Américo Paredes distinguished himself as a journalist, novelist, short story writer, poet, folklorist, and as Professor of English and Anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin. Admired as one of the inspiring founders of Mexican American Studies in colleges and universities across the United States, Paredes’ life-long interest in Mexican-American history and culture motivated him during his early years to collect corridos from farmers and villagers living on the Lower Rio Grande, resulting in his pioneering book “With His Pistol in His Hand”: A Border Ballad and Its Hero (1958), and in other books on folklore, poetry, and narrative fiction. Border Folk Balladeers: Critical Studies on Américo Paredes is a book of significant value to scholars, teachers, students, and to the general reader interested in the history and culture of Mexicans and Mexican Americans born on both sides of the Mexico-US border. It contains a full-length introduction and eleven essays written exclusively for this volume by scholars in the fields of folklore, literary criticism, and critical race theory, and who are renowned authorities on the work of Américo Paredes. Grouped into three sections, this book includes studies on theories of the Texas Modern; the Latin American critical tradition; border writing in world literatures; ethnography in minority communities; an analysis of Texas-Mexican border jokelore; and, among other critical studies, a comprehensive probe into the international drug traffic in the Mexico-US border, with an emphasis on narcoballads and narconovels, the contemporary offshoots of the Texas-Mexican border corrido.

A collection of fifteen essays which cover Indians, Mexican Americans, African Americans, women, religion, war on the homefront, music, literature, film, art, sports, philanthropy, education, the environment, and science and technology in twentieth-century Texas.

Victorian Songhunters is a history of popular song collecting and ballad editing from 1820 to 1883. It is a comprehensive telling of the Victorian vernacular song revival leading up to the Eduardian folksong festival, and includes information on the folksong revival in Scotland.

Traces the history of Mexican Texans, discussing their contributions to the Lone Star State, looking at aspects of their culture, and including biographical sketches, illustrations, English translations of Spanish language poems, and traditional recipes.

A long-awaited corrective to the controversial idea of world literature, from a major voice in the field. Katerina Clark charts interwar efforts by Soviet, European, and Asian leftist writers to create a Eurasian commons: a single cultural space that would overcome national, cultural, and linguistic differences in the name of an anticapitalist, anti-imperialist, and later antifascist aesthetic. At the heart of this story stands the literary arm of the Communist International, or Comintern, anchored in Moscow but reaching Baku, Beijing, London, and parts in between. Its mission attracted diverse networks of writers who hailed from Turkey, Iran, India, and China, as well as the Soviet Union and Europe. Between 1919 and 1943, they sought to establish a new world literature to rival the capitalist republic of Western letters. Eurasia without Borders revises standard accounts of global twentieth-century literary movements. The Eurocentric discourse of world literature focuses on transatlantic interactions, largely omitting the international left and its Asian members. Meanwhile, postcolonial studies have overlooked the socialist-aligned world in favor of the clash between Western European imperialism and subaltern resistance. Clark provides the missing pieces, illuminating a distinctive literature that sought to fuse European and vernacular Asian traditions in the name of a post-imperialist culture. Socialist literary internationalism was not without serious problems, and at times it succumbed to an orientalist aesthetic that rivaled any coming from Europe. Its history is marked by both promise and tragedy. With clear-eyed honesty, Clark traces the limits, compromises, and achievements of an ambitious cultural collaboration whose resonances in later movements can no longer be ignored.

The Blackwell Companion to American Regional Literature is the most comprehensive resource yet published for study of this popular field. The most inclusive survey yet published of American regional literature. Represents a wide variety of theoretical and historical approaches. Surveys the literature of specific regions from California to New England and from Alaska to Hawaii. Discusses authors and groups who have been important in defining regional American literature.

Become a poet and write poetry with ease with help from this clear and simple guide in the popular 101 series. Poetry never goes out of style. An ancient writing form found in civilizations across the world, poetry continues to inform the way we write now, whether we realize it or not—especially in social media—with its focus on brevity and creating the greatest possible impact with the fewest words. Poetry 101 is your companion to the wonderful world of meter and rhyme, and walks you through the basics of poetry. From Shakespeare and Chaucer, to Maya Angelou and Rupi Kaur, you’ll explore the different styles and methods of writing, famous poets, and poetry movements and concepts—and even find inspiration for creating poems of your own. Whether you are looking to better understand the poems you read, or you want to tap into your creative side to write your own, Poetry 101 gives you everything you need!

