Spenser's Irish Experience argues that The Faerie Queen, traditionally regarded as one of the finest achievements of the English Renaissance, has to be read in terms of its author's life in Ireland, making it less a work of English literature than a colonial or British literary text. Hadfield's book will be of interest not only to all readers of Renaissance literature but also to students of early modern Ireland, Britain, colonial, and national identity and theories of reading narrative.

Radek Kundt compares the notion of evolution in cultural evolutionary theories with neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory to determine the value of the biological concept for studying culture. Contemporary Evolutionary Theories of Culture and the Study of Religion surveys the historical background of cultural evolution as used in the study of religion, pinpointing major objections to classical nineteenth-century theories. Radek Kundt argues that contemporary theories of cultural evolution do not repeat the same mistakes but that when they are evaluated in terms of fitting the core requirements of neo-Darwinian natural selection, it is clear that they are not legitimate extensions of neo-Darwinian theory. Rather, they are poor metaphors and misleading analogies which add little to conventional cause-and-effect historiographical work. This book also introduces an alternative evolutionary approach to the study of culture which does not claim that the principles of neo-Darwinian evolution should be applicable outside the biological domain. Radek Kundt shows that this alternative evolutionary approach nevertheless provides a deeply enriching line of enquiry that incorporates both biological evolutionary history as shaping cultural change and culture as a force acting on the gene.

This text concerns the origins, organization and method of British, American and Soviet propaganda during the 1950s. It discusses propaganda's international and domestic dimensions, and charts the development of a shared Cold War culture. The book demonstrates how the structures of propaganda which were organized at this time endured, giving shape and meaning to the remaining years of the Cold War.

Leading African American scholars examine the often neglected cultural context in research and policy development in African American higher education in this collection of essays. Past research has most often been conducted by individuals unfamiliar with the historical and cultural considerations of specific ethnic groups. Therefore, the outcomes of research and the development of programs have been based on deficit models, that is, what is wrong with African Americans, or what they cannot achieve. The book examines the questions; what is the relationship between African Americans' culture and experiences, and how should their culture be integrated into research and practice? How do African Americans' intra- and interrelations differ in higher education? How does understanding African American culture as it relates to higher education research enhance policy-making and practice? What role do HBUCs play in African Americans' participation in higher education? What are the policy and practice implications of past and current research? Scholars and practitioners of education, culture, and race relations will find this collection informative and interesting.

Imagination in Theory focuses on Mich le Barrett's long-standing interest in cultural questions and shows how it informs her analysis of current developments in social and feminist theory. Taking culture, theory, and writing as its themes, the book "translates" across the barriers between the humanities and social sciences, raising a number of important-and controversial-issues.

Piers Gray was one of the most brilliant literary writers of his generation. These essays ranging from Oscar Wilde to Levin, from Shakespeare to pulp fiction, use the full resources of literary and linguistic analysis to produce a reading of European culture and society in the twentieth century. In his final posthumous essay On Linearity, Gray summons all his reading and knowledge to deliver his final judgement on life and death.

Phantoms of War in Contemporary German Literature, Films and Discourse offers an up-to-date and comprehensive analysis of fundamental shifts in German cultural memory. Focusing on the resurgence of family stories in fiction, autobiography and in film, this study challenges the institutional boundaries of Germany's memory culture that have guided and arguably limited German identity debates. Essays on contemporary German literature are complemented by explorations of heritage films and museum discourse. Together these essays put forward a compelling theory of family narratives and a critical evaluation of generational discourse.

This elegantly written book explores the tension between the theory and practice of art, taking issue with the approaches of the New Art History and its deconstructionist critics. It critically examines influential social theories of art from the viewpoint of the artworlds they target and, through a consideration of work by Rorty, Bauman, Gadamer and others, develops a new and fruitful set of connections between ethical, social and art theory that gives central importance to reflexivity as a living and problematic, as well as a theoretical, concept.

