bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Molecular detection and dense granule antigen 6 genotyping of feline Toxoplasma gondii in Phayao, Thailand
Authors: Suwancharoen Chittakun , Phuangsri Chorpaka , Prakhammin Khanuengnij , Japa Ornampai
Published: September 2022

Background and Aim: Globally, toxoplasmosis is an important zoonotic parasite infection of many warm-blooded animals (including humans). Toxoplasma gondii oocysts are widespread, and their contamination can be primarily attributed to the members of the Felidae family. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence and determine the dense granule antigen 6 (GRA6) genotype of T. gondii among domestic cats in the Phayao Province, Thailand.

Materials and Methods: A total of 124 fecal samples were collected from owned cats in the Muang district, Phayao, Thailand, from January to December 2020. Fecal samples were tested for the presence of T. gondii DNA using targeted B1 gene polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification, and positive samples were subsequently analyzed for their T. gondii genotype through PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis and sequencing of the GRA6 gene.

Results: Among the 124 samples, 46 (37.1%) were tested positive for T. gondii. Only 10 positive DNA samples were successfully amplified for the GRA6 marker. Subsequent PCR-RFLP and sequence analyses indicated that all T. gondii isolates from cats in Phayao belonged to GRA6 genotype I.

Conclusion: Data revealed that toxoplasmosis is remarkably distributed among (studied) domestic cats in Phayao, Thailand. Moreover, the virulent GRA6 allele was found to be circulated among domestic cats in this area. However, no significant correlation was observed between infection rates and different risk factors, which indicated that pet cats of any age, gender, or breed have similar risks of being infected with T. gondii. Our results further suggested that infective oocysts of T. gondii are widely distributed and that environmental contamination with these oocysts will introduce more risks of disease transmission to humans and other animals.
Tudásszerzés iskola után
Authors: Kiss Adél
Published: September 2022

A felnőttképzéshez való viszonyulás egyéni adottságok, képességek és
gondolkodás függvénye, amelyet a közösségi, illetve társadalmi tényezők
nagymértékben befolyásolnak. Jelen tanulmány a székelyföldi térségben
vizsgálja a felnőttkori tanulás néhány sajátosságát, tételesen (1) a
tanulási tapasztalatokat, (2) a legfontosabb indokokat, amelyek a
felnőttképzésben való részvételt mozgatják, (3) általánosan a felnőttkori
tanuláshoz való társadalmi viszonyulást és a megkérdezettek által vázolt
(4) tanulási jövőképeket. Szerkezetét tekintve a tanulmány először
áttekinti a szakirodalom alapján a vidéki térségben zajlott társadalmi
változási folyamatokat, amelyek a felnőttképzés gyakorlatát formálták,
alakították 1990–2020 között. Majd egy 2019-ben végzett kvantitatív kutatás
(kérdőíves adatfelvétel, N = 555, amely adatfelvételt egy 65 kérdésből
álló, a szocio-demográfiai jellegű kérdések mellett az iskolarendszeren
kívüli tanulási gyakorlatot részleteiben feltáró vizsgálat) adataira
támaszkodva a székelyföldi térségben a felnőttképzéshez való viszonyulás
sajátosságait elemzi. A kutatás legfontosabb eredményei szerint a
megkérdezettek tanulási tapasztalatai alapvetően pozitívak, bár nem erednek
oly sok tanulási színtérről. A felnőttképzésben való részvételt a
megélhetési motívumok mellett más indokok is mozgatják. De jellemzően a
rövidre zárt, célirányosan megvalósított tanulási életpályaszakaszok
dominálnak, ezt a tendenciát a tanulási jövőképek is kirajzolják.
Feszültség, harag, undor
Authors: Horváth Márta
Published: September 2022

A feszültség az irodalmi fikció egyik legalapvetőbb érzelmi hatása, amely nélkül egyes műfajok – például a krimi, a horror vagy a tragédia – elképzelhetetlenek, sőt bizonyos elméletek szerint a feszültségkeltés a populáris irodalom legfontosabb eszköze az olvasó figyelmének megragadására. A feszültségkeltés azonban jó esetben nem öncélú, hanem például olyan morális érzelmek előkészítéseként funkcionál, melyek meghatározzák az elbeszélő szöveg érzelmi „profilját”. Ennek egy klasszikus megvalósulását mutatom be a Barbárok című novella érzelmi hatásának elemzésével, ahol tézisem szerint a feszültség az irodalmi narratíva tekintetében két legmeghatározóbb morális érzelembe: a haragba és a morális undorba vezet át.
Negatív érzelmek Kafka Az Átváltozás című művében és a mű olvasásakor
Authors: Szabó Dr. Erzsébet
Published: September 2022

