Semiotics / semiology Books

Book Synopsis''Arguably the most important intellectual alive'' New York Times An indispensable collection of Noam Chomsky's talks on the past, present and future of the politics of power Noam Chomsky is universally accepted as one of the world's leading intellectuals of the modern era. Now, for the first time, Peter R. Mitchell and John Schoeffel have assembled the best of Chomsky''s talks on the politics of power. With an eye to political activism and the media's role in popular struggle, as well as US foreign and domestic policy, Chomsky reinterprets the events of the past three decades, from foreign policy during the Vietnam War to the decline of welfare under the Clinton administration. Highlighting America's myriad of social inequalities and political issues while offering timely advice for much needed change, Understanding Power is definitive Chomsky. Chomsky ranks with Marx, Shakespeare and the Bible as one of the ten most quoted soTrade ReviewArguably the most important intellectual alive * New York Times *Chomsky ranks with Marx, Shakespeare and the Bible as one of the ten most quoted sources in the humanities * Guardian *Noam Chomsky is a major scholarly resource. Not to have read him is to court genuine ignorance * The Nation *

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Book SynopsisRoland Barthes was born in 1915 and studied French literature and classics at the University of Paris. After teaching French at universities in Romania and Egypt, he joined the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique, where he devoted himself to research in sociology and lexicology. He was a professor at the College de France until his death in 1980.Trade ReviewOf all his works it is the most accessible in language and the most revealing about the author. And effortlessly, as if in passing, his reflections on photography raise questions and doubts which will permanently affect the vision of the reader * Guardian *Roland Barthes' final book - less a critical essay than a suite of valedictory meditations - is his most beautiful, and most painful * Observer *Profoundly shaped the way the medium is regarded * Guardian *I am moved by the sense of discovery in Camera Lucida, by the glimpse of a return to a lost world * New Society *Of all his works it is the most accessible in language and the most revealing about the author. And effortlessly, as if in passing, his reflections on photography raise questions and doubts which will permanently affect the vision of the reader * Guardian *

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Book SynopsisThis short treatise looks at how we construct a social reality from our sense impressions; at how, for example, we construct a five-pound note with all that implies in terms of value and social meaning, from the printed piece of paper we see and touch.Table of ContentsThe building blocks of social reality; creating institutional facts; language and social reality; the general theory of institutional facts part I - iteration, interaction, and logical structure; the general theory of institutional facts part II - creation, maintenance, and the hierarchy; background abilities and the explanation of social phenomena; does the real world exist? part I - attacks on realism; does the real world exist? part II - could there be a proof of external realism?; truth and correspondence.

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Book SynopsisThe zany, the cute, and the interesting saturate postmodern culture, dominating the look of its art and commodities as well as our ways of speaking about the ambivalent feelings these objects often inspire. In this study Ngai offers an aesthetic theory for the hypercommodified, mass-mediated, performance-driven world of late capitalism.Trade ReviewSianne Ngai has written an important book which harks back to the heyday of the leftist literary theory of the 1980s, and is none the worse for that. Dense and demanding, occasionally meandering, [it is] equally at home with I Love Lucy and conceptual art, Theodor Adorno and Jim Carrey… Laudable and ambitious… In order for art to fulfill its role and for criticism to survive, ‘aesthetic theory’ needs to develop new and powerful concepts which reflect both art’s changing nature and its ubiquity. This challenging and important book takes the first steps in this task. -- Robert Eaglestone * Times Literary Supplement *It’s the type of book that contains ideas that are broadly provocative, even for the ‘merely interested.’ It is one of the most useful guides to the present I’ve read in a while, almost despite itself. It offers a way of thinking about so many forms of present-day self-expression, from the prevalence of first-person writing on the Internet to the ‘Like/Share’-this cheer of social networks. It helps explain a certain style of art (Tao Lin, for example) that advances on muted, subdued, contingent feelings. -- Hua Hsu * Slate *[Ngai’s] wide-ranging, synthetic approach is exactly the kind of criticism our ever-accreting culture deserves, and maybe even the criticism we need. By indexing the kinds of feeling-based judgments we make in our daily lives, Ngai opens up questions about how emotions can act in social contexts more generally, how our private experiences might shape our political and economic discourses. -- Rebecca Ariel Porte * Los Angeles Review of Books *Ngai argues that traditional aesthetic concepts of the beautiful and the sublime are inadequate in our post modern hyper-commodifed culture. She’s really on to something. -- David Collard * Times Literary Supplement *A book of immense interest. -- Benjamin Lytal * Daily Beast *Ngai argues that three aesthetic categories usually considered of minor importance are crucial to understanding contemporary culture. The categories in question, the zany, the cute, and the interesting, ‘are best suited for grasping how aesthetic experience has been transformed by the hypercommodified, information-saturated, performance-driven conditions of late capitalism.’ In defense of this thesis, Ngai deploys a formidable grasp of the aesthetic theories of Schlegel, Nietzsche, Adorno, and Cavell, among many others. Her knowledge of more recent pop culture is equally wide ranging: readers will especially find illuminating her discussion of the zany Lucille Ball. Ngai aims to show how production, circulation, and consumption in contemporary capitalism are mirrored in the cultural world. She argues that the importance of the three marginal categories requires a revision of classical aesthetics. We need not abandon the beautiful and the sublime, but we need to give attention as well to what best enables us to understand today’s culture, thus lessening the gap between aesthetic theory and practice… Highly recommended for an academic audience interested in cultural and aesthetic theory. -- David Gordon * Library Journal *Sianne Ngai gives us once again a radiantly idiosyncratic study of that which we never thought to examine and that which we now understand to be crucial to our daily experience as social beings. Under Ngai’s quick eye and deft hand, the zany, the cute, and the merely interesting reveal their pertinence for the history and historicity of aesthetic development, the intimacy between quotidian materiality and philosophic inquiry, and the collisions among modernity, art, labor, and performing bodies. -- Anne A. Cheng, author of Second SkinSianne Ngai’s new book is a major work of aesthetic theory: challenging a beauty-based aesthetics, closing the gap between aesthetic theory and artistic practice, and offering irreverent categories that work across disciplines and periods to make better sense of our cultural experience. Our Aesthetic Categories takes up the mantle of Adorno’s Aesthetic Theory, and here Ngai becomes the leading cultural critic of our day. -- Jonathan Culler, Cornell UniversityThis wonderfully original book (I hesitate to call it ‘cute, zany, and interesting,’ but that wouldn’t be wrong) invents fresh and incisive new categories for that tired old study called aesthetics. Maybe such categories could even transform the field itself, but they certainly transform the way we look at contemporary literature and culture (which Sianne Ngai knows with startling extensiveness), and maybe they will also end up transforming our outlook on the art of the past as well. Our Aesthetic Categories is in any case one of the most exciting new theoretical books to come along in some time. -- Fredric Jameson, Duke UniversityWith unparalleled originality, ambition, and insight, Sianne Ngai reimagines aesthetic theory for our time. Building on her work in Ugly Feelings, Ngai insists on the significance of minor, ordinary aesthetic experience. Our Aesthetic Categories displaces the centrality of beauty in aesthetics and illuminates the social processes at work in ubiquitous and taken-for-granted acts of judgment. This book will make you feel the present differently. -- Heather Love, University of Pennsylvania

