Cambria Press
Allegory of survival; the theater of Kang-Baek Lee.
Beginning his career in the early 1970s, a period of great cultural ferment in Korean theater in which playwrights were reasserting the cultural identity of Korea and fashioning plays of social and political criticism, Kang-baek Lee fit right into and strongly influenced his milieu. Of his more than 40 plays, only Wedding (1974) has previously been published in English translation. Editors Kim (Honjik U., South Korea) and Lee (Sookmyung Women's U., South Korea) here present that play along with four others appearing in English for the first time: Five, Watchman, Chaos and Order at a Gallery, and Spring Day. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Asian millenarianism; an interdisciplinary study of the Taiping and Tonghak rebellions in a global context.
Through examining the Taiping and Tonghak rebellions in mid- 19th century China and late 19th century Korea, respectively, as case studies of religiously-motivated millenarian movements rather than just political uprisings as generally treated, Rhee (president, Huntington Career College, Los Angeles) provides a broader perspective on such reactionary movements as they have been generated within Eastern and monotheistic religions. He further argues that contemporary scientific views of the universe also reflect millenarianism, whose core dream is the attainment of world peace — as each movement defines it. The bibliography includes English, Asian, European, and Russian primary and secondary sources. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Building a nation's image on the World Wide Web; a study of the head of state websites of developing countries.
Gaither (communications, Elon U.) tests the model of effective public relations incorporating propaganda devices and persuasion theory, by analyzing 31 Web sites maintained by heads of states in countries considered developing. He finished the research in 2004, and seven of the heads of state have changed since then, he explains, but though some content on the Web sites have changed, the fundamental designs and the apparent underlying political theory have largely survived. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Chatting to learn; the changing psychology and evolving pedagogy of online learning.
As a user experience researcher with eBay's PayPal Co., Hudson applies his PhD in computer science to studying how increasingly popular computer-mediated communication and learning in online chatrooms compares with traditional classroom learning. Through case studies (e.g., of foreign language learning), he examines student participation, the instructor's role, and power relationships. Drawing on linguistic analysis and other relevant research, he concludes that the chatroom environment fosters more equitable participation patterns. The book includes diagrams comparing online and classroom interaction patterns, and transcripts of discussions rated good or poor. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Imaginary homelands of writers in exile; Salman Rushdie, Bharati Mukherjee, and V.S. Naipaul.
In this contribution to critical discourse on the literature of exile, Dascalu (PhD, English, U. of Tulsa) explores the theoretical and practical implications of displacement across geographic, ethnic, and political boundaries in the fiction of three major contemporary writers: Salman Rushdie (e.g., Midnight's Children, The Satanic Verses), Bharati Mukherjee (Wife, The Holder of the World), and V.S. Naipaul (The Enigma of Arrival, The Mimic's Men). She points out that these double identity writers treat exile not only as a condition of the postcolonial world, but also as a route to understanding the self. From focusing on their representative novels, the author concludes that each creates an "imaginary land" conducive to the suspension of oppression and violence. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Legal aspects of combating corruption; the case of Zambia.
Mwenda (Senior Counsel in the Legal Vice Presidency of the World Bank) conducts a critical analysis of the legal and institutional framework for combating corruption in Zambia and offers proposals for strengthening that framework. Central to his discussion are questions over competent authority to combat corruption. He therefore discusses the composition and functions of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), the confusing role of the Task Force on Corruption, and the Directorate of the ACC as the body charged with carrying out the day-to-day functions of the competent authority. He also discusses evidence concerning the political will to fight corruption and makes recommendations concerning the shifting downward of burden of proof in corruption cases. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Linking animal cruelty and family violence.
In order to examine the role of ideological, community, and demographic variables in explaining the link between violence against humans and non-humans, Zilney (justice studies, Montclair State U., New Jersey) tests the graduation hypothesis, the generality of deviance hypothesis, and the masculinities hypothesis. The study is an outgrowth of her doctoral dissertation for the University of Tennessee; no date cited. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Naguib Mahfouz; a western and eastern cage of female entrapment.
An American scholar of literature who taught in Kuwait for five years, Allegretto-Diiulio examines the novels of Egyptian writer Mahfouz (1911-2006), who won the 1988 Nobel Prize. She considers how he used elements of daily life to capture the political upheaval partly caused by British occupation, but also approaches his work from what she calls an ambiguous feminist perspective in the context of Western and Islamic ideas about each other. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Popular delusions; how social conformity molds society and politics.
The innate human desire to act like others leads to an entire range of social events, processes, and structures, says Coleman (public policy, Metropolitan State U., St. Paul, Minnesota). He illustrates with the example of political behavior, including voting, political party systems, and elections. His focus is on the US, Germany, and Japan through the 20th century, with supplemental evidence from two dozen other countries. Much of the material has been published in article form over the years. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
The proscenium cage; critical case studies in U.S. prison theatre programs.
Given the ever-increasing population and limited funds of US prisons, why would administrators encourage theater programs behind bars? Tocci (theater, speech communications, English literature, Salem State College) goes beyond the therapeutic platitudes by closely examining the workings of three programs and how they benefit inmates in very real ways. He examines the roots of New York's Theater for the Forgotten, which grew from rebellion over Vietnam on the outside and developed a powerful performer-audience dynamic on the inside over its three-decade history; New Jersey's Cell Block Theater, which came to specialize in therapeutic theater for young offenders through a system of workshops and performances, and Missouri's Prison Performing Arts Program, which emphasized inmate performances and encompassed both inmates and their families. He shows how classical theater production as well as showcasing prison playwrights worked, how programs aided inmates after release, and how, sometimes, theater was not the perfect solution. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Schools as dangerous places; historical perspectives.
This collection of articles selected from professional journals including History of Education, Educational Studies, The International Journal of the History of Sport, Historical Studies in Education, History of Education Review, Rural Sociology and others describes dangers children have encountered in public and private schools from the early nineteenth century to the end of World War II. Initial topics include an analysis of the legal aspects of dangerous schools, followed by articles on sporting violence in Australia from 1850 to 1914, the abuse of Irish children in charter schools and Magdalen asylums, illicit sexuality in Ontario schools, child abuse scandals in Catholic schools, sexual harassment in the early twentieth century in Ontario, abusive Scottish insular teachers, corporal punishment in inter-war Britain, the negative influence of eugenics on British education from 1900 to 1939, several decades of hazing at the US university, universities as dangers places, and case studies of professional misconduct. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Seductions in narrative; subjectivity and desire in the works of Angela Carter and Jeanette Winterson.
López (English literature, U. de Barcelona) analyzes two texts, Carter's Heroes and Villains of 1969 and Winterson's Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit of 1985, offering a critical discourse. She begins working theoretically, taking a largely poststructuralist approach while retaining Freudian and Lacanian perspectives, continues with an assessment of desire as it works within the mechanism of seduction, and an assessment of metamorphosis. The resulting literary reflections on the texts address Carter's exotic Other as a projection of the subject's desire and construction of both dissolution and identity, and Winterson's juxtaposition of fact and fiction and multiplicity of agency. López's final chapter is fascinating, as she analyzes utopian desires that generate both desire and fantasy while remaining remarkably accessible. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Water from the moon; illusion and reality in the works of Australian novelist Christopher Koch.
In this monograph surveying the works of contemporary Australian Novelist Christopher Koch (The Year of Living Dangerously, Vernay (postcolonial societies, Université Toulouse-Le Mirail, France) focuses on the interplay of reality and illusion in the author's works. Specific themes identified include neocolonial exploitation of Indonesia and other Asian countries, the "dubious" nature of identity, and the lure of otherness. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
