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  • "Ms. Wagner's piece practically leapt off the stage." So wrote New York Times critic Anne Midgette in her rave review of the new Trombone Concerto by Melinda Wagner '79, which was premiered on February 22, 2007, in Avery Fisher Hall, with trombonist Joseph Alessi and the New York Philharmonic under Lorin Maazel. Wagner, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1999 for her Concerto for Flute, Strings, and Percussion, was commissioned by the Philharmonic to write the new work--and she honored both the soloist and the orchestra by turning out a piece that, in Midgette's words, is "vital," "fresh," "smart," and "complex."

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  • Blackwell Publishing has issued the Companion to Narrative Theory, co-edited by James Phelan (Ohio State University) and Hamilton Professor of Comparative Literature Peter J. Rabinowitz. The massive anthology includes 35 original essays by leading narrative theorists from the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, and offers a comprehensive and global view of the state of the discipline at the beginning of the 21st century, covering not only literary narrative, but also narrative in other mediums and other fields.

  • Authorizing Readers: Resistance and Respect in the Teaching of Literature is a provocative conversation between co-authors that brings to life the symbiotic relationship between theory and practice. This unique collaboration between a literary critic/college professor (Peter J. Rabinowitz) and a high school English teacher/education professor (Michael W. Smith) provides readers with a rich discussion of a central paradox faced by literature teachers: Can teachers claim to have taught well if their students have not learned to recognize (and respect) the ways authors expect them to read? But at the same time, shouldn’t students be taught the critical skills of resisting both what authors expect and what teachers see as the right reading? Though each of the authors has a somewhat different view, Rabinowitz and Smith show that what they call "authorial reading" is not only compatible with, but even essential to, progressive teaching and truly engaged readers.

  • How does what we know shape the ways we read? Starting from the premise that any productive theory of narrative must take into account the presuppositions the reader brings to the text, Before Reading explores how our prior knowledge of literary conventions influences the processes of interpretation and evaluation. Available again with a new preface by James Phelan, Before Reading offers a valuable and coherent framework for approaching the study of narrative.

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