representations of the body in middle english biblical drama combines epistemological enquiry, gender theory and foucauldian concepts to investigate the body as a useful site for studying power, knowledge and truth. intertwining the conceptualizations of violence and the performativity of gender identity and roles, estella ciobanu argues that studying violence in drama affords insights into the cultural and social aspects of the later middle ages. the text investigates these biblical plays through the perspective of the devil and offers a unique lens that exposes medieval disquiets about christian teachings and the discourse of power. through detailed primary source analysis and multidisciplinary scholarship, ciobanu constructs a text that interrogates the significance of performance far beyond the stage.

following world war ii, german antifascists and nationalists in buenos aires believed theater was crucial to their highly politicized efforts at community-building, and each population devoted considerable resources to competing against its rival onstage. competing germanies tracks the paths of several stage actors from european theaters to buenos aires and explores how two of argentina's most influential immigrant groups, german nationalists and antifascists (jewish and non-jewish), clashed on the city's stages. covered widely in german- and spanish-language media, theatrical performances articulated strident nazi, antifascist, and zionist platforms. meanwhile, as their thespian representatives grappled onstage for political leverage among emigrants and argentines, behind the curtain, conflicts simmered within partisan institutions and among theatergoers. publicly they projected unity, but offstage nationalist, antifascist, and zionist populations were rife with infighting on issues of political allegiance, cultural identity and, especially, integration with their argentine hosts.

competing germanies reveals interchange and even mimicry between antifascist and nationalist german cultural institutions. furthermore, performances at both theaters also fit into contemporary invocations of diasporas, including taboos and postponements of return to the native country, connections among multiple communities, and forms of longing, memory, and (dis)identification. sharply divergent at first glance, their shared condition as cultural institutions of emigrant populations caused the antifascist free german stage and the nationalist german theater to adopt parallel tactics in community-building, intercultural relationships, and dramatic performance.

its cross-cultural, polyglot blend of german, jewish, and latin american studies gives competing germanies a wide, interdisciplinary academic appeal and offers a novel intervention in exile studies through the lens of theater, in which both victims of nazism and its adherents remain in focus.

a groundbreaking work on how the topic of scale provides an entirely new understanding of inca material culture

although questions of form and style are fundamental to art history, the issue of scale has been surprisingly neglected. yet, scale and scaled relationships are essential to the visual cultures of many societies from around the world, especially in the andes. in scale and the incas, andrew hamilton presents a groundbreaking theoretical framework for analyzing scale, and then applies this approach to inca art, architecture, and belief systems.

the incas were one of humanity's great civilizations, but their lack of a written language has prevented widespread appreciation of their sophisticated intellectual tradition. expansive in scope, this book examines many famous works of inca art including machu picchu and the dumbarton oaks tunic, more enigmatic artifacts like the sayhuite stone and capacocha offerings, and a range of relatively unknown objects in diverse media including fiber, wood, feathers, stone, and metalwork. ultimately, hamilton demonstrates how the incas used scale as an effective mode of expression in their vast multilingual and multiethnic empire.

lavishly illustrated with stunning color plates created by the author, the book's pages depict artifacts alongside scale markers and silhouettes of hands and bodies, allowing readers to gauge scale in multiple ways. the pioneering visual and theoretical arguments of scale andthe incas not only rewrite understandings of inca art, but also provide a benchmark for future studies of scale in art from other cultures.

el chavo del ocho is one of the most influential pieces of popular culture to have hit latin america in the last 50 years, having, at the peak of its popularity in the mid-1970s, reached an approximate audience of 350 million across the americas. it is also a rare example of a cultural product that has travelled through latin america, leaving a lasting impact for several decades.

resonances of el chavo del ocho in latin american childhood, schooling, and societies analyses the phenomenon of el chavo, and its images of schooling and childhood, latin american-ness, class and experience. with contributions from scholars emerging from or based in countries including brazil, mexico, chile, puerto rico, argentina, venezuela, colombia and the us, the book combines reflections from a variety of international perspectives without attempting to compare or reach consensus on any ultimate meaning(s) of the work. the book explores themes such as images of schooling and childhood, romantization of poverty, the prevalence of non-traditional families and the bordering cynicism towards the economic structures and inequalities which, some argue, make the show transgressive and quite uniquely latin american. investigating the connection between visual culture studies and transcultural curriculum studies, this innovative title provides scholars with original new insights into conceptualizing childhood, schooling and society in latin america.

