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Book Unvarnishing Reality

Download or read book Unvarnishing Reality written by Derek C. Maus and published by Univ of South Carolina Press. This book was released on 2012-10-15 with total page 387 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unvarnishing Reality draws original insight to the literature, politics, history, and culture of the cold war by closely examining the themes and goals of American and Russian satirical fiction. As Derek C. Maus illustrates, the paranoia of nuclear standoff provided a subversive storytelling mode for authors from both nations—including Thomas Pynchon, Robert Coover, John Barth, Walker Percy, Don DeLillo, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Vasily Aksyonov, Yuz Aleshkovsky, Alexander Zinoviev, Vladimir Voinovich, Fazil Iskander, and Sasha Sokolov. Maus surveys the background of each nation's culture, language, sociology, politics, and philosophy to map the foundation on which cold war satire was built. By highlighting common themes of utopianism, technology, and propaganda, Maus effectively shows the ultimate motive of satirists on both sides was to question the various forces contributing to the cold war and to expose the absurdity of the continuous tension that pulsed between the United States and the Soviet Union for nearly half a century. Although cold war literature has been studied extensively, few critics have focused so keenly on comparisons of satirical fictions by Russian and American writers that condemn and subvert the polarizing ideologies inherent in superpower rivalry. Such a comparison reveals thematic and structural similarities that transcend specific national and cultural origins. In considering these works together, Maus locates a thoroughgoing humanistic refutation of the cold war and its operative doctrines as well as a range of proposed alternatives. Just as the cold war combatants ultimately reconciled in 1991 with the fall of the Soviet Union, Maus seeks to bring these two literary canons together now. Their thematic scope transcends cultural differences, and, as Maus demonstrates, these writers saw that there was not only the atomic bomb to fear, but also the dangers of complete national militarization and the constant polarizing threat of emergency. Thus their cold war critiques still resonate today and invite further comparative studies such as this one.

Book Understanding Colson Whitehead

Download or read book Understanding Colson Whitehead written by Derek C. Maus and published by Univ of South Carolina Press. This book was released on 2021-04-07 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An inviting point of entrance into the truth seeking, genre defying novels of the award-winning author In 2020 Colson Whitehead became the youngest recipient of the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction. Although Whitehead's widely divergent books complicate overarching categorization, Derek C. Maus argues that they are linked by their skepticism toward the ostensible wisdom inherited from past generations and the various forms of "stories" that transmit it. Whitehead, best known for his Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Underground Railroad, bids readers to accompany him on challenging, often open-ended literary excursions designed to reexamine—and frequently defy—accepted notions of truth. Understanding Colson Whitehead unravels the parallel structures found within Whitehead's books from his 1999 debut The Intuitionist through 2019's The Nickel Boys, for which he won his second Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. By first imitating and then violating their conventions, Whitehead attempts to transcend the limits of the formulas of the genres in which he seems to write. Whitehead similarly tests subject matter, again imitating and then satirizing various forms of conventional wisdom as a means of calling out unexamined, ignored, or malevolent aspects of American culture. Although it is only one of many subjects that Whitehead addresses, race is often central to his work. It serves as a prime example of Whitehead's attempt to prompt his readers into revisiting their assumptions about meanings and values. By upending the literary formulas of the detective novel, the heroic folktale, the coming-of-age story, the zombie apocalypse, the slave narrative, and historical fiction, Whitehead reveals the flaws and shortcomings by which Americans have defined themselves. In addition to evoking such explicitly literary storytelling traditions, Whitehead also directs attention toward other interrelated historical and cultural processes that influence how race, class, gender, education, social status, and other categories of identity determine what an individual supposedly can and cannot do.

Book The Routledge Introduction to American Postmodernism

Download or read book The Routledge Introduction to American Postmodernism written by Linda Wagner-Martin and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-10-03 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Routledge Introduction to American Postmodernism offers readers a fresh, insightful overview to all genres of postmodern writing. Drawing on a variety of works from not only mainstream authors but also those that are arguably unconventional, renowned scholar Linda Wagner-Martin gives the reader a solid framework and foundation to reading, understanding, and appreciating postmodern literature since its inception through the present day.

