Best of
Cultural

1992

Your Blues Ain't Like Mine


Bebe Moore Campbell - 1992
    For speaking a few innocuous words in French to a white woman, Armstrong is killed. And the precariously balanced world and its determined people--white and black--are changed, then and forever, by the horror of poverty, the legacy of justice, and the singular gift of love's power to heal.

Sotah


Naomi Ragen - 1992
    Ninety three weeks on the best-seller list.Sotah introduces a family with three daughters approaching the age of marriage: Devorah, Dina and Chaya Leah. In the strict orthodoxy of their world, a Sotah is a wife suspected of infidelity who can be tried by ordeal to prove she is guiltless. Which sister could be capable of such a thought, let alone the act? Into the pious world of strict chaperoning and modest clothing, where a married woman's hair must never be seen by a man other than her husband--insinuates this serpent suggestion of evil. Ragen's powerful tale of three sisters spins endless questions: Which one? Could she? Did she? What changes could come into this orderly world because of unthinking actions?

The Noble Path


Peter May - 1992
    Amid the Khmer Rouge's crazed genocide, soldier-of-fortune Jack Elliott is given the impossible task of rescuing a family from the regime. THE PAINFUL TRUTH Eighteen-year-old orphan and budding journalist Lisa Robinson has received the impossible news that her father is, in fact, alive. His name - Jack Elliott. THE NOBLE PATH As Jack tracks the hostages and Lisa traces her heritage, each is intent on reuniting a family. Yet to succeed, so must run a dangerous gauntlet of bullets and betrayal.

The Friends


Kazumi Yumoto - 1992
    Curious about death, three sixth-grade boys decide to spy on an old man waiting for him to die, but they end up becoming his friends.

Whisper on the Wind


Elizabeth Elgin - 1992
    For men, an era of terrible devastation, broken lives and perhaps a glimpse of heroism. But for many women, a time of opportunity, a new-found freedom, a challenge in a changing world. For Kath Allen and Roz Fairchild it’s a time for shadowy secrest and forbidden love…Against the express wishes of her long-absent husband Barney, Kath joins up as a landgirl and moves from the bustle of Birmingham to work on Mat Ramsden’s farm in the Yorkshire countryside. For the first time in her life she feels she belongs. Kath blossoms there like a flower in the sun and, free from the rigid restrictions of Barney and his family, begins to believe that she has a right to happiness on her own terms. But freedom can bring temptation. And temptation can be dangerous.Next door the Fairchild estate has been harnessed for the war effort. Roz, exempted from call-up to work on the land, has something to hide from her grandmother…but her grandmother too has secrets of her own.

Arrow of the Blue-Skinned God: Retracing the Ramayana Through India


Jonah Blank - 1992
    In Arrow of the Blue-Skinned God, anthropologist and journalist Jonah Blank gives a new perspective to this Hindu classic -- retelling the ancient tale while following the course of Rama's journey through present-day India and Sri Lanka. Ultimately, Blank's journey -- like that of Lord Rama -- evolves into a quest: to understand the chimerical essence of India itself, in all its overwhelming beauty and paradox. "Quite possibly the most perceptive book that I have come across on India since the British Raj ended." -- Pranay Gupte, The Washington Post"What Hollywood attempted on the big screen with casts of thousands in Gandhi and A Passage to India, Jonah Blank has achieved in 350 stylistically rich pages." -- Los Angeles Times"This informative and entertaining book is something to be thankful for." -- The New York Times Book Review

Sukey and the Mermaid


Robert D. San Souci - 1992
    Every day Sukey wakes at dawn to work in the garden. All her step-pa ever does is watch her and yell if she so much as stops to fan herself. Sukey's ma calls him Mister Jones. Sukey prefers the name Mister Hard-Times. One day, Sukey runs away to her secret place by the ocean. There, she calls up Mama Jo, a beautiful black mermaid. Mama Jo's got a surprise for Sukey; a magical kingdom beneath the sea without time or pain. But it's also without people. Is it really better than the world above?

