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Fairy Tale Darwinism in the 21st Century @ The Huffington Post

November 13, 2012 by

The Huffington Post takes on the renaissance, or not as Jack Zipes’ notes, of fairy tales with this live interview with Zipes, Tim Manley (generator of the tumblr fairy tales for twentysomethings), Susan Kim, and Donald Haase. The interview was sparked by this Prospect article by Adam Kirsch on the durability of fairy tales (“Neverending Stories” September 1, 2012) and the anniversary of the publication of the Brothers Grimm, but it quickly dives into 21st century fairy tales, television shows like Grimm and Once upon a Time, films like Snow White and the Huntsman, and even tumblr versions of fairy tales where princesses update their Facebook statuses. Enjoy the video and then read on with these Princeton University Press books:

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The Irresistible Fairy Tale
The Cultural and Social History of a Genre
Jack Zipes

Co-Winner of the 2012 Wayland D. Hand Prize, History and Folklore Section, American Folklore Society
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The Fairies Return
Or, New Tales for Old
Compiled by Peter Davies
Edited and with an introduction by Maria Tatar
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Lucky Hans and Other Merz Fairy Tales
Kurt Schwitters
Translated and introduced by Jack Zipes
Illustrated by Irvine Peacock
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The Cloak of Dreams
Chinese Fairy Tales
Béla Balázs
Translated and introduced by Jack Zipes
Illustrated by Mariette Lydis

 

Filed Under: Literature, Twitter

Launch of The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics— “004″!

October 22, 2012 by

We were delighted to host the launch of the Fourth Edition of The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics at the London Review Bookshop last Thursday evening. Contributors, well-wishers and lifelong fans gathered together to celebrate this magnificent book. Among them was the contributor on Poetry of Russia, Andrew Kahn, who was kind enough to share his admiration for this much-loved work in a speech:

“Like the appearance of a new James Bond film, the appearance of the fourth edition of The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics—004!—is cause for jubilation.

 
This new edition is a magnificent book and achievement. Was there ever a work that taught us more about the ideal and the practical, the historical and the theoretical? Was there ever a work that in a single volume ranged across so many forms of the imagination? Perhaps the Bible, but then for many of its readers, and I include myself, the Princeton Encyclopedia is something of a Bible, containing revelations, divine writings, miracles of concision and lightly worn authority, the precepts of wisdom literature and abundant storytelling. Except that the God of Poetics wears her learning lightly. While deeply serious, and executed with great technical finish, this Good Book is a lovable and playful work. One would want to praise it in terms commensurate it with its contents and achievement. One would therefore want to be a ‘Meistersinger’ (p. 860) gripped by a ‘furor poeticus’ (p.531), ‘inspired’ (p.709) with ‘intensity’ (p. 710) to dithyrambic flights (p.371), to new heights of ‘agudeza’ (p.26), to praise Princeton Press ‘phonesthemically’ (p.1038) in rhyme, near rhyme or even ottava rima, to lavish ‘hovering accents’ (p.640) or devise hypograms (p.649), to roar with leonine rhymes or fire a cybertext, and then to repeat the pythiambic ode, a paplindrome of rispetto or, if you all joined in, to stage a ‘poetry slam’ (p.1070)—a Zulu izibongo (p. 1553) or an epinikion in the Pindaric mode.

 
It’s not news that the art of poetry has many rules and forms from ‘agudeza’ to ‘Zulu’. But the Princeton Encyclopedia always manages to make it new. This indispensable manual has a history of being savoured and cherished, and the fourth edition will instruct and inspire faithful users and new readers alike. Its reach is global–the expanded selection of national chapters bears witness to the universality and vitality of poetry. It’s worth its considerable weight in gold (but well priced so have no fear). But there’s a further aspect to the Princeton Encyclopedia that I find profoundly wonderful. Poetry as we see it assembled, explored, taxonomized, appreciated and renewed here is a mirror of civilizations and hearts and minds. It turns out that poetry is nothing less than the sum total of virtually everything that goes into thinking and writing about life. In fact, one has only to glance at topical chapters to see that poetry IS life because poetry goes hand in hand with anthropology, belief, culture, dance, gender, history, linguistics, music, painting, philosophy, politics, psychology, religion, science, technology and therapy. And if I might strike a personal note, there are many reference works about poetry, but there is only one that commands universal respect. Contributing a chapter on my subject, and writing an essayistic account of the lives and lines of the poets of Russia, was a privilege and uplifting responsibility.


