Book picks similar to
Serialization in Popular Culture by Rob Allen
comics
criticism
exam-titles
theory
Introducing Lacan
Darian Leader - 2000
This text on Lacan is one of a number of titles that is being relaunched with an updated cover.
Rage Comics
M. Gusto - 2011
150 Rage Comics in glorious paperback. This is a collection arranged bound and assembled with some of best and funniest representations of them. A great gift or book for your comic collection.
Jeff Smith: Bone and Beyond
Lucy Shelton Caswell - 2008
In July of 1991, he launched Cartoon Books in Columbus, Ohio, to publish his black-and-white comic strip Bone. A tale of three marshmallowy creatures named Bone, adrift in a world of humans, monsters and fantasy creatures, Bone has since been translated into 15 languages and won Smith countless awards. Bone and Beyond is the first volume to offer an overview of Smith's work. Published in conjunction with the Wexner Center and Cartoon Research Library's 2008 exhibition, this catalogue presents work featured in the show, including examples of Smith's original drawings for Bone, plus the more recent Shazam and Rasl, a forthcoming time travel story. Also featured are selected works by cartoonists who have influenced Smith, such as George Herriman, Charles Schulz and Walt Kelly, and essays by comic book and fantasy author Neil Gaiman, comic book artist and scholar Scott McCloud and Wexner Center film/video curator David Filipi, the exhibition's co-curator. Cartoon Research Library curator Lucy Shelton Caswell, the exhibition's other co-curator, provides an introduction.
Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of the Biotechnology Revolution
Francis Fukuyama - 2002
Fukuyama sketches a brief history of man's changing understanding of human nature: from Plato and Aristotle to the modernity's utopians and dictators who sought to remake mankind for ideological ends. Fukuyama argues that the ability to manipulate the DNA of all of one person's descendants will have profound, and potentially terrible, consequences for our political order, even if undertaken with the best of intentions. In Our Posthuman Future, one of our greatest social philosophers begins to describe the potential effects of genetic exploration on the foundation of liberal democracy: the belief that human beings are equal by nature.
Common Sense and Other Writings
Thomas Paine - 1776
Common Sense, the instantly popular pamphlet he published in January 1776, argued that the goal of the struggle against the British should be not simply tax reform, as many were calling for, but complete independence. His rousing, radical voice was balanced by the equally independence-minded but more measured tones of Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration of Independence later that year. In later works, such as The Rights of Man, The Age of Reason, & other selections included in this volume, he proved himself a visionary moralist centuries ahead of his time. He believed that every human has the natural right to life's necessities & that government's role should be to provide for those in dire need. An impassioned opponent of all forms of slavery, he understood that no one in poverty is truly free--a lesson still to be learned by many of our leaders today.
Sigmund Freud
Pamela Thurschwell - 2000
Studied on most undergraduate literary and cultural studies courses, Sigmund Freud takes a fresh look at the work of this groundbreaking theorist, offering students a clear introduction to Freud's importance for psychoanalytic literary criticism, while tracing the scientific and cultural contexts from which he emerged. This book guides readers through Freud's terminology and key ideas and includes a detailed bibliography of his own and other relevant texts.
This Sex Which is Not One
Luce Irigaray - 1977
In eleven acute and widely ranging essays, Irigaray reconsiders the question of female sexuality in a variety of contexts that are relevant to current discussion of feminist theory and practice. Among the topics she treats are the implications of the thought of Freud and Lacan for understanding womanhood and articulating feminine discourse; classic views on the significance of the difference between male and female sex organs; and the experience of erotic pleasure in men and women. She also takes up explicitly the question of economic exploitation of women; in an astute reading of Marx she shows that the subjection of woman has been institutionalized by her reduction to an object of economic exchange. Throughout Irigaray seeks to dispute and displace male-centered structures of language and thought through a challenging writing practice that takes a first step toward a woman's discourse, a discourse that would put an end to Western culture's enduring phallocentrism. Makin more direct and accessible the subversive challenge of Speculum of the Other Woman, this volume--skillfully translated by Catherine Porter with Carolyn Burke--will be essential reading for anyone seriously concerned with contemporary feminist issues.
Gertrude Stein: Selections
Gertrude Stein - 2008
Editor Joan Retallack has chosen complete texts or selections that lend themselves to a clarified vision of Stein's oeuvre. In her brilliant introduction, Retallack provides the historical and biographical context for Stein's lifelong project of composing a "continuous present," an effort which parallels many of the most important technological and scientific developments of her era—from moving pictures to Einstein's revision of our understanding of space and time. Retallack also addresses persistent questions about Stein's work and the best way to read it in our contemporary moment. In suggesting a performative "reading poesis" for these works, Retallack follows Stein's dictum by arguing that to actively experience the work is to enjoy it, and to enjoy it is to understand it.
Everything in the World
Lynda Barry - 1986
The outrageous humor of cult favorite and syndicated cartoonist Lynda Barry--one of the world's "shrewdest chroniclers of sex, love and romance" (Mother Jones).