Charlie Parker Played Be Bop


Chris Raschka - 1992
    Look at this board book and you'll hear Charlie Parker; you'll hear music in your mind."Be bop. Fisk, fisk. Lollipop. Boomba, boomba."Look. That's Charlie swinging and spinning all over the pages. And that's Charlie's cat, waiting, waiting for him to come home....

Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia


Jean Sasson - 1992
    She has four mansions on three continents, her own private jet, glittering jewels, designer dresses galore. But in reality she lives in a gilded cage. She has no freedom, no control over her own life, no value but as a bearer of sons. Hidden behind her black floor-length veil, she is a prisoner, jailed by her father, her husband, her sons, and her country.Sultana is a member of the Saudi royal family, closely related to the king. For the sake of her daughters, she has decided to take the risk of speaking out about the life of women in her country, regardless of their rank. She must hide her identity for fear that the religious leaders in her country would call for her death to punish her honesty. Only a woman in her position could possibly hope to escape from being revealed and punished, despite her cloak and anonymity. Sultana tells of her own life, from her turbulent childhood to her arranged marriage--a happy one until her husband decided to displace her by taking a second wife--and of the lives of her sisters, her friends and her servants. Although they share affection, confidences and an easy camaraderie within the confines of the women's quarters, they also share a history of appalling oppression, everyday occurrences that in any other culture would be seen as shocking human rights violations; thirteen-year-old girls forced to marry men five times their age, young women killed by drowning, stoning, or isolation in the women's room, a padded, windowless cell where women are confined with neither light nor conversation until death claims them.By speaking out, Sultana risks bringing the wrath of the Saudi establishment upon her head and the heads of her children. But by telling her story to Jean Sasson, Sultana has allowed us to see beyond the veils of this secret society, to the heart of a nation where sex, money, and power reign supreme.

Daughters of Africa


Margaret BusbyMakeda - 1992
    A monumental literary enterprise, it is the most inclusive anthology ever attempted of oral and written literature--in every conceivable genre--by women of African descent the world over. (Pantheon)List of Contributors Continued:Dorothy West, Carolina Maria de Jesus, Ellen Kuzwayo, Billie Holiday, Claudia Jones, Margaret Walker, Gwendolyn Brooks, Marie Vieux-Chauvet, Caroline Ntseliseng Khaketla, Aída Cartagena Portalatín, Louise Simone Bennett-Coverley, Alice Childress

Encyclopedia of Gods: Over 2,500 Deities of the World


Michael Jordan - 1992
    They have attempted to explain the mysteries and allay the fears in the same way - through the worship of gods. Deities have been identified with the human psyche for at least 60,000 years. Encyclopedia of Gods offers concise information on more than 2,500 of these deities, from the most ancient gods of polytheistic societies - Hittite, Sumerian, Mesopotamian - to the most contemporary gods of the major monotheistic religions - Allah, God, Yahweh. Among the cultures included are African peoples, Albanian, Pre-Islamic Arabian, Aztec, Babylonian, Buddhist, Canaanite, Celtic, Egyptian, Native American, Etruscan, Germanic, Greek, Roman, Hindu, Persian, Polynesian, and Shinto. The Encyclopedia includes not only the most significant gods of each culture but minor deities as well. Here you will find information not only on Zeus, Thor and Astarte but also on Tozi, the Aztec goddess of healing, Annamurti, the Hindu patron deity of the kitchen, and Nyakaya, the Shilluk crocodile goddess. Each entry provides details on what culture worshiped the god, the role of the god, and the characteristics and symbols used in identification. In the case of the more important personalities, references in art and literature and known dates of worship are also provided. Indexes by civilization and role of the god enable the researcher to compare gods across cultures or to find information on specific topics of interest. Encyclopedia of Gods will be indispensable to students and researchers in religions, anthropology, history and archaeology. It will also provide endless information for thereader interested in mythology and legend.

