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Alice Munro’s Miraculous Art: Critical Essays (Reappraisals: Canadian Writers)
by Janice Fiamengo & Gerald LynchAlice Munro’s Miraculous Art is a collection of sixteen original essays on Nobel laureate Alice Munro’s writings. The volume covers the entirety of Munro’s career, from the first stories she published in the early 1950s as an undergraduate at the University of Western Ontario to her final books. It offers an enlightening range of approaches and interpretive strategies, and provides many new perspectives, reconsidered positions and analyses that will enhance the reading, teaching, and appreciation of Munro’s remarkable—indeed miraculous—work. Following the editors’ introduction—which surveys Munro’s recurrent themes, explains the design of the book, and summarizes each contribution—Munro biographer Robert Thacker contributes a substantial bio-critical introduction to her career. The book is then divided into three sections, focusing on Munro’s characteristic forms, themes, and most notable literary effects.
Alice Munro: Understanding, Adapting and Teaching (Second Language Learning and Teaching)
by Mirosława BuchholtzThe book offers a new approach to the study of Alice Munro's fiction. Its innovative quality consists in juxtaposing a variety of literary analyses of selected stories with two other ways of looking at her fiction: the perspectives of film adaptation and of pedagogy. The book is divided into three parts which mirror the key words in the title: understanding, adapting and teaching. Part One consists of four articles on various aspects of Munro's short fiction from a literary perspective. Part Two - four essays - addresses editing and film adaptations of Munro's stories (both television and feature films). Part Three consists of an essay on didactic aspects of Munro's fiction and of several interviews with teachers of Canadian literature who have included stories by Munro in their syllabi.
Alice in Wonderland: A Norton Critical Edition (Norton Critical Editions #0)
by Lewis Carroll“Offering accurate texts, stimulating contexts, and a generous selection of essays to help readers make their way through Wonderland and Lewis Carroll’s other nonsense worlds, this remains the definitive critical edition of stories that remain as fresh and surprising now as they were when originally published more than 150 years ago.” —Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, University of Oxford “This new edition includes a rich array of Lewis Carroll’s marvelous writings, including personal letters and other important background material. A really splendid edition for teaching.” —Deborah Lutz, University of Louisville “Donald Gray’s fourth edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland collects a fresh assortment of critical essays that will shed new light on the Alice books and The Hunting of the Snark. Organized around different periods in Charles Dodgson’s life, the backgrounds will enable students, scholars, and readers to place these beloved texts in their proper contexts. A crisp new edition.” —Ronjaunee Chatterjee, Queen’s University This Norton Critical Edition includes: The texts and original illustrations from the 1897 editions of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass as well as the 1878 edition of The Hunting of the Snark. Revised and updated footnotes, headnotes, and introductory materials by Donald J. Gray. Selections from Carroll’s diaries, letters, and other source materials examining three distinct periods in Carroll’s life and career. Fourteen critical interpretations—eight new to the Fourth Edition—ranging from contemporary perspectives to modern assessments. A selected bibliography. This purchase offers access to the digital ebook only.
Alice in Wonderland in Film and Popular Culture
by Antonio SannaThis book examines the many reincarnations of Carroll’s texts, illuminating how the meaning of the original books has been re-negotiated through adaptations, appropriations, and transmediality. The volume is an edited collection of eighteen essays and is divided into three sections that examine the re-interpretations of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass in literature, film, and other media (including the branches of commerce, music videos, videogames, and madness studies). This collection is an addition to the existing work on Alice in Wonderland and its sequels, adaptations, and appropriations, and helps readers to have a more comprehensive view of the extent to which the Alice story world is vast and always growing.
