Folklore studies / Study of myth Books
Cornell University Press The Odyssey Reformed
Book SynopsisFrederick Ahl and Hanna M. Roisman offer a challenging new reading of the Odyssey that is directed to the general student of literature as well as to the classicist.Trade ReviewOffers a lively and detailed reading of Homer's 'The Odyssey', episode by episode, with particular attention paid to the manipulative power of its language and Homer's skill in using that power. * The Midwest Book Review *
£30.40
Cornell University Press The Twoheaded Boy and Other Medical Marvels
Book SynopsisA successor to his popular book A Cabinet of Medical Curiosities, this new collection of essays by Jan Bondeson illustrates various anomalies of human development, the lives of the remarkable individuals concerned, and social reactions to their...Trade ReviewA sober, informative disquisition on the sundry forms that humanity can assume and endure. * Kirkus Reviews *As Bondeson looks at the cases of the so-called hog-faced women, dog-faced boys, and people with horns throughout history, he shows an acute sensitivity to the nuances of historical interpretation and for the humanity of those whose lives and conditions he chronicles. * Publishers Weekly *
£16.14
University of Nebraska Press Wyoming Folklore
Book SynopsisIn 1935, in the depths of the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt issued an executive order creating the Federal Writers' Project (FWP). Out-of-work teachers, writers, and scholars fanned out across the country to collect and document local lore. This book reveals the remarkable results of the FWP in Wyoming.Trade Review“Roger Welsch is probably the only man from CBS Sunday Morning who has milked a cow. This lends him credibility in the eyes of many of us and qualifies him to sort the wheat from the chaff of Wyoming folklore.”—Baxter Black, cowboy, poet, former large-animal veterinarian, and radio commentator"This gathering of folklore, legends, and history is brought to readers thanks to the 1930s archives of the Federal Writers' Project (FWP). . . . Readers and scholars of the American West and the FWP will find this book worthwhile."—S.B. DeMasi, Choice"The book is fun, and it might just serve as a reminder that there are files tucked away in every state across the West that just might hide some information relevant to the studies of those who find their way here."—Gary L. Roberts, Wild West History Association Journal"I recommend the book for the general reader who is interested in folklore from Wyoming, or of the wider West—folklore actually from people living there as opposed to significantly rewritten or bowlderized forms—for scholars interested in the contours of the WPA folklore projects, and for scholars looking for additional texts in the categories listed above for comparative purposes."—Lisa Gabbert, Western American LiteratureTable of ContentsIntroduction Part 1. Pioneer Memories 1. Cowboy Days with the Old Union Cattle Company 2. Tale of the Southern Trail 3. Life in a Line Camp 4. A Christmas in the Mountains 5. An Old-Time Christmas in Jackson Hole 6. Stories of a Round-up 7. The Last Great Buffalo Hunt of Washakie and His Band in the Big Horn Basin Country 8. A Stampede 9. Civil Strife 10. The Fleur-de-Lis Cocktail 11. Putting on the Style 12. American Class 13. Packer, the Man-Eater Part 2. The White Man's Tales Lost Mine Tales14. The Lost Treasure of the Haystacks 15. Lost Gold of the Big Horn Basin 16. The Lost Soldier Mine 17. The Lost DeSmet Treasure 18. Indian Joe's Gold 19. The Lost Sweetwater Mine 20. The Lost 600 Pounds Tall Tales and Humor21. The Coney 22. Bearing Down 23. Slovakian Rabbits 24. The Prolific Herds 25. Hunting on the Railroad 26. All Aboard! 27. The Fossil Bug 28. The Big Snake on Muddy Creek 29. Wyoming Fauna 30. The Capture of a Sea Serpent 31. Vanishing Elk 32. The Hard-Water Spring 33. "Dutch" Seipt's River 34. The Great Discovery 35. Love on the Yellowstone 36. The Dying Cowboy 37. Getting the Tenderfoot 38. Jerky Bill's Funeral Characters, Big and Little39. The Wake of the White Swede 40. Disappearing Johnny 41. The Lynching of Walters and Gorman 42. Jim Baker's Revenge 43. The Piano Tuner and His Hallet Canyon Hunch 44. The Man with the Celluloid Nose 45. Portugee's Ride 46. The White Rider 47. The Chicago Kid 48. A Woman's Wiles 49. The Legend of the Indian Princess Ah-ho-ap-pa Ghost Tales50. Ghost Lights on Old Morrisey Road 51. The Hoback River Ghost 52. The Phantom Scout 53. The Specter of Cheyenne Pass 54. The