A tanulmány a negatív érzelmek szerepét tárgyalja Franz Kafka Az átváltozás című novellájában a kognitív narratológia eszközeivel. Alapvetően a főszereplőre adott érzelmekkel foglalkozik. Elsőként a családtagok fiktív érzelmi reakcióit, azaz az ábrázolt érzelmeket, majd a szövegstratégiák által támogatott befogadói érzelmeket vizsgálja. A szövegstratégiákat azonosítva bemutatja, hogy a szöveg az olvasóban Gregorral szemben egy a fikcionális szereplők által bejárt érzelmi úttal – a Gregortól való távolodás állomásait leíró félelem-undor-düh érzelmi ívvel – ellentétes, közelítő érzelemív kiváltódását támogatja. Továbbá a szöveg értelmezésén keresztül amellett érvel, hogy Az átváltozás alapvetően érzelmeket ábrázol és érzelmek kiváltására törekszik. Miközben a mű az értelmi megértés szintjén rejtélyes és szemantikailag széttartó, az érzelmi megértés szintjén egy irányba mutat, és egy univerzálisan érthető és elérhető megértési élményt nyújt.
A félelem játszóterén
Authors: Szilvássy Orsolya
Published: September 2022

A tanulmány az érzelmi és irodalmi nevelés kapcsolatára fókuszál egy
negatív érzelem, a félelem vonatkozásában. Az írás a kognitív
gyermekirodalom-kritika nézőpontjához igazodva azon a belátáson alapul,
hogy az irodalom által fejleszthető képességek és ismeretek
elválaszthatatlanok a valós tapasztalatoktól, továbbá az irodalmi befogadás
nemcsak elősegíti a kognitív és érzelmi fejlődést, hanem ez utóbbiak
nélkülözhetetlen előfeltétele is. A tanulmány különböző szövegfajták
vizsgálatával több példán keresztül azt mutatja be, hogy hogyan megy végbe
a „játékos tanulás” irodalmi terepen, milyen tipikusnak mondható
technikákkal és stratégiákkal jelenik meg a félelem motívuma és érzése a
különböző korosztályokat megszólító gyermek- és ifjúsági irodalmi
szövegekben, illetve mivel gyarapodhat általuk a kiskorú befogadó a
„félelem játszóterén”. A vizsgálat eredményeként levonható az az általános
következtés, hogy a gyermek- és ifjúsági irodalmi szövegek a negatív
érzéseket az olvasó korosztály igényeinek megfelelően a művészi ábrázolás
bevált technikái révén határok közé szorítják, illetve az irodalom érzelmi
literációs funkciója olyan inherens funkció, amely elválaszthatatlan az
esztétikai hatástól.
Jazz and the Caribbean
Authors: Lespinasse Patricia G.
Published: September 2022

This chapter explores resistance in the Caribbean American jazz narrative. The chapter discusses how the jazz ethos is depicted as the quintessential marker of freedom and agency for immigrants attempting to assimilate into American culture in Edwidge Danticat’s Breath, Eyes, Memory. It begins with an analysis of the presence of jazz through the character portrayal of Joseph in order to demonstrate how jazz music is prevalent throughout the text and is used as the bridge that connects the various diasporic identities in the novel. It then explores how the Haitian oral tradition of Andaki, coded language, is akin to the African American tradition of cry and response, both exhibiting that through oral traditions a culture may resist the dominant linguistic ideologies and subjects can thereby gain power. It also discusses the Andaki dialect and compares it to the unspoken language of Vodou by interrogating the presence of Erzulie and how Erzulie is constructed as the wild woman archetype. It also explores the role of intimate violence in the novel as one that echoes the trope of incestuous rape found in African American texts and demonstrates how Danticat complicates the incest taboo by figuring women as the main victimizers of the female body.
The Fisher King and The Women of Jazz
Authors: Lespinasse Patricia G.
Published: September 2022

Chapter Six further expounds on the significance of jazz and gender within the Caribbean American novel. This chapter focuses on Paule Marshall’s The Fisher King and proposes a matrilineal reading of the women who populate the narrative and serve as the archival bodies that “pass on” the legacy of jazz and ultimately free the music from its structural bondage through language and image. The author contends that Marshall creates a space (literally and figuratively) for Black female agency and challenges male­dominated narratives about jazz music in America and abroad. Marshall constructs varied images of Black women as improvisers/innovators/creators in order to place women at the center of jazz literary discourse. Ultimately, The Fisher King becomes a prime example of Marshall’s uncanny ability to (re)inscribe the interconnections between Black women, jazz music, and African diaspora literature.
Toward a Womanist Jazz Lens
Authors: Lespinasse Patricia G.
Published: September 2022

The conclusion reiterates the central claims in The Drum Is a Wild Woman and examines the literary politics and poetics found in jazz poetry and dance. The chapter returns to Duke Ellington’s musical allegory, A Drum Is a Woman, as a critical lens to analyze Jayne Cortez’s revisionist poetry and Carmen De Lavallade’s jazz choreography. Similar to previous chapters, the musical allegory contains the three tropes and can be viewed as the “call” to which Cortez and De Lavallade “respond.” By exploring the presence of these tropes in other genres, I extend the jazz lens and establish an interdisciplinary and transnational approach for reading gender in jazz discourse.
The Apotheosis of Tiger Woods
Authors: Yu Henry
Published: September 2022

This chapter presents an examination of seminal moments in the storied yet controversial career of golf’s Tiger Woods, i.e. his meteoric rise as the new face of golf, his well-publicized moments of infidelity that stained his All-American image and ended his marriage, and his dramatic resurgence that culminated in his 2019 Masters victory. The author offers a glimpse of how interpretations of Tiger Woods reflected the changing intersections of representations of race, sex, and sports. While many considered him a pioneering figure standing in parallel to Jackie Robinson, Woods’ backstory is too complex and too fraught with challenges to make such a comparison. Rather, in making sense of his life within the context of moral order, Wood’s narrative produced powerful stories of desire and aspiration amid the spectre of race, ethnicity, class, and the indignity of a sex scandal in the typically tight lipped and buttoned-down world of country club sport.
The Lion Queen
Authors: Coche Roxane
Published: September 2022

