How does the EU resolve controversy when making laws that affect citizens? How has the EU been affected by the recent enlargements that brought its membership to a diverse group of twenty-seven countries? This book answers these questions with analyses of the EU's legislative system that include the roles played by the European Commission, European Parliament and member states' national governments in the Council of Ministers. Robert Thomson examines more than 300 controversial issues in the EU from the past decade and describes many cases of controversial decision-making as well as rigorous comparative analyses. The analyses test competing expectations regarding key aspects of the political system, including the policy demands made by different institutions and member states, the distributions of power among the institutions and member states, and the contents of decision outcomes. These analyses are also highly relevant to the EU's democratic deficit and various reform proposals.
This book focuses on "operatic Italian" (literary Italian in the classic mode) a.k.a. libretto Italian, or how to understand and translate Italian opera libretti. Parts of speech provide the framework, each of which is illustrated by extracts from many operas. The author works his way from the simple (nouns and articles) to the most complex (the past subjunctives) and en route clarifies many points of language: pronunciation, archaic language, convoluted syntax, datives of advantage, nuances and connotation, use of the passato remoto, etc. Included are chapters on the sounds and stress pattern of Italian, samples of its idioms, the limitations of translations and surtitles, suggested criteria for evaluating libretti, operatic aspects of canzoni, the influence of Dante, a short chapter on Neapolitan. The interlinear format helps the reader to see the connections between the Italian text and its English equivalents. IPA and music staff lines are used throughout. Fourteen quizzes enable the reader to monitor progress (these are also useful for a voice coach or teacher if the book is used as a text). Numerous photos illuminate the book and many useful url's (e.g. Lino Pertile reading Dante) help to orient those readers who wish to explore the subject on their own in greater depth. Sarah Luebke in 'Opera Today' writes: "This book would make a fantastic textbook for a conservatory or university." (Jan. 19, 2010) See Robert Thomson's site: www.godwinbooks.com
Rupert Thomson's innovative and unsettling writing ranges from dystopian alternative futures to meditations on crime and cultural memory, and from historical fictions to explorations of contemporary gender violence. The essays in this collection argue that Thomson's novels and memoir are compelling case-studies in late twentieth and early twenty-first-century literature, which engage with contemporary cultural and political preoccupations through persistently off-beat and often experimental literary forms, and trouble stable definitions of genre in the process. With chapters focusing on borders, panopticism, haunting, child sexual abuse, shame, atmosphere and intertextuality, this collection offers a critical introduction to an author whose work has been overlooked by the academy for too long.
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