Böcker utgivna av EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY PRESS

A balanced introduction to the 3 major Arab media channels: Al-Jazeera, Al-Hurra and Al-Arabia. The Arab world is currently undergoing a radical media revolution, with the launch of numerous satellite and cable channels. The era of state-controlled media is coming to an end as privately-owned channels emerge. This book presents a detailed study of the three dominant Arab media channels and their role post-9/11. Provides a critical overview of the development of Arab media Examines the aims and impact of Al-Jazeera Arabic, Al-Hurra and Al-Arabia, and compares their broadcasting strategies, programmes and use of languageIncludes comparative case studies of the coverage of the 2006 conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and US foreign policy

Theoretically sophisticated and meticulously situated at the fraught scene of reconciliation between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples in contemporary Australia, Postcolonial Agency is an inspiring manifesto for non-imperial mutuality. Bignall's advocacy of an ethics of joy opens up a new direction for postcolonial studies.Professor Leela Ghandi, Department of English, University of ChicagoA sustained piece of theorisation about the postcolonial to rival Peter Hallward's 'Absolutely Postcolonial'.Simone Bignall argues that a non-imperial concept of ethical and political agency and a materialist philosophy of transformation are embedded within a minor tradition of Western philosophy. Postcolonial Agency provides a significantly new understanding of the processes of social transformation faced by many societies as they struggle with the aftermath of empire. It also offers a valuable new way of conceptualising practices of postcolonial sociability. It will be of interest to students and researchers in political and postcolonial studies, cultural studies, critical theory and Continental philosophy.

This book offers an overview of the contending approaches to the nation and nationalism, in a European context. Part One explores a wide variety of theoretical perspectives including the controversial issue of theoretical dichotomy (civic versus ethnic nationalism) and attempts to overcome it. Part Two introduces three types of nationalism: as ideology, social movement and attitude, allowing for a systematic treatment of sub-state and central state nationalism. The final Part looks at European nationalism in practice, offering new empirical findings from both in-depth single country cases and cross-country comparisons. Key Features *The only textbook on the nation and nationalism which covers the main methodological and analytical issues and gives comparative empirical insights into nationalism in Western and Eastern Europe *Combines a clear exposition of contemporary theoretical positions and perspectives with the authors' own appraisal and synthesis *Presents a critical assessment of the breadth of the literature in the field *Regards nationalism as a contemporary rather than just a historical phenomenon*Challenges the concepts and theories regarding the nation and nationalism with a growing body of relevant empirical research *Includes empirical findings of contemporary nationalist tendencies for instance from Britain, Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Poland, and Sweden.

How can one negotiate and integrate the claims of feminism and multiculturalism through a discourse of rights? This is a timely question: the apparent opposition between feminist and multicultural justice is a central problem in contemporary political theory. It also responds to a deep suspicion about invoking a political discourse that is accused of being either eurocentric, androcentric or both.In this book Monica Mookherjee draws on Iris Young's idea of 'gender as seriality' in order to reconfigure feminism in a way that responds to cultural diversity. She contends that a discourse of rights can be formulated and that this task is crucial to negotiating a balance between women's interests and multicultural claims.The argument is worked through in the context of a set of difficult dilemmas in modern liberal democracies:*the resurgence of the feminist controversy over the Hindu practice of widow-immolation (sati)*gender-discriminatory Muslim divorce laws in the famous Shah Bano controversy in India*forced marriage in South Asian communities in the UK*the rights of evangelical Christian parents to exempt their children from secular education*the recent controversy about the rights of Muslim girls to wear the hijab in state schools in FranceThis valuable and innovative perspective on an important contemporary issue aims to stimulate debate about a set of important concepts central to discourses of feminism and multiculturalism in contemporary political philosophy, including human rights and capabilities, toleration, citizenship practices, cultural rights, the ethic of care, communitarianism and the politics of recognition.

Why have theorists approached narrative primarily as a form of retrospect? Mark Currie argues that anticipation and other forms of projection into the future are vital for an understanding of narrative and its effects in the world. In a series of arguments and readings, he offers an account of narrative as both anticipation and retrospection, linking fictional time experiments (in Ali Smith, Ian McEwan, Martin Amis and Graham Swift) to exhilarating philosophical themes about presence and futurity. This is an argument that shows that narrative lies at the heart of modern experiences of time, structuring the present, whether personal or collective, as the object of a future memory as much as it records the past.

