Author: Marcus Baynes-Rock File Type: pdf Biologists studying large carnivores in wild places usually do so from a distance, using telemetry and noninvasive methods of data collection. So what happens when an anthropologist studies a clan of spotted hyenas, Africas second-largest carnivores, up closeand in a city of a hundred thousand inhabitants? In Among the Bone Eaters, Marcus Baynes-Rock takes us to the ancient city of Harar in Ethiopia, where the gey waraba (hyenas of the city) are welcome in the streets and appreciated by the locals for the protection they provide from harmful spirits and dangerous mountain hyenas. Theyve even become a local tourist attraction.At the start of his research in Harar, Baynes-Rock contended with difficult conditions, stone-throwing children, intransigent bureaucracy, and wary hyena subjects intent on avoiding people. After months of frustration, three young hyenas drew him into the hidden world of the Sofi clan. He discovered the elements of a hyenas life, from the delectability of dead livestock and the nuisance of dogs to the unbounded thrill of hyena chase-play under the light of a full moon. Baynes-Rocks personal relations with the hyenas from the Sofi clan expand the conceptual boundaries of human-animal relations. This is multispecies ethnography that reveals its messy, intersubjective, dangerously transformative potential.

Author: Nina Kolesnikoff File Type: pdf One of the most outstanding properties of Russian postmodernist fiction is its reliance on metafictional devices which foreground aspects of the writing, reading or structure, and draw attention to the constructed nature of fiction writing. Some common metafictional strategies include overt commentary on the process of writing, the presence of an obtrusive narrator, dehumanization of character, total breakdown of temporal and spatial organization and the undermining of specific literary conventions.This book examines the most representative postmodernist texts and addresses the following questions How widespread is the use of metafiction in contemporary Russian literature? What are its most pronounced forms? What is the function of metafictional devices? How innovative are Russian postmodernist writers in their use of metafictional techniques?This study reveals the unique contribution of postmodernist writers to the development of Russian literature through their systematic use of metafiction and their bold experimentation with new metafictional devices on all the principal levels of the text, including narration, plot, characterization, setting and language.**

Author: Frederic Portal File Type: pdf

Author: Joel H. Silbey File Type: epub In the spring of 1844, a fiery political conflict erupted over the admission of Texas into the Union. This hard-fought and bitter controversy profoundly changed the course of American history. Indeed, as Joel Silbey argues in Storm Over Texas, it marked the crucial moment when partisan differences were transformed into a North-vs-South antagonism, and the momentum towards Civil War leaped into high gear.Silbey, one of Americas most renowned political historians, offers a swiftly paced and compelling narrative of the Texas imbroglio, which included an exceptional cast of characters, from John C. Calhoun and John Quincy Adams, to James K. Polk and Martin Van Buren. We see how a series of unexpected moves, some planned, some inadvertent, sparked a crisis that intensified and crystallized the North-South divide. Sectionalism, Silbey shows, had often been intense, but rarely widespread and generally well contained by other forces. After Texas statehood, it became a driving force in national affairs, ultimately leading to Southern secession and Civil War.With subtlety, great care, and much imagination, Joel Silbey shows that this brief political struggle became, in the words of an Alabama congressman, the greatest question of the age--and a pivotal moment in American history.From Publishers Weekly The convulsive rearrangement of antebellum American politics around an increasingly bitter sectional divide is probed in this enlightening historical monograph, part of Oxfords Pivotal Moments in American History series. Historian Silbey situates the debate over the 1845 annexation of the Republic of Texas in the framework of the Jacksonian party politics that dominated the United States. Both the Democrats and the Whigs, he argues, were national parties with strong support in all sections, and they cooperated to downplay sectional politics, especially the issue of slavery, in favor of a national consensus over economic policy and territorial expansion. That all changed when Secretary of State John C. Calhoun, a pro-slavery firebrand, advanced the argument that Texas must be annexed to prevent it from falling into the orbit of abolitionist Great Britain, which would, he claimed, use it as a platform to undermine slavery in the United States. The policies of the incoming Democratic Polk administration, especially the maximalist claims about Texass boundaries that led to war with Mexico, further exacerbated the sectional polarization by making suspicious Northern Democrats lend credence to Northern Whigs claims of a conspiratorial slave power controlling national government. These developments, Silbey contends, set the stage for the 1850s breakdown of nationwide political alliances in favor of an increasingly vitriolic antagonism between North and South. Silbey presents a lucid, fine-grained political history, complete with nuanced profiles of political leaders, that illuminates this watershed era of American history. Review ...a well-researched and well-argued treatise. -- Reviews in American History Enlightening.... Silbey presents a lucid, fine-grained political history, complete with nuanced profiles of political leaders, that illuminates this watershed era of American history.-- Publishers Weekly As a watershed episode in the collapse into ominous sectionalism, the politics of Texass admission into the American Union have long demanded special attention. Fusing pacy narrative with shrewd analysis, this splendid book confirms Joel Silbeys reputation as one of the most discerning of American political historians.--Richard Carwardine, Rhodes Professor of American History, University of Oxford, author of Lincoln One of Americas best political historians here demonstrates that Texas Annexation was one of the nations prime turning points. Silbeys clear writing, impressive learning, and balanced judgments make this book a valuable addition to the excellent Pivotal Moments series.--William W. Freehling, author of The Road to Disunion Secessionists at Bay, 1776-1854 Few, if any, living historians know as much about nineteenth-century American politics and public policy as Joel Silbey. Here he lavishes that mastery on what is arguably the most pivotal turning point on the road to Civil War--the annexation of Texas and the sectional controversy that annexation ignited. This conjunction of masterful historian with an all-important subject yields a book of unquestionable significance to anyone interested in what caused the American Civil War.--Michael F. Holt, author of The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War Thomas Jefferson may have heard a firebell in the night when Missouri applied for statehood, but veteran political historian Silbeys cogent analysis suggests that Texas created an even greater crisis two decades later, one that fundamentally altered American party politics, spreading sectional passions more deeply and pervasively than ever before. His work clarifies and sharpens our understanding of how sectional forces played out in politics to bring about a civil war.--Phyllis F. Field, Associate Professor of History, Ohio University