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      • Trusted Partner
        The Arts
        May 2016

        Scottish cinema

        by Christopher Meir

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        March 2017

        Asia in Western fiction

        by Robin Winks

        Any reader who has ever visited Asia knows that the great bulk of Western-language fiction about Asian cultures turns on stereotypes. This book, a collection of essays, explores the problem of entering Asian societies through Western fiction, since this is the major port of entry for most school children, university students and most adults. In the thirteenth century, serious attempts were made to understand Asian literature for its own sake. Hau Kioou Choaan, a typical Chinese novel, was quite different from the wild and magical pseudo-Oriental tales. European perceptions of the Muslim world are centuries old, originating in medieval Christendom's encounter with Islam in the age of the Crusades. There is explicit and sustained criticism of medieval mores and values in Scott's novels set in the Middle Ages, and this is to be true of much English-language historical fiction of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Even mediocre novels take on momentary importance because of the pervasive power of India. The awesome, remote and inaccessible Himalayas inevitably became for Western writers an idealised setting for novels of magic, romance and high adventure, and for travellers' tales that read like fiction. Chinese fictions flourish in many guises. Most contemporary Hong Kong fiction reinforced corrupt mandarins, barbaric punishments and heathens. Of the novels about Japan published after 1945, two may serve to frame a discussion of Japanese behaviour as it could be observed (or imagined) by prisoners of war: Black Fountains and Three Bamboos.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        July 2010

        Voting for a Scottish government

        The Scottish Parliament election of 2007

        by Robert Johns, David Denver, James Mitchell, Charles Pattie

        In 2007 Labour lost an election in Scotland for the first time in half a century and the SNP went on to form the Scottish Government. This book explains why. Based on a unique three-wave survey of the Scottish electorate, it can truly be described as the first full-scale Scottish national election study. As such, it is notable not only for its innovative methodology but also because theories and concepts are taken from the recent electoral studies literature and applied to Scotland. Other questions investigated include the impact of campaigning and of the party leaders (at both Scottish and British level) on the election outcome. In addition, for the first time in the UK context, a special study is made of the causes and consequences of rejected ballots - the large number of which at this election caused a media outcry. This book will be required reading for anyone interested in, involved in, teaching or studying Scottish politics. It will also be an important text for those concerned with UK politics in general and attract particular interest among students of elections, both in the UK and internationally. ;

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        April 2022

        The narrative grotesque in medieval Scottish poetry

        by Caitlin Flynn

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        June 2002

        The Scottish witch-hunt in context

        by Julian Goodare

        A collection of essays on Scottish witchcraft and witch-hunting, which covers the whole period of the Scottish witch-hunt, from the mid-sixteenth century to the early eighteenth. Includes studies of particular witchcraft panics such as a reassessment of the role of King James VI. Covers a wide range of topics concerned with Scottish witch-hunting and places it in the context of other topics such as gender relations, folklore, magic and healing, and moral regulation by the church and state. Provides a comparative dimension of witch-hunting beyond Scotland - one on the global context, and one comparing Scotland with England. It is a showcase for the latest thinking on the subject and will be of interest to all scholars studying witchcraft in early modern Europe, as well as the general reader wanting to move beyond shallow and sensational accounts of a subject of compelling in. ;

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        April 2025

        Beyond the Pale and Highland Line

        The Irish and Scottish Gaelic world

        by Simon Egan

        This book offers important new insights into the history and culture of the Gaelic-speaking world from the mid-fifteenth century through to the reign of James VI and I. Throughout this period, the reach of the English and Scottish crowns within these western regions was limited. The initiative lay with local communities and royal power was contingent upon negotiating with well-established and largely autonomous aristocratic lineages. Moreover, events within this western world could exert a powerful, often unpredictable, influence upon the affairs of the wider archipelago. Using a series of case studies, this collection examines the evolving relationship between Ireland and Scotland in rich detail. It demonstrates how this world interacted with the encroaching English and Scottish states and underlines the importance of paying closer attention to this neglected area of Irish and British history.

      • Trusted Partner
        July 2017

        Hei Wa

        by Mu Ling

        A fine collection of science fiction by children’s literature writer Mu Ling. Mu Ling’s science fictions pursue a scientific basis of “organic imagination”, has a positive outlook and good spirit of seeking truth. This series collects Mu Ling’s three masterpieces full of fantasy and humanistic concern: Dream Machine, Hei Wa, Yu Wang Bei Mi, which are rare sci-fi theme in children’s literature works of China. This series will lead children step by step to “hard science fiction” which is full of intellectual challenges through “light science fiction” and “soft science fiction”.

      • Trusted Partner
        July 2017

        Dream Machine

        by Mu Ling

        A fine collection of science fiction by children’s literature writer Mu Ling. Mu Ling’s science fictions pursue a scientific basis of “organic imagination”, has a positive outlook and good spirit of seeking truth. This series collects Mu Ling’s three masterpieces full of fantasy and humanistic concern: Dream Machine, Hei Wa, Yu Wang Bei Mi, which are rare sci-fi theme in children’s literature works of China. This series will lead children step by step to “hard science fiction” which is full of intellectual challenges through “light science fiction” and “soft science fiction”.

      • Trusted Partner
        July 2017

        Yu Wang Bei Mi

        by Mu Ling

        A fine collection of science fiction by children’s literature writer Mu Ling. Mu Ling’s science fictions pursue a scientific basis of “organic imagination”, has a positive outlook and good spirit of seeking truth. This series collects Mu Ling’s three masterpieces full of fantasy and humanistic concern: Dream Machine, Hei Wa, Yu Wang Bei Mi, which are rare sci-fi theme in children’s literature works of China. This series will lead children step by step to “hard science fiction” which is full of intellectual challenges through “light science fiction” and “soft science fiction”.

