Bøger i Crosscurrents: Comparative Studies in European Literature & Philosophy serien

Attempting to provide a more precise meaning to the term ""modernism"", this text combines psychoanalytical and philosophical concepts in rereading the history of modernity. The author focuses throughout on a single theme - the ghostly nature of modernity.

Concerned with the work of Italo Calvino, this text looks at the author in English translation, appraises his place in world literature and traces his development as a post-modern writer from the start of his writing career during World War II to his death in 1985.

This study examines the later plays of Luigi Pirandello - those he wrote for his actress and muse Marta Abba - in light of the publication of their correspondence. It traces his entire creative process, revealing how his perception of women shaped his philosophy of art and life.

In this work on how World War II affected the writing of literature in France and Germany, the author argues that many established writers were unsuccessful in their attempts to write about the war because they refused to confront the ways in which that conflict was different from previous ones.

Nancy Shawcross places Barthes' thought on photography in the context of his developing ideas about semiology, tracking origins, rejections and departures. She shows Barthes' affinities with and distinction from, other theorists of photography.