bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Prehistoric Cromwell
Authors: Hutton Ronald
Published: January 2022

This chapter examines the first two-thirds of Oliver Cromwell's life, which had passed in relative obscurity. The solid records for Cromwell's first forty years remain a sparse collection of legal and official documents, with a few letters and a single speech. This is the rickety and incomplete skeleton which successive biographers have fleshed out according to their own tastes. As such, the chapter is devoted to a fresh inspection of it, in the light of accumulated scholarly knowledge and with a greater scepticism regarding the degree of certainty with which a story can be constructed. It first considers the setting of Cromwell's early life, before piecing together his family background. The trail of references to Cromwell gets no greater in the course of the 1620s. Regardless, the chapter explores his political activities during this period, as well as the role religion played in his early years.
Borrowed Time
Authors: Hutton Ronald
Published: January 2022

This chapter turns to developments after late 1644, when military failures placed Oliver Cromwell in a difficult position with both the public and Parliament. It chronicles the attempts of Cromwell and his fellow military leaders in allaying public anger against their ill-fated campaigns. Furthermore, the chapter discusses the Self-Denying Ordinance, a draft piece of legislation that would bar all members of either House from holding military or civil offices conferred by Parliament, for the duration of the war. At a stroke, this would sweep Cromwell and his colleagues out of the army, terminating their quarrels and making way for a new set of generals, commanding a new, consolidated, field army. Additionally, the chapter explores two interim campaigns: one to West Country, where Cromwell would disrupt royalist preparations for the campaigning season there; and another to the Midlands, even as the Self-Denying Ordinance was finally passed.
Conclusion
Authors: Hutton Ronald
Published: January 2022

This concluding chapter paints a much fuller portrait of Oliver Cromwell, retracing his rise from an obscure provincial into an enduring national figure. Here, the chapter reveals the complexity of his nature. He was indeed courageous, devout, resolute, principled, intelligent, eloquent, able, adaptable, and dedicated. But, as this chapter shows, he was also self-seeking, unscrupulous, dishonest, manipulative, vindictive, and bloodthirsty: definitely not somebody to be taken simply at his word. There was no internal contradiction in this bundle of qualities, the chapter argues, for they were all woven together, in a single seamless whole. And at the centre of this lay an acquired sense of a special relationship with God, which informed and justified all.
Prologue
Authors: Shirakawa Masaaki
Published: January 2022

This prologue provides an overview of the author's tenure as governor of the Bank of Japan. The author describes his experience as “five-years of turbulence.” The financial crisis in the United States, which first surfaced as problems in the subprime mortgage market in August of 2007, eight months before the author's appointment as acting governor, spiraled out of control into the global financial crisis (GFC) with the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September of 2008. While that crisis began to gradually subside in the spring of 2009, 2010 saw the intensification of debt problems in the euro area. Beginning as a crisis for Greece, it soon engulfed Ireland and Portugal, eventually spreading to Spain and Italy. Then on March 11, 2011, the Great East Japan Earthquake struck. In addition to the shocks of the earthquake, the tsunami and the meltdown of nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant violently shook Japanese society and its economy. Japanese politics was also tumultuous. The chapter then illustrates the challenge of selecting the best monetary policy option as central bank governor.
The Increasing Clamor for Beating Deflation
Authors: Shirakawa Masaaki
Published: January 2022

This chapter addresses the increasing clamor for beating deflation. In the spring of 2009, the tide turned in financial markets around the world, and financial systems began to stabilize gradually. That was a great relief, but a return to a path of sustainable growth was a long way off. It was the beginning of the “false dawn,” which was to persist for some time. In September of 2009, the Democratic Party of Japan became the lead governing party, which was followed by an official declaration of a state of deflation in November. Public debate about deflation became intense and was widespread until the end of the author's term as governor of the Bank of Japan in 2013.
The European Debt Crisis
Authors: Shirakawa Masaaki
Published: January 2022

This chapter explores the European debt crisis. As 2009 unfolded, the Japanese economy continued its gradual recovery. This was made possible by the overall improvement in the global economy, as financial markets regained an even keel starting in March of that year. But this benign environment was short-lived. The European debt crisis, which began that autumn in Greece, arrived in a series of waves, each one larger than the one before, until the collapse of the euro seemed possible. The first stage of the European debt crisis came to a close in May of 2010 with the announcement of a bailout of Greece by euro area governments and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The second phase unfolded during 2011 and centered on heightened concerns about the solvency of European banks. The third and final stage was the period between the spring and summer of 2012, when both Italy and Spain faced acute financial crises.
The Joint Statement by the Japanese Government and the Bank of Japan
Authors: Shirakawa Masaaki
Published: January 2022

