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      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        November 2021

        Practising shame

        Female honour in later medieval England

        by Mary C. Flannery, Anke Bernau, David Matthews

        Practicing shame investigates how the literature of medieval England encouraged women to safeguard their honour by cultivating hypervigilance against the possibility of sexual shame. A combination of inward reflection and outward comportment, this practice of 'shamefastness' was believed to reinforce women's chastity of mind and body, and to communicate that chastity to others by means of conventional gestures. The book uncovers the paradoxes and complications that emerged from these emotional practices, as well as the ways in which they were satirised and reappropriated by male authors. Working at the intersection of literary studies, gender studies and the history of emotions, it transforms our understanding of the ethical construction of femininity in the past and provides a new framework for thinking about honourable womanhood now and in the years to come.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        May 2020

        Imagining Caribbean womanhood

        Race, nation and beauty competitions, 1929–70

        by Pamela Sharpe, Rochelle Rowe, Penny Summerfield, Lynn Abrams, Cordelia Beattie

        Over fifty years after Jamaican and Trinidadian independence, Imagining Caribbean womanhood examines the links between beauty and politics in the Anglophone Caribbean, providing a first cultural history of Caribbean beauty competitions, spanning from Kingston to London. It traces the origins and transformation of female beauty contests in the British Caribbean from 1929 to 1970, through the development of cultural nationalism, race-conscious politics and decolonisation. The beauty contest, a seemingly marginal phenomenon, is used to illuminate the persistence of racial supremacy, the advance of consumer culture and the negotiation of race and nation through the idealised performance of cultured, modern beauty. Modern Caribbean femininity was intended to be politically functional but also commercially viable and subtly eroticised.

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        June 2017

        Gothic forms of feminine fictions

        by Susanne Becker

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        May 2020

        Women of war

        by Juliette Pattinson, Penny Summerfield

      • Trusted Partner
        April 2019

        Spiritual Growth

        by Rabbi Paul Steinberg

        This book began with Paul Steinberg's realization that although religions are struggling to meet the needs and trends of our modern age, spirituality is not. Its contemporary manifestations continue to thrive, and Jews can be found throughout all varieties of spiritual leadership in America.Facing the fact that, for whatever reason, Jewish leaders simply have not done a good job of translating the ancient, spiritual wisdom of their beliefs into contemporary language and images that resonate with mass appeal, Rabbi Steinberg knew that the faith of his fathers was ready for a new spiritual message. And so he has written it―a message that is both particular to Judaism and uses Jewish language and text as starting points for a view that is universal enough to include spiritual concepts, terms, and expressions from many other spiritual traditions.Spiritual Growth: A Contemporary Jewish Approach provides both a language and a set of Jewish spiritual principles that are accessible and integrated with contemporary life, as well as being deep and authentically real (i.e., not “dumbed down” for anyone). It is a work that emerged out of Rabbi Steinberg's own personal experiences, pains, and spiritual journey―the trials and growth documented in his highly successful book Recovery, the 12 Steps, and Jewish Spirituality.There are not a lot of works like this. There are books on Jewish scholarship, history, and theology. But books on Jewish spirituality tend usually to focus on a particular motif, such as the feminine, grief, aging, or Kabbalistic biblical interpretations. Spiritual Growth: A Contemporary Jewish Approach presents its message through the psycho-spiritual world view of 2018 but without the language and narrative of a therapist. It is an important contribution to the spiritual-seeking community at large, to Jews who have become alienated from their faith, and to anyone interested in learning more about what a historically vibrant spirituality can bring to today's troubled world.

      • Trusted Partner
        Mind, Body, Spirit

        The Way of Inanna

        A Heroine’s Guide to Living Unapologetically

        by Seana Zelazo

        Myth Made ManifestOver 4000 years ago in ancient Sumer, some of the first mythographers inscribed the stories and myths of the Goddess Inanna on clay tablets in cuneiform. These incredible findings were unearthed, and the fragments were painstakingly pieced together and translated. What they discovered were the ways Inanna was heralded as a goddess who embodies polarities: impatient and deliberate, an attentive lover and fierce warrior, connected to fertility as well as death-making her an accessible, relatable, and inspiring representation of the Divine Feminine as she stands in her power and multidimensionality. The Way of Inanna is a field guide to heart-centered living through the wisdom of the Sumerian Goddess of Love. Each chapter deconstructs sacred narratives in which the Goddess navigates the seven gates of her soul's journey from awakening to ascension. More than a simple retelling, the book is myth made manifest in which Inanna becomes a means to accessing our own ascension and alchemical magic within our modern, contemporary context.