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Book SynopsisBasic semiotic theories are taught in most art schools as part of a contextual studies program, but many students find it difficult to understand how these ideas might impact on their own practice. Visible Signs tackles this problem by introducing key theories and concepts, such as signs and signifiers, and language and speech, within the framework of visual communication. Each chapter provides an overview of a particular facet of semiotic theory, with inspiring examples from graphic design, typography, illustration, advertising and art to illustrate the ideas discussed in the text. Creative exercises at the end of the book will help exemplify these ideas through practical application. The fourth edition of Visible Signs includes new imagery and updated exercises, as well as coverage of propaganda, diversity in neutral' communication (like emojis), and issues related to social media representation.Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1: Components. What is Theory?; Agreement; Portfolio; Exercises. Chapter 2: How Meaning is Formed. Categories of Sign; Value; Portfolio; Exercises. Chapter 3: Reading the Sign: The Reader; Convention and Motivation; Portfolio; Exercises. Chapter 4: Text and Image: Digital and Analogue Codes; Advertising Writing; Portfolio; Exercises. Chapter 5: Official and Unofficial Language: Habitus; The Production of Legitimate Language; The Competition for Cultural Legitimacy; Unofficial Language; Portfolio; Exercises. Chapter 6: Politics of Semiotics: fake news, propaganda, diversity in ‘neutral’ communication (like emojis); Portfolio; Exercises. Chapter 7: Junk and Culture: Dirt and Taboo; Rubbish Theory; Rubbish as a Resource; Portfolio; Exercises. Chapter 8: Open Work: Information and Meaning; Openness and the Visual Arts; Openness and Information; Form and Openness; Portfolio; Exercises. Glossary Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisLanguage is on display all around us, all the time, and the study of this linguistic landscape is one of the fastest-growing areas of research in applied linguistics. This book provides an overview of how the field of Linguistic Landscape Studies has emerged and developed over the past 20 years, combined with an in-depth exploration of the theoretical approaches, innovative research methods and major themes that have been central to this dynamic area of research. Written by two authors who have been involved in the field from its inception, the book features summaries of studies from around the world, a discussion of the future of the field, and an analysis of the impact of linguistic landscape research on language policy, language learning and teaching, and minority language revitalization. It will be an invaluable companion for students and researchers in Linguistic Landscape Studies, as well as to those working in related areas. The book is open access under a CC BY NC ND licence.Trade ReviewThis much-needed book explores past and present trends in the field of Linguistic Landscape Studies. The reader enters the archaeology of the field and then ventures back into the future. On the way, there is room to get to know the controversies, the dilemmas, the emerging themes, and the secret life of which the emergence and evolution of a research field is made. A book that reads like a novel. * Sílvia Melo-Pfeifer, University of Hamburg, Germany *The book successfully achieves its goal of offering readers a panoramic experience of this rich and evolving field. Whether you are a seasoned researcher or simply curious about the linguistic landscapes that surround us, this book will leave you with a newfound appreciation for the intricate tapestry of languages in our everyday environment. * Selim Ben-Said, National Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan *Durk Gorter and Jasone Cenoz have created a masterful text that captures the wealth of their knowledge of linguistic landscapes. They have presented a carefully considered and critical overview of the field, including its origins, theoretical approaches, methods and diverse applications. A must-read for all researchers and students of linguistic landscapes. * Corinne A. Seals, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand *...this weighty tome provides an incredible overview into the field and succeeds in being both macro and micro at the same time, zooming in and out at opportune moments. Most impressive is its inclusion and consideration of a great number of LL studies, no doubt in part aided by a lovingly maintained bibliography of LL research [...] It is certainly an invaluable resource to both current and new researchers in the field, providing inspiration for future research as well as methodological development * Andre Joseph Theng, The University of Edinburgh, UK, Language in Society *Table of ContentsFigures Preface Chapter 1. Introduction: Captivating Studies of Language in Public Spaces Chapter 2. History: Early Stages of an Emerging Field Chapter 3. Theoretical Approaches: A Range of Perspectives Chapter 4. Research Methods: Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches Chapter 5. Photography and Other Distinctive Research Methods Chapter 6. Multilingualism is All Around Us Chapter 7. The Visibility of Minority Languages Chapter 8. The Influence of Language Policies Chapter 9. English Can Be Seen Everywhere Chapter 10. Educational Contexts Chapter 11. What's in the Names? Chapter 12. Expanding the Field of View References Index

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Book SynopsisThis remarkable and wide-ranging book is an inventory of symbols and the symbolic imagination. The editors and their fifteen contributors are drawn from a variety of scholarly backgrounds—including anthropology, ethnology, psychotherapy and art history. This diversity of approach is responsible for the book's unique character, a reflection of the multiplicity of symbols and signs and the phenomenal range of possible interpretations they offer. This book draws together folklore, literary and artistic sources, and focuses on the symbolic dimension of every colour, number, sound, gesture, expression or character trait that has benefitted from symbolic interpretation. The conscious and unconscious minds are explored, desire and dreams are treated alongside the known and the chronicled. Extraordinary in its range and eclecticism, this dictionary was originally published in French as the Dictionnaire des Symboles, and it is regarded as the standard work on the subject.

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Book SynopsisBased on the BBC television series, John Berger''s Ways of Seeing is a unique look at the way we view art, published as part of the Penguin on Design series in Penguin Modern Classics.''Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak.''''But there is also another sense in which seeing comes before words. It is seeing which establishes our place in the surrounding world; we explain that world with words, but word can never undo the fact that we are surrounded by it. The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled.'' John Berger''s Ways of Seeing is one of the most stimulating and influential books on art in any language. First published in 1972, it was based on the BBC television series about which the Sunday Times critic commented: ''This is an eye-opener in more ways than one: by concentrating on how we look at paintings . . . he will almost certainly change the way you look at pictures.'' By now he has.John Berger (b. 1926) is an art critic, painter and novelist.born in Hackney, London. His novel G. (1972) won both the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Booker Prize. If you enjoyed Ways of Seeing, you might like Susan Sontag''s On Photography, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.''Berger has the ability to cut right through the mystification of professional art critics ... he is a liberator of images: and once we have allowed the paintings to work on us directly, we are in a much better position to make a meaningful evaluation''Peter Fuller, Arts Review''The influence of the series and the book ... was enormous ... It opened up for general attention areas of cultural study that are now commonplace''Geoff Dyer in Ways of Telling''One of the most influential intellectuals of our time''Observer

