In this book, Sean Homer addresses Slavoj Žižek’s work in a specific political conjuncture, his political interventions in the Balkans. The charge of inconsistency and contradiction is frequently levelled at Žižek’s politics, a charge he openly embraces in the name of "pragmatism." Homer argues that his interventions in the Balkans expose the dangers of this pragmatism for the renewal of the Leftist politics that he calls for. The book assesses Žižek’s political interventions in so far as they advance his self-proclaimed "ruthlessly radical" aims about changing the world. Homer argues the Balkans can be seen as Žižek’s symptom, that element which does not fit into the system, but speaks its truth and reveals what the system cannot acknowledge about itself. In Part II Homer explores Žižek’s radicalism through his critique of Alain Badiou, arguing that Badiou’s "affirmationism" provides a firmer grounding for the renewal of the left than Žižek’s negative gesture analyzed in Part I. What distinguishes Žižek from the majority of the contemporary Left today is his valorization of violence; Homer tackles this issue head-on in relation to political violence in Greece. Finally, Homer defends the utopian impulse on the radical left against its Lacanian critics.
Jacques Lacan is one of the most challenging and controversial of contemporary thinkers, as well as the most influential psychoanalyst since Freud. Lacanian theory has reached far beyond the consulting room to engage with such diverse disciplines as literature, film, gender and social theory. This book covers the full extent of Lacan's career and provides an accessible guide to Lacanian concepts and his writing on: the imaginary and the symbolic; the Oedipus Complex and the meaning of the phallus; the subject and the unconscious; the real; sexual difference. Locating Lacan's work in the context of contemporary French thought and the history of psychoanalysis, Sean Homer's Jacques Lacan is the ideal introduction to this influential theorist.
Fredric Jameson has been described as "probably the most important cultural critic writing in English today" and he is widely acknowledged as the foremost proponent for the tradition of critical theory known as Western Marxism.Yet his work has not been given the systematic review like other contemporary thinkers like Fooucault and Derrida. Fredric Jameson: Marxism, Hermeneutics, Postmodernism is a thoroughly up-to-date, detailed review and analysis of the work of this influential intellectual. Covering Jameson's work and thought from his early projects of form and history to his more recent engagements with postmodernism and cultural politics, this synthesis offers a balanced assessment of his ideas, their development and their continuing influence.
This original book challenges prevailing accounts of English literary history, arguing that English literature emerged as a distinct category during the late sixteenth century, as England’s relationship with classical Rome was suffering an unprecedented strain. Exploring the myths through which poets such as Geffrey Whitney, William Shakespeare, and John Milton understood the nature of their art, Sean Keilen shows how they invented archaic origins for a new kind of writing. When history obliged English poets to regard themselves as victims of the Roman Conquest rather than rightful heirs of classical Latin culture, it also required a redefinition of their relations with Roman literature. Keilen shows how the poets’ search for a new beginning drew them to rework familiar fables about Orpheus, Philomela, and Circe, and invent a new point of departure for their own poetic history.
This second edition of Global Security in the Twenty-first Century offers a thoroughly updated and balanced introduction to contemporary security studies. Sean Kay examines the relationship between globalization and international security and places traditional quests for power and national security in the context of the ongoing search for peace. Sean Kay explores a range of security challenges, including fresh analysis of the implications of the global economic crisis and current flashpoints for international security trends. Writing in an engaging style, Kay integrates traditional and emerging challenges in one easily accessible study that gives readers the tools they need to develop a thoughtful and nuanced understanding of global security.
It is widely accepted by New Testament scholars that the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles probably originated as two parts of one work by a single author. In spite of this, the books have been assigned to very different genres: Luke is traditionally viewed as a biography of Jesus, and Acts as a history of the early church. Comparing in detail the structure and content of Acts with the formal features of history, novel, epic and biography, Sean A. Adams challenges this division. Applying both ancient and modern genre theory, he argues that the best genre parallel for the Acts of the Apostles is in fact collected biography. Offering a nuanced and sophisticated understanding of genre theory, along with an insightful argument regarding the composition and purpose of Acts, this book will be of interest to those studying the New Testament, Acts, genre theory and ancient literature.
