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Pioneros en Machinima: Las raíces de la producción virtual
Tracy Gaynor Harwood, De Montfort University
and Ben Grussi
Availability: In stock
271pp. ¦ $63 £48 €54
Este importante nuevo trabajo se centra en los pioneros en machinima, considerados las raíces e inicios de la producción virtual. Los impactos de machinima son identificados por la comunidad, complementados por la investigación y por la experiencia de Harwood y Grussi durante un período de 25 años: desde juegos, cine y realización cinematográfica hasta la práctica de las artes digitales, desarrollos de tecnologías creativas e investigaciones y teorías relacionadas. Machinima es la primera práctica cultural digital que surgió de Internet y se convirtió en un género creativo convencional. Su última transformación es evidente a través de la creciente convergencia de juegos y películas, donde la producción virtual a tiempo real como práctica creativa profesional está dando como resultado nuevas formas de experiencias interactivas generadas por máquinas. Utilizando las obras machinima (del inglés 'machine' que significa máquina y 'cinema' que significa cine) de mayor importancia cultural como lentes para rastrear su historia e impactos, 'Pioneros en Machinima: Las raíces de la producción virtual' ofrece profundos testimonios de cineastas y otras personas involucradas en su surgimiento. La extensa referencia a materiales originales y entrevistas actualiza la historia de sus impactos a través de las reflexiones críticas de los primeros pioneros. Este libro será de interés para los investigadores y profesionales de machinima, junto con la cultura de los juegos, los teóricos de los medios, los estudiantes de estudios cinematográficos y de juegos, los artistas digitales y aquellos interesados en cómo las tecnologías creativas han influido en las comunidades de práctica a lo largo del tiempo.
Shakespeare and Religion: Global Tapestry, Dramatic Perspectives
Edited by
Margie Burns, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Availability: In stock
252pp. ¦ $108 £86 €101
Twelve research articles deal with aspects of religion in the plays of William Shakespeare, from early in the dramatist’s career to the end. Ordered by chronology, two chapters focus on history plays; three chapters focus on comedies and three on tragedies; one deals with "Troilus and Cressida," and three chapters deal with the late romances. The anthology does not cover all of Shakespeare’s plays and collaborations or the lyric poems. The collection is ecumenical and transnational. While the contributors all recognize that Shakespeare wrote in a Renaissance Christian universe, Christianity is not the only world religion dealt with. Approaches involve history and philosophy as well as theology, and individual perspectives vary. One thing the collection makes clear is that religion, in some sense, operates in every Shakespearean work, and its large spectrum ranges through plot and character from shallow to deep, self-interested to elevated, bloody to harmonious. Religion and religious differences were also part of the fabric and history of the playwright’s world, manifesting in the plays in situation, language, and iconography. From various perspectives, a common denominator is that the authors approach aspects of religion as one element in an informed analysis of the works.
"Para poder componer…": Una biografía sonora sobre Alejandro García Villalón 'Virulo' (1955-2008)
Pablo Alejandro Suárez Marrero, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (México)
Availability: In stock
152pp. ¦ $57 £45 €53
La pluralidad discursiva manifiesta en la actual música popular se encuentra enmarcada en una realidad estético-musical cambiante, causada por una postmodernidad social cada vez más abierta a la globalización de las expresiones culturales de los pueblos. Es dentro de esta dinámica social que emerge la figura creativa de Alejandro García Villalón Virulo y sus grabaciones sonoras (1973-2021). En estas, el cantautor empleó disímiles recursos musicales, literarios, escénicos y visuales para ejercer la crítica sobre sus contextos germinales, como vía desacralizadora de culturas hegemónicas y paradigmas sociales construidos a lo largo del devenir histórico de los pueblos de la región. La casi nula existencia de estudios académicos sobre este artista y sus documentos sonoros constituye una oportunidad para construir su biografía sonora como contexto de performance (1955-2008), donde se imbricaron elementos históricos, políticos, sociales y culturales condicionados por marcos temporales y espacios geográficos. Para ello, se concatenaron herramientas teóricas, conceptuales y metodológicas provenientes de los estudios de performance, la historiografía crítica y la musicología popular. La presente investigación conduce a repensar las relaciones entre música y humor en culturas musicales de América Latina y el Caribe, la concepción de la biografía sonora de un cantautor como aproximación a su contexto germinal, así como el abordaje de los documentos de música grabada o programada como fuentes primarias de información para estudios sociales de prácticas sonoro-musicales situadas.
