English Literature: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

JonathanBate

• Oxford Univ Pr (2010年10月28日発売)

作品紹介・あらすじ

Sweeping across two millennia and every literary genre, acclaimed scholar and biographer Jonathan Bate provides a dazzling introduction to English Literature. The focus is wide, shifting from the birth of the novel and the brilliance of English comedy to the deep Englishness of landscape poetry and the ethnic diversity of Britain's Nobel literature laureates. It goes on to provide a more in-depth analysis, with close readings from an extraordinary scene in King Lear to a war poem by Carol Ann Duffy, and a series of striking examples of how literary texts change as they are transmitted from writer to reader. The narrative embraces not only the major literary movements such as Romanticism and Modernism, together with the most influential authors including Chaucer, Donne, Johnson, Wordsworth, Austen, Dickens and Woolf, but also little-known stories such as the identity of the first English woman poet to be honoured with a collected edition of her works. Written with the flair and passion for which Jonathan Bate has become renowned, this book is the perfect Very Short Introduction for all readers and students of the incomparable literary heritage of these islands.
ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

感想・レビュー・書評

[gaacoさんの感想 · 2013年12月23日]

とりあえず読み終わったという感じ。

それでも、イギリス文学（English　Literature）の多層性が何となく分かってきた。
ノルマン王朝時代、フランス語やラテン語で書かれた文学は、「イギリス文学」なのか？
アメリカ生まれのT.Sエリオットやヘンリー・ジェイムズはどうして「イギリス文学」に加えられているのか？
「○○文学」という呼称を取ると同時に、こういった「境界」の問題が立ち上がる。
今日的な意識で書かれた「イギリス」文学史の本なのだな、と感じた。

まだ充分理解できているとは言いがたい。
できればもう一度、いや、二度読みたい気分。