Mythtelling: the ideas and emotions of the Earth expressed through stories—stories distilled from millennia of treading warily in nature, rather than undertaking to rearrange her furniture. Wisdom of the Mythtellers uncovers four kinds of ancestral dream-mapping: Native Australian, Native American, Celtic, and Greek.
Unique in combining a comprehensive and comparative study of genre with a study of romance, this book constitutes a significant contribution to ongoing critical debates over the definition of romance and the genre and artistry of Malory's Morte Darthur. K.S. Whetter addresses the questions of how exactly romance might be defined and how such an awareness of genre impacts upon both the understanding and reception of the texts in question.
Nonlinear Temporality in Joyce and Walcott is the first dedicated comparative study of James Joyce and Derek Walcott. The book examines the ways in which both Joyce’s fiction and Walcott’s poetry articulate a nonlinear conception of time with radical cultural and political implications. For Joyce and Walcott equally, the book argues, it is only by reconceiving time in this way that it becomes possible to envisage a means of escape from what Joyce calls “force, hatred, history” and what Walcott calls the “madness of history seen as sequential time”. A starting point for the comparisons drawn between Joyce and Walcott is their relationship to Homer. Joyce’s Ulysses is in one respect a rewriting of Homer’s Odyssey; Walcott’s Omeros stands in an analogous relationship to the Iliad. This book argues that these acts of rewriting, far from being instances of influence, intertexuality, or straightforward repetition, exemplify Joyce and Walcott’s complex stance, not just toward literary history, but toward the idea of history as such. The book goes on to demonstrate how an enhanced appreciation of the role of nonlinear temporality in Joyce and Walcott can help to illuminate numerous other aspects of their work.
In just few years, case-based reasoning has evolved from a research topic studied at a small number of specialized academic labs into an industrial-strength technology applied in various fields. The INRECA methodology presented in detail in this monograph provides a data analysis framework for developing case-based reasoning solutions for successful applications in real-world industrial contexts. The book is divided into parts on: - smarter business with case-based decision support; - developing case-based applications using the INRECA methodology; and - using the methodology in various application domains. The book provides a self-contained introduction to case-based reasoning applications that address both R&D professionals and general IT managers interested in this powerful new technology. In this second edition, improvements and updates have been incorporated throughout the text. Particularly useful is the systematic coverage of experience factory applications at various steps; and, of course, the references have been extended substantially.
Modern scholarship judges Herodotus to be a more complex writer than his past readers supposed. His Histories is now being read in ways that are seemingly incompatible if not contradictory. This volume interrogates the various ways the text of the Histories has been and can be read by scholars: as the seminal text of our Ur-historian, as ethnology, literary art and fable. Our readings can bring out various guises of Herodotus himself: an author with the eye of a travel writer and the mind of an investigative journalist; a globalist, enlightened but superstitious; a rambling storyteller but a prose stylist; the so-called 'father of history' but in antiquity also labelled the 'father of lies'; both geographer and gossipmonger; both entertainer and an author whom social and cultural historians read and admire. Guiding students chapter-by-chapter through approaches as fascinating and often surprising as the original itself, Sean Sheehan goes beyond conventional Herodotus introductions and instead looks at the various interpretations of the work, which themselves shed light on the original. With text boxes highlighting key topics and indices of passages, this volume is an essential guide for students whether reading Herodotus for the first time, or returning to revisit this crucial text for later research.
Inscribing Faith in Late Antiquity considers the Greek and Latin texts inscribed in churches and chapels in the late antique Mediterranean (c. 300–800 CE), compares them to similar texts from pagan, Jewish, and Muslim spaces of worship, and explores how they functioned both textually and visually. These texts not only recorded the names and prayers of the faithful, but were powerful verbal and visual statements of cultural values and religious beliefs, conveying meaning through their words as well as through their appearances. In fact, the two were intimately connected. All of these texts – Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and pagan – acted visually, embracing their own materiality as mosaic, paint, or carved stone. Colourful and artfully arranged, the inscriptions framed human relationships with the divine, encouraged responses from readers, and made prayers material. In the first in-depth examination of the inscriptions as words and as images, the author reimagines the range of aesthetic, cultural, and religious experiences that were possible in spaces of worship. Inscribing Faith in Late Antiquity is essential reading for those interested in Roman, late antique, and Byzantine material and visual culture, inscriptions and other texts, and religious life in the ancient Mediterranean.
