Malaspina English professor publishes two books on literature

Dr. Richard J. Lane, an English professor at Malaspina University-College in Nanaimo, has recently added to his extensive publication list with two new academic books, called Fifty Key Literary Theorists (London & New York: Routledge) and The Postcolonial Novel (Cambridge: Polity).

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Fifty Key Literary Theorists explains and summarizes the works of leading twentieth-century philosophers, critics, psychoanalytical theorists and other key thinkers in the humanities, who have had a major impact upon the study of literature around the world. 

“My aim was to tackle complex concepts and important ideas, explaining them in clear and understandable ways,” said Lane. 

“The average reader also needs to know the historical reasons concerning why thinkers have developed new approaches to the study of the humanities.”

The Postcolonial Novel is a closely related book, because it examines key novelists and novels from postcolonial countries around the world.  Novelists such as J.M. Coetzee, Chinua Achebe, Ngugi wa Thiongo, Bessie Head, Salman Rushdie and Arundhati Roy, are each explored, with focussed discussions on their novels that have caused the most critical debate.  In many of these cases, the critical debate is still lively and ongoing.

Previous books by Lane include Jean Baudrillard (2000), Mrs. Dalloway: Literary Masterpieces (2001), Beckett and Philosophy (2002), Contemporary British Fiction (2003) Functions of The Derrida Archive: Philosophical Receptions (2003), and Reading Walter Benjamin: Writing Through The Catastrophe (2005).  He has also published widely on Canadian literature, with focus on contemporary First Nations literature and authors from the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Pacific Northwest.

For more books by Lane visit http://web.viu.ca/richardlane/index.htm. Fifty Key Literary Theorists and The Postcolonial Novel are available through www.amazon.ca.