Cryptohistories

Cryptohistories PDF Author: Alicja Bemben
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443875651
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 175

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Book Description
Cryptohistories is a collection of essays which provides a meeting ground for historians and cultural scholars analysing discussions of cryptic discourses in history and in historical narratives with roots in the mysterious. The focus here is on history as a subjective narrative, as a conscious construct and as manipulation. Equally important for all the contributors brought together in this book is the mechanics of the rise, popularity and apparent necessity of such narrative strategies. The essays address a variety of issues revolving around the study of cryptic aspects of discourses, ranging from theoretical approaches to secretive narratives of history, cultural encoding and decoding of cryptohistories, microhistories focusing on historical mysteries, and mythicised pasts and processes of mythicization of the past, as well as histories and theories of chance and manipulation. Among its specific subjects Crytpohistories features discussions on the reasons why certain quasi-historical narratives do not reach the status of history; on conspiracy theories analysed from the perspective of contemporary video-games; on the paradoxes of truth and falsehood in history; on parasitology as a cryptohistorical discourse; on the codes of Victorian floriography; on cases of cross-dressing and sartorial camouflage; on the Vietnam War MIAs; on manipulations lying at the core of contemporary Bulgarian identity; on the search for a racial utopia in the American South; and on the fiction of Beryl Bainbridge as a form of cryptohistorical literature.

Cryptohistories

Cryptohistories PDF Author: Alicja Bemben
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443875651
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 175

Get Book Here

Book Description
Cryptohistories is a collection of essays which provides a meeting ground for historians and cultural scholars analysing discussions of cryptic discourses in history and in historical narratives with roots in the mysterious. The focus here is on history as a subjective narrative, as a conscious construct and as manipulation. Equally important for all the contributors brought together in this book is the mechanics of the rise, popularity and apparent necessity of such narrative strategies. The essays address a variety of issues revolving around the study of cryptic aspects of discourses, ranging from theoretical approaches to secretive narratives of history, cultural encoding and decoding of cryptohistories, microhistories focusing on historical mysteries, and mythicised pasts and processes of mythicization of the past, as well as histories and theories of chance and manipulation. Among its specific subjects Crytpohistories features discussions on the reasons why certain quasi-historical narratives do not reach the status of history; on conspiracy theories analysed from the perspective of contemporary video-games; on the paradoxes of truth and falsehood in history; on parasitology as a cryptohistorical discourse; on the codes of Victorian floriography; on cases of cross-dressing and sartorial camouflage; on the Vietnam War MIAs; on manipulations lying at the core of contemporary Bulgarian identity; on the search for a racial utopia in the American South; and on the fiction of Beryl Bainbridge as a form of cryptohistorical literature.

Technological Perspectives on Behavioral Change

Technological Perspectives on Behavioral Change PDF Author: Michael Brian Schiffer
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
ISBN: 081655143X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 182

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Book Description
Human societies have always been characterized by a dependence on artifacts, from prehistoric stone tools to modern electronic devices. Technology responds to and affects virtually all human behavior; yet the interdependence of behavior and artifacts has never been studied intensively. Archaeologist Schiffer now draws on his discipline's familiarity with artifacts--and the processes of change they reveal--to offer new insight into the study of behavioral change. Drawing on case studies that deal with changes in architecture, ceramics and electronic technology, he emphasizes the central idea that the explanations of change must focus on the nexus of behavior and artifacts in the context of activities.

The Portable Radio in American Life

The Portable Radio in American Life PDF Author: Michael Brian Schiffer
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
ISBN: 0816547688
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
In this fascinating history of the portable radio, Michael Schiffer shows how this invention is as American as apple pie. Along the way, he tells how technology has responded to consumer preference, how corporate "cryptohistory" has made us believe the Japanese invented the radio, and how the spread of the portable radio mirrors that of other technologies. More than 400 photographs make this book both a definitive resource and a delightful browse.

Archaeologies of the Contemporary Past

Archaeologies of the Contemporary Past PDF Author: Victor Buchli
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134571372
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
Archaeologies of the Contemporary Past turns what is usually seen as a method for investigating the distant past onto the present. In doing so, it reveals fresh ways of looking both at ourselves and modern society as well as the discipline of archaeology. This volume represents the most recent research in this area and examines a variety of contexts including: * Art Deco * landfills * miner strikes * college fraternities * an abandoned council house.

History

History PDF Author:
Publisher: PediaPress
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 181

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Book Description


Prefaces to the Diaphora

Prefaces to the Diaphora PDF Author: Peter Carravetta
Publisher: Purdue University Press
ISBN: 9781557530042
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 376

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Book Description
The central concern of these eight studies and essays is the understanding and critique of culture at the shifty boundaries between the Modem and the Postmodern epochs. The author contends that what needs to be addressed is the very abyss, the "spacetime" between the Modern and the Postmodern worldviews, as well as the tension between aesthetics and ethics, critical discourse and the creative arts, in an effort to rethink multireferential processes of signification. The keystone of the book is Carravetta's notion of Diaphoristics, a theory of interpretation as dialogue. Diaphora, or difference, refers to the ancient quarrel between poetry and philosophy and signifies the movement between asymmetrical or heterogeneous forms of discourse that have, both historically and speculatively, borne the transfer of meaning from one semantic/hermeneutic field to another. The author focuses on the necessary risk and duplicity of criticism and develops nonagonistic models based on figuration and rhetorical dynamics. In two other chapters, the author steps back to reassess, in terms of the diaphora, the diverging notions of Postmodernity by the continental philosophers Lyotard and Vattimo. The collection ends with an essay on the long-overdue conversation between Vico and Heidegger.

