Stephen Matterson

Herman Melville

His Masquerade (Penguin Classics)

The Confidence-Man

"Melville: Fashioning in Modernity  considers all of the major fiction with a concentration on lesser-known work, and provides a radically fresh approach to Melville, focusing on: clothing as socially symbolic; dress, power and class; the transgressive nature of dress; inappropriate clothing; the meaning of uniform; the multiplicity of identity that dress may represent; anxiety and modernity. The representation of clothing in the fiction is central to some of Melville's major themes; the relation between private and public identity, social inequality and how this is maintained; the relation between power, justice and authority; the relation between the "civilized" and the "savage." Frequently clothing represents the malleability of identity (its possibilities as well as its limitations), represents writing itself, as well as becoming indicative of the crisis of modernity. Clothing also becomes a trope for Melville's representations of authorship and of his own scene of writing. Melville: Fashioning in Modernity  also encompasses identity in transition, making use of the examination of modernity by theorists such as Anthony Giddens, as well as on theories of figures such as the dandy.  In contextualizing Melville's interest in clothing, a variety of other works and writers is considered; works such as Robinson Crusoe and The Scarlet Letter, and novelists such as Fenimore Cooper, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry James, Jack London, and George Orwell.  The book has at its core a consideration of the scene of writing and the publishing history of each text"--

fashioning in modernity

Melville

Michael Hinds

Rebound: The American Poetry Book is a pioneering collection of new essays that, by aiming interpretation to incorporate an awareness of the context in which individual poems are embedded in the book challenges established ways of reading American lyric poetry.

The American Poetry Book

Rebound

For use in schools and libraries only. A young man, newly rich, tries to recapture the past and win back his former love, despite the fact that she is married.

The Great Gatsby

Lucy Collins

This critical work considers the role played by elements that might be considered aberrational in a poet’s oeuvre. With an introductory essay exploring the nature of aberration, these fourteen contributions investigate the work of major 20th-century poets from the U.S., Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. Aberration is considered from the standpoint of both the artist and the audience, prompting discussion on a range of important issues, including the formation of the canon. Each essay discusses the status of the aberrant work and the ways in which it challenges, enlarges or supports the overall perception of the poet.

Stephen Matterson

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