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Book SynopsisThis acclaimed short study, originally published in 1983, and now thoroughly updated, elucidates the varied theoretical contributions of Roland Barthes (1915-80), the ''incomparable enlivener of the literary mind'' whose lifelong fascination was with the way people make their world intelligible. He has a multi-faceted claim to fame: to some he is the structuralist who outlined a ''science of literature'', and the most prominent promoter of semiology; to others he stands not for science but pleasure, espousing a theory of literature which gives the reader a creative role. This book describes the many projects, which Barthes explored and which helped to change the way we think about a range of cultural phenomena - from literature, fashion, wrestling, and advertising to notions of the self, of history, and of nature. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Trade ReviewReview from other book by this author It is impossible to imagine a clearer treatment of the subject, or one that is, within the given limits of length, more comprehensive. Culler has always been remarkable for his expository skills, and here he has found exactly the right method and tone for his purposes. * Sir Frank Kermode *Table of ContentsPreface ; 1. Man of parts ; 2. Literary Historian ; 3. Mythologist ; 4. Critic ; 5. Polemicist ; 6. Semiologist ; 7. Structuralist ; 8. Hedonist ; 9. Writer ; 10. Man of Letters ; 11. Barthes after Barthes ; Bibliography

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Book SynopsisEveryday consumers buy into the concept of brands and their associated meanings - the perception of quality, a symbolic relationship, a vicarious experience, or even a sense of identity. Marketing Semiotics suggests that the extent to which consumers recognize, internalize, and relate to brand meanings is not only an academic question. These meanings contribute to ''brand equity'', the financial value of intangible brand benefits that exceed the use value of goods, and impacts upon a firm''s financial performance. Therefore, the management of brand equity demands first and foremost the management of brand meanings, or semiotics.The book uses structural semiotics, a discipline that extends the laws of structural linguistics to the analysis of verbal, visual, and spatial sign systems, to shed light on the cultural codes and discourse of brands. It proposes that semiotic research should form the cornerstone of brand equity management, since brands rely so heavily on sign systems that conTrade ReviewThe world of marketing and consumerism has undergone a radical change in the last few decades-the brands that are put out there are perceived to be much more than products. They have morphed into signs, veritable symbols of who we are, what we aspire to be, and how we intend to attain our life goals. This is a radical change, since these signifying processes were in the domain of social institutions and ideologies. Advertising and marketing have become the new beacons in how we search for meaning. Oswald's book is a brilliant examination of how brands have evolved into meaning making structures. She deconstructs the process insightfully offering us a comprehensive purview of what a branded society is all about. This is required reading for everyone, from students in marketing and culture studies to the general public. It offers a cogent perspective on how brands and social processes are now intrinsically intertwined. * Marcel Danesi, Professor of Anthropology, University of Toronto *In books on the application of semiotics to marketing, there is probably a 'binary distinction' between those that are written for academics, emphasizing literature and theory, and those written for practitioners, stressing examples and cases. Laura Oswald's text carves out a new portion of this space, drawing rigorously on well-accepted principles and frameworks, and then showing their value in understanding and resolving real-world branding and advertising challenges. Anchoring strongly on her deep knowledge of the literature on meaning production and symbolic consumption, Oswald applies this to several real branding case studies from a variety of industries and cultures. I intend to use many of these principles and case studies in my branding classes: there is clearly much that marketing professionals can learn from them. * Rajeev Batra, S.S. Kresge Professor of Marketing, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan *Oswald has crafted a theoretically cogent and empirically rich account of the making of meaning in the marketplace that is accessible to academics and practitioners alike. Anyone concerned with the cultural construction of value will benefit from her many and varied analyses of the contemporary brandscape. She delivers a sensitive interpretation of the mythologies that underlie contemporary commerce. The book will prove as useful in the boardroom as in the classroom. * John F. Sherry, Jr., Herrick Professor and Department Chair, Mendoza College, University of Notre Dame. *A breath of fresh air to the confining functional benefit brand view. Its in-depth discussion of how brands provide meaning to customer lives expands our understanding of brands and their roles. * David Aaker, Vice-Chairman, Prophet, and author of Brand Relevance. *Table of ContentsIntroduction ; 1. Semiotics in the World of Goods ; 2. Marketing Semiotics ; 3. Mining the Consumer Brandscape ; 4. Brand Discourse ; 5. Mining the Multicultural Brandscape ; 6. The Semiotics of Consumer Space

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Book SynopsisIn this book, pre-eminent semiotician Arthur Asa Berger decodes the meanings of common objects of consumption and their perceived 'sacredness' in consumerist cultures. Using semiotic theory, consumer culture is dissected in new and fascinating ways.Trade Review"This seductively simple yet erudite introduction to semiotics examines the psychological, religious, and cultural roots of consumer culture and the objects individuals buy and brand themselves with...Rich food for thought and intellectual engagement." - CHOICE "Books with true insight into consumer motivations are exceedingly rare. Arthur Berger's The Objects of Affection is one such book. From neckties to shampoo, he outlines with great precision the associations that drive desire across a broad swathe of product categories. Even more fundamentally, he weaves in the importance of cultural truths, evolving yet enduring insights into an individual's relationship with his society, that too many marketers ignore in their quest for global mass appeal. Berger's book, erudite and witty, is a rallying cry to embrace consumers' deeper motivations as the key to enduring profit and resonance in consumers' lives." - Tom Doctoroff, Greater China CEO for JWT and author of Billions: Selling to the NewChinese Consumer "Berger writes with wit . . . his account of semiotics and consumer culture is clear, concise, and enjoyable." - Eileen Meehan, Professor of Radio and Television Studies, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale "Berger s scholarly yet impish wit shines through in this brilliant adventure into the exotica of the everyday, a book brimming with astonishing insights into the imaginary souls of the stuff around us. Watch out for that innocent-looking toaster over there - he may be signifying something!" - Greg Rowland, founder of Greg Rowland SemioticsTable of ContentsPART I: SEMIOTIC THEORY Theories of Consumer Cultures Marketing Theory and Semiotics PART II: SEMIOTIC APPLICATIONS Brands and Identity: We are our Brands The Objects of our Affection: Selected Case Studies Appendix: Learning Games and Activities

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Book SynopsisThis book focuses on strategies and procedures for assessing the academic language ability of students entering an English-medium university, so that those with significant needs can have access to opportunities to enhance their language skills.Trade Review“Assessing English proficiency for university study focuses on post-entry English language assessment (PELA) for students in higher education. … this book would be suitable for a range of readers including EAP teachers, test developers, policy advisors and others involved in PELAs. … Read’s book can be fully utilized by all of those involved in post-entry language assessment.” (Naoki Ikeda, Papers in Language Testing and Assessment, Vol. 6 (1), 2017)“The central topic of this book is the assessment of English language proficiency and academic literacy needs of students to enable them to cope with the demands of study at university. … This book is highly recommended. It will be an essential go-to resource not only for those with an interest in PELAs, but also for those with a broader interest in English language assessment issues.” (New Zealand Studies in Applied Linguistics (NZSAL), Vol. 22 (1), 2016)Table of Contents1. The Context: Students in English-medium Universities 2. Post-entry Language Assessments in Australia 3. The DELNA Programme at the University of Auckland 4. Post-entry Assessments in Other Countries 5. The Case for Introducing a Post-entry Assessment 6. Defining and Assessing Academic Language Proficiency 7. Defining and Assessing Academic Literacy 8. A Diagnostic Perspective on Post-entry Assessment 9. The Design of Academic English Assessments 10. The Validation of a Post-entry Assessment Postscript

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Trade Review"This is the most comprehensive collection of serious scholarly studies on Cassirer’s thought since the Library of Living Philosophers released its collection over fifty years ago. This collection rivals that one in scope and depth, and has the added benefit of historical distance."—Randall E. Auxier, Southern Illinois University; Editor, Library of Living Philosophers

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Book SynopsisWedge's central argument, presented clearly and illustrated in engaging cases, is that all experience, even the experience of one's own self, is a construction of signs. Symbolic forms such as language, myth, ritual, and drama create and shape our realities and provide useful tools for encouraging therapeutic change.

