peter lang jul 2006 (204 results)

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Our English classrooms are often only as vibrant as the literature that we teach. This book explores the writing of contemporary American author, Kurt Vonnegut, who offers readers and students engaging fiction and nonfiction works that confront the reader and the world. Here, teachers will find an introduction to the life and works of Vonnegut and an opportunity to explore how to bring his works into the classroom as a part of the reading and writing curriculum. This volume attempts to confront what we teach and how we teach as English teachers through the vivid texts Vonnegut offers his readers.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 182 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Sut Jhally¿s influential work as an activist, writer, film producer, and educator has had a far-reaching impact on the course and concerns of media criticism. This volume offers an essential collection of his writings. Jhally¿s work exhibits an engaged and ongoing concern with social justice, cultural politics, and public pedagogy. The Spectacle of Accumulation captures the full range of Jhally¿s thought and covers a variety of issues including the role of advertising in contemporary life, the cultural politics of sport, race, and gender coding in the coverage of current events, and the power of media education to name just a few of the themes covered in this crucial, new work. In addition to his key writings, this book includes a foreword by Henry Giroux as well as three interviews offering a fresh perspective on Jhally¿s work. 316 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -The Power of the Gaze, a textbook on visual literacy, entices the reader to seek significant structures in everyday visual reality, which are called visual orders. Visual orders can be found in representations, visible surroundings, or in nonverbal interaction that relies on gaze. In order to understand what one looks at, one must first understand what it means to gaze and what it means to look. Visual literacy is defined as the critical understanding of the meanings of visual orders. The book is written for all readers interested in visual culture and its phenomena.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 158 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Conversations of Curriculum Reform is a retelling and recapturing of the school lives of students whose dialogue with their teacher and with each other is a transformative and tentative attempt to express and define their school experiences, which were complicated by the loss of two classmates. Meeting as adults, the former classmates reconsider their past and reinterpret their work as the author engages in a critical discourse on the limitations and complications of dialogical methodology. Grounded in phenomenology and compelled interpretatively by poststructuralist autobiographical insight, this book moves toward troubling the familiar notions of the personal and the spaces of autobiography in curriculum research and theory. 148 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -There is a timely and urgent need for a reasoned dialogue reassessing how Marxism can advance the study of human communication and transform the social world in which it is embedded. Indeed, ongoing world-historical events ¿ including the vigorously organized market globalization, the corresponding insurgent global anticorporate movement, and the conflicts engendered by the U.S. invasion of Iraq ¿ have underscored the importance of a thorough critique of global capitalism and its telecommunication technologies and practices.This important new collection, featuring essays by leading scholars and practitioners, provides a much-needed overview and assessment of Marxism¿s significance to contemporary thinking in communication and media studies. Contributors demonstrate how a Marxist perspective can be usefully applied to specific case studies in communication, providing valuable insights and understandings that are not obtainable using other approaches.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 270 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Here is a concise overview of everything you want to know about the magazine production process, from the conception of article ideas through printing and distribution. Looking at magazine publishing from the «micro» view ¿ individual magazines ¿ to the «macro» view ¿ industry trends, history, and issues ¿ this book contains chapters on how to launch a new magazine and write a business plan.Magazines: A Complete Guide to the Industry is ideal for students in magazine editing, management, and publishing courses; entrepreneurs who want to launch a new magazine; or magazine staff members who are new to the industry.