Heart of the Heartless World: Essays in Cultural Resistance in Memory of Margot Heinemann

Margot Heinemann, who died in 1992, was one of British's foremost scholars of the Renaissance period. As a prominent Marxist, she inspired generations of students, in Britain and abroad, through her commitment to the notion that cultural activity is central to the continuing struggle against oppression. Literature in its many forms can make the transformation of reality seem both possible and desirable. This radical notion informs contributions to Heart of the Heartless World.

From a broad range of perspectives, fifteen distinguished writers - including Christopher Hill, Inga-Stina Ewbank and Victor Kiernan - follow Margot Heinemann's lead in considering culture as an area of struggle and resistance. Ranging across history, poetry, fiction and drama, the studies offer a significant understanding of the major problems of cultural theory and clarify how cultural analysis, as well as the cultural products themselves can be part of a changing world.