UBC Press

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Governing Pleasures

Governing Pleasures

Pornography and Social Change in England, 1815-1914

By Lisa Z. Sigel

Rutgers University Press

How did concepts of sex & gender, race & class, home & empire develop in Victorian society? Here, Sigel charts the evolution of these ideas through the medium of pornography (PN). She details its prod'n., dist'n., & cons'n. in Great Britain between Waterloo & WWI. Sigel examines how this medium changed over time to explore key questions: How did Brit. society define PN? Who had access to it? What did people make of its ideas? And how did these messages affect sexual & social dynamics? PN offered people a way to make sense of sexuality & its relationship to the world during the transition of Brit. society from an era of radical politics to one of consumer pleasures. Illustrated with literary & visual materials drawn from public & private collections.

Fragments of Culture

Fragments of Culture

The Everyday of Modern Turkey

Edited by Deniz Kandiyoti and Ayse Saktanber

Rutgers University Press

Fragments of Culture explores the evolving modern daily life of Turkey. Through analyses of language, folklore, film, satirical humor, the symbolism of Islamic political mobilization, and the shifting identities of diasporic communities in Turkey and Europe, this book provides a fresh and corrective perspective to the often-skewed perceptions of Turkish culture engendered by conventional western critiques. In this volume, some of the most innovative scholars of post 1980s Turkey address the complex ways that suburbanization and the growth of a globalized middle class have altered gender and class relations, and how Turkish society is being shaped and redefined through consumption. They also explore the increasingly polarized cultural politics between secularists and Islamists, and the ways that previously repressed Islamic elements have reemerged to complicate the idea of an "authentic" Turkish identity. Contributors examine a range of issues from the adjustments to religious identity as the Islamic veil becomes marketed as a fashion item, to the media's increased attention in Turkish transsexual lifestyle, to the role of folk dance as a ritualized part of public life.

Fragments of Culture shows how attention to the minutiae of daily life can successfully unravel the complexities of a shifting society. This book makes a significant contribution to both modern Turkish studies and the scholarship on cross-cultural perspectives in Middle Eastern studies.

Dust

Dust

The Archive and Cultural History

By Carolyn Kay Steedman

Rutgers University Press

In this witty, engaging, and challenging book, Carolyn Steedman has produced an original-and sometimes irreverent-investigation into how modern historiography has developed. Dust: The Archive and Cultural History considers our stubborn set of beliefs about an objective material world-inherited from the nineteenth century-with which modern history writing and its lack of such a belief, attempts to grapple. Drawing on her own published and unpublished writing, Carolyn Steedman has produced a sustained argument about the way in which history writing belongs to the currents of thought shaping the modern world.

Death by Fire

Death by Fire

Sati, Dowry Death, and Female Infanticide in Modern India

Rutgers University Press

The ancient practice of sati — the self-immolation of a woman on her husband’s funeral pyre — was outlawed by the British administration in India in 1829, and sati was widely believed to have died out. The fate of 18-year-old Roop Kanwar changed that perception. Mala Sen explores the reality of life and death for women in modern India in a study that is both illuminating and terrifying.

Upheaval from the Abyss

Upheaval from the Abyss

Ocean Floor Mapping and the Earth Science Revolution

By David M. Lawrence

Rutgers University Press

Upheaval from the Abyss spans a 130-year period, beginning with the early, backbreaking efforts to map the depths during the age of sail; continuing with improvements in research methods spurred by maritime disaster and war; and culminating in the publication of the first map of the world’s ocean floor in 1977. The author brings this tale to life by weaving through it the personalities of the scientists-explorers who struggled to see the face of the deep, and reveals not only the facts of how the ocean floor was mapped, but also the human dimensions of what the scientists experienced and felt while in the process.

Screening Asian Americans

Screening Asian Americans

Edited by Peter X Feng

Rutgers University Press

This innovative essay collection explores Asian American cinematic representations historically and socially, on and off screen, as they contribute to the definition of American character. The history of Asian Americans on movie screens, as outlined in Peter X. Feng’s introduction, provides a context for the individual readings that follow. Asian American cinema is charted in its diversity, ranging across activist, documentary, experimental, and fictional modes, and encompassing a wide range of ethnicities (Filipino, Vietnamese, Indian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and Taiwanese). Covered in the discussion are filmmakers—Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Ang Lee, Trinh T. Minh-ha, and Wayne Wang—and films such as The Wedding Banquet, Surname Viet Given Name Nam, and Chan is Missing.

