Books published by Manchester University Press

A rich and revealing examination of the legendary pop duo Soft Cell. Soft Cell are not your average pop band. Marc Almond and Dave Ball may be best known for the string of hits they released in 1981, but the powerful first phase of their collaboration embraced a staggering array of sounds, influences and innovations that would change the face of music to come. In Bedsit land, Patrick Clarke plunges into the archives and interviews more than sixty contributors, including the band members themselves, to follow Soft Cell through the many strange and sprawling worlds that shaped their extraordinary career. They lead him from the faded camp glamour of the British seaside to the dizzying thrills of the New York club scene. From transgressive student performance art to the sleaze and squalor of pre-gentrified Soho. From the glitz of British showbiz to the drug-addled chaos of post-Franco Spain.

Starting with the astonishing lone-wolf terrorist attacks in Oslo and Utøyain July 2011 and the extraordinary mutation in security thinking that happened in its aftermath, this book develops an innovative theory of terrorism as the enchantment of danger.

'Karelse delivers a cracking Black Feminist call to decolonise "Wellbeing" with her forensic exposé of the dark side of the White Mindfulness industry and its colonial co-option of Eastern teachings for Western gain.'>'Disrupting White Mindfulness offers a generous and critical lens of exploration, helping to free the ancient practice of mindfulness from systems of dominance, restoring the practice back to its original project of liberation for all who seek it.'>Mindfulness is now everywhere in the West. Over the last four decades, the movement has exploded in the US and UK, and is now found everywhere from boardrooms and bedrooms to schools, prisons and hospitals. Yet popular mindfulness is infused in whiteness and late capitalism. This book reveals how its easy fit in Western society replicates existing social norms and dominant narratives: an essentially White Mindfulness reflects racialised institutional profiles and a largely White, middle-class audience. Taking a critical look at this lucrative industry, Disrupting White Mindfulness explores the influences of neoliberalism and postracialism, and the invisible force of whiteness that marginalises and excludes People of the Global Majority from meaningful leadership and decision-making. Engaging with decolonising initiatives rooted in embodied justice, Disrupting White Mindfulness offers a path and an invitation for a radically transformed mindfulness, one which moves away from whiteness to embrace solutions built on difference and on indigenous, queer, and global South perspectives.

The first biography of a cricketing great, exploring his achievements as a player, manager and political activist. Clyde Walcott was one of the most important cricketers of all time. As a batsman he was part of the legendary 'three Ws' with Everton Weekes and Frank Worrell that helped give West Indies cricket a new identity distinct from its colonial past. After test cricket he became a prominent administrator and advocate of Black consciousness, managing the great West Indies teams that dominated the sport in the 1980s. A vocal supporter of using cricket to apply pressure to the South African apartheid regime, in 1992 he became chairman of the International Cricket Council - the first Black man in that influential role. Shining a light on Walcott's largely ignored part in effecting change through the vehicle of cricket, this book also shows how he contributed to dramatic social transformation in Guyana as cricket and social organiser for the country's sugar estates from 1954 to 1970, bringing about improvements in the living conditions and self-esteem of plantation workers while promoting the emergence of several world-class cricketers from a previously neglected corner of the Caribbean.

Featuring a foreword from Andrew McMillan An alternative celebration of LGBTQ history in Britain, offering tales of queer life from four cities. When it comes to queer British history, London has stolen the limelight. But what about the millions of queer lives lived elsewhere? In Queer beyond London, two leading LGBTQ historians take you on a journey through four English cites from the sixties to the noughties, exploring the northern post-industrial heartlands and taking in the salty air of the seaside cities of the south. Covering the bohemian, artsy world of Brighton, the semi-hidden queer life of military Plymouth, the lesbian activism of Leeds and the cutting-edge dance and drag scenes of Manchester, they show how local people, places and politics shaped LGBTQ life in each city, forging vibrant and distinctive queer cultures of their own. Using pioneering community histories from each place, and including the voices of queer people who have made their lives there, the book tells the local stories at the heart of our national history.

