Dear list members,
(apologies for blatant self-promotion!)
I am happy to announce the release of my book on Gombrowicz and Polish Modernism,
available here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gombrowicz-Modernism-Subversion-Comparative-Cultural/dp/1557535523/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268164890&sr=1-3
Michael Goddard
Note the book is already out in the US but is officially released here in April
Reviews welcomed
Description
Gombrowicz, Polish Modernism, and the Subversion of Form provides a new and comprehensive account of the writing and thought of the Polish writer Witold Gombrowicz. While Gombrowicz is probably the key Polish modernist writer, with a stature in his native Poland equivalent to that of Joyce or Beckett in the English language, he remains little known in English. As well as providing a commentary on his novels, plays, and short stories, this book sets Gombrowicz's writing in the context of contemporary cultural theory. The author performs a detailed examination of Gombrowicz's major literary and theatrical work, showing how his conception of form is highly resonant with contemporary, postmodern theories of identity. This book is the essential companion to one of Eastern Europe's most important literary figures whose work, banned by the Nazis and suppressed by Poland's Communist government, has only recently become well known in the West.
Reviews
Michael Goddard's Gombrowicz, Polish Modernism, and the Subversion of Form presents an original and much needed encounter between the work of Witold Gombrowicz, one of the most prominent modern Polish experimental playwrights and novelists and Gilles Deleuze, one of the most important figures in contemporary French thought. The encounter between Central and East European modernisms and French poststructuralist philosophy is by no means arbitrary. Gombrowicz's works provide an important, although frequently ignored, or simply not known, reference point for Deleuze's theories of sensation, repetition, becoming, nomadism, and neo-baroque aspects of modernist aesthetics. And conversely, although Gombrowicz's passion for the history of philosophy and French poststructuralist thought is well known, Deleuze's approach to his texts and plays has not yet been explored. Goddard is equally at home in his knowledge of European literary modernism, film and theater, as well as in contemporary French thought. I am especially impressed by his historical knowledge of the specificity of Polish modernism, his analysis of the formation of Polish nationalism in relation to the partitions of Poland by imperialist powers, his careful contextualization of Gombrowicz's works vis-ą-vis other important artists of Independent Poland such as the playwright and painter Witkacy and the prose writer Bruno Schulz, and by his nuanced readings of both the aesthetic theories of these writers and their artistic production. Gombrowicz, Polish Modernism, and the Subversion of Form is an exciting book and indispensable reading for scholars of international modernism, comparative literature and culture, literary and culture theory, Central and East European culture, Deleuze Studies, and (comparative) cultural studies. - Ewa Plonowska Ziarek, State University of New York Buffalo
Michael Goddard's Gombrowicz, Polish Modernism, and the Subversion of Form is a welcome compaignon to my own Lines of Desire: Reading Gombrowicz with Lacan. With Deleuze and Guattari Goddard provides in his book an utterly compelling reading of Gombrowicz's subversions of form, developing its argument from within a detailed reconstruction of the contemporary historical, cultural, literary, and philosophical milieus. Goddard conceptualizes Gombrowicz's texts as "infernal" autopoietic assemblages and as "bodies without organs." It was high time someone showed us a Gombrowicz who lays out both artistic and cultural lines of flight! - Hanjo Berressem, University of Cologne
Michael Goddard teaches media studies at the University of Salford. In his current research he focuses on Central and East European cinema and visual culture, particularly in Poland from the 1960s to the present. Goddard's recent publications include the collected volumes The Fall: Art, Music and Politics (ed. with Benjamin Halligan, 2010), Subcultures and New Religious Movements in Russia and East-Central Europe (ed. with George McKay, Christopher Williams, Neil Foxlee, and Egidija Ramanauskaite, 2009), and Italian Effects a special section of Cultural Studies Review (ed. with Brett Neilson, 2005), and has published book chapters and articles on Polish and European cinema, as well as on film and cultural theory. He is now working on a book on the cinema of the Chilean-born filmmaker Raśl Ruiz. In addition to the above-mentioned interests, he is conducting research into 1970s media ecologies in the spheres of militant cinemas, free radios, and post-punk music.
Dr Michael Goddard
Lecturer in Media Studies
School of Media, Music and Performance
University of Salford
Member of the CCM research Centre
Reviews Editor of Studies in East European Cinema (SEEC)
Member of the Publications Committee of the Network for European Cinema and Media Studies (NECS)
Author of Gombrowicz, Polish Modernism and the Subversion of Form, Purdue, 2010
Co-Editor with Benjamin Halligan of Mark E. Smith and The Fall: Art, Music and Politics, Ashgate, 2010
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