Presented in the original Persian, this volume represents the solely published first volume of the Haft Ásmán “seven heavens,” or a compendium of poetry in the seven epic meters of Persian poetry. This history of the masnawí, or Middle Persian poetic form, written in rhymed couplets, is here presented by one of the recognized teachers of Persian in India. This, his final work, was intended to be an introduction to the works of Nizami. As such it contains invaluable nuggets about the Persian poets and their poetry.

“Joanie Mackowski's hypnotizing View from a Temporary Window is filled with Kafka-like transformations and metamorphoses and haunted by a sense of the body's strangeness. She writes in a relaxed and lucid manner that pays scrupulous attention to both the imaginary and the real, and to what is uncanny in each.”—John L. Koethe

Literature and science are two disciplines are two disciplines often thought to be unrelated, if not actually antagonistic. But Robert J. Scholnick points out that these areas of learning, up through the beginning of the nineteenth century, "were understood as parts of a unitary endeavor. " By mid-century they had diverged, but literature and science have continued to interact, conflict, and illuminate each other. In this innovative work, twelve leaders in this emerging interdisciplinary field explore the long engagement of American writers with science and uncover science's conflicting meanings as a central dimension of the nation's conception of itself. Reaching back to the Puritan poet-minister-physician Edward Taylor, who wrote at the beginning of the scientific revolution, and forward to Thomas Pynchon, novelist of the cybernetic age, this collection of original essays contains essential work on major writers, including Franklin, Jefferson, Poe, Emerson, Thoreau, Twain, Hart Crane, Dos Passos, and Charles Olson. Through its exploration of the ways that American writers have found in science and technology a vital imaginative stimulus, even while resisting their destructive applications, this book points towards a reconciliation and integration within culture. An innovative look at a neglected dimension of our literary tradition, American Literature and Science stands as both a definition of the field and an invitation to others to continue and extend new modes of inquiry.

Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) have proliferated at an unprecedented pace since the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Although the WTO legally recognizes countries' entitlement to form RTAs, neither the WTO nor parties to RTAs have an unequivocal understanding of the relationship between the WTO and RTAs. In other words, the legal controversies, the result of uncertainty regarding the application of the WTO/GATT laws, risk undermining the objectives of the multilateral trade system. This research tackles a phenomenon that is widely believed to be heavily economic and political. It highlights the economic and political aspects of regionalism, but largely concentrates on the legal dimension of regionalism. The main argument of the book is that the first step to achieving harmony between multilateralism and regionalism is the identification of the legal uncertainties that regionalism produces when countries form RTAs without taking into account the substantive and procedural aspect of the applicable WTO/ GATT laws. The book calls for the creation of a legal instrument (i.e. agreement on RTAs) that combines all of the applicable law on RTAs, and simultaneously clarifies the legal language used therein. Likewise, the WTO should have a proactive role, not merely as a coordinator of RTAs, but as a watchdog for the multilateral system that has the power to prosecute violating RTAs. The author is aware that political concerns are top priorities for governments and policy makers when dealing with the regionalism problematic. Hence, legal solutions or proposals are not sufficient to create a better international trade system without the good will of the WTO Members who are, in fact, the players who are striving to craft more regional trade arrangements.

This heartwarming and heart-wrenching collection of stories, memoirs, and poems celebrates the beautifully complex world of sisters. A relationship like no other, the unbreakable link between sisters can be at once sweet and loving, fierce and cruel. From childhood to old age, rivalry to devotion, hysterical laughter to tears of grief, the inescapable bonds between sisters create a unique journey. Sisters is for anyone who knows sisters, wishes they had a sister, adores her own sister, or would, on occasion, like to trade her in. Contributors include: Joyce Armor, Margaret Atwood, Joan Baez, Claire Bateman, Simone de Beauvoir, Robin Becker, Jane Bowles, Gwendolyn Brooks, Lan Samantha Chang, Marilyn Chin, Catherine Chung, Lucille Clifton, Clare Coss, Edwidge Danticat, Sadie and Bessie Delany, Rita Dove, Delia Ephron, M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Glass, Barbara L. Greenberg, Jane Hirshfield, Cynthia Hogue, Beverly Jensen, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Ana Maria Jomolca, Mary Karr, Marie Luise Kaschnitz, Tsipi Keller, Barbara Kingsolver, Maxine Kumin, Jeanne M. Leiby, Audre Lorde, Grace Paley, Dorothy Parker, Martha Rhodes, Muriel Rukeyser, Myra Shapiro, Ali Smith, Misty Urban, Alice Walker, Wendy Wasserstein and Daisy Zamora.