A hundred years after the tragic 1924 British Everest expedition, this collection explores the wider social and cultural history of the mountain. Mount Everest looms large in the popular imagination. Since the deaths of mountaineers George Mallory and Andrew Irvine in 1924, histories of the mountain have overwhelmingly focused on the mythologies of western male adventure and conquest. But there are many more stories waiting to be told. Other Everests brings together new voices and perspectives on the historical and cultural significance of Everest in the modern world. The book shines a light on the overlooked role of local people and high-altitude workers, while also revealing the significant contributions women have made to climbing the mountain and writing its history. It explores the depiction of Everest in a range of media and investigates how the forces of nationalism and commercialism have shaped many different 'Everests'. After years of exploitation, Indigenous people are now reclaiming Mount Everest in the twenty-first century. Other Everests re-examines the past and present of the world's highest peak, presenting an exciting vision of what Everest might become in the future.

A cutting-edge exploration of how Marx's ideas have been adopted and adapted by revolutionary thinkers in the Global South. For much of the twentieth century, the ideas of Karl Marx not only inspired resistance to colonial rule but also provided the backbone of other movements for social justice around the world. But today the legacy of Marxism is contested, with some seeing it as Eurocentric and irrelevant to the wider global struggle. In Global Marxism, Simin Fadaee argues that Marxism remains a living tradition and the cornerstone of revolutionary theory and practice in the global South. She explores the lives, ideas and legacies of a group of revolutionaries who played an exceptional role in contributing to counter-hegemonic change. Figures such as Mao Zedong, Kwame Nkrumah, Ali Shariati and Subcomandante Marcos did not simply accept the version of Marxism that was given to them - they adapted it to local conditions and contexts. In doing this they demonstrated that Marxism is not a rigid set of propositions but an evolving force whose transformative potential remains enormous. This global Marxism has much to teach us in the never-ending task of grasping the changing historical conditions of capitalism and the complex world in which we live.

A fascinating book exploring the early modern authors who helped to shape Shakespeare's beloved plays. Shakespeare's plays have influenced generations of writers, but who were the early modern playwrights who influenced him? Shakespeare's borrowed feathers offers a fresh look at William Shakespeare and the community of playwrights that shaped his work. This compelling book argues that we need to see early modern drama as a communal enterprise, with playwrights borrowing from and adapting one another's work. From John Lyly's wit to the collaborative genius of John Fletcher, to Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson, Shakespeare's borrowed feathers offers fresh insights into Shakespeare's artistic development and shows us new ways of looking at the masterpieces that have enchanted audiences for centuries.

"Men in Political Theory" builds on feminist re-readings of the traditional canon of male writers in political philosophy by turning the "gender lens" on to the representation of men in widely studied texts. It explains the distinction between "man" as an apparently de-gendered "individual" or "citizen" and "man" as an overtly gendered being in human society. The ten chapters on Plato, Aristotle, Jesus, Augustine, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Marx and Engels show the operation of the "gender lens" in different ways, depending on how each philosopher deploys concepts of men and masculinity to pose and solve classic problems.

The Swiss Reformation was a seminal event of the 16th century and the source of a distinctive Protestant culture whose influence spread across Europe from Transylvania to Scotland. This book provides the first comprehensive study of the subject in any language. The author argues that the movement must be understood in terms of the historical evolution of the Swiss Confederation, its unique and fluid structures, the legacy of the mercenary trade, the distinctive character of Swiss theology, the powerful influence of Renaissance humanism, and, the roles played by the dominant figures, Huldrych Zwingli and Heinrich Bullinger.

Refugee crises are one of the gravest problems facing the modern world. This book explores the paradox of why countries such as Britain pride themselves on their past treatment of refugees yet are suspicious and hostile towards asylum seekers trying to gain entry. It explores the contemporary treatment and representation of refugees ranging from the Huguenots in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries through to the many groups that have gained entry more recently. Was the treatment of refugees such as Jews escaping Tsarist and later Nazi persecution as welcoming as politicians and others now make out? Why have some groups been remembered positively, whilst others have been forgotten? Remembering refugees plays particular attention to how historians and those in the heritage industry have dealt with the refugee presence. By adopting an original and critical framework, it asks why a variety of academic disciplines, as well as politicians, the media and the general public, have difficulty with refugees. A richly textured book that utilizes a huge range of sources from parliamentary debates through to novels, films and autobiographical writing, it argues that the current panic about refugees and asylum seekers says more about the moral failings of contemporary society than it does about those fleeing persecution.

