The Unveiling of Humor Within Kafka's Tragic Mask: The Comic Trial of Joseph K.: Text and Context by Héctor Ortega and Edited by Manuel Flores (SDSU Press)

Picture this: a script, a series of analyses, a photographic and stylistic smorgasbord of theatrical visions, a graphic and illuminating glimpse into the tortured, jester-like mind of one of the greatest writers of our time: Franz Kafka. This is exactly what one should expect to find within Héctor Ortega's The Comic Trial of Joseph K.: Text and Context, which soars through literary circles as a triumph of adaptation and critical reflection combined in one text. Readers are, at first, presented with   Héctor Ortega's  "mexicanidad" vision of The Trial, which finds its roots in the humanity and soft-spoken comedy of its tragic characters as they transcend the pages of the beloved author's work. Then, following the play's original script, one is treated to several in-depth analyses of the (often neglected) comic visions within Kafka's works by such esteemed artists and critics as Héctor Ortega, Augusto Monterroso, Hugo Hiriart, Manuel Flores, and D. Emily Hicks. And, to top it all off, throughout the text are smatterings of original artwork by José Luis Cuevas as well as photographs of  Héctor Ortega's original stage production. Edited by Manuel Flores, The Comic Trial of Joseph K.: Text and Context is available now through SDSU Press!

Iterative Discourse is the Key to a Great Narrative: Danièle Chatelain's Perceiving and Telling: A Study of Iterative Discourse (SDSU Press)

ver wonder what the trick is to writing a captivating narrative? The answer is repetition. Well actually, the answer is a bit more interesting than that. Danièle Chatelain's book, Perceiving and Telling: A Study of Iterative Discourse explores the dynamic of space and time within the art of iterative discourse. Chatelain develops the concept of repetition helping it grow from a boring and flat concept to one that houses the fluidity of perception. Chatelain says, "Perceiving, therefore, should be considered as a central element in the functioning of any narrative" (94). The tricky concepts that go into an excellent narrative are thoroughly dissected as she also studies the division between heterodiegetic and homodiegetic narratives. Writing a narrative can sometimes feel like an overwhelming task, but with Chatelain's insight on the matter (and of course with her glossary on hand) the job will be less daunting and instead become an exciting challenge.

Perceiving and Telling: A Study of Iterative Discourse is on sale via the SDSU Press.

SDSU Press Knows Darwin: Check out our new critical anthology edited by Mark Wheeler...

click the image for the link...

New 2012 pacificREVIEW Shackled Issue is at the Printer! Order it here soon!

more info soon:

http://pacrev.blogspot.com
http://pacficreview.sdsu.edu
http://www.facebook.com/pages/PacificReview/172345312860673

A Selection of Pages, Plates and Poetry, from Amy Sara Carroll's SECESSION

Here are some sample pages from Amy Sara Carroll's remarkable Secession volume with Hyperbole Books, an imprint of San Diego State University Press.

AMY SARA CARROLL's Unique Ménage à Trois of Poetry, Art, and Critical Theory, SECESSION, Now Available from Hyperbole Books, an Imprint of San Diego State University Press

Hyperbole Books, an eclectic imprint of San Diego State University Press, is proud to announce the publication of Secession by Amy Sara Carroll.


Here a sampling of our promotional material surrounding this unique publication along with advance word regarding Carroll's unique achievement.  High resolution facsimiles of the book appear above and below--click the images to enlarge. Buy the book now by hitting the amazon link above.

The first volume in Hyperbole Books’s Bi Sheng/Juan Pablos Digitovisuo Artifacts Series—a line of art/literature/critical theory books blurring semantic/semiotic hierarchies—Amy Sara Carroll’s Secession blasts onto the scene with a empowering, vibrant urgency. In its pages, lyric words and cleverly forged images conspire to tell a story of “secession,” a unique textual performance whose enigmatic and engaging revelations are literary, artistic, and personal.

Advance reviews... 