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 220 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Henry Giroux is one of the world¿s leading contemporary critical, social, educational, and cultural theorists. Reading and Teaching Henry Giroux demonstrates how his writings can be used in universities, schools, and in cultural production in a very practical fashion. Giroux¿s works, along with the voices of students and teachers will enable professors, teachers, cultural workers, public intellectuals, policymakers, parents, and students to work toward building democratic societies.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 190 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Why do men do ballet What kinds of men become theatrical dancers In this highly original piece of research, Michael Gard shows how the worlds of Western theatrical dance, gender relations and sexuality intermingle and, over time, produce different answers to these questions. Surveying both academic and popular writers, as well as drawing on life history interviews with twenty male dancers, Gard argues that the answers to these questions are inextricably linked to another question whose answer is never the same at any moment in history or any place in culture: What is a man Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 248 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -One of the most important developments of Christianity in the twentieth century was its transformation in South Africa, where it became a vibrant religion rooted in African idioms and cultures. The church also became engaged in the struggle against social and political injustice, and church leaders employed the vocabularies of faith to secure civil liberty. This hard-hitting book focuses on post-apartheid Christian character and establishes the theological and spiritual authority of African Christians, calling contemporary Christians to renew their faith and Christian identity. It shows, too, that one cannot seriously consider contemporary Christianity apart from the African experience. 268 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -This is the first major book in English on literary reading to be based on empirical methods. Moving the focus away from interpretation to the experience of literary texts, these studies demonstrate the role played by feeling in readers¿ responses, showing how feeling performs important functions during reading that cannot be accounted for by cognitive understanding. These studies not only reinvigorate the concept of literariness, they are also thoroughly interdisciplinary, offering a coherent approach to literary reading that draws on literary theory, psychology, neuropsychology, and evolutionary psychology. Several chapters help to introduce the empirical approach for students.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 242 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -In this collection, specialists examine, often through a comparative filter, themes related to migrant literatures, cultural diversity and aspects of Canadian state policy. The results of this examination offer an overview of Canadian society, which, as most contemporary societies, must address issues such as identity, human rights, Aboriginal peoples, international relations, multiculturalism, pollution, and language policies. At the same time, they present a view of the new trends, key interests and the cutting edge in Canadian Studies.Des spécialistes examinent dans ce recueil, souvent sous un angle comparatiste, le phénomène des littératures migrantes, de la diversité culturelle et de certaines des politiques d¿État du Canada. Les résultats de leur analyse offrent, à partir de certains éléments constitutifs, une vue d¿ensemble de la société canadienne. Ils démontrent comment cette dernière fait face aux questions de l¿identité, des droits de la personne, des populations autochtones, du multiculturalisme, des politiques linguistiques, des relations internationales et des questions environnementales. Les nouvelles approches choisies par les différents auteurs font de cet ouvrage un outil important pour les études canadiennes. 