Alice in Wonderland and Philosophy: Curiouser and Curiouser
by Richard Brian DavisThe perfect companion to Lewis Carroll's classic book and director Tim Burton's March 2010 remake of Alice in Wonderland. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has fascinated children and adults alike for generations. Why does Lewis Carroll introduce us to such oddities as blue caterpillars who smoke hookahs, cats whose grins remain after their heads have faded away, and a White Queen who lives backwards and remembers forwards? Is it all just nonsense? Was Carroll under the influence? This book probes the deeper underlying meaning in the Alice books, and reveals a world rich with philosophical life lessons. Tapping into some of the greatest philosophical minds that ever lived--Aristotle, Hume, Hobbes, and Nietzsche--Alice in Wonderland and Philosophy: explores life's ultimate questions through the eyes of perhaps the most endearing heroine in all of literature; looks at compelling issues such as perception and reality as well as how logic fares in a world of lunacy, the Mad Hatter, clocks, and temporal passage; offers new insights into favorite Alice in Wonderland characters and scenes, including the Mad Hatter and his tea party, the violent Queen of Hearts, and the grinning Cheshire Cat. Accessible and entertaining, Alice in Wonderland and Philosophy will enrich your experience of Alice's timeless adventures with new meaning and fun.
Alice in Space: The Sideways Victorian World of Lewis Carroll (Carpenter Lectures)
by Gillian BeerIn Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, Lewis Carroll created fantastic worlds that continue to delight and trouble readers of all ages today. Few consider, however, that Carroll conceived his Alice books during the 1860s, a moment of intense intellectual upheaval, as new scientific, linguistic, educational, and mathematical ideas flourished around him and far beyond. Alice in Space reveals the contexts within which the Alice books first lived, bringing back the zest to jokes lost over time and poignancy to hidden references. Gillian Beer explores Carroll's work through the speculative gaze of Alice, for whom no authority is unquestioned and everything can speak. Parody and Punch, evolutionary debates, philosophical dialogues, educational works for children, math and logic, manners and rituals, dream theory and childhood studies--all fueled the fireworks. While much has been written about Carroll's biography and his influence on children's literature, Beer convincingly shows him at play in the spaces of Victorian cultural and intellectual life, drawing on then-current controversies, reading prodigiously across many fields, and writing on multiple levels to please both children and adults in different ways. With a welcome combination of learning and lightness, Beer reminds us that Carroll's books are essentially about curiosity, its risks and pleasures. Along the way, Alice in Space shares Alice's exceptional ability to spark curiosity in us, too.
Alice in Pornoland: Hardcore Encounters with the Victorian Gothic (Feminist Media Studies #21)
by Laura Helen MarksThe unquenchable thirst of Dracula. The animal lust of Mr. Hyde. The acquiescence of Lewis Carroll's Alice. Victorian literature--with its overtones of prudishness, respectability, and Old World hypocrisy--belies a subverted eroticism. The Victorian Gothic is monstrous but restrained, repressed but perverse, static but transformative, and preoccupied by gender and sexuality in both regressive and progressive ways. Laura Helen Marks investigates the contradictions and seesawing gender dynamics in Victorian-inspired adult films and looks at why pornographers persist in drawing substance and meaning from the era's Gothic tales. She focuses on the particular Victorianness that pornography prefers, and the mythologies of the Victorian era that fuel today's pornographic fantasies. In turn, she exposes what porning the Victorians shows us about pornography as a genre. A bold foray into theory and other forbidden places, Alice in Pornoland reveals how modern-day Victorian Gothic pornography constantly emphasizes, navigates, transgresses, and renegotiates issues of gender, sexuality, and race.
The Alice Books and the Contested Ground of the Natural World (Routledge Studies in Nineteenth Century Literature)
by Laura WhiteThough popular opinion would have us see Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There as whimsical, nonsensical, and thoroughly enjoyable stories told mostly for children; contemporary research has shown us there is a vastly greater depth to the stories than would been seen at first glance. Building on the now popular idea amongst Alice enthusiasts, that the Alice books - at heart - were intended for adults as well as children, Laura White takes current research in a new, fascinating direction. During the Victorian era of the book’s original publication, ideas about nature and our relation to nature were changing drastically. The Alice Books and the Contested Ground of the Natural World argues that Lewis Carroll used the book’s charm, wit, and often puzzling conclusions to counter the emerging tendencies of the time which favored Darwinism and theories of evolution and challenged the then-conventional thinking of the relationship between mankind and nature. Though a scientist and ardent student of nature himself, Carroll used his famously playful language, fantastic worlds and brilliant, often impossible characters to support more the traditional, Christian ideology of the time in which mankind holds absolute sovereignty over animals and nature.
