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Alien Constructions: Science Fiction and Feminist Thought
by Patricia MelzerThough set in other worlds populated by alien beings, science fiction is a site where humans can critique and re-imagine the paradigms that shape this world, from fundamentals such as the sex and gender of the body to global power relations among sexes, races, and nations. Feminist thinkers and writers are increasingly recognizing science fiction's potential to shatter patriarchal and heterosexual norms, while the creators of science fiction are bringing new depth and complexity to the genre by engaging with feminist theories and politics. This book maps the intersection of feminism and science fiction through close readings of science fiction literature by Octavia E. Butler, Richard Calder, and Melissa Scott and the movies The Matrix and the Alien series. Patricia Melzer analyzes how these authors and films represent debates and concepts in three areas of feminist thought: identity and difference, feminist critiques of science and technology, and the relationship among gender identity, body, and desire, including the new gender politics of queer desires, transgender, and intersexed bodies and identities. She demonstrates that key political elements shape these debates, including global capitalism and exploitative class relations within a growing international system; the impact of computer, industrial, and medical technologies on women's lives and reproductive rights; and posthuman embodiment as expressed through biotechnologies, the body/machine interface, and the commodification of desire. Melzer's investigation makes it clear that feminist writings and readings of science fiction are part of a feminist critique of existing power relations—and that the alien constructions (cyborgs, clones, androids, aliens, and hybrids) that populate postmodern science fiction are as potentially empowering as they are threatening.
Alien Capital: Asian Racialization and the Logic of Settler Colonial Capitalism
by Iyko DayIn Alien Capital Iyko Day retheorizes the history and logic of settler colonialism by examining its intersection with capitalism and the racialization of Asian immigrants to Canada and the United States. Day explores how the historical alignment of Asian bodies and labor with capital's abstract and negative dimensions became one of settler colonialism's foundational and defining features. This alignment allowed white settlers to gloss over and expunge their complicity with capitalist exploitation from their collective memory. Day reveals this process through an analysis of a diverse body of Asian North American literature and visual culture, including depictions of Chinese railroad labor in the 1880s, filmic and literary responses to Japanese internment in the 1940s, and more recent examinations of the relations between free trade, national borders, and migrant labor. In highlighting these artists' reworking and exposing of the economic modalities of Asian racialized labor, Day pushes beyond existing approaches to settler colonialism as a Native/settler binary to formulate it as a dynamic triangulation of Native, settler, and alien populations and positionalities.
Alien Albion
by Scott OldenburgUsing both canonical and underappreciated texts, Alien Albion argues that early modern England was far less unified and xenophobic than literary critics have previously suggested. Juxtaposing literary texts from the period with legal, religious, and economic documents, Scott Oldenburg uncovers how immigrants to England forged ties with their English hosts and how those relationships were reflected in literature that imagined inclusive, multicultural communities.Through discussions of civic pageantry, the plays of dramatists including William Shakespeare, Thomas Dekker, and Thomas Middleton, the poetry of Anne Dowriche, and the prose of Thomas Deloney, Alien Albion challenges assumptions about the origins of English national identity and the importance of religious, class, and local identities in the early modern era.
Alicia D'Anvers: Printed Writings 1641–1700: Series II, Part Two, Volume 2 (The Early Modern Englishwoman: A Facsimile Library of Essential Works & Printed Writings, 1641-1700: Series II, Part Two #Pt. 2)
by Robert C. EvansBorn Alice Clarke, the daughter of Oxford university's 'first director of printing', Alicia D'Anvers' poetry demonstrates an intimate familiarity with Oxford and especially with the workings of the press. This volume reproduces three works: A Poem Upon His Sacred Majesty, His Voyage for Holland (1691), Academia: or, the Humours of the University of Oxford in Burlesque Verse (1691), and The Oxford-Act: A Poem (1693). A Poem Upon His Sacred Majesty... responds to William III's decision to visit his native Holland to negotiate with fellow Protestants about their conflict with Catholic France. William, often impatient with English political wrangling, sometimes hinted that he might abdicate and return to Holland. D'Anvers' poem reflects real anxieties about such an event, as well as solid support for the Protestant king. The copy reproduced in this edition is from the Houghton Library at Harvard University. Academia and The Oxford-Act concern more local matters. Probably D'Anvers' best poem, Academia satirises some of Oxford University's 'younger sort', often adopting language that seems as rough and coarse as that of the men that she mocks. The Oxford-Act focuses on the annual university 'Act' or commencement ceremony which lasted for several days and included many rituals. The copy reproduced here is from The Huntington Library. The copy of Academia is reproduced from that held at the Folger Shakespeare Library.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Decoded
