Shark Week expert, Dr. Greg Skomal, returns with a new shark handbook offering you a thorough exploration of the most fearsome and misunderstood shark on Earth. Discover the great white’s astonishing evolutionary adaptations, common misconceptions, and the ways these magnificent creatures are integral to marine ecosystems. Written by a premier shark expert and marine biologist, this illuminating book will take you beyond the dramatic representations in media and pop culture and allow you to appreciate the power and beauty of these remarkable cold-blooded carnivores. This great white manifesto includes: Hundreds of stunning underwater photographs A thorough profile of this shark’s habitat, behavior, anatomy, size, diet, hunting habits, and more The latest expert discoveries about this species Invaluable information about conservation efforts and threats to the population Learn from the scientists and conservationists who have made learning about and protecting these impressive sharks their lifes’ work. Sink your teeth into the secret world of sharks with The Great White Shark Handbook.

This book demonstrates the beneficial effects in brain circuits involving memory and attention, reward and social values, decision making and coordination, creativity and persistence of the skills and expertise of continuing education and exposure to the Arts; including chess practice, music/counting, college education and watching movies. These activities were reviewed and investigated using full-spectrum, advanced quantitative imaging techniques. The book highlights extensive applications for this research in common diseases, together with cutting-edge and full-spectrum static and dynamic, functional and structural, regional and inter-network, imaging and phenotypic scales. It will capture the interest of researchers in the areas of neurodevelopmental, neuroplasticity and neuropsychiatric imaging and correlation, as well as disease diagnosis and treatment, and could help convey the methodological innovation and neuroscientific applications of important educational, health and arts/science-related topics.

Modern European cinema and love examines nine European directors whose films contain stories about romantic love and marriage. The directors are Jean Renoir, Ingmar Bergman, Alain Resnais, Michelangelo Antonioni, Agnès Varda, François Truffaut, Federico Fellini, Jean-Luc Godard and Éric Rohmer. The book approaches questions of love and marriage from a philosophical perspective, applying the ideas of authors such as Stanley Cavell, Leo Bersani, Luce Irigaray and Alain Badiou, while also tracing key concepts from Freudian psychoanalysis. Each of the filmmakers engages deeply with notions of modern love and marriage, often in positive ways, but also in ways that question the institutions of love, marriage and the ‘couple’. -- .

This magnificent publication surveys the vital role of women in the development of Abstract Expressionism by looking at more than 50 paintings, collages and sculptures all accompanied by carefully selected quotes from the artists themselves. The dominant movement of the New York and San Francisco art scenes of the mid-20th century, Abstract Expressionism is celebrated as the first development in American art to gain international status. The movement is synonymous with the work of Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Willem de Kooning, but also belonging to this generation who changed the course of modern art were numerous female artists; only in recent years have their contributions received the recognition they deserve. The remarkable women in this exciting new book - among them Perle Fine, Helen Frankenthaler, Sonia Gechtoff, Lee Krasner, and Joan Mitchell - studied at the same art schools as the men, exhibited at the same galleries, and were part of the same social scene. But their work was not shown and reviewed as widely or considered as valuable as that of the men. This beautiful book presents the works of the Levett Collection, an unparalleled private collection of paintings, drawings and sculpture by women Abstract Expressionists. Richly illustrated essays by the scholars Ellen G. Landau and Joan M. Marter, leading authorities on the subject, consider, respectively, the vital role of women in the development of Abstract Expressionism and the work of women sculptors of the movement. Full of exuberant, explosive colour and densely layered expression, the main part of the book is devoted to more than 50 paintings, collages, and sculptures, all accompanied by pertinent quotes from the women about their artistic practice and concerns. An illustrated timeline and 35 artist biographies provide further insight, making this volume an essential addition to the study of Abstract Expressionist women, innovators in their own right, whose time in the art-historical spotlight has finally come. AUTHOR: Ellen G. Landau is Andrew W. Mellon Professor Emerita at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Joan M. Marter is Distinguished Professor Emerita at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. 170 illustrations

This book reflects on time, space and culture in the Game of Thrones universe. It analyses both the novels and the TV series from a multidisciplinary perspective ultimately aimed at highlighting the complexity, eclecticism and diversity that characterises Martin’s world. The book is divided into three thematic sections. The first section focuses on space—both the urban and natural environment—and the interaction between human beings and their surroundings. The second section follows different yet complementary approaches to Game of Thrones from an aesthetic and cultural perspective. The final section addresses the linguistic and translation implications of the Game of Thrones universe, as well as its didactic uses. This book is paired with a second volume that focuses on the characters that populate Martin’s universe, as well as on one of the ways in which they often interact—violence and warfare—from the same multidisciplinary perspective.