Laramie Ghost 55. The Ghost of Cross Anchor Ranch 56. The Ghost of Nightcap Bay 57. The Oakley Ghost 58. Mel Quick's Story Folk Etymologies59. The Hartville Rag 60. The Story of Whiskey Gap 61. The Legend of Crazy Woman Country 62. The Story of Rawhide Butte 63. The Legend of Fanny's Peak Part 3. Indian Folktales Creation Myths64. Arapaho (1) and Arapaho (2) 65. Shoshone Tales and Legends66. Axe Brown's Stories 67. Lone Bear's Story 68. The Ninam-bea, or "Little People" 69. The Mouthless People 70. A Shoshone Legend 71. The Fort Washakie Hot Spring 72. The Story of the Cottontail and the Sun Indian Legends of Jackson Hole73. The Sheep-eaters 74. The Happy Hunting Grounds 75. The Legend of Sheep Mountain 76. The Legend of "One-Eye" Indian Place Name Legends77. The Legend of Big Springs 78. Shoshone Version of the Legend of the Big Spring 79. The Legend of Wind River Canyon 80. The Legend of Chugwater Creek 81. Legends of Lake DeSmet 82. Lovers' Leap 83. The Legend of Bull Lake 84. The Great Medicine Wheel Medicine Wheel Legends85. The Legends of the Devil's Tower 86. A Kiowa Legend of the Devil's Tower Part 4. Folk Belief, Custom, and Speech Folk Belief87. Weather 88. Love 89. Good Luck 90. Bad Luck 91. Wishes 92. Medicines Cures from Other Wyoming Sources93. Physiognomy, Reading Character and Omens by Physical Features 94. Dream Interpretations 95. Miscellaneous Beliefs and Omens 96. Indian Beliefs Folk Speech97. Glossary of Terms, Nicknames, and Folk Speech 98. Cheap Thunder! An Example of Folk Speech in Action
£13.29
University of Nebraska Press Monster Trek
Book SynopsisTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroductionPrologue1. Ouachita Mountains, Oklahoma2. Uwharrie Mountains, North Carolina3. Southern Illinois4. Green Swamp, Florida5. Northern Wisconsin6. Eastern Kentucky7. Salt Fork State Park, Ohio8. Wind River Mountains, WyomingEpilogueNotes
£14.24
Stanford University Press Web of Life Folklore and Midrash in Rabbinic
Book SynopsisThis work weaves its interpretation of Jewish culture in the Palestine of late antiquity on the warp of a singular rabbinic text "Lamentations Rabbah". The textual analyses that form the core of the book are informed by a range of theoretical paradigms rarely brought to bear on rabbinic literature.Trade Review"Web of Life is a brilliant study that makes an ancient text relevant to the modern reader . . . Hasan-Rokem demonstrates not only a thorough scholarly knowledge of folklore and Jewish studies, but also a familiarity with current theoretical trends in literary analysis and interpretation."—Dan Ben-Amos, University of Pennsylvania"Hasan-Rokem provides a deeply suggestive analysis of the poignant midrashic text, Lamentations Rabbah, employing and blending folkloristic techniques, structural analysis of mythologies, feminist theory, cultural criticism and other theoretical trends in literary analysis and interpretive techniques . . . This is an engaging and enlightening book."—Religious Studies Review"By adding the folkloristic dimension to the scholarly discourse associated with amoraic stories, Hasan-Rokem's book addresses a long-felt need . . . [Hasan-Rokem] is the first to present a comprehensive discussion associating folklore with rabbinics."—Hebrew Studies"Lamentations Rabbah presents Jewish society in its daily, but not mundane, actions. It is a literature of disaster, of personal and collective tragedy that leaves the reader pondering the meaning of life. The breadth of folklore enables Hasan-Rokem to explore these tales in a multifaceted analysis that situates them in the their textual, historical and comparative contexts and that transcends them all by presenting narratives and riddles as a search for meaning."—Dan Ben-Amos, University of PennsylvaniaTable of ContentsPreface 1. The study of folk narratives in Rabbini literature 2. The literary context of folk narratives in the Aggadic Midrash: interpreting narrative structure 3. The genre context of folk narratives in the Aggadic Midrash: riddles about the wise people of Jerusalem 4. The comparative context of folk narratives in the Aggadic Midrash: tales of dream interpretation 6. The social context of folk narratives in the Aggadic Midrash: the feminine power of laments, tales, and love 7. The religious context of folk narratives in the Aggadic Midrash: the rhetoric of intimacy as a rhetoric of the sacred 8. The historical context of folk narratives in the Aggadic Midrash: three tales on Messianism Epilogue: Rabbi Joshua's Odyssey Notes Bibliography Index.
