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6 books match the query 'Castaways'
Empire Islands
Castaways, Cannibals, and Fantasies of ConquestRebecca Weaver-Hightower
University of Minnesota Press, 2007
Through a detailed unpacking of the castaway genre’s appeal in English literature, Empire Islands forwards our understanding of the sociopsychology of British Empire. Rebecca Weaver-Hightower argues convincingly that by helping generations of readers to make sense of—and perhaps feel better about—imperial aggression, the castaway story in effect enabled the expansion and maintenance of European empire.Empire Islands asks why so many colonial authors chose islands as the setting for their stories of imperial adventure and why so many postcolonial writers “write back” to those island castaway narratives. Drawing on insightful readings of works from Thomas More’s Utopia to Caribbean novels like George Lamming’s Water with Berries, from canonical works such as Robinson Crusoe and The Tempest to the lesser-known A Narrative of the Life and Astonishing Adventures of John Daniel by Ralph Morris, Weaver-Hightower examines themes of cannibalism, piracy, monstrosity, imperial aggression, and the concept of going native. Ending with analysis of contemporary film and the role of the United States in global neoimperialism, Weaver-Hightower exposes how island narratives continue not only to describe but to justify colonialism.Rebecca Weaver-Hightower is assistant professor of English and postcolonial studies at the University of North Dakota.
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Mariners, Renegades and Castaways
The Story of Herman Melville and the World We Live InC. L. R. James
Dartmouth College Press, 2001
Political theorist and cultural critic, novelist and cricket enthusiast, C. L. R. James (1901 - 1989) was a brilliant polymath who has been described by Edward Said as "a centrally important 20th-century figure." Through such landmark works as The Black Jacobins, Beyond a Boundary, and American Civilization, James's thought continues to influence and inspire scholars in a wide variety of fields. "There is little doubt," wrote novelist Caryl Phillips in The New Republic, "that James will come to be regarded as the outstanding Caribbean mind of the twentieth century." In his seminal work of literary and cultural criticism, Mariners, Renegades and Castaways, James anticipated many of the concerns and ideas that have shaped the contemporary fields of American and Postcolonial Studies, yet this widely influential book has been unavailable in its complete form since its original publication in 1953. A provocative study of Moby Dick in which James challenged the prevailing Americanist interpretation that opposed a "totalitarian" Ahab and a "democratic, American" Ishmael, he offered instead a vision of a factory-like Pequod whose "captain of industry" leads the "mariners, renegades and castaways" of its crew to their doom. In addition to demonstrating how such an interpretation supported the emerging US national security state, James also related the narrative of Moby Dick, and its resonance in American literary and political culture, to his own persecuted position at the height (or the depth) of the Truman/McCarthy era. It is precisely this personal, deeply original material that was excised from the only subsequent edition. With a new introduction by Donald E. Pease that places the work in its critical and cultural context, Mariners, Renegades and Castaways is once again available in its complete form.
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Mariners, Renegades and Castaways
The Story of Herman Melville and the World We Live InC. L. R. James
Brandeis University Press, 2025
A new edition of a major work of literary and cultural criticism restores C. L. R. James’s reflections about Moby Dick and political persecution.
Political theorist and cultural critic, novelist, and cricket enthusiast, C. L. R. James (1901–89) was a brilliant polymath who was described by Edward Said as “a centrally important twentieth-century figure.” Through such landmark works as The Black Jacobins, Beyond a Boundary, and American Civilization, James’s thought continues to influence and inspire scholars in a variety of fields.
In this complete edition of his seminal work of literary and cultural criticism, Mariners, Renegades, and Castaways, James anticipated many of the concerns and ideas that have shaped the contemporary fields of American and postcolonial studies. In this provocative study of Moby Dick in which he challenged the prevailing Americanist interpretation that opposed a “totalitarian” Ahab and a “democratic, American” Ishmael, James offers instead a vision of a factory-like Pequod whose “captain of industry” leads the crew to their doom. In addition to demonstrating how such an interpretation supported the United States’ emerging national security state, he also related the narrative of Moby Dick to his own persecuted position at the height of McCarthyism. It is precisely this personal, deeply original material that was excised from the first edition of this book.
With a new foreword by Professor Chanda Prescod-Weinstein—theoretical physicist, advocate for a just science, and James’s granddaughter—and an introduction by Professor Donald E. Pease at Dartmouth College that places the work in its critical and cultural context, Mariners, Renegades, and Castaways is once again available in a new edition.
Political theorist and cultural critic, novelist, and cricket enthusiast, C. L. R. James (1901–89) was a brilliant polymath who was described by Edward Said as “a centrally important twentieth-century figure.” Through such landmark works as The Black Jacobins, Beyond a Boundary, and American Civilization, James’s thought continues to influence and inspire scholars in a variety of fields.
