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      • Trusted Partner
        February 2021

        The Stage and the Story

        by Djawad Rostom Touati

        ‘‘So he thought of writing a play inspired by the residents' strike, which was in full swing. He was in his fifth year of medical school and his future was directly affected by the outcome of this movement, for which he was enthusiastic. However, when he wanted to take an interest in the nuts and bolts, the details he could incorporate into his art, an indefinable discomfort overcame him, and he couldn't quite grasp the cause. The project remained at half-mast in a corner of his mind, and the end of the strike finished by gathering the dust of oblivion on it.’’ Dj. R. Touati The one is multiple, and that which unites, after the moment of egregore, becomes that which divides; irreconcilably. At a time when the failure of the intuition of diversity has never been so prevalent, so widespread, it seemed salubrious to the author to show - without seeking to demonstrate - through the painting of an aesthetic reality, that if a historical moment has given rise to debate and division within the same class, then nothing is more absurd - or more specious - than the claim to unanimity within an entire people. Against the schizophrenic false identification, attempting to grasp the totality appears to be the only way to confront totalitarianism, which is, as those who denounce it pretend to ignore in order to exonerate themselves, THE PART THAT TAKES ITSELF FOR THE WHOLE. On stage, Molière, Brecht, Kateb, Alloula and others play out history... against a backdrop of burgundy-red curtains, where a dialogue of the deaf imposes blindness on the actors in action. Far from the imposing “noise” of movement, La scène et l'histoire, like a “socio-temporal” filter, sets the historical record straight: curtain up. Theater teacher Nadji, on the lookout for the old days, Rahim and Lamia, the pretenders of a politically better future, and all the others... followers of culture, that's us..., (are) beating the floor of the present.

      • Trusted Partner
        October 2019

        The Civilization of Erzats

        by Djawad Rostom Touati

        “His great novel, his “immense contemporary social fresco”, his “made-in-bladi human comedy” - in the words with which he dazzles his virtual contacts - was now out of the question. To those who still asked him: “What's the status of this novel?”, he invariably replied: “Perhaps under other skies. Here, all we promote is mediocrity. And everyone would nod in agreement, wishing him well.” Djawad Rostom Touati Farid, Malia, Rami, Adib and other characters wander through ''The civilization of erzats'', the second part of the trilogy: ''the cult of It'', each equipped with their own socio-cultural baggage, some motivated to change the course of their lives, sure that the sun is much warmer elsewhere; others resigned to the idea that the world is as it is: just a two-variable equation - dominated/dominant -; and still others, self-sufficient, seeking redemption in the misfortunes of others, make their way between the strata of a society in turmoil, the victim of a frozen past, a sequestered present and a future held hostage. In La civilisation de l'ersatz, both neo-prolo-aspirants-bourgeois who don't even know they're there, replace each other between the fingers of a born writer. Everything is relativity: time, space, not to mention the mind...

      • Trusted Partner
        April 2023

        The Misery of Literature

        by Djawad Rostom Touati

        “His great novel, his “immense contemporary social fresco”, his “made-in-bladi human comedy” - in the words with which he dazzles his virtual contacts - was now out of the question. To those who still asked him: “What's the status of this novel?”, he invariably replied: “Perhaps under other skies. Here, all we promote is mediocrity. And everyone would nod in agreement, wishing him well.” Djawad Rostom Touati Farid, Malia, Rami, Adib and other characters wander through La civilisation de l'ersatz, the second part of the trilogy: Le culte du ça, each equipped with their own socio-cultural baggage, some motivated to change the course of their lives, sure that the sun is much warmer elsewhere; others resigned to the idea that the world is as it is: just a two-variable equation - dominated/dominant -; and still others, self-sufficient, seeking redemption in the misfortunes of others, make their way between the strata of a society in turmoil, the victim of a frozen past, a sequestered present and a future held hostage. In La civilisation de l'ersatz, both neo-prolo-aspirants-bourgeois who don't even know they're there, replace each other between the fingers of a born writer. Everything is relativity: time, space, not to mention the mind...