£98.60
Stanford University Press Web of Life
Book SynopsisWeb of Life weaves its suggestive interpretation of Jewish culture in the Palestine of late antiquity on the warp of a singular, breathtakingly tragic, and sublime rabbinic text, Lamentations Rabbah. The textual analyses that form the core of the book are informed by a range of theoretical paradigms rarely brought to bear on rabbinic literature: structural analysis of mythologies and folktales, performative approaches to textual production, feminist theory, psychoanalytical analysis of culture, cultural criticism, and folk narrative genre analysis.The concept of context as the hermeneutic basis for literary interpretation reactivates the written text and subverts the hierarchical structures with which it has been traditionally identified. This book reinterprets rabbinic culture as an arena of multiple dialogues that traverse traditional concepts of identity regarding gender, nation, religion, and territory. The author''s approach is permeated by the idea that scTrade Review"Web of Life is a brilliant study that makes an ancient text relevant to the modern reader . . . Hasan-Rokem demonstrates not only a thorough scholarly knowledge of folklore and Jewish studies, but also a familiarity with current theoretical trends in literary analysis and interpretation."—Dan Ben-Amos, University of Pennsylvania"Hasan-Rokem provides a deeply suggestive analysis of the poignant midrashic text, Lamentations Rabbah, employing and blending folkloristic techniques, structural analysis of mythologies, feminist theory, cultural criticism and other theoretical trends in literary analysis and interpretive techniques . . . This is an engaging and enlightening book."—Religious Studies Review"By adding the folkloristic dimension to the scholarly discourse associated with amoraic stories, Hasan-Rokem's book addresses a long-felt need . . . [Hasan-Rokem] is the first to present a comprehensive discussion associating folklore with rabbinics."—Hebrew Studies"Lamentations Rabbah presents Jewish society in its daily, but not mundane, actions. It is a literature of disaster, of personal and collective tragedy that leaves the reader pondering the meaning of life. The breadth of folklore enables Hasan-Rokem to explore these tales in a multifaceted analysis that situates them in the their textual, historical and comparative contexts and that transcends them all by presenting narratives and riddles as a search for meaning."—Dan Ben-Amos, University of PennsylvaniaTable of ContentsPreface 1. The study of folk narratives in Rabbini literature 2. The literary context of folk narratives in the Aggadic Midrash: interpreting narrative structure 3. The genre context of folk narratives in the Aggadic Midrash: riddles about the wise people of Jerusalem 4. The comparative context of folk narratives in the Aggadic Midrash: tales of dream interpretation 6. The social context of folk narratives in the Aggadic Midrash: the feminine power of laments, tales, and love 7. The religious context of folk narratives in the Aggadic Midrash: the rhetoric of intimacy as a rhetoric of the sacred 8. The historical context of folk narratives in the Aggadic Midrash: three tales on Messianism Epilogue: Rabbi Joshua's Odyssey Notes Bibliography Index.
£25.19
Louisiana State University Press The Life and Legend of BrasCoupÃ
Book SynopsisAlthough few recognize the name of Bras-Coupe today, Bryan Wagner's riveting history The Life and Legend of Bras-Coupe illustrates why the saga of this notorious escaped slave should be a touchstone among scholars and students of the African diaspora.
£32.25
Louisiana State University Press Doll Apollo
Book SynopsisWith lush imagery and surprising syntactical turns, the poems in Doll Apollo merge mythology with close attention to the patterns, colours, and contours of the material world. Melissa Ginsburg’s feminist ecopoetics weaves the domestic and celestial into considerations of female identity, desire, spiritual yearning, and doubt.
£15.15
The University of North Carolina Press Sodom Laurel Album
Book SynopsisWhen Rob Amberg first met Dellie Norton, she was 76 years old and had lived most of her life in the mountain community of Sodom Laurel, North Carolina. This work traces the relationship between them, years marked by the seasons of raising and harvesting food and by the gatherings of family.
£43.65
University of Pennsylvania Press Metaphors of Masculinity
Book Synopsis
£21.59
University of Pennsylvania Press Womens Folklore Womens Culture
Book SynopsisThe essays in Women's Folklore, Women's Culture focus on women performers of folklore and on women's genre of folklore. Long ignored, women's folklore is often collaborative and frequently is enacted in the privacy of the domestic sphere. This book provides insights balancing traditional folklore scholarship. All of the authors also explore the relationship between make and female views and worlds. The book begins with the private world of women, performances within the intimacy of family and fields; it then studies women's folklore in the public arena; finally, the book looks at the interrelationships between public and private arenas and between male and female activities. By turning our attention to previously ignored women's realms, these essays provide a new perspective from which to view human culture as a whole and make Women's Folklore, Women's Culture a significant addition to folklore scholarshipTrade Review"The studies herein elevate the humble, examine the small domestic detail, set forth the praiseworthy in the everyday, seek joy in the ordinary, capture the comfort in the community of women and their collaboratieve atempts to define their worlds." * Journal of American Folklore *"Almost anyone concerned with women's studies of folklore will find something of interest in this collection of essays. From the dynamics of narration among women in a variety of settings to an ethnographic analysis of a quilting bee and examination of gender differences in joke telling, the essays are uniformly provocative and groundbreaking." * Library Journal *
£25.19
University of Pennsylvania Press Fairy Tales and Society
Book Synopsis
£21.59
University of Pennsylvania Press From Trickster to Badman
Book Synopsis
£21.59
University of Pennsylvania Press Looking West
Book SynopsisIn Looking West, John D. Dorst examines a largely neglected pattern of seeing that stands in contrast to the universally familiar iconography.