Using characters from the film The Lion King as a template, this chapter examines Michelle Akers’ soccer career and her medical challenges. Situating her as both a team elder as well as one of its most talented performers ever, the author presents Akers as a once and future force in American women’s soccer.
Reading Fernando Valenzuela and Fernandomania
Authors: Moraga Jorge
Published: September 2022

This chapter examines Fernandomania in the context of anti-immigrant discourses of the 1980s and how Valenzula’s popularity helped engage the Latino community in Los Angeles. This chapter also discusses how Valenzuela’s talent and popularity countered the traditional racial scripts typically assigned to Mexican immigrants.
Afterword
Authors: Lule Jack
Published: September 2022

The Afterword links together the chapters within the volume using Bob Dylan’s metaphor of “desolation row” as a frame. Among other themes, author Jack Lule presents that celebrity manipulation of media, while advantageous, often comes at a cost.
“Whither Mankind?”
Authors: Miller Cynthia J. , Bowdoin Van Riper A.
Published: September 2022

In the mid-1930s, the United States was torn. For some Americans, the advances in science and technology held the promise of the brave new world; for others, a future grounded in invention and innovation heralded a sterile world of control, order, and catastrophe—devoid of the compassion and optimistic ingenuity key to the national identity. In their chapter, Cynthia J. Miller and A. Bowdoin Van Riper situate the film serial The Phantom Empire within these contexts. A musical-western-science fiction hybrid, The Phantom Empire depicts heartland America’s fears of the future (loss of compassion, ingenuity, and control), which are embodied by the city of Murania, located 20,000 leagues beneath the familiar landscape of the rural American West. The serial thus represents a tug-of-war between the vibrant, rough-edged world of the American heartland—complete with all its vulnerabilities, failings, and imperfections—and the dispassionate, controlled world of the future.
“It’s Not Good Here Anymore”
Authors: Wasserman Andrew
Published: September 2022

Andrew Wasserman’s chapter examines how Kenny Scharf revisited mid-Cold War fantasies of nuclear energy, nuclear weaponry, and space travel as usable content for coping with late-Cold War fears in American cities. Wasserman focuses on the early-nineteen-eighties videos The Sparkle End and Carousel of Progress and reads them as visions of the short- and long-term effects of urban nuclear destruction. As Wasserman suggests, the videos’ emphasis on the city as a place of disaster and refuge are reflective of urban unease in the Carter era resolved through the products of the Kennedy and Johnson eras.
Sylvester Stallone and Urban Order in the 1980s and 1990s
Authors: Pagnoni Berns Fernando Gabriel
Published: September 2022

In this chapter, Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns discusses two iconic science fiction cities of the 1990s, Mega-City One and San Angeles. These two cities feature prominently in two Sylvester Stallone vehicles, Demolition Man and Judge Dredd. As Berns demonstrates, the clearly gendered attributes ascribed to the two cities, in fact, epitomize the crisis of masculinity, which defined the 1990s. The lack of clarity of what type of masculinity would be ideal in this new decade, Berns argues, echoes the lack of clarity concerning urban policies. Accordingly, Demolition Man mourns the end of the 1980s, while Judge Dredd engages more directly with urban problems haunting the 1990s, such as the war on drugs, which was interconnected with “cleaning up” (and thus whitening) the image of the city.
“We Speak Another Language Here”
Authors: McAdams James
Published: September 2022

In his contribution to this volume, James McAdams explores Samuel R. Delany’s classic novel Dhalgren and the city of Bellona. McAdams suggests that Bellona’s schizoid character and resultant lack of structure has positive effects on its inhabitants. The utopian space, McAdams argues, celebrates the seemingly chaotic power of creativity and puts those into the spotlight who are usually pushed to the fringes.
Terraforming and the City
Authors: Pak Chris
Published: September 2022

Chris Pak’s chapter examines worlds beyond our own. Focusing on Arthur C. Clarke’s novel The Sands of Mars, Frederick Turner’s Genesis: An Epic Poem, and Kim Stanley Robinsons Mars trilogy, Pak argues that representations of animals, plants, and bacteria are fundamental to how terraforming narratives conceive of cities as centers for the technological transformation of worlds. This chapter thus discusses how nonhuman nature is incorporated into images of the city; after all, terraforming is centrally concerned with a future dominated by global cities, communication technologies, and the corporate influence on society, politics, and economics.
World War I Activism
Authors: Karpf Juanita
Published: September 2022

During the World War I years, white Americans held huge public rallies for the purposes of demonstrating and promoting patriotic zeal and commitment. These events included communal singing of patriotic songs. However, blacks were not welcome at these events, especially in the South. Hackley, therefore, produced her own public extravaganzas and led enormous audiences and community choirs in performances of patriotic songs. She also reconfigured her stage repertoire in order to concentrate on performances of spirituals and to promote the music of black composers. Her events also included elaborate pageantry and costuming that showcased black dramatic talent.
Chronic Illness and New Thought
Authors: Karpf Juanita
Published: September 2022

