The lives of texts : exploring the metaphor / edited by Katarzyna Pisarska and Andrzej Slawomir Kowalczyk.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Print version record.

TABLE OF CONTENTS -- EDITORS' PREFACE -- PROLOGUE -- THE LIVES OF TEXTS -- PART ONE: ANCESTRY AND PROGENY -- CHAPTER ONE -- THE LIVES OF TEXTS (AND ACADEMICS): WITH APOLOGIES TO M.R. JAMES AND JAMES HYNES -- CHAPTER TWO -- THE MYTH OF LILITH IN CHARLES WILLIAMS'S DESCENT INTO HELL -- CHAPTER THREE -- QUOTIDIAN HEROISM IN NEIL GAIMAN'S "CHIVALRY" -- PART TWO: THE (LIVING) ORGANISM -- CHAPTER FOUR -- A GRAPHIC STORY OF WRITING A NOVEL: (PE)R(E)VERSE EKPHRASIS IN EDWARD GOREY'S "THE UNSTRUNG HARP" -- CHAPTER FIVE -- BRINGING THE PEOPLE OF PAPER TO LIFE.

CHAPTER SIX -- LIVING A DREAM WITHIN A DREAM: IAIN BANKS'S THE BRIDGE -- CHAPTER SEVEN -- HARRY POTTER AND THE MOTIF OF THE BOOK -- CHAPTER EIGHT -- THE TEXTUAL TISSUE OF MNEMONIC BY COMPLICITE -- PART THREE: SYMBIONTS AND PARASITES -- CHAPTER NINE -- BATTLING AGAINST MEN AND MONSTERS: KING ARTHUR AS A WARRIOR IN GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH'S HISTORIA REGUM BRITANNIAE, WACE'S ROMAN DE BRUT, AND LAYAMON'S BRUT -- CHAPTER TEN -- THE SECRET LIVES OF TEXTS: LINDSAY CLARKE'S THE CHYMICAL WEDDING -- CHAPTER ELEVEN -- THE INTERTEXTUAL CITY IN PETER ACKROYD'S THE GREAT FIRE OF LONDON.

CHAPTER TWELVE -- LIVING ON TEXTS: INTERTEXTUALITY IN THE VIRGIN IN THE GARDEN BY A.S. BYATT -- PART FOUR: DEATH AND SECOND LIFE -- CHAPTER THIRTEEN -- THIERRY AND THEODORET BY JOHN FLETCHER AND FRANCIS BEAUMONT: REANIMATING FEMININITY -- CHAPTER FOURTEEN -- FROM THE ANGELS OF MONS TO THE REVOLT OF ANIMALS: ARTHUR MACHEN'S THE TERROR -- CHAPTER FIFTEEN -- HOW TEXTS EX(INS)PIRE: DON QUIXOTE AND FRANKENSTEIN -- CHAPTER SIXTEEN -- LOST IN AUSTEN? THE AFTERLIFE OF THE LITERARY CLASSIC -- CHAPTER SEVENTEEN -- THE SECOND LIFE OF EARTHSEA.

EPILOGUE -- THE QUESTION-ABLE CASE OF THE TRULY GOLDEN HANDBOOK, NO LESS BENEFICIAL THAN ENTERTAINING ... -- CONTRIBUTORS -- INDEX.

The Lives of Texts: Exploring the Metaphor examines various instances of "textual subsistence" implied by the title. Drawing on the parallel between a text and a living organism, the contributors analyze various literary texts ranging from the Middle Ages to postmodernity, as well as film adaptations and the graphic novel. Apart from the works of canonical writers, attention is also drawn to some long-forgotten authors, along with the most recent instances of popular literature and culture. The exploration of the title metaphor allows the contributors to trace life-like phenomena (e.g. textual birth, maturation, dissemination, death and resurrection) in the texts of writers so remote from each other as Layamon, Thomas More, Mary Shelley, Charles Williams, Ursula Le Guin, A.S. Byatt, Peter Ackroyd, Iain Banks, J.K. Rowling, or Neil Gaiman

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