New Publications

Three Ways to Divide Lear’s Kingdom

Alexa Alice Joubin In the beginning of the tragedy, Shakespeare’s King Lear famously announces his abdication and decision to pass on the duty of governance to his daughters: “Divided in three our kingdom.” The scene of regal abdication of King Lear is folkloric in origin. Structurally, when the scene begins, there are other divisions paralleling…

“pray what is Man, but a Topsy-turvey Creature”

Evan R. Davis; Nicholas D. Nace Are human beings nothing more than machines? Broadview is happy to offer this contrarian argument that we are, in fact, broomsticks. We look forward to the publication of The Broadview Anthology of British Satire, 1660-1750, edited by Evan R. Davis and Nicholas D. Nace.

Philosophizing About Sport

Jason Holt Though the discipline of philosophy has been around for thousands of years, the philosophy of sport, as a distinct subdiscipline, is younger than I am, only about 50 years old. This is unsurprising if you consider the oddity of “philosophizing about sport.” Although it was about two and a half millennia ago that…

Rules Are Made to Be Broken: Teaching Traditional and Contemporary Sonnets

Ethel Rackin A distinguishing feature of Crafting Poem and Stories: A Guide to Creative Writing is the pairing of historically important literary models next to notable contemporary ones. In a chapter on traditional form, for instance, a section on sonnets includes historical background, definitions, and a pairing of traditional models with contemporary ones, demonstrating the…

The Struggle for Fame: An Interview with Charlotte Riddell

[Melissa Edmundson, editor of our new edition of Charlotte Riddell’s The Uninhabited House (1875), shares the following excerpt from Helen C. Black’s interview with Riddell, published in Notable Women Authors of the Day (1893).] Helen C. Black’s interview with Charlotte Riddell provides a fascinating insight into the author’s private life and professional career. Black visited…

Their Bodies Were the Battlefield: War, Women’s Work, and Translating Branded

Katharina Rout When I first read Emmy Hennings’s Branded, I was struck by its intimacy: a woman who talks with breathtaking honesty about her poverty, despair, and sexual exploitation. It was startling to hear her tell her story with so much wit, humor, and irony, but also to watch her struggle with religious beliefs so…

From Aristotle to the Metaverse: Understanding Disinformation and Social Media

Dr. Dan Lawrence When Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg appeared before the United States Congress in April, 2018, it was clear that many lawmakers didn’t understand how Facebook makes its money. Zuckerberg clarified: the platform sells advertisements. Now as we roll along into 2022 and beyond, Facebook is transforming into Meta and is attempting to reshape…

Cuneiform to Cattle Scapula: A Hands-On Approach to Writing Studies

Joyce Kinkead One of the standout features of A Writing Studies Primer is the emphasis on hands-on activities, framed as DIY—do it yourself—activities. Students in my history of writing class uniformly cite this approach as one of their favorites, noting how these tactile exercises cement concepts in the development of writing systems around the globe.…

Meet the Editors of The Broadview Anthology of American Literature

We want to give you the chance to get to know the excellent team of general editors that we have assembled to develop the forthcoming Broadview Anthology of American Literature. We asked each of the editors working on this exciting new anthology to tell us a little bit about themselves and how they teach American…

Illustrating Metaphysics

Jack S. Crumley II’s new book, An Introduction to Metaphysics features original illustrations by Guelph, Ontario artist, Gillian Wilson, alongside the text. These illustrations are meant to both instruct and delight: they help to reinforce the central ideas in each chapter and entertain the reader. Below are some samples of the illustrations along with their…

On Abridging Burke

Brian Clack Producing an abridgement of Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France was among the most absorbing experiences of my academic career. It also posed a notable set of challenges. Burke’s text has never before been abridged. True, weighty selections from it have been included in anthologies on conservative thought and in the…

A Broadview Summer Listening List

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It’s summer time; the sun is shining; your eyes need a break from months of staring at a screen. But that doesn’t mean you can’t catch up on all the new things we’ve got going on at Broadview! We’re lucky enough to have had some of our recent books covered on excellent podcasts. So many…

Preview of The Broadview Anthology of American Literature: George Templeton Strong