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Book SynopsisWe all have had the experience of being divided, of being in two minds'' about something - one part of us wants to do this, another wants to do that. Subpersonalities is the first book to do justice to the phenomenon as a normal feature of our psychological life. John Rowan argues that we all have a number of personalities that express themselves in different situations and that by recognising them we can come to understand ourselves better and improve our relationships with others. Anyone reading this book will run the risk of making quite new discoveries about themselves. In looking at where subpersonalities come from, John Rowan explores the work of psychologists and psychotherapists, from Jung and Freud onwards, and adds insights gained from his own work as a therapist and counsellor. He relates the journey of discovery that he himself undertook in search of his own subpersonalities. The result is a fascinating book that challenges our accepted view of ourselves and proTable of ContentsIntroduction; Part 1 What are Subpersonalities?; Chapter 1 Setting the Scene; Chapter 2 Subpersonalities in Everyday Life; Chapter 3 Beginning to Investigate; Part 2 Functions and Uses of Subpersonalities; Chapter 4 Subpersonalities in Psychotherapy; Chapter 5 Subpersonalities in Psychotherapy; Chapter 6 Subpersonalities in Psychotherapy; Part 3 The Explanations; Chapter 7 Development of Subpersonalities; Chapter 8 Other Origins of Subpersonalities; Chapter 9 Academic Research and Subpersonalities; Chapter 10 Objections to Subpersonalities and Some Replies; Part 4 The Potential; Chapter 11 Whither Subpersonalities?; Chapter 12 Beyond the Subpersonalities;

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Book SynopsisThis highly illustrated text develops the first systematic analysis of the ways we interpret language as it is materially placed in the world. This is essential reading for anyone with an interest in language and the way we communicate.Trade Review'This is an important and highly original book which is likely to initiate a whole new approach to teaching and researching language in social life.' – BAAL Book Prize Panel'Discourses in Place is a pioneering study that establishes the field of geosemiotics.' – Linguist List'This is a useful book for the study of semiotics, human geography and cultural anthropology ... Written in a reader-friendly style, gurus, undergraduates and laypeople will find it accessible and informative.' – Discourse StudiesTable of Contents1: Geosemiotics 2: Indexicality 3: The Interaction Order 4: Visual Semiotics 5: Interlude on Geosemiotics 6: Place Semiotics: Code Preference 7: Place Semiotics: Inscription 8: Place Semiotics: Emplacement 9: Place Semiotics: Discourse in Time and Space 10: Indexicality, Dialogicality, and Selection in Action Glossary References

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Book SynopsisWith vast erudition, Foucault cuts across disciplines and reaches back into seventeenth century to show how classical systems of knowledge, which linked all of nature within a great chain of being and analogies between the stars in the heavens and the features in a human face, gave way to the modern sciences of biology, philology, and political economy. The result is nothing less than an archaeology of the sciences that unearths old patterns of meaning and reveals the shocking arbitrariness of our received truths.In the work that established him as the most important French thinker since Sartre, Michel Foucault offers startling evidence that man—man as a subject of scientific knowledge—is at best a recent invention, the result of a fundamental mutation in our culture.

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Book SynopsisExplains the systemic dynamics and myriad consequences of globalization, focusing on the interplay between globalizing market forces and the needs of society. This book presents a multilevel analysis of globalization, connecting the economic to the political and cultural, and interrelating different local, regional, and global arenas.Trade Review"The author does a great job of explaining the systemic dynamics of globalization, the myriad consequences, and varied responses... Recommended for general readers."--Choice "A book in which a leading thinker on its subject draws together more than a decade of work warrants special attention. In this volume Jim Mittelman updates, extends and consolidates his broad-ranging and widely respected critical analysis of globalization."--Jan Aart Scholte, International Affairs "... distinguished from the overwhelming majority of recent writings on the subject by its sensitivity ... thoughtful and subtle."--John Gray, Times Literary Supplement "Provides important insights into how global market forces may be influenced by, and as a consequence, imbedded in society."--George E. Shambaugh, Political Science Quarterly "I strongly recommend this book to both specialists and general readers interested in contemporary social problems, especially in the areas of work, organization, and markets and of politics and of politics, social movements, and the state. It is highly readable and jargon-free and yet has a depth of scholarship that is impressive."--Peter Dicken, Contemporary SociologyTable of ContentsList of Tables ix Preface and Acknowledgments xi List of Abbreviations xv Introduction 3 Chapter 1 The Dynamics of Globalization 15 PART 1: THE GLOBAL DIVISION OF LABOR AND POWER 31 Chapter 2 Rethinking the International Division of Labor 33 Chapter 3 Globalization and Migration 58 Chapter 4 Global Poverty and Gender (Coauthored with Ashwini Tambe) 74 Chapter 5 Marginalization: Opening the Market in Mozambique 90 PART II: REGIONALISM AND GLOBALIZATION 109 Chapter 6 The "New Regionalism" 111 Chapter 7 Global Hegemony and Regionalism (Coauthored with Richard Falk) 131 Chapter 8 Subregional Responses to Globalization 147 PART III: RESISTANCE TO GLOBALIZATION 163 Chapter 9 Conceptualizing Res'stance to Globalization (Coauthored with Christine B. N. Chin) 165 Chapter 10 Environmental Resistance Politics 179 Chapter 11 Global Organized Crime (Coauthorized with Robert Johnston) 203 Chapter 12 Conclusion:Contents and Discontents 223 Appendix: Interview Questionnaire 251 References 253 Index 277

