Authority and the Historical Document in Late Twentieth-Century Literature

Authority and the Historical Document in Late Twentieth-Century Literature
Author: Elizabeth Rich
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 243
Release: 2021-08-23
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1793644845

After the Fact: Authority and the Historical Document in Late Twentieth-Century Literature examines historiographic metafiction’s epistemological concern with the historical document. The six texts herein recover official and neglected documents, viewing history from marginal perspectives endeavoring an ethical reconsideration of dominant historical narratives. Thematically paired chapters focus on eye-witness narratives, legal and official government documents, and news publications. The first two chapters, D.M. Thomas’ The White Hotel with Toni Morrison’s Beloved, explore the writers’ reconsideration of eye-witness accounts, specifically the Holocaust survivor narrative and the slave narrative. The second pair reviews mythologies of the nation in the United States. Susan Howe’s Singularities rewrites the Indian captivity narrative. Hannah Weiner’s Spoke revises the 1868 Black Hills treaty to focus on how popular and official texts promote the colonial imaginary and function to justify colonial expansion. The final two chapters examine Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace and Robert Coover’s The Public Burning, which critique the press’s authority by questioning its claim to objectivity.

The Writing of John Bunyan

The Writing of John Bunyan
Author: Tamsin Spargo
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 226
Release: 2018-12-18
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 0429774060

First published in 1997, this volume is an attempt to prise open the name of John Bunyan. It aims to examine the operations of that name, to explore the discursive techniques which produced the figure of this author, both in the seventeenth century and later, and to identify the different meanings which have been ascribed to it in the history of its production. It may be read as a ‘Dear John’ letter to the author, or as an exercise in cultural materialism which examines the production and reproduction of a particular figure of authority, the author, within specific cultural formations at different historical moments.

The Rise of the Public Authority

The Rise of the Public Authority
Author: Gail Radford
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 229
Release: 2013-07-19
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 022603786X

In the late nineteenth century, public officials throughout the United States began to experiment with new methods of managing their local economies and meeting the infrastructure needs of a newly urban, industrial nation. Stymied by legal and financial barriers, they created a new class of quasi-public agencies called public authorities. Today these entities operate at all levels of government, and range from tiny operations like the Springfield Parking Authority in Massachusetts, which runs thirteen parking lots and garages, to mammoth enterprises like the Tennessee Valley Authority, with nearly twelve billion dollars in revenues each year. In The Rise of the Public Authority, Gail Radford recounts the history of these inscrutable agencies, examining how and why they were established, the varied forms they have taken, and how these pervasive but elusive mechanisms have molded our economy and politics over the past hundred years.

"A Different Sense of Power"

Author: Thomas Fink
Publisher: Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press
Total Pages: 252
Release: 2001
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780838638972

This volume analyzes the work of a racially, ethnically, and geographically diverse group of recent social poets. These figures -- Thylias Moss, John Yau, Denise Duchamel, Carolyn Forche, Joseph Lease, Gloria Anzaldua, Martin Espada, Melvin Dixon, and Stephen Paul Miller -- utilize a diversity of aesthetic strategies to address a number of central problems, such as poetic speculations about dangers and opportunities of visual representations by dominant and marginalized groups, effacement of specific communities' histories, and attempts at restoration of history.

Encyclopedia of Archival Writers, 1515 - 2015

Encyclopedia of Archival Writers, 1515 - 2015
Author: Luciana Duranti
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 597
Release: 2019-04-26
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1538125803

The Encyclopedia of Archival Writers, 1515-2015, is a reference work that includes the profiles of authors of literature about records and archives in the Western world who have shaped the records and archives field over a span of 500 years. The 144 archival writers from 13 countries who are included in this volume were selected by an international advisory board on the basis of their impact on the records and archives profession and discipline, the presence of their publications in educational programs’ reading lists, and the frequency of reference to their work. Among the writers included in this volume are Albertino Barisone of Padua (1587-1667), Sir Hilary Jenkinson of England (1882-1961), Adolf Brenneke of Germany (1875-1946), Theodore R. Schellenberg of the United States (1903-1970), Robert-Henri Bautier of France (1922-2010), Terry Cook of Canada (1947-2014), Vicenta Cortés Alonso of Spain (1925-), Eric Ketelaar of the Netherlands (1944-), Aurelio Tanodi of Argentina (1914-2011), Ian Maclean of Australia (1919-2003), and Verne Harris of South Africa (1958 - ). Arranged in alphabetical order, each entry includes a biography, intellectual contributions, and a brief essential bibliography. A total of 113 educators, professionals and students in the records and archives field—55 of whom are also profiled in this Encyclopedia--contributed to this volume. There is no other book in any language that focuses on the life and work of authors of records and archives literature. In fact, there is not easily available information on such writers. Thus, most entries involved quite a bit of research on dead writers and interviews with the living ones. Several living writers supported this work by accepting to author their own entry

