Continuum Publishing Group
Me and you and Memento and Fargo; how independent screenplays work.
Murphy argues that, "For all of the emphasis placed on mainstream conventions by [screenwriting] manuals, there can be no denying that some of the best writing over the past 25 years has shifted to the independent sector. Today's independent screenwriters have moved beyond the hardened rules and formulas advocated by the manuals to embrace a much broader and flexible conception of cinema than the one governed solely by the principles of classical Hollywood." The 12 films discussed, including Fargo, Stranger Than Paradise, Me and You and Everyone We Know, and Memento, represent a broad spectrum of American independent films. Each has received major distribution and exerted substantial critical impact on the field. The films are divided into categories of problematic protagonists, multiple-plot films, temporal structures, and noncausal structures. Author information is not given. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Medieval literature and culture.
Galloway (English, Cornell University) introduces the reader to the diversity of literature in medieval English. His preface echoes the cry in the wilderness of medievalists regarding the dismissal of the period by contemporary society. To rectify this, he traces the history of Britain along with the literature. The latter part of the book examines how later centuries regarded medieval British literature, noting the division between romantics like Sir Walter Scott and academics. He concludes with an overview of current studies of medieval authors, emphasizing the trend to put the work in the social context of the times. There is a timeline, list of British kings, a glossary and reading list. Useful for graduate students and those teaching in the field. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Meritocracy, citizenship, and education; New Labour's legacy.
In 1958, Michael Young's satirical The Rise of the Meritocracy first introduced the word meritocracy into the English language, as it warned against the dangers of the headlong pursuit of a meritocratic society. Taking Young's work as a starting point, Beck (education, U. of Cambridge, UK) examines meritocracy, citizenship and education in the UK today. Coverage includes a summary of Young's book and academic debates about meritocracy; New Labour's efforts to promote a more meritocratic ordering of society in Britain; citizenship and citizenship education during New Labour's three terms in office; governmental efforts to restructure education and the professions, particularly teaching; and cultural coexistence and identity politics in the contemporary age of anxiety. Four of the book's eight chapters were previously published in other journals and books between 1999 and 2005. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Metaphysics and the end of philosophy.
Fortunately for working philosophers, the end of philosophy has been predicted from the beginning of philosophy but Mounce (philosophy, U. of Wales, Swansea) offers a compelling criticism of the scientism of the last three centuries, arguing that a full philosophical approach and not simply science has a positive place in our attempting to understand the world. He offers the idea that metaphysics is essential to keeping philosophy alive and useful, and proves it in a survey and analysis of the motivations of leading thinkers of modern philosophy. Moving from Bacon to Locke to Kante, Comte, the logical positivists, Russell, Quine and Wittgenstein, Mounce relates each individual's approach (or lack of approach) to the issues of metaphysics and its place in a living (or dying) thought system. The result is not only an interesting treatment of metaphysics but also a good survey of the aforesaid philosophers' work. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Michel de Certeau; analysing culture.
How can pursuing a "science of singularity," structurally a contradiction, be useful in revealing what lies behind culture? Highmore (U. of the West of England, Bristol) shows what needs to happen to both "science" and "singularity" for them to reveal the depths of each other, however subtly. He makes good use as well of other of Certeau's axioms of practice to elucidate the philosopher's commentary on culture, history, spirituality, possession as understood in anthropology, mysticism, sorcery, popular culture religious thought, linguistic policies, the thought of Leibniz and the culture of Latin America, as well as on practice itself. He introduced Certeau's particular take on epistemology, his handling of psychoanalysis within the study of culture, his approach to the record and texts, including those considered primarily oral, his work within the counter public sphere and one of his underlying projects, the practice of studying practice. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Mill's Utilitarianism; a reader's guide.
Both Bentham and Mill created seminal works in utilitarianism. Both argued that actions, laws and social policies are to be justified by their consequences, with Mill taking the approach that the consequences are rightly happiness and unhappiness. West (philosophy, Macalester College) fleshes out this seminal idea thoroughly, placing the work in its historical and intellectual contexts by describing Mill's life and writings and the contributions of Bentham's philosophy. He provides the alternatives to utilitarianism available at the time and in the present, and gives a concise summary of basic themes. He provides a close reading of the text, making commentary that works directly as well as a cross-reference, and provides notes on reception of Mill's work and its influence on future thought. His list of further reading, which includes secondary material, is precise. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Modernism.
In this introduction to the modernist movement in Britain, Wilson (English and linguistics, U. of Westminster) puts the major writers of the time — Joyce, Woolfe, Pound, Eliot et al. — in a socio- historical context. She places the movement in the turmoil of the early 20th century, the end of the Victorian Era, and the First World War, and then looks at the authors by genre and, finally by literary group. She intermingles the narrative with references to comparable works in art and music of the same period. Finally, Wilson explains some of the issues in the study of modernism and makes suggestions for further study. This book is intended for classroom use, with each section capable of being used on its own to supplement study. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Modernizing schools; people, learning and organizations.
Editors Gunter (educational policy, U. of Manchester) and Butt (geography education, U. of Birmingham) and their co-contributors offer a critical investigation of the current modernization agenda within education, particularly focusing on the "remodeling" of the school workforce in England. Essays explore four questions. These include four questions. First, what are the antecedents of the current waves of modernization both in England and internationally? Second, does workforce modernization offer meaningful ways forward for the teaching profession? Third, how is the leadership of change to take place with respect to educational modernization? And, finally, what alternative approaches to remodeling might be developed with regard to the workforce labor market? All questions relate to education programs in England and internationally. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Money, speculation, and finance in contemporary British fiction.
