This collection of Cuban legends, compiled by the ronowned essayist and literary critic Salvador Bueno, brings readers the best of a time-honored tradition of storytelling in Cuba. These tales, passed on from generation to generation throughout the island, are here retold by a diverse group of prominent Cuban literary figures. Their stories embrace a broad spectrum of Cuban history from the remote past to the modern era. The book features stories of the Taino and Siboney, the island's original inhabitants, accompanied by narratives about Afro-Cuban religious and cultural traditions, and finally tales that are typically ""Cuban"" because they illustrate both the cohesion of the various strands - Hispanic, African, and indigenous - that define Cuban nationality and the patriotism and love of freedom exemplified in the celebrated struggles against Spanish colonialism. Cuban Legends brings to life the stories of unforgettable people and words that have survived the passage of time. They are both witty and wise, and capture the essential spirit of Cuban culture.

The 'Dandy' is not just an elaborately, well-dressed man - nor is he an exclusively English phenomenon. He is something far more universal and intriguing. The author captures the lives of the Dandies - some were aristocratic but most were not. All, however, had the chutzpah and style to be a true Dandy. Their stories are told against a backdrop of revolutions and war in the world's great cities (London, Paris, New York, Hollywood, Moscow, Berlin), and amid financial and sexual scandals. All too often Dandies lived in luxury but died in penury. The Dandy's place in history is assured. Not because Dandies have made any major contributions to politics, economics or warfare, but because they were, and continue to be, figures of huge but subtle significance - baffling, enigmatic, iconic.

Uniforms are not unique to Japan, but their popularity there suggests important linkages: material culture, politico-economic projects, bodily management, and the construction of subjectivity are all connected to the wearing of uniforms. This book examines what the donning of uniforms says about cultural psychology and the expression of economic nationalism in Japan. Conformity in dress is especially apparent amongst students, who are required to wear uniforms by most schools. Drawing on concrete examples, the author focuses particularly on student uniforms, which are key socializing objects in Japan's politico-economic order, but also examines 'office ladies' (secretaries), 'salary men' (white collar workers), service personnel, and housewives, who wear a type of uniformed dress. Arguing that uniforms can be viewed as material markers of a life cycle managed by powerful politico-economic institutions, he also shows that resistance to official state projects is expressed by 'anti-uniforming' modes of self.

Since their expulsion from Spain in 1492, Sephardic Jews have managed to maintain their Jewish faith and Spanish group identity and have developed a uniquely Judeo-Spanish culture wherever they settled. Among the important cultural ties within these Sephardic groups are Judeo-Spanish folktales, stories that have been passed down from generation to generation, either in the distinct language of the group, Judeo-Spanish (Ladino), or in other languages, such as Hebrew. In ""The Heart Is a Mirror"", Tamar Alexander-Frizer examines the folk narratives of Sephardic Jews to view them both in relation to universal narrative traditions and the traditions of Jewish culture.In part 1, Alexander-Frizer investigates the relationship between folk literature and group identity via the stories' connection to Hebrew canonical sources, their historical connection to the land of origin, their treatment of prominent family members and historical events, and their connection to the surrounding culture in the lands of the Spanish Diaspora. Part 2 contains an analysis of several important genres and subgenres present in the folktales, including legends, ethical tales, fairy tales, novellas, and humorous tales. Finally, in part 3, Alexander-Frizer discusses the art of storytelling, introducing the other theatrical and rhetorical aspects tied up in the Sephardic folktales, such as the storyteller, the audience, and the circumstances of time and place.This thorough and thought-provoking study is based on a corpus of over four thousand stories told by descendents of the Spanish Diaspora. An introduction addresses methodological problems that arise from the need to define the stories as Judeo-Spanish in character, as well as from methods of recording and publishing them in anthologies. Jewish studies scholars, as well as those interested in folktale studies, will gain much from this fascinating and readable volume.

Ireland has a rich mythological tradition that stretches back for centuries, and much of this folklore tells tales of the fantastic. During the Irish Renaissance, authors such as William Butler Yeats and Lady Gregory resurrected Irish folklore in their literary and dramatic works, thus restoring the popularity of Irish myth and legend. Since the Irish Renaissance, many Irish authors have continued to incorporate Celtic folklore in their novels. This book examines how various conventions from Irish folklore have been subsumed in twelve Irish novels published between 1912 and 1948, including works by James Joyce, Flann O'Brien, Mervyn Wall, Darrell Figgis, Eimar O'Duffy, and James Stephens. The volume explores how these writers have incorporated in their own works such conventions as heroic obligations, metamorphoses, and the blending of pagan and Christian myths.

