"[Hillman's] work is fierce but loving, risk-taking, and beautiful." - Harvard Review An iconoclastic ecopoet who has led the way for many young and emerging artists, Brenda Hillman continues to re-cast innovative poetic forms as instruments for tracking human and non-human experiences. At times the poet deploys short dialogues, meditations or trance techniques as means of rendering inner states; other times she uses narrative, documentary or scientific materials to record daily events during a time of pandemic, planetary crisis, political and racial turmoil. Hillman proposes that poetry offers courage even in times of existential peril; her work represents what is most necessary and fresh in American poetry.
"[Hillman's] work is fierce but loving, risk-taking, and beautiful." — Harvard Review An iconoclastic ecopoet who has led the way for many young and emerging artists, Brenda Hillman continues to re-cast innovative poetic forms as instruments for tracking human and non-human experiences. At times the poet deploys short dialogues, meditations or trance techniques as means of rendering inner states; other times she uses narrative, documentary or scientific materials to record daily events during a time of pandemic, planetary crisis, political and racial turmoil. Hillman proposes that poetry offers courage even in times of existential peril; her work represents what is most necessary and fresh in American poetry. During an enchantment in the life Do you love a living person absolutely? Tell them now. In a half-unwieldy life you made, under the hyaline sky, while the dead drank from zigzag pools nearby, if they saved you in your wild incapacities, in timing of the world's harm in a little pettiness in your own heart while others took your madrigals in shreds to a tribunal, when others said you should feel grateful to be minimally adequate for the world's triple exposure or some tired committee... The ones who love us, how do they break through our defenses? We're tired today. Come back later. Their baffled voices melting our wax walls with a candle, the ones who understand what being is—the glowing, the broken, the wheels, the brave ones— they have their courage, you have yours,,,; when you meet the one you love, it is so rare. When you meet the one who loves you, it is extremely rare.
In the title poem "Fortress", the medieval walled castle is the stronghold in which the family dwells. There are stories here of people in the "fortresses" of the self, the city, or the natural world. All these poems have in common a lyrical approach to solitude ("the only protection / against death/ was to love solitude") and an ironical vision for which love of beauty and the longing for the world are the cure. Hillman combines the imagistic with narrative; in her poems lyricism wars with irony; the solitary noticing consciousness is in control - because the observed world seems beautiful to the observer, great joy is possible despite the sense of difficulty or sorrow. The language here is rich and elegant. Truth is relentlessly addressed.
Named for the ancient landform that preceded present-day California, Brenda Hillman's Cascadia creates from geological turbulence a fluid poetics of place. The book is Hillman's sixth collection and her most wide-ranging. The problem the book poses is nothing less than a phenomenology of transformation. In her previous work, Hillman's investigations of alchemy and of contemporary life have created their own distinct mythologies, and here she turns to the first of the four basic elements, earth, to demonstrate a visionary science with a combination of lightness, wit and force. Embodied in syntax as unpredictable as the earth's movements, these poetic forms speak to and query the landforms as the line between faith and science blurs. Short lyrics inspired by the California missions, each with a retablo of punctuation, reflect on the solitude and history of the sign as it moves through the quotidian. Set among these lyrics, each of the three long poems in the book presents an aspect of Hillman's topography. By the end of this powerful work, a new state is visible: a Modernist poetics, subjected to immense internal pressures, above and beneath unsettled ground, has emerged in original shapes
Fire— its physical, symbolic, political, and spiritual forms—is the fourth and final subject in Brenda Hillman's masterful series on the elements. Her previous volumes—Cascadia, Pieces of Air in the Epic, Practical Water—have addressed earth, air, and water. Here, Hillman evokes fire as metaphor and as event to chart subtle changes of seasons during financial breakdown, environmental crisis, and street movements for social justice; she gathers factual data, earthly rhythms, chants to the dead, journal entries, and lyric fragments in the service of a radical animism. In the polyphony of Seasonal Works with Letters on Fire, the poet fuses the visionary, the political, and the personal to summon music and fire at once, calling the reader to be alive to the senses and to re-imagine a common life. This is major work by one of our most important writers. Check for the online reader's companion at brendahillman.site.wesleyan.edu.
Brenda Hillman begins her new book in a place of mourning and listening that is deeply transformative. By turns plain and transcendent, these poems meditate on trees, bacteria, wasps, buildings, roots, and stars, ending with twinned elegies and poems of praise that open into spaces that are both magical and archetypal for human imagination: forests and seashores. As always, Hillman's vision is entirely original, her forms inventive and playful. At times the language turns feral as the poet feels her way toward other consciousnesses, into planetary time. This is poetry as a discipline of love and service to the world, whose lines shepherd us through grief and into an ethics of active resistance. Hillman's prior books include Practical Water and Seasonal Works with Letters on Fire, which received the Griffin Prize for Poetry. Extra Hidden Life, Among the Days is a visionary and critically important work for our time. A free reader's companion is available online at http://brendahillman.site.wesleyan.edu.Hardcover is un-jacketed.