298 pp. Englisch, Französisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -In modern International Law there is a tension between territorial integrity on the one hand and the right of peoples to self-determination on the other. This study focuses on the territorial integrity of post-colonial states and the national right of self-determination. It also identifies the resulting conflicts and boundary disputes and makes suggestions on how to solve them, taking into consideration recent state practice, as for instance the former Yugoslavia, the former USSR and the former Czechoslovakia, as well as the latest developments in human rights law. 212 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Janet Frame¿s literary career was inextricably woven into the fabric of the twentieth-century New Zealand literary scene. However, she also became New Zealand¿s best-known international writer and her great literary influence in both fields has not been charted before now. This study also seeks to redress the excessive commitment in scholarship to maintaining, even celebrating, Frame¿s reputation as a psychologically disturbed writer. This book surveys all aspects of Janet Frame¿s biographical legend by considering her later literary and autobiographical works, Jane Campion¿s film adaptation of the autobiographies, An Angel at my Table, as well as biographies and literary histories that both rely on and contribute to her well-known legend. In doing so, the author hopes to offer novel perspectives on Frame¿s literary production, on Frame scholarship, on auto/biographical theories and on New Zealand literary history. 226 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -This collection of essays, inspired by André Breton¿s concept of the limites non-frontières of Surrealism, focuses on the crossings, intersections and margins of the surrealist movement rather than its divides and exclusion zones. Some of the essays originated as papers given at the colloquium ¿Surrealism: Crossings/Frontiers¿ held at the Institute of Romance Studies, University of London, in November 2001.Surrealism is foregrounded as a trajectory rather than a fixed body of doctrines, radically challenging the notion of frontiers. The essays explore real and imaginary journeys, as well as the urban dérives of the surrealists and situationists. The concept of crossing, central to a reading of the dynamics at work in Surrealism, is explored in studies of the surrealist object, which eludes or elides genres, and explorations of the shifting sites of identity, as in the work of Joyce Mansour or André Masson. Surrealism¿s engagement with frontiers is further investigated through a number of revealing cases, such as a political reading of 1930s photography, the parodic rewriting of the popular ¿locked room¿ mystery, or the surrealists¿ cavalier redrawing of the map of the world. The essays contribute to our understanding of the diversity and dynamism of Surrealism as an international and interdisciplinary movement. 244 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Transformation is a desired outcome of Christian spirituality. Christians pray, trust, and hope that their responsive embrace of God will transform them. Interdisciplinary study of this process, as journey and as significant movements, hits upon key philosophical, theological, and psychological debates. Are all spiritualities the same core with an overlay of traditional practices and beliefs How is the Holy Spirit involved in human life as the potential for this transformation process unfolds from birth Can psychological theories of transformation that do not affirm divine reality have explanatory and descriptive power for Christian understandings of transformation These areas of focus and related questions encompass broad landscapes. This book places a magnifying glass on one piece of the terrain by engaging the work of philosopher, theologian, and psychologist James Loder, mystical spirituality scholars Andrew Louth, Bernard McGinn, Denys Turner, and Mark McIntosh, and archetypal movement founder James Hillman. Without denying differences, this work is the first analysis to identify connections among these thinkers. The significance of the connections is both substantive and methodological for intra- and inter-faith (broadly understood) spirituality discussion, as well as for the engagement of the Christian church with the culture of the twenty-first century. 318 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -C-Tests bestehen aus mehreren kurzen Texten, in denen die zweite Hälfte jedes zweiten Wortes fehlt. Sie gelten in der Regel als objektives, reliables, valides und ökonomisches Instrument zur Messung allgemeiner Sprachkompetenz und werden mittlerweile in einer Vielzahl von Kontexten eingesetzt. Der vorliegende Sammelband illustriert den aktuellen Stand der (anwendungsbezogenen) C-Test-Forschung ¿ mit einem Schwerpunkt auf der zentralen Frage der Konstruktvalidität.C-Tests consist of several short texts in which the second half of every second word has been deleted. As a rule, they are considered to be objective, reliable, valid and economical tests of general language proficiency. C-Tests are currently used in many contexts, including high-stakes applications. The present collection of papers illustrates the state of the art of (application-oriented) C-Test research, with a special focus on construct validity. 