Literature in Art Books

The School of Prague related to the Russian Formalism (many of its members emmigrated to Prague after the Revolution of 1917) is one of the most important and original semiological trends in the European Lingustics. The French post-modernists and Semiologists as Roland Barthes (Elements of Semiology, Essays, etc.) was very close to their work and many of their concepts entered (without reference) his work. The School of Prague developed a large range of semiological subjects and cultural studies: poetry, theater, cinema, folclore and fashion. (It is here where Barthes loaned his idea about Fashion and the meanings of dress when he wrote his semiolocial research of the Object (also repeated by Baudrillard in a less than imaginative fashion). To acess to the original texts is important because they open the doors to the original understanding of the whole postmodern Semiology regarded erroneously as a "French" domain. The approach developed by the School of Prague is dialectical and closely related to a critique of Saussure (see also M. Bachtin who criticizes Saussures approach) and different linguistic traditions. The dialctical approach practiced by this school is highly debeloped and it is here where dialectics appears as a method and not only as a theory. Y.Tobin introduced and published for the first time many essays and works of different authors of this school making this book an important contribution to modern cultural studies.

The School of Prague related to the Russian Formalism (many of its members emmigrated to Prague after the Revolution of 1917) is one of the most important and original semiological trends in the European Lingustics. The French post-modernists and Semiologists as Roland Barthes (Elements of Semiology, Essays, etc.) was very close to their work and many of their concepts entered (without reference) his work. The School of Prague developed a large range of semiologicla subjects and cultural studies : poetry, theater, cinema, folclore and fashion. (It is here where Barthes loaned his idea about the Fashion and the dress meanings he wrote as his semiolocial research of the Object (also repeated by Baudrillard in a less than imaginative fashion). To acess the original texts is important because they open the original doors to the understanding of the whole postmodern Semiology regarded erroneously as a "French" domain. The approach developed by the School of Prague is dialectical and closely related to a critic of Saussure (see also M. Bachtin who criticez Saussures approach) as of the different linguistic traditions. The dialctical approach practicized by this school is highly debeloped and it is here where Dialectics appears as a method and not only as a theory. Y.Tobin introduces and publishes for the first time many essays and work of different authors of this chool making of this book an important contribution to modern cultural studies.

Fairy tales have not been lost! We had a great time searching for the clues and finding familiar items from traditional fairy tales. With a very clever twist, fairy tales have hit the 21st Century. I enjoyed this book so much that I bought a copy for my 48 year old brother-in-law!

Everyone thinks they know fairy tales. Everyone thinks they know what Snow White and the 7 Dwarves looks like, Red Riding Hood looks like, even the 3 bears, Right? Wrong! Think again! This book will show you these characters, and more, like you've NEVER seen them before....eg: Did you know Cinderella really wears size 14DDD shoes, Prince Charming rides a stunt motorcycle, Little Red Riding Hood delivers PIZZAS, and the 7 dwarves are really surfers? Or how about Jack and his famous beanstalk...Where have you seen HIM before (clue) 'Little Pigs, Little Pigs, let me come in'.... All this and more, with a million things to look at and for, not just the same guy on every page, although that too along with a whole bunch of the corniest gags and wordplay ever. Kids from 5 to 105 will love this book! The guy who illustrated this is TOTALLY off the planet....how do I know this? Simple. It was me. Mea Culpa! Enjoy!

Would love to see this book in paperbook so I could afford to order it for our library. Anything by this individual should be high on your list. Having personally been a student of Sexson's, I can vouch for the fact that he has an intriguing and often Dionysian take on whatever is set before him (read: fun). Not to mention that Wallace Stevens is amazing in his own right. If you don't own his collected works, well, start there, please. If you've never met a man who is fully awake, read Sexson.

Michael Sexson displays a tacticle familiarity with the throbbing heartbeat of the human psyche.

what ken does with this book is amazing for a basic person like me to sit down and read a book like this is amazing i learnt soooooo much!!!!!!!!!!! buy this book!!!!!!!!!!!

