Wiley-Blackwell Manifestos

Written by a renowned scholar of critical race theory, The Threat of Race explores how the concept of race has been historically produced and how it continues to be articulated, if often denied, in today's world. • A major new study of race and racism by a renowned scholar of critical race theory • Explores how the concept of race has been historically produced and how it continues to be articulated - if often denied - in today's world • Argues that it is the neoliberal society that fuels new forms of racism • Surveys race dynamics throughout various regions of the world - from Western and Northern Europe, South Africa and Latin America, and from Israel and Palestine to the United States.

• The Global Future of English Studiespresents a succinct, carefully documented assessment of the current state and future trajectory of English studies around the world. • Compiles data on student enrollments, faculty hiring, and financing in English studies around the world including China, home to more English majors than the U.S. and U.K. combined • Rejects prevailing narratives of contraction and decline that dominate histories of the discipline • Stresses English studies' expansion within a rapidly expanding global academic apparatus, and the new challenges and opportunities such sudden and dispersive growth presents • Essential reading for anyone interested in studying or teaching English in higher education.

Uses of Literature bridges the gap between literary theory and common-sense beliefs about why we read literature. • Explores the diverse motives and mysteries of why we read • Offers four different ways of thinking about why we read literature - for recognition, enchantment, knowledge, and shock • Argues for a new "phenomenology" in literary studies that incorporates the historical and social dimensions of reading • Includes examples of literature from a wide range of national literary traditions.

“Art Is Not What You Think It Is” utilizes original research to present a series of critical incursions into the current state of debate on the idea of art, making manifest what has been largely missing or unsaid in those discussions. • Links museology, history, theory, and criticism to the realities of contemporary social conditions and shows how they have structurally functioned in a variety of contexts • Deals with divisive and controversial problems such as blasphemy and idolatry, and the problem of artistic truth • Addresses relations between European notions about art and artifice and those developed in other and especially indigenous cultural traditions

NEW ENGLAND BEYOND CRITICISM Literary criticism of the past thirty years has undercut what the canonizers of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw as the fundamental role of early New England in the development of American literary culture. And yet, a determination in literary circles to topple perceived Ivy League elitism and Protestant cultural creationism overlooks the continuing value, beauty, and even practical utility of a canon still cherished by lay readers around the world. This Manifesto raises questions about how academic specialization and the academic study of New England have affected enthusiasm for reading. Using a range of interpretive practices, including those most often deployed by contemporary academic critics, Elisa New cuts across firmly established subfields, mixing literary exegesis with autobiographical reflection, close reading with cultural history, archival and antiquarian inquiry with experiments in style, and lays bare editorial orthodoxies, raising to question the whole hierarchy of values now governing the study of American and other literatures. Taking New England as a test case for a wider, more accessible set of critical practices, “New England Beyond Criticism” demands that the domain of literary study be opened further to the tastes of the general reader.

This is a compelling look at the current state and future direction of creative writing by a preeminent scholar in the field. • Explores the practice of creative writing, its place in the world, and its impact on individuals and communities • Considers the process of creative writing as an art form and as a mode of communication • Examines how new technology, notably the internet and cell phones, is changing the ways in which creative work is undertaken and produced • Addresses such topics as writing as a cultural production, the education of a creative writer, the changing nature of communication, and different attitudes to empowerment

“Where is American Literature?” offers a spirited and compelling argument for rethinking the way we view American literature in relation to the nation while powerfully demonstrating why it continues to matter in a global age. • A refreshing and accessible investigation into the various locations-linguistic, geographical, virtual, ideological-where American writing is produced and consumed • Takes a highly original approach by viewing US literature spatially rather than chronologically or thematically, retuning our understanding of the subject • The book offers a vital intervention in current debates over the impact of digital technologies on the production and reception of literature, ensuring that the field remains lively and dynamic • Invites readers to reconsider the subject by questioning current perspectives on, and approaches to, US literature, offering a range of fresh perspectives on familiar texts and topics

