Taboos and Transgressions: Stories of Wrongdoings, is an anthology that includes fiction and nonfiction. It was edited by Luanne Smith, Kerry Neville, and Devi S. Laskar, and focuses on breaking the rules with stories by Pam Houston, Bonnie Jo Campbell, Joyce Carol Oates, and Kim Addonizio alongside exceptional work by both noted and emerging writers. The anthology offers a scope of voices, styles, stories, and wrongdoings. From infidelity to family prejudices, from breaking the law to broken promises, from losing everything to finding empowerment, characters in these pieces offer a look at stepping over the line in all too human ways. Edited by Luanne Smith, Kerry Neville, and Devi S. Laskar, the anthology represents the best of both solicited and unsolicited work. Unsolicited material has been read by judge Maurice Carlos Ruffin and prizes awarded to one winning story and two runners up.

Taboo and Transgression in British Literature from the Renaissance to the Present develops an innovative overview of the interdisciplinary theoretical approaches to the topic that have emerged in recent years. Alongside exemplary model analyses of key periods and representative primary texts, this exciting new anthology of critical essays has been specifically designed to fill a major gap in the field of literary and cultural studies. This book traces the complex dynamic and ongoing negotiation of notions of transgression and taboo as an essential, though often neglected, facet to understanding the development, production, and conception of literature from the early modern Elizabethan period through postmodern debates. The combination of a broad theoretical and historical framework covering almost fifty representative authors and uvres makes this essential reading for students and specialists alike in the fields of literary studies and cultural studies.

Using the analytical tools of cultural anthropology, Ida Magli delves into the familiar material of the New Testament the same way as she would any other historical text, and carefully separates the myth and mysticism from the narrative accounts, to discern what is most likely to be historical fact, and what may instead have been adjusted so as no to clash with the customs and worldview of the authors of the Gospels. What emerges is a new understanding of just how far and drastically Jesus of Nazareth challenged the religious views of his time, defying traditions and repeatedly risking his ministry by breaking some of the most severe taboos. Among the many transgressions that are made clear in Ida Magli's analysis is Jesus' denial of the preeminence of blood-ties and family as the reason and foundation of love, when at the house of Lazarus he elects those sitting around him as his true family (Matthew: 12:46); and again when he invites a young man to defy the ancient Jewish observance of mourning his dead father, and follow him instead (Matthew 8:22). As the author reveals, the very principles of Jesus' teachings advocate a universal, indiscriminate love of one's fellow man, and not merely love and respect for kith and kin. By this standard, all people are equal to each other in the eyes of God. Each person is a vessel for communicating directly with God, and there is no further need for priestly hierarchies, go-betweens, or mediation in the me/thee equation with God himself. This tidal shift in perspective automatically entailed the empowerment of women and their emancipation from their subservient role in society, kindling their self-awareness and comprehension of their equal status. To endorse her point, Magli chooses the extraordinary account of the penitent woman entering the house of a Pharisee where Jesus was eating (Luke 7:44), and washing his feet, to the astonishment and incomprehension of all around him. The act was so bold and incomprehensible that in all likelihood it was retold with great precision, because the evangelists failed to understand its true meaning, nor could they grasp Jesus' intentions as he blessed the adoring woman and let her go. Here as in other instances, Magli demonstrates that wherever in the Gospels the deeds and words of Jesus veer drastically from what the evangelists were accustomed to, their accounts are more credible and pertinent to Jesus' fundamental message of universal love, as they did not think of finding justifications or fabricating the events related. Conversely, where the accounts evidently comply with the tradition and lore of the time, these are passages where the evangelists adjusted the text to fit in with their own spiritual worldview and religious background. For anyone who believes they knew the Gospels thoroughly already, or those who are interested in a new way of looking at these familiar texts, Ida Magli's fascinating study will bring many rewards, and stimulate further inquiry into why this man we call Jesus of Nazareth was both a genius and revolutionary of his times.

In 1996, against the backdrop of Alberto Fujimori’s increasingly corrupt national politics, an older woman in Lima, Peru—part of a group of women street sweepers protesting the privatization of the city’s cleaning services—stripped to the waist in full view of the crowd that surrounded her. Lima had just launched a campaign to revitalize its historic districts, and this shockingly transgressive act was just one of a series of events that challenged the norms of order, cleanliness, and beauty that the renewal effort promoted. The City at Its Limits employs a novel and fluid interweaving of essays and field diary entries as Daniella Gandolfo analyzes the ramifications of this act within the city’s conflicted history and across its class divisions. She builds on the work of Georges Bataille to explore the relation between taboo and transgression, while Peruvian novelist and anthropologist José María Arguedas’s writings inspire her to reflect on her return to her native city in movingly intimate detail. With its multiple perspectives—personal, sociological, historical, and theoretical—The City at Its Limits is a pioneering work on the cutting edge of ethnography.

Cult Films: Taboo and Transgression looks at nine decades of cult films history within American culture. By highlighting three films per decade including a brief summary of the decade's identity and sensibility, the book investigates the quality, ironies, and spirit of cult film evolution. The twenty-seven films selected for this study are analyzed for story content and in their respective transgressions regarding social, aesthetic, and political codes. Characteristic of this book is the notion that many exciting genres make up cult films-including horror, sci-fi, fantasy, film noir, and black comedy. Further, the book reaches out to several foreign film directors over the decades in order to view cult films as an intentional art form. Political and ideological controversies are covered; arresting back-story details that lend perspective on a film fill out the analysis and the historic framework for many film titles. The book, by emphasizing the condensed survey over decades and by choosing outstanding titles, differs from other general studies on cult films.

Renowned for making films that are at once sly domestic satires and heartbreaking 'social realist' dramas, British writer-director Mike Leigh confronts his viewers with an un-romanticized dramatization of modern-day society in the hopes of inspiring them to strive for greater self-awareness and compassion for others. This collection features new, interdisciplinary essays that cover all phases of the BAFTA-award-winner's film career, from his early made-for-television film work to his theatrical releases, including Life is Sweet (1990), Naked (1993), Secrets & Lies (1996), Career Girls (1997), Topsy-Turvy (1999), All or Nothing (2002), Vera Drake (2004), Happy-Go-Lucky (2008) and Another Year (2010). With contributions from international scholars from a variety of fields, the essays in this collection cover individual films and the recurring themes and motifs in several films, such as representations of class and gender, and overt social commentary and political subtexts. Also covered are Leigh's visual stylizations and storytelling techniques ranging from explorations of the costume design to set design to the music and camerawork and editing; the collaborative process of 'devising and directing' a Mike Leigh film that involves character-building, world-construction, plotting, improvisations and script-writing; the process of funding and marketing for these seemingly 'uncommercial' projects, and a survey of Leigh's critical reception and the existing writing on his work.