In an episodic overview of Joyce's "Ulysses," specific Irish source works are discussed, including the Irish "imram" or sea voyage, and the "bruidhean" adventure, or entrapment episode. The conventions of "geis," metamorphosis, and the Ossianic tradition are studied in "Finnegans Wake," alongside a traditional Irish ballad, "The Annals of the Four Masters," and the "Acallamh na Senorach" In Flann O'Brien's "At Swim-Two-Birds, /i> and "The Third Policeman," an innovative approach to parody is shown. Mervyn Wall operates as a sometimes unwitting commentator on Irish hero tales, via comic irony and inverted motifs, while Darrell Figgis recalls the passing of Celtic heroic traditions in his bitter satire of Saint Patrick and Ois DEGREESD'in's legendary dispute, in "The Return of the Hero." Eimar O'Duffy's satire of modern Ireland mourns the end of Celtic heroic values in a fantasy that is overwhelmingly pessimistic in tone, while James Stephens extols the virtues of the imagination in "The Crock of Gold" and "The Demi-Gods."

Kansas Myths and Legends explores unusual events, unsolved crimes, and legends in Kansas's history. Each episode included in the book is a story unto itself, and the tone and style of the book is lively and easy to read for a general audience interested in Kansas history. The more than a dozen stories answer questions such as: Is it possible that a family of four living on the Kansas prairie got away with serial murder for more than three years and escaped to another part of the country to continue their killing spree? Are there still remnants of a late widow's fortune buried throughout her property? Is the well-marked grave of Buffalo Bill Cody indeed his final resting place, or did some loyal friends surreptitiously remove him from Colorado and fulfill his last wish to be buried near his namesake town? From rumors of the Dalton gang's buried treasures to the disappearance of an entire town, Kansas Myths and Legends makes history fun and pulls back the curtain on some of the state's most fascinating and compelling stories.

Spanish popular culture is one of the richest in the world. The absence of an efficient ruling class has allowed the people to stamp their personality on all major aspects of the country's life. This book describes the peculiar Spanish feeling for death and tragedy in popular religious practices, music and the bullfight; the fiesta sense of life, so foreign to the work ethic of other Western countries; the oral tradition that has managed to survive into the post-industrial age with its creative use of slang, proverbs and obscenity; popular literature, the press, radio, television and the movies.

Students and scholars will appreciate the first comprehensive treatment of Spanish popular culture in a single volume. The author has done first-hand research in all the major regions of Spain and has compiled a list of major archives and resource centers. An extensive bibliography on the major fields of popular Spanish culture is included at the end of each chapter.

Relating to clothes is a fundamental experience in the lives of most Western women. Even when choice is fraught with ambivalence, clothing matters. From considerations about dressing for success, to worries about weight, through to investing particular articles of clothing with meaning bordering on the sacred, what we wear speaks volumes about personal identity - what is revealed, what is concealed, what is created.
This book fills a gap in the existing literature on the ambivalence of fashion and dress by drawing on a wide range of women's experiences with their wardrobes and providing empirical data noticeably absent from other studies of women and dress. Navigating what is clearly a contested realm in feminist scholarship, contributors provide rich case studies of the reality of women's relationships with clothing. While on the surface concerns about fashion or dress may appear to reflect gendered patterns, in fact clothing may be used to challenge ascribed meanings about femininity.

A pioneer in the strange art and ambiguous science of zo phagy-that is, of studying animals by eating them-British natural historian FRANCIS TREVELYAN BUCKLAND (1826-1880) was a wildly popular speaker and writer of the Victorian era. In his classic four-volume Curiosities of Natural History, published between 1857 and 1872, he shared his love of creatures exotic and mysterious with readers who devoured his charming and erudite essays much in the same way he devoured his animal subjects. "If there is one person that I would have expected to have captured a sea serpent in the 19th century for the sole purpose of eating it, it would be Frank Buckland," writes cryptozoologist Loren Coleman in his new introduction to Buckland's series. One of the founding grandfathers of cryptozoology, the discipline that investigates animal mysteries, Buckland was not "a wild-eyed 'true believer' in anything strange," insists Coleman, but brought, instead, "a skeptical, open-minded approach" to his work. Indeed, here, in the "fourth series" of Curiosities of Natural History, Buckland's erudition is clear in his animated discussions of, among many other things, measuring a French giant, the "woolly woman of Hayti," performing fleas, six thousand parakeets, the intemperance of salmon, and fossil pork. This new edition, a replica of the 1888 "Popular Edition," is part of Cosimo's Loren Coleman Presents series. LOREN COLEMAN is author of numerous books of cryptozoology, including Bigfoot : The True Story of Apes in America and Mothman and Other Curious Encounters.