This book is the first study in English to examine some of the key themes and traditions of Czech and Slovak cinema, linking inter-war and post-war cinemas together with developments in the post-Communist period. It examines links between theme, genre, and visual style, and looks at the ways in which a range of styles and traditions has extended across different historical periods and political regimes. Czech and Slovak Cinema provides a unique study of areas of Central European film history that have not previously been examined in English. Key Features*An overview of the development of the Czech and Slovak industries in the pre-war and post-war periods and their adaptation to privatisation in the 1990s.*A consideration of some of the key stylistic and thematic tendencies, focussing on comedy and lyricism, which are characteristics of all periods.*An examination of the political role of film, with particular emphasis on the period of the Prague Spring.*The continuing influence of the Surrealist tradition in the feature film and on the living tradition of the animated film, with particular reference to puppetry.*An analysis of representations of the Holocaust in films produced during the Communist period and more recently.*A consideration of the defining characteristics of Slovak cinema.The book will be of value to students within the field of Film and Media Studies as well as the general market, together with specialist chapters of interest to other disciplines.

This classic study shows that Woolf's most experimental writing is far from being a flight from social commitment into arcane modernism. Rather, it can be best seen as a feminist subversion of the deepest formal principles of a patriarchal social order: the very definitions of narrative, writing and the subject.In a series of subtle readings of five major novels - Jacob's Room, Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, Orlando and The Waves - closely informed by psychoanalytic theory, Makiko Minow-Pinkney presents Woolf as a committed feminist whose politics emerged as an aspect of her experimentation with language and form.

Drawing on recently declassified documents as well as some of the latest published research, The Foreign Policy of Lyndon B. Johnson provides a fresh general account of President Johnson's handling of US foreign relations. It begins with an exploration of the Johnson White House, and then considers US policies towards Vietnam, Britain and France, the NATO alliance, the Soviet Union and communist China, the Middle East, the Western Hemisphere, and the international economy. The book provides the most sympathetic general account of Johnson's foreign policy thus far and confounds the traditional image of him as maladroit in the realm of diplomacy.

Demented Particulars offers a detailed annotation of Samuel Beckett's first published novel, Murphy. The book includes an extensive Introduction, which outlines the compositional and publishing history of the novel, the critical debate, an account of Beckett's reading that went into the book, and a sophisticated discussion of the 'Cartesian catastrophe' at the heart of this comic cosmos. There is also an extensive bibliography of works pertinent to Murphy, and a thematic Index.The main thrust of the book concerns the page by page annotations of the novel itself, with close reference to the range of Beckett's reading (literary, philosophical, theological, biographical and other) that went into the making of this encyclopedic work. The importance of the study lies not simply in the discovery of many new facts, but equally in the assessment of how these laid the foundations for so much of Beckett's later work. The book pays tribute to the astounding range of Beckett's reading in the 1930s, and in so doing documents with precision the extent to which Beckett's later writings, and his dramatic pieces in particular, arise out of the matrix of the earlier works.

Obscure Locks, Simple Keys is a comprehensive study of this most enigmatic of all of Samuel Beckett's texts. Chris Ackerley's approach, which has some similarities to genetic editing, is based on an extensive study of the manuscripts and different editions (including the French translation, overseen by Beckett himself) of the novel, and the long introduction covers the complex history of the book's composition and publication. The book includes a thematic Index and extensive Bibliography, as well as two appendices: one deals with 'Textual changes and errata in the major editions of Watt'; the other with the tangled question of 'The evolution of Watt'. Most of the work, however, concerns the detailed annotation of the text, and examines the range of literary, religious and philosophical matters that have informed and shaped the text. The primary aim of the volume is to offer a complete exposition of the novel's disconcerting difficulties, but another major objective, given the parlous state of previous editions, was to identify and correct the long history of textual error, with a view to the future publication of a better text.

Providing an ideal introduction to historical pragmatics, this guide gives students a solid grounding in historical pragmatics and teaches the methodology needed to analyse language in social, cultural and historical contexts. Using a number of case studies including politeness, news discourse, and scientific discourse, this book provides new insights into the analysis of discourse markers, interjections, terms of address and speech acts. Through focusing on the methodological problems in using historical data, students learn the key concepts in historical pragmatics, as well as covering recent work at the interface of between language and literature.

Deleuze's philosophy of immanence, with its vigorous rejection of every appeal to the beyond, is often presumed to be indifferent to the concerns of religion. Daniel Barber shows that this is not the case. Addressing the intersection between Deleuze's thought and the notion of religion, he proposes an alliance between immanence and the act of naming God. In doing so, he gives us a way out of the paralysing debate between religion and the secular. What matters is not to take one side or the other, but to create the new in this world.

