What is crime? What constitutes violence? What is it permissible to talk about or describe in cultural depictions of crime and violence? What is the impact of portraying crime and violence on an audience? How are crime and violence presented to make them culturally acceptable for educational or entertainment purposes? This book examines representations of violence and crime both historically and in relation to contemporary culture across a wide range of media, including fiction, film, art, biography, and journalism, to interrogate the issues raised. While some articles here analyze the ethics...

Although certain aspects of C.S. Lewis's work have been studied in great detail, others have been comparatively neglected. This collection of essays looks at Lewis's life and work, and those of his friends and associates, from many different angles, but all connected through a common theme of identity. Questions of identity are essential to the understanding of any writer. The ways authors perceive themselves and who they are, the communities they belong to by birth or choice, inevitably influence their work. The way they present other people, real or fictional, are also rooted in their own...

Best known for her Newbery Medal-winning novel A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L'Engle (1918-2007) had a long and successful writing career. Her books enjoyed popular acclaim and she was in constant demand to give speeches, write forewords and advise and encourage younger authors. Yet her work--particularly her adult fiction--has been largely ignored by scholars. This collection of new essays gives overdue critical attention to L'Engle's complete body of work, from her familiar young adult fiction to her religious writings, poems and short stories.