Author: Eve Schaub File Type: epub Eve has a problem with clutter. Too much stuff and too easily acquired, it confronts her in every corner and on every surface in her house. When she pledges to tackle the worst offender, her horror of a Hell Room, she anticipates finally being able to throw away all of the unnecessary things she cant bring herself to part with her fifth-grade report card, dried-up art supplies, an old vinyl raincoat.But what Eve discovers isnt just old CDs and outdated clothing, but a fierce desire within herself to hold on to her identity. Our things represent our memories, our history, a million tiny reference points in our lives. If we throw our stuff in the trash, where does that leave us? And if we dont...how do we know whats really important?Everyone has their own Hell Room, and Eves battle with her clutter, along with her eventual self-clarity, encourages everyone to dig into their past to declutter their future. Year of No Clutter is a deeply inspiringand frequently hilarious examination of why we keep stuff in the first place, and how to let it all go. **
Author: Donatella Di Cesare
File Type: pdf
We are inclined to see terrorist attacks as an aberration, a violent incursion into our lives that bears no intrinsic relation to the fundamental features of modern societies. But does this view misconstrue the relationship between terror and modernity? In this book, philosopher Donatella Di Cesare takes a historical approach and argues that terror is not a new phenomenon, but rather one that has always been a key part of modernity. At its most basic level, terrorism is about the struggle for power and sovereignty. The growing concentration of power in the hands of the state, which is a constitutive feature of modern societies, sows the seeds of terrorism, which is deployed as a weapon by those who are exposed to the violence of the state and feel that they have no other recourse. As Di Cesare illustrates her argument with examples ranging from the Red Brigades and 911 to jihadism and ISIS, her sophisticated analysis will appeal to anyone who wishes to understand contemporary terrorism more deeply, as well as to students and scholars of philosophy and political theory.
Author: John Dryden
File Type: pdf
For the first time since 1695, a complete text of De Arte Graphica as Dryden himself wrote it is available to readers. In all, Volume XX presents six pieces written during Drydens final decade, each of them either requested by a friend or commissioned by a publisher. Two are translations, three introduce translations made by others, and the sixth introduces an original work by one of Drydens friends. The most recent version of De Arte Graphica, Saintsburys late nineteenth-century reissue of Scotts edition, based the text of the translated matter on an edition that was heavily revised by someone other than Dryden. In fact, only one of the pieces offered here, the brief Character of Saint-Evremond, has appeared complete in a twentieth-century edition. The commentary in this volume supplies biographical and bibliographical contexts for these pieces and draws attention to the views on history and historians, poetry and painting, Virgil and translation, which Dryden expresses in them. Many other volumes of prose, poetry, and plays are available in the California Edition of The Works of John Dryden.**
Author: Thomas Barfield
File Type: mobi
Afghanistan traces the historic struggles and the changing nature of political authority in this volatile region of the world, from the Mughal Empire in the sixteenth century to the Taliban resurgence today. Thomas Barfield introduces readers to the bewildering diversity of tribal and ethnic groups in Afghanistan, explaining what unites them as Afghans despite the regional, cultural, and political differences that divide them. He shows how governing these peoples was relatively easy when power was concentrated in a small dynastic elite, but how this delicate political order broke down in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries when Afghanistans rulers mobilized rural militias to expel first the British and later the Soviets. Armed insurgency proved remarkably successful against the foreign occupiers, but it also undermined the Afghan governments authority and rendered the country ever more difficult to govern as time passed. Barfield vividly describes how Afghanistans armed factions plunged the country into a civil war, giving rise to clerical rule by the Taliban and Afghanistans isolation from the world. He examines why the American invasion in the wake of September 11 toppled the Taliban so quickly, and how this easy victory lulled the United States into falsely believing that a viable state could be built just as easily. Afghanistan is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how a land conquered and ruled by foreign dynasties for more than a thousand years became the graveyard of empires for the British and Soviets, and what the United States must do to avoid a similar fate.
Author: Isobel Armstrong
File Type: pdf
Victorian Poetry is a major re-evaluation of the genre by one of the leading scholars of the period. In a work both comprehensive and astute, the author demonstrates the sophisticaiton of Victorian poetry, rescuing it from its longstanding image as a moralized form of romantic verse. Amrstrong brings together the familiar poets of the era Swinburne, Tennyson, Hopkins and Browning, and relates them to female and working-class poets. The aesthetics and politics of Victorian poetrym both conservative and radical, are then examined and brought together in a historical discussion that challenges some of the vital issues in contemporary criticism. This volume marks an acheivement in the appreciation and understanding of Victorian literature, re-reading Victorian poetry from the midst of contemporary debate.
Author: Enrique Vila-Matas
File Type: epub
A readers fictional tour of the art and lives of some of the great 20th-century Surrealists An author (a version of Vila-Matas himself) presents a short history of a secret society, the Shandies, who are obsessed with the concept of portable literature. The society is entirely imagined, but in this rollicking, intellectually playful book, its members include writers and artists like Marcel Duchamp, Aleister Crowley, Witold Gombrowicz, Federico Garcia Lorca, Man Ray, and Georgia OKeefe. The Shandies meet secretly in apartments, hotels, and cafes all over Europe to discuss what great literature really is brief, not too serious, penetrating the depths of the mysterious. We witness the Shandies having adventures in stationary submarines, underground caverns, African backwaters, and the cultural capitals of Europe.