Critical Issues in Peace and Conflict Studies: Theory, Practice, and Pedagogy, edited by Thomas Maty-k, Jessica Senehi, and Sean Byrne, discusses critical issues in the emerging field of Peace and Conflict Studies, and suggests a framework for the future development of the field and the education of its practitioners and academics. Contributors to the book are recognized scholars and practitioners in their respective fields. The authors take an holistic approach to the study, analysis, and resolution of conflict at the micro, meso, macro, and mega levels.
When Sean's mum' Di' starts treatment for cancer' it is cooking' of all things' that brings father and son together. Baz starts whipping up Japanese fish parcels and braised lamb shanks with polenta to tempt Di's flagging post - chemo appetite and Sean is impressed. When Baz gets the bad news that a lifetime of drinking and smoking has caught up with him' it's suddenly Sean's turn in the kitchen . . .As much about the changing landscape of Australian male culture as it is about losing loved ones' Cooking with Baz will make you laugh and get a lump in your throat' often at the same time. And you'll think about what 'family' really means.
The ethical question is the question of our times. Within critical theory, it has focused on the act of reading. This original and courageous study reverses the terms of inquiry to analyse the ethical composition of the act of writing.
This story of an initiation begins with the white middle-class, teen-age narrator meeting charismatic, black, ageless Alex, who speaks in enigmas and conundrums and lives as a vagrant in San Francisco's Beat Generation bohemia. Convinced that Alex possesses the key to superior awareness, the boy seeks his guidance. "Come with me, kid. I'll take care of you," Alex replies. Accepting this fatherly invitation, intent on learning from Alex, the boy drops out. The hardships of hunger, tobacco, and cheap wine soon make themselves felt. Having become a stranger to his former self, he experiences ecstatic revelation: "So this is what Alex is all about! Ecstasy!" Perfect awareness cannot be retained. The boy seeks in vain to reconnect. Despairing, he repeatedly leaves Alex; but discontent with a life become meaningless irresistibly draws him back, until increasing signs of Alex's mental alienation overwhelm him, and he finally abandons Alex, haunted by a sense of loss.
See it. Study it. Do it. Many Christians focus on mechanical application of the Scriptures. In Experience Your Bible, the McDowells proclaim God's original design—the Scriptures are his way to reveal himself so he can enjoy a relationship with people. The authors show how the Bible can radically transform believers' lives: Intimacy. God created humans such that an intimate relationship with him is their only route to meaningful life. His written Word enables this relationship. Relational experience. We must obey God's commands. Yet he also wants us to relationally experience things like acceptance, joy, and comfort with him and other believers. Growth in love. Josh and Sean highlight the Holy Spirit's role in illuminating the Scriptures. They present proven tools to help readers study and "accurately handle the word of truth." Above all, they emphasize that study is the journey to help Christians more deeply love the author of the Bible, God himself. When Christians experience the Bible and its author, they find wisdom, meaning, and fulfillment in life. A key tool for pastors, leaders, parents, and youth workers—anyone wanting to proclaim and experience the life- and culture-changing Christianity the Bible reveals.
Why is the human mind able to perceive and understand the truth about reality; that is, why does it seem to be the mind's specific function to know the world? Sean Kelsey argues that both the question itself and the way Aristotle answers it are key to understanding his work De Anima, a systematic philosophical account of the soul and its powers. In this original reading of a familiar but highly compressed text, Kelsey shows how this question underpins Aristotle's inquiry into the nature of soul, sensibility, and intelligence. He argues that, for Aristotle, the reason why it is in human nature to know beings is that 'the soul in a way is all beings'. This new perspective on the De Anima throws fresh and interesting light on familiar Aristotelian doctrines: for example, that sensibility is a kind of ratio (logos), or that the intellect is simple, separate, and unmixed.
In October 1967, Pier Paolo Pasolini travelled to Venice to interview Ezra Pound for broadcast on national television. One a lifelong Marxist, the other a former propagandist for the Fascist regime, their encounter was billed as a clash of opposites. But what do these poets share? And what can they tell us about the poetics and politics of the twentieth century? This book reads one by way of the other, aligning their engagement with different temporalities and traditions, polities and geographies, languages and forms, evoked as utopian alternatives to the cultural and political crises of capitalist modernity. Part literary history, part comparative study, it offers a new and provocative perspective on these poets and the critical debates around them – in particular, on Pound’s Italian years and Pasolini’s use of Pound in his work. Their connection helps to understand the implications and legacies of their work today.
