This book examines contemporary American ethnic novels through the lens of affect studies, focusing on the political and cultural implications of negative affects in literary representation.Analysing works by Native American, African American, Jewish American, Latinx, and Asian American writers since the Civil Rights era, it explores how affects such as anxiety, irritation, and alienation illuminate the predicaments of marginalised communities, including racial inequality, cultural...

This book explores Vladimir Nabokov's literary thoughts, which blend Russian traditions, American values, European heritage, and multiculturalism, manifesting the cosmopolitan character of his writings and aesthetic ideas.Nabokov’s literary thoughts and writings inherit the legacies of various cultural traditions. This book explores four major facets of Nabokov’s intellectual and artistic origins: “Russianness,” “Americanness,” “Europeanness,” and multiculturalism. It discusses his...

This book assesses the global significance of China’s decade-long campaign to reduce poverty. After showing how the country’s unique approach to poverty alleviation brought about unparalleled progress toward achieving both the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the authors shed light on how China’s experience can help other countries around the globe as they try to permanently rid humanity of the scourge of poverty under ever more challenging ...

Focusing on the poetry and cultural practice of Frank O’Hara, the great urban poet of the New York School during the 1950s and 1960s, this books explores the interwoven relationship between his urban poetics and the urban culture of New York, seeking to shed light on poetic concept and its cultural relevance.The poetry of Frank O’Hara is deeply rooted in and nourished by his urban experience as a metropolitan and an active participant in the vibrant cultural scene of New York. Ther...

This book provides a comprehensive introduction on opinion analysis for online reviews. It offers the newest research on opinion mining, including theories, algorithms and datasets. A new feature presentation method is highlighted for sentiment classification. Then, a three-phase framework for sentiment classification is proposed, where a set of sentiment classifiers are selected automatically to make predictions. Such predictions are integrated via ensemble learning. Finally, to solve the...

This unique compendium provides a novel research on how time influences the conversions of advertising and product recommendation in E-commerce. It proposes time-aware conversion prediction models to solve the problem — what products should be recommended for a given period to maximize conversion? The volume also presents a series of researches on how to build data-driven attribution models to allocate the time-sensitive contribution of advertisements to the conversion. This must-have refe...

Ideology is one of the most controversial terms in the political vocabulary, exciting both revulsion and inspiration. This book examines the reasons for those views, and explains why ideologies deserve respect as a major form of political thinking. It investigates the centrality of ideology both as a political phenomenon and as an organizing framework of political thought and action. It explores the changing understandings of ideology as a concept, and the arguments of the main ideologies....

In The Problem with Work, Kathi Weeks boldly challenges the presupposition that work, or waged labor, is inherently a social and political good. While progressive political movements, including the Marxist and feminist movements, have fought for equal pay, better work conditions, and the recognition of unpaid work as a valued form of labor, even they have tended to accept work as a naturalized or inevitable activity. Weeks argues that in taking work as a given, we have “depolitici...

Tracing the thread of “decreation” in Chinese thought, from constantly changing classical masterpieces to fake cell phones that are better than the original.Shanzhai is a Chinese neologism that means “fake,” originally coined to describe knock-off cell phones marketed under such names as Nokir and Samsing. These cell phones were not crude forgeries but multifunctional, stylish, and as good as or better than the originals. Shanzhai has since spread into oth...

This second edition of Cultural Theory provides a concise introduction to cultural theory, placing major figures, traditional concepts, and contemporary themes within a sharp conceptual framework.Provides a student-friendly introduction to what can often be a complex field of studyUpdates the first edition in response to reader feedback and to the changing nature of the fieldIncludes additional coverage of theorists from the classical period to in...

The Literary Theory Toolkit offers readers a rich compendium of key terms, concepts, and arguments necessary for the study of literature in a critical-theoretical context.Includes varied examples drawn from readily available literary texts spanning all periods and genresFeatures a chapter on performance, something not usually covered in similar textsCovers differing theories of the public sphere, ideology, power, and the social relations necessary...

Sociology, the study of human behavior in social groups, is a relatively recent discipline within the social sciences, which examine human behavior, culture, and society using scientific methodology in both research and analysis. This resource explains the rise of the social sciences, in particular sociology, charting the history of the discipline and its founders. The key principles and fundamental theories are examined in detail, and the contemporary status of sociology and today’s major...