Author: Catriona Kelly
File Type: pdf
In Russia, legislation on the separation of church and state in early 1918 marginalized religious faith and raised pressing questions about what was to be done with church buildings. While associated with suspect beliefs, they were also regarded as structures with potential practical uses, and some were considered works of art. This engaging study draws on religious anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, and history to explore the fate of these socialist churches, showing how attitudes and practices related to them were shaped both by laws on the preservation of monuments and anti-religious measures. Advocates of preservation, while sincere in their desire to save the buildings, were indifferent, if not hostile, to their religious purpose. Believers, on the other hand, regarded preservation laws as irritants, except when they provided leverage for use of the buildings by church communities. The situation was eased by the growing rapprochement of the Orthodox Church and Soviet state organizations after 1943, but not fully resolved until the Soviet Union fell apart. Based on abundant archival documentation, Catriona Kellys powerful narrative portrays the human tragedies and compromises, but also the remarkable achievements, of those who fought to preserve these important buildings over the course of seven decades of state atheism. Socialist Churches will appeal to specialists, students, and general readers interested in church history, the history of architecture, and Russian art, history, and cultural studies. **
Author: R. Chris Hassel Jr.
File Type: pdf
Religious issues and discourse are key to an understanding of Shakespeares plays and poems. This dictionary discusses over 1000 words and names in Shakespeares works that have a religious connotation. Its unique word-by-word approach allows equal consideration of the full nuance of each of these words, from abbess to zeal. It also gradually reveals the persistence, the variety, and the sophistication of Shakespeares religious usage. Frequent attention is given to the prominence of Reformation controversy in these words, and to Shakespeares often ingenious and playful metaphoric usage of them. Theological commonplaces assume a major place in the dictionary, as do overt references to biblical figures, biblical stories and biblical place-names biblical allusions church figures and saints. **Review Chris Hassel is the right scholar to grasp the nettle of Shakespeares religious language, since Hassels authority where Shakespeare and religion are concerned is well established. This dictionary is a mine of helpful information, and everyone will learn something from it. Shakespeare Quarterly This is an authoritative volume that will be an important addition to collections in Elizabethan literature and music American Reference Books Annual The great strength of Hassels dictionary is that it is more than a dictionary, stepping past vocabulary into context... scrupulous in explaining what words need not mean...quicker and handier than an online concordance...and goes well beyond a dictionarys basic briefs the helpfully selective bibliography is particularly strong on recent criticism... it should retain long-term value as a reference work, both for those in search of proof texts and those fascinated by the sinuous operation of Shakespearean religious metaphor. Times Literary Supplement Given the saturation of Christian thought and symbol in Shakespeares cultural lexicon, selecting the words and their meanings was perhaps more difficult for Hassel (Vanderbilt Univ.) than for other authors. Cloister, for example, may have obvious Christian significance, but the theological shades of meaning in words such as beneath or memory are far more subtle. This lexicographer does a fine job of illuminating these nuances, both with contextual references and contemporary commentary from writers such as Henry Bullinger, John Donne, and Lancelot Andrewes. Hassel has an expansive grasp of his material, making reference to both Catholic and Protestant sources, but he wisely refrains from trying to tease out Shakespeares own beliefs. The extensive bibliography of primary and secondary sources is useful for advanced students and scholars. The specificity of the subject matter makes this a suitable purchase for libraries with comprehensive Shakespeare collections or that support intensive study of the early modern period. Summing Up Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through researchersfaculty. - *CHOICE * Book Description A major reference resource for all students and scholars of Shakespeare now available in paperback from the Arden Shakespeare.
Author: Lynda Mugglestone
File Type: pdf
Lynda Mugglestones hugely popular The Oxford History of English is now updated and entirely reset in a new edition featuring David Crystals new take on the future of English in the wider world. In accounts made vivid with examples from a vast range of documentary evidence that includes letters, diaries, and private records, fifteen scholars trace the history of English from its ancient Indo-European origins to the present. They cover the languages versions, written and spoken, revel in its rich variety over fifteen centuries, and chart its varied progress nationally, regionally, and throughout the world. With scholarship at once impeccable and approachable, the authors describe and explain the constantly changing sounds, words, meanings, and grammar of English. This is a book for everyone interested in the language, present and past.Review`Review from previous edition Up-to-date, culturally sensitive, detailed and rigorous. Yet also, true to Emersons philosophy, conveys some of the lustre, excitement and agony of the past. Henry Hitchings, New Statesman `a fascinating book Michael Kerrigan, The Scotsman ReviewAny mature and intellectually curious reader will find something of appeal in the well-crafted chapters that encompass the entire chonological range from (pre-) Old English to Modern English. The Oxford History of English is the best companion reading for literary scholars, historians, and sociolinguistics it broadens significantly the extralinguistic information, which often leads to new ways of accounting for language change. --Language