This chapter reviews the Joint Statement by the Japanese government and the Bank of Japan. In the general elections of the House of Representatives on December 16, 2012, the Liberal Democratic Party, led by Shinzo Abe, clinched an overwhelming victory and returned to power. During the campaign, Abe insisted on strengthening coordination between the government and the Bank of Japan, and the need for more aggressive monetary easing, and he often referred to the possibility of revising the Bank of Japan Act. The author confronted two conflicting responsibilities: he needed to respect the outcome of Japan's democratic process and to recognize that, by a wide margin, the population voted for a political party that was committed to pursuing a monetary policy that he thought misguided. But the author also needed to carry out his duties as governor of the bank, under the existing Bank of Japan Act, to ensure the stability of the currency. The efforts to reconcile these conflicting responsibilities produced the “Joint Statement of the Government and the Bank of Japan on Overcoming Deflation and Achieving Sustainable Economic Growth.” The author's agreement to the publication of the statement and the process leading up to it was the most difficult task of his tenure as governor.
Epilogue
Authors: Shirakawa Masaaki
Published: January 2022

This epilogue reflects on the future of central banks. The Bank of Japan was the first central bank to find itself stuck in the “low-for-long” world, meaning that low-interest rates persist for an extended period of time. At some point in time, the low-for-long world will inevitably be forced to change. What will unfold might be inflation, a financial bubble and subsequent financial crisis, social discontent due to widening inequalities in wealth, a continuous decline in the growth rate, or some combination of these factors. Witnessing how the economy and society are now being profoundly impacted by the global pandemic of the COVID-19 virus, one certainly cannot rule out something happening that is beyond current imagination. Central banks are thus faced with enormous challenges. The current conundrum reflects underlying political, social, and technological trends that are largely beyond the control of central banks. Nevertheless, they should take the lead in reconsidering the current monetary policy framework.
A passion for place: the emotional identifications and empowerment of neighbourhood planning
Authors: Bradley Quintin
Published: January 2022

This chapter addresses the passion for place that can be expressed in localism and its planning initiatives. Planning scholarship tends to shy away from the emotional realm and planners, in practice, assert their distance from attachment. The policy of neighbourhood planning in England is unusual in that it addresses people's emotional commitment to place. An exploration of its passions has much to offer in the understanding of localism and community planning. The chapter reviews the literature on place and place attachment and draws on social movement studies to understand how place is invoked in neighbourhood plans and how place attachment can mobilise collective action. It begins by introducing emplacement as an issue of social policy and a topic of academic and philosophical study. The chapter then moves on to discuss the connections between place attachment and community action and to introduce the concept of place identity framing as a tool of analysis. It also explores research with neighbourhood plans to understand how a convincing narrative of place attachment and place identity can be assembled, and how it can be used to mobilise community support.
Citizen participation: an essential lever for urban transformation in France?
Authors: Gardesse Camille , Zetlaoui-Léger Jodelle
Published: January 2022

This chapter explores the major differences between France and Anglo-Saxon countries, where communautaire and ‘empowerment’ practices have structured social and urban policy for the last 40 years, in particular, in poor neighbourhoods. Despite these differences, the concepts of ‘common good’ and capacitation citoyenne (the French version of the Anglo-Saxon term ‘empowerment’) have entered into the urban planning vocabulary in France since the end of the 2000s. Imported by associations working in underprivileged neighbourhoods and by citizen participation activists and researchers aware of international experiences, these terms have been slowly picked up by elected officials and planning professionals. How are these intentions expressed in the definition and implementation of urban projects? What are the challenges to citizen participation if it is to gain scope and momentum in France today? In considering these questions, the chapter will situate the contemporary period within a broader, dynamic context of the evolution of resident involvement in urban planning in France.
Reflections on neighbourhood planning: towards a progressive localism
Authors: Bradley Quintin , Brownill Sue
Published: January 2022

This chapter reviews the contribution of the book to the study of neighbourhood planning and discusses what it reveals about the contradictory processes inherent to state strategies of localism, and the deepening of democratic practice in participatory planning. In particular, it asks whether the propositions of spatial liberalism have called up counter-narratives from the practice of neighbourhood planning and whether a different kind of localism, a more progressive localism, might be emerging. The chapter begins by debating what a progressive practice of localism means. It then revisits the discussion in previous chapters to examine the understanding of neighbourhood planning as democratic practice, as development planning, and as contributing to a definition of sustainable development. The chapter concludes with an assessment of the significance of neighbourhood planning in charting the topology of progressive localism.
‘Without it you’re lost’: examining the role and challenges of family engagement services in prisons
Authors: Power Erin
Published: January 2022

This chapter draws from related literature, policy, and recent reviews of Family Engagement Services (FES) in prison to explore the role and challenges of implementing FES in the public prison sector. It situates current services in a neoliberal context and examines barriers and potential for delivering high-quality and caring FES in the women's prison estate. It also defines FES in prisons as a specialised casework service that aims to build and maintain contact between prisoners and their family members. The chapter highlights the emotional and practical support given by FES to prisoners and their families, intending to improve wellbeing, minimise the trauma of family separation, and increase life chances for prisoners' children. It analyzes the role of FES from the view of the Prison Advice and Care Trust (PACT), which was founded in 1898 and was integral to the development and implementation of FES in prisons.
Continuing the conversation: reflections from the Women, Family, Crime and Justice network
Authors: Baldwin Lucy , Masson Isla , Booth Natalie
Published: January 2022

