This book examines Elfriede Jelinek s investigation of Austria s and Western Europe s -obscene fantasies- through her -perversion- of generic forms in three of her best-known texts (Die Liebhaberinnen, Lust, and Die Klavierspielerin). Each chapter investigates a central psychoanalytic concept (alienation, jouissance, perversion, and sublimation) and reads a Jelinek text in relation to the genre that it is perverting, exposing the -obscene fantasies- that lie at its heart. This book argues that the disruption of genres is one of Jelinek s most significant literary contributions,...

In the age of the spectacle, democracy has never looked so bleak. Our world, saturated with media and marketing, endlessly confronts us with spectacles vying for our attention: from Apple and 9/11 to Facebook and the global financial crisis. Democratic politics, by comparison, remain far from engaging. A society obsessed with spectacles results in a complete misfiring of the democratic system.
This book uses critical democratic theory to outline the effects of consumer culture on citizenship. It highlights the importance that public space plays in creating the critical culture necessary...

Versatility in Versification grew out of an international conference organized by the University of Iceland and the Nordic Society for Metrical Studies and held at Reykholt, Iceland, the thirteenth-century home of Snorri Sturluson. Although medieval Icelandic poetic culture was highlighted at the conference, the range of subjects remained diverse and discussion became dynamic. Similarly, this volume brings together the work of a broad range of scholars who embark on a discourse across disciplines, addressing aspects of poetry and poetics within the Germanic language family in...

Who Do They Think They Are? Teenage Girls and Their Avatars in Spaces of Social Online Communication documents a descriptive case study of teenage girls who created autobiographical avatars for their social online spaces. It explores the complex and often conflicted negotiations behind girlhood identity and representation in a cyber-social world. Comparisons are drawn between autobiographical avatars and the profile pictures that teenage girls use on their social networking sites as they consider the manner in which identity is negotiated, constructed, co-authored, and represented. The...

The work presented here is a large-scale evaluation of a theory-driven school reform project in New Zealand, which focuses on improving the educational achievement of Maori students in public secondary schools. The project's conceptual underpinnings are based on Kaupapa Maori research, culturally responsive teaching, student voice, and relationship-based pedagogy. Data were produced by a research team who conducted a three-year external evaluation of the project in 22 of the 33 schools implementing its professional development initiative. The book shows the extent to which a...

Theories of Communication is the realization of a project begun in the 1970s with Marshall McLuhan and now brought to completion by his son, Eric McLuhan. This collection of short essays assembles theories of communication from a diverse range of famous people from Thomas Aquinas and Francis Bacon to Wyndham Lewis and Ezra Pound and ends with an essay on Marshall McLuhann own theory of communication. While the majority of the essays have been previously published, all are seminal pieces in the field. Their presence together in one volume is a significant contribution to the overall...

New literacies, globally popular among children and adolescents in and out of school contexts, are challenging educators and institutions to rethink pedagogies. As educators begin to embrace the pedagogical possibilities of multimodal texts and digital practices, they are exploring the complexities of assessing these new literacies. The essays in this book explore what it means to assess the sophisticated textual engagements of new literacies, including reading and writing online, social networking, gaming, multimodal composing, and creating virtual identities. Chapters offer practical...

The increasing connection among higher education institutions worldwide is well documented. What is less understood is how this connectivity is enacted and manifested on specific levels of the global education network. This book details the planning process of a multi-institutional program in engineering between institutions in the US and Singapore as they develop a new model of collaboration. Contrary to what neoliberal or center-to-periphery narratives of globalization might lead us to expect, strong national and local governments, culture, and social relationships all play determining...

Doing Ministry in the Igbo Context: Towards an Emerging Model and Method for the Church in Africa arises out of reflection on experience and practice. The volume reflects on the author s own cultural context, religious heritage, and pastoral functioning. In addition, it considers the author s personal experiences in relation to the common experiences of others within the author s cultural and religious traditions and places these experiences and the voices they represent into mutually critical correlation. Thus, commonalities and dissonances in them emerge leading to insights where to...

Invisible Girls is an examination of twenty-four at-risk adolescent girls' writing practices in a Third Space setting located within a school but outside of the confines of a regular classroom. Through a description of the girls' writing over a three-and-a-half-year period in this setting, Mellinee Lesley details phenomena that both support and suppress at-risk adolescent girls in their quest to achieve academic success through their writing practices. This book offers educators insights into teaching writing to adolescent girls who are falling through the cracks of the public...