| Empire on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown Contributor(s): Gossy, Mary (Author) |
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ISBN: 1846311829 ISBN-13: 9781846311826 Publisher: Liverpool University Press
Binding Type: Hardcover - See All Available Formats & Editions Published: May 2009 Annotation: Literature gives access to the verge, to the place where the full terror of falling is felt even as both feet remain on the ground. "Empire on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" offers instruction to readers who want to know and feel their way beyond disciplinary conventions toward new understandings of how and why both empires and texts shiver and fall. In these highly original and engaging essays in contemporary Hispanic Studies, readers will encounter a treasure trove of writers--from Freud and Joyce to Gertrude Stein and Monty Python--who have written about empire, panic, and pain, with allusions to Spain and all things Spanish. Click for more in this series: Contemporary Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures |
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| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | American - Hispanic American - Literary Criticism | Semiotics & Theory |
| Dewey: 946 |
| Series: Contemporary Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures |
| Physical Information: 0.7" H x 6" W x 9.2" L (0.70 lbs) 192 pages |
| Themes: - Ethnic Orientation - Hispanic |
| Features: Bibliography, Dust Cover, Index, Table of Contents |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Literature gives access to the verge, to the place where the full terror of falling is felt, and yet both feet are still on the ground. Empire on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown offers pleasurable instruction to readers who want to know and feel their ways through and beyond disciplinary conventions towards new and clearer understandings of how empires and texts shiver and fall, and why. Literature makes a difference to the ways that these questions are asked and explored. A cavalcade of writers - among them Edward Gibbon, Edgar Allan Poe, James Joyce, Sigmund Freud, the Wolf-Man, Gertrude Stein, Monique Wittig, Jeanette Winterson, Monty Python and even Miguel de Cervantes and A. Conan Doyle-- have written about empire, femininity, Spain, pain, wounds, war and love. Symptoms of imperial panic abound in their pages, very frequently manifesting directly or indirectly in allusions to Spain and things Spanish. Here female or feminized bodies often bear the brunt of any acting-out. In these highly original and highly engaging essays the reader confronts verges of cliffs, madness, window ledges, rooftops; verges of virgins and whores, slippery slopes and razor's edges. Gossy argues that masculinity and femininity are always on the verge of slipping away from what they are supposed to be, and of dragging fantasies of imperial domination over the edge with them. The Spain of lost empire accompanies these acute symptoms of anxiety, even in texts and authors where - as in Monty Python's version of the Spanish Inquisition - no one expects it. |
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