Fantastisk litteratur er vår tids eventyrfortellinger og skaper stor leseglede hos barn og unge. Denne boka gir et innblikk i bøker og serier som barn og unge leser i dag. Boka viser mangfoldet i den fantastiske litteraturen for barn og unge, og den gir en rekke eksempler på hvordan en kan nærme seg slik litteratur analytisk. Forfatterne drøfter også hvorfor fantastisk litteratur skaper så stort engasjement, og hvilke funksjoner den kan ha for unge lesere. Fantastisk litteratur byr på god og fantasirik underholdning, og som bidragene i denne boka viser, kan den også behandle dype eksistensielle spørsmål, etiske dilemma og temaer som identitetsutvikling, flerkulturalitet og økologisk bærekraft. Boka henvender seg til lærere, studenter og forskere, bibliotekarer og andre som ønsker mer kunnskap om aktuell fantastisk litteratur for barn og unge. Forfattere og illustratører som omtales i boka, er blant andre: Tone Almhjell, Kaia, Bendik og Trond Brænne, Gro Dahle og Kaja Dahle Nyhus, Per Dybvig, Thomas Enger, Atle Hansen, Kazu Kibuishi, Alexander Løken, Lars Mæhle, Frida Nilsson, Maria Parr, Bobbie Peers, Siri Pettersen, Máret Ánne Sara og Håkon Øvreås.

Saras nøkkel ble Tatiana de Rosnays store internasjonale gjennombrudd, og i Norge har romanen solgt i over 200 000 eksemplarer. En gripende roman som tar opp tabuene og fornektelsen rundt en smertelig episode i Europas historie - en innsiktsfull fortelling om ansvar og samvittighet, om sorg og kjærlighet.Boken ble filmatisert i 2010 med Kristin Scott Thomas i hovedrollen. Paris, 16. juli 1942. Sara er en ti år gammel jødisk jente som er tvunget til å låse inn lillebroren sin i et skap for å gjemme han for det franske politiet. Resten av familien blir arrestert. I 2002 kommer journalisten Julia Jarmond tilfeldigvis over historien om Sara og familien i forbindelse med at hun skal skrive en artikkel i anledning 60-årsmarkeringen av Vichy-aksjonen. Oppdagelsen tvinger etter hvert Julia til å stille en rekke spørsmål ved sitt eget liv. «Mesterlig og fengslende. Dette er ikke noe leseren vil glemme med det første. Anbefales varmt.» - Library Journal «En elegant fortalt og ytterst spennende, gripende og avslørende roman ... Det er lenge siden jeg har hatt så vanskelig for å legge fra meg en bok.» - Svenska Dagbladet

Hva betyr mest for elevenes skoleprestasjoner? Hvilke forklaringer på ulikheter i skoleprestasjoner finner vi? Denne fagfellevurderte antologien tar for seg disse spørsmålene, og spesielt hva skolegang og skoleprestasjoner har å si for barn og unge i et livsløpsperspektiv. Boken belyser kunnskapsgrunnlaget på området og ulike kunnskapssyn omkring vår forståelse av skolegang, skoleprestasjoner, kjønnsmessige likheter/ulikheter omkring skoleprestasjoner, hva skolebidraget har å si for skoleprestasjoner, hvordan sosiokulturelle variabler spiller inn på skoleprestasjoner, samt hvilken innvirkning hjemmeskole og digital undervisning kan ha på skoleprestasjoner. For å få løftet frem bokens hovedtema fra forskjellige perspektiv og fra ulike tematiske innganger belyser 13 forfattere dette med utgangspunkt i det rådende kunnskapsgrunnlaget på området. Hensikten er ikke at boken skal komme med en entydig forklaring på skoleprestasjoner isolert sett, men heller å løfte frem noen ansatser til forståelsesrammer innenfor dette komplekse feltet. Dette gjøres ved å se på barns vekst og utvikling fra de tidlige barneår opp til høyere utdanning, i tillegg til se på skoleprestasjoner fra både et konseptuelt og et kontekstuelt ståsted. Boken er relevant for studenter innen lærerutdanning, barnehagelærerutdanning og bachelor- og mastergradsstudenter i pedagogikk og spesialpedagogikk. Den vil også være relevant for etter- og videreutdanninger innen pedagogikk og helsefag. Redaktør for boken er Rune Johan Krumsvik, og han har med seg bidragsyterne Tone Kvernbekk, Kirsti Malterud, Harriet Bjerrum Nielsen, Sabine Wollscheid, Ingeborg Caroline Foldøy Solli, Ann Gustavsen, Sara Seehuus, Thea Bertnes Strømme, Runa Brandal Myklebust, Thomas Nordahl, Peder Haug og Roger Säljö. Rune Johan Krumsvik er professor (dr.philos.) i pedagogikk ved Universitetet i Bergen (UiB) og professor II ved Høgskulen i Volda. Krumsvik har vært instituttleder ved Institutt for pedagogikk, UiB (2010–2017), er forskningsgruppeleder for forskningsgruppen Digitale læringsfellesskap og faglig leder for forskerskolen Western Norway Graduate School of Educational Research II (WNGER II).