Alice Adams: Portrait of a Writer
by Carol Sklenicka&“Nobody writes better about falling in love than Alice Adams,&” a New York Times critic said of the prolific short-story writer and bestselling novelist whose dozens of published stories and eleven novels illuminate the American Century. Born in 1926, Alice Adams grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, during the Great Depression and came of age during World War II. After college at Radcliffe and a year in Paris, she moved to San Francisco. Always a rebel in good-girl&’s clothing, Adams used her education, sexual and emotional curiosity, and uncompromising artistic ambition to break the strictures that bound women in midcentury America. Divorced with a child to raise, she worked at secretarial jobs for two decades before she could earn a living as a writer. One of only four winners of the O. Henry Special Award for Continuing Achievement, Adams wove her life into her fiction and used her writing to understand the changing tides of the twentieth century. Her work portrays vibrant characters both young and old who live on the edge of their emotions, absorbed by love affairs yet always determined to be independent and to fulfill their personal destinies. With the same meticulous research and vivid storytelling she brought to Raymond Carver: A Writer&’s Life, Carol Sklenicka integrates the drama of Adams&’s deeply felt, elegantly fierce life with a cascade of events—the civil rights and women&’s movements, the sixties counterculture, and sexual freedom. This biography&’s revealing analyses of Adams&’s stories and novels from Careless Love to Superior Women to The Last Lovely City, and her extensive interviews with Adams&’s family and friends, among them Mary Gaitskill, Diane Johnson, Anne Lamott, and Alison Lurie, give us the definitive story of a writer often dubbed &“America&’s Colette.&” Alice Adams: Portrait of a Writer captures not just a beloved woman&’s life in full, but a crucial span of American history.
Alias Shakespeare: Solving the Greatest Literary Mystery of All Time
by Joseph Sobran"Who wrote Shakespeare's plays? Today, the long-standing and impassioned debate about the so-called authorship question is perceived by Shakespearean scholars as the preserve of eccentrics and cranks. But in this contrarian work of literary detection, author Joseph Sobran boldly reopens this debate and allows the members of Shakespeare's vast contemporary public to weigh all the evidence and decide for themselves." "An enormous shelf of biographical scholarship has grown up over the past 300 years around the "Swan of Avon." But what are these histories based on? Revealing that no more than a handful of fragmentary documents attest to Shakespeare's existence - and virtually none which link him to the plays themselves - Sobran delightfully debunks this elaborate egalitarian myth concocted in equal parts of speculation, wishfulness, and fantasy." "More importantly, Sobran shows how many questions the myth leaves unanswered: How could a provincial actor from Stratford gain such an intimate knowledge of court life? How could he know so much of classical authors and not own a single book? How could he write compromising love sonnets to his social superior, the powerful Earl of Southampton? How could he know so much of Italy, a place he never visited? Why was there no notice of the famous writer's death in 1616? Why, in short, does Shakespeare remain such an obscure and shadowy figure?" "Methodically demolishing the case for "Mr. Shakspere," Sobran shows it is highly implausible that he wrote the poems and plays we know as The Works of William Shakespeare. Other candidates exist, of course, including Ben Jonson, Christopher Marlowe, and Francis Bacon. Sobran dispenses with these claimants, then sets forth the startlingly persuasive case for Edward de Vere, the seventeenth Earl of Oxford." "Oxford was a widely traveled, classically educated member of the Elizabethan court. A swashbuckling spendthrift, he swung high and low in the eyes of his peers. Having spent most of his fortune on adventures in Italy and elsewhere on the Continent - like Hamlet he was captured by pirates in the English Channel - he fell into disrepute for reasons that included rumors about his homosexuality. Still he topped many lists of the best Elizabethan poets at the time, even ranking above Edmund Spenser and Sir Philip Sidney. He was an avid book collector, and a love of the literary arts ran in his family. His uncle not only pioneered the sonnet form that came to be known as Shakespearean, he also translated the English edition of Ovid that indisputably guided Shakespeare's pen. More strikingly, Oxford was the ward of Lord Burghley - the man widely acknowledged as the model for the character Polonius in Hamlet. Ultimately, Sobran shows us why a disgraced nobleman such as Oxford would have sought solace in the anonymity of writing pseudonymous plays and poetry." --BOOK JACKET. Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Algren: A Life
by Mary WisniewskiThe first examination of Nelson Algren in over 25 years, Algren is the definitive biography of one of the best-known writers of mid-20th-century America. Journalist Mary Wisniewski interviewed dozens of Algren's inner circle, including photographer Art Shay and the late Studs Terkel, and examined Algren's unpublished writing and correspondence, including hundreds of letters he received from lover Simone de Beauvoir, to craft an account as entertaining as it is meticulously researched. Algren reveals details about the writer's life, work, personality, and habits, digging beneath the street-crawling man's man stereotype to show a funny, sensitive, and romantic but self-destructive artist. This fresh look at the man whose tough but humorous style and compassionate message enchanted readers and fellow writers is indispensable to anyone interested in 20th-century American literature.
