The Second World War marked an ethical turn in British fiction. The author of this study demonstrates this by closely examining John Fowles's and Iris Murdoch's works as post-war meta-textual magical-realist novels interested in ethics and the nature of contemporary reality. These ethical novels transcend mere morality to explore the essence of the Good. Through paradigms of human experience, they direct our attention towards the Other and impart moral principles based on acts of Goodness. The author assesses the moral intimations in Fowles's The Magus and Murdoch's The Sea, the Sea in the context of their philosophical writings, mainly The Aristos and Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals respectively. She shows that Fowles and Murdoch endeavour to instruct the reader morally through the accessible language of fiction.

More than a decade after his death in 2005, this collection of essays celebrates the memory of John Fowles, one of the champions of early postmodernist literature in England. As the first publication of the German John Fowles Society, founded in 2015, the book brings together a collector, a translator and a handful of scholars who pay tribute to one of the most important voices in English fiction after World War II. Their contributions, which address The Magus, The French Lieutenant's Woman, The Ebony Tower, Daniel Martin and the unpublished Tesserae, bear testimony to Fowles's lasting fascination. Mehr als ein Jahrzehnt nach seinem Tod im Jahr 2005 erfährt die Erinnerung an John Fowles, einen der wenigen frühen englischen Vertreter einer postmodernistischen Poetik, durch diese Aufsatzsammlung neue Impulse. Die Beiträge in diesem Band, der ersten Veröffentlichung der 2015 gegründeten Deutschen John-Fowles-Gesellschaft, behandeln einige seiner wichtigsten Texte ( Der Magus, Die Geliebte des französischen Leutnants, Der Ebenholzturm, Daniel Martin sowie die unveröffentlichten Mosaiksteine) aus der Perspektive eines Sammlers, eines Übersetzers und einer Handvoll Literaturwissenschaftler und zollen der andauernden Faszination seiner Texte Tribut.

A journal of Irish studies.

This book links world-literary studies with anthropology and ethnography. It shows how ethnographic narratives can represent a compelling point of departure for world-literary explorations. The volume compares the travel writing and fiction of Robert Louis Stevenson and Rudyard Kipling as colonial ethnographic narratives; the militant writings of Carlo Levi and Mahasweta Devi; and the travelogues and ethnographic fiction of Amitav Ghosh and the literary journalism of Frank Westerman. Each of these readings focuses on a set of social, political and historical circumstances and relies on a dialogue with anthropological theory and history. This book demonstrates how imperialism, colonialism, capitalism and ecology are interdependent, and contributes to methodological debates within both anthropology and world-literary studies.

Drawn from extensive, new and rich empirical research across the UK, Canada and USA, Queer Spiritual Spaces investigates the contemporary socio-cultural practices of belief, by those who have historically been, and continue to be, excluded or derided by mainstream religions and alternative spiritualities. As the first monograph to be directly informed by 'queer' subjectivities whilst dealing with divergent spiritualities on an international scale, this book explores the recently emerging innovative spaces and integrative practices of queer spiritualities. Its breadth of coverage and keen critical engagement mean it will serve as a theoretically fertile, comprehensive entry point for any scholar wishing to explore the queer spiritual spaces of the twenty-first century.

Sciences of Modernism charts the numerous collaborations and competitions occurring between early modernist literature and early twentieth-century science.

Scholars of politics have sought in recent years to make the discipline more hospitable to qualitative methods of research. Lauding the results of this effort and highlighting its potential for the future, Political Ethnography makes a compelling case for one such method in particular. Ethnography, the contributors amply demonstrate in a wide range of original essays, is uniquely suited for illuminating the study of politics. Situating these pieces within the context of developments in political science, Edward Schatz provides an overarching introduction and substantive prefaces to each of the volume’s four sections. The first of these parts addresses the central ontological and epistemological issues raised by ethnographic work, while the second grapples with the reality that all research is conducted from a first-person perspective. The third section goes on to explore how ethnographic research can provide fresh perspectives on such perennial topics as opinion, causality, and power. Concluding that political ethnography can and should play a central role in the field as a whole, the final chapters illuminate the many ways in which ethnographic approaches can enhance, improve, and, in some areas, transform the study of politics.

There has been substantial church growth in Britain between 1980 and 2010. This is the controversial conclusion from the international team of scholars, who have drawn on interdisciplinary studies and the latest research from across the UK. Such church growth is seen to be on a large scale, is multi-ethnic and can be found across a wide range of social and geographical contexts. It is happening inside mainline denominations but especially in specific regions such as London, in newer churches and amongst ethnic minorities. Church Growth in Britain provides a forceful critique of the notion of secularisation which dominates much of academia and the media - and which conditions the thinking of many churches and church leaders. This book demonstrates that, whilst decline is happening in some parts of the church, this needs to be balanced by recognition of the vitality of large swathes of the Christian church in Britain. Rebalancing the debate in this way requires wholesale change in our understanding of contemporary British Christianity.

From Antiquity to Ethnography: Keith Thomas, Brian Harrison and Peter Burke is the first time a collection of these interviews is being published as a book. They have been conducted by one of England’s leading social anthropologists and historians, Professor Alan Macfarlane. Filmed over a period of several years, the three conversations in this volume are part of the series Creative Lives and Works. These transcriptions form a part a larger set of interviews that cut across various disciplines, from the social sciences and the sciences to the performing and visual arts. The current volume is on three of Britain’s foremost social and cultural historians. The study of historical traditions, social mores and practices come alive in these conversations. We also learn about the painstaking nature of notetaking which the subject demands. The three conversations in this volume reflect how interconnected the disciplines of history and anthropology/ethnography are. Keith Thomas brings in his vast knowledge of historical sources combined with rich ethnography. Brian Harrison candidly describes his childhood trauma and his meticulous system of card indexing with equal ease. Peter Burke paints his canvas by combining linguist prowess with the interdisciplinary aspects of history and anthropology. The book will be of enormous value not just to those interested in the subject of History, Culture Studies and Ethnography but also to those with an avid interest in Comparative Studies and Literature. Please note: This title is co-published with Social Science Press, New Delhi. Taylor & Francis does not sell or distribute the Hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.