Books published by University Press of Mississippi

The Francophone Caribbean boasts a trove of literary gems. Distinguished by innovative, elegant writing and thought-provoking questions of history and identity, this exciting body of work demands scholarly attention. Its authors treat the traumatic legacies of shared and personal histories pervading Caribbean experience in striking ways, delineating a path towards reconciliation and healing. The creation of diverse personal narratives-encompassing autobiography, autofiction (heavily autobiographical fiction), travel writing, and reflective essay-remains characteristic of many Caribbean writers and offers poignant illustrations of the complex interchange between shared and personal pasts and how they affect individual lives. Through their historically informed autobiography, the authors in this study-Maryse Conde, Gisele Pineau, Patrick Chamoiseau, Edwidge Danticat, and Dany Laferriere-offer compelling insights into confronting, coming to terms with, and reconciling their past. The employment of personal narratives as the vehicle to carry out this investigation points to a tension evident in these writers' reflections, which constantly move between the collective and the personal. As an inescapably complex network, their past extends beyond the notion of a single, private life. These contemporary authors from Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Haiti intertwine their personal memories with reflections on the histories of their homelands and on the European and North American countries they adopt through choice or necessity. They reveal a multitude of deep connections that illuminate distinct Francophone Caribbean experiences.

Often called a ""writer-rock star"" and a ""cult icon"", Dorothy Allison is a true performer of the written word. In the absence of a biography of Allison's life, Conversations with Dorothy Allison presents Allison's perspectives on her life, literature, and her conflicted role as a public figure.

Women are performing an ever-growing role in Caribbean Carnival. Through a feminist perspective, this volume examines the presence of women in contemporary Carnival by demonstrating not only their strength in numbers, but also the ways in which women participate in the event.

Engaging with Romanticism and the many monsters created by Romantic writers and artists such as Mary Shelley, Victor Hugo, and Goya, Maaheen Ahmed maps the heritage, functions, and effects of monsters in contemporary comics and graphic novels.

Adrian Rollini, an American jazz multi-instrumentalist, played the bass saxophone, piano, vibraphone, and an array of other instruments. This book draws on oral history, vintage articles, and family archives to trace Rollini's life, from his family's arrival in the US to his development and career as a musician, to his retirement and death.

Brings insights from urban theory to bear on specific comics. The works selected comprise a variety of international, alternative, and independent small-press comics artists, from engravings and early comics to single-panel work, graphic novels, manga, and trading cards.

Cuban debates about freedom and selfhood were never the exclusive domain of the white Creole elite. Pettway argues black Latin American authors did not abandon their African religious heritage to assimilate wholesale to the Catholic Church. By recognising the wisdom of African ancestors, they procured power in the struggle for black liberation.

Though texts within dystopian literature and science fiction may share similar settings, plot devices, and characters, each genre's value is different because they do distinctively different sociocritical work. This book distinguishes the two genres, explains the function of each, and outlines the impact each has on readers.

Today fans still remember and love the British girls' comic Misty for its bold visuals and narrative complexities. Yet its unique history has drawn little critical attention. Bridging this scholarly gap, Julia Round presents a comprehensive cultural history and detailed discussion of the comic.

Provides a riveting account of the day Johnny Cash took the stage at Folsom Prison in California. Michael Streissguth skilfully places the concert and the album that followed in the larger context of Cash's artistic development, the era's popular music, and California's prison system, uncovering new angles and exploding a few myths along the way.

In the twenty-two interviews included in Conversations with Neil Simon, Simon talks candidly about what it was like to write commercially successful plays that were dismissed by critics and scholars. He also speaks at length about the differences between writing for television, for the stage, and for film