John Buchan’s ‘shocker’ adventure novels have entertained readers for over a century and now, for the first time in publishing history, readers can explore the author’s complete fictional works in a single collection. This comprehensive eBook presents numerous illustrations, rare texts, informative introductions and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 2) * Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Buchan’s life and works * Concise introductions to the novels and other texts * ALL 29 novels, with individual contents tables * Special series contents table for the Richard Hannay and Dickson McCunn novels * Even includes rare works, like the children’s novel THE MAGIC WALKING-STICK and the author’s last novel THE LONG TRAVERSE, appearing here for the first time * Images of how the books were first printed, giving your eReader a taste of the original texts * Excellent formatting of the novels and other works * Several novels are illustrated with their original artwork * Special chronological and alphabetical contents tables for the poetry and the short stories * Easily locate the poems or short stories you want to read * The complete short stories and poetry, fully indexed in chronological order * Includes a selection of Buchan’s non-fiction, including his celebrated biographies on Sir Walter Scott, Lord Minto and King George V * Features Buchan’s rare autobiography, published shortly after his death – explore Buchan’s literary life * Scholarly ordering of texts into chronological order and literary genres * UPDATED with 7 non-fiction works and corrected texts CONTENTS: The Richard Hannay Series The Dickson McCunn Trilogy The Edward Leithen Novels The Novels Sir Quixote of the Moors (1895) John Burnet of Barns (1898) A Lost Lady of Old Years (1899) The Half-Hearted (1900) A Lodge in the Wilderness (1906) Prester John (1910) The Power-House (1913) The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915) Salute to Adventurers (1915) Greenmantle (1916) Mr Standfast (1919) The Path of a King (1921) Huntingtower (1922) Midwinter (1923) The Three Hostages (1924) John Macnab (1925) The Goddess from the Shades (1926) Witch Wood (1927) The Magic Walking-Stick (1927) The Courts of the Morning (1929) Castle Gay (1930) The Blanket of the Dark (1931) The Gap in the Curtain (1932) A Prince of the Captivity (1933) The Free Fishers (1934) The House of the Four Winds (1935) The Island of Sheep (1936) Sick Heart River (1941) The Long Traverse (1941) The Short Stories The Short Stories of John Buchan The Poetry The Poetry of John Buchan The Non-Fiction The African Colony (1903) Preface to ‘The German Fury in Belgium’ (1917) by L. Mokveld The Battle of the Somme: Second Phase (1917) A Book of Escapes and Hurried Journeys (1922) The Last Secrets (1923) Days to Remember (1923) Lord Minto (1924) Montrose (1928) Sir Walter Scott (1932) Oliver Cromwell (1934) Men and Deeds (1935) The King’s Grace (1935) The Interpreter’s House (1938) The Autobiography Memory Hold-The-Door (1940)

D. R. Howland explores China’s representations of Japan in the changing world of the late nineteenth century and, in so doing, examines the cultural and social borders between the two neighbors. Looking at Chinese accounts of Japan written during the 1870s and 1880s, he undertakes an unprecedented analysis of the main genres the Chinese used to portray Japan—the travel diary, poetry, and the geographical treatise. In his discussion of the practice of “brushtalk,” in which Chinese scholars communicated with the Japanese by exchanging ideographs, Howland further shows how the Chinese viewed the communication of their language and its dominant modes—history and poetry—as the textual and cultural basis of a shared civilization between the two societies. With Japan’s decision in the 1870s to modernize and westernize, China’s relationship with Japan underwent a crucial change—one that resulted in its decisive separation from Chinese civilization and, according to Howland, a destabilization of China’s worldview. His examination of the ways in which Chinese perceptions of Japan altered in the 1880s reveals the crucial choice faced by the Chinese of whether to interact with Japan as “kin,” based on geographical proximity and the existence of common cultural threads, or as a “barbarian,” an alien force molded by European influence. By probing China’s poetic and expository modes of portraying Japan, Borders of Chinese Civilization exposes the changing world of the nineteenth century and China’s comprehension of it. This broadly appealing work will engage scholars in the fields of Asian studies, Chinese literature, history, and geography, as well as those interested in theoretical reflections on travel or modernism.

Throughout its history, the nation that is now called the United States has been inextricably entwined with the nation now called Mexico. Indeed, their indigenous peoples interacted long before borders of any kind were established. Today, though, the border between the two nations is so prominent that it is front-page news in both countries. Douglas Monroy, a noted Mexican American historian, has for many years pondered the historical and cultural intertwinings of the two nations. Here, in beautifully crafted essays, he reflects on some of the many ways in which the citizens of the two countries have misunderstood each other. Putting himself— and his own quest for understanding—directly into his work, he contemplates the missions of California; the differences between “liberal” and “traditional” societies; the meanings of words like Mexican, Chicano, and Latino; and even the significance of avocados and bathing suits. In thought-provoking chapters, he considers why Native Americans didn’t embrace Catholicism, why NAFTA isn’t working the way it was supposed to, and why Mexicans and their neighbors to the north tell themselves different versions of the same historical events. In his own thoughtful way, Monroy is an explorer. Rather than trying to conquer new lands, however, his goal is to gain new insights. He wants to comprehend two cultures that are bound to each other without fully recognizing their bonds. Along with Monroy, readers will discover that borders, when we stop and really think about it, are drawn more deeply in our minds than on any maps.