Horace, a grand old man of poet legislators and sometimes a killjoy, says ‘Nil admirari est’—‘It’s better not to admire’. But the learning, style and sheer scale of Princeton Encyclopedia is worthy of Horace’s own famous Poetics, now fitted for our times yet ‘more lasting than bronze’. 007 may only have so many lives, 004 is imperishable! The contributors, editors and publishers deserve all our ungrudging admiration, congratulations and thanks for the latest incarnation of this tremendous work of learning and spirit.”

 
Andrew Kahn — Contributor, Poetry of Russia

Filed Under: Course Use, Events, Literature, Poetry, Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, Fourth Edition, PUP Blogging Authors, PUP Europe, Reference, Twitter, United Kingdom

Books… the prequel to the iPhone?

October 9, 2012 by

Slide #8 is my favorite in this lovely article at The Huffington Post by author Leah Price. Slide 7 describes a Tumblr site called Parents on Phones, but Slide #8 demonstrates that 21st-century parents aren’t the only ones distracted by their reading material. Go read the complete article to discover other diverse ways books are used today and were used in the Victorian era.

Filed Under: Literature, Publishing, Twitter

‘Celebrate Your Freedom to Read’ – It’s Banned Books Week!

October 3, 2012 by

This week (September 30−October 6, 2012) is Banned Books Week! According to the ALA, Banned Books Week “brings together the entire book community–librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers of all types–in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular.” In celebrating this week, the ALA draws national attention to the harms of censorship. Check out ALA’s list of frequently challenged or banned Classics.

We’ve compiled a list of PUP books to celebrate the week. We hope you’ll share with us some of your favorite banned books!

Those Who Valued Intellectual Freedom:

Check out the Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Barbara B. Oberg, General Editor:
“Our liberty cannot be guarded but by the freedom of the press, nor that be limited without danger of losing it.” –Thomas Jefferson to John Jay, 1786.

From The Quotable Thoreau, edited by Jeffrey S. Cramer:
“Freedom of speech! It hath not entered into your hearts to conceive what those words mean. It is not leave given me by your sect to say this or that; it is when leave is given to your sect to withdraw. The church, the state, the school, the magazine, think they are liberal and free! It is the freedom of a prison-yard. I ask only that one fourth part of my honest thoughts be spoken aloud” (98). –Written November 16, 1858, in his Journal, vol. XI, p. 324

The Story of America: Essays on Origins by Jill Lepore:
Check out the proclamations of freedom from Thomas Paine, Benjamin Franklin, or Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in Lepore’s new history that argues that Americans have wrestled with the idea of democracy by telling stories. Here’s the Introduction.

Kierkegaard’s Writings, Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong, Series Editors:
“How absurd men are! They never use the liberties they have, they demand those they do not have. They have freedom of thought, they demand freedom of speech.”– from Either/Or

The Banned:

The Fairies Return: Or, New Tales for Old, Compiled by Peter Davies, Edited and with an introduction by Maria Tatar:
According to the ALA , Grimms’ ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ was once banned because “The basket carried by Little Red Riding Hood contained a bottle of wine, which condones the use of alcohol.” Check out the Introduction to Davies’ compilation of modernist fairy tales, here.

Two Cheers for Anarchism, by James C. Scott:
Lastly, celebrate your right to rebel and read any banned book you’d like! See like an anarchist: read Scott’s Preface.

Enjoy the week, all!

Filed Under: Books To Add To Your Reading List, Literature, Princeton University Press, Twitter

UVA Today writes “Poetry Encyclopedia Has Something for Everybody”

September 11, 2012 by

Sometimes the headline says it all! Anne E. Bromley wrote up this feature about the long-awaited Fourth Edition of the Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics (PEPP), edited by an entirely new team of scholars under Editor in Chief Roland Greene.

The feature includes interviews with PEPP General Editor Stephen Cushman and Associate Editor Jahan Ramazani, both in the English Department at the University of Virginia.

If you’re on Facebook and are a fan of the new PEPP, make sure you check out (and “Like”) the Facebook page, where you can find this and other stories about the PEPP Fourth Edition.

Filed Under: American Literature, Literature, Poetry, Reference, Twitter, World History, Writing

The Lure of a Fairy Tale

July 26, 2012 by

Ever ponder the alluring quality of a fairy tale? …The curious draw of Disney adaptations of these tales? …Or the possible origins and evolution of any given tale, rhyme, or story? In his latest book, The Irresistible Fairy Tale, author Jack Zipes explains why societies use fairy tales to give meaning to human life. Why were fairy tales created and how far back can we trace their beginnings? Why are these stories retold, reimagined, and continually reappearing from antiquity to modern times? Zipes argues:

“We cannot explain why the origins of the fairy tale are so inexplicable and elusive. But we can elucidate why they continue to be irresistible and breathe memetically through us, offering hope that we can change ourselves while changing the world” (20).