This chapter highlights the research network of the Women, Family, Crime and Justice (WFCJ), which provided a platform to share knowledge and experiences of women and families to deal with the challenges in criminal and social justice. It reviews WFCJ's collection of works that aims to bring together practitioners, external agencies, service users, academics, and researchers in a safe, supportive, non-judgemental, and unrestricted forum. It also discusses WFCJ research network's commitment to facilitating and influencing positive change via sharing of knowledge, critically exploring, and informing research and policy. The chapter deals with the obligation of WFCJ to feminist principles of equality and reflexivity. It revisits recurring themes on stigma and shame; power, equality, and agency; access to appropriate services and failure to meet needs; and family and relationships.
Britain’s Pivot to Asia: The Big Picture
Authors: Park Ian , Lin Kun-Chin
Published: January 2022

This chapter reviews the United Kingdom's policy commitment to establishing a regular naval presence in the South China Sea (SCS). It explores how the policy has received criticism as a political message in the trying times of “Brexit” and amid fiscal pressures on the Royal Navy. It also analyzes how implementing UK's policy commitment in the form of “freedom of navigation” missions and naval bases in the region will likely complicate its foreign policy, particularly in relation to China. The chapter talks about significant uncertainties that the UK faces in its international standing, including its concern with new sources of insecurity in more proximate waters and likely risks of military entanglement and threat of economic retaliation from Beijing. It refers to insecurities that leave the realization of the UK's national security priorities in Asia largely contingent on political leadership at 10 Downing Street, which navigate within pressures from the US and European allies.
Oxygen provision to severely ill COVID-19 patients at the peak of the 2020 pandemic in a Swedish district hospital
Authors: Hvarfner Anna , Al-Djaber Ahmed , Ekström Hampus , Enarsson Malin , Castegren Markus , Baker Tim , Schell Carl Otto
Published: January 2022

Oxygen is a low-cost and life-saving therapy for patients with COVID-19. Yet, it is a limited resource in many hospitals in low income countries and in the 2020 pandemic even hospitals in richer countries reported oxygen shortages. An accurate understanding of oxygen requirements is needed for capacity planning. The World Health Organization estimates the average flow-rate of oxygen to severe COVID-19-patients to be 10 l/min. However, there is a lack of empirical data about the oxygen provision to patients. This study aimed to estimate the oxygen provision to COVID-19 patients with severe disease in a Swedish district hospital. A retrospective, medical records-based cohort study was conducted in March to May 2020 in a Swedish district hospital. All adult patients with severe COVID-19 –those who received oxygen in the ward and had no ICU-admission during their hospital stay–were included. Data were collected on the oxygen flow-rates provided to the patients throughout their hospital stay, and summary measures of oxygen provision calculated. One-hundred and twenty-six patients were included, median age was 70 years and 43% were female. On admission, 27% had a peripheral oxygen saturation of ≤91% and 54% had a respiratory rate of ≥25/min. The mean oxygen flow-rate to patients while receiving oxygen therapy was 3.0 l/min (SD 2.9) and the mean total volume of oxygen provided per patient admission was 16,000 l (SD 23,000). In conclusion, the provision of oxygen to severely ill COVID-19-patients was lower than previously estimated. Further research is required before global estimates are adjusted.
PMBOK® Guide: Új szerkezetben a projektmenedzsment tudásanyaga
Authors: Pálvölgyi Lajos
Published: January 2022

A PMBOK® Guide megkerülhetetlen referenciamű a projektmenedzsment területén, olyan teljességre törekvő, rendszert adó kézikönyv, amely nem hiányozhat egyetlen projektvezető könyvespolcáról sem. Számos projektmenedzsment tárgyú minősítő vizsga alapvető szakirodalmi forrása szerte a világon. Fejlődéstörténete több mint harminc évre tekint vissza. Az előző kiadásokhoz hasonlóan a hetedik kiadás is a projektmenedzserek világszervezete, a Project Management Institute (PMI) gondozásában jelent meg.
Participatory evaluation for large-scale arts programmes: challenges, adaptations and unexpected shifts in culture
Authors: Gratton Nicola , Reynolds Jackie
Published: January 2022

Researchers at Staffordshire University have a long history of undertaking community-based research in and with communities in Stoke-on-Trent. Commitment to the principles and practice of participatory research by the university’s Creative Communities Unit (CCU) team led to an approach to participatory action research called Get Talking. This article highlights the use of Get Talking to evaluate Appetite, an Arts Council England Creative People and Places project in Stoke-on-Trent. Staffordshire University conducted a participatory evaluation using Get Talking for the three years of the programme’s first phase. As well as reflecting on the strengths of the approach, we also discuss the ways in which the approach was adapted in order to address some of the key challenges that were encountered, and the impact of taking a participatory approach to the evaluation on the programme’s culture in relation to community engagement and co-production.
Afro-Surinamese Music
Authors: O’Bryan Ponda
Published: January 2022

The African slaves who were brought to Suriname in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries originated from powerful people who at the time were endowed with a rich culture. These people from the African Gold Coast (now Ghana), the Slave Coast (Togo, Benin, and Nigeria), Ivory Coast, Guinea, and Congo all had cultures based on oral traditions.