This is a fabulous book. It's a great place to start for one who is interested in the more intellectual side of vampire fiction. There is some great discussion of the vampire as an economic metaphor.

The original translation by Sir William Jones of this famous Indian play was popular accross Europe and read by prominant poets including Goethe and Schiller in the late 1700's. Sir William Jones was also a member of Samuel Johnson and Edmund Burke's politically influentual Literary Club and the translation by him, this is not it, was a small hit across Europe. It inspired some stylist influence upon Goethe and Goethe must have read this about the time of the end of his "Italian Journey" where he later gained some creative energy after a dry spell following the massive success of his "Sorrows of Young Werther". (Sir William Jones is most famous today for observing that the similarities in Latin, Sanskrit, Persian, English and other, now called, Indo-European languages could not be just an accident).

This modern translation by W.J. Johnson is a good effort; however, for a variety of reasons loses something in translation as it was written to be performed in at least two languages, Sanskrit and Prakrit, and also involved a lot of body language which at times was almost like a dance. Sir William Jones' translation is more vibrant and historically relevant, and other translations of his of Oriental translations as well as original poems, had an impact on 17th and 18th century European literature.

Jones was a romantic supporter of the American revolution, even meeting with Benjamin Franklin in Paris to attempt a resolution to the crisis and play Franklin a game of chess. Jones' most famous and widely popular poem, while he was alive, was "Caissa, or, The Game of Chess" which would have gotten Jones through many important doors and meetings.

The play "Sakuntala" was written in the 4th or 5th century CE in India and is considered one of India's great plays. It is interesting for the cultural attitudes of India at that time, especially the strong class system, and making comparisons with other cultures around the world. Never-the-less The play still holds its own in translation as something many readers might find poetically brilliant, entertaining, and also funny.

Byron was also a youthful reader of Jones and there are a lot of stylistic similarities between them. Byron even wrote a parady of some of Jones' poems in his youth.

Jones spent his later life, in India, assisting in setting up a legal system for India which Jones insisted should be based in large part on Indian culture and customs. Jones represents a more early liberal, respecting relationship with the colonies of India; not the heavy-handed British paternal one that was to dominate that relationship after Jones' death.

Goethe[[ASIN:0140442332 Italian Journey: 1786-1788 (Penguin Classics)

The Life of Samuel Johnson (Penguin Classics)

Sir William Jones: Selected poetical and prose works - University of Wales Press (Not carried by Amazon)
[...]

Kalidasa is India's greatest Sanskrit poet and playwright. Many centuries later, his commitment has not flinched to remain India's most respected bard. When you've read world's greatest plays, you must then read him for the proverbial dessert. For most people, drama was invented in Greece, yet Kalidasa didn't know that, being apart by sea and time. So far as he is concerned, he was as much an inventor of this art.
`Recognition of Sakuntala' is a beautiful love story of a married king with a country girl, his deserting her and eventually reclaiming back, by the aid of gods.
I've several translations of this play, but Johnson's version is probably the best - at least in English.
If Shakespeare or Tolstoy gratify you, Kalidasa will as much.

I have frankly never seen Modernism addressed so lucidly and exhaustively, and yet so concisely, as Dan Schwarz does in "Reconfiguration." It clears up many, many symbolical and psychological riddles that I thought I would never have a satisfactory handle on. But as for his sentences... I've frankly never seen anything like them! The competing complexity and simplicity is sheer genius. The literary student of any level would do themself an extreme injustice to miss this one! W. Pearce Brown

I have frankly never seen Modernism addressed so lucidly and exhaustively, and yet so concisely, as Dan Schwarz does in "Reconfiguration." It clears up many, many symbolical and psychological riddles that I thought I would never have a satisfactory handle on. But as for his sentences... I've frankly never seen their equal! The competing complexity and simplicity is sheer genius. The literary student of any level would do themself an extreme injustice to miss this one!