Algorithmic Gatekeeping for Professional Communicators: Power, Trust, and Legitimacy (Disruptions)
by Arjen van DalenThis book provides a critical study of the power, trust, and legitimacy of algorithmic gatekeepers. The news and public information which citizens see and hear is no longer solely determined by journalists, but increasingly by algorithms. Van Dalen demonstrates the gatekeeping power of social media algorithms by showing how they affect exposure to diverse information and misinformation and shape the behaviour of professional communicators. Trust and legitimacy are foregrounded as two crucial antecedents for the acceptance of this algorithmic power. This study reveals low trust among the general population in algorithms performing journalistic tasks and a perceived lack of legitimacy of algorithmic power among professional communicators. Drawing on case studies from YouTube and Instagram, this book challenges technological deterministic discourse around "filter bubbles" and "echo chambers" and shows how algorithmic power is situated in the interplay between platforms, audiences, and professional communicators. Ultimately, trustworthy algorithms used by news organizations and social media platforms as well as algorithm literacy training are proposed as ways forward towards democratic algorithmic gatekeeping. Presenting a nuanced perspective which challenges the deep divide between techno-optimistic and techno-pessimistic discourse around algorithms, Algorithmic Gatekeeping is recommended reading for journalism and communication researchers in related fields. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons [Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND)] 4.0 license.
The Algorithmic Distribution of News: Policy Responses (Palgrave Global Media Policy and Business)
by James Meese Sara BannermanThis volume explores how governments, policymakers and newsrooms have responded to the algorithmic distribution of the news. Contributors analyse the ongoing battle between platforms and publishers, evaluate recent attempts to manage these tensions through policy reform and consider whether algorithms can be regulated to promote media diversity and stop misinformation and hate speech. Chapter authors also interview journalists and find out how their work is changing due to the growing importance of algorithmic systems. Drawing together an international group of scholars, the book takes a truly global perspective offering case studies from Switzerland, Germany, Kenya, New Zealand, Canada, Australia, and China. The collection also provides a series of critical analyses of recent policy developments in the European Union and Australia, which aim to provide a more secure revenue base for news media organisations. A valuable resource for journalism and policy scholars and students, Governing the Algorithmic Distribution of News is an important guide for anyone hoping to understand the central regulatory issues surrounding the online distribution of news.
Algorithmic Culture Before the Internet
by Ted StriphasToday, algorithms exercise outsize influence on cultural decision-making, shaping and even reshaping the concept of culture. How were automated, computational processes empowered to perform this work? What forces prompted the emergence of algorithmic culture?Algorithmic Culture Before the Internet is a history of how culture and computation came to be entangled. From Cambridge, England, to Cambridge, Massachusetts, by way of medieval Baghdad, this book pinpoints the critical junctures at which algorithmic culture began to coalesce in language long before it materialized in the technological wizardry of Silicon Valley. Revising and extending the methodology of “keywords,” Ted Striphas examines changing concepts and definitions of culture, including the development of the field of cultural studies, and stresses the importance of language in the history of technology.Offering historical and interdisciplinary perspective on the relationship of culture and computation, this book provides urgently needed context for the algorithmic injustices that beset the world today.