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        June 2023

        The politics of male friendship in contemporary American fiction

        by Michael Kalisch

        How might our friendships shape our politics? This book examines how contemporary American fiction has rediscovered the concept of civic friendship and revived a long tradition of imagining male friendship as interlinked with the promises and paradoxes of democracy in the United States. Bringing into dialogue the work of a wide range of authors - including Philip Roth, Paul Auster, Michael Chabon, Jonathan Lethem, Dinaw Mengestu, and Teju Cole - this innovative study advances a compelling new account of the political and intellectual fabric of the American novel today.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        October 2024

        Plagues of the heart

        Crisis and covenanting in a seventeenth-century Scottish town

        by Michelle D. Brock

        Using a wide range of archival material, Plagues of the heart provides a fresh understanding of religion and identity not only in seventeenth-century Scotland, but in protestant communities across the early modern world grappling with a range of interrelated crises. By examining the 'culture of covenanting' in the southwestern port-city of Ayr between the British civil wars and the Revolution of 1688, this book reveals how adherence to the National Covenant of 1638 and the Solemn League and Covenant of 1643 informed the identities and lived experiences of a generation of Scots. This is the compelling story of one Scottish town and its remarkable minister, but it demonstrates how in the early modern period, especially when it came to matters of faith, the local was imbedded rather than isolated, engaged rather than insular.

      • Trusted Partner
        Business, Economics & Law
        March 2010

        The rise and fall of the Scottish cotton industry, 1778–1914

        'The secret spring'

        by Anthony Cooke

        This is the first full-length history of the Scottish cotton industry, from its beginnings in the late eighteenth century to its premature decline in the years leading up to the First World War. The book examines the industry chronologically and through themes such as precursors, technology, capital and employers, markets, labour and work, placed within their broader economic and scoial contexts. Its account of the cotton industry is set within important historiographical debates such as proto-industrialisation, the speed of industrial change, the diffusion of technology, the labour process, paternalism, workplace control, entrepreneurship and theories of industrial decline. Cotton was Scotland's premier industry during the Industrial Revolution and this book will be wlecomed by specialists, students and interested readers alike. ;

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        October 2023

        The penny politics of Victorian popular fiction

        by Rob Breton

        Penny politics offers a new way to read early Victorian popular fiction such as Jack Sheppard, Sweeney Todd, and The Mysteries of London. It locates forms of radical discourse in the popular literature that emerged simultaneously with Brittan's longest and most significant people's movement. It listens for echoes of Chartist fiction in popular fiction. The book rethinks the relationship between the popular and political, understanding that radical politics had popular appeal and that the lines separating a genuine radicalism from commercial success are complicated and never absolute. With archival work into Newgate calendars and Chartist periodicals, as well as media history and culture, it brings together histories of the popular and political so as to rewrite the radical canon.

      • Family & home stories (Children's/YA)
        February 1905

        Little Women

        by Louise May Alcott

        Little Women "has been read as a romance or as a quest, or both. It has been read as a family drama that validates virtue over wealth", but also "as a means of escaping that life by women who knew its gender constraints only too well".[6]:34 According to Sarah Elbert, Alcott created a new form of literature, one that took elements from Romantic children's fiction and combined it with others from sentimental novels, resulting in a totally new format. Elbert argued that within Little Women can be found the first vision of the "All-American girl" and that her multiple aspects are embodied in the differing March sisters.

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        March 2025

        Through the fiction of Phebe Gibbes (1764–90)

        Women, alienation, and prodigality in the long eighteenth century

        by Kathryn Freeman

        Through the Fiction of Phebe Gibbes places this prolific, newly recovered English writer at the centre of the revolutionary period. Gibbes's novels mark the struggles of women for agency in an expanding British empire, from the Seven Years' War to revolutions in American, Haiti and France. With Gibbes as a nexus in a lineage of women writers from Aphra Behn to Jane Austen, Kathryn S. Freeman offers a valuable perspective on the 'long eighteenth century', with Gibbes' own evolution mirroring that of the larger period. The study traces the development of Gibbes' authorial voice from satire to irony through a range of female characters subverting patriarchal oppression. Freeman guides the reader through patterns of narrative voice, concerns with gender and sexuality, and elements of wordplay through detailed discussion of five novels representing Gibbes' evolving representation of a subversive female subjectivity.

      • Trusted Partner
        The Arts
        June 2017

        Popular television drama

        Critical perspectives

        by Jonathan Bignell, Stephen Lacey

        Popular television drama: critical perspectives' is a collection of essays examining landmark programmes of the last forty years, from 'Doctor Who' to 'The Office', and from 'The Demon Headmaster' to 'Queer As Folk'. Contributions from prominent academics focus on the full range of popular genres, from sitcoms to science fiction, gothic horror and children's drama, and challenge received wisdom by reconsidering how British television drama can be analysed. Each section is preceded by an introduction in which the editors discuss how the essays address existing problems in the field and also suggest new directions for study. The book is split into three sections, addressing the enduring appeal of popular genres, the notion of 'quality' in television drama, and analysing a range of programmes past and present. Popular television drama: critical perspectives will be of interest to students and researchers in many academic disciplines that study television drama. Its breadth and focus on popular programmes will also appeal to those interested in the shows themselves.

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        May 2016

        The Scottish Legendary

        by Anke Bernau, Eva von Contzen

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        May 2021

        Bad English

        by Rachael Gilmour

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