Hackley projected to the public an image of a healthy, robust and energetic teacher, musician and activist. However, in reality, she suffered from chronic ill health and intermittent impaired hearing during much of her career. She occasionally was forced to alter her singing repertoire or change her touring schedule because of recurring respiratory problems. Moreover, as a person with hearing loss, she experienced life as a disabled person. In this regard, her efforts to mask her physical frailty and limitations bore resemblance to those of a few of her activist contemporaries, notable among them, Mary Church Terrell. Hackley’s allegiance to New Thought principles invites speculation as to whether or not she felt she realized any benefit from mental healing. Hackley’s experiences also underscore the challenges blacks faced when attempting to obtain competent and timely medical care. She knew these challenges firsthand through the many hospitalizations and surgeries she endured.
Mythic Expressions of Goddess Culture and Mythology
Authors: Magoulick Mary J.
Published: September 2022

Scholars like Cynthia Eller, Philip G. David, Mary Lefkowitz and contemporary feminist archaeologists (like Lynn Meskell, Lucy Goodison, Christine Morris, and others) demonstrate how goddess ideas today (what the author calls “Goddess Culture”) reveal patriarchal patterns, roots, and ideas. Specific quotes from Starhawk, Donna Read, Carol Christ and others promote the positive power of Goddess Culture. Since goddess beliefs form a popular new myth today, the author then examines some major concepts and frameworks of myth scholars to understand how myth works. Based on films, books, and quotes from Goddess practitioners and influencers (like Zsuzsanna Budapest, Margot Adler, Gimbutas, Starhawk, Joan Marler, and others), basic beliefs and characterisations of The Goddess Myth have mythological understanding applied, revealing, among other things, how the myth demonstrates many binary oppositions, both in the way the myth is told, and how it is discussed.
The Good Goddess in Popular Fiction
Authors: Magoulick Mary J.
Published: September 2022

Popular fantasy or speculative fiction by women often embraces ideas of Goddess Culture and matriarchal prehistory in positive but essentialized ways. Jean Auel’s bestselling Earth’s Children series (1980 - 2011) features heroine Ayla, a human raised by Neanderthals who then finds other humans, in Upper Paleolithic Europe. Ayla becomes a shamanistic leader of a peaceful, goddess-mother-worshipping culture. Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Avalon series, especially The Mists of Avalon (1983), set during King Arthur’s time, focuses mainly on Morgaine, recast here as the good heroine and priestess of Mother-Goddess worshipping culture, that sadly falls before Patriarchy and Christianity during the novel. Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad (2005) focuses on Odysseus’ wife and how she is haunted by the hanging of her twelve maids, conceived as an overthrow of matriarchal prehistory. Such popular, speculative fiction by women writers romanticizes goddess culture, showing matriarchy as mostly, sadly gone, disappearing, or largely forgotten.
Mixed Messages in Modern Myths
Authors: Magoulick Mary J.
Published: September 2022

Some fictional Goddesses by women writers in recent years exist more complexly toward a middle of the spectrum—mixing dark and light, troubling and promising qualities. These less completely dualistic goddesses seem more aligned with intersectional feminism, incorporating multicultural and feminist characters who offer actionable hope. Madeline Miller’s Circe (2018), is a goddess/witch who suffers but uses will and hard work to carve out a good life. Tomi Adeyemi’s Zelié (heroine of Children of Blood and Bone, 2018), tormented for her magical power, finds love via a goddess, and promises to change her world. N.K. Jemisin creates Yeine (The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, 2010) and Essun (The Broken Earth trilogy), brown women who rise to goddess-hood after hardships and death. They demonstrate both will and power to re-make their worlds “better.” Speculative fiction that perceives the world’s troubles but nonetheless works to “weaponize optimism” can be called hopepunk.
Introduction
Authors: Trefzer Annette
Published: September 2022

This chapter showcases how the publication of Eudora Welty's One Time, One Place: Mississippi in the Depression: A Snapshot Album started serious critical considerations of her visual art. Welty used the radical, instructive, and disruptive potential of photography as art and social commentary to give perspective on the economic, gendered, and racial South history. Her photos reveal a society becoming increasingly mobile and a social sensibility that includes the life of African Americans in modern life and Agrarians' celebration of place. The chapter also notes Welty's pioneer work of photographing Mississippi when photographs first made their way into the Museum of Modern Art. It discusses the history of Welty's entire photography career.
Memorial Landscapes
Authors: Trefzer Annette
Published: September 2022

This chapter covers the memorial landscapes in Eudora Welty's photographs. Memorials are regarded as a distinct landscape with interesting markers, emotions, drama, and narratives. Moreover, Welty deemed memorials as ways by which people wanted to be to be remembered, which lets the cemetery become a performance of grief and mourning. Welty's visual agenda was to preserve Victorian cemetery art, representations of social class, and comment on racial spaces. Additionally, Welty's cemetery photographs invite such emotional flexibility. The chapter mentions how Welty deliberately included women so that they could be seen as part of everyday history. It highlights how the photographs showcase the change in memorial practices and landscapes, such as marble and granite tombstones.
Fruits
Authors: Meyer Abbye E.
Published: September 2022

