Performativity and Performance (Essays from the English Institute)

From the age of Aristotle to the age of AIDS, writers, thinkers, performers and activists have wresteled with what "performance" is all about. At the same moment, "performativity"--a new concept in language theory--has become a ubiquitous term in literary studies. This volume grapples with the nature of these two key terms whose traces can be found everywhere: in the theatre, in the streets, in philosophy, in questions of race and gender, and in the sentences we speak.

This book describes language as a network of functional relations involving a context which is also a network of functional relations. The essays in Part I present several perspectives on the theory of language as functional relations. The essays in Part II discuss an oral text using a variety of functional perspectives. All of the essays are by linguists interested in oral and written texts who have achieved international recognition in their fields. Illustrated in this book are cognitive, social construction, social praxis and anthropological approaches to the description of text.

Inventors & Inventions Set (Great Lives from History)

This work features in-depth critical essays on important men and women inventors of all time, from around the world. Plus, free online access to the full content of this remarkable reference set is available. The printed reference includes: four volumes, including 2,048 pages; 409 essays and 409 sidebars; hundreds of photos, illustrations and graphs; and, appendixes, indexes and resource listings. 

Memory and Forgetfulness - Essays in cultural Practice

"Memory and Forgetfulness - Essays in cultural Practice" is a university booklet for the students of British and American culture. The volume concentrates on remembering and forgetting. Human capacity to remember, to retain and recall experiences and facts seems to be a determining factor of existence of cultures, at least as we know them.

Tracing the rise of Napoleon as the leader of the barnyard animals and his ensuing dictatorship in the farmyard community, this classic satiric allegory serves as a warning to all societies as it depicts the slide from revolution to totalitarianism. Orwell transforms the seeming pastoral innocence of his setting into a pernicious political theater of repression and control. This new edition of critical essays examining Animal Farm provides 10 to 12 full-length critical essays for students of literature, plus a chronology of the author's life, a bibliography, an index, and notes on the contributing writers.