This is a translation of one of very few Russian serfs' memoirs. Savva Purlevskii recollects his life in Russian serfdom and life of his grandparents, parents, and fellow villagers. He describes ...family and communal life and the serfs' daily interaction with landlords and authorities. Purlevskii came from an initially prosperous family that later became impoverished. Early in his childhood, he lost his father. Purlevskii did not have a chance to gain a formal education. He lived under serfdom until 1831 when at the age of 30 he escaped his servitude. Gorshkov's introduction provides some basic knowledge about Russian serfdom and draws upon the most recent scholarship. Notes provide references and general information about events, places and people mentioned in the memoirs. Besides its appeal to scholars of Russian history, peasant studies, or servile systems such as serfdom and slavery, the illustrations and the conversational style will make this book highly suitable for undergraduate and graduate classes. "A fascinating autobiography of a self-made serf-entrepreneur, originally published in 1877... The book - elegantly printed by the Central European University Press and illuminated with nineteenth-century miniatures of peasant life - will surely provide an attractive teaching material for the courses on pre-Reform Russian history, as well as a good read for all those interested in social history of Russia". - The Russian Review
Mid-sixties British rock musicians have rationalized their firsthand experience and profitable interactions with American racial segregation by adopting a stance of racial innocence, or a belief that ...youth and virtue make one immune to charges of complicity with organized structures of racism. This almost childlike subject-positioning disingenuously separates musicians’ expertise on African American blues from a more mature acknowledgement of the oppressive racial conditions that shaped the music, implicitly excluding them from culpability in the continued imbalance of power between black and white musicians.
Geoffrey Household's autobiography titled Against the Wind (1958) demonstrates the hybridity of life-writing or personal narrative by borrowing freely from the major dynamic of his prose fiction, ...which involves the playing off of the picaresque against old-fashioned romance. Reconstructing the major stages of his career in international commerce, military service, and literary authorship, Household's text bears witness to his sympathy for Zionism, given the horrors of the Holocaust, and to the specter of a "dying Europe" that was rapidly succumbing to the interwar realities of political modernity. Although his 23 novels probably will never enjoy a widespread readership, in Against the Wind this once popular author presents a compelling minority report on his times. For these and other reasons, Household's midlife memoir warrants attention by those interested in the reconfigurations of nonfictional prose.
Against My Better Judgment: An Intimate Memoir of an Eminent Gay Psychologist is an extraordinary and moving account of the life of a gay man in his late 60s after he loses his companion of 40 years ...to cancer. A leading professor of psychology at Harvard University, Roger Brown bravely comes forth with his compelling story of grief, loneliness, and a relentless search for intimacy, healing, and self-acceptance. Readers gain insight into a stage of life experienced by gay men of which little is written or spoken due to the ageism that characterizes homosexual culture.
Against My Better Judgment reveals deeply personal truths that will prepare gay men for what to expect in the later stages of life. Universal in nature, these truths will speak to readers from various lifestyles and of all ages. Readers will recognize the book as a story of looking for love in all the wrong places, but will also see in it a process of discovery--both internal and external.
In the aftermath of his lover's death, Brown turns to prostitutes for companionship, for relieving repressed sexual energy, and even for love. Through his unique relationships with three young men, he does not find the romantic love he so desperately seeks, but discovers that his idea of human nature has been formed by his particular life position and association with people who share his values, knowledge, and privileges. Once he goes outside his social and intellectual circle, he acquires a new perspective on life and realizes how far from universal truth his notions of humanity have been.
Readers of Against My Better Judgment will gain a different perspective on the complexities of love, relationships, fidelity, human nature, and the hardships of life inevitably faced by all humans--straight, gay, or bisexual. Gay men, lesbians, psychologists, widowers, therapists, and anthropologists, as well as sensitive readers of any background, will heighten their understanding of what it mea
The year 2010 marked the 100th anniversary of Mark Twain's death. In celebration of this important milestone and in honor of the cherished tradition of publishing Mark Twain's works, UC Press ...publishedAutobiography of Mark Twain,Volume 1, the first of a projected three-volume edition of the complete, uncensored autobiography. The book became an immediate bestseller and was hailed as the capstone of the life's work of America's favorite author. ThisReader's Edition,a portable paperback in larger type, republishes the text of the hardcoverAutobiographyin a form that is convenient for the general reader, without the editorial explanatory notes. It includes a brief introduction describing the evolution of Mark Twain's ideas about writing his autobiography, as well as a chronology of his life, brief family biographies, and an excerpt from the forthcoming Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 2-a controversial but characteristically humorous attack on Christian doctrine.
Dangerous Families Sycamore, Matt Bernstein
2004, 20121112, 2003, 20040101
eBook
Queer survivors piece together the clues to discover their own lives!
Dangerous Families: Queer Writing on Surviving goes beyond the recovery narrative to create a new queer literature of ...investigation, exploration, and transformation. Twenty-six stories illuminate the reality of growing up in fear, struggling to rebuild lives damaged by sexual, physical, and/or emotional abuse. The book explores how abuse turns queer survivorsmale, female, and transgenderedinto healers, heartbreakers, and homicidal maniacs, presenting brilliant stories that sear and soar.
Dangerous Families: Queer Writing on Surviving addresses all forms of abuse head-on, representing a cross-section of queer survivors in terms of race, class, ethnicity, education, origin, sexuality, and gender. Contributors use their own life experiences to create a book that takes back control from well-meaning outsiders, as they recount the daily struggle to overcome the damage done to their minds, bodies, and spirits in a world that denies their gender, sexual, and social identities.
From the editor: Dangerous Families consists entirely of writing by survivors of childhood abuse. That's rightno therapists analyzing our plight, no talk-show hosts exploiting usjust survivors, exploring our complicated, frightening, and fulfilling lives. These stories dispense with the usual technique of carefully massaging the reader's fragile worldview before plunging this unsuspecting innocent into a world of horror. They go right to the horror, the beauty, and the joy, often throwing the reader off-guard, revealing layers of meaning before the reader can step back.
Dangerous Families: Queer Writing on Surviving is an anthology of 26 true stories of growing up queer in families that magnify the horrors of the outside world instead of offering protection. The book is an essential read for therapists, caseworkers, cultural studies specialists,
Ana de San Bartolomé (1549–1626), a contemporary and close associate of St. Teresa of Ávila, typifies the curious blend of religious activism and spiritual forcefulness that characterized the first ...generation of Discalced, or reformed Carmelites. Known for their austerity and ethics, their convents quickly spread throughout Spain and, under Ana’s guidance, also to France and the Low Countries. Constantly embroiled in disputes with her male superiors, Ana quickly became the most vocal and visible of these mystical women and the most fearless of the guardians of the Carmelite Constitution, especially after Teresa’s death. Her autobiography, clearly inseparable from her religious vocation, expresses the tensions and conflicts that often accompanied the lives of women whose relationship to the divine endowed them with an authority at odds with the temporary powers of church and state. Last translated into English in 1916, Ana’s writings give modern readers fascinating insights into the nature of monastic life during the highly charged religious and political climate of late-sixteenth- and early-seventeenth-century Spain.
: Using a critical analysis of three recent British police memoirs this article considers some aspects of how the police memoir has changed over time, and specifically how these recent memoirs differ ...from the ‘up from the streets’ autobiographies of the past. The article uses this critical analysis to pursue further the idea of cop culture.