“Fruits: Disability as a Literary Metaphor” illustrates how two-dimensional characters allow literary metaphors to work, while forcing texts to ignore reality and reinforce the harmful assumption that disability is a problem to be fixed. When metaphors combine adolescence with disability, their complexity enables radical retellings of familiar stories. With complexity and confusion, both of which keep disabled characters fully developed, The Secret Fruit of Peter Paddington and The Virgin Suicides resist simple readings. Similarly, while neither disability nor adolescence is expected to remain by the novels’ ends—much like traditional uses and understandings that force both identities to disappear with cures or growth—the characters in both novels choose their own fates. They and their disabilities—both real and fantastical—may disappear, but they do so on the characters’ terms.
Accidents
Authors: Meyer Abbye E.
Published: September 2022

“Accidents: Disability as a Political Identity” reclaims the derided genre of problem novels as texts that empower disabled characters and introduce the goals of disability-rights movements. Harriet McBryde Johnson’s Accidents of Nature, Terry Truman’s Inside Out (2003), and Ginny Rorby’s Hurt Go Happy (2006) all offer didactic lessons using disabled characters; they are problem novels. More importantly, these three young adult texts, which disrupt shallow problem-novel expectations, are disability narratives, which stand as complex works of literature that simultaneously explore and respond to political and social movements. A truly exceptional problem novel, Accidents of Nature places ample attention on political lessons, but does so by delving into complex and compelling social issues. Accidents of Nature works as an exemplary problem novel: a politicized text with a deliberate structure and well-developed characters that both explain and illustrate the primary “problem” with theoretical ideas and political causes.
Conclusion
Authors: Meyer Abbye E.
Published: September 2022

With a revolutionary and “participatory democratic nature,” digital media are reshaping and redefining young adult disability narratives, while also allowing digitally-based criticism to affect the reception of earlier narratives (Lee 2). The resultingly unstable mess of literary forms, narrative techniques, authorial identities, inconsistent expectations, unknown audiences, and forceful political messages, suggests that the reshaping and redefining is only beginning. Consequently, this project concludes with some of the “radical work,” engaging disability studies with scholarship of children’s literature, combined with anticipation of not-yet-produced work that will surely arise from the chaos, brimming with energy and literary experimentation. Ultimately, regardless of form, with messages like these, narratives thematically focused on both disability and adolescence, especially when inseparably linked, offer the power needed to radicalize literature and to unite people through love and solidarity.
The School Story
Authors: Aitchison David
Published: September 2022

This book takes as its subject the work of contemporary writers, filmmakers, and critics who, reflecting on the realm of school experience, help to shape dominant ideas of school. The works discussed are mostly stories for children and young adults: serious novels for teens including Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak and Faiza Guène’s Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow, the light-hearted, middle-grade fiction of Andrew Clements and Tommy Greenwald, and Malala Yousafzai’s autobiography for young readers, I Am Malala; or else stories that take young people as their primary subjects, novels such as Sapphire’s Push and films including Battle Royale and Cooties. Though ranging widely in their accounts of young life, such stories betray a mounting sense of crisis in education and development around the world, especially in terms of equity (the extent to which students from diverse backgrounds have fair chances of receiving quality education) and empowerment (the extent to which diverse students are encouraged to gain strength, confidence, and selfhood as learners).
Drawing particular attention to the influence of neoliberal initiatives on school experience, this study considers what it means when learning and success are measured more and more by entrepreneurship, competitive individualism, and marketplace gain. Especially interested in the ways in which power structures, institutional routines, school spaces, and social relations operate as forms in the contemporary school story, The School Story: Young Adult Narratives in the Age of Neoliberalism offers provocative insights into a genre that speaks profoundly to the increasingly precarious position of education in the twenty-first century.
Teenage Authors, Marketplace Consciousness, and the Deregulation of Childhood in the Age of Neoliberalism
Authors: Aitchison David , Aitchison David
Published: September 2022

Chapter 5, “Teenage Authors, Marketplace Consciousness, and the Deregulation of Childhood in the Age of Neoliberalism,” discusses contemporary authors who have written, sold, or published their work while still of school age, on the assumption that it matters how students themselves give voice to their desires to learn and grow in the neoliberal era. The works discussed are Malala Yousafzai’s I Am Malala and Faiza Guène’s Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow. Though neither is a school story in the conventional sense, both narratives are rooted in crises brought on by neoliberal conditions that take the protagonists away from the everyday practices and routines of school but not from its structures of purpose and feeling. Foregrounding the social networks in these stories of the Moroccan-immigrant projects in Paris and Taliban-occupied Pakistan, this chapter considers how such narratives renegotiate conventional child/citizen boundaries troubled by the market-oriented structures of global capitalism in the early-twenty-first century.
The Real Ambassadors
Authors: Hatschek Keith
Published: September 2022

