Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2016 -

Arguing that "the brain has not been shaped to process language but, rather, language has been shaped by the brain," Christiansen (psychology and cognitive science, Cornell) and Chater (behavioral science, Warwick Business School, Univ. of Warwick, UK) contend that understanding the deep puzzles connected with the study of language requires examining its origins and evolution. This contrasts with mainstream approaches based on generative grammars, which do not really examine the relations among the processing, acquisition, and evolution of language. The authors also argue that the study of language acquisition must consider cultural and biological aspects of the evolution of language. Among the issues considered are what the authors call the "now-or-never bottleneck," the need for new learning to be very rapidly recorded before it is overwhelmed by subsequent information; indications that language has evolved to fit the requirements of the brain and not vice versa; the role of experience in developing language skills; and why the ability to deal with recursive features of language can be considered as stemming from abilities of the brain rather than from features of languages. Considering profound and important issues, this book will well repay study, reflection, and criticism by anyone involved in language studies.Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, researchers/faculty.

Cioffi (Baruch College, CUNY) has created a different kind of grammar handbook, one that not only lays out the "rules" of Standard English but also makes readers more sensitive to language and so better able to communicate ideas. Chapters cover the usual parts of speech, punctuation, and diction. Within each section, readers can choose "fundamentals" (term definitions and rules), "fine tuning" (complex constructions), or "deep focus." Cioffi does not invent examples; instead, he provides some 300 sentences that appeared in American print newspapers or magazines on a single random day (December 29, 2008) and draws readers' attention to questionable usages in those sentences. This, along with casual use of the first person, effectively engages readers and even makes one want to argue with the author. In fact, Cioffi selected the example sentences to encourage debate--to make readers conscious of distinctions and the precise use of English--and he acknowledges where judgments may vary. He used the material in this book in a freshman composition course, to good effect, and readers will find that this clever book sharpens their awareness.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

Trauma literature is pervasive, and as a genre, it is important because it speaks to political and sociological issues. Pedagogical tools are paramount in helping students move from visceral reactions to inquiry-based assessment. Noticing a gap in this scholarship, Vickroy (English, Bradley Univ.), an internationally recognized expert on trauma theory, provides a guide to both the basic and more advanced tenets of literary trauma theory, providing foundational exercises for teaching trauma literature in general and focused studies on particular trauma texts. The excellent preface and conclusion provide context and an invaluable introduction to trauma theory. This material alone should be required reading for those in courses on modern or contemporary literature. Added to that are the excellent discussions of the texts--Margaret Atwood'sThe Blind Assassin andAlias Grace, Toni Morrison'sParadise andA Mercy, William Faulkner'sAbsalom, Absalom!, Jeannette Winterson'sWritten on the Body, and Chuck Palahniuk'sFight Club andInvisible Monsters--discussions that prove that using trauma theory as a critical lens to study literature is a best, rather than a suggested, practice.Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates and above; general readers.

As part of her larger project--the history of the English language--Mugglestone (Pembroke College, UK) here concentrates on the language's greatest monument, Samuel Johnson'sDictionary of the English Language (1755). Her study is concise and expansive, and she manages to marshal a trove of information and materials and create an accessible compendium that is modest in size. Mugglestone's operative trope is lexicography as a metaphorical journey. In chapter 1, she draws on a range of sources--among them John Florio, William Warburton, and Johnson himself--and deploys various permutations and connotations of this metaphor. In the chapters that follow, she examines the history of the dictionary's compilation, Johnson's lexicographical activities, order and authority and the collision of descriptive and prescriptive pressures, the tension between the purity of English diction and the admission of foreign words, time and the dictionary, and Johnson's lexicographical legacy. Mugglestone's meticulous research and stylistic clarity render this volume both informative and entertaining; this reviewer learned many new things. This volume joins, sustains, and furthers the work of such precursors as Gwin Kolb, J. H. Sledd, Robert DeMaria, Jack Lynch, Anne McDermott, and Allen Reddick. Those approaching Johnson's great, complicated book for the first time will find this brief but rich volume the go-to guide for years to come.Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates and above; general readers.

Araujo (comparative studies, Univ. of Lisbon, Portugal) examines novels that reveal/critique popular notions of security and terror--Amy Waldman'sThe Submission(2011), Frederic Beigbeder'sWindows on the World(Eng tr., 2004), Ian McEwan'sSaturday(2005), Michael Cunningham'sSpecimen Days (2005), Joseph O'Neill'sNetherland (2008), Mohsin Hamid'sThe Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007), Ricardo Menendez Salmon'sEl corrector (Spanish, 2009), Jose Saramago'sSeeing(Eng. tr., 2006), Salman Rushdie'sShalimar the Clown(2005), and J. M. Coetzee'sDiary of a Bad Year(2008). Araujo places 9/11 novels in a continuum of European and American captivity narratives born of perceived or actual threats to personal safety, cultural identity, and national security. Especially compelling is her assertion that Western captivity narratives invert the roles of captor and captive by configuring the Western subject as captive to amorphous sources of terror. As she points out, this configuration does not account for the realities of Guantanamo Bay or Abu Ghraib, or for the continuing legacies of American and European imperialism. Finally, Araujo suggests that the figure of the white Western captive is yet another fiction among many that serve as "staples of the Western imagination." This erudite, accessible study provides a vital perspective on a complex nexus of transnational issues, ideologies, and fictions.Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

Hoxby (Stanford Univ.) has written an intriguing work that attempts to establish what the genre of tragedy meant before idealists such as Schelling, Schlegel, and Hegel created the definition now accepted. Through chapters that look at Renaissance drama, the birth of opera, the often-overlooked and disregarded Jesuit tragedies, and the critical tradition that provided the current definition of what makes a tragedy, the author makes a solid, well-supported argument that the loss of the definition that existed from the 16th century through much of the 18th century resulted in the loss of a literary tradition and, along with it, the loss of various works that were deemed "incorrect," chief among these the pathetic tragedies. In addition, Hoxby argues that better knowledge of what constituted a tragedy in pre-19th-century Europe allows for better evaluation of certain difficult works by Shakespeare and Dryden and of some early operas that interpreted the Greek tradition. This important study will certainly create controversy and debate. It will be read and cited often.Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates and above.