The Literary Studies Shelf

Race & Affect In Early Modern English Literature
Carol Mejia LaPerle
ACMRS Press
https://acmrspress.com
9780866986922, $29.95, HC, 180pp

https://www.amazon.com/Affect-Early-Modern-English-Literature/dp/0866986928

Synopsis: Compiled and edited by Carol Mejia Laperle, the contributors to "= Race and Affect in Early Modern English Literature" collectively put the fi= elds of critical race studies and affect theory into dialogue.

Doing so opens a new set of questions: What are the emotional experiences o=
f racial formation and racist ideologies? How do feelings (through the phys= ical senses, emotional passions, or sexual encounters) come to signify race=
? What is the affective register of anti-blackness that pervades canonical = literature? How can these visceral forms of racism be resisted in discourse=
and in practice?

By investigating how race feels, "Race and Affect in Early Modern English L= iterature" offers new ways of reading and interpreting literary traditions,=
religious differences, gendered experiences, class hierarchies, sexuality,=
and social identities.

So far scholars have shaped the discussion of race in the early modern peri=
od by focusing on topics such as genealogy, language, economics, religion, = skin color, and ethnicity. "Race and Affect in Early Modern English Literat= ure" however, offers something new: it considers racializing processes as v= isceral, affective experiences.

Critique: Deftly organized into three major sections (Racial Formations of = Affective Communities; Racialized Affects of Sex and Gender; Feelings and F= orms of Anti-Blackness), "Race and Affect in Early Modern English Literatur=
e" will be of particular value to readers with an interest in literary crit= icism, race and ethnicity in literature, and the philosophy of race as refl= ected and influenced by literature and drama. A seminal work of collective = scholarship, "Race and Affect in Early Modern English Literature" is highly=
recommended for personal, professional, and academic library Literary Stud= ies collections. It should be noted for students, academia, and non-special= ist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Race and Affect i=
n Early Modern English Literature" is also available in a paperback edition=
(9780866986588, $19.95).

Editorial Note: Carol Mejia LaPerle (https://people.wright.edu/carol.mejia-= laperle) is Professor and Honors Advisor for the English Department at Wrig=
ht State University.

Tragic Encounters
Maksim Hanukai
University of Wisconsin Press
728 State Street, Suite 443, Madison, WI 53706-1418
www.uwpress.wisc.edu
9780299341404, $89.95, HC

https://uwpress.wisc.edu/books/6082.htm

Synopsis: Literary scholars largely agree that the Romantic period altered = the definition of tragedy, but they have confined their analyses to Western=
European authors. Maksim Hanukai introduces a new, illuminating figure to = this narrative, arguing that Russia's national poet, Alexander Pushkin (179= 9-1837), can be understood as a tragic Romantic poet, although in a differe=
nt mold than his Western counterparts.

Many of Pushkin's works move seamlessly between the closed world of traditi= onal tragedy and the open world of Romantic tragic drama, and yet they foll=
ow neither the cathartic program prescribed by Aristotle nor the redemptive=
mythologies of the Romantics. Instead, the idiosyncratic and artistically = mercurial Pushkin seized upon the newly unstable tragic mode to develop mul= tiple, overlapping tragic visions.

Providing new, innovative readings of such masterpieces as The Gypsies, Bor=
is Godunov, The Little Tragedies, and The Bronze Horseman, with the publica= tion of "Tragic Encounters: Pushkin and European Romanticism", Professor Ma= ksim Hanukai sheds light on an unexplored aspect of Pushkin's work, while a= lso challenging reigning theories about the fate of tragedy in the Romantic=
period.

Critique: Very highly recommended for the personal reading lists of student=
s, academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the lif=
e and work of Alexander Pushing, as well as a core addition to community, c= ollege, and university library 19th Century European Literary & Poetry Stud= ies collections in general, and Alexander Pushkin curriculum studies lists =
in particular. It should be noted further that Professor Maksim Hanukai's s= eminal study, "Tragic Encounters: Pushkin and European Romanticism" is enha= nced for the reader with the inclusion of a ten page informative Introducti= on, forty- four pages of Notes, and a fourteen page Index

Editorial Note: Maksim Hanukai (https://gns.wisc.edu/staff/hanukai-maksim) =
is an assistant professor of German, Nordic, and Slavic studies at the Univ= ersity of Wisconsin-Madison.

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