This book examines the response of American society to the My Lai massacreand its ambiguous place in American national memory. The author argues thatthe massacre revelations left many Americans untroubled. It was only whenthe soldiers most immediately responsible came to be tried that oppositionto the conflict grew, for these prosecutions were regarded by supporters ofthe war as evidence that the national leaders no longer had the will to dowhat was necessary to win.

Andrew Davies is the creator of the British TV programs" Pride and Prejudice, Othello, " and "The Way We Live Now." Although best known for his adaptations of the work of writers such as Jane Austen and George Eliot, he has written numerous original drama series, single plays, films, stage plays and books. This volume offers a critical appraisal of Davies's work, and assesses his contribution to British television.

This is the first general comparative study of health policy and politics to focus on major countries of Western Europe: France, Germany, Italy, Sweden and the UK. The book begins by identifying differences in arrangements for the finance, delivery and regulation of health care in different countries, explaining how health systems are to be understood as political entities. The book describes and accounts for the evolution of state intervention in the health sector before comparing and contrasting different kinds of systems. It examines recent changes in the organization of health care as well as recent challenges to public health, including policy responses to AIDS.

This book offers readings of Barker's innovations in narrative form, her revisionist perspectives on history, class and gender, and her preoccupation with themes of trauma, haunting and terror. It also analyzes the reasons for her success and significance as a novelist. The chapters draw on contemporary theories of critical realism, gender and social identities, memory and narrative, in order to outline the debates with which Barker's work has consistently engaged.

This is the most comprehensive study to date of Amy Tan's work, offering close readings of her texts in the context of broader debates about the representation of identity, history and reality. In contrast with Tan's own American-born narrator, and mainstream critics, Bella Adams looks beyond the stereotypes which appear in Tan's books, and explores the ways in which Chinese immigrants and their American relatives struggle to understand each other's "best qualities" via the Chinese tradition of the "talk story." She emphasizes Tan's American narrators' process of becoming Chinese and discovering "real China," and the significance of the ironic staging of these moments.

In Europe, popular representations of the US often fall back upon crude caricature. Although there is admiration for the scale of the country's resources, and its technological and economic abilities, US society and the American character have won few sympathetic portrayals. "American Society Today" provides a counterweight to these by offering a balanced introduction to the defining features of contemporary American society. The book's coverage includes the ways in which the US can be considered 'exceptional', the character of the 'American dream', the role of ethnicity and race, and the differences between the regions.

Deirdre Madden: New critical perspectives is a landmark study of this important and highly regarded Irish novelist. It underscores the range, imaginative complexity, and enduring relevance of Madden's fictions. The essays collected in this volume explore her crucial Troubles and post-Troubles fictions, Hidden Symptoms, One by One in the Darkness, Molly Fox's Birthday, and Time Present and Time Past and draw out their interconnected portrayals of violence, grief, time, trauma, and memory. Madden's dexterous use of the novel form is highlighted, especially her bending of the conventions of realism to encompass searching philosophical and existential themes. Revealingly, she is shown to be a foremost practitioner of the artist novel or Künstlerroman. Through the figures of the writer, the painter, the photographer, and the actor, she examines the ability of art to remake and distil reality and to shed indirect light on emotional cruxes that cannot otherwise be fathomed. These essays provide an overview of all of Madden's work, including her children's novels, and uncover its inquiring and multidimensional qualities. Her overarching themes are drawn out, amongst them the familial, states of dislocation, resonant objects, the haunting aftermath of the past, the transnational, and the regenerative function of art. Making use of a wide variety of approaches, these essays persuasively elucidate the compelling subtleties of Madden's fiction. Readers are invited to discover the work of this accomplished Irish writer who across all her novels engages thought-provokingly with contemporary life, politics, and art.

At the heart of the book is a departure from the obsession with "modernity" that has been so prominent in nineteenth-century cultural studies. -- .

