Vina West, a spirited beauty from the town of Penguin, Tasmania, grew up cherishing the love of her adoptive parents. When adulthood beckons, she finds herself in the bustling streets of Melbourne, building a life filled with friendships. But it's Tasmania's pull that brings her back, and an unexpected discovery that sends her on a journey across oceans to Glasgow in search of her roots. In the heart of Scotland, Vina not only traces her family's secrets and connections, but also stumbles upon Philip Dawson, a charming Glasgow lawyer. In art galleries and age-old streets, a budding romance unfolds as Vina unravels the past. With a newfound half-sister, a nephew, and a love story she hadn't dared to dream of, Vina finds herself intertwined between two worlds. A heartfelt journey that will take you from the serene shores of Tasmania to the historic heart of Scotland, VINA'S QUEST is a tale of discovery, love, and family ties that cross continents.

Foregrounding a strategy of experimental techniques which Neustadt call (con)fusing signs, the book explores critical and political dimensions of contemporary Spanish American artistic practices that are often explained away in the vague name of postmodern fragmentation. ( Con)Fusing Signs explores the techniques, consequences and purposes for this type of fragmentation. This study reassesses the much discussed crisis of representation through an analysis of the complexity of political critique in areas as diverse (and related) as postmodernity, military dictatorship and postcolonialism. This book explores the manner in which multimedia artists Diamela Eltit, Alejandro Jodorowsky, and Guillermo G-mez-Pe-a articulate political critiques through textual (con)fusion while paradoxically underscoring their inability to get outside of discourse.

Conflicting Identities and Multiple Masculinities takes as its focus the construction of masculinity in Western Europe from the early Middle Ages until the fifteenth century, crossing from pre-Christian Scandinavia across western Christendom. The essays consult a broad and representative cross section of sources including the work of theological, scholastic, and monastic writers, sagas, hagiography and memoirs, material culture, chronicles, exampla and vernacular literature, sumptuary legislation, and the records of ecclesiastical courts. The studies address questions of what constituted male identity, and male sexuality. How was masculinity constructed in different social groups? How did the secular and ecclesiastical ideals of masculinity reinforce each other or diverge? These essays address the topic of medieval men and, through a variety of theoretical, methodological, and disciplinary approaches, significantly extend our understanding of how, in the Middle Ages, masculinity and identity were conflicted and multifarious.

In essays that engage the current theoretical parlances of 'ambivalence', 'hybridity' and the 'subaltern', Larsen concludes with a critical reassessment of Benedict Anderson's Imagined Communities.

The tensions between utopian dreams and dystopian anxieties permeate science fiction as a genre, and nowhere is this tension more evident than in Star Trek. This book breaks new ground by exploring music and sound within the Star Trek franchise across decades and media, offering the first sustained look at the role of music in shaping this influential series. The chapters in this edited collection consider how the aural, visual, and narrative components of Star Trek combine as it constructs and deconstructs the utopian and dystopian, shedding new light on the series’ political, cultural, and aesthetic impact. Considering how the music of Star Trek defines and interprets religion, ideology, artificial intelligence, and more, while also considering fan interactions with the show’s audio, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of music, media studies, science fiction, and popular culture.