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      • Trusted Partner
        The Arts
        August 2005

        Popular television drama

        Critical perspectives

        by Jonathan Bignell, Stephen Lacey, Susan Williams

        'Popular television drama: critical perspectives' is a collection of essays examining landmark programmes of the last forty years, from 'Doctor Who' to 'The Office', and from 'The Demon Headmaster' to 'Queer As Folk'. Contributions from prominent academics focus on the full range of popular genres, from sitcoms to science fiction, gothic horror and children's drama, and challenge received wisdom by reconsidering how British television drama can be analysed. Each section is preceded by an introduction in which the editors discuss how the essays address existing problems in the field and also suggest new directions for study. The book is split into three sections, addressing the enduring appeal of popular genres, the notion of 'quality' in television drama, and analysing a range of programmes past and present. Popular television drama: critical perspectives will be of interest to students and researchers in many academic disciplines that study television drama. Its breadth and focus on popular programmes will also appeal to those interested in the shows themselves. ;

      • Trusted Partner
        The Arts
        January 2019

        Popular cinema in Brazil, 1930–2001

        by Stephanie Dennison, Lisa Shaw

        Brazil has one of the most significant and productive film industries in Latin America. This ground-breaking study provides an entertaining insight into the Brazilian films that have most captured the imagination of domestic audiences over the years. The recent international success of films such as Central Station and City of God, has stimulated widespread interest in Brazilian film, but studies written in English focus on the 'auteur' cinema of the 1960s. This book focuses on individual films in their socio-historical context, drawing on extensive fieldwork in Brazil and Latin America. It argues that Brazilian cinema has almost always been grounded in intrinsically home-grown cultural forms, dating back to the nineteenth century, such as the Brazilian music-hall, the travelling circus, radio shows, carnival, and, later, comedy television. Combining a chronological structure with groundbreaking research and a lively approach, Popular cinema in Brazil is the ideal introduction to Brazilian cinema.

      • Trusted Partner
        January 2023

        The Legend of the Finless Porpoise

        by Mu Ling

        The hardworking and studious Reed is a well-known "wild child" in the fishing village. Influenced by the legend, he and his sister, He Ju, had the whimsical idea of learning the outstanding swimming skills from the porpoise, and thus became interested in the endangered species of porpoise. The porpoise, which had been repeatedly disturbed, always avoided them... By chance, the siblings, with their excellent swimming skills, rescued a baby porpoise that had been trapped by garbage. This cute porpoise has since become an exotic friend who plays the game with them ...

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies

        History of Chinese Modern Popular Literature

        by Fan Boqun

        A pioneering academic project by Fan Boqun, a founder in the field of Chinese popular literature research, the book is divided into eight compilations: "Social Romance", "Martial Arts Making", "Detective Stories", "Historical Stories", "Humorous Stories", "Popular Drama", "Popular Journals" and "Chinese Modern Popular Literature Memorabilia".

      • Trusted Partner
      • Trusted Partner
        August 1987

        Science-fiction: ein hoffnungsloser Fall mit Ausnahmen

        Essays. Band 3

        by Stanisław Lem, Erik Simon

        Dieser Abschlussband von Lems Essays enthält nur Arbeiten, die in der Insel-Ausgabe der Essays (1981) nicht enthalten waren. Stärker als die früheren Bände ist dieser persönlich bestimmt. Einmal handelt es sich um Essays, die autobiografisch sind oder sich auf das eigene Werk beziehen. Zum anderen gibt es Vorworte zu Rezensionen von Büchern und Autoren, die Lem menschlich besonders nahestehen: Szymon Kobyliński, Władysław Bartoszewski und Jan Józef Szczepański. Neben Rezensionen, die Lem deutsche RIAS Berlin schrieb, vornehmlich über populärwissenschaftliche und pseudowissenschaftliche Bücher, aus denen Lems rationalistische Denkhaltung offenbar wird, und spekulativen Aufsätzen enthält dieser Band auch einige von Lems scharfsinnigsten Kritiken zu Autoren, denen er sich geistesverwandt fühlt oder die ihm widerstreben: Dick, Borges, die Strugatzkis und eine scharfe Abrechnung mit der Gattung, der der Großteil von Lems eigenem Werk zugezählt wird: der Science-Fiction. Eine beachtliche Anzahl der Essays schrieb Lem gleich in deutscher Sprache. Weitere Essays von Stanisław Lem liegen in den Bänden Sade und die Spieltheorie und Über außersinnliche Wahrnehmungen vor.

