Rather than offering a history of contemporary music, Audio Culture traces the genealogy of current musical practices and theoretical concerns, drawing lines of connection between recent musical production and earlier moments of sonic experimentation. It aims to foreground the various rewirings of musical composition and performance that have taken place in the past few decades and to provide a critical and theoretical language for this new audio culture. Via writings by philosophers, cultural theorists, and composers, Audio Culture explores the interconnections among such forms as minimalism, indeterminacy, musique concrète, free improvisation, experimental music, avant-rock, dub reggae, Ambient music, HipHop, and Techno. Instead of focusing on the putative "crossover" between "high art" and "popular culture," Audio Culture takes all of these musics as experimental practices on par with, and linked to, one another. While cultural studies has tended to look at music (primarily popular music) from a sociological perspective, the concern here is philosophical, musical, and historical. Audio Culture includes writing by some of the most important musical thinkers of the past half-century, among them John Cage, Brian Eno, Glenn Gould, Umberto Eco, Ornette Coleman, Jacques Attali, Simon Reynolds, Pauline Oliveros, Paul D. Miller, David Toop, John Zorn, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and many others. The book is divided into nine thematically-organized sections, each with its own introduction. Section headings include topics such as "Modes of Listening," "Minimalisms," and "DJ Culture." In addition, each essay has its own short introduction, helping the reader to place the essay within musical, historical, and conceptual contexts. The book concludes with a glossary, a timeline, and an extensive discography.

    Trainer Monty Roberts, who is famous the world over as "the man who listens to horses," celebrates his best-loved horses, chosen from the tens of thousands he has worked with over the past 60 years.

    Among his most outstanding contributions to Muslim intellectual life were masterly defenses of Islamic orthodoxy, mysticism, and law, against the attacks of those who advocated purely legalistic, or entirely esoteric, readings of the religion. He hence articulated the Islam of the middle way, in balance between the extremes of the letter and the spirit. Also included in this volume are extensive translations from key works of al-Ghazali.

    Like a fantastic film, a feverish delirium, or a dream state, these prose poems use an experimental lexicon of imagery that goes beyond anything typically poetic. Tost's point of departure is the loss of the Other that makes the I: Agnes, And in a sort of coming-of-age soliloquy song, he meditates on a range of topics: fatherhood, childhood, identity, poetry. Together his poems express the unburdening of consciousness, a consciousness that contains the likes of Blake, Italo Calvino, Allen Grossman, and Frank Stanford, among others (including Tost himself), Surreal and surprising, Invisible Bride showcases the prose artistry of a new American talent.

    With a text as fascinating as it is authoritative; vivid photographs that evoke the reverence, rituals, and rewards of each spiritual tradition; and a rich variety of essays, sidebars, and maps, this magnificent book charts the many paths that guide us to God. Chapters on each of the 5 major religions—Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—explore the landscapes and cultures where they took hold and flourished. Eminent scholars share the faiths they live and study, revealing their sacred scriptures and rites. Every page offers new insights into religious history and doctrine, along with stunning images of believers at prayer, the holy places they cherish, and their houses of worship—from soaring cathedrals and magnificent mosques to humble shrines infused with a blessed simplicity. Fittingly, each chapter closes with a photo-essay on pilgrims and their devotional journeys—a wonderful visual reminder that no matter which faith we may embrace, we are all fellow travelers in our search for the truth. "The 200 photographs demonstrating the diversity of architecture, people, and terrain, are stunning in their beauty and simplicity." —Publishers Weekly

    The book reviews an enormous and growing body of literature on the cultures of the ancient Mediterranean, the Far East, and the New World (particularly Mesoamerica), putting the ancient astronomical materials into their archaeological and cultural contexts. aspects of naked-eye astronomy, followed by an examination of specific cultures. The book concludes by taking into account the purposes of ancient astronomy: astrology, navigation, calendar regulation, and (not least) the understanding of our place and role in the universe. ancient observers - events such as the supernova of 1054, the 'lion horoscope' or the 'Star of Bethlehem.'Exploring Ancient Skies provides a comprehensive overview of the relationships between astronomy and other areas of human investigation. It will be useful as a reference for scholars and students in both astronomy and archaeology, and will be of compelling interest to readers who seek a broad understanding of our collective intellectual history.

    But there are now signs - argues Gilles Lipovetsky, one of the most original social thinkers in France today - that we've entered a new phase of 'hypermodernity', characterized by hyper-consumption and the hypermodern individual. Hyperconsumption is a consumption which absorbs and integrates more and more spheres of social life and which encourages individuals to consume for their own personal pleasure rather than to enhance their social status. Hypermodernity is a society characterized by movement, fluidity and flexibility, distanced more than ever from the great structuring principles of modernity. And the hypermodern individual, while oriented towards pleasure and hedonism, is also filled with the kind of tension and anxiety that comes from living in a world which has been stripped of tradition and which faces an uncertain future. Individuals are gnawed by anxiety; fear has superimposed itself on their pleasures, and anguish on their liberation. Everything worries and alarms them, and there are no longer any beliefs systems to which they can turn for assurance. These are hypermodern times.