290 pp. Englisch, Deutsch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Dedicated to Prof. Roger Goepper on the occasion of his 80th anniversary, this Festschrift contains a collection of essays written by prominent scholars of Asian art, his colleagues and PhD students. Roger Goepper, former Director of the Museum of East Asian Art in Cologne and Professor of East Asian art history at the University of Cologne, does not limit his interests to a particular field of research, and thus the contributions to this volume reflect the wide range of research topics he has pursued during his long and outstanding scholarly career. The articles discuss and elucidate various aspects of East Asian archaeology and architecture, painting and calligraphy, contemporary art, Himalayan art, art preservation in Japan and lacquer ware. 290 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Giorgio Vasari was one of the few artists in the history of art who built, designed, and decorated his homes. This book is the first to focus on Vasari¿s decorative cycles for his homes in Arezzo and Florence, revealing the significance of the artistic, cultural, and historical milieu of the sixteenth century. This study breaks new ground in two ways: First, in a personal and original manner, the imagery is related to Vasari¿s artistic ideas on history painting and the role of the artist. And second, Vasari¿s imagery portrays visual galleries applauding his teachers, antiquity and the creation of art. 326 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -This book traces how religion could have originated in prehistory and antiquity, out of natural human and prehuman behaviour.Religion is defined here as beliefs, conceptions, practices and roles concerned with the ¿supernatural¿. A variety of elements of religion can be identified. These include: spirits, ghosts, life after death, heaven, shamans. To try to reduce religion to a single original element is a mistake. There may be no single origin. But the individual elements have separate origins, and these can be traced.The common subjective component of religious elements is the numinous, which is commonly ascribed to external sources identified as ¿supernatural¿ and ¿spiritual¿. The numinous sense is explained by means of certain neural processes with a focus in the temporal lobes.Probably for the first time, evidence is brought to bear from primatology, palaeoanthropology, ethnography, ancient history and history of religions, as well as theology, neurology and psycho-pharmacology.The field of origins of religion has been neglected by anthropology since the 1930s, but has enjoyed renewed interest from the 1990s. This wide-ranging interdisciplinary book makes an important contribution to the field. 418 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Les petites entreprises, souvent évoquées, sont pourtant mal connues et en particulier les relations sociales en leur sein. Comment définir les petites entreprises Leur petite taille est-elle une caractéristique suffisante pour les assimiler les unes aux autres Si elles se différencient, sous quelle influence le font-elles La distinction entre elles et les autres entreprises ¿ les grandes ¿ est-elle pertinente De quelle manière s¿organise la vie dans de telles unités, où employeur et salariés se côtoient de près Pour répondre à ces questions, les auteurs de cet ouvrage novateur ont procédé ensemble à des enquêtes en France, en Suède et en Allemagne. Ils ont rencontré des employeurs, des salariés, des syndicalistes, des spécialistes des relations professionnelles. La mise en relation et la comparaison de ces trois cas nationaux montrent que les petites entreprises possèdent bien des caractéristiques communes, qui transcendent les frontières. Elles conservent cependant des caractéristiques nationales.Elles méritent donc d¿être analysées et comprises autrement qüen creux, en négatif. Ainsi, il apparaît que les petites entreprises ne sont pas si loin de ressembler aux grandes. 250 pp. Französisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Dmitri Schostakowitsch ist weithin durch seine Symphonien bekannt. Die wenigsten wissen jedoch, dass er auch die Musik zu rund vierzig Filmen komponiert hat. Besonders interessant ist, dass er einen der letzten Stummfilme und kurz darauf einen der ersten Tonfilme in der UdSSR vertonte, nachdem er als Klavierspieler in den Stummfilmkinos gearbeitet hatte.In diesem Buch wird die russische Kinogeschichte zusammengefasst ¿ mit besonderem Augenmerk auf den Übergang zwischen Stumm- und Tonfilm, bei dem Schostakowitsch maßgeblich mitgewirkt hat. Zu dieser Zeit, in den 1920er und 1930er Jahren, war er Mitglied einer Filmgruppe namens FEKS ¿ die Fabrik des Exzentrischen Schauspielers, die sich für die Aufhebung der Grenzen zwischen Theater, Film, Zirkus, Music-Hall und Oper engagierte.Gemeinsam mit dem Komponisten entwickelte die Gruppe eine Geheimsprache, mit deren Hilfe sie das System kritisierte. Dabei mussten die Künstler auf subtile Weise ihre politischen Witze tarnen. 