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Alan M. Wald's American Literary Left Trilogy, Omnibus E-Book
by Alan M. WaldOffered here for the first time as an Omnibus E-Book, this collection brings together Alan M. Wald's ground-breaking trilogy.American Night, the final volume of this unprecedented trilogy, brings Alan Wald's multigenerational history of Communist writers to a poignant climax. Using new research to explore the intimate lives of novelists, poets, and critics during the Cold War, Wald reveals a radical community longing for the rebirth of the social vision of the 1930s and struggling with a loss of moral certainty as the Communist worldview was being called into question. The resulting literature, Wald shows, is a haunting record of fracture and struggle linked by common structures of feeling, ones more suggestive of the "negative dialectics" of Theodor Adorno than the traditional social realism of the Left.The second of three volumes by Wald that track the political and personal lives of several generations of U.S. left-wing writers, Trinity of Passion carries forward the chronicle launched in Exiles from a Future Time. In this volume Wald delves into literary, emotional, and ideological trajectories of radical cultural workers in the era when the International Brigades fought in the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) and the United States battled in World War II (1941-45). Confronting questions about Jewish masculinity, racism at the core of liberal democracy, the corrosion of utopian dreams, and the thorny interaction between antifascism and Communism, Wald re-creates the intellectual and cultural landscape of a remarkable era.In Exiles from a Future Time, Wald offers a comprehensive history and reconsideration of the U.S. literary left in the mid-twentieth century. Recovering the central role Marxist-influenced writers played in fiction, poetry, theater, and literary criticism, he explores the lives and work of figures including Richard Wright, Muriel Rukeyser, Mike Gold, Claude McKay, Tillie Olsen, and Meridel Le Sueur.
Alan Moore: Conversations (Conversations with Comic Artists Series)
by Eric L. BerlatskyBritish comics writer Alan Moore (b. 1953) has a reputation for equal parts brilliance and eccentricity. Living hermit-like in the same Midlands town for his entire life, he supposedly refuses contact with the outside world while creating his strange, dense comics, fiction, and performance art. While Moore did declare himself a wizard on his fortieth birthday and claims to have communed with extradimensional beings, reticence and seclusion have never been among his eccentricities. On the contrary, for long stretches of his career Moore seemed to be willing to chat with all comers: fanzines, industry magazines, other artists, newspapers, magazines, and personal websites. Well over one hundred interviews in the past thirty years serve as testimony to Moore's willingness to be engaged in productive conversation. Alan Moore: Conversations includes ten substantial interviews, beginning with Moore's first published conversation, conducted by V for Vendetta cocreator David Lloyd in 1981. The remainder cover nearly all of his major works, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Swamp Thing, Marvelman, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Promethea, From Hell, Lost Girls, and the unfinished Big Numbers. While Moore's personal life and fraught business relations are discussed occasionally, the interviews chosen are principally devoted to Moore's creative practices and techniques, along with his shifting social, political, and philosophical beliefs. As such, Alan Moore: Conversations should add to any reader's enjoyment and understanding of Moore's work.
Alandra's Lilacs: The Story of a Mother and Her Deaf Daughter
by Tressa BowersWhen, in 1968, 19-year-old Tressa Bowers took her baby daughter to an expert on deaf children, he pronounced that Alandra was "stone deaf," she most likely would never be able to talk, and she probably would not get much of an education because of her communication limitations. Tressa refused to accept this stark assessment of Alandra's prospects. Instead, she began the arduous process of starting her daughter's education. Economic need forced Tressa to move several times, and as a result, she and Alandra experienced a variety of learning environments: a pure oralist approach, which discouraged signing; Total Communication, in which the teachers spoke and signed simultaneously; a residential school for deaf children, where Signed English was employed; and a mainstream public school that relied upon interpreters. Changes at home added more demands, from Tressa's divorce to her remarriage, her long work hours, and the ongoing challenge of complete communication within their family. Through it all, Tressa and Alandra never lost sight of their love for each other, and their affection rippled through the entire family. Today, Tressa can triumphantly point to her confident, educated daughter and also speak with pride of her wonderful relationship with her deaf grandchildren. Alandra's Lilacs is a marvelous story about the resiliency and achievements of determined, loving people no matter what their circumstances might be.
