In this book, the authors examine the works of Fernand Crommelynck (1886-1970), whose international reputation was established in 1922, when his most important and most popular play, The Magnanimous Cuckold, was presented in Moscow. Torn between the extremes of laughter and sorrow, frequently violent and visionary, Crommelynck's work is typically Flemish (though written in French), not least in its preoccupation with sin. Pain is always present in his plays, the pain felt by characters living in a world where happiness is destroyed by irrationalism, self-deception, and obsession. Crommelynck's plays humorously show us how human behavior can be dominated by extreme expressions of emotion or desire. The mixture of buffoonery and tragedy characteristic of his theater extends also to his prose style, which presents the most outrageous or gross situations in a language of beautifully sensuous imagery.

He typically starts out from a realistic situation, then introduces a twist in the psyche of the main character that launches the rest of the action - for example, in The Magnanimous Cuckold a suspected glimmer of lust in Petrus's eye suffices to incite Bruno and to subjugate the other figures in the play to his expression of folly - and the realistic is soon overtaken by the obsessional and finally the absurd.

History tells us that translation plays a part in the development of all cultures. Historical cases also show us repeatedly that translated works which had real social and cultural impact often bear little resemblance to the idealized concept of a ‘good translation’. Since the perception and reception of translated works — as well as the translation norms which are established through contest and/or consensus — reflect the concerns, preferences and aspirations of their host cultures, they are never static or homogenous even within a given culture. This book is dedicated to exploring some of the factors in the interplay of culture and translation, with an emphasis on translation activities outside the Anglo-European tradition, particularly in China and Japan.

This collection of specially written essays offers both student and theatregoer a guide to one of the most celebrated American dramatists working today. Readers will find the general and accessible descriptions and analyses provide the perfect introduction to Mamet's work. The volume covers the full range of Mamet's writing, including now classic plays such as American Buffalo and Glengarry Glen Ross, and his more recent work, Boston Marriage, among others, as well as his films, such as The Verdict and Wag the Dog. Additional chapters also explore Mamet and acting, Mamet as director, his fiction, and a survey of Mamet criticism. The Companion to David Mamet is an introduction which will prepare the reader for future work by this important and influential writer.

Challenging the prevailing notion among cinephiles that the auteur is an isolated genius interested primarily in individualism, Colin Burnett positions Robert Bresson as one whose life's work confronts the cultural forces that helped shape it. Regarded as one of film history's most elusive figures, Bresson (1901–1999) carried himself as an auteur long before cultural magazines, like the famed Cahiers du cinéma, advanced the term to describe such directors as Jacques Tati, Alfred Hitchcock, and Jean-Luc Godard. In this groundbreaking study, Burnett combines biography with cultural history to uncover the roots of the auteur in the alternative cultural marketplace of midcentury France.

How do nationalized stereotypes inform the reception and content of the migrant comedian’s work? How do performers adapt? What gets lost (and found) in translation? Border-Crossing and Comedy at the Théâtre Italien, 1716-1723 explores these questions in an early modern context. When a troupe of commedia dell’arte actors were invited by the French crown to establish a theatre in Paris, they found their transition was anything but easy. They had to learn a new language and adjust to French expectations and demands. This study presents their story as a dynamic model of coping with the challenges of migration, whereby the actors made their transnational identity a central focus of their comedy. Relating their work to popular twenty-first century comedians, this book also discusses the tools and ideas that contextualize the border-crossing comedian’s work—including diplomacy, translation, improvisation, and parody—across time.

Among the intellectual debates of the last forty years, the critique of cultural canons has attracted the highest share of public attention, stirring academic, educational, and media controversies on both sides of the Atlantic. Postmodernism, feminism, postcolonialism, and multiculturalism have refashioned the attitudes of educators and audiences towards cultural memory, opening up curricula to subjects and traditions previously excluded from the humanities. Predictably, these new critical practices have triggered heated responses from commentators fearing that culture and education might thereby be deprived of their capacity to provide audiences and learners with proper groundings and landmarks. The present volume gathers contributions that throw light on multiple aspects of this reconfiguration of cultural memory. It brings together essays focusing on the dynamics of canon formation in several fields - literature, drama, film, and music. Contributors examine how writers and communities find their bearings in a cultural landscape more complex than that previously envisaged by advocates of the Great Tradition. Specifically, the present essays throw light on the status of modernist writing, drama in English, or popular genres within the new canonical topography elaborated at the turn of the twenty-first century.

Paths to College and Career Jossey-Bass and PCG Education are proud to bring the Paths to College and Career English Language Arts (ELA) curriculum and professional development resources for grades 6–12 to educators across the country. Originally developed for EngageNY and written with a focus on the shifts in instructional practice and student experiences the standards require, Paths to College and Career includes daily lesson plans, guiding questions, recommended texts, scaffolding strategies and other classroom resources. Paths to College and Career is a concrete and practical ELA instructional program that engages students with compelling and complex texts. At each grade level, Paths to College and Career delivers a yearlong curriculum that develops all students' ability to read closely and engage in text-based discussions, build evidence-based claims and arguments, conduct research and write from sources, and expand their academic vocabulary. Paths to College and Career's instructional resources address the needs of all learners, including students with disabilities, English language learners, and gifted and talented students. This enhanced curriculum provides teachers with freshly designed Teacher Guides that make the curriculum more accessible and flexible, a Teacher Resource Book for each module that includes all of the materials educators need to manage instruction, and Student Journals that give students learning tools for each module and a single place to organize and document their learning. As the creators of the Paths ELA curriculum for grades 6–12, PCG Education provides a professional learning program that ensures the success of the curriculum. The program includes: Nationally recognized professional development from an organization that has been immersed in the new standards since their inception. Blended learning experiences for teachers and leaders that enrich and extend the learning. A train-the-trainer program that builds capacity and provides resources and individual support for embedded leaders and coaches. Paths offers schools and districts a unique approach to ensuring college and career readiness for all students, providing state-of-the-art curriculum and state-of-the-art implementation.

A biographical and bibliographical guide to current writers in all fields including poetry, fiction and nonfiction, journalism, drama, television and movies. Information is provided by the authors themselves or drawn from published interviews, feature stories, book reviews and other materials provided by the authors/publishers.