£25.19
University of Pennsylvania Press Blood Read
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Blood Read is a fresh look at an old form, offering lively, lucid insights into the contemporary explosion of vampire fiction. Nothing else like it exists. This book should set the terms for discussion about vampires for some time to come."-Brian Attebery, Idaho State UniversityTable of ContentsForeword: Vampires—The Ancient Fear —Brian Aldiss Acknowledgments 1. Introduction: The Shape of Vampires —Joan Gordon, Veronica Hollinger 2. My Vampire, My Friend: The Intimacy Dracula Destroyed -Nina Auerbach 3. Metaphor into Metonymy: The Vampire Next Door —Jules Zanger 4. The Vampire as Alien in Contemporary Fiction —Margaret L. Carter 5. Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth: The Vampire in Search of Its Mother —Joan Gordon 6. Meditations in Red: On Writing The Vampire Tapestry —Suzy McKee Charnas 7. Sang for Supper: Notes on the Metaphorical Use of Vampires in The Empire of Fear and Young Blood —Brian Stableford 8. Recasting the Mythology: Writing Vampire Fiction —Jewelle Gomez 9. Dieting and Damnation: Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire —Sandra Tomc 10. When Hollywood Sucks, or, Hungry Girls, Lost Boys, and Vampirism in the Age of Reagan —Nicola Nixon 11. Consuming Youth: The Lost Boys Cruise Mallworld —Rob Latham 12. The Gilda Stories: Revealing the Monsters at the Margins —Miriam Jones 13. Coming Out of the Coffin: Gay Males and Queer Goths in Contemporary Vampire Fiction —Trevor Holmes 14. Techno-Gothic Japan: From Seishi Yokomizo's The Death's-Head Stranger to Mariko Ohara's Ephemera the Vampire —Mari Kotani 15. Fantasies of Absence: The Postmodern Vampire —Veronica Hollinger Notes Works Cited Films Cited Index List of Contributors
£21.59
University of Pennsylvania Press New Age Capitalism
Book SynopsisNew Age Capitalism examines how Eastern and other non-Western traditions have been coopted by Western capitalism.Trade Review"New Age Capitalism reveals the sometimes hilarious ironies and contradictions that come with using the capitalist marketplace as a place to critique capitalism." * Joseph Turow, author of Breaking Up America: Advertisers and the New Media World *"New Age Capitalism represents a new, sophisticated-and in many ways daring-extension of folkloric concerns into the arena where ancient traditions, fads, popular culture, global economics, personal taste, and cultural worldview intersect. . . . Lau's compact book is a clever and helpful contribution to this enterprise." * Western Folklore *
£21.59
University of Pennsylvania Press Folktales from Iraq
Book SynopsisWho would not shudder when entering the skeleton-lined cave of the queen of the dead? How would a young man and his sister escape from the prison of a treacherous sultan? How would a poor farmer gain the hand of the beautiful daughter of the wealthiest sheik? These and thirteen more tales are spun in this stunning collection of sixteen traditional stories from the Shia tribes of southern Iraq. Gathered in the late 1940s and deftly translated to capture the elegance of the originals, these tales are full of action, adventure, love, and humor and are sure to delight anyone who has ever fallen under the spell of the Scheherezade.Appearing here for the first time in paperback, the stories in Folktales from Iraq, each accompanied by specially commissioned engravings, allow the reader to travel to a distant, imaginary land swirling with great fortunes, terrifying predicaments, and quick-witted heroes.Trade Review"All Arabian Nights fans should welcome this book. . . . Highly entertaining." * Chicago Tribune *"Story-telling is dying out, so treasure these." * San Francisco Chronicle *"A welcome addition to the folklore library." * Journal of Folklore Research *
£21.59
University of Pennsylvania Press Legendary Hawaii and the Politics of Place
Book SynopsisIn a book with interdisciplinary appeal, Bacchilega demonstrates both how the myth of legendary Hawai'i emerged and how this vision can be unmade and reimagined.Trade Review"Legendary Hawai'i is insightful, provocative, and thought-provoking. It forcefully illuminates the implications of tourism for a culture, and the ways in which seemingly simple transactions, such as a tourist brochure to bring tourists and dollars to the island, can work in insidious ways to actually undermine the very people it seems to be celebrating." * Journal of Folklore Research *"Legendary Hawai'i and the Politics of Place is an examination of cultural change through textual analysis, and within those boundaries it accomplishes quite a bit. . . . Bacchilega's close reading of texts and her nuanced explications of photographs are persuasive and reach important conclusions about cultural changes occurring in Hawaii, which may also apply to other colonized regions." * Journal of American History *"A work of vigilant scholarship and elegant exposition that unsettles long-taken-for-granted genres, modes of representation, narrative codes and ascribed roles." * Hawaiian Journal of History *"A fascinating, carefully researched, and accessible look at how indigenous Hawaiian stories were appropriated by non-Hawaiian scholars and writers and used to promote a 'legendary Hawai'i' that misrepresents Hawai'i and its indigenous people and their ways of viewing reality. The book is written with passion and commitment and restores to the original stories and their creators/tellers their true mana." * Albert Wendt *Table of ContentsPreface 1. Introduction 2. Hawai'i's Storied Places: Learning from Anne Kapulani Landgraf's ''Hawaiian View' 3. The Production of Legendary Hawai'i: Out of Place Stories I 4. Emma Nakuina's Hawaii: Its People, Their Legends: Out of Place Stories II 5. Stories in Place: Dynamics of Translation and Re-Cognition Notes Works Cited Index Acknowledgments
£25.19
University of Pennsylvania Press Rhetorics and Politics in Afghan Traditional
Book Synopsis
£77.35
MP-FLO Uni Press of Florida Making Caribbean Dance
Book Synopsis
£26.06
MP-VIR Uni of Virginia Monsters Tricksters and Sacred Cows Animal Tales
Book SynopsisThe 1992 quincentennial of the encounter between the Old and New World resulted in a polarisation of hardened ideological positions on different ideas of America. This text demonstrates that both sides are interested in defending an idea of ""Americanness"".