Alarming Reports
by Andrew ArnoNews stories provide an essential confirmation of our ideas about who we are, what we have to fear, and what to do about it: a marketplace of ideas, shopped by rational citizen decision makers but also a shared resource for grounding our contested narratives of identity in objective reality. News as a fundamental social process comes into being not when an event takes place or when a report of the event is created but when that report becomes news to someone. As it moves off the page into the community, news discovers - through its interpretations - its reality in the lives of the consumers. This book explores the path of news as it moves through the tangled labyrinth of social identities and asserted interests that lie beyond the page or screen. The language and communication-oriented study of news promises a salient area of investigation, pointing the way to an expansion, if not a redefinition of basic anthropological ideas and practices of ethnography, participant observation, and "the field" in the future of anthropological research.
Alarming Reports
by Andrew ArnoasNews stories provide an essential confirmation of our ideas about who we are, what we have to fear, and what to do about it: a marketplace of ideas, shopped by rational citizen decision makers but also a shared resource for grounding our contested narratives of identity in objective reality. News as a fundamental social process comes into being not when an event takes place or when a report of the event is created but when that report becomes news to someone. As it moves off the page into the community, news discovers - through its interpretations - its reality in the lives of the consumers. This book explores the path of news as it moves through the tangled labyrinth of social identities and asserted interests that lie beyond the page or screen. The language and communication-oriented study of news promises a salient area of investigation, pointing the way to an expansion, if not a redefinition of basic anthropological ideas and practices of ethnography, participant observation, and "the field" in the future of anthropological research.
Alas, Babylon (SparkNotes Literature Guide Series)
by SparkNotesAlas, Babylon (SparkNotes Literature Guide) by Pat Frank Making the reading experience fun!Created by Harvard students for students everywhere, SparkNotes is a new breed of study guide: smarter, better, faster.Geared to what today's students need to know, SparkNotes provides:chapter-by-chapter analysisexplanations of key themes, motifs, and symbolsa review quiz and essay topicsLively and accessible, these guides are perfect for late-night studying and writing papers.
Albert Camus: The Unheroic Hero of Our Time
by Ramin JahanbeglooThis book interprets the ideas, thoughts and concepts that characterize the writings and philosophy of Albert Camus for our contemporary times. It investigates Camus’ "revolted compassion" as an outsider and a philosopher-writer who in his own words believed in "creating dangerously". The author examines Camus’ interventions on political, philosophical and moral questions, such as Algerian independence, capital punishment, ideological violence, nihilism in the context of his ideals of the absurd and revolt, and justice and liberty. Further, it goes on to provide an exhaustive analysis of Camus’ critique of violence and his intellectual resistance to totalitarianism. Bringing together latest scholarship with an acute analysis of Albert Camus’ philosophy, this sourcebook throws a powerful light on the intellectual foundations of the twentieth century and its relevance for the twenty-first. The book will be of interest to scholars of literature, philosophy and African Studies.
