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Dangers, Toils and Snares charts the life and times of Jaroslav (Jiri/Jerry) Zellek, 1895-1963. Born in provincial Austria, synesthete, gifted musician and linguist, Jiri’s experiences take him to Germany, London, the Isle of Wight and finally rural Hampshire. These various locations offer him alternative paths in life, often with alternative partners. Jiri’s sexuality is ambivalent; not a problem in 1920s Berlin, but more so in post war England. Although never an intelligence agent, Jiri is involved as both fall-guy and hitman with a group who are based on the infamous Cambridge Spies. As the story progresses, gradually uncovered family secrets will cast doubt on his closest relationships. Jiri is an unpredictable, solipsistic and not entirely likeable character, but his unusual internal monologues about the situations he finds himself in and his enduring ability to come out on top of continually unpromising situations keep the reader on his side. The novel is an entertaining read with witty dialogue and surreal situations. The tone is decidedly quirky and will keep you guessing until the very end.
Flames in the Night Jiri has always been special. Found as an infant in the ashes of her village, she was taken in by a neighboring shaman and trained to be a powerful jungle druid. Yet when Aspis Consortium mercenaries release an ancient evil that burns her adopted home to the ground, Jiri must gather a group of her own to uncover the secrets of a lost nation and stop the fire spirit—and the greedy treasure hunters trying to leash it for their own ends—before it lays waste to the entire Mwangi Expanse. From acclaimed short story author Gary Kloster comes a tale of revenge, lost cities, and unlikely alliances, set in the award-winning world of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.
This book examines the connections between poverty and innovation in Africa. Through case studies and theorizations from a distinctly African perspective, it stands in contrast to current theoretical works in the field, which remain very much rooted in Western-orientated thinking. The book investigates the application of methodologies which explain numerous African contexts in connection with issues of poverty and inequality. It reflects on comparative practices and praxes on the African continent, including commonplace traditions and practices in alleviating poverty, taken against a background of the failure of current prescriptions for poverty alleviation, such as the Structural Adjustment...
"This book explores the weird shapes that emerge when material elements interact with figurative content of the moving image. Employing the digitized first Czech films by Jan Kríženecký prompted the questions: is it possible to do film theory from below, from the perspective of a film object? Could we treat accidents in moving images as full-fledged actors with distinctive aesthetic forms and functions? In these films, analog elements impinge upon the form and content of the moving images to create generative figures and shapes. Using digital technology, we can isolate these features and experiment with how they can be reimagined"--
Humans, Other Beings and the Environment is an ethnographic study of the possibilities for the mutual, symbiotic co-existence of human beings, a unique species of forest insects and natural forests. The result of extensive fieldwork conducted over a period of thirteen months, the book highlights the continuum among humans, wild insects and environmental conservation outcomes in a specific environment of southeastern Norumedzo in rural Zimbabwe. In this respect, it describes interactions and relationships between humans, other beings and the natural forests to demonstrate how some aspects of the emerging body of literature in the posthumanities and relational ontologies can work to grasp the ...
"Though many archival digital objects were not "born digital," film archives are now becoming important resources for digital scholarship as a consequence of digitization. Moreover, with advancements in digital research methods involving video annotation, visual analysis, and GIS affecting the way we look at archival films' material, stylistic histories and circulation, new research practices are more important than ever. Visualizing Film History is an accessible introduction to archive-based digital scholarship in film and media studies and beyond. With a combined focus on the history of film historiography, archiving, and recent digital scholarship-covering a period from the "first wave" o...
This volume interrogates the popularity of problematic theories in the study of Africa and Africans in the 21st century. The book provides ethnographic and intellectual material for scholars seeking to rethink and reimagine a number of externally imposed theories used (un-)consciously in Africa, with the intention of raising awareness and fostering critical thinking amongst scholars theorising Africa. With its theorising focus and contributors drawn from diverse disciplines and geographical locations, the book is both a pacesetter on how to think, research and theorise Africa, and an invaluable asset for social scientists, development practitioners, civil society activists and leaders in the politics and economy of everyday life on the continent. It poses an invitation to those seeking to re-embrace and reconnect with theory as an indispensable ingredient and determinant of quality in critical production and consumption of knowledge on Africa and of relevance to Africans.
Can attending to poetic form help us imagine a radical politics and bridge the gap between pressing contemporary political concerns and an ancient literature that often seems steeped in dynamics of oppression? The corpus of the fifth-century Athenian playwright Aristophanes includes some of the funniest yet most disturbing comedies of Western literature. His work’s anarchic experimentation with language invites a radically “oversensitive” hyperformalism, a formalistic overanalysis that disrupts, disables, or even abolishes a range of normativities (government, labor, reproduction, gender). Exceeding not just historicist contextualism, but also conventional notions of laughter and the l...
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The essays collected in this book focus on the multi-faceted relationship between German/Austrian literature and the cinema screen. Scholars from Ireland, Great Britain, Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Portugal, USA and Canada present critical readings of a wide range of transpositions of German-language texts to film, while also considering the impact of cinema on German literature, exploring intertextualities as well as intermedialities. The forum of discussion thus created encompasses cinematic narratives based on Goethe’s Faust, Kleist’s Marquise of O..., Kubrick’s film version of Schnitzler’s Dream Story and Caroline Link’s Oscar-winning adaptation of Stefanie Zweig’s nove...