Imagining The Book

Contributors discuss early printed books and manuscripts between the 14th and 16th centuries under the section headings of: 'Imagined compilers and editors', 'Imagined patrons and collectors', Imagined readings and readers' and 'Beyond the book: verbal and visual cultures'.

A sweeping history of humanity's evolving vision of the universe, as viewed through the writings of the most exceptional thinkers in history.

“Remarkable . . . deeply inventive . . . Thorton has imagined Argentina truly; his inspired fable troubles and feeds our own intriguing imagining.”—Los Angeles Times Imagining Argentina is set in the dark days of the late 1970's, when thousands of Argentineans disappeared without a trace into the general's prison cells and torture chambers. When Carlos Ruweda's wife is suddenly taken from him, he discovers a magical gift: In waking dreams, he had clear visions of the fates of “the disappeared.” But he cannot “imagine” what has happened to his own wife. Driven to near madness, his mind cannot be taken away: imagination, stories, and the mystical secrets of the human spirit. Praise for Imagining Argentina “A harrowing, brilliant novel.”—The New Yorker “A powerful new novel . . . Thorton seems to have wedded his study of such writers as Borges and Marquez with thy his own instinctive gift for metaphor, and in doing so, created his own brand of magical realism”—The New York Times “Imagining Argentina is a slim volume filled with beautiful writing. It is an exciting adventure story. It is a haunting love story. And it is a story for all time.”—Detroit Free Press “The writing is crystalline, the metaphors compelling . . . Its central theme is universal.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer “In a time when much North American fiction is contained by crabbed realism, Thorton takes for his material one of the bleaker recent instances of human cruelty, sees in it the enduring nobility of the human spirit and imagines a book that celebrates that spirit.”—The Washington Post Book World “A powerful first novel and a manifesto for the memorializing power of literature.”—The New York Times Book Review “A profoundly hopeful book.”—The Cleveland Plain Dealer

In Imagining the Americas in Print, Michiel van Groesen reveals the variety of ways in which early modern Europe gathered information and manufactured knowledge about the Americas, and used it to further their colonial ambitions in the Atlantic world.

At the turn of the 21st century, the black body remains an object of discursive analysis, as material and symbol, inscribed by multiple levels of meaning and shaped by the past, the present, and ideas about imagined futures. Through the lens of different disciplines, this book considers how the black body is read polysemically in terms of social and political contexts and issues of power. The contributors to this text critically examine themes addressing the intersections of race, gender, body politics, representation in popular culture and media, aesthetics, policing and disciplining, and resistance. The book explores and interrogates the black body: how it has been historically produced and constructed as an object of desire, menace, literary trope, and political embodiment of the 'Other, ' drawing examples from Europe, Africa, the US, as well as other places in the black diaspora. Through its examination of these and related issues regarding the black body, this book contributes to a dialogue across various disciplines about the black body, its meanings and negotiations as read, interpreted, and imagined in different frames of perception and imagination

From Roentgen to Rembrandt, Hounsfield to Hollywood and Vesalius to videogames, Imagining Imaging explores the deeply entwined relationship between art (and visual-based culture) and radiology / medical imaging. Including artworks from numerous historical eras representing varied geographic locations and visual traditions, alongside a diverse range of contemporary artists, Dr Jackson argues that the foundations of medical image construction and interpretation were laid down in artistic innovations dating back hundreds and thousands of years. Since the discovery of X-rays, artists and moviemakers have, in turn, drawn rich inspiration from radiographic imagery and concepts, but the process of cross-pollination between art and science has continued, with creative endeavour continuing to mould medical imaging examinations to this day. Blending a unique mix of art, science and medical history, together with aspects of visual neurophysiology and psychology, Imagining Imaging is essential reading for radiologists, radiographers and artists alike. Peppered with familiar TV and film references, personal insights into the business of image interpretation, and delivered in an accessible and humorous style, the book will also appeal to anyone who enjoys looking at pictures. Key features: Engaging synthesis of art and medical history, combined with anecdotes and experiences from a working clinical radiologist Diverse range of visual reference points including astronomy, botany and cartography, alongside comprehensive discussion of medical imaging modalities including plain radiography, ultrasound, CT and MRI 200 full colour illustrations

In Imaging Reality: The Faber Book of Documentary, Oscar-winning documentary-maker Kevin Macdonald ( One Day in September, Touching the Void) and leading broadcaster/historian Mark Cousins ( The Story of Film) offer an expanded, revised edition of their 'definitive, inspirational' ( Independent) compendium on the roots and history of the documentary film. Imagining Reality takes the reader on a tour of the evolution of documentary film as an increasingly vibrant, polemical, experimental and entertaining form. It gathers a wide-ranging collection of writings by and about such groundbreaking documentary-makers as Vertov, Flaherty, Marcel Ophuls, Chris Marker, Kieslowski, Claude Lanzmann, and Nick Broomfield. The story is carried up to date by attention to the success documentaries have had among mainstream movie audiences in recent years, including Michael Moore's Bowling For Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11, The Buena Vista Social Club, Spellbound, Capturing The Friedmans, Être Et Avoir, and The Fog Of War.

Brazil markets itself as a racially mixed utopia. The United States prefers the term melting pot. Both nations have long used the image of the mulatta to push skewed cultural narratives. Highlighting the prevalence of mixed race women of African and European descent, the two countries claim to have perfected racial representation—all the while ignoring the racialization, hypersexualization, and white supremacy that the mulatta narrative creates. Jasmine Mitchell investigates the development and exploitation of the mulatta figure in Brazilian and U.S. popular culture. Drawing on a wide range of case studies, she analyzes policy debates and reveals the use of mixed-Black female celebrities as subjects of racial and gendered discussions. Mitchell also unveils the ways the media moralizes about the mulatta figure and uses her as an example of an ”acceptable” version of blackness that at once dreams of erasing undesirable blackness while maintaining the qualities that serve as outlets for interracial desire.