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Book SynopsisCritics and defenders of multinational corporations agree that the activities of multinationals are creating a global market that is rendering national borders obsolete. This book argues that such expectations rest on a myth. It explores the relationship between corporate behavior and national institutions and cultures.Trade Review"When it comes to corporate behavior, the authors show convincingly that nationality is destiny. This is a timely and brave book."--Bruce Kogut, Harvard Business Review "This book provides excellent background reading for anyone interested in multinational corporate finance and investments."--Library Journal "This work is concisely yet lucidly presented... Recommended for all those interested in the global economy."--ChoiceTable of ContentsLIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES ix PREFACE xi CHAPTER 1 National Firms in Global Commerce 3 The Appearance of Convergence 4 Innovation and the State 6 Domestic Structures, Multinational Corporate Strategies 7 Overview of the Book 10 CHAPTER 2 States and Firms: Conventional Images, Complex Realities 11 The Nature of MNCs 11 Global-Local Politics 14 The Policy Context 18 CHAPTER 3 National Foundations of Multinational Corporate Activity (I) 22 Corporate Governance and Finance 22 Comparative Analysis of the United States, Germany and Japan, 24 CHAPTER 4 National Foundations of Multinational Corporate Activity (II) 59 Innovation Systems 60 Investment Systems 74 Structural Context and Multinational Corporate Behavior 83 CHAPTER 5 The Strategic Behavior of MNCs 84 Technology and Commerce 84 Direct Investment and Intrafirm Trade 115 Interaction of Corporate Investment, Trade, and Innovation 133 CHAPTER 6 Corporate Diversity and Public Policy 138 Globalization at Bay 138 The Politics of Deepening Economic Integration 142 Public Policy and Increasing Complexity 144 NOTES 151 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 183 INDEX 189

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Book SynopsisExplores the psychology of love from the legend of Tristan and Isolde to Hollywood. Bringing together historical, religious, philosophical, and cultural dimensions, the author traces the evolution of Western romantic love from its literary beginnings as an awe-inspiring secret to its commercialization in the cinema.Trade Review"De Rougemont's reasoning is often ingenious, always arresting, fascinating in detail."--Time (Magazine)

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Book SynopsisA successor to "The Political Economy of International Relations", the classic statement of the field of international political economy that continues to command the attention of students, researchers, and policymakers. It also stresses the importance of economic regionalism, multinational corporations, and financial upheavals.Trade Review"An extremely well written, lucid, and persuasive analysis of international economic developments and their political implications and results, solidly grounded in history."--Arthur I Cyr, Orbis "[A] scholarly, theoretical framework for examining how markets and the policies of nation-states determine the way the world economy functions."--Booklist "Global Political Economy promises to be another classic and a much-consulted addition to academic library bookshelves."--Choice "Robert Gilpin has written an important book... Although he eschews polemics and writes in a low-key, analytical style, his forceful points serve as a needed antidote to Thomas Friedman's The Lexus and the Olive Tree and other facile works about the subject."--Christopher Layne, The Atlantic Monthly "In this magisterial study Gilpin... shows he is second to none in his capacity to integrate political with economic analysis, and illuminate our understanding of the world political economy with historical and theoretical insights, devoid of the jargon that characterizes much contemporary IPE literature... Gilpin's is an authoritative, but modest voice of common sense."--Martin Rhodes, International Journal of Financial Economics "Global Political Economy is an excellent book. It represents a major and successful updating of The Political Economy of International Relations. Any person interested in international political economy can profit from reading it."--Jeffrey Hart, Journal of PoliticsTable of ContentsList of Abbreviations and Acronyms ix Preface xi ONE. The New Global Economic Order 3 Changes in the World Economy 5 Intellectual Perspectives 13 My Perspective: State-centric Realism 15 Purpose of Economic Activity 23 Conclusion 24 TWO. The Nature of Political Economy 25 What You Seek Is What You Find 31 The Nature of an Economy 38 Embeddedness of the Economy 41 Conclusion 45 THREE. The Neoclassical Conception of the Economy 46 The Discipline of Neoclassical Economics 46 Nature of a Market 54 Method of Comparative Statics 57 Intellectual Limitations 60 Economists and Public Policy 69 Comparison of Economics and Political Economy 74 Conclusion 76 FOUR. The Study of International Political Economy 77 Distribution of Wealth and Economic Activities 78 National Autonomy 80 The Politics of International Regimes 82 Theory of Hegemonic Stability 93 Governance of the Global Economy 97 Conclusion 102 FIVE. New Economic Theories 103 Change and Neoclassical Economics 104 World View of the New Theories 106 The New Theories 108 Conclusion 127 SIX. The Political Significance of the New Economic Theories 129 National Governments and Domestic Economies 129 Oligopoly and Power in Economic Outcomes 132 Technological Innovation 135 Convergent and Divergent Economic Growth 141 Conclusion 147 SEVEN. National Systems of Political Economy 148 Differences among National Economies 149 The American System of Market-Oriented Capitalism 150 The Japanese System of Developmental Capitalism 156 The German System of "Social Market" Capitalism 168 Significance of National Differences 174 Is One System Superior to the Others? 175 Do Nations Compete with One Another? 180 Convergence, Harmonization, or Mutual Recognition? 183 Conclusion 195 EIGHT. The Trading System 196 The Debate over Free Trade 198 Trade and the Economy 202 Revisions of Conventional Trade Theory 206 Postwar Trade Regime 217 The Uruguay Round and World Trade Organization 221 New Threats to an Open Trading System 224 Conclusion 232 NINE. The International Monetary System 234 The Postwar International Monetary System 235 The End of Fixed Exchange Rates 238 The Financial Revolution and Monetary Affairs 239 Embedded Technical and Political Issues 242 Devising an International Monetary System 248 Reform of International Monetary Affairs 250 Unity or Fragmentation of the Monetary System? 255 Few or Many National Currencies? 258 Conclusion 259 TEN. The International Financial System 261 Partial Globalization of International Finance 261 Nature of Financial Crises 264 The East Asian Financial Crisis 267 Controversy over Regulation of International Finance 271 Conclusion 277 ELEVEN. The State and the Multinationals 278 Explanations of FDI and the MNC 279 The Multinationals and the International Economy 289 Increased Regionalization of Services and Manufacturing 292 Debate over the MNC and the Nation-State 294 An International Regime for FDI and MNCs 300 Do Global Corporations Pose a Threat? 302 Conclusion 304 TWELVE. The State and Economic Development 305 The Rise and Demise of Development Economics 306 Triumph of Neoliberalism 309 The Debt Crisis and Structural Adjustment 313 Theory of the "Developmental State" 316 The East Asian Miracle Project 321 The East Asian Financial/Economic Crisis 329 The Future of the Developmental State 331 The Transitional Economies 333 Conclusion 339 THIRTEEN. The Political Economy of Regional Integration 341 Economic Theories 344 Political Theories 348 An Eclectic Approach 358 Conclusion 361 FOURTEEN. The Nation-State in the Global Economy 362 The Limited Nature of Economic Globalization 364 Alleged Consequences of Economic Globalization 366 Effectiveness of Macroeconomic Policy 369 The Need for a Historical Perspective 375 Conclusion 376 FIFTEEN. Governing the Global Economy 377 Neoliberal Institutionalism 379 The New Medievalism 390 Transgovernmentalism 398 Governance for What? 400 Conclusion 402 Select Bibliography 403 Index 411

