A handbook -- type overview, covering the general history and each individual book. Features include outlines, themes, interpretation tips, helpful charts, time lines, and diagrams.

'Utterly fascinating' Daisy Goodwin, Sunday Times Benjamin Franklin took daily naked air baths and Toulouse-Lautrec painted in brothels. Edith Sitwell worked in bed, and George Gershwin composed at the piano in pyjamas. Freud worked sixteen hours a day, but Gertrude Stein could never write for more than thirty minutes, and F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in gin-fuelled bursts - he believed alcohol was essential to his creative process. From Marx to Murakami and Beethoven to Bacon, Daily Rituals by Mason Currey presents the working routines of more than a hundred and sixty of the greatest philosophers, writers, composers and artists ever to have lived. Whether by amphetamines or alcohol, headstand or boxing, these people made time and got to work. Featuring photographs of writers and artists at work, and filled with fascinating insights on the mechanics of genius and entertaining stories of the personalities behind it, Daily Rituals is irresistibly addictive, and utterly inspiring.

Against the methodological backdrop of historical and comparative folk narrative research, 101 Middle Eastern Tales and Their Impact on Western Oral Tradition surveys the history, dissemination, and characteristics of over one hundred narratives transmitted to Western tradition from or by the Middle Eastern Muslim literatures (i.e., authored written works in Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Turkish). For a tale to be included, Ulrich Marzolph considered two criteria: that the tale originates from or at least was transmitted by a Middle Eastern source, and that it was recorded from a Western narrator's oral performance in the course of the nineteenth or twentieth century. The rationale behind these restrictive definitions is predicated on Marzolph's main concern with the long-lasting effect that some of the "Oriental" narratives exercised in Western popular tradition-those tales that have withstood the test of time. Marzolph focuses on the originally "Oriental" tales that became part and parcel of modern Western oral tradition. Since antiquity, the "Orient" constitutes the quintessential Other vis-a-vis the European cultures. While delineation against this Other served to define and reassure the Self, the "Orient" also constituted a constant source of fascination, attraction, and inspiration. Through oral retellings, numerous tales from Muslim tradition became an integral part of European oral and written tradition in the form of learned treatises, medieval sermons, late medieval fabliaux, early modern chapbooks, contemporary magazines, and more. In present times, when national narcissisms often acquire the status of strongholds delineating the Us against the Other, it is imperative to distinguish, document, visualize, and discuss the extent to which the West is not only indebted to the Muslim world but also shares common features with Muslim narrative tradition. 101 Middle Eastern Tales and Their Impact on Western Oral Tradition is an important contribution to this debate and a vital work for scholars, students, and readers of folklore and fairy tales.

In the past few decades, there has been a growing interest in the benefits of linking the learning of a foreign language to the study of its literature. However, the incorporation of literary texts into language curriculum is not easy to tackle. As a result, it is vital to explore the latest developments in text-based teaching in which language, culture, and literature are taught as a continuum. Teaching Literature and Language Through Multimodal Texts provides innovative insights into multiple language teaching modalities for the teaching of language through literature in the context of primary, secondary, and higher education. It covers a wide range of good practice and innovative ideas and offers insights on the impact of such practice on learners, with the intention to inspire other teachers to reconsider their own teaching practices. It is a vital reference source for educators, professionals, school administrators, researchers, and practitioners interested in teaching literature and language through multimodal texts.

A practical, step-by-step guide to planning, researching and writing a research project for undergraduate students approaching a research project for the first time. Undertaking a large-scale, original research project can be extremely daunting and challenging to any student. Using the tried-and-tested Smarter Student series approach, style and pedagogy to deliver timely, practical, hands-on guidance based on real-life experience from students and lecturers alike, this book will be an invaluable tutorial and reference for any student approaching an undergraduate or masters research project for the first time. This book will guide the student through all of the key areas that they will need to deliver a successful research project, providing practical guidance, examples and hints and tips for success on areas such as: Choosing a theme and topic for your research Writing the proposal Working with your supervisor Planning and managing your time and activity Analysing and evaluating data Successful academic writing styles and conventions Correct citing, referencing and avoiding plagiarism Ethics in research Researching and compiling the literature survey Methods of collecting and analysing data Writing-up and presenting your findings An essential guide to academic success!

Uses of disability in literature are often problematic and harmful to disabled people. This is also true, of course, in children's and young adult literature, but interestingly, when disability is paired and confused with adolescence in narratives, interesting, complex arcs often arise. In From Wallflowers to Bulletproof Families: The Power of Disability in Young Adult Narratives, author Abbye E. Meyer examines different ways authors use and portray disability in literature. She demonstrates how narratives about and for young adults differ from the norm. With a distinctive young adult voice based in disability, these narratives allow for readings that conflate and complicate both adolescence and disability. Throughout, Meyer examines common representations of disability and more importantly, the ways that young adult narratives expose these tropes and explicitly challenge harmful messages they might otherwise reinforce. She illustrates how two-dimensional characters allow literary metaphors to work, while forcing texts to ignore reality and reinforce the assumption that disability is a problem to be fixed. She sifts the freak characters, often marked as disabled, and she reclaims the derided genre of problem novels arguing they empower disabled characters and introduce the goals of disability-rights movements. The analysis offered expands to include narratives in other media: nonfiction essays and memoirs, songs, television series, films, and digital narratives. These contemporary works, affected by digital media, combine elements of literary criticism, narrative expression, disability theory, and political activism to create and represent the solidarity of family-like communities.