Books published by Lexington Books

In Revolutionary Tunisia: Inequality, Marginality, and Power, Stefano Pontiggia examines marginality and inequality in Tunisia through the stories of people living in Redeyef, a mining town in the Tunisian south that is well known for its militant past. Considering the ongoing formation of the post-revolutionary Tunisian state, Pontiggia explores the extent to which state-led institutions, local power relations, the social structure, and the dynamics of space production coincide to perpetuate inequality. Far from being a process of exclusion from wealth and development, Pontiggia asserts, marginality is instead synonymous with a gradual integration of territories and populations into a socio-territorial hierarchy that is rooted in the colonial experience. What emerges is a country whose revolution is characterized by change as much as continuity with the past.

In this English translation of the 1993 Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz Prize winner Dulcinea encantada (1992) by Mexican author Angelina Muiz-Huberman, Dulcinea travels in a car writing novels in her mind about several Dulcineas: a medieval princess on a quest, a nineteenth-century lady-in-waiting in Mexico, and a twentieth-century young woman who was sent to Russia as a girl to escape the Spanish Civil War and later journeys to Mexico to reunite with her parents. Unsure of her identity, Dulcinea remembers, debates, and records memories of her exile. As she circles Mexico City, she examines the role of memory, speech, and writing through her fragmented narrative voice. Dulcinea explores her place in the world through storytelling, blurring the line between reality and imagination. This novel pairs a lyrical and contemplative style with experimental writing to present common themes of identity formation and exile in a unique form. Dulcinea's quest is also one of spiritual connection with apocalyptic and mystical overtones. With allusions to both Christian and Jewish mystical traditions, this novel reveals a crypto-Jewish presence typical of Muiz-Huberman's writing, forming part of a Sephardic literary tradition. This edition includes an introduction and annotations by the translator, Rebecca Marquis.

The questions of subjectivity and the literary style of realism, as manifested in Hu Fengs theoretical writings and Lu Lings fictional writings, occupy a unique position in modern China. By looking more closely into the theoretical and fictional texts and the social-historical subtext, and through a re-examination of the issue of subjectivity and individualism, this book argues that individualism should not be treated as an ahistorical value-system, but understood within changing historical contexts; subjectivity should not be treated as an issue of personal choice, but as class-based and derived from collective community. To differentiate different subjectivities and the diversified foci of individualism in differing historical periods, Xiaoping Wang finds we need to explore the intellectuals cultural-political strategy by situating them in the particular historical conjuncture and in the particular cultural fields. With this hermeneutical practice, the politics of recognition and the politics of style are mutually illuminated.

Since 2006, Venezuela has witnessed an explosion of different forms of popular power and participatory democracy. Over 47,000 grassroots neighborhood-based communal councils and 3,000 communes have been constructed. In Communes and the Venezuelan State: The Struggle for Participatory Democracy in a Time of Crisis, Anderson Bean offers a critical analysis of these experiments in popular and workers power and their potential for societal transformation within and beyond Venezuela. Drawing on extensive ethnographic research, Bean demonstrates how workers and peasants, through networks of popular power, exercise agency over their own development while facing challenges from the capitalist state. Most importantly, this book connects with the far-reaching implications that the communal movement in Venezuela has for building a society responsive more to the needs of ordinary people than to the desires of the elites.

Stigma and Social Support on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program delves into the daily complex lives of individuals on the program and the hardships the program has on participants. The author provides examples of experiencing stigmatization while on SNAP and possible methods to help improve, or lessen, the stigma with the use of positive social support. The chapters include the author's personal experiences on SNAP, factors influencing enrollment, overall views of the program, stigma, disclosure concerns of enrollment, social support, and implications from the findings. Chapters addressing statistical findings and theory application are also included. Stigma and Social Support on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program provides an in-depth view on the themes of stigma while enrolled in SNAP such as embarrassment, feelings of failure, fear of being perceived as lazy, and feelings of judgment. This book serves as a useful tool for researchers of stigma and welfare programs, as well as for policy makers to improve aspects of the program that are causing some of the most vulnerable populations such as typically unrepresented and exploited groups (e.g., immigrants, migrant/temporary workers, and racial/ethnic minorities) to feel more stigmatized than other groups.

