Download or read book Confessions of Madame Psyche written by Dorothy Bryant and published by Feminist Press at CUNY. This book was released on 2018-06-01 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Describes a life that explores, in ways that only fine fiction can, the differences between myth and illusion, between real psychic gifts and false ones.”—The Denver Post This American Book Award Winner follows the story of the young Mei-li Murrow who is dubbed “Madame Psyche” after she accidentally predicts the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Although she wins fame and fortune, Mei-li seeks a truer spirituality, and embarks on a pilgrimage that takes her to the death-soaked Europe of the First World War, to a utopian commune in the Santa Cruz Mountains in the 1920s, to the Depression-era migrant work camps and cannery strikes, and finally to the Napa State Hospital, where she finds wisdom and peace among the outcasts of the asylum. Mei-li’s modern-day epic is grounded in the history of Northern California in the first half of the twentieth century and peopled by comrades of many classes and cultures and by lovers both male and female. Yet her central odyssey remains one of inner discovery. In Confessions of Madame Psyche, Dorothy Bryant has created a character who is so honest in her search for truth, growth, and spiritual understanding that this quest becomes inherent to her survival. “Breathtaking and heartbreaking . . . It is in the specifics of time and place that Bryant roots the book’s magic. It is in her characterizations that the magic convinces . . . A beautiful story has, very simply, told itself.”—The Denver Post “Fascinating and beautiful.”—Ursula K. LeGuin “Intricate, appealing [and] profound.”—Women’s Review of Books
Download or read book Confessions of Madame Psyche written by Dorothy Bryant and published by . This book was released on 1986-01-01 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mei-li Murrow, the illegitimate daughter of a Chinese prostitute and a white confidence man, is recreated as the medium "Madame Psyche" after she accidentally predicts the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Although she wins fame and fortune as a medium, Mei-li seeks a truer spirituality, and embarks on a pilgrimage that takes her to the death-soaked Europe of the First World War, to a utopian commune in the Santa Cruz Mountains in the 1920s, to Depression-era migrant work camps and cannery strikes, and finally to the Napa State Hospital, where she finds wisdom and peace among the outcasts of the asylum.
Download or read book The Kin of Ata Are Waiting for You written by Dorothy Bryant and published by Random House. This book was released on 2010-12-08 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A major backlist sleeper! 130,000 sold-to-date! A feminist sci-fi novel. The kin of Ata live only for "the dream". Into their midst comes a desperate man who is first subdued and then led on a spiritual journey that, sooner or later, all of us make.
Download or read book Queen Calafia s Paradise written by Kenneth Scambray and published by Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Queen Calafia's Paradise, Ken Scambray explains that California offers Italian American protagonists a unique cultural landscape in which to define what it means to be an American and how Italian American protagonists embark on a voyage to reconcile their Old World heritage with modern American society. In Pasinetti's From the Academy Bridge (1970), Scambray analyzes the influence of Pasinetti's diverse California landscape upon his protagonist. Scambray argues that any reading of Madalena's Confetti for Gino (1959), set in San Diego's Little Italy, must take into account Madalena's homosexuality and his little known homosexual World War II novel, The Invisible Glass (1950). In his chapters covering John Fante's Los Angeles fiction, Scambray explores the Italian American's quest to locate a home in Southern California. Ken Scambray teaches courses in North American Italian literature and Los Angeles fiction at the University of La Verne.
Download or read book Democracy Is Not a Spectator Sport written by Arthur Blaustein and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2011-04-27 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Democracy is not a spectator sport! Learn how to get in the game with this comprehensive collection of more than two hundred community service opportunities and experiences. More than a simple resource guide, this unique handbook includes interviews, anecdotes, and commentary from the top folks in nonprofit and service fields and ties together the strands of volunteering, community service, and civic engagement. Whether you have a specific cause in mind or are looking for volunteer work to beef up a resume or increase professional experience, here are short- and long-term ways to get involved.
Download or read book The Test written by Dorothy Bryant and published by Feminist Press at CUNY. This book was released on 2001 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An enormous and timeless story of frustration and love for an aging parent.
Download or read book Restless Wave written by Ayako Tanaka Ishigaki and published by Feminist Press at CUNY. This book was released on 2018-08-01 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With this critically acclaimed 1940 memoir, pioneering Japanese writer and activist Ayako Ishigaki made history. Restless Wave is the first book written in English by a Japanese woman, introducing Western readers to a largely unknown world; a unique voice; and a writer of great talent, integrity and courage. In exquisite prose, Ishigaki recalls coming of age in a privileged family and rebelling against strict codes of women’s behavior. She also traces the political awakening that would force her to flee Japan for the United States and would eventually make her an internationally renowned activist for peace, social justice and women’s rights. As The Nation noted, “In lyrical, poetic terms, Restless Wave tells the story of a single individual who lived at a turning-point of history.”