Affecting the Conflict: Mediations of the Colombian War in Contemporary Art and Film
Rubén Darío Yepes Muñoz, Georgia College and State University
Availability: In stock
250pp. ¦ $83 £64 €76
This book focuses on the art and films produced between the years 2002 and 2017 in relation to the Colombian armed conflict. It asks the following questions: How have contemporary art and film addressed the Colombian conflict? What are the contributions of these forms of visual culture to the memorialization of the armed conflict and the overcoming of its negative legacies? The main goal is to understand the ways in which contemporary art and film contribute to the historical and social transformations that Colombian society needs to undertake if it is to move beyond the violence and trauma of an internal war that has gone on for over fifty years and produced at least six million victims. The main claim is that the artworks and films in question mediate the conflict rather than represent it. In other words, they bridge the distance between their urban audiences and the predominantly rural conflict. Paying heed to the “affective turn” of the humanities and social sciences, the book also claims that this mediation consists, first and foremost, an affective engagement with the conflict’s history, events, and victims. This affective engagement counters the apathy toward and removal from the conflict that has predominated in Colombian urban sectors. Thus, the singularity of this book lies in the fact that it studies a topic that has not been adequately addressed within English-speaking academia, as well as in its cross-media and interdisciplinary scope. Moreover, it is noteworthy for the originality of its approach and, especially, its attention to affect.
The Media Reader on Representations of Race, Gender, Disability, Body Size, Age, and Sexuality
Caroline Heldman, Occidental College
and Rebecca Bargiachi, University of California, Berkeley
Availability: In stock
406pp. ¦ $92 £71 €84
This reader is the first comprehensive look at representations of race, gender, disability, body size, age, and sexuality in US entertainment media. The “bible” of media representation, it weaves contemporary media examples together with quantitative data and qualitative case studies in a way that is accessible to students, industry insiders, and media advocates. Using over twenty publicly available reports and datasets, the authors provide the most detailed picture to date of how different groups have historically been erased and misrepresented in film and television. This book should be on the shelf of every person who seeks to understand the significance of media inclusion for the advancement of traditionally marginalized groups in the US.
Tiempo de amistad. Representaciones de su práctica en el cine español contemporáneo (2000-2022)
Edited by
Irene Domingo Sancho, University of St. Thomas
Availability: In stock
206pp. ¦ $112 £87 €103
'Tiempo de amistad' es el primer volumen colectivo en español que se centra en la representación cinematográfica en la España del siglo veintiuno de una relación que históricamente se ha conceptualizado como modelo de la buena vida en colectividad: la amistad. Sus páginas recogen los capítulos de nueve académicos cuyos análisis dan cuenta de esta relación interpersonal y su práctica contemporánea, expanden nociones clásicas y a veces anquilosadas acerca de la amistad y ayudan a entender por qué atender a las representaciones audiovisuales este vínculo puede tener efectos revulsivos y positivos en la sociedad neoliberal actual. Sus páginas contienen exámenes de 'Las razones de mis amigos' (Gerardo Herrero, 2000), 'A cambio de nada' (Daniel Guzmán, 2015), 'Truman' (Cesc Gay, 2015), 'Carmen y Lola' (Arantxa Echevarría, 2018), 'Diecisiete' (Daniel Sánchez Arévalo, 2019), 'Madres paralelas' (Pedro Almodóvar, 2021), 'Chavalas' (Carol Rodríguez Colás, 2021) y 'Tenéis que venir a verla' (Jonás Trueba, 2022). Entrando en debates vinculados con cuestiones de género y clase, de orientación sexual, de etnia, de raza, de especies, e incluso de política, de economía y de nación, las investigaciones realizadas en los capítulos aquí contenidos permiten entender mejor los cambios sociales, económicos, políticos, ideológicos y culturales que han tenido lugar en la España actual, que se dice democrática y es neoliberal. Lo hacen proveyendo alternativas a su lógica, a sus tendencias, a los sujetos que esta construye y a las relaciones que esta favorece. En este sentido, todos los estudios subrayan hasta qué punto la amistad es hoy una práctica clave para pensar la democracia y la contemporaneidad.