In his exploration of how and why fairy tales shape human nature and our world, Zipes offers the reader a profound view of the fairy tale, and a take on the nature of these tales that results from his many years of devotion to the genre.

Eager to take a look? Check out Chapter 1 of The Irresistible Fairy Tale, here.

Filed Under: Literature, Princeton University Press, Twitter

A Book’s Worth

July 3, 2012 by

In a recent piece in the NPR Books section, writer Amanda Katz asks an interesting question: Will Your Children Inherit Your E-Books? She writes:

‘But when I think of sorting through the boxes of my grandmother’s books — even the ones we couldn’t keep, or didn’t want —and what we found there, I am grateful not to have been handed her Amazon password instead. Among all the gifts of the electronic age, one of the most paradoxical might be to illuminate something we are beginning to trade away: the particular history, visible and invisible, that can be passed down through the vessel of an old book, inscribed by the hands and the minds of readers who are gone.’

Katz’s question arises as a response to Leah Price’s latest book, How to Do Things with Books in Victorian Britain. Among many other questions Price’s book ponders, How to Do Things with Books in Victorian Britain asks how our present culture came to frown on using books for any purpose other than reading. From knickknacks to wastepaper, Price argues that books mattered to the Victorians in ways that cannot be explained by their printed content alone. And whether displayed, defaced, exchanged, or discarded, printed matter participated, and still participates, in a range of transactions that stretches far beyond reading.

In the digital age of e-Readers, devices, and digital media, what benefits do we sacrifice—that are both tangible and intangible?

Check out the Introduction to Price’s book, here.

Filed Under: Literature, Princeton University Press, Twitter

BOOK FACT FRIDAY

April 27, 2012 by

In celebration of National Poetry Month, here’s a great fact from one of our latest poetry books, The Rise and Fall of Meter:

FACT: “A group of scholars under the name of the ‘Philological Society’ met in London in 1830 with the aim of combining the old classical philology with the new comparative philology. By 1842, Edwin Guest founded the English Philological Society, whose published intentions were to ‘investigate the Philological Illustration of the Classical Writers of Greece and Rome; and to investigate the ‘Structure, Affinities, and the History of Languages’ both in England and in other countries. This is, of course, the society that eventually created the New English Dictionary (NED) and its members included, at one time or another, NED editors James Henry Murray and Richard Chevenix Trench, as well as Alexander Ellis and Henry Sweet, both late-century pioneers in the study of English phonology.”

The Rise and Fall of Meter:
Poetry and English National Culture, 1860—1930
by Meredith Martin

Why do we often teach English poetic meter by the Greek terms iamb and trochee? How is our understanding of English meter influenced by the history of England’s sense of itself in the nineteenth century? Not an old-fashioned approach to poetry, but a dynamic, contested, and inherently nontraditional field, “English meter” concerned issues of personal and national identity, class, education, patriotism, militarism, and the development of English literature as a discipline. The Rise and Fall of Meter tells the unknown story of English meter from the late eighteenth century until just after World War I. Uncovering a vast and unexplored archive in the history of poetics, Meredith Martin shows that the history of prosody is tied to the ways Victorian England argued about its national identity. Gerard Manley Hopkins, Coventry Patmore, and Robert Bridges used meter to negotiate their relationship to England and the English language; George Saintsbury, Matthew Arnold, and Henry Newbolt worried about the rise of one metrical model among multiple competitors. The pressure to conform to a stable model, however, produced reactionary misunderstandings of English meter and the culture it stood for. This unstable relationship to poetic form influenced the prose and poems of Robert Graves, Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen, W. B. Yeats, Ezra Pound, and Alice Meynell. A significant intervention in literary history, this book argues that our contemporary understanding of the rise of modernist poetic form was crucially bound to narratives of English national culture.

“This innovative book changes the prosodic landscape of modernism and Victorianism—it shows that rather than constituting a dramatic break with outworn Victorian metrics, modernist experiment is continuous with Victorian experiment. From Hopkins to Owen, and Bridges to Pound, this book’s vital and many-sided topics stretch across World War I and come alive through meticulous writing.”—Isobel Armstrong, University of London

We invite you to read the Introduction here: http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/i9715.pdf

Filed Under: Book Fact Friday, Literature, Poetry

The long history of Nabokov’s Eugene Onegin

March 19, 2012 by

At the Paris Review, Sarah Funke Butler details the curious history of Vladimir Nabokov’s translation of Eugene Onegin by Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin. Nabokov translated, re-translated, revised, and rerevised the English-language version of the book for almost three decades starting with translations for his classes and ending just before his death with the publication of the 1972 Bollingen edition by Princeton University Press.

Complete with lost friendships, New York Review of Books correspondence wars, and illustrations of Nabokov’s original proofs and edits, the article at the Paris Review is must read for publishers and readers.

It is good to note that Princeton University Press continues to keep this translation in print:

Eugene Onegin: A Novel in Verse: Text
Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin
Translated by Vladimir Nabokov

Eugene Onegin: A Novel in Verse: Commentary
Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin
Translated by Vladimir Nabokov

Filed Under: Literature, Princeton University Press, Publishing, Twitter

This Week’s Book Giveaway

February 6, 2012 by

This week’s book giveaway is The Paradox of Love by Pascal Bruckner, translated by Steven Rendall and with an afterword by Richard Golsan.

The sexual revolution is justly celebrated for the freedoms it brought—birth control, the decriminalization of abortion, the liberalization of divorce, greater equality between the sexes, women’s massive entry into the workforce, and more tolerance of homosexuality. But as Pascal Bruckner, one of France’s leading writers, argues in this lively and provocative reflection on the contradictions of modern love, our new freedoms have also brought new burdens and rules—without, however, wiping out the old rules, emotions, desires, and arrangements: the couple, marriage, jealousy, the demand for fidelity, the war between constancy and inconstancy. It is no wonder that love, sex, and relationships today are so confusing, so difficult, and so paradoxical.

Drawing on history, politics, psychology, literature, pop culture, and current events, this book—a best seller in France—exposes and dissects these paradoxes. With his customary brilliance and wit, Bruckner traces the roots of sexual liberation back to the Enlightenment in order to explain love’s supreme paradox, epitomized by the 1960s oxymoron of “free love”: the tension between freedom, which separates, and love, which attaches. Ashamed that our sex lives fail to live up to such liberated ideals, we have traded neuroses of repression for neuroses of inadequacy, and we overcompensate: “Our parents lied about their morality,” Bruckner writes, but “we lie about our immorality.”

Mixing irony and optimism, Bruckner argues that, when it comes to love, we should side neither with the revolutionaries nor the reactionaries. Rather, taking love and ourselves as we are, we should realize that love makes no progress and that its messiness, surprises, and paradoxes are not merely the sources of its pain—but also of its pleasure and glory.

“Pascal Bruckner is one of the most original, and least academic, of the new French philosophers. He has a mordant wit, a feeling for the pregnant sentence, and his dissection of the myths of romantic love—too elegantly done to be called a ‘deconstruction’—is ideal reading for lovers of paradox, and even for those still in love with love’s paradox.”—Adam Gopnik, author of Paris to the Moon and The Table Comes First

We invite you to read the Introduction here: http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/i9679.pdf

The random draw for this book with be Friday 2/10 at 3 pm EST. Be sure to like us on Facebook if you haven’t already to be entered to win!

Filed Under: Book Giveaway, European History, Literature, Philosophy

“The Novel and the Sea” wins the 2012 Barbara and George Perkins Prize

January 20, 2012 by

Congratulations to Margaret Cohen, whose book The Novel and the Sea has won the 2012 Barbara and George Perkins Prize from The International Society for the Study of Narrative. The prize is awarded to the book making the most significant contribution to the study of narrative in a given year.

“This book is bracing and exciting, an adventure in its own right. It skillfully makes its compelling case about the role played by maritime craft in the history of the adventure novel, and about the role played by adventure in the literary realm more generally. It will provoke thought, argument, and revision of some long-held truisms, especially about the importance of the novel of manners, and of psychological realism in prose forms of the modern West.”–John Plotz, Brandeis University

 

Filed Under: Awards, Books To Add To Your Reading List, Literature, Twitter, Writing

New Literature Catalog

January 6, 2012 by

We invite you to check out our new 2012 literature catalog at: http://press.princeton.edu/catalogs/lit12.pdf

You will find new books such as The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, Michelangelo, Enigmas of Identity, Whatever Gets You through the Night, and more. New paperbacks are also available—great titles such as Allegory, Lincoln on Race and Slavery, and Not for Profit.

The MLA meeting is going on now in Seattle. We’re there at booth no. 408. Stop by to say hello and browse new books.

Filed Under: American Literature, Literature, New Catalog, Poetry, Twitter
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