sissi's world offers a transdisciplinary approach to the study of the habsburg empress elisabeth of austria. it investigates the myths, legends, and representations across literature, art, film, and other media of one of the most popular, revered, and misunderstood female figures in european cultural history.

sissi's world explores the cultural foundations for the endurance of the sissi legends and the continuing fascination with the beautiful empress: a bavarian duchess born in 1837, the longest-serving austrian empress, and the queen of hungary who died in 1898 at the hands of a crazed anarchist.

despite the continuing fascination with "the beloved sissi," the habsburg empress, her impact, and legacy have received scant attention from scholars. this collection will go beyond the popular biographical accounts, recountings of her mythic beauty, and scattered studies of her well-known eccentricities to offer transdisciplinary cultural perspectives across art, film, fashion, history, literature, and media.

for half a century, leo bersani's texts have inspired, resisted, guided, and challenged work in the fields of literary criticism, literary theory, queer theory, cultural studies, psychoanalytic theory, and film and visual studies. concluding with an interview with bersani, this is the first book-length introduction to bersani's oeuvre.

leo bersani: living theory chronologically follows the development of bersani's thought from his engagement in the 1960s and 1970s with french and american modernist fiction and his early articulations of poststructuralist theory (derrida, deleuze, foucault, blanchot), before moving to his work on psychoanalysis and to his groundbreaking formulations of what would become queer theory in the 1990s. the final chapter proposes a dialogue between bersanian ethics/aesthetics and the recent emergence of disability theory.

in the centennial cure, the second volume in the studies in atlantic canada history series, meaghan elizabeth beaton critically examines the intersection of state policy, cultural development, and commemoration in nova scotia during canada's centennial celebrations.

beaton's engaging and insightful analysis of four case studies-- the establishment of the cape breton miners' museum, the construction of halifax's centennial swimming pool, the community improvement program, and the 1967 nova scotia highland games and folk festival--reveals the province's attempts to reimagine and renew public spaces. through these case studies beaton illuminates the myriad ways in which nova scotians saw themselves, in the context of modernity and ethnic identity, during the post-war years. the successes and failures of these infrastructure and cultural projects, intended to foster and develop cultural capital, reflected the socio-economic realities and dreams of local communities. the centennial cure shifts our focus away from the dominant studies on expo'67 to provide a nuanced and tension filled account of how canada's 1967 centennial celebrations were experienced in other parts of canada.

in the last half-century ludwig wittgenstein's relevance beyond analytic philosophy, to continental philosophy, to cultural studies, and to the arts has been widely acknowledged.

wittgenstein's tractatus logico-philosophicus was published in 1922 - the annus mirabilis of modernism - alongside joyce's ulysses, eliot's the waste land, mansfield's the garden party and woolf's jacob's room. bertolt brecht's first play to be produced, drums in the night, was first staged in 1922, as was jean cocteau's antigone, with settings by pablo picasso and music by arthur honegger. in different ways, all these modernist landmarks dealt with the crisis of representation and the demise of eternal metaphysical and ethical truths. wittgenstein's tractatus can be read as defining, expressing and reacting to this crisis. in his later philosophy, wittgenstein adopted a novel philosophical attitude, sensitive to the ordinary uses of language as well as to the unnoticed dogmas they may betray. if the gist of modernism is self-reflection and attention to the way form expresses content, then wittgenstein's later ideas - in their fragmented form as well as their "ear-opening" contents - deliver it most precisely.

understanding wittgenstein, understanding modernism shows wittgenstein's work, both early and late, to be closely linked to the modernist geist that prevailed during his lifetime. yet it would be wrong to argue that wittgenstein was a modernist tout court. for wittgenstein, as well as for modernist art, understanding is not gained by such straightforward statements. it needs time, hesitation, a variety of articulations, the refusal of tempting solutions, and perhaps even a sense of defeat. it is such a vision of the linkage between wittgenstein and modernism that guides the present volume.

the spectators, also known as moral weeklies, were an important magazine genre which came into being in the early 18th century and which shaped european identity by developing the strategies of critical journalism and by popularizing the ideas and values of the age of enlightenment. investigating modes of storytelling in the spectators is an important starting point for a paradigmatic investigation of our historical, cultural and philosophical evolution since the enlightenment and the impact of these magazines on issues of identity in today's europe. in this collection on, we present a series of contributions which study english, french, spanish, italian, german, dutch, czech, polish and danish-norwegian periodicals.