Cultural studies Books

Book SynopsisThe Revenge of the Real envisions a new positive biopolitics that recognises that how populations govern themselves is literally a matter of life and death. We are grappling with multiple interconnected dilemmas - climate change, pandemics, the tensions between the individual and society - all of which have to be addressed on a planetary scale. Even when separated, we are still enmeshed. Can the world govern itself differently? If so, what models and philosophies are needed? Bratton argues that, instead of thinking of technology as something that happens to society, we must see how it can form the basis of a politics of infrastructure, knowledge, and direct intervention. He urges us to reconsider questions of "surveillance" in the face of necessary testing and care. He asks what did the "mask wars" reveal about the destructive nature of individualism as the basis of sovereignty? The book proposes that it is time to transform how we live, work and thrive. Rethinking governance means rethinking how we interact with each other as a global population, and how we ensure our obligations to each other. For this, we should build a society based in a new rationality of inclusion, care and foresight.Trade ReviewEndlessly thought-provoking -- Kim Stanley RobinsonBreaks more new ground than a carpet bombing. -- Bruce SterlingCuts through many received ideas about technology, globalization, and so forth and presents a fresh vision of the architecture of the world. -- McKenzie Wark

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Book SynopsisIn this highly readable book, Doyle McCarthy covers some of the main ways that emotions have become important in our global societies. She explains that emotional culture is important for understanding today's world, its markets, its politics and its mass media. To live today is to be emotionally intelligent in our relations and in our workplaces. In the modern age, global capitalism and mass media have shaped our emotions and made us more emotional. Public life has become a place where we search out emotional happenings: at shopping malls, concerts, sports events, memorials to death and disaster and in the pursuit of sports.

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Book SynopsisAll That Is Solid Melts into Air is widely acclaimed as one of the greatest books on modernity. A kaleidoscopic journey into the experience of modernization, it captures the dizzying social changes that swept up and transformed the lives of millions of people. Berman delves into the aesthetic and intellectual controversies of art, literature, and architecture: from the writing of Goethe, Marx and Dostoevsky to the Paris of Baudelaire and Haussmann, the Petersburg of the Tsarist builders and Pushkin, and the New York of devastated wastelands and creative artists.Trade ReviewA bubbling cauldron of ideas. * New Statesman *A wonderful book ... generous, exuberant and dazzling. -- John Leonard * New York Times *Berman lights up every text he examines. * Newsweek *The imaginative range, intellectual force and infectious generosity of this book are what place it incontestably in the gallery of canonical texts. -- Mica Nava * Times Higher Education Supplement *

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Book SynopsisThe beginnings of the anti-colonial struggle in Jamaica coincided with the childhood and early adolescence of Sylvia Wynter, providing the motivation for this, the first phase of her important body of work. The essays and articles collected here go beyond making an argument against colonialism, but set out to decolonize the nature of the discourse that legitimated the imperial order. At the time of their writing, Wynter was a practicing novelist, an innovative playwright, a scholar of Spanish Caribbean history, and an incisive literary critic with a gift for the liveliest kind of polemics. This intellectual virtuosity is evident in these wide-ranging essays that include an exploration of C.L.R. James's writings on cricket, Bob Marley and the counter-cosmogony of the Rastafari, and the Spanish epoch of Jamaican history (including a pioneering examination of Bernado de Balbuena, epic poet and Abbot of Jamaica 1562-1627).Across this varied range of topics, a coherent thread of argument emerges. In the vein of C. L. R. James, the imperative of her work has always been to reconceptualize the history of the region, and therefore of the modern world, from a world-systemic perspective; that is, no longer from the normative European perspective, but rather more inclusively, from the "gaze from below" of the neo-serf (i.e. Indian) and the ex-slave (i.e. Negro), which is "the ultimate underside of modernity."Strongly influenced by Marx, together with Black thinkers such as Aimé Césaire, Jean Price-Mars, W. E. B. Du Bois and Frantz Fanon, and with an appreciation of the insights brought by the New Studies of the Sixties (including that of Black feminism), Wynter's work has sought, from its beginnings, to find a comprehensive explanatory system able to integrate these knowledges born of struggle.

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Book SynopsisFrom the repurposed rubble of salvagepunk to undead hordes banging on shopping mall doors, from empty waste zones to teeming plagued cities, Combined and Uneven Apocalypse grapples with the apocalyptic fantasies of our collapsing era. Moving through the films, political tendencies, and recurrent crises of late capitalism, Evan Calder Williams paints a black toned portrait of the dream and nightmare images of a global order gone very, very wrong. Situating itself in the defaulting financial markets of the present, Combined and Uneven Apocalypse glances back toward a messy history of zombies, car wrecks, tidal waves, extinction, trash heaps, labour, pandemics, wolves, cannibalism, and general nastiness that populate the underside of our cultural imagination. Every age may dream the end of the world to follow, but these scattered nightmare figures are a skewed refraction of the normal hell of capitalism. The apocalypse isn't something that will happen one day: it's just the slow unveiling of the catastrophe we've been living through for centuries. Against any fantasies of progress, return, or reconciliation, Williams launches a loathing critique of the bleak present and offers a graveside smile for our necessary battles to come.Trade ReviewYes, another book about zombies and the end of the world. But this is not just another book about zombies and the end of the world. Like one of the junk-suturing recusants whose philosophy he has been central to constructing, Evan Calder Williams builds something rageful and compelling and quite new out of all this fucking wreckage. (China Mieville)

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Book SynopsisContemporary art has become a mass entertainment, a luxury good, a job description and, for some, a kind of alternative religion. Sarah Thornton's shrewd and entertaining fly-on-the-wall narrative takes us behind the scenes of the art world, from art school to auction house, showing us how it works, and giving us a vivid sense of being there.Trade ReviewParachutes the reader into the real nitty-gritty of how it all works - openings, dealers, artists, prizes, auctions et al. Reading this book is like having your own spy in the art world -- Alan YentobA thorough insight into the contemporary art world through seven fascinating stories ... a must-have for all art buffs * Tatler *Curators and dealers provide the insider info and often the laughs, as the closed world of art is systematically demystified * Dazed and Confused *An excellent, vivid, wittily written book - the characters are tightly drawn, the events covered are important, and the aphorisms come thick and fast - I'm hoping for a second volume * The Times *Fascinating, not least because while she was researching and writing, it must have seemed like an insider's view of a world that would last forever. The book may now stand as its memorial * Art Quarterly *A coherent account that's informative and entertaining - for a casual overview of how the international art scene operates, in all its ruthless eccentric, spectacular glory, Seven Days in the Art World is hard to beat * Jewish Quarterly *

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Book SynopsisAdopting the role of tour guide, award-winning writer Kevin Hart leads the reader through the pitfalls, conundrums and complexities that characterize postmodernism, while providing an overview of the many different approaches (philosophical, cultural, literary…) to the subject. All the major thinkers are introduced – from Derrida to Blanchot, Irigaray to Foucault, and more besides – while the book is unique among introductory guides in its consideration of the role of religion in a postmodern world.Trade Review"Postmodernism exegesis questions not only the 'grand canonical narrative' allegedly supposed by or encoded in the Bible; it also attacks the modern project of historical criticism. Hart discusses the work of Harold Bloom and M. Blaanchot, as well as J. Derrida's view of the Bible." * International Review of Biblical Studies *"Hart succeeds remarkably well in providing an accessible and surprisingly comprehensive introduction to postmodern thought." * European Legacy *Table of ContentsNote Acknowledgements I.Postmodernism: Some Guides II.The Loss of Origin III.Postmodern Experience IV.The Fragmentary V.The Postmodern Bible VI.Postmodern Religion VII.The Gift: A Debate Conclusion: Guides and Another Guide Bibliography

