This book analyses how contemporary genre cinema represents trans-identified characters.Informed by key debates within transfeminism, queer theory, contemporary trans studies – and engaging with the concerns voiced by gender critical feminism – this culturally oriented book critiques the representation of trans characters in a range of cinematic genres, including the musical, period costume drama, the road movie, melodrama, coming-of-age stories, and romances. The case studies addr...

Frances Smith is a pseudonym for a woman who lived in fear of her life for 22 years. Married at 16 to a Dublin criminal, she endured years of relentless mental and physical torture until she found the strength to fight back. This is her courageous story told with brutal honesty and at times humour. It chronicles her descent to the brink of suicide and consequent rebuilding of her life.

Wrought by a childhood replete with trying circumstances and telling experiences (conveyed in Frances Smith's earlier book), and in tandem with resultant beliefs and attitudes she held toward herself and the world she was about to enter, the commencement of legal adulthood also removed any buttressing protection minority provided. Too many confused and self-critical assessments would ill-serve this demoiselle. In time, those same assessments would transform into extremely harmful and life-...

As the author’s childhood tumbles from her memory onto the pages of print, the reader is privy to all sorts of surprising revelations. Be prepared to chuckle with glee, feel your mouth gape reading about situations too weird to be untrue, wince as your heart breaks in sadness and anger over sordid situations, and shake your head both in disbelief and even perfect understanding of unusual childhood tales.Between the covers of the book, the author’s very direct style in sharing the g...

Named Top 10 "Best Lit Mags of 2023" by Chill SubsDelight in intriguing, thought-provoking conversations about ethics, philosophy, and social issues! After Dinner Conversation is a monthly literary magazine publishing short fiction. Each issue features both established writers and up-and-coming authors who contribute fascinating philosophical insights on controversial topics like marriage equality, assisted suicide, the meaning of death, animal rights and defining ...

This abridgement of The Oxford Companion to African American Literature will make the entries of the greatest general interest available to a wider audience, providing the same calibre of scholarship and information as the original volume. The Concise collects more than 400 biographies (authors, critics, literary characters and historical figures) of both well-known figures and the lives and careers of writers not found in other reference works. The abridgement also includes the 1...

The 50 most important structures and systems in the human body, each explained in half a minute. The bestselling 30-Second series offers a new approach to learning about those subjects you feel you should really understand. Every title takes a popular topic and dissects it into the 50 most significant ideas at its heart. Each idea, no matter how complex, is explained using a mere two pages, 300 words, and one picture: all easily digested in only half a minute. 30-Second Anatomy of...

Few films in the twenty-first century have represented coming-of-age with the beauty and brutality of Bande de Filles (or Girlhood). This book provides an in-depth examination of Céline Sciamma’s film, focusing on its portrayal of female adolescence in contemporary Paris.Motivated by the absence of black female characters in French cinema, Sciamma represents the lives of figures that have passed largely unnoticed on the big screen. While observing the girls’ tough...

Conventional wisdom tells us that marriage was illegal for African Americans during the antebellum era, and that if people married at all, their vows were tenuous ones: "until death or distance do us part." It is an impression that imbues beliefs about black families to this day. But it's a perception primarily based on documents produced by abolitionists, the state, or other partisans. It doesn't tell the whole story. Drawing on a trove of less well-known sources including family historie...

Already acknowledged by Metacritic and the Guinness World Records as the highest-rated series in the history of television, Breaking Bad has elicited an unprecedented amount of criticism. Writers both popular and academic, columnists as well as eager commenters, have addressed every imaginable topic, from the show’s characterization and major scenes, to fine details such as Walt’s knack for picking up habits from those he kills, and the symbolism inherent within the cars that characters ow...