Book Graphic Satire in the Soviet Union

Download or read book Graphic Satire in the Soviet Union written by John Etty and published by Univ. Press of Mississippi. This book was released on 2018-12-18 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After the death of Joseph Stalin, Soviet-era Russia experienced a flourishing artistic movement due to relaxed censorship and new economic growth. In this new atmosphere of freedom, Russia’s satirical magazine Krokodil (The Crocodile) became rejuvenated. John Etty explores Soviet graphic satire through Krokodil and its political cartoons. He investigates the forms, production, consumption, and functions of Krokodil, focusing on the period from 1954 to 1964. Krokodil remained the longest-serving and most important satirical journal in the Soviet Union, unique in producing state-sanctioned graphic satirical comment on Soviet and international affairs for over seventy years. Etty’s analysis of Krokodil extends and enhances our understanding of Soviet graphic satire beyond state-sponsored propaganda. For most of its life, Krokodil consisted of a sixteen-page satirical magazine comprising a range of cartoons, photographs, and verbal texts. Authored by professional and nonprofessional contributors and published by Pravda in Moscow, it produced state-sanctioned satirical comment on Soviet and international affairs from 1922 onward. Soviet citizens and scholars of the USSR recognized Krokodil as the most significant, influential source of Soviet graphic satire. Indeed, the magazine enjoyed an international reputation, and many Americans and Western Europeans, regardless of political affiliation, found the images pointed and witty. Astoundingly, the magazine outlived the USSR but until now has received little scholarly attention.

Book The Unvarnished Truth

Download or read book The Unvarnished Truth written by Arnold Cross and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2010-12-30 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In “The Unvarnished Truth”, Arnold Cross talks in detail about his first marriage. He tells of the problems that got worse and worse the longer they were married. He also tells more stories from his life: growing up in the Cumberland Mountains of East Tennessee; serving in the Air Force for 20 years and some of the characters and good friends he has known in the service; his second and third marriages; retirement, seeking out the type of work he wanted to do; finding his passion in woodworking, especially making F5 model mandolins.

Book Unvarnished Faith

Download or read book Unvarnished Faith written by Bill Yoh and published by Greenleaf Book Group. This book was released on 2023-01-31 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The wealth of love A privileged American and first-time missionary plunges into an austere environment, encountering unimaginable poverty and despair, yet at every turn, faith and hope surface to teach him what it truly means to be rich. The power of relationships and love transforms how he sees his life and the world he thought he knew so well. This raw, captivating first-person narrative by award-winning author Bill Yoh will compel you to become a better version of yourself, helping you and those around you navigate the stressful and divisive times in which we live. ​Bill takes us on a journey, sharing poignant stories centered on the human experience and relating to the six principles that foster love and relationships: the foundational importance of strong character, the dignity inherent in every human being, the unique set of talents we each possess, the serenity that comes from being at peace with who we are, the episodes of failure that provide opportunities for growth, and the divine gift of gratitude. Gracefully written, Unvarnished Faith is an invitation to find purpose, engage with community, and cherish and nurture the myriad relationships in our lives.

Book Kif  An Unvarnished History

Download or read book Kif An Unvarnished History written by Josephine Tey and published by DigiCat. This book was released on 2022-11-22 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This novel explores the class structure in England during and after World War 1. The novel tells the story of Kif, an orphan separated from his siblings who had been taken to different homes. Kif is a boy of fifteen who decides to enlist in the Army during the outbreak of World War 1. The story also focuses on his life after the end of the War, and his struggle of living in a society that neglects war veterans.

Book The Unvarnished Truth

Download or read book The Unvarnished Truth written by Ann Fabian and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A study of the "plain unvarnished tales" of unschooled beggars, criminals, prisoners, and ex-slaves in the 19th century. Fabian shows how these works illuminate debates over who had the cultural authority to tell and sell their own stories. She gives us the origins of that curious American genre of selling one's tale of woe to make a buck, ala Oprah, et al.

