The Literary Bookshelf

[MWBOOKREVW]

The Literary Shelf

Fabled Isles of the South Seas
Winston Stuart Conrad
Wild Coconuts
75 Water Street, San Francisco CA 94133
0-9649701-1-2 $49.95

It's hard to neatly categorize this handsome photo-filled coffee table
title:
part travelogue, part history, and always literary, this pairs over 400
color
and black and white photos and illustrations with writings and quotes by
literary greats who write about the South Sea isles. This beautiful and
compelling title will serve both armchair travelers and those seeking a
collection of literary and historical insights.

The Bright Work Grows
Jonathan Wordsworth
Woodstock Books/Books International
PO Box 605, Herndon, VA 20172-0605
1-85477-212-0 $55.00 1-703-435-7064

In The Bright Work Grows: Women Writers Of The Romantic Age, Professor
Jonathan
Wordsworth assesses the contribution of women to the literature of the
Romantic
period. He discusses poets (Baillie, Barbauld, Betham, Blamire, Caroline
Bowles,
Bryan, Hemans, Landon, Lickbarrow, Norton, Robinson, Seward, Williams,
Yearsely); novelists, storytellers and essayists (Austen, Burney, Sara
Coleridge, Hays, Inchbald, Caroline Lamb, Mary Lamb, Mitford, Opie,
Owenson, Ann
Radcliffe, Mary Shelley, Smith); polemicists and pamphleteers (Mary Anne
Radcliffe, Southcott, Wollstonecraft); and writers on education (Egeworth,
Catharine Macaulay, Hannah More). With a substantial introduction and
index, The
Bright Work Grows is a powerful, engaged, and plain-speaking introduction
to
women's writing during a time when attitudes and conventions were
undergoing
fundamental change. The Bright Work Grows is a superlative contribution to
women's studies and literary studies reading lists.

Ezra Pound's Early Poetry and Poetics
Thomas F. Grieve
University of Missouri Press
2910 LeMone Blvd., Columbia MO 65201
0-8262-1114-3 $37.50 1-573-882-0180

In Ezra Pound's Early Poetry And Poetics, Thomas Grieve argues that
Pound's
major contribution to 20th century poetry lies in his displacement of the
poet's
selfhood from the center of the poem's activity. Ezra Pound's Early Poetry
And
Poetics uniquely contributes to an under-standing of Ezra Pound's seminal
role
in literary modernism. This impressive study allows readers to judge more
fully
the reasons for Pound's influence on the direction 20th century poetry has
taken. Grieve brilliantly provides readers with a new way of understanding
the
continuities in the development of Pound's poetry. Ezra Pound's Early
Poetry And
Poetics make a valuable contribution to the study of Ezra Pound. This is a
work
of impeccable scholarship, a major contribution to the studies of Pound
and 20th
century literature.

Ted Berrigan: On the Level Everyday
Joel Lewis, editor
Talisman House, Publishers/LPC, dist.
PO Box 3157, Jersey City, NJ 07303-3157
1-883689-55-4 $13.95 1-800-243-0138

Ted Berrigan (1934-1983) was one of his generation's most respected poets
and
one of its most influential teachers. In many ways, the directions
followed in
contemporary poetry were established by him in the classes and poetry
workshops
he taught at the university of Michigan, Yale, the City College of New
York, the
Stevens Institute of Technology, the University of Essex (England),
Northeastern
Illinois University, Iowa, the Jack Kerouac School of the Naropa
Institute, and
elsewhere. On the Level Everyday brings together several of Berrigan's key
lectures and talks along with other pieces that offer an introduction to
his own
work and the problems of surviving as a poet in America today; given the
range
of Berrigan's influence, Ted Berrigan: On The Level Everyday is crucial to
an
understanding of poetry in our time. Indeed, Ted Berrigan is among the
dozen or
so of the critically important American poets of the second half of the
20th
century. Ted Berrigan: On The Level Everyday is a much needed testament to
his
achievements and enduring literary influence.

Literatura Chicana 1965-1995
Manuel Hernandez-Gutierrez, editor
David William Foster, editor
Garland Publishing
1000A Sherman Ave., Hamden, CT 06514
http://www.garlandpub.com
0-8153-2080-9 $24.95 1-800-627-6273

Literatura Chicana 1965-1995: An Anthology in Spanish, English, and Calo
is the
only comprehensive anthology of Chicano/o literature charting the
evolution of
contemporary Mexican American writing and its major themes: identity,
feminism,
conservatism, revisionism, homoeroticism, and internationalism. Comprising
essays, short stories, poems, plays, and two complete novels, the
collection is
ideal for Chicana/o students and Anglo-American, Latin American, and
Peninsular
readers. Literatura Chicana 1965-1995 is further enhanced with historical
details and cultural references for contemporary readers, and explanations
of
little-known colloquial and regional uses of Spanish. Highly recommended
for
Hispanic-American literary studies reading lists.

Postmodern Fairy Tales
Cristina Bacchilega
University of Pennsylvania Press
PO Box 4836, Hampden Station, Baltimore, MD 21211
0-8122-3392-1 $32.50 1-800-445-9880

Postmodern Fairy Tales: Gender And Narrative Strategies seeks to
understand the
fairy tale, not as children's literature, but within the broader context
of
folklore and literary studies. It focuses on the narrative strategies
through
which women are portrayed in four case studies: Snow White, Little Red
Riding
Hood, Beauty and the Beast, and Bluebeard. Postmodern Fairy Tales traces
the
oral sources of each tale, offers a provocative interpretation of
contemporary
literary versions, and explores the ways the tales are transformed in
film,
television, and musicals. Postmodern Fairy Tales is an impressive work of
innovative and insightful scholarship in the field of myth, fairytale,
folklore,
and literature.

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