[The following is the headnote and diary entry for 13 February 1861 by the Civil War diarist George Templeton Strong that will appear in the forthcoming Broadview Anthology of American Literature. Stay tuned for further previews of the anthology as we move toward publication in 2022/23.] Born and raised in New York City, George Templeton…

Aimée Duc’s Are They Women?: Translation as an Act of Literary Recovery

[Margaret Sönser Breen and Nisha Kommattam share their thoughts on translating and editing the new Broadview edition of Are They Women? as an act of literary recovery.] The idea of translating Aimée Duc’s remarkable lesbian novel from 1901 began some four years ago. Margaret Sönser Breen was reading a study of fin-de-siècle German culture and…

Make a Track to the Water’s Edge: A Reflection on Racial Inequality at the Centennial of the 19th Amendment

[Anna Spydell, one of the editors of Dreams by Olive Schreiner, reflects on the place of Dreams in the history of women’s suffrage and the complex legacy of 20th-century suffrage.] When we set out to bring Olive Schreiner’s Dreams back into the public consciousness, we had this date, August 18, 2020, in our sights. The…

A Quantum of Solace: Lockdown, Luxury, and a New Perspective on Bond

[Jason Haslam and Julia M. Wright, editors of the new Broadview edition of Casino Royale, share their thoughts on the novel, luxury, and our current moment of lock down scarcity.] When we first agreed to write a blog on Casino Royale, COVID-19 was a serious virus spreading around the world but not yet a pandemic.…

“the triumph of hypocrisy over integrity”: Julius Bailey on America in 2020

[The following is an excerpt from the introduction to Julius Bailey’s new book, Racism, Hypocrisy, and Bad Faith: A Moral Challenge to the America I Love.] I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible to any public office of trust or profit in the Republic.…

This Land is Their Land

Char Miller[1] However polite its title, the 1891 “Petition to the Senators and Representatives of the Congress of the United States in the Behalf of the Remnants of the former Tribes of the Yosemite Indians Praying for Aid and Assistance” was anything but deferential. It offers a blunt critique of white gold miners’ brutal incursion into…

Do Protests Work?: From an 1838 People’s Charter to Today’s Climate Marches

[Barbara Leckie and Janice Schroeder, editors of the new Broadview edition of London Labour and the London Poor, invite you to join in on the conversation about Mayhew in the 21st century. What does his work have to do with where we are, and what challenges we’re facing today? To share your thoughts and contribute to the…

Herman Melville’s “Scorching Irony”

[Brian Yothers, editor of our new edition of Melville’s “Benito Cereno,” shares his thoughts on the history of the story’s reception and its context.] In the blazing heart of one of the most famous speeches in the political and literary history of the United States, his 1852 oration “What to the Slave is the Fourth…

Working Together with Henry Mayhew: An Invitation

[Barbara Leckie and Janice Schroeder, editors of the new Broadview edition of London Labour and the London Poor, invite you to join in on the conversation about Mayhew in the 21st century. What does his work have to do with where we are, and what challenges we’re facing today? To share your thoughts and contribute to…

Mad Scientist’s Guide is mad indeed! A review by Stanwix von Stuffypants

I must confess to having been dubious concerning the “merits” of this so-called Mad-Scientist’s Guide to Composition from the moment I first espied its advertisement in the solemn pages of Canonical Literature quarterly; however, because I pride myself on staying abreast of what passes for “pedagogy” these days, not to mention what the youth are…

“another claimant for the … discovery of the sources of the White Nile”: Captain Singleton and Geographers Gone Wrong

[Manushag Powell, editor of the Broadview edition of Captain Singleton, shares a piece of history on the imagined African geography of Singleton and the reception of the novel and its cartography the 19th century.] One of the main points of interest in Daniel Defoe’s piratical Captain Singleton (1720) is its extensive description of an east-to-west…

“our greatest pleasures and our deepest fears:” On Reading Children’s Literature

[What follows below is an excerpt from the introduction for students in Reading Children’s Literature, Second Edition on the varied experiences that arise when studying children’s literature.] As we’ve noted, some readers worry that analyzing cultural texts interferes with pleasure, but we might also note how unsettling it is to be confused by a text or…