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Book SynopsisThe death of Diana, Princess of Wales, was met by the deepest mourning of the twentieth century. Two and a half billion people worldwide watched the funeral on television, floral tributes flooded London's royal parks and sprung up, too, in small towns in Texas, conspiracy theories ricocheted around the Internet, commemorative stamps were issued in newly communist Hong Kong.Press coverage of the death was also unprecedented in both its scale and uniformity. Yet, in an enormous welter of schmaltz, very little was said about the meaning of what had occurred-whether Tony Blair's public emoting heralded a new kind of politics; what, if anything, the anguish of so many who never knew Diana in person revealed about modern society; how the intertwining of the ideas of celebrity and victim, physical beauty and moral worth, affected people's responses; what was implied for the future of the royal family.For those perplexed by the events surrounding Diana's death, this book provides some answers. Insisting that all aspects of the affair are open to investigation, that nothing (and especially not royalty) is sacred, it brings together a group of distinguished writers whose primary interest is to analyze the death rather than lament it.Contributors: Mark Augé, Jean Baudrillard, Sarah Benton, Homi K. Bhabha, Mark Cousins, Alexander Cockburn, Richard Coles, Régis Debray, Françoise Gaillard, Peter Ghosh, Christopher Hird, Christopher Hitchens, Linda Holt, Sara Maitland, Ross McKibbin, Mandy Merck, Tom Nairn, Glen Newey, Naomi Segal, Dorothy Thompson, Francis Wheen, Judith Williamson, and Elizabeth Wilson.

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Book SynopsisCairo is a 1,400-year-old metropolis whose streets are inscribed with sagas, a place where the pressures of life test people's equanimity to the very limit. Virtually surrounded by desert, sixteen million Cairenes cling to the Nile and each other, proximities that colour and shape lives. Packed with incident and anecdote "Cairo: City of Sand" describes the city's given circumstances and people's attitudes of response. Apart from a brisk historical overview, this book focuses on the present moment of one of the world's most illustrious and irreducible cities. Cairo steps inside the interactions between Cairenes, examining the roles of family, tradition and bureaucracy in everyday life. The book explores Cairo's relationship with its 'others', from the French and British occupations to modern influences like tourism and consumerism. "Cairo" also discusses characteristic styles of communication, and linguistic memes, including slang, grandiloquence, curses and jokes. Cairo exists by virtue of these interactions, synergies of necessity, creativity and the presence or absence of power. "Cairo: City of Sand" reveals a peerless balancing act, and transmits the city's overriding message: the breadth of the human capacity for loss, astonishment and delight.Trade Reviewa magnificent, multidimensional, eloquent and, above all, intelligent portrait of one of the world's most enigmatic places. Sunday Times packed full of observations of enduring worth ... She writes with wit, immediacy, intimacy and humor. Times Literary Supplement I was half way through Golia's book when the enormity of the challenges faced by the ordinary Cairene ... struck me, a Cairene, full force. Al-Ahram Weekly, Cairo Is it possible for a foreigner living in Cairo, even for many years, to know the soul of this city? ... you will be astonished when you read Maria Golia's book. Sabah El-Kher magazine, Cairo the extent of Golia's insider status really shows ... not just regarding matters specific to Cairo, but to matters of Egyptian-ness in general. Beirut Daily Star astonishingly astute, skillfully critical and deeply empathetic. Daily Star, Egypt written with compassion and understanding in brisk descriptions sprinkled with shrewd insights. Middle East Journal

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Book SynopsisBill Hicks asks: 'Why is marijuana against the law? It grows naturally upon our planet. Doesn't the idea of making nature against the law seem to you a bit... unnatural?' The Little Book of Weed looks at marijuana use from its first ever references to parents naming their children after their favourite varietals and asks the same question. Ganja, weed, cannabis, Mary Jane, blunt, chronic. The list of nicknames for marijuana is as numerous and varied as the users it appeals to. Grown in fields and hotboxes around the world, weed's influence on culture is far beyond teenagers trying pot for the very first time or chronic hippies fully immersed in the lifestyle. Howlers from politicians struggling to balance reality with perception, hilarious stand-up comedians in smoke-filled clubs, musicians whose albums defined eras and movies that put it all on film owe much of their infamy to the infamous herb. So sit back, chill out and roll up roll up for the Little Book of Weed as it emblazons the leafs. 'Herb is the healing of the nation, alcohol is its destruction.' Television interview with Bob Marley. 'When I was a kid, I inhaled, frequently. That was the point.' Barack Obama, when running for president in 2008. 'After 25 years of being fake weed dealers, it feels nice to be real weed dealers.' Kevin Smith on the launch of three new varieties of 'Snoogans' weed ahead of the long-awaited launch of the Jay and Silent Bob sequel, The Hollywood Reporter, 2020. Table of ContentsThe Changing Face - Weed through the ages • Film - Cannabis and how it has been portrayed • Music - From hip-hop to hardcore and rock to reggae • Comedians - Funnymen who'll have you in fits of • Culture - Hippies, Rastas and medical • Politics - Those who admit inhaling and those who deny.

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Book SynopsisIn Dead Precedents, Roy Christopher traces the story of how hip-hop invented the twenty-first century. Emerging alongside cyberpunk in the 1980s, the hallmarks of hip-hop - allusion, self-reference, the use of new technologies, sampling, the cutting and splicing of language and sound - would come to define the culture of the new millennium.Taking in the groundbreaking work of DJs and MCs, alongside writers like Dick and Gibson, as well as graffiti and DIY culture, Dead Precedents is a counter-culture history of the twentieth century, showcasing hip-hop's role in the creation of the world we now live in.Trade Review"It's exciting to be quoted so close to the beginning of a book with so much energy and passion in it..." — Samuel R. Delany, author of Dhalgren"An intellectual hornet's nest, buzzing with ideas. The canon of hip-hop crit welcomes a bold new entry, calculated to blow the doors off the usual moribund academic fare. Theory finds its own uses for things." — Mark Dery“Hip-hop has been around for well over forty years now, and in many ways, it has been absorbed into mainstream culture. Roy Christopher argues, however, that its radical practices still contain untapped possibilities. Dead Precedents shows how this cultural movement opens new hope for the future by changing our understanding of the past.” — Steven Shaviro, author of Discognition"Written with the passion of a zine-publishing fan and the acuity of an academic..." — Dan Hancox, Guardian

