Through her detailed analysis of the rhetoric of Puritan plain style, associate professor of English Ann Kibbey overturns many of our long-held assumptions about the social and artistic values of Protestantism. In The Interpretation of Material Shapes in Puritanism, Kibbey centers her argument on the influential preacher John Cotton and discloses a general theory of figuration in the Protestant tradition that has been overlooked by literary critics, historians and sociologists alike. The author explores the immense variety of ways in which early Protestants in Europe and America granted significance to material shapes.
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In this book for beginning graduate students, associate professor of astrophysical and planetary sciences Philip J. Armigage provides a basic understanding of the astrophysical processes that shape the formation of planetary systems. It begins by describing the structure and evolution of protoplanetary disks, moves on to the formation of planetesimals, terrestrial and gas giant planets, and concludes by surveying new theoretical ideas for the early evolution of planetary systems. Covering all phases of planet formation this introduction can be understood by readers with backgrounds in planetary science, observational and theoretical astronomy.
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Drawing on studio documents, press materials, and interviews with surviving film crew members, Rimgaila Salys, professor of Germanic and Slavic language and literature, presents the untold production history of Grigorii Aleksandrov’s musical comedy films in The Musical Comedy Films of Grigorii Aleksandrov. The book challenges conventional political interpretations, looking instead at how the films inscribed Stalin’s myths into the national consciousness, reproducing the dominant ideology, while hiding it beneath layers of humor. As the first major study to situate these films in the cultural context of the era, this book will be essential to courses on Russian cinema and Soviet culture.
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In Performing Violence, Birgit Beumers and Mark Lipovetsky, associate professor of Russian studies and comparative literature, examine the representation of violence in the so-called “New Russian Dramas” by young Russian playwrights that emerged at the end of the twentieth century. Reflecting the disappointment in Yeltsin’s democratic reforms and Putin’s neoconservative politics, the plays focus on political and social representations of violence, its performances, and its justifications. The book, which is the first English-language study of Russian drama and theatre in the twenty-first century, seeks a vantage point for the analysis of brutality in post-Soviet culture.
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In this engaging and thought provoking chapter book, associate professor of philosophy Claudia Mills follows the character of Oliver Olson as he tries to convince his parents to let him attend the third grade class’ space learning sleepover. Over course of the book, Oliver seeks help, gains independence and learns about the solar system. Mills meanwhile succeeds in creating believable characters who express the emotional nuances as well as the practical difficulties of Oliver’s predicament.
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