Shakespeare

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Rasheed El-Enany

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.

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Julian Preece

"Gunter Grass is the most influential German writer since the Second World War. His books have always challenged conventional attitudes and outraged readers. From The Tin Drum (1959), where he broke down the wall of silence which surrounded ordinary people's involvement in the Third Reich, to Too Far Afield (1995), which upset the reigning consensus on the success of German reunification, he has attracted controversy. He is also an undisputed master of the German language, whose style has inspired novelists in the English-speaking world, from Salman Rushdie and Graham Swift to John Irving." "This book shows how Grass's experiences as a teenager in Hitler's Germany shaped his thinking, both in his literary writing and in his role as campaigner and critic. Julian Preece draws on unpublished correspondence, the memoirs of contemporaries and the most recent research, to present a rounded portrait of the most important German writer since Thomas Mann."--BOOK JACKET.

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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

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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.