One of the most common scenes in Augustan and Romantic literature is that of a writer confronting some emblem of change and loss, most often the remains of a vanished civilization or a desolate natural landscape. Ruins and Empire traces the ruin sen…
This collection of essays by leading critics and poets charts Robert Hayden's growing reputation as a major writer of some of the twentieth century's most important poems on African-American themes, including the famed "Middle Passage" and "Frederic…
Wittgenstein is generally regarded as a difficult philosopher. People reading him sometimes see the glint of a precious stone and are aware that there are diamonds to be found if only they knew how to look. His prose can seem obscure, yet Wittgenste…
Laurence Goldstein gives a straightforward and lively account of some of the central themes of Wittgenstein's writings on meaning, mind, and mathematics. He does this both by drawing on Wittgenstein's work to show how his thinking developed over tim…
Diverse thoughts on the female body as both anatomical object and cultural construction.
The American Poet at the Movies: A Critical History presents a series of case studies that shows how poets perceived the new technology of cinema as a rival threatening to their prestige, but also as a sister art deserving of encouragement. Each cha…
"This is the first work to survey the myths created by the modern literary imagination about technology." -Herbert Sussman" . . . succeeds admirably, fascinatingly on all counts . . . " -American Literature" . . . a landmark in the study of literary…
Is there such a thing as Los Angeles poetry? Laurence Goldstein's Poetry Los Angeles: Reading the Essential Poems of the City opens new windows into the L.A. literary world, illuminating sites as distinct as Hollywood, Santa Monica, Venice beach, th…
This is a memoire-these are my memories. Some of it may be factual. I am confident that much of it is not-it is what I remember-not necessarily what happened. I am used to my memory being erratic and erroneous. If you choose to read this book be war…
Southern California is one of two significant places in Laurence Goldstein's fourth collection of poems. A native of Los Angeles, the author re-encounters the vivid ghosts of an exotic personal landscape: Criswell the TV prophet, Madame Nhu at the B…
This is a far-reaching collection of essays, poetry, fiction, and writing on Ann Arbor by some of the great thinkers and writers of the last two centuries. ""Writing Ann Arbor"" collects fiction, essay, poetry, memoir, and drama by Max Apple, Charle…
Brevity in conversation is a window to the workings of the mind. This book brings it into prominence as both a multifaceted topic of deep philosophical importance and a phenomenon that serves as a testing ground for theories in linguistics, psycholi…