      • Trusted Partner
        October 2019

        Impassive Rivers

        by Akram El Kebir

        “In any case, when you decide to try harga, it's because you no longer expect anything from life. Or that you expect a lot!” (Akram El Kebir) The summer of 2018 was particularly deadly in Oran, as the discovery of harraga corpses being fished out of the Mediterranean was commonplace. That same summer saw the commissioning of a water cab, the Rossinante II, which made the daily shuttle between Oran and the small seaside town of Aïn El Turk. A cafe owner in a small estaminet in Sidi El Houari, Zaki, at the age of 24, led a dull, boring life, with no prospects for the future other than to cherish the hope of one day attempting the harga. It was only the fear of ending up eaten by fish that dissuaded him. That said, as soon as he heard about the water cab, an absurd idea occurred to him: what if he hijacked the boat and headed for the Iberian coast? He won't be alone in this crazy adventure, as his neighborhood friends Okacha and Anis, and other outcasts, are sure to follow him. But these modern-day Don Quixotes shouldn't claim victory too soon! They'll learn the hard way that hijacking an entire ship is no picnic. They'll have to face up to the Italian crew, as well as the rest of the passengers. Passionate debates ensue, in a sort of impromptu Citizens' Assembly, where all issues affecting society are discussed. On the eve of the February 22nd Revolution, Zaki has eyes only for one of his hostages, the impetuous Nafissa...

      • Trusted Partner
        November 2022

        The Doors of the Poem

        Tribute to Habib Tengour

        by Sagawe Regina Keil, Hervé Sanson

        The twenty-seven contributions gathered here and superbly illustrated by Hamid Tibouchi - critical studies and creative texts - pay tribute to a work that is at the forefront of Algerian and, more broadly, contemporary letters, but paradoxically still little-known. On the occasion of Habib Tengour's seventy-fifth birthday, this volume is intended to open up new avenues of research into this work, and provide a more accurate understanding of the issues at stake. Tributes from his peers - poets from all over the world - give the book an affective, carnal dimension, extending the researchers' analyses with unexpected echoes. “Tengour warns us: “Only those with the right intention enter the poem! LES PORTES DU POEME thus opens on one of the most important poetic voices of his generation (Prix Dante in 2016, Prix Benjamin Fondane in 2022, Prix Dante Alighieri in 2023, for his body of work).

      • Trusted Partner
        March 2023

        “Witness to the Mutilations of the Sky”

        Fiction and testimony in the work of Mohammed Dib

        by Hervé Sanson

        From his earliest writings, Algerian writer Mohammed Dib (1920-2003) never gave in to the use of didactic, transparent language, nor to the expectations of so-called “commissioned” literature. It's the work of the language in its syntactic cutting, the weighing of the letter, that's important. In fact, the Dibian witness is masked: he conceals within himself what I'd like to call a literary witness, i.e. a textual device, plural in its declensions, which, going against the expected, allows for other times, (re)plays the texts in their unspoken, questions the memory of the texts, renews the very conception of the witness and asks the following question: what witness when fiction gets involved? This essay, covering fifty years of uninterrupted creation, sets out to delineate the various passages of witness that Dib's work encourages, but cannot avoid questioning the very nature of exegesis and the position of the exegete: do I become, at the end of this relay, the ultimate witness who wishes, from the depths of his heart, to pass the baton to a new guarantor? Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

      • Trusted Partner
        The Arts
        February 2019

        Contemporary Korean cinema

        Culture, identity and politics

        by Hyangjin Lee

        The first in-depth, comprehensive study of Korean cinema offering original insight into the relationships between ideology and the art of cinema from East Asian perspectives. Combines issues of contemporary Korean culture and cinematic representation of the society and people in both North and South Korea. Covers the introduction of motion pictures in 1903, Korean cinema during the Japanese colonial period (1910-45) and the development of North and South Korean cinema up to the 1990s. Introduces the works of Korea's major directors, and analyses the Korean film industry in terms of film production, distribution and reception. Based on this historical analysis, the study investigates ideological constructs in seventeen films, eight from North Korea and nine from South Korea.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        January 2018