“Breaking the Book” is a manifesto on the cognitive consequences and emotional effects of human interactions with physical books that reveals why the traditional humanities disciplines are resistant to 'digital' humanities. • Explores the reasons why the traditional humanities disciplines are resistant to 'digital humanities' • Reveals facets of book history, offering it as an example of how different media shape our modes of thinking and feeling • Gathers together the most important book history and literary criticism concerning the hundred years leading up to the early 19th-century emergence of mass print culture • Predicts effects of the digital revolution on disciplinarity, expertise, and the institutional restructuring of the humanities

After the Fall A common refrain heard since the collapse of the World Trade Center towers on September 11, 2001 is that "everything has changed." After the Fall presents a timely and provocative examination of the impact and implications of 9/11 and the war on terror on American culture and literature. Author Richard Gray — widely regarded as the leading European scholar in American literature — reveals the widespread belief among novelists, dramatists, and poets — as well as the American public at large — that in the post-9/11 world they are all somehow living "after the fall." He carefully considers how many writers, faced with what they see as the end of their world, have retreated into the seductive pieties of home, hearth, and family, and how their works are informed by the equally seductive myth of American exceptionalism. As a counterbalance, Gray also discusses in depth the many writings that "get it right" — transnational and genuinely crossbred works that resist the oppositional and simplistic "us and them" / "Christian and Muslim" language that has dominated mainstream commentary. These imaginative works, Gray believes, choose instead to respond to the heterogeneous character of the United States, as well as its necessary positioning in a transnational context. After the Fall offers illuminating insights into the relationships of such issues as nationalism, trauma, culture, and literature during a time of profound crisis.

“The Future of Christian Theology” represents a personal manifesto from one of the world's leading theologians, exploring the ways Christian theology in the twenty-first century has been, and can now continue to be, both creative and wise. • Represents an outstanding and engaging account of the task of theology today • Offers an insightful description of what makes for discerning and creative theology. • Written from the perspective of decades of experience, and in close dialogue with theologians of other faiths • Features a strong interfaith and public theology dimension, and a contemporary portrait of the field from the inside • A hopeful and illuminating search for wisdom and understanding in the increasingly complex religious and secular world of the twenty-first century.

In lively and unflinching prose, Eric Cazdyn and Imre Szeman argue that contemporary thought about the world is disabled by a fatal flaw: the inability to think "an after" to globalization. After establishing seven theses (on education, morality, nation, future, history, capitalism, and common sense) that challenge the false promises that sustain this time limit, “After Globalization” examines four popular thinkers (Richard Florida, Thomas Friedman, Paul Krugman, and Naomi Klein) and considers how their work is dulled by these promises. Cazdyn and Szeman then speak to students from around the globe who are both unconvinced and uninterested in these promises and who understand the world very differently than the way it is popularly represented. “After Globalization” argues that a true capacity to think an after to globalization is the very beginning of politics today.

After Kenneth W. Warren's What Was African American Literature?, Margo N. Crawford delivers What is African American Literature? The idea of African American literature may be much more than literature written by authors who identify as "Black". What is African American Literature? focuses on feeling as form in order to show that African American literature is an archive of feelings, a tradition of the tension between uncontainable black affect and rigid historical structure. Margo N. Crawford argues that textual production of affect (such as blush, vibration, shiver, twitch, and wink) reveals that African American literature keeps reimagining a black collective nervous system. Crawford foregrounds the "idea" of African American literature and uncovers the "black feeling world" co-created by writers and readers. Rejecting the notion that there are no formal lines separating African American literature and a broader American literary tradition, Crawford contends that the distinguishing feature of African American literature is a "moodscape" that is as stable as electricity. Presenting a fresh perspective on the affective atmosphere of African American literature, this compelling text frames central questions around the "idea" of African American literature, shows the limits of historicism in explaining the mood of African American literature and addresses textual production in the creation of the African American literary tradition. Part of the acclaimed Wiley Blackwell Manifestos series, What is African American Literature? is a significant addition to scholarship in the field. Professors and students of American literature, African American literature, and Black Studies will find this book an invaluable source of fresh perspectives and new insights on America's black literary tradition.