This volume describes the Neo-Aramaic dialect spoken by descendants of Christian villagers from a district in Southeast Turkey, now largely resident in Russia. This volume is based on fieldwork carried out by the author in Russia, Georgia, and the United States. The volume contains a historical introduction, a grammatical description, transcribed and translated texts, and a glossary with etymological notes.

Hoe overleven leden van professionele teams in een wereld die gekenmerkt wordt door individualisering, versnelling en winstmaximalisatie? In tegenstelling tot de theorieën in de gangbare managementliteratuur concludeert dit onderzoek, dat de dynamiek in teams in commerciële organisaties vooral beheerst wordt door eigenbelang, angst, bindingsverlies en macht. Daarin onderscheiden deze professionals zich nauwelijks van gewone mensen in het alledaagse leven: Net het echte leven. Drie teams met een complexe opdracht worden intensief gevolgd. Gedurende dit veldwerk blijkt dat teamprocessen in de onderstroom (meestal genegeerd in de bestaande literatuur, door managers en de teamleden zelf), een vitale rol spelen in het handelen van de individuele teamleden en in de teamprestaties. Machtsposities, uitsluitingsmechanismen, vertrouwensvragen en communicatieproblemen bepalen de effectiviteit van een team sterker dan gewoonlijk wordt gesuggereerd. In een complex proces van ambigue gedragingen, opgevoerde voorstellingen en versluierde belangen verloopt de teamdynamiek weinig rationeel. Uiterst zelden zijn teamleden zich dit expliciet bewust; onzekerheid, irrationeel en illusoir gedrag, eigenbelang en angst zijn nu eenmaal geen processen die gemakkelijk onthuld worden. Doordat zij het belang niet zien, bestaat er in deze door versnelling voortgedreven teams doorgaans weinig animo om hier aandacht aan te besteden. Patronen die in dit onderzoek worden blootgelegd beïnvloeden de effectiviteit van teams èn het werkplezier van de betrokken teamleden in hoge mate. Men kan hier dus maar beter rekening mee houden en op in spelen. Vanuit deze visie presenteert Belia van den Berg nieuwe ideeën voor de aansturing van teams, waarbij ruimte ontstaat om de onderstroom toe te laten en tot nu toe verhulde mechanismen in teamdynamiek te benutten.

Excavations at two sites in the southern suburbs of the modern industrial town of Scunthorpe, originally a rural landscape with a scatter of villages overlooking the River Trent and its tributary, Bottesford Beck. Finds of flint tools show that humans had been around throughout prehistory; by the late Iron Age the Burringham Road site probably lay at the southern limit of a settlement, and for much of the Roman period there is evidence of various activities, mostly agriculture-related, and including several corn-driers; perhaps there was a villa nearby. The Baldwin Avenue site shows evidence of a Middle Saxon settlement with notable artefacts being three large lead vessels of a type that seems peculiar to the region. The title of the report reflects the fact that these two sites are peripheral to larger complexes, but nevertheless provide good information about them.

On November 29th 2007, the Dutch United Nations Student Association (SIB Leiden) organized a Conference, titled: The Future of the European Union: How to Proceed in an Ever Closer Union? The conference was meant to offer students, young academics and professionals the opportunity to engage in a debate with prominent scholars and politicians on the Future of Europe. This book contains an overview of the various issues that were discussed during the conference and attempts to do justice to both the interdisciplinarity of the conference programme and the variety of people who attended. Therefore, readers will find contributions from both Dutch and international scholars; from young academics from SIB Leiden; and from various politicians and other professionals working daily on European Union issues. As this book offers a collection of essays resulting from a Dutch conference on an international topic, contributions are either in English or in Dutch. The editors have aimed at an equal number of English and Dutch texts. This book does not claim to be exhaustive, nor does it attempt to offer one single vision of the Unions future. Quite the contrary: the conference was meant to explore as many scenarios for the EU as possible, and to put every aspect of the European Union up for discussion. Each of the essays in this book thus explores one such aspect of the EU, and offers the authors view of the road that has been taken, or should be taken. In this way, SIB Leiden sincerely hopes to contribute to a lively and continuing debate. Contents: Voorwoord; M J M Verhagen, The Future of the European Union; H O Ruding, The European Union 2005-2008: crisis, impasse or renewed progress?; A W Bos, Europese Regelzucht; L Siedentop, Some Constitutional Reflections; E H Faber van der Meulen, EU Energy Policy: The conflict between an internal liberalisation agenda and external security of supply; R D Praaning Prawira Adiningrat, The Future of European Security; A M B Chao, De abnormaal lage inschrijving vanuit de positie van de publiekrechtelijke instelling; P J Slot, De Ontwikkeling van het Mededingingsrecht in de EG en Nederland; S P van der Vaart, Er is weer een verhaal nodig bij Europa in de Nederlandse politiek.