Gift of Power: The Life and Teachings of a Lakota Medicine Man


Archie Fire Lame Deer - 1992
    Archie's compelling narrative recaptures his boyhood years under the tutelage of his medicine-man grandfather on a South Dakota farm. We follow him from Catholic school runaway to Army misfit, from bartender to boozer, from Hollywood stuntman to chief rattlesnake catcher of the state of South Dakota. And we exult with him when he comes home to the world of spirit.

Breaking the Maya Code


Michael D. Coe - 1992
    Among the more exciting advances to be described are: the discovery of the specific Maya language and sophisticated grammar used by the ancient scribes on stone monuments and painted vases;  archaeological explorations of tombs and buildings of the ancient founders of the great city of Copan, whose very existence had been predicted by epigraphers through glyphic decipherment; the realization that many small city-states were dominated by two rival giants, Tikal and Calakmul, through a potent combination of military conquest, diplomacy, and royal marriages.

Guy Debord


Anselm Jappe - 1992
    Anselm Jappe rejects recent attempts to set Debord up as a "postmodern" icon, arguing that he was a social theorist in the Hegelian-Marxist tradition—not a precursor of Jean Baudrillard but an heir of the young Georg Lukács of History and Class Consciousness (1923). Neither hagiographical nor sectarian, Guy Debord places its subject squarely in his historical context: the politicizing Letterist and Situationist "anti-artists" who, in the European aftermath of World War II, sought to criticize and transcend the Surrealist legacy. The book offers a lively, critical, and unusually reliable account of Debord's "last avant-garde" on its way from radical bohemianism to revolutionary theory. Jappe also discusses Debord's films, which are largely inaccessible at present. This English language edition of the book has been revised by the author and features an updated critical bibliography of Debord and the Situationists.»

Zomo the Rabbit: A Trickster Tale from West Africa


Gerald McDermott - 1992
    But he must accomplish three apparently impossible tasks before Sky God will give him what he wants. Is he clever enough to do as Sky God asks? “The tale moves along with the swift concision of a good joke, right down to its satisfying punch line.”--Publishers Weekly “Wildly exuberant, full of slapstick and mischief, this version of an enduring Nigerian trickster tale, featuring a clever rabbit, is a storyteller’s delight.”--Booklist

How I Became One of the Invisible


David Rattray - 1992
    Louis, 1961, who become Rattray's friends.Trained at Harvard and the Sorbonne, Rattray was a poet, translator and scholar, fluent in most Western languages, Sanskrit, Latin, and Greek. Living in Paris during the 1950s, Rattray re-traced the steps of Antonin Artaud and became one of Artaud's first and best American translators. Published by City Lights Books in 1963, Rattray's Artaud translations burned through the aura of transgressive chic that surrounded the poet to reveal the core of his incisive scholarship, technological prophecies, and visionary rage. As Rattray later said of translating Artaud, "You have to identify with the man or the woman. You have to identify with that person and their work. If you don't then you shouldn't be translating it. Why would you translate something that you didn't think had an important message for other people? I wanted to translate Artaud because I wanted to turn my friends on and pass on a message that had relevance to our lives. That's why I was doing it. Not to get a grant, or be hired by an English department..."What Rattray did for Artaud, he went on to do for Friedrich Holderlin, Rene Crevel, and the " In Nomine" music of John Bull, becoming a concert-level pianist to better understand the logic of baroque. He was, as Betsey Sussler wrote in Bomb after his death in 1993, "the most generous of writers."

Masai and I


Virginia L. Kroll - 1992
    In school one day, a little girl named Linda learns about East Africa and a tall, proud people called the Masai "If I were a Masai"' Linda wonders, "would I live in an apartment building the way I do now? Would I have a pet hamster of a new pair of sneakers? What would my family be like if I were Masai?"Linda's observations celebrate things that are different and theings that are the same, as her imagination opens the door to a place where Masai might be I, and I, Masai.

The World Order: Our Secret Rulers


Eustace Clarence Mullins - 1992
    It also includes some interesting history of the major tax exempt foundations. Unfortunately, this edition does not include footnotes.

