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      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        March 2026

        Black socialities

        Urban resistance and the struggle beyond recognition in Paris

        by Vanessa Eileen Thompson

        From author: This is a cutting-edge exploration of black urban politics in Parisian racialized working class and working poor districts, the formation of abolition geography, and the possibilities of new forms of political blackness. In Black Socialities. Urban resistance and the struggle beyond recognition in Paris, Vanessa E. Thompson argues that black urban politics in the French banlieues are multi-racial and spatially grounded towards abolition. Based on a close engagement with urban black activist practices against racial imagery in the city, policing and state racism, and housing insecurity, she shows how radical anti-racism goes beyond struggles for recognition and unfolds alongside new formations of political blackness that is based on urban conviviality. This form of black politics has much to teach us in this current conjuncture of liberal anti-racism and state recognition politics.

      • Trusted Partner
        The Arts
        February 2006

        Digging up stories

        Applied theatre, performance and war

        by James Thompson, Martin Hargreaves

        In 'Digging up stories', James Thompson explores the problems of theatre practice in communities affected by war and exclusion. Each chapter or 'story' is written in a lively and accessible style and draws on a range of contemporary performance theories. The chapters discuss: - participatory theatre in refugee camps - theatre workshop and stories of a massacre - traditional dance-dramas in an insurgent controlled village - 'Forum' theatre with the Mahabharata - ethical issues - the struggle to teach the author to dance 'Digging up stories' documents a range of theatre practice and includes project reports, ethnographic accounts, performance analysis and diary-style reflection. Taken from Thompson's research and practice in Sri Lanka, these diverse examples question the link between applied theatre, traditional performance and performances in everyday life. The book blurs lines between research and travel writing to create rich and provocative accounts of applying theatre in a troubled setting. ;

      • Trusted Partner
        The Arts
        October 2015

        Film light

        Meaning and emotion

        by Lara Thompson

        In one of the first monographs of its kind to focus on the aesthetic and emotional impact of lighting in cinema, Lara Thompson looks at the way light informs the cinematic experience, from constructing star identities, sculpting natural light and creating imaginary worlds, to the seductive power of darkness, fading representations of the past and arresting twilight encounters. This groundbreaking and accessible introductory study offers a unique insight into the way illumination has transcended its diffuse functional boundaries and been elevated to a position of narrative and emotional importance, transforming it from an unobtrusive element of film style to an expressive and essential component. It includes analyses of over fifty renowned international films, discussed in inventive and illuminating combinations, from cinema's earliest moments to its most recent digital manifestations, and is essential reading for all those who want to understand what film light means and how it makes us feel. ;

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        Biography & True Stories
        May 2026

        Caroline Aherne

        Rebel in disguise

        by David Scott

        A thoughtful exploration of the work of this unique comedian and writer. Caroline Aherne was one of the most influential and beloved of British comedians. In this book David Scott explores Aherne's comedic artistry and creative legacy, focusing on her iconic characters and ground-breaking TV shows. Scott dives into Aherne's most beloved creations, from the sharp-tongued Mrs Merton to the quietly revolutionary The Royle Family. Drawing on the tales of collaborators and telling behind-the-scenes stories, he provides an intimate glimpse into the creative processes that brought these iconic works to life. At the same time, he examines the social and cultural influences that shaped Aherne's work, from the rich traditions of Northern working-class humour to the experiences of Irish migrants. Aherne's work is celebrated for its sharp wit, warmth and ability to find comedy in adversity. This book offers an exploration and celebration of one of comedy's most inventive minds, revealing how she reshaped the British comedy landscape.

      • Trusted Partner
        January 1983

        Über Wachstum und Form

        In gekürzter Fassung neu herausgegeben von John Tyler Bonner. Übersetzt von Ella M. Fountain und Magdalena Neff. Mit einem Geleitwort von Adolf Portmann

        by D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson, John Tyler Bonner, Ella M. Fountain, Adolf Portmann

