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The American Villain: Encyclopedia of Bad Guys in Comics, Film, and Television
by Richard A. HallThe American Villain: Encyclopedia of Bad Guys in Comics, Film, and Television seeks to provide one go-to reference for the study of the most popular and iconic villains in American popular culture.Since the 1980s, pop culture has focused on what makes a villain a villain. The Joker, Darth Vader, and Hannibal Lecter have all been placed under the microscope to get to the origins of their villainy. Additionally, such bad guys as Angelus from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Barnabas Collins from Dark Shadows have emphasized the desire for redemption—in even the darkest of villains. Various incarnations of Lucifer/Satan have even gone so far as to explore the very foundations of what we consider "evil." The American Villain: Encyclopedia of Bad Guys in Comics, Film, and Television seeks to collect all of those stories into one comprehensive volume. The volume opens with essays about villains in popular culture, followed by 100 A–Z entries on the most notorious bad guys in film, comics, and more. Sidebars highlight ancillary points of interest, such as authors, creators, and tropes that illuminate the motives of various villains. A glossary of key terms and a bibliography provide students with resources to continue their study of what makes the "baddest" among us so bad.
The American Superhero: Encyclopedia of Caped Crusaders in History
by Richard A. HallThis compilation of essential information on 100 superheroes from comic book issues, various print and online references, and scholarly analyses provides readers all of the relevant material on superheroes in one place.The American Superhero: Encyclopedia of Caped Crusaders in History covers the history of superheroes and superheroines in America from approximately 1938–2010 in an intentionally inclusive manner. The book features a chronology of important dates in superhero history, five thematic essays covering the overall history of superheroes, and 100 A–Z entries on various superheroes. Complementing the entries are sidebars of important figures or events and a glossary of terms in superhero research. Designed for anyone beginning to research superheroes and superheroines, The American Superhero contains a wide variety of facts, figures, and features about caped crusaders and shows their importance in American history. Further, it collects and verifies information that otherwise would require hours of looking through multiple books and websites to find.
American Slavery: A Historical Exploration of Literature (Historical Explorations of Literature)
by Robert FelgarUtilizing key selections from American literature, this volume aligns with ELA Common Core Standards to give students a fresh perspective on and a keener understanding of slavery in the United States.Slavery is a central feature of American history, one with which the nation still has not come fully to terms. In this book, that seminal topic is examined in a fresh way—through literature. Organized chronologically to show evolving attitudes toward American slavery in the 19th century, the work focuses on four key 19th-century texts that are frequently taught, using them as a gateway for understanding this critical period and why slavery had to be destroyed if the Union was to be maintained.In addition to examining the four works—Frederick Douglass's Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Jacobs's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, and Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn—the book also provides numerous historical documents that contextualize slavery in the literary texts. These documents make it dramatically clear why issues such as abolition and the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 were so controversial for 19th-century Americans. Aligned with the ELA Common Core Standards, the title supports history teachers with insights into classic literary works, and it enhances the English curriculum with rich elaborations of relevant historical context.
American Political Humor [2 volumes]: Masters of Satire and Their Impact on U.S. Policy and Culture [2 volumes]
by Jody C BaumgartnerThis two-volume set surveys the profound impact of political humor and satire on American culture and politics over the years, paying special attention to the explosion of political humor in today's wide-ranging and turbulent media environment.Historically, there has been a tendency to regard political satire and humor as a sideshow to the wider world of American politics—entertaining and sometimes insightful, but ultimately only of modest interest to students and others surveying the trajectory of American politics and culture. This set documents just how mistaken that assumption is. By examining political humor and satire throughout US history, these volumes not only illustrate how expressions of political satire and humor reflect changes in American attitudes about presidents, parties, and issues but also how satirists, comedians, cartoonists, and filmmakers have helped to shape popular attitudes about landmark historical events, major American institutions and movements, and the nation's political leaders and cultural giants. Finally, this work examines how today's brand of political humor may be more influential than ever before in shaping American attitudes about the nation in which we live.