Laughing Lost in the Mountains: Poems of Wang Wei


Wang Wei - 1992
    Fine contemporary translations of one of the great poets of the T'ang dynasty.

Elijah's Angel: A Story for Chanukah and Christmas


Michael J. Rosen - 1992
    How can he possibly take home a Christmas angel, a forbidden graven image--especially on Chanukah? “A strikingly illustrated story that tenderly bridges the boundaries of age, race, and religion.”--American Bookseller

All in the Blue Unclouded Weather


Robin Klein - 1992
    Each story links the girls and their friends together in a variety of domestic events and problems. The stories present a nostalgic feel for the post-war years.

The Balkan Express: Fragments from the Other Side of War


Slavenka Drakulić - 1992
    In a series of stories, she describes the ordinary people's response to this situation - how it destroys everyday lives, disrupts relationships and turns close friends into bitter enemies. She also wonders if we ourselves are all responsible for allowing this war to start. The collection is filled with stories about her daughter, her friends, about the day her father frightened her with his World War II pistol and about her journey on the Balkan Express which heads southwards from the comparative sanity of Vienna into the heart of the Yugoslavian conflict.

La'au Hawai'i: Traditional Hawaiian Uses of Plants


Isabella Aiona Abbott - 1992
    Topics include not only food, but clothing, cordage, shelter, canoes, tools, housewares, medicines, religious objects, weaponry, personal adornment, and recreation.

Love Flute


Paul Goble - 1992
    One night he receives mystical visitors who offer him a special gift -- a love flute. A gift from the birds and animals, its tells the girl of his love where words have failed.

Exiled in the Land of the Free: Democracy, Indian Nations, and the U.S. Constitution


Oren Lyons - 1992
    European philosophers of the Enlightenment such as Jean Jacques Rousseau had begun pressing for democratic reforms in Europe on the basis of glowing reports by early settlers about the New World and its native inhabitants. The founding fathers of the United States, in turn, were inspired to fight for independence and to create the great American documents of freedom through contact with Native American statesmen and exposure to American Indian societies based on individual freedom, representative government and the democratic union of tribes.Yet American Indians have never been acknowledged for their many contributions to the founding of the United States of America, and they have never been permitted to fully share the benefits of the freedoms they helped establish. Exiled in the Land of the Free is a dramatic recounting of early American history and an eloquent call for reform that will not be ignored.Written by eight prominent Native American leaders and scholars, each a specialist in his area of expertise, Exiled in the Land of the Free is a landmark volume, sure to be read by generations to come. An aspect of American history that has been ignored and denied for centuries is the extent to which we are indebted to Native Americans for the principles and practices on which our democratic institutions are based. This is the first work to recognize that legacy and trace our model of participatory democracy to its Native American roots.This book, which was written into the Congressional Record, has major implications for future relations between Indian tribes and the governments of the United States and other nations. It presents the strongest case ever made for Native American sovereignty. American history has finally been written--not from the European point of view--but from an Indian perspective.

Songs My Mother Sang to Me: An Oral History of Mexican American Women


Patricia Preciado Martin - 1992
    In Songs My Mother Sang to Me, she has preserved the oral histories of many of these women before they have been lost or forgotten. Martin's quest took her to ranches, mining towns, and cities throughout southern Arizona, for she sought to document as varied an experience of the contributions of Mexican American women as possible. The interviews covered family history and genealogy, childhood memories, secular and religious traditions, education, work and leisure, environment and living conditions, rites of passage, and personal values. Each of the ten oral histories reflects not only the spontaneity of the interview and personality of each individual, but also the friendship that grew between Martin and her subjects.Songs My Mother Sang to Me collects voices not often heard and brings to print accounts of social change never previously recorded. These women document more than the details of their own lives; in relating the histories of their ancestors and communities, they add to our knowledge of the culture and contributions of Mexican American people in the Southwest.