The father of psychoanalysis believed in ghosts, and Frederick Engles attended seances. These theoretical essays evaluate these facts and consider the importance of the metaphor of haunting as it has appeared in literature, culture, and philosophy. Haunting is considered as both a literal and figurative term that encapsulates social anxieties and concerns. The collection includes discussions of 19th-century spiritualism, gothic and postcolonial ghost stories, and popular film, with essays on important theoretical writers including Freud, Derrida, Adorno, and Walter Benjamin. This study is intended for departments of literature, cultural studies, media studies, philosophy, and cultural history.

In her latest book, Dr. Louise Kaplan, author of the groundbreaking "Female Perversions, "explores the fetishism strategy, a psychological defense that aims to tame, subdue, and if necessary, murder human vitalities. Through an exploration of such cultural phenomena as footbinding, reality television, and the construction of robots, Kaplan demonstrates how, in a technology-driven world, an understanding of the fetishism strategy can help to preserve the human dialogue that is the basis of all human relationships. Kaplan writes from the heart as well as from the intellect.

Feminists have argued that the Barbie doll perpetuates unrealistic standards of feminine beauty and undermines the credibility of women - that her long, slender plastic limbs and tiny waist fetishize the female body in unnatural ways and that her mature, overtly fashionable image promotes consumerism and superficiality over and above womens liberty and intellect. Depending on the viewer, Barbie is either a malign symbol of the strategies of the capitalist system or she is a symbol of glamour, high fashion and style, a fascinating indice of cultural change and nostalgic memory. Yet both Barbies fans and detractors assume that she stands alone.In reality she is the most high profile of a series of iconic dolls that over the past century and a half have been intimately connected to notions of fashionability. The prominence of haute couture in popular culture suggests that the link between fashion marketing and dolls should be an obvious one. Yet to date this connection has not been systematically explored. Doll collecting has been viewed as an enthusiasts or curatorial preserve, while the volumes these artefacts speak about culture and identity has not been adequately interrogated. Peers original and shrewd analysis fills a major gap in cultural studies by examining in depth the dolls associations with concepts of femininity and fashionability.

Today, the Japanese nation faces an identity crisis as it attempts to contend with the misfortunes endured in the 1990s: a downward economic spiral, a renewed crime wave, political corruption, and the failure of the government to take bold, new steps in response. Exploring Japaneseness, a collection of new essays from many of the leading scholars and researchers in Japanese studies, including specialists in communication, linguistics, anthropology, psychology, and others, attempts to address the current state of what it means to be Japanese. The central questions of this volume are those that the nation of Japan is itself considering as it begins the third millennium; Exploring Japaneseness provides a multidisciplinary perspective on what some of the answers might be. Suitable for the informed layman and the specialist alike, the collection deals with such varied subjects as language, nationalism, rhetoric, and mass media, laying a foundation for inquiries into Japanese national and cultural identities by examining aspects of Japaneseness as enacted through everyday discourse or communication. By exploring the culture from the "inside out," these esteemed scholars provide an expansive portrait of a complex and ever-evolving nation.

Collecting and Conserving Net Art explores the qualities and characteristics of net art and its influence on conservation practices. By addressing and answering some of the challenges facing net art and providing an exploration of its intersection with conservation, the book casts a new light on net art, conservation, curating and museum studies. Viewing net art as a process rather than as a fixed object, the book considers how this is influenced by and executed through other systems and users. Arguing that these processes and networks are imbued with ambiguity, the book suggests that this is strategically used to create suspense, obfuscate existing systems and disrupt power structures. The rapid obsolescence of hard and software, the existence of many net artworks within restricted platforms and the fact that artworks often act as assemblages that change or mutate, make net art a challenging case for conservation. Taking the performative and interpretive roles conservators play into account, the book demonstrates how practitioners can make more informed decisions when responding to, critically analysing or working with net art, particularly software-based processes. Collecting and Conserving Net Art is intended for researchers, academics and postgraduate students, especially those engaged in the study of museum studies, conservation and heritage studies, curatorial studies, digital art and art history. The book should also be interesting to professionals who are involved in the conservation and curation of digital arts, performance, media and software.

