Amputation in Literature and Film: Artificial Limbs, Prosthetic Relations, and the Semiotics of “Loss” explores the many ways in which literature and film have engaged with the subject of amputation. The scholars featured in this volumedraw upon a wide variety of texts, both lesser-known and canonical, across historical periods and language traditions to interrogate the intersections of disability studies with social, political, cultural, and philosophical concerns. Whether focusi...

The novels of the South African writer J. M. Coetzee won him global recognition and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2003. His work offers substantial pedagogical richness and challenges. Coetzee treats such themes as race, aging, gender, animal rights, power, violence, colonial history and accountability, the silent or silenced other, sympathy, and forgiveness in an allusive and detached prose that avoids obvious answers or easy ethical reassurance.Part 1 of this volume, "Material...

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A transformative guide to reconnecting with and harnessing your authentic self so you can lead a more fulfilled, complete life, from the world-renowned former director of the Jung Institute“A brilliant and absorbing work . . . [James] Hillman dares us to believe we are each meant to be here, that we are needed by the world around us.”—Publishers WeeklyPlato called it “daimon,” the Romans “gen...

"One of our finest novelists has long been a brilliant explorer of brain and mind" as seen in this collection of essays (Oliver Sacks, New York Times– bestselling author of Awakenings ) .The internationally acclaimed novelist Siri Hustvedt has also produced a growing body of nonfiction. She has published a book of essays on painting ( Mysteries of t...

Loneliness is a difficult subject to address, because it has such negative connotations. But the truth is that wherever there are people, there is loneliness: everyone is lonely at some point in their lives. You can belonely in a crowd or at home, outdoors or in an empty church, and countless songs have been written about the condition. For many people, loneliness can significantly impact their quality of life and their physical and mental health. At the same time, our best moments ...

Here are case studies in which myths have helped Dr. May's patients make sense out of an often senseless world.It happens almost daily in a therapist's office. A patient, recalling a person, an event, an emotion, quite unexpectedly supplies a link from a life in the present to one of the durable myths of our culture. In this moment, the myth becomes a mirror, revealing to the patient the source of disturbance and pain in a pattern of behavior that often stretches a...

Such Stuff as Dreams: The Psychology of Fiction explores how fiction works in the brains and imagination of both readers and writers.Demonstrates how reading fiction can contribute to a greater understanding of, and the ability to change, ourselvesInformed by the latest psychological research which focuses on, for example, how identification with fictional characters occurs, and how literature can improve social abilitiesExplores traditional aspec...

‘Ugly as sin’, ‘ugly duckling’, ‘rear its ugly head’. The word ‘ugly’ is used freely, yet it is a loaded term: from the simply plain and unsightly to the repulsive and even offensive, definitions slide all over the place. Hovering around ‘feared and dreaded’, ugliness both repels and fascinates. But the concept of ugliness has a lineage that has long haunted our cultural imagination.In this riveting book, Gretchen E. Henderson explores perceptions of ugliness through history, from ...

What's funny and why. This book explains six classic theories of humor, with many examples.

Comic Relief: A Comprehensive Philosophy of Humor develops an inclusive theory that integrates psychological, aesthetic, and ethical issues relating to humorOffers an enlightening and accessible foray into the serious business of humorReveals how standard theories of humor fail to explain its true nature and actually support traditional prejudices against humor as being antisocial, irrational, and foolishArgues that humor’s benefits overlap signif...

This reader brings together a selection of seminal papers by Christopher Bollas.Essays such as "The Fascist State of Mind," "The Structure of Evil," and "The Functions of History" have established his position as one of the most significant cultural critics of our time. Also included are examples of his psychoanalytical writings, such as "The Transformational Object" and "Psychic Genera," that deepen and renew interest in unconscious cre...

Narrative Prosthesis: Disability and the Dependencies of Discourse develops a narrative theory of the pervasive use of disability as a device of characterization in literature and film. It argues that, while other marginalized identities have suffered cultural exclusion due to a dearth of images reflecting their experience, the marginality of disabled people has occurred in the midst of the perpetual circulation of images of disability in print and visual media. The manuscript's s...