The Man in Black is dead, and Roland is about to be hurled into 20th-century America, occupying the mind of a man running cocaine on the New York/Bermuda shuttle. A brilliant work of dark fantasy inspired by Browning's romantic poem, "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came".
On Farting: Language and Laughter in the Middle Ages
This book presents waste as an aesthetic category that introduces an arsy-versy world where detritus is precious. This aesthetic is applied in the second part to etymology, poking through the "paternal dungheaps" of words, and tracing their origins not to Eden but to Babel, puns, and word play. Finally, in the case of Roland the Farter, who performed annually a jump, whistle, and fart before the king of England, we encounter the resistance of the past to historical rationalization. Roland moons at us across the centuries, deflating our attempts to become one flesh with the past, and placing laughter at the heart of knowing.
The Inequality Puzzle: European and US Leaders Discuss Rising Income Inequality
"The Inequality Puzzle" presents interviews with thirteen prominent business executives, politicians and labor leaders in the US and EU. Written in English for a non-academic audience, the book explores different policy approaches to rising income inequality in the United States and many European countries by considering the views of individuals respected for their judgement, expertise and substantial practical experience. Organized by the Roland Berger Stiftung, the book also presents analysis and recommendations by Stanford University’s Stanford Center for the Study of Poverty and Inequality, and Roland Berger, Chairman, Roland Berger Strategy Consultants.
Added by: Kahena | Karma: 11524.33 | Fiction literature | 15 November 2010
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The Song of Roland
The Song of Roland (French: La Chanson de Roland) is the oldest surviving major work of French literature. It exists in various different manuscript versions which testify to its enormous and enduring popularity in the 12th to 14th centuries. The oldest of these is the Oxford manuscript which contains a text of some 4004 lines (the number varies slightly in different modern editions) and is usually dated to the middle of the twelfth century (between 1140 and 1170). The epic poem is the first and most outstanding example of the chanson de geste, a literary form that flourished between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries and celebrated the legendary deeds of a hero.
Roland Barthes, the French critic and semiotician, was one of the most important critics and essayists of this century. His work continues to influence contemporary literary theory and cultural studies. Image-Music-Text collects Barthes's best writings on photography and the cinema, as well as fascinating articles on the relationship between images and sound.
