A grand synthesis of unprecedented scope, Literary Cultures in History is the first comprehensive history of the rich literary traditions of South Asia. Together these traditions are unmatched in their combination of antiquity, continuity, and multicultural complexity, and are a unique resource for understanding the development of language and imagination over time. In this unparalleled volume, an international team of renowned scholars considers fifteen South Asian literary traditionsincluding Hindi, Indian-English, Persian, Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Urduin their full historical and...

As old as a roadway that was once a Native trail, as new as the suburban subdivisions spreading across the American countryside, the cultural landscape is endlessly changing. The study of cultural landscapes--a far more recent development--has also undergone great changes, ever broadening, deepening, and refining our understanding of the intricate webs of social and ecological spaces that help to define human groups and their activities. Everyday America surveys the widening conceptions and applications of cultural landscape writing in the United States and, in doing so, offers a clear...

In this groundbreaking volume, contemporary art historians--all of them women--probe the dilemmas and complexities of writing about the woman artist, past and present. Singular Women proposes a new feminist investigation of the history of art by considering how a historian's theoretical approach affects the way in which research progresses and stories are told. These thirteen essays on specific artists, from the Renaissance to the present day, address their work and history to examine how each has been inserted into or left out of the history of art. The authors go beyond an analysis...

Robert Thayer brings the concepts and promises of the growing bioregional movement to a wide audience in a book that passionately urges us to discover "where we are" as an antidote to our rootless, stressful modern lives. LifePlace is a provocative meditation on bioregionalism and what it means to live, work, eat, and play in relation to naturally, rather than politically, defined areas. In it, Thayer gives a richly textured portrait of his own home, the Putah-Cache watershed in California's Sacramento Valley, demonstrating how bioregionalism can be practiced in everyday life. Written...

A heist thriller with a dazzling twist in the tail, this film "The Usual Suspects" has seen its reputation grow until it is now a major cult movie. Ernest Larsen examines the film's sophistcated narrative structure and the new spin it puts on an old genre.

This work looks at the history of the short film and its current role. It focuses on contemporary short-film producers and directors, and its role as a training opportunity for new talent. It also covers issues of distribution, funding, exhibition, festivals, training and publications.

Examines the meanings of different sites of film exhibition and distribution (city-centre cinemas, local cinemas, art-house cinemas, multiplexes, television transmission, video rental/retail, and satellite/cable) and the meanings of the activities of film consumption associated with these sites.

Manohla Dargis explores the careers of director Curtis Hanson and writer James Ellroy, based on interviews with both men, to dig deep into the film's obsession with the twinned, equally troubled histories of the Hollywood studio system and the city of Los Angeles.