In the context of English and postcolonial literary studies, it has been one of Lazaruss signal contributions to widen the corpus far beyond the usual suspects. Into Our Labours continues in that vein and issues, in effect, a challenge to scholars within the discipline of English to work and think comparatively. Among comparatists proper, the scope of Lazaruss selections is perhaps less unusual, but here it is the theoretical claims that will inspire continued debate. Stefan Helgesson, Stockholm University 'What exactly would a literary scholarship that plausibly conjoined historical and formal analysis look like? Neil Lazarus poses this question early in his luminous new book, and then answers it over the next two hundred or so pages in a virtuoso critical performance. Lazarus wears his learning lightly, but never without the seriousness and precision that it demands. At one moment, he is taking apart a single word abstract, used by Roberto Schwarz in his foundational writing on Brazilian culture and examining its manifold meanings and implications over three gripping pages; At another, he is providing the most lucid and compelling reading imaginable of the Korean writer Yi Mun-yols novel, The Poet. Everything from Old English elegies to Urdu shayaris, and everyone from the Chinese Lao She to the Algerian Assia Djebar, attracts Lazaruss exact and exacting attention. This book will change the terms of debate about world-literature. More importantly, if you think literature matters, you cannot afford to miss what Lazarus has to say here.' Upamanyu Pablo Mukherjee, University of Warwick In the context of English and postcolonial literary studies, it has been one of Lazaruss signal contributions to widen the corpus far beyond the usual suspects. Into Our Labours continues in that vein and issues, in effect, a challenge to scholars within the discipline of English to work and think comparatively. Among comparatists proper, the scope of Lazaruss selections is perhaps less unusual, but here it is the theoretical claims that will inspire continued debate. Stefan Helgesson, Stockholm University 'What exactly would a literary scholarship that plausibly conjoined historical and formal analysis look like? Neil Lazarus poses this question early in his luminous new book, and then answers it over the next two hundred or so pages in a virtuoso critical performance. Lazarus wears his learning lightly, but never without the seriousness and precision that it demands. At one moment, he is taking apart a single word abstract, used by Roberto Schwarz in his foundational writing on Brazilian culture and examining its manifold meanings and implications over three gripping pages; At another, he is providing the most lucid and compelling reading imaginable of the Korean writer Yi Mun-yols novel, The Poet. Everything from Old English elegies to Urdu shayaris, and everyone from the Chinese Lao She to the Algerian Assia Djebar, attracts Lazaruss exact and exacting attention. This book will change the terms of debate about world-literature. More importantly, if you think literature matters, you cannot afford to miss what Lazarus has to say here.' Upamanyu Pablo Mukherjee, University of Warwick
