The Scottish picaresque as environmental justice, written by Denys Van Renen, has recently been published in the Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment series. This blog post highlights its intervention as the first book-length study to analyze the genre of the picaresque as drawing attention to how the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century iterations of it respond to environmental disasters. Ultimately, the economic precarity of the genre’s low-born characters renders them more attuned to environmental precarity.
‘The Black Legend of Spain and its Atlantic Empire in the Eighteenth Century’ by Catherine M. Jaffe and Karen Stolley
The Black Legend of Spain and its Atlantic Empire in the Eighteenth Century: Constructing National Identities, edited by Catherine M. Jaffe and Karen Stolley, has recently been published in the Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment series. This blog post explores the enduring impact of the "Black Legend," a narrative portraying Spain and its empire as cruel and intolerant, examining its historical roots, global dissemination, and influence on national identities, cultural stereotypes, and modern debates about colonialism and memory.
Why Bother with H G Wells in the Twenty-First Century?
Author Bill Cooke examines some of the most popular claims about H G Wells's views on fascism, utopia, and science, viewing Wells as a public intellectual and revealing how he foresaw our current era of ecological disaster.
Liverpool University Press Blog 