    

     Provides an overview of the most significant issues and debates in Gothic studies. Explains the origins and development of the term Gothic. Explores the evolution of the Gothic in both literary and non-literary forms, including art, architecture and film. Features authoritative readings of key works, ranging from Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto to Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho. Considers recurrent concerns of the Gothic such as persecution and paranoia, key motifs such as the haunted castle, and figures such as the vampire and the monster. Includes a chronology of key Gothic texts, including fiction and film from the 1760s to the present day, and a comprehensive bibliography.

    Discusses systems as diverse as Chinese, Greek, and Maya. Presents each system in light of four major aspects of writing: history and development, internal structure, the relationship of writing and language, and sociolinguistic aspects. Includes glossary of technical terms, extensive illustrations, exercises and further reading suggestions to aid in teaching from the book.

    . . . This book is readable. Addictively.”—Michael White, Opera Now“This thoroughly enjoyable and informative book will delight all opera lovers; highly recommended.”—Library Journal

    Examining Morrison's novels, essays, speeches, and interviews, Andrea O'Reilly illustrates how Morrison builds upon black women's experiences of and perspectives on motherhood to develop a view of black motherhood that is, in terms of both maternal identity and role, radically different from motherhood as practiced and prescribed in the dominant culture. Motherhood, in Morrison's view, is fundamentally and profoundly an act of resistance, essential and integral to black women's fight against racism (and sexism) and their ability to achieve well-being for themselves and their culture. The power of motherhood and the empowerment of mothering are what make possible the better world we seek for ourselves and for our children. This, argues O'Reilly, is Morrison's maternal theory-a politics of the heart."As an advocate of 'a politics of the heart, ' O'Reilly has an acute insight into discerning any threat to the preservation and continuation of traditional African American womanhood and values ... Above all, Toni Morrison and Motherhood, based on Andrea O'Reilly's methodical research on Morrison's works as well as feminist critical resources, proffers a useful basis for understanding Toni Morrison's works. It certainly contributes to exploring in detail Morrison's rich and complex works notable from the perspectives of nurturing and sustaining African American maternal tradition." - African American Review"O'Reilly boldly reconfigures hegemonic western notions of motherhood while maintaining dialogues across cultural differences." - Journal of the Association for Research on Mothering"Andrea O'Reilly examines Morrison's complex presentations of, and theories about, motherhood with admirable rigor and a refusal to simplify, and the result is one of the most penetrating and insightful studies of Morrison yet to appear, a book that will prove invaluable to any scholar, teacher, or reader of Morrison." - South Atlantic Review"...it serves as a sort of annotated bibliography of nearly all the major theoretical work on motherhood and on Morrison as an author ... anyone conducting serious study of either Toni Morrison or motherhood, not to mention the combination, should read [this book] ... O'Reilly's exhaustive research, her facility with theories of Anglo-American and Black feminism, and her penetrating analyses of Morrison's works result in a highly useful scholarly read." - Literary Mama"By tracing both the metaphor and literal practice of mothering in Morrison's literary world, O'Reilly conveys Morrison's vision of motherhood as an act of resistance." - American Literature"Motherhood is critically important as a recurring theme in Toni Morrison's oeuvre and within black feminist and feminist scholarship. An in-depth analysis of this central concern is necessary in order to explore the complex disjunction between Morrison's interviews, which praise black mothering, and the fiction, which presents mothers in various destructive and self-destructive modes. Kudos to Andrea O'Reilly for illuminating Morrison's 'maternal standpoint' and helping readers and critics understand this difficult terrain. Toni Morrison and Motherhood is also valuable as a resource that addresses and synthesizes a huge body of secondary literature." - Nancy Gerber, author of Portrait of the Mother-Artist: Class and Creativity in Contemporary American Fiction"In addition to presenting a penetrating and original reading of Toni Morrison, O'Reilly integrates the evolving scholarship on motherhood in dominant and minority cultures in a review that is both a composite of commonalities and a clear representation of differences." - Elizabeth Bourque Johnson, Univ

    Phelan's compelling readings cover important theoretical ground by introducing a valuable distinction between disclosure functions (communications from the implied author to the authorial audience) and narrator functions (communications from the character narrator to the narratee). Phelan also identifies significant types of character narration (also known as first-person narration), including restricted, suppressed, and mask narrations. In addition, Phelan proposes new understandings of such ingrained concepts of narrative theory as unreliable narration, the implied author, focalization, and lyric narrative.Utilizing what Phelan and Peter J. Rabinowitz have called theory practice, a critical method that aims to combine theory and interpretation in mutually illuminating ways, Living to Tell about It also makes a major contribution to ethical theory and criticism. Phelan develops the concept of ethical position and explores the interactions among the ethical positions of characters, narrators, authors, and audiences. This approach emphasizes not only the close connections between narrative technique and ethics but also the important interactions between the ethical positions of the authorial audience and the flesh-and-blood reader.