Book The Unvarnished Truth

Download or read book The Unvarnished Truth written by John C. Calhoun and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2010-02-05 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Calhoun was born a “true son of the Deep South.” He came of age during the Great Depression and learned to plow a mule. He became an astute observer of, and participant in, race relations in the ’40s and ’50s, was almost a moonshiner, lived as a sharecropper, and married the girl of his dreams. The latter part of the book has to do with the situations and people he met in his various jobs, mainly with his railroad days. It’s a wonder he’s around to relate all these tales!

Book Men Out of Focus

    Book Details:
  • Author : Marko Dumančić
  • Publisher :
  • Release : 2020
  • ISBN : 1487531842
  • Pages : 338 pages

Download or read book Men Out of Focus written by Marko Dumančić and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Men Out of Focus charts conversations and polemics about masculinity in Soviet cinema and popular media during the liberal period--often described as "The Thaw"--between the death of Stalin in 1953 and the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. The book shows how the filmmakers of the long 1960s built stories around male protagonists who felt disoriented by a world that was becoming increasingly suburbanized, rebellious, consumerist, household-oriented, and scientifically complex. The dramatic tension of 1960s cinema revolved around the male protagonists' inability to navigate the challenges of postwar life. Selling over three billion tickets annually, the Soviet film industry became a fault line of postwar cultural contestation. By examining both the discussions surrounding the period's most controversial movies as well as the cultural context in which these debates happened, the book captures the official and popular reactions to the dizzying transformations of Soviet society after Stalin."--

Book Reality Television

    Book Details:
  • Author : Ruth A. Deller
  • Publisher : Emerald Group Publishing
  • Release : 2019-11-25
  • ISBN : 1839090235
  • Pages : 150 pages

Download or read book Reality Television written by Ruth A. Deller and published by Emerald Group Publishing. This book was released on 2019-11-25 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reality television is shown worldwide, features people from all walks of life and covers everything from romance to religion. It has not only changed television, but every other area of the media. So why has reality TV become such a huge phenomenon, and what is its future in an age of streaming and social media?

Book Unvarnished Arkansas

    Book Details:
  • Author : Steven Teske
  • Publisher : Butler Center Books
  • Release : 2013-03
  • ISBN : 1935106473
  • Pages : 185 pages

Download or read book Unvarnished Arkansas written by Steven Teske and published by Butler Center Books. This book was released on 2013-03 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A man squanders his family fortune until he is penniless, loses every time he runs for public office, and yet is so admired by the people of Arkansas that the General Assembly names a county in his honor. A renowned writer makes her home in the basement of a museum until she is sued by some of the most prominent women of the state regarding the use of the rooms upstairs. A brilliant inventor who nearly built the first airplane is also vilified for his eccentricity and possible madness. Author Steven Teske rummages through Arkansas’s colorful past to find--and "unvarnish"--some of the state’s most controversial and fascinating figures. The nine people featured in this collection are not the most celebrated products of Arkansas. More than half of them were not even born in Arkansas, although all of them lived in Arkansas and contributed to its history and culture. But each of them has achieved a certain stature in local folklore, if not in the story of the state as a whole.

Book The Nation

Download or read book The Nation written by and published by . This book was released on 1885 with total page 734 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Book The Form of Ideology and the Ideology of Form