The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape
James Howard Kunstler - 1993
The Geography of Nowhere tallies up the huge economic, social, and spiritual costs that America is paying for its car-crazed lifestyle. It is also a wake-up call for citizens to reinvent the places where we live and work, to build communities that are once again worthy of our affection. Kunstler proposes that by reviving civic art and civic life, we will rediscover public virtue and a new vision of the common good. "The future will require us to build better places," Kunstler says, "or the future will belong to other people in other societies."The Geography of Nowhere has become a touchstone work in the two decades since its initial publication, its incisive commentary giving language to the feeling of millions of Americans that our nation's suburban environments were ceasing to be credible human habitats. Since that time, the work has inspired city planners, architects, legislators, designers and citizens everywhere. In this special 20th Anniversary edition, dozens of authors and experts in various fields share their perspective on James Howard Kunstler's brave and seminal work.
College Writing Skills with Readings
John Langan - 1993
College Writing Skills With Reading features John Langan's clear writing style and his wide range of writing assignments and activities that effectively reinforce the four essentials of good writing: unity, support, coherence, and sentence skills. This alternate version provides 25 entertaining and informative essays by professional writers.
Understanding Manga and Anime
Robin E. Brenner - 2007
Parents hate it. Librarians are confused by it; and patrons are demanding it. Libraries have begun purchasing both manga and anime, particularly for their teen collections. But the sheer number of titles available can be overwhelming, not to mention the diversity and quirky cultural conventions. In order to build a collection, it is important to understand the media and its cultural nuances. Many librarians have been left adrift, struggling to understand this unique medium while trying to meet patron demands as well as protests. This book gives the novice background information necessary to feel confident in selecting, working with, and advocating for manga and anime collections; and it offers more experienced librarians some fresh insights and ideas for programming and collections.In 2003 the manga (Japanese comics) market was the fastest growing area of pop culture, with 75-100% growth to an estimated market size of $100 million retail. The growth has continued with a 40-50% sales increase in bookstores in recent years. Teens especially love this highly visual, emotionally charged and action-packed media imported from Japan, and its sister media, anime (Japanese animation); and libraries have begun purchasing both. Chock full of checklists and sidebars highlighting key points, this book includes: a brief history of anime and manga in Japan and in the West; a guide to visual styles and cues; a discussion of common themes and genres unique to manga and anime; their intended audiences; cultural differences in format and content; multicultural trends that manga and anime readers embrace and represent; and programming and event ideas. It also includes genre breakdowns and annotated lists of recommended titles, with a focus on the best titles in print and readily available, particularly those appropriate to preteen and teen readers. Classic and benchmark titles are also mentioned as appropriate. A glossary and a list of frequently asked questions complete the volume.
The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures
Bill Ashcroft - 1989
This diverse and powerful body of literature has established a specific practice of post-colonial writing in cultures as various as India, Australia, the West Indies and Canada, and has challenged both the traditional canon and dominant ideas of literature and culture.The Empire Writes Back was the first major theoretical account of a wide range of post-colonial texts and their relation to the larger issues of post-colonial culture, and remains one of the most significant works published in this field. The authors, three leading figures in post-colonial studies, open up debates about the interrelationships of post-colonial literatures, investigate the powerful forces acting on language in the post-colonial text, and show how these texts constitute a radical critique of Eurocentric notions of literature and language.This book is brilliant not only for its incisive analysis, but for its accessibility for readers new to the field. Now with an additional chapter and an updated bibliography, The Empire Writes Back is essential for contemporary post-colonial studies.
Science Fiction
Adam Roberts - 2000
This second edition reflects how the field is rapidly changing in both its practice and its critical reception. With an entirely new conclusion and all other chapters fully reworked and updated, this volume includes:a concise history of science fiction and the ways in which the genre has been used and defined explanations of key concepts in Science Fiction criticism and theory through chapters such as Gender, Race, Technology and Metaphor examines the interactions between Science Fiction and Science Fact anchors each chapter with a case study drawn from short story, book or film, from Frank Herbert's Dune to Star Wars, from The Left Hand of Darkness to Neuromancer.Introducing the reader to nineteenth-century, Pulp, Golden Age, New Wave, Feminist and Cyberpunk science fictions, this is the essential contemporary guide to a major cultural movement.
We Have Never Been Modern
Bruno Latour - 1991
But if we were to let go of this fond conviction, Bruno Latour asks, what would the world look like? His book, an anthropology of science, shows us how much of modernity is actually a matter of faith.What does it mean to be modern? What difference does the scientific method make? The difference, Latour explains, is in our careful distinctions between nature and society, between human and thing, distinctions that our benighted ancestors, in their world of alchemy, astrology, and phrenology, never made. But alongside this purifying practice that defines modernity, there exists another seemingly contrary one: the construction of systems that mix politics, science, technology, and nature. The ozone debate is such a hybrid, in Latour’s analysis, as are global warming, deforestation, even the idea of black holes. As these hybrids proliferate, the prospect of keeping nature and culture in their separate mental chambers becomes overwhelming—and rather than try, Latour suggests, we should rethink our distinctions, rethink the definition and constitution of modernity itself. His book offers a new explanation of science that finally recognizes the connections between nature and culture—and so, between our culture and others, past and present.Nothing short of a reworking of our mental landscape, We Have Never Been Modern blurs the boundaries among science, the humanities, and the social sciences to enhance understanding on all sides. A summation of the work of one of the most influential and provocative interpreters of science, it aims at saving what is good and valuable in modernity and replacing the rest with a broader, fairer, and finer sense of possibility.