American Poets and Poetry [2 volumes]: From the Colonial Era to the Present [2 volumes]
by Jeffrey Gray Mary McAleer Balkun James McCorkleThe ethnically diverse scope, broad chronological coverage, and mix of biographical, critical, historical, political, and cultural entries make this the most useful and exciting poetry reference of its kind for students today.American poetry springs up out of all walks of life; its poems are "maternal as well as paternal…stuff'd with the stuff that is coarse and stuff'd with the stuff that is fine," as Walt Whitman wrote, adding "Of every hue and caste am I, of every rank and religion." Written for high school and undergraduate students, this two-volume encyclopedia covers U.S. poetry from the Colonial era to the present, offering full treatments of hundreds of key poets of the American canon. What sets this reference apart is that it also discusses events, movements, schools, and poetic approaches, placing poets in their social, historical, political, cultural, and critical contexts and showing how their works mirror the eras in which they were written. Readers will learn about surrealism, ekphrastic poetry, pastoral elegy, the Black Mountain poets, and "language" poetry. There are long and rich entries on modernism and postmodernism as well as entries related to the formal and technical dimensions of American poetry.Particular attention is paid to women poets and poets from various ethnic groups. Poets such as Amiri Baraka, Nathaniel Mackey, Natasha Trethewey, and Tracy Smith are featured. The encyclopedia also contains entries on a wide selection of Latino and Native American poets and substantial coverage of the avant-garde and experimental movements and provides sidebars that illuminate key points.
African American Literature: An Encyclopedia for Students
by Hans A. Ostrom and J. David MaceyThis essential volume provides an overview of and introduction to African American writers and literary periods from their beginnings through the 21st century.This compact encyclopedia, aimed at students, selects the most important authors, literary movements, and key topics for them to know. Entries cover the most influential and highly regarded African American writers, including novelists, playwrights, poets, and nonfiction writers. The book covers key periods of African American literature—such as the Harlem Renaissance, the Black Arts Movement, and the Civil Rights Era—and touches on the influence of the vernacular, including blues and hip hop. The volume provides historical context for critical viewpoints including feminism, social class, and racial politics. Entries are organized A to Z and provide biographies that focus on the contributions of key literary figures as well as overviews, background information, and definitions for key subjects.
African American Folktales (Stories from the American Mosaic)
by Thomas A. GreenAfrican American culture has a rich tradition of folktales. Written for students and general readers, this volume gathers a sampling of the most important African American folktales. Included are nearly 50 tales grouped in thematic chapters on origins; heroes, heroines, villains, and fools; society and conflict; and the supernatural. Each tale begins with an introductory headnote, and the book closes with a selected, general bibliography. Students learning about literature and language will gain a greater understanding of African American oral traditions, while social studies students will learn more about African American culture.African American culture has long been recognized for its richness and breadth. Central to that tradition is a large body of folklore, which continues to figure prominently in literature, film, and popular culture. Written for students and general readers, this book conveniently gathers and comments on nearly 50 African American folktales. Included are fictional tales, legends, myths, and personal experience narratives. These exemplify the vast diversity of African American culture and language.The tales are grouped in thematic sections on origins; heroes, heroines, villains, and fools; society and conflict; and the supernatural. Each tale is introduced by a brief headnote, and the volume closes with a selected, general bibliography. Students learning about literature and language will gain a greater understanding of African American oral traditions, while students of history will learn more about African American culture.
The Essex and the Whale: Melville's Leviathan Library and the Birth of Moby-Dick
by R. D. MadisonThis fascinating anthology introduces readers to the literary side of Herman Melville's whaling world with an unprecedented collection of the original whaling texts from which Melville drew to create his masterpiece, Moby-Dick.The notorious 1820 sinking of the whaleship Essex inspired Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, as recounted in Nathaniel Philbrick's bestselling book In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex—now a major motion picture. But how exactly did Melville transmute the historic tragedy of the Essex into what is arguably the "Great American Novel"? Here, for the first time, R.D. Madison collects together Melville's personal "library" of whaling and whale-lore into a single volume and presents these primary sources in a way that readers can readily see how a horrific whaling tragedy became a literary masterpiece. But where did Moby-Dick begin? Prompted by sailor-author Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Melville supplemented his own firsthand experience as a whaleman in the South Pacific with "libraries" of books that he "swum through" to create his whaling masterpiece. Scholars and lay readers alike have long wondered how he did it, and over the past 60 years, a very tight theory of inspiration and creation has emerged. It is very likely wrong. This volume gathers together for the first time all of the main texts that Melville encountered, including the accounts of the unique sinking of the Essex by a sperm whale that provided the climax for Moby-Dick. Melville scholar R. D. Madison examines what critics have said about Melville's response to the sinking and offers the challenging thesis that Melville did not even begin the book at all until spurred on by Dana in the spring of 1850.
