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Robert Barr has been almost completely overlooked by critics and anthologists of Canadian literature, in part because, although he was educated in Canada, he spent most of his life in the United States and England. However, since most of his serious novels are either set in Canada or have some Canadian connection, Barr deserves attention. The Measure of the Rule , originally published in 1907, is the nearest he came to writing an autobiographical novel. It concerns the Toronto Normal School and the experiences there in the 1870s of a young man who undoubtedly is Barr himself. In this novel, Barr is exorcising unhappy memories and is ironic, even bitter, about the school’s quality of education, the rigid discipline observed by its staff and their indifference to their students, and the sexual segregation practiced. A number of men under whom Barr actually studied are vividly caricatured. As a realistic study of Ontario's only central teacher-training institution in the late nineteenth century, The Measure of the Rule will appeal both to those interested in Canadian fiction of that period and to those more concerned with the evolution of the system of education established by Egerton Ryerson. Also included with this reprint of the novel is an essay originally published in 1899 and entitled 'Literature in Canada.' In this essay, Barr elaborated upon his opinions of the school system and its quality of education.

During the 1920s, sound revolutionized the motion picture industry and cinema continued as one of the most significant and popular forms of mass entertainment in the world. Film studios were transformed into major corporations, hiring a host of craftsmen and technicians including cinematographers, editors, screenwriters, and set designers. The birth of the star system supported the meteoric rise and celebrity status of actors including Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo, and Rudolph Valentino while black performers (relegated to \"race films\") appeared infrequently in mainstream movies. The classic Hollywood film style was perfected and significant film genres were established: the melodrama, western, historical epic, and romantic comedy, along with slapstick, science fiction, and fantasy. In ten original essays,American Cinema of the 1920sexamines the film industry's continued growth and prosperity while focusing on important themes of the era.

Leili could not have imagined that arriving late to Islamic morals class would change the course of her life. But her arrival catches the eye of a young man, and a chance meeting soon draws Leili into a new circle of friends and artists. Gathering in the cafes of Tehran, these young college students come together to create an underground play that will wake up their generation. They play with fire, literally and figuratively, igniting a drama both personal and political to perform their play—just once. From the wealthy suburbs and chic coffee shops of Tehran to subterranean spaces teeming with drugs and prostitution to spiritual lodges and saints' tombs in the mountains high above the city, Last Scene Underground presents an Iran rarely seen. Young Tehranis navigate their way through politics, art, and the meaning of home and in the process learn hard lessons about censorship, creativity, and love. Their dangerous discoveries ultimately lead to finding themselves. Written in the hopeful wake of Iran's Green Movement and against the long shadow of the Iran-Iraq war, this unique novel deepens our understanding of an elusive country that is full of misunderstood contradictions and wonder.

This article analyzes selected works from the currently trending genre of popular literature known as “Slavic fantasy.” It examines how individual authors draw on Slavic mythology, demonology, legends, and folklore. The study focuses on the use of these elements, particularly in works rooted in Polish literature and historical realities. The settings of the analyzed works are often located in lands inhabited by Western Slavic tribes, which significantly influenced the formation of Polish nationality. The phenomenon of Slavic fantasy has been systematized through classifications, notably by Adam Mazurkiewicz, who proposes a division based on the adopted creative strategy: adaptation or reconstruction. The analysis considers representative novels across several subgenres: historical/parahistorical fantasy—Wisznia ze słowiańskiej głuszy (Cherry from the Slavic Wilderness) by Aleksandra Katarzyna Maludy and Piast Mściciel (Piast the Avenger) by Krzysztof Jagiełło; contemporary (folk) fantasy—the series Kwiat paproci (The Fern Flower) by Katarzyna Berenika Miszczuk; and alternative world construction—the trilogy Wilcza Dolina (Wolf Valley) by Marta Krajewska. The article also addresses whether it is possible to discuss contemporary issues, such as women’s rights and ethics, through a narrative world inspired by the Middle Ages. It contributes to the growing trend of research on the phenomenon of Slavic fantasy and the fascination with Slavic culture.

Edward Lucas White (1866–1934) taught Latin in private schools in Baltimore MD, published in Classical Weekly , earned a BA from Johns Hopkins but abandoned a PhD program due to ill health. He is known to many classicists for the historical novels The Unwilling Vestal , Andivius Hedulio and Helen . Today, White is the focus of intense admiration for his works of fantasy and horror, now part of the genre of Weird Fiction, especially “Lukundoo” and “The House of the Nightmare.” Thus far this resurgent admiration has not extended to his equally deserving historical fiction or poetry.

This book is the follow-up to Thierry Groensteen's ground-breakingThe System of Comics, in which the leading French-language comics theorist set out to investigate how the medium functions, introducing the principle of iconic solidarity, and showing the systems that underlie the articulation between panels at three levels: page layout, linear sequence, and nonsequential links woven through the comic book as a whole. He now develops that analysis further, using examples from a very wide range of comics, including the work of American artists such as Chris Ware and Robert Crumb. He tests out his theoretical framework by bringing it up against cases that challenge it, such as abstract comics, digital comics and sh?jo manga, and offers insightful reflections on these innovations. In addition, he includes lengthy chapters on three areas not covered in the first book. First, he explores the role of the narrator, both verbal and visual, and the particular issues that arise out of narration in autobiographical comics. Second, Groensteen tackles the question of rhythm in comics, and the skill demonstrated by virtuoso artists in intertwining different rhythms over and above the basic beat provided by the discontinuity of the panels. And third he resets the relationship of comics to contemporary art, conditioned by cultural history and aesthetic traditions but evolving recently as comics artists move onto avant-garde terrain.