Andrew Blaikie explores how different, but connected, ways of seeing infuse relationships between place and belonging. He argues that all memories, whether fleeting glimpses or elaborate narratives, invoke imagined pasts "e; be these of tenement life, island cultures, vanished moralities, even the origins of social science. But do these recollections share a common frame of reference? Are our perceptions conditioned by a collective social imaginary?We see the impact of modernity on Scottish culture in visions of nation and community from the late eighteenth century on, from Adam Ferguson's ideas on civil society through John Grierson's pioneering of documentary film to structures of feeling in popular fiction. Landscape as the symbolic 'face of Scotland', with its attendant mental contours have been produced and debated in genres including travel literature, social commentary, novels and magazines, but it is the changes in how we capture and present images, particularly given recent technological changes in photography, which have affected the ways we identify and remember.Broadly sociological in approach, the range of Blaikie's analysis lends itself equally to those interested in social history, cultural geography and visual or memory studies.Key FeaturesAnalyses relationships between memory and local and national identitiesProvides interpretive connections between sociology, history, cultural geography and visual studiesContains 25 black and white illustrations and numerous case studies

The Falklands War, the US invasion of Grenada, the Anglo-Guatemalan dispute over Belize and the US involvement in Nicaragua "e; in the 1980s, these crises threatened to overwhelm a renewal in US"e;UK relations. US President Ronald Reagan and UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's efforts to normalise relations, during and after these crises, reveal a mutual desire to strengthen Anglo-American ties and safeguard individual foreign policy objectives. At the same time, they cultivated a close political and personal bond that lasted well beyond their terms in office. Sally-Ann Treharne vividly portrays the role of personal diplomacy in overcoming obstacles to AngloAmerican relations emanating from the turbulent Latin American region in the final years of the Cold War. Drawing on recently declassified documents and candid interviews with key protagonists, she highlights the pivotal moments in Reagan and Thatcher's shared history from a new vantage point. Interviewees include: Lord Geoffrey Howe, Lord Michael Heseltine, Lord Cecil Parkinson, Sir John Nott, Sir Bernard Ingham, Lord Charles Powell, Baroness Gloria Hooper, Sir Adrian Beamish, Lord Peter Carrington, Lord Neil Kinnock and Lord Timothy Bell

Mustafa Dikec reveals the aesthetic premises that underlie Hannah Arendt, Jean-Luc Nancy and Jacques Ranciere's political thinking, and demonstrates how their politics depend on the construction and apprehension of worlds through spatial forms and distributions. Exploring these dimensions of the political, he argues that politics is about how perceive and relate to the world. Space is a form of appearance and a mode of actuality, and the disruption of such forms and modes is the sublime element in politics.

How writers have imagined the idea of Scottish independence over 700 yearsPoet and critic Robert Crawford explores in eloquent detail the literary-cultural background to Scottish nationalism in the lead-up to the referendum on independence for Scotland in September 2014. He begins with the totemic Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, in which the Scots routed the English and preserved their independence until the two nations peacefully united in 1707. Continuing up to the present day, he examines how writers have set out in poetry, fiction, plays and on film the ideal of Scottish independence. Publication coincides with the 700-year anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn, 1314-2014.This engagingly written volume begins with an English poet-in-residence at the 1314 battle. The book then traces how that famous victory has been interpreted and reinterpreted imaginatively. It moves from vivid medieval epics in several languages through the Romantic political imagination of Robert Burns to the striking part played by twenty-first-century poets, novelists, and dramatists in creative attempts to answer the 2014 question: 'Should Scotland be an independent country?'Here are the nationalist poetry of Hugh MacDiarmid and the gore of Braveheart and Black Watch; the Surrey novelist who celebrates Scotland's political freedom in her international best-seller, and the bisexual Jewish American who develops a nuanced theory of Scottish nationalism in opposition to the oppressive rhetoric of fascism. Bannockburns concludes with a spirited discussion of literature and Scotland's 2014 referendum. From The Bruce to contemporary literature and modern-day campaigning, Bannockburns is revelatory.

This volume focuses on the closely allied yet differing linguistic varieties of Birmingham and its immediate neighbour to the west, the industrial heartland of the Black Country. Both of these areas rose to economic prominence and success during the Industrial Revolution, and both have suffered economically and socially as a result of post-war industrial decline. The industrial heritage of both areas has meant that tight knit and socially homogeneous individual areas in each region have demonstrated in many respects little linguistic change over time, and have continued to exhibit linguistic features, especially morphological constructions, peculiar to these areas or now restricted to these areas. At the same time, immigration from other areas of the British Isles over time, from Commonwealth countries and later from EU member states, together with increased social mobility, have meant that newly developing structures and more widespread UK linguistic phenomena have spread into these varieties. This volume provides a clear description of the structure of the linguistic varieties spoken in the two areas. Following the structure of the Dialects of English volumes, it provides:*A comprehensive overview of the phonological, grammatical and lexical structure of both varieties, as well as similarities between the two varieties and distinguishing features.*Thorough discussion of the historical and social factors behind the development of the varieties and the stigma attached to these varieties. *Discussion of the unusual situation of the Black Country as an area undefined in geographical and administrative terms, existing only in the imagination. *Examples of the variety from native speakers of differing ethnicities, ages and genders.*An annotated bibliography for further consultation.