'In this major contribution to the burgeoning canon of interdisciplinary critical work in surrealism studies, Noheden and Susik have gathered together exciting new essays by leading scholars in the field, offering analyses of key films and directors which will recalibrate our understanding of post-war developments in surrealism and its cinematic expressions.'> 'Surrealism and film after 1945 makes a compelling case for post-1945 as truly the movement's "age of cinema" and a golden one at that. Sharpening our understanding of surrealist engagements with cinema and cinematic engagements with surrealism, the essays in this collection provide a wondrous set of "enchanted wanderings" through postwar cinema, film culture, and aesthetics.'>Interest in the surrealist movement is stronger than ever, but surrealist film is still little studied compared to art and literature. Looking beyond the canonical period of the 1920s and 1930s, this volume breaks new ground by situating surrealism as a major force in postwar cinema. The book presents new analyses of renowned figures such as Leonora Carrington, Maya Deren, Alejandro Jodorowsky, and Jan Svankmajer, showing how these artists helped to shape a vibrant and distinctive surrealist film culture. In doing so, it expands the scope of both surrealism and film studies, while demonstrating the benefits of an interdisciplinary approach that looks to art, literature, and ideas. Challenging predominant narratives about the attributes of surrealist film, the book will be of interest to students and scholars of art history and film, as well as a broader audience of curators, film programmers, and art aficionados.

There should no longer be any doubt: drones are here to stay. In civil society, they are used for rescue, surveillance, transport and leisure. And on the battlefield, their promises of remote protection and surgical precision have radically changed the way wars are fought. But what impact are drones having on our identity, and how are they affecting the communities around us? This book addresses these questions by investigating the representation of civilian and military drones in visual arts, literature and architecture. What emerges, the contributors argue, is a compelling new aesthetic: 'drone imaginary', a prism of cultural and critical knowledge, through which the complex interplay between drone technology and human communities is explored, and from which its historical, cultural and political dimensions can be assessed. The contributors offer diverse approaches to this interdisciplinary field of aesthetic drone imaginaries. With essays on the aesthetic configurations of drone swarming, historical perspectives on early unmanned aviation, as well as current debates on how drone technology alters the human body and creates new political imaginaries, this book provides new insights to the rapidly evolving field of drone studies. Working across art history, literature, photography, feminism, postcolonialism and cultural studies, Drone imaginaries offers a unique insight into how drones are changing our societies.

Beckett's afterlives is the first book-length study dedicated to posthumous reworkings of Samuel Beckett's oeuvre. Contextualised against the backdrop of the author's developing views on adaptation and media specificity, it challenges the long-held belief that he opposed any form of genre crossing. Featuring contemporary engagements with Beckett's work from the UK, Europe, the USA and Latin America, the volume does not approach adaptation as a form of (in)fidelity or (ir)reverence. Instead, it argues that exposing the 'Beckett canon' to new environments and artistic practices enables fresh perspectives and enhances the texts' significance for contemporary artists and audiences alike. The chapters explore a wide variety of forms - from prose and theatre to radio, television, film and webseries - focusing on the period from the early 1990s to the late 2010s. The concept of adaptation is broadly interpreted, including changes within the same performative context, spatial relocations or transpositions across genres and media, and even creative rewritings of Beckett's biography. The collection offers a range of innovative ways to approach the author's work in a constantly changing world and analyses its remarkable susceptibility to creative responses. Beckett's afterlives suggests that adaptation, remediation and appropriation are forms of cultural negotiation that are essential for the survival and continuing urgency and vibrancy of Beckett's work in the twenty-first century.

History beyond apartheid explores post-apartheid developments in history writing on South Africa, offering a corrective to charges that South African historiography has seen little in terms of innovation in the years since apartheid. With contributions from scholars involved at the cutting edge of research, the book highlights innovative approaches that have re-shaped the field, situating them in the context of the extant literature. In addition to offering fresh perspectives on the traditional themes of race, class and nation, the book covers histories of the environment, women, creative literature and the fine arts, and of South Africa's global connections and transnational entanglements. The book offers critical reflections on the theoretical and methodological aspects that guide the contributors' work, looking simultaneously backwards at the intellectual traditions on which their scholarship builds, and forward to potential future areas of inquiry informed by unresolved questions. The resulting collection offers an essential resource for emerging and established scholars involved in the practice of South African historiography.

With the military seizing overt power in Egypt, Cairo's grand and dramatic urban reshaping during and after 2011 is reflected upon under the lens of a smaller story narrating everyday interactions of a middle-class building in the neighbourhood of Doqi. -- .