Examines possible and fictional worlds, author and authority, otherness and recognition, translation, alternative critique, empire, education, imagination, comedy, history, poetry, and culture. The analyzed works include classical and modern texts and theorists of the past sixty years ranging from Jerome Bruner to Stephen Greenblatt.

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Reviews

'Readers who know Hart as a superb analyst of the impact of Europe's expansion out into the world from the Renaissance onward will delight in this yet broader, fresh inquiry into the engagement between the realities of 'history' and the copings and imaginings of 'literature.' Hart's enormous erudition underpins his impressive ability to demonstrate how successive generations of authors and readers in a variety of cultures in our so-called 'Common Era' have tried out an array of genres and approaches for dealing both with the world they find themselves in and the past they have come from. Hart trains a powerful, lucid intelligence on culture as a myriad of transactions.' - Gerald Gillespie, Stanford University

'Hart offers an incisive and sophisticated study of fictional and historical worlds in the framework of current debates on postcolonialism and globalization. Ranging from key works in ancient Greece to contemporary Caribbean poetry, and featuring chapters on Shakespeare and Bunyan, Hart's book is informed by acute awareness of important ethical issues.' - Galin Tihanov, George Steiner Professor of Comparative Literature, Queen Mary, University of London

"Hart reveals how criticism unfolds the ways in which myth and reality are intertwined to tell a good story . . . . Recommended." CHOICE

About the author

JONATHAN HARTProfessor of English and Acting Director at the University of Alberta, Canada.

Bibliographic Information

Book Title: Fictional and Historical Worlds
Authors: Jonathan Hart
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137012647
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan New York
eBook Packages: Palgrave Literature Collection, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)
Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-230-34069-5Published: 17 January 2012
Softcover ISBN: 978-1-349-34332-4Published: 17 January 2012
eBook ISBN: 978-1-137-01264-7Published: 30 January 2012
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIII, 264
Topics: European Literature, Early Modern/Renaissance Literature, Literary History, Poetry and Poetics, British and Irish Literature, Literary Theory

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Table of contents (14 chapters)

Front Matter

Back Matter

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