Böcker utgivna av University of Wisconsin Press

Countering notions that Hmong history begins and ends with the "Secret War" in Laos of the 1960s and 1970s, this study reveals how the Hmong experience of modernity is grounded in their sense of their own ancient past, when this now-stateless people had their own king and kingdom, and illuminates their political choices over the course of a century in a highly contested region of Asia.

Among a growing number of ethnographies of Eastern Indonesia that deal with cosmology, exchange and kinship, this book confronts issues originally broached by Edmund Leach and Claude Levi-Strauss, concerning the relation between hierarchy and equality in asymmetric systems of marriage.

This study of rural Ireland in the 1840s explicates the social, economic and demographic conditions of the era. The author argues that overpopulation and deprivation were inextricably linked to the rapid economic development of rural Ireland that was shaped by British interests.

Focusing on the origins and development of the hard-boiled story, Panek comments on the way it has changed since the 1970s and examines the work of ten significant contemporary writers: Robert B. Parker; James Crumley; Loren Estleman; Sara Paretsky; Robert Crais; James Lee Burke; and Walter Mosley.

This title concerns the different ways in which people use their bodies for self-expression: tattooing, piercing, self-mutilation, which serve both individual and cultural needs.

Vampires, since they found a home in the psyche of the West 250 years ago, have always been objects of fascination for popular audiences. Recently they have gained the attention of scholars in the fields of popular culture, literary history, folklore, and cultural anthropology. Now reduced to a cliche and figure of fun, the vampire originally took on its characteristics in the public imagination from a series of plays written and performed by some of the most important figures in 19th-century theatre: Dion Boucicault, Eugene Scribe, Alexandre Dumas pere, Gilbert and Sullivan, Charles Nodier, T.P. Cooke, Marie Dorval, and J.R. Planche. Roxana Stuart's study approaches the subject primarily from the viewpoint of literary criticism but also includes production history, providing the reader with a useful look at theatre practices, as well as social and psychological insights into popular taste and imagination as reflected in the changing persona with which each period and culture endows the vampire, from the relative innocence of the Romantics to the evolving patterns of sadism, misogyny, and xenophobia of the end of the century.

John le Carre is viewed by many critics as one of the best spy and espionage novel writers. His most famous works are The Spy Who Came in from the Cold; Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; and The Little Drummer Girl. Peter Wolfe has produced an informative study of le Carre s works, showing how le Carre s five years in the Service (British Intelligence) helped him become a keen observer, social historian, and expert in bureaucratic politics. He has supplanted the technological flair marking much of today's spy fiction with moral complexity and psychological depth. He shows us what spies are like, how they feel about spying, and how spying affects their minds and hearts."

Examines the rise of the Russian empire as a literary theme simultaneous with the evolution of Russian poetry between the 1730s and 1840 - the century during which poets defined the main questions facing Russian literature and society. This work shows how imperial ideology became implicated in a range of issues.

Cy Endfield (1914-1995) was a filmmaker who was also fascinated by the worlds of close-up magic, science, and invention. After directing several distinctive low-budget films in Hollywood, he was blacklisted in 1951 and fled to Britain. The fruit of years of archival research and personal interviews by Brian Neve, this title documents Endfield's many identities: among them second-generation immigrant, Jew, Communist, and exile.

For thousands of years, our world has been shaped by biblical monotheism. But its hallmark--a distinction between one true God and many false gods--was once a new and radical idea. Of God and Gods explores the revolutionary newness of biblical theology against a background of the polytheism that was once so commonplace. Jan Assmann, one of the most distinguished scholars of ancient Egypt working today, traces the concept of a true religion back to its earliest beginnings in Egypt and describes how this new idea took shape in the context of the older polytheistic world that it rejected. He offers readers a deepened understanding of Egyptian polytheism and elaborates on his concept of the "Mosaic distinction," which conceives an exclusive and emphatic Truth that sets religion apart from beliefs shunned as superstition, paganism, or heresy.>Best Books for General Audiences, selected by the American Association of School Librarians, and Best Books for Special Interests, selected by the Public Library Association

Depicts the whole of medieval society, both on a national scale and, more important, society as it affected the individual in his everyday activities. This book gives us a social history, which examines customary meals, dress, homes, work, spiritual life, even ideas about courtship and love.

This sparkling new translation of Ovid's love poems, notorious for the sexual content that led to his exile by the emperor Augustus, also includes Tristia 2, Ovid's witty self-defense. With helpful footnotes and a comprehensive introduction, this edition gives readers a poetic tour of the literature, mythology, topography, religion, politics, and sexuality of ancient Rome.