This excellent bibliography is a comprehensive listing of Benchley's books, essays, newspaper writings, and drama criticism, as well as main secondary sources and archives of Benchley material. It also contains a publishing chronology, filmography, and discography. Ernst writes, "Just about everything in this bibliography was verified by the author by actually looking at the item, and anything not found is so noted."

An invaluable reference aid.

DAVID TRUMBULL, Chairman
Robert Benchley Society
www.robertbenchley.org

This book is a brilliant summation of the work of one of America's premier humorists, Robert Benchley. Along with succinct and well-balanced biographical information, this (beautifully bound!) book presents an account of the wide variety of Benchley's publications, enabling the reader to pursue both familiar and obscure gems from his oeuvre. No other volume comes close to what Ernst has achieved here - a modern bibliographic classic! This book is worth every penny...

Sandra Bullock is a beautiful,talented,funny,cool,and bubbly actress whose has become a famous movie star and producer.Her charm is that she's so cool and unique and complicated and sweet and personable and gives girls the dream that someday when they grow up they could actually be like her.Like I want to be.I don't really know if she has lots of girl fans,but I'm a girl and I love her,adore her.Sandra has appeared in many feature flims and videos and produces the "Geroge Lopez" TV show for ABC.She lives in Austin,Texas,and is down-to-earth and nice in real life.She's a great actress and person and is always the right role model.I love her!

THIS IS THE BEST BOOK YOU WILL EVER READ IT IS GREAT IF YOU LIKE SANDRA BULLOCK THIS IS THE BOOK FOR YOU!

Saw this book in a gift shop in Savannah and wished I hadn't wasted my money on a camera. Her pictures are exactly as the real thing. What a great gift for anyone who has been there.

Mrs. Streed is and excellent artist and the copy of the book contains many interesting facts about Savannah. If you buy one for a gift, you'll end up ordering another to keep. A must have

Gorging yourself on the pages of SEEING JAZZ is like sitting at a banquet table in the brilliant company of such celebrated creative souls as artists Jean-Michel Basquiat and Sam Gilliam, authors Jayne Cortez and John Edgar Wideman, and musicians Clark Terry and Milt Hinton. The thrill of going from one page to the next never ends because these are guests who apparently never tired of fulfilling their destiny to do what they do so extremely well.

As Robert O'Meally notes in the book's introduction, "Jazz is part of a super-charged cultural continuum in which painters, sculptors, photographers, poets, novelists, and essayists have worked (and played) to capture with their pens and brushes, their wood and paper, and with light the irresistible note and trick and dance of the music." That particularly astute observation is backed up in Seeing Jazz by more than one hundred works of visual art and more than sixty literary pieces. Edited by Elizabeth Goldson, this spectacular anthology was compiled by Marquette Folley-Cooper, Deborah Macanic, and Janice McNeil. As versatile as the music itself, the range of visual works include photographs of such jazz greats as Billie Holiday and Wynton Marsalis, a wax sculpture of Duke Ellington's head, and a lithograph by Miguel Covarrubias depicting Harlem Renaissance dancers grooving the Lindy Hop. Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance (Facts on File Library of American History)


The literary treats are no less tantalizing than the visual and serve as perfect accompaniments. These include poetry by Rita Dove, the great Abbey Lincoln, Michael Harper, Bob Kaufman, and Ntozake Shange; excerpts from novels by Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison, Michael Ondaatje, and Jean-Paul Sartre; and tasty samples from works by James Baldwin, Romare Bearden, Stanley Crouch, and Miles Davis.

Seeing Jazz was published in 1997 by Chronicle Books in association with the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service and, therefore, is not a new book. Given, however, the recent resurgence of interest in jazz music and culture, it has become one of the better volumes around to help expand one's understanding and appreciation of this world-celebrated music.

by Author-Poet Aberjhani
author of ELEMENTAL The Power of Illuminated Love
and
The American Poet Who Went Home Again

This is a beautiful book in every way. The selection of art juxtaposed with the intriguing range of literary excerpts combine to make the reader do exactly what the editors want: to "see" jazz. I bought extra copies as Christmas gifts.