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      • Trusted Partner
        Children's & YA

        The Candy Guild (1). The Magic Pact

        by Tanja Voosen/ Viktoria Gavrilenko

        The most magical adventure since the discovery of chocolate! Do you believe in magic and miracles? Everyone in the little town of Belony takes magic and miracles for granted – everyone except Elina, who thinks it’s all a load of nonsense. That is, until her nervous neighbour Charlie happens to get hold of a bar of chocolate that has a very strange effect on her. Suddenly Elina is convinced that Charlie has fallen under a spell. Of all people, it’s shy Robin who comes to the girl’s rescue. He is a member of a Candy Guild family – people who have the ability to create magic sweets that will help others. This is how he knows that only the mysterious Candy Guild can lift the curse on Charlie. With a suitcase full of magic sweets, the three of them set out on a dangerous quest. Because not everyone keeps to the pact that magic sweets should only be used to do good… The Candy Guild. The Magic Pact is the first in a new series of magic-fantasy books for children of 9+ - as enchanting as chocolate and as wild as a Christmas cracker!

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        December 2023

        Fantasies of music in nostalgic medievalism

        by Helen Dell

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        December 2006

        Socio-ideological fantasy and the Northern Ireland conflict

        The Other side

        by Adrian Millar, Peter Lawler, Emmanuel Pierre Guittet

        Conducting a Lacanian-inspired psychoanalysis of some of the most candid interview materials ever gathered from former IRA members and loyalists, the author demonstrates through a careful examination of their slips of the tongue, jokes, rationalisations and contradictions, that it is the unconscious dynamics of socio-ideological fantasy, i.e. the unconscious pleasure people find in suffering, domination, submission, ignorance, failure and rivalry over jouissance, that lead to the reproduction of antagonism between the Catholic and Protestant communities in Northern Ireland. In the light of this, he concludes that traditional approaches to conflict resolution which overlook the unconscious are doomed to failure and that a Lacanian psychoanalytic understanding of socio-ideological fantasy has great potential for informing the way we understand and study all inter-religious and ethnic conflicts. Whether you find yourself agreeing with the arguments in this book or not, you are sure to find it a welcome change from both the existing, mainly conservative, analyses of the Northern Ireland conflict and traditional approaches to conflict resolution.

      • Trusted Partner
        Children's & YA

        Magic Owls in Featherland (1). Athenaria's Secret

        by Ina Brandt/Irene Mohr

        Flora is very excited: together with her magic owl Goldwing, she is to be part of a new team. The owl rulers of the Magical Kingdom have summoned them to Featherland, a hidden place in a mysterious monastery. There they meet the snowy owl Nordis, the spectacled owl Claro and, of course, Jona, who always tries to compete with Flora. How will they ever manage to make a team? It’s not long before they are given their first job: during the night of the next full moon they must help one another to awaken the magic of Featherland – and this proves to be more difficult than expected. Because suddenly Claro disappears from the face of the earth. And without him, no magic can ever succeed…

      • Trusted Partner
        November 2016

        Die Wiederkehr der Illusion

        Der Film und die Kunst der Gegenwart

        by Gertrud Koch

        Die Ästhetik der Illusion wird zwar gegen Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts verabschiedet, aber zur selben Zeit lässt der Film sie über die Hintertür wieder hinein. Von dort werden die ästhetischen Verfahren der Illusion in die anderen Künste reimportiert: auf Opern- und Theaterbühnen, in Galerien und Museen wird mit neuen Formen der Einbindung von Film und Video experimentiert. Vor dem Hintergrund dieser zeitgenössischen ästhetischen Praxis der Entgrenzung legt Gertrud Kochs filmtheoretische Studie die grundlegende Rolle des Films in der Illusionsästhetik frei und analysiert deren Verfahren anhand konkreter Beispiele unter anderem aus dem Bereich des zeitgenössischen (Musik-)Theaters (u.a. Heiner Goebbels und René Pollesch) und der Bildenden Kunst.

      • Trusted Partner
        Children's & YA

        The Little Owl Witch (2). Full Moon Magic at Midnight

        by Katja Alves/ Marta Balmaseda

        Exciting new adventures in the Enchanted Forest. The mighty tree witches send out invitations to take part in the great Witch Competition, which is only held once every hundred years. The prize is a superb extra magical power. Just the thing for a young owl witch like Petunia, think the seven litte owls, and so they secretly enter their witch for the competition. There is just one catch: whoever comes last in solving the extremely difficult magic problems must hand over her witch’s broomstick. Oh dear! The trouble is, all the other witches are very old and are real experts in the art of magic… Fortunately, and as always, Petunia can rely on her little owls!

