Acknowledged Legislator: Critical Essays on the Poetry of Martín Espada stands as the first-ever collection of essays on poet and activist Martín Espada. It is also, to date, the only published book-length, single-author study of Espada currently in existence. Relying on innovative, highly original contributions from thirteen Espada scholars, its principal aim is to argue for a long overdue critical awareness of and cultural appreciation for Espada and his body of writing. Acknowledged Legislator accomplishes this task in three fundamental ways: by providing readers with background information on the poet’s life and work; offering an examination into the subject matter and dominant themes that are frequently contained in his writing; and finally, by advocating, in a variety of ways, for why we should be reading, discussing, and teaching the Espada canon. Divided into four distinct sections that modulate through several theoretical frames—from Espada’s attention to resistance poetics and concerns for historical memory to his oppositional critique of neoliberalism and support for a class consciousness grounded in labor rights—Acknowledged Legislator offers a cohesive, forward-thinking interpretive statement of the poet’s vision and proposes a critical (re)assessment for how we read Espada, now and in the future.

Modern ideas of freedom and human rights have been repeatedly contested and are hotly debated at the beginning of the third millennium in response to new theories, needs, and challenges in contemporary life. This volume offers culturally diverse contributions to the debate on freedom from the literatures and arts of the postcolonial world, exploring experiences that evoke, desire, imagine, and perform freedom across five continents and two centuries of history. Experiences of Freedom opens with an introductory philosophical essay by Achille Mbembe and is divided into four sections that consider: • resisting history and colonialism • the right to move and to belong • the right to (believe in) free futures • imaginative freedom and critical engagement. Each section contains a piece of creative writing directly connected to these topics from authors Chris Abani, Anita Desai, Caryl Phillips, and Alexis Wright, followed by a selection of critical essays. Contributors: Chris Abani, Rochelle Almeida, Gil Anidjar, Jogamaya Bayer, Elena Bernardini, Anne Collett, Carmen Concilio, Paola Della Valle, Roberto Derobertis, Anita Desai, Lorna Down, Francesca Giommi, Gareth Griffiths, Dave Gunning, John C. Hawley, Peter H. Marsden, Russell McDougall, Achille Mbembe, Cinzia Mozzato, Kevin Newmark, Berndt Ostendorf, Mai Palmberg, Owen Percy, Kirsten Holst Petersen, Caryl Phillips, Annel Pieterse, Christiane Schlote, Nermeen Shaikh, Patrick Williams, Alexis Wright, and Robert J. C. Young.

The Art of God traces the progressive loss in the West of contact with, or faith in, a real created order, and discusses the manifestations of this loss in fine art. Making detailed reference to specific artists and works, Thistlewaite shows how the diversity ofour responses to modern art, as well as that of previous centuries, inescapably raises the question of truth. This readable and thought-provoking book breaks new ground as it links the pleasures of art to the dynamic character of God, and asks what happens to creativity and to artists when the appreciation of God is absent. It thus offers readers a fresh perspective from which to appreciate art. FROM THE AUTHOR : June 23, 2009 All art historians must find a way of explaining the gap between the 'traditional' art and modern. Older art answered questions such as Ôwhat was Henry VIII like?Õ The new is not so much about the world as about the breakdown in perceiving the world. But some histories are still written as if art has followed a path of inevitable progress. Others, as if all beliefs that produce genuine art, however weird, are equally valid. Ê In my book, I argue that modernism has produced a genuine art that grapples with perceived reality, but that its real lack of content is disastrous. When we see objects that are essentially blank or empty, and start to find them significant and powerful, we ought to be getting worried. To explain this, I have developed an account of art which sees it as a given, and delightful, form of knowing that equips us for living in GodÕs world. But when the Ôart areaÕ becomes part of the human agenda for unbelief, independence, and defining ourselves in the cosmos, it ceases to be a window on reality. It starts to function as a totem replacing thought: a sub-human icon for humanity Ê However, towards the end of the book I focus on the dynamism of the living God and the transformative power of his grace that can turn any modern ÔformÕ, however desolate, into a vehicle of truth and meaning. When modernism plunges into the depths of Ônot-knowingÕ, it can seldom go so far that real humanity and truth are not discovered in the unlikeliest places.ÊÊ

this is a very good book

Although readers of modern literature have always known about the collaboration of W.B. Yeats and Ezra Pound, the crucial winters these poets spent living together in Stone Cottage in Sussex (1913-1916) have remained a mystery. Working from a large base of previously unpublished material, James Longenbach presents for the first time the untold story of these three winters. Inside the secret world of Stone Cottage, Pound's Imagist poems were inextricably linked to Yeats's studies in spiritualism and magic, and early drafts of The Cantos reveal that the poem began in response to the same esoteric texts that shaped Yeats's visionary system. At the same time, Yeats's autobiographies and Noh-style plays took shape with Pound's assistance. Having retreated to Sussex to escape the flurry of wartime London, both poets tracked the progress of the Great War and in response wrote poems--some unpublished until now--that directly address the poet's political function. More than the story of a literary friendship, Stone Cottage explores the Pound-Yeats connection within the larger context of modern literature and culture, illuminating work that ranks with the greatest achievements of modernism.

Examines the key features of the Vienna Convention (reservations and modifications, application, interpretation, suspension and settlement of dispute), as well as discussing its scope and significance.