Beautiful and the Doomed: Essays on Literary Value

The book addresses the problem of literary value in North American literature, children's literature, film and poetry. Chapter One: The Ennob(e)led focuses on institutions which are instrumental in attributing value to literature: literary critics (e.g. D.H. Lawrence) and award givers (e.g. the Swedish Academy). It explores W.B. Yeats's, T.S. Eliot's, Czeslaw Milosz's and William Golding's lives with the Nobel Prize. In Chapter Two: The Forgotten homage is paid to four authors who lost popularity, or never enjoyed it: Lorenza Stevens Berbineau, Frank Stockton, Charles Chesnutt and Conrad Aiken. Chapter Three: From Margin to Mainstream compares various Chinese, Japanese, First Nations' and other ethnic voices in Canadian children's literature. Chapter Four: From Mainstream to Margin juxtaposes scholarly pursuits with cinematic praxis, and cinematic praxis with political activity.

Autorentext

Miroslawa Buchholtz is Professor of English and Director of the English Department at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun (Poland). She is the author and editor of numerous publications on American and Canadian literature, postcolonial studies, film adaptations and translation.

Inhalt

Contents: Literary Value - Academia - Teaching Literature - Literary Criticism - Nobel Prize in Literature - American Nobel Prize Winners - Public and Private Roles - Poetry - Literary Fairy Tale - Children's Verse - Biography - Travel Writing - Film Adaptation - Translation - Animals In Literature - American Literature - Canadian Literature - Chinese - Japanese - First Nations' and other Ethnic Voices in Canada - W.B. Yeats - T.S. Eliot - Czeslaw Milosz - William Golding - Frank Stockton - Charles Chesnutt - Conrad Aiken - Paul Yee - Sui Sin Far - Shizuye Takashima - Joy Kogawa - Drew Hayden Taylor - Jordan Wheeler - Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm - Hans Christian Andersen - Terry Gilliam.