{"title":"Books by Ben Hutchinson","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780008588465","title":"On Purpose","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTen essays on how reading and meaningfully engaging with literature can help us live better, more purposeful lives.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHow do we live fully?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHow do we live successfully?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAdrift in an anchorless world, we often worry about where we are heading. What meaning can we hope to find in our modern, secular life? The answer, Ben Hutchinson explains, can be found by looking to writers and thinkers to help us live more purposefully, more mindfully – more fully.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eInterweaving his own (mis-)adventures with those of authors such as T.S. Eliot, Virginia Woolf, Marcel Proust and Joan Didion, \u003cem\u003eOn Purpose \u003c\/em\u003eproposes ten ways in which reading and writing encourage us to ask difficult questions, project our minds into the past and future, and see ourselves and others differently.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEngaging, uplifting and aphoristic, this book is for anyone who has lost their sense of direction or wishes to radically transform the way they live.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":57685762572661,"sku":"9780008588496","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":56221762978165,"sku":"9780008588465","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780008588496.jpg?v=1792598940"},{"product_id":"9780198807278","title":"Comparative Literature","description":"Comparative Literature is both the past and the future of literary studies. Its history is intimately linked to the political upheavals of modernity: from colonial empire-building in the nineteenth century, via the Jewish diaspora of the twentieth century, to the postcolonial culture wars of the twenty-first century, attempts at 'comparison' have defined the international agenda of literature. But what is comparative literature? Ambitious readers looking to stretch themselves are usually intrigued by the concept, but uncertain of its implications. And rightly so, in many ways: even the professionals cannot agree on a single term, calling it comparative in English, compared in French, and comparing in German. The very term itself, when approached comparatively, opens up a Pandora's box of cultural differences. Yet this, in a nutshell, is the whole point of comparative literature. To look at literature comparatively is to realize just how much can be learned by looking over the horizon of one's own culture; it is to discover not only more about other literatures, but also about one's own; and it is to participate in the great utopian dream of understanding the way nations and languages interact. In an age that is paradoxically defined by migration and border crossing on the one hand, and by a retreat into monolingualism and monoculturalism on the other, the cross-cultural agenda of comparative literature has become increasingly central to the future of the Humanities. We are all, in fact, comparatists, constantly making connections across languages, cultures, and genres as we read. The question is whether we realise it.This Very Short Introduction tells the story of Comparative Literature as an agent of international relations, from the point of view both of scholarship and of cultural history more generally. Outlining the complex history and competing theories of comparative literature, Ben Hutchinson offers an accessible means of entry into a notoriously slippery subject, and shows how comparative literature can be like a Rorschach test, where people see in it what they want to see. Ultimately, Hutchinson places comparative literature at the very heart of literary criticism, for as George Steiner once noted, 'to read is to compare'.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56226423341429,"sku":"9780198807278","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780198807278_23fa76e3-a29c-4730-8903-9edaaf7d1f64.jpg?v=1786015791"},{"product_id":"9781789143508","title":"The Midlife Mind – Literature and the Art of Ageing","description":"The meaning of life is a common concern, but what is the meaning of midlife? With the help of illustrious writers such as Dante, Montaigne, Beauvoir, Goethe and Beckett, The Midlife Mind sets out to answer this question. Erudite but engaging, it takes a personal approach to that most impersonal of processes, ageing. From the ancients to the moderns, from poets to playwrights, writers have long meditated on how we can remain creative as we move through our middle years. There are no better guides, then, to how we have regarded middle age in the past, how we understand it in the present, and how we might make it as rewarding as possible in the future.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56306775884149,"sku":"9781789143508","price":27.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781789143508_cb1adea2-1f03-4f40-8312-d2fe2bfdcbca.jpg?v=1792424181"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-ben-hutchinson.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}