Mary Ann Taylor-Hall's highly acclaimed first novel, Come and Go, Molly Snow, introduces us to Carrie Marie Mullins, a gifted Kentucky bluegrass fiddler and singer in the Hawktown Road band. After moving to Lexington to develop her talents, Carrie becomes infatuated with the band's leader, Cap Dunlap. Her romantic distraction prevents Carrie from saving her five-year-old daughter, Molly, when she careens down the driveway and is killed by a truck. Overwhelmed with grief, Carrie breaks down. Cap finds Carrie in this state of distress and takes her to Ona and Ruth Barkley, two elderly sisters living in an old farmhouse. It is on the sisters' farm that Carrie is able to slowly come to terms with her heartache and guilt over Molly's death. As she picks up the pieces of her shattered life, Carrie draws on the two women's friendship, her inner strength, and finally, the healing power of music.

What Comes Down To Us features twenty-five of Kentucky's most accomplished contemporary poets. Together they serve to illustrate the diversity and richness of poetry being written today in the Commonwealth. The poems were collected by Jeff Worley, a poet who has lived in Kentucky for more than two decades. Although the subject matter of the poems transcends the state's borders, the collection communicates a strong sense of Kentucky as a place. Worley's introduction places contemporary Kentucky poetry in the context of the state's rich literary tradition, and the poet biographies include their reflections and, often, their poetic approach and technique.

From the legendary poet Oisin to modernist masters like James Joyce, William Butler Yeats, and Samuel Beckett, Ireland's literary tradition has made its mark on the Western canon. Despite its proud tradition, the student who searches the shelves for works on Irish women's fiction is liabel to feel much as Virginia Woolf did when she searched the British Museum for work on women by women. Critic Nuala O'Faolain, when confronted with this disparity, suggested that "modern Irish literature is dominated by men so brilliant in their misanthropy. .. [that] the self-respect of Irish women is radically and paradoxically checkmated by respect for an Irish national achievement."While Ann Owen Weekes does not argue with the first part of O'Faolain's assertion, she does with the second. In Irish Women Writers: An Uncharted Tradition, she suggests that it is the critics rather than the writers who have allowed themselves to be checkmated. Beginning with Maria Edgeworth's Castle Rackrent (1800) and ending with Jennifer Johnston's The Railway Station (1980), she surveys the best of the Ireland's female literature to show its artistic and historic significance and to demonstrate that it has its own themes and traditions related to, yet separate from, that of male Irish writers.Weekes examines the work of writers like E.OE. Sumerville and Martin Ross (pen names for cousins Edith Somerville and Violet Martin), Elizabeth Bowen, Kate O'Brien, Mary Lavin, and Molly Keane, among others. She teases out the themes that recur in these writers' works, including the link between domestic and political violence and re-visioning of traditional stories, such as Julia O'Faolain's use of the Cuchulain and Diarmuid and Grainne myths to reveal the negation of women's autonomy. In doing so, she demonstrates that the literature of Anglo- and Gaelic-Irish women presents a unified tradition of subjects and techniques, a unity that might become an optimistic model not only for Irish literature but also for Irish people.

Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890--1937) has been described variously as the successor to Edgar Allan Poe, a master of the Gothic horror tale, and one of the father of modern supernatural fantasy fiction. Published originally in pulp magazines, his works have grown in popularity since his death, so that more than thirty editions are currently in print.Yet only recently has Lovecraft received serious attention from literary critics. And until now no one has examined his work from a post-structuralist perspective. Donald Burleson fills that void, for the first time in an extended study bringing the resources of deconstruction to bear on the works of this modern gothicist.In an introductory overview, Burleson gives an unusually readable account of deconstruction theory and terminology, a field all too often discussed in densely opaque fashion. He goes on to deconstruct thirteen Lovecraft stories, delving into their fascinating etymological mazes, abundant ambiguities, and shifting levels of meanings. His lively and remarkably jargon-free readings explore Lovecraft's rich figurality to unprecedented depths.At the same time Burleson develops the view that in practicing self-subversion and structural displacement, literary texts perpetuate themselves. His final chapter explores the broad themes running though Lovecraft's fiction, arguing that these themes in themselves prefigure the deconstructive gesture.This insightful and provocative volume will go a long way toward displacing the label of popular writer and establishing Lovecraft as an important figure in American literature.

After keeping school for six years at the forks of Troublesome Creek in the Kentucky hills, James Still moved to a century-old log house between the waters of Wolfpen Creek and Dead Mare Branch, on Little Carr Creek, and became "the man in the bushes" to his curious neighbors. Still joined the life of the scattered community. He raised his own food, preserved fruits and vegetables for the winter, and kept two stands of bees for honey. A neighbor remarked of Still, "He's left a good job, and come over in here and sot down."Still did sit down and write -- the classic novel River of Earth and many poems and short stories that have found their way into national publications. From the beginning, Still jotted down expressions, customs, and happenings unique to the region. After half a century those jottings filled twenty-one notebooks. Now they have been brought together in The Wolfpen Notebooks, together with an interview with Still, a glossary, a comprehensive bibliography of his work by William Terrell Cornett, and examples of Still's use of the "sayings" in poetry and prose. The "sayings" represent an aspect of the Appalachian experience not previously recorded and of a time largely past.

Coal miners evoke admiration and sympathy from the public, and writers -- some seeking a muse, others a cause -- traditionally champion them. David C. Duke explores more than one hundred years of this tradition in literature, poetry, drama, and film. Duke argues that as most writers spoke about rather than to the mining community, miners became stock characters in an industrial morality play, robbed of individuality or humanity. He discusses activist-writers such as John Reed, Theodore Dreiser, and Denise Giardina, who assisted striking workers, and looks at the writing of miners themselves. He examines portrayals of miners from The Trail of the Lonesome Pine to Matewan and The Kentucky Cycle. The most comprehensive study on the subject to date, Writers and Miners investigates the vexed political and creative relationship between activists and artists and those they seek to represent.

These eleven original essays by well-known eighteenth-century scholars, five of them editors of James Boswell's journal or letters, commemorate the bicentenary of Boswell's death on May 19, 1795. The volume illuminates both the life and the work of one of the most important literary figures of the age and contributes significantly to the scholarship on this rich period.In the introduction, Irma S. Lustig sets the tone for the volume. She reveals that the essays examining Boswell as "Citizen of the World" are deliberately paired with those that analyze his artistic skills, to emphasize that "Boswell's sophistication as a writer is inseparable from his cosmopolitanism." The essays in Part I focus on the relationship of the Enlightenment, at home and abroad, to Boswell's personal development. Marlies K. Danziger restores to significant life the continental philosophers and theologians Boswell consulted in his search for religious certainty. Peter Perreten examines Boswell's enraptured study of Italian antiquity and his responses to the European landscape. Richard B. Sher and Perreten document the personal and aesthetic influence of Henry Home, Lord Kames, Scottish jurist and leading Enlightenment figure, on Boswell. Michael Fry discusses Boswell's relationship with Henry Dundas, political manager for Scotland, and Thomas Crawford examines Boswell's long-standing interest in the volatile political issues of the period, including the French Revolution, through his correspondence with William Johnson Temple. In evaluation Boswell's performance as Laird of Auchinleck, John Strawhorn documents his efforts to improve the estate by use of new agricultural methods.The essays in Part II study aspects of Boswell's artistry in Life of Johnson, the magnum opus that set a standard for biography. Carey McIntosh examines Boswell's use of rhetoric, and William P. Yarrow offers a close scrutiny of metaphor. Isobel Grundy invokes Virginia Woolf in demonstrating Boswell's acceptance of uncertainty as a biographer. John B. Radner reveals Boswell's self-assertive strategies in his visit with Johnson at Ashbourne in September 1777, and, finally, Lustig examines as a "subplot" of the biography Johnson's patient efforts to win the friendship of Margaret Montgomerie Boswell. An appendix by Hitoshi Suwabe serves scholars by providing the most exact account to date of Boswell's meetings with Johnson.