<p>Sociology is a constantly changing scientific endeavour, adventure and practice that was born with the advent of modernity. One of the main reasons for the rise of sociology was modern society’s wish to understand itself. In this introduction to sociology, the authors emphasize the importance and centrality of the idea of the <i>sociological imagination</i>, as it was conceived by sociologist C. Wright Mills.</p><p> </p><p>This book will enhance and further develop your sociological imagination with a ‘sensibility’ that has its breeding ground in the Scandinavian countries; this is the first comprehensive attempt to write an international/Nordic text book and introductory text to sociology.</p><p> </p><p>This book is aimed primarily at first year students in sociology but will be of interest to anyone who is looking for a comprehensive guide to the exciting field of sociology.</p> Contents Introduction The legacy of the sociological imagination Scandinavian sensibility Structure and content of the book Summary Think for yourself Further reading Chapter 1. What is society? Contested concepts and shifting metaphors Willy Guneriussen, University of Tromsø Introduction Individualism vs holism: methodological and ontological controversies Sociology – an explanatory or interpretive science? Structure or action? Society – a material or symbolic reality? The symbolic turn Combining distinctions The theoretical landscape of sociology Several theories – one reality? Beyond traditions – towards a minimalist model of society Biology and society Combining traditions The first synthesis: Talcott Parsons’ sociology Modifying Parsons’ theory of society Metaphors, science and sociological imagination Metaphors Changing conceptions or changing realities? Concluding reflections Summary Think for yourself Further reading Chapter 2. The sociology of work Inger Marie Hagen, Fafo Introduction The labour contract – labour as commodity in the market From work to labour Modern labour – work as commodity The two parties to the contract: labour and managerial prerogative The labour contract and the social context – different models The collective agreement Labour and self-expression Working conditions Other answers to `why work?’ Motivation and management The work organisation From command to self-management? An example – the modern work organisation – the three different company systems Employer and employee – equal partners Management as superior to employees Employee and management as parties in an ongoing dialogue Working life and distribution – industrial democracy Norms of distribution and norms of democracy Three notions of industrial democracy Industrial democracy and participation – individual and representative participation The Nordic labour market The Nordic model of labour relations When contemporary labour is a part of the past . . . Summary Think for yourself Further reading Chapter 3. The sociology of power Fredrik Engelstad, University of Oslo Introduction The interpretation of `power’ Power as concept Dimensions in social action Expectations and legitimacy From micro to macro State, democracy, politics State, rights and informal power relations Shaping and articulation of interests Political participation on a broad scale Fragmentation and globalisation: abdication of politics? Civil society Networks and organising capacity Gender power and attitudes toward gender Encounters with welfare state institutions Economy and working life Business life, markets and power Management and leadership in enterprises Participation and industrial democracy Ideas and communication Power in the public sphere Aesthetics, culture and national values Social elites: who governs? Power and democratisation Summary Think for yourself Further reading Chapter 4. The sociology of the family Mai Heide Ottosen, The Danish National Centre for Social Research Introduction What is a family? Sociological perspectives on the family Kinship vs family studies The family as a social institution The family as a social group Family as social practice Demographic trends The `bean-pole’ family The crisis of the patriarchal family Structuring family networks Family policies Inside the family: marriage, parenthood and childhood The de-institutionalisation of marriage From fatherhood and motherhood to parenthood Childhood Summary Think for yourself Further reading Chapter 5. The sociology of education Nihad Bunar and Rickard Jonsson, Stockholm University Introduction Sociological perspectives on education The functionalist approach Education and socialisation Social integration Education and gatekeeping: screening and selecting Education as an agent of social change The conflict approach The correspondence principle Reproduction through expectations and opposition Subjective expectation of objective probability Restricted and elaborated codes The subjective-interpretative approach Education and the market The market-oriented position The market-sceptical position The market-ambivalent position Education and ethnicity Urban schools Refugee and migrant students Education and gender Gender and school achievement Summary Think for yourself Further reading Chapter 6. The sociology of religion Ola Sigurdson, University of Gothenburg Introduction What is the sociology of religion? Sociology, the secularisation thesis and the return of religion Religion in the Scandinavian nation-states: an example The continuities and discontinuities of secularised