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Book SynopsisHaunted houses, bitter revenants and muffled heartbeats under floorboards — the American gothic is a macabre tale based on a true story. Part memoir and part cultural critique, Darkly reveals the heart of America’s darkness in the specters left from chattel slavery and the persistence of white supremacy. Locating the gothic in technologies of terror, the insurgency of melancholy, and the guilty conscience of a country that got away with murder, Darkly shows how this trauma has been metabolized into art, music, film, and literature. America's story is founded in horror, with a culture shaped from the Black experience, proving that you can’t get more goth than Black.Trade Review"I am struck by the depth of Leila Taylor's vision. The generosity shown in the way a history (and present) is illuminated. This book does so much beautiful work to widen the expectations and understandings of blackness, and I am immensely thankful for it." — Hanif Abdurraqib, author of Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to a Tribe Called Quest and They Can't Kill Us Until they Kill Us"A powerful and deeply personal exploration of what it means to be an outsider within an outsider culture. Between the black aesthetic of goth culture and the Blackness of America, Leila Taylor navigates seamlessly between cultural critique, personal history, and a history of America's troubled past in writing that is incessant, curious, and generous, and a voice that is at turns both searing and vulnerable. Powerful and strange, uncanny and unforgettable." — Colin Dickey, author of Ghostland"Takes us on a path that connects the Middle Ages, Edgar Allen Poe, the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, Afropunk, Prince, Black Lives Matter, and Hot Topic. It’s an incredible journey..." — Baratunde Thurston"Fascinating. A revelatory exploration of blackness, goth culture and the ramifications of inherited trauma."—Irenosen Okojie“A rare glimpse into American gothic from an African American perspective.”—Library Journal

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Book SynopsisIf there was a bomb hidden somewhere in a major city, and you had the person responsible in your custody, would you torture them to get the information needed to stop the bomb exploding, preventing a devastating terrorist attack and saving thousands of lives? This is the ticking bomb scenario — a thought experiment designed to demonstrate that torture can be justified. In How to Justify Torture, cultural critic Alex Adams examines the ticking bomb scenario in-depth, looking at the ways it is presented in films, novels, and TV shows — from Batman Begins and Dirty Harry to French military thrillers and home invasion narratives. By critiquing its argument step by step, this short, provocative book reminds us that, despite what the ticking bomb scenario will have us believe, torture can never be justified.Trade Review"As passionate as it is rigorous... Anyone sickened by the global re-emergence of torture as a “tool of justice” will find resources for resistance here." — Bob Brecher, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Brighton

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Book SynopsisDrawing on examples from Rhodes's railways to the tragedy of Grenfell, The Broken Promise of Infrastructure takes readers on a journey through a cultural history of infrastructure development across Britain and its Empire.

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Book SynopsisA genre-busting, thoughtful and highly readable exploration of sexuality and identity by one of Germany's most admired writers.

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Book SynopsisGioia Woods and her contributors bring together histories, biographies, close readings, and theories about the literary and cultural left in the American West. Left in the West expands our understanding of what constitutes the literary left in the United States by including writers, artists, and movements not typically considered within the traditional context of the literary left. In doing so, it provides a new understanding of the region’s place among global and political ideologies.From the early nineteenth century to the present, a complex and varied body of literary and cultural production has emerged out of progressive social movements. While the literary left in the West shared many interests with other regional expressions—labor, class, anti-fascism, and anti-imperialism, the influence of Manifest Destiny—the distinct history of settler colonialism in western territories caused western leftists to develop concerns unique to the region.Chapters in this volume cover artists and movements from suffragist writers to bohemian Californian photographers, civil rights activists to popular folk musicians, and Latinx memoirists to Native American experimental writers.The unique consideration of the West as a sociopolitical region establishes a framework for political critique that moves beyond class consequences, anti-fascism, and civil liberties, and into distinct western concerns such as Native American sovereignty, environmental exploitation, and the legacies of settler colonialism.Trade Review“Left in the West offers a timely overview of the cultural production that emerged out of progressive social movements from the late nineteenth to the early twenty-first century. Weaving together social and literary history with biographies and theory about the cultural Left in the American West, the contributors create a complicated and diverse portrait of politically engaged critical work.”—Susan Kollin, Montana State University, editor of A History of Western American Literature

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Book SynopsisAcross the world, politics is lurching to the right, ethnic nationalism is on the rise, and people are furious. Beyond Populism critically examines the new destructive projects of resentment that have surfaced in the political spaces opened by neoliberalism’s failures, particularly since the financial collapse of 2008. It contextualizes the recent history of the Global North—notably Brexit and the Trump election—among wider comparative politics, with chapters on India, Colombia, Eastern Europe, the Philippines, Ethiopia, and other parts of the globe marked by populist insurgencies.The essays collected here explore how global, regional, national, and local structures of power produce angry politics. They go beyond conventional academic debates about populism to explore the different kinds of anger that shape politics today and to make legible the multiplicity of forces, antagonisms, conflicts, and emergent political forms that mark the present. By examining the politics of anger, Beyond Populism also considers what is needed to transform anger from a reactionary to an emancipatory force.Trade Review“This book, on one of the major conundrums of our time, refuses foreclosure and widens the horizon.” — Don Kalb, coeditor of Worldwide Mobilizations: Class Struggles and Urban Commoning “A timely, engaged, and committed intervention that truly goes beyond existing scholarship on populism and produces insights of huge analytical and political potential.” — Paul Stubbs, coeditor of Making Policy Move: Towards a Politics of Translation and Assemblage “This outstanding volume is an essential and timely engagement with one of the most important—and little understood—developments in the current crisis.” — Leith Mullings, coeditor of Let Nobody Turn Us Around: An African American Anthology Table of ContentsAcknowledgments 1. Introduction by Jeff Maskovsky and Sophie Bjork James Part 1: The Roots of Rage 2. Populism and Its Others: After Neoliberalism by Don Robotham 3. Americanism, Trump, and Uniting the White Right by Sophie Bjork-James 4. Make in India: Hindu Nationalism, Global Capital, and 'Jobless Growth' by Preeti Sampat 5. Blue Bloods, Parvenus, and Mercenaries: Authoritarianism and Political Violence in Colombia by Lesley Gill Part 2: Multiplicities of Anger 6. Frustrations, Failures and Fractures: Brexit and 'politics as usual' in the UK by John Clarke 7. Postsocialist Populisms? by Gerald Creed and Mary N. Taylor 8. Fascism, a Haunting: Spectral Politics and Resistance in Twenty-First-Century Italy by Lilith Mahmud 9. Other People's Race Problem: Trumpism and the Collapse of the Liberal Racial Consensus in the United States by Jeff Maskovsky 10. Euphemisms We Die By: On Epochal Anxiety, Necropolitics, and “Green” Authoritarianism in the Philippines by Noah Theriault Part 3: Unsettling Authoritarian Populisms 11. Left Populism in the Heart of South America: From Plurinational Promise to a Renewed Extractive Nationalism by Carwil Bjork-James 12. 'Fed Up' in Ethiopia: Emotions, civics education and anti-authoritarian protest by Jennifer Riggan 13. Islamophobic Nationalism and Attitudinal Islamophilia by Nazia Kazi 14. Afterword, by Jeff Maskovsky and Sophie Bjork-James List of Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisIn this timely analysis of the economics of access that surround contemporary female celebrity, Hannah Yelin reveals a culture that requires women to be constantly ‘baring all’ in physical exposure and psychic confessions. As famous women tell their story, in their ‘own words’, constellations of ghostwriters, intermediaries and market forces undermine assertions of authorship and access to the ‘real’ woman behind the public image. Yelin’s account of the presence of the ghostwriter offers a fascinating microcosm of the wider celebrity machine, with insights pertinent to all celebrity mediation. Yelin surveys life-writing genres including fiction, photo-diary, comic-strip, and art anthology, as well as more ‘traditional’ autobiographical forms; covering a wide range of media platforms and celebrity contexts including reality TV, YouTube, pop stardom, and porn/glamour modelling. Despite this diversity, Yelin reveals seemingly inescapable conventions, as well as spaces for resistance. Celebrity Memoir: from Ghostwriting to Gender Politics offers new insights on the curtailment of women’s voices, with ramifications for literary studies of memoir, feminist media studies, celebrity studies, and work on the politics of production in the creative industries.Table of Contents1. Introduction.- 2. Reading celebrity memoir.- 3. Sex, Trauma, and Access in the Porn Star Memoir.- 4. Class, Race, and Authority in the Reality TV Star Memoir.- 5. Art, Authorship, and Authenticity in the Pop-Star Memoir.- 6. Conclusion.