Hannes Meyer: Soviet Architect. Life and Work in the USSR, 1930–1936
Tatiana Efrussi
Availability: In stock
346pp. ¦ $86 £66 €79
Swiss architect and urban planner, the second director of the Bauhaus Dessau, Hannes Meyer, spent about six years in the USSR—from 1930 to 1936. This book presents the first in-depth study of Hannes Meyer's activities during the years of early Stalinism. There is a global interest in this architect’s legacy today, but his work can hardly be understood without a closer examination of the key chapter in his career. This book is an attempt to challenge the usual Western-centered perspective and explore not only what Meyer could bring to the Soviet Union but also what he sought to learn there and how this interaction influenced his work and thinking. The somewhat provocative title underscores this thesis. A detailed reconstruction of his professional activities during this period was made possible through archival research in several countries (Russia, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland) and field trips across Russia. In the end, the narrative offers a glimpse into the Soviet architectural context of the 1930s—networks, hierarchies, behavioral strategies, theories, and interpretations of major polemical concepts such as "proletarian architecture" and "socialist realism." Among the projects for "socialist cities," Meyer was commissioned to create the urban plan for the capital of the Jewish Autonomous Region in the USSR—Birobidzhan. The dedicated book chapter explores his involvement in the search for a distinct Soviet "Jewish style." Hannes Meyer, the most controversial of the architects associated with the Bauhaus, was passionately involved in politics, and available documents indicate his desire to become a "Soviet architect" at all costs. The research allows us to view Meyer not only as a victim but also as an actor in the early Stalinist system based on violence.
Russian Fractals in Indigenous Artifacts
Abdul Karim Bangura, American University Center for Global Peace
and Leonid A. Zhigun, Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, Moscow, Russia; Financial University, Moscow, Russia
Availability: In stock
542pp. ¦ $115 £88 €106
This book is the first comprehensive work on Russian Fractals in indigenous artifacts. While existing works focus on universal phenomena, such as liquid crystal or finance, none explore the intersection between Fractals and Russia. 'Russian Fractals in Indigenous Artifacts' therefore investigates how indigenous Russian cultures have a wonderful Fractal heritage that was originally tied to socially just and ecologically sustainable social practices, including those of indigenous northern groups such as the Yakut. Fractal designs originally allowed unalienated value, both human and nonhuman, to be visible, thereby enabling just and sustainable living. This book also examines how the tsarist elite encouraged the creation of unique creative masterpieces, developing and strengthening traditional crafts and art of indigenous people—hence, Fabergé, or imperial architecture. Today, the challenge for contemporary Russia is to reestablish the relationship between the social and ecological sustainability of indigenous cultures and practices, for which we can now provide modeling and analysis. Lay attempts at this have only limited success, as they have based the attempts on a purely religious basis, which recognizes the ecological aspects but often succumbs to authoritarian nationalism. However, the freely accession of indigenous peoples to Russia for the sake of national liberation has had a positive effect on enriching them with spirituality and creativity by Fractal artifacts through friendly exchanges with one another. In 'Russian Fractals in Indigenous Artifacts,' Bangura and Zhigun express why there is a need for a forward-thinking Fractal renaissance in Russia, bringing together contemporary computational and scientific analyses with these ecologically and socially sustainable traditions.