Off with Their Heads! Fairy Tales and the Culture of Childhood


Maria Tatar - 1992
    Children's literature, Maria Tatar maintains, has always been more intent on producing docile minds than playful bodies. From its inception, it has openly endorsed a productive discipline that condemns idleness and disobedience along with most forms of social resistance. In this book she explores how Perrault, the Grimms, and others reshaped fairy tales to produce conciliatory literary texts that dedicate themselves to the project of socializing the child.

The White Rhino Hotel


Bartle Bull - 1992
    The Great War has ended, tragically for many, but for some, Africa holds the prospect of vast estates, fabulous wealth, and limitless opportunity in this powerful, wonderfully crafted novel of the natural and human perils that await pioneers in a promised land. In colonial Kenya the paths of these new settlers cross at Lord Penfold's White Rhino Hotel. Here they meet the cunning dwarf Olivio Alevado, a man whose lustful desires and vengeful schemes make him a formidable adversary to his enemies and a subtle ally to his friends. Here the destinies of the gypsy adventurer Anton Rider and courageous, war-hardened Gwen Llewelyn intersect. Here hope is corrupted by greed, love by revenge, and loyalty by betrayal as the future is trampled into history. "A wing-ding adventure story.... The kind of book that creates one of the elemental delights of fiction - a complete other world where, unlike our own, all the parts add up to something." - Boston Globe; "A genuine epic centered in Africa, by a writer who knows how to write, who knows his terrain intimately, who knows how to paint his characters convincingly, and who knows how to spin a good yarn." - Forbes Magazine.

Malcolm X: As They Knew Him


David Gallen - 1992
    Now, thirty years after his death, we are still coming to grips with the complexity, and power of his message. In this fascinating volume, Malcolm X, the man and the leader, stands revealed in a shimmering mosaic of memories, interviews, insights, and appreciations by:-- Maya Angelou - James Baldwin - James Booker Elombe Braath - James Brown - Kenneth B. Clark John Henrik Clarke - Eldridge Cleaver - Joe Durso James Farmer - Kathy Gibson - Peter Goldman - Rosa Guy - Robert Haggins - Alex Haley - Hinton Johnson Benjamin Karim - Charles Kenyatta - Yuri Kuchiama William Kunstler - Maria Laurino - Claude Lewis Abby Lincoln - C. Eric Lincoln - Julian Mayfield Bayard Rustin - Sonia Sanchez - Dick Schaap - George Sims - James Small - Michael Thelwell - Mike Wallace Robert Penn Warren - Ralph Wiley - Alice WindomMore than thirty luminaries describe how Malcolm X touched and, in some cases, radically transformed their lives. Then Malcolm speaks to us in his own voice through seven seminal interviews that he granted in the last years of his life, including the controversial 1963 Playboy interview with Alex Haley. The book closes with a collection of essays by outstanding American writers examining the meaning of Malcolm X's contribution and assessing his place in American history.

Rollo and Tweedy and the Ghost at Dougal Castle


Laura Jean Allen - 1992
    In their second adventure, they are at a Scottish castle, attempting to solve the mystery of the castle ghost. An engaging introduction to a time-honored and -tested genre." —C.

After Jews And Arabs: Remaking Levantine Culture


Ammiel Alcalay - 1992
    Besides grounding Middle Eastern literary studies in ongoing theoretical debates, and also serving as a wide-ranging introduction to inaccessible and neglected literature, After Jews and Arabs will compel a revision of Jewish studies by placing contemporary Israeli culture within its Middle Eastern context and the terms of colonial, postcolonial, postcolonial, and multicultural discourse.

When I Was Little


Toyomi Igus - 1992
    While visiting him for the summer, Noel hears what life was like when his grandfather was growing up. It is difficult for Noel to imagine living without televisions, VCRs and video games. But he finds that although many things change, some things don't . . . including the need for love and sharing.

Dictionary of the Ojibway Language


Frederic Baraga - 1992
    The multilingual Baraga quickly learned the Ojibway language and over many years worked within the community to produce a dictionary, a grammar and religious literature. In 1853 the first edition of A Dictionary of Otchipwe Language Explained in English was published. A revised edition of this Ojibway-English/English-Ojibway dictionary followed in 1878 and is the version now reprinted. More than a hundred years later, this dictionary remains a classic and the most useful for a wide range of dialects. It is an important cultural and linguistic source for historians, anthropologists, linguists, ethnologists, and all students interested in the Ojibway language.

