This volume explores practices of secrecy and surveillance in medieval and early modern England. The ten contributions by Swiss and international scholars (including Paul Strohm, Sylvia Tomasch, Karma Lochrie, and Richard Wilson) address in particular the intersections of secrecy and surveillance with gender and identity, public and private spheres, religious practices, and power structures. Covering a wide range of English literary texts from Old English riddles to medieval romances, the Book of Margery Kempe, and the plays and poems of Shakespeare, these essays seek to contribute to our understanding of the practices of secrecy, exclusion, and disclosure as well as to the much-needed historicisation of Surveillance Studies called for in the opening article by Sylvia Tomasch. ---

Approaching collocations from a usage-based perspective, this study investigates how the development of collocational proficiency in first and second language attainment could be explained. Against the background of recent approaches in cognitive linguistics such as construction grammar and Complex Adaptive Systems it argues that collocations should not be regarded as idiosyncratic phraseological items, which, depending on their degree of fixedness and semantic opaqueness, can be classified along a gradient of idiomaticity. Thus, this study regards collocations as dynamic linguistic phenomena, which could be seen as subject to constant change rather than more or less static combinations with an additional level of syntagmatic and paradigmatic restrictions. Furthermore it explores how creative changes and alternations of collocations can be used to learn more about a speakers cognitive processing of these phraseological phenomena and how this process might be influenced by language external factors such as age, education or context.

The aim of this book is to investigate the delicate relationship between female sanctity and madness, in a time-frame extending from medieval until contemporary times. Constellated by visions, ecstatic raptures, morbid rituals, stigmata and obsessions, the complex phenomenology of female mysticism appears in fact to be articulated and polymorphous, traversed by 'representations' that it seems possible to link to the wide spectrum of mental disorders, as well to the hagiographic stereotypes and anthropological implications. Male and female scholars from different disciplines (from history to philology, from anthropology to art history, from theology to literary criticism, from psychiatry to psychoanalysis) try to outline a thematic and problematic itinerary, intended to examine, step by step, potential pathological aspects and contexts of reference for the purpose of attempting to reconstruct the complex evolutionary trajectory of female mystical language.

Serial storytelling has the advantage of unlocking rather than simplifying the complexities of digital culture. With their worldbuilding potential, TV series open up new artistic horizons, particularly for the dystopian genre. Situated at the nexus of dystopia, complex TV, and a metamodern cultural logic, Dystopia on Demand: Technology, Digital Culture, and the Metamodern Quest in Complex Serial Dystopias offers readers novel insights into the dynamics of serial dystopias in the contemporary streaming landscape. Introducing the term 'complex serial dystopias' to describe series that allow audiences to engage with the dystopian premise from multiple angles, the book examines four Anglo-American series, including Black Mirror, Mr. Robot, Westworld, and Kiss Me First. The in-depth analyses trace the variety of ways in which these series offer critical reflections on the human-technology entanglement in digital culture.

This book introduces readers to the genre of comedy, both on the stage and on the screen. It chronicles the history of comedy, starting with Ancient Greece, before summarising key chapters in Anglophone literary history, such as Shakespearean comedy, Restoration comedy, and Theatre of the Absurd. The book features an overview of key comic techniques (including slapstick, puns, and wit), as well as concise summaries of major theoretical debates (including the superiority theory and the Freudian account of laughter). The book works with many examples from the history of Anglophone comedy, including Oscar Wilde, Monty Python, and classic sitcoms. It addresses current research into cringe humour and the controversial topic of diversity in the field of comedy, and it connects classical tropes of comedy (like the fool or the marriage plot) to present-day examples. The book thus serves as an up-to-date study guide for everyone interested in comedy and its various subgenres.

Die Beiträge dieses Bandes gehen auf eine internationale Tagung zurück, die 2017 in Manchester stattgefunden hat. Sie untersuchen die Darstellung von Geschichte in der mittelalterlichen deutschen Literatur auf der Basis von aktuellen erzähltheoretischen Forschungsansätzen. Dabei wird ein breites Spektrum an Texten, Gattungen und Diskursen in den Blick genommen; als Angelpunkt für zahlreiche relevante Fragestellungen erweist sich die im 12. Jahrhundert entstandene ›Kaiserchronik‹. Geleitet von der Erkenntnis, dass Vergangenheit erst im Erzählen zu Geschichte wird, analysieren die Beiträge einschlägige narrative Strategien.

Today, virtually all BA programs in English at German universities place a strong focus on Cultural Studies. However, textbooks that introduce first-year students to the subject are rare, and the few existing ones are too complicated or not comprehensive enough. By contrast, this textbook introduces the key theories and concepts of Cultural Studies systematically and thoroughly. It puts particular emphasis on their application, aiming to enable students to do their own analyses of cultural artefacts and practices. The author draws on many examples, mostly taken from American culture, but in each chapter, he applies the ideas introduced to The Hunger Games franchise and the coronavirus pandemic to show how different theories can lead to very different interpretations of the same phenomenon. Each chapter ends with exercises that allow students to apply what they have learned.

This collection of essays examines the contribution of British plays to key social, political, and intellectual debates since 2000. It explores some of the most pressing concerns that have dominated the public discourse in Britain in the last decade, focusing on their representation in dramatic texts. Each essay provides an in-depth analysis of one play, assessing its particular contribution to the debate in question. The book aims to show how contemporary drama has developed unique ways to present the complexities and ambiguities of certain issues with aesthetic as well as emotional appeal.

This book presents a detailed textual analysis of Calvin's Interpretation of the Lord's Prayer, from the last version of the Institution de la religion chrétienne (1560), Chapter XX. The author also compares the French Reformer with some of the most important theologians from Augustine to Luther.

Über die Epochen hinweg haben sich literarische Werke und Genres explizit oder implizit mit dem Kapitalismus auseinandergesetzt. Doch gerade die vergangenen Jahrzehnte, in welchen der Kapitalismus nach Mark Fisher zum ausweglosen Vorstellungshorizont avanciert ist, zeugen von einer vermehrten Infragestellung des Kapitalismus in der literarischen Produktion sowie der Literaturwissenschaft. Vor diesem Hintergrund vereint der interdisziplinäre Sammelband Beiträge aus der Germanistik, Romanistik, Amerikanistik und Anglistik, die den Blick auf verschiedene zeitgenössische Manifestationen des globalen Kapitalismus und deren literarische oder filmische Repräsentationen richten.