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Book SynopsisWhat skills do journalists exhibit in sensationalising, exaggerating and otherwise ‘tabloiding’ the truth, while usually stopping short of stating unambiguous falsehoods? Why has the tabloid news not collapsed as predicted, but thrived as a medium in an age of interaction and online commentary? This book is a comprehensive and accessible exploration of the British tabloid newspapers from the 1960s to the present day. Examining topics such as sex and the representation of women, national stereotypes and Britain’s relationship with Europe, war coverage, celebrities, investigative journalism and instances where the tabloids have misread the public mood, the author draws on Critical Discourse Analysis and Stylistics to take a language-led approach to the UK tabloids. With its interdisciplinary approach and readable prose style, this book will be of interest to a wide range of readers across language and linguistics, media and communication, journalism, political science and British cultural studies.Table of ContentsChapter 1: Introduction: A Uniquely British Phenomenon?.- Chapter 2: From 'Horse Dope' to 'Saucy Soap' Sensations: the Making of the Modern Tabloid.- Chapter 3: From 'Gotcha' to 'Shocking and Awful': How the Tabloids Report Britain's Military Conflicts.- Chapter 4: From 'Rivers of Blood' to 'Migrants Are Like Cockroaches': the Tabloids and Race.- Chapter 5: Totties, Time Warps and Traitors to the Sisterhood: the Tabloids and Sex.- Chapter 6: 'Ve Vill Occupy Ze Sunbeds Here at Precisely 5am...!': National Stereotypes and Britain's Relationship with Europe.- Chapter 7: 'Drug Trial Moment of Horror' to 'European Health Tourist Scam': Investigative Journalism and Other Merits of the Tabloids.- Chapter 8: From 'Zip Me Up Before You Go Go' to 'Boring Old Gits to Wed': the Tabloids and Celebrities.- Chapter 9: 'Bonkers Bruno Locked Up' and 'Under the Carapace of Glittering, Hedonistic Celebrity': When the Tabloids Misread the Public Mood.- Chapter 10: 'Parents' Car Hid a Corpse' and 'Terror as Plane Hits Ash Cloud': Lies and Distortions in the Tabloids.- Chapter 11: Conclusions.

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Book SynopsisListening to Sicarios presents new insights into the lives of paid assassins of Mexico’s drug trafficking syndicates from the perspectives of the assassins themselves. Based on an extraordinary series of ethnographic interviews carried out in the wake of the record levels of narcoviolence experienced in Ciudad Juárez between 2008 and 2012, this study analyzes the ways in which these young men interpret their actions across four key thematic axes: border infrastructures, youth and responsibility, masculinity and sentiment, and ethics: good vs. evil.It argues that sicarios follow a career path within a criminal corporate infrastructure that is especially robust in Mexican border cities. It also explores how sicarios understand youthful innocence in relation to adult accountability in the realm of violence that is frequently meted out by young men on other young men. It then analyzes sicarios’ expressions of feelings of power that may boost their sense of virility, as well as feelings of fear and regret that imply weakness. Finally, it examines how sicarios defend their personal integrity in the face of a public discourse that views their acts as savage.Table of Contents1. Deadly Employment within the Border Industrial Complex2. Youthful Murders: Innocence and Professionalism3. Sicario Masculinities: Feeling Reckless and Respectful4. Fury at the Limits of Good and Evil

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Book SynopsisThis book reveals a variety of issues facing entrepreneurs, SMEs, and entrepreneurship development across South America. The authors recognize that when it comes to entrepreneurship, not one size fits all. Therefore, this book has been designed to help business students understand the context of the enterprise. It highlights how countries differ in their scope of entrepreneurship, and how entrepreneurs are impacted by these differences. Each chapter is dedicated to a respective country and describes the status quo, challenges and prospects for entrepreneurship there. Specifically, the book helps students understand the nature of entrepreneurship in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Surinam, Uruguay and Venezuela.Table of ContentsIntroduction to Entrepreneurship in South America.- Entrepreneurship in Argentina.- Entrepreneurship in Bolivia.- Entrepreneurship in Brazil.- Entrepreneurship in Chile.- Entrepreneurship in Colombia.- Entrepreneurship in Ecuador.- Entrepreneurship in French Guiana.- Entrepreneurship in Guyana.- Entrepreneurship in Paraguay.- Entrepreneurship in Peru.- Entrepreneurship in Suriname.- Entrepreneurship in Uruguay.- Entrepreneurship in Venezuela.- Shadow Banking Services for Entrepreneurs.

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Book SynopsisSpatial Literary Studies in China explores the range of vibrant and innovative research being done in China today. Chinese scholars have been exploring spatially oriented literary criticism in two different and mutually reinforcing directions: the first has focused on the study of Western literature, especially U.S. and European texts and theory, and the second has examined Chinese cultures, texts, and spaces. This collection of essays demonstrates Chinese scholars’ insightful interpretation, evaluation, and innovative application of international spatial analyses, theories, and methodologies, as well as their inspiring exploration and reconstruction of distinctively Chinese critical and theoretical discourses. For the first time in English, the essays in this volume demonstrate the vitality of literary geography, geocriticism, and the spatial humanities in China in the twenty-first century.Table of ContentsPart I Spatial Theory and Technology1. Spatial Literary Studies in China: A Brief History2. An Exploration of the Problems of Space and Spatialization3. Mobility Studies: A New Direction in Spatial Literary Studies4. Developing the Chinese Academic Map Publishing Platform5. Space: The Keyword of Art History Study6. The Attributes of British and American Literary Maps: An Exploration7. Spatial Narrative in Fiction: “Spatialization” of Fiction NarrativePart II Studies in Literary Geography8. The Construction of Academic System in a New Literary Geography9. Regional Aesthetics and the Historical Formation of the Image of Jiangnan in the Literature of Six Dynasties10. American National Parks: Symbolic Landscapes11. Walking Landscape: Spatial Experience and Imagination of Modernity in the Overseas Travelogues in the Late Qing Dynasty12. Introducing Literary Geography to the History of Chinese Literature13. Spatial Metaphors and the Literary Cartography of Shanghai in Modern Chinese NovelsPart III Geocritical Studies and Textual Analysis14. The Middle Place: Mediation and Heterotopia in Nick Joaquín’s The Woman Who Had Two Navels15. Lewis’s Babbitt, Literary Maps, and the Production of Space in American Cities16. Pretext, Embedded-Text, Subtext: On the Landscape Narratives of Willa Cather’s One of Ours17. Embedded Geographies in GUO Pu’s “River Fu”18. The Source of the Terror: Interpreting the Liminal Space in Carson McCullers’s The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter19. Antebellum Literary Cartography and the Construction of an American Oceanic Space