Littérature Francaise class 9 - MIE
by Mauritius Institute of EducationLe manuel de littérature française de 9e année, publié par l'Institut mauricien de l'éducation en 2021, offre une approche complète pour étudier les textes littéraires, en se concentrant particulièrement sur les romans et le théâtre. Il s'appuie sur les approches pédagogiques des années précédentes, fournissant des analyses approfondies d'œuvres de grands auteurs tels que Guy de Maupassant et Marcel Pagnol. Le contenu vise à familiariser les élèves avec ces auteurs et leurs œuvres fréquemment incluses dans les programmes scolaires du secondaire, les préparant ainsi à des études littéraires avancées. Avec une méthodologie centrée sur la lecture et l'analyse littéraire, le manuel guide les élèves à travers des exercices qui explorent les subtilités de l'intrigue, du développement des personnages et des thèmes. Grâce à cette approche structurée, les élèves développent des compétences de pensée critique et une appréciation plus profonde des nuances de la littérature française, posant ainsi des bases solides pour leur parcours académique continu.
A Queda d’Um Anjo
by José Viale Moutinho Camilo Castelo BrancoÉ uma das obras mais conhecidas de Camilo Castelo Branco. Romance satírico que põe a nú, de uma forma caricatural, o desvirtuamento dos costumes da sociedade portuguesa do século XIX. Centrado na figura de Calisto Elói, A Queda d'um Anjo traça o percurso de um fidalgo minhoto, conservador e defensor da moral e dos bons costumes que, ao ser eleito para a Assembleia da República, se perde nos encantos da vida da Capital, contrária à moral do Portugal rural e profundo. Calisto acabou por abandonar a vida casta que praticava e que "pregava" aos seus pares. Para além de Calisto, é possível encontrar outras personagens como a mulher adúltera, ou o deputado corrupto, etc. personagens que ainda hoje podemos encontrar correspondência com pessoas que poderão estar ao nosso lado.
De Profundis
by Rita Correia Isabel Robalinho Miguel Vale de Almeida Oscar WildeNo Verão de 1891, Wilde é apresentado ao jovem Lord Alfred Douglas, familiarmente conhecido como Bosie, estudante de Oxford com aspirações literárias, filho do Marquês de Queensberry. Inicia-se então a tempestuosa amizade que culminará no julgamento e condenação de Oscar Wilde a dois anos de trabalhos forçados, em 1895. A longa carta dirigida a Lord Alfred Douglas foi escrita durante os últimos meses que Wilde passou na prisão de Reading. Esta carta não foi enviada a Bosie da prisão, mas confiada a Robert Ross, amigo de Wilde, várias vezes mencionado ao longo do texto, que dela mandou fazer duas cópias, de acordo com a vontade de Oscar Wilde. Uma das cópias teria como destinatário Lord Alfred Douglas, que sempre negou tê-la recebido, a segunda foi deixada em testamento ao filho de Wilde, Vyvyan Holland.
“‘Faith’ is a fine invention”: Dickinson’s Performance of Doubt and Belief
by Regina YoongThis book covers nineteenth-century American poet Emily Dickinson who captured the multifaceted nature of life in all of its uncertainties. Studies on her exploration of faith are ample, but in this book, the author uncovers Dickinson’s playful role-play in enacting solemn themes of religion, death, and the unknown. Dickinson’s creativity encompasses not only her use of language but also her poetic personae and self-created poetic stages inviting readers to question, contemplate deeply or even poke fun at life's absurdities. By using performative roles such as the rejected outcast, passive supplicant, and playful warrior, Dickinson unveils--through a paradoxical framework of belief and unbelief-- a line of inquiry that is multifocal and erratic to “tell all the truth and tell it slant.”