Algo supuestamente divertido que nunca volveré a hacer
by David Foster WallaceEste artículo es una de las radiografías más agudas e irreverentes de la cultura americana de fin de siglo, en la que se entremezclan la familiaridad, el asombro y una mordacidad descabellada. Foster Wallace elabora en Algo supuestamente divertido que nunca volveré a hacer una postal gigantesca basada en su experiencia en un crucero de lujo por el Caribe. Lo que a primera vista parece ser un simple viaje «para relajarse», en manos de un humor delirante y un cinismo corrosivo acabará convirtiéndose en el horror más absoluto. La crítica ha dicho...«La obra de no ficción más brillante y divertida que se ha escrito en los últimos años.»John Glassie, Time Out New York «Animado por una prosa maravillosamente exuberante [...] este volumen confirma al señor Wallace como uno de los talentos más destacados de su generación.»The New York Times «Wallace escribe con una intensidad que transforma un reportaje errático en una forma sui generis de filosofía.»Kirkus Reviews «Su instinto para reproducir lo coloquial avergonzaría a maestros como Pynchon y DeLillo, y la sobriedad humana que confiere a sus temas, de ficción o de no ficción, deberían ser un modelo para cualquiera que escriba crítica cultural, tanto en la forma de relatos como en ensayos como estos.»Publishers Weekly
Algo mejores: Artículos (1966-1983)
by Montserrat RoigLa voz testimonial de Montserrat Roig en un libro sin precedentes «Estos textos son tan increíblemente buenos que te pasmará que Montserrat Roig no sea hoy uno de los grandes nombres de la literatura peninsular. Ya va siendo hora de sacarla del purgatorio del olvido.»ROSA MONTERO «Una mujer irrepetible. Siento mucho que no la hayáis conocido. Pero la podéis leer.»MARUJA TORRES «La Historia no la cambiamos, es cierto, pero nosotros nos volvimos algo mejores.» Montserrat Roig formó parte de una generación de mujeres escritoras y periodistas fundamentales que sacudieron la dictadura de las costumbres y reivindicaron a la mujer libre. Ciudadana de su tiempo y poseedora de una curiosidad ilimitada, Roig, que con el tiempo fue interesadamente olvidada, fue una cronista lúcida e implacable de la historia reciente de España, y sus escritos son hoy un ejercicio de pensamiento deslumbrante. Coincidiendo con la conmemoración del que habría sido el 75 aniversario de su nacimiento, Algo mejores recupera a una de las autoras más populares no solo en el ámbito de la literatura catalana, sino también en el de la española, para que su voz vuelva a irrumpir con fuerza en nuestro presente. «En este volumen se concentran artículos de Montserrat Roig nunca antes recogidos en un libro que explican su trayectoria intelectual, sus viajes, su curiosidad, su tiempo, su trabajo. Artículos cargados de información autobiográfica que narran una vida de lucha limpia y franca oposición a los abusos de los sistemas. Feminismo, antifascismo, antiimperialismo articulados por un amor de base, sagrado y de trinchera, vértebra del pensamiento culpable de todo lo demás, la literatura.»Del prólogo de Betsabé García La crítica ha dicho... «Estos textos son tan increíblemente buenos que te pasmará que Montserrat Roig no sea hoy uno de los grandes nombres de la literatura peninsular. Ya va siendo hora de sacarla del purgatorio del olvido.» Rosa Montero «Una mujer irrepetible. Siento mucho que no la hayáis conocido. Pero la podéis leer.» Maruja Torres «Montserrat Roig, viajera, culta, feminista. [...] Montserrat Roig, luz en la noche, maestra de periodistas y escritora que nos abandonó cuando lo mejor de su producción estaba por venir. [...] Pero ahora que la prensa no experimenta una era de cambios, sino un cambio de era, está más viva que nunca. Y su ejemplo es todavía más inspirador.»Domingo Marchena, La Vanguardia «La primera escritora total de la literatura catalana.»Marta Pesarrondona
Algernon Swinburne and Walter Pater: Victorian Aestheticism, Doubt and Secularisation
by SarahGlendon LyonsHow did literary aestheticism emerge in Victorian Britain, with its competing models of religious doubt and visions of secularisation? For Lyons, the aestheticism developed and progressively revised by Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909) and Walter Pater (1839-1894) illuminates the contradictory impulses of modern secularism: on the one hand, a desire to cast itself as a form of neutrality or disinterestedness; on the other, a desire to affirm 'this world' as the place of human flourishing or even enchantment. The standard narrative of a 'crisis of faith' does not do justice to the fissured, uncertain quality of Victorian visions of secularisation. Precisely because it had the status of a confusing hypothesis rather than a self-evident reality, it provoked not only dread and melancholia, but also forms of fantasy. Within this context Lyons gives a fundamentally new account of the aims and nature of Victorian aestheticism, taking as a focus its deceptively simple claim that art is for art's sake first of all.
