Forensic Storytelling And The Literary Roots Of Early Modern Feminism

"The writing of letters and the rise of the novel provided a way for some women to express themselves at a time when the all-male French Academy defined the very parameters of French literary acceptability and tradition. Women who were consigned to convents, workhouses or prisons were in most respects deprived of agency, yet many found ways to respond to the legal documents served against them. The letters and associated materials preserved in their legal files provide evidence that these women did not remain quiet, as they found means to resist authority. The forensic storytelling examined in this book supports the conclusion that the documents written in these constrained circumstances have both historical and literary merit and form the core of an understudied genre of literature"--

The writing of letters and the rise of the novel provided a way for some women to express themselves at a time when the all-male French Academy defined the very parameters of French literary acceptability and tradition. Women who were consigned to convents, workhouses or prisons were in most respects deprived of agency, yet many found ways to respond to the legal documents served against them. The letters and associated materials preserved in their legal files provide evidence that these women did not remain quiet, as they found means to resist authority. The forensic storytelling examined in this book supports the conclusion that the documents written in these constrained circumstances have both historical and literary merit and form the core of an understudied genre of literature.

By examining portrayals of male homosociality in Sally Rooney's novels, the book documents how male relationships are formed, challenged, and often disavowed and the profound negative effects this can have for the wellbeing of men. The book also highlights the importance of the sociocultural context within which male relationships are formed and supports that the potential for healthy and meaningful relationships between men depends on how they are brought up to view themselves as men and their role in the society they live in. That is, despite the many examples whereby space for authentic and meaningful male homosociality is limited and well concealed, the book also offers a more optimistic potential for men's relationships by illustrating the significance of broader understandings of masculinity, unfettered by homophobia and misogyny, in allowing for male homosociality with the potential of emancipating men from heteropatriarchal norms which dictate their behaviour toward themselves and others.

This volume explores the cultural meaning of several supernatural creatures in Arabia, tracing the historical development of these creatures and their recent representations in the Western world. Utilizing a variety of old and new Arabic, English and French sources, the text explores creatures including the Ghoul and its derivations, the Rukh bird, and the dragon. Unlike other texts, which primarily focus on Genies or Jinns, this volume explores other supernatural and mythical creatures that have been popular in the Middle East and Arabia for centuries but are less known to Western audiences. Dr. Al-Rawi argues that many of these creatures have pre-Islamic roots, and that they served an important function in connecting the past with the present, offering a popular vehicle to articulate and imagine the supernatural dimension of existence which helps in consolidating religious views.

Writing in-Between lies at intersections: between theory and praxis; between fiction and non-fiction; between author and reader; between the personal and the political. Beginning with a conceptual glossary that prepares readers for their journey through the book, Dinesh offers two central texts to invite readers to become co-creators. The first, F for _____, is written as an “academic novella” and culminates with an interactive section that is composed of guided invitations for the reader/co-creator. The second text, Julys, takes the form of a “dramatic memoir” and intersperses invitations for readers/co-creators between each of its chapters. Dinesh brings these threads together in an entirely interactive concluding chapter, where her hopes for collaborative meaning making take centre stage. In all of its unique invitations to engage, Dinesh’s readers/co-creators can either choose to craft their creations in personal notebooks or blank spaces in this work’s physical copy, or to engage more publicly via virtual forums that can be accessed via QR codes and accompanying links that are scattered throughout the book. Guided by questions about writing can “do” — questions that have shaped Dinesh’s work as an artist, scholar, and educator for almost two decades — Writing in Between embodies one central tenet: that the significance of performative writing might be most powerfully experienced through a collaborative process of meaning making between a text’s author and its readers turned co-creators.

The study compares three Bosnian authors with three European titans: The poet Mak Dizdar to Homer, the novelist Meša Selimović to Fyodor Dostoevsky, and the novelist Ivo Andrić to Leo Tolstoy. The purpose is to move the appreciation of the writing of the most important Bosnian writers of the 20th century closer to the European literary community and to the wholeness of the literary phenomenon. Secondary literature on the Bosnian authors is too narrow, focusing on their ethnic heritages and the Balkan milieu in which they write and missing something essential to a critical appreciation of their works. The study creates not only affinities but, more importantly, amitiés between the authors. The discipline of comparative literature reveals what is missing in the secondary literature, namely, a vision of the literary universe, inclusive and comprehensive.

This book focuses on the projections of romantic love and its progression in a selection of popular romance novels and identifies an innovation within the genre’s formula and structure. Taking into account Giddens’s notion of ‘confluent’ love, this book argues that two forms of love exist within these texts: romantic and confluent love. The analysis of these love variants suggests that a continuum emerges which signifies the complexity but also the formation and progressive nature of the protagonists’ love relationships. This continuum is divided into three stages: the pre-personal, semi-personal, and personal. The first phase connotes the introduction of the protagonists and describes the sexual attraction they experience for each other. The second phase refers to the initiation of the sexual interaction between the heroine and hero without any emotional involvement. The third and final phase begins when emotions such as jealousy, shame/guilt, anger, and self-sacrifice are awakened and acknowledged.

This book examines how the game of football and militarism have historically overlapped due to their shared celebration of strength, might, and besting a clear and definitive foe. Nevertheless, since September 11, a variety of staged patriotic vignettes dominated most NFL broadcasts, giving the once easy and unforced union a stilted feel. That the War on Terror became a fixture of modern- day Super Bowls was easy to portend; what was more difficult to predict was the imprint it would leave on U.S. citizens and American politics. Ben Fountain’s award- winning novel, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, reveals what passes for patriotism in a country that has reduced the sober and stark reality of combat to pageantry and production for the crowd back home, leaving our troops to unwittingly play the part of entertainers, destined to be sexualized just like the cheerleaders and dancers so frequently performing alongside them.