religion The future of religion: towards a post-secular society? Summary Think for yourself Further reading Chapter 7. The sociology of media and information technologies Simon Lindgren, UmeS University Introduction Constructions and representations The media `effects’ model Media, ideology and struggles over hegemony New media and participatory culture Summary Think for yourself Further reading Chapter 8. The sociology of health Thomas Johansson, University of Gothenburg Introduction Historical perspectives Health inequalities Gender and health Lifestyles, risks and health The face of health Global health Summary Think for yourself Further reading Chapter 9. The sociology of class and social stratification Gunnar C. Aakvaag, University of Oslo Introduction Marx’s definition of class The class structure of modern capitalism Max Weber: a multidimensional approach to stratification and class Weber’s general approach to social stratification: class, status and party Weber’s class theory Contemporary class analysis A neo-Marxian approach: Erik Olin Wright and exploitation Wright’s class schema A neo-Weberian approach: John H. Goldthorpe and life chances Service and labour contracts Goldthorpe’s class schema Pierre Bourdieu: classes and lifestyles The social space Bourdieu’s class schema Habitus and class Class, habitus and lifestyle Class and social mobility Social relationships Intergenerational mobility Summary Think for yourself Further reading Chapter 10. The sociology of deviance Philip Lalander, Malmö University Introduction Labelling, ambivalence and counter-labelling Different types of deviance Diagnosis and identity Indulgence at the margins of society Escape from everyday life/escaping everyday life Summary Think for yourself Further reading Chapter 11. The sociology of gender Johanna Esseveld and Sara Eldén, Lund University Introduction Gender and sex Beyond dichotomies A sociological definition of gender Theorising gender Classical texts Men’s and women’s roles Gender oppression and structural inequality New themes in the sociology of gender Gender as a social practice Intersectionality Scandinavian sociology of gender today Conclusions Summary Think for yourself Further reading Chapter 12. The sociology of micro-social interaction and everyday life Søren Kristiansen and Michael Hviid Jacobsen, Aalborg University Introduction Everyday life as a social domain Micro-social interaction The basis of micro-social interaction: common sense, meaning and intersubjectivity Phenomenological sociology Symbolic interactionism Ethnomethodology The syntax of interaction: rules, rituals and ceremonies Goffman and dramaturgical sociology Conversation analysis Summary Think for yourself Further reading Chapter 13. The sociology of globalisation Thomas Hylland Eriksen, University of Oslo Introduction Origins of contemporary globalisation Globalisation today Globalisers and sceptics Dimensions of globalisation Disembedding, including de-localisation Standardisation Interconnectedness Mobility Mixing Vulnerability Re-embedding Central questions about globalisation The dialectics of globalisation Summary Think for yourself Further reading Chapter 14. The sociology of culture Bjorn Schiermer, University of Copenhagen Introduction Sociology of culture and popular culture The Frankfurt School: the critique and the potential of modern mass culture Siegfried Kracauer: the dialectics of commodified culture Theodor W. Adorno: the critical potential of autonomous art Walter Benjamin: art and politics The Birmingham School: culture as `a way of life’ Poststructuralism and semiotics: culture as `text’ The `material turn’: re-extending the shortened concept of culture Cultural studies: leaving the high/low dichotomy behind Ironic sensibilities: kitsch and camp and new ways of being together Summary Think for yourself Further reading Chapter 15. The sociology of ethnicity Nihad Bunar and Marko Valenta, Stockholm University and NTNU Introduction Defining ethnicity Theoretical approaches to ethnicity Primordialism Instrumentalism New ethnicities The importance of ethnic networks Symbolic ethnicity Theories and policies for managing ethnic diversity Ethnicity and other sociologically relevant concepts of categorisation Ethnicity and class Ethnicity and gender Ethnicity and race Ethnicity, racism and discrimination Ethnicity and nation Ethnicity and citizenship Summary Think for yourself Further reading Chapter 16. The sociology of the self Thomas Johansson, University of Gothenburg Introduction The sociology of the body: classical texts Consuming the Other Cyborgs and transvestites Lifestyle, fashion and the body Bodybuilding, fitness and gender Plastic surgery and body modifications Summary Think for yourself Further reading Chapter 17. The sociology of social change Gunnar C. Aakvaag, University of Oslo Introduction What are the `general characteristics’ of a society? Functional differentiation Consequences for the individual: facing social complexity Institutional `colonisation’ Consequences for the individual: facing commercialisation and bureaucratisation Individualisation Industrial modernity Individualised modernity Consequences for the individual: facing the decline of standard biographies Risk society Objective side-effects Subjective perception Consequences for the individual: facing uncertainty Social change: all that is solid melts into air? Summary Think for yourself Further reading Notes References Index

