Solitude is the state of being alone or isolated from others. It is often a voluntary choice for meditation, introspection, reflection, or simply enjoying one’s own company. Solitude can be peaceful and conducive to deep thinking or creativity, contrasting with loneliness, which implies a negative feeling of being alone and disconnected. This book investigates the types of solitude in twelve modern short stories written by authors of different nationalities, races, and genders. It also explores how the setting boosts the state of solitude of each character. There are different manifestations of solitude and the solitary character: a person living among other people, refusing to be part of them, unwilling to be part of them, or being refused and rejected to be part of them. This character is a child, a teenager, a man (or an abnormal, freakish man) or a woman of sorrow, a recipient of much unbearable pain.

The bilingual publication Mapping the in-between: Interdisciplinary methods for envisioning other futures is the outcome of the international summer school that explored the potential of interdisciplinary mapping and utopian visioning as an alternative way of developing the city. During the school, various proposals were made as actual alternatives to those of the commodified real estate market and the dreams of large developments of filling in the ‘empty’ spaces of the many brownfields. The texts collected here are a unique insight into the new possible models of cooperation and collaboration that were developed in Košice, Slovakia, with the help of Never-never school’s participants.

This volume offers an examination of Brecht's largely forgotten theatrical fragments of a life of David, written just after the Great War but prior to Brecht winning the Kleist Prize in 1922 and the acclaim that would launch his extraordinary career. David J. Shepherd and Nicholas E. Johnson take as their starting point Brecht's own diaries from the time, which offer a vivid picture of the young Brecht shuttling between Munich and the family home in Augsburg, surrounded by friends, torn between women, desperate for success, and all the while with 'David on the brain'. The analysis of Brecht's David, along with his notebooks and diaries, reveals significant connections between the reception of the Biblical David and one of Germany's most tumultuous cultural periods. Drawing on theatrical experiments conducted with an ensemble from Trinity College Dublin, this volume includes the first ever translation of the David fragments in English, an extensive discussion of the theatrical afterlife of David in the early twentieth century as well as new interdisciplinary insights into the early Brecht: a writer entranced by the biblical David and utterly committed to translating the biblical tradition into his own evolving theatrical idiom.

Praise for the previous edition:Booklist/RBB "Twenty Best Bets for Student Researchers"RUSA/ALA "Outstanding Reference Source"" ... useful ... Recommended for public libraries and undergraduates."

Social isolation and loneliness are serious yet underappreciated public health risks that affect a significant portion of the older adult population. Approximately one-quarter of community-dwelling Americans aged 65 and older are considered to be socially isolated, and a significant proportion of adults in the United States report feeling lonely. People who are 50 years of age or older are more likely to experience many of the risk factors that can cause or exacerbate social isolation or loneliness, such as living alone, the loss of family or friends, chronic illness, and sensory impairments. Over a life course, social isolation and loneliness may be episodic or chronic, depending upon an individual's circumstances and perceptions. A substantial body of evidence demonstrates that social isolation presents a major risk for premature mortality, comparable to other risk factors such as high blood pressure, smoking, or obesity. As older adults are particularly high-volume and high-frequency users of the health care system, there is an opportunity for health care professionals to identify, prevent, and mitigate the adverse health impacts of social isolation and loneliness in older adults. Social Isolation and Loneliness in Older Adults summarizes the evidence base and explores how social isolation and loneliness affect health and quality of life in adults aged 50 and older, particularly among low income, underserved, and vulnerable populations. This report makes recommendations specifically for clinical settings of health care to identify those who suffer the resultant negative health impacts of social isolation and loneliness and target interventions to improve their social conditions. Social Isolation and Loneliness in Older Adults considers clinical tools and methodologies, better education and training for the health care workforce, and dissemination and implementation that will be important for translating research into practice, especially as the evidence base for effective interventions continues to flourish.