|
|
Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social institutions > Customs & folklore
The Cinema of Sofia Coppola provides the first comprehensive
analysis of Coppola's oeuvre that situates her work broadly in
relation to contemporary artistic, social and cultural currents.
Suzanne Ferriss considers the central role of fashion - in its
various manifestations - to Coppola's films, exploring fashion's
primacy in every cinematic dimension: in film narrative;
production, costume and sound design; cinematography; marketing,
distribution and auteur branding. She also explores the theme of
celebrity, including Coppola's own director-star persona, and
argues that Coppola's auteur status rests on an original and
distinct visual style, derived from the filmmaker's complex
engagement with photography and painting. Ferriss analyzes each of
Coppola's six films, categorizing them in two groups: films where
fashion commands attention (Marie Antoinette, The Beguiled and The
Bling Ring) and those where clothing and material goods do not
stand out ostentatiously, but are essential in establishing
characters' identities and relationships (The Virgin Suicides, Lost
in Translation and Somewhere). Throughout, Ferriss draws on
approaches from scholarship on fashion, film, visual culture, art
history, celebrity and material culture to capture the complexities
of Coppola's engagement with fashion, culture and celebrity. The
Cinema of Sofia Coppola is beautifully illustrated with color
images from her films, as well as artworks and advertising
artefacts.
Don't just see the sights-get to know the people. Never conquered
by foreigners, this proud and ancient land has been shaped by
Buddhism, the monarchy, and the military. Today it is a
manufacturing powerhouse and a tourist paradise that welcomes more
than 30 million visitors a year. Yet despite the veneer of Western
modernity, the country and its people remain an enigma for many
visitors. Culture Smart! Thailand describes how the Thai people
view the world and themselves. It examines the impact of religious
beliefs and history on their lives, as well as recent social and
political developments. With a wealth of tips on communicating, on
socializing, and on navigating the unfamiliar situations that you
are likely to encounter, this guide will help you to get the very
best out of your time in the Land of Smiles. Have a richer and more
meaningful experience abroad through a better understanding of the
local culture. Chapters on history, values, attitudes, and
traditions will help you to better understand your hosts, while
tips on etiquette and communicating will help you to navigate
unfamiliar situations and avoid faux pas.
This is an engaging autobiographical account of a young American
woman's life in her Samoan husband's native home. Fay Calkins, a
descendant of Puritan settlers, met Vai Ala'ilima, a descendant of
Samoan chiefs, while working on her doctoral dissertation in the
Library of Congress. After an unconventional courtship and a
typical American wedding, they set out for Western Samoa, where Fay
was to find a way of life totally new and charming, if at times
frustrating and confusing. Soon after her arrival in the islands,
the bride of a few months found herself with a family of seven boys
in a wide range of ages, sent by relatives to live with the new
couple. She was stymied by the economics of trying to support
numerous guests, relatives, and a growing family, and still
contribute to the lavish feasts that were given on any
pretext--feasts, where the guests brought baskets in which to take
home as much of the largesse as they could carry. Fay tried to
introduce American institutions: a credit union, a co-op, a work
schedule, and hourly wages on the banana plantation begun by her
and her husband. In each instance, she quickly learned that Samoans
were unwilling or unable to grasp her Western ideas of input
equaling output, of personal property, or of payment received for
work done. Despite these frustrations and disappointments, however,
life among the people of her Samoan chief was for Fay happy and
productive.
Naomi "Omie" Wise was drowned by her lover in the waters of North
Carolina's Deep River in 1807, and her murder has been remembered
in ballad and story for well over two centuries. Mistakes,
romanticization and misremembering have been injected into Naomi's
biography over time, blurring the line between reality and fiction.
The authors of this book, whose family has lived in the Deep River
area since the 18th century, are descendants of many of the people
who knew Naomi Wise or were involved in her murder investigation.
This is the story of a young woman betrayed and how her death gave
way to the folk traditions by which she is remembered today. The
book sheds light on the plight of impoverished women in early
America and details the fascinating inner workings of the Piedmont
North Carolina Quaker community that cared for Naomi in her final
years and kept her memory alive.
Jan Ken Po, Ai Kono Sho"" ""Junk An'a Po, I Canna Show"" These
words to a simple child's game brought from Japan and made local,
the property of all of Hawaii's people, symbolize the cultural
transformation experienced by Hawaii's Japanese. It is the story of
this experience that Dennis Ogawa tells so well here.
Here are the great stories of the Blackfeet, including the
entertaining Na'Pi (Old Man) stories of mischief and trickery; the
hero Kut-o-yis', who got rid of the bad things; the secret
societies and how the earth was created. Recorded in person by the
famous conservationist and ethnologist, George Bird Grinnell, who
became a tribal member in 1885.
