Although she enjoyed only modest success during her lifetime, Kate Chopin is now recognised as a unique voice in American literature. Her seminal novel, The Awakening, published in 1899, explored new and startling territory, and stunned readers with its frank depiction of the limits of marriage and motherhood. Chopin's aesthetic tastes and cultural influences were drawn from both the European and American traditions, and her manipulation of her 'foreignness' contributed to the composition of a complex voice that was strikingly different to that of her contemporaries.
The genius of Thomas Mann is seen in his ability to transform his pervasive irony into a thousand things. Irony in Mann is a composite metaphor for all of his ambivalence towards both self and society. Study his works with this text, including Death in Venice, Mario and the Magician, Tonio Kröger, "Felix Krull," and "Disorder and Sorrow."
Mathematical Linguistics (Advanced Information and Knowledge Processing)
This is a remarkable book on the mathematics used for linguistics. … it provides a coherent, well-written view of the math required to model the structure of langiage as used in the main branches of linguistics: phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. The intended audience is anyone with sufficient general mathematical maturity, such as advanced undergraduate math. … The math is presented well, and the material has a strong narrative flow.
Even with a limited mathematics background, readers can understand what statistical methods are and how they may be used to obtain the best possible results from experimental measurements and data. The author describes the physical bases on which statistical theories are developed, and derives from them useful mathematical results and formulas for the evaluation and analysis of experimental data. Special mathematical techniques are explained as they are needed.
The Companion to Jonathan Swift explores crucial dimensions of Swift's life and works. As well as ensuring a broad coverage of Swift's writing - including early and later works as well as the better known and the lesser known - the Companion also offers a way into current critical and theoretical issues surrounding the author. Special emphasis is placed on Swift's vexed relationship with the land of his birth, Ireland; and on his place as a political writer in a highly politicised age.