by David DayThis gorgeous 150th anniversary edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is also a revelatory work of scholarship. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland--published 150 years ago in 1865--is a book many of us love and feel we know well. But it turns out we have only scratched the surface. Scholar David Day has spent many years down the rabbit hole of this children's classic and has emerged with a revelatory new view of its contents. What we have here, he brilliantly and persuasively argues, is a complete classical education in coded form--Carroll's gift to his "wonder child" Alice Liddell. In two continuous commentaries, woven around the complete text of the novel for ease of cross-reference on every page, David Day reveals the many layers of teaching, concealed by manipulation of language, that are carried so lightly in the beguiling form of a fairy tale. These layers relate directly to Carroll's interest in philosophy, history, mathematics, classics, poetry, spiritualism and even to his love of music--both sacred and profane. His novel is a memory palace, given to Alice as the great gift of an education. It was delivered in coded form because in that age, it was a gift no girl would be permitted to receive in any other way. Day also shows how a large number of the characters in the book are based on real Victorians. Wonderland, he shows, is a veritable "Who's Who" of Oxford at the height of its power and influence in the Victorian Age. There is so much to be found behind the imaginary characters and creatures that inhabit the pages of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. David Day's warm, witty and brilliantly insightful guide--beautifully designed and stunningly illustrated throughout in full colour--will make you marvel at the book as never before.From the Hardcover edition.
Alice Walker Banned
by Alice WalkerAlong with her Pulitzer Prize and American Book Award, Alice Walker has the honor of being one of the most censored writers in American literature. Like Mark Twain, John Steinbeck, Madeleine L'Engle and J.D. Salinger, Walker has been the subject of so much controversy that too often the artistry of her work has been lost in the politics of the moment. This small book presents two of Walker's most interesting stories, "Roselily" and "Am I Blue", and the beginning of her prize-winning novel, The Color Purple.
Alice Sutcliffe: Printed Writings 1500–1640: Series 1, Part One, Volume 7 (The Early Modern Englishwoman: A Facsimile Library of Essential Works & Printed Writings, 1500-1640: Series I, Part One)
by Patrick CullenAlice Sutcliffe was married in 1624 (her birth and death dates are not known, nor her exact marriage date) to John Sutcliffe who was Esquire to the Body of James I. He later became Groom of His Majesty’s Most Honourable Privy Chamber at the Court of Charles I and it is suggested by some of her writings that Alice also had a role at Court. Meditations of Man’s Mortalitie consists of six prose meditations followed by a long poem of eighty-eight six-line stanzas on ’our losse by Adam, and our gayne by Christ’. It was dedicated to some of the most influential members of the Court, suggesting perhaps Alice’s desire to promote both herself and her husband.
Alice Munro’s Narrative Art
by Isla DuncanAmong the first critical works on Alice Munro's writing, this study of her short fiction is informed by the disciplines of narratology and literary linguistics. Through examining Munro's narrative art, Isla Duncan demonstrates a rich understanding of the complex, densely layered, often unsettling stories.
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 WisniewskiChicago Writers Association Nonfiction Book of the Year (2017) Society of Midland Authors Literary Award in Biography (2017) A tireless champion of the downtrodden, Nelson Algren, one of the most celebrated writers of the 20th century, lived an outsider's life himself. He spent a month in prison as a young man for the theft of a typewriter; his involvement in Marxist groups earned him a lengthy FBI dossier; and he spent much of his life palling around with the sorts of drug addicts, prostitutes, and poor laborers who inspired and populated his novels and short stories. Most today know Algren as the radical, womanizing writer of The Man with the Golden Arm, which won the first National Book Award, in 1950, but award-winning reporter Mary Wisniewski offers a deeper portrait. Starting with his childhood in the City of Big Shoulders, Algren sheds new light on the writer's most momentous periods, from his on-again-off-again work for the WPA to his stint as an uninspired soldier in World War II to his long-distance affair with his most famous lover, Simone de Beauvoir, to the sense of community and acceptance Algren found in the artist colony of Sag Harbor before his death in 1981. Wisniewski interviewed dozens of Algren's closest friends and inner circle, including photographer Art Shay and author and historian Studs Terkel, and tracked down much of his unpublished writing and correspondence. She unearths new details about the writer's life, work, personality, and habits and reveals a funny, sensitive, and romantic but sometimes exasperating, insecure, and self-destructive artist. The first new biography of Algren in over 25 years, this fresh look at the man whose unique style and compassionate message enchanted readers and fellow writers and whose boyish charm seduced many women is indispensable to anyone interested in 20-century American literature and history.
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