Languaging Class: Reflecting on the Linguistic Articulations of Structural Inequalities

Edited by Claudia Ortu, University of Cagliari, Italy and Francesco Bachis, University of Cagliari, Italy

January 2023 / ISBN: 978-1-64889-586-9
Availability: In stock
192pp. ¦ $85 £70 €80

This volume explores the issue of social class from the point of view of its linguistic articulations. Indeed, as Machin and Richardson (2008) stated, “discourses may be variously approached as (often simultaneously) reflecting class structures, as a site of class inequalities, as expressive of class identities or class consciousness and/or as a constituent part of more performative class action.” Some of the contributions that make up the volume were presented at a conference held at Cagliari University, Italy, in 2017 and responded to the call for analyses on the role of language in reflecting, maintaining, enacting, and inculcating ideas on social class in literary and non-literary texts and discourses in any cultural or linguistic setting. This volume aspires to encourage scholars in disciplines and academic fields that have shied away from reflections on structural inequalities in favor of studies on ethnic, gender, and cultural identities in the last decades to take back on board the concept of social class and to engage with it in a novel way. The variety of approaches – ranging from the more traditional sociolinguistic one, anthropology, to literary and discourse studies – and cultural settings – with case studies coming from 3 continents – represented in the chapters show that social class is a productive and illuminating concept for trying to (re)make sense of social reproduction and change.

“A Hero Will Endure”: Essays at the Twentieth Anniversary of 'Gladiator'

Edited by Rachel L. Carazo, St. Thomas University

February 2023 / ISBN: 978-1-64889-147-2
Availability: In stock
396pp. ¦ $96 £79 €90

This volume adds to previous historical and political studies about 'Gladiator' with essays about the movie’s relation to pop culture and contemporary discourses. It not only relates 'Gladiator' to traditional cinema aspects such as heroism, music, acting, studio culture, and visual effects, but it also connects the film to sports, religion, and the environment, expanding the ways in which the film can be evaluated by modern audiences. The volume can be read by individuals or in classroom settings, especially as a recommended text for students studying the ancient world in film.

Laurent Gbagbo’s Trial and the Indictment of the International Criminal Court

A Pan-African Victory

Gnaka Lagoke

January 2023 / ISBN: 978-1-62273-873-1
Availability: In stock
276pp. ¦ $65 £51 €60

The International Criminal Court (ICC), created in 2002 to combat impunity, projects a sense of unfairness and stirs an unending debate. A trial before the court epitomizes the controversy surrounding it, perceived as a neocolonialist tool in the hands of the most powerful nations. This research critically examines the trial of the former president of Ivory Coast, Laurent Gbagbo. The two-decade crisis in Ivory Coast was a series of armed, diplomatic, and political conflicts in which human rights were violated by all sides. Military confrontation resumed as a result of an electoral stalemate that followed a controversial presidential election in the fall of 2010. The most atrocious human rights abuse was perpetrated at the end of March 2011 by the rebel forces backed by the French and the United Nations troops: the massacre of Duékoué. In one day, hundreds of Laurent Gbagbo’s followers were killed. However, the ICC undertook a selective prosecution against Gbagbo’s camp. After a trial of eight years, Laurent Gbagbo was finally acquitted. The news of his unanticipated acquittal shocked the world. Later, that decision was overturned and transformed into freedom with binding and coercive conditions by the Appeals Chamber, which had succumbed to political pressure. The former president of Ivory Coast spent months of confinement in Belgium until the Appeals Chamber rebutted the prosecutor’s appeal against his release and confirmed his total acquittal and that of Blé Goudé. He eventually went back to Ivory Coast on June 17, 2021. The trial of Laurent Gbagbo before the ICC, despite his acquittal (a tardy one), reflects a series of biases germane to international law and international justice, such as the victor’s justice stance, the conflict between national law and international law, the question of sovereignty, and the issue of lawfare. The trial of Laurent Gbagbo, which was the hallmark of the selective international justice system embedded in unfairness, led to a historical landmark with his shocking acquittal, which led to the indictment of the International Court, whose fate has thus been sealed before history.

Cesare Pavese Mythographer, Translator, Modernist: A Collection of Studies 70 Years after His Death

Edited by Iuri Moscardi, The Graduate Center, CUNY

January 2023 / ISBN: 978-1-64889-087-1
Availability: In stock
154pp. ¦ $67 £56 €63

This volume on Cesare Pavese is published on the 72nd anniversary of his death, and it aims to explore new perspectives to study this relevant intellectual. The multifaceted personality of Cesare Pavese took many different forms and allowed him to explore different aspects of literary production. He was a poet, a novelist, an essayist, a translator of some of the most important American writers of the 19th and 20th centuries. He also worked for 20 years at Einaudi Publishing House, where he became one of the most relevant figures of the company and the Italian literary and cultural scene between the 1930s and 1950s. This collection provides new perspectives of study by focusing on different aspects of his job and by analyzing the strong connections between his personal and professional life. It will appeal to graduate students and scholars in contemporary Italian literature.

La sociedad desconfiada. Debates televisivos, jóvenes y política en Ecuador

Giovanni Brancato, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy

January 2023 / ISBN: 978-1-64889-619-4
Availability: In stock
166pp. ¦ $42 £34 €39

Los jóvenes, la política y los medios de comunicación son los tres pilares que sostienen la investigación objeto de este volumen dedicado al estudio de los efectos producidos en las audiencias televisivas, en términos de confianza en la política y sus protagonistas, tras la exposición a contenidos mediáticos “conflictivos”. El libro intercepta un tema muy importante y de gran actualidad en tiempos en los que la sociedad se caracteriza por un sentimiento de cinismo, por una parte, y por la proliferación de fenómenos políticos populistas, por otra. Además, la elección de analizar el contexto político y mediático ecuatoriano cómo caso de estudio hace que este trabajo de investigación sea único entre las contribuciones académicas en el campo de los estudios e investigaciones al respecto en las ciencias de la comunicación y la sociología política. El volumen se divide en dos partes. La primera sección está dedicada a las relaciones entre los medios de comunicación, los ciudadanos y la política en la era de la desconfianza generalizada. En particular, se analizará la evolución de la comunicación política tras la aparición de la televisión y en los posibles efectos de los medios en los hábitos y prácticas informativas y política de los ciudadanos, centrándose en la sociedad ecuatoriana en los últimos veinte años. La segunda parte del libro presenta las fases de trabajo y los resultados de la investigación en campo llevada a cabo por el autor, caracterizada por un diseño cuasiexperimental, con el objetivo de analizar las dinámicas conflictivas típicas del debate en los talk shows y sus relaciones con los posibles efectos en las audiencias sobre el nivel de cinismo público.