New Releases by Ann Thompson

Heather Ann Thompson focuses in detail on the struggles of Motor City residents during the 1960s and early 1970s and finds that conflict continued to plague the inner city and its workplaces even after Great Society liberals committed themselves to improving conditions.

Rhetorically organized and containing more contemporary selections than other readers, the new edition emphasizes the rhetorical situation and writing about images.

A woman ́s fight for acceptance at a time when the military gave women no respect. The story is a battle of attrition with her winning by the smallest margin and leaving the battlefield with considerably fewer supporters than when she began.

A Cry for Love is the story of two artistically gifted women, the best of friends, who struggle to realize their talents, while distracted by romantic complications. Connie, both musician and writer, passionate and needful, is drawn to an older man who seems to cherish her. Vicky, a brilliant violinist, is relentlessly pursued by a handsome pianist, Marcel, and secretly loved by Rupert, a young composer. The women''s paths lead them through intricate patterns of devotion and deceit, of ecstasy and despair.

King Lear is an enormous work in every sense. Despite the misgivings and often pertinent criticisms of earlier generations of critics, it seems now to be accepted as the greatest monument of our culture: the most revered play by the most revered writer in our language. In this study, Dr. Thompson first analyses the many critical approaches to King Lear, placing in context the formal, historical, social, philosophical, religious, mico-level and performance-based approaches. In her Appraisal section, she investigates the phenomenon of ''The Greatness of King Lear'', surveying the wider issues of the status of ''classic'' texts and the formation and perpetuation of literary canons. She also discusses arguments by critics who have questioned the high evaluation of King Lear, and the arguments of contemporary critics whose approaches have the effect of displacing traditional evaluations altogether.