Karl Jaspers is one of the least understood and most neglected major philosophers of the twentieth century, and yet his ideas, particularly those concerned with death, have immense contemporary relevance.Filiz Peach provides a clear explanation of Jaspers' philosophy of existence, clarifying and reassessing the concept of death that is central to his thought. For Jaspers, a human being is not merely a physical entity but a being with a transcendent aspect and so, in some sense 'deathless'. Peach explores this transcendent aspect of humanity and what it is to be 'deathless' in Jaspersian...

This original study explores a vital aspect of early modern cultural history: the way that warfare is represented in the theatre of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. The book contrasts the Tudor and Stuart prose that called for the establishment of a standing army in the name of nation, discipline and subjectivity, and the drama of the period that invited critique of this imperative. Barker examines contemporary dramatic texts both for their radical position on war and, in the case of the later drama, for their subversive commentary on an emerging idealisation of Shakespeare and his...

Despite what its title might suggest, Death and Desire is a meditation on life. Using the texts of Hegel, Heidegger, and Deleuze, the author argues that philosophy has been dominated by a form of thought that focuses exclusively on death. The importance of Death and Desire lies in its refusal of the morbidity of much contemporary philosophy. Its uniqueness lies in placing Hegel, Heidegger, and Deleuze in conversation. Its usefulness lies in the clarity with which it articulates and compares these very diverse thinkers.

This book describes the life and achievements of the eighteenth-century Scottish physician William Hunter and outlines the history of the Museum named after him. William Hunter built up a wide-ranging private collection at his home in London, encompassing not only anatomical and pathological specimens related to his medical work, but also books and manuscripts, coins and medals, natural history specimens and artworks. On his death in 1783 he bequeathed the collection to the University of Glasgow where he had long ago been a student, and money to construct a Museum which opened in 1807. The...

This critical study of Hardy's short stories provides a thorough account of the ruling preoccupations and recurrent writing strategies of his entire corpus as well as providing detailed readings of several individual texts. It relates the formal choices imposed on Hardy as contributor to Blackwood's Magazine and other periodicals to the methods he employed to encode in fiction his troubled attitude towards the social politics of the West Country, where most of the stories are set. No previous criticism has shown how the powerful challenges to the reader mounted in Hardy's later stories reveal...

In the first full-length literary-historical study of its subject, Edward Larrissy examines the philosophical and literary background to representations of blindness and the blind in the Romantic period. In detailed studies of literary works he goes on to show how the topic is central to an understanding of British and Irish Romantic literature.
While he considers the influence of Milton and the 'Ossian' poems, as well as of philosophers, including Locke, Diderot, Berkeley and Thomas Reid, much of the book is taken up with new readings of writers of the period. These include canonical...

'A number of interesting and powerful themes emerge in this study of Virginia Woolf's relation to the literary past . . . The strong account of Woolf's relation to tradition in Virginia Woolf's Novels and the Literary Past will surely facilitate further study of the gender politics of Modernism.' --Times Literary Supplement
'An important intervention at a time in which there is particular interest in Woolf's relationship to the past.'--Professor Laura Marcus, University of Sussex
'Essential and intellectually provocative reading for Woolf scholars and for common readers alike.'--Vara...

Perceptive, passionate and often controversial, Raymond Tallis's latest debunking of Kulturkritik delves into a host of ethical and philosophical issues central to contemporary thought, raising questions we cannot afford to ignore. After reading Enemies of Hope, those minded to misrepresent mankind in ways that are almost routine amongst humanist intellectuals may be inclined to think twice. By clearing away the 'hysterical humanism' of the present century Enemies of Hope frees us to start thinking constructively about the way forward for humanity in the next.

Perceptive, passionate and often controversial, Raymond Tallis's latest debunking of Kulturkritik delves into a host of ethical and philosophical issues central to contemporary thought, raising questions we cannot afford to ignore. After reading Enemies of Hope, those minded to misrepresent mankind in ways that are almost routine amongst humanist intellectuals may be inclined to think twice. By clearing away the 'hysterical humanism' of the present century Enemies of Hope frees us to start thinking constructively about the way forward for humanity in the next.