A comprehensive, state-of-the-art reference collection, bringing together an authoritative and international line-up of scholars to examine key social and political issues related to the Olympics. An essential, 'one-stop' volume for a wide range of academics, students and researchers.

"Children in Culture, Revisited" follows on from the first volume, "Children in Culture," and is composed of a range of chapters, newly written for this collection, which offer further fully inter- and multidisciplinary considerations of childhood as a culturally and historically constructed identity rather than a constant psycho-biological entity.

This book takes the reader on a journey through some men's land and into some men's houses. Along the way we look at whether or not there is a men's movement; what men's studies might consist of; where men have belonged in society through history; the nature of men's wounds and pain; femininity and masculinity; men's (boy's) differentiation from their mothers and their search for their fathers; and a refreshing view of men and sex, fatherhood, and work. Finally, we look at men coming together in men's support groups; amending the wrongs of their past; blessing each other in word, story, ritual, and spirit; and creating projects that forward new missions and end men's isolation from each other. "Fierce and Tender Men" is critical, analytical, and inspirational, drawing on current research in gender, on students' views in gender classes, and on the author's own experience and his participation in men's work over the last eight years. This book confronts, but does not scapegoat, men.

This unique study traces the life cycle of a counterculture commune of the late 1960s as part of a regional network and national movement. Through exhaustive field research in a setting viewed as a virtual social laboratory, it provides fascinating insights into many social concerns involving order and disorder in revolutionary and evolutionary change. It examines such issues as conflict, violence, stratification, and interdependence in the self-proclaimed cooperative, peaceful, classless, and self-sufficient new society. The reasons for the many failures as well as successes of experimental efforts are outlined, along with enduring impacts on participants and the surrounding region.

Modern Egypt blends African history and geography with Arab culture and religion. With its position at the crossroads of Africa, its status as a major Islamic nation, and continuing interest in its ancient monuments, Egypt makes for fascinating study. This volume provides an accessible, up-to-date overview of a society that greatly evolved, yet retains traces of attitudes and behaviors from the days of the Pharaohs.

This volume's insights into everyday life, sociopolitical structures, and cultural institutions transcend ordinary guide books. Asante, a noted Africanist, authoritatively presents the richness of Egypt from the Nile to the Nubian influence, to Cairo congestion and carpet schools. Chapters describe the land, people, history, education, tourism, religion, art and architecture, food, social customs and lifestyles, literature, media, cinema, and performing arts. A chronology, glossary, and numerous photos enhance the text.

"The present volume explores the concept of utopia in Latin America from the earliest accounts of the New World to current cultural production. The carefully selected essays in this volume represent the latest research on the topic by some of the most important Latin Americanists working in North American academia today. With an interdisciplinary approach, the texts included discuss the notion of a utopian impulse in literature, music, performance, cinema, visual arts, critical theory, cultural studies, and political science. Among the many questions the book grapples with are how the utopian impulse is reconfigured over time, especially in new cultural fields and situations, and how Latin American utopias should be contextualized in the so-called global era"--

This is an unusual narrative in that it successfully combines subjectivity -- how an English person was led by a sequence of educational developments, personal encounters and historical constraints to become the founder of the German-Jewish Centre at the University of Sussex; and objectivity -- a book that introduces English and American readers to an important and evolving field of historical and cultural studies through intellectual autobiography. It documents the formative experiences of a scholar who was to become a pioneering teacher and researcher in the field of German culture and politics. The aim is to relate the shaping of self to the drift of history in a period of radical social change, extending from the refugee crisis caused by Hitler's seizure of power through the ordeals of the Second World War to post-war reconstruction, and the transformation of Britain into a modern multicultural society. The focus is on the formative role of institutions: vicarage childhood, Anglican schooling, Cambridge and other university environments -- especially the new map of learning at Sussex University in the 1960s. The 'Torch' in the title alludes to the transmission of a radical intellectual tradition and to a specific commitment to the study of Die Fackel, the satirical journal edited by Karl Kraus in Vienna from 1899 to 1936. From this emerged the innovative agenda developed by the Centre for German-Jewish Studies.