A deconstruction of the national biography and mythology of William WallaceFreed from the historian's bedrock of empiricism by a lack of corroborative sources, the biography of this short-lived late-medieval patriot has long been incorporated into the ideology of nationalism. It is to explain this assimilation, and to deconstruct the myriad ways that Wallace's biography has been endlessly refreshed as a national narrative, over many generations, that forms this investigation. William Wallace: A National Tale examines the elision of Wallace's after-life into narrative ascendency, dominating the ideology and politics of nationalism in Scotland. This narrative is conceptualised as the national tale, a term taken out of its literary moorings to scrutinise how the personal biography of a medieval patriot has been evoked and presented as the nation's biography over seven centuries of time. Through the verse of Blind Hary, the romance of Jane Porter, to the historical imaginations of Braveheart and Brave, Scotland's national tale has been forged. This is a fresh, engaging and timely exploration into Wallace's hold over Scotland's national mythology.Key FeaturesReappraises William Wallace as a national figureBrings Wallace into the 2014 debateExplores Wallace variously as: A Protestant; A Scottish Chief; A Romantic Hero; a Hollywood HeroExamines Scotland's obsession with the need for a national hero

Were violent horror movies like Saw and Hostel a reflection of post-9/11 trauma? Or was something else responsible for these brutal films? This study reveals the secret history of how the DVD market changed horror movies and film ratings. These changes made way for horror films like those by the 'Splat Pack', a group of directors including Eli Roth, Rob Zombie, and James Wan. This book re-examines the history of the American horror film from a business perspective and explores how DVD influenced the production of American horror films during the first decade of the twenty-first century.

A new critical perspective on the relationship between text and tact in 20th- and 21st-century literature and theoryWhile the field of haptic aesthetics has received significant critical interest in recent years, the intimate connection between touching and writing remains neglected. Contributing to current debates in deconstruction and psychoanalysis, Tactile Poetics: Touch and Contemporary Writing offers a new critical perspective on the relationship between text and tact. Through close readings of authors such as John Berger, Elizabeth Bowen, Anne Carson, Siri Hustvedt, and Michael Ondaatje, the volume proposes a theory of 'tactile poetics' in order to examine the co-implication of touch and writing in a range of genres including the novel, poetry, short fiction, autobiography and film. Drawing on insights from Didier Anzieu, Hlne Cixous, Jacques Derrida, Sigmund Freud and Jean-Luc Nancy, Tactile Poetics examines the 'skin-effects' of language and the 'law of tact' that always interrupts contact. Celebrating the intersections between creative and critical writing and exploring diverse literary textures, this book deviates from grasping and licking to false hands and phantom limbs, considering the effects of spectral contact on how we 'hand on' ways of thinking about reading and writing. Key Features: - Conceptualises the relationship between touching and writing through a theory of 'tactile poetics'- Offers in-depth analysis of a range of literary genres including short fiction, poetry, autobiography, correspondence and the novel- Examines writings on touch by Anzieu, Cixous, Derrida, Freud and Nancy- Explores the intersections between creative and critical thinking and writing Sarah Jackson is Senior Lecturer in English and Programme Leader MA in Creative Writing at Nottingham Trent University.

When did Scots first think of Scotland as an independent kingdom? What did they think was Scotland's place in Britain before the age of Wallace and Bruce? The answers argued in this book offer a fresh perspective on the question of Scotland's relationship with Britain. It challenges the standard concept of the Scots as an ancient nation whose British identity only emerged in the early modern era, but also provides new evidence that the idea of Scotland as an independent kingdom was older than the age of Wallace and Bruce.This leads to radical reassessments of a range of fundamental issues: the fate of Pictish identity and the origins of Alba, the status of Scottish kingship vis-a -vis England, the papacy's recognition of the independence of the Scottish Church, and the idea of Scottish freedom. It also sheds new light on the authorship of John of Fordun's chronicle, the first full-scale history of the Scots, and offers an historical explanation of the widespread English inability to distinguish between England and Britain. All this is placed in the wider context of ideas of ultimate secular power in Britain and Ireland and the construction of national histories in this period. The book concludes with a fresh perspective on the origin of national identity, and the medieval and specifically Scottish contribution to understanding what is often regarded as an exclusively modern phenomenon.