Authenticity is a notion much debated, among discussants as diverse as cultural theorists and art dealers, music critics and tour operators. The desire to find and somehow capture or protect the "authentic" narrative, art object, or ceremonial dance is hardly new. In this masterful examination of German and American folklore studies from the eighteenth century to the present, Regina Bendix demonstrates that the longing for authenticity remains deeply implicated in scholarly approaches to cultural analysis. Searches for authenticity, Bendix contends, have been a constant companion to the feelings of loss inherent in modernization, forever upholding a belief in a pristine yet endangered cultural essence and fueling cultural nationalism worldwide. Beginning with precursors of Herder and Emerson and the "discovery" of the authentic in expressive culture and literature, she traces the different, albeit intertwined, histories of German Volkskunde and American folklore studies. A Swiss native educated in American folklore programs, Bendix moves effortlessly between the two traditions, demonstrating how the notion of authenticity was used not only to foster national causes, but also to lay the foundations for categories of documentation and analysis within the nascent field of folklore studies. Bendix shows that, in an increasingly transcultural world, where Zulu singers back up Paul Simon and where indigenous artists seek copyright for their traditional crafts, the politics of authenticity mingles with the forces of the market. Arguing against the dichotomies implied in the very idea of authenticity, she underscores the emptiness of efforts to distinguish between folklore and fakelore, between echt and ersatz.

In the shadow of Pushkin's Golden Age, Russia's eighteenth-century culture was relegated to an obscurity hardly befitting its actually radical legacy. Why did nineteenth-century Russians put the eighteenth century so quickly behind them? How does a meaningful present become a seemingly meaningless past? Interpreting texts by Lomonosov, Derzhavin, Pushkin, Viazemsky, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and others, Luba Golburt finds surprising answers.

The history of the study of popular culture in American academic since its (re)introduction in 1967 is filled with misunderstanding and opposition. From the first, proponents of the study of this major portion of american culture made clear that they were interested in making popular culture a supplement to the usual courses in such fields as literature, sociology, history, philosophy, and the other humanities and social sciences; nobody proposed that study of popular culture replace the other disciplines, but many suggested that it was time to reexamine the accepted courses and see if they were still viable. Opposition to the status quo always causes anxiety and oppostion, but when the issues are clarified, often oppoosition and anxiety melt away, as they are now doing.

Beatrice of Bayou Teche is an 1895 novel by a white woman about a black woman artist-protagonist. As the introduction to this reprint edition shows, Alice Ilgenfritz Jones was the first white woman to take an extended interest in the intersection of creativity, race and gender.

This book of essays carefully written by twenty-four authorities on their subjects provides a deep understanding of and appreciation for the coherence, primacy, and importance of the search for identity in the divergent areas of Latin America, the Caribbean, and Europe."

This book takes another look at politics and popular culture. The author has tried to explain the politics of popular culture as part of historical and cultural processes, helping the reader understand not only how popular culture has affected our politics, but also where it is taking us.

Joinings and Disjoinings illustrates the importance of marriage or singleness in short stories and novels and suggests the diverse perspectives the topic can provide on specific works and on analysis of the cultural importance of marriage and marital status. Essays discuss canonical and lesser-known works, providing social, historical, and literary context."

The essays in this book trace many of the multitudinous forces at work on the Constitution and in the popular culture and show how the forces control and benefit each other. The subject is of profound importance and, beginning with these essays, needs to be studied at great length for the benefit of us all.

Can a U.S. president decide to hold suspected terrorists indefinitely without charges or secretly monitor telephone conversations and e-mails without a warrant in the interest of national security? Was the George W. Bush administration justified in authorizing waterboarding? Was President Obama justified in ordering the killing, without trial or hearing, of a U.S. citizen suspected of terrorist activity? Defining the scope and limits of emergency presidential power might seem easy--just turn to Article II of the Constitution. But as Chris Edelson shows, the reality is complicated. In times of crisis, presidents have frequently staked out claims to broad national security power. Ultimately it is up to the Congress, the courts, and the people to decide whether presidents are acting appropriately or have gone too far. Drawing on excerpts from the U.S. Constitution, Supreme Court opinions, Department of Justice memos, and other primary documents, Edelson weighs the various arguments that presidents have used to justify the expansive use of executive power in times of crisis. Emergency Presidential Power uses the historical record to evaluate and analyze presidential actions before and after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The choices of the twenty-first century, Edelson concludes, have pushed the boundaries of emergency presidential power in ways that may provide dangerous precedents for current and future commanders-in-chief.

A text which explores the serial killer as an American cultural icon. Tithecott considers the ways in which the American media has dealt with examples of real and fictional serial killers, and argues that the serial killer we construct for ourselves is a figure both repulsive and attractive who fulfils dreams of masculinity, purity, and violence.

Vansina, a historian and anthropologist best known for his insights into oral tradition and social memory, draws on his own memories and those of his siblings to reconstruct daily life in Belgium during World War II.