The Lost Boys of Zeta Psi

The Lost Boys of Zeta Psi
Author: Laurie A. Wilkie
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2010
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0520260597

"Laurie Wilkie is making an important statement about the culture of fraternities, saving them from uncritical celebration on the one hand and the 'Animal House' image on the other. She has given us a fascinating case study in the value and importance of the archaeology of the recent past."--Matthew Johnson, author of Ideas of Landscape "A fresh look at fraternity life, offering a nuanced view of its social benefits and shortcomings. This is an insightful and innovative interdisciplinary contribution to the emergent field of contemporary archaeology as well as to masculinity studies."--Mary Beaudry, author of Findings: The Material Culture of Needlework and Sewing

The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism: Volume 9, Twentieth-Century Historical, Philosophical and Psychological Perspectives

The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism: Volume 9, Twentieth-Century Historical, Philosophical and Psychological Perspectives
Author: Christa Knellwolf
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 497
Release: 1989
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0521317258

This ninth volume in The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism presents a wide-ranging survey of developments in literary criticism and theory during the last century. Drawing on the combined expertise of a large team of specialist scholars, it offers an authoritative account of the various movements of thought that have made the late twentieth century such a richly productive period in the history of criticism. The aim has been to cover developments which have had greatest impact on the academic study of literature, along with background chapters that place those movements in a broader, intellectual, national and socio-cultural perspective. In comparison with Volumes Seven and Eight, also devoted to twentieth-century developments, there is marked emphasis on the rethinking of historical and philosophical approaches, which have emerged, especially during the past two decades, as among the most challenging areas of debate.

Shari'a Scripts

Shari'a Scripts
Author: Brinkley Messick
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 588
Release: 2018-01-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 0231541902

A case study in the textual architecture of the venerable legal and ethical tradition at the center of the Islamic experience, Sharīʿa Scripts is a work of historical anthropology focused on Yemen in the early twentieth century. There—while colonial regimes, late Ottoman reformers, and early nationalists wrought decisive changes to the legal status of the sharīʿa, significantly narrowing its sphere of relevance—the Zaydī school of jurisprudence, rooted in highland Yemen for a millennium, still held sway. Brinkley Messick uses the richly varied writings of the Yemeni past to offer a uniquely comprehensive view of the sharīʿa as a localized and lived phenomenon. Sharīʿa Scripts reads a wide spectrum of sources in search of a new historical-anthropological perspective on Islamic textual relations. Messick analyzes the sharīʿa as a local system of texts, distinguishing between theoretical or doctrinal juridical texts (or the “library”) and those produced by the sharīʿa courts and notarial writers (termed the “archive”). Attending to textual form, he closely examines representative books of madrasa instruction; formal opinion-giving by muftis and imams; the structure of court judgments; and the drafting of contracts. Messick’s intensive readings of texts are supplemented by retrospective ethnography and oral history based on extensive field research. Further, the book ventures a major methodological contribution by confronting anthropology’s longstanding reliance upon the observational and the colloquial. Presenting a new understanding of Islamic legal history, Sharīʿa Scripts is a groundbreaking examination of the interpretative range and historical insights offered by the anthropologist as reader.

Teaching Late-Twentieth-Century Mexicana and Chicana Writers

Teaching Late-Twentieth-Century Mexicana and Chicana Writers
Author: Elizabeth Coonrod Martínez
Publisher: Modern Language Association
Total Pages: 204
Release: 2020-12-15
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1603295100

Mexicana and Chicana authors from the late 1970s to the turn of the century helped overturn the patriarchal literary culture and mores of their time. This landmark volume acquaints readers with the provocative, at times defiant, yet subtle discourses of this important generation of writers and explains the influences and historical contexts that shaped their work. Until now, little criticism has been published about these important works. Addressing this oversight, Teaching Late-Twentieth-Century Mexicana and Chicana Writers starts with essays on Mexicana and Chicana authors. It then features essays on specific teaching strategies suitable for literature surveys and courses in cultural studies, Latino studies, interdisciplinary and comparative studies, humanities, and general education that aim to explore the intersectionalities represented in these works. Experienced teachers offer guidance on using these works to introduce students to border studies, transnational studies, sexuality studies, disability studies, contemporary Mexican history and Latino history in the United States, the history of social movements, and concepts of race and gender.