Eyewitness: Monet


Jude Welton - 1992
    These titles, and those to follow in future seasons, form an indispensable library for the whole family.Science Titles: These six volumes are part of DK's first set of U.S - published Eyewitness Books. Each volume focuses on a different field of science, and each features clear, expertly written text, color and black - and - white photos, charts, graphics, and 3 - D models -- all of which combine to make complex scientific concepts easy to understand.Art Titles: Each highly informative visual guide traces the life and work of a great artist, using superb full - color photography to bring the artist's work to life and to explore the conditions and motivations that inspired it.

No Friends But The Mountains: The Tragic History Of The Kurds


John Bulloch - 1992
    Thousands of peshmerga (Kurdish guerrillas) responded, seizing the towns and countryside of northern Iraq. But after Saddam signed the truce with the U.N. forces, he sent his surviving units north, slaughtering the lightly-armed Kurds and driving millions more into exile while the Allies stood aside. For the Kurds, it was one more betrayal in their long and tragic history. In No Friends but the Mountains, veteran Middle East journalists John Bulloch and Harvey Morris provide the only history of the Kurdish people available today. Ranging from their earliest origins to the aftermath of the Gulf War, Bulloch and Morris trace the course of the Kurds' past and identify the pressures that have denied them a state of their own for so many centuries. Numbering some sixteen million and spread across five countries, the Kurds are the world's largest nationality without a state--a people divided among themselves in their struggle for independence, the pawns of rival governments throughout history. Bulloch and Morris show how they were exploited by the Turks and the Great Powers in the days of the Ottoman Empire, how the British, French, and the new Turkish republic subverted Woodrow Wilson's promise of a Kurdish state in 1918, and how the Kurds' revolts and insurrections led to further repression. Later the peshmerga guerrillas were funded and manipulated by Saddam Hussein, the Shah of Iran, Israel, and the CIA--while the Turkish government has harshly repressed any signs of Kurdish identity, banning the use of the Kurdish language until only recently. Both Saddam and Khomeini's government sought to use the Kurds to their own advantage during the long Iran-Iraq War. Bulloch and Morris trace the history of the main Kurdish organizations, such as the PKK in Turkey and the KDP in Iraq, underscoring the divisions that are threatening Kurdish survival at a time when the Iraqi army stands poised to attack the safe haven established by the U.N. This authoritative, highly readable account details the story of the rebellion, exile, and return that followed the Gulf War, providing a critical historical perspective on these momentous events. Written by two leading Middle East journalists, No Friends But the Mountains offers the first history of the long-suffering people at the center of one of the world's most explosive conflicts.

Living in Morocco: Design from Casablanca to Marrakesh


Landt Dennis - 1992
    Berber, Arab, French, English, and Spanish: the country's rich mixture of heritages is matched by its geography, which ranges from coast to mountain to desert.This revised edition of Living in Morocco celebrates the indigenous arts of a country at the height of a cultural renaissance. Morocco is known for fine leather and for pottery that dates back a thousand years. Berber rugs are justly famous, and there is a thriving tradition of woodworking, especially in the native thuya wood. Most extraordinary, though, is Morocco's decorative painting and tilework, where, forbidden by religion to depict human figures, craftsmen have developed a vocabulary of pattern and ornament. The book is filled with brightly colored ceilings, decorated courtyards and walls, plaster of Paris carved and painted in intricate geometrics, tiles so small that 150 could fit in a matchbox.Lavishly illustrated chapters on decorative and folk arts alternate with chapters on Moroccan life today. We visit Chaouen in the Rif Mountains (a city only recently open to Westerners), where the town's undulating surfaces are painted a bone-chilling blue-tinted white. We peer into an abandoned kasbah in the Sahara, and absorb the sights, sounds, and smells of the frenzied souk. We take time out in the shady blue-and-pink environs of the Majorelle Gardens, laid out by French painter Jacques Majorelle, and explore the story behind La Mamounia, the famous hotel that has welcomed such guests as Winston Churchill. Most important, we see Morocco's arts brought to life in its homes -- from former harems totraditional Hispano-Moorish houses.