The Real Ambassadors tells the story of three determined artists: Louis Armstrong, Dave Brubeck, and Iola Brubeck, and the stand they took against segregation by writing and performing a jazz musical titled The Real Ambassadors. First conceived by the Brubecks in 1956, the musical’s journey to the stage for its 1962 premiere tracks extraordinary twists and turns across the backdrop of the civil rights movement. A variety of colorful characters, from Broadway impresarios to gang-connected managers, surface in the riveting storyline. During the Cold War, the US State Department enlisted some of America’s greatest musicians to serve as jazz ambassadors, touring the world to trumpet a so-called "free society." Honored as celebrities abroad, the jazz ambassadors, who were overwhelmingly African Americans, returned home to racial discrimination and deferred dreams. The Brubecks used this double standard as the central message for the musical, deploying humor and pathos to share perspectives on American values. On September 23, 1962, The Real Ambassadors’ stunning debut moved a packed arena at the Monterey Jazz Festival to laughter, joy, and tears. Although critics unanimously hailed the performance, it sadly became a footnote in cast members’ bios. The enormous cost of reassembling the star-studded cast made the creation impossible to stage and tour. However, The Real Ambassadors caps this jazz story by detailing how the show was triumphantly revived in 2014 by Jazz at Lincoln Center. This reaffirmed the musical’s place as an integral part of America’s jazz history, and served as an important reminder of how artists’ voices are a powerful force for social change.
Securing Satchmo
Authors: Hatschek Keith
Published: September 2022

Brubeck and Armstrong met one night in December 1958 in his Chicago hotel room, and after learning that the show would include a plea for equal rights as well as the opportunity to tackle new material written expressly for him, Armstrong enthusiastically agreed to join the cast. Manager Joe Glaser kept informed of the plans underway, and skillfully navigated Armstrong’s possible involvement with an eye toward only considering offers that would increase, not diminish, Armstrong’s earnings. Drawing on extensive correspondence between Glaser and the Brubecks, the author concludes the economics of staging the show were a prime concern of the veteran manager.
A Promising Proposal
Authors: Hatschek Keith
Published: September 2022

Although interest was found in U.S. producers, it was a London agent whom had befriended the Brubecks on their 1958 tour, Harold Davison, who offered to put together a tour of Great Britain if a cast could be assembled within the time and budget parameters he proposed. Brubeck also appeared in a British film about jazz and met an expatriate American director, Bob Roberts, who also considered a film adaptation of The Real Ambassadors.
The Demo Most Ever Expensive Made
Authors: Hatschek Keith
Published: September 2022

Putting that much talent together in the studio was an expensive undertaking and the busy touring schedules of each artist meant the entire album had to be recorded in only a few sessions. For most of them, they would meet their musical collaborators for the very first time in the recording studio! The music was complex, demanding the highest levels of musicianship from each of the performers. In the moment, they sensed that the collaboration of four different artists, each with a unique style, was a singular moment in jazz history. Word leaked out about the fascinating collaboration and other musicians tried to get in to observe the recordings so much so that the sessions had to be closed, even to close friends. The musicians became cheerleaders for each other as they explored the new music together and created a timeless recording that fully showcased their talents.
Messengers of Change
Authors: Hatschek Keith
Published: September 2022

In the wake of the recording sessions, Armstrong and Brubeck both use the press to promote the new musical and discuss how important its messages are to readers in the U. S. and U.K. The Brubecks felt frustration as no concrete plans to present the show materialized, even though Brubeck tried to swing a performance of the musical at the first international jazz festival in Washington, D.C., being sponsored by the State Department. Armstrong was not available for the opportunity. However, copies of some of the songs from the sessions were circulating among jazz festival promoters and in spring of 1962 an idea took hold to premiere the show that fall.
Rediscovering The Real Ambassadors
Authors: Hatschek Keith
Published: September 2022

The show became a footnote in the careers of its stellar cast, due to the astronomical costs of reuniting the artists for a tour. However, beginning with the CD reissue in 1994, interest slowly grew to the point where discussions and plans to revive show on stage began to develop, leading to newly staged SRO performances in Detroit, New York City, and Memphis.
Introduction
Authors: Shealy Daniel
Published: September 2022

This historical and critical introduction discusses the creation and publication of Little Women, traces influence of the novel on popular culture, examines the scholarly critical response, and demonstrates how these new essays show us that Little Women and its illustrations still have riches to reveal to its readers in the 21st century. Utilizing various critical approaches, the essays are not focused around a particular topic or theme. Instead, they are richly eclectic, revealing the complexity and sophistication of Alcott’s most famous work.
Paranormal Survivors
Authors: Lawrence Amy
Published: September 2022

Presenting themselves as “ordinary Americans” (neither psychics nor investigators), people provide eye-witness accounts of their traumatic experiences with the paranormal. Their stories of how their “dream home” became a nightmare echo accounts of the 2008 economic crisis and following recession. Because of the complexity of their emotional, economic, and familial problems, it is often difficult for these witnesses to articulate the pressures they have been under. What is clear is that these members of the struggling middle class have been traumatized, their basic assumptions about how the world works severely shaken. Their primary goal is validation, but whether they are truly empowered to tell their own stories is problematized by the mix of documentary technique (interviews, voice-over narration) and the blatant artifice of dramatized flashbacks (“horror-movie” music, lighting, shock cuts, etc.).
My Favorite Medium
Authors: Lawrence Amy
Published: September 2022

