The twelve essays in A Critical Companion to Mel Gibson offer various interpretations of Mel Gibson’s work, treating this prolific but controversial figure not only as a filmmaker but as a historian, religious thinker, and social philosopher. From The Man Without a Face and Braveheart to The Passion of the Christ, Apocalypto, and Hacksaw Ridge, this interdisciplinary collection mines Gibson’s life and oeuvre for insight into existential...

Marginalized Women and Work in 20th- and 21st-Century British and American Literature and Media examines the intricate relationship between marginalized women and work through critical essays about representations of women’s work in non-canonical literary writings, mass media, and popular culture. Covering a broad range of texts including Paule Marshall’s fiction, Natasha Trethewey’s poetry, and the Netflix series Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker, among others, this col...

This monograph is the first book in medical sociology that comprehensively describes the research conceptions of the co-founder of the European medical sociology, Professor Magdalena Sokołowska (1922–1989). The study characterizes the stages of formation of the scientific foundations of medical sociology in Europe: the evolution of approach to the phenomena of health and illness from the medical to sociological perspective, the development of feminist studies in medical sociology, the emer...