5 Cultures / Languages eBooks

Texts, Transmissions, Receptions: Modern Approaches to Narratives (Radboud Studies in Humanities) by Dr Andre Lardinois
Postfeminism(s) and the Arrival of the Fourth Wave: Turning Tides By Nicola Rivers
Immersive Theatre and Audience Experience: Space, Game and Story in the Work of Punchdrunk By Rose Biggin
International Adoption in North American Literature and Culture: Transnational, Transracial and Transcultural Narratives By Dr. Mark Shackleton
Memory and the Mediterranean by Fernand Braudel

Texts, Transmissions, Receptions: Modern Approaches to Narratives (Radboud Studies in Humanities) by Dr Andre Lardinois
English | Oct. 16, 2014 | ISBN: 9004270809 | 330 Pages | PDF | 4 MB
The papers collected in this volume study the function and meaning of narrative texts from a variety of perspectives. The word "text" is used here in the broadest sense of the term: it denotes literary books, but also oral tales, speeches, newspaper articles and comics. One of the purposes of this volume is to discover what these different texts have in common. The texts are approached from four main perspectives: New Philology, Linguistics, Iconography and Reception studies. Contributors come from diverse disciplines, such as Classical Studies, Medieval Studies, English literature, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Cultural Studies, Art History, Linguistics, and Communication and Information Studies, all united in a common purpose to understand the workings of narrative texts.

Postfeminism(s) and the Arrival of the Fourth Wave: Turning Tides By Nicola Rivers
English | PDF | 2017 | 165 Pages | ISBN : 3319598112 | 2.35 MB
This book addresses the current resurgence of interest in feminism – notably within popular culture and media – that has led some to announce the arrival of the fourth wave. Research explores where fourth-wave feminism sits in relation to those that preceded it, and in particular, how fourth-wave feminism intersects with differing understandings of postfeminism(s).
Through accessible and highly topical examples such as; the controversial actions of activist group, Femen; the rising phenomenon of ‘celebrity feminism;’ or the assumed outdated views of feminists’ associated with previous waves, the relationship between differing concepts of postfeminism(s) is illustrated. By pressing the need for an intergenerational approach to fourth-wave feminism, this book encourages engaging past debates and theorists allowing readers with an interest in the relationship between feminism and popular culture a fuller understanding of feminist theory and providing the opportunity to take stock before diving headfirst into another wave.

Immersive Theatre and Audience Experience: Space, Game and Story in the Work of Punchdrunk By Rose Biggin
English | PDF | 2017 | 225 Pages | ISBN : 331962038X | 1.98 MB
This book is the first full-length monograph to focus on Punchdrunk, the internationally-renowned theatre company known for its pioneering approach to immersive theatre. With its promises of empowerment, freedom and experiential joy, immersive theatre continues to gain popularity - this study brings necessary critical analysis to this rapidly developing field. What exactly do we mean by audience “immersion”? How might immersion in a Punchdrunk production be described, theorised, situated or politicised? What is valued in immersive experience - and are these values explicit or implied?
Immersive Theatre and Audience Experience draws on rehearsals, performances and archival access to Punchdrunk, providing new critical perspectives from cognitive studies, philosophical aesthetics, narrative theory and computer games. Its discussion of immersion is structured around three themes: interactivity and game; story and narrative; environment and space. Providing a rigorous theoretical toolkit to think further about the form’s capabilities, and offering a unique set of approaches, this book will be of significance to scholars, students, artists and spectators.

International Adoption in North American Literature and Culture: Transnational, Transracial and Transcultural Narratives By Dr. Mark Shackleton
English | PDF | 2017 | 314 Pages | ISBN : 3319599410 | 2.79 MB
This book is about transnational and transracial adoption in North American culture. It asks: to what extent does the process of international adoption reflect imperious inequalities around the world; or can international adoption and the personal experiences of international adoptees today be seen more positively as what has been called the richness of “adoptive being”?
The areas covered include Native North American adoption policies and the responses of Native North American writers themselves to these policies of assimilation. This might be termed “adoption from within.” “Adoption from without” (transnational adoption) is primarily dealt with in articles discussing Chinese and Korean adoptions in the US. The third section concerns such issues as the multiple forms that adoption can take, notions of adoption and identity, adoption and the family, and the problems of adoption.

Memory and the Mediterranean by Fernand Braudel
English | February 9th, 2011 | ASIN: B004FEFSCC, ISBN: 0375703993, 0375404260 | 560 pages | AZW3 | 3.24 MB
A grand sweep of history by the late Fernand Braudel–one of the twentieth century’s most influential historians–Memory and the Mediterranean chronicles the Mediterranean’s immeasurably rich past during the foundational period from prehistory to classical antiquity, illuminating nothing less than the bedrock of our civilization and the very origins of Western culture.
Essential for historians, yet written explicitly for the general reader, this magnificent account of the ebb and flow of cultures shaped by the Mediterranean takes us from the great sea’s geologic beginnings through the ancient civilizations that flourished along its shores. Moving with ease from Mesopotamia and Egypt to the flowering of Crete and the early Aegean peoples, and culminating in the prodigious achievements of ancient Greece and Rome, Braudel conveys in absorbing detail the geography and climate of the region over the course of millennia while brilliantly explaining the larger forces that gave rise to agriculture, writing, sea travel, trade, and, ultimately, the emergence of empires. Impressive in scope and gracefully written, Memory and the Mediterranean is an endlessly enriching work of history by a legend in the field.