If America worships success, then why has the nation's literature dwelled obsessively on failure? This book explores encounters with failure by nineteenth-century writers - ranging from Edgar Allan Poe and Herman Melville to Mark Twain and Sarah Orne Jewett - whose celebrated works more often struck readers as profoundly messy, flawed and even perverse. Reading textual inconsistency against the backdrop of a turbulent nineteenth century, Gavin Jones describes how the difficulties these writers faced in their faltering search for new styles, coherent characters and satisfactory endings uncovered experiences of blunder and inadequacy hidden in the culture at large. Through Jones's treatment, these American writers emerge as the great theorists of failure who discovered ways to translate their own social insecurities into complex portrayals of a modern self, founded in moral fallibility, precarious knowledge and negative feelings.
Late-nineteenth-century America was crazy about dialect: vernacular varieties of American English entertained mass audiences in "local color" stories, in realist novels, and in poems and plays. But dialect was also at the heart of anxious debates about the moral degeneration of urban life, the ethnic impact of foreign immigration, the black presence in white society, and the female influence on masculine authority. Celebrations of the rustic raciness in American vernacular were undercut by fears that dialect was a force of cultural dissolution with the power to contaminate the dominant language. In this volume, Gavin Jones explores the aesthetic politics of this neglected "cult of the vernacular" in little-known regionalists such as George Washington Cable, in the canonical work of Mark Twain, Henry James, Herman Melville, and Stephen Crane, and in the ethnic writing of Abraham Cahan and Paul Laurence Dunbar. He reveals the origins of a trend that deepened in subsequent literature: the use of minority dialect to formulate a political response to racial oppression, and to enrich diverse depictions of a multicultural nation.
John Steinbeck is a towering figure in twentieth-century American literature; yet he remains one of our least understood writers. This major reevaluation of Steinbeck by Gavin Jones uncovers a timely thinker who confronted the fate of humanity as a species facing climate change, environmental crisis, and a growing divide between the powerful and the marginalized. Driven by insatiable curiosity, Steinbeck's work crossed a variety of borders – between the United States and the Global South, between human and nonhuman lifeforms, between science and the arts, and between literature and film – to explore the transformations in consciousness necessary for our survival on a precarious planet. Always seeking new forms to express his ecological and social vision of human interconnectedness and vulnerability, Steinbeck is a writer of urgent concern for the twenty-first century, even as he was haunted by the legacies of racism and injustice in the American West.
Social anxiety about poverty surfaces with startling frequency in American literature. Yet, as Gavin Jones argues, poverty has been denied its due as a critical and ideological framework in its own right, despite recent interest in representations of the lower classes and the marginalized. These insights lay the groundwork for American Hungers, in which Jones uncovers a complex and controversial discourse on the poor that stretches from the antebellum era through the Depression. Reading writers such as Herman Melville, Theodore Dreiser, Edith Wharton, James Agee, and Richard Wright in their historical contexts, Jones explores why they succeeded where literary critics have fallen short. These authors acknowledged a poverty that was as aesthetically and culturally significant as it was socially and materially real. They confronted the ideological dilemmas of approaching poverty while giving language to the marginalized poor--the beggars, tramps, sharecroppers, and factory workers who form a persistent segment of American society. Far from peripheral, poverty emerges at the center of national debates about social justice, citizenship, and minority identity. And literature becomes a crucial tool to understand an economic and cultural condition that is at once urgent and elusive because it cuts across the categories of race, gender, and class by which we conventionally understand social difference. Combining social theory with literary analysis, American Hungers masterfully brings poverty into the mainstream critical idiom.
[Jones] links obscure forays into dialectology with familiar canonical works of literature in surprising and innovative ways. He also has some astute insights into the politics of language in this country--a topic as current now as it was during the period about which he writes."--Shelly Fisher Fishkin, University of Texas, Austin "[Jones] links obscure forays into dialectology with familiar canonical works of literature in surprising and innovative ways. He also has some astute insights into the politics of language in this country--a topic as current now as it was during the period about which he writes."--Shelly Fisher Fishkin, University of Texas, Austin
A Mental State' is a shocking and compelling human interest story of long-term abuse of a dementia victim by state officials in one EU country and her family's search for justice. A forceful eye witness account from which the public, health authorities and justice systems in all countries should learn an object lesson.