Algernon Swinburne: The Critical Heritage
by Clyde K. HyderThe Critical Heritage gathers together a large body of critical sources on major figures in literature. Each volume presents contemporary responses to a writer's work, enabling students and researchers to read for themselves, for example, comments on early performances of Shakespeare's plays, or reactions to the first publication of Jane Austen's novels. The carefully selected sources range from landmark essays in the history of criticism to journalism and contemporary opinion, and little published documentary material such as letters and diaries. Significant pieces of criticism from later periods are also included, in order to demonstrate the fluctuations in an author's reputation. Each volume contains an introduction to the writer's published works, a selected bibliography, and an index of works, authors and subjects. The Collected Critical Heritage set will be available as a set of 68 volumes and the series will also be available in mini sets selected by period (in slipcase boxes) and as individual volumes.
Algernon, Charlie, and I: A Writer's Journey
by Daniel KeyesThe author of Flowers for Algernon discusses the highs & lows of the writing life, as well as his methods for creating fiction.In his bestselling novel Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes created an unlikely duo—a laboratory mouse and a man—who captured the hearts of millions of readers around the world. Now, in Algernon, Charlie, and I, Keyes reveals his methods of creating fiction as well as the heartbreaks and joys of being published. For the first time, readers, writers, teachers, and students can glimpse the creative life behind this cherished novel.Includes the original novelette version of Flowers for Algernon
The Algerian War Retold: Of Camus’s Revolt and Postwar Reconciliation (Routledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Literature)
by Meaghan EmeryThe Algerian War Retold: Of Camus’s Revolt and Postwar Reconciliation focuses on specific aspects of Albert Camus’s ethical thought through a study of his writings in conjunction with late 20th- and early 21st-century works written by Franco-Maghrebi authors on the topic of the Algerian War (1954-1962). It combines historical inquiry with literary analysis in order to examine the ways in which Camus’s concept of revolt -- in his novels, journalistic writing, and philosophical essays -- reverberates in productions pertaining to that war. Following an examination of Sartre’s and Camus’s debate over revolution and violence, one that in another iteration asks whether FLN-sponsored terrorism was justified, The Algerian War Retold uncovers how today’s writers have adopted paradigms common to both Sartre’s and Camus’s oeuvres when seeking to break the silence and influence France’s national narrative. In the end, it attempts to answer the critical questions raised by literary acts of violence, including whether Camusian ethics ultimately lead to justice for the Other in revolt. These questions are particularly poignant in view of recent presidential declarations in response to years of active pressure applied by associations and other citizens’ groups, prompting the French government to acknowledge the state’s abandonment of the harkis, condemn the repression of peaceful protest, and recognize the French army’s systematic use of torture in Algeria.
The Algerian New Novel: The Poetics of a Modern Nation, 1950-1979
by Valérie K. OrlandoDisputing the claim that Algerian writing during the struggle against French colonial rule dealt almost exclusively with revolutionary themes, The Algerian New Novel shows how Algerian authors writing in French actively contributed to the experimental forms of the period, expressing a new age literarily as well as politically and culturally. Looking at canonical Algerian literature as part of the larger literary production in French during decolonization, Valérie K. Orlando considers how novels by Rachid Boudjedra, Mohammed Dib, Assia Djebar, Nabile Farès, Yamina Mechakra, and Kateb Yacine both influenced and were reflectors of the sociopolitical and cultural transformation that took place during this period in Algeria. Although their themes were rooted in Algeria, the avant-garde writing styles of these authors were influenced by early twentieth-century American modernists, the New Novelists of 1940s–50s France, and African American authors of the 1950s–60s. This complex mix of influences led Algerian writers to develop a unique modern literary aesthetic to express their world, a tradition of experimentation and fragmentation that still characterizes the work of contemporary Algerian francophone writers.