        Noble society

        Five lives from twelfth-century Germany

        by Jonathan R. Lyon

        This book provides scholars and students alike with a set of texts that can deepen their understanding of the culture and society of the twelfth-century German kingdom. The sources translated here bring to life the activities of five noblemen and noblewomen from Rome to the Baltic coast and from the Rhine River to the Alpine valleys of Austria. To read these five sources together is to appreciate how interconnected political, military, economic, religious and spiritual interests could be for some of the leading members of medieval German society-and for the authors who wrote about them. Whether fighting for the emperor in Italy, bringing Christianity to pagans in what is today northern Poland, or founding, reforming and governing monastic communities in the heartland of the German kingdom, the subjects of these texts call attention to some of the many ways that noble life shaped the world of central medieval Europe.

      • Trusted Partner
        Business, Economics & Law
        May 2019

        New Journey of Great Powers

        From Economic Gaint to Economic Power

        by Zhang Zhanbin

        This book provides a general explanation of new theoretical trees, new development goals, new contradictions, and new historical missions. As a world power, how China, guided by the spirit of the Party ’s 19th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, “decided to build a well-off society in an all-round way and start to build a comprehensive socialism. The new journey of a modern country "vividly demonstrates China's image as a great power.

      • Trusted Partner
        February 2021

        The Wind has Said its Name

        by Mohamed Abdallah

        “A wise malice radiated from his features, and one always had the impression that he knew more than he was willing to say, that a shrewd reflection lurked behind his smiles. His quick wit and good humor were the delight of La Mauresque and its surroundings; a reminder through his quiet charm that the world could still harbor delicacy.” Mohamed Abdallah Oran, autumn 1954. At La Mauresque, a space symbolizing a whole country in turmoil, in the heart of the indigenous city of Oran, the doubts of its occupants multiply and questions abound. Journalists, politicians, novelists, poets and artists grapple with a pivotal moment in their countries' history. The old world is dying, while the new one is slow to emerge for them. Hesitations and initiatives abound. They are trying to navigate by sight in an ocean so vast that it merges with the horizon; a horizon they sometimes seem to forget, but which the author has tried to give readers a constant view of through his novel: Le Vent a dit son Nom (The Wind Has Said Its Name). Multiplying references to emblematic figures in the awakening of consciences to freedom, Mohamed Abdallah attempts to offer a fresh look at the role that men of letters, intellectuals and, more generally, people of culture can play, at a time when a Nation is preparing to face new trials. These are themes that still resonate today.

      • Trusted Partner
        Social issues (Children's/YA)
        June 2014

        Youth policy, civil society and the modern Irish state

        by Fred Powell, Martin Geoghegan, Margaret Scanlon, Katharina Swirak

        This book, now available in paperback, explores the development of youth policy and youth work in Ireland from the mid-nineeenth century to the present day. Based on original research, funded by the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences (IRCHSS), it looks at the social construction of youth, the emergence of the early youth movements and the nature and scope of contemporary youth work. Key issues include: the shift from mainstream to targeted provision, the professionalisation of the sector and the increased partnership between the state and voluntary sector. A second major theme is the treatment of young people in industrial and reformatory schools, with particular reference to the findings of the Ryan Report on child abuse (2009). This is the only book which combines an exploration of the history and current scope of youth work and youth policy, and which is based on comprehensive original research. It will be essential reading for lecturers and students in youth work, social sciences, social history and related fields.

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        March 2018

        Selection of Chinese Modern and Contemporary Literary Works

        by Li Wei, Yang Cheng

        The book encompasses representative Chinese modern and contemporary poetry, novels, proses, and dramas created by several well-known Chinese writers, like Gong Zizhen, Xu Zhimo, Dai Wangshu, Lu Xun, Lao She, Cao Yu, etc. In this book, each piece of work is presented with author introdcution, analysis of theme and artistic characteristics, and questions to be answered by readers.