£46.80
MP-VIR Uni of Virginia Winged Stallions and Wicked Mares Horses in
Book SynopsisExamines the horse's significance throughout Indian history from the arrival of the Indo-Europeans, followed by the people who became the Mughals (who imported Arabian horses) and the British (who imported thoroughbreds and Walers).
£28.45
Wayne State University Press Israeli Folk Narratives Settlement Immigration Ethnicity Raphael Patai Series in Jewish Folklore Anthropology Raphael Patai Series in Jewish Folklore and Anthropology
Book SynopsisThe goals and challenges that face the Israelies are illustrated by the country's folk stories. These tales, gathered from the early settlers of the kibbutz, from immigrants who arrived in Israel after independence, and from ethnic groups, to create a panoramic view of this society. It is for anyone interested in folk stories and Israeli culture.
£26.36
Wayne State University Press Contemporary Fiction and the Fairy Tale
Book SynopsisConsiders the influence of fairy tales on contemporary fiction, including the work of Margaret Atwood, A S Byatt, Angela Carter, Robert Coover, Salman Rushdie, and Jeanette Winterson. This title argues that fairy tales are one of the key influences on fiction and that they continue to shape literary trends.Trade ReviewAn excellent volume.... Contributors in each case go beyond what is 'usually said' to bring fresh insights to the works they discuss. - Danielle Roemer, associate professor of English at Northern Kentucky University and co-editor of Angela Carter and the Fairy Tale (Wayne State University Press, 2000)
£25.56
Wayne State University Press Marvelous Geometry Narrative and Metafiction in Modern Fairy Tale Fairytale Studies
Book SynopsisExplores self-consciousness and metafictional awareness in modern fairy tale and its expression across literary fairy tale, popular fairy tale, and fairy-tale film. This title argues draws on the critical fields of postmodernism, narratological analysis, stucturalism, feminism, and performativity, without relying solely on any one perspective.
£25.56
Wayne State University Press Fairy Tales Transformed TwentyFirstCentury Adaptations and the Politics of Wonder FairyTale Studies Series in FairyTale Studies
£26.36
Wayne State University Press Jewish Magic before the Rise of Kabbalah Raphael
Book SynopsisA comprehensive study of Jewish magic in late antiquity and the early Islamic period—the phenomenon, the sources, and method for its research, and the history of scholarly investigation into its nature and origin.
£74.25
Wayne State University Press The Politics of Magic
Book SynopsisFrom 1950 to 1989 East Germany's state-sponsored film company, DEFA produced over forty feature-length, live-action fairy-tale films based on nineteenth-century folk and literary tales. In The Politics of Magic, Qinna Shen analyses the films on thematic and formal levels and examines their embedded agendas in relation to the cultural politics of the German Democratic Republic.
£24.71
Wayne State University Press Louis Ginzbergs Legends of the Jews
£37.56
Wayne State University Press 101 Middle Eastern Tales and Their Impact on
Book SynopsisAgainst the methodological backdrop of historical and comparative folk narrative research, 101 Middle Eastern Tales and Their Impact on Western Oral Tradition surveys the history, dissemination, and characteristics of over one hundred narratives transmitted to Western tradition from or by the Middle Eastern Muslim literatures.
£37.46
Wayne State University Press 101 Middle Eastern Tales and Their Impact on
Book SynopsisAgainst the methodological backdrop of historical and comparative folk narrative research, 101 Middle Eastern Tales and Their Impact on Western Oral Tradition surveys the history, dissemination, and characteristics of over one hundred narratives transmitted to Western tradition from or by the Middle Eastern Muslim literatures.
£74.25
Wayne State University Press Charles Godfrey Leland and His Magical Tales
Book SynopsisJack Zipes has selected the tales in Charles Godfrey Leland and His Magical Tales from five different books and has arranged them thematically. What distinguishes Leland from the major folklorists of the nineteenth century is his literary embellishment to represent his particular regard for their poetry, purity, and history.
