Ralf Hertel

Fiction is fascinating. All it provides us with is black letters on white pages, yet while we read we do not have the impression that we are merely perceiving abstract characters. Instead, we see the protagonists before our inner eye and hear their voices. Descriptions of sumptuous meals make our mouths water, we feel physically repelled by depictions of violence or are aroused by the erotic details of sexual conquests. We submerge ourselves in the fictional world that no longer stays on the paper but comes to life in our imagination. Reading turns into an out-of-the-body experience or, rather, an in-another-body experience, for we perceive the portrayed world not only through the protagonist's eyes but also through his ears, nose, tongue, and skin. In other words, we move through the literary text as if through a virtual reality.How does literature achieve this trick? How does it turn mere letters into vividly experienced worlds? This study argues that techniques of sensuous writing contribute decisively to bringing the text to life in the reader's imagination. In detailed interpretations of British novels of the 1980s and 1990s by writers such as John Berger, John Banville, Salman Rushdie, Jeanette Winterson, or J. M. Coetzee, it uncovers literary strategies for turning the sensuous experience into words and for conveying it to the reader, demonstrating how we make sense in, and of, literature.Both readers interested in the contemporary novel and in the sensuousness of the reading experience will profit from this innovative study that not only analyses the interest of contemporary authors in the senses but also pin-points literary entry points for the sensuous force of reading.

Sense Perception in the British Novel of the 1980s and 1990s

Making Sense

Eva-Maria Windberger

Empowerment as a concept is making its impact on the field of literary studies. This volume shows its intricate relation to contemporary fiction in English, applying a broad range of approaches such as feminist, transcultural, and intersectional studies. Dealing with genres as diverse as dystopia, science fiction, TV adaptations, the historical novel, and immigrant fiction, this collection offers the first in-depth study of empowerment in literature. How, and to which end, do texts endow characters with power? In which ways can fiction become a tool of authorial self-empowerment? And which effects do such narratives have on readers? With this book, empowerment is put on the map of literary studies as a new, highly relevant critical concept stimulating fresh perspectives on contemporary fiction. Contributors: Peter Childs, Britta Maria Colligs, Sarah Dillon, Paul Hamann-Rose, Ralf Hertel, David Malcolm, Diana Thiesen, Eleanor Ty, Eva-Maria Windberger.

The Impact of Empowerment in Literary Studies

Empowering Contemporary Fiction in English

Empowerment as a concept is making its impact on the field of literary studies. This volume shows its intricate relation to contemporary fiction in English with a broad range of approaches such as feminist, transcultural, and intersectional studies and dealing with genres as diverse as dystopia, science fiction, TV adaptations, the historical novel and immigrant fiction.

Applying current political theory on nationhood as well as methods established by recent performance studies, this study sheds new light on the role the public theatre played in the rise of English national identity around 1600. It situates selected history plays by Shakespeare and Marlowe in the context of non-fictional texts (such as historiographies, chorographies, political treatises, or dictionary entries) and cultural artefacts (such as maps or portraits), and thus highlights the circulation, and mutation, of national thought in late sixteenth-century culture. At the same time, it goes beyond a New Historicist approach by foregrounding the performative surplus of the theatre event that is so essential for the shaping of collective identity. How, this study crucially asks, does the performative art of theatre contribute to the dynamics of the formation of national identity? Although theories about the nature of nationalism vary, a majority of theorists agree that notions of a shared territory and history, as well as questions of religion, class and gender play crucial roles in the shaping of national identity. These factors inform the structure of this book, and each is examined individually. In contrast to existing publications, this inquiry does not take for granted a pre-existing national identity that simply manifested itself in the literary works of the period; nor does it proceed from preconceived notions of the playwrights’ political views. Instead, it understands the early modern stage as an essentially contested space in which conflicting political positions are played off against each other, and it inquires into how the imaginative work of negotiating these stances eventually contributed to a rising national self-awareness in the spectators.

Performing National Identity

Staging England in the Elizabethan History Play

Sabine Schülting

Sabine Lucia Müller

An exploration of early modern encounters between Christian Europe and the (Islamic) East from the perspective of performance studies and performativity theories, this collection focuses on the ways in which these cultural contacts were acted out on the real and metaphorical stages of theatre, literature, music, diplomacy and travel. The volume responds to the theatricalization of early modern politics, to contemporary anxieties about the tension between religious performance and belief, to the circulation of material objects in intercultural relations, and the eminent role of theatre and drama for the (re)imagination and negotiation of cultural difference. Contributors examine early modern encounters with and in the East using an innovative combination of literary and cultural theories. They stress the contingent nature of these contacts and demonstrate that they can be read as moments of potentiality in which the future of political and economic relations - as well as the players' cultural, religious and gender identities - are at stake.

