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A comprehensive survey of Muslim Spain from 711-1502. This introduction to Muslim Spain covers the period from 711 to1502, giving readers a substantial overview of what it was that made it a unique and successful society, and of its powerful legacy in the formation of modern Spain. Using a chronological framework and pushing the main historical developments to the forefront, the author keeps in view the shifting social patterns caused by the changing balance between town and country, major and minor dynasties, foreign groupings and repeated invasions from North Africa. He also includes discussion of topics such as inter-faith relations, multi-ethnic competing groups, and how intellectual life was enriched by pluralism and influence from abroad.

This monograph addresses diachronic change of languages in terms of a restructuring of speakers' internal grammatical knowledge. The authors answer questions about the circumstances surrounding grammatical change and attempt to identify causes, constructing a general theory of diachronic change consistent with insights from language acquisition.

To understand today's Arab thinking, you need to go back to the beginnings of modernity: the nahdah or Arab renaissance of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Abdulrazzak Patel enhances our understanding of the nahdah and its intellectuals, looking back to its origins in the 1700s and taking into account important internal factors alongside external forces. He explores the key factors that contributed to the rise and development of the nahdah, he introduces the humanist movement of the period that was the driving force behind much of the linguistic, literary and educational activity. Drawing on intellectual history, literary history and postcolonial studies, he argues that the nahdah was the product of native development and foreign assistance and that nahdah reformist thought was hybrid in nature. Overall, this study highlights the complexity of the movement and offers a more pluralist history of the period.

This book fills this gap and provides an essential resource for academics and researchers with an interest in cinematic representations of the family and transnational cinema.

This book uses large scale social and cultural trends and major world events to analyse the American comedy film. This is a historical and conceptual study discussing the comedy narrative, comic traditions, and role of visual culture. The important innovators of American film comedy and the role of visual technology within cultural politic are discussed, as well as theorists such as Freud, Baudrillard, and Derrida. Key features* Close analysis of two films to illustrate key points in each chapter* Relevant both to film and cultural studies* Chronological treatment

Human rights are in crisis today. Everywhere one looks, there is violence, deprivation, and oppression, which human rights norms seem powerless to prevent. This book investigates the roots of the current crisis through the thought of Italian philosopher, Giorgio Agamben. Human rights theory and practice must come to grips with key problems identified by Agamben "e; the violence of the sovereign state of exception and the reduction of humanity to 'bare' life. Any renewal of human rights today must involve breaking decisively with the traditional coordinates of Western political thought and instead affirm a new understanding of life and political action.

Contrary to the stereotypical images of torture, narcotics and brutal sexual abuse traditionally associated with Ottoman or 'Turkish' prisons, Kent Schull argues that, during the Second Constitutional Period (1908-1918), they played a crucial role in attempts to transform the empire.

Covering core topics from vocabulary and grammar to teaching, writing speaking and listening, this textbook shows you how to link research to practice in TESOL methodology. It emphasises how current understandings have impacted on the language classroom worldwide and investigates the meaning of 'methods' and 'methodology' and the importance of these for the teacher: as well as the underlying assumptions and beliefs teachers bring to bear in their practice. By introducing you to language teaching approaches, you will explore the way these are influenced by developments in our understanding of language, learning technologies, learners, and their socio-cultural world. Three main areas in TESOL methods are covered: the impact of learner needs, context and culture on language, learning and teaching approaches; knowledge of language and its impact on methods, from the word to whole texts; and multiple literacies and competences for the modern world, including academic literacy and web literacy, socio-cultural and intercultural competence. The impact on teacher choices and methods of World Englishes, approaches to grammar, and learner development is also discussed. Each chapter illustrates core principles in practice using case studies of English teaching worldwide. Guided tasks, including article critique, case study analysis, and small-scale classroom research, prepare you to engage critically with research literature and use this analysis to inform your own practice. Key features* Written specifically for those studying TESOL teaching* First book to teach methods and practice in a global context, including links to the latest developments in the field* Encourages students to adopt a reflective approach to their teaching* Concepts and research are presented in an accessible way, regardless of the student's level of teaching experience or linguistic study* Provides task-based activities.