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Book SynopsisThis is the first book to tell the story of the bebop subculture in London’s Soho, a subculture that emerged in 1945 and reached its pinnacle in 1950. In an exploration via the intersections of race, class and gender, it shows how bebop identities were constructed and articulated. Combining a wide range of archival research and theory, the book evocatively demonstrates how the scene evolved in Soho’s clubs, the fashion that formed around the music, drug usage amongst a contingent of the group, and the moral panic which led to the police raids on the clubs between 1947 and 1950. Thereafter it maps the changes in popular culture in Soho during the 1950s, and argues that the bebop story is an important precedent to the institutional harassment of black-related spaces and culture that continued in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. This book therefore rewrites the first chapter of the ‘classic’ subcultural canon, and resets the subcultural clock; requiring us to rethink the periodization and social make-up of British post-war youth subcultures. Trade Review“Ray Kinsella’s book, which is based on his PhD thesis, sheds light on the dimly lit British bebop scene of the mid-to-late 1940s and early 1950s. It gently disproves misconceptions about beboppers and the milieu they created. … The Bebop Scene in London’s Soho is an authoritative text on a neglected subject in British cultural history. … the book uses it as an entry point to explore wider topics, such as histories of fashion, race, gender … .” (Jacob Bloomfield, H-Soz-Kult, hsozkult.de, July 6, 2023)Table of Contents1. Introduction2. Contextualizing Soho, 1800-19453. Bebop Music and the Soho Clubs4. Men’s and Women’s Sartorial Style in the Clubs: The Bebop Look5. The Police Raids on the Soho Bebop Clubs, 1947-19506. Soho After the Raids7. Is This a Subculture?8. Conclusion

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Book SynopsisThis book advances social scientific interest in a field long dominated by the humanities: stories, and storytelling. Stories are a whole lot more than entertainment; oral narratives, novels, films and immersive video games all form part of the sociocultural discourses which we are enmeshed in, and use to co-construct our beliefs about the world around us. Young children use them to learn about the world beyond their immediate sensory experience and, even in an era of interactive electronic media, the bedtime story remains a cherished part of most children’s daily routine. Storytelling is thus the first abstract formal learning method we encounter as human beings. It is also probably transcultural; perhaps even an immanent part of the human condition. Narratives are, at heart, sequences of events and presuppose and reinforce particular cause-and-effect relationships. Inevitably, they also construct unconscious biases, prejudices, and discriminatory attitudes. Storying (a term we use in this book to encompass stories, storytellers and storytelling) is complex, and this book seeks to make sense of it. Table of Contents1: Introduction.- 2: Narratives in (in)authenticity: The Early Career Academic.- 3: Women, bullying and the construction industry: A story of veiled gender dynamics.-4: Clinical advance through ethnographic storytelling: Towards an enacted organizational role for the hospital visitor.- 5: Two-and-One: Discovering my story in participants' pregnancy narratives.- 6: Exploring polyvocal stories of space, place, movement and migration.- 7: Whose story is it anyway? Hashtag campaigns and digital abortion storytelling.- 8: Storytime in the Craft Beer Bar: narratives, gobbets and segments.- 9: Arbitrage and Autopoiesis in Police Sergeants’ Stories: more than “canteen culture”.- 10: Restorying Trauma: Child Sexual Abuse.- 11: Personal and Ethnic Bildungen: Cross-cultural Storytelling in Singaporean-British Writer PP Wong’s The Life of a Banana.- 12: Telling stories, building bridges, and constructing Milton Keynes: Storytelling practice and research working together.- 13: The personal statement: a tool for developing the pedagogical potential of storytelling in business management education?.

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Book SynopsisIt focuses on the early Catholic mission to Japan, discussing both Protestant and local religious reactions to it, and the publications of the Jesuit mission press in Japan.

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Book SynopsisIf data is the greatest collective treasure of a digital society, basic material for business and politics: Why are the places where it is stored still so invisible? Niklas Maak, architectural critic and Professor for Architecture at Städelschule Frankfurt, explores this question in his new publication and envisions radical solutions for the future.

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Book SynopsisPublished annually from 1906 until 1980, Decorative Art, The Studio Yearbook was dedicated to the latest currents in architecture, interiors, furniture, lighting, glassware, textiles, metalware, and ceramics. Since the publications went out of print, the now hard-to-find yearbooks have become highly prized by collectors and dealers. TASCHEN’s Decorative Art 50s explores the spirit of optimism and the fervent consumerism of the decade. Technology and construction had been enervated by research during the war and these discoveries could now be applied in peacetime. The popularization of plastics, fiberglass, and latex literally shaped the decade. Rising incomes and postwar rebuilding on both sides of the Atlantic led to a massive housing boom in both the suburbs and inner cities, and these new homes reflected the new style. While European design was extraordinarily inventive, American design was looking to an idealized vision of the future—between them a modern idiom was developed that can be seen vividly on these pages. This overview of the decade includes the work of such famous innovators as Charles and Ray Eames, George Nelson, Hans Wegner, and Gio Ponti.Trade Review“An indispensable tool for collectors: names are named, designs praised and accusations made.” * San Francisco Examiner Magazine *