What happens when a girl tries to grow up in a world where everyone wants her to remain a child? Hayley Mills' teenage decade in Hollywood produced some of the era's greatest coming-of-age family movies: classics like Pollyanna, The Parent Trap and In Search of the Castaways, and in Britain the acclaimed Whistle Down the Wind. These films made Hayley a genuine teen idol and a household name. Now and for the first time, Hayley reveals the truth of her own coming-of-age story, in her own words - a story of incredible twists of fate and fortune, but also mismanagement, bankruptcy, family crisis and dislocation. Told with characteristic warmth, honesty and humour, Hayley takes us back in time to a bygone era, charting a journey from her carefree childhood innocence in post-war Britain, growing up in the shadow of her famous theatrical family, to being propelled into the Technicolor boomtown of 1960s Hollywood, where she is mentored to stardom by Walt Disney himself.

The French colony of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) was home to one of the richest public theatre traditions of the colonial-era Caribbean.  This book examines the relationship between public theatre and the enslaved people of Saint-Domingue—something that is generally given short shrift owing to a perceived lack of documentation.  Here, a range of materials and methodologies are used to explore pressing questions including the ‘mitigated spectatorship’ of the enslaved, portrayals of enslaved people in French and Creole repertoire, the contributions of enslaved people to theatre-making, and shifting attitudes during the revolutionary era.  The book demonstrates that slavery was no mere backdrop to this portion of theatre history but an integral part of its story.  It also helps recover the hidden experiences of some of the enslaved individuals who became entangled in that story.

In 1814, Hokusai's sketches were published in a handbook of over 4,000 images: Hokusai Manga. It surpassed expectations as a student reference book, and became a bestseller. Here, in an elegant, three-volume package, an expansive selection of these works are revealed, presenting all of the themes, motifs and drawing techniques found in his art. The caricatures, satirical drawings, multi-panel illustrations and narrative depictions found in the book can clearly be seen as the basis for manga as it is understood today. One volume explores The Life and Manners of the Day (studying habits and objects of the everyday, from architectural features to wrestling moves and facial expressions); the second The Whole Earth Catalogue (largely concerned with nature, from animals to rock faces and fish); and the third presents the Fanciful, Mythical and Supernatural (with images narrating myths and displaying fantastical creatures).

Character Design Quarterly (CDQ) is a lively, creative magazine bringing inspiration, expert insights, and leading techniques from professional illustrators, artists, and character art enthusiasts worldwide. Each issue provides detailed tutorials on creating diverse characters, enabling you to explore the processes and decision making that go into creating amazing characters. Learn new ways to develop your own ideas, and discover from the artists what it is like to work for prolific animation studios such as Disney, Warner Bros., and DreamWorks. The cover for issue 24 has been created by Nathanna Érica - an illustrator and paper artist based in São Paulo, Brazil. Inside we interview Justin Runfola, a character designer and visual-development artist with years of experience in the animation industry.

The definitive 1990s blockbuster, Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park met with almost universal critical and popular acclaim, broke new ground with its CGI recreation of dinosaurs, and started one of the most profitable of all movie franchises. To mark the film’s 30th anniversary, this exciting illustrated collection of new essays interrogates the Jurassic Park phenomenon from a diverse range of critical, historical, and theoretical angles. The primary focus is on Jurassic Park itself but there is also discussion of the franchise and its numerous spin-offs. As well as leading international scholars of film studies and history, contributors include experts in special effects, science on screen, fan studies, and palaeontology. Comprehensive, up to date, and accessible, The Jurassic Park Book appeals not only to students and scholars of Hollywood and contemporary culture, but also to the global audience of fans of the greatest of all dinosaur movies.

