"A comprehensive study on Barthes and photography . . . the most studious research on the topic."--Antoine Compagnon, Columbia University and the Sorbonne

"Interesting and significant. . . . Important for scholars, students, and general readers interested in literature, art, photography, critical theory, and media studies."--Scott Nygren, University of Florida

French theoretician Roland Barthes enjoyed a long and shifting relationship with photography, using it first as metaphor, moving on to explore its use in movies, film stills, political campaigns, and popular photographic...

"A splendid piece of scholarly work. . . . Scholars of twentieth-century theater, whether Italianists or not, would find this book immensely useful."--Rebecca West, University of Chicago
This study examines the later plays of Luigi Pirandello--those he wrote for his actress and muse Marta Abba--in light of the recent publication of their correspondence. It traces the Nobel Prize winner's entire creative process, revealing how his perception of women shaped his philosophy of art and life, and highlights the structurally necessary shift from the male protagonist of the early and more...

"Tells the 'story' of Pessoa in a very well-informed presentation. . . . both scholarly and suggestive in creating a rich world of literary referentiality."--K. David Jackson, Yale University

Darlene Sadlier's detailed commentary on Pessoa's work explores some of the cultural, political, and personal implications of the artistic impersonation that made him one of the major figures in modern literature. He created a large gallery of authors, each with his own history, who also wrote essays commenting on one another--including Fernando Pessoa "himself." Sadlier's study demonstrates...

"All 20th-century literature specialists, particularly those in French, German, and English literatures, will find Cloonan's study eminently relevant. . . . Well-documented, very informative, quite insightful, and even entertaining "--Pierre Verdaguer, University of Maryland

In a major reevaluation of how World War II affected the writing of literature in France and Germany, William Cloonan argues that many established writers (Thomas Mann, Ernst Junger, Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre) were unsuccessful in their attempts to write about the war precisely because they refused to...

"Markey emphasizes the coherence of Calvino s literary production and convincingly and carefully argues that postmodernism first latent and then increasingly (and exasperatingly) overt is Calvino s essential muse." Wiley Feinstein, Loyola University, Chicago

"By thoroughly and persuasively interpreting and explaining Calvino s contributions to the postmodern esthetic, this book provides not only a better appreciation of postmodern literature but a better understanding of our postmodern world, where reality and textuality mingle, a world which Calvino anticipated, interrogated, and...

"Culminates with the closest, most detailed and systematic reading of Beckett s most important novel, Molloy, yet produced. . . . No other work in Beckett studies has attempted to deal with these works in this much detail, with this strong a thesis, and, most important, with this much success. . . . A masterwork. It will completely revise how we think of Beckett s creative process and how we read Molloy."--S. E. Gontarski, Florida State University

While much has been written on the subject of Joyce s uses of sources and models, little has been written about Samuel...