Toni Morrison by
Toni Morrison: Memory and Meaning boasts essays by well-known international scholars focusing on the author's literary production and including her very latest works--the theatrical production Desdemona and her tenth and latest novel, Home. These original contributions are among the first scholarly analyses of these latest additions to her oeuvre and make the volume a valuable addition to potential readers and teachers eager to understand the position of Desdemona and Home within the wider scope of Morrison's career. Indeed, in Home, we find a reworking of many of the tropes and themes that run throughout Morrison's fiction, prompting the editors to organize the essays as they relate to themes prevalent in Home. In many ways, Morrison has actually initiated paradigm shifts that permeate the essays. They consistently reflect, in approach and interpretation, the revolutionary change in the study of American literature represented by Morrison's focus on the interior lives of enslaved Africans. This collection assumes black subjectivity, rather than argues for it, in order to reread and revise the horror of slavery and its consequences into our time. The analyses presented in this volume also attest to the broad range of interdisciplinary specializations and interests in novels that have now become classics in world literature. The essays are divided into five sections, each entitled with a direct quotation from Home, and framed by two poems: Rita Dove's "The Buckeye" and Sonia Sanchez's "Aaayeee Babo, Aaayeee Babo, Aaayeee Babo."
Orhan Pamuk, secularism and blasphemy : the politics of the Turkish novel by
In 2005 Orhan Pamuk was charged with "insulting Turkishness" under Article 301-1 of the Turkish penal code. Eighteen months later he was awarded the Nobel Prize. After decades of criticism for wielding a depoliticized pen, Pamuk was cast as a dissident through his trial, an event that underscored his transformation from national literateur to global author. Orhan Pamuk, Secularism and Blasphemyexamines the literary politics of Orhan Pamuk’s novels within the framework of contestations over "Turkishness," Islam, and secularization. This is not a traditional study of literature, but a book that turns to literature to ask larger questions about Turkish history, identity, collective memory, and cultural practice. Modern literature that confronts representations of the nation-state, or devlet,with those of Ottoman, Islamic, and Sufi contexts, or din,constitute the "secular blasphemies" that define the politics of the Turkish novel. Concluding with an English translation of the interview with Orhan Pamuk which led to his trial in 2005, this book provides a comprehensive and critical analysis of Pamuk’s novels to date whilst contextualising them in their broader political setting.
Reading Amy Tan by
When does a baby TV cry?When its channel needs changing.How do you fix a broken pizza?Use tomato paste. Want wackiness? You've got it, with the wildest, zaniest, most hilariously illustrated collection of jokes ever. From Robin Hoot, the owl who robs from the rich and gives to the poor, to Moodonna, the famous cow rock star, there's enough craziness to keep everyone in stitches.