The Unyielding Clamor of the Night
The Unyielding Clamor of the Night

Author: Neil Bissoondath

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2008-12-08

Total Pages: 362

ISBN-13: 159691971X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A mesmerizing novel about the brutal and lasting effects of poverty and violence. Arun, a young man of privileged background, leaves his home in the prosperous north of his Southeast Asian island nation to teach in the devastated south, where a civil war between the military and rebel insurgents profoundly affects daily life. Idealistic and driven by a need to give meaning to his life, Arun relinquishes the trappings of wealth to dedicate himself to improving the lot of the "2 percenters," as the country's southern population is called. Over the course of several months he befriends some of the local people-Jaisaram, the local butcher, and his daughter Anjani, who reads to her father from romance novels; Kumarsingh, a "go-getting" entrepreneur; Seth, an American-trained army captain stationed at the local base; and various pupils. In Omeara, however, nothing is as it seems; everyone has secrets and truth is elusive. At the village school, attendance is meager and irregular. The only students who attend are those who, damaged by the conflict, are incapable of working in the fields. Surrounded by poverty and the constant threat of violence, Arun's optimism is eventually depleted and frustration with educating the village's schoolchildren overwhelms him. When violence finally touches him personally, he is forced to confront basic truths about his friends, his family, his country and, most wrenchingly, himself.

Transcultural Identities in Contemporary Literature
Transcultural Identities in Contemporary Literature

Author: Irene Gilsenan Nordin

Publisher: Rodopi

Published: 2013-10-01

Total Pages: 302

ISBN-13: 9401209871

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In recent decades, globalization has led to increased mobility and interconnectedness. For a growing number of people, contemporary life entails new local and transnational interdependencies which transform individual and collective allegiances. Contemporary literature often reflects these changes through its exploration of migrant experiences and transcultural identities. Calling into question traditional definitions of culture, many recent works of poetry and prose fiction go beyond the spatial boundaries of a given state, emphasizing instead the mixing and collision of languages, cultures, and identities. In doing so, they also challenge recent and contemporary discourses about cultural identities, fostering a more nuanced understanding of the complexities of identity-formation processes in diverse transcultural frameworks. This volume analyses how traditional understandings of culture, as well as literary representations of identity constructs, can be reconceptualized from a transcultural perspective. In four thematic sections focusing on migration, cosmopolitanism, multiculturalism, and literary translingualism, the twelve essays included in this volume explore various facets of transculturality in contemporary poetry and fiction from around the world. Contributors: Malin Lidström Brock, Katherina Dodou, Pilar Cuder–Domínguez, Stefan Helgesson, Christoph Houswitschka, Carly McLaughlin, Kristin Rebien, J.B. Rollins, Karen L. Ryan, Eric Sellin, Mats Tegmark, Carmen Zamorano Llena. Irene Gilsenan Nordin is Professor of English Literature at Dalarna University, Sweden. She is founder and director of DUCIS (Dalarna University Centre for Irish Studies) and leads Dalarna University’s Transcultural Identities research group. Julie Hansen is Research Fellow at the Uppsala Centre for Russian and Eurasian Studies and teaches Russian literature in the Department of Modern Languages at Uppsala University, Sweden. Carmen Zamorano Llena is Associate Professor of English Literature at Dalarna University, Sweden, and member of Dalarna University’s Transcultural Identities research group.

Literature and Terrorism
Literature and Terrorism

Author:

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2012-01-01

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13: 9401207739

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The years following the attacks of September 11, 2001 have seen the publication of a wide range of scientific analyses of terrorism. Literary studies seem to lag curiously behind this general shift of academic interest. The present volume sets out to fill this gap. It does so in the conviction that the study of literature has much to offer to the transdisciplinary investigation of terror, not only with respect to the present post-9/11 situation but also with respect to earlier historical contexts. Literary texts are media of cultural self-reflection, and as such they have always played a crucial role in the discursive response to terror, both contributing to and resisting dominant conceptions of the causes, motivations, dynamics, and aftermath of terrorist violence. By bringing together experts from various fields and by combining case studies of works from diverse periods and national literatures, the volume Literature and Terrorism chooses a diachronic and comparative perspective. It is interested in the specific cultural work performed by narrative and dramatic literature in the face of terrorism, focusing on literature's ambivalent relationship to other, competing modes of discourse.