O Canada


Ted Harrison - 1992
    In this, the first illustrated edition of "O Canada," acclaimed Canadian painter Ted Harrison takes us on a spectacular journey across Canada, "from east to western sea." Through his joyous eye, Canada is revealed as a land of singular beauty.

Real Thai: The Best of Thailand's Regional Cooking


Nancie McDermott - 1992
    In "Real Thai, " she demystifies once and for all every aspect of this flavorful, healthy cuisine. Organized geographically by region, over 100 tempting, easy-to-follow recipes explore not only dishes that may be familiar to Americans, such as Chicken Coconut Soup and Pork Satay, but also lesser-known local specialties such as Crab Cakes with Cilantro Paste, Fish with Yellow Curry Steamed in Banana Leaves, Sticky Rice with Mangoes, and Son-in-Law Eggs. Including advice on basic utensils and techniques, a glossary of ingredients, a list of shopping sources, and a section of suggested menus, this is the definitive guide for novice and expert alike to the diverse flavors of a regional Asian cuisine that is rapidly becoming an international favorite.

Women of the Mito Domain: Recollections of Samurai Family Life


Kikue Yamakawa - 1992
    Based on the recollection of the author's mother, other relatives, and family records, this is a vivid picture of the everyday life of a samurai household in the last years of the Tokugawa period.

Dreaming with Open Eyes: The Shamanic Spirit in Twentieth Century Art and Culture


Michael Tucker - 1992
    

Two by Two


Barbara Reid - 1992
    A musical score and verses to sing the story are included.

An African Elegy


Ben Okri - 1992
    Okri's dreams are made on the stuff of Africa's colossal economic and political problems, and reading the poems is to experience a constant succession of metaphors of resolution in both senses of the word. Virtually every poem contains an exhortation to climb out of the African miasma, and virtually every poem harvests the dream of itself with an upbeat restorative ending' - Giles Foden, Times Literary Supplement

Women's Lives in Medieval Europe: A Sourcebook


Emilie Amt - 1992
    Using women's own voices where possible, the collection focuses on ordinary women of all ranks.

Jane Goodall, Living with the Chimps: Living with the Chimps


Julie Fromer - 1992
    A biography of the woman whose methods of studying chimpanzees became a model for wildlife observation.

Dragon Kite Of The Autumn Moon


Valerie Reddix - 1992
    When his grandfather is sick, Tad-Tin goes out to fly his special dragon kite, so that it can take all their troubles away with it.

A History of Russian Literature


Victor Terras - 1992
    Victor Terras argues eloquently that Russian literature has reflected, defined, and shaped the nation’s beliefs and goals, and he sets his survey against a background of social and political developments and religious and philosophic thought. Terras traces a rich literary heritage that encompasses Russian folklore of the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries, medieval literature that in style and substance drew on the Byzantine tradition, and literature of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when Russia passed through a succession of literary schools—neoclassicism, sentimentalism, romanticism, and realism—imported from the West. Terras then moves on to the masterful realist fiction of Turgenev, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoi during the second half of the nineteenth century, showing how it was a catalyst for the social and cultural advances following the reforms of Alexander II. In discussing the period preceding the revolution of 1917, Terras links the literary movements with parallel developments in the theater, music, and the visual arts, explaining that these all placed Russia in the forefront of European modernism. Terras divides Russian literature after the revolution into émigré and Soviet writing, and he demonstrates how the latter acted as a propaganda tool of the Communist party. He concludes his survey with the dissident movement that followed Stalin’s death, arguing that the movement again made literature a leader in the struggle for freedom of thought, genuine relevance, and communion with Western culture.