Anthem World Epic and Romance

The Anthem World Epic and Romance series publishes rigorous, innovative scholarly studies dealing with epics and chivalric romances from across the globe, both written and oral, in poetry and prose, as well as adaptations in theater and cinema. The series seeks to foster new comparative and cultural understandings of heroic narratives, focusing on literary and geopolitical context, ranging from antiquity through the medieval and early modern period to contemporary society.
 

Series Editor
Jo Ann Cavallo – Columbia University, USA
 

Editorial Board
Catherine Bates – University of Warwick, UK
Brenda E. F. Beck – University of Toronto, Canada
Joel P. Christensen – Brandeis University, USA
Olga M. Davidson – Boston University, USA
Ruth Finnegan – Open University, UK
Robert P. Goldman – University of California at Berkeley, USA
Elizabeth Jeffreys – Oxford University, UK
Adeline Johns-Putra – Queen's University, Canada
Sharon Kinoshita – University of California at Santa Cruz, USA
Elizabeth Oyler – University of Pittsburgh, USA
Karl Reichl – University of Bonn, Germany
Dwight Reynolds – University of California at Santa Barbara, USA
Paula Richman – Oberlin College, USA
Charles S. Ross – Purdue University, USA
Luke Sunderland – Durham University, UK
Victoria Turner – University of St Andrews, Scotland
Albrecht Classen – University of Arizona, USA
Thomas A. DuBois – University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
Angelica A. Duran – Purdue University, USA
John Wm. Johnson – Indiana University, USA
Emrah Pelvanoğlu – Yeditepe University, Turkey
 

Proposals
We welcome submissions of proposals for challenging and original works from emerging and established scholars that meet the criteria of our series. We make prompt editorial decisions. Our titles are published in print and e-book editions and are subject to peer review by recognized authorities in the field. Should you wish to send in a proposal for a monograph (mid-length and full-length), edited collection, handbook or companion, reference or course book, please contact us at: [email protected].

Epic Ambitions in Modern Times

Epic Ambitions in Modern Times

From Paradise Lost to the New Millennium

Robert Crossley

Epic Ambitions in Modern Times examines how artists, in various forms and media, have reinvented the epic in the past three centuries.

Paperback

9781839991561

February 2024

£ 25.00 / $ 35.00

Epic and Romance in Traditional Chinese Culture

Epic and Romance in Traditional Chinese Culture

The Tiger-killing Hero Wu Song

Vibeke Børdahl and Margaret Wan

The epic-like saga of Wu Song has been in living oral tradition in China for more than 700 years up to the present, where it has taken the form of drama, balladry, song and storytelling.

Hardback

9781839999208

August 2027

£ 80.00 / $ 120.00

Śambūka and the Rāmāyaṇa Tradition

Śambūka and the Rāmāyaṇa Tradition

A History of Motifs and Motives in South Asia

Aaron Sherraden

This book details the developmental history of narratives that affirm, condemn, modify, or ignore the controversial execution of Śambūka, a minor Rāmāyaṇa character of low social standing. Changing socio-political sentiments throughout Indian history have forced numerous revisions to the Śambūka story, placing it in an underappreciated position of influence.

Paperback

9781839994944

May 2025

£ 25.00 / $ 35.00

Spanish Romance in the Battle for Global Supremacy

Spanish Romance in the Battle for Global Supremacy

Tudor and Stuart Black Legends

Victoria Muñoz

By exploring England’s fanatical consumption of the so-called books of the brave conquistadors, this book shows how tales of love and arms mystified global conquest (in such places as Mexico, Peru, Guiana, California, and Australia) and rooted the idea of English empire as a civilized alternative to the cruelty of Spanish conquest.

Paperback

9781839985461

April 2022

£ 25.00 / $ 40.00

The Ramayan through the Theatre of Ramlila

The Ramayan through the Theatre of Ramlila

Pamela Lothspeich

This book tells the story of the epic Ramayan through photographs of Ramlila, a Hindu theatre festival, in which community groups and professional troupes enact the story of the god Ram all across North India every fall. It also includes narrative that explains the story and its staging.

Paperback

9781801360661

April 2027

£ 20.99 / $ 24.95

The Sicilian Puppet Theater of Agrippino Manteo (1884-1947)

The Sicilian Puppet Theater of Agrippino Manteo (1884-1947)

The Paladins of France in America

Jo Ann Cavallo

This study reconstructs the history of the Manteo family marionette theater in New York City, provides translations of eight selected plays and 270 extant summaries, and offers comparative analyses uncovering how Agrippino Manteo’s scripts creatively adapt Italian Renaissance chivalric poems and nineteenth-century prose compilations.

Paperback

9781839993947

October 2024

£ 25.00 / $ 35.00

Turkic Epics and the Nation Builders' Ideal Man

Turkic Epics and the Nation Builders' Ideal Man

A Manual for Masculinity Through the Ages

Roberta Micallef

Focusing on two foundational Turkic epics, the Kyrgyz Manas and the Anatolian Köroğlu, this study offers a comparative analysis of masculine ideals and generational authority and the uses to which they were put by nation-builders and rebels.

Hardback

9781801360289

June 2027

£ 80.00 / $ 120.00

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