Taboo and Transgression in British Literature from the Renaissance to the Present develops an innovative overview of the interdisciplinary theoretical approaches to the topic that have emerged in recent years. Alongside exemplary model analyses of key periods and representative primary texts, this exciting new anthology of critical essays has been specifically designed to fill a major gap in the field of literary and cultural studies. This book traces the complex dynamic and ongoing negotiation of notions of transgression and taboo as an essential, though often neglected, facet to understanding the development, production, and conception of literature from the early modern Elizabethan period through postmodern debates. The combination of a broad theoretical and historical framework covering almost fifty representative authors and uvres makes this essential reading for students and specialists alike in the fields of literary studies and cultural studies.

Fear in its many facets appears to constitute an intriguing and compelling subject matter for writers and screenwriters alike. The contributions address fictional representations and explorations of fear in different genres and different periods of literary and cultural history. The topics include representations of political violence and political fear in English Renaissance culture and literature; dramatic representations of fear and anxiety in English Romanticism; the dramatic monologue as an expression of fears in Victorian society; cultural constructions of fear and empathy in George Eliot's Daniel Deronda (1876) and Jonathan Nasaw's Fear Itself (2003); facets of children's fears in twentieth- and twenty-first-century stream-of-consciousness fiction; the representation of fear in war movies; the cultural function of horror film remakes; the expulsion of fear in Kazuo Ishiguro's novel Never Let Me Go and fear and nostalgia in Mohsin Hamid's post-9/11 novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist.

An in-depth analysis into the construction of male identity as well as a unique and comprehensive historical overview of how masculinity has been constructed in British literature from the Middle Ages to the present. This book is an important contribution to the emerging field of masculinity studies.

This edited volume provides innovative insights into how critical language pedagogy and taboo topics can inform and transform the teaching and learning of foreign languages. The book investigates the potential as well as the challenges involved in dealing with taboo topics in the foreign language classroom. Traditionally subsumed under the acronym PARSNIP (politics, alcohol, religion, narcotics, isms, and pork). By examining how additional controversial topics such as disability, racism, conspiracy theories and taboo language can be integrated into conceptual teaching frameworks and teaching practice, this edited volume draws on examples from literary texts and pop culture such as young adult novels, music videos, or rap songs and investigates their potential for developing critical literacies. The book considers foreign language teaching outside of English teaching contexts and sets the groundwork for addressing the integration of taboo topics in foreign language education theory, research, and practice. Filling an important gap in educational research, the book will be of great interest to researchers, academics, and students of foreign language education, critical pedagogy, and applied linguistics. It will also be useful reading for teacher trainers and educators of foreign language education. Chapter 1 of this book is available for free in PDF format as Open Access from the individual product page at www.taylorfrancis.com. It has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Funded by the University of Bamberg.

This book takes both transgender and intersex positions into account and asks about commonalities and strategic alliances in terms of knowledge, theory, philosophy, art, and life experience. It strikes a balance between works on literature, film, photography, sports, law, and general theory, bringing together humanistic and social science approaches. Horlacher adopts a non-hierarchical perspective and asks how transgender and intersex issues are conceptualized from a variety of different viewpoints and to what extent artistic and creative discourses offer their own uniquely relevant forms of knowledge and expression.

This book is about ways to understand masculinity as systemic and corporeal, structural and performative all at once. It argues that the tension between an understanding of “masculinity” in the singular and “masculinities” in the plural poses a problem that can better be understood in relation to a concomitant tension: between systems on the one hand, and bodies on the other - between abstract structures such as patriarchy, kinship or even language, and the various concrete forms taken by gendered, individuated corporeality. The contributions collected here investigate how masculinities become apparent, how they take shape and what systemic functions they have. What, they ask, are the relations between the abstract and corporeal, metaphorical and metonymic manifestations of masculinity? How are we to understand masculinity as a simultaneously systemic and corporeal, performative concept?

Unruly Speech explores how Uyghurs in China and in the diaspora transgress sociopolitical limits with "unruly" communication practices in a quest for change. Drawing on research in China, the United States, and Germany, Saskia Witteborn situates her study against the backdrop of displacement and shows how naming practices and witness accounts become potent ways of resistance in everyday interactions and in global activism. Featuring the voices of Uyghurs from three continents, Unruly Speech analyzes the discursive and material force of place names, social media, surveillance, and the link between witnessing and the discourse on human rights. The book provides a granular view of disruptive communication: its global political moorings and socio-technical control. The rich ethnographic study will appeal to audiences interested in migration and displacement, language and social interaction, advocacy, digital surveillance, and a transnational China.

Depictions of the zombie apocalypse continue to reshape our concept of the walking dead (and of ourselves). The undead mirror cultural fears--governmental control, lawlessness, even interpersonal relationships--exposing our weaknesses and demanding a response (or safeguard), even as we imagine ever more horrifying versions of post-apocalyptic life. This critical study traces a shift in narrative focus in portrayals of the zombie apocalypse, as the living move from surviving hypothetical destruction toward reintegration and learning to live with the undead.

Exploring literary fascination as a key concept of aesthetic attraction, this book illuminates the ways in which literary texts are designed, presented, and received. Detailed case studies include texts by William Shakespeare, S.T. Coleridge, Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, Oscar Wilde, Joseph Conrad, Don DeLillo, and Ian McEwan.

Shows how contemporary adaptations, on the stage and on the page, can breathe new life into Greek tragedy.