    Fearlessly pondering life’s end, Holloway examines how doubts too often paralyze people. He explains, “A sentence is not finished till it has a full stop, and every life needs a dying to complete it … Our brief finitude is but a beautiful spark in the vast darkness of space. So we should live the fleeting day with passion and, when the night comes, depart from it with grace.” Written in the context of organized religion’s structural difficulties, Looking in the Distance is a highly personal and meditative work that helps us better understand the myriad ways in which the human search for wholeness and healing can be approached. Accessible, funny, inquisitive and ever hopeful, it will inspire all who read it.

    Here she roundly challenges the record of modern governments over the fundamental values of equality, fairness and respect for human dignity. She argues that in the last twenty years we have seen a steady erosion of civil liberties, culminating today in extraordinary legislation, which undermines long established freedoms. Are these moves a crude political response to demands for law and order? Or is the relationship between citizens and the state being covertly reframed and redefined?

    It indicates how the Renaissance and early Baroque artists pioneered the interactive, the cinematic and even the digital.

    literary and cultural history. Brown’s prose fiction, periodical writings, historiography, and pamphlets take part in the full range of political, literary, scientific, and other debates that form the cultural landscape of the first decades of the American republic from 1790 to 1810. Scholarship in the twentieth century developed a general understanding of Brown as an ambitious novelist but only began to explore the full extent of his writings and the issues they raise.Revising Charles Brockden Brown explores the writer as a key figure for understanding the cultural politics of this crucial era of U.S. and Atlantic history. Using contemporary critical models drawn from history, interdisciplinary cultural studies, postcolonial studies, gender and queer theory, and other areas, the essays in this collection bring Brown studies into the twenty-first century, synthesizing and extending the implications of the upsurge in Brown scholarship that has occurred over the last twenty years. These essays explore Brown in his own right and as a window onto the social dynamics of the early republic, as a participant in and commentator on the tumultuous conflicts and transformations of this postrevolutionary moment. These studies focus on the period’s political and ideological discourses in “Revolution and Republican Communities,” address questions concerning the construction of subjectivity and gender in “Gender and Sexuality,” and explore the later development of Brown’s intellectual origins in the radical enlightenment in the “Cultural Politics of the Later Years.”Contributors: Philip Barnard, Martin Brückner, Bruce Burgett, Michelle Burnham, Sean X. Goudie, Mark L. Kamrath, Robert S. Levine, Stephen Shapiro, Frank Shuffelton, Julia Stern, Fredrika J. Teute, W. M. Verhoeven, and Ed WhitePhilip Barnard teaches in the Department of English at the University of Kansas. He writes on American literature and cultural theory and has translated and edited work by such figures as Victor Séjour, Philippe Sollers, Jean-Luc Nancy, and Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe. Mark L. Kamrath teaches early American literature in the Department of English at the University of Central Florida. He is author of a forthcoming book on Brown’s historical writing, and co-editor of a collection of essays on eighteenth-century American periodicals. Stephen Shapiro teaches in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Warwick. He writes on American literature and cultural materialism and is preparing a book-length study on Brown, ideology, and the Atlantic world-system.

    Today's Berlin is new and vibrant, but history has left its scars. A look in the right place is rewarded with glimpses of the glories of old Prussia as well as the abominations of Hitler's Third Reich and of the outer bulwark of the Soviet empire. Brian Ladd, a historian who has been returning to Berlin for twenty-five years, pays homage to the familiar landmarks, but he also penetrates into obscure corners of the city and brings them alive with his shrewd and informed comment. He explains what the sights of Berlin have meant to Berliners who coped under kings and dictators, and who toiled, suffered and celebrated as their city was destroyed and rebuilt. This book invites you to share their passions as it draws you into the dynamic new capital that has risen from wreckage of post-war German history. BRIAN LADD is at the State University of New York at Albany. He has been a constant visitor to Berlin over a quarter of a century.

    What is banned is state-sponsored prayer, not the religious speech of the students themselves. But as news stories, political speeches, and lawsuits amply demonstrate, this approach has by no means resolved the long-standing debate over religion in public education. While some people challenge the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, with its reference to “one nation under God,” others view school shootings and the terrorism of 9/11 as evidence that organized prayer must once again become part of the official school day. In this lively book, Joan DelFattore traces the evolution of school-prayer battles from the early 1800s, when children were beaten or expelled for refusing to read the King James Bible, to current disputes over prayer at public-school football games. Underlying these events, she shows, is a struggle to balance two of the most fundamental tenets of Americanism: majority rule and individual rights. Her highly readable book explores the enduring tension between people of good will who wish the schools to promote majoritarian beliefs, and equally well-meaning (and often religious) people who deplore any governmental influence in religious matters.