Amy Sara Carroll writes like an acrobat, with tongue-twisting, out of breath lines, that always land on their feet. Secession challenges us in the best ways possible to rethink sexuality, borders, colonization, femininity, and poetry itself. 

Angie Cruz | Assistant Professor of English, Texas A & M, College Station, & author of Soledad and Let It Rain Coffee

 Secession is “Something rogue. Something else you have to figure in before you can figure it out. Solo en sueños, en la poesía, en el juego…” These borrowed lines, from the opening page of Carroll’s brilliant book, frame a photograph of a framed graphic poem-print covered in part by the plastic wand of a pregnancy stick. These images are not juxtaposed, but rather pose questions of art and politics, the intimate and the expansive. The textured layers of Carroll’s composed words and pictures are pregnant with meaning. They beckon us to engage them in all their performative experimentation. This is a book of haptic allusion, illuminations, and
she-er wonder. Enjoy! 

Jennifer DeVere Brody | Professor of Drama and Performance Studies, Stanford University, & author of Punctuation: Art, Politics, and Play 

In the spirit of other queer artists who have had to invent hybrid forms such as graphic narrative and solo performance to say what hasn’t been said, Amy Sara Carroll renews poetry’s tradition of radical practice. Reminding us that poetry is a form of craft, she cuts into a linoleum block to make poems that you can literally see. As the words pile up against one another in both her poem prints and her blocks of lines on the page, she also makes poetry that you can feel. Carroll shows us that secession splits open not just countries but hearts; but, in her new world of the poem as image, unlikely combinations of words and phrases suggest new forms of affiliation. The interviews and critical essays included in this volume extend the conversation begun in the poems, further contributing to Secession’s vision of poetry as public practice. 

Ann Cvetkovich | Garwood Centennial Professor of English and Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies, University of Texas, Austin, & author of An Archive of Feelings: Trauma, Sexuality, and Lesbian Public Cultures

I want to say Secession is Blakean in that printmaking-meets-poetry sort of way. And then I want to say it is feminist in that “¡viva la vulva!” way. And then I want to say it is a contact zone in that Guamán Poma sort of way. Few books manage to bring together so much, to think with so many differences. So what I really mean is that Secession is an unusual and lovely book, one that is resonant and yet also singular, smart, and sexy.
 
Juliana Spahr | Associate Professor of English, Mills College, & author of This Connection of Everything with Lungs and Everybody’s Autonomy: Connective Reading and Collective Identity

Amy Sara Carroll is Assistant Professor of American Culture, Latina/o Studies, and English at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She received a Ph.D. in Literature from Duke University (2004), and an MFA in Creative Writing (Poetry) from Cornell University (1995).

logistic/pricing:

$49.95 USA | $640 MEX | €38 EURO      ISBN 1879691965 

Bi Sheng/Juan Pablos Digitovisuo Artifacts Series, Volume I

HYPERBOLE BOOKS, AN IMPRINT OF SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS

For readers who dig any or all of the following:
·       poetry
·       art
·       cultural studies
·       art history
·       critical theory
·       gender studies
·       border literature

Permanent Work by Gabriel Trujillo Munoz

Permanent Work: Poems 1981-1992 by Gabriel Trujillo Munoz covers a variety of poetic genres with visual images that will illuminate and intrigue the mind.  Humberto Felix Berumen claims that Munoz writes with "measured tone of analytical reflection and the sobriety of a language whose fundamental intent is to seek answers to the questions that he puts forth."  Dare to immerse yourself into the poetry and questions of life a death posed by Munoz?  Grab a copy of Permanent Work at SDSU Press.

"in this corner..."

Ever enjoy a little bickering, bantering or even boxing with and a loved one? "In this corner...," a selection of short plays, humorously portrays the vexing side of romance as fights in a boxing ring.  Within each play, written by Rosina Conde, Ignacio Flores de la Lama, Juan Carlos Rea, and Hugo Salcedo, readers and audiences watch the drama of everyday marital life unfold in the middle of a boxing ring. The literary twists of each play reveal different insights about relationships of love and war.  Whether you are married, or have been once upon a time, or have just entered the ring of love, these plays will entertain you with a bit of dread and lots of laughter.