      • Trusted Partner
        The Arts
        June 2017

        Terry Gilliam

        by Peter Marks

        Terry Gilliam presents a sustained examination of one of cinema's most challenging and lauded auteurs, proposing fresh ways of seeing Gilliam that go beyond reductive readings of him as a gifted but manic fantasist. Analysing Gilliam's work over nearly four decades, from the brilliant anarchy of his Monty Python animations through the nightmarish masterpiece Brazil to the provocative Gothic horror of Tideland, it critically examines the variety and richness of Gilliam's sometimes troubled but always provocative output. The book situates Gilliam within the competing cultural contexts of the British, European and American film industries, examining his regular struggles against aesthetic and commercial pressures. He emerges as a passionate, immensely creative director, whose work encompasses a dizzying array of material: anarchic satire, childhood and adult fantasy, dystopia, romantic comedy, surrealism, road movie, fairy tale and the Gothic. The book charts how Gilliam interweaves these genres and forms to create magical interfaces between reality and the illuminating, frightening but liberating worlds of the imagination. Scrutinising the neglected importance of literature and adaptation in Gilliam's career, this study also observes him through the lenses of auteurism, genre, performance, design and national culture, explaining how someone born in Minnesota and raised in California came to be one of British television and film's most compelling figures.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        October 2023

        The illusion of the Burgundian state

        by Élodie Lecuppre-Desjardin, Christopher Fletcher

        On 25 January 1474, Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy, appeared before his subjects in Dijon. Robed in silk, gold and precious jewels and wearing a headpiece that gave the illusion of a crown, he made a speech in which he cryptically expressed his desire to become a king. Three years later, Charles was killed at the battle of Nancy, an event that plunged the Great Principality of Burgundy into chaos. This book, innovative and essential, not only explores Burgundian history and historiography but offers a complete synthesis about the nature of politics in this region, considered both from the north and the south. Focusing on political ideologies, a number of important issues are raised relating to the medieval state, the signification of the nation under the 'Ancien Regime', the role of warfare in the creation of political power and the impact of political loyalties in the exercise of government. In doing so, the book challenges a number of existing ideas about the Burgundian state.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        April 2023

        New Zealand's empire

        by Katie Pickles, Catharine Coleborne

        This edited collection investigates New Zealand's history as an imperial power, and its evolving place within the British Empire. It revises and expands the history of empire within, to and from New Zealand by looking at the country's spheres of internal imperialism, its relationship with Australia, its Pacific empire and its outreach to Antarctica. The book critically revises our understanding of the range of ways that New Zealand has played a role as an imperial power, including the cultural histories of New Zealand inside the British Empire, engagements with imperial practices and notions of imperialism, the special significance of New Zealand in the Pacific region, and the circulation of ideas of empire both through and inside New Zealand over time. The essays in this volume span social, cultural, political and economic history, and in testing the concept of New Zealand's empire, the contributors take new directions in both historiographical and empirical research.

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        October 2018

        Clive Barker

        Dark imaginer

        by Sorcha Ní Fhlainn

        Clive Barker: Dark imaginer explores the diverse literary, film and visionary creations of the polymathic and influential British artist Clive Barker. In this necessary and timely collection, innovative essays by leading scholars in the fields of literature, film and popular culture explore Barker's contribution to gothic, fantasy and horror studies, interrogating his creative legacy. The volume consists of an extensive introduction and twelve groundbreaking essays that critically reevaluate Barker's oeuvre. These include in-depth analyses of his celebrated and lesser known novels, short stories, theme park designs, screen and comic book adaptations, film direction and production, sketches and book illustrations, as well as responses to his material from critics and fan communities. Clive Barker: Dark imaginer reveals the breadth and depth of Barker's distinctive dark vision, which continues to fascinate and flourish.

      • Trusted Partner
        Children's & YA

        Things. My 200 Picture Book

        by Magdalena Skala

        The very smallest children can identify and name objects from their homes in this award-winning, large-format board book. Magdalena Skala’s fantastic illustrations use bright colours and clear forms to depict the most important objects from the nursery, kitchen, garden, lounge, bathroom – in short from children’s everyday worlds: a great start into the world of words – and books! Magdalena Skala was awarded the 2019 Meefisch Prize and the Marktheidenfeld Prize for picture book illustration for THINGS. MY 200-PICTURE BOOK.

      • Trusted Partner
        August 2016

        Body Image and Body Image Disturbances

        by Andreas Uschok

        Nurses encounter patients whose body image reality has been changed by disease, injuries or traumas on a daily basis. In a world where a flawless body is so highly valued, these patients may struggle to adapt to and accept these changes which can lead to body image disturbances. This handbook provides all those professionals caring for people with amputations, skin disorders, stoma, breast cancer and other diseases with information on the concept of body image and how to assess it, as well as describe possible symptoms and causes of body image disturbances and offers interventions to improve patients’ body image. Target Group: health scientists, geographers, doctors (epidemiologists).

