To consider comedy in its many incarnations is to raise diverse but related questions: what, for instance, is humour, and how may it be used (or abused)? When do we laugh, and why? What is it that writers and speakers enjoy - and risk - when they tell a joke, indulge in bathos, talk nonsense, or encourage irony?
How online affinity networks expand learning and opportunity for young people Boyband One Direction fanfiction writers, gamers who solve math problems together, Harry Potter fans who knit for a cause. Across subcultures and geographies, young fans have found each other and formed community online, learning from one another along the way. From these and other in-depth case studies of online affi…
Imagine what it is like to hear language for the first time. No, really: imagine. Did you picture yourself in a crib listening to your mother? Understandable, but think again. We hear language before we are even born. As you will know from those noisy neighbours who drive you mad, sound passes through solid barriers – not just the walls of houses but also through the wall of the womb. And it …
EVERY SINGLE MOMENT IS A CHANCE TO TURN IT ALL AROUND. Are you happy? It may be the wrong question. Most of us think we are relatively happy, while at the same time knowing that we could be happiermaybe even a lot happier. Ordinary people and the finest philosophers have been exploring the question of happiness for thousands of years, and theories abound. But this is not a book of theory. Resi…
Some people still like King Leopold II of Belgium. In 2015, the city of Brussels planned to celebrate the king with “un hommage sur la place du Trône, devant la statue de Léopold II” (a tribute at the place du Trône, in front of the statue of Leopold II),3 a large equestrian monument that sits just outside the Royal Palace along the capital city’s inner ring road.4 The event was meant …
Quinn Berkowitz and Tarek Mansour’s families have been in business together for years: Quinn’s parents are wedding planners, and Tarek’s own a catering company. At the end of last summer, Quinn confessed her crush on him in the form of a rambling email—and then he left for college without a response. Quinn has been dreading seeing him again almost as much as she dreads another summer…
"Reach into this trickbox of memory and rummage around: you may find a tiny spaceship, or perhaps a signpost, a parade, a raised fist, an entire museum. The essays in Trickbox of Memory: Essays on Power and Disorderly Pasts draw on literary criticism, post-qualitative inquiry, new materialism, and political activism to dismember and reanimate the field of memory studies. In the trickbox, concep…
In recent international literature addressing the history of twentieth-century archi-tectural theory, the year 1968 is often seen as a decisive moment, giving rise to a “new” architectural theory. From that moment onwards, less emphasis was placed on the aesthetics of architecture, and more on its critical potential. Increasingly, and also from that moment onwards, architectural theory beca…
Insects and closely related arthropods are the dominant and most diverse forms of terrestrial and aquatic (non-marine) animal life on the planet. Other than marine systems, insects occupy every conceivable environment and habitat on the Earth. Crustaceans and Annelids (worms) are the dominant and most diverse groups of animals in marine systems. T…