This paper examines a number of African-authored narratives (novels and film) in the light of recent thinking about futurism and the role of speculative fiction as a means of envisioning the future. Uppinder Mehan, coeditor of the first ever anthology of “postcolonial science fiction and fantasy,” So Long Been Dreaming, notes that postcolonial writing has rarely “pondered that strange land of the future” and warns, “If we do not imagine our futures, postcolonial peoples risk being condemned to be spoken about and for again” (Mehan 270). Kodwo Eshun, in a seminal essay, expands on this to argue that, while the “practice of countermemory as . . . an ethical commitment to history, the dead and the forgotten” has traditionally relegated futurism to the sidelines of black creativity, this has been progressively challenged by “contemporary African artists . . . [for whom] understanding and intervening in the production and distribution of this dimension constitutes a chronopolitical act” (292). The paper proposes that this chronopolitical act (what in literature we now call speculative fiction) has its roots in African modes of storytelling that draw on myth, orality, and indigenous belief systems that lend themselves to the invention of personal mythologies, the rewriting of history in the light of future realities, and the use of extrarealist or magical phenomena as part of the everyday. Since these elements characterize many novels not thought of as speculative, this suggests that futurism has been a strain in African writing from its inception. The turn from mythic revisioning to speculative fiction as a distinct and recognizable genre in the 21st century has notably been embraced by women writers such as Nnedi Okorafor and Lauren Beukes, in whose work gender/femininity is a determinant in the projection of imagined futures. The paper examines how speculative narrative strategies in a range of texts are brought to bear on specific historical situations on the African continent (those characterized, for example, by genocide, civil war, cross-continental migration, urban dereliction, xenophobia, violence, and the occult) and the potential futures to which they point. The paper argues, therefore, that such narratives, rather than being relegated to the category of fantasy, deserve attention as key indicators of futuristic thinking.

This article examines the fictional renderings of Pedro Almódovar and la movida in the Spanish TV series El Ministerio del Tiempo (2015–2020). First, I analyze how El Ministerio champions the democratic transition as a period that set the foundations for a modern pluralistic Spain. Then, I examine how the series incorporates Almodóvar's Laberinto de pasiones (1982) into its story as a means of stressing the vital contribution of the underground scene to the renewal of post-Franco culture. I focus on El Ministerio 's portrayal of drag performances and the HIV/AIDS epidemic, highlighting the restaging of one of Almodóvar's earliest and most daring films, and thus showing how the series adjusts an emblematic example of counterculture to hegemonic accounts of the transition. Ultimately, I argue that El Ministerio assimilates sexual diversity and counterculture into a teleological rereading of Spanish history that celebrates the transition as the ultimate stage of individual freedom and national reconciliation. Abstract: This article examines the fictional renderings of Pedro Almódovar and la Movida in the Spanish TV series El Ministerio del Tiempo (2015–2020). First, I analyze how El Ministerio draws upon time travel and speculative fiction to champion the democratic transition as a period that set the foundations for a modern pluralistic Spain. Then, I examine how the series incorporates Almodóvar's Laberinto de pasiones (1982) into its story, recreating its narrative and aesthetic cues as a means of stressing the vital contribution of the underground scene to the post-Franco cultural renovation. I particularly focus on El Ministerio 's portrayal of drag performances and the HIV/AIDS epidemic, highlighting that it restages one of Almodóvar's earliest and most daring films through the lens of his later canonization as the quintessential Spanish auteur. In this way, I show that the series adjusts an emblematic example of counterculture to hegemonic accounts of the transition, realigning Laberinto with the goal of institutionalizing democratic culture and consolidating the nowadays much-questioned logic of consensus that guided state cultural policies during the 1980s. Ultimately, I argue that El Ministerio reintegrates sexual diversity and counterculture into a teleological rereading of Spanish history that celebrates the transition as the ultimate stage of individual freedom and national reconciliation.

Jack Kirby (1917-1994) is one of the most influential and popular artists in comics history. With Stan Lee, he created the Fantastic Four and defined the drawing and narrative style of Marvel Comics from the 1960s to the present day. Kirby is credited with creating or cocreating a number of Marvel's mainstay properties, among them the X-Men, the Hulk, Thor, and the Silver Surfer. His earlier work with Joe Simon led to the creation of Captain America, the popular kid gang and romance comic genres, and one of the most successful comics studios of the 1940s and 1950s. Kirby's distinctive narrative drawing, use of bold abstraction, and creation of angst-ridden and morally flawed heroes mark him as one of the most influential mainstream creators in comics.In this book, Charles Hatfield examines the artistic legacy of one of America's true comic book giants. He analyzes the development of Kirby's cartooning technique, his use of dynamic composition, the recurring themes and moral ambiguities in his work, his eventual split from Lee, and his later work as a solo artist. Against the backdrop of Kirby's earlier work in various genres, Hand of Fire examines the peak of Kirby's career, when he introduced a new sense of scope and sublimity to comic book fantasy.