The idea of the Other is central to both Levinas' philosophy and to postcolonialism, but they both apply the concept in different ways. Now, John Drabinski asks what we can learn from reading Levinas alongside postcolonial theories of difference. Drawing on the works of Gayatri Spivak, Homi Bhabha, Edouard Glissant and Subcommandante Marcos, he rethinks ideas of difference, language, subjectivity, ethics and politics.

The first full critical study of this San Francisco Renaissance poet In the years since his death from alcohol poisoning, Jack Spicer (1925-1965) has gradually come to be recognized as one of most intriguing of the so-called 'New American Poetry' poets. This study places Spicer's work in the context of the San Francisco Renaissance and contemporary movements with which he was in dialogue such as the Beats, the Black Mountain poets, and the 'New York School'. It also explores his relationship to the major modernists from whom his innovative poetics derived. Informed by archival material only recently made available, the book examines Spicer's post-Poundian translation projects, his crucial theories of the 'serial poem' and inspiration as 'dictation', his contrarian take on queer poetics, his insistently uncanny regionalism, and his elaboration of an epistolary poetics of interpellation and address.

Explores Achaemenid kingship and argues for the centrality of the royal court in elite Persian societyThe first Persian Empire (559-331 BCE) was the biggest land empire the world had seen, and seated at the heart of its vast dominions, in the south of modern-day Iran, was the person of the Great King. Hidden behind the walls of his vast palace, and surrounded by the complex rituals of court ceremonial, the Persian monarch was undisputed master of his realm, a god-like figure of awe, majesty, and mystery.Yet the court of the Great King was no simple platform for meaningless theatrical display; at court, presentation mattered: nobles vied for position and prestige, and the royal family attempted to keep a tight grip on dynastic power - in spite of succession struggles, murders, and usurpations, for the court was also the centre of political decision-making and the source of cultural expression. Key features:Draws on rich Iranian and Classical sourcesExamines key issues such as royal ideology, court structure, ceremony and ritual, royal migrations, gender, hierarchy, architecture and space and cultural achievementsAccesses the rarefied but dangerous world of Persian palace lifeIncludes guides to further reading and web resources to encourage research

Examines cultural representations of women's experience of the railway in a period of heightened mobility Women's experiences of locomotion during a period of increased physical mobility and urbanisation are explored in this monograph. The 5 chapters analyse Victorian and early Modernist texts which concentrate on women in transit by train, including Wilkie Collins's No Name, George Meredith's Diana of the Crossways, Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South, Henry James's The Spoils of Poynton and The Wings of the Dove, and stories by Rhoda Broughton, Margaret Oliphant, Charles Dickens and Katherine Mansfield. They highlight the tension between women's boundless physical, emotional, and sexual aspiration - often depicted as closely related to the freedom and speed of train travel - and Victorian gender ideology which constructed the spaces of the railway as geographies of fear or manipulation. Key features: The first full-length examination of texts by and about women which explore the railway as a gendered space within a British and European context Explores a variety of cultural discourses which deal with women and the railway: fiction, poetry, news stories and commentaries, essays, paintings, and philosophical writings Proposes a reconceptualization of the public/private binary

At a time when the Union between Scotland and England is once again under the spotlight, Remembering the Past in Nineteenth-Century Scotland examines the way in which Scotland's national heroes were once remembered as champions of both Scottish and British patriotism.Whereas current, popular orthodoxy claims that 19th-century Scotland was a mire of sentimental Jacobitism and kow-towing unionism, this book shows that Scotland's national heroes embodied a consistent, expressive and robust view of Scottish nationality. From the potent legacy of William Wallace and Robert the Bruce, through the controversial figure of the reformer, John Knox, to the largely neglected religious radicals, the Covenanters, these heroes once played a vital role in the formation of the virtues that made 19th-century Britain great. Examined through the prism of commemoration, this book uncovers a reading of Scotland's past entirely opposed to the now dominant narratives of medieval proto-nationalism and Calvinist misery.

This book surveys Michel Foucault's thought in the context of his life and times, utilising the latest primary and secondary materials to explain the political implications of each phase of his work and the relationships between each phase. It also illustrates how his thought has been used in the political sphere and examines the importance of his work for politics today.