On October 28, 1986, just one day after winning one of the most thrilling World Series in history, the New York Mets were feted by more than two million fans with a parade through the city. In news accounts of the event, there was a small aside, as this one in the New York Times: "Notable in his absence was the pitcher Dwight Gooden, who Mets officials later said had overslept." No, the Mets' twenty-one-year-old phenom had not slept too late. He had not slept at all, in fact. For Gooden, his postgame champagne celebration kicked off a cocaine binge that took him to a club in Long Island and wound up with him, wired, watching his teammates roll through the streets as he sat with strangers in a public housing project. Such were the 1980s in New York City, a gilded era buttressed by fast money from a real estate boom and the explosion of Wall Street wealth. The Mets and Giants, bolstered by lightning-rod personalities like Gooden and Lawrence Taylor, brought the city sporting glory while its celebrity wealthy added a tabloid-friendly touch of intrigue and national envy. Iconoclastic real estate developer Donald Trump gained national celebrity for his deal-making skill and the flaunting of his outsize ego. Even mayor Ed Koch had gained coast-to-coast fame and mention as a potential future president. Beneath the opulence was a tenuous foundation, one that collapsed spectacularly over the last half of the decade. Away from the cameras focused on the city's nouvelle riches, New York was beset by crisis after crisis--homelessness, AIDS, crack cocaine, organized crime. The swell of outrage over the unwillingness of the city elite to address those problems took years to finally reach a tipping point. Through interviews and detailed research, Greed and Glory gives the narrative of New York during these times, tracing the arc of its sports heroes and celebrities of that era, from their memorable highs to their ultimate lows.
Ulysses remains less widely read than most texts boasting such a canonical status, largely due to misunderstanding about how to read it, and this guide provides an easy to follow remedy. By showing how Joyce reacted to the historical and cultural context in which he was situated, the radical nature of his use of language is laid bare in a chapter-by-chapter analysis of Ulysses. This approach enables the student reader to read and enjoy the novel's plurality of styles and to understand the terms of critical debate surrounding the nature and significance of Joyce's novel.
This major Handbook is a collection of work from leading scholars in the Conflict Analysis and Resolution (CAR) field. The central theme is the value of interdisciplinary approaches to the analysis and resolution of conflicts.
The emphasis on primary care in health service development requires both academics and professionals involved in research to apply the highest standards in qualitative and quantitative methodology. This book provides accurate and up to date information in an easy to follow and clear way. Guidance is given on appropriate methods specialist advice and where to find it. All chapters include exercises to relate the reader's own experiences and review understanding. Primary Care Research series is aimed at developing the knowledge expertise and skills of all practitioners in primary care. Each book is based on contributions from experts in their field and is supported by practical facts personal insight support and advice. They enable all primary care practitioners to realise the potential of exploring information used in everyday working practice.
This study considers how a significant variable, namely level of literary education (enkuklios paideia), might affect an ancient hearer's interpretation of Revelation 9. This volume focuses on how two hypothetical ancient hearer-constructs, with very different "mental libraries", may interpret the rich cosmological imagery of Revelation 9. The first, ancient hearer-construct (HC1), the recipient of a minimal literary education, retains a Homeric cosmological model. The second ancient hearer-construct (HC2), by contrast, utilises a tertiary-level knowledge of Aratus and Plato to allegorically reinterpret the cosmological imagery of Rev 9 (cf. 'Hippolytus', Refutatio IV.46-50). The volume concludes by critically comparing the hypothetical responses of HC1 and HC2 with the early reception of Revelation 9 by Victorinus, Tyconius and Oecumenius (3rd-6th century CE), attentive to the educational attainment of each commentator.
Tragedy: The Basics is an accessible and up-to-date introduction to dramatic tragedy. A comprehensive guide for anyone undertaking a study of the genre, it provides a chronological overview and history of tragic theory. Covering tragedy from the classics to the present day, it explains the contextual and theoretical issues which affect the interpretation of tragedy, examining popularly studied key plays in order to show historical change. Including a glossary of key terms and suggestions for further reading, Tragedy: The Basics is an ideal starting point for anyone studying tragedy in literature or theatre studies.