Affecting the Conflict: Mediations of the Colombian War in Contemporary Art and Film
Rubén Darío Yepes Muñoz, Georgia College and State University
Availability: In stock
250pp. [Color] ¦ $97 £80 €90
This book focuses on the art and films produced between the years 2002 and 2017 in relation to the Colombian armed conflict. It asks the following questions: How have contemporary art and film addressed the Colombian conflict? What are the contributions of these forms of visual culture to the memorialization of the armed conflict and the overcoming of its negative legacies? The main goal is to understand the ways in which contemporary art and film contribute to the historical and social transformations that Colombian society needs to undertake if it is to move beyond the violence and trauma of an internal war that has gone on for over fifty years and produced at least six million victims. The main claim is that the artworks and films in question mediate the conflict rather than represent it. In other words, they bridge the distance between their urban audiences and the predominantly rural conflict. Paying heed to the “affective turn” of the humanities and social sciences, the book also claims that this mediation consists, first and foremost, an affective engagement with the conflict’s history, events, and victims. This affective engagement counters the apathy toward and removal from the conflict that has predominated in Colombian urban sectors. Thus, the singularity of this book lies in the fact that it studies a topic that has not been adequately addressed within English-speaking academia, as well as in its cross-media and interdisciplinary scope. Moreover, it is noteworthy for the originality of its approach and, especially, its attention to affect.
Revulsion: The Paradox of Disgust in the Rape-Revenge Narrative
Brandon West
Availability: In stock
162pp. ¦ $63 £49 €58
The extant scholarship of the rape-revenge narrative has frequently either upheld this narrative form’s feminist bonafides (Clover) or condemned it as misogynistic (Creed). In this volume, West argues that these competing camps of thought have largely elided rape-revenge’s inherent ambivalence, which stems from the paradoxical role disgust plays in rape-revenge texts. That is, disgust is essential for portraying rape as the horrific act it is, but employing disgust in a rape-revenge text risks alienating audiences. To explore this issue, Brandon West first shows the strengths and pitfalls of different methods rape-revenge auteurs have used to approach this disturbing narrative form. Showing rape and revenge in graphic detail has well-documented issues in the scholarship, but the author shows how texts that eschew such graphic portrayals also have their own consequent weaknesses. Thereafter, West articulates the paradox of disgust so he can isolate this key issue hounding these texts and analyses thereof. Then, West shows how disgust plays multiple roles in these texts, roles that make the paradox more challenging to resolve. To this end, the book shows disgust not only risks alienating audiences but also forms part of the pleasure these texts offer audiences. And so, West enumerates the possible pleasures of disgust. Finally, this book pulls these threads together to examine a couple of final rape-revenge texts, one of which, 2017’s 'Revenge', West argues, is the most successful anti-rape narrative discussed in this volume because of the balance it strikes between evoking disgust and avoiding alienating audiences.
Archaeology as a Weapon: Long-lasting legacies of colonialism and nationalism in Israel, Palestine, Cyprus and Greece
Marie-Louise Winbladh
Availability: In stock
378pp. ¦ $93 £72 €86
In Israel, Palestine, Cyprus and Greece, the reconstruction of the past through archaeology has been used to strengthen national identity. Narratives about the past and origin myths have been constructed for political purposes. Cyprus and Palestine have both suffered from British colonialism since the early twentieth century, which has had a profound influence on their cultural heritage. Through nationalism, archaeology has been exploited by far-right movements and political parties to claim ownership of heritage and has become an efficient political tool. In Israel, archaeology and religion have been exploited to construct the Israeli state and still play a crucial role. The country claims to be the conqueror of Palestine under the protection of God, who they believe gave them possession of the land. Western religious groups are convinced that it is the religious duty of Christians to support the modern nation-state of Israel. Biblical archaeology has become an ultra-religious American speciality, marked by fraud and pseudoresearch. Notorious smuggling scandals were staged by American Christian multibillionaires buying artefacts looted from the National Museum of Iraq and other countries. Looting, plundering and blacklisting are among the most serious problems in Cyprus, causing irreparable damage to artefacts, monuments and society. Palestine’s rich archaeological, historical, and religious heritage has been undermined by occupation and land confiscation. Hundreds of sites have been looted during the Israeli occupation, and an illegal trade of ancient artefacts has occurred on a large scale. Populism is frequently associated with extreme nationalism and racism. Over the past few years, white nationalists and supremacists have seized the history of Greece and Rome. White nationalists and neo-Nazis in the US have used the slogan “Classics Made Great Again” showing their obsession with ancient sculptures and their alleged whiteness. When visiting Jerusalem, the Trump administration promoted an evangelical program where the politics of moral superiority is associated with white Christian supremacy.