        Zweifellos ist es ein verlegerisches Wagnis, DʼArcy Thompsons legendäres Buch im Zeitalter des Quasi-Ausschließlichkeitsanspruchs von Biochemie und Molekularbiologie in einer Neuauflage und dazu in deutscher Sprache herauszubringen. Wer von den jungen Biologen verbindet heute noch mit Thompsons Namen einen Begriff? Wer war dieser Mann? Was macht sein Werk noch heute druckenswert? Man könnte vielleicht aphoristisch sagen: DʼArcy Thompson war einer jener Polyhistores, von denen man meinte, sie seien mit dem Verklingen des Barock ausgestorben und in späterer Zeit nicht einmal mehr denkbar. Mithin ein verspäteter Barock-Gelehrter? Keineswegs, sondern einer der Pioniere der modernsten Biologie! Er vereinigte in sich das Denkvermögen des Mathematikers und Physikers mit dem des Linguisten und des Biologen, und er verfügt über das Handwerkliche aller drei dieser – ach doch so verschiedenen – Wissensgebiete. Dieses Buch hat eine widersprüchliche Geschichte: 1917 erschien die erste Auflage – damals vollendete Ketzerei – mit 793 Seiten Umfang, 1942 eine Erweiterung auf 1116 Seiten. Die posthume Neuauflage von Bonner – sie liegt der Übersetzung zugrunde – knüpft an die erste Auflage an, läßt vieles aus (weil es nicht mehr aktuell ist) und bringt zahlreiche Kommentare des Herausgebers. Es handelt sich also bei der vorliegenden Ausgabe um eine »Klassikeredition in Auswahl und mit Kommentar versehen«. Dies ist bei einem Buch mit einer erst 55jährigen Geschichte bemerkenswert. Um es vorwegzunehmen: von Thompsons Konzeption ist nichts Wesentliches verlorengegangen, und die Kommentare machen die Orientierung für denjenigen, der die Literatur nicht selbst kennt, leichter. (So. J.H. Scharf, Halle, 1974 in seiner Besprechung der deutschen Erstausgabe.)

      • Trusted Partner
        The Arts
        January 2019

        Robert Bresson

        by Keith Reader

        This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the work of Robert Bresson, one of the most respected and acclaimed directors in the history of cinema.. The first monograph on his work to appear in English for many years dealing not only with his thirteen feature-length films but also his little-seen early short Affaires publiques and his short treatise Notes on cinematography.. The films are considered in chronological order, using a perspective that draws variously on spectator theory, Catholic mysticism, gender theory and Lacanian psychoanalysis.. The major critical responses to his work, from the adulatory to the dismissive, are summarized and analyzed.. The work includes a full filmography and a critical bibliography.

      • Trusted Partner
        October 2008

        Robert Walser

        Sein Leben in Bildern und Texten

        by Bernhard Echte, Bernhard Echte

        Robert Walsers Biographie ist von spannender Rätselhaftigkeit. Zeit seines Lebens verlief sein Weg am Rande der literarischen und bürgerlichen Welt, so daß er in den Zeugnissen seiner Zeitgenossen kaum Niederschlag fand. Und Walser seinerseits vermied es, sein Leben irgendwie anders zu dokumentieren als in seiner Literatur. Dort aber spielt er mit seiner Biographie – phantasierend und verwandelnd, so daß die Texte von seinen Lebensumständen mehr verschweigen als verraten. In mehr als 20jähriger Forschung ist es dem Herausgeber gelungen, eine Fülle unbekannter Materialien und Bilder zusammenzutragen. Annähernd 1000 zeitgenössische Bilddokumente erlauben es, Walsers Lebenswelt in einer Nähe und Dichte kennenzulernen, wie es bislang nicht möglich war. »Sein Lebensbild wird nie komplett geschrieben werden können. Schon scheint mancher seinen Charakter zu umkleiden versucht zu haben.« Robert Walser

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        March 2017

        Colonial frontiers

        by Andrew Thompson, John M. MacKenzie, Kim Latham

        Colonial frontiers explores the formation, structure and maintenance of boundaries and frontiers in settler colonies. Drawing on the work of anthropologists, historians, archaeologists and post-colonial theorists, the authors in this fascinating collection explore the importance of cross-cultural interactions in the settler colonies of Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and America. Taking key historical moments to illuminate the formation of new boundaries and the interaction between the settler societies and the indigenous groups, this book raises many important questions about how the empire worked 'on the ground'. Importantly, the collection attempts to theorise the indigenous experience. As we move towards globalisation, borders and boundaries have begun to fall away. This book reminds us that not long ago the frontiers and boundaries were the key sites for cross-cultural interaction. This collection, which includes chapters by John K. Noyes, Nigel Penn, Kay Schaffer and Ian McNiven, is broad in scope and presents an exciting new approach to the issues surrounding group interaction in colonial settings. Students and academics, from backgrounds such as imperial history, anthropology and post-colonial studies, will find this collection extremely valuable.

