The post-Darwinian theory of atavism forecasted obstacles to human progress in the reappearance of throwback physical or cultural traits after several generations of absence. In this original and stimulating work, Dana Seitler explores the ways in which modernity itself is an atavism, shaping a historical and theoretical account of its dramatic rise and impact on Western culture and imagination.
Examining representations of the tattoo and tattooing in literature, television, and film from two periods of tattoo renaissance (1851-1914, and 1955 to present), this study makes an original contribution to understandings of crime and detective genre and the ways in which tattoos act as a mimetic device that marks and remarks these narratives in complex ways.
This account of imperialism explores recent intellectual, theoretical and conceptual developments in imperial history, including interdisciplinary and post-colonial perspectives. Exploring the links between empire and domestic history, it looks at the interconnections and comparisons between empire and imperial power within wider developments in world history, covering the period from the Roman to the present American empire. The book begins by examining the nature of empire, then looks at continuity and change in the historiography of imperialism and theoretical and conceptual developments. It covers themes such as the relationship between imperialism and modernity, culture and national identity in Britain. Suitable for undergraduates taking courses in imperial and colonial history.
Fact and Fiction explores the intersection between literature and the sciences, focusing on German and British culture between the eighteenth century and today. Observing that it was in the eighteenth century that the divide between science and literature as disciplines first began to be defined, the contributors to this collection probe how authors from that time onwards have assessed and affected the relationship between literary and scientific cultures. Fact and Fiction's twelve essays cover a wide range of scientific disciplines, from physics and chemistry to medicine and anthropology, and a variety of literary texts, such as Erasmus Darwin's poem The Botanic Garden, George Eliot's Daniel Deronda, and Goethe's Elective Affinities. The collection will appeal to scholars of literature and of the history of science, and to those interested in the connections between the two.
Extracted from Volume 16. An authoritative account, based on a series of 16th century alchemical pictures, of Jung's handling of the transference between analyst and patient.
Impossibly muscular men and voluptuous women parade around in revealing, skintight outfits, and their romantic and sexual entanglements are a key part of the ongoing drama. Such is the state of superhero comics and movies, a genre that has become one of our leading mythologies, conveying influential messages about gender, sexuality, and relationships. Love, Sex, Gender, and Superheroes examines a full range of superhero media, from comics to films to television to merchandising. With a keen eye for the genre’s complex and internally contradictory mythology, comics scholar Jeffrey A. Brown considers its mixed messages. Superhero comics may reinforce sex roles with their litany of phallic musclemen and slinky femme fatales, but they also blur gender binaries with their emphasis on transformation and body swaps. Similarly, while most heroes have heterosexual love interests, the genre prioritizes homosocial bonding, and it both celebrates and condemns gendered and sexualized violence. With examples spanning from the Golden Ages of DC and Marvel comics up to recent works like the TV series The Boys, this study provides a comprehensive look at how superhero media shapes our perceptions of love, sex, and gender.
Artificial Generation: Photogenic French Literature and the Prehistory of Cinematic Modernity looks at nineteenth-century literary representation and film theory, arguing that the depth of amalgamation that occurred within literary representation during this era is a key aesthetic tradition that continues to inform movies and contemporary culture today.
Despite pervading all aspects of educational practice and theory, little scholarship focuses on time in education. This book addresses that lacuna questioning our assumptions about time and their ramifications on theories of learning, issues of equity and diversity, and on the purposes of education itself. The authors examine ideas about time in a wide variety of contexts, from ancient Greek fiction to 19th century theories of evolution and from 20th century indigenous stories to 20th century afro-futurist fiction. They show how pervasive the image of 'time as an arrow' has become, an image of time that is one-way, singular and teleological. Through exploring other theories of time, the authors propose alternatives for time in education. They argue that time is one of the key biopolitical tools we think and operate with, but rarely address as a historical, cultural and pedagogical category with which schools reproduce oppressive structures around race, class, and gender in society. The book draws on ideas from the arts and the sciences to illustrate and trouble assumptions of time drawing on artistic and theoretic work from Édouard Glissant, Henri Lefebvre, Giordano Nanni, Denise Ferreira da Silva, Bonnie Honig and others.
