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Updating Roman Jakobson’s ‘Poetic Function’ with Vector Semantics
Read more: Updating Roman Jakobson’s ‘Poetic Function’ with Vector SemanticsKurzynski discusses how poetry extends beyond sound and rhythm and taps into a deeper network of meanings.
The “Afghan Genizah”: A New Source for the History of Pre-Mongol Bāmiyān
How did Abū Naṣr Yehuda, a Jewish landowner from 11th-century Bāmiyān, conduct his business affairs with his Muslim neighbors? What was the role of Shujāʿ al-Dīn Muḥammad in the administration of Bāmiyān prior to its destruction by Genghis Khan in…
Lesbian Cinema after Queer Theory
In 1998, the celebrated lesbian film scholar B. Ruby Rich wrote: ‘I don’t want to make the mistake of falling into that comfortable old victim box, complaining of absence in the midst of presence. We’re not invisible anymore’ (58). In…
Francophone Belgian Cinema
Twenty years ago the Dardenne brothers’ film Rosetta (1999) thrust Belgian cinema into the international spotlight by winning the top award at Cannes film festival for the first time. Belgian film culture is still widely celebrated, since, at the time…
The Resilience of Nomadism and Village Life in the Heart of Helmand Valley
By Marc Abramiuk, archaeologist and applied anthropologist The central Helmand Valley of Afghanistan is the name I use to describe the section of the Helmand River basin lying between the confluence of the Arghandab and Middle Helmand in the north,…
Doing History in the Age of Downton Abbey
Julie Anne Taddeo As the most watched period drama in television history, Downton Abbey has met with popular success but not always critical acclaim. Historians in particular have criticized what they see as the series’ conservative politics and nostalgic view…
7 things you may not know about the history of Muslims in Central Asia
By Galina M. Yemelianova 1) There are both narrow and broad notions of Central Asia. The narrow one relates to the 5 Central Asian republics of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan, which until 1991 were part of the Soviet…
Blogging From Egypt: Digital Literature, 2005-2016
Since 2005, blogging has become a significant trend amid Egyptian young people. Among the many blog entries published online every day, some stand out for their innovative literary features and original contents. So far, a number of bloggers, such as…
What We Were Left: Re-tracing the Political Aftermath of the First World War for Britain and Ireland
Mark Quigley,University of Oregon With commemorations of the 1918 Armistice this past November, four years of centennial reckonings with the First World War effectively came to a close. But just as the impacts of the war extended far beyond active…
In Conversation with Susanne Bier
Missy Molloy, Mimi Nielsen and Meryl Shriver-Rice caught-up with Academy Award®, Golden Globe Award and Emmy Award winning writer and director Susanne Bier, as research for their recently published book ReFocus: The Films of Susanne Bier. The full interview is…