Anime: A Critical Introduction, by Rayna Denison

This is a book review of Horror Film: A Critical Introduction by Murray Leeder, a comprehensive yet concise introductory guide to horror cinema.

Stephen Kern’s The Modernist Novel: A Critical Introduction provides a comprehensive overview of European and American novels of the period. The book is organized around a discussion of ten “master narratives” that modern novelists reworked or subverted. Kern argues the artistic narrative was the only one of these that represented a site of unchallenged value. Kern’s most original contribution to modernist studies is his discussion of a perplexing formal feature found in many modernist novels: weak plots that defy causality and focus on seemingly trivial events. His analysis also offers speculations about how the modernist novel is a site for reflecting on the writing of human history.

Robin Wooffitt, Conversation analysis and discourse analysis: A comparative and critical introduction. London: Sage, 2005. Pp. ix, 234. Hb $69.95, Pb $31.95. Robin Wooffitt aims to answer a question in his new book: “Analytically, what is the best way to understand everyday communicative activities?” (2). His answer: “Conversation analysis offers the most sophisticated and robust account of language in action” (2). The remainder of the book proceeds, then, not only as an introduction to Conversation Analysis (CA) and Discourse Analysis (DA) as approaches to the study of language and communication in the social sciences (specifically, sociology and European social psychology), but also as a polemic for CA as a methodology superior to DA. The book is marketed as an introductory textbook; thus, each chapter includes periodic bulleted section summaries, and the early introductory chapters conclude with suggestions for further reading. As a textbook, this volume seems best suited for graduate seminars in linguistics or sociology; it deals with theoretical and methodological disputes that go well beyond most undergraduate students' background knowledge or pedagogical needs. As a scholarly volume, it should attract attention from social scientists already engaged in research utilizing CA or DA, as well as those working with other methodologies who are interested in how CA and DA conceptualize and investigate discourse.

Development and ChangeVolume 38, Issue 4 p. 763-764 Globalization: A Critical Introduction by Jan Aart Scholte Wil Hout, Wil Hout Institute of Social Studies, PO Box 29776, 2502 LT The Hague, The Netherlands. E-mail: hout@iss.nlSearch for more papers by this author Wil Hout, Wil Hout Institute of Social Studies, PO Box 29776, 2502 LT The Hague, The Netherlands. E-mail: hout@iss.nlSearch for more papers by this author First published: 25 July 2007 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7660.2007.00433_2.xCitations: 1Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume38, Issue4July 2007Pages 763-764 RelatedInformation

Review. Theatre and Drama in Francophone Africa: A Critical Introduction. Conteh-Morgan, John

Book Review: Theology and Narrative: A Critical Introduction

This book provides students with a critical introduction to the British political system and the context of contemporary British policy making. Too often the importance of interpretation, to any understanding of British politics is neglected. Attention to conveying factual information takes precedence over developing theoretical understandings.This book is different, in that it provides an account of British politics that is conceptually and theoretically driven. It not only outlines the key features of British politics but which also provides critical perspectives on them. McAnulla uses particular concepts and theories to illuminate the key dynamics of British politics i.e. to the ideas, practices and relationships that sustain the political system. Particular attention is devoted to understanding contemporary developments through an appreciation of the traditional dynamics of British politics.

In the midst of theoretical debates and traditions concerning “materialism” (also new), “realism” (speculative) and “objects” (object-oriented philosophy), one of the most important things to reali...

Ricardo Piglia’s “Prision perpetua,” or “Life Sentence,” written in 1988, is a meditation on the narrative process and on the sense of imprisonment that resulted from the terror and violence in the...

Books reviewed:Greg Shepland, Rivers of DiscordNicolas Spulber and Asghar Sabbaghi, Economics of Water Resources: From Regulation to PrivatizationRobert L. Taylor and William E. Rosenbach, Military Leadership: In Pursuit of ExcellenceImtiaz Bokhari, Management of Third World Crises in Adverse Partnership: Theory and PracticeAli Mohammadi, International Communicaton and Globalization: A Critical Introduction

Journal Article Stephen Kern, The Modernist Novel: A Critical Introduction. Get access Stephen Kern, The Modernist Novel: A Critical Introduction. Pp. x + 253. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011. Paperbound £16.99 (ISBN 978–1–107–40042–9). Jeremy Diaper Jeremy Diaper University of Birmingham jxd668@bham.ac.uk Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Notes and Queries, Volume 60, Issue 1, March 2013, Pages 172–173, https://doi.org/10.1093/notesj/gjs295 Published: 04 January 2013

Postwar German Literature. A Critical Introduction

This review essay provides a critical assessment of Christopher Winch and John Gingell's Philosophy & Educational Policy: A Critical Introduction. This book presents a powerful and stimulating challenge to conventional and sloppy thinking about a wide range of issues confronting anyone who is seriously concerned with schooling in the 21st century. While each chapter merits an essay in response, this article can merely highlight the virtues of the book as well as the respects in which a number of claims remain unpersuasive. There is found to be a noticeable difference between the odd and even numbered chapters, betraying perhaps the difference in authorship and suggesting insufficient discussion between the authors as to their overall content. Chapters 3, 5 and 9 are, for the most part, outstandingly good and should inject a note of caution into policy makers' all too frequent desire for change. The extent to which the authors favour democratic decision-making on educational matters is shown, however, to be far from clear.

This book outlines and illustrates a new approach to intellectual history - the history of concepts. In distinction to the study of more traditional units of analysis, (authors, texts, traditions, discourses) conceptual history systematically combines the history of ideas and language with social history in such a way as to illustrate how changes in language both registered and shaped great transformations of government, society, economy, and mentality. With its origin in German social thought, and now gaining popularity in the US, this approach has affinities with some British intellectual history (Pocock, Skinner) and French discourse analysis, yet Richter carefully demonstrates how conceptual history makes important advances over each by focusing on the range of a terms's meaning, its changes, and its continuities, while avoiding pitfalls of deconstruction. This volume will be indispensable for historians of political and social thought, political and social philosophers, and those interested in the history of ideas.

Early Negro American Writers: Selections with Biographical and Critical Introductions