This 1986 study offers a challenging contribution to the on-going critical debate surrounding the English literary Renaissance. Although informed by the 'new historicism' and post-structuralism, 'Hidden Designs' makes a plea for criticism to be practiced in its own name rather than in the name of theory, and opposes the hyper-professionalisation of literary studies in favour of the broader communal functions of criticism. Major Renaissance authors and their recent critics are placed under 'suspicion' as Crewe explores the elements of 'criminality' inherent in the powerful interests -personal,...

This 1986 study offers a challenging contribution to the on-going critical debate surrounding the English literary Renaissance. Although informed by the new historicism and post-structuralism, Hidden Designs makes a plea for criticism to be practiced in its own name rather than in the name of theory, and opposes the hyper-professionalisation of literary studies in favour of the broader communal functions of criticism.

Major Renaissance authors and their recent critics are placed under suspicion as Crewe explores the elements of criminality inherent in the powerful interests...

Relying on the author's personal recollections as well as on J.M. Coetzee's autobiographical and fictional works, this book deals with Coetzee's formation as a writer of international prominence, whose life and writing career began in South Africa. Drawing on Coetzee's "South African" writings from Dusklands through Disgrace, the book considers Coetzee's initial positioning in provincial South African political and literary culture as well as his drastic reframing of South African "letters" and his breakout into a global career culminating in the award of the Nobel Prize in 2003. The book...