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Book SynopsisThis book investigates the study of World Englishes from the perspective of Cultural Linguistics, a theoretical and analytical framework for cultural cognition, cultural conceptualisations and language that employs and expands on the analytical tools and theoretical advancements in a number of disciplines, including cognitive psychology/science, anthropology, distributed cognition, and complexity science. The field of World Englishes has long focused on the sociolinguistic and applied linguistic study of varieties of English. Cultural Linguistics is now opening a new venue for research on World Englishes by exploring cultural conceptualisations underlying different varieties of English. The book explores ways in which the analytical framework of Cultural Linguistics may be employed to study varieties of English around the globe.Trade Review“The volume is an impressive achievement and I was pleasantly surprised by the degree of innovation and methodological creativity apparent in many of the contributions. … the volume highlights the astonishing diversity and uniqueness of World Englishes and is hugely inspiring in terms of its scope. … Cultural Linguistics and World Englishes provides ample proof that Cultural Linguistics is not only alive but also open to continuous theoretical and methodological innovations and advancements … .” (Sven Leuckert, English World-Wide, Vol. 43 (3), 2022)Table of ContentsChapter 1. Cultural Linguistics and world Englishes.- Chapter 2. Australian Aboriginal English and Linguistic Inquiry.- Chapter 3. A Corpus-based Exploration of Aboriginal Australian Cultural Conceptualisations in John Bodey’s The Blood Berry Vine.- Chapter 4. Re-schematization of Chinese Xiao (filial piety) across Cultures and Generations.- Chapter 5. “So you’re One of those Vegetarians?” Emergence of the Korean English.- Chapter 6. Don’t kiasu and rush ok? A Cultural-Linguistic take on the Interaction Between Loanwords and Constructions in World Englishes.- Chapter 7. ‘Till Death Do Us Wed’1 – About Ghost Marriages and Chicken Rrides in Hong Kong English.- Chapter 8. Decoding yuán and duyên across Chinese, Vietnamese and other Asian cultural practices.- Chapter 9. Bilingual Creativity in Saudi English.- Chapter 10. A Space for Everybody? Conceptualisations of the Hijras in Indian English as a Showcase for Gendered Space in Indian Society.- Chapter 11. Family Matters: Cultural-linguistic Investigations into the Domain of Family in Indian English.- Chapter 12. "Cultural Conceptualizations of Yoga in Indian and American English: A Corpus-Based Study".- Chapter 13. Expressive and Reserved Cultures: British and American Pride Clusters.- Chapter 14. The Interplay of Blended Languages and Blended Cultures in Memes: Cultural Conceptualisations Used by Serbian Speakers of English.- Chapter 15. ‘A Successful Business Negotiation is Resource Sharing’: Investigating Brazilian and German Cultural Conceptualisations in Conceptual Scripts.- Chapter 16. ‘My Muthi is YourAanswer’ – A Cultural Linguistic Analysis of Healers, Herbalists, Sangomas and (witch) Doctors in Black South African English Classifieds.- Chapter 17. Culture-specific Conceptualisations of Corruption in African English: Linguistic Analyses and Pragmatic Applications.

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Book SynopsisThis book examines the works of four contemporary first-generation Chinese migrant writer-artists in France: François CHENG, GAO Xingjian, DAI Sijie, and SHAN Sa. They were all born in China, moved to France in their adulthood to pursue their literary and artistic ambitions, and have enjoyed the highest French and Western institutional recognitions, from the Grand Prix de la Francophonie to the Nobel Prize in Literature. They have established themselves not only as writers, but also as translators, calligraphers, painters, playwrights, and filmmakers mainly in their host country. French has become their dominant—but not only—language of literary creation (except for Gao); yet, linguistic idioms, poetic imagery, and classical thought from Chinese cultural heritage permeate their French texts and visual artworks, reflecting a strong translingual and transmedial sensibility. The book provides not only distinctive literary and artistic examples beyond existing studies of intercultural encounter, French postcolonial, and Chinese diasporic enquiries; more importantly, it formulates a theoretical model that captures the creative dynamics between the French/francophone and Chinese/sinophone spaces of articulation, thereby contributing to contemporary debates about literary and artistic production, interpretation, and circulation in the global development of comparative/world literature, as well as intermediality studies.Trade Review“The book is overflowing with trendy concepts. … Li’s scintillating monograph is a must read for all those interested in a singular body of non-postcolonial, diasporic literature/ visual arts by a group of authors who straddle the Francophone and the Sinophone, yet stubbornly resist labels of any sort.” (Yunfei Bai, Recherche littéraire - Literary Research, Vol. 38, 2022)Table of ContentsChapter 1: Introduction.- Chapter 2: Diverse Forms of Travel and Translation in Franco-Chinese Fiction.- Chapter 3: Translingual Rewriting and Transhistorical Fabulation.- Chapter 4: Sinograph, Calligraphy, and Novelistic Aesthetics.- Chapter 5: Translational (Anti-)Storytelling and Transmedia Aesthetics.- Chapter 6: Conclusion.

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Book SynopsisSince the first edition was published in 2009, Patrik Wikström's The Music Industry has become a go-to text for students and scholars. This thoroughly updated third edition provides an international overview of the music industry and its future prospects in the world of global entertainment.The music industry has experienced two turbulent decades of immense change brought about in part by the digital revolution. How has the industry been transformed by these economic and technological upheavals, and how is it likely to change in the future? What is the role of music in this digital age? Wikström illuminates the workings of the industry, deftly capturing the dynamics at work in the production of musical culture between the transnational media conglomerates, the independent music companies and the public. New to this third edition are expanded sections on the changing structure of the music industry, the impact of digitization on music listening practices, and the evolution of music streaming platforms.Engaging and comprehensive, The Music Industry is a must-read for students and scholars of media and communication studies, cultural studies, popular music, sociology and economics.Table of ContentsIntroduction: Music in the Cloud 1 A Copyright Industry 2 Inside the Music Industry 3 Music and the Media 4 Making Music 5 The Social and Creative Music Fan 6 Future Sounds Notes References Index

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Book SynopsisThis unique collection of essays offers a glimpse into life in and around Kharkiv during the first two years of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. A Kharkiv native, Vikoriia Grivina reflects on living in a city where days are full of poetry readings and gallery openings, while nights are saturated with air raids and explosions. The chronicle of everyday life is layered with inquiries into the urban history and mythology of the 20th-century Kharkiv, a look at the city's decolonial processes, new activist communities, and also the re-discovery of the 1920s literary movement known as the Ukrainian Executed Renaissance. The collection also comprises a fictional story that explores some of the darker, irrational fears and imaginations of urban dwellers during war.

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Book SynopsisStigma is a corrosive social force by which individuals and communities throughout history have been systematically dehumanised, scapegoated and oppressed. From the literal stigmatizing (tattooing) of criminals in ancient Greece, to modern day discrimination against Muslims, refugees and the ''undeserving poor'', stigma has long been a means of securing the interests of powerful elites.In this radical reconceptualisation Tyler precisely and passionately outlines the political function of stigma as an instrument of state coercion. Through an original social and economic reframing of the history of stigma, Tyler reveals stigma as a political practice, illuminating previously forgotten histories of resistance against stigmatization, boldly arguing that these histories provide invaluable insights for understanding the rise of authoritarian forms of government today.Trade ReviewHistorically, when people were physically branded and maimed, it was clear who was creating stigma and why. While such practices are rare today, Tyler (Lancaster Univ., UK) argues that powerful, hidden processes in developed modern societies still create stigma … Chapters include an analysis of race and Black power in the US, the European refugee crisis, poverty within austerity Britain (based partly on her work with a local Poverty Truth Commission), and autobiographical insights from her working-class upbringing … [The] analysis of oppression in other places can provide a more acceptable way to explore dynamics that also apply to the US. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty. * CHOICE *A profoundly original and innovating book. By giving voice to the dehumanised, Tyler’s book powerfully bears witness to the suffering and tragedy unfolding in our age. Historically attentive and theoretically sophisticated… intellectually rich and elegantly written. * Satnam Virdee, University of Glasgow *A devastating and brilliant book that reconceptualises stigma for the Twenty-First Century. Tyler skewers austerity and border regimes, laying out their human costs with clear-eyed, thoughtful analysis. Stigma is essential reading for these times. * Emma Jackson, Goldsmiths *If you think you know what stigma is, think again. This book is essential reading for anyone hoping to understand the roots of stigma in our society and how it is leveraged to embed inequities. * Mary O'Hara *Imogen Tyler’s passionate book brings out the enduring power of stigma to mark inequality on the body in profound, searing ways. This will be a vital contribution to recognising the lived experience of inequality across history. * Mike Savage, London School of Economics *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Stigma, the Machinery of Inequality 1. The Penal Tattoo 2. From Stigma Power to Black Power 3. The Stigma Machine of the Border 4. The Stigma Machine of Austerity 5. Shame Lives on the Eyelids 6. Conclusion: Rage Against the Stigma Machines