Of extreme importance is the Winti religion, on which nearly all Afro-Surinamese music is based. Nonetheless, the Afro-Surinamese culture that grew from this was anything but uniform. To be sure, the slaves were spread across the plantations, without regard to their country of origin, but they in turn were extremely isolated from one another. In this way, for instance, each plantation had its own Winti songs, which were later named after the plantation where they were created. And soon thereafter small groups of runaway slaves were formed, who all created their own music.
Surinamese East Indian (Hindustani) Music
Authors: Ketwaru Dr. J.
Published: January 2022

Surinamese of East Indian descent, arrived in the late 19th century from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh in northern India, which is also the origin of Surinamese East Indian music, alternately referred to as Sarnami-Hindustani music. It arose in a country of several different ethnic groups. This means emotions and musical patterns of other population groups can be heard in it. The sitar and tabla are often used across the entire spectrum of the world of Surinamese music. An example is the interplay of tabla, the Creole apinti drum, and congas.

This chapter discusses the instruments and Indian musical styles in Suriname such as Baithak gana, developed especially by a second generation of Surinamese Hindustanis. Musicians sit on the ground and make use of simple texts and a sober musical accompaniment, which usually consists of harmonium, dholak, and dandtaal. The texts are in the Surinamese-Hindustani language.
Pop
Authors: Ketwaru Dr. J.
Published: January 2022

This chapter delves into the popular forms of music that developed from the various ethnic groups that co-exist in Suriname. It discusses the main players and features of the Surinamese pop music genres of Hindi Pop, Pop Jawa, Suripop, Reggae, and Hip-Hop.
White Outsiderism as White Identity Politics
Authors: Anderson Wendy K. Z.
Published: January 2022

This chapter examines excerpts from speeches by and interviews with Sarah Palin while and after campaigning for vice president as she talks about the classificatory terms of motherhood and feminism to show how the Tea Party’s rhetoric functions as early public testing grounds for identity politics of white - outsiderism, naturalizing matriarchy and [white] maternal feminism. Using ideographs such as - and - and classification of womanhood based on motherhood and “maternal feminism,” Tea Party figureheads like Sarah Palin use white nationalist arguments to target conservative white women. However, after limited public success, the Republican Party supports white women like Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann as shield maidens for white political agendas by simulating unrealistic ideals of “having it all,” while not articulating systemic oppression. Affluent white motherhood, where white women exist as primary and default parent, serves as a performance of contained agency.
“Furious Music”
Authors: Johnson Mark A.
Published: January 2022

Spectacles remained an important part of the political process because disfranchisement limited formal expressions of political power. As performers at campaign rallies, parades, and other public events, African Americans manipulated stereotypes to enter seemingly off-limit spaces. After disfranchisement, African Americans had to get more creative with their political alliances if they wanted to maintain any power. In the solidly Democratic South, African Americans used their performances to humiliate Democratic candidates, but they also pitted Democrats against one another with their artistic and electoral support to gain concessions. They lent their support to many of the third-party alternatives to the Democratic Party that sprung up in the era of Jim Crow. During World War I, African Americans displayed in militaristic fashion their patriotism and lent their talents to the war effort. They also took their talents to northern cities, where they continued to use these methods.
The Rising Generation, Toussaint Louverture, and the Problem of Funding
Authors: Sepinwall Alyssa Goldstein
Published: January 2022

This chapter focuses on films about the Haitian Revolution by emerging Haitian filmmakers, working with tiny budgets. It analyzes a trio of documentaries on Toussaint Louverture from Haitian filmmakers Maksaens Denis, Kendy Vérilus and Pierre Lucson Bellegarde. Drawing on the contents of these films, as well as interviews with the directors, the chapter notes differences between their approaches to the Revolution and those of non-Haitian films on the subject, especially concerning the extent to which France’s Revolution prompted Haiti’s. The chapter also discusses how funding and infrastructure challenges have hindered the growth of Haitian cinema, and it introduces other digital genres, such as animation, through which young Haitians have depicted colonial Saint-Domingue and the Revolution. Finally, the chapter examines thwarted efforts by Haitian filmmakers to make epics on the Revolution.
“We are Trawling in Silences Here”
Authors: Sciuto Jenna Grace
Published: January 2022