Download or read book The Form of Ideology and the Ideology of Form written by Francesca Orsini and published by Open Book Publishers. This book was released on 2022-02-23 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This timely volume focuses on the period of decolonization and the Cold War as the backdrop to the emergence of new and diverse literary aesthetics that accompanied anti-imperialist commitments and Afro-Asian solidarity. Competing internationalist frameworks produced a flurry of writings that made Asian, African and other world literatures visible to each other for the first time. The book’s essays examine a host of print culture formats (magazines, newspapers, manifestos, conference proceedings, ephemera, etc.) and modes of cultural mediation and transnational exchange that enabled the construction of a variously inflected Third-World culture which played a determining role throughout the Cold War. The essays in this collection focus on locations as diverse as Morocco, Tunisia, South Asia, China, Spain, and Italy, and on texts in Arabic, English, French, Hindi, Italian, and Spanish. In doing so, they highlight the combination of local debates and struggles, and internationalist networks and aspirations that found expression in essays, novels, travelogues, translations, reviews, reportages and other literary forms. With its comparative study of print cultures with a focus on decolonization and the Cold War, the volume makes a major contribution both to studies of postcolonial literary and print cultures, and to cultural Cold War studies in multilingual and non-Western contexts, and will be of interest to historians and literary scholars alike.

Book The Unvarnished Doctrine

    Book Details:
  • Author : Steven M. Dworetz
  • Publisher : Duke University Press
  • Release : 1994-02-15
  • ISBN : 9780822314707
  • Pages : 268 pages

Download or read book The Unvarnished Doctrine written by Steven M. Dworetz and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 1994-02-15 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Unvarnished Doctrine, Steven M. Dworetz addresses two critical issues in contemporary thinking on the American Revolution—the ideological character of this event, and, more specifically, the relevance of "America’s Philosopher, the Great Mr. Locke," in this experience. Recent interpretations of the American revolution, particularly those of Bailyn and Pocock, have incorporated an understanding of Locke as the moral apologist of unlimited accumulation and the original ideological crusader for the "spirit of capitalism," a view based largely on the work of theorists Leo Strauss and C. B. Macpherson. Drawing on an examination of sermons and tracts of the New England clergy, Dworetz argues that the colonists themselves did not hold this conception of Locke. Moreover, these ministers found an affinity with the principles of Locke’s theistic liberalism and derived a moral justification for revolution from those principles. The connection between Locke and colonial clergy, Dworetz maintains, constitutes a significant, radicalizing force in American revolutionary thought.

Book Unveiled Voices  Unvarnished Memories

Download or read book Unveiled Voices Unvarnished Memories written by Adelaide M. Cromwell and published by University of Missouri Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 367 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When an industrious slave named Willis Hodges Cromwell earned the money to obtain liberty for his wife-who then bought freedom for him and for their children-he set in motion a family saga that resounds today. His youngest son, John Wesley Cromwell, became an educator, lawyer, and newspaper publisher-and one of the most influential men of letters in the generation that bridged Frederick Douglass and W. E. B. Du Bois. Now, in Unveiled Voices, Unvarnished Memories, his granddaughter, Adelaide M. Cromwell, documents the journey of her family from the slave marts of Annapolis to achievements in a variety of learned professions. John W. Cromwell began the family archives from which this book is drawn-letters and documents that provide an unprecedented view of how one black family thought, strived, and survived in American society from the seventeenth century to the twentieth. These papers reflect intimate thoughts about such topics as national and local leaders, moral behavior, color consciousness, and the challenges of everyday life in a racist society. They also convey a wealth of rich insights on the burdens that black parents' demands for achievement placed on their children, the frequently bitter rivalries within the intellectual class of the African American community, and the negative impact on African American women of sexism in a world dominated by black men whose own hold on respect was tentative at best. The voices gathered here give readers an inside look at the formation and networks of the African American elite, as John Cromwell forged friendships with such figures as journalist John E. Bruce and the Reverend Theophilus Gould Steward. Letters with those two faithfully depict the forces that shaped the worldview of the small but steadily expanding community of African American intellectuals who helped transform the nation's attitudes and policies on race, and whose unguarded comments on a wide range of matters will be of particular interest to social historians. Additional correspondence between John and his son, John Jr., brings the family story into modern times. Unveiled Voices, Unvarnished Memories is a rare look at the public and private world of individuals who refused to be circumscribed by racism and the ghetto while pursuing their own well-being. Its narrative depth breaks new ground in African American history and offers a unique primary source for that community.