Using John Bowlbys Attachment Theory as a frame of reference, Attachment and Loss in the Works of James Joyce critically analyzes James Joyces representation of grief. Based on cognitive, emotional and behavioral elements, Attachment Theory allows for new and innovative readings to emerge which differ from those offered by Freudian, Lacanian, and Jungian paradigms. Acknowledging the importance of the Theory of Mind and Reader Response, this book uses the concept of internal working models to elucidate how the childhood experiences with which Joyce has endowed his protagonists ultimately leads to how they respond to loss. The texts of Dubliners, Portrait of the Artist and Ulysses, show how central separation and loss were to Joyce's work. It provides examples of such experiences in different age groups, under differing circumstances and at different stages in the grief process. Attachment Theory highlights the complexity of human relationships throughout the life cycle, not only how they can affect the grief process but how grief affects them.

Rhetoric of the Opioid Epidemic demonstrates that framing the epidemic as a medical issue instead of an effect of moral failing holds more potential for solving the epidemic through medical treatment and reconnecting sufferers back to society. This rhetorical move separates the opioid epidemic from the criminal and immoral frames that were cast upon the crack epidemic and initial framing of the AIDS epidemic. Popular culture and governmental response case studies include: President Trump's March 19, 2018 address to the nation, ODMAP produced by the Washington/Baltimore High Intensity Drug Trafficking in January 2017, news stories from national sources dating from 2015 to 2020 about the chronic pain management debate, two documentaries, Heroin(e) (2017) and One Nation Under Stress: Deaths of Despair in the United States (2019), and Ben is Back (2018).

Holy Hype: Religious Fervor in the Advertising of Goods and the Good News defines and explores the intersection of the sacredreligious symbols, themes, and rhetoricwithin the profane realm of advertising and promotion. Susan H. Sarapin and Pamela L. Morris trace the historical overlap of consumer and religious ideologies in society, offering detailed examples of its use throughout history through analyses of over a hundred collected advertisements, from monks selling copiers, to billboard messages from God, to angels and the worship of vodka. Throughout the book, the authors continually evaluate if and when the technique of ';holy hype' is effective through its use of recognizable sacred symbols that capture audiences' attentions and inspire both positive and negative emotions. Scholars of communication, media studies, religion, advertising, and cultural studies will find this book particularly useful.

In Black Interdictions, Philip Kretsedemas exposes the antiblack racism latent in the U.S. government's Haitian refugee policies of the 1980s and 1990s which set the tone for the criminalization of migrants and refugees in the new millennium and lead to the migration and refugee policies of the Trump era and beyond. This type of radical exclusion is singular to the black experience and the black/nonblack binary must be factored into an analysis of the US migration regime. It is not possible to work together for equity and justice if we are not prepared to grapple with this divisive history and the instinct to avoid dealing with the singularity of the black experience. This book will be of interest to scholars of migration and refugee studies, black studies, legal studies, public policy and international relations, and many others.

Discursive Change in Hong Kong: Sociopolitical Dynamics, Metaphor, and One Country, Two Systems is an interdisciplinary study of sociopolitical and discursive change in Hong Konga westernized Chinese society once under British rule, now decolonized but without independence, and with a constitution promising universal suffrage sometime in the future. Starting off with interesting and frequently contradictory debates surrounding the discussions on the Handover of Hong Kong to mainland China, Jennifer Eagleton provides a stimulating, politically well-informed, and comprehensive ';insider' account of many aspects of the press media and official discourse on democracy and political change in Hong Kong as part of ';One Country, Two Systems.' The book shows how historical, cultural, and identity issues have shaped and molded post-1997 political discourse and how the seemingly dramatic changes in the city since 2020 may not have been that surprising for long-term observers of Hong Kong. By going beyond consideration of the purely linguistic dimension of the selected texts to encompass the larger historical and socio-political context, and incorporating textual, discursive, and metaphoric analysis over time, this book provides a detailed examination of Hong Kong political discourse and its constituent themes.