      • Trusted Partner
        September 2021

        Weihnachten auf Thompson Hall

        by Anthony Trollope, Irmela Schautz, Andrea Ott

        Brown am Abend vor Weihnachten in einem Pariser Hotel mit Husten krank im Bett liegt, kommt ihm das nicht ganz ungelegen: Seine Frau wollte dieses Jahr unbedingt im Kreise der Großfamilie auf dem englischen Familiensitz feiern, doch er hat ganz und gar keine Lust, am kommenden Tag früh dorthin aufzubrechen. Mrs. Brown will keine Ausflüchte gelten lassen, und damit ihr Mann rasch wieder zu Kräften kommt, verspricht sie ihm einen Senfwickel, der seinen Husten mildern soll. Doch woher mitten in der Nacht in einem fremden Hotel Senf nehmen? Mrs. Brown irrt durch die dunklen Gänge, doch als es ihr endlich gelingt, den Senfwickel anzulegen, erlebt sie eine Überraschung … Eine herrlich vergnügliche Weihnachtsgeschichte der etwas anderen Art mit bestem britischen Humor von Anthony Trollope.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        March 2017

        The Arctic in the British imagination 1818–1914

        by Andrew Thompson, John M. MacKenzie, Rob David

        The Arctic region has been the subject of much popular writing. This book considers nineteenth-century representations of the Arctic, and draws upon an extensive range of evidence that will allow the 'widest connections' to emerge from a 'cross-disciplinary analysis' using different methodologies and subject matter. It positions the Arctic alongside more thoroughly investigated theatres of Victorian enterprise. In the nineteenth century, most images were in the form of paintings, travel narratives, lectures given by the explorers themselves and photographs. The book explores key themes in Arctic images which impacted on subsequent representations through text, painting and photography. For much of the nineteenth century, national and regional geographical societies promoted exploration, and rewarded heroic endeavor. The book discusses images of the Arctic which originated in the activities of the geographical societies. The Times provided very low-key reporting of Arctic expeditions, as evidenced by its coverage of the missions of Sir John Franklin and James Clark Ross. However, the illustrated weekly became one of the main sources of popular representations of the Arctic. The book looks at the exhibitions of Arctic peoples, Arctic exploration and Arctic fauna in Britain. Late nineteenth-century exhibitions which featured the Arctic were essentially nostalgic in tone. The Golliwogg's Polar Adventures, published in 1900, drew on adult representations of the Arctic and will have confirmed and reinforced children's perceptions of the region. Text books, board games and novels helped to keep the subject alive among the young.

      • Trusted Partner
        October 2020

        Die Mühlen der Zivilisation

        Eine Tiefengeschichte der frühesten Staaten

        by James C. Scott, Horst Brühmann

        Wie selbstverständlich gehen wir davon aus, dass die neolithische Revolution, in deren Verlauf Nomaden zu Ackerbauern und Viehzüchtern wurden, ein bedeutender zivilisatorischer Fortschritt war. James C. Scott entwickelt in seinem provokanten Buch eine ganz andere These: Die ersten Staaten entstanden aus der Kontrolle über die Reproduktion und errichteten ein hartes Regime der Domestizierung und Unterwerfung, das Epidemien, Ungleichheiten und Kriege mit sich brachte. Einzig die »Barbaren« – die heimlichen Helden dieses Buches – haben sich der Sesshaftigkeit sowie den neuen Besteuerungssystemen verweigert und sich damit gegen die Mühlen der Zivilisation gestemmt.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        March 2020

        Knowledge, mediation and empire

        James Tod's journeys among the Rajputs

        by Florence D'Souza, Andrew Thompson, John M. MacKenzie

        This study of the British colonial administrator James Tod (1782-1835), who spent five years in north-western India (1818-22) collecting every conceivable type of material of historical or cultural interest on the Rajputs and the Gujaratis, gives special attention to his role as a mediator of knowledge about this little-known region of the British Empire in the early nineteenth century to British and European audiences. The book aims to illustrate that British officers did not spend all their time oppressing and inferiorising the indigenous peoples under their colonial authority, but also contributed to propagating cultural and scientific information about them, and that they did not react only negatively to the various types of human difference they encountered in the field.

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      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        February 2017

        Servants of the empire

        The Irish in Punjab 1881–1921

        by Patrick O'Leary, Andrew Thompson, John M. MacKenzie

        Punjab, 'the pride of British India', attracted the cream of the Indian Civil Service, many of the most influential of whom were Irish. Some of these men, along with Irish viceroys, were inspired by their Irish backgrounds to ensure security of tenure for the Punjabi peasant, besides developing vast irrigation schemes which resulted in the province becoming India's most affluent. But similar inspiration contributed to the severity of measures taken against Indian nationalist dissent, culminating in the Amritsar massacre which so catastrophically transformed politics on the sub-continent. Setting the experiences of Irish public servants in Punjab in the context of the Irish diaspora and of linked agrarian problems in Ireland and India, this book descrides the beneficial effects the Irish had on the prosperity of India's most volatile province. Alongside the baleful contribution of some towards a growing Indian antipathy towards British rule. Links are established between policies pursued by Irishmen of the Victorian era and current happenings on the Pakistan-Afghan border and in Punjab.