The financial industry is in large measure fictitious by its nature, says March (English, U. of Southampton), and argues that contemporary literature has been a powerful site for unraveling the assumptions that are contained within the rhetoric of money's fictitiousness. She finds the novel, adept as it is with languages of power and discipline, is especially equipped to reveal, counter, parody, and qualify the apparent ability of money to be everywhere and nowhere, everything and nothing. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Music education and digital technology.
The Education and Digital Technology series begin here, and will explore not only how new technologies are being used in teaching various subjects, but also how they are changing the theory and practice of education itself. In this volume, contributors who have come to music education from one direction or the other consider such topics as perspectives from a new generation secondary school music teacher, learning through on-line collaborative music making, and new forms of composition and how to enable them. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Nationalism and European integration; the need for new theoretical and empirical insights.
Political and other social scientists, most from Germany or the US, consider the causal relationship between nationalism and regionalism in light of European integration, the circumstances under which that relationship might be linear, and the notion of Europe as the significant other. Among their topics are the Europeanization of nationalist parties in Scotland and Wales, Flemish ethnopolitical parties in an integrating Europe, and nationalism as the dangerous underbelly of modern Turkey. No index is provided. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Negative horizon; an essay in dromoscopy. (reprint, 2005)
A prolific writer and the director of Ecole Speciale d'Architecture in Paris, Virilio describes how constant acceleration (besides gravity) impacts human senses and will eventually affect global democracy. L'Horizon Negatif was published in 1984 by Editions Galilée, and Degener's English translation first appeared in 2005. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
A new history of jazz, 2d ed.
This history of jazz has been updated to incorporate newer artists such as Keith Jarrett, John Medeski, Diana Krall, and Esbjörn Svensson. It includes new sections on Latin jazz, and contemporary keyboard players and jazz vocalists. Shipton begins with the genre's roots and traces its development through bebop, free jazz, international jazz and current world influences, and the postmodern scene. One chapter discusses the influence of politicization and the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. Recommended listening is appended, revised from recommendations that were previously included within the text of the first edition and correlated to a CD that is no longer available. The general index is accompanied by an index of titles. Shipton presents jazz radio programs for the BBC and is a critic for The Times in London. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Nietzsche and the metaphysics of the tragic.
Nabais (philosophy, U. of Lisbon, Portugal) questions the fundamental canonical interpretations of the evolution of Friedrich Nietzsche's thought, and the subsequent impact of his principal notions on the 20th century. Portugal has no philosophical tradition to speak of says Earl, himself a poet and essayist there in Coimbra, so when Metafísica do Trágico, published by Relógio d'Água, hit the streets in 1997 it was the first full-length study of Nietzsche to appear in the country. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Noise/music; a history.
Hegarty considers the concept of noise and how it relates to music, particularly how noise in the twentieth century became a musical resource. Chapters separately look at individual styles, presumptions, uses and locations of noise, following the first uses of noise by those such as Charles Ives and Erik Satie, through its utilization by John Cage, Fluxus and technological developments, Adorno, free jazz, electric guitar and noise in rock, progressive rock, punk, and industrial music. Additionally discussed are Public Enemy; Japanese noise music, especially that by Merzbow; sound art; and the use of sampling, vinyl manipulation, and glitch. A discography is provided. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Novels of the contemporary extreme.
Apparently not yet a full blown genre, just an element that is emerging in literature, the contemporary extreme sets narratives in places very different from that of writers and readers, often apocalyptic, and invariably stuffed with varieties of violence that authors must expend considerable effort to think up and elaborate. Scholars of literature in a range of languages in the Americas, Europe, and the Middle East explore the phenomenon. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Observation techniques; structured to unstructured.
Gillham (psychology, U. of Strathclyde) observes that observing what people do is more valid than relying on what they say they do. In that spirit, he describes techniques for making and recording observations in a number of environments and situations, including structured observation settings, in which both subject and observer commit to a set of rules, and semi-structured observation, in which the observer may be gathering information to form a research question or verifying previous observation. He describes unstructured observation, better known as the ethnographic method, and defines observation more closely as an experimental method. He gives tips on visual ethnography and self-observation, and comments on ethical problems that may arise in the process of observation. He also, wisely, explains the limitations of observation, whether structured or not, and suggests ways to avoid limitations or find other research methods. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Origins of analytic philosophy; Kant and Frege.
An American scholar of philosophy working outside the walls of academe, Reed explores the early history of analytic philosophy, defined as that practiced during the third quarter of the 20th century by such figures as Kripke, Davidson, and Quine. The basic story he tells is that analytic philosophy was a reaction to Immanuel Kant's (1724-1804) critical philosophy, and the foundations of which were laid by Gottlob Frege (1848-1925) along with the logical notation that is used today. The study may have served as his 2000 Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Minnesota. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Origins of the cult of the Virgin Mary.
In July 2006, the Centre for Marian Studies, then a mere decade old, organized a conference in York, England, and presentations there have been reworked into most of the 10 essays here. British and American biblical and religious scholars seek the birth of the cult in various times, places, literatures, and intellectual ferments. Among their topics are Mary in the apocryphal New Testament, Cyril of Alexandria, Candlemas, and Pope John VII. Burns and Oates is an imprint of Continuum. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Othello; character studies.
Not Othello the character, but the whole tragic play Othello is the field in which Potter (not further identified) explores character and characterization. He explains how Shakespeare created and manipulated the eponymous Moor of Venice, the other two main characters — the villain Iago and the wronged Desdemona — and more briefly the minor characters, in order to further the story he wanted to tell. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