In this complete edition of his seminal work of literary and cultural criticism, Mariners, Renegades, and Castaways, James anticipated many of the concerns and ideas that have shaped the contemporary fields of American and postcolonial studies. In this provocative study of Moby Dick in which he challenged the prevailing Americanist interpretation that opposed a “totalitarian” Ahab and a “democratic, American” Ishmael, James offers instead a vision of a factory-like Pequod whose “captain of industry” leads the crew to their doom. In addition to demonstrating how such an interpretation supported the United States’ emerging national security state, he also related the narrative of Moby Dick to his own persecuted position at the height of McCarthyism. It is precisely this personal, deeply original material that was excised from the first edition of this book.
With a new foreword by Professor Chanda Prescod-Weinstein—theoretical physicist, advocate for a just science, and James’s granddaughter—and an introduction by Professor Donald E. Pease at Dartmouth College that places the work in its critical and cultural context, Mariners, Renegades, and Castaways is once again available in a new edition.
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The Castaways
How Producers Lost Their Independence and Conjured Up the Outsider SitcomLarry Durst
Rutgers University Press, 2027
In the early 1960s a new style of situation comedy took over primetime as Bewitched, Gilligan’s Island, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., I Dream of Jeannie, My Favorite Martian, and other “Outsider Sitcoms” featuring alien characters disrupting their TV environments shot to the top of the ratings. Departing from a critical approach that understands these series as reflections of the decade’s many social disruptions, The Castaways reveals the programs as emotional responses by their creators to a more personal upheaval: their loss of influence in the broadcast industry. As network executives turned increasingly to audience research, independent producers felt the ability that had been most crucial to their success in broadcasting was being devalued: gut creative intuition. Drawing on memoirs, show treatments, and other original documents, The Castaways uncovers how leading characters on the programs served as emotional proxies for their creators’ fears of industry irrelevance as they were cast out from the corporate halls of power where their series’—and personal—fates were decided.
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The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe
The Stoke Newington EditionDaniel Defoe
Bucknell University Press, 2019
Robinson Crusoe, an adventure tale that fascinated such thinkers as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Karl Marx, Virginia Woolf, and J. M. Coetzee, has been an international best-seller for three hundred years. An adventure tale involving cannibals, pirates, and shipwrecks, it embodies economic, social, political, and philosophical themes that continue to be relevant today. Moreover, the notion of isolation on a deserted island and a fascination with survival continue to be central to countless popular cinema and television programs. This edition of the novel with its introduction, line notes, and full bibliographical notes provides a uniquely scholarly presentation of the novel. There has been no other edition like it.
Published by Bucknell University Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.
Published by Bucknell University Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.
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The Winter's Tale
William Shakespeare
Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2023
Tracy Young offers a new version of Shakespeare’s difficult tale of jealousy and redemption.
The Winter’s Tale is one of Shakespeare’s most challenging explorations of redemption and rebirth. Driven by extreme jealousy, Leontes, the King of Sicily, accuses his wife Hermione of infidelity and orders his newborn daughter to be abandoned. Sixteen years later, Leontes must reckon with the consequences of his rash decisions. Tracy Young’s version of The Winter’s Tale transforms the theatergoing experience from Shakespeare’s time to ours. This translation updates Shakespeare’s language, wordplay, and wit to engage audiences the way they would have been engaged in the early modern theater.
This translation of The Winter’s Tale was written as part of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Play On! project, which commissioned new translations of thirty-nine Shakespeare plays. These translations present work from “The Bard” in language accessible to modern audiences while never losing the beauty of Shakespeare’s verse. Enlisting the talents of a diverse group of contemporary playwrights, screenwriters, and dramaturges from diverse backgrounds, this project reenvisions Shakespeare for the twenty-first century. These volumes make these works available for the first time in print—a new First Folio for a new era.
The Winter’s Tale is one of Shakespeare’s most challenging explorations of redemption and rebirth. Driven by extreme jealousy, Leontes, the King of Sicily, accuses his wife Hermione of infidelity and orders his newborn daughter to be abandoned. Sixteen years later, Leontes must reckon with the consequences of his rash decisions. Tracy Young’s version of The Winter’s Tale transforms the theatergoing experience from Shakespeare’s time to ours. This translation updates Shakespeare’s language, wordplay, and wit to engage audiences the way they would have been engaged in the early modern theater.
This translation of The Winter’s Tale was written as part of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Play On! project, which commissioned new translations of thirty-nine Shakespeare plays. These translations present work from “The Bard” in language accessible to modern audiences while never losing the beauty of Shakespeare’s verse. Enlisting the talents of a diverse group of contemporary playwrights, screenwriters, and dramaturges from diverse backgrounds, this project reenvisions Shakespeare for the twenty-first century. These volumes make these works available for the first time in print—a new First Folio for a new era.
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