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Book Synopsis'Beautifully written, brilliantly insightful' Owen Jones Tony Blair and Noel Gallagher shaking hands at No. 10. Saatchi’s YBAs setting the international art world aflame. Geri Halliwell in a Union Jack dress. A time of vibrancy and optimism: when the country was united by the hope of a better and brighter future. So why, twenty years on, did that future never happen? Richard Power Sayeed takes a provocative look at this epochal year, arguing that the dark undercurrents of that time had a much more enduring legacy than the marketing gimmick of ‘Cool Britannia’. He reveals how the handling of the Stephen Lawrence inquiry ushered in a new type of racism. How the feminism-lite of 'Girl Power' made sexism stronger. And how the promises of New Labour left the country more fractured than ever. This lively, rich and evocative book explores why 1997 was a turning point for British culture and society - away from a fairer, brighter future and on the path to our current malaise.Trade ReviewA well-researched history of Britain in 1997 … Sayeed captures neatly how Blair’s drive to modernise the UK left behind large sections of the country, most notably working class people. * Prospect *Activists will find in this critique of New Labour the serious warning that a radical message, however creatively promoted, is useless without real action. * Peace News *Richard Power Sayeed establishes himself as the definitive critical chronicler of the Blair years with his superb book 1997: The Future That Never Happened * Open Democracy Books of the Year *It is difficult to do justice to Sayeed’s qualities as a writer. He brings a sympathetic eye, attention to detail, a knack for evoking scenes, and acute thumbnail sketches of characters ... Deceptively sophisticated, and sometimes lethal in its critique. * Jacobin *Phenomenal ... One of my books of 2017. * Aaron Bastani, Novara Media *A vital book that combines great storytelling with fresh insights, and says as much about the present as the recent past. * Alwyn W. Turner, author of A Classless Society: Britain in the 1990s *Richard Power Sayeed has vividly reprised the year 1997, when radical currents flowed into the mainstream, and the authorities "welcomed moderate reforms with satisfied contentment." Such promise - but what did it deliver? * Andy McSmith, author of No Such Thing as Society: A History of Britain in the 1980s *A dazzling, funny, and impressively detailed analysis of one of the most important years in modern British history. Both nostalgic and deeply critical, this book casts 1997 in an entirely new light. * Ellie Mae O'Hagan *A beautifully written, brilliantly insightful account of New Labour's Britain – and fundamental to our understanding of how this country ended up in this mess. * Owen Jones *Table of ContentsIntroduction: You Say You Want a Revolution 1. New Labour, New Britain 2. Murderers 3. The People’s Princess 4. Girl Power 5. Sensationalism 6. Cocaine Supernova Conclusion: Crisis

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Book SynopsisFrom the sierras of New Mexico to the streets of New York and LA by night-"a sort of luminous, geometric, incandescent immensity"-Baudrillard mixes aperçus and observations with a wicked sense of fun to provide a unique insight into the country that dominates our world. In this new edition, leading cultural critic and novelist Geoff Dyer offers a thoughtful and perceptive take on the continued resonance of Baudrillard's America.Trade ReviewOccasionally provocative and almost always infuriating ... America is filled with perceptive, almost poetic observations. * Rolling Stone *Since de Tocqueville, French thinkers have been fascinated with America. But when it comes to mysterious paradoxes and lyrical complexity no French intellectual matches Jean Baudrillard in contemplating the New World. * The New York Times *A mixture of crazy notions and dead-on insights, America is a valuable (and voluble) picture of what Mr. Baudrillard calls 'the only remaining primitive society' ... ours. * The New York Times Book Review *

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Book SynopsisFrom Orwell-reading centrists to right-wing extremists, there have been countless attempts in recent decades to reimagine the feudal nation that was once England. But there is a strong case for saying that `England' doesn't exist at all in the twenty-first century. New Model Island examines a disparate range of cultural references-the late Mark Fisher, Dylan Thomas, Alton Towers, Northumbrian activism and Catholic Marxism-as it seeks to reimagine the architecture of the British Isles in the context of the energetic socialist revival of the moment. Part utopian memoir, part elegy for the 2010s, New Model Island is an impassioned call for a new kind of dreaming about post-national identity in a post-capitalist future.Trade Review"Looking for a new England? Alex Niven draws on our diverse identities to forge a radical vision of a once and future land." — Billy Bragg"One of the sharpest, most unusual critics writing today, and with this call for the end of England, he has surpassed himself. Personal, polemical and historical in equal measure, this is a strange, powerful and beautiful book." — Owen Hatherley"An urgent and heartfelt instruction to dig over and reseed the soil of England, so that something more substantial might grow." — Richard King, author of How Soon Is Now?"By reminding us that community is sustained not by rhetoric but by material infrastructure, Niven issues a brave and timely rejoinder to those who would have us believe it can be magicked into being by platitudes and flag-waving." — Times Literary Supplement

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Book SynopsisSocieties worldwide are increasingly interconnected through trade, migration, education, and digitization. This has resulted in a profound new complexity of cultural groups. Consequently, designers are confronted with the challenge of gaining a clear understanding of this cultural diversity.Culture is a complex phenomenon defined by an ongoing process of shifts in human interactions and experiences. In addition to the functional, technical, and economic requirements, it is primarily culture that defines how any designed object and service will perform and prove itself: a process that largely takes place outside the domain and control of the designer.Culture Sensitive Design provides an overview of theory as well as practical models and methods, aimed to motivate and inspire design students, practitioners, and educators to get in touch with different cultural values, customs, and symbols. It is in order to avoid mistakes that may be obstructive for certain groups of people; to enable cross-cultural cooperation; to learn more about the diverse and complex layers of culture that define who we are, how we think, how we imagine, and how we create; and to open up the design space, thereby creating a tremendous source of new ideas. Richly illustrated with examples of real life situations, the book provides everything necessary to generate optimal circumstances for the best design solutions to emerge.

