Author: Barry Yourgrau File Type: epub Hilarious and poignant, a glimpse into the mind of someone who is both a sufferer from and an investigator of clutter. Millions of Americans struggle with severe clutter and hoarding. New York writer and bohemian Barry Yourgrau is one of them. Behind the door of his Queens apartment, Yourgraus life is, quite literally, chaos. Confronted by his exasperated girlfriend, a globe-trotting food critic, he embarks on a heartfelt, wide-ranging, and too often uproarious projectpart Larry David, part Janet Malcolmto take control of his crammed, disorderly apartment and life, and to explore the wider world of collecting, clutter, and extreme hoarding. Encounters with a professional declutterer, a Lacanian shrink, and Clutterers Anonymousnot to mention Englands most excessive hoarderas well as explorations of the bewildering universe of new therapies and brain science, help Yourgrau navigate uncharted territory clearing shelves, boxes, and bags throwing out a nostalgic cracked pasta bowl and sorting through a lifetime of messy relationships. Mess is the story of one mans efforts to learn to let go, to clean up his space (physical and emotional), and to save his relationship. **

Author: Peter Verdonk File Type: pdf Stylistics, in parallel with similar trends in language studies and literary theory, has widened its scope of investigation from a close reading of texts to considering texts in context. This broadening out has considerably increased the literary critical potential for stylistics. This book makes new insights from linguistic and literary scholarship accessible to students in their daily practice of reading, analyzing and evaluating literary texts. The 12 chapters are written by experts in the field. They provide a firm foundation for the development of language and context-based literary criticism, allowing students to increase their creative responsiveness to the interplay between text and context, and between language and social situation.

Author: William A. Pelz File Type: pdf The origin of capitalism and modern industrialismand, not unrelated, the birthplace of Marxismmodern Europe provided the perfect conditions for a great number of political revolutions. From the monarchical terror of the Middle Ages to the mangled Europe of the twenty-first century, A Peoples History of Modern Europe tracks the history of the continent through the deeds of those whom mainstream history tries to forget. Along the way, William A. Pelz examines the German peasant wars of Thomas Muntzer, the bourgeoisie revolutions of the eighteenth century, the rise of the industrial worker in England, the turbulent journey of the Russian Soviets, the role of the European working class throughout the Cold War, and the revolutionary students in 1968. He then brings his story to the present day, where we continue to fight to forge an alternative to a heartless and often barbaric economic system. As Germany and Greece argue over who owes what, with the very idea of Europe crumbling around them, Pelzs accessible, provocative history could not be timelier. Sure to resonate with fans of books like Howard Zinns A Peoples History of the United States, this peoples history sweeps away the tired platitudes of the privileged and provides an opportunity to understand the story of Europe from the ground up. **

Author: Karen Bauer File Type: pdf This book explores how medieval and modern Muslim religious scholars (ulama) interpret gender roles in Quranic verses on legal testimony, marriage, and human creation. Citing these verses, medieval scholars developed increasingly complex laws and interpretations upholding a male-dominated gender hierarchy aspects of their interpretations influence religious norms and state laws in Muslim-majority countries today, yet other aspects have been discarded entirely. Karen Bauer traces the evolution of their interpretations, showing how they have been adopted, adapted, rejected, or replaced over time, by comparing the Quran with a wide range of Quranic commentaries and interviews with prominent religious scholars from Iran and Syria. At times, tradition is modified in unexpected ways learned women argue against gender equality, or Grand Ayatollahs reject sayings of the Prophet, citing science instead. This innovative and engaging study highlights the effects of social and intellectual contexts on the formation of tradition, and on modern responses to it. **Review This book is a must-read for anyone trying to understand how and why gender hierarchy became intrinsic to Muslim religious tradition and the challenge that the idea of equality presents to the tradition. Karen Bauer takes us on an exciting journey through the medieval and contemporary exegesis of the Quranic verses on which gender hierarchy is based. In a rich discussion, she not only reveals the influence of unspoken assumptions and the socio-political context - norms and practices - but also points us to the shift toward gender egalitarianism that is emerging today. Ziba Mir-Hosseini, Professorial Associate, Centre for Islamic and Middle Eastern Law and founding member of Musawah For Justice and Equality in the Muslim Family Karen Bauers rigorous and perceptive study will prove valuable to those interested not only in gender relations but also in exegetical principles. Through the examination of both classical and modern perspectives and by enhancing textual studies with interviews of learned men and women, Gender Hierarchy in the Quran vividly illuminates the processes of scriptural interpretation as they have been impacted by social and political factors through the ages. This books provocative insights will serve to stimulate future studies of Muslim exegetical practice as well as gender roles in Islam. Andrew Rippin, University of Victoria, Canada Rather than casting traditional tafsir aside categorically as the product of a misogynistic reading of the Quran, this work takes a serious look at the variety of positions espoused regarding women and their rights in the history of Quranic exegesis, endeavoring to understand them in their context, with attention to the history of the various genres in which interpretation of the Quran is embedded as well as to the intellectual commitments of the authors. It examines a wide variety of commentators, covering various legal and theological schools and ranging from medieval to contemporary times, which allows the author to identify and highlight historical trends, particularly major shifts that occurred with the advent of the modern period. The result is an edifying and engaging study that avoids the curt dismissals, dogmatic high-handedness, and constructive theologies of other works on the topic. Devin Stewart, Emory University, Atlanta Book Description This book explores Muslim interpretations of Quranic verses on gender roles in testimony, human creation and marriage. Karen Bauer traces the evolution of these interpretations, showing how they have been adopted, adapted, rejected or replaced over time, by comparing the Quran with a wide range of Quranic commentaries and interviews.