The Scottish jurist, judge, legal historian and philosopher Henry Home (1696"e;1782) took the title Lord Kames when he was elevated to the bench of the Scottish Court of Session in 1752. In the 18th century, his books were influential and widely read; the educated classes and representatives of the Enlightenment in England, France and in the German states were all familiar with his aesthetic and philosophical writings. Andreas Rahmatian explains Kames' conceptions of legal philosophy, including black-letter law, legal science, legal theory, legal sociology and anthropology in its early stages, setting them in the context of the Scottish Enlightenment. He looks at how Kames came to be one of the forefathers of comparative law, sociology of law, legal psychology and 'legal science' in its proper meaning, as opposed to 'law'. From the APF:Portmahomack today is a serene fishing village on the Dornoch Firth, north east Scotland where archaeological excavations have written a new history of the origins of Scotland. This book brings alive the expedition and its discoveries, most famously a monastery of the eighth century in the land of the Picts. Starting from chance finds of Pictish carved stone in St Colman's churchyard, the archaeologists unearthed four settlements one on top of the other. An elite farm was succeeded by the Pictish monastery, which, following a Viking raid in AD800, became a trading place and then a medieval village. Scientific analysis shows at each stage where the people came from, their life-style and what they ate. Together it creates a story of the heroic adaptation of a European nation to new politics between the sixth and sixteenth century. The Picts were the outstanding sculptors of their day, producing carved stone monuments equal to anything being made in contemporary Europe. They were Britons, who resisted the Romans invaders and created their own warrior nation in the north east of the island. Coming under pressure from the Scots and the Norse, they disappeared from history in the ninth century AD. Now archaeology is finding them again.

Explores Woolf's writing alongside Deleuze's philosophy and new materialist theories of 'sex', 'animal', and 'life'How does Virginia Woolf conceptualise the material world? In what ways has Woolf's modernism affected understandings of materiality, and what new perspectives does she offer contemporary theoretical debates? Derek Ryan demonstrates how materiality is theorised in Woolf's writings by focusing on the connections she makes between culture and nature, embodiment and environment, human and nonhuman, life and matter. Through close readings of texts including To the Lighthouse, Orlando, A Room of One's Own, The Waves, Flush, and 'Sketch of the Past', he details the fresh insights Woolf provides into issues concerning the natural world, sexual difference, sexuality, animality, and life itself. Ryan opens up Woolf studies to new theoretical paradigms by placing Woolf in dialogue with Gilles Deleuze - who cites her modernist aesthetics as exemplary of some of his most important philosophical concepts - as well as eminent contemporary theorists including Rosi Braidotti, Donna Haraway, Karen Barad, and Jane Bennett, all of whom have influenced the recent critical turn towards new materialisms. Locating theory within Woolf's writing as well as locating Woolf within theory, Virginia Woolf and the Materiality of Theory: Sex, Animal, Life brings her modernism firmly into to the foreground of current debates in literary studies, feminist philosophy, queer theory, animal studies and posthumanities.

Focusing on surprise, spontaneous eruption and the unforeseeable, The Unexpected argues that stories help us to reconcile what we expect with what we experience. Though narrative is often understood a recapitulation of past events, the book argues that the unexpected and the future anterior, a future that is already complete, are guiding ideas for new understandings of the reading process. It also points beyond that to some of the key temporal concepts of our epoch, of unpredictability, the event, the untimely and the messianic. The Unexpected is an important intervention in narratology and a striking general argument about the cultural significance of surprise. The enquiry is developed by a range of new readings in philosophy and theory, as well as of Sarah Waters's Fingersmith, Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go and Julian Barnes's The Sense of an Ending.

Engaging with questions of representation, Ideas and the transcendental, Daniela Voss offers a sophisticated treatment of the Kantian aspects of Deleuze's thought, taking account of Leibniz, Maimon, Lautman and Nietzsche.

Tracing how the logic of inoperativity works in the domains of language, law, history and humanity, 'Agamben and Politics' systematically introduces the fundamental concepts of Agamben's political thought and a critically interprets his insights in the wider context of contemporary philosophy. In a change of focus from Agamben's other commentators, Sergei Prozorov brings out the affirmative mood of Agamben's political thought. He concentrates on the concept of inoperativity, which has been a central to Agamben's thought from his earliest writings.

