BOOKS
Polish Literature as World Literature
New York: Bloomsbury, 2023
ISBN 9781501387104 (hardback) | ISBN 9781501387142 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781501387111 (epub) | ISBN 9781501387128 (pdf) | ISBN 9781501387135
Series: Literatures as World Literature
256 pages.
Polish literature, Polish Literature — History and Criticism, Literary criticism
About the Book:
This carefully curated collection consists of 16 chapters by leading Polish and world literature scholars from the United States, Canada, Italy, and, of course, Poland. An historical approach gives readers a panoramic view of Polish authors and their explicit or implicit contributions to world literature. Indeed, the volume shows how Polish authors, from Jan Kochanowski in the 16th century to the 2018 Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk, have engaged with their foreign counterparts and other traditions, active participants in the global literary network and the conversations of their day.
The volume features views of Polish literature and culture within theories of world literature and literary systems, with a particular attention paid to the resurgence of the idea of the physical book as a cultural artifact. This perspective is especially important since so much of today's global literary output stems from Anglophone perceptions of what constitutes literary quality and tastes. The collection also sheds light on specific issues pertaining to Poland, such as the idea of Polishness, and global phenomena, including social and economic advancement as well as ecological degradation. Some of the authors discussed, like the Romantic poet Adam Mickiewicz or the 1980 Nobel laureate Czeslaw Milosz, were renowned far beyond the borders of their country, while others, like the contemporary travel writer and novelist Andrzej Stasiuk, embrace regionalism, seeing as they do in their immediate surroundings a synecdoche of the world at large. Nevertheless, the picture of Polish literature and Polish authors that emerges from these articles is that of a diverse, cosmopolitan cohort engaged in a mutually rewarding relationship with what the late French critic Pascale Casanova has called “the world republic of letters.”
Available through Bloomsbury, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Waterstones.
Houdini
Foreword to Houdini by Bob Brown, edited by Craig Saper. (Baltimore: Roving Eye Press, 2017). Print.
ISBN: 978-0-692-99110-7
34 pages.
Poetry, Poetry History & Criticism
About the Book:
Bob Brown (1886-1959) was an American writer and publisher, central to the pulp fiction factory of the early twentieth century, the expatriate avant-garde in France, and the Bohemian arts scene in Greenwich Village in the 1950s. Originally published in 1933, Houdini was a pamphlet-length book part of The Modern Edition poetry series, under the editorial direction of Kathleen Tankersley Young. This new edition includes a Foreword by K. A. Wisniewski, an Introduction by Craig Saper, and a new cover and text design. It is the latest title from the revamped Roving Eye Press, the press originally started by Brown in 1930.
Available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble & Roving Eye Press.
Making Faces
Making Faces. (Baltimore, MD: Hot Air Press, 2016). Print.
ISBN: 978-0-6927-2205-3
36 pages.
Poetry
About the Book:
In the chapbook Making Faces, poet K. A. Wisniewski explores themes of childhood and heritage, travel, memory, and love. The collection excavates both familiar and strange, foreign and domestic, scenes and investigates feelings of awkwardness and joy, intimacy and insecurity, familiar to us all. It is a work that ultimately addresses how we construct both experience and meaning, and, sometimes clumsily, plant new roots.
Available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million & Wordery.
The Comedy of Dave Chappelle: Critical Essays
Edited. The Comedy of Dave Chappelle: Critical Essays. (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2009). Print; electronic, 2010.
ISBN: 978-0-7864-4188-4 (Print)
ISBN: 978-0-7864-5427-3 (Electronic)
245 pages.
Film/Television, Performing Arts, Interdisciplinary Studies,
Popular Culture, African American Studies, Comedy
About the Book:
Perhaps best known for his highly acclaimed, short-lived Comedy Central program Chappelle’s Show, Dave Chappelle is widely regarded as one of today’s most culturally significant comedians. Through the sketch comedy show and his stand-up act, Chappelle has offered truly memorable commentary on racial and ethnic tensions in American society. This book assembles 13 essays that examine motifs common in Chappelle’s comedy, including technology and digital culture; race, gender, and ethnicity; economics and politics; music, television, film, and performance; and memory, language, and identity.
Available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble & McFarland.