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Book SynopsisHave we become beauty-blind? This title not only defends beauty from the political arguments against it but also argues that beauty does indeed press us toward a greater concern for justice. It offers a manifesto for the revival of beauty in our intellectual work as well as our homes, museums, and classrooms.Trade Review"Ms. Scarry's writing is evocative and lively... Her book is a bracing antidote to the glum puritanism of many opponents of beauty, and it makes some insightful observations about how beauty figures in our perceptual, emotional and moral lives."--Colin McGinn, The Wall Street Journal "She begins her defense of aesthetic pleasure with musings on the nature of beauty. Beauty begets, she argues. It constantly provokes copies of itself. That replication is not only in art, for example, but also in perception, as in the desire to continue beholding as long as possible. Beauty's link with truth requires no belief in an immortal realm. 'The beautiful, almost without any effort of our own, acquaints us with the mental event of conviction,' she says. That mental state is so pleasurable 'that ever afterwards one is willing to labor, struggle, wrestle with the world to locate enduring sources of conviction-to locate what is true.' The heightened perception that comes with beauty's life-affirming capacity to awaken us to our world is part of what alerts us to injustice, she writes."--Nina Ayoub, Chronicle of Higher Education Scarry persuades that there is an analogy between the recognition of beautyand the recognition of just or fair social arrangements ... [She]...does not preach and ... her short book [is] light and allusive and gentle and unpolemical [in] style... "--Stuart Hampshire, The New York Review of Books "This short book could change your life... Beauty makes us better, more honest, more judicious, more humble, nicer people. And dare I say, this little book, taken to heart, will do the same."--Tom D'Evelyn, The Providence Sunday Journal "Scarry makes a fascinating case that seeing beauty reminds us of our own marginality, and therefore our equalness to other people. And she very skillfully defies traditional political criticisms of beauty."--Meredith Petrin, Boston Review "Full of striking observations about beauty in and beyond the arts."--Kenneth Baker, San Francisco Chronicle "In the tradition of 19th-century aesthetics, On Beauty and Being Just describes, evokes and manifests the loving attention that beautiful objects provoke... [It] is fresh, eccentric and uncompromising."--Alexander Nehamas, London Review of Books "Any sophisticated reader not mummified beneath protective layers of irony will find this book not only pleasant to hold in the hand, but valuable to hold in the mind."--Paul J. Johnson, Religious Studies ReviewTable of ContentsPART ONE On Beauty and Being Wrong 1 PART TWO On Beauty and Being Fair 55 NOTES 125 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 133

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Book SynopsisCharacterization has been a troubled and neglected problem within literary theory. This book demonstrates that the representation of a character takes place within a shifting field of narrative attention and obscurity. By making the person indispensable to our understanding of literary form, it offers a forward-looking avenue for narrative theory.Trade ReviewWinner of the 2004 Sonya Rudikoff Book Award, Northeast Victorian Studies Association "Character is an unfashionable subject within the current doxa of literary studies, and one of the many strengths of Alex Woloch's study is his unabashed facing of the problem head-on... This book insists on questions that have been skirted or marginalized, but cannot be made to go away."--Rachel Malik, New Left Review "Reading Alex Woloch's The One vs. the Many, I found myself frequently reminded of de Man's drive to 'inscribe the polemics inside the question rather than having them determine it,' a critical gesture Woloch pulls off with a great deal of flair and elegance... The implications of The One vs. the Many for the study of modernism will be profound... [T]here is, after Woloch, fresh work to do."--Eric Hayot, Modernism/Modernity "[The One vs. the Many explains] how the conflict between a character's full personhood and its narrative function is the key cultural reason for characterization and, more specifically, a main source of the realist novel's social significance. In doing so, the book ends a century's critical infighting with a visionary appreciation of the meaning of fictional people."--Jesse Matz, Modern Language QuarterlyTable of ContentsPROLOGUE: The Iliad's Two Wars 1 The Proem 1 When Achilles Disappears: A Reading of Book 2 3 The Death of Lykaon 8 INTRODUCTION: Characterization and Distribution 12 Character-Space: Between Person and Form 12 Characterization and the Antinomies of Theory 14 "They Too Should Have a Case" 21 Two Kinds of Minorness 24 Function and Alienation: The Labor Theory of Character 26 Realism, Democracy, and Inequality 30 Austen, Dickens, Balzac: Character-Space in the Nineteenth-Century Novel 32 The Minor Character: Between Story and Discourse 37 CHAPTER ONE: Narrative Asymmetry in Pride and Prejudice 43 Minor Characters in a Narrative Structure 43 The Double Meaning of Character 50 The One vs. the Many 56 Asymmetry: From Discourse to Story 62 Characterizing Minorness 1: Compression 68 The Space of the Protagonist 1: Elizabeth's Consciousness 77 Characterizing Minorness 2: Externality 82 Helpers: Charlotte Lucas and the Actantial Theory 88 The Space of the Protagonist 2: Elizabeth's Self-Consciousness 97 Wickham: "How He Lived I Know Not" 103 Minor Minor Characters: Representing Multiplicity 116 CHAPTER TWO: Making More of Minor Characters 125 Distorted Characters and the Weak Protagonist 125 Between Jingle and Joe: Asymmetry and Misalignment in The Pickwick Papers 133 Seeing into Sight: Mr. Elton and Uriah Heep 143 Partial Visibility and Incomplete Vision: The Appearance of Minor Characters 149 Repetition and Eccentricity: Minor Characters and the Division of Labor 155 "Monotonous Emphasis": Minorness and Three Kinds of Repetition 167 CHAPTER THREE: Partings Welded Together: The Character-System in Great Expectations 177 Between Two Roaring Worlds: Exteriority and Characterization 177 The Structure of Childhood Experience 188 Interpreting the Character-System: Signification, Position, Structure 194 Metaphor, Metonymy, and Characterization 198 Getting to London 207 Three Narrative Workers and the Dispersion of Labor in Great Expectations 213 Wemmick as Helper (the Functional Minor Character) 214 Magwitch's Return (the Marginal Minor Character) 217 Orlick and Social Multiplicity (the Fragmented Minor Character) 224 The Double: A Narrative Condition? 238 CHAPTER FOUR: A qui la place?: Characterization and Competition in Le Pere Goriot and La Comedie humaine 244 Typification and Multiplicity 244 The Problem: Who Is the Hero? 244 Character, Type, Crowd 246 Balzac's Double Vision 255 The Character-System in Le Pere Goriot 260 La belle loi de soi pour soi 260 Goriot: The Interior as Exterior 265 Rastignac: The Exterior as Interior 267 Between the Exterior and the Interior 272 Interiority and Centrality in Le Pere Goriot and King Lear 282 The Shrapnel of Le Pere Goriot 288 Recurring Characters, Le Pere Goriot, and the Origins of La Comedie humaine 288 The Social Representation of Death: Le Pere Goriot and Le Cousin Pons 295 Cogs in the Machine: Les Poiret between Le Pere Goriot and Les Employees 303 Competition and Character in Les Employees 308 AFTERWORD: Sophocles's Oedipus Rex and the Prehistory of the Protagonist 319 Notes 337 Works Cited 375 Acknowledgments 383 Index 385