This is the first modern book-length study of the case of Thomas Aikenhead, the sometime University of Edinburgh student who in 1697 earned the unfortunate distinction of being the last person executed for blasphemy in Britain. Taking a micro-historical approach, Michael Graham uses the Aikenhead case to open a window into the world of Edinburgh, Scotland and Britain in its transition from the confessional era of the Reformation and the covenants, which placed high emphasis on the defence of orthodox belief, to the polite, literary world of the Enlightenment, of which Edinburgh would become a major centre.Graham traces the roots of the Aikenhead case in seventeenth-century Scotland and the law of blasphemy which was evolving in response to the new intellectual currents of biblical criticism and deism. He analyzes Aikenhead's trial and the Scottish government's decision to uphold the sentence of hanging. Finally, he details the debate engendered by the execution, carried out in a public sphere of print media encompassing both Scotland and England. Aikenhead's case became a media event which highlighted the intellectual and cultural divisions within Britain at the end of the seventeenth century.

What would political thought look like without the foundation of ethics? Drawing on the work of Emmanuel Levinas, Jacques Derrida and Jean-Luc Nancy, Madeleine Fagan puts forward a radical and far-reaching refusal of foundational ethics. Instead, she proposes an account of the inseparability of ethics and politics.

This study examines the representation of gesture in modernist writing, performance and cinema.

In the 20th century, phenomenology promised a method that would get philosophy 'back to the things themselves'. But phenomenology has always been haunted by the spectre of an anthropocentric antirealism. Tom Sparrow shows how, in the 21st century, speculative realism aims to do what phenomenology could not: provide a philosophical method that disengages the human-centred approach to metaphysics in order to chronicle the complex realm of nonhuman reality. Through a focused reading of the methodological statements and metaphysical commitments of key phenomenologists and speculative realists, Sparrow shows how speculative realism is replacing phenomenology as the beacon of realism in contemporary Continental philosophy. He draws on phenomenologists including Husserl, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty and Levinas, speculative realism's original creators Graham Harman, Quentin Meillassoux, Ray Brassier and Iain Hamilton Grant and key figures in speculative realism's second wave, including Ian Bogost and Timothy Morton.

"e;Christopher Norris raises some basic questions about the way that analytic philosophy has been conducted over the past 25 years. In doing so, he offers an alternative to what he sees as an over-specialisation of a lot of recent academic work. Arguing that analytic philosophy has led to a narrowing of sights to the point where other approaches that might be more productive are blocked from view, he goes against the grain to claim that Continental philosophy holds the resources for a creative renewal of analytic thought."e;

F. LeRon Shults explores Deleuze's fascination with theological themes and shows how his entire corpus can be understood as a creative atheist machine that liberates thinking, acting and feeling. Shults also demonstrates how the flow of a productive atheism can be increased by bringing Deleuzian concepts into dialogue with insights derived from the bio-cultural sciences of religion.

Islamist political parties have enjoyed unprecedented election victories in recent times. The Islamic Revolution in Iran, the election of the Justice and Development Party in Turkey and the coming to power of Islamists, albeit briefly, after the Arab Spring, has changed the political landscape in the Middle East and has ramifications for the entire Muslim World. Yet the continuing success of these parties depends on their record on economic development and employment creation. Are their economic policies different from those of their autocratic predecessors? Have they been influenced by the writings of academic Islamist economists? This book looks at the impact of Islamic teaching on public economic policy and asks how Islamic economics differs from mainstream micro and macroeconomics.

What does it really mean to be legally married? The answer seems to vary depending on the cultures, religions and laws of different countries. From English teenagers eloping to Gretna Green to tie the knot without their parents' permission, to whether a wife can own property, it's clear that marriage law is different depending on where you live and when. Now, the main debate centres on whether the law should be changed so that same-sex couples can marry. The Scottish and UK governments, plus a number of US states, are to legislate to allow same-sex marriage, prompting both celebration and outrage. But amongst all the assumptions, there are few facts, and the debates about same-sex marriage in the UK and the US are taking place in an informational vacuum filled with emotion and rhetoric. 'Legally Married' combines insights from history and law from the UK and Scotland with international examples of how marriage law has developed. Scot Peterson and Iain McLean show how many assumptions about marriage are contestable on a number of grounds, separate fact from fiction and explain the claims made on both sides of the argument over same-sex marriage in terms of their historical context.