£26.36
Wayne State University Press Snake Sisters and Ghost Daughters
Book SynopsisContemporary Chinese film and literature often draw on time-honoured fantastical texts and tales which were founded in the milieu of patriarchy, parental authority, heteronormativity, nationalism, and anthropocentrism. Cathy Yue Wang examines the processes by which modern authors and filmmakers reshape these traditional tales.Trade ReviewIn Snake Sisters and Ghost Daughters, Cathy Yue Wang dives into the rich repository of Chinese myths and legends and examines their adaptations in the modern and contemporary world through a feminist lens. Through extensive research and incisive reading, she makes available to the Western audience a dazzling array of Chinese sources, which are not cold gems frozen in the past but shifting dynamisms addressing current issues within and beyond China. Her critical mind and lyrical voice contribute to fairy-tale studies, genre fiction studies, and feminist scholarship in general and invite further explorations along the path she has paved for us." - Zhange Ni, associate professor of religion and literature, Virginia Tech"Theoretically informed and skillfully written, this book deeply engages with a wide range of fantastic female figures in contemporary adaptations of traditional tales. Weaving cognitive narratology in close textual analyses to reveal dynamic communications between readers and writers, Wang makes excellent contributions to the interdisciplinary studies of Chinese fantasy." - Liang Luo, author of The Global White Snake"Snake Sisters and Ghost Daughters is as intriguing as its title. Having watched and waited for Chinese children’s literature scholarship to explode on the international stage, this book’s commitment to tracing adaptations of Chinese traditional stories is a welcome contribution to the ever-growing body of research in this area. It will prove useful to both the novice and the expert in children’s literature wishing to consider the rich tradition of Chinese literature and its entanglement with the fantasy genre." - Emily Murphy, senior lecturer in children’s literature, Newcastle University
£27.96
Wayne State University Press Jewish Magic before the Rise of Kabbalah
Book SynopsisMagic culture is certainly fascinating. But what is it? What, in fact, are magic writings, magic artifacts? Originally published in Hebrew in 2010, Jewish Magic Before the Rise of Kabbalah is a comprehensive study of early Jewish magic focusing on three major topics: Jewish magic inventiveness, the conflict with the culture it reflects, and the scientific study of both. The first part of the book analyzes the essence of magic in general and Jewish magic in particular. The book begins with theories addressing the relationship of magic and religion in fields like comparative study of religion, sociology of religion, history, and cultural anthropology, and considers the implications of the paradigm shift in the interdisciplinary understanding of magic for the study of Jewish magic. The second part of the book focuses on Jewish magic culture in late antiquity and in the early Islamic period. This section highlights the artifacts left behind by the magic practi
£32.21
Wayne State University Press The Enchanted Boot
Book SynopsisThe authors featured in this volume have, over the centuries, explored and interrogated the intersections between elite and popular cultures and oral and literary narratives, just as they have investigated the ways in which fairy tales have been and continue to be rewritten as expressions of both collective identities and individual sensibilities.
£63.75
Wayne State University Press Sepher Yosippon
Book SynopsisSepher Yosippon was written in Hebrew by a medieval historian noted by modern scholars for its eloquent style. This is the first known chronicle of Jewish history and legend from Adam to the destruction of the Second Temple, this is the first known text since the canonical histories written by Flavius Josephus in Greek and later translated by Christian scholars into Latin. Sepher Yosippon has been cited and referred to by scholars, poets, and authors as the authentic source for ancient Israel for over a millennium, until overshadowed by the twentieth-century Hebrew translations of Josephus. It is based on Pseudo Hegesippus''s fourth-century anti-Jewish summary of Josephus''s Jewish War. However, the anonymous author [a.k.a. Joseph ben Gurion Hacohen] also consulted with the Latin versions of Josephus''s works available to him. At the same time, he included a wealth of Second Temple literature as well as Roman and Christian sources. This book contains Steven
£37.46
MP-SYR Syracuse University P Orpheus in Middle Ages
Book SynopsisThis volume takes the reader through the journey of a myth - where Orpheus becomes an Orpheus-Christus, a courtly knight and the writer of love lyrics.
£23.36
Encyclopedia of Greek and Roman Mythology Facts
Book SynopsisGreek and Roman mythology has fascinated people for more than two millennia, and its influence on cultures throughout Europe, America, North Africa, and the Middle East attests to the universal appeal of the stories. This title examines the best-known figures of Greek and Roman mythology together with the great works of classic literature.
£60.00
University of Arizona Press Myths and Tales of the White Mountain Apache
£21.56
MP - University Of Minnesota Press Bandits Captives Heroines and Saints Cultural
Book Synopsis
£19.79
University of Minnesota Press Myths of the Rune Stone Viking Martyrs and the