Download or read book Umbertina written by Helen Barolini and published by Feminist Press at CUNY. This book was released on 1999 with total page 472 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Umbertina is leaving her small Calabrian village in Italy for a new life in the United States. As the years go by and Umbertina lives an Americanized life, her granddaughter, Marguerite, and her great-granddaughter, Tina, find themselves searching for deeper meaning in their lives. Their quest takes them back to Italy for a chance to explore their heritage.
Download or read book Updating the Literary West written by and published by TCU Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 1072 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Western writers," says Thomas J. Lyon in his epilogue to Updating the Literary West, "have grown up with the frontier myth but now find themselves in the early stages of creating a new western myth." The editors of the Literary History of the American West (TCU Press, 1987) hoped that the first volume would begin, not conclude, their exploration of the West's literary heritage. Out of this hope comes Updating the Literary West, a comprehensive reference anthology including essays by over one hundred scholars. A selected bibliography is included with each piece. In the ten years since publication of LHAW, western writing has developed a significantly larger presence in the national literary stream. A variety of cultural viewpoints have developed, along with new tactics for literary study. New authors have risen to prominence, and the range of subjects has changed and widened. Updating the Literary West looks at topics ranging from western classics to cowboys and Cadillacs and considers children's literature, ethnicity, environmental writing, gender issues and other topics in which change has been rapid since publication of LHAW. This volume again affirms the West's literary legitimacy--status hard earned by the Western Literary Association--and the lasting place of popular western writing as part of the growing and changing literary--and American--experience. An excellent reference for a wide range of readers and an invaluable resource for scholars and libraries. Selected list of contributors: James Maguire Fred Erisman Susan J. Rosowski Gerald Haslam Tom Pilkington A. Carl Bredahl Richard Slotkin John G. Cawelti Robert F. Gish Ann Ronald Mick McAllister
Download or read book Lost Napa Valley written by Lauren Coodley and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2021-03-01 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Napa Valley, once known for its cattle and silver mines, has grown into an international wine destination. On the way, many buildings and institutions have vanished. From the Von Uhlit family's fruit farm in Napa to the Wheeler Ranch in St. Helena, fields and orchards became neighborhoods and vineyards. The Dolphin, a steamboat that once delivered travelers from San Francisco, was replaced by faster transport, and the Napa State Hospital's original "castle" was demolished. The Sawyer Tannery, in operation for over one hundred years, closed its doors in 1990, and destinations like the Kay Von Drive-In and the Bel Aire Bowl now live on only in memory. Join author and historian Lauren Coodley as she celebrates these once-beloved landmarks in California's Wine Country.
Download or read book Native Tongue written by Suzette Haden Elgin and published by The Feminist Press at CUNY. This book was released on 2013-08-15 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1984, Native Tongue earned wide critical praise, and cult status as well. Set in the twenty-second century after the repeal of the Nineteenth Amendment, the novel reveals a world where women are once again property, denied civil rights, and banned from public life. In this world, Earth’s wealth relies on interplanetary commerce, for which the population depends on linguists, a small, clannish group of families whose women breed and become perfect translators of all the galaxies’ languages. The linguists wield power, but live in isolated compounds, hated by the population, and in fear of class warfare. But a group of women is destined to challenge the power of men and linguists. Nazareth, the most talented linguist of her family, is exhausted by her constant work translating for the government, supervising the children’s language education in the Alien-in-Residence interface chambers, running the compound, and caring for the elderly men. She longs to retire to the Barren House, where women past childbearing age knit, chat, and wait to die. What Nazareth does not yet know is that a clandestine revolution is going on in the Barren Houses: there, word by word, women are creating a language of their own to free them of men’s domination. Their secret must, above all, be kept until the language is ready for use. The women’s language, Láadan, is only one of the brilliant creations found in this stunningly original novel, which combines a page-turning plot with challenging meditations on the tensions between freedom and control, individuals and communities, thought and action. A complete work in itself, it is also the first volume in Elgin’s acclaimed Native Tongue trilogy.
