{"title":"Contemporary Cultures of Reception","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSeries\r\n            editor:\u003c\/strong\u003e Brian May, Northern Illinois University, USA\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Culture, verb [T]: to \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/dictionary.cambridge.org\/us\/dictionary\/english\/breed\" title=\"breed\" style=\"text-decoration: underline\"\u003ebreed\u003c\/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/dictionary.cambridge.org\/us\/dictionary\/english\/keep\" title=\"keep\" style=\"text-decoration: underline\"\u003ekeep\u003c\/a\u003e \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/dictionary.cambridge.org\/us\/dictionary\/english\/particular\" title=\"particular\" style=\"text-decoration: underline\"\u003eparticular\u003c\/a\u003e \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/dictionary.cambridge.org\/us\/dictionary\/english\/living\" title=\"living\" style=\"text-decoration: underline\"\u003eliving\u003c\/a\u003e things in \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/dictionary.cambridge.org\/us\/dictionary\/english\/order\" title=\"order\" style=\"text-decoration: underline\"\u003eorder\u003c\/a\u003e to get the \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/dictionary.cambridge.org\/us\/dictionary\/english\/substance\" title=\"substances\" style=\"text-decoration: underline\"\u003esubstances\u003c\/a\u003e they \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/dictionary.cambridge.org\/us\/dictionary\/english\/produce\" title=\"produce\" style=\"text-decoration: underline\"\u003eproduce\u003c\/a\u003e”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e(\u003cem\u003eThe Cambridge Dictionary,\u003c\/em\u003e https:\/\/dictionary.cambridge.org\/us\/dictionary\/english\/culture).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat does it mean to “culture” a book? What are the “substances” that may be “produce[d]” by the “breed[ing] and keep[ing]” of those “particular living things” known as literary works? These questions are at the heart of a new series, \u003cem\u003eContemporary\r\n            Cultures of Reception\u003c\/em\u003e, which will bring to the table the substantive, substantial \u003cem\u003eproduce\u003c\/em\u003e won by cultivating significant literary creations of the past (i.e., “Great Books”). The aim is to yield fresh, viable creations in the present, thereby enabling the literature of the past to live on and flourish for the 21st-century reader.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe series encourages a particular kind of engagement with imaginative literature, one of a kind that is itself imaginative, creative, and literary. Our premise is that literary works are not so much read as \u003cem\u003ereceived\u003c\/em\u003e; rather than require a de-coding of a literary plot, they invite its performing— a deliberate cross-breeding between the original author and the imagination of the modern author\/reader.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTo that end, each book in the series should include two parts: a novella-length work of fiction— or a substantial longer-form piece, such as a sequence of poems, of another genre — paired with a prose supplement, introductory or contextual, that illuminates it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe creative work should be recognisably the fruit of sustained engagement with a particular work, period, genre, or style — one of some recognised worth, and, crucially, one that is still “living”: that is, a work that continues to attract readers and critics rather than being of merely antiquarian interest. Sharply focussed on this host work or works, the creative portion should attempt a “genuine dialogue” with it; it should make us ask, what has been changed, and why. Rather than merely update a classic, then, transposing its setting and transforming character and plot, et al., so as to feature 21\u003csup\u003est\u003c\/sup\u003e-century concerns, it should send us back to its host text with fresh ideas-- and questions-- about it. Like J. M. Coetzee's \u003cem\u003eFoe\u003c\/em\u003e, which keeps many of the bones of Daniel DeFoe’s \u003cem\u003eRobinson Crusoe\u003c\/em\u003e while reshaping the telling entirely, it should compel us to find its famous host work more truly and more strange. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe prose piece should be introductory, expository, explanatory, exploratory, contextual, subtextual, or in some way an illuminating combination of two or more of these. A prose \u003cem\u003ecomplement\u003c\/em\u003e is also a possibility, an essay of interest in itself and one which, focusing on the target work, connects with the creative work in ways more implicit.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eF\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eor more\r\n            information or to discuss your book proposal\u003c\/strong\u003e please contact the series editor:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBrian May, Northern Illinois University,  \u003ca href=\"mailto:bmay1@niu.edu\" style=\"text-decoration: underline\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ebmay1@niu.edu\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\r\n        \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eor Commissioning Editor: Becky Taylor, \u003ca href=\"mailto:b.taylor@exeterpress.co.uk\" style=\"text-decoration: underline\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eb.taylor@exeterpress.co.uk\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[],"url":"https:\/\/www.exeterpress.co.uk\/collections\/contemporary-cultures-of-reception.oembed","provider":"University of Exeter Press","version":"1.0","type":"link"}