Search results for ""Author Richard Allen""
Intellect Books Bombay Cinema's Islamicate Histories
Bombay Cinema's Islamicate Histories comprises fourteen essays on the history and influence of cultural Islam on Bombay cinema. These essays are written by major scholars of both South Asian cultural history and Indian cinema working across several continents. Following Marshal Hodgson, the term ‘Islamicate’ is used to describe Muslim cultures in order to distinguish the cultural forms associated with Islam from the religion itself. Such a distinction is especially important to observe in South Asia where, over a thousand-year history, Muslim cultures have commingled with other local religious and cultural traditions to form a rich vein of syncretic aesthetic expression. This volume argues that the influence of Muslim cultures on Bombay cinema can only be grasped against the backdrop of this long history, an argument that informs the shape of the whole. The book is divided into two sections. The first, ‘Islamicate Histories’, charts the historical roots of South Asian Muslim cultures and the precursors of Bombay cinema’s Islamicate idioms in the Urdu Parsi Theatre, the Courtesan cultures of Lucknow, the traditions of miniature painting, poetry, song and their performance, and the various modes of story-telling that derive from Perso-Arabic traditions. The second section, ‘Cinematic Forms’, discusses the way in which these Islamicate histories are partially constitutive of the traditions of representation, performance and story-telling that give Bombay cinema its distinctive character, traditions that have continued into Bollywood. It explores ‘Islamicate’ genres like the ‘Oriental’ film and the ‘Muslim Social’, as well as forms of poetry and performance like the ‘ghazal’ and ‘the qawwali’. Bombay Cinema’s Islamicate Histories is published at a time of acute crisis in the perception and understanding of Islam, where Islamophobia stereotypes Muslims as incipient fifth column and Hindu fundamentalism is ascendant. It demonstrates that Muslim and Hindu cultures in India are inextricably entwined and shows how the syncretic idioms of Islamicate cultural history inform the very identity of Bombay cinema, even as that cinema has also instrumentalized Islamicate idioms to stereotype and even demonise the Muslim, especially in contemporary Bollywood. This book argues that many of the idioms of Bombay cinema that we love are derived from the historical influence of Muslim cultures as they interacted with other traditions in the Indian subcontinent. It traces the emergence of cultures of poetry, dance, song, performance and story-telling out of the thousand-year history of Islam on Indian soil, and describes the ways in which they underlie and inform the expressive forms of Bombay cinema. It is timely to be reminded of the contribution of Muslim cultures to the distinctive and widely recognized popular cinema of India at a historical moment when the cultural influence of Islam on India is being denied by forces which seek to turn the country away from cultural pluralism towards Hindu fundamentalism. Bombay Cinema’s Islamicate Histories features contributions by major scholars of both South Asian cultural history and Indian cinema working across several continents. The audience for this book will be primarily graduate and advanced undergraduate students of film studies. The writing is accessible and lively and individual chapters will be suitable for classroom use. It will be of value in disciplines outside film studies, where the Islamicate tradition in general and its impact on film in particular is taught. It will find an audience in disciplines such as history, cultural studies, women's studies, visual studies and South Asian area studies. It will also be of interest to anyone who wants to know how cinema negotiates the parameters of Muslim identity in response to historical and contemporary events in India.
£37.00
Amberley Publishing Durham Railways at the End of the 20th Century
The last years of the twentieth century saw considerable changes to the railway scene in County Durham, including ECML electrification, the demise of the coal industry and the introduction of modern rolling stock. This book shows how the railway scene in this part of North East England changed during that time. The coverage starts in the late 1980s and continues to the turn of the century and beyond. Richard Allen’s stunning photographs encompass the traditional boundaries of the county, including those parts that subsequently became part of Cleveland and Tyne and Wear.
£15.99
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Birds of Paradise and Bowerbirds
This authoritative handbook, part of the Helm Identification Guide series, looks in detail at the remarkable and diverse birds of paradise – perhaps the ultimate birders' birds. Renowned for their elaborate and dazzling plumages, the birds of paradise (Paradisaeidae) and bowerbirds (Ptilonohynchidae) exhibit some of the most astonishing behaviours in the avian kingdom. The former is the most iconic group of birds found in New Guinea, while the bowerbirds extend into Australia, and are perhaps best known for the males’ construction of avenue bowers, used to tempt females on the forest floor. This comprehensive monograph is dedicated to these two families, combining the product of more than two decades of research and scholarship with original observations by the author and many other knowledgeable contributors. Birds of Paradise and Bowerbirds is the ultimate reference to these two groups. It provides a thorough guide to their identification, taxonomy and ecology, with detailed distribution maps accompanying the text. A series of beautifully illustrated plates by Richard Allen cover all of the 108 recognised taxa in these groups, with these supplemented by more than 200 photographs covering a range of racial and age-related plumage variety. This book is an indispensable addition to the libraries of all birders and ornithologists interested in these sensational birds.
£49.50
Palgrave Macmillan The International Handbook of Public Financial Management
The Handbook is a virtual encyclopedia of public financial management, written by topmost experts, many with a background in the IMF and World Bank. It provides the first comprehensive guide to the subject that has been published in more than ten years. The book is aimed at a broad audience of academics/students, government officials, development agencies and practitioners. It covers both bread-and-butter topics such as the macroeconomic and legal framework for budgeting, budget preparation and execution, procurement, accounting, reporting, audit and oversight, as well as specialist subjects such as government payroll systems, local government finance, fiscal transparency, the management of fiscal risks, sovereign wealth funds, the management of state-owned enterprises, and political economy aspects of budgeting. The book sets out numerous examples and case studies describing good practice in public financial management, and is highly relevant for use in both advanced and developing countries.
£129.99