Algerian Languages in Education: Conflicts and Reconciliation
by Salim Bouherar Abderrezzaq GhafsiThis book examines the role of foreign languages and cultures in the Algerian educational system, highlighting how cultural imperialism and supremacy persist through damaging language ideologies and the privileging of colonial languages such as French and English. The authors challenge the claim that the Algerian educational system can be considered ‘neutral’, arguing instead that it was and still is the outcome of a conflict between Arabised and Francophone elites, serving strategic and ideological objectives rather than cultural or pedagogical goals. This book will be relevant to students and scholars of language education, language policy and planning, and the history and politics of the Arab and Muslim world, especially those interested in the influence of Western languages and cultures and the democratisation of educational systems.
Algerian Imprints: Ethical Space in the Work of Assia Djebar and Hélène Cixous
by Brigitte Weltman-AronBorn and raised in French Algeria, Assia Djebar and Hélène Cixous represent in their literary works signs of conflict and enmity, drawing on discordant histories so as to reappraise the political on the very basis of dissensus.In a rare comparison of these authors' writings, Algerian Imprints shows how Cixous and Djebar consistently reclaim for ethical and political purposes the demarcations and dislocations emphasized in their fictions. <P><P>Their works affirm the chance for thinking afforded by marginalization and exclusion and delineate political ways of preserving a space for difference informed by expropriation and nonbelonging. Cixous's inquiry is steeped in her formative encounter with the grudging integration of the Jews in French Algeria, while Djebar's narratives concern the colonial separation of "French" and "Arab," self and other. Yet both authors elaborate strategies to address inequality and injustice without resorting to tropes of victimization, challenging and transforming the understanding of the history and legacy of colonized space.
Algeria: The Dark Decade of Terrorism (Novel #1)
by Bellaredj BoudaoudIn this story, the author denounces religious fanaticism, assassins, attacks, intolerance, hypocrisy and even a total incomprehension of Islam. A religion that preaches peace and not violence. Generally speaking, violence is inherent in human nature. It takes a commendable effort to suppress it. Our father Adam had two sons: one killed the other. Monotheistic religions strive to neutralize tendencies towards violence through patience, piety and love of neighbor. The author portrays here a realistic and sometimes picturesque image of the life of a people he loves, plunged into the chaos of history, with its violence and dangers, its hopes and passions. Little by little, the truth and exactitude of the details, the non-documentary precision, A religion that preaches peace and not violence.
Algebraic Structures in Natural Language
by Jean-Philippe BernardyAlgebraic Structures in Natural Language addresses a central problem in cognitive science concerning the learning procedures through which humans acquire and represent natural language. Until recently algebraic systems have dominated the study of natural language in formal and computational linguistics, AI, and the psychology of language, with linguistic knowledge seen as encoded in formal grammars, model theories, proof theories and other rule-driven devices. Recent work on deep learning has produced an increasingly powerful set of general learning mechanisms which do not apply rule-based algebraic models of representation. The success of deep learning in NLP has led some researchers to question the role of algebraic models in the study of human language acquisition and linguistic representation. Psychologists and cognitive scientists have also been exploring explanations of language evolution and language acquisition that rely on probabilistic methods, social interaction and information theory, rather than on formal models of grammar induction. This book addresses the learning procedures through which humans acquire natural language, and the way in which they represent its properties. It brings together leading researchers from computational linguistics, psychology, behavioral science and mathematical linguistics to consider the significance of non-algebraic methods for the study of natural language. The text represents a wide spectrum of views, from the claim that algebraic systems are largely irrelevant to the contrary position that non-algebraic learning methods are engineering devices for efficiently identifying the patterns that underlying grammars and semantic models generate for natural language input. There are interesting and important perspectives that fall at intermediate points between these opposing approaches, and they may combine elements of both. It will appeal to researchers and advanced students in each of these fields, as well as to anyone who wants to learn more about the relationship between computational models and natural language.