This Guide analyzes the criticism of English-language literature from the major regions and countries of the postcolonial world. Criticism on works by key writers, such as Jean Rhys, V.S. Naipaul, Salman Rushdie and Jamaica Kincaid, is discussed throughout the volume to illustrate the themes and concepts that are essential to an understanding of postcolonial literature and the development of criticism in the field. Criticism and theoretical approaches are discussed in relation to analyses of literary works from South Africa, Nigeria, Jamaica, Antigua, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and Sri Lanka. Criticism on Native American writing, African American literature, as well as Irish, Scottish and Welsh liberationist texts are also mentioned throughout. The book concludes with a discussion of the theoretical debates surrounding neocolonialism, globalization and what has been referred to as and the rise of a "new world" economic empire in the West that has accelerated since the dismantling of the Soviet Union.

Culture Works addresses and critiques an important dimension of the "work of culture," an argument made by enthusiasts of creative economies that culture contributes to the GDP, employment, social cohesion, and other forms of neoliberal development. While culture does make important contributions to national and urban economies, the incentives and benefits of participating in this economy are not distributed equally, due to restructuring that neoliberal policies have wrought from the 1980s on, as well as long-standing social structures, such as racism and classism, that breed inequality. The cultural economy promises to make life better, particularly in cities, but not everyone can take advantage of it for decent jobs. Exposing and challenging the taken-for-granted assumptions around questions of space, value and mobility that are sustained by neoliberal treatments of culture, Culture Works explores some of the hierarchies of cultural workers that these engender, as they play out in a variety of settings, from shopping malls in Puerto Rico and art galleries in New York to tango tourism in Buenos Aires. Noted scholar Arlene Davila brilliantly reveals how similar dynamics of space, value and mobility come to bear in each location, inspiring particular cultural politics that have repercussions that are both geographically specific, but also ultimately global in scope.

Mexico and the United States exist in a symbiotic relationship: Mexico frequently provides the United States with cheap labor, illegal goods, and, for criminal offenders, a refuge from the law. In turn, the U.S. offers Mexican laborers the American dream: the possibility of a better livelihood through hard work. To supply each other's demands, Americans and Mexicans have to cross their shared border from both sides. Despite this relationship, U.S. immigration reform debates tend to be security-focused and center on the idea of menacing Mexicans heading north to steal abundant American resources. Further, Congress tends to approach reform unilaterally, without engaging with Mexico or other feeder countries, and, disturbingly, without acknowledging problematic southern crossings that Americans routinely make into Mexico.

In Run for the Border, Steven W. Bender offers a framework for a more comprehensive border policy through a historical analysis of border crossings, both Mexico to U.S. and U.S. to Mexico. In contrast to recent reform proposals, this book urges reform as the product of negotiation and implementation by cross-border accord; reform that honors the shared economic and cultural legacy of the U.S. and Mexico. Covering everything from the history of Anglo crossings into Mexico to escape law authorities, to vice tourism and retirement in Mexico, to today's focus on Mexican border-crossing immigrants and drug traffickers, Bender takes lessons from the past 150 years to argue for more explicit and compassionate cross-border cooperation.

Steeped in several disciplines, Run for the Border is a blend of historical, cultural, and legal perspectives, as well as those from literature and cinema, that reflect Bender's cultural background and legal expertise.

This book critically examines recent theories of fashion which have sought to legitimize its pleasures and defend it as an avenue for self-expression. Through a series of essays which address different aspects of fashion in postmodern culture including the wearing of makeup, cosmetic surgery, tattoos, the role of ornament in dress and the blurring of gender boundaries, it is argued that the greatest concern today lies not in the failure to acknowledge the pleasures of fashion, but, on the contrary, in the tendency to elevate it to a dominant position in everyday life where the cultivation of one's physical appearance supplants all other sources of identity formation.