Albert Camus: Elements of a Life
by Robert D. ZaretskyLike many others of my generation, I first read Camus in high school. I carried him in my backpack while traveling across Europe, I carried him into (and out of) relationships, and I carried him into (and out of) difficult periods of my life. More recently, I have carried him into university classes that I have taught, coming out of them with a renewed appreciation of his art. To be sure, my idea of Camus thirty years ago scarcely resembles my idea of him today. While my admiration and attachment to his writings remain as great as they were long ago, the reasons are more complicated and critical.—Robert Zaretsky On October 16, 1957, Albert Camus was dining in a small restaurant on Paris's Left Bank when a waiter approached him with news: the radio had just announced that Camus had won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Camus insisted that a mistake had been made and that others were far more deserving of the honor than he. Yet Camus was already recognized around the world as the voice of a generation—a status he had achieved with dizzying speed. He published his first novel, The Stranger, in 1942 and emerged from the war as the spokesperson for the Resistance and, although he consistently rejected the label, for existentialism. Subsequent works of fiction (including the novels The Plague and The Fall), philosophy (notably, The Myth of Sisyphus and The Rebel), drama, and social criticism secured his literary and intellectual reputation. And then on January 4, 1960, three years after accepting the Nobel Prize, he was killed in a car accident. In a book distinguished by clarity and passion, Robert Zaretsky considers why Albert Camus mattered in his own lifetime and continues to matter today, focusing on key moments that shaped Camus's development as a writer, a public intellectual, and a man. Each chapter is devoted to a specific event: Camus's visit to Kabylia in 1939 to report on the conditions of the local Berber tribes; his decision in 1945 to sign a petition to commute the death sentence of collaborationist writer Robert Brasillach; his famous quarrel with Jean-Paul Sartre in 1952 over the nature of communism; and his silence about the war in Algeria in 1956. Both engaged and engaging, Albert Camus: Elements of a Life is a searching companion to a profoundly moral and lucid writer whose works provide a guide for those perplexed by the absurdity of the human condition and the world's resistance to meaning.
Albert Camus as Political Thinker
by Samantha NovelloAn intense genealogical reconstruction of Camus's political thinking challenging the philosophical import of his writings as providing an alternative, aesthetic understanding of politics, political action and freedom outside and against the nihilistic categories of modern political philosophy and the contemporary politics of contempt and terrorisms
Albert Camus the Algerian: Colonialism, Terrorism, Justice
by David CarrollIn these original readings of Albert Camus' novels, short stories, and political essays, David Carroll concentrates on Camus' conflicted relationship with his Algerian background and finds important critical insights into questions of justice, the effects of colonial oppression, and the deadly cycle of terrorism and counterterrorism that characterized the Algerian War and continues to surface in the devastation of postcolonial wars today. During France's "dirty war" in Algeria, Camus called for an end to the violence perpetrated against civilians by both France and the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) and supported the creation of a postcolonial, multicultural, and democratic Algeria. His position was rejected by most of his contemporaries on the Left and has, ironically, earned him the title of colonialist sympathizer as well as the scorn of important postcolonial critics. Carroll rescues Camus' work from such criticism by emphasizing the Algerian dimensions of his literary and philosophical texts and by highlighting in his novels and short stories his understanding of both the injustice of colonialism and the tragic nature of Algeria's struggle for independence. <P><P>By refusing to accept that the sacrifice of innocent human lives can ever be justified, even in the pursuit of noble political goals, and by rejecting simple, ideological binaries (West vs. East, Christian vs. Muslim, "us" vs. "them," good vs. evil), Camus' work offers an alternative to the stark choices that characterized his troubled times and continue to define our own. "What they didn't like, was the Algerian, in him," Camus wrote of his fictional double in The First Man. Not only should "the Algerian" in Camus be "liked," Carroll argues, but the Algerian dimensions of his literary and political texts constitute a crucial part of their continuing interest. Carroll's reading also shows why Camus' critical perspective has much to contribute to contemporary debates stemming from the global "war on terror."