Book SynopsisTrade Review"David M. Krueger’s multi-faceted analysis of the ‘cult’ of the Kensington Rune Stone adds to recent scholarship on collective memory and the invention of identity. I know of no other study that so effectively traces change over time in both audience and allure of a foundational myth that allows it to persist despite almost universal scientific rejection."—Mary Lethert Wingerd, author of North Country: The Making of Minnesota"Myths of the Rune Stone moves far past the Rune Stone’s legitimacy to explain how and why the stone fascinated and even obsessed such a wide swath of Minnesota’s European-descended population. The heart of this book is the story it tells about the persistent renewal of the Rune Stone story across a century of doubt."—Jon Butler, Yale University"This first comprehensive book about the popular meaning of the Kensington Rune Stone is a welcome contribution to the study of its historiography and to the impact of local culture on an American origin myth." —Minnesota Historical Society "Highly entertaining."—Norwegian American Weekly"Krueger’s book is a thoughtful examination of the competing claims of Nordic-Americans, Catholics, Christian fundamentalists, and Minnesotans in general to turn the KRS into a foundational support for their various efforts to find a place atop the American social hierarchy. It is well worth the read and a rewarding reading experience."—Jason Colavito"Krueger digs deep into how its myth demonstrates a complicated relationship with history, heritage, and belief in Minnesota and America itself."—Minnesota Monthly"By tracing the evolution of the Rune Stone story, [Krueger] helps us to understand the needs and motivations that give rise to these myths. Perhaps these insights can help us to form sharper distinctions between historiography and myth-making."—Religion Dispatches"An entertaining and informational read."—Journal of Folklore Research"Myths of the Rune Stone will certainly generate interest in Minnesota and the Upper Midwest, but it should also be useful in the classroom as a coda to the ever-popular course on Viking history or mythology."—H-Net Reviews"Myths of the Rune Stone illuminates a debate about collective identity that is ever relevant to today’s Minnesota."—Scandinavian Studies"An interesting and ultimately convincing account of the various ways in which the use of the martyr myth informed the use of the Kensington Rune Stone to address various social and political agendas."—Journal of the Iowa Archeological Society"Krueger’s study makes a valuable contribution to regional and immigration history and elucidates the role that civil religious rituals play in defining a community’s identity."—The Annals of Iowa"In Myths of the Rune Stone, David M. Krueger provides an exhaustively researched, accessibly written, and at times humorous examination of the rhetoric surrounding the Kensington Rune Stone."—Winterthur Portfolio Table of ContentsContentsPreface Introduction: A Holy Mission to Minnesota1. Westward from Vinland: An Immigrant Saga by Hjalmar Holand2. Knutson’s Last Stand: Fabricating the First White Martyrs of the American West3. In Defense of Main Street: The Kensington Rune Stone as a Midwestern Plymouth Rock4. Our Lady of the Runestone and America’s Baptism with Catholic Blood5. Immortal Rock: Cold War Religion, Centennials, and the Return of the SkrælingsConclusion: The Enduring Legacy of American Viking MythsAcknowledgmentsNotesBibliographyIndex
£61.20
University of Minnesota Press Myths of the Rune Stone
Book SynopsisTrade Review"David M. Krueger’s multi-faceted analysis of the ‘cult’ of the Kensington Rune Stone adds to recent scholarship on collective memory and the invention of identity. I know of no other study that so effectively traces change over time in both audience and allure of a foundational myth that allows it to persist despite almost universal scientific rejection."—Mary Lethert Wingerd, author of North Country: The Making of Minnesota"Myths of the Rune Stone moves far past the Rune Stone’s legitimacy to explain how and why the stone fascinated and even obsessed such a wide swath of Minnesota’s European-descended population. The heart of this book is the story it tells about the persistent renewal of the Rune Stone story across a century of doubt."—Jon Butler, Yale University"This first comprehensive book about the popular meaning of the Kensington Rune Stone is a welcome contribution to the study of its historiography and to the impact of local culture on an American origin myth." —Minnesota Historical Society "Highly entertaining."—Norwegian American Weekly"Krueger’s book is a thoughtful examination of the competing claims of Nordic-Americans, Catholics, Christian fundamentalists, and Minnesotans in general to turn the KRS into a foundational support for their various efforts to find a place atop the American social hierarchy. It is well worth the read and a rewarding reading experience."—Jason Colavito"Krueger digs deep into how its myth demonstrates a complicated relationship with history, heritage, and belief in Minnesota and America itself."—Minnesota Monthly"By tracing the evolution of the Rune Stone story, [Krueger] helps us to understand the needs and motivations that give rise to these myths. Perhaps these insights can help us to form sharper distinctions between historiography and myth-making."—Religion Dispatches"An entertaining and informational read."—Journal of Folklore Research"Myths of the Rune Stone will certainly generate interest in Minnesota and the Upper Midwest, but it should also be useful in the classroom as a coda to the ever-popular course on Viking history or mythology."—H-Net Reviews"Myths of the Rune Stone illuminates a debate about collective identity that is ever relevant to today’s Minnesota."—Scandinavian Studies"An interesting and ultimately convincing account of the various ways in which the use of the martyr myth informed the use of the Kensington Rune Stone to address various social and political agendas."—Journal of the Iowa Archeological Society"Krueger’s study makes a valuable contribution to regional and immigration history and elucidates the role that civil religious rituals play in defining a community’s identity."—The Annals of Iowa"In Myths of the Rune Stone, David M. Krueger provides an exhaustively researched, accessibly written, and at times humorous examination of the rhetoric surrounding the Kensington Rune Stone."—Winterthur Portfolio Table of ContentsContentsPreface Introduction: A Holy Mission to Minnesota1. Westward from Vinland: An Immigrant Saga by Hjalmar Holand2. Knutson’s Last Stand: Fabricating the First White Martyrs of the American West3. In Defense of Main Street: The Kensington Rune Stone as a Midwestern Plymouth Rock4. Our Lady of the Runestone and America’s Baptism with Catholic Blood5. Immortal Rock: Cold War Religion, Centennials, and the Return of the SkrælingsConclusion: The Enduring Legacy of American Viking MythsAcknowledgmentsNotesBibliographyIndex
£17.99
The University of Alabama Press Distracted by Alabama
Book SynopsisInterspersed throughout with insights drawn from James Seay Brown's academic career and his work with a variety of Birmingham-area community organizations, this book traces a very personal, historically informed, and idiosyncratic profile of a region in transition in the mid to late twentieth century.