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Book SynopsisMapping Bali is the creation of artist Bruce Granquist to record his visual relationship to the island which has been his home for over 30 years. Originally conceived as a straightforward mapping project which produced a detailed large-format topographic of the island, the scope of the project soon dived deep into the essence of the Balinese island soul. This homage to Balinese people and culture encompasses the unique characteristics that makes the island so special; topography, architecture, heritage sites, unusual landscapes, cultural traditions and spirits. Through shared stories with the people he meets in villages throughout the island, this original and intriguing book describes through images and words a personal and deeply felt celebration of the Balinese people.Contents include: Water and Fire Rocks and Water Villages Mapping the Balinese Soul Rituals of Identity North Bali Urban Bali Mapping Today, Mapping Tomorrow

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Book SynopsisDan Sinykin explores how changes in the publishing industry have affected fiction, literary form, and what it means to be an author.Trade ReviewA "Most Anticipated" Book of 2023 * The Millions *Revelatory . . . Book lovers curious about how the proverbial sausage gets made will want to check this out. * Publishers Weekly *Sinykin’s Big Fiction is a book of major ambition and many satisfactions. Come for the comprehensive reframing of a key phase in U.S. literary history, stay for the parade of interesting people, the fascinating backstories of bestsellers, the electrically entertaining prose. The story of literary publishing in the postwar period has never been told with such verve. -- Mark McGurl, author of Everything and Less: The Novel in the Age of AmazonBig Fiction tackles a big subject with deep research, great ambition, and broad mindedness. Sinykin pulls together stories of famous authors and obscure yet central behind-the-scenes players to tell the complex and compelling history of modern publishing. This is essential reading for anyone interested in the too-often-overlooked forces that shape what is published, what is written, and what the future of books might hold. -- Lincoln Michel, author of The Body ScoutTen years from now, Publishing Studies will be central to English departments, and Big Fiction will be a foundational text. Sinykin is precisely the critic I have been waiting for, with the intellectual range to bring rigor to the everyday processes by which publishing shapes how we write, read, and think. -- Martin Riker, author of The Guest LectureIn Big Fiction, Dan Sinykin tells the messy, sprawling story of American publishing in the postwar era through the voices and memories of many of its major figures—editors, agents, executives, authors—creating a rich cultural history any observer of the current literary scene will learn from. Through careful and incisive reading, he insists that books like Ragtime, Beloved, and Infinite Jest have much to tell us about the conditions under which they were published. Following through on Bakhtin’s famous phrase—novels are the genre that represents “the zone of maximum content with the present”—Sinykin wants us to think of novels themselves as conglomerations, shaped by many influences, and in some cases by many hands. Big Fiction is provocative, smart, and disturbing; it deserves a big audience. -- Jess Row, author of The New Earth and White Flights: Race, Fiction, and the American ImaginationThis is the book we’ve all been waiting for. Now more than ever, it’s important to grasp how the books that come to shape our imaginations and our understanding of the world are made. Sinykin’s elegant prose and careful analysis pull the curtain back, allowing us new perspectives on book making, book selling, and book promoting. It turns out that everything we thought we knew is a big fiction. -- Dana A. Williams, Howard UniversityThe two most remarkable things about Dan Sinykin's history of how corporate conglomeration in publishing has changed the course of literature are 1) it's never been written before and 2) there was a time, not so long ago, when the merging and acquisition of publishing houses was unthinkable. Sinykin teaches how to read "through a colophon," and that "our outsize attention to the author alone is a trick of history." Sinykin's fascinating history is underlineable on every page. -- Spencer Ruchti * Third Place Books (Seattle, WA) *Big Fiction provides a fascinating overview of American publishing over the past sixty or so years, with many interesting titbits about a large number of significant players and many notable publishing deals. -- M.A. Orthofer * The Complete Review *Big Fiction is a very ambitious book, and the story it tells is sweeping and persuasive. . . . It’s the rare book of literary scholarship that may appeal to readers outside the academy. -- Lee Konstantinou * The Chronicle of Higher Education *This book offers a rich, detailed background explicating the everyday reader’s experience of why books published by big commercial presses seem so much like … books big commercial presses would publish. . . . Any student of publishing would benefit from reading this book. In its pages, publishing seems fascinating and action-packed, but myths that readers might harbor about the industry’s glamor, its sincerity, or the purity of its relationship to art will probably get dispelled. -- Hilary Plum * Los Angeles Review of Books *Sinykin writes with verve and narrative flair as he documents the consolidation of the major publishing houses — and, along the way, overturns the myth of “the romantic author,” that lone genius unfettered by social circumstances or material constraints. . . . The result is a fascinating and informative account of the convulsions roiling the American publishing industry for the past half-century — and a devastating reckoning with the ways in which conglomeration has altered American fiction. -- Becca Rothfeld * Washington Post *For some people, thrill rides are found at Disneyland. For certain types of readers, a thrill ride can be found in Big Fiction: How Conglomeration Changed the Publishing Industry and American Literature, Dan Sinykin's scintillating take on the David and Goliath battle, in which free-spirited publishers fought to hold their own against corporate giants. -- Nell Beram * Shelf Awareness *Full of cogent analysis, ambitious argument, juicy quotes from insiders and a demonstration of the central role of Catholics in American publishing. -- Nick Ripatrazone * America Magazine: The Jesuit Review of Faith & Culture *An excellent history of U.S. trade publishing. -- Tyler Cowen * Marginal Revolution *Big Fiction is sharply written and sharply argued, part of a wave of cutting-edge works of literary history put out by Columbia University Press. -- Scott W. Stern * The New Republic *A fascinating combination of business history and academic literary analysis. -- Morley Walker * Winnipeg Free Press *[A] lively, personality-driven, and original study. -- Greg Barnhisel * Books & Review *Big Fiction’s ambitious project and keen analysis will make it a classic in criticism of contemporary US fiction . . . The grand effect of this grand study is to halt any theorization of contemporary fiction that doesn’t first consider the publishing landscape at that point in time. -- Omid Bagherli * ASAP/Journal *Big Fiction takes the notoriously exclusive and counterintuitive industry of U.S. book publishing and gives its recent history a lucid and unsparing treatment . . . [The book] makes for a demystifying and ultimately empowering read—one of particular value for anyone who feels shut out of the publishing milieu—and will help facilitate our understanding of the culture we have. That understanding is critical as we fight for the culture we want. -- Emmerich Anklam * Protean Magazine *This is the best kind of criticism: a book that told me things I didn’t know . . . illuminated things I thought I knew . . . and made me want to argue back against some of its claims and descriptions. -- Anthony Domestico * Commonweal's Best Books of 2023 *Its unexpected novelty is what gives Sinykin’s project its unique insights, making it a real contribution to our understanding of recent American literary history. -- Adam Fleming Petty * The Bulwark *Big Fiction feels like a major contribution: to our understanding of contemporary literature and literary publishing as an industry, definitely; to literary criticism as a whole, probably; and maybe to our conception of how culture, in general, is made. It is a thoroughly researched, engagingly written, and clear-sighted cultural materialist analysis of the sort that feels almost verboten within the formal and professional fields of artistic production. -- J. Arthur Boyle * Cleveland Review of Books *Dear Reader, you should read Big Fiction. It’s the best treatment of why fiction is the way it is that I’ve ever read. And the stories too! -- Clayton Childress * Public Books *[Big Fiction] teaches us to see contemporary fiction as a field riven by contradiction: conglomeration is poisonous and generative, conservative and democratizing, a force of both austerity and abundance. And while it presents obstacles for nearly all writers, many—especially our best—have found unexpected sources of energy within it. -- Mitch Therieau * Bookforum *Recommended. * Choice Reviews *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. Mass Market (I): How Mass-Market Books Changed Publishing2. Mass Market (II): How the Mass Market Won the World, Lost Its Soul—Then Lost the World3. Trade (I): How Women Resisted Sexism and Reinvented the Novel 4. Trade (II): How Literary Writers Embraced Genre5. Nonprofits: How Rebels Found Funding and Rejected New York6. Independents: How W. W. Norton Stayed Free and Housed the MisfitsConclusionGlossary of Publishing FiguresNotesIndex

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