The Subordinated Sex traces the enduring, powerful legacy of male attitudes toward women, their sexuality, and their roles as wives and mothers. Traditionally the creators and chroniclers of opinion, men have until recently written a history that reflects only their own convictions and impressions--a history rarely punctuated by a female voice and founded on an almost universal belief in women's inferiority.Acclaimed as a pioneering study when first published in 1973, Vern Bullough's work has since established itself as a standard in historical literature on women. Updated and revised with Sarah Slavin and Brenda Shelton, The Subordinated Sex is a vast survey ranging from prehistoric to contemporary times, examining a diversity of cultures, and taking into account writings from a great variety of sources. From a consideration of Babylonian legal codes to Victorian prescriptive medical pamphlets, medieval clerical treatises to Islamic erotic poetry, Bullough and his coauthors recount not only how men have portrayed women but also how they have justified their subordination of the opposite sex.In recent years, women have successfully challenged males' self-designated role as gatekeepers of written records and have found within the past a more complete view of how women lived, what they thought, and what they achieved. By focusing, however, not on women's history but on the history of men's attitudes toward their female companions, The Subordinated Sex reveals, more than any other single work, the conditions that sparked the feminist movement and the reasons it must inspire a change in the lives of men as well as women.
In a prescient remark made at the turn of the century, U.S. Secretary of State Elihu Root said that establishing "the right sort of relations" with Haiti must await "the psychological moment." Indeed, as Brenda Gayle Plummer notes, much of the Haitian-U.S. relationship has turned on matters of perception. For many in the United States, tales of voodoo, political violence, and stark deprivation have made Haiti appear to be a doomed land, beyond comprehension and help. Haitians, meanwhile, have often seen the United States as persistently racist, grossly materialist, and lacking in spiritual values.In Haiti and the United States, Plummer pays special attention to the role of social and cultural factors in the two countries' views of each other and the manner in which relations have developed as a result of those perceptions. The disparities between the two republics, she notes, are all the more remarkable in that their experiences of anticolonial rebellion and nationhood converged in some striking ways. Despite the parallels, however, the varying cultural and racial identities of Haiti and the United States and the sociohistorical context in which those identities have been construed forced them to confront the challenges of slavery, republicanism, democracy, and economic development quite differently.Stressing the importance of domestic policy and the character of civil society in the formation of foreign policy, Plummer illuminates the various factors that figured in the relationship between the two countries throughout the nineteenth century. She discussed the aspirations of Haiti's founders in building a self-governing black society, Haitian responses to the transatlantic abolition movement, the development of Haiti's creole culture, and the country's shrewd negotiations with the United States over commercial and strategic issues. The late 1800s, Plummer shows, proved a turning point in Haitian-U.S. relations as Washington's assumption of regional hegemony changed the balance of power for a Haiti long committed to a multilateralist diplomacy.In the twentieth century, tensions between traditional and reformist elements in Haitian society erupted in a crisis that brought U.S. intervention and long-term military occupation. Plummer examines the consequences of this intervention as they were incorporated into the later interactions between the United States and Haiti and shows how these troubled relations contributed to the rise of the repressive Duvalier regime. The recent fall of that regime, Plummer suggests, now presents the "psychological moment" to which Elihu Root referred so many years ago.Haiti and the United States is the first history of the relationship between the two countries to be published since the 1940s. Utilizing a wealth of Haitian sources as well as the voluminous state papers in the National Archives of the United States and the Library of Congress, the book also benefits from methodological and conceptual advances in diplomatic history over the past half-century.
Studies of urban neoliberalism have been surprisingly inattentive to gender. Brenda Parker begins to remedy this by looking at the effect of new urbanism, “creative class,” and welfare reform discourses on women in Milwaukee, a traditionally progressive city with a strong history of political organizing. Through a feminist partial political economy of place (FPEP) approach, Parker conducts an intersectional analysis of urban politics that simultaneously pays attention to a number of power relations. She argues that in the 1990s and 2000s, the city’s business-friendly agenda—although couched in uplifting rhetoric—strengthened existing hierarchies not only in class and race but also in gender.Taking on municipal elites’ adoption of Richard Florida’s “creative class” thesis, for example, Parker looks at the group Young Professionals of Milwaukee, exposing the way that a “creative careers” focus advances fundamentally masculine values and interests. She concludes with a case study that shows how gender and race mattered in the design, enactment, and contestation of an uneven urban redevelopment project. At once a case study of the city and a theorization of urban neoliberalism, Masculinities and Markets highlights how urban politics and discourses in U.S. cities have changed over the years.