Red-Hot Affairs with... A Mediterranean King Laura's decided to take charge of her life! However, the last thing she expects is to end up naked with the gorgeous guy next door... Then she gets a new job - on a Mediterranean island - and forgets about her passionate night until the island's new king arrives.... An Italian Racing Driver Handsome star of the racing circuit Sandro Roselli sends Charlotte Warrington's pulse speeding and her senses crazy! When he offers her a job one thing leads to another, but can their heady affair survive the dark secret the irresistible Italian hides? A Texas Tycoon Isabelle Smith isn't surprised that her new boss, Tony Ryder, doesn't remember her. Their night of passion was so long ago... So when he does and he makes her an offer, Isabelle thinks fast; she needs a wedding ring and this is now the negotiation of their lives!

A selection of the best MillsBoon summer stories brought in one collection

She's knocking on the front door. She's knocking and knocking. I'm not opening the door. I'm not letting her in. I'm behind the black chair. I'm waiting for her to go away. Tomos lives with his mother. He longs to return to another place, the place he thinks of as home, and the people who lived there, but he's not allowed to see them again. He is five years old and at school, which he loves. Miss teaches him about all sorts of things, and she listens to him. Sometimes he's hungry and Miss gives him her extra sandwiches. She gives him a warm coat from Lost Property, too. There are things Tomos cannot talk about - except to Cwtchy - and then, just before Easter, the things come to a head.

Under en efterfest på lucianatten blir Sara Leijon brutalt våldtagen av fyra män. Chockad och skadad tar hon sig till polishuset och gör sin anmälan. Fallet tycks glasklart, alla bevisen finns där, på Saras kropp och i hennes berättelse. Men när det gäller en våldtäktsrättegång är ingenting enkelt. När Sara lyckades ta sig ur lägenheten den där ödesdigra natten trodde hon att hon hade överlevt de

En reflektion över samhällsförändringar långt utanför kökets domäner Efter sin lovordade bok om den realistiska romanen, Den blå tvålen , som uppmärksammats på ett sätt som sällan skådats för ett litteraturhistoriskt verk, ger Sara Danius nu ut ett rikt urval essäer och artiklar. Essän om Bonniers kokbok och husmoderns död är redan en klassiker. Sara Danius studerar recepten på ål, hummer och hare och blixtbelyser ett stycke svensk samtidshistoria, lika lärorikt som hejdlöst underhållande. I en annan text beskriver hon sitt tonåriga möte med Sartre och existensens meningslöshet, för att i nästa stund skildra glasbruket Orrefors historia och sin farfar disponentens märkliga öde. Däremellan en skärskådan av Thomas Bernhards sätt att kursivera. Eller texter om fotograferna August Sander och Irving Penn. En utflykt till Hollywood för att besöka 1930-talets tyska kulturemigranter finns det också plats för. Och tillsammans med Tomas Tranströmer får vi vandra genom Stockholm. Därtill skriver hon om ett brett spektrum av författare, från Jane Austen och George Sand till Thomas Mann, Marcel Proust, James Joyce, Walter Benjamin, Italo Calvino, Nathalie Sarraute, Stina Aronson, Torgny Lindgren, Peter Esterhazy, Dubravka Ugresic och andra. I detta omfattande texturval blir Sara Danius originalitet och stilistiska säkerhet synliga i full bredd. Hennes sätt att ömsom lustfyllt ägna sig åt detaljer, ömsom lärt ge de stora perspektiven, är en lycka för läsaren.

In the middle of the nineteenth century a sympathetic relationship between art, science and technology laid the groundwork for photography to flourish, including camera obscura and the panorama. This is a lavishly produced book on the eventful first thirty years of photography in Scotland - around 1840 - 70. The photographers whose work is discussed include David Octavius Hill, Robert Adamson, James Valentine, Thomas Annan and George Washington Wilson plus practitioners not previously mentioned in any publication. Julia Margaret Cameron's encounter with Scotland is also described as is the work of Scottish photographers abroad.