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        February 2000

        Feminism, femininity and popular culture

        by Joanne Hollows

        Accessible, introductory student guide which identifies key feminist approaches to popular culture from the 1960s to the present.. The only introduction to both feminist cultural studies and feminism and popular culture published in the UK.. Presents its information in a reader friendly series of case studies on: women's film romantic fiction soap opera consumption and material culture fashion and beauty proactices youth culture and popular music. Will appeal to students across a wide range of disciplines as a variety of popular cultural forms are discussed. ;

      • Trusted Partner
      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        June 2017

        Over her dead body

        by Elisabeth Bronfen

      • Trusted Partner
      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        November 2019

        Practicing shame

        by Mary C. Flannery, Anke Bernau, David Matthews

      • Trusted Partner
        Children's & young adult fiction & true stories
        2018

        The New Girl Code

        by Niki Smit

        Tumi Letsatsi is a 13-year old melanin kween living in Rondebosch, Cape Town. Her favourite colour is yellow, she's still trying to figure out how not to dent her afro on the bus, and how one goes about (ahem!) “french kissing”. She’s a little awkward and a lot uncertain about her future, friendships and how to put together a cool outfit! But then she stumbles across the magic of coding and creates an app called “Project Prep” that goes viral and rockets her and her friends to fame. Then everything starts to fall apart, as she deals with a catfish who befriends her and steals her code, nasty rumours at school and the newfound attention of a crush. The New Girl Code (by Niki Smit, locally edited by Buhle Ngaba) is about the wonders of working in tech, aimed at girls and young women aged 9-15. The project is an initiative of Inspiring Fifty and based on an idea by Janneke Niessen.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        March 2024

        Ageing and new intimacies

        Gender, sexuality and temporality in an English salsa scene

        by Sarah Milton

        The 'baby boom' generation, born between the 1940s and the 1960s, is often credited with pioneering new and creative ways of relating, doing intimacy and making families. With this cohort of men and women in Britain now entering mid and later life, they are also said to be revolutionising the experience of ageing. Are the romantic practices of this 'revolutionary cohort' breaking with tradition and allowing new ways of understanding and doing ageing and relating to emerge? Based on ethnographic fieldwork in salsa classes and life history interviews, this book documents the meanings of desire and romance, and 'new' intimacies, among women in mid and later life. Challenging notions of the revolutionary 'baby boomers', it details how these practices, experiences and identities are intersected and informed by age, class, whiteness, and a pervasive concern to remain respectable.

      • Trusted Partner
      • Trusted Partner
        British & Irish history
        July 2013

        The feminine public sphere

        by Megan Smitley

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        June 2017

        European Gothic

        by Avril Horner

      • Fiction

        That Other Orphanhood

        by Gabriela Couturier

        That Other Orphanhood speaks to that deeply dissatisfied inner self who feels trapped in a life that is very different from the one we intended to live.  It is, also, a novel about a coming of age of sorts: the main character stands at the threshold of mid-life, and while she is a successful career woman with a good marriage and a seemingly enviable life, she knows the decisions she makes from now on will have ever more permanent consequences. Changing course to pursue a long-coveted dream might endanger not only everything else she has achieved but the very foundations of her life. And the insistent beckoning of maternity feels more like a question than an answer in her orderly world.  With her struggle against the increasingly common nightmare of infertility as a leitmotiv, That Other Orphanhood reflects on the contradictions that threaten the harmony between our ambitions, the expectations of society and our very essence.

      • Trusted Partner
        Medieval history
        March 2003

        Medieval maidens

        Young women and gender in England, 1270–1540

        by Kim M. Phillips

        The first study on medieval women to treat young women or 'maidens' separately and at length. The book makes a contribution to gender studies through its study of medieval girls' acquisition of appropriate roles and identities, and their own attitudes towards these roles. Examines the experiences and voices of young womanhood. Provides insights into ideals of feminine gender roles and identities at different social levels.

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