Albert Cohen: Dissonant Voices (Parallax: Re-visions of Culture and Society)
by Jack I. AbecassisHonorable Mention winner in the Modern Language Association's Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize competition for French and Francophone Literary StudiesA major figure in twentieth-century letters, Albert Cohen (1895–1981) left a paradoxical legacy. His heavily autobiographical, strikingly literary, and polyphonic novels and lyrical essays are widely read by a devout public in France, yet have been largely ignored by academia. A self-consciously Jewish writer and activist, Cohen remained nevertheless ambivalent about Judaism. His self-affirmation as a Jew in juxtaposition with his satirical use of anti-Semitic stereotypes still provokes unease in both republican France and institutional Judaism.In Albert Cohen: Dissonant Voices, the first English-language study of this profound and profoundly misunderstood writer, Jack I. Abecassis traces the recurrent themes of Cohen's works. He reveals the dissonant fractures marking Cohen as a modernist, and analyzes the resistance to his work as a symptom of the will not to understand Cohen's main theme—"the catastrophe of being Jewish."For Abecassis, Cohen's diverse oeuvre forms a single "roman fleuve" exploring this perturbing theme through fragmentation and grotesquerie, fantasies and nightmares, the veiling and unveiling of the unspeakable.Abecassis argues that Cohen should not be read exclusively through the prism of European literature (Stendhal, Tolstoy, Proust), but rather as the retelling—inverting and ultimately exhausting, in the form of submerged plots—of the Biblical romances of Joseph and Esther. The romance of the charismatic Court Jew and its performance correlative, the carnival of Purim, generate the logic of Cohen's acute psychological ambivalence, historical consciousness and carnal sensuality—themes which link this modernist author to Genesis as well as to the literary practices of Sephardic crypto-Jews. Abecassis argues that Cohen's best-known work, Belle du Seigneur (1968), besides being an obvious tale of obsessive love and dissolution, is foremost a tale of political intrigue involving Solal, the meteoric-rising Jew in the League of Nations during the period of Appeasement (1936), and his ultimate self-destruction. Providing close readings and imaginative analyses of the entire literary output of one of twentieth-century France's most important Jewish writers, Abecassis presents here a major work of literary scholarship, as well as a broader study of the reception and influence of Jewish thought in French literature and philosophy.
Albert Einstein (SparkNotes Biography Guide)
by SparkNotesAlbert Einstein (SparkNotes Biography Guide) Making the reading experience fun! SparkNotes Biography Guides examine the lives of historical luminaries, from Alexander the Great to Virginia Woolf. Each biography guide includes: An examination of the historical context in which the person lived A summary of the person&’s life and achievements A glossary of important terms, people, and events An in-depth look at the key epochs in the person&’s career Study questions and essay topics A review test Suggestions for further reading Whether you&’re a student of history or just a student cramming for a history exam, SparkNotes Biography guides are a reliable, thorough, and readable resource.
Albert Is NOT Scared: Direction Words (Mouse Math)
by Eleanor MayEach read-aloud book in the Mouse Math series focuses on a single, basic math concept and features adorable mice, Albert and Wanda, who live in a People House. Entertaining fiction stories capture kids&’ imaginations as the mice learn about numbers, shapes, sizes and more. Over 3 million copies sold worldwide!It&’s Albert&’s first trip to the amousement park. He says he&’s not "afraid" to go on rides—he just doesn&’t like ones that go up and down. Or left and right. Or around and around! But what happens when Albert ends up in line for the wrong ride? Every Mouse Math title includes back matter activities that support and extend reading comprehension and math skills, plus free online activities. (Math concept: Direction Words)
The Albert Memmi Reader (France Overseas: Studies in Empire and Decolonization)
by Albert MemmiBorn in 1920 on the edge of Tunis&’s Jewish quarter, the French-Jewish-Tunisian sociologist, philosopher, and novelist Albert Memmi has been a central figure in colonial and postcolonial studies. Often associated with the anticolonial struggles of the 1950s and 1960s, Memmi&’s career has spanned fifty years, more than twenty book-length publications, and hundreds of articles that are distilled in this collection.The Albert Memmi Reader presents Memmi&’s insights on the legacies of the colonial era, critical theories of race, and his distinctive story. Memmi&’s novels and essays feature not only decolonial struggles but also commentary on race, the psychology of dependence, and what it means to be Jewish. This reader includes selections from his classic works, such as The Pillar of Salt and The Colonizer and the Colonized, as well as previously untranslated pieces that punctuate Memmi&’s literary life and career, and illuminate the full arc of the life of one of the great thinkers of the twentieth century. Selections from his later works speak directly to contemporary issues in European, African, and Middle Eastern studies, such as racism, immigration and European identity, and the struggles of postcolonial states, including Israel/Palestine.