Throughout the early modern period, the nymph remained a powerful
figure that inspired and informed the cultural imagination in many
different ways. Far from being merely a symbol of the classical
legacy, the nymph was invested with a surprisingly broad range of
meanings. Working on the basis of these assumptions, and thus
challenging Aby Warburg's famous reflections on the nympha that
both portrayed her as cultural archetype and reduced her to a
marginal figure, the contributions in this volume seek to uncover
the multifarious roles played by nymphs in literature, drama,
music, the visual arts, garden architecture, and indeed
intellectual culture tout court, and thereby explore the true
significance of this well-known figure for the early modern age.
Contributors: Barbara Baert, Mira Becker-Sawatzky, Agata Anna
Chrzanowska, Karl Enenkel, Wolfgang Fuhrmann, Michaela Kaufmann,
Andreas Keller, Eva-Bettina Krems, Damaris Leimgruber, Tobias
Leuker, Christian Peters, Christoph Pieper, Bernd Roling, and Anita
Traninger.
The dazzling companion volume to the bestselling MYTHOS. There are heroes - and then there are Greek heroes.
Few mere mortals have ever embarked on such bold and heart-stirring adventures, overcome myriad monstrous perils, or outwitted scheming vengeful gods, quite as stylishly and triumphantly as Greek heroes.
In this companion to his bestselling Mythos, Stephen Fry brilliantly retells these dramatic, funny, tragic and timeless tales. Join Jason aboard the Argo as he quests for the Golden Fleece. See Atalanta - who was raised by bears - outrun any man before being tricked with golden apples. Witness wily Oedipus solve the riddle of the Sphinx and discover how Bellerophon captures the winged horse Pegasus to help him slay the monster Chimera.
Heroes is the story of what we mortals are truly capable of - at our worst and our very best.
In this surprising new look at how clothing, style, and commerce
came together to change American culture, Jennifer Le Zotte
examines how secondhand goods sold at thrift stores, flea markets,
and garage sales came to be both profitable and culturally
influential. Initially, selling used goods in the United States was
seen as a questionable enterprise focused largely on the poor. But
as the twentieth century progressed, multimillion-dollar businesses
like Goodwill Industries developed, catering not only to the needy
but increasingly to well-off customers looking to make a statement.
Le Zotte traces the origins and meanings of ""secondhand style""
and explores how buying pre-owned goods went from a signifier of
poverty to a declaration of rebellion. Considering buyers and
sellers from across the political and economic spectrum, Le Zotte
shows how conservative and progressive social activists--from
religious and business leaders to anti-Vietnam protesters and drag
queens--shrewdly used the exchange of secondhand goods for economic
and political ends. At the same time, artists and performers, from
Marcel Duchamp and Fanny Brice to Janis Joplin and Kurt Cobain, all
helped make secondhand style a visual marker for youth in revolt.
The seminal medieval history of the Second Commonwealth period of
ancient Jewish history. Sepher Yosippon was written in Hebrew by a
medieval historian and noted by modern scholars for its eloquent
style. This is the first known chronicle of Jewish history and
legend-from Adam to the destruction of the Second Temple-since the
canonical histories written by Flavius Josephus in Greek and later
translated by Christian scholars into Latin. Sepher Yosippon has
been cited and referred to by scholars, poets, and authors as the
authentic source for ancient Israel for over a millennium, until
overshadowed by the twentiethcentury Hebrew translations of
Josephus. It is based on Pseudo Hegesippus's fourth-century
anti-Jewish summary of Josephus's Jewish War. However, the
anonymous author (a.k.a. Joseph ben Gurion Hacohen) also consulted
with the Latin versions of Josephus's works available to him. At
the same time, he included a wealth of Second Temple literature as
well as Roman and Christian sources. This book contains Steven
Bowman's translation of the complete text of David Flusser's
standard Hebrew edition of Sepher Yosippon, which includes the
later medieval interpolations referring to Jesus. The present
English edition also contains the translator's introduction as well
as a preface by the fifteenth-century publisher of the book. The
anonymous author of this text remains unique for his approach to
history, his use of sources, and his almost secular attitude, which
challenges the modern picture of medieval Jews living in a
religious age. In his influential novel, A Guest for the Night, the
Nobel Laureate author Shmuel Yosef Agnon emphasized the importance
of Sepher Yosippon as a valuable reading to understand human
nature. Bowman's translation of Flusser's notes, as well as his own
scholarship, offers a well-wrought story for scholars and students
interested in Jewish legend and history in the medieval period,
Jewish studies, medieval literature, and folklore studies.
|
|