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This volume was first published by Inter-Disciplinary Press in 2016. From concerns about the ‘other’ and the ‘unknown’ through to anxieties about crime and the apocalyptic and monstrous, these chapters traverse a contemporary landscape of social, cultural and existential fears. How do fictional narratives in literature, film and television programmes construct and entrench fears and anxieties? What can contemporary fears and anxieties tell us about the changing nature of the world? What is perceived as a threat? How do the media shape perceptions of those threats? Gun crime, gender equality, terrorism, technology, black holes, Ebola and the return of the dead are all seen to produce fear and anxiety. Reflecting on the things we have come to fear the most and exploring their specific constructions and implications, this volume brings new dimensions to our understanding of the fears and anxieties that permeate the contemporary West.
This collection explores the impact of Covid-19 on the production and consumption of television and film content in the English-speaking world. Offering in-depth analysis of select on-screen entertainment, the volume addresses entertainment’s changing role during and following the Covid-19 pandemic. It also studies the pandemic’s incorporation into the narrative of numerous series, films, and other televised formats, capturing the moments and contexts in which these developments emerged. Chapters examine the pandemic’s impact both on a micro- and macro level, focusing on the content as well as form of TV shows and films. Bringing together an international team of scholars, the book off...
This volume was first published by Inter-Disciplinary Press in 2012. The present book assesses the multifaceted phenomenon of revenge and tries to open a hatch to the human comprehension of vengeance, its roots, role and functions in philosophy, history, societies and literature. It introduces studies as they were presented at the Inter-Disciplinary.Net's 2nd Global Conference on Revenge, which took place in July, 2011 at Mansfield College in Oxford University.
This volume was first published by Inter-Disciplinary Press in 2013. This multidisciplinary book furthers the debate on the much-contested concept of revenge. It offers a combination of conceptual arguments, and historical, fictional and socio-cultural examples of revenge. What is revenge? Is it a deliciously sweet and non-fattening affair, as Alfred Hitchcock suggested? Or is it, as John Ford argued, an all-consuming affair, inevitably proving more damaging to the avenger? Herein lies the focus of this book: it explores the puzzling, conflicting and intricate nature of revenge. Welcome to the conundrum. With sixteen multidisciplinary chapters, this book tries to disentangle this puzzlement....
This interdisciplinary volume offers an attempt to question, perplex and ultimately reframe our collective understanding of punishment.
Since ancient times, explorers and adventurers have captured popular imagination with their frightening narratives of travels gone wrong. Usually, these stories heavily feature the exotic or unknown, and can transform any journey into a nightmare. Stories of such horrific happenings have a long and rich history that stretches from folktales to contemporary media narratives.This work presents eighteen essays that explore the ways in which these texts reflect and shape our fear and fascination surrounding travel, posing new questions about the "geographies of evil" and how our notions of "terrible places" and their inhabitants change over time. The volume's five thematic sections offer new insights into how power, privilege, uncanny landscapes, misbegotten quests, hellish commutes and deadly vacations can turn our travels into terror.
Highly commended at the British Medical Association Book Awards 2019 Are we living in an age of unprecedented anxiety, or has this always been a problem throughout history? We only need look around us to see anxieties: in the family home, the workplace, on social media, and especially in the news. It's true that everyone feels anxious at some time in their lives, but we're told we're all feeling more anxious than we've ever been before - and for longer than we've ever done before. It's even reported that anxiety is a modern epidemic significant enough to challenge the dominance of depression as the most common mental health problem. Much of this increase has been attributed to changes in lif...
This volume was first published by Inter-Disciplinary Press in 2015. The topic of deception is an area of study that has fascinated researchers and readers alike for generations. From infamous tales of espionage and conspiracy, to the targeted deception of illusionists and magicians, and notorious examples of deceptive statements and actions in public life, the concept of deception is widely recognised by the general public. The pervasive nature of deception and deceit, permeating all facets of life from the annals of history to the present day, means that it is an area of research that benefits substantially from an approach that crosses conventional academic and research boundaries. This collection represents an interdisciplinary exploration of the concept of deception, expanding the readers’ awareness and understanding of a range of areas including the portrayal of deception in literature and spy fiction, the existence and success of literary hoaxes, deception and illusion in visual art, and the use of deception in both strategic and interpersonal contexts.
This e-book presents the findings of the 2nd global, interdisciplinary conference on Villains and Villainy, which was held at Oriel College, Oxford in September 2010 as part of the research network Inter-Disciplinary.Net.
Seeing Social Problems: The Hidden Stories Behind Contemporary Issues shows students how to think about social problems in a new way, by carefully analyzing headline-making issues they are already familiar with and illustrating the connection between individual problems and larger social forces. Each chapter engages students in thinking about the world sociologically by focusing on a specific case study that represents a more general social problem. The chapters always start with the knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, and personal experiences that students bring to the case—what author Ira Silver refers to as the conventional wisdom—and effectively demonstrate to them the “first wisdom” of sociology: “things are not what they seem.” In each instance, Silver shows how sociologists ask questions, gather empirical data, use multiple perspectives, and consider larger social forces to discover the “hidden stories” behind individual behavior.