Books published by Indiana University Press

Shaman, paragon, God-mode: modern video games are heavily coded with religious undertones. This book explores the increasingly complex relationship between gaming and global religious practices.

Focuses on the formation and elaboration of gender, ethnicity, class, nationalism, and subjectivity.

Brennan W. Breed claims that biblical interpretation should focus on the shifting capacities of the text, viewing it as a dynamic process rather than a static product. Rather than seeking to determine the original text and its meaning, Breed proposes that scholars approach the production, transmission, and interpretation of the biblical text as interwoven elements of its overarching reception history. Grounded in the insights of contemporary literary theory, this approach alters the framing questions of interpretation from "e;What does this text mean?"e; to "e;What can this text do?"e;

The works in Gender and Food in Late Soviet Everyday Life examine late Soviet everyday culture focused around the relationship between gender and food.

Innovative strategies for teaching about Africa

Under the pseudonym Eza Boto, Mongo Beti wrote Ville cruelle (Cruel City) in 1954 before he came to the world's attention with the publication of Le pauvre Christ de Bomba (The Poor Christ of Bomba). Cruel City tells the story of a young man's attempt to cope with capitalism and the rapid urbanization of his country. Banda, the protagonist, sets off to sell the year's cocoa harvest to earn the bride price for the woman he has chosen to wed. Due to a series of misfortunes, Banda loses both his crop and his bride to be. Making his way to the city, Banda is witness to a changing Africa, and as his journey progresses, the novel mirrors these changes in its style and language. Published here with the author's essay "e;Romancing Africa,"e; the novel signifies a pivotal moment in African literature, a deliberate challenge to colonialism, and a new kind of African writing.

This tale of wild adventure reveals the dashed hopes of Africans living between worlds. When Moki returns to his village from France wearing designer clothes and affecting all the manners of a Frenchman, Massala-Massala, who lives the life of a humble peanut farmer after giving up his studies, begins to dream of following in Moki's footsteps. Together, the two take wing for Paris, where Massala-Massala finds himself a part of an underworld of out-of-work undocumented immigrants. After a botched attempt to sell metro passes purchased with a stolen checkbook, he winds up in jail and is deported. Blue White Red is a novel of postcolonial Africa where young people born into poverty dream of making it big in the cities of their former colonial masters. Alain Mabanckou's searing commentary on the lives of Africans in France is cut with the parody of African villagers who boast of a son in the country of Digol.

Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900-2002), one of the towering figures of contemporary Continental philosophy, is best known for Truth and Method, where he elaborated the concept of "e;philosophical hermeneutics,"e; a programmatic way to get to what we do when we engage in interpretation. Donatella Di Cesare highlights the central place of Greek philosophy, particularly Plato, in Gadamer's work, brings out differences between his thought and that of Heidegger, and connects him with discussions and debates in pragmatism. This is a sensitive and thoroughly readable philosophical portrait of one of the 20th century's most powerful thinkers.

Takes a new look at the role of language in the thought of Martin Heidegger to reassess its significance for contemporary philosophy

Highlighting what is melodramatic, flashy, low, and gritty in the characters, images, and plots of African cinema, Kenneth W. Harrow uses trash as the unlikely metaphor to show how these films have depicted the globalized world. Rather than focusing on topics such as national liberation and postcolonialism, he employs the disruptive notion of trash to propose a destabilizing aesthetics of African cinema. Harrow argues that the spread of commodity capitalism has bred a culture of materiality and waste that now pervades African film. He posits that a view from below permits a way to understand the tropes of trash present in African cinematic imagery.

';A well-organized and excellently researched work' (H-War) on one of the crucial battles of China's civil war. In the spring of 1946, Communists and Nationalist Chinese were battled for control of Manchuria and supremacy in the civil war. The Nationalist attack on Siping ended with a Communist withdrawal, but further pursuit was halted by a ceasefire brokered by the American general, George Marshall. Within three years, Mao Zedong's troops had captured Manchuria and would soon drive Chiang Kai-shek's forces off the mainland. Did Marshall, as Chiang later claimed, save the Communists and determine China's fate? Putting the battle into the context of the military and political struggles fought, Harold M. Tanner casts light on all sides of this historic confrontation and shows how the outcome has been, and continues to be, interpreted to suit the needs of competing visions of China's past and future. ';A genuine addition to our knowledge about this battle and the Chinese civil war in general.' Mark Wilkinson,Virginia Military Institute

Addresses contemporary debates about modernity, nation building, and the link between the ideology of power and the production of knowledge

Gives sustained attention to Nollywood as a uniquely African cultural production

Explores the contours of Israeli society as insiders and outsiders, natives and strangers, as well as critics and friends

Provides an interdisciplinary and transnational perspective on the representations, theories, and powerful articulations of women's shame

This fascicle describes the background of the Franchthi project and its excavation history and methodology. Particle size, mineralogy, and chemistry are all taken into consideration as the cultural remains and the sediments from the cave are analyzed to determine their origin and history. William Farrand constructs an integrated stratigraphy for the entire cave using excavators' notes, laboratory analyses, and personal field data to correlate sequences in separate trenches. On the basis of some 60 radiocarbon dates, the evolution and chronology of the sedimentary fill is postulated.

A practical handbook for early keyboard technique

Crossing religious frontiers at shared holy places

Islamic law and social movements in eight Muslim-majority countries

Off the screen and onto the runway!

A creative spin on teaching music

Transitioning from modern stringed instruments to the baroque guitar

Sony Labou Tansi's fi rst novel now translated into English

The gendered experience of time

The dynamism and creativity of African fashion

Mumming and modernity in rural Bulgaria

Dialogues between two important philosophical traditions