In the 1930s, Freud observed that "when you meet a human being, the first distinction you make is `male or female?' and you are accustomed to make the distinction with unhesitating certainty." As Freud suggests, society is divisible by gender. We are taken to be either "male" or "female." This notion seems to be fixed within our culture and is often unquestioned. In this dynamic book, fashion journalist Laura Cherrie Beaney examines gender as a concept and as a practice that is also challenged and contested in the fashion industry. While gender has been relatively fixed within our society, we are nevertheless entertained by "gender bending." The media and entertainment industries now represent a range of gender identities. As much as it is a cultural phenomenon, gender is also an individual practice. Social theorists describe some individuals as "gender outlaws" for actively choosing to blend and shape their own gender identities. Fashionable clothing makes multiple statements about the wearer. It can identify social status and tell the viewer, "This is the type of person I am." In contemporary culture, fashion designers, stylists, photographers, and other media professionals have been fascinated with the idea of gender and its ever-changing boundaries. In recent years, the fashion industry has also focused on ideas of unisex identity and androgyny. Indeed, the fashion industry seems to afford a decadent sense of power to alternative gender identities. Fashion designers and stylists have been inspired by alternative gender identities when creating images and when showcasing their designs. Crossing the Catwalk explores fashion to understand how this mediated image of gender equality in the twenty-first century relates to reality by examining cross-dressing and transvestism through the construction of personal style. By using case studies from a range of different sources, the book will give a clear idea of how the reality of cross-dressing compares to the glamorous and decadent images portrayed by the fashion industry. It will aim to uncover the true motivations for those who cross dress and analyze the construction of gendered personal styles in relation to fashion.

Dartmoor Legends By Eva C. Roberts 296 pages Contents include: The magic mist - The vengeance of belus - The bards of the wood of Wistman - The story of the spinners rock - The golden maze - The legend of the grey wethers - The nymph Tamara - The wrath of Taranis - The pixies of Ockington wood - The legend of the Abbots way - The legend of Guile bridge Originally published in 1912. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Obscure Press are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Ideal for high school students and undergraduates, this volume explores contemporary life and culture in Libya. Libya is one of Africa's largest nations, but its topography is dominated by a huge southern desert with some of the hottest temperatures recorded anywhere in the world. Culture and Customs of Libya explores the daily lives of the 90 million men, women, and children who struggle to get by in this authoritarian state, where only a fraction of the land is arable and 90 percent of the people live in less than 10 percent of the area, primarily along the Mediterranean coast. In this comprehensive overview of modern Libyan life, readers can explore topics such as religion, contemporary literature, media, art, housing, music, and dance. They will learn about education and employment and will see how traditions and customs of the past-including those from Libya's long domination by the Ottoman Empire and 40 years as an Italian colony-are kept alive or have evolved to fit into today's modern age. Two dozen black-and-white images A glossary of terms

This is an examination of human encounter with death in Germany from the eve of the Reformation to the rise of Pietism. The Protestant Reformation transformed the funeral more profoundly than any other ritual of the traditional church. Luther's doctrine of salvation by faith alone made the foundation of the traditional funeral, intercession for the dead in Purgatory, obsolete. By drawing on anthropological interpretations of death ritual, this study explores the changing relationships between the body, the soul, the living and the dead in the daily life of early modern Germany.

Moralists have raged throughout history against various fashions for being too short, too long, too tight, too loose or too costly. Highlighting the times when choice of dress was a moral minefield, this enlightening and entertaining book looks at fashion extremes over the centuries, from the sexual display of the codpiece through to corsets, crinolines and decolletage. Providing a sharp and humorous look at the outright risque as well as the grotesquely exaggerated and even the repulsive, Ribeiro shows how dress has functioned variously as a vehicle of righteousness or turpitude and as an expression of sexuality, class or social status. In 747 St Boniface deemed wide stripes and scarlet borders to incite lust and ruination of the soul. Well over a millennium later immodest dress ranked high in Jesuit Father Bernard Vaughan's book on the sins of society. Medical practitioners once labelled the v-necked top, now a standard style, 'the pneumonia neckline'. Was it the force of society or sheer vanity of fashion that drove women to wear sleeves the size of balloons? Are sexual boundaries between dress worn by men and women diminishing? What morals still bind us to our Judeo-Christian heritage and lead us to express ourselves through appearances?Lavishly illustrated and packed with countless thought-provoking quotes, Dress and Morality is an in-depth exploration of the comical vanities and social etiquettes associated with dress in the past. At last here is the much-anticipated updated edition of this classic book.

How much of what we know about the history of the Old West is true? In this new book, author Michael Rutter looks at the legend and lore behind such notorious figures as Billy the Kid and Calamity Jane and the stories of famous gun fights and battles, telling what really happened. Truth may be stranger than fiction, but these 12 legends stand up to scrutiny, and this book will be a must-read for all western history buffs.