Writing in the 1990s and 2000s about Rafael Trujillo’s reign (1930–1961), Julia Alvarez, Junot Díaz, and Nelly Rosario reveal how the control over sexuality—and particularly over women, girls, and marginalized bodies—plays out during a dictator’s regime. Approaching this history from different angles, the writers demonstrate that the reach of the violence and predatorial sexuality modeled by Trujillo extended to affect not only individual lives and experiences, but also families and entire communities. Trujillo’s totalitarian regime was a threat to love, sexuality, and family formations, as portrayed through various characters’ experiences, from the real-life Mirabel sisters in Alvarez’s novel to the fictional Cabral family in Díaz’s book, as well as through the aesthetics and form of the novels. Through the formal affordances of literature, we can explore histories in a fuller way than is enabled by more official accounts.
Toward a Reconciliation of Satire and Hostility in Crumb
Authors: Polley Jason S.
Published: January 2022

Drawing from recent controversies around Robert Crumb and his legacy in contemporary comics culture, chapter contributor Jason S. Polley reflects on the complex discourse that circulates around Crumb in comics studies and in comics culture more broadly. Crumb’s so-called uncompromising art—which, again, includes his arguably affected public persona, the one we encounter in Terry Zwigoff’s documentary Crumb—fosters serious caution and self-qualification. Analyzing his collaborative work with Aline Kominsky-Crumb, the 1994 documentary film Crumb, and his rejected 2009 New Yorker cover, the chapter argues that from his collaborative comics in the 1970s to recent controversies, Crumb at once connotes and invokes contradictory critical perspectives.
Where the Action Is
Authors: Lawrence Julian
Published: January 2022

In this chapter, Julian Lawrence adopts an “a/r/tographical methodology” to research and create an 8-10 page comics essay that investigates the ways R. Crumb challenges scholars in an age of political correctness. This visual essay combines autobiographical, theoretical, and methodological reflections on Crumb’s influence on a young artist, Crumb’s engagement with gender and sexuality, and the multifaceted ways to approach Crumb’s comics.
“And Abram Listened to the Voice of Sarai”
Authors: Domoney-Lyttle Zanne
Published: January 2022

In 2009, R. Crumb produced a singular work, The Book of Genesis, Illustrated by R. Crumb, which purports to be a faithful, graphic interpretation of the book of Genesis from the Hebrew Bible. Among other sources, Crumb states that he used Robert Alter’s translation and commentary on Genesis to inform his work, along with the King James Version (KJV), the Jewish Publication Society Version (JPS,) and Sarah the Priestess: The First Matriarch of Genesis by Savina J. Teubal. From those sources, he produced his own interpretation together with annotations to explain his interpretive decisions. In this chapter, Zanne Domoney-Lyttle investigates Crumb’s use of various comics tools and resources in his remediation of Genesis, and will argue that his interpretation of the biblical text is presented through careful visual and textual decisions. These decisions in turn present the matriarchs (Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel and Leah) in Genesis, Illustrated as strong, dominant characters who are cast as potential leaders in an otherwise patriarchal world. This is a characterization which subverts both traditional readings of the women of Genesis, as well as expectations of Crumb as an author. Accusations of misogyny and sexism have followed Crumb throughout his career, but do not stand when the reader is presented with his pro-feminist matriarchal remediation of the biblical text.
Blood Rules
Authors: Olutola Sarah
Published: January 2022

In this chapter, Sarah Olutola examines Victoria Aveyard's The Red Queen. The juxtaposition of racial ambiguity, racial oppression, and upward mobility in Victoria Aveyard’s YA dystopian fantasy positions this text as a window into the complex, unstable, and often contradictory meaning of race in America, particularly in this present era of late capitalism. The Red Queen perpetuates colonial discourses of biological determinism that have long since fueled racial anxieties and justified state-sanctioned racial terror. Simultaneously, the text works with the concept of race and particularly racial rebellion through the depoliticizing language of capitalist modernity that offers racial minorities the promise of inclusion through their ideological and emotional investment in consumption. The goal of raising these critical concerns is to complicate discussions of diversity in Young Adult fiction and to underscore the violent, historical, and contemporary power relations that belie the mass market and consumer demand for stories, in any genre, of race and racial oppression.
Enchanting the Masses
Authors: Coste Jill
Published: January 2022

Dystopian fairy tales, with their spirited female leads, nestle comfortably in the canon of novels with strong, subversive heroines that, unfortunately, circumvent the topic of race. These novels dance around the complications of heterogeneity by offering fantastic renderings of diverse characters for the typically white (or passing-as-white) heroines to encounter. In this chapter, Jill Coste analyzes Anna Sheehan's Long, Long Sleep, Stacey Jay's Of Beast and Beauty, and Marissa Meyer’s The Lunar Chronicles, arguing that these works use allegory to present diversity but in fact “deracialize” diversity while still representing marginalization.  Paired with dystopias, then, fairy tale revisions offer a course for change: they reach masses of readers and present diversity through fantasy. While allegorical diversity may not offer a solution to the dearth of diversity in popular YA fiction, it does invite conversation about difference and provide direct corollaries to contemporary problems.
Between “Castoff” and “Half-Man”
Authors: Tan Susan
Published: January 2022