(Im)possible Worlds to Conquer: A Critical Reading of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar’s Waiting for Visa
by Mrunal ChavdaWith multidisciplinary examination, this book explores Waiting for Visa, Ambedkar's autobiographical writing. This investigation ranges from Dalit Studies to Discourse analysis. It aims to provide the reader with in-depth knowledge of Ambedkar's unexplored autobiographical memoir and supplement a range of generalized works. The issues addressed in this book are essential to Ethnic and Race studies in general, to which Dalit Studies is but one contributing discipline. The Dalit Studies already have many texts. These texts are primarily concerned with Dalit identity politics, socio-mythological explorations, and Ambedkarian thoughts on economics, politics, and racial-religious discriminations. These are not discussed with Ambedkar's life stories narrated by himself. This book bridges the gap between Dalit Studies and Ambedkar Studies to project how Ambedkar attempted to forge into an impregnable South Asian social, educational, and political fabric. This reference book aims to attract academics and students of Asian, South Asian, and Dalit Studies. The book appeals to educators, policymakers, and comparative literary scholars.
A Malaysian Ecocriticism Reader: Considerations of Nature, Culture, Place and Identities
by Agnes S. K. Yeow Wai Liang ThamThis collection of essays brings together ecocritical interpretations of Malaysian texts – including fiction, nonfiction, and other media / cultural expressions. It includes original works by environmental activists as well as emerging and established scholars, who collectively analyse various aspects of Malaysian ecological discourse.The contributors address crucial – and often controversial – topics such as local ecological imaginations, wildlife conservation, overdevelopment, postcolonial ecological identities, biopolitics, nature and sexuality, nature and race, the commodification of nature, nature–culture embodiments and entanglements, human–animal relations, waste and materiality, human and other-than-human agency, toxicity and slow violence, self-representations as well as attitudes towards land, nativity and indigeneity, migrancy and diaspora.Readers will gain valuable insights into the ways in which environments and ecological relationships are mediated within this national space, while opening up room to theorise beyond its boundaries.
Marriage Migration, Intercultural Families and Global Intimacies
by Kathryn RobinsonThis book brings an innovative study of marriage migration in Australia, offering new insights into issues of intimacy and authenticity online. In doing so, it delivers on five main objectives: exploring emotional attachment and personal life in global spaces; interrogating stereotypes and their pervasive influence on personal relations; analysing attitudes and social practice within the institution of marriage; investigating immigration policy, marriage, and citizens’ rights; theorizing gender and class relations in the current global order. The analysis moves between ‘online’ and ‘offline’ social relations and processes, with comparative data enabling a critical framing of the data on marriage relationships developed online. This important contribution places contemporary forms of transcultural marriage and marriage brokering in a historical context of ‘marriage’ in the ‘Anglosphere’ tradition, and in particular historical forms of marriage migration in settler colonial and now multicultural Australia—including histories of colonial era ‘bride ships’ and post WW2 ‘proxy brides’ from southern Europe.