      • Trusted Partner
      • Trusted Partner

        Contemporary Interpretations of Confucianism

        by Zeng Zhenyu

        The book has a total of 22 chapters and 1.5 million words. It was written by more than 20 experts and scholars in the field of Confucianism. The book has two main lines: Confucianism of famous thinkers in the past and Confucianism of folk beliefs. It integrates and interprets Confucianism of more than two thousand years in a clear way, including thoughts of benevolence, righteousness, etiquette, wisdom, integrity, filial piety, friendship, shame, courage, forgiveness, happiness, natural principles, conscience and etc.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        January 2013

        Crime, Law and Society in the Later Middle Ages

        by Anthony Musson, Edward Powell

        This book provides an accessible collection of translated legal sources through which the exploits of criminals and developments in the English criminal justice system (c.1215-1485) can be studied. Drawing on the wealth of archival material and an array of contemporary literary texts, it guides readers towards an understanding of prevailing notions of law and justice and expectations of the law and legal institutions. Tensions are shown emerging between theoretical ideals of justice and the practical realities of administering the law during an era profoundly affected by periodic bouts of war, political in-fighting, social dislocation and economic disaster. Introductions and notes provide both the specific and wider legal, social and political contexts in addition to offering an overview of the existing secondary literature and historiographical trends. This collection affords a valuable insight into the character of medieval governance as well as revealing the complex nexus of interests, attitudes and relationships prevailing in society during the later Middle Ages.

      • Trusted Partner
        The Arts
        January 2019

        Reframing difference

        Beur and banlieue filmmaking in France

        by Carrie Tarr

        Reframing difference is the first major study of two overlapping strands of contemporary French cinema, cinema beur (films by young directors of Maghrebi immigrant origin) and cinema de banlieue (films set in France's disadvantaged outer-city estates). Carrie Tarr's insightful account draws on a wide range of films, from directors such as Mehdi Charef, Mathieu Kassovitz and Djamel Bensalah. Her analyses compare the work of male and female, majority and minority film-makers, and emphasise the significance of authorship in the representation of gender and ethnicity. Foregrounding such issues as the quest for identity, the negotiation of space and the recourse to memory and history, she argues that these films challenge and reframe the symbolic spaces of French culture, addressing issues of ethnicity and difference which are central to today's debates about what it means to be French. This timely book is essential reading for anyone interested in the relationship between cinema and citizenship in a multicultural society.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        October 2002

        American society today

        by Edward Ashbee, Bill Jones

        American society today provides a balanced introduction to the defining features of contemporary American society. Includes the ways in which the US can be considered 'exceptional' - the character of the 'American dream', the role of ethnicity and race, and the differences between the regions. Considers in depth a number of contemporary debates including the claim that the US economy has lost its capacity to generate wealth and stimulate mobility, that there has been a process of civic disengagement as voluntary organisations have lost members, and that the traditional family is in decline. Includes a thorough investigation of the effects of the terrorist attacks of September 11 and their aftermath. Looks at the arguments put forward by those who assert that a common American identity has given way to a multitude of conflicting identities structured around factors such as race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality. ;

      • Trusted Partner
        February 2023

        Ode to Youth

        by Shi Zhongshan is a writer, scriptwriter, and television producer. He has written novels such as The New Generation in the Military Compound and Hailing from All Corners of the Country and novelettes such as Years of Passion Burning, Resonance of Military Songs,and Happiness as Flowers, of which over thirty have been adapted for over one thousand episodes of TV plays.

        Dong Hongmei's father died of disability after the war, and her mother mysteriously “disappeared” when she was three years old. The tragic life experience indicates that her growth will be bumpy. However, her life turned a corner as she became the so-called "child of high-ranking officials," and she managed to drag herself out of the morass of despair. By virtue of the identity of "the child of high-ranking officials," all kinds of good things, such as awards, promotion, and the opportunity of going to Beijing, followed close on one another, while all these actually resulted from a huge misunderstanding... Dong Hongmei's life is full of affecting friendship, thereby making Ode to Youth a rare masterpiece full of romantic feelings in contemporary literary circles.

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