In this chapter, Susan Tan examines race and multi-racial identity in Ship Breaker and Drowned Cities, drawing on posthumanism, and specifically, Elaine Grahame’s discussion of posthuman monstrosity as a means of identity articulation. Focusing on the characters of Mahlia and Tool, this essay explores how racial identity is elided in favor of larger discussions of what it means to be “human.”  To examine this silencing of racial issues in a set of texts that initially showcase diversity and questions of race, the essay considers the subtle ways in which common YA dystopian tropes of human hybridity, technology, and national belonging can work to dismiss and dispel real engagement with racial difference.
The Curious Disappearance of Christopher Robin
Authors: Tsang Chun Ngai Jonathan
Published: January 2022

Christopher Robin has long occupied a central role in the Winnie-the-Pooh world. In this chapter, Tsang Chun Ngai, Jonathan focuses on an attraction in Hong Kong Disneyland, The Many Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh. It examines how the employment of narratological tools to analyze a thematic park ride may offer new insights into the way attractions engage with their audiences and how they offer a range of subject positions.
“There’s Always Pooh and Me”
Authors: Wadham Tim
Published: January 2022

In this chapter, Tim Wadham applies a posthuman theoretical lens to the Winnie-the-Pooh texts, forcing a reconsideration of the foundational assumptions of posthumanism, which in its anti-humanist incarnation rejects the traditional understanding of the human condition. This takes the idea of human superiority and relegates it to the level of biocentric, nature-based inquiry. The Pooh texts, on the other hand, are profoundly humanist, exalting the human child, and their ability to create reality. This chapter serves as a counterpoint to Chapter 9.
“All of Them Colors Was in Me”
Authors: Wardi Anissa Janine
Published: January 2022

The introduction to Toni Morrison and the Natural World: An Ecology of Color maintains that African American literature, from its inception, has been steeped in environmental concerns and places Morrison’s work inside of that tradition. It also establishes the theoretical scaffolding of the book, namely material ecocriticism, which holds that human geographies are enmeshed with nonhuman nature. In Morrison’s body of work, the natural world emerges as a site of history, narrative, and memory. Color theory is another theoretical lens brought to bear in this study. Each chapter of the book is organized by color which brings to the fore the constellation of race and the natural world.
Cold Conflicts, Comics Codes, and Congressional Committees
Authors: Knopf Christina M.
Published: January 2022

This chapter opens against the backdrop of the Cold War and the Red Scare. It discusses comics versus Congress after the implementation of the Comics Code Authority in 1954. Stories in which protagonists have taken down or merely faced down Congressional representatives indicate that comics, like other forms of Cold War popular culture and media, found ways to oppose or subvert governmental interference with media and art, particularly in the wake of McCarthyism and Cold War paranoia. Such stories also expressed deep political cynicism and social anxiety, especially as related to censorship.
Reagan’s Raiders, Trump’s Titans, and Political Parody
Authors: Knopf Christina M.
Published: January 2022

This focuses on satirical comics, or modern “funny books,” with explicitly political subject matter. Arguing that the polyvalent nature of satire makes many political comics ineffective modes of persuasion, it highlights the 1986 series Reagan’s Raiders starring Ronald Reagan, and its 2017 take-off Trump’s Titans starring Donald Trump, as examples of satire so absurd that readers cannot decipher its meaning. By comparison, the single-paneled editorial cartoon is lauded, even as it loses ground as an industry, for its ability to offer new visions of campaigns and candidates, clarifying obscure values and images, with impact and resonance.
Comic Book Versions of Presidential Campaigns
Authors: Knopf Christina M.
Published: January 2022

The 2004 election became infamous for widespread voter disenfranchisement and fraud, leading to the creation and publication of Cheated! which chronicled voter experiences in Ohio. Chapter seven subsequently looks at Cheated! and other comics that engage with voting, elections, and civic responsibilities. Relating these themes to “Good Government” and activist comics of the 1950s and 1960s, the chapter explores representations of American elections as related to narratives of quests and conspiracies that express the realization or frustration of political ideals. The 2000s saw a rise in the demonization of American politics through the use of horror tropes, as voters increasingly described elections as choosing “the lesser of two evils.”
Conclusion
Authors: Knopf Christina M.
Published: January 2022

This conclusion focuses on the political impact of comic books, which have been described as “a new battlefield in the culture wars.” From the Comicsgate scandal of 2017 that started years of online harassment and blacklisting of left-leaning creators and diverse character representations, to the 2019 Twitter defense of Superman, as an immigrant, journalist, and proponent of truth and justice, as relevant and important in the Trump-era, this chapter uses the ongoing debates among comics creators, publishers, and readers about the appropriateness of politics in comics to emphasize that comics tell stories about the world and the world, therefore, leaks into comics. Pop culture opens avenues for people to declare their participation in a collective project and helps them to shape their understandings of civic responsibility, leadership, communal history, present concerns, helping to give them a voice in the community.
The World of the Great American Songbook
Authors: Garber Michael G.
Published: January 2022