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        March 2017

        Asia in Western fiction

        by Robin Winks

        Any reader who has ever visited Asia knows that the great bulk of Western-language fiction about Asian cultures turns on stereotypes. This book, a collection of essays, explores the problem of entering Asian societies through Western fiction, since this is the major port of entry for most school children, university students and most adults. In the thirteenth century, serious attempts were made to understand Asian literature for its own sake. Hau Kioou Choaan, a typical Chinese novel, was quite different from the wild and magical pseudo-Oriental tales. European perceptions of the Muslim world are centuries old, originating in medieval Christendom's encounter with Islam in the age of the Crusades. There is explicit and sustained criticism of medieval mores and values in Scott's novels set in the Middle Ages, and this is to be true of much English-language historical fiction of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Even mediocre novels take on momentary importance because of the pervasive power of India. The awesome, remote and inaccessible Himalayas inevitably became for Western writers an idealised setting for novels of magic, romance and high adventure, and for travellers' tales that read like fiction. Chinese fictions flourish in many guises. Most contemporary Hong Kong fiction reinforced corrupt mandarins, barbaric punishments and heathens. Of the novels about Japan published after 1945, two may serve to frame a discussion of Japanese behaviour as it could be observed (or imagined) by prisoners of war: Black Fountains and Three Bamboos.

      • Trusted Partner
        February 1976

        Die Jagd

        Neue Geschichten des Piloten Pirx

        by Stanisław Lem, Roswitha Buschmann, Kurt Kelm, Barbara Sparing

        Stanisław Lem wurde am 12. September 1921 in Lwów (Lemberg) geboren, lebte zuletzt in Krakau, wo er am 27. März 2006 starb. Er studierte von 1939 bis 1941 Medizin. Während des Zweiten Weltkrieges musste er sein Studium unterbrechen und arbeitete als Automechaniker. Von 1945 bis 1948 setze er sein Medizinstudium fort, nach dem Absolutorium erwarb Lem jedoch nicht den Doktorgrad und übte den Arztberuf nicht aus. Er übersetzte Fachliteratur aus dem Russischen und ab den fünfziger Jahren arbeitete Lem als freier Schriftsteller in Krákow. Er wandte sich früh dem Genre Science-fiction zu, schrieb aber auch gewichtige theoretische Abhandlungen und Essays zu Kybernetik, Literaturtheorie und Futurologie. Stanisław Lem zählt heute zu den erfolgreichsten Autoren Polens. Sein Werk wurde vielfach ausgezeichnet, verfilmt und in 57 Sprachen übersetzt.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        June 2020

        Fictional television and American politics

        by Jack Holland

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        January 2013

        Popular protest in late-medieval Europe

        Italy, France and Flanders

        by Samuel Kline Cohn

        The documents in this stimulating volume span from 1245 to 1424 but focus on the 'contagion of rebellion' from 1355 to 1382 that followed in the wake of the plague. They comprise a diversity of sources and cover a variety of forms of popular protest in different social, political and economic settings. Their authors range across a wide political and intellectual horizon and include revolutionaries, the artistocracy, merchants and representatives from the church. They tell gripping and often gruesome stories of personal and collective violence, anguish, anger, terror, bravery, and foolishness. Of over 200 documents presented here, most have been translated into English for the first time, providing students and scholars with a new opportunity to compare social movements across Europe over two centuries, allowing a re-evaluation of pre-industrial revolts, the Black Death and its consequences for political culture and action. This book will be essential reading for those seeking to better understand popular attitudes and protest in medieval Europe.

      • Trusted Partner
      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        June 2009

        Popular Victorian women writers

        by Kay Boardman, Shirley Jones

        Popular Victorian women writers considers a diverse group of women writers within the Victorian literary marketplace. It looks at authors such as Ellen Wood, Mary Braddon, Rhoda Broughton and Charlotte Yonge as well as less well-known writers including Jessie Fothergill and Eliza Meteyard. Each essay sets the individual author within her biographical and literary context and provides refreshing insights into their work. Together they bring the work of largely unknown authors and new perspectives on known authors to critical and public attention. Accessible and informative, the book is ideal for students of Victorian literature and culture as well as tutors and scholars of the period. ;

      • Trusted Partner
        November 2018

        Kanaillen-Kapitalismus

        Eine literarische Reise durch die Geschichte der freien Marktwirtschaft

        by César Rendueles, Raul Zelik

        Nach dem Erscheinen seines Essays Soziophobie schrieb die taz, César Rendueles verbinde »eine antikapitalistische Haltung mit einem abgeklärten Wissen um die Komplexität von Gesellschaften«. Wissen darüber, wie die Welt vor der freien Marktwirtschaft aussah und wie die ökonomische Logik nach und nach alle Lebensbereiche durchdrungen hat, entstammt immer auch der Lektüre fiktionaler Literatur. In seinem neuen Buch erkundet Rendueles seine persönliche Lesebiografie. Anhand von Klassikern wie Robinson Crusoe und Kultbüchern wie American Psycho zeichnet er nach, wie der Kapitalismus sich uns einverleibt hat. Doch zugleich kann in Büchern, das zeigt Rendueles etwa an Kleists Michael Kohlhaas und an Science-Fiction-Romanen, auch der Geist der Revolte und solidarischer Utopien stecken.