      • Trusted Partner
        The Arts
        September 2012

        Tony Richardson

        by Robert Shail, Brian McFarlane, Neil Sinyard

        Tony Richardson was a key figure in British cinema of the 1950s and 1960s. Having established himself in the theatre with the first production of John Osborne's landmark play Look Back in Anger, he became a central director in the New Wave, bringing greater realism to British cinema. He went on to make some of the most significant films of the 1960s including the multi Oscar-winning Tom Jones. This detailed and authoritative account of Richardson's career provides a reassessment of his achievements. As well as looking at his best known films, it considers neglected works such as Ned Kelly and Joseph Andrews, illustrating how Richardson remained a champion of the socially marginalised. In mapping out his life and work, from the English Stage Company to his final films in America, Shail re-establishes Richardson's at the front rank of British film directors, confirming his contribution to a period of dynamic change in British culture. ;

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        August 2013

        Women reading Shakespeare 1660–1900

        An anthology of criticism

        by Ann Thompson, Sasha Roberts

        Women reading Shakespeare, 1660-1900 comprehensively rediscovers a lost tradition of women's writing on Shakespeare. Since Margaret Cavendish published the first critical essay on Shakespeare in 1664, women have written as scholars, critics, editors, performers and popularisers of Shakespeare. Many found in Shakespeare criticism the opportunity to raise a wide variety of issues, ranging from the use of women in society, family life, social relations and ethnic difference. In their different ways, women appropriated Shakespeare to their own ends - not always in step with their male contemporaries. Virtually none of this work is available today; it is unread and unknown. This fascinating anthology draws upon extensive new research to collect for the first time in one volume the Shakespeare criticism of some fifty British and American women writing before 1900. It includes the work of both familiar and unknown names and represents the diversity of literary genres used by women: the scholarly article, the periodical essay, book-length studies, personal memoirs, books for children, school editions. The volume also includes previously unknown Shakespeare illustrations by women, and a general introduction to the development of women's criticism of Shakespeare before 1900. ;

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        May 2000

        Henry V

        by James Loehlin

        This study examines the profound changes that twentieth-century performance has wrought on Shakespeare's complex drama of war and politics. What was accepted at the turn of the century as a patriotic celebration of a national hero has emerged in the modern theatre as a dark and troubling analysis of the causes and costs of war. The book details the theatrical innovations and political insights that have turned one of Shakespeare's most traditional-bound plays into one of his most popular and provocative. Henry V gives details analyses of several important modern productions. Beginning with a consideration of the play's political significance in Elizabethan London, the book goes on the reveal its subsequent reinvention, both as patriotic pageant and anti-war manifesto. Individual chapters consider important productions by the Royal Shakespeare Company, and other British and North American companies, as well as the landmark film versions. A compelling account of the theatrical revolution that has transformed one of Shakespeare's most challenging plays. ;

      • Trusted Partner
        March 2003

        Das Leben Robert Walsers

        Eine dokumentarische Biographie

        by Robert Mächler, Robert Mächler

        »Robert Mächler hat die flüchtigen Spuren von Robert Walsers Leben so sorgfältig und verläßlich wie überhaupt gesichert. Wer Robert Walser kennen lernen will, kann sich Mächler anvertrauen. Er findet einen zuverlässigen, umsichtigen Führer und er wird angesichts dieser sachlichen Dichtervita, dieses Bildnisses eines so armen wie reichen Mannes vielleicht von Erschütterung, gewiß aber von Zuneigung und Bewunderung angerührt werden.« Jochen Greven »Mächler hat geschildert und erfaßt, was es zu erfassen gab. Peinlich und aufregend genau wird vom Biographen Kombination, Möglichkeit und Faktum nebeneinandergestellt. Es wird nichts verschwiegen aus dem verschwiegenen Leben, aus diesem lebenslangen Lebensversteck.« Karl Krolow Robert Mächler wurde 1909 in Baden/ Aargau geboren. Nach humanistischen Studien an der Universität Bern war er als Journalist und Schriftsteller tätig. Er starb 1997.

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