The Stolen Narrative of the Bulgarian Jews and the Holocaust collects narratives of Bulgarian Jews who survived the Holocaust. Through the analysis of eye-witness testimonies, archival documents, photographs, and researchers' investigations, the authors weave a complex tapestry of voices that were previously underrepresented, ignored, and denied. Taken together, the collected memories offer an alternative perspective that counters official accounts and corroborates war crimes.

Through a green criminological perspective, Angus Nurse examines the contemporary reality of corporate environmental crime and illegal activities that have become normalized within many major corporations. Arguably this is an inevitable consequence of a corporate culture that prioritizes profits and the smooth operation of market activities over environmental concerns coupled with the increased political power of major corporations that can act almost with impunity and where problems do occur, can literally buy itself out of trouble. These same corporations are broadly perceived as being responsible actors. However, Nurse argues that corporate environmental offending is often deliberate and that corporations understand that they will often be allowed to continue with polluting and non-compliant behavior because the likely enforcement responses are fines and settlements rather than criminal prosecution. Using several case studies, Nurse explores biopiracy and the rights of indigenous peoples, the behavior of oil companies in African states, the regulation of corporate social responsibility and corporate environmental responsibility, an analysis of contemporary environmental legislation and the prosecution of environmental harm, and state-corporate crime and air pollution. Dealing with these problems requires a wider notion of crime and wrongdoing that directly engages with the types of environmental offending that represent a threat to human populations and non-human nature irrespective of whether these are defined as crime by justice systems.

What is a television series? A widespread answer takes it to be a totality of episodes and seasons. Luca Bandirali and Enrico Terrone argue against this characterization. In Concept TV: An Aesthetics of Television Series, they contend that television series are concepts that manifest themselves through episodes and seasons, just as works of conceptual art can manifest themselves through installations or performances. In this sense, a television series is a conceptual narrative, a principle of construction of similar narratives. While the film viewer directly appreciates a narrative made of images and sounds, the TV viewer relies on images and sounds to grasp the conceptual narrative that they express. Here lies the key difference between television and film. Reflecting on this difference paves the way for an aesthetics of television series that makes room for their alleged prolixity, their tendency to repetition, and their lack of narrative closure. Bandirali and Terrone shed light on the specific ways in which television series are evaluated, arguing that some apparent flaws of them are, indeed, aesthetic merits when considered from a conceptual perspective. Hence, to maximize the aesthetic value of television series, one should not assess them in the same framework in which films are assessed but rather in a distinct conceptual framework.

This book provides relevant background data and theory regarding English language (EL) students, the challenges they face in learning English, and the need to find strategies for enhancing reading engagement among these students. Additionally, the chapters discuss the ways in which the findings could advance instructional knowledge for EL students. The author presents and explores the results of participant interviews conducted with 10 students, each with different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. From their stories, emerged 7 themes of bilingual instruction including: quality of reading lessons, culturally responsive instruction, active learning offers individualized direction, language instruction, and instructional time for choosing literature. This book will provide teachers with numerous instructional strategies and ways to build literacy into an EL learner's curriculum.

The Indian Army was one of the most important colonial institutions that the British created. From its humble origins as a mercantile police force to a modern contemporary army in the Second World War, this institution underwent many transitions. This book examines the Indian Army during the later colonial era from the First Afghan War in 1839 to Indian independence in 1947. During this period, the Indian Army developed from an internal policing force, to a frontier army, and then to a conventional western style fighting force capable of deployment to overseas' theaters. These transitions resulted in significant structural and doctrinal changes in the army. The doctrines, and tactics honed during this period would have a dramatic impact upon the post-colonial armies of India and Pakistan. From civil-military relations to fighting and structural doctrines, the Indian and Pakistani armies closely reflect the deep-seated impact of decades of evolution during the late colonial era.

An Ironic Approach to the Absolute: Schlegel's Poetic Mysticism brings Friedrich Schlegel's ironic fragments in dialogue with the Dao De Jing and John Ashbery's Flow Chart to argue that poetic texts offer an intuition of the whole because they resist the reader's desire to comprehend them fully.