Les om barnepiken som var programmert til å drepe - en thriller fra det virkelige liv. Klokken har akkurat passert midnatt den 10. januar 2004. Sara er 27 år og sitter i Volvoen, på vei mot Knutby. Ute er det mørkt og stille. Hun er liten og redd, og føler seg mest som en robot. Programmert til å drepe. Barnepiken i Knutby er en dokumentarroman om den berømte Knutby-saken, skrevet av journalisten og forfatteren Thomas Sjöberg.

Shortlisted for the Wellcome Book Prize 2019'[A] painfully intense, courageous and gripping account of [Fanning's] journey to the underworld of madness and back. This is a brave and instructive book.' Irish Times'Extraordinary. An account of mental illness, grief, delusions, homelessness, a fractured family relationship ... and all while trying to recover and create. Superb writing on a frequently difficult subject.' Sinead Gleeson Arnold Thomas Fanning had his first experience of depression during adolescence, following the death of his mother. Some ten years later, an up-and-coming playwright, he was overcome by mania and delusions. Thus began a terrible period in which he was often suicidal, increasingly disconnected from family and friends, sometimes in trouble with the law, and homeless in London.Drawing on his own memories, the recollections of people who knew him when he was at his worst, and medical and police records, Arnold Thomas Fanning has produced a beautifully written, devastatingly intense account of madness - and recovery, to the point where he has not had any serious illness for over a decade and has become an acclaimed playwright. Fanning conveys the consciousness of a person living with mania, psychosis and severe depression with a startling precision and intimacy. Mind on Fire is the gripping, sometimes harrowing, and ultimately uplifting testament of a person who has visited hellish regions of the mind.'Arnold Thomas Fanning offers the most vivid and unflinching window into the mind of someone who is in the throes of madness ... It was like nothing I'd read before' Rick Edwards'Mind on Fire is a truly powerful, arresting, haunting account. Arnold Thomas Fanning has reckoned with the darkest matter of his heart and mind, and I challenge anyone not to be moved by that.' Sara Baume, author of Spill Simmer Falter Wither and A Line Made by Walking'In this strange and singular book, Arnold Thomas Fanning mercilessly excavates the infernal underworld of his own years of madness. As reminiscent as it occasionally is of John Healy's The Grass Arena, and even of Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London, the book is ultimately not quite like anything else I've read, and brought me as close to the lived reality of mental illness as I have ever been. It's a significant achievement: a painful, inexorable work of autobiography, whose existence is its own form of redemption.' Mark O'Connell, Baillie Gifford Prize-shortlisted author of To Be a Machine'This is an extraordinary memoir about how it feels to be depressed, delusional, desperate' The Observer 'Incredibly important' Emilie Pine, author of Notes to Self'A ratcheting pace, a tight first-person immediacy, and utterly staggering to be a passenger over its entire warped course ... An indelible, ground-shaking account' Hilary A White, Irish Independent, Memoir of the Year, Best Reads of 2018'A spellbinding memoir that should prove both moving and hopefully cathartic for the reader.' RTE Culture 'Told in tight and immediate first-person, and imbued with a startling momentum that ratchets unnervingly, Fanning's publishing debut ... is a significant achievement and should be a talking point in publishing this year.' Irish Independent 'Fanning's debut book lays it on the line in a deeply personal and compelling chronicle of his descent into depression and his way back out.' RTE Guide'Wonderful' Joseph O'Connor, Irish Times Books of the Year'Unsparingly direct, searing and honest ... It is gripping to read and must have been exhausting to live' Medical Independent 'One of the most gripping and revealing memoirs I've read in a long time. A controlled and artful exploration of absolute loss of control, an unsettling and at times very moving reconstruction of a period of serious mental illness, Mind on Fire is a beautiful book about a terrifying thing.' Mark O'Connell, Irish Times Books of the Year'Gripping' Sinead Gleeson, Irish Times Books of the Year'Shocking' Liz Nugent, Irish Times Books of the Year'Poignant, beautifully detailed memoir' Sarah Gilmartin, Irish Times, Best debuts of 2018'Brave and illuminating' Sunday Business Post'This is the type of account that not only grips you wholesale as the pages flitter past, it also changes your very perception of psychology' Hilary A White, Sunday Independent Memoir of the Year

