Spanish artist Francisco Goya (1746-1828) was fascinated by reading, and Goya's attention to the act and consequences of literacy-apparent in some of his most ambitious, groundbreaking creations-is related to the reading revolution in which he participated. It was an unprecedented growth both in the number of readers and in the quantity and diversity of texts available, accompanied by a profound shift in the way they were consumed and, for the artist, represented. Goya and the Mystery of Reading studies the way Goya's work heralds the emergence of a new kind of viewer, one who he assumes can and does read, and whose comportment as a skilled interpreter of signs alters the sense of his art, multiplying its potential for meaning. While the reading revolution resulted from and contributed to the momentous social transformations of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Goya and the Mystery of Reading explains how this transition can be tracked in the work of Goya, an artist who aimed not to copy the world around him, but to read it.

Denis Williams, painter, teacher, novelist, archaeologist, and cultural administrator, is one of the founding fathers of modern Guyana. His involvement in several of the country's key cultural institutions and his pioneering work on Guyana's founding peoples ensures him a special place in the country's history books. Williams also contributed to the outpouring of literature that accompanied the awakening consciousness of Caribbean nations and their drive for independence. His literary work is seminal in depicting the character of the Caribbean person and landscape, and the nature of ancestral (African and Afro-Caribbean) identities. His studies of African art and culture encouraged the young nation of Guyana to turn away from Western epistemologies and to pay serious intellectual attention to other origins. His research into the archaeology and culture of the Amerindian population of Guyana and beyond laid the pathway for further scholarship. The essays assembled here bring together eminent scholars and commentators to offer authoritative analyses of the various aspects of Williams's work - artistic, academic, and literary - and capture the rationale for, the interconnections between, and the evident trajectory of Williams's life work as the epitome of the changing nature of the Caribbean condition. As well as wide-ranging biographical essays, and studies of Williams's activities as a painter, the collection contains a comprehensive primary and secondary bibliography, a generous selection of colour plates, and individual essays devoted to the published novels ("Other Leopards"; "The Third Temptation") and other published and unpublished fiction, and to Williams's archaeological masterpiece, "Prehistoric Guiana." Contributors: Ulli Beier, Vibert Cambridge, David Dabydeen, Charles Gore, Stanley Greaves, Wilson Harris, Louis James, Andrew Jefferson-Miles, Nicholas Laughlin, Andrew Lindsay, John Picton, Leon Wainwright, Anne Walmsley, Charlotte Williams, Evelyn A. Williams, Jennifer Wishart.

This new introduction to El Greco (1541-1614) follows the artist from his native island to Venice, Rome, Madrid, and then Toledo, the ecclesiastical capital of Spain. El Greco's ability to assimilate different artistic techniques and approaches to religion and philosophy enabled him to develop one of the most original styles of painting in the history of Europe. Despite his highly successful career he was unappreciated for centuries after his death, and this book examines how his genius was rediscovered in the nineteenth century.

Henri Michaux is widely recognized as a major twentieth-century French poet and painter. Although his fascination with universal languages has attracted the attention of several of his critics, it has up until now been treated as a marginal concern. Henri Michaux: Poetry, Painting, and the Universal Sign argues that his ideas on what might constitute a universal language are central to an understanding of his works. It suggests that both his ambivalent articulation of his relationship to the languages and literary traditions of his native Belgium and adoptive France, and his efforts simultaneously to exacerbate and subvert the differences between words and images, are rooted in Enlightenment theories of the relationship of the self to nature and its language
Rigaud-Drayton's study makes a substantial and original contribution to the study of this complex artist, exploring the intricate relationships between word and image in his poetry and paintings, and his quest for a single, unifying language or sign.

The Life and Work of Rosalba Carriera (1673-1757): The Queen of Pastel is the first extensive biographical narrative in English of Rosalba Carriera. It is also the first scholarly investigation of the external and internal factors that helped to create this female painter's unique career in eighteenth-century Europe. It documents the difficulties, complications, and consequences that arose then -- and can also arise today -- when a woman decides to become an independent artist. This book contributes a new, in-depth analysis of the interplay between society's expectations, generally accepted codices for gendered behaviour, and one single female painter's astute strategies for achieving success, as well as autonomy in her professional life as a famed artist. Some of the questions that the author raises are: How did Carriera manage to build up her career? How did she run her business and organize her own workshop? What kind of artist was Carriera? Finally, what do her self-portraits reveal in terms of self-enactment and possibly autobiographical turning points?

Rocking the Wall explores the epic Bruce Springsteen concert in East Berlin on July 19, 1988, and how it changed the world. Erik Kirschbaum spoke to scores of fans and concert organizers on both sides of the Berlin Wall, including Jon Landau, Springsteen's long-time friend and manager, to unearth this fascinating story. With lively behind-the-scenes details from eyewitness accounts, magazine and newspaper clippings, TV recordings, and even Stasi files, as well as photos and memorabilia, this gripping book transports you back in the middle of those heady times shortly before the Berlin Wall fell and gives you a front-row spot at one of the biggest and most exciting rock concerts ever, anywhere. It takes you to an unforgettable journey with Springsteen through the divided city, to his hotel, and his dressing room at the open air concert grounds in Weissensee, where The Boss, live on stage, delivered a courageous speech against the Wall to a record-breaking crowd of more than 300,000 delirious young East Germans full of joy and hope. Their thunderous reaction to his speech was so intense that it even briefly brought tears to Springsteen's eyes. And their tremendous, powerful cry for freedom became the "final nail in the coffin" of the Communist regime and subsequently helped fuel the uprising that brought down the Wall.

Erik Kirschbaum, a native of New York City and long-time Springsteen fan, has lived in Germany for more than twenty-five years and in Berlin since 1993. He is a correspondent for the Reuters international news agency and has written about entertainment, politics, sports, economics, as well as disasters and climate change in nearly thirty countries. He is a devoted father of four, an enthusiastic cyclist, a solar power entrepreneur and an unabashed crusader for renewable energy. Rocking the Wall is his third book.

Praise for Rocking The Wall

Inside this book is as clear a statement of the power of this music as anyone, ever, has come up with." -Dave Marsh

"An illuminating and impressively detailed examination of a frequently overlooked moment in the nexus of rock music and political liberation. I learned a great deal and enjoyed doing so." -Eric Alterman

This memoir takes a look into the heart and mind of one man who suffers from schizoaffective and bipolar disorders.

Jeffrey Hochstedler's life has seen its share of twists and turns-a culmination of the many choices and decisions made at any one time. In this memoir, he shares revelations and meditations from events in his daily life and how these occurrences shaped the man he is today.

Written in diary format, "Forty Days from the Diary of a Delusional Man" illustrates how his mind thinks, feels, and perceives. He reveals details from many parts of his life-his birth in 1957; growing up in Indiana with his parents and brother; battling depression in his teen years; enlisting in the Army in 1981; dealing with his relationships and his schizoaffective and bipolar disorders; and finding solace in art.

With many examples of Hochstedler's art included, "Forty Days from the Diary of a Delusional Man" shows how he was affected by confusion and despair. But it also communicates how he leaned on art and God to survive each day.