This chapter introduces Tin Pan Alley, early twentieth-century popular music publishing. Its mature style paired witty, conversational but courtly lyrics with concise, dramatic melodies conducive to jazz performance. The standard refrain structure (ABAC) often had a rhythmic quickening and rhymed couplet near the end. The study’s corpus is eight songs, much performed yet little appreciated, analyzed, or researched. Innovation in the genre was communal. Song histories reveal many obscure people shaping each work’s elements, challenging the auteurist approach. Collective innovation factors include: generalized genres; specific cycles; and performance tradition, oral and aural. These ballads reveal the growth of the personal, intimate, and internal in jazzy songs. The discussion introduces, defines, and traces early history of two terms, the “torch song” and “crooning.” A sketch of related contemporary trends includes: the transformation of blue ballads into blues proper; spirituals popularized by soloists; cabarets and small theatres; psychoanalysis; and telephone, radio and the electronic microphone, relating to R. Murray Schafer’s concept of schizophonia. The “crooning” label highlights the connection of popular ballads and the lullaby, linking to psychology, particularly the work of Dr. John Diamond. Pivotal crooners include Tommy Lyman and Bing Crosby.
“Let Me Call You Sweetheart” and Competition-as-Muse
Authors: Garber Michael G.
Published: January 2022

This is the fourth of six chapters tracing how waltzes often became performed as duple-meter tunes, inflected with jazz style, via the collective innovation of the performance tradition. A concluding subsection explores the link between these songs and the lullaby, homecoming, and images of the torch and lovelight. Tennessee poet Beth Slater Whitson and Illinois composer Leo Friedman were cheated by Chicago publisher Will Rossiter; and therefore instead took “Let Me Call You Sweetheart” (1910) to Harold Rossiter, thus becoming part of a bitter brotherly feud. It sold six-million sheet music copies; endures as a singalong and Valentine’s Day favorite; became associated with the blues; and, analyzed here, is a pure love waltz sometimes converted into a swing tune by bands, crooners, and rock-and-rollers. Whitson’s fully personal lyric contributed to an increased intimacy in the genre. The discussion analyzes its use in movies, including Barney’s Big Adventure and The Rose.
“My Melancholy Baby”
Authors: Garber Michael G.
Published: January 2022

This chapter focuses on “My Melancholy Baby” (1911), an example of collective innovation through its performance traditions and disputed authorship. Its mysterious origins center in Denver, Colorado, around little known figures: lyricists Maybelle E. Watson and George A. Norton; composers Ernie Burnett and Ben Light; performers William Frawley and Tommy Lyman; and restaurateurs Jack Maynard and Theron C. Bennett (also its first publisher, featuring slow and fast arrangements in a single edition). The initial melody resembles Mendelssohn’s Spring Song. The lyric combines introspection, empathy, courtship, and optimism. Its mid-level success is traced in detail, rising to national hit status in 1927. The first piece labeled a “torch song,” it became the standard request by inebriated men. The title is used in many works, including of humor and serious psychoanalysis; the song itself, in The Roaring Twenties movie, in Vassily Aksyonov’s first American tome, among other works, and as a lullaby.
Conclusion
Authors: Garber Michael G.
Published: January 2022

Between 1902 and 1913, through collective innovation, thousands of crafters, operating across the nation, forged a mature American love ballad style—jazzy, personal, introspective, intimate—exemplified by this study’s ten focus songs. These songs were revived and spread internationally through new technologies: electronic microphone; radio; and movies with sound. The songs became permanently yoked to the microphone—so that they seem to have predicted its advent—as the modalities crystallized of torch song and crooning (with its link to the lullaby). This concluding chapter recruits the genre theories of Rick Altman to contextualize the discussions of torch singers by John Moore and Stacy Holman Jones. By contrast, it focuses on the many narrative contexts for torch songs themselves, suggesting a redefinition: a love ballad that makes the listener aware of the flame of love within their heart—an effect also dependent on the listener, performers, and context.
Jason Compson, Belated Slave Master
Authors: Stern Julia
Published: January 2022

The slave master appears and then makes a belated symbolic reappearance in William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! and The Sound and the Fury. In this essay, Julia Stern traces master Thomas Sutpen’s idiosyncratic practices, working along with his bonds people by day and engaging in spectacular wrestling matches against them at night. These agons allow Sutpen to re-enact his white supremacy. The essay then argues that Faulkner imagines Jason Compson as a white slave master born a century too late. Jason’s abuse of niece Quentin enacts the very treatment that enslavers practiced on their slaves, summarized by sociologist Orlando Paterson: natal alienation, social death, fictive kinship, human parasitism and ideological reversal. But Quentin reverses the master-slave relationship with Jason, re-appropriating 15 years-worth of child support money he has stolen from her. Stern concludes with a reading of Luster, Dilsey’s grandson, and his aesthetic ambitions, arguing that in this descendant of slaves lies the problematic and only hope for the Compsons, black and white.
Introduction
Authors: Willson Brian
Published: January 2022