Crossing the Border: On the Quadruple-Evidence Method
by Li Yang Shuxian YeThis book is the first monograph of its kind in the academic world which comprehensively expounds the new methodology of humanities. The quadruple-evidence method is one which integrates quadruple-evidences to open up new horizon for interpretation of ancient culture in the three-dimensional manner. The first layer of evidence refers to documents passed down from the past; the second layer of evidence refers to local written materials; the third layer of evidence includes oral legends of anthropology and folklore and etiquette in the living folk customs; the fourth layer of evidence refers to those ancient objects and images either unearthed in archaeological excavations or handed down from the past. The book consists of theoretical explorations and their applications in individual cases. While the first part studies the academic evolution, theory and methodological value of the quadruple-evidence method, the second part, in using the method in different cases, explores different historical and cultural phenomena in the history of China, attempting to extend the frontier of the origin of civilization from the approach of mythological study
(Un)Following in Winnetou’s Footsteps: Representations of North American Indigeneity in Central Europe
by Sanja Runtić Jana Marešová Klára KolinskáThis book examines the ways in which North American Indigenous identity has been (re)imagined, represented, and negotiated in German, Croatian, Italian, Polish, and Czech culture. Employing a cross-disciplinary and comparative approach and drawing on a range of media—from literature, comics, and film to photography, painting, and the performative arts—across different historical and cultural backgrounds, it aims to both contribute innovative scholarship on Indigenous studies in Europe and open a new avenue in the field by focusing on Central European settings that have received little or no critical attention to date. The book’s novelty also comes from its focus on the latest developments in the field, including the “Ravensburger/Winnetou controversy,” which swept across Europe in 2022, echoing the 2017 Canadian debate over Indigenous appropriation and free speech. It seeks to provide a sound reference and lay the groundwork for future scholarship by opening up a conversation on how Indigenous identities have been portrayed in Central European literature and media texts. To this end, it not only addresses generalized expectations about North American Indigenous people underlying (Central) European public discourse and imagination but also questions whether and to what extent some of the ingrained stereotypical views and practices, such as hobbyism, have been challenged in the face of Indigenous resurgence, rapidly changing media and information-sharing realities, and global cultural shifts. The closing interview with Métis playwright, actor, and director Bruce Sinclair underscores one of the book’s key goals—to spark an informed cross-cultural dialogue that will reveal the mechanisms of, as well as the contradictions and tensions inherent in, the politics of Indigenous representation in (Central) European cultural industries and encourage (Central) Europeans to confront their own cultural assumptions and attitudes.
Chinese Semiotic Thoughts in the Pre-imperial Age (China Academic Library)
by Dong ZhuThis book examines practices on the relationship between sign and meaning in the Pre-Imperial period of China from the semiotics perspective. Although the Chinese civilization did not develop a comprehensive semiotics system in that period, they are highly semiotic in many ways. The thinking and application of signs of Chinese people can be found in many classics, such as The Book of Changes, The Analects of Confucius, Tao De Jing and Zhuangzi. This book begins its study by re-examining the semiotic thoughts contained in The Book of Changes and inquiries into the thoughts of the major philosophers of different schools. It provides insights into the findings of these philosophers concerning the relationship between sign and meaning. In particular, it concentrates on how the prosperity of the various contending semiotic thoughts complemented each other in forming a sign system. In addition, the book also emphasizes the wholeness and associativity of observing things and studying relevant signs of Chinese people. As the first monograph in any language to systematically summarize Chinese semiotic thought in the Pre-Imperial period, this book helps promote understanding of the traditional Chinese culture and mindset.
Concise Reader of Chinese Literature History
by Yuejin LiuThis book includes the history of Chinese literature before 1949. It firstly outlines the development process of Chinese literature and basic features and then discusses them according to the literary genre, for the literature of each era. This book gathers established scholars in the field and presents their latest research in the Chinese literature history studies. Moreover, it has included the literature history of different nationalities in the history of China and the records of folk literature history, reflecting literature from different classes. In the limited space of this book, the writers who have been loved by the Chinese people for three thousand years are discussed, such as Qu Yuan, Tao Yuanming, Li Bai, Du Fu, Su Shi, Xin Qiji, Yuan Haowen, Nalan Xingde, and so on. Careful elaborations are made on each writer together with quotations and analysis of their work.
Intersections of Sport and Society in Creative Writing
by Lee McGowan Kasey SymonsThis edited collection is positioned at the nexus of sports, society and creative writing. In its explorations of the intersections of sports writing, analysis of literary contributions and examinations of craft, it offers rare consideration of a rich diversity of form in narratives that occur in, and as creative practice. Included in the collection are dynamic academic investigations into football writing and poetry focused on community sporting activities in Afghanistan, to those addressing the intersections of writing and boxing in the reflexive reclamation of the post-trauma self, the absence of women in the rodeo and who and what is represented in our sports shelves. This book breaks new ground in approaches to sport’s role in creative writing and what creative writing can provide in furthering our understanding of sport in society. The works in this edited book draw on a diverse range of methods to interrogate the processes, concepts and liminal spaces through an intersectional array of voices, offering analysis and insight into the application of creative writing knowledge and practice in relation to sport and its impact on wider discipline discussion and research. It is relevant to students and scholars studying and researching creative writing, sports writing, sports studies, cultural studies and sports media studies.
