline; (5) a turn towards book history and literary history, with a renewed interest in early Canadian literature; (6) a growing interest in articulating the affective character of the "literary" - including an interest in affect theory, mourning, melancholy, haunting, memory, and autobiography. The book represents a diverse array of interests -- from the revival of early Canadian writing, to the continued interest in Indigenous, regional, and diasporic traditions, to more recent discussions of globalization, market forces, and neoliberalism. It includes a distinct section dedicated to Indigenous literatures and traditions, as well as a section that reflects on the discipline of Canadian literature as a whole.

Willmott (English, Queen's U., Canada) has undertaken a study of modern English-language Canadian novels, breaking them down into unifying components to allow their consideration as a distinct literary genre. Among the authors whose novels are discussed are Bertram Brooker, Sinclair Ross, Frederick Philip Grove, Martha Ostenso, Ethel Wilson, Thomas Raddall, Ernest Buckler, and Alice Jones. Themes include the nation as youth, post-colonialism, post- modernism, imperialist ideology, and economic class distinctions. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The first multi-disciplinary collection of essays to focus exclusively on early Canadian literature with the aim of reassessing the field and proposing new approaches.