A rare episodic novel to come out of Cyprus! Based on real places, and in some parts on real events, the episodes explore the mysterious aura that pervades the birthplace of Aphrodite at Paphos. Th is novel can be read either as individual stories or as a collective piece. It is a book that can be explored on many levels. It is a love story, an investigation of how ancient myth can run side by side with scientifi c enquiry, and a commentary on the impact the modern world is having on the traditional Cyprus that so many know and love. Apart from appealing to eco friendly people everywhere, it sets out to tell a cracking good story. As Sean Toner tells each tale, he traces the events that happen during the sabbatical year of an English researcher in Cyprus. Th e reader can sense that the author is totally familiar with the territory and the culture he uses for his setting.
This is an important new introduction to Derrida, offering a brand new reading of his key works through an examination of his relationship with Plato and Aristotle.
As a small band of survivors treks across Alaska, they must survive both the walking dead and the coming winter in this apocalyptic horror series. Since banding together against the zombie horde, Neil Jordan’s battle-weary group has picked up new members and tragically lost others. But as the Alaskan autumn yields itself to the encroaching threat of winter, Neil, Jerry, Meghan, and Emma must fight both legions of the undead and the bitterly unforgiving wilderness. The horrors of Anchorage festering with prowling ghouls are behind them. But new terrors threaten every step on their arduous trek along the Seward Highway. As hopes dim and nightmares become dark realities, Neil and the others find strength in each other to live.
Relational Apologetics for This Generation—and the Next Mounting disenchantment with the Christian faith has resulted in a growing concern for the future of the church, particularly as it relates to the most recent generations. But as we seek to reach young unbelievers with the truth, transformation, and joy only Jesus can provide, we must first understand it for ourselves. In The 12 Crucial Truths of the Christian Faith, acclaimed apologists Josh and Sean McDowell clearly and winsomely distill the essentials of a living Christian faith. More than just intellectual ideas, these truths are reflections of a way of life exemplified by God, helping you deepen your own understanding of what you believe, why you believe it, and how you can align your actions with these beliefs live in right relationship with God, yourself, and others establish a transformative foundation of faith in the lives of generations to come Packed with examples and stories, this handy reference is for Christians who want to cultivate an unshakable faith and learn how to live it out.
The name Josh McDowell promises real-life, on-the-street Christian apologetics. In his first Harvest House book, Josh joins his son Sean to draw on his life’s work and comprehensively address a vital issue: why an entire generation of young Christians—and millions of older believers—is confused about what they believe, why they believe it, and how it’s relevant. The Unshakable Truth is uniquely positioned for younger Christians because it presents apologetics relationally, focusing on how Christianity’s doctrines affect relationships. The authors... ground every assertion in the overarching story of creation, incarnation, and re-creation. distill 12 crucial “faith statements”—for example, “A personal Creator God exists.” explain why each statement is trustworthy, how it applies to real life, and—using examples, stories, and experiences—what its relevance is. A spiritual gold mine for parents, youth workers, pastors—anyone wanting to reveal Christianity’s relevance to today’s life and culture.
An examination of the rubricated letters in the Morte makes a convincing case for the design being by Malory himself. The red-ink names that decorate the Winchester manuscript of Malory's Morte Darthur are striking; yet until now, no-one has asked why the rubrication exists. This book explores the uniqueness and thematic significance of the physical layout of the Morte in its manuscript context, arguing that the layout suggests, and the correlations between manuscript design and narrative theme confirm, that the striking arrangement is likely to have been the product of authorial design rather than something unusual dreamed up by patron, scribe, reader, or printer. The introduction offers a thorough account of not only the textual tradition of the Morte, but also the ways in which scholarship to date has not done enough with the manuscript contexts of Malory's Arthuriad. The book then goes on to establish the singularity and likely provenance of Winchester's rubrication of names. In the second half of the study the author elucidates the narrative significance of this rubrication pattern, outlining striking connections between manuscript layout and major narrative events, characters, and themes. He suggests that the manuscript mise-en-page underscores Malory's interest in human character and knighthood, creating a memorializing function similar to the many inscribed tombs that dominate the landscape of the Morte's narrative pages. Inshort, Winchester's design creates a memorializing tomb for Arthurian chivalry. K.S. WHETTER is Professor of English at Acadia University, Canada.
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