Masculinities in Twentieth- and Twenty-first Century French and Francophone Literature
Masculinities in Twentieth- and Twenty-first Century French and Francophone Literature

Author: Edith Biegler Vandervoort

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2011-05-25

Total Pages: 345

ISBN-13: 1443830569

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The study of masculinities and gender identity in contemporary literature is relatively new and, with each year of this millennium, gains momentum. Indeed, as the women’s movement becomes forceful in developing nations, the question of tolerance to gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transvestites undergoes a similar process. At a time when women refuse to be subjected to war crimes, when they begin entering the workforce and realize the need to support their families independently, and when they refuse to remain in abusive marriages or remain silent in countries, where governments ignore their needs, men and women are questioning the meaning of gender in their culture and often seek alternatives to established gender roles. In some countries, this entails organized demonstrations for additional civil rights, while in others, the expression of sexual freedom remains a question of remaining silent or risking public execution. Thanks to the scholarly commitment of its authors, this book examines the range of masculine expression on three continents: Europe, Africa, and the Americas. In this collection, they write about men’s past and present challenges, male friendships, and male immigrants and outcasts. Paralleling the independence movement of France’s former colonies, the goal of this collection is to continue the expression of freedom toward understanding and tolerance of all variances of sexuality.

In the Night of Time
In the Night of Time

Author: Antonio Muñoz Molina

Publisher: HMH

Published: 2013-12-03

Total Pages: 657

ISBN-13: 0547548052

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A Washington Post Best Book of the Year: A “hypnotic” novel of the Spanish Civil War and one man’s quest to escape it (Colm Tóibín, The New York Review of Books). October 1936. Spanish architect Ignacio Abel arrives at Penn Station, the final stop on his journey from war-torn Madrid, where he has left behind his wife and children, abandoning them to uncertainty. Crossing the fragile borders of Europe, Ignacio reflects on months of fratricidal conflict in his embattled country, his transformation from a bricklayer’s son to a respected bourgeois husband and professional, and the all-consuming love affair with an American woman that forever altered his life. Winner of the 2012 Prix Méditerranée Étranger and hailed as a masterpiece, In the Night of Time is a sweeping, grand novel and an indelible portrait of a shattered society, written by one of Spain’s most important contemporary novelists. “Labyrinthine and spellbinding . . . One of the most eloquent monuments to the Spanish Civil War ever to be raised in fiction.” —The Washington Post, “The Top 50 Fiction Books for 2014” “An astonishingly vivid narrative that unfolds with hypnotic intensity by means of the constant interweaving of time and memory . . . Tolstoyan in its scale, emotional intensity and intellectual honesty.” —The Economist “Epic . . . Intoxicating prose.” —Entertainment Weekly “A War and Peace for the Spanish Civil War.” —Publishers Weekly

Library Journal
Library Journal

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 624

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Includes, beginning Sept. 15, 1954 (and on the 15th of each month, Sept.-May) a special section: School library journal, ISSN 0000-0035, (called Junior libraries, 1954-May 1961). Also issued separately.

Digging Up the Mountains
Digging Up the Mountains

Author: Neil Bissoondath

Publisher: New Canadian Library

Published: 2011-02-04

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13: 1551993724

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This dazzling collection of short stories, originally published in 1985, marks the brilliant debut of Neil Bissoondath, a major voice in Canadian fiction. Focusing on contemporary themes of cultural dislocation, revolution, and the shifting politics of the Third World, the stories resonate with Bissoondath’s compassion for people threatened by circumstances beyond their control.