This book theoretically defines and linguistically analyses the popular notion that poetry is ‘difficult’ - hard to read, hard to understand, hard to engage with. It is the first work to offer a stylistic and cognitive model that sheds new light on the mechanisms of difficulty, as well as on its range of potential effects. Its eight chapters are organised into two thematic parts. The first traces the history of difficulty, surveys its main scholarly traditions, addresses related themes – from elitism to obscurity, from abstraction to intentionality – and introduces a wide array of analytical tools from literary theory and cognitive psychology. These tools are then consistently applied in the second part, which includes several extended analyses of poems by canonical modernists such as Ezra Pound, Wallace Stevens and Hart Crane, alongside those of postmodernist innovators such as Geoffrey Hill, Susan Howe and Charles Bernstein, among others. This innovative work will provide fresh insights and approaches for scholars of stylistics, literary studies, cognitive poetics and psychology.

This book redefines the nature of textual difficulty in literature and shows the implications of the new definition for teachers at all levels of education. Contrary to the traditional use of grade levels or readability formulae, the authors redefine difficulty in terms of readers and the texts they meet. They base their arguments on contemporary linguistic theory, on historical and comparative studies of criticism, on literary theory about readers and texts, on post-Freudian psychology, on empirical research concerning the nature of reading literature, and on studies of classrooms, curricula, and testing. What emerges is a coherent work that builds a case for seeing difficulty in literature as a human phenomenon more than a textual one.

Relating Difficulty offers insight into the nature of difficulty in relationships across a broad range of human experience. Whether dealing with in-laws or ex-spouses, long-distance relationships or power and status in the workplace, difficulty is an all too common feature of daily life. Relating Difficulty brings the academic understanding of relational processes to the everyday problems people face at home and at work. These essays represent a groundbreaking collection of the multidisciplinary conceptual and empirical work that currently exists on the topic. Along with issues such as chronic illness and money problems, contributors investigate contexts of relational difficulty ranging from everyday gossip, the workplace and shyness to more dangerous sexual “hookups” and partner abuse. Drawing on evidence presented in the volume, editors D. Charles Kirkpatrick, Steve Duck, and Megan K. Foley explain how relational problems do not emerge solely from individuals or even from the relationship itself. Instead, they arise from triangles of connection and negotiation between relational partners, contexts, and outsiders. The volume challenges the simple notion that relating difficulty is just about problems with "difficult people" and offers some genuinely novel insights into a familiar everyday experience. This exceptional volume is essential reading for practitioners, researchers and students of relationships across a wide range of disciplines as well as anyone wanting greater understanding of relational functioning in everyday life and at work.

This book argues that serious misreadings of Freud and Lacan on sexual difference have characterized prevailing models of psychoanalytic film criticism. In critiquing theories of identification and female spectatorship, the author maintains that early film theorists and feminist critics are equally guilty of imposing a binary conception of sexual difference on Freud’s thought. By embracing such a rigid definition of male/female difference, they fail to understand the fundamentally complex and fluid process of sexual identification as it is articulated in Freud’s writing, constructed in film texts, and negotiated by spectators. The book turns to Freud’s work on fantasy to develop an alternative model for interpreting sexuality in the visual and narrative arts, one that emphasizes a ‘politics of critical reading’ over accepted theories of ideological identification. Originally published in 1991, its strategic focus on psychoanalysis itself as an object of historical and critical inquiry, and not simply as a reading method is the unique quality of this book.

"The best book ever written by man or woman...deserves to sell more copies than the Bible."--Rebel, Inc.

For readers looking to understand lexical access and word-finding difficulty (WFD), Semantic Processing and Word Finding Difficulty Across the Lifespan: A Practical Guide for Speech-Language Pathologists provides a comprehensive review of current research and clinical approaches to establish a holistic, interdisciplinary understanding of lexical access and retrieval difficulty across different communication disorders. By including practical guidelines and protocols, this professional text can help speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and other related professionals bridge the gap between research and clinical practice. This text covers a wide range of communication disorders, including developmental language disorder, autism spectrum disorder, aphasia, normal aging, and dementia. It illustrates the connections between the research evidence and clinical practice and addresses lexical learning and retrieval difficulty through a holistic lens and cognitive-linguistic frameworks. This text integrates research evidence from a variety of disciplines, including speech-language pathology, linguistics, neuroscience, and psychology. The authors take readers for a deep dive into different underlying problems that lead to lexical access and retrieval difficulty and strategies to remediate them effectively. By addressing lexical issues from a broader view, this unique resource helps readers see the connections from different perspectives to further understand the complex issues involved in lexical learning and retrieval. Key Features: * A discussion of lexical learning and expansion from birth to school-age by incorporating metalinguistic skills and considering the relationships between language domains. * An exploration of contributing factors to lexical learning and word retrieval. * A holistic review of standardized and nonstandard measures for the breadth and depth of lexical access and retrieval across the lifespan and for people with diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. * A comprehensive review of current available evidence-based and semantic-focused interventions for both developmental and neurogenic communication disorders. * Chapter summaries and discussion questions close each chapter. * Clinical implication sections help connect research to clinical practice. * Therapy plan examples for commonly implemented lexical intervention approaches. Disclaimer: Please note that ancillary content (such as documents, audio, and video, etc.) may not be included as published in the original print version of this book.

This book analyzes Talcott Parsons’ largest-scale effort to overcome the relativism and subjectivism of the social sciences. Harold J. Bershady sets forth Parsons’ version of the characteristics desirable for social knowledge, showing that Parsons deems the relativistic and subjectivistic arguments as powerful challenges to the validity of social knowledge. Bershady maintains that all Parsons’ intellectual labors exhibit a deep and abiding concern for social knowledge. From his first major work in the 1930s to his later writings on social evolution, Parsons’ theoretical aim has been to provide an unassailable answer to the question, "how is social knowledge possible?" Ideological criticisms of Parsons’ work, Bershady argues, not only miss his awareness of ideological influences upon social thought, but also miss the logical and epistemological strands of his thinking. This book sheds light on the persistent importance of the work of a major theoretical sociologist of the twentieth century. It also brings into the open and discusses issues of deepest concern to the philosophy and methodology of all of the social sciences.

This book provides all those concerned with the delivery of care and services to people with a learning difficulty with an up-to-date overview of recent development in the area. Three major themes are explored; empowering individuals, change management and working with clients. Within this framework the authors examine the historical context of current service delivery and the influences from Europe and America on care practice. Practical guidelines are incorporated for staff who might wish to implement some of the ideas within the chapters.