The introduction follows the author’s early life and connection with Black culture through music; his training as a jazz musician; meeting his godmother in college; and eventual initiation into spiritism, Santeria and Ifá. The text outlines comparative research and methodology and poses the question of authenticity of a white, North American male writing about an African tradition. This chapter posits that common spiritual tradition that transcends race and class is an important story for today’s world. Briefly outlining slave history and the reconstitution of the Egúngún society on the island of Itaparica, this chapter demonstrates that though formal Egúngún ritual took hold only in Brazil, the veneration of ancestors is widespread and common to Diasporic traditions. It is argued that there is a profound common denominator between Egúngún practices in Brazil and Yorùbáland. This chapter introduces Betty Barney, the author’s godmother, as the first person to bring Egúngún to the United States.
Diary 4 2013
Authors: Willson Brian
Published: January 2022

This chapter outlines the initiation process of a primary level Egúngún priest. This first level is known as amuxian, meaning the bearer of the ixan, the spiritually charged whip that controls the Egúngún. It details the 9 days of seclusion and delves into mental state of the participant and the mystical and healing events he experienced. It is shown that seclusion is a requisite part of spiritual initiation. The processes of each day are described. It is argued that only the public parts of the ceremony can be revealed and absolute secrecy is called for within the initiation lineage of Egúngún. None of the events inside the sacred igbale are permitted to be discussed. The camaraderie of the author’s co-initiates is emphasized. It is posited that great faith is an essential element of being a part of the cult.
Ancient Kings Emerge
Authors: Willson Brian
Published: January 2022

This chapter presents a general definition of Egúngún and suggests the idea that though not every spirit was a king, but, unique to Brazil, these spirits are now treated as kings and called as such. The chapter argues that not every person who dies is eligible for Egúngún status, that their character in life would have had to have been impeccable. It is shown that the source of the tradition has its roots through slavery in the Nago people of West Africa. This chapter suggests African continuity which is explored further in a later chapter. Life continues after death and the living view the dead as having “changed address” and that they are still accessible. This chapter argues that this philosophy is equivalent in Africa and Brazil. The chapter posits that the ideology of the Egúngún cult can be viewed as the preservation of collective existence.
Conclusion
Authors: Willson Brian
Published: January 2022

This chapter argues that the Egúngún society is one of the most significant spiritual heritages in the African Diaspora in the Americas. It suggests that not only was it empowering spiritual force but that it was also a mode of resistance to the enslaver’s way of thinking, way of life; language, and culture. It describes the other-worldly nature and timelessness one experiences in the terreiro during an Egúngún celebration. This chapter suggests that Egúngún is a vital force that needs to be reestablished completely within the diaspora to fulfill the mission of the author’s godmother, to forever break the psychological chains of slavery for the Black American.
The Comics Workforce
Authors: Woo Benjamin
Published: January 2022

Comics creators don’t need scholars to tell them that images can be very powerful. Absent clear, transparently produced, and publicly available data on who makes comics and graphic novels, common representations of this labor force tend to exclude women and visible minority creators from the comics world. Most comic readers do not have a very clear idea of how comics get made or—beyond familiarity with a handful of marquee names— by whom, and mythic discourses take root in this persistent gap between media producers and their audiences. In this chapter, Benjamin Woo reports some findings from a large-scale survey of creative workers in the field of English-language comics production, concentrating on the demographic makeup of the comics workforce and some of the conditions under which they perform creative labor.
Comics and Comic Cons
Authors: Edmunds T. Keith
Published: January 2022

Non-geographical communities of comic book fans become most visible when they gather together at conventions. These events are an opportunity for fandoms to share values and experiences. But do they exist to serve pre-existing communities, or do they create a sense of community amongst the participants, regardless of their particular fandom(s)? In this chapter, T. Keith Edmunds examines the sense of community in the “event community” of comic cons and compares it to the sense of community in the “comic book community.”  Social identity theory and psychological sense of community, as theoretical underpinnings, are used to examine how people perceive these communities. By examining differences between the event and comic book communities, the chapter argues that conventions are less a gathering of the comic book community and more a community in and of itself.
Not Just Superhero Stories
Authors: Wilson Adriana Estrada
Published: January 2022

Previous studies of comic books and comic book fans have focused on concrete uses of comics within the subculture and the meanings that readers derive from comic book content. Using Anne Swidler’s “cultural toolkit” approach to link culture with social action, contributor Adriana Estrada Wilson instead explores how social actors transform their experiences in comic book fandom into resources applicable to various aspects of their everyday life. Interviewees recruited from the regulars of a local comic shop not only constituted a subculture but also used comics and their interest in them to navigate the broader social world.