Vickers, Brian

Shakespeare; the critical heritage by Brian Vickers ( Book )
6 editions published in 1974 in English and held by 1,007 libraries worldwide

The world of Jonathan Swift: essays for the tercentenary by Brian Vickers ( Book )
5 editions published in 1968 in English and held by 922 libraries worldwide

In defence of rhetoric by Brian Vickers ( Book )
27 editions published between 1987 and 2002 in English and Italian and held by 895 libraries worldwide
"A spirited effort to restore the importance of rhetoric, this book examines its early development in the classical era, its triumph during the Renaissance, and its subsequent decline. While acknowledging rhetoric's general loss of prestige, the author asserts its value in modern times as an indispensable vehicle for style and thought in the work of Joyce, Orwell, Jarrell, and others, and concludes by surveying rhetoric's fragmentation and misapplication in the current critical theories of such thinkers as Jakobson and de Man."--From publisher description.

Appropriating Shakespeare : contemporary critical quarrels by Brian Vickers ( Book )
11 editions published between 1993 and 1996 in English and held by 871 libraries worldwide
The last twenty years have seen an increasing fragmentation in Shakespeare studies, with the emergence of several critical schools, each with its own ideology, each convinced that all other approaches are deficient. In this important book, Brian Vickers argues that, in attempting to appropriate Shakespeare for their own purposes, each of these schools distorts the text by omission and misrepresentation. Two substantial opening chapters trace the derivation of current literary theory from the iconoclastic mood of l960s Paris. They show how an influential group of thinkers in the structuralist and post-structuralist tradition (Levi-Strauss, Barthes, Lacan, Althusser, Derrida, Foucault) promulgated a wholly negative concept of language, arguing that language cannot reliably represent reality; that literature cannot represent life; and that since no definitive reading is possible, all interpretation is misrepresentation. Vickers demonstrates that these attitudes have been decisively refuted, restates the central properties of language, and rehabilitates the notion of the author as creator of a literary work. At the core of the book he surveys the main conflicting schools in Shakespearian literary criticism - deconstructionism, feminism, new historicism, cultural materialism, and psychoanalytic, Marxist and Christian interpretations - describing the theoretical basis of each school, both in its own words and in those of its critics. Evaluating the resulting interpretations of Shakespeare, he shows that each is biased and fragmentary in its own way. Solidly researched, sharply argued and inevitably controversial, this book challenges many recent orthodoxies. As well as to theatre goers and readers of Shakespeare and Elizabethan drama, it will be of great interest to anyone concerned with modern literary theory.

The artistry of Shakespeare's prose by Brian Vickers ( Book )
17 editions published between 1968 and 2009 in English and held by 819 libraries worldwide

The man of feeling by Henry Mackenzie ( Book )
23 editions published between 1967 and 2009 in English and held by 816 libraries worldwide
"In Mackenzie's popular novel of 1771, the sentimental hero's capacity for fine feeling reveals his true virtue. A series of episodes demonstrates Harley's benevolence in an uncaring world as he assists the down-trodden, loses his love, and fails to achieve worldly success. The novel asks a series of vital questions: what morality is possible in a complex commercial world? Does trying to maintain it make you a saint or a fool? Can sentiment bond society or is it merely a luxury for the leisured classes?" "This edition reprints Brian Vickers's authoritative text, with a new introduction that discusses the novel in the context of the sentimental literature of which it is a pre-eminent example."--BOOK JACKET.

Francis Bacon and Renaissance prose by Brian Vickers ( Book )
14 editions published in 1968 in English and held by 808 libraries worldwide

Towards Greek tragedy : drama, myth, society by Brian Vickers ( Book )
15 editions published between 1973 and 1979 in English and held by 806 libraries worldwide

Counterfeiting Shakespeare evidence, authorship, and John Ford's Funerall elegye by Brian Vickers ( Book )
9 editions published between 2002 and 2009 in English and held by 699 libraries worldwide
Brian Vickers examines the issue of what Shakespeare actually wrote, and how this is determined. Shakespeare's authorship has been claimed for two poems, 'Shall I die?' and A Funerall Elegye. Vickers shows that neither has the requisite stylistic and imaginative qualities. In other words, they are 'counterfeits', in the sense of anonymously authored works wrongly presented as Shakespeare's. He identifies John Ford as author of the Elegye.

Occult and scientific mentalities in the Renaissance ( Book )
11 editions published between 1984 and 2003 in English and Undetermined and held by 649 libraries worldwide