The Elements in the Medieval World

The Elements in the Medieval World PDF Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004696504
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 466

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Book Description
The thirteen essays and the final poem contained in this volume reflect the fundamental importance of water across the whole breadth of medieval endeavour and understanding, as both source of life, and object of scholarly fascination, whose manifestations were the source of rich symbolism and imaginings. Ranging geographically from Ireland to the Arab world and from Iceland to Byzantium and chronologically from the fourth century CE to the sixteenth, the essays explore perceptions and theories of water through a wide range of approaches. Contributors are Michael Bintley, Tom Birkett, Laura Borghetti, Rafał Borysławski, Marilina Cesario, Marusca Francini, Kelly Grovier, Deborah Hayden, Simon Karstens, Andreas Lammer, David Livingstone, Luca Loschiavo, Hugh Magennis, Colin Fitzpatrick Murtha, François Quiviger, Elisa Ramazzina, and Karl Whittington.

Virtualpolitik

Virtualpolitik PDF Author: Elizabeth Mathews Losh
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262123045
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 427

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Book Description
Government media-making, from official websites to whistleblowers' e-mail, and its sometimes unintended consequences. Today government agencies not only have official Web sites but also sponsor moderated chats, blogs, digital video clips, online tutorials, videogames, and virtual tours of national landmarks. Sophisticated online marketing campaigns target citizens with messages from the government--even as officials make news with digital gaffes involving embarrassing e-mails, instant messages, and videos. In Virtualpolitik, Elizabeth Losh closely examines the government's digital rhetoric in such cases and its dual role as mediamaker and regulator. Looking beyond the usual focus on interfaces, operations, and procedures, Losh analyzes the ideologies revealed in government's digital discourse, its anxieties about new online practices, and what happens when officially sanctioned material is parodied, remixed, or recontextualized by users. Losh reports on a video game that panicked the House Intelligence Committee, pedagogic and therapeutic digital products aimed at American soldiers, government Web sites in the weeks and months following 9/11, PowerPoint presentations by government officials and gadflies, e-mail as a channel for whistleblowing, digital satire of surveillance practices, national digital libraries, and computer-based training for health professionals. Losh concludes that the government's "virtualpolitik"--its digital realpolitik aimed at preserving its own power--is focused on regulation, casting as criminal such common online activities as file sharing, video-game play, and social networking. This policy approach, she warns, indefinitely postpones building effective institutions for electronic governance, ignores constituents' need to shape electronic identities to suit their personal politics, and misses an opportunity to learn how citizens can have meaningful interaction with the virtual manifestations of the state.

Joystick Soldiers

Joystick Soldiers PDF Author: Nina B. Huntemann
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135842817
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 507

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Book Description
Joystick Soldiers is the first anthology to examine the reciprocal relationship between militarism and video games. War has been an integral theme of the games industry since the invention of the first video game, Spacewar! in 1962.While war video games began as entertainment, military organizations soon saw their potential as combat simulation and recruitment tools. A profitable and popular relationship was established between the video game industry and the military, and continues today with video game franchises like America’s Army, which was developed by the U.S.Army as a public relations and recruitment tool. This collection features all new essays that explore how modern warfare has been represented in and influenced by video games. The contributors explore the history and political economy of video games and the "military-entertainment complex;" present textual analyses of military-themed video games such as Metal Gear Solid; and offer reception studies of gamers, fandom, and political activism within online gaming.

The Post-Soviet Politics of Utopia

The Post-Soviet Politics of Utopia PDF Author: Mikhail Suslov
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1788317068
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 377

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Book Description
More than 700 'utopian' novels are published in Russia every year. These utopias – meaning here fantasy fiction, science fiction, space operas or alternative history – do not set out merely to titillate; instead they express very real Russian anxieties: be they territorial right-sizing, loss of imperial status or turning into a 'colony' of the West. Contributors to this innovative collection use these narratives to re-examine post-Soviet Russian political culture and identity. Interrogating the intersections of politics, ideologies and fantasies, chapters draw together the highbrow literary mainstream (authors such as Vladimir Sorokin), mass literature for entertainment and individuals who bridge the gap between fiction writers and intellectuals or ideologists (Aleksandr Prokhanov, for example, the editor-in-chief of Russia's far-right newspaper Zavtra). In the process The Post-Soviet Politics of Utopia sheds crucial light onto a variety of debates – including the rise of nationalism, right-wing populism, imperial revanchism, the complicated presence of religion in the public sphere, the function of language – and is important reading for anyone interested in the heightened importance of ideas, myths, alternative histories and conspiracy theories in Russia today.