Studies of urban neoliberalism have been surprisingly inattentive to gender. Brenda Parker begins to remedy this by looking at the effect of new urbanism, “creative class,” and welfare reform discourses on women in Milwaukee, a traditionally progressive city with a strong history of political organizing. Through a feminist partial political economy of place (FPEP) approach, Parker conducts an intersectional analysis of urban politics that simultaneously pays attention to a number of power relations. She argues that in the 1990s and 2000s, the city’s business-friendly agenda—although couched in uplifting rhetoric—strengthened existing hierarchies not only in class and race but also in gender.Taking on municipal elites’ adoption of Richard Florida’s “creative class” thesis, for example, Parker looks at the group Young Professionals of Milwaukee, exposing the way that a “creative careers” focus advances fundamentally masculine values and interests. She concludes with a case study that shows how gender and race mattered in the design, enactment, and contestation of an uneven urban redevelopment project. At once a case study of the city and a theorization of urban neoliberalism, Masculinities and Markets highlights how urban politics and discourses in U.S. cities have changed over the years.
At Treasure Island, a humanly made island in the San Francisco Bay, a performance troupe dressed in hazmat suits articulate gestures that resemble toxic remediation. As they become more attuned to the site and to its history and ecology, enigmatic presences infiltrate their spacetime. Are they from the past, the present, or the future? What is the significance of their sudden arrival? What happens when historical and geological eras converge? Meanwhile, elsewhere, various earth scientists at sites around the globe search for the “golden spike”: a telltale geologic marker that synchronously indicates a definitive time change in the strata—a change from the Holocene epoch to the Anthropocene. Within their data is Earth’s biography, but how is humanity insinuated within this chronology? Throughout Presence, encounter and contact are the major elements of consequence, action, implication, and resounding significance. Encounter and contact between timeframes, cultures, ecologies, persons, intuitions, ways of living, and worlding. At these junctures are the moments of possibility—of violence and/or of budding community.
At Treasure Island, a humanly made island in the San Francisco Bay, a performance troupe dressed in hazmat suits articulate gestures that resemble toxic remediation. As they become more attuned to the site and to its history and ecology, enigmatic presences infiltrate their spacetime. Are they from the past, the present, or the future? What is the significance of their sudden arrival? What happens when historical and geological eras converge? Meanwhile, elsewhere, various earth scientists at sites around the globe search for the “golden spike”: a telltale geologic marker that synchronously indicates a definitive time change in the strata—a change from the Holocene epoch to the Anthropocene. Within their data is Earth’s biography, but how is humanity insinuated within this chronology? Throughout Presence, encounter and contact are the major elements of consequence, action, implication, and resounding significance. Encounter and contact between timeframes, cultures, ecologies, persons, intuitions, ways of living, and worlding. At these junctures are the moments of possibility—of violence and/or of budding community.
This analysis of the nature of tragedy uses the literary theory of Polish phenomenologist Roman Ingarden (1893-1970) as a point of departure. By formulating the concept of the tragic as a metaphysical quality, this work balances an attention to textual detail with an awareness of the role of the reader in concretizing a literary work of art. The significance of this concept is demonstrated in its application to readings of a Classical Greek and two twentieth-century French versions of the Electra myth, readings which pay particular attention to the interplay of the moral and aesthetic elements in these literary masterpieces.
"Weary Sons of Conrad" poses the question, how is Africa represented in some late twentieth-century European and North American fiction written by white men? Its contribution is to unearth a rich treasure of such fiction that opposes imperialism and struggles with patriarchy and gender stereotypes. These writers go to battle against the stranglehold of myths about Africa, its lands, and its people, which are deeply embedded in the language itself. The writers struggle for new tongues and original ways of telling their stories but cannot be totally free of history, family, language, and tradition. Written in a lively, accessible style, this book is of great interest to a broad range of readers in the fields of postcolonial literary theory, gender, and cultural and African studies.
