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The Kiss (Paperback)
Janice Gold
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R322
R266
Discovery Miles 2 660
Save R56 (17%)
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Seed (Paperback)
Janice Gould
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R382
Discovery Miles 3 820
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Extinction by design is based on the author's doctoral research at
the University of Oxford (Herbarium-based trait studies on plant
extinction risk in the Flora Zambesiaca region, south-central
Africa). For it, field visits to herbaria and other research
institutions took place over several years in Botswana, Malawi,
Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The book is a sterling
contribution as it is the first to offer insights into the
relationship between intrinsic species design and vulnerability to
extinction in Africa. The work draws on frontiers of the IUCN's Red
Data List concept. New terms to ecology, like extinction signatures
and persistence potential, are introduced. An annotated list of
over 1,100 country endemics that were evaluated from woodlands,
forests and grasslands, is provided. The series of studies in this
book shows that life- history trait data, derived from taxonomic
sources, can increase our understanding of rare and threatened
plant biodiversity in data-poor countries. The Royal Botanic
Gardens, Kew (Millennium Seed Bank Project and the Bentham-Moxon
Trust), and the University of Oxford funded the research.
It's unmistakable, that strangely calm air and sky that signals big
change ahead: earthquake weather. These are familiar signs to
Janice Gould, a poet, a lesbian, and a mixed-blood California
Indian of Koyangk, uwi Maidu descent. Her sense of isolation is
intense, her search for identity is relentless, and her words can
take one's breath away. Sometimes accepting, sometimes full of
anger, Gould's work is rare, filtered through the feelings,
thoughts, and experiences of a lesbian of Indian heritage. Over and
over again, she speaks as an outsider looking in at the lives of
others--through a doorway, out of a car window, or from the
shambles of a broken relationship. Showing a steady courage in the
midst of this alienation, her words are also stark testimony to the
struggle of an individual caught in social and emotional contexts
defined by others. In Earthquake Weather, as in an evolving
friendship, Gould opens herself to the reader in stages. "I did not
know how lonely I was / till we began to talk," she writes in an
opening section, setting the introspective tone of what's to come.
She begins with a focus on those universal truths that both bind us
and isolate us from each other: the pain of loss, the finality of
death, our longing to see beneath the surface of things. Next, the
poet turns to her growing-up years during the Vietnam War and the
civil rights movement. She describes a family in turmoil and an
Indian heritage that, oddly, was one of the factors that made her
feel most disconnected from other people. And she writes poignantly
about her increasing alienation from prescribed sexual roles.
"What's wrong with me? / Where do I belong? Why / am I here? Why
can t I / hold on?" Finally, as in a trusting friendship, Gould
offers the reader vivid word portraits of relationships in her
life--women she has loved and who have loved her. Erotic and deeply
personal, these poems serve as both a reconciliation and
affirmation of her individuality. "Yet would you deny / that
between women desire exists / that in our friendship a delicate /
and erotic strand of fire unites us?" The poems in this book, says
critic Toby Langen, are most powerful for their "courageous drawing
on experience and feelings." They will speak to many general
readers as well as anyone interested in questions of gender and
identity, including students of literature, lesbian/women's
studies, social/cultural studies, or American Indian studies.
Although American Indian poetry is widely read and discussed, few
resources have been available that focus on it critically. This
book is the first collection of essays on the genre, bringing
poetry out from under the shadow of fiction in the study of Native
American literature.
"Speak to Me Words" is a stimulating blend of classic articles
and original pieces that reflect the energy of modern American
Indian literary studies. Highlighting various aspects of poetry
written by American Indians since the 1960s, it is a wide-ranging
collection that balances the insights of Natives and non-Natives,
men and women, old and new voices. Included here are such landmark
articles as "Answering the Deer" by Paula Gunn Allen, "Herbs of
Healing" by Carter Revard, and "Song, Poetry and
Language--Expression and Perception" by Simon Ortiz--all pieces
that have shaped how we think about Native poetry. Among the
contributions appearing for the first time are Elaine Jahner
writing on Paula Gunn Allen's use of formal structures; Robert
Nelson addressing pan-Indian tropes of emergence, survival, return,
and renewal; and Janet McAdams focusing on Carter Revard's "angled
mirrors." Although many Native writers may disregard distinctions
between genres, together these writings help readers see the
difference between American Indian poetry and other forms of Native
literature.
These essays are as broad, encompassing, and provocative as
Native poetry itself, branching off from and weaving back into one
another. In showing how American Indian poetry redefines our social
order and articulates how Indian communities think about
themselves, these writers establish a new foundation for the
study--and enjoyment--of this vital art.
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