Albert's ABCs: A Sibling Story
by Henry ColeOver the course of a day, big brother Albert manages his interactions with his little brother Baxter and the feelings that result, in this relatable romp through the alphabet.Big brother Albert gets increasingly frustrated with little brother Baxter. Crying! Diaper! Hungry! Irritated! A normal day and a familiar sibling interaction escalate alphabetically until Grandma resolves all the problems, with an X for a kiss goodnight, followed by Yawn, and, of course, ZZZZ.
Albert's Amazing Snail: Position Words (Mouse Math)
by Eleanor MayEach read-aloud book in the Mouse Math series focuses on a single, basic math concept and features adorable mice, Albert and Wanda, who live in a People House. Entertaining fiction stories capture kids&’ imaginations as the mice learn about numbers, shapes, sizes and more. Over 3 million copies sold worldwide!Albert loves his new pet snail! Flash is so smart, he can do any trick Albert teaches him…can't he? Every Mouse Math title includes back matter activities that support and extend reading comprehension and math skills, plus free online activities. (Math concept: Position Words)
Albion: Origins of the English Imagination
by Peter AckroydAn exciting new book from the acclaimed author of the magnificent London: The Biography. This book covers the whole of English cultural history from the Anglo-Saxon period to the present day -- from the Venerable Bede through English myths such as the legends about King Arthur and Albion to C. S. Lewis; from Chaucer through Spencer to George Eliot; from the English mystics through the philosopher Locke to Iris Murdoch; from Purcell through Elgar to Michael Tippett; from Hogarth through Constable to Turner; from mystery plays through Shakespeare to music hall. Peter Ackroyd's favourite themes are here: the visionary poetry of Blake, the theatrical novels of Dickens, the humanism of Thomas More -- and there are also explorations of forgery and plagiarism, Romanticism, artificiality, farce and pantomime, assimilation and energy. The author leads the reader through a labyrinth in one of the most exuberant books to be published this year.
Albrecht Durer: A Guide to Research (Artist Resource Manuals)
by Jane Campbell HutchisonHutchison's book is a complete guide on Durer and the research on his work, his historical import and his aesthetic legacy.
Album: Unpublished Correspondence and Texts (European Perspectives: A Series in Social Thought and Cultural Criticism)
by Roland BarthesAlbum provides an unparalleled look into Roland Barthes's life of letters. It presents a selection of correspondence, from his adolescence in the 1930s through the height of his career and up to the last years of his life, covering such topics as friendships, intellectual adventures, politics, and aesthetics. It offers an intimate look at Barthes's thought processes and the everyday reflection behind the composition of his works, as well as a rich archive of epistolary friendships, spanning half a century, among the leading intellectuals of the day.Barthes was one of the great observers of language and culture, and Album shows him in his element, immersed in heady French intellectual culture and the daily struggles to maintain a writing life. Barthes's correspondents include Maurice Blanchot, Michel Butor, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Julia Kristeva, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Georges Perec, Raymond Queneau, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Marthe Robert, and Jean Starobinski, among others. The book also features documents, letters, and postcards reproduced in facsimile; unpublished material; and notes and transcripts from his seminars. The first English-language publication of Barthes's letters, Album is a comprehensive testimony to one of the most influential critics and philosophers of the twentieth century and the world of letters in which he lived and breathed.