£30.56
The University of Alabama Press Thirteen Georgia Ghosts and Jeffrey Commemorative
Book SynopsisPetrifying the Peach State, hosts of haints have beset the state of Georgia throughout its storied history. In Thirteen Georgia Ghosts and Jeffrey, best-selling folklorist Kathryn Tucker Windham, along with her trusty spectral companion Jeffrey, introduce thirteen of Georgia's most famous ghost stories.Trade Review“Ghost stories have a very real place in the folklore and the history of a state or a nation. After all, who should be better able to tell of happenings long past than the ghosts of those who had a part in them?"" - Miss Bessie Lewis, author of They Called Their Town Darien: Being a Short History of Darien and McIntosh County, Georgia“Spine-tingling with a twang...” - National Public Radio’s All Things Considered“In Windham’s tales... myth and fact intertwine to present a picture of the South that is as true as any textbook.” - Paris Review
£14.20
Duke University Press The Politics of Memory
Book SynopsisTrade Review"This is one of those historical texts in which the author not only revises our understanding of the past, but also shakes up our intellectual certainties in the present ... this text remains an important and influential one in Latin American studies. A preface to this second edition helps locate the text within the rather abrupt changes over the past decade ... "--British Bulletin of Publications on Latin America, April 2000Table of ContentsAbout the Series vii Preface to the Duke Edition ix List of Illustrations xvii Preface xxiii Introduction: Interpreting the Past 1 Part I. The Creation of a Chiefly Ideology: Nasa Historical Thought under Spanish Rule 31 Part II. From Colony to Republic: Cacique and Caudillo 87 Part III. Contemporary Historical Voices 141 Glossary 209 Notes 211 References 221 Index 241
£25.19
University of Pittsburgh Press Flatlanders and Ridgerunners
£19.50
Fordham University Press Things
Book SynopsisAddressing the relation between religion and things, which has long been conceived in antagonistic terms, the guiding idea of this volume is that religion necessarily requires some kind of incarnation. Exploring the role and place of sacred artifacts, images, bodily fluids, sites and technologies in different locations and religious traditions, this volume re-materializes the study of religion.Trade Review"Things gathers up a series of lively and provocative essays. Challenging received understandings of religion as primarily about beliefs (in spiritual beings) as historically derived and impossible to sustain, it draws attention to the centrality of the material in religious practices and debates about the world. This volume deserves a place on the shelf of anyone interested in either religion or materiality-or both." -- -Margaret Weiner University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill "Things is an essential archive for the study of religious materiality and the material study of religion." -- -David Chidester author of Wild Religion: Tracking the Sacred in South Africa "A highly spirited and robust materialization of a significant trend in the study of religion. The articles in this remarkably coherent collection speak back to iconoclasm and the ideal or ideology of immateriality as found explicitly in certain practitioners of religion and implicitly in its scholarship. They illustrate the various ways in which material objects function as signs, powers, and mediations, and examine as well the intellectual debates and theological disputations about their functions and effects to which things inevitably give rise." -- -Michael Lambek author of The Weight of the Past "... this volume is an invaluable contribution to religious and material culture studies, broadening the scope of both fields by introducing new questions in old contexts, and investing agency in people and spirit in things." -- -Gabrielle A. Berlinger -Museum Anthropology Review
£31.50
Fordham University Press Words
Book SynopsisExamines the link between our (implicit) assumptions about language and our understanding of religious phenomena. In particular, focuses on the performative and material specificity of word use in religion.Trade Review"The conversation about the modern, the religious, and the secular is not over, and this volume will push the dialogue in fruitful new directions." -- -S. Brent Plate Hamilton CollegeTable of ContentsIntroduction: 'Any more deathless questions?', Asja Szafraniec and Ernst van den Hemel Part 1: What are words? 'Word as Act: Varieties of Semiotic Ideology in the Interpretation of Religion', Michael Lambek 'The power of words and the performative context', Jacqueline Borsje 'Inscriptional Violence and the Art of Cursing: A Study of Performative Writing', Jan Assmann 'Words and Word-Bodies: Writing the Religious Body', Loriliai Biernacki Part 2 Religious Vocabularies: 'Semantic Differences; or, "Judaism"; "Christianity"', Daniel Boyarin 'The Name God in Blanchot', Jean-Luc Nancy 'Humanism's Cry: On Infinity in Religion, and Absence in Atheism-A Dialogue with Blanchot and Nancy', Laurens ten Kate 'Intuition, Interpellation, Insight: Elements of a Theory of Conversion', Nils F. Schott 'Allowed and forbidden words: Canon and Censorship in "Grunbegriffe", "Critical terms", Encyclopaedias', Christoph Auffarth Part 3: Transmitting and Translating the Implicit 'God lisped: divine accommodation and cracks in Calvin's Scriptural voice', Ernst Van den Hemel 'Rethinking the Implicit: Fragments of the Project on Aggada and Halakhah in W.Benjamin', Sergey Dolgopolski 'What Cannot Be Said: Apophasis and the Discourse of Love', Jean-Luc Marion 'Jean-Luc Marion and the Basic Problems of Phenomenology', Tarek Dika Part 4: Situating Oneself via Language 'A Quarrel with God: Cavell on Wittgenstein and Hegel', Asja Szafraniec 'Thinking about the Secular Body, Pain, and Liberal Politics', Talal Asad 'The Rise of Literal-Mindedness', Peter Burke 'Fiction-based Religion: From Star Wars to Jediism', Markus Altena Davidsen 'Prayer: Addressing the Name', Karmen Mackendrick Part 5 Language and the Foundation of Communities 'The Words of the Martyr. Media, Martyrdom and the Construction of a Community', Pieter Nanninga "Spritual X-ray Vision": the Religio-Political Rhetoric of Abraham Kuyper', Arie L. Molendijk 'Thinking through Religious Nationalism', Roger Friedland and Kenneth B. Moss
£71.10
