English offers verbal expressions in two basic forms: simple verbs such as walk and look, and periphrastic expressions such as have/take a walk and have/take a look. Which do we use, why, and how do particular usages arise or disappear? This volume explores the historical development of two important periphrastic verbal constructions, composite predicates and phrasal verbs, as well as related expressions, from the viewpoint of English historical linguistics. The approach is descriptive and interpretive, encompassing rich and varied data from Old...

Taking as its point of departure the remarkable increase in the production of fictional autobiographies in Britain and Ireland over the last thirty years, this book sets out to explore the historical, philosophical and literary context motivating and shaping such an increase. It seeks to show that as a result of the epistemological crisis of the 20<SUP>th</SUP> century and of the consequent assault on traditional modes of representation, writers began to look for alternative textual spaces and narrative forms which would allow them to highlight the constructed nature of identity and...

Robert Louis Stevenson, Wilkie Collins and Daphne du Maurier are authors of particular importance to the literature of the double, having produced, among other works, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Woman in White and Rebecca. Each also rejected the prevailing social order of his or her time, a factor that plays an important role in determining how the double is represented and treated.
The literary theory of romance narrative structure follows the hero s journey through a dark descent to a happier ascent, but this journey is shown to apply to a...

The present study offers a poetics of science in the contemporary historical, and more specifically, neo-Victorian novel. Its starting point is both the profound (dis)similarity between science and history, and Ansgar Nunning s pathbreaking systematisation of the historical novel. The poetics itself is based on a rigorous development and application of four hypotheses. These hypotheses are a direct result of the interdisciplinary nature of a study with at least three, if not four, epistemological concerns, for this is a study of -science- in a -literary- context which deals with -history, -...

La Queste del Saint Graal is one of the best-known and most important of the medieval Grail Romances, being the first text to portray the character of Galahad the -perfect- knight, and the earliest extant version of the tale to attempt to fuse the dual tradition associated with the Grail: pseudo-Celtic and Christian. However, it is often considered a difficult text, containing passages of dense metaphor and a seemingly disjointed plot.
This study explains the link between metaphor and structure within the text, by means of detailed analysis of certain key sections of the...

The novels of Samuel Richardson are the essential topic of this book. Its main aim is to use Bakhtin s definition of polyphony as a way into Richardson s work and, in turn, to provide a basis from which to revise Bakhtin.
After tracing the development of psychological realism in the eighteenth-century novel and the growing potential for autonomy in the fictional character in general, the book goes on to examine the potential for polyphony which first emerges in Pamela and reaches its height in Clarissa.
Between editions of this momentous novel, Richardson felt compelled...

This is a comparative study of the Chinese left-wing intellectual leader Lu Xun and the -gentle- Nietzsche. It covers four major aspects of their affinities: the intellectual, the political, the literary, and the personal.
The study does not aim at demythologising the Lu Xun cult in China which has already been shattered in the hands of its creators. Through an examination of Nietzsche s influence on Lu Xun and an analysis of their similarities, this study reveals a new dimension of Lu Xun s radicalism which remains relevant to the present world. Looking at Lu Xun from the -gentle-...

The Cahiers/Notebooks of Paul Valery are a unique form of writing. They reveal Valery as one of the most radical and creative minds of the twentieth century, encompassing a wide range of investigation into all spheres of human activity. His work explores the arts, the sciences, philosophy, history and politics, investigating linguistic, psychological and social issues, all linked to the central questions, relentlessly posed: what is the human mind and how does it work?, what is the potential of thought and what are its limits?
But we encounter here too, Valery the writer:...

This anthology includes literary, legal and political texts mainly from the 1790s. They illustrate the dramatic circumstances under which several leading members of the radical reform movement in London were accused of high treason in 1794. The various radical and loyalist publications concerning these State Trials are indicative of England in the wake of the French Revolution - a society tormented by the fear of conspiracies. Certain social concerns and political agendas of that time remain essential for peace and freedom to this day - concerns about the dissolution of social values and...

Style is an important component of communication: it is the how in communicating the what, demonstrating the ontological unity of the two in language variability that provides the ground for the functioning of what-how and what-for. This volume approaches style within the framework of cognitive linguistics, a usage-based functional model, which interprets language as being conceptual, whereas conceptual knowledge is interpreted as experiential. Consequently, style is considered not as a set of predetermined ornaments on texts, but as a system of context-sensitive...