Shows about psychic-mediums emphasize the consoling/healing function of middle-aged women as they allay lingering cultural anxiety regarding women wielding power. Defined as “sensitive,” women address issues of personal loss and individual trauma by presenting positive “messages from spirit” or helping troubled spirits move on. Although they communicate with the dead, they are normalized by being depicted interacting with middle class people in well-lit domestic spaces. Sometimes, though, older psychic-mediums openly challenge traditional definitions of gender as they supplement and correct male-dominated, empirical police methods by channeling victims of crime.
Confronting Evil
Authors: Lawrence Amy
Published: September 2022

The otherwise suppressed religious roots of the supernatural come to the fore when mediums and investigators confront the demonic. These programs stress the danger that can result when amateurs disavow authority and act on their own (contacting spirits through Ouija boards, attempting to cast spells). The darkest possible outcomes (cursed objects, demonic possession) are shown to require specialists (exorcists) whose specialized training and rituals exceed the abilities of average Americans. While films about exorcists have been very successful, this chapter explores why it has been difficult to sustain a series focused on this particular supernatural subject (including the overtly religious subject matter; the displacement of average Americans in favor of specialists; the futility of permanently defeating persistent evil).
The Southern Outlaw and the White Indian in Western Comics
Authors: Benson Josef , Singsen Doug
Published: September 2022

Chapter Two argues that violence and the myth of racial blood purity represent the two most visible characteristics of the American Western genre, which are represented in American comics by the figure of the gunfighter and the white Indian. The origins of the outlaw bandit and gunslinger in American culture and myth center on his repudiation of government enforced emancipation. The white Indian, more often than not and despite his exposure to non-whiteness, demonstrates his loyalties to the white power structure by using his knowledge of the other against him.
Robert Crumb’S Cathartic Racism
Authors: Benson Josef , Singsen Doug
Published: September 2022

Chapter Five points out that in the 1960s Robert Crumb, the most prominent figure of the Underground Comix movement, became infamous and controversial for creating overtly racist comic book characters like Angelfood McSpade. Crumb’s unapologetic attitude for these characters stems from his belief that he was simply offering an accurate portrayal of the white unconscious. However, he seemingly failed to understand the effects of these racist caricatures as well as his own role in the advancement of white supremacy.
Jewish Exceptionalism and Assimilation in the 1970s and 1980s
Authors: Benson Josef , Singsen Doug
Published: September 2022

Chapter Six outlines a divide between a Jewish cartoonist from comics’ first generation, Will Eisner, and a group of second-generation Jewish cartoonists over the identity of Jews as defined in relation to whites and other ethnic groups. Eisner adopts a narrative that posits Jews as the ideal white Americans. Coming from a diverse set of backgrounds, Art Spiegelman, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, and Harvey Pekar reject this narrative, acknowledging the messy reality of Jewishness in relation to white assimilation and non-whites.
Reskinning Narratives
Authors: Benson Josef , Singsen Doug
Published: September 2022

Chapter Ten offers that over the past several decades, American comic publishers Marvel and DC have presented black versions of traditional superheroes. The chapter argues that in most cases the white superheroes give up their power unwillingly and quickly try to take it back. These reskinning narratives demonstrate both the investment that the fictional white superheroes have in their powers as well as the investment in whiteness of the narratives’ authors, who ultimately refused to supplant their white superheroes in any meaningful way. The miniseries Truth represents an important departure from this earlier pattern of reskinning by positing a parallel history to Captain America embodied in the black Captain America Isaiah Bradley, who is presented as a very capable superhero, recontextualizing Captain America. Ms. Marvel: No Normal, featuring Kamala Khan, a Pakistani-American, displays the potential political power in reskinning narratives that operate beyond the pale of the original white superheroes.
Fear, Hate, and Victimhood
Authors: Stoner Andrew E.
Published: September 2022

It didn’t take long for comparisons between Donald J. Trump and George C. Wallace to emerge. Entering Presidential politics in 2016 with language that startled many – referring to the nation as a “dumping ground” and labeling Mexican immigrants to the U.S. (presumably documented and undocumented) as “murderers and rapists” – Trump revived the Wallace politics of resentment. Rhetoric based in insult, resentment, xenophobia, and even anger was the guidebook for Trump’s candidacy, and none of it seemed to slow down his quest for the White House. His voters excused such excesses as just part of the show, part of Trump “telling it like it is,” just as they had four decades earlier for Wallace.
The contrasts and comparisons between Trump and Wallace are valid, and at the center of this examination. But beyond a reciting, however, of the instances where their speech and approaches broke new ground for political venom and contempt, a rhetorical analysis of the two men and their campaigns provides valuable insights. Such an analysis helps in understanding American politics in Wallace and Trump eras separated by almost half a century, but ones sharing the tumult and discomfort of profound change facing the nation.
Considered through a frame of rhetorical analysis, especially one embracing ideas forwarded about “demagogic rhetoric,” we gain a greater perspective on these two men, and what their campaigns mean about them, but also what they mean and represent about ourselves. Through the lens of ideas posited by rhetorical scholars, along with a deep look at primary and secondary sources from the Wallace years, we can begin to understand how we have arrived in the Trump era that seems so antithetical to what has come before.
Politics of Crisis and the In-Group
Authors: Stoner Andrew E.
Published: September 2022