Men's Cinema offers a fresh theorisation of men in Hollywood cinema via a theoretical discussion of definitions of masculinity and the close textual analysis of classic and contemporary films. Through an examination of mise-en-scene, Men's Cinema moves beyond discussions of representation and narrative to an exploration of the physical or instinctive effects of cinema and how we are invited to engage with, desire or identify with Hollywood's vision of men and masculinity. By delineating how Hollywood has built up and refined the language of men's cinema through a series of recurrent, refined tropes, this book critically explores masculinity and the concept of a male aesthetic within film. Films discussed include: The Deer Hunter, Dirty Harry, Goodfellas, Inception, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Once Upon a Time in the West, Point Break, Raging Bull, Rebel Without A Cause, Reservoir Dogs, Sherlock Holmes, There's Always Tomorrow, The Wild Bunch.

Noah Haiduc-Dale focuses on the relationship between Arab Christians and the nationalist movement in Palestine as the British Mandate unfolded throughout the first half of the 20th century. Evidence of individual behaviours and beliefs, as well as those of Christian organizations (both religious and social in nature), challenges the prevailing assumption that Arab Christians were prone to communalism. Instead, they were as likely as their Muslim compatriots to support nationalism. When social pressure led Christians to identify along communal lines, they did so in conjunction with a stronger dedication to nationalism.

An understanding of military occupation as a distinct phenomenon first emerged in the 18th century. This book shows how this understanding developed and the problems that the occupiers, the occupied, commentators and the courts encountered. It covers all major occupations including: France, Sicily, Greece, Belgium, Syria, Mexico, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cyprus, Egypt, Korea, Peking, the Boer Republics; Latin America; and those related to the Napoleonic Wars, the Mexican-American War, the American Civil War, the Franco-Prussian War, the Russo-Turkish War, and the Spanish-American War

The relationship between the personal lives of writers and the works they produce is at the heart of this intriguing new study. In particular, it reconsiders the place of John Middleton Murry (1889-1957) in the development of literary modernism in Britain. Drawing on Murry's unpublished journals and long-forgotten novels, Circulating Genius examines his significance as a 'circulator' of ideas, reputations and critical positions in his roles of editor, literary critic, novelist, friend and lover and complicates the arguments of earlier biographers and critics about his relationships - both personal and professional - with Katherine Mansfield and D. H. Lawrence.Key Features* Rewrites standard assumptions about John Middleton Murry's relationships with Katherine Mansfield and D. H. Lawrence* Provides intertextual readings of fiction by Mansfield, Lawrence and Murry* Considers Murry's controversial role in the dissemination of modernist critical positions* Explores marginalisation and centrality in the creation of the modernist canon

Peacekeeping, peace enforcement and 'stability operations' ask soldiers to use violence to create peace, defeat armed threats while having no enemies and uphold human rights without taking sides. The challenges that face peacekeepers cannot be easily reduced to traditional just war principles. Built on insights from care ethics, case studies including Darfur, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti and Liberia and scores of interviews with peacekeepers, trainers and planners in the field in Africa, India and more, Daniel H. Levine sheds light on the challenges of peacekeeping. And he asserts that the traditional 'holy trinity' of peacekeeping principles "e; consent, impartiality, and minimum use of force "e; still provide the best moral guide for peacekeepers.

Tanzania is often seen as an exceptional case of successful language planning in Africa, with Swahili being spread to all corners of the country. Yet, this objective success has always been accompanied by a culture of complaints proclaiming its utter failure. State Ideology and Language in Tanzania sets out to explore this paradox through a richly documented historical, sociolinguistic and anthropological approach covering the story of Swahili from the early days of independence until today. Focusing on the ways in which Swahili was swept up in the 'Ujamaa revolution' - the transition to socialism led by president Nyerere - Jan Blommaert demonstrates how the language became an emblem not just of the Tanzanian 'cultural' nation, but above all of the 'political' nation. Using Swahili meant the acceptance of socialism, and the spread of Swahili across the country should equal the spread of Ujamaa socialism. When this did not happen, the verdict of failure was proclaimed on Swahili, which did not prevent the language from becoming one of the most widely used and dynamic languages on the continent.This book is a thoroughly revised version of the 1999 edition, which was welcomed at the time as a classic. It now extends the period of coverage to 2012 and includes an entirely new chapter on current developments, making this updated edition an essential read for students and scholars in language, linguistics and African Studies.

