by Rasheed El-Enany (2007)
Naguib Mahfouz is the most important Arabic fiction writer of this century. Born in 1911, his long and prolific writing career represents the evolution of a novel genre in Arabic literature. His books are a rich record of the tragic tensions attendant on a nations's quest for freedom and modernity. In 1988 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature. This is the only comprehensive study of Mahfouz's achievement. Rasheed El-Enany presents a systemic evaluation of the author's life and environment; local and foreign influences on him; elements of his thought and technique and the evolution of his craft. While each work is discussed individually, emphasis is laid throughout on elements of continuity in his work, whether thematic or aesthetic. In particular, Dr El-Enany challenges the traditional classification of Mahfouz's work into four chronological phases - historical, realist, modernist and indigenous or traditional. It is demonstrated that elements of these forms recur throughout Mahfouz's varied and experimental writings. This book is the story of Mahfouz's struggle to free his novels from the prevalent, predominantly Western moulds and to express his own socio-political thought within the Arabic inheritance.
Rubén Pelayo
Chronicles the life of journalist and film critic Gabriel Garcia Marquez, discussing his childhood, schooling, political views, influence on world literature, interactions with world leaders, and other related topics.
Raymond Leslie Williams
Smitten by the modernity of Cervantes and Borges at an early age, Carlos Fuentes has written extensively on the cultures of the Americas and on those elsewhere in the world. His work includes over a dozen novels, among them the Death of Artemio Cruz, Christopher Unborn, The Old Gringo, and Terra Nostra, several volumes of short stories, numerous essays on literary, cultural, and political topics, and some theater. In this book, Raymond Leslie Williams traces the themes of history, culture, and identity in Fuentes' work, particularly in his complex, major novel Terra Nostra. He opens with a biography of Fuentes that links his works to his intellectual life, a life that has been centrally concerned with finding and defining the source and character of Latin American culture. The heart of the study is Williams' extensive reading of the novel Terra Nostra, in which Fuentes explores the presence of Spanish culture and history in Latin America. Williams concludes with a look at how Fuentes' other fiction relates to Terra Nostra, including Fuentes' own division of his work into fourteen cycles that he calls "La Edad del Tiempo," and with an interview in which Fuentes discusses his concept of this cyclical division. . Williams' analysis maps a terrain often left unexplored - the "Spanishness" of Latin American culture - and offers the most in-depth study currently available on Latin America's most prolific living novelist. It will be vital reading for all students of Latin American literature.
Robert Gordon and Andrew Forge
Examines the works of Monet from a new perspective, and traces the changes in his style as brought about by the changes and problems in his personal life.
Robin Wood
Prolific director Howard Hawks made films in nearly every genre, from gengster movies like Scarface to comedies like Bringing Up Baby and Monkey Business and westerns like Rio Bravo. In this new edition of a classic text, author Robin Wood explores the ways in which Hawks pushed the boundaries of each genre and transformed the traditional forms in new, interesting, and creative ways. This edition also contains an exciting new introduction by Wood, which shows how his thinking about Hawks has deepened over time without fundamentally changing. --Book Jacket