282 pp. Deutsch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Individualpsychologische Psychoanalyse ist aus der Tradition der Individualpsychologie Alfred Adlers hervorgegangen. Adler rückte die Spannung von Macht und Ohnmacht oder das Streben nach Geltung und Macht als den kompensatorischen Versuch, Gefühle von Minderwertigkeit und Ohnmacht zu überwinden als den wichtigsten Antrieb für psychische Entwicklung in den Mittelpunkt seiner Psychologie. Er betrachtete den Menschen nicht als isoliertes Einzelwesen, sondern sah ihn in seinem sozialen Umfeld und in seiner sozialen Bezogenheit und mit sozialen Bedürfnissen (Gemeinschaftsgefühl). Neben einer Darstellung der historischen Entwicklung dieser psychoanalytischen Richtung werden in diesem Buch die wichtigsten Konzepte der Individualpsychologie in ihrem heutigen Verständnis dargestellt: Kindheitserinnerungen, Geschwisterkonstellation, Macht, Gemeinschaftsgefühl, Traum, Macht und Therapie. Das Buch geht aus einer Ringvorlesung des Alfred Adler Instituts Berlin an der Freien Universität Berlin hervor. 184 pp. Deutsch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Der Band behandelt die großen österreichischen Zucht- und Arbeitshäuser (Wien, Innsbruck, Graz, Klagenfurt, Salzburg und Linz) im Zeitraum von 1750 bis 1850. Die Einführung ins Thema bietet eine Übersicht zur Etablierung der Freiheitsstrafe sowie den Sanktions- und Gefängnisdiskursen um 1800. Die einzelnen Beiträge geben einen Einblick in das historische Werden der jeweiligen Institution und widmen sich sodann dem Anstaltsalltag, den Bemühungen um die Beschäftigung und Resozialisierung der Insassen. Bisher unpublizierte archivalische und literarische Quellentexte sowie eine Reihe von Abbildungen ergänzen als Anhang die Beiträge. 290 pp. Deutsch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Robert Musils Arbeit als Literatur- und Theaterkritiker erstreckt sich auf die Jahre 1912 bis 1930. In dieser Zeit arbeitet er für verschiedene Zeitungen und Zeitschriften, u.a. für die «Prager Presse», für Franz Bleis «Der Lose Vogel», für Alfred Kerrs «Pan», für die im Fischer-Verlag erscheinende «Neue Rundschau» und für Ephraim Frischs «Der Neue Merkur». Als Kritiker kommt Musil in einer Form mit der zeitgenössischen Literatur und vor allem dem Theater in Berührung, die für seine eigene literarische, dramatische und poetologische Arbeit von entscheidender Bedeutung ist. So sind seine Versuche im Dramatischen mit dem Schauspiel Die Schwärmer und der Posse Vinzenz und die Freundin bedeutender Männer im Kontext der parallel dazu entstehenden kritischen Arbeit zu sehen. Die vorliegende Studie versucht sich dem Kritiker Musil auf dreierlei Weise zu nähern. Im ersten Teil wird anhand der publizistischen Kontexte seines Schreibens eine Art kritische Biographie Musils skizziert. Im zweiten Teil wird seine Position im kritischen Feld der Zeit beleuchtet und seine theoretische Auseinandersetzung mit dem Begriff der Kritik dargestellt. Dass dabei dem «Ethischen» eine besondere Bedeutung zukommt, verbindet ihn mit einer Reihe von Kritikern seiner Zeit. Der letzte Abschnitt des Buches ist Musils kritischem Werk in seiner Textualität gewidmet. Dabei werden die Kriterien, Begriffe, Form- und Stilmerkmale seines Schreibens untersucht. 358 pp. Deutsch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Die Branche der Abfallwirtschaft befindet sich im Umbruch. Tradierte Rahmenbedingungen werden durch eine veränderte, dem Umweltschutz- und Nachhaltigkeitsgedanken verpflichtete Gesetzgebung neu definiert. Unternehmen, denen es gelingt, ihre Geschäftsmodelle an bereits eingetretene Veränderungen anzupassen und auf absehbare Veränderungen aktiv zu reagieren, werden aus der Phase des Umbruchs gestärkt hervorgehen. Die notwendigen strategischen Anpassungen fallen in den Aufgabenbereich des strategischen Planungs- und Steuerungsprozesses. An diesem Punkt setzt diese Arbeit mit der Zielsetzung an, ein für den Strategieprozess abfallwirtschaftlicher Unternehmen geeignetes Steuerungsinstrumentarium zu entwickeln. Die Umsetzung erfolgt durch Entwicklung einer branchenspezifischen Balanced Scorecard. 