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9781501383564

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A beautifully written work that combines research, scholarly insights, and memoir in a fluid manner so hard to achieve. Brittan's voice is so good--thoughtful, welcoming, lovely--and rendered in often captivating prose. The retrieval of stories and insights from the ancient Western world as a way of making sense of what to do now reminds us that not all Western legacies need be seen as negative. * Christopher Cokinos, Professor of English, University of Arizona, USA, and author of The Underneath and The Fallen Sky: An Intimate History of Shooting Stars * A work of literary criticism that ranges widely across genres, historical periods, and geographical locations, The Art of Astonishment is also a moving work of memoir, a probing account of intergenerational trauma, and a hopeful meditation on those limits beyond which grace appears. Moving deftly--like Hermes, a presiding genius of her book--from Classical Greece to post-apartheid South Africa, from the Britain of her childhood to her present Canadian home, Alice Brittan has produced a remarkable critical-creative project in the best traditions of the philosophically minded critic, illustrating how cultural criticism might illuminate some of our most complex social and individual predicaments. Its insights will enrich and astonish. * Andrew van der Vlies, Professor of English and Creative Writing, University of Adelaide, Australia *

A beautifully written work that combines research, scholarly insights, and memoir in a fluid manner so hard to achieve. Brittan’s voice is so good--thoughtful, welcoming, lovely--and rendered in often captivating prose. The retrieval of stories and insights from the ancient Western world as a way of making sense of what to do now reminds us that not all Western legacies need be seen as negative. * Christopher Cokinos, Professor of English, University of Arizona, USA, and author of The Underneath and The Fallen Sky: An Intimate History of Shooting Stars * A work of literary criticism that ranges widely across genres, historical periods, and geographical locations, The Art of Astonishment is also a moving work of memoir, a probing account of intergenerational trauma, and a hopeful meditation on those limits beyond which grace appears. Moving deftly--like Hermes, a presiding genius of her book--from Classical Greece to post-apartheid South Africa, from the Britain of her childhood to her present Canadian home, Alice Brittan has produced a remarkable critical-creative project in the best traditions of the philosophically minded critic, illustrating how cultural criticism might illuminate some of our most complex social and individual predicaments. Its insights will enrich and astonish. * Andrew van der Vlies, Professor of English and Creative Writing, University of Adelaide, Australia * A rich tapestry of extensive cultural knowledge and intimate personal experience ... guaranteed to surprise most readers with its sometimes disturbing but always fascinating insights. * Tydskrif vir Literatuurwetenskap / Journal of Literary Studies *

A beautifully written work that combines research, scholarly insights, and memoir in a fluid manner so hard to achieve. Brittan's voice is so good--thoughtful, welcoming, lovely--and rendered in often captivating prose. The retrieval of stories and insights from the ancient Western world as a way of making sense of what to do now reminds us that not all Western legacies need be seen as negative. * Christopher Cokinos, Professor of English, University of Arizona, USA, and author of The Underneath and The Fallen Sky: An Intimate History of Shooting Stars * A work of literary criticism that ranges widely across genres, historical periods, and geographical locations, The Art of Astonishment is also a moving work of memoir, a probing account of intergenerational trauma, and a hopeful meditation on those limits beyond which grace appears. Moving deftly--like Hermes, a presiding genius of her book--from Classical Greece to post-apartheid South Africa, from the Britain of her childhood to her present Canadian home, Alice Brittan has produced a remarkable critical-creative project in the best traditions of the philosophically minded critic, illustrating how cultural criticism might illuminate some of our most complex social and individual predicaments. Its insights will enrich and astonish. * Andrew van der Vlies, Professor of English and Creative Writing, University of Adelaide, Australia * A rich tapestry of extensive cultural knowledge and intimate personal experience ... guaranteed to surprise most readers with its sometimes disturbing but always fascinating insights. * Tydskrif vir Literatuurwetenskap / Journal of Literary Studies *

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Alice Brittan is Associate Professor of World Literature at Dalhousie University, Canada. Her essays on contemporary fiction have appeared in journals such as PMLA and Contemporary Literature, and in several book collections, including the Routledge Companion to Postcolonial Studies (2007) and Modernism, Postcolonialism, and Globalism (2019).

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