White Man handler om forbrytelser på en sydhavsøy og om kjærligheten som fantes før og etter; mellom mann og kvinne, hvit og svart, og en far og hans sønn. En fortelling om en forbrytelse. Om hvordan og hvorfor den skjer. White Man ble nominert både til Ungdommens kritikerpris og P2-lytternes romanpris. «En pirrende og innsiktsfull studie av moderne turistkolonialisme. Skarpt sett og elegant komponert, er dette fortellermessig en uhyre lesbar og spennende beretning.»Knut Faldbakken i «Årets beste bøker» i VG«. en betydelig historieforteller.»Bjørn Gabrielsen, Dagens Næringsliv«. en tett og dirrende spenningsroman, som igjen og igjen overrasker den som leser.»Annette Orre, Dagsavisen«White Man er original, dristig, vidtfavnende . En knallgod roman.»Geir Vestad, Hamar Arbeiderblad«. en intenst engasjerende leseropplevelse.»Tone Mjåvatn, Vårt LandSara Johnsen er filmregissør og forfatter. Hun debuterte som spillefilmregissør med Vinterkyss (2005), som ble plukket ut som norsk Oscar-kandidat. Hennes andre spillefilm, Upperdog, har premiere september 2009.

Everyone's dying to know the truth . . .When Aerin Kelly was eleven, she idolised her seventeen-year-old sister, Helena, and they did everything together. They made Claymation movies and posted them to YouTube. They made fun of Windmere-Carruthers, the private school they attended, they invented new flavours for their parents' organic ice cream shop, and they dressed up their golden retriever, Buster. But when Helena went into senior year things started to change. Rather than being Aerin's inseparable sister, she started to push her away. Then, on a snowy winter's day, Helena vanished. Four years later, Helena's body is found. Wracked with grief and refusing to give up on her sister, Aerin spends months trying to figure out what exactly happened to Helena and who killed her. But the police have no leads. A young, familiar officer named Thomas wants to help and suggests she checks out a website called Case Not Closed. Hesitantly, she posts, and when teenagers Seneca and Maddox show up on her doorstep offering to help investigate she accepts in desperation. Both have suffered their own losses and also posted to the site with no luck, so they are hoping this case might be the one they crack. But as their investigation begins, it seems that maybe it's no accident that they are all together, and that maybe the crimes have something - or someone - in common.

Marching armies, cavalry raids, guerilla warfare, massacres, towns and farms in flames--the American Civil War, 1861-1865? No--Kansas, 1854-1861. Before there was Bull Run or Gettysburg, there was Black Jack and Osawatomie. Long before events at Fort Sumter ignited the War Between the States, men fought and died on the Prairies of Kansas over the incendiary issue of slavery. "War to the knife and knife to the hilt," cried the Atchison Squatter Sovereign. " Let the watchword be 'Extermination, total and complete.'" In 1854 a shooting war developed between proslavery men in Missouri and free-staters in Kansas over control of the territory. The prize was whether it would be a slave or free state when admitted to the Union, a question that could decide the balance of power in Washington. Told in the unforgettable words of the men and women involved, War to the Knife is an absorbing account of a bloody episode soon spread east, events in "Bleeding Kansas" have largely been forgotten. But as historian Thomas Goodrich reveals in this compelling saga, what America's "first civil war" lacked in numbers it more than made up for in ferocity. War to the Knife is a riveting story of blood, fire, and death. It is also a story with an impressive cast of characters: Robert E> Lee, William Tecumseh Sherman, Sara Robinson, Jeb Stuart, Abraham Lincoln, Horace Greeley, Julia Lovejoy, William F. Cody. These and more step forward to tell their tale. And casting his long, dark shadow over al is the strange, haunting figure of John Brown--hailed as a prophet by some, denounced as a madman by others.

How do texts create meaning? How do we arrive at our textual interpretations? Why do we become 'lost in a book' or feel deep emotion in response to a literary character? Through close attention to the way texts are written and the language they use, as well as what we know about the human mind, Contemporary Stylistics: Language, Interpretation, Cognition provides readers with the tools to begin answering these questions. In doing so, it introduces the theoretical principles and practical frameworks of stylistics and cognitive poetics, supplying the practical skills to analyse your own responses to literary texts. Including innovative activities for students and with case studies of work by writers like Dylan Thomas, EL James and Kazuo Ishiguro, this is a detailed analysis of contemporary stylistics that offers both historical contextualization of the discipline and points towards its possible future direction.