      • Trusted Partner
        November 2018

        Kanaillen-Kapitalismus

        Eine literarische Reise durch die Geschichte der freien Marktwirtschaft

        by Raul Zelik, César Rendueles

        Nach dem Erscheinen seines Essays Soziophobie schrieb die taz, César Rendueles verbinde »eine antikapitalistische Haltung mit einem abgeklärten Wissen um die Komplexität von Gesellschaften«. Wissen darüber, wie die Welt vor der freien Marktwirtschaft aussah und wie die ökonomische Logik nach und nach alle Lebensbereiche durchdrungen hat, entstammt immer auch der Lektüre fiktionaler Literatur. In seinem neuen Buch erkundet Rendueles seine persönliche Lesebiografie. Anhand von Klassikern wie Robinson Crusoe und Kultbüchern wie American Psycho zeichnet er nach, wie der Kapitalismus sich uns einverleibt hat. Doch zugleich kann in Büchern, das zeigt Rendueles etwa an Kleists Michael Kohlhaas und an Science-Fiction-Romanen, auch der Geist der Revolte und solidarischer Utopien stecken.

      • Trusted Partner
        Children's & YA

        Story Story, Story Come

        12 Reimagined Tales From Africa

        by Maïmouna Jallow

        However, the age-old tradition of oral storytelling is on the decline. Rapid urbanisation, the breakdown of the extended family, technology and so on have altered our social fabric. Whilst our daily lives are still peppered with snippets of remembered words of wisdom and proverbs, the reality is that a new generation of Africans have never had the pleasure of listening to a story being told by a storyteller. Story, Story! Story Come! is a contribution to larger efforts to revive storytelling in Africa and beyond. Through a global online contest, Positively African invited African writers, wherever they lived and whatever their age, to write a folktale – either based on an old one, or newly imagined. The challenge was to develop new narratives that speak to issues that are fundamental to Africa’s development in a way that is unconventional but true to our past traditions of folktale and oral storytelling. The stories needed to contain life lessons that are relevant for both young and old, however writers were invited to be as inventive and disruptive as they wished in terms of theme, form, language, characters, imagery and context. The ten winning stories are refreshingly imaginative and tackle a mix of issues. We criss-cross from South Sudan to South Africa, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and Zambia. Some stories offer valuable moral lessons on greed and pride; others celebrate bravery, perseverance and friendship. One story takes us to a real archaeological site in Niger where a young girl imagines the future. In another, African water spirits share a world with a Beyoncé-obsessed teen that is taught a big lesson in humility. We have also included two additional stories, one by author and publishing partner Zukiswa Wanner and another by the editor of the anthology, Maimouna Jallow. One thing that they all have in common is that they speak to issues we face globally today, from an African perspective.

      • Trusted Partner
        February 2016

        Bay Window

        by Liu Xinwu

        A vivid illustration of contemporary Chinese society. The frst realist novel from renowned Chinese writer Liu Xinwu. A novel of reality. A novel of allegory.  Pang Qi swears he’ll kill someone if he gets back onto the streets, but no one knows his target or his motive. Filled with suspense, Bay Window begins with this dramatic announcement, before slipping back into the seemingly mundane lives of a cast of characters drawn from all ranks of Chinese society: the mysterious and cunning Maye, whose wealth and power are kept secret; the robust and loyal bodyguard Pang Qi, whose transformation drives the development of the narrative; the retired engineer Xue Quji, a representative of contemporary China's intelligentsia.  Through the intimate portrayal of more than thirty characters,their struggles and the choices, they face on a daily basisthe author exposes a darkness hidden by economic development and social transformation, constructing a panoramic picture of contemporary China. Peeking through the Bay Window, we as readers are both spectators and participants of this picture.

      • Trusted Partner
        Lifestyle, Sport & Leisure
        August 2016

        Culture in Manchester

        Institutions and urban change since 1850

        by Janet Wolff, Mike Savage

        This book brings together studies of cultural institutions in Manchester from 1850 to the present day, giving an unprecedented account of the city's cultural evolution. These bring to light the remarkable range of Manchester's contribution to modern cultural life, including the role of art education, popular theatre, religion, pleasure gardens, clubs and societies. The chapters show the resilience and creativity of Manchester's cultural institutions since 1850, challenging any simple narrative of urban decline following the erosion of Lancashire's industrial base, at the same time illustrating the range of activities across the social classes. This book will appeal to everyone interested in the cultural life of the city of Manchester, including cultural historians, sociologists and urban geographers, as well as general readers with interests in the city. It is written by leading international authorities, including Viv Gardner, Stephen Milner, Mike Savage, Bill Williams and Janet Wolff.

      • Trusted Partner
        March 2004

        Science & Fiction

        Über Gedankenexperimente in Wissenschaft, Philosophie und Literatur

        by Herausgegeben von Macho, Thomas; Herausgegeben von Wunschel, Annette

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