The Oxford Guide to Contemporary Writing
Published on 29. August 1996
Book
Hardback
504 pages
978-0-19-818262-7 (ISBN)
Description
Keeping track of contemporary writing is by its nature difficult. What are the recent developments in Chinese or Israeli fiction? What has happened to poetry in Russia since the fall of Communism? Are we even up to date with the best novels or plays of English-speaking countries round the world?
Every year, so much is published which we feel we should know about, that there's a strong need for a volume to evaluate it and put us on the track of what is most worth reading. This new Guide - the only work of its kind to cover world literature of the last thirty years - does just that: in twenty-eight lively and trenchant chapters it assesses the most important and interesting literary developments in all five continents.
Taking 1960 as its starting-point, and coming right up to date, the book explores the recent writing of cultures as various as Australian and Spanish-American, French, Japanese, and Czech, Indian and New Zealand - and of course American, English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh. Each chapter discusses the literary and cultural contexts for authorship in its particular area, throwing light on a great number of significant writers - including household names such as Mishima, Toni Morrison, Derek Walcott, Patrick White, and Guenter Grass, but setting alongside them many others who may be less familiar but whose work is often just as well worth reading. Combining hard information with intelligent opinion, the Guide offers a discriminating - and sometimes controversial - view of a broad range of contemporary literatures.
Anyone interested in the state of world literature today will find the Oxford Guide to Contemporary Writing a fascinating and essential reference book.
Contributors...
African Countries (Jeremy Harding); Arab Countries (Robert Irwin); Australia (Peter Craven); Brazil (John Gledson); Canada (Sandra Djwa); China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong (Alison Bailey); Czech Republic and Slovakia (Igor Hajek); England (James Wood); France (John Taylor); German-speaking countries (Rhys Williams); Greece (Peter Mackridge); Hungary (Richard Aczel); India (Richard Cronin); Ireland (Patricia Craig); Israel (Bryan Cheyette); Italy (Peter Hainsworth); Japan (Mark Morris); New Zealand (Iain Sharp); Poland (George Hyde with Wieslaw Powaga); Portugal (Maria Guterres); Russia (Robert Porter); Scandinavia (Janet Garton); Scotland (Kasia Boddy); Spain (Abigail Lee Six); Spanish America (Michael Wood); United States (Wendy Lesser); Wales (Ned Thomas); West Indies (Al Creighton)
Every year, so much is published which we feel we should know about, that there's a strong need for a volume to evaluate it and put us on the track of what is most worth reading. This new Guide - the only work of its kind to cover world literature of the last thirty years - does just that: in twenty-eight lively and trenchant chapters it assesses the most important and interesting literary developments in all five continents.
Taking 1960 as its starting-point, and coming right up to date, the book explores the recent writing of cultures as various as Australian and Spanish-American, French, Japanese, and Czech, Indian and New Zealand - and of course American, English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh. Each chapter discusses the literary and cultural contexts for authorship in its particular area, throwing light on a great number of significant writers - including household names such as Mishima, Toni Morrison, Derek Walcott, Patrick White, and Guenter Grass, but setting alongside them many others who may be less familiar but whose work is often just as well worth reading. Combining hard information with intelligent opinion, the Guide offers a discriminating - and sometimes controversial - view of a broad range of contemporary literatures.
Anyone interested in the state of world literature today will find the Oxford Guide to Contemporary Writing a fascinating and essential reference book.
Contributors...
African Countries (Jeremy Harding); Arab Countries (Robert Irwin); Australia (Peter Craven); Brazil (John Gledson); Canada (Sandra Djwa); China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong (Alison Bailey); Czech Republic and Slovakia (Igor Hajek); England (James Wood); France (John Taylor); German-speaking countries (Rhys Williams); Greece (Peter Mackridge); Hungary (Richard Aczel); India (Richard Cronin); Ireland (Patricia Craig); Israel (Bryan Cheyette); Italy (Peter Hainsworth); Japan (Mark Morris); New Zealand (Iain Sharp); Poland (George Hyde with Wieslaw Powaga); Portugal (Maria Guterres); Russia (Robert Porter); Scandinavia (Janet Garton); Scotland (Kasia Boddy); Spain (Abigail Lee Six); Spanish America (Michael Wood); United States (Wendy Lesser); Wales (Ned Thomas); West Indies (Al Creighton)
Reviews / Votes
the clarity with which the national is distinguished from the international is one of the striking successes of the Guide * Times Literary Supplement * I hope that the delegates of OUP will encourage John Sturrock to keep his guide up to date, in several subsequent editions. There is nothing quite like it. * Robert McCrum, The Observer * we ... have to be grateful to Oxford University Press and John Sturrock for allowing us to evaluate Scottish writing in the context of world literature in this indispensable guide * Lorn Macintyre, Glasgow Herald * A mammoth-seeming task but ... well done ... the project has a general air of thoughtfulness, and now and then permits small bursts of critical discrimination. * Ian Hamilton, The Sunday Telegraph * This is a guide of enormous scope, covering the contemporary writing of most of the globe since the 1960s ... sharply informative and crisply written. It is most stimulating and informative. Its greatest virtue is that it makes us lift our heads above our own parochialism. * Joan Bridgman, Contemporary Review * performs a useful, difficult task with aplomb * John Rylke, The Guardian * a guide of enormous scope, covering the contemporary writing of most of the globe since the 1960s ... sharply informative and crisply written ... The discussions of national literatures are frequently penetrating and provocative. It is most stimulating and informative. Its greatest virtue is that it makes us lift our heads above our own parochialism. * Joan Bridgman, Contemporary Review, Vol. 269, No. 1570, Nov '96 *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 31 mm
Weight
916 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-818262-7 (9780198182627)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
John Sturrock is Consulting Editor of The London Review of Books, and former Deputy Editor of The Times Literary Supplement. He is the author of The French New Novel (OUP 1969); Paper Tigers: The Ideal Fictions of Jorge Luis Borges (OUP l977); and the editor of Structuralism and Since (OUP l980).
Content
Editor's Introduction ; 1. African Countries ; 2. Arab Countries ; 3. Australia ; 4. Brazil ; 5. Canada ; 6. China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong ; 7. Czech Republic and Slovakia ; 8. England ; 9. France ; 10. German-Speaking Countries ; 11. Greece ; 12. Hungary ; 13. India ; 14. Ireland ; 15. Israel ; 16. Italy ; 17. Japan ; 18. New Zealand ; 19. Poland ; 21. Russia ; 22. Scandinavia ; 23. Scotland ; 24. Spain: Abigail Lee Six ; 25. Spanish America ; 26. United States ; 27. Wales ; 28. West Indies ; Index