Download or read book Looking At Gay Lesbian Life written by Diane Raymond and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 1993-06-30 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discusses gender roles, human sexuality, prejudice, discrimination, lesbian and gay politics, AIDS, gay culture, and the homosexual in literature
Download or read book Claiming a Tradition written by Mary Jo Bona and published by SIU Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mary Jo Bona reconstructs the literary history and examines the narrative techniques of eight Italian American women's novels from 1940 to the present. Largely neglected until recently, these women's family narratives compel a reconsideration of what it means to be a woman and an ethnic in America. Bona discusses the novels in pairs according to their focus on Italian American life. She first examines the traditions of italianitá (a flavor of things Italian) that inform and enhance works of fiction. The novelists in that tradition were Mari Tomasi (Like Lesser Gods, 1949) and Marion Benasutti (No Steady Job for Papa, 1966). Bona then turns to later novels that highlight the Italian American belief in the family's honor and reputation. Conflicts between generations, specifically between autocratic fathers and their children, are central to Octavia Waldo's 1961 A Cup of the Sun and Josephine Gattuso Hendin's 1988 The Right Thing to Do. Even when writers choose to steer away from the familial focus, Bona notes, their developmental narratives trace the reintegration of characters suffering from a crisis of cultural identity. Relating the characters' struggles to their relationship to the family, Bona examines Diana Cavallo's 1961 A Bridge of Leaves and Dorothy Bryant's 1978 Miss Giardino. Bona then discusses two innovative novels—Helen Barolini's 1979 Umbertina and Tina De Rosa's 1980 Paper Fish—both of which feature a granddaughter who invokes her grandmother, a godparent figure. Through Barolini's feminist and De Rosa's modernist perspectives, both novels present a young girl developing artistically. Closing with a discussion of the contemporary terrain Italian American women traverse, Bona examines such topics as sexual identity when it meets cultural identity and the inclusion of italianitá when Italian American identity is not central to the story. Italian American women writers, she concludes, continue in the 1980s and 1990s to focus on the interplay between cultural identity and women's development.
Download or read book Make a Difference written by Arthur Blaustein and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-01-24 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive guide to civic participation and the best opportunities for volunteering. We are proud residents of the land of the free and the home of the brave, but how often do we actually get involved and do anything to make a difference? The lifeblood of democracy is volunteering, and Make a Difference teaches readers how to get in the game and help! Volunteers are needed in record numbers. People are in trouble, and they are turning to volunteer organizations in their communities and faiths for help. Millions of Americans—middle class, working class, professionals, and business executives—have experienced the loss of a job, a home, or a business, small farm failure, a personal bankruptcy, or a loss of pension or retirement income. And millions more are only a layoff, illness, divorce, or accident away from falling into poverty. But YOU can help! Make a Difference is a comprehensive collection of more than two hundred community service opportunities and experiences. More than a simple resource guide, this unique handbook includes interviews, anecdotes, and commentary from the top people in nonprofit and service fields. The book ties together the strands of volunteering, community service, and civic engagement. Blaustein focuses on two critical questions: “How did we get into this mess?” and “What can be done to turn things around?” His answer to these interconnected questions is volunteering, community service, civic engagement, and citizen participation. They are good for you, vital to those being served, and healthy for your community and our country. Here’s what YOU can do to help!
Download or read book A Matter of Time written by Shashi Deshpande and published by The Feminist Press at CUNY. This book was released on 2016-01-01 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One morning, with no warning, Gopal, respected professor, devoted husband, and caring father, walks out on his family for reasons even he cannot articulate. His wife, Sumi returns with their three daughters to the shelter of the Big House, where her parents live in oppressive silence: they have not spoken to each other in 35 years. As the mystery of this long silence is unraveled, a horrifying story of loss and pain is laid bare—a story that seems to be repeating itself in Sumi's life. This multigenerational story, told in the individual voices of the characters, catches each in turn the cycles of love, loss, strength, and renewal that becomes an essential part of the women's identities. A Matter of Time reveals the hidden springs of character while painting a nuanced portrait of the difficulties and choices facing women—especially educated, independent women—in India today.
Download or read book Always from Somewhere Else written by Marjorie Agosin and published by Feminist Press at CUNY. This book was released on 2000-08 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Agosín surpasses just a familial memoir and delivers a stunning written testimony. - Copley News Service
Download or read book Writing With An Accent written by Edvige Giunta and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-04-30 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mary Cappello, Louise DeSalvo, Sandra M. Gilbert, Maria Mazziotti Gillan, Carole Maso, Agnes Rossi. These are some of the best-known Italian American writers today. They are part of a literary tradition with mid-twentieth century roots that began to develop, in earnest, in the late 1970s and early 1980s. During those decades, a number of Italian American women, such as Helen Barolini, began to publish books that depicted their perspectives on life through the critical lenses of gender, class, and ethnicity. At the end of the twentieth century, this literature finally blossomed into a fully fledged cultural movement that also took into account issues of sexuality, age, illness, and familial and societal abuse. Writing with an Accent takes a look at this vibrant literary movement by discussing those first writers of the 1970s and 1980s as well as later authors. At the center of Edvige Giunta s Writing with an Accent is the literal notion of accent, the marker of linguistic and cultural difference that separates and identifies recent immigrants to the United States. In this study, an accent symbolically embodies the differences and creative strategies through which contemporary Italian American women writers engage Italian American culture in works of fiction, poetry, and memoir. Giunta also looks at the links between the literature and art, music, film, and video produced by contemporary Italian American women. The literature of the Italian American women in Writing with an Accent is shaped by the complicated connections these authors maintain with their cultural origins, but also, and perhaps more importantly, by their feminist consciousness and politicized sense of ethnic identity. Writing with an Accent celebrates and explores a group of authors who characteristically mix the joy and pain of Italian American life to paint a multifaceted picture of Italian American women and their complex place in U.S. culture.