Performing Cultures

Early Modern Encounters with the Islamic East

Fiction is fascinating. All it provides us with is black letters on white pages, yet while we read we do not have the impression that we are merely perceiving abstract characters. Instead, we see the protagonists before our inner eye and hear their voices. Descriptions of sumptuous meals make our mouths water, we feel physically repelled by depictions of violence or are aroused by the erotic details of sexual conquests. We submerge ourselves in the fictional world that no longer stays on the paper but comes to life in our imagination. Reading turns into an out-of-the-body experience or, rather, an in-another-body experience, for we perceive the portrayed world not only through the protagonist's eyes but also through his ears, nose, tongue, and skin. In other words, we move through the literary text as if through a virtual reality. How does literature achieve this trick? How does it turn mere letters into vividly experienced worlds? This study argues that techniques of sensuous writing contribute decisively to bringing the text to life in the reader's imagination. In detailed interpretations of British novels of the 1980s and 1990s by writers such as John Berger, John Banville, Salman Rushdie, Jeanette Winterson, or J. M. Coetzee, it uncovers literary strategies for turning the sensuous experience into words and for conveying it to the reader, demonstrating how we make sense in, and of, literature.Both readers interested in the contemporary novel and in the sensuousness of the reading experience will profit from this innovative study that not only analyses the interest of contemporary authors in the senses but also pin-points literary entry points for the sensuous force of reading.

Manfred Pfister

National identity is not some naturally given or metaphysically sanctioned racial or territorial essence that only needs to be conceptualised or spelt out in discursive texts; it emerges from, takes shape in, and is constantly defined and redefined in individual and collective performances. It is in performances'ranging from the scenarios of everyday interactions to `cultural performances? such as pageants, festivals, political manifestations or sports, to the artistic performances of music, dance, theatre, literature, the visual and culinary arts and more recent media'that cultural identity and a sense of nationhood are fashioned. National identity is not an essence one is born with but something acquired in and through performances.Particularly important here are intercultural performances and transactions, and that not only in a colonial and postcolonial dimension, where such performative aspects have already been considered, but also in inner-European transactions. `Englishness? or `Britishness? and Italianita, the subject of this anthology, are staged both within each culture and, more importantly, in joint performances of difference across cultural borders. Performing difference highlights differences that `make a difference?; it `draws a line? between self and other'boundary lines that are, however, constantly being redrawn and renegotiated, and remain instable and shifting.ContentsManfred PFISTER: Introduction: Performing National Identity1. Early Modern Literary ExchangesWerner VON KOPPENFELS: `Stripping up his sleeves like some juggler?: Giordano Brunoin England, or, The Philosopher as Stylistic Mountebank Ralf HERTEL: `Mine Italian brain ?gan in your duller Britain operate most vilely?: Cymbeline and the Deconstruction of Anglo-Italian Differences 2. Italian and English Art in DialogueJohn PEACOCK: Inigo Jones and the Reform of Italian Art Alison YARRINGTON: `Made in Italy?: Sculpture and the Staging of National Identities at the International Exhibition of 1862 3. Travelling ImagesBarbara SCHAFF: Italianised Byron ? Byronised Italy Fabienne MOINE: Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Italian Poetry: Constructing National Identity and Shaping the Poetic Self Stephen GUNDLE: The `Bella Italiana? and the `English Rose?: Reflections on Two National Typologies of Feminine Beauty 4. Political NegotiationsPamela NEVILLE-SINGTON: Sex, Lies, and Celluloid: That Hamilton Woman and British Attitudes towards the Italians from the Risorgimento to the Second World War Peter VASSALLO: Italian Culture versus British Pragmatics: The Maltese Scenario David FORGACS: Gramsci's Notion of the `Popular? in Italy and Britain: A Tale of Two Cultures 179Carla DENTE: Personal Memory / Cultural Memory: Identity and Difference in Scottish-Italian Migrant Theatre5. Contemporary MediationsClaudio VISENTIN: The Theatre of the World: British-Italian Identities on the Tourism Stage Judith MUNAT: Bias and Stereotypes in the Media: The Performance of British and Italian National Identities Sara SONCINI: Re-locating Shakespeare: Cultural Negotiations in Italian Dubbed Versions of Romeo and JulietMariangela TEMPERA: Something to Declare: Italian Avengers and British Culture in La ragazza con la pistola and Appuntamento a Liverpool Anthony KING: English Fans and Italian Football: Towards a Transnational Relationship Greg WALKER: Selling England (and Italy) by the Pound: Performing National Identity in the First Phase of Progressive Rock: Jethro Tull, King Crimson, and PFM Gisela ECKER: Zuppa Inglese and Eating up Italy: Intercultural Feasts and Fantasies Notes on Contributors

Ralf Hertel

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