Fashion’s Missing Masses: The representation of marginalized populations in collections and exhibitions of dress
Edited by
Kenna Libes, Bard Graduate Center
Availability: Pre-order
$130 £100 €119
'Fashion’s Missing Masses' fills a gap in literature on museums and fashion collections and focuses on the display of clothing and fashion that has historically been left out of the canon. The fifteen essays in this volume span topics on Indigenous and traditional dress; disabled and fat bodies; and queer and ethnic identities. Their authors study the ways that dress and textiles have been collected, displayed, and often ignored across a century and a half of museum exhibitions. Representation and inclusion in fashion museums is a new and rapidly evolving area of research in the reexamination of dress history. These chapters provide unique information and perspectives on curation, collections management, conservation, and research, which will be valuable to a wide group of audiences working, teaching, and learning in and about museums. This volume touches on practical concerns of exhibition, including mannequin availability and difficulties of mounting dress, as well as broader questions of scholarship and activism that will be key for educators and researchers who wish to stay abreast of developments in this field. Diversity in fashion is a hot topic, and understanding the line between tokenization and representation in spaces of institutional authority is crucial to learning how we can better serve our diverse populations in the teaching of history.
Italian Comics in the New Millennium. Vol. 1. Continuity and Innovation
Edited by
Alessio Aletta, University of Toronto
Availability: In stock
246pp. ¦ $115 £89 €106
The first issue of a two-volume collection, this book explores the transformation of Italian comics in the new millennium, offering a comprehensive analysis of the evolving landscape of “fumetti” through both historical and contemporary lenses. The book examines iconic serials from Disney Italia and Sergio Bonelli Editore, alongside innovative auteur-driven works, providing readers with an in-depth look at how Italy’s most influential comics publishers have adapted to shifting cultural and industrial contexts. Contributions focus on the challenges of maintaining the essence of beloved series while integrating modern sensibilities, exploring shifts in audience, narrative strategies, and thematic explorations. The volumes also delve into the works of influential Italian comic artists, from the groundbreaking legacy of Andrea Pazienza to the contemporary innovations of Gipi and Zerocalcare, offering fresh insights into narrative styles, intermedial experimentation, and socio-political commentary. With contributions from leading scholars in the field, this collection highlights the vibrant, dynamic nature of Italian comics and their growing international recognition. This work provides a vital resource for anyone interested in the intersection of popular culture, artistic innovation, and the evolving nature of graphic storytelling. Drawing on a rich variety of methodological approaches, the book serves as both a reference tool and a thought-provoking exploration of the role of comics in contemporary society in the Italian context.
Italian Comics in the New Millennium. Vol. 2. New Scenarios, New Forms, New Themes
Edited by
Alessio Aletta, University of Toronto
Availability: In stock
222pp. ¦ $112 £87 €103
Volume II of 'Italian Comics in the New Millennium' offers an in-depth exploration of the dynamic transformations in the Italian comics industry, focusing on the intersections of innovation, tradition, and contemporary socio-political issues. This collection highlights the rapidly evolving production and consumption landscape, including the rise of self-publishing, digital comics, and the impact of online platforms. The book examines the role of digital comics in reshaping narrative and aesthetic possibilities, while also addressing the changing working conditions of comics creators in the digital age. Key themes explored in this volume include the integration of comics into journalism; the emergence of reality-based narratives; and the growing representation of gender, sexuality, and immigration in contemporary graphic novels. Special attention is given to new waves of Italian comics that explore regional identities, historical memory, and personal lineage, offering a diverse range of case studies from emerging authors and established figures. This collection is a vital resource for researchers, students, and professionals in comics studies, media, and cultural studies. It provides an extensive overview of the most recent developments in Italian comics, offering a blend of critical analysis and fresh perspectives on the medium’s cultural significance. With its focus on evolving narrative forms and innovative production models, this volume serves as both a reference tool and a thought-provoking exploration of the present – and future – of Italian comics.
