Are you tired of hearing the same tired myths about fathers and their so-called "role"? Discover how these false beliefs hold you back, and how embracing the real power of fatherhood will transform your life. Why do you believe you're not enough as a dad? Start asking the right questions. - Do you want to understand the true role of a father, based on science and evolutionary biology? - Are you ready to debunk dangerous myths that seek to erase the importance of traditional masculinity? - Are you tired of being demonized by wokies and so-called "progressives"? - Do you want to reclaim your paternity and stop being a soft target for the liberal elites? The answers you seek are in this groundbreaking book, which will: - Dissect the myths and half-truths that undermine your confidence in your fathering skills - Uncover the hidden advantages that come from embracing traditional gender roles - Show you how to become a more involved, effective, and loving father than ever before Don't be the last to know the truth about fatherhood. If you want to reject the woke nonsense and become the best father you can be, buy this book today.

"Jennifer G. Bird analyzes the construction of wives' subjectivity in 1 Peter, working primarily with what is referred to as the Haustafel (household code) section and engaging feminist critical questions, postcolonial theory and materialist theory in her analysis. Bird examines the two crucial labels for understanding Petrine Christian identity--'aliens and refugees' and 'royal priesthood and holy nation"--And finds them to stand in start contrast with the commands and identity given to wives in the Haustafel section. Similarly, the command to 'honour the Emperor', which immediately precedes the Haustafel, engenders a rich discussion of the text's socio-political implications. The critical engagement of several 'symptomatic irruptions' within the commands to the wives uncovers the abusive dynamic underlying this section of the letter. Finally Bird considers the present-day implications of her study."--Publisher description.

Despite the enormous amount of writing devoted to the Beatles during the last few decades, the band's abiding intellectual and cultural significance has received scant attention. Using various modes of literary, musicological, and cultural criticism, the essays in Reading the Beatles firmly establish the Beatles as a locus of serious academic and cultural study. Exploring the group's resounding impact on how we think about gender, popular culture, and the formal and poetic qualities of music, the contributors trace not only the literary and musicological qualities of selected Beatles songs but also the development of the Beatles' artistry in their films and the ways in which the band has functioned as a cultural, historical, and economic product. In a poignant afterword, Jane Tompkins offers an autobiographical account of the ways in which the Beatles afforded her with the self-actualizing means to become less alienated from popular culture, gender expectations, and even herself during the early 1960s.

Roland Barthes is a central figure in the study of language, literature, culture and the media. This book prepares readers for their first encounter with his crucial writings on some of the most important theoretical debates, including: *existentialism and Marxism *semiology, or the 'language of signs' *structuralism and narrative analysis *post-structuralism, deconstruction and 'the death of the author' *theories of the text and intertextuality. Tracing his engagement with other key thinkers such as Sartre, Saussure, Derrida and Kristeva, this volume offers a clear picture of Barthes work in-context. The in-depth understanding of Barthes offered by this guide is essential to anyone reading contemporary critical theory.

This volume historicizes the study of life-writing and egodocuments, focusing on early modern European reflections on the self, self-fashioning, and identity. Life-writing and the study of egodocuments currently tend to be viewed as separate fields, yet the individual as a purposive social actor provides significant common ground and offers a vehicle, both theoretical and practical, for a profitable synthesis of the two in a historical context. Echoing scholars from a wide-range of disciplines who recognize the uncertainty of the nature of the self, these essays question the notion of the autonomous self and the attendant idea of continuous identity unfolding in a unified personality. Instead, they suggest that the early modern self was variable and unstable, and can only be grasped by exploring selves situated in specific historical and social/cultural contexts and revealed through the wide range of historical documents considered here. The three sections of the volume consider: first, the theoretical contexts of understanding egodocuments in early modern Europe; then, the practical ways egodocuments from the period may be used for writing life-histories today; and finally, a wider range of historical documents that might be added to what are usually seen as egodocuments.

What do literary dystopias reflect about the times? In Blast, Corrupt, Dismantle, Erase, contributors address this amorphous but pervasive genre, using diverse critical methodologies to examine how North America is conveyed or portrayed in a perceived age of crisis, accelerated uncertainty, and political volatility. Drawing from contemporary novels such as Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, and the work of Margaret Atwood and William Gibson (to name a few), this book examines dystopian literature produced by North American authors between the signing of NAFTA (1994) and the tenth anniversary of 9/11 (2011). As the texts illustrate, awareness of and deep concern about perceived vulnerabilities—ends of water, oil, food, capitalism, empires, stable climates, ways of life, non-human species, and entire human civilizations—have become central to public discourseover the same period. By asking questions such as “What are the distinctive qualities of post-NAFTA North American dystopian literature?” and “What does this literature reflect about the tensions and contradictions of the inchoate continental community of North America?” Blast, Corrupt, Dismantle, Erase serves to resituate dystopian writing within a particular geo-social setting and introduce a productive means to understand both North American dystopian writing and its relevant engagements with a restricted, mapped reality.

Featuring a foreword by Anthony Lewis, this book evaluates the role of the court system in our democracy and considers the claims that it has become too powerful.

Since the publication of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 1900, authors, filmmakers, and theatrical producers have been retelling and reinventing this uniquely American fairy tale. This volume examines six especially significant incarnations of the story: Baum's original novel, the MGM classic The Wizard of Oz (1939), Sidney Lumet's African American film musical The Wiz (1978), Gregory Maguire's novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (1995), Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman's Broadway hit Wicked: A New Musical (2003), and the SyFy Channel miniseries Tin Man (2007). A close consideration of these works demonstrates how versions of Baum's tale are influenced by and help shape notions of American myth, including issues of gender, race, home, and magic, and makes clear that the Wizard of Oz narrative remains compelling and relevant today.

This study investigates the nature of the impact of globalization on the Indian state. It takes as its point of departure the thesis, set out in the introductory essay, that globalization has resulted in the erosion of the economic and welfare roles of the state. According to the author, the shift to liberalization, the resurgence of the private sector, and the acceleration of growth rate paradoxically 'empowered' and 'enabled' the state. He argues that the examination of the quantitative data strongly points to the continued expansion of the economic and welfare roles of the state, rather than decline. Therefore, the retrenchment of the state does not have much merit. He emphasizes on the fundamental continuity in the key functions of the state. He concludes by saying that the state is lagging behind in the areas of internal security, education and health, and makes suggestions for institutional reforms.

First published in 1982, this book looks at a wide variety of issues concerning the vast field of study that is ‘semiotics. It begins by tracing the beginnings of modern semiotics in the works two pioneering figures — Saussure and Peirce — in order to present fundamental assumptions, notions and distinctions which provide an essential background to the more recent developments. The author then goes on to look at Behavioural Semiotics, Luis Prieto’s idea of "l’Acte Semique", Austin’s theory of ‘Speech Acts’ and Searle’s elaborations, Barthes’ move away from philosophical and scientific approaches in his ideology of Socio-Cultural Signification, Functionalism and Axiomatic Functionalism, style as a form of communication, semiotics of the cinema, and communicative behaviour in non-human species.