      • Trusted Partner
        The Arts
        June 2021

        The new pornographies

        Explicit sex in recent French fiction and film

        by Victoria Best, Martin Crowley

        The turn of the twenty-first century has witnessed the striking advance of pornography into the Western cultural mainstream. Symptomatic of this development has been the use by writers, artists, and film-makers of the imagery and aesthetics of pornography, in works which have, often on this basis, achieved considerable international success. Amongst these artists are a number of French authors and directors - such as Michel Houellebecq, Catherine Breillat, Virginie Despentes, or Catherine Millet - whose work has often been dismissed as trashy or exploitative, but whose use of pornographic material may in fact be indicative of important contemporary concerns. In this study of a very significant trend, the authors explore how the reference to pornography encodes diverse political, cultural, and existential questions, including relations between the sexes, the collapse of avant-garde politics, gay sexualities in the time of AIDS, the anti-feminist backlash, the relation to the body and illness, the place of fantasy, and the sexualisation of children. It will be of interest to undergraduates, graduates, and researchers in the fields of French culture, gender, film and media studies.

      • Trusted Partner
        The Arts
        January 2019

        The new pornographies

        Explicit sex in recent French fiction and film

        by Victoria Best, Martin Crowley

        The turn of the twenty-first century has witnessed the striking advance of pornography into the Western cultural mainstream. Symptomatic of this development has been the use by writers, artists, and film-makers of the imagery and aesthetics of pornography, in works which have, often on this basis, achieved considerable international success. Amongst these artists are a number of French authors and directors - such as Michel Houellebecq, Catherine Breillat, Virginie Despentes, or Catherine Millet - whose work has often been dismissed as trashy or exploitative, but whose use of pornographic material may in fact be indicative of important contemporary concerns. In this, the first study of this significant trend, the authors explore how the reference to pornography encodes diverse political, cultural, and existential questions, including relations between the sexes, the collapse of avant-garde politics, gay sexualities in the time of AIDS, the anti-feminist backlash, the relation to the body and illness, the place of fantasy, and the sexualisation of children. It will be of interest to undergraduates, graduates, and researchers in the fields of French culture, gender, film and media studies.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        July 1997

        The new woman

        by Sally Ledger

        Sexually transgressive, politically astute and determined to claim educational and employment rights equal to those enjoyed by men, the new woman took centre stage in the cultural landscape of late-Victorian Britain. By comparing the fictional representations with the lived experience of the new woman, Ledger's book makes a major contribution to an understanding of the 'woman question' at the fin de siecle. She alights on such disparate figures as Eleanor Marx, Gertrude Dix, Dracula, Oscar Wilde, Olive Schreiner and Radclyffe Hall. Focusing mainly on the last two decades of the nineteenth century, the book's later chapters project forward into the twentieth century, considering the relationship between new woman fiction and early modernism as well as the socio-sexual inheritance of the 'second generation' new woman writers. ;

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        July 2016

        Mistress of everything

        Queen Victoria in Indigenous worlds

        by Andrew Thompson, John Mackenzie, Sarah Carter, Maria Nugent

        Mistress of everything examines how indigenous people across Britain's settler colonies engaged with Queen Victoria in their lives and predicaments, incorporated her into their political repertoires, and implicated her as they sought redress for the effects of imperial expansion during her long reign. It draws together empirically rich studies from Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Southern Africa, to provide scope for comparative and transnational analysis. The book includes chapters on a Maori visit to Queen Victoria in 1863, meetings between African leaders and the Queen's son Prince Alfred in 1860, gift-giving in the Queen's name on colonial frontiers in Canada and Australia, and Maori women's references to Queen Victoria in support of their own chiefly status and rights. The collection offers an innovative approach to interpreting and including indigenous perspectives within broader histories of British imperialism and settler colonialism. ;

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        January 2023

        The supernatural in early modern Scotland

        by Julian Goodare, Martha McGill

        This book is about other worlds and the supernatural beings, from angels to fairies, that inhabited them. It is about divination, prophecy, visions and trances. And it is about the cultural, religious, political and social uses to which people in Scotland put these supernatural themes between 1500 and 1800. The supernatural consistently provided Scots with a way of understanding topics such as the natural environment, physical and emotional wellbeing, political events and visions of past and future. In exploring the early modern supernatural, the book has much to reveal about how men and women in this period thought about, debated and experienced the world around them. Comprising twelve chapters by an international range of scholars, The supernatural in early modern Scotland discusses both popular and elite understandings of the supernatural.

      • Trusted Partner
        The Arts
        June 2017

        Contemporary Australian cinema

        An introduction

        by Jonathan Rayner

        Provides an introduction to the products and context of the new Australian film industry which arose toward the end of the 1960s. Traces the development of Australian film, in terms of prominent directors and stars, consistent themes, styles and evolving genres. The evolution of the film genres peculiar to Australia, and the adaptation of conventional Hollywood forms (such as the musical and the road movie) are examined in detail through textual readings of landmark films. Films and trends discussed include: the period film and Picnic at Hanging Rock; the Gothic film and the Mad Max trilogy; camp and kitsch comedy and the Adventures of Pricilla, Queen of the Desert. The key issue of the revival (the definition, representation and propagation of a national image) is woven through analysis of the new Australian cinema.

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