Pedagogical Reckoning: Decolonizing and Degendering the Art Historical Canon in the Classroom and Museum
Edited by
Gillian Greenhill Hannum, Manhattanville University
and Sooran Choi, University of Vermont
Availability: In stock
338pp. ¦ $121 £93 €112
'Pedagogical Reckoning: Decolonizing and Degendering the Art Historical Canon in the Classroom and Museum' brings together leading voices in art history, museum studies, and pedagogy to confront the Eurocentric and patriarchal foundations of traditional art historical education. This timely anthology provides a range of actionable strategies for reshaping curricula, exhibitions, and research through the lenses of decoloniality, gender justice, and global inclusion. Edited by Sooran Choi and Gillian Greenhill Hannum, the volume includes contributions from scholars, artists, and educators across institutional contexts—from large research universities to community colleges and art schools. Its chapters span three key areas: inclusive classroom pedagogy, critical museum and curatorial practice, and decolonial research methodologies. Essays explore intersectional frameworks informed by postcolonial theory, feminist critique, queer studies, and ethnic studies, while also providing practical tools such as sample assignments, case studies, and curatorial models. Uniquely, this anthology integrates scholarly analysis with pedagogical reflection, offering readers both conceptual frameworks and concrete applications. It builds on recent literature such as 'Teaching South and Southeast Asian Art' and 'Expanding the Parameters of Feminist Artivism', while extending the conversation through its focus on classroom agency, community-responsive teaching, and institutional reckoning. Ideal for art history instructors; museum professionals; and students in anthropology, cultural studies, and education, 'Pedagogical Reckoning' serves as both a critical resource and a methodological guide. It is suitable for classroom adoption, professional development, and curriculum planning, and will appeal to anyone committed to transforming the way we teach, curate, and write about art.
Cinematic Ecosystems: Screen Encounters with More-than-Humans in the Era of Environmental Crisis
Edited by
Mary Hegedus, York University
and Jessica Mulvogue, University of St Andrews
Availability: In stock
390pp. ¦ $124 £96 €115
Motivated by the exigency of climate change, 'Cinematic Ecosystems: Screen Encounters with More-than-Humans in the Era of Environmental Crisis' takes cinema to be an audiovisual form whose creation and meaning are deeply connected to more-than-human worlds. As part of the third wave of ecocinema studies, this collection gathers contributions on multiple cinema forms from an international group of scholars and artists who offer diverse, critical perspectives that respond to the question: How does cinema help or hinder us in coming to know the more-than-human world? The collection homes in on the concept of the ecosystem as a biological and technological system that comprises a network of inter-relational living and their inanimate elemental affordances to explore encounters with cinema as a material object and practice, a spectatorial experience, and a representational text. The chapters cover environmental topics that span five continents and multiple histories. This book will be of special interest to film studies scholars and artists interested in cinema and climate change, environmental justice, and posthumanism.
Manet’s Ironic Duplicity: Hamlet, Baudelaire, and Masculinity
James H. Rubin, Stony Brook, State University of New York
Availability: Forthcoming
$129 £99 €118
The painter Edouard Manet (1832-1883) was a central figure for momentous and lasting changes in the realm of art that still resound today. His art speaks directly to the philosophical issues and political conflicts of his own time and is therefore deeply embedded in the development of modernity. 'Manet’s Ironic Duplicity' focuses on that situation and the historically conscious artist’s sometimes ambivalent struggle for authenticity. Rather than another full chronological monograph, the book is an interdisciplinary study organized around key concepts. It reframes the major, and sometimes disparate issues in Manet scholarship by focusing on a never-before-considered overriding theme—duplicity—which itself is multiple in its manifestations and variants, hence 'duplicities'. Reversing the usual narrative, this study deconstructs and enlightens the myth of the heroic artist struggling for individual and original vision by revealing how so much of Manet’s creativity and irony was prompted by frustrations due to repressive politics, censorship, and challenges to his sense of self. A key aspect of the latter was his masculinity. Although Manet’s association with the ideas of the poet and critic Charles Baudelaire is well known, never has Baudelaire’s essay 'On the Essence of Laughter and the Comic in the Visual Arts' been brought to bear on the concept of irony in Manet’s work. Given Baudelaire’s rapprochement between actors and artists, as well as Manet’s familiarity with the theatrical milieu, the book focuses on Manet’s two little-studied representations of 'Hamlet' as both the starting and end point of its analysis. It then concludes with a re-reading of the painter’s illustrated letters to women as a dissimulation of his final, fatal illness in order to maintain his masculine honor.
