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Essays in Unruly Catholics explore how renowned Catholic literary figures Dante Alighieri, Oscar Wilde, Graham Greene, Evelyn Waugh, and Gerard Manley Hopkins dealt with the disparities between their personal beliefs and the Church’s official teachings. Contributors also suggest how controversial entertainers such as Madonna, Kevin Smith, Michael Moore, and Stephen Colbert practice forms of Catholicism perhaps worthy of respect. Most pointedly, Unruly Catholics addresses the recent sex abuse scandals, considers the possibility that the Church might be reformed from within, and presents three iconic figures—Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, and C.S. Lewis—as models of compassionate and reformist Christianity.
Superhero adventure comics have a long history of commenting upon American public opinion and government policy, and the surge in the popularity of comics since the events of September 11, 2001, ensures their continued relevance. This critical text examines the seventy-year history of comic book superheroes on film and in comic books and their reflections of the politics of their time. Superheroes addressed include Batman, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, Superman, the Fantastic Four and the X-Men, and topics covered include American wars, conflicts, and public policy. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.
This work of literary and film criticism examines all eight filmed adaptations of Jane Austen's Emma produced between 1948 and 1996 as vastly different interpretations of the source novel. Instead of condemning the movies and television specials as being «not as good as the book, » Marc DiPaolo considers how each adaptation might be understood as a valid «reading» of Austen's text. For example, he demonstrates how the Gwyneth Paltrow film Emma is both a romance and a female coming-of-age story, the 1972 BBC miniseries dramatizes Emma's world as claustrophobic and Emma herself as suffering from depression, and the modern-day teen comedy Clueless comes closest of all to bringing a feminist reading of the novel to the screen. Each version illuminates a different, legitimate way of reading the novel that is rewarding for Austen fans, scholars, and students alike.
Fellow Inklings J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis may have belonged to different branches of Christianity, but they both made use of a faith-based environmentalist ethic to counter the mid-twentieth-century's triple threats of fascism, utilitarianism, and industrial capitalism. In Fire and Snow, Marc DiPaolo explores how the apocalyptic fantasy tropes and Christian environmental ethics of the Middle-earth and Narnia sagas have been adapted by a variety of recent writers and filmmakers of "climate fiction," a growing literary and cinematic genre that grapples with the real-world concerns of climate change, endless wars, and fascism, as well as the role religion plays in easing or escalating th...
The fin de siècle not only designated the end of the Victorian epoch but also marked a significant turn towards modernism. Extraordinary Aesthetes critically examines literary and visual artists from England, Ireland, and Scotland whose careers in poetry, fiction, and illustration flourished during the concluding years of the nineteenth century. This collection draws special attention to the exceptional contributions that artists, poets, and novelists made to the cultural world of the late 1880s and 1890s. The essays illuminate a range of established, increasingly acknowledged, and lesser-known figures whose contributions to this brief but remarkably intense cultural period warrant close at...
While the Baby Boomer generation has consistently commanded widespread attention--both scholarly and popular--little has been written about Generation X, the 46 million Americans born between the mid-1960s and late 1970s. But with Baby Boomers now moving into retirement, members of Generation X have come to the forefront of American society. Consequently, understanding Generation X--and the potential impact of the independent, sometimes rebellious spirit that characterizes it--is critical. In Generation X Professors Speak: Voices from Academia, Elwood Watson has assembled a unique collection of thematically arranged essays by academics that offers insights into the issues, conflicts, and tri...
Comics, manga and anime can offer an interesting perspective from which to explore representations of the law in popular culture. This book offers a better understanding of the juridical subtexts of such cultural artefacts by bringing together scholars in legal theory and comparative and international law. While the contributions in the first part of the volume unpack the relationships between normative systems (law and morality above all) in graphic narratives by Marvel (Daredevil) and DC heroes (Batman), the second part of the volume looks at the role played by law and lawyers in different legal systems through case studies such as She Hulk. Finally, the last part focusses on the role of international law in the comic (multi)universe and in Japanese animation movies such as Porco rosso). This collection extends research into comics beyond Anglo-American culture, which is still hegemonic in this literature, and makes it possible to read the legal phenomena dealt with in the pop culture products analysed through a lens other than that of Anglo-American law.
In Japan and much of Europe, Ozu is widely considered to be one of the finest film directors who ever lived. While Ozu has a strong reputation in the West, his films are not as well-known or widely appreciated in the U.S. as they are elsewhere. A notable exception to this trend is film critic Roger Ebert, who recently wrote that Ozu is one of his “three or four” favorite directors. Also, moving beyond the view that Tokyo Story is a masterful exception in the Ozu canon, Ebert sees Ozu's films as “nearly always of the same high quality.” Ozu International will reflect on Ebert's view of Ozu by arguing that this director deserves broader recognition in the U.S., and that his entire cano...
This book explores many of the theological and religious themes present in the Game of Thrones HBO television series and George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire novels. Written for academics yet accessible for the layperson, the chapters explore themes of power, religion, and sacred institutions in Westeros; Christian ecclesiology in the Night’s Watch and the religion of the Iron Islands; Augustinian notions of evil in the Night King and anthropology in the Seven; Orientalism, Hinduism, and the many worldviews in the World of Ice and Fire, and the series more controversial and disturbing themes of rape and death. Theology and Game of Thrones will appeal to theology and religious studies scholars and fans alike as it explores these elements in Martin’s complex fantasy epic.