Consistent technique of demagogic rhetoric from Trump and Wallace is the creation of specific groups in which people are assigned, a demarcation of good people vs. bad people. From this, a rich flow of disinformation, propaganda, deception, half-truths and falsehoods is created to strengthen in-group thinking about those outside of the in-group. Race is often a primary boundary of such groupings. Wallace exploited race, while Trump exploited immigration to create a “rhetoric of resentment” that reinforces ideas of crises or threats to members of the in-group; grievances are amplified and advanced; xenophobia, ethnocentrism and white nationalism persist.
Politics of Establishment Antipathy
Authors: Stoner Andrew E.
Published: September 2022

Fierce antipathy of the establishment is used to reinforce ideas of in-group identity focused on government, media, education and all institutional forces. A basis for these feelings is a belief that Wallace/Trump were among a rare number of authentic and honest establishment figures, while other leaders have led the masses astray. Supporters are signalled that the establishment is most concerned with “exotic” minority groups; for Wallace this included integration of universities and schools. Historic slights are often revived, including revisionist view of Civil War as “the Lost Cause” to support feelings of powerlessness against establishment forces pushing political and social change.
Politics Mediated
Authors: Stoner Andrew E.
Published: September 2022

This chapter explores the role of media in covering political campaigns as adventure and entertainment, with a lack of focus on issues or policy discussion. Public imagery and public relations aspects override examination of thorough appraisal of candidate positions. The author examines: symbiotic relationship of the media and candidates; creation of “good copy” for reporters; development of relationships between journalists and campaigns. There is a trend of placing blame on the media for simmering discontent and controversy – “blame the messenger.” Increased uses and gratifications by media audiences moves political discourse more toward entertainment. The author investigates the growing resentment of and threats to a free press, the supplanting traditional media via social media, and the “dramatic potential” of television to cast candidates as characters, allowing them to override issues of absence of logic, pandering, or manipulation.
Make-Believe and Reality
Authors: Lindey Sara , King Jason
Published: September 2022

In Chapter 1, the authors examine the apocalyptic narrative unfolding in this week’s Neighborhood of Make-Believe. Here, a trash calamity swiftly advances, shutting down the school and expanding to the cities of Southwood and Westwood. Many neighbors pitch in to help, from the intergalactic television show The Universe Today to puppet Hilda Dingleboarder’s recycling machine to the neighboring goats’ recycling plan. With his signature emphasis on emotional development, Rogers makes space for anxiety while emphasizing teamwork and imaginative problem solving. Rogers’ apocalypse is a revelatory vision that helps us to see ourselves connected to others so that we might care for others as we care for ourselves.
Puppets and Animal Wisdom
Authors: Lindey Sara , King Jason
Published: September 2022

In Chapter 3, the authors focus on how Rogers’ puppets deepen emotional and empathetic capabilities to empower children. The Neighborhood of Make-Believe is filled with interspecies kin, with animals, puppets, humans, and humans dressed as animals, all living together, with some acting as members of the same family. Dramatizing the familial connections among animals and things, Rogers showcases how to develop an ecological conversion. This conversion begins with developing a greater understanding and celebration of interconnection among people, animals, things, and ecosystems. It enables a turning toward the self and others in renewed empathy and joy.
“Tree Tree Tree”
Authors: Lindey Sara , King Jason
Published: September 2022

In Chapter 5, the authors take a broader view, locating in the song “Tree Tree Tree” Rogers’ long-standing interest in connections between people, places, animals, plants, and things. The song is used to show that children and parents are still connected, even when parents have to leave to go to work. The music is played by Yo-Yo Ma on the cello and by Handyman Negri and friends using recycled and found objects such as pipes, screwdrivers, and a handsaw. It is sung by Rogers and Queen Sara but also by Barbara Koski in Finnish and Peter Ostroushko in Ukrainian. This song about the natural world forges bonds between family members and cultures. Through this song, along with puppets, art, and toys, Rogers shows an interconnected world, one of ever-expanding care.
Introduction
Authors: Rambsy Kenton
Published: September 2022

In the Introduction, the author introduces the core concepts of the book and provides a brief description of each chapter. Using a dataset of one hundred anthologies, the author identifies seven prominent writers of African American short fiction. Technology is also used for “cultural geo-tagging,” a process of identifying, quantifying, and organizing the geographic markers across several stories. Geo-tagging is used to understand how Black writers make cultural spaces integral to their artwork. Beyond mentioning various places and settings, writers explore locations through the characters that they present. A focus on geography prompts consideration for what the author refers to as homegrown and outsider characters. The author establishes an approach that focuses on geographic settings and the positionality of characters, presenting special opportunities for considering vital elements that make short stories such captivating compositions.
Locating the Big 7
Authors: Rambsy Kenton
Published: September 2022

Chapter one clarifies how generations of editors solidified a Big 7 of major writers by repeatedly republishing their stories. Decisions by editors to publish select works by Chesnutt, Hurston, Wright, Ellison, Baldwin, Bambara, and Walker shaped the canonical history of African American short stories. Drawing from a dataset of one hundred anthologies published between 1925 and 2017, the chapter reveals how a relatively small number of writers and stories became so pervasive. The chapter explains how the imperative of recovering and promoting women writers advanced the circulation of stories by Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Cade Bambara, and Alice Walker. Finally, a consideration of a chronological approach, the preferred mode of arrangement by editors, pinpoints the reason the Big 7 emerged as they did.