378 pp. Deutsch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Biografie und Werk des Sturm und Drang-Autors Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz (1751-1792) üben eine anhaltende Faszination auf Schriftsteller und Künstler unserer Zeit aus. Seine Person und sein unglückliches Schicksal, das in Ausgrenzung und Krankheit endete, bilden immer noch ein Identifikationsmuster, an dem Künstler der Gegenwart Ängste und Wünsche abarbeiten können, die ihre eigene Rolle betreffen. Dass Lenz zu Lebzeiten in den Spielen um Macht und Geltung im literarischen Feld unterlag, bringt ihm heute eher Sympathie ein.Dieser Band, der auf eine Konferenz an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (2005) zurückgeht, behandelt die Frage, wie Lenz in unserer Gegenwart in Literatur und Literaturwissenschaft, aber auch in Theater, Musik und Kunst und in einer Ausstellung präsent ist; er untersucht, welches Bild von Autor und Werk sich ergibt, in welchen ästhetischen und/oder thematischen Zusammenhängen auf Lenz rekurriert wird und wie sich die Auseinandersetzung mit der Lebens- und Werkgeschichte dieses Autors auf der Basis unseres heutigen Bewusstseinsstandes gestaltet. 314 pp. Deutsch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The ideas of Martin Heidegger, one of the most important philosophers of the twentieth century, have had a profound influence on work in literary theory and aesthetics, as well as on mainstream philosophy. This book offers a clear and concise guide to Heidegger's notoriously complex writings, while giving special attention to his major work Being and Time. Richard McDonough adds historical context by exploring Heidegger's intellectual roots in German idealism and ancient Greek philosophy, and introduces readers to the key themes in Heidegger's work including Dasein, Existenz, time, conscience, death, and phenomenology. This book, which also considers Heidegger's controversial ethics (or 'anti-ethics') and politics, would make an excellent text for both introductory and advanced undergraduate courses on existentialism, phenomenology, continental philosophy, and Heidegger himself. 227 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Sometimes the 'expected' or 'normal' path is not best, especially in terms of traditional schooling and the pervasive influence of popular culture. In this important new book, Cynthia A. McDaniel demonstrates some ways that adopting a stance of critical literacy can infuse hope and possibility into all aspects of our lives. Interweaving her own experiences to effectively illustrate concepts of research, theory, and practice, McDaniel emphasizes the ways in which critical literacy cannot be considered a lesson plan or a packaged program, but a way of thinking and a way of life. Accessible and engaging, Critical Literacy will be valuable to students, teachers, and parents. 228 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -From payola to podcasting, from the advertising office to the DJ booth to the station antenna, Radio: A Complete Guide to the Industry offers a concise, one-stop introduction to all aspects of the radio industry. Readers are taken on a lively tour of radio's history from the early experiments with wireless to today's satellite and digital radio. Industry veteran William A. Richter brings readers inside the typical station to explain who does what and how all the pieces fit together. The book also includes some brief interviews from working professionals for more perspective. Richter explains how ratings work, gives an overview of the major industry players, and guides readers through FCC regulations and other ethical and legal issues that impact radio. Written in a crisp, easy style, and including glossaries in each chapter, Radio is well suited for a range of courses on radio. It is a valuable resource for anyone interested in radio, from aspiring college DJs to general managers of radio stations. 285 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -In 1977 a single film called Star Wars exploded on the consciousness of the world. Since then the franchise, created by George Lucas, has become a global entertainment corporation. The merchandise of the original trilogy was largely confined to toys and games, but those games have since become computerized, the toys more sophisticated, and Star Wars has moved into the multi-media environment of the twenty-first century in ways unimaginable in the long-ago world of 1977. Computer games and web sites, novels, animated television shows, as well as a new trilogy of films, have all placed Star Wars at the center of world popular culture. Finding the Force of the Star Wars Franchise brings together contributors who critically analyze the Star Wars universe from many perspectives. Topics include war, foreign policy, gender roles, spirituality and religion, toy play and adult collecting, creative fandom, race, special effects, and mythology. 308 pp. Englisch.