Dutch Interbellum Canons and World Literature A. Roland Holst, M. Nijhoff, J. Slauerhoff (Canon and World Literature)
by Theo D’haenThis text takes a wholly new look at a major early twentieth-century Dutch poet and novelist from the perspective of world literature, situating his work in both a national and a world literary context as measured against contemporaries and near-contemporaries such as Conrad, Pound, Brecht, Segalen, and Malraux. Exemplifying how an author from a “minor” literature may be a “major” world author, this book considers the debates within World Literature regarding the classification of literatures as ‘major’ and ‘minor’, canon formation within Dutch literature, Slauerhoff's position in the Dutch tradition as well as well as his contribution to world literature, particularly focusing on his East Asian poems, his East Asian novels and stories and his poetry and prose set in Latin America. This book is a key read for scholars and students of comparative literature, world literature, European literature, and Dutch literature. Lucid in style, innovative in approach, surprisingly fresh qua topic, this book opens new horizons for literary studies.
The Chinese May Fourth Generation and the Irish Literary Revival: Writers and Fighters (Asia-Pacific and Literature in English)
by Simone O’Malley-SuttonThis book examines how the early twentieth-century Irish Renaissance (Irish Literary Revival) inspired the Chinese Renaissance (the May Fourth generation) of writers to make agentic choices and translingual exchanges. It sheds a new light on “May Fourth” and on the Irish Renaissance by establishing that the Irish Literary Revival (1900-1922) provided an alternative decolonizing model of resistance for the Chinese Renaissance to that provided by the western imperial center. The book also argues that Chinese May Fourth intellectuals translated Irish Revivalist plays by W. B. Yeats, Lady Gregory, Seán O’Casey and Synge and that Chinese peasants performed these plays throughout China during the 1920s and 1930s as a form of anti-imperial resistance. Yet this literary exchange was not simply going one way, since Yeats, Lady Gregory, Synge and O’Casey were also influenced by Chinese developments in literature and politics. Therefore this was a reciprocal encounter based on the circulation of Anti-colonial ideals and mutual transformation.
A Poetics of Minds and Madness: Fiction, Cognition and Interpretation
by XINRAN YANGThis monograph aims to explore the mind-narrative nexus by conducting a cognitive narratological study on the mad minds in fictional narratives. Set on the interface of narrative and cognitive science (cognitive linguistics, cognitive psychology and cognitive neuropsychology), it adopts an indirect empirical approach to the fictional representation of madness. The American writer Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is chosen as the primary text of investigation, whereas due consideration is also given to other madness narratives when necessary. This book not only demonstrates the value of reading and rereading literary classics in the modern era, but also sheds light on the studies of cognitive narratology, cognitive poetics, madness narratives and literature in general.
The Literature and Cultural Ecology of Imperial Examinations in the Ming Dynasty
by Wenxin ChenThe book examines the relationship between imperial examinations and literature from the perspective of restoring the cultural ecology of imperial examinations in Ming China, breaking through the paradigm of pure literature research. This book presents an important practice in adjusting the pattern of literary research. The contents of this book include five mutually independent but supportive parts: 1) the living conditions and careers of the literary attendants; 2) the educational background and school’s consciousness of the Ming literati; 3) top candidates and Ming literature; 4) genres of imperial examination and the Ming society; 5) exam cheating cases from the perspective of politics and literature. This book will appeal to readers interested in Chinese literature and culture and the imperial examination system in ancient China.
Identity, Space, and Everyday Life in Contemporary Northeast China
by Zhen Troy Chen Jiawen Han Xianwen Kuang Xi LiuThis edited volume is first of its kind to document and critically analyse the changes took place snice China’s opening-up and reform and its impact on Dongbei, China’s North-East region, known for its remote and vast landscape, unique and othered culture, rich resources, mighty infrastructures and industries, geopolitical significance. Through presenting up-to-date and multidimensional case studies, the book covers three major aspects of Dongbei, which put people at the heart of our scholarly focus, namely people’s mediated life through traditional and new media; people’s social, cultural, and living spaces; artistic and fictional representations of people’s everyday life.