Growing Up Protestant

Growing Up Protestant

Parents, Children and Mainline Churches

By Margaret Lamberts Bendroth

Rutgers University Press

In this book, Margaret Lamberts Bendroth examines the lives and beliefs of white, middle-class mainline Protestants (principally northern Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, and Congregationalists) who are theologically moderate or liberal. Mainliners have pursued family issues for most of the twentieth century, churning out hundreds of works on Christian childrearing. Bendroth’s book explores the role of family within a religious tradition that sees itself as America’s cultural center. In this balanced analysis, the author traces the evolution of mainliners’ roles in middle-class American culture and sharpens our awareness of the ways in which the mainline Protestant experience has actually shaped and reflected the American sense of self.

Erotic Morality

Erotic Morality

The Role of Touch in Moral Agency

By Linda Holler

Rutgers University Press

Erotic Morality examines the role of the senses and the emotions, especially touch, in moral reflection and agency. Moving from organic disorders such as autism to culturally induced feeling disorders found in dualistic philosophy, pornography, and some forms of sadomasochism, Linda Holler argues that reclaiming the sentient awareness necessary to our physical and moral well-being demands healing the places where we have become numb or hypersensitive to touch.

Desolate Landscapes

Desolate Landscapes

Ice-Age Settlement in Eastern Europe

By John F. Hoffecker

Rutgers University Press

John F. Hoffecker provides an overview of Pleistocene or Ice-Age settlement in Eastern Europe with a heavy focus on the adaptations of Neanderthals and modern humans to this harsh environmental setting. Hoffecker argues that the Eastern European record reveals a stark contrast between Neanderthals and modern humans with respect to technology and social organization, both of which are tied to the development of language and the use of symbols. Desolate Landscapes will bring readers up to date with the rich archaeological record in this significant region and its contribution to our understanding of one of our most important events in human evolution - the rise of modern humans and the extinction of the Neanderthals.

Controlling Corporeality

Controlling Corporeality

The Body and the Household in Ancient Israel

By Jon L. Berquist

Rutgers University Press

In this beautifully written book, Jon L. Berquist guides the reader through the Hebrew Bible, examining ancient Israel’s ideas of the body, the unstable roles of gender, the deployment of sexuality, and the cultural practices of the time. Conducting his analysis with reference to contemporary theories of the body, power, and social control, Berquist offers not only a description and clarification of ancient Israelite views of the body, but also an analysis of how these views belong to the complex logic of ancient social meanings.

Citizens of Fear

Citizens of Fear

Urban Violence in Latin America

Edited by Susana Rotker

Rutgers University Press

Citizens in Latin American cities live in constant fear, amidst some of the most dangerous conditions on earth. In that vast region, 140 thousand people die violently each year, and one out of three citizens have been directly or indirectly victimized by violence. Citizens of Fear, in part, assembles survey results of social scientists who document the pervasiveness of violence. But the numbers tell only part of the story.

Genomic Imprinting and Kinship

Genomic Imprinting and Kinship

Rutgers University Press

Until twenty years ago we had no idea which of our genes came from our father and which came from our mother. We took it for granted that our genes expressed themselves identically and that there was a 50/50 chance that they came from either parent. We also assumed that they worked in cooperation with each other. The biggest breakthrough in genetics in the past two decades has been the discovery of genomic imprinting, which allows us to trace genes to the parent of origin. David Haig has been at the forefront of theorizing these developments. He argues that these "paternally and maternally active genes" comprise less than one percent of our total gene count and are far from being cooperative. In fact, they have been shown to be in competition with one another.

Film and Nationalism

Film and Nationalism

Edited by Alan Williams

Rutgers University Press

Film and Nationalism examines the ways in which cinema has been considered an arena of conflict and interaction between nations and nationhood. Each section of this volume explores a crucial aspect of the discussion. Is film an effective form of national propaganda? Are films losing the very notion of nationhood, in favor of a generalized, "global" cinematographic culture? What is films influence over "national character"? In addition, the volume explores the cultural and economic interactions between developed and underdeveloped countries. How have third world nations defined themselves in relation to hegemonic first world cultures, and how have their relations been changed through the dissemination of Western films? Throughout, Alan Williams chooses essays that enhance our understanding of how films help shape our sense of nationhood and self.

