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During the years 1918 to 1920, Julian Tuwim (1894-1953) burst upon the Polish literary scene like a firework. An 'enfant terrible', no poet, Polish or English (with the exception, perhaps, of Lord Byron) whose name, at an early age, came to excite the reading public so suddenly. His reputation having since undergone many changes among literary critics both before his untimely death and beyond, Tuwim remains, however, the poet most recognised as 'unusual', most quoted and discussed by Polish readers. This notwithstanding, he seems to be these days recognised more for his undoubtedly superb poems for children than for his lyric verse.
Over two million Shakespeare Shorts sold Discover the world of Shakespeare with this collection of brilliant stories - perfect for readers of all ages. King Henry V is new to the throne and declares war on France, England's old enemy, to prove his military strength. As the country prepares for battle, will the young king accomplish the unthinkable - victory on French soil, against an army that outnumbers his troops ten to one? A dramatic retelling of one of Shakespeare's most famous history plays.
Yoram Gross' recollections of his life, told simply and directly, cannot be read without emotion. This is the story of a youth who was forced to grow up during the Nazi occupation of his country, Poland. Despite the surrounding horrors, the book is surprisingly cheerful. It is living holocaust history, delivered lightly, with veracity and deep feeling.
Imaginary Neighbors offers a unique and significant contribution to the contemporary debate concerning Holocaust memory by exploring the most important current political topic in Poland: Jewish-Polish relations during and after World War II.
This volume provides a historical narrative, historiographical reviews, and scholarly analyses by leading scholars throughout the world on the hitherto understudied topic of Shanghai Jewish refugees. Few among the general public know that during the Second World War, approximately 16,000 to 20,000 Jews fled the Nazis, found unexpected refuge in Shanghai, and established a vibrant community there. Though most of them left Shanghai soon after the conclusion of the war in 1945, years of sojourning among the Chinese and surviving under the Japanese occupation generated unique memories about the Second World War, lasting goodwill between the Chinese and Jews, and contested interpretations of this complex past. The volume makes two major contributions to the studies of Shanghai Jewish refugees. First, it reviews the present state of the historiography on this subject and critically assesses the ways in which the history is being researched and commemorated in China. Second, it compiles scholarship produced by renowned scholars, who aim to rescue the history from isolated perspectives and look into the interaction between Jews, Chinese, and Japanese.
The volume is divided into two parts, separated by an Intermezzo. The first part, “Dystopia Matters”, benefits from the contribution of reputed scholars of the field of Utopian Studies, who were asked to make a statement explaining why dystopia is important. The Intermezzo completes this part and offers the reader an informed discussion of the concepts of utopia, dystopia and anti-utopia whilst providing ground for the case studies presented in the second part, in the sections devoted to literature, film, and theatre. In one way or another, despite the variety of approaches, all contributors argue for the idea that, if dystopia has invaded most forms of contemporary discourse, its sibling, utopia, has not been eradicated from the scene. Furthermore, the studies show that the tension between the two concepts is instrumental to our cautious, conscious, and tentative construction of the future.
The Forgotten Holocaust, a story of the forgotten Romani holocaust, encompasses a rich cast of characters, both Romani and Gadje (non-Romani), set over three generations, stretching from England, Holland and Poland to life in a new world. The holocaust story that history swept under the carpet … Can you ever truly escape past nightmares that dog your footsteps? Or do you confront them head on, so that you can live the rest of your life in peace? Auschwitz prisoner Gil Webb suffers the unremitting brutal terror of the purpose-built Gypsy Camp, the Zigeunerlager, where thousands of his fellow Romanies are indiscriminately annihilated in World War Two. Rescued at the end of the war and returned to his English homeland to recuperate, Gil and his new wife sail to a fresh life overseas, hoping to escape his past memories and the depression of post-war Europe.
Departing from the traditional German school of music theorists, Michael Klein injects a unique French critical theory perspective into the framework of music and meaning. Using primarily Lacanian notions of the symptom, that unnamable jouissance located in the unconscious, and the registers of subjectivity (the Imaginary, the Symbolic Order, and the Real), Klein explores how we understand music as both an artistic form created by "the subject" and an artistic expression of a culture that imposes its history on this modern subject. By creatively navigating from critical theory to music, film, fiction, and back to music, Klein distills the kinds of meaning that we have been missing when we perform, listen to, think about, and write about music without the insights of Lacan and others into formulations of modern subjectivity.
For the last few decades, historiography, considered as the central discipline of musicology, has explored new directions and sought inspiration for further research, consequently redefining the fundamental premises of historical musicology. This is especially true with regard to the concept of music history as the work of great individuals and the domain of artistic works, resulting from either tradition or new inventions. The validity of global and universal perspectives has been questioned, and researchers have emphasized the need to focus on local realities and day-to-day musical life. Another key topic in this ongoing debate is the (im)possibility of writing an “objective” historica...
What does it mean to be human? And, more precisely, what does it mean to be human now, with both humanism and the humanities in crisis? In answer to these questions, Laughing on the Brink of Humanity seeks not some essence of the human but rather an epiphenomenal manifestation—a sign of the human. The book finds such a sign in the joyless, painful, and often deadly laughter that resonates when we cross the barrier between what is human and what is not: animality, machinery, divinity. Jan Miernowski brings together a wide swath of discourses and figures, from Plato and the Bible through early modern humanism, to Friedrich Nietzsche, Georges Bataille, Hannah Arendt, Claude Lanzmann, Spike Jonze, Tom Stoppard, and Michel Houellebecq. Looking for laughter on the brink of humanity—in literature and philosophy, natural science and film, theology and computer science—the book offers an exercise in epihumanism appropriate to our posthuman age.