Cross Cultural Reckonings

Download or read book Cross-Cultural Reckonings written by Blanche H. Gelfant and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1995-01-27 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Blanche H. Gelfant's book Cross-Cultural Reckonings both demonstrates and questions the applicability of postmodern cultural and literary theories to realistic texts - to fiction and autobiographies valued for their truth. Drawing together an unusual combination of Russian, American, and Canadian writers, the various essays of this book provide new and original perspectives upon the puzzling issues of national identity, of historical change and continuity, of gender and the integrity of literary genres, the boundaries between text and context, and the underlying if overlooked conflicts between the postmodern critic's skepticism and a writer's belief in the transcendence of art and truth. To avoid the contingencies inherent in binary comparisons, the essays in this book seek a triadic form analogous to the triptych or polyptych of the visual arts. Multi-faceted, non-linear, and open-ended, such a form might allow the academic essay to recover a waywardness that traces back to Montaigne, cited in prefactory notes, and to the etymological meaning of the essay as an exagium or weighing, as an act of reckoning. A study at once elegant, erudite, and personal, Cross-Cultural Reckonings reckons with writers of different backgrounds and reputation in whom Gelfant discovers surprising affinities - among them the Russian writers Lydia Chukovskaya, Natalya Baranskaya, and Alexander Solzhenitsyn; Ethel Wilson, a highly reputed Canadian writer; the famous cross-cultural figure, Emma Goldman; and established as well as new or rediscovered American writers, such as Willa Cather, Saul Bellow, Arlene Heyman, and Meridel Le Sueur. These writers are discussed singly and in comparative essays, each of whichis discrete and self-contained, while all interconnect and reflect upon each other as exemplary demonstrations of cross-cultural literary criticism and the deferred final judgment that results from a weighing and reweighing of books.

Download or read book Reckonings written by Stephen Chrisomalis and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2020-12-15 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Insights from the history of numerical notation suggest that how humans write numbers is an active choice involving cognitive and social factors. Over the past 5,000 years, more than 100 methods of numerical notation--distinct ways of writing numbers--have been developed and used by specific communities. Most of these are barely known today; where they are known, they are often derided as cognitively cumbersome and outdated. In Reckonings, Stephen Chrisomalis considers how humans past and present use numerals, reinterpreting historical and archaeological representations of numerical notation and exploring the implications of why we write numbers with figures rather than words.

Download or read book Embodied Reckonings written by Elizabeth Son and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2018-02-16 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An illuminating study of how former Korean "comfort women" and their supporters have redressed history through protests, tribunals, theater, and memorial-building projects

Download or read book Gender Reckonings written by James W. Messerschmidt and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2018-02-13 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introduction: the editors -- Points of departure : gender & power and its sequels -- "Theories don't grow on trees" : contextualizing gender knowledge / Myra Marx Ferree -- Hegemonic, nonhegemonic, and "new" masculinities / James W. Messerschmidt and Michael A. Messner -- From object to subject : situating transgender lives in sociology / Kristen Schilt -- The larger scope of gender analysis -- Postcoloniality and the sociology of gender / Raka Ray -- Race, indigeneity, and gender : lessons for global feminism / Mara Viveros Vigoya -- Categories, structures, and intersectional theory / Joya Misra -- Four dimensions of relationship, struggle, and change -- Why "heteronormativity" is not enough : a feminist sociological perspective on heterosexuality / Stevi Jackson -- Gender inequality and feminism in the new economy / Christine L. Williams and Megan Tobias Neely -- Gender politics in academia in the neoliberal age / Barbara Poggio -- The holy grail of organizational change : toward gender equality at work / Yvonne Benschop and Marieke van den Brink -- Dynamics of masculinities -- Concerning tradition in studies on men and masculinities in ex-colonies / Kopano Ratele -- Rethinking patriarchy through unpatriarchal male desires / Gul Ozyegin -- On the elasticity of gender hegemony : why hybrid masculinities fail to undermine gender and sexual inequality / Tristan Bridges and C.J. Pascoe -- Agendas for theory -- Limitations of the neoliberal turn in gender theory : (re)turning to gender as a social structure / Barbara J. Risman, Kristen Myers, and Ray Sin -- Paradoxes of gender redux : multiple genders and the persistence of the binary / Judith Lorber -- The monogamous couple, gender hegemony, and polyamory / Mimi Schippers -- Conclusion: theory work, or reckoning with gender / Raewyn Connell -- About the contributors -- Index -- Notes

Download or read book Images on a Mission in Early Modern Kongo and Angola written by Cécile Fromont and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2022-04-25 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Early modern central Africa comes to life in an extraordinary atlas of vivid watercolors and drawings that Italian Capuchin Franciscans, veterans of Kongo and Angola missions, composed between 1650 and 1750 for the training of future missionaries. These “practical guides” present the intricacies of the natural, social, and religious environment of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century west-central Africa and outline the primarily visual catechization methods the friars devised for the region. Images on a Mission in Early Modern Kongo and Angola brings this overlooked visual corpus to public and scholarly attention. This beautifully illustrated book includes full-color reproductions of all the images in the atlas, in conjunction with rarely seen related material gathered from collections and archives around the world. Taking a bold new approach to the study of early modern global interactions, art historian Cécile Fromont demonstrates how visual creations such as the Capuchin vignettes, though European in form and crafstmanship, emerged not from a single perspective but rather from cross-cultural interaction. Fromont models a fresh way to think about images created across cultures, highlighting the formative role that cultural encounter itself played in their conception, execution, and modes of operation. Centering Africa and Africans, and with ramifications on four continents, Fromont’s decolonial history profoundly transforms our understanding of the early modern world. It will be of substantial interest to specialists in early modern studies, art history, and religion.

Download or read book Reckoning with Aggression written by Kathleen J. Greider and published by Westminster John Knox Press. This book was released on 1997-01-01 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Aggression is ambiguous in our society, according to Kathleen Greider. While giving us strength to fight the world's social ills or to create vital and powerful lives, aggression can also lead to rage and violence. Thus, society has often viewed aggression as evil or sinful. Greider wants Christians to repair their view of aggression and realize that aggression is what can spur them to make the world better. In exploring aggression from feminist, pastoral, and theological perspectives, Greider examines the relationships between violence and vitality, passion and aggression, and finds that Christians can be strong without being destructive.

Download or read book Multicultural Writers from Antiquity to 1945 written by Alba Amoia and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2001-10-30 with total page 508 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The final decades of the 20th century have seen an explosion of interest in multiculturalism. But multiculturalism is more than an awareness of the different cultures comprising contemporary societies. For centuries, people from around the world have come in contact with cultures other than their own, and their exposure to multiple cultures has fostered their creativity and ability to make lasting contributions to civilization. The effects of multiculturalism are especially apparent in literature, since writers tend to be particularly aware of their environments and record their experiences. This reference includes alphabetically arranged entries for more than 100 world writers from antiquity to 1945, who were significantly influenced by cultures other than their own. Included are entries for major canonical Ancient and Modern writers of the Western and Eastern worlds. Each entry is written by an expert contributor and includes a brief biography, a discussion of multicultural themes and contexts, a summary of the writer's critical reception, and primary and secondary bibliographies. By illuminating the shaping influence of multiculturalism on these writers, the volume points to the lasting value of multiculturalism in the contemporary world.