This book examines the ways in which common law countries such as England, Australia, and Canada have modernized their regulatory environments for legal services. It critiques stagnant regulation practices in the US and offers a blueprint for effective regulation of legal services to ensure affordable and accessible civil justice for all citizens.

This book examines unconventional elegies of losses that are "lost" on us, discussing what it means to "lose" loss and what happens when dispossessory experiences go unacknowledged or become inaccessible.

This study examines the successes, struggles, and personal life of the nationally recognized historian Robert H. Ferrell. His life history provides insight into postmodernism, the New Left, and the art of historical writing.

Posthuman Worlds: Roberto Bolaos Narrative and Virtual Reality presents interpretations of several novels and one short story by Roberto Bolao. As befits the global setting of most of these narratives, they are analyzed from the perspective of global culture and politics. Particular attention is paid to transnational European politics, as this topic is central to an understanding of the intertwined themes of politics and the law in Bolao's work. In Distant Star and ';Labyrinth,' these themes exist within the context of a preoccupation with personal identity and ideology. Adolfo Cacheiro utilizes psychoanalytic interpretation and philosophical exegesis to clarify the subjective component of this preoccupation in the aforementioned texts. The law is also a prominent theme of The Savage Detectives, which Cacheiro interprets in relation to mythology. One of the most innovative aspects of this book is the discussion of the role of virtual reality in Amulet and 2666. These novels are read as representations of a posthuman world that manifest an intertextual relationship with science fiction. In 2666 virtual reality unifies the diverse components of a world system in time and space. A phenomenological investigation of this reality supports the conclusion that the principle subject matter of 2666 is a naturalistic theology based on technology.

In Racial Realism and the History of Black People in America, Lori Latrice Martin demonstrates how racial realism is a key concept for understanding why and how black people continue to live between a cycle of optimism and disappointment in the United States. Central to her argument is Derrick Bell's work on racial realism, who argued that the subordination of black people in America is permanent. Racial Realism includes historical topics, such as Reconstruction, race in the 20th century, and recent events like #BlackLivesMatter, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the killing of George Floyd. As the author lays out, at various times in American history, black people felt a sense of hopefulness and optimism that America would finally extend treasured American values to them only to find themselves marginalized. History shows that black people have had their expectations raised so many times only to find themselves deeply disappointed.

The ';Russiagate' affair is one of the most far-reaching political events of recent years. But what exactly was the nature and extent of Russian interference in the campaign that led to the presidency of Donald J. Trump? Richard Sakwa sets out the dramatic series of events that combined to create Russiagate and examines whether together they form a persuasive account of Russia's role in the extraordinary 2016 American election. Offering a meticulous account of the multiple layers in play, his authoritative analysis challenges the claims of Russian interference and collusion. As we enter into a new cold war, this myth-busting, accessible and balanced account is essential reading to understand contemporary East-West relations.

While in no way supporting the systemic injustices and disparities of mass incarceration, Gifts from the Dark: Learning from the Incarceration Experience argues that we have much to learn from those who have been and are in prison. Schwartz and Chaney profile the contributions of literary giants, social activists, entrepreneurs, and other talented individuals who, despite the disorienting dilemma of incarceration, are models of adult transformative learning that positively impact the world. The authors interweave narratives with both qualitative and quantitative research references to analyze the role of solitude, writing, non-verbal communication; race and gender; physical exercise; education; technology; family and parenting; and the need to ';give back' that precipitate transformative learning. The prison cell becomes a counterspace of metamorphosis. In focusing upon how men and women have chosen the worst moments of their lives as a baseline not to define, but to refine themselves, Gifts from the Dark promises to forever alter the limited mindset of incarceration as a solely one-dimensional, deficit event.

Black Love Matters is an in-depth qualitative analysis of black men's attitudes and behavior in marriage and romantic relationships featuring the men's firsthand accounts of the experiences and factors shaping their perspectives.

This book analyzes Soren Kierkegaard's message about the ethical necessity of silence in the context of our current information age flooded with sound and words. The author investigates the question of how being silent can make us more ethical.