Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2015 - Humanities — Language & Literature — Romance

The theater of Bertolt Brecht (18981956) has long suffered lamentable neglect in the US and the UK.  An acknowledged central figure in theatre and performance studies, as Barnett (Univ. of Sussex, UK) writes in the epilogue, Brechthis theories and playsis nonetheless taught badly in the academy and largely ignored in the professional theater.  Fortunately, Barnett champions Brecht's cause with clarity and authority in this slim volume, which this reviewer predicts will soon prove indispensable to any serious Anglophone student of Brecht.  In eight concise chapters, moving from radical theory to dialectical application, Barnett lays out a convincing case for the necessary integration of Brechts political world view with his performance practice.  The author draws on profound knowledge of the material, including Brechts drama, the crucialMessingkauf fragments, and the history of the Berliner Ensemble.  At the heart of the book is the chapter Brecht and the Actor, which elegantly dispatches the fallacy of a Brechtian style and should be required reading in any acting class.  Later chapters offer excellent illustrative readings of the application of Brechts principles to both Brechtian and non-Brechtian drama.  Barnett has delivered a vital corrective to the misapprehension of Brechts theater.Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers.

The US's most prolific and deeply insightful fairy tales scholar, Zipes (emer., Univ. of Minnesota) offers a keen and sophisticated, fresh and colloquial, first-time translationcomplete with discerning introductionof the Grimmss original two-volume opus of 156 stories, first published in 1812 and 1815.  The Grimms brought out six succeeding editions, revising the originalsoffering dramatic changes to the prototypes, replacing some 50 tales with different versions, and adding illustrations and embellishments for families and children.  Many of the originals retain more of the pungent flavor of the oral tradition than do the final versions.  Wilhelm wished to retrofit the tales for the middle class, and Jacob joined in that effort, with the result that the stories of the 1857 edition were the Grimmss, not those of the original tellers of the tales.  Still, the Grimms never wavered in holding that natural, pure forms of literature were linguistic, located in the folk pastthe essence ofVolk culture emanating from peoples organic experiences.  Zipes appends the Grimms's detailed list of contributors and informants (Arnim, Brentano, Hassenpflug, the Haxthausen family, Runge, Viehmann, the Wild family, et al.) and Notes to Volumes I & II, mostly the Grimmss own extraneous material plus named sources for each tale wherever known.Summing Up: Essential. All readers.

Brilliant.  Miller's impressive reading of this Icelandic masterpiece is thought provoking, informative, entertaining, challenging, and thoroughly delightful.  Those new to the saga will be enthralled, and those already familiar with it will find something new here.  Miller (law, Univ. of Michigan) seamlessly weaves the reading ofNjáls Saga with his knowledge of medieval Icelandic law and society, demonstrating his mastery of the subject while highlighting his admiration of the saga and its anonymous author.  Miller explores the subtle genius of the saga and explains it to modern readers with rare insight.  Millers knowledge and love of Njáls Saga, and his wit in discussing it, make this a rare and thoroughly successful reading of the work.  He is a truly gifted scholar.  This is a book for those interested in Iceland's folklore and its medieval laws and society.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.