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Author and title: Cristiano Furiassi, Bajanyms: Toponymic Idioms in Barbadian English and Bajan.
Publisher: Peter Lang
Date of publication: 2026
ISBN (PDF): 9783034360111
ISBN (ePUB): 9783034360128
ISBN (Hardcover): 783034360104

Presentation

Bajanyms: Toponymic Idioms in Barbadian English and Bajan by Cristiano Furiassi is hot off the press.

Published by Peter Lang within the series International Folkloristics, edited by Wolfgang Mieder, retired professor of Folklore Studies at the University of Vermont, it includes a foreword by Jeannette Allsopp, founder and former director of the Richard and Jeannette Allsopp Centre for Caribbean Lexicography at the University of the West Indies at Cave Hill, Barbados.

The volume also features three endorsements, respectively by John Simpson, OBE, editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, 2^nd ed., Alissandra Cummins, director of the Barbados Museum & Historical Society and chair of the Barbados National Commission for UNESCO, and Tara Inniss, lecturer in History and Heritage Studies at the University of the West Indies at Cave Hill, Barbados.

Drawing on amateur glossaries as well as scholarly dictionaries, this book explores the idiomatic use of toponyms, or place names, either tied to Barbados or connected to the island’s colonial legacy, while chronicling its lexicographic tradition. By tracing their etymological origin and establishing their cultural relevance, the volume focuses on Barbadian toponymic idioms, namely Bajanyms, and their pivotal role in conveying collective memory and shaping national identity. When geographical names transcend their literal meanings and acquire figurative nuances, they carry historical significance, embody local folklore, and reflect societal values. Consequently, the cataloging of the idiomatic toponymic inventory of Barbadian English and Bajan offers insights into their uniqueness. Dedicated to Barbadophiles, this homage to Barbadianness is intended to preserve the speech community’s linguistic heritage, at risk of fading in the face of modernization and globalization.More details can be found on the publisher’s website:

Bajanyms

Author and title: Peter Budrin, Laurence Sterne and his Readers in Early Soviet Russia: The Secret Order of Shandeans
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Date of publication: April 2026
ISBN: ISBN: 9780198941743

Presentation

What could an eighteenth-century Anglo-Irish humorist and clergyman mean to readers living through the Soviet 1920s and 1930s? This book examines how Laurence Sterne—the author of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman and A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy—was read in the Soviet Union during the 1920s and 1930s. Bringing forth previously unknown materials, including translations, marginalia, illustrations, and private letters, it uses Sterne’s comic worlds as a window into everyday intellectual culture in early Soviet and Stalin-era Russia. The book sheds new light on Soviet book history and translation culture, while recovering the often dramatic biographies of early Soviet intellectuals. As the Soviet political climate became increasingly oppressive, Sterne’s works found readers among high-school students, learned philosophers, avant-garde writers, and Gulag prisoners alike.

“The book follows and elucidates the often poignant role that Laurence Sterne played in the works and lives of Soviet writers, translators, and readers in early Soviet Russia. … Engaging, sophisticated, and nuanced, it will appeal not just to specialists but also to a broader audience.” — Galya Diment, Professor Emerita, University of Washington

“A sophisticated, multi-layered reception study … a significant and original contribution to revisionist Soviet historiography, translation studies, and comparative literature.” —  Brian James Baer, Professor of Russian and Translation Studies, Kent State University



More information about the book:

Laurence Sterne and his Readers in Early Soviet Russia – Peter Budrin – Oxford University Press

The “Freest Writer” in Stalin’s Russia | OUPblog

History of Literature Podcast episode:
793 The Secret Order of Shandeans: Laurence Sterne in Early Soviet Russia (with Peter Budrin)

The introduction is available free to download until 22 May:

https://academic.oup.com/book/62527?searchresult=1

Readers ordering the book through the Oxford University Press website can use the discount code AUFLY30 for a 30% discount.

Marina Cano, Theatrical Afterlives: Nineteenth-Century Women’s Novels on the Stage 
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication date: 12 March 2026
ISBN: 9780198992882

This is the first in-depth study of the theatrical afterlives of nineteenth-century women novelists. Whereas previous scholarship has shown a strong bias towards male writers, especially Charles Dickens, this book innovatively brings woman-authored novels centre stage. Theatrical Afterlives: Nineteenth-Century Women’s Novels on the Stage examines the dramatic offspring of Jane Austen, the Brontës, Elizabeth Gaskell, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Ellen Wood and George Eliot, through particular, and sometimes unexpected, theatrical lenses (e.g., prison drama, Irish theatre, suffrage drama). In so doing, the book provides a new way of doing literary history of the nineteenth century and allows us to read the novels afresh.

More details here:

Theatrical Afterlives: Nineteenth-Century Women’s Novels on the Stage