Alchemical Mercury: A Theory of Ambivalence
by Karen PinkusPinkus (Italian, French and comparative literature, University of Southern California) takes the reader on a somewhat quixotic journey through the many visions of alchemy from antiquity to the present. She points out that the derivation of the word is uncertain. But this is appropriate since the definition of alchemy is also murky. Is it science or magic? Is it something as crass as turning lead into gold, or as rarified as a spiritual rebirth? While alchemies have existed for centuries, Pinkus spends the most time on the alchemical centuries, roughly (for nothing is definite) 1500-1800. She finds alchemical thoughts in Goethe, Lavoisier, the Rosicrucians and Marx among many others. Her own philosophy, as expressed through the nebulous, contradictory attitudes of thinkers toward the concept of alchemy is given with intelligence and humor. Alchemy is a metaphor but its shifting meaning is the root of this exploration into ambivalence. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc. , Portland, OR (booknews. com)
The Alchemist (SparkNotes Literature Guide Series #14)
by SparkNotesThe Alchemist (SparkNotes Literature Guide) by Paulo Coelho Making the reading experience fun! When a paper is due, and dreaded exams loom, here's the lit-crit help students need to succeed! SparkNotes Literature Guides make studying smarter, better, and faster. They provide chapter-by-chapter analysis; explanations of key themes, motifs, and symbols; a review quiz; and essay topics. Lively and accessible, SparkNotes is perfect for late-night studying and paper writing. Includes:An A+ Essay—an actual literary essay written about the Spark-ed book—to show students how a paper should be written.16 pages devoted to writing a literary essay including: a glossary of literary termsStep-by-step tutoring on how to write a literary essayA feature on how not to plagiarize
Alchemy and Exemplary Poetry in Middle English Literature (The New Middle Ages)
by Curtis RunstedlerThis book explores the different functions and metaphorical concepts of alchemy in fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Middle English poetry and bridges them together with the exempla tradition in late medieval English literature. Such poetic narratives function as exemplary models which directly address the ambiguity of medieval English alchemical practice. This book examines the foundation of this relationship between alchemical narrative and exemplum in the poetry of Gower and Chaucer in the fourteenth century before exploring its diffusion in lesser-known anonymous poems and recipes in the fifteenth century, namely alchemical dialogues between Morienus and Merlin, Albertus Magnus and the Queen of Elves, and an alchemical version of John Lydgate’s poem The Churl and the Bird. It investigates how this exemplarity can be read as inherent to understanding poetic narratives containing alchemy, as well as enabling the reader to reassess the understanding and expectations of science and narrative within medieval English poetry.
The Alchemy of Conquest: Science, Religion, and the Secrets of the New World (Writing the Early Americas)
by Ralph BauerThe Age of the Discovery of the Americas was concurrent with the Age of Discovery in science. In The Alchemy of Conquest, Ralph Bauer explores the historical relationship between the two, focusing on the connections between religion and science in the Spanish, English, and French literatures about the Americas during the early modern period.As sailors, conquerors, travelers, and missionaries were exploring "new worlds," and claiming ownership of them, early modern men of science redefined what it means to "discover" something. Bauer explores the role that the verbal, conceptual, and visual language of alchemy played in the literature of the discovery of the Americas and in the rise of an early modern paradigm of discovery in both science and international law. The book traces the intellectual and spiritual legacies of late medieval alchemists such as Roger Bacon, Arnald of Villanova, and Ramon Llull in the early modern literature of the conquest of America in texts written by authors such as Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, José de Acosta, Nicolás Monardes, Walter Raleigh, Thomas Harriot, Francis Bacon, and Alexander von Humboldt.
The Alchemy of Empire: Abject Materials and the Technologies of Colonialism
by Rajani SudanNamed 'Top 6' South Asia studies publications of 2016 by the British Association for South Asian StudiesThe Alchemy of Empire unravels the non-European origins of Enlightenment science. Focusing on the abject materials of empire-building, this study traces the genealogies of substances like mud, mortar, ice, and paper, as well as forms of knowledge like inoculation. Showing how East India Company employees deployed the paradigm of alchemy in order to make sense of the new worlds they confronted, Rajani Sudan argues that the Enlightenment was born largely out of Europe’s (and Britain’s) sense of insecurity and inferiority in the early modern world. Plumbing the depths of the imperial archive, Sudan uncovers the history of the British Enlightenment in the literary artifacts of the long eighteenth century, from the correspondence of the East India Company and the papers of the Royal Society to the poetry of Alexander Pope and the novels of Jane Austen.