Despite the many important developments and innovations traceable to the Seljuq period (5th-7th/11th-13th centuries), the Seljuqs remain one of the understudied Muslim dynasties. This unique collaborative exploration of the Seljuqs' achievement contributes to the growing interest in this pivotal dynasty. The various chapters in this volume cover a representative geographical spectrum, from Central Asia and Persia to Iraq, Syria and Anatolia, and address novel questions such as the ideological foundations and ritual expressions of Seljuq power, the mutual attitudes of the learned classes and the Seljuq state, the organization of space, and the relationship between nomads and the settled peoples.The book is divided into three parts: the origins of the Seljuqs, their gradual transformation into a powerful dynasty, and their concepts of political legitimization (part one); the social history of the Seljuq period, particularly with regard to the 'ulama' and the urban populations (part two); developments in religious thought, jurisprudence, belles-lettres and architecture under the Seljuqs (part three).Key Features*Brings together the work of leading international experts in Seljuq studies including C. E. Bosworth, Massimo Campanini, Carole Hillenbrand, Robert Hillenbrand, Jurgen Paul, Andrew C. S. Peacock and Scott Redford*Critically engages with previous scholarly work on the Seljuqs*Addresses novel questions and challenges in the historiography of the Seljuq period*Pays particular attention to the Seljuqs' formative influence on later socio-political orders

A comprehensive study of Oman presenting a portrait of a nation through its diplomacy.For Oman, the idea of diplomacy refers not only to the country's interactions in the global community, but also to the way in which Omani life itself is shaped by principles and practices of social and political engagement that are essentially diplomatic. Such principles are grounded in ideals of tact and tolerance that have developed over a long historical period.This is therefore a cultural history: an historical account of the formation of a distinctive Omani culture. It argues that this culture is where Oman's contemporary foreign policy has been nurtured, and that it is in this culture that a specific conception and practice of diplomacy has been developed.Key Features*the most comprehensive history in English of Oman's international relations*draws upon key research into Omani religious and social traditions, and ethnographic studies of language and social customs. *provides a perspective which places Oman at its centre, rather than as a background actor in broader colonial narratives, Cold War calculations or global concerns over the relationship between Islam and the West*presents an account of Oman's contemporary behind-the-scenes role in relation to Iranian US relations, and the Middle East peace process*the first book to connect Oman's international relations with considerations of Omani history, culture and social organisation

Explores the potential of globalisation to provide the conditions for a harmonious global community. Solidarity has been a mobilising word since the mid-19th century, conjuring images of united action in pursuit of social justice. Lawrence Wilde explores this concept and raises the question of whether solidarity among strangers is a meaningful aspiration in our globalising age. He critically examines the work of Rorty, Honneth, Touraine, Habermas and Fraser and shows how solidarity relates to nationalism, gender, religion and culture. Looking to the future, he explores the politics of global solidarity and the conditions required for its development.

This study of twentieth-century American poet Muriel Rukeyser explores the multiple avenues of her 'poetics of connection' to reveal a profound engagement with the equally intertextual documentary genre. It examines previously overlooked photo narratives, poetry, prose and archival material and demonstrates an enduring dialogue between the poet's relational aesthetics and documentary's similarly interdisciplinary and creative approach to the world. By considering the sources of documentary in Rukeyser's work, the study provides insight into her guiding poetic principles, situating her as a vital figure in the history of twentieth-century American literature and culture, and as a pioneering personality in the development of American Studies. Key Features Provides a new, interdisciplinary perspective situating Rukeyser firmly within the canon of essential twentieth-century American poetsExamines Rukeyser's photo narratives, poetry, prose, and archival materialOutlines the development of documentary in the 1930s, and its role in the formation of an American literary and cultural aesthetic

Explores the history and ideas of the Scottish Conservative Party since its creation in 1912. You might not believe it now, but the Scottish Conservative Party played a significant role in the politics of Scotland during the last century. The party governed Scotland and the UK for much of the 20th century. But their support has nosedived from a majority of votes and seats at the 1955 general election to just a single constituency and 17 per cent of the vote in May 2010. This collection brings together academics, writers, commentators and analysts of Scottish politics to address the nature of the Scottish Conservative Party: its standing in Scotland, its influence on the Union, its role in the Scottish Parliament and why it fell so out of favour with the Scottish electorate.