Double-Take

Double-Take

A Revisionist Harlem Renaissance Anthology

Edited by Venetria K. Patton and Maureen Honey

Rutgers University Press

Brings together a comprehensive selection of texts from the Harlem Renaissance-a key period in the literary and cultural history of the United States. Offers a unique, balanced collection of writers--men and women, gay and straight, familiar and obscure. Arranged by author, rather than by genre, this anthology includes works from major Harlem Renaissance figures as well as often-overlooked essayists, poets, dramatists, and artists. Contains works from a wide variety of genres--poetry, short stories, drama, and essays, as well as biographical sketches of the authors. Includes most pieces in their entirety. Also includes artwork and illustrations, many of which are from original journals and have never before been reprinted, and song lyrics to illustrate the interrelation of various art forms.

The Right to Die with Dignity

The Right to Die with Dignity

An Argument in Ethics, Medicine, and Law

By Raphael Cohen-Almagor

Rutgers University Press

There are few issues more divisive than what has become known as “the right to die.” One camp upholds “death with dignity,” regarding the terminally ill as autonomous beings capable of forming their own judgment on the timing and process of dying. The other camp advocates “sanctity of life,” regarding life as intrinsically valuable, and that should be sustained as long as possible. Is there a right answer? Raphael Cohen-Almagor takes a balanced approach in analyzing this emotionally charged debate, viewing the dispute from public policy and international perspectives.

Remaking Chinese America

Remaking Chinese America

Immigration, Family, and Community, 1940-1965

By Xiaojian Zhao

Rutgers University Press

In Remaking Chinese America, Xiaojian Zhao explores the myriad forces that changed and unified Chinese Americans during a key period in American history. Prior to 1940, this immigrant community was predominantly male, but between 1940 and 1965 it was transformed into a family-centered American ethnic community. Zhao pays special attention to forces both inside and outside of the country in order to explain these changing demographics. She scrutinizes the repealed exclusion laws and the immigration laws enacted after 1940. Careful attention is also paid to evolving gender roles, since women constituted the majority of newcomers, significantly changing the sex ratio of the Chinese American population.

Protestantism and Political Conflict in the Ninteenth-Century Hispanic Caribbean

Protestantism and Political Conflict in the Ninteenth-Century Hispanic Caribbean

By Luis Martínez-Fernández

Rutgers University Press

Catholicism has long been recognized as one of the major forces shaping the Hispanic Caribbean (Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic) during the nineteenth century, but the role of Protestantism has not been fully explored. Protestantism and Political Conflict in the Nineteenth-Century Hispanic Caribbean traces the emergence of Protestantism in Cuba and Puerto Rico during a crucial period of national consolidation involving both social and political struggle.

Dreaming Equality

Dreaming Equality

Color, Race, and Racism in Urban Brazil

By Robin E. Sheriff

Rutgers University Press

Robin E. Sheriff spent twenty months in a primarily black shantytown in Rio de Janeiro, studying the inhabitants’s views of race and racism. How, she asks, do poor African Brazilians experience and interpret racism in a country where its very existence tends to be publicly denied? How is racism talked about privately in the family and publicly in the community—or is it talked about at all?

Aftershocks of the New

Aftershocks of the New

Feminism and Film History

By Patrice Petro

Rutgers University Press

The beginning of this century has brought with it a host of assumptions about the newness of our technologies, globalized economies, and transnational media practices. Our own time is a period marked by experiences of fragmentation, sensation, and shock. The essays here are joined by a common concern to chart another side to modernity—precisely after the shock of the new—when the new ceases to be shocking, and when the extraordinary and the sensational become linked to the boring and the everyday. Patrice Petro explores how the mechanisms of modernism, German cinema, and feminist film theory have evolved, and she discusses the directions in which they are headed.

The Black Press

The Black Press

New Literary and Historical Essays

Edited by Todd Vogel

Rutgers University Press

The Black Press progresses chronologically from slavery to the impact and implications of the Internet to reveal how the press’s content and its very form changed with evolving historical and cultural conditions in America. The first papers fought for rights for free blacks in the North. The early twentieth-century black press sought to define itself and its community amidst American modernism. Writers in the 1960s took on the task of defining revolution in that decade’s ferment. It was not been until the mid-twentieth century that African American cultural study began to achieve intellectual respectability.

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