Author: Knut Hamsun File Type: mobi A true classic of modern literature that has been described as one of the most disturbing novels in existence (Time Out), Hunger is the story of a Norwegian artist who wanders the streets, struggling on the edge of starvation. As hunger overtakes him, he slides inexorably into paranoia and despair. The descent into madness is recounted by the unnamed narrator in increasingly urgent and disjointed prose, as he loses his grip on reality.Arising from Hamsuns belief that literature ought to be about the mysterious workings of the human mind -- an attempt, he wrote, to describe the whisper of the blood and the pleading of the bone marrow -- Hunger is a landmark work that pointed the way toward a new kind of novel. The whole modern school of fiction in the twentieth century stems from Hamsun. They were all Hamsuns disciples Thomas Mann and Arthur Schnitzler . . . and even such American writers are Fitzgerald and Hemingway. Isaac Bashevis Singer

Author: Tony Blackshaw File Type: pdf This timely book provides the definitive concise introduction to the phenomenon of Zygmunt Bauman. After introducing the man, his major influences and his special way of thinking sociologically, author Blackshaw traces the development of Baumans project by identifying and explaining the major shifts of emphasis in his work the break with Marxism and the postmodern turn, and the subsequent refocusing on liquid modernity as well as offering a clear and accessible guide to the key conceptual hinges which move the reader on.This book, the only concise introduction to Baumans work on the market, goes on to explain the importance of the full range of persistent themes concerning Bauman, dealing specifically with individualization, freedom, identity, community, social control, consumption and waste, building a penetrating understanding of why these issues matter for this Key Sociologist.Baumans ideas have impacted beyond sociology into criminology, political theory, cultural studies, leisure studies and so forth, and have also now penetrated outside the walls of the academy into social policy, welfare reform, social work and politics. Making use of pedagogical features such as boxed sections, chapter summaries, an annotated bibliography and links to further reading, this well-written text assumes no prior familiarity with Baumans work and will appeal to anyone in any of these fields wishing to get acquainted with the ideas of one of the worlds most wide-ranging thinkers.About the AuthorTony Blackshaw is Senior Lecturer in sociology at Sheffield Hallam University. He has recently completed two major studies in the sociology of sport and leisure New Perspectives on Sport and Deviance Consumption, Performativity and Social Control (with Tim Crabbe) (2004) and Leisure Life Myth, Masculinity and Modernity (2003) - both published by Routledge. This timely book provides the definitive concise introduction to the phenomenon of Zygmunt Bauman. After introducing the man, his major influences and his special way of thinking sociologically, author Blackshaw traces the development of Baumans project by identifying and explaining the major shifts of emphasis in his work the break with Marxism and the postmodern turn, and the subsequent refocusing on liquid modernity as well as offering a clear and accessible guide to the key conceptual hinges which move the reader on.This book, the only concise introduction to Baumans work on the market, goes on to explain the importance of the full range of persistent themes concerning Bauman, dealing specifically with individualization, freedom, identity, community, social control, consumption and waste, building a penetrating understanding of why these issues matter for this Key Sociologist.Baumans ideas have impacted beyond sociology into criminology, political theory, cultural studies, leisure studies and so forth, and have also now penetrated outside the walls of the academy into social policy, welfare reform, social work and politics. Making use of pedagogical features such as boxed sections, chapter summaries, an annotated bibliography and links to further reading, this well-written text assumes no prior familiarity with Baumans work and will appeal to anyone in any of these fields wishing to get acquainted with the ideas of one of the worlds most wide-ranging thinkers.