In the first book-length study of Annie Baker, one of the most critically acclaimed playwrights in the United States today and winner of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a MacArthur “genius� grant, Amy Muse analyzes Baker’s plays and other work. These include The Flick, John, The Antipodes, the Shirley Vermont plays, and her adaptation of Uncle Vanya. Muse illuminates their intellectual and ethical themes and issues by contextualizing them with the other works of theatre, art, theology, and psychology that Baker read while writing them. Through close discussions of Baker’s work, this book immerses readers in her use of everyday language, her themes of loneliness, desire, empathy, and storytelling, and her innovations with stage time. Enriched by a foreword from Baker’s former professor, playwright Mac Wellman, as well as essays by four scholars, Thomas Butler, Jeanmarie Higgins, Katherine Weiss, and Harrison Schmidt, this is a companionable guide for students of American literature and theatre studies, which deepens their knowledge and appreciation of Baker’s dramatic invention. Muse argues that Baker is finely attuned to the language of the everyday: imperfect, halting, marked with unexpressed desires, banalities, and silence. Called “antitheatrical,� these plays draw us back to the essence of theatre: space, time, and story, sitting with others in real time, witnessing the dramatic in the ordinary lives of ordinary people. Baker’s revolution for the stage has been to slow it down and bring us all into the mystery and pleasure of attention.

From the early days of his stage career in the decades before World War I through his unparalleled comeback after World War II, Al Jolson was billed as "The World's Greatest Entertainer." This book provides an insightful sketch of Jolson's life and a comprehensive record of his extensive career. The volume begins with a biography which discusses the factors that shaped Jolson's development as a performer. A chronology of the chief events in his life follows. Chapters are then devoted to his stage, film, recording, and broadcast career. Each of these chapters contains annotated entries for Jolson's performances. A bibliography follows, with entries for books, periodicals, and newspaper articles. Appendices list stage shows based on Jolson's life, along with newsreels, cartoons, awards, and endorsements related to his career. Name and title indexes conclude the work and add to its reference value.

Publicity, nerve, and verve made David Merrick possibly the most successful producer in the history of Broadway. Not since the days of David Belasco or Florenz Ziegfeld had the theatre produced such a spectacular producer-star. He was dubbed The Barnum of Broadway or, less flatteringly, The Abominable Showman, and Clive Barnes of the New York Times said he had showmanship running out of his ears. Although he was best known for his musical productions, including Hello Dolly! (1964) and 42nd Street (1980), he produced many nonmusicals as well; Cecil Smith of the Los Angeles Times wrote that he was one of the most sensitive and effective producers of fine dramas in modern Broadway. Merrick's career, tempered by a legal background, is an undisputed testimony to his artistic sensibilities, his razor-edged business acumen, his talent for public relations, and his unrelenting drive. This study chronicles the life and career of one of the last of Broadway's independent producers, David Merrick, who produced eighty-eight plays on Broadway during his professional lifetime. Following a chronology of his career and a biographical sketch, all his plays, plus film productions, are carefully documented with credits, runs, synopses, and review citations. An annotated bibliography includes his own writings and a chronologically organized listing of books and articles about him. An appendix is devoted to major awards given to Merrick, his productions, and other principals and stars involved with them; and a second appendix lists theatre productions that were made into films. Carefully cross-referenced and indexed, the book adds to the growing number of studies that organize essential resources for research and scholarship in American theatre.

Metaphysical thought has been excluded from much of the discourse on modern art, especially abstract painting. By connecting ideas about faith with the initiators of abstract painting, Joseph Masheck reveals how an underlying religiosity informed some of our most important abstract painters. Covering Wassily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich, Piet Mondrian, and El Lissitzky, Masheck shows how ‘revealed religion’ has been an underlying but fundamental determinant of the thinking and practice of abstract painting from its originators down to the present. He contextualizes their art within some of the historical moments of the early 20th century, including the Russian revolution and the Stalinist period, and explores the appeal of certain themes, such as the Passion of Christ. A radical new theorization of the influence of religion over visual art, Faith in Art asks why metaphysics has been eliminated from the discussion where it might have something to say. This is a new way of thinking about a hundred years of abstract painting.

A thorough survey of great interest and value to scholars in this field.

