This collection seeks to illustrate the ways in which Thomas Mann's 1924 novel, The Magic Mountain, has been newly construed by some of today's most astute readers in the field of Mann studies. The essays, many of which were written expressly for this volume, comment on some of the familiar and inescapable topics of Magic Mountain scholarship, including the questions of genre and ideology, the philosophy of time, and the ominous subjects of disease and medical practice. Moreover, this volume offers fresh approaches to the novel's underlying notions of masculinity, to its embodiment of the cultural code of anti-Semitism, and to its precarious relationship to the rival media of photography, cinema, and recorded sound.

Kafka's novel The Trial, written from 1914 to 1915 and published in 1925, is a multi-faceted, notoriously difficult manifestation of European literary modernism, and one of the most emblematic books of the 20th Century. It tells the story of Josef K., a man accused of a crime he has no recollection of committing and whose nature is never revealed to him. The novel is often interpreted theologically as an expression of radical nihilism and a world abandoned by God. It is also read as a parable of the cold, inhumane rationality of modern bureaucratization. Like many other novels of this turbulent period, it offers a tragic quest-narrative in which the hero searches for truth and clarity (whether about himself, or the anonymous system he is facing), only to fall into greater and greater confusion. This collection of nine new essays and an editor's introduction brings together Kafka experts, intellectual historians, literary scholars, and philosophers in order to explore the novel's philosophical and theological significance. Authors pursue the novel's central concerns of justice, law, resistance, ethics, alienation, and subjectivity. Few novels display human uncertainty and skepticism in the face of rapid modernization, or the metaphysical as it intersects with the most mundane aspects of everyday life, more insistently than The Trial. Ultimately, the essays in this collection focus on how Kafka's text is in fact philosophical in the ways in which it achieves its literary aims. Rather than considering ideas as externally related to the text, the text is considered philosophical at the very level of literary form and technique.

Photos filled with the forlorn faces of hungry and impoverished Americans that came to characterize the desolation of the Great Depression are among the best known artworks of the twentieth century. Captured by the camera's eye, these stark depictions of suffering became iconic markers of a formative period in U.S. history. Although there has been an ample amount of critical inquiry on Depression-era photographs, the bulk of scholarship treats them as isolated art objects. And yet they were often joined together with evocative writing in a genre that flourished amid the period, the documentary book. American Modernism and Depression Documentary looks at the tradition of the hybrid, verbal-visual texts that flourished during a time when U.S. citizens were becoming increasingly conscious of the life of a larger nation.
Jeff Allred draws on a range of seminal works to illustrate the convergence of modernism and documentary, two forms often regarded as unrelated. Whereas critics routinely look to James Agee and Walker Evans' Let Us Now Praise Famous Men as the sole instance of the modernist documentary book, Allred turns to such works as Richard Wright's scathing 12 Million Black Voices, and the oft-neglected You Have Seen Their Faces by Erskine Caldwell and Margaret Bourke-White to open up the critical playing field. And rather than focusing on the ethos of Progressivism and/or the politics and aesthetics of the New Deal, Allred emphasizes the centrality of Life magazine to the consolidation of a novel cultural form.

Poetry. Jacqueline Kudler's new collection of poems traces a delicate and tensile arc. Poignant, unafraid, and disarming in its evocation of the trajectory of one human life, EASING INTO DARK is a return to that life, and for Kudler such return is "a way of realigning memory," a longing not for the life unlived but for the life lived: years growing up in New York, her engagement with imagination and nature, the death of her husband, and the aftermath: the sources of beauty and richness that remain.

This enthralling new translation of Dante's Inferno 'immediately joins ranks with the very best' (Richard Lansing). One of the world's transcendent literary masterpieces, the Inferno tells the timeless story of Dante's journey through the nine circles of hell, guided by the poet Virgil, when in midlife he strays from his path in a dark wood. In this vivid verse translation into contemporary English, Peter Thornton makes the classic work fresh again for a new generation of readers. Recognizing that the Inferno was, for Dante and his peers, not simply an allegory but the most realistic work of fiction to date, he points out that hell was a lot like Italy of Dante's time. Thornton's translation captures the individuals represented, landscapes, and psychological immediacy of the dialogues as well as Dante's poetic effects. The product of decades of passionate dedication and research, his translation has been hailed by the leading Dante scholars on both sides of the Atlantic as exceptional in its accuracy, spontaneity, and vividness. Those qualities and its detailed notes explaining Dante's world and references make it both accessible for individual readers and perfect for class adoption.

This introductory guide to "Othello" in performance offers a scene-by-scene theatrically aware commentary, contextual documents, a brief history of the text and first performances, case studies of key productions, a survey of screen adaptations, a sampling of critical opinion and further reading.

Through life-changing stories, respected thinkers and authentic presentations, Keynote promotes a deeper understanding of the world and gives students the courage and means to express themselves in English. Communication, collaboration and creative thinking drive students towards real 21st century outcomes and encourage them to respond to ideas and find their own voice. Both students and teachers will emerge with new confidence, new ideas and a new determination to communicate in this increasingly information-rich world of Global English.

The First Lady is more than just the President's wife. Throughout history, the First Lady has served as a hostess, advisor, confidante, and partner. While some are more well-known than others, each First Lady has brought her own unique style, personality and flair to the White House since 1789. Some have been idolized, some despised, while others have simply been forgotten and ignored. Regardless of their standing in the history books, each First Lady has made some impact, despite how involved they were in each administration. Here is a look at the country's First Ladies and how they changed history.

Building on the first volume in the Studies in Pragmatics series which clearly set out the differences and similarities in approaches to discourse markers, Pragmatic Markers in Contrast continues the debate through offering a unique and thorough examination of the methods and theories for studying pragmatic markers cross-linguistically.
As a result of internationalisation and new developments in linguistics there has been an increasing interest in cross-linguistic studies. Aijmer and Simon-Vandenbergen have assembled experts in this field to explore the comparison of pragmatic markers across languages in order to offer important insights into the similarities and differences between languages. Contrastive studies can also shed more light on the pragmatic and discourse functions that pragmatic markers fulfil in the languages compared. Another issue is to what extent pragmatic markers which have evolved from the same lexical source have developed similar functions in different languages. An impressively large number of different approaches are represented in this volume as well as a wide range of languages including; English, Swedish, Spanish, Dutch, German, French, Norwegian and Solv (a dialect of Finland Swedish).

Are children really innocent? How could little children organize this ghoul-scout troop known as the Skull Club? What hypnotic power did the young Green Skull use to psychologically subject his peers? This book rips away the veil to expose the alarming effects of childhood monster worship. See the unwholesome drawings of Red Skeleton, Green Skull, Blue Cougar Bones, et al. Recoil from the journals of Green Skull including his disturbing murderous rat fantasies. Cringe at the appalling Skull Club visions, secret identities, awful ideas, fearful musings and other terrifying tropes of tots. Even adults have been powerless to resist the insidious charm of the Skull Club with its mysterious rites. What malignant force could possess these youths to make such morbid machinations? You may find the answers only after it's too late