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Book SynopsisAnatomizes what's fundamentally at stake when we think of literature in terms of the experience of the reader rather than the intention of the author, and when we substitute the question of who people are for the question of what they believe.Trade Review"Michaels's absorbing new book swims against the critical stream with a brilliance and originality unmatched this side of Slavoj Zizek."--Henry Staten, Modernism/modernity "[This] book is not scholarship, criticism, or theory. It is a brazen call for the return to ideology."--Lindsay Waters, Chronicle of Higher Education "[W]hat makes this book compelling ... is his central thesis: that the apparent diversity of the marketplace of ideas, as in the marketplace of commodities, conceals fundamental uniformity (so many choices in the cereal aisle, so few in the voting booth)."--Robin J. Sowards, The Minnesota ReviewTable of ContentsAcknowledgments vii Introduction: The Blank Page 1 One: Posthistoricism 19 The End of History 19 Political Science Fictions 26 Partez au vert/Go on the green 41 The Shape of the Signifier 51 The End of Theory 66 Two: Prehistoricism 82 rocks 82 and stones 105 and trees 118 Three: Historicism 129 Remembering 129 Reliving 140 Dismembering 149 Forgetting 158 Coda: Empires of the Senseless 169 Notes 183 Index 213

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"How does globalism affect the books we read, and the way we read them? A leading scholar investigates." * New York Times Book Review *"Few scholars active today can claim to have done as much as David Damrosch to shape the discipline of comparative literature in the United States. . . . Damrosch writes with great clarity and care, vividly bringing individual figures and their ideas to life. . . . [He] not only displays the breadth of his own personal canon, but also argues compellingly for the idea that our understanding of a given text is always enhanced by comparing it with other texts, whether or not the pairings are conventional or expected."---Alexander Beecroft, Modern Philology

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Book SynopsisCharts how the cartographies of American literature as an institutional category have varied. Arguing that American literature was consolidated as a distinctively nationalist entity only in the wake of the U S Civil War, this title identifies this formation as extending until the beginning of the Reagan presidency in 1981.Trade ReviewHonorable Mention for the 2012 BAAS Book Prize, British Association of American Studies Shortlisted for the 2012 American Studies Network Prize "In this richly provocative study, Giles posits a protean map of the American imagination."--Choice "Paul Giles can arguably be considered one of the most significant non-host nation scholars of American writing and culture active today and, consequently is among the first rank of academic literary critics in the current moment. His recent The Global Remapping of American Literature simply stands as one of the high water marks for literary criticism in 2011 so far, and, despite Giles' continuing productivity, ought to be recognized as a career-marking bravura work of skilled reorganization of the field of American Studies itself."--Stephen Shapiro, Review of English Studies "The Global Remapping of American Literature was the first work from Paul Giles that I had the opportunity to read--it alone broadened my perspective on the work of the critic within the ever-shifting world of American literary studies."--Guy Risko, Symploke "The Global Remapping of American Literature is, as has come to be expected of the work of Paul Giles, an excellent addition to the field of American studies... Giles writes with the inevitable authority of a scholar whose critical achievements are consolidated by this latest work."--Theresa Saxon, Years Work in English StudiesTable of ContentsList of Illustrations vii Acknowledgments ix Introduction: The Deterritorialization of American Literature 1 Part One: Temporal Latitudes Chapter 1: Augustan American Literature: An Aesthetics of Extravagance 29 Restoration Legacies: Cook and Byrd 29 The Plantation Epic: Magnalia Christi Americana 42 New World Topographies: Wheatley, Dwight, Alsop 55 Chapter 2: Medieval American Literature: Antebellum Narrativesand the "Map of the Infinite" 70 Emerson, Longfellow, and the Longue Duree 70 "Medieval" Mound Builders and the Archaeological Imagination 86 Hawthorne, Melville, and the Question of Genealogy 97 Part Two: The Boundaries of the Nation Chapter 3: The Arcs of Modernism: Geography as Allegory 111 Postbellum Cartographies: William Dean Howells 111 Ethnic Palimpsests, National Standards 120 "Description without Place": Stevens, Stein, and Modernist Geographies 125 Chapter 4: Suburb, Network, Homeland: National Spaceand the Rhetoric of Broadcasting 141 "Voice of America": Roth, Morrison, DeLillo 141 Lost in Space: John Updike 154 The MTV Generation: Wallace and Eggers 161 Part Three: Spatial Longitudes Chapter 5: Hemispheric Parallax: South Americaand the American South 183 Rotating Perspectives: Bartram, Simms, Marti 183 Regionalism and Pseudo-geography: Hurston and Bishop 199 Mississippi Vulgate: Faulkner and Barthelme 212 Chapter 6: Metaregionalism: The Global Pacific Northwest 223 Reversible Coordinates: The Epistemology of Space 223 Orient and Orientation: Snyder, Le Guin, Brautigan 232 Virtual Canadas: Gibson and Coupland 242 Conclusion: American Literature and theQuestion of Circumference 255 Works Cited 269 Index 305