Take a hit from "in this corner..." available only at SDSU Press's Amazon store.

Men Underground: History of Coal Miners, Worker's Rights by an Admirable former SDSU Professor!

Clinton E. Jencks. It feels good to know his name for several reasons. The first being his book, Men Underground in which he compiled his research chronicling the development of the rights of miners and the history behind their setbacks and achievements. Jencks details how a change in social status, working conditions, and the evolution of a protective union were brought about by the miners' struggle for respect and dignity.

Jencks is fascinating simply because he stood up for what he believed in during a time in American history when it could have cost him his life or freedom. The film Salt of the Earth was inspired by many of his experiences and research into the lives of miners and his personal contentions with the US government. Jencks was also a former SDSU professor.

Get Men Underground by Clinton E. Jencks from SDSU Press to learn about the kind of work miners do and gain a more profound respect for them and the protection of their rights, as well as the rights of all working people.

Click here to read about Clinton Jencks.



Enjoy watching part one of Salt of the Earth, the only blacklisted American film:

Brazilian Graphic Genius! Part of What SDSU Press Studies! Latin American Cultural Studies

A new film ponders human greed and the environment--from Brazil!


Escalade from Birdo Studio on Vimeo.
Production: Birdo | Direction: Luciana Eguti e Paulo Muppet


Check out SDSU Press titles on Brazilian cultural studies here, here, here, and here.

The Tyranny of Data: The Ethics of Tech!

In this era of technology, which provides us with instant access to information on our laptops, televisions, and smart phones, when do we stop to question: where and how did these tech-gadgets get all of this information? And how does all of this instant info about the weather, statistics, and geographical maps streaming at high speed through our technology to us, affect our society?

The Tyranny of Data, by Arthur Getis, explores the ethical issues of institutional, scholarly, and social focus and reliance on technologically obtained data.  The book reproduces his prophetic lecture, given by Getis at San Diego State University in 1995, that outlines the problems of relying on data.  He states that, "Questionable research leads to faulty policy, which in turn, can lead to societal disasters."  Although his book relates these issues to the field of contemporary geography, the concepts and concerns expressed in his lecture should be considered by everyone who relies on their computers, smart phones, iPads, and the world wide web for information, in this age of data and technology.
Get this great read from SDSU Press today!

aVANT-pOP: Weakening the Ideologies that Keep the People Calm.

 "The emerging wave of Avant-Pop artists now arriving on the scene find themselves caught in this struggle to rapidly transform our sick, commodity-infested workaday culture into a more sensual, trippy, exotic and networked experience."

-Mark Amerika & Lance Olsen

In Memoriam to Postmodernism: Essays on the Avant-Pop is a collection of works by some of the main proponents of the Avant-Pop literary art movement. If you need another reason to fuel your passion for the protection and freedom of the internet, this collection will give you a real good one.




Avant-Pop recognizes the popular media for what it is: a vile monster of distracting misinformation and zombifying"entertainment" that holds a tenacious grip on the minds of a majority of people, insidiously defining them from without and diverting their attention from more important things like the revocation of their rights and freedoms. The Avant-Pop artist believes it's too late to fight against it, so he or she gears up for a journey into the heart of the beast in an attempt to change it from within.

Ron Sukenick writes it best in his essay aVANT-pOP, sUR-fICTION, hYPER-fICTION:

"...actually what we have here is a reversal of the old consumerist tactic of 'co-optation' -i.e., if some rebel-rousing movement comes along, defang it, package it and sell it, absorb it into the mass market, render it harmless -Avant-Pop, on the other hand, co-opts mass-market schlock, twists it and tortures it till it becomes dangerous and injects it back into the market as a virus that destroys its host from within...where monolithic mass market was, many mini-markets there shall be, making clear the difference between consumerism's 'free market,' and a democratic market which offers the consumer a wide spectrum of choice." 