There are three structures to the laws we follow in the American justice system. Common law, Roman law, and American law. Let me explain the detriment or inculpate of the truth given in law. For me to exculpate for you the anecdotal process of law, you must understand the nature of the thinking of the Europeans and how it plays into the legal system. As law students, they must understand the nature of the law is to know the pulse of people in each community by visiting the areas and having a rapport with them. This helps you to gain a legal perspective on the pulse of that community and analysis for yourself and see the problems they have been facing that are causing the crimes in their area. Being proactive and understanding the people’s actions is critical in making a lasting effect in the justice system while waiting for the crime in these communities to get out of control and judging them is a failure. Forward-thinking and focused groups will help to create a better society by figuring out how to mitigate the problems before homicides are committed in the communities. This has never been thought of and used in law schools nor taught to you by any professor. But if you have ever been to Kemet, not only will you gain a sense of respect for self you will understand the three social developments that move the social needle. (SSS) Self-esteem, Self-respect, Self-development. The Framers of the Constitution were tasked with setting the spiritual direction of our nation. However, they failed to demonstrate biblical justice to all citizens, mainly enslaved impoverished blacks categorized as three-fifths of a person and chattel. To treat someone as less than human, one would have to dehumanize them, excluding their essential natural, human, civil, and fundamental rights. Laws are written to debase another man and promote slavery illustrates a lack of conscience, integrity, humanity, and the character of Christ.
As George grew to understand the secret that lay behind dreams, he fine-tuned his 'thought-forming' of the new realm to become a skilled dream traveller or oneironaut. At this point, he thought this biggest problem was over. However, while he explored Endymion, his presence there got in the way of someone's carefully calculated plans. Soon he and his friends become the targets of numerous bizarre attacks and sleeping turns into a hazardous business again. Then the unthinkable happens: a direct attach in the waking world, which leaves the life of someone close hanging by a thread. The connection has been made and George and his friends identified as a threat. Dreams and reality then collide into a living nightmare as they launch a daring plan to save their friend and the right of everyone in the waking world to free dreaming.
This book presents the key findings of studies done under the ASEAN Phase III Population Project, Socio-Economic Consequences of the Ageing of the Population in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. It begins by outlining the demographic background to the ageing process in these countries and a projection of the situation of ageing into the future. It examines the profile of the aged and gives a brief overview of the living arrangements of the elderly, their employment, financial support, and health care, and the role played by their children in old age security. It then goes on to describe the services provided at the national and local levels by government and private agencies and gives an evaluation of the role and contribution of the aged in the community. The book ends with a discussion on the social and policy implications of ageing in each of the participating countries.
Maternity services and choices for labour and birth are fast evolving. Hypnobirth involves preparation for childbirth using tried and tested hypnotherapy techniques in harmony with midwifery best practices and increasing numbers of women are turning to the technique. Written by two experienced practitioners, this is the first evidence-based practice book for medical professionals on this subject. Chapters include coverage of: What hypnosis is and the history of hypnobirth The power of the mind and the effect of language Relaxation and breathing techniques The neocortex and hormones Birth partners, relationships, women’s advocates and primary supporters Throughout the book the authors provide health professionals working in clinical midwifery practice with information and evidence-based findings to support the use of hypnobirth. The book includes case studies, scripts and reflective questions to encourage a deeper understanding of the techniques and issues and to engage and inspire the reader. Hypnobirth is essential reading for midwives, obstetricians, student midwives, doulas and any practitioner involved in preparing and supporting pregnant women for labour.
Caught in the middle of the Russian Revolution in Petrograd in July 1917, Indiana Jones tries to keep his student friends out of trouble without betraying his involvement with French military intelligence.
1877. The American Civil War is raging and Dick Dudgeon is the Devil, s Disciple, the black sheep in a self-righteous puritan family. But, then trapped in the house of the rebel leader, his mistaken identity leads him towards the gallows... and an act of heroism. Hardback 144p
Liberty, a 15-year-old girl on the cusp of puberty and self-discovery begins to struggle with her true identity. Raised in a Christian home, Liberty finds it difficult to communicate with her parents about her feelings. Fear and uncertainty , about how to share her deepest secret , has Liberty seeking solace and hope in a gift from her grandmother. On her quest to self-acceptance, Liberty questions God about her existence. Will Liberty revealed her secret? Who will be her saviour?
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