Surrealism and Ecology
Edited by
Iveta Slavkova, American University Paris, France et al.
Availability: Available 4 weeks
248pp. ¦ $113 £87 €104
'Surrealism and Ecology' is the first volume to consider the intersections of these two fields. It addresses the contribution of the avant-gardes in thinking about the relationship of humans with their environment in the context of massive environmental upheaval in the twentieth century. This volume explores the significant role of Surrealist artists and writers within the history of critical thinking about nature and environment over the last hundred years. It approaches ecology both as a mode of thinking about the many interconnections of life and as a way of experiencing and knowing the world. The relationship of humans with their environment is of paramount significance within contemporary discourse, and the contribution of the historical avant-gardes to this topic remains largely underexplored. In addressing this gap, the book presents a diverse selection of analyses of the ways in which the Surrealists have thought about and represented nature and the human place within it. It emphasises how Surrealism’s interventions in connecting seemingly distinct domains of thought and phenomena can be understood as relevant to more recent developments in the practice of ecological thought. Surrealist practices and the academic field of Surrealism studies are broad in scope and include not only visual art, but also poetry and literature, film, philosophy, exhibition design, and experimental practice. This volume includes contributions from established and developing scholars working across disciplines and locations, who address such varied practices and engage with analyses from multiple perspectives. The international and trans-Atlantic history of Surrealism is well-represented in this book, with over half the texts exploring the work of European Surrealists in exile during the Second World War or the art and environmental and political activism of Surrealists in the Caribbean and throughout the Americas.
The Insides of the Outsider: Women and the Poetics of Space and Place
Edited by
Mariangela Ugarelli
Availability: In stock
170pp. ¦ $91 £70 €84
When asked if being a woman had a negative impact on her ability to succeed as a writer, Argentine poet Alejandra Pizarnik stated that, even if not a physical impediment, being a woman in a patriarchal society is ‘a tragedy’ in itself. She followed this comment by saying: ‘What matters is what we do with our own tragedies’. Beyond sex assigned at birth, feminized bodies around the world share a similar phenomenological experience, which is dictated by a complicated relationship to space. Before setting pen to paper, the woman writer, a monster herself within patriarchal discourse, must confront the role society has set for her. For a writer in a feminized body, thus, the act of writing never begins with a tabula rasa but with a refusal and a challenge, an ushering out of the supposed ‘eden’ of the domestic. The question of the women-writer’s space is further exacerbated when considering matters of intersectionality. The poetics of space and place change within the confines of different geopolitical structures and their relations amongst each other. How do they shift when the center becomes de-centered and writing stems not from a place of political power but from the quieted voices of minor literature, queer and racialized bodies or subalternized latitudes? This volume will attempt to address these questions with input from a diverse group of scholars dealing with an equally diverse corpus. North and Latin America converse with Europe while ‘genre’ literature, minor literature and ‘gendered’ literatures take center stage. By taking into account a wide array of cultural objects, from poetry and children’s literature to Gothic tales and television shows, this collection of articles reveals the profound link between space and the female experience through the lens of art and literature.
¿Invisibles? Trans-identidades en la España contemporánea
Edited by
Ana M. Corbalan, The University of Alabama
Availability: Forthcoming
$123 £92 €106
‘¿Invisibles? Trans-identidades en la España contemporánea’ analiza la experiencia, corporeidad, identidad y representación de las personas trans en las producciones culturales españolas. Este volumen examina los fenómenos culturales que giran en torno a las trans-identidades, analizando la visibilidad del colectivo en los últimos 50 años y respondiendo a estas preguntas: ¿Cómo se representa a la comunidad trans en España? ¿Qué modelos de referencia hay en las producciones culturales? ¿Cómo combatir la transfobia existente? El libro denuncia la ausencia de un espacio realmente inclusivo en el panorama cultural y plantea la necesidad de aumentar la agencia y derechos de las identidades trans en el discurso público. Sus trece capítulos ofrecen una variedad de referentes sobre la diversidad genérico-sexual para visibilizar a unas personas vulnerables cuyas experiencias se han visto reducidas en numerosas ocasiones a rechazo y discriminación.