In 2004, roughly 25 makeover-themed reality shows aired on U.S. television. By 2009, there were more than 250, from What Not to Wear and The Biggest Loser to Dog Whisperer and Pimp My Ride. In Makeover TV, Brenda R. Weber argues that whether depicting transformations of bodies, trucks, finances, relationships, kids, or homes, makeover shows posit a self achievable only in the transition from the “Before-body”-the overweight figure, the decrepit jalopy, the cluttered home-to the “After-body,” one filled with confidence, coded with celebrity, and imbued with a renewed faith in the powers of meritocracy. The rationales and tactics invoked to achieve the After-body vary widely, from the patriotic to the market-based, and from talk therapy to feminist empowerment. The genre is unified by its contradictions: to uncover your “true self,” you must be reinvented; to be empowered, you must surrender to experts; to be special, you must look and act like everyone else. Based on her analysis of more than 2,500 hours of makeover TV, Weber argues that the much-desired After-body speaks to and makes legible broader cultural narratives about selfhood, citizenship, celebrity, and Americanness. Although makeovers are directed at both male and female viewers, their gendered logic requires that feminized subjects submit to the controlling expertise wielded by authorities. The genre does not tolerate ambiguity. Conventional (middle-class, white, ethnically anonymous, heterosexual) femininity is the goal of makeovers for women. When subjects are male, makeovers often compensate for perceived challenges to masculine independence by offering men narrative options for resistance or control. Foregoing a binary model of power and subjugation, Weber provides an account of makeover television that is as appreciative as it is critical. She reveals the makeover show as a rich and complicated text that expresses cultural desires and fears through narratives of selfhood.
In 2004, roughly 25 makeover-themed reality shows aired on U.S. television. By 2009, there were more than 250, from What Not to Wear and The Biggest Loser to Dog Whisperer and Pimp My Ride. In Makeover TV, Brenda R. Weber argues that whether depicting transformations of bodies, trucks, finances, relationships, kids, or homes, makeover shows posit a self achievable only in the transition from the “Before-body”-the overweight figure, the decrepit jalopy, the cluttered home-to the “After-body,” one filled with confidence, coded with celebrity, and imbued with a renewed faith in the powers of meritocracy. The rationales and tactics invoked to achieve the After-body vary widely, from the patriotic to the market-based, and from talk therapy to feminist empowerment. The genre is unified by its contradictions: to uncover your “true self,” you must be reinvented; to be empowered, you must surrender to experts; to be special, you must look and act like everyone else. Based on her analysis of more than 2,500 hours of makeover TV, Weber argues that the much-desired After-body speaks to and makes legible broader cultural narratives about selfhood, citizenship, celebrity, and Americanness. Although makeovers are directed at both male and female viewers, their gendered logic requires that feminized subjects submit to the controlling expertise wielded by authorities. The genre does not tolerate ambiguity. Conventional (middle-class, white, ethnically anonymous, heterosexual) femininity is the goal of makeovers for women. When subjects are male, makeovers often compensate for perceived challenges to masculine independence by offering men narrative options for resistance or control. Foregoing a binary model of power and subjugation, Weber provides an account of makeover television that is as appreciative as it is critical. She reveals the makeover show as a rich and complicated text that expresses cultural desires and fears through narratives of selfhood.
Taking a phenomenological approach to allegory, Structures of Appearing seeks to revise the history of aesthetics, identifying it is an ideology that has long subjugated art to philosophical criteria of judgment. Rather than being a mere signifying device, allegory is the structure by which something appears that cannot otherwise appear. It thus supports the appearance and necessary experience of philosophical ideas that are otherwise impossible to present or represent. Allegory is as central to philosophy as it is to literature. Following suggestions by Walter Benjamin, Machosky argues that allegory itself must appear allegorically and thus cannot be forced into a logos-centric metaphysical system. She builds on the work of Maurice Blanchot and Emmanuel Levinas to argue that the allegorical image is not a likeness to anything, not a subjective reflection, but an absolute otherness that becomes accessible by virtue of its unique structure. Allegory thus makes possible not merely the textual work of literature but the work that literature is. Machosky develops this insight in readings of Prudentius, Dante, Spenser, Hegel, Goethe, and Kafka.
