Contours: The Cambridge Literary Studies Hour is presented by Ato Quayson, Professor and Chair of the Department of English at Stanford University. Each episode of Contours will address a pressing issue, theme or concept in the field of Literary Studies from Medieval Literature to the present day. We aim to provide an invigorating, accessible forum for critical debate and reflection to engage and help students, teachers and general readers.

Contours: The Cambridge Literary Studies Hour Episode 10, hosted by Professor Ato Quayson delves into The Graphic Novel, with a panel discussion on The Cambridge Companion to the American Graphic Novel, the Cambridge Studies in Graphic Narratives series, and The Cambridge Companion to Comics. Panel members are as follows: Martha Kuhlman, Hugo Frey, Maaheen Ahmed and Fabrice Leroy.

Find out more about the titles discussed here: The Cambridge Companion to the American Graphic Novel - https://www.cambridge.org/universityp... Cambridge Studies in Graphic Narratives series - https://www.cambridge.org/universityp... The Cambridge Companion to Comics: https://www.cambridge.org/universityp...

This is the eighth episode in our series Contours: The Cambridge Literary Studies Hour, presented by Professor Ato Quayson. This episode discusses The Cambridge History of American Modernism by Mark Whalan.

The Cambridge History of American Modernism examines one of the most innovative periods of American literary history. It offers a comprehensive account of the forms, genres, and media that characterized US modernism: coverage ranges from the traditional, such as short stories, novels, and poetry, to the new media that shaped the period's literary culture, such as jazz, cinema, the skyscraper, and radio. 

Discover more about the book here.

Contours: The Cambridge Literary Studies Hour Episode 6 features an introduction from Professor Ato Quayson, followed by a discussion with author of Black Shakespeare: Reading and Misreading Race, with panel members Farah Karim Cooper, Ayanna Thompson and Michael Witmore.

'In an argument that is both elegant and forceful, Smith makes the obvious but heretofore underappreciated point that the act of 'reading historically' is itself saturated with a racial history that must be a subject of analysis. For putting this argument on the table, and for its convincing reappraisal of some of Shakespeare's best-known plays, Smith's study is destined to be a landmark in a field that continues to pose powerful, searching questions in the humanities.' Michael Witmore, Folger Shakespeare Library

Discover more and order your copy here.  

Contours: The Cambridge Literary Studies Hour Episode 4 features a conversation with host Professor Ato Quayson, Latin American Literature in Transition General Editor Mónica Szurmuk, and Editors from the series, Rocío Quispe-Agnoli (Latin American Literature in Transition Pre-1492–1800), Ana Peluffo (Latin American Literature in Transition 1800–1870), Fernando Degiovanni (Latin American Literature in Transition 1870–1930), Par Kumaraswami, (Latin American Literature in Transition 1930–1980).

Discover more about the series here.

Contours: The Cambridge Literary Studies Hour Episode 2 features an introduction from Professor Ato Quayson, followed by a discussion with author Will Kaufman, and panel members Sean Latham, Hilary Saunders and T. R. Johnson. 

'Will Kaufman has uncovered a massive hidden history, one that none of us can ignore. Get the book, be in the know.' Chuck D

Discover more and order your copy here.  

The 11th episode in our series Contours: The Cambridge Literary Studies Hour, presented by Professor Ato Quayson, delves into Open Access title Decolonizing the English Literary Curriculum, Edited by Ato Quayson and Ankhi Mukherjee. This episode is hosted by Kasia Boddy since Ato is one of the Editors of this particular title.

Find out more about this title here.

Episode 9 in our series Contours: The Cambridge Literary Studies Hour, presented by Professor Ato Quayson, discusses The Year That Shaped the Victorian Age: Lives, Loves and Letters of 1845 by Michael Wheeler.

‘This lively account shows how a single year came to epitomise so many of the overarching themes of the Victorian age. An inviting read even for those already familiar with the episodes depicted, this is a meticulous and thoroughly-researched tour de force of scholarship by an author who always has new things to say.’ Rohan McWilliam, Professor of Modern British History, Anglia Ruskin University

Discover more about the book here.

This is the seventh episode in our series Contours: The Cambridge Literary Studies Hour, presented by Professor Ato Quayson. This episode delves into Dublin, A Writer's City and New Orleans, A Writer's City.

The words of its writers are part of the texture of Dublin and New Orleans, an invisible counterpart to the bricks and pavement we see around us. Follow in the foot steps of literary greats such as James Joyce, Tennessee Williams and Sally Rooney. The A Writer's City series unfolds book-lover's maps to these inspiring places, inviting us to experience what it means to live in a great city of literature.

Discover more about these titles here:

https://www.cambridge.org/Dublin https://www.cambridge.org/NewOrleans

Contours: The Cambridge Literary Studies Hour Episode 5 features a fascination conversation between host Professor Ato Quayson and author of The Electoral Imagination: Literature, Legitimacy, and Other Rigged Systems.

Discover more and order your copy here.

Contours: The Cambridge Literary Studies Hour Episode 3 features an conversation with host Professor Ato Quayson, Cambridge Studies in World Literature General Editors Debjani Ganguly and Francesca Orsini, and the first four authors in the series, Roanne Kantor (South Asian Writers, Latin American Literature, and the Rise of Global English), Sarah Quesada (The African Heritage of Latinx and Caribbean Literature), Levi Thompson (Reorienting Modernism in Arabic and Persian Poetry) and Duncan M. Yoon (China in Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century African Literature, coming soon).

Discover more about the series here.

Contours: The Cambridge Literary Studies Hour Episode 1 features an introduction from Professor Ato Quayson, followed by a discussion with author Catherine Flynn, and panel members Vincent Sherry and Daniel Mulhall. 

'The Cambridge Centenary Ulysses can profitably be read by anyone with an interest in Joyce.' Anne Fogarty, Irish Times

Discover more and order your copy here.