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Book SynopsisThe Law Is a White Dog tackles key societal questions: How does the law construct our identities? How do its rules and sanctions make or unmake persons? And how do the supposedly rational claims of the law define marginal entities?Trade ReviewOne of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2011: Top 25 Books "The Law is a White Dog is both philosophically breathtaking and politically relevant. Dayan's disrobing of personhood is not simply an exposure of injustice, but an argument. She beckons us to a conception of the law that considers emotion and ethics as relevant as reason."--Imani Perry, American Literary History "[A] breath-taking tour through legal and cultural contexts richly and passionately portrayed... Dayan aspires to do more than debunk the 'rationality' of law; she cries out against the injustice and violence that law's word-twisting makes both possible and invisible. Her descriptions and account of civil death, force-feeding, mind-killing solitary confinement, and slavery and its inheritors, should be required reading."--Linda Ross Meyer, Law, Culture and Humanities "Dayan succeeds mightily in her dismal project. The tale is told via death-row chain gangs, cell-extraction with dogs, rape by 'correctional officers', a rare first-hand report on the horrors of supermax prisons, and much else besides: the entombment of the living that made an end to the death penalty possible--but only because a fate worse than death had been found... The book is defined by three extraordinary strengths. First, its moral force is as direct as that of Charles Dickens, emile Zola or Henry Mayhew. Its controlled anger reminded me of No Logo, Naomi Klein's great critique of international capitalism. Second, I have never read a better use made of case law: Dayan knows the importance of legal decisions but is not bound by them, and is always aware that their hinterland matters much more than their formal prose... Third and best, the book takes the margins and makes them central...these features help to make it a triumph of style as well as of substance."--Conor Gearty, Times Higher Education "Interdisciplinary scholar Colin Dayan's most recent book, The Law Is a White Dog: How Legal Rituals Make and Unmake Persons, presents a postmodern blend of anthropology, social critique, and legal history that deconstructs the Enlightenment rationality generally associated with law. Dayan examines some of the ways in which the mechanisms of our legal system perpetuate 'violence and oppression' (p. xvii) alongside progress and modernity. Going beyond traditional histories and examinations of the law, her book explores how larger socio-legal processes, like marginalization, the creation of social outcasts, and the justification of brutal penal practices, shape our present-day society. Dayan, who serves simultaneously as anthropologist, social critic, and poet, depicts the darker side of American society and the often repressive character of our law... Written by an author well known for previous interdisciplinary work in cultural studies and law, this book is a must-have for both general academic libraries and academic law libraries. The writing is crisp, and the way in which Dayan assembles a wide array of topics that are rarely grouped together is thought-provoking and engaging. The book addresses important social questions and reveals the subtle ways that idiosyncratic legal reasoning works to rationalize harsh social processes. Dayan's deconstruction highlights the law as a key mechanism for social control, rather than a narrow area of professional discourse or an administrative or procedural system that touches only a small segment of society. Ultimately, The Law Is a White Dog will prove valuable for anyone who seeks a comprehensive, critical understanding of our society and the role played in it by the law."--Law Library Journal "[T]his work by Dayan is one of the most valuable contemporary books on law and society to come out in quite some time... The Law is a White Dog is an innovative, highly intellectual book."--Choice "A cumulative masterpiece of probing, relevant erudition... More concerned with conceptual structures than local specifics, Dayan breaks rich new critical ground on the well-trodden path from plantation to prison. [A] stunningly insightful yet painstaking inquiry into the very real effects of the ongoing legal and cultural project of defining the boundaries of personhood."--American Literature "Colin Dayan has written a challenging and ambitious book... Its interest for social and political philosophers and philosophers of law will be primarily its engagement with the question of how personhood is defined and materially shaped via the practice of law... The Law is a White Dog offers much, perhaps at exactly the points it frustrates expectation. It would be appropriately read in upper-level undergraduate classes, particularly in philosophy of law, social and political philosophy, and animal studies."--Alexis Shotwell, Philosophy in Review "Colin Dayan's The Law is a White Dog is the most imaginative and passionate (mainly about prison conditions in the US) that I have come across for a long while."--Conor Gearty, LSE Review of Books "Law is the major character in this philosophical narrative. Analyzing how the law sometimes alters and disfigures human persons ... reducing people to bare human materials, biologically alive but legally dead. Dayan summons a remarkable range of philosophical tales, including Voodoo, Greek tragedy, medieval law, Human Rights Watch reports, magic, and medicine. But eclectic as this selection is, these discourses tell a rigorous story about how humans are turned into non-humans, how animals become humans, how things are endowed with intention."--Branka Arsic, Leviathan "The Law is a White Dog is a vivid exploration of literature, history, and law. It asks hard yet stimulating questions about the systemically entrenched racial, colonial, and ideological inequalities of the Anglo-American legal system. As a text concerned with the role of law in the (un)making of legal identity, this book makes a very valuable contribution to the field of socio-legal studies as it forces one to think about the violence of law and to trouble the assumptions made about the rule of law in modern liberal democratic societies... As a present-day political project, this effort identifies the everyday consequences of remaining silent to systemic injustices."--Socialist Studies/Etudes socialistes "This provocative and rigorous analysis makes a significant contribution both to legal scholarship and contemporary discussions about criminalization, national security and racism... An innovative engagement with a range of legal areas and eras, Dayan's work helps us trace the role legal reasoning has played in producing a slave society, and a prison society, in which structures of racial violence appear inevitable, justifiable, rational and natural."--Journal of Legal Studies "Colin Dayan's The Law is a White Dog is a tour de force of interdisciplinary legal scholarship... Employing an approach that emphasizes the power of legal rhetoric, the persistence of modes of categorizing entities on the margins, and the magical thinking that conjures and parries otherness when it comes into contact with law, Dayan gives us a history replete with stunningly fresh insights into the transformational violence law inflicts and legitimizes on those it regulates and controls."--Law and Society Review "Dayan's work is engrossing, imaginative, and erudite. It will appeal to wide audiences, including historians, anthropologists, and sociologists of slavery, scholars interested in the history of punishment, and academics and activists concerned with both human and animal rights."--Mindie Lazarus-Black, New West Indian GuideTable of ContentsPreface xi Chapter 1: Holy Dogs, Hecuba's Bark 1 Chapter 2: Civil Death 39 Chapter 3: Punishing the Residue 71 Chapter 4: Taxonomies 113 Chapter 5: A Legal Ethnography 138 Chapter 6: Who Gets to Be Wanton? 177 Chapter 7: Skin of the Dog 209 Acknowledgments 253 Notes 259 Bibliography 303 Index 325

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Book Synopsis"This study focuses on the role of the philosophical novel--a genre that favors abstract concepts, or 'thinking about thinking,' over style, plot, or character development--and the role of philosophy more broadly in the intellectual life of the African continent"Trade Review"Jackson raises essential questions for a field yet to appreciate fully the extent to which African literature contributes to and problematizes disciplinary debates. . . . The African Novel of Ideas provides excellent navigation across an impressive and conceptually challenging range of material."---Joseph Hankinson, Oxford Comparative Criticism and Translation"The African Novel of Ideas, which draws impressively on literature from all Anglophone regions of sub-Saharan Africa, is an important study not only for those of us who think with African literature but also for those who are invested in a more thoughtful comparative method."---Yuan-Chih (Sreddy) Yen, Research in African Literatures"The African Novel of Ideas gives us a historiographical exposition of how the intellectual landscape of pre- and post-independence Akan literature is determined by a struggle of competing philosophical principles rather than by a clearly delineated dichotomy of colonialist dialectics."---Benjamin Kreitz, Theoria

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"[What] is so wonderful about reading How Literatures Begin is the sense one comes away with, that it is somehow both inevitable and truly miraculous that any of these literatures should have come into being—and just how many more are out there for us readers to discover and explore in-depth."---Jeffrey Zuckerman, World Literature Today

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"[What] is so wonderful about reading How Literatures Begin is the sense one comes away with, that it is somehow both inevitable and truly miraculous that any of these literatures should have come into being—and just how many more are out there for us readers to discover and explore in-depth."---Jeffrey Zuckerman, World Literature Today"Lande and Feeney's ambition for this handsome book is to provide a "global" survey of the origins of literatures. It succeeds in impressionistic, mosaic-like fashion." * Choice Reviews *

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Erudite and provocative."---Oliver Balch, Financial Times ​​​​​​​"A book about climate and storytelling that is not only upbeat but downright jaunty."---Aaron Matz, New York Review of Books"A stirring manifesto, and Puchner’s arguments are impressive. He effectively inspires fresh ways of reading, and climate-minded bookworms, especially, will find plenty to savor." * Publishers Weekly *"This cogent, passionate text argues for a comprehensive reenvisioning of our relationship with the natural world to mitigate the accelerating climate crisis.. . . . [Literature for a Changing Planet is a] challenging, important work of literary criticism [that] stretches our ideas of what it is to be human and where we fit in the natural world." * Foreword Reviews *"Martin Puchner’s Literature for a Changing Planet is an urgent call for rereading the stories that have shaped our world. . . . This text will be most useful to teachers of world literature looking to diversify their reading lists and pedagogical practices. It will be useful to literary critics seeking to newly engage with ecocriticism. And it just might prompt a new generation of writers—and spoken-word artists—to create the works that will move us into health and balance with the small blue marvel that is our species’ only home."---Greg Brown, World Literature Today

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