“This book gives every nurse or potential nurse a picture of possibility and a vision for a satisfying and sustainable career.”-Jan Jones-Schenk, DHSc, RN, NE-BC From the Foreword Written and designed for RN to MSN students, Transitioning From RN to MSN focuses on the multitude of master’s-prepared roles available to a transitioning student, both as a nurse practitioner and beyond. This text delves into the role of MSNs as change managers in whatever career path they pursue. Nursing is a diverse, intellectually challenging, socially relevant, and personally gratifying career, but for new MSNs, the sheer number of specialties, in settings ranging from hospitals to clinics to homes, can be overwhelming. Transitioning From RN to MSN examines both direct care roles (e.g., clinical nurse leader, nurse educator) and indirect care roles (e.g., public health nurse, informaticist, clinical researcher, coordinator, nurse administrator), as well as emerging areas. Step by step, chapters address the key concepts of role transition including preparation for a particular role, as well as ethical practice, theory application, quality control, and terminal degree options. Each career discussion features required competencies and information new MSNs will find invaluable, all within a consistent format to aid comparison. Chapter objectives, critical-thinking questions, and case studies engage students with the information presented and facilitate comprehension. Key Features: Written specifically as a core text for required courses in RN-to-MSN programs Addresses in depth the requisite competencies for role transition Incorporates AACN, NLN, IOM, and QSEN competencies throughout Describes a great variety of MSN role options in addition to APN roles Includes chapter objectives, abundant case studies and critical thinking questions Provides instructor’s ancillaries, including an instructor’s manual and PowerPoint slides
"I am impressed with the layout, the writing, and the integrative nature of this volume. It should have a long shelf life, for it is extremely comprehensive and will be relevant for years to come." -Samuel T. Gladding, PhD, LPMHC, CCMHC, NCC Professor of Counseling Wake Forest University Fellow in the American Counseling Association Past President of the American Counseling Association This the first text to fully integrate the developmental, systemic, multicultural, and relational elements of child and adolescent counseling. This unique approach emphasizes the powerful interconnections supporting effective child and adolescent counseling with creative and time-efficient methods. Supported by CACREP standards, competencies, and outcomes, this book features best practice strategies and techniques to aid counselors-in-training who will be assisting children, adolescents, and their families in developing transformative coping methods while navigating contemporary issues. This textbook is distinguished by its broad and holistic focus as a means of increasing counseling efficacy and applies to a range of therapeutic modalities. The text advocates for a multisensory approach, using creative props, expressive arts, and interactive activities that helps to foster change by harnessing the learning styles best suited to individual children and adolescents. Based in theory yet highly practical, time-efficient, real-world counseling methods are illustrated through case studies, vignettes, and verbatim counseling sessions that are tailored to the needs of today's child and adolescent counselor. The book presents a comprehensive toolkit to foster engagement and assist the future counselor in grasping key concepts. Pedagogical aids include learning objectives, key terms, learning activities, case studies, points to remember, chapter summaries, and questions for further study. Abundant instructor resources include sample syllabi, an instructor's manual with experiential activities and assessment rubrics, additional chapter discussion questions and resources, a test bank, and PowerPoint slides. Purchase includes digital access for use on most mobile devices or computers. Key Features: Grounded in a unique integrated approach encompassing developmental, systemic, multicultural, and relational elements and innovative and time-efficient practices Applies to a range of therapeutic modalities including school, marriage, couples and family, clinical mental health, clinical rehabilitation counseling, and more Illustrates time-efficient counseling methods through case studies, vignettes, and examples from actual client and counselors-in-training sessions Highlights contemporary issues including incarcerated parents, sexual minorities, military influences and same-sex parents. Infused with CACREP standards, competencies and outcomes to help with accreditation and prepare students for exams Edited and authored by educators and authors with a wealth of professional expertise Includes learning objectives, key terms, charts, tables and figure, questions for further study and chapter summaries
This state-of-the-art collection of 28 real-life cases on counseling children and adolescents emphasizes the developmental, relational, and cultural contexts of working with this population, and incorporates innovative techniques across a wide range of approaches. Intended as a companion to child and adolescent counseling texts, it offers counselors-in-training examples of hands-on, concrete, and workable applications that provide opportunities for skill and theory development. These case studies are distinguished by their emphasis on the critical impact of such systemic contexts as family, peers, and school, along with developmental and cultural contexts. The inclusion of creative and expressive interventions--often the most effective strategies in working with this population--makes this an outstanding educational resource. The case studies--representing an esteemed variety of contributing authors--address such ubiquitous themes as abuse, anxiety, giftedness, disability, body image, substance abuse, social media, grief, bullying, changing families, military families, incarcerated family members, race and ethnicity, and sexual identity and orientation. Each case follows a consistent format, comprising a description of the young person's presenting issues, a conceptualization of these issues, a description of the counseling process, an outline of desired outcomes, and a detailed discussion that includes systemic contexts, developmental and relational considerations, multicultural perspectives, and options for use of creative interventions. KEY FEATURES: Delivers a wide variety of cases covering contemporary issues prevalent among children and adolescents Emphasizes developmental, systemic, and contextual impacts including family, school, peer, and cultural influences Includes such treatment approaches as brief, solution-focused, CBT, reality/choice, narrative, and relational/cultural Includes options for creative interventions with each case and time-efficient methods when applicable