That "spectrum of choice" may become much more difficult or impossible to offer if Congress passes SOPA. It would limit the people's choices even further, decreasing their amplitude of vision and insight by serving up only the few narrow options provided by popular media.

Avant-Pop wants to widen and enrich our options, encourage individuality, and support the sharing of our ideas and art.

To learn more about Avant-Pop and get inspired to create art that keeps communication open purchase a copy of In Memoriam to Postmodernism: Essays on the Avant-Pop from SDSU Press.

Also, check out the editors Mark Amerika and Lance Olsen.
And to learn more about the Stop Online Piracy Act click here. 

Coming Soon From SDSU PRESS: A Re-issue of our Popular BORDER LIVES volume! | Featuring a New IZEL VARGAS-laced COVER!

The Rise of Californian Literature: Get what you need from SDSU Press!

Sometimes we forget how cool it is to be from California, a place that so many people around the world have formed ideas and wild dreams about from movies, books, music...etc.
We're rich in a very unique kind of culture and the academic world has taken notice! More and more courses focused on literature distinctive to California are being offered in colleges and universities across the U.S. 
Hit the image on the right for an article on the rise of Californian literature.

AND...

Be on the forefront of this movement with the help of SDSU Press!

Check out our selection of Californian literature:

The exploration writings of missionary Juan Crespi:
A Description of Distant Roads: Original Journals of the First Expedition into California, 1769-1770

A collection of studies, art, and discussions on everything Steinbeck: 

Homer from Salinas: John Steinbeck's Enduring Voice for California

Plus, click here to browse through our U.S./Mexico Border literature.

Shackled: 2012 pacificREVIEW Call for Papers

SDSU Press is proud to have pacificREVIEW: a West Coast Arts Review in its stable of literary journals; edited by undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty in the Department of English and Comparative Literature for over 20 years, it continues to evolve in the able hands of its present editors Sofia Vidal, Paris Brown, and Andrea Durazo.

Here is their latest call for papers, now expired (though you might be able to twist their arm to accept a late appeal); the editorial email is: pacificreview_sdsu@yahoo.com

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

What images and feelings does the word shackled conjure for you? Do you fetishize it or dread it? Does it evoke a mad pastiche of visions as varied as S&M, prisons, Occupy protest arrests, captives of war, or the constraints of domination by the powerful and wealthy? Any kind of severe repression spawns countless detrimental conditions that affect all aspects of our lives. For many, shackles reify the torturous act of being confined, punished, manacled and oppressed; yet to others, they manifest a means of intensifying desire. In this provocative issue of pacificREVIEW, we want to know how these physical, spiritual, mental, sexual, political and social shackles bind you, and paradoxically, give you a purpose for creative liberation. PacificREVIEW wants your work inspired by the grinding efforts against the shackles of repression. Liberate your short stories, flash fiction, creative non-fiction, essays, poetry, graphic narrative, illustrative art, and photography!

A west coast arts review annual, Pacific REVIEW has published high-quality poetry, prose, and art since 1972. Past issues boast the notable talent of literati and guest contributors including Carolyn Forché, Claribel Alegria, Raymond Federman, Ernesto Cardenal, Robert Coover, Susan Daitch, Steve Kowit, Daniel Halpern, Jorge Luis Borges, Erin Pringle, Ai, Alurista, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Oliver Mayer, and William T. Vollmann.

Editorial queries to: pacificreview_sdsu@yahoo.com

Pacific Review "Shackled" from Burning Fields Productions on Vimeo.
Pacific Review's Internet Spot - Conceptualized, directed, produced and edited by Andrea Durazo. Executive Producer Sofia Vidal, Director of Photography Jessica Wimbley, Assistant Director Magdalena Ramirez, Camera Operator Nate Elegino, Production Designer Jenn Plonