Author: J. E. Lendon File Type: pdf Jon Lendon offers a bold new analysis of how Roman government worked in the first four centuries AD. He contends that a despotism rooted in force and fear enjoyed widespread support among the ruling classes of the provinces on the basis of an aristocratic culture of honor shared by rulers and ruled. **Review ...Empire of Honour is a very fine book. It is a delight to read and opens up for exploration subtle aspects of the exercise of power in the Roman empire.--Hans Van Wees, University College London Excellent....If we make of Lendons book a garden, than it is one both beautiful and luxuriant. It is, in fact, a garden that must be visited by anyone interested in understanding how the imperial Romans governed their empire.--Bryn Mawr Classical Review About the Author J. E. Lendon teaches history at the University of Virginia. He is the author of Empire of Honour The Art of Government in the Roman World.

Author: Robert T. Tally File Type: pdf The novels of Kurt Vonnegut depict a profoundly absurd and distinctly postmodern world. But in this critical study, Robert Tally argues that Vonnegut himself is actually a modernist, who is less interested in indulging in the free play of signifiers than in attempting to construct a model that could encompass the American experience at the end of the twentieth century. As a modernist wrestling with a postmodern condition, Vonnegut makes use of diverse and sometimes eccentric narrative techniques (such as metafiction, collage, and temporal slippages) to project a comprehensive vision of life in the United States. Vonneguts novels thus become experiments in making sense of the radical transformations of self and society during that curious, unstable period called, perhaps ironically, the American Century. An untimely figure, Vonnegut develops a postmodern iconography of American civilization while simultaneously acknowledging the impossibility of a truly comprehensive representation.ReviewKurt Vonnegut and the American Novel is an exciting re-evaluation of this much overlooked authors work. Tally deftly rereads Vonneguts novels, situating them in an American tradition of fiction that seeks to make sense of the larger American experience. The book skilfully interweaves a germane selection of literary and critical theory to convincingly argue that Vonnegut should be reassessed as a substantial Modernist rather than Postmodernist writer. (David Simmons, Lecturer in American Literature, Film and Television Studies, Northampton University, UK) Robert Tallys book makes a serious scholarly contribution not only to Vonnegut studies, but to the field of contemporary American literature in general. Arguing persuasively that Vonnegut is a reluctant postmodernist, a misanthropic humanist with modernist longings, Tally situates his readings of Vonneguts fourteen novels amid recent critical debates about American literature, about postmodernism, and about what it means to be a human being. The book is that rarest of academic works, at once critically well-informed and eminently readable. (Susan Farrell, Professor of English, College of Charleston, USA) Kurt Vonnegut and the American Novel is an exciting re-evaluation of this much overlooked authors work. Tally deftly rereads Vonneguts novels, situating them in an American tradition of fiction that seeks to make sense of the larger American experience. The book skilfully interweaves a germane selection of literary and critical theory to convincingly argue that Vonnegut should be reassessed as a substantial Modernist rather than Postmodernist writer. (Sanford Lakoff) Robert Tallys book makes a serious scholarly contribution not only to Vonnegut studies, but to the field of contemporary American literature in general. Arguing persuasively that Vonnegut is a reluctant postmodernist, a misanthropic humanist with modernist longings, Tally situates his readings of Vonneguts fourteen novels amid recent critical debates about American literature, about postmodernism, and about what it means to be a human being. The book is that rarest of academic works, at once critically well-informed and eminently readable. (Sanford Lakoff) Book DescriptionA study of Kurt Vonneguts novels, approaching them as literary experiments attempting to comprehend the American experience in the postmodern condition.