A revised Methuen Student Edition of the classic set text A Doll s House (1879), this is a masterpiece of theatrical craft that for the first time portrayed the tragic hypocrisy of Victorian middle-class marriage on stage. The play ushered in a new social era and exploded like a bomb into contemporary life.

To Be And Not to Be is a study of the interrelated concepts interpretation, iconicity and fiction as applied to works of art in general and literary narratives in particular. Two perspectives run through the book: a semiotic one, focusing on the work of art and what it stands for - represents, expresses, alludes to, etc. - and a psychological one, focusing on the audience's interpretation of the work. The book establishes an ongoing dialogue with recent research within analytic aesthetics, narratology and other relevant fields. In particular, the philosopher Nelson Goodman's theory of symbols has proved to be fruitful in the development of new and original concept formations with respect to interpretation, iconicity and fictionality. In the first part some fundamental questions of literary theory are focused on, foremost what is meant by «intentional interpretation», the relation between literary interpretation and understanding of everyday spontaneous discourse as analyzed by Paul Grice, and how to locate aesthetic interpretation within the wider scope of interpretive practices. These discussions yield some conceptual tools deployed in the two following parts of the book. The second part opens with a suggestion on the concept of pictorial representation. This is generalized to apply to verbal and literary phenomena such as temporal matching, quotation, and uses of point of view in narratives. In the final part recent philosophical accounts of fictionality are discussed.

Elaine Baruch is not only among the most quiet-voiced and fair-minded of feminist writers. She is also among the most far-ranging in her scholarship, equally at ease with the writers of the Renaissance and Freud, the medieval troubadours, and our contemporary polemicists. . . instructive, absorbing, and persuasive. --Diana Trilling A lively mind is at work here and a keen and witty writer too. --Irving HoweThis is a fine collection of essays. . . making many imaginative conjectures and amusing connections. --Times Literary SupplementIn these essays what emerges is a history of romantic love. . . Highly recommended.--Library Journal Arguing that romantic love need not be a tool of women's oppression, feminist critic Baruch. . . contends that unacknowledged male fantasies about love motivate much literature by men. . . rewarding, provocative.--Publishers Weekly Utilizing both Freudian and non-Freudian psychoanalysis as well as feminist criticism, Baruch examines literary works by women and men from medieval and Romantic periods as well as cultural observations on the twentieth century and how they have influenced attitudes toward love.

This collection of forty new essays, written by the leading scholars in adaptation studies and distinguished contributors from outside the field, is the most comprehensive volume on adaptation ever published. Written to appeal alike to specialists in adaptation, scholars in allied fields, and general readers, it hearkens back to the foundations of adaptation studies a century and more ago, surveys its ferment of activity over the past twenty years, and looks forward to the future. It considers the very different problems in adapting the classics, from the Bible to Frankenstein to Philip Roth, and the commons, from online mashups and remixes to adult movies. It surveys a dizzying range of adaptations around the world, from Latin American telenovelas to Czech cinema, from Hong Kong comics to Classics Illustrated, from Bollywood to zombies, and explores the ways media as different as radio, opera, popular song, and videogames have handled adaptation. Going still further, it examines the relations between adaptation and such intertextual practices as translation, illustration, prequels, sequels, remakes, intermediality, and transmediality. The volume's contributors consider the similarities and differences between adaptation and history, adaptation and performance, adaptation and revision, and textual and biological adaptation, casting an appreciative but critical eye on the theory and practice of adaptation scholars--and, occasionally, each other. The Oxford Handbook of Adaptation Studies offers specific suggestions for how to read, teach, create, and write about adaptations in order to prepare for a world in which adaptation, already ubiquitous, is likely to become ever more important.