Thomas Hardy and the Folk Horror Tradition takes the uncanny and unsettling fiction of Thomas Hardy as fundamental in examining the lineage of ‘Hardyan Folk Horror’. Hardy’s novels and his short fiction often delve into a world of folklore and what was, for Hardy the recent past. Hardy’s Wessex plays out tensions between the rational and irrational, the pagan and the Christian, the past and the 'enlightened' future. Examining these tensions in Hardy's life and his work provides a foundation for exploring the themes that develop in the latter half of the 20th century and again in the 21st century into a definable genre, folk horror. This study analyses the subduing function of heritage drama via analysis of adaptations of Hardy's work to this financially lucrative film market. This is a market in which the inclusion of the weird and the eerie does not fit with the construction of a past and their function in creating a nostalgia of a safe and idyllic picture of England’s rural past. However, there are some lesser-known adaptations from the 1970s that sit alongside the unholy trinity of folk horror: the adaptation for television of the Wessex Tales. From a consideration of the epistemological fissure that characterize Hardy’s world, the book draws parallels between then and now and the manifestation of writing on conceptual borders. Through this comparative analysis, Thomas Hardy and the Folk Horror Tradition posits that we currently exist on a moment of fracture, when tradition sits as a seductive threat.

As film and television become ever more focused on the pornographic gaze of the camera, the human body undergoes a metamorphosis, becoming both landscape and building, part of an architectonic design in which the erotics of the body spread beyond the body itself to influence the design of the film or televisual shot. The body becomes the mise-en-scène of contemporary moving imagery. Opening The Space of Sex, Shelton Waldrep sets up some important tropes for the book: the movement between high and low art; the emphasis on the body, looking, and framing; the general intermedial and interdisciplinary methodology of the book as a whole. The Space of Sex’s second half focuses on how sex, gender, and sexuality are represented in several recent films, including Paul Schrader’s The Canyons (2013), Oliver Stone’s Savages (2012), Steven Soderbergh’s Magic Mike (2012), Lars Von Trier’s Nymphomaniac (2013), and Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Don Jon (2013). Each of these mainstream or independent movies, and several more, are examined for the ways they have attempted to absorb pornography, if not the pornography industry specifically, into their plot. According to Waldrep, the utopian elements of seventies porn get reprocessed in a complex way in the twenty-first century as both a utopian impulse—the desire to have sex on the screen, to re-eroticize sex as something positive and lacking in shame—with a mixed feeling about pornography itself, with an industry that can be seen in a dystopian light. In other words, sex, in our contemporary world, still does not come without compromise.

From the winner of the 2022 National Poetry Prize, Stuart Payne’s second collection showcases the
growth of a bright, refined voice in South African poetry. His metrical, often rhyming style blends
traditional poetic forms with modern rhythms, echoing patterns found in popular music.
“Stuart Payne is a wordsmith of great skill. There is not a phrase nor a rhythm out of place.
His subject range extends from the heavenly bodies to his eponymous cucumbers.” – Geoff Haresnape
“This is a carefully crafted, and generous collection, sensitive to the intricacies of
everyday life and mindful of its transitory, often illusive, generally wondrous nature.” – Patricia Schonstein

An authoritative new publication that revisits Munch’s work in its entirety. Edvard Munch occupies a pivotal place in artistic modernity. His work is permeated by a singular vision of the world, with a powerful symbolist dimension that goes beyond the masterpieces he created in the 1890s, and which gives his art a great coherence. For Munch, humanity and nature were united in the cycle of life, death and rebirth, which is reflected in the unending recurrence of certain motifs and colour combinations in his work. He wrote: ‘These paintings, which are, admittedly, relatively difficult to understand, will be […] easier to grasp if they are integrated into a whole.’ Published to accompany the major exhibition at the Musée d’Orsay, Edvard Munch: A Poem of Life, Love and Death presents about a hundred works – paintings, drawings, prints and engraved blocks – reflecting the diversity of Munch’s practice. Seven essays explore the artist in his philosophical and scientific milieu and the places that shaped the man and his art, as well as offering a rare glimpse of Munch’s attempts at creative writing. They also examine the historical evolution of his monumental Frieze of Life series and the world-famous Scream. This publication invites readers to revisit the painter’s work in its entirety by following the thread of an ever-inventive pictorial thinking: a vision that is both fundamentally coherent, even obsessive, and at the same time constantly renewed.