GILBERT, JANE. Living Death in Medieval French and English Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011. 283 pp.  55/$90. ISBN 978-1-107-00383-5

This article comparatively examines French and English literature based on two novels published in 1947, Malcolm Lowry’s Under the Volcano and Jean-Louis Curtis’ The Forests of Night. Both novels employ the mythic device to construct narratives on the twilight of the British Empire and the German occupied French Vichy regime, respectively, depicting experiences of resistance and collaboration on the eve of and during the Second World War. Both invent a system of symbolic imagery modelled on the Surrealist template in Jean Cocteau’s The Infernal Machine, that turns the classical mythic device still prevalent in the early 20th century (i.e. in Joyce or Eliot) upside down. The revolution in Mythic Imagination follows the Structuralist Revolution initiated by Durkheim, Saussure and Bachelard, evacuating fixed ontological architecture to portray relational interdependency without essence. These novels pursue overlapping ethical investigations, on “non-interventionism” in Lowry and “fraternity” in Curtis. The novels raise questions about the relation between colonialism and fascism and the impact of non-Western mythic universes (i.e. Hinduism) upon the Mythic Imagination. They have implications for our understanding of gender relations, as well as the value of political activism and progress.

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Reviews: Written Work: Langland, Labor, and Authorship, England's Empty Throne: Usurpation and the Language of Legitimation 1399–1422, Sermons at Court: Politics and Religion in Elizabethan and Jacobean Preaching, the Making of Jacobean Culture, the Historical Imagination in Early Modern Britain: History, Rhetoric and Fiction, 1500–1800, Romantic Writing and Pedestrian Travel, the Scottish Invention of English Literature, Dante and the Victorians, George Eliot and Italy: Literary, Cultural and Political Influences from Dante to the Risorgimento, the Imperial Game: Cricket, Culture and Society, Ideologies of Epic: Nation, Empire and Victorian Epic Poetry, Professional Domesticity in the Victorian Novel: Women, Work and Home, Women's Fiction between the Wars: Mothers, Daughters and Writing, British Women Writers of World War II: Battleground of Their Own, the Tyranny of the Discrete: A Discussion of the Problems of Local History in England, Issues of Regional Identity: In Honour of John Marshall, Imperial Cities: Landscape, Display and Identity, Figural Realism: Studies in the Mimesis Effect, Criticism and Modernity: Aesthetics, Literature and Nations in Europe and its AcademiesJusticeSteven and Kerby-FultonKathryn (eds), Written Work: Langland, Labor, and Authorship , University of Pennsylvania Press, pp. 347, £42.75.StrohmPaul, England's Empty Throne: Usurpation and the Language of Legitimation 1399–1422 , Yale University Press, 1998, pp. xiv + 274, £25.McCulloughPeter E., Sermons at Court: Politics and Religion in Elizabethan and Jacobean Preaching , Cambridge University Press, 1998, pp. xv + 237, £35PerryCurtis, The Making of Jacobean Culture , Cambridge University Press, 1997, pp. xiv + 281, £35.KelleyDonald R. and SacksDavid Harris (eds), The Historical Imagination in Early Modern Britain: History, Rhetoric and Fiction, 1500–1800 , Woodrow Wilson Center Press/Cambridge University Press, 1997, pp. xii + 374, £50.JarvisRobin, Romantic Writing and Pedestrian Travel , Macmillan, 1997, pp. x + 246, £45.CrawfordRobert (ed.), The Scottish Invention of English Literature , Cambridge University Press, 1998, pp. 259, £35.MilbankAlison, Dante and the Victorians , Manchester University Press, 1998, pp. ix + 277, £45.00ThompsonAndrew, George Eliot and Italy: Literary, Cultural and Political Influences from Dante to the Risorgimento , Macmillan, 1998, pp. x + 243, £42.50.SandifordKeith A. and StoddartBrian (eds), The Imperial Game: Cricket, Culture and Society , Manchester University Press, 1998, pp. viii + 178, £40.00.GrahamColin, Ideologies of Epic: Nation, Empire and Victorian Epic Poetry , Manchester University Press, 1998, pp. 194, £40.CohenMonica F., Professional Domesticity in the Victorian Novel: Women, Work and Home , Cambridge University Press, 1998, pp. 216, £35.InghamHeather, Women's Fiction Between the Wars: Mothers, Daughters and Writing , Edinburgh University Press, 1998, pp. 180, £40, £14.95 pbLassnerPhyllis, British Women Writers of World War II: Battleground of Their Own , Macmillan, 1998, pp. 293, £45.MarshallJ. D., The Tyranny of the Discrete: A Discussion of the Problems of Local History in England , Scolar Press, 1997, pp. vii + 152, £40RoyleEdward (ed.), Issues of Regional Identity: In Honour of John Marshall , Manchester University Press, 1998, pp. xi + 252, £40.DriverFelix and GilbertDavid (eds), Imperial Cities: Landscape, Display and Identity , Manchester University Press, 1999, pp. 283, £45.WhiteHayden, Figural Realism: Studies in the Mimesis Effect , Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999, pp. 205, £31.50.DohertyThomas, Criticism and Modernity: Aesthetics, Literature and Nations in Europe and its Academies , Oxford University Press, 1999, pp. vi + 248, £40.

Literature & History ◽

10.7227/lh.9.1.8 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

pp. 96-116

Author(s):

Karen L. Edwards ◽

Peter Coss ◽

Michael Hicks ◽

Graham Parry ◽

R. C. Richardson ◽

...

Keyword(s):

World War Ii ◽

George Eliot ◽

English Literature ◽

Regional Identity ◽

Local History ◽

Historical Imagination ◽

Cambridge University ◽

Politics And Religion ◽

Pedestrian Travel ◽

Court Politics

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John Edwards (ed.), Language in Canada. Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp. xvi, 504.

Language in Society ◽

10.1017/s0047404500332043 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 29 (2) ◽

pp. 297-299

Author(s):

Monica Heller

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

The United States ◽

Cambridge University ◽

First Languages ◽

French And English ◽

Official Languages ◽

English Speaking ◽

English Speaking World ◽

Language Profiles ◽

Aboriginal Languages

This volume is meant as a companion piece to three previous volumes published by Cambridge on language in various parts of the English-speaking world (the volume on the United States, edited by Charles Ferguson and Shirley Brice Heath, appeared in 1981, followed in 1984 by one on the British Isles edited by Peter Trudgill, and in 1991 by a volume on Australia edited by Suzanne Romaine). This collection contains 26 short articles, divided into three sets. The first set attempts to provide an overview of sociolinguistic issues in Canada from historical, demographic, and policy perspectives. The second set treats aboriginal languages and the two official languages, French and English; this set includes two articles on language teaching – restricted, however, to the teaching of international languages, mainly as first languages, and to the teaching of French as a second language through immersion methods. The third set offers language profiles of each of Canada's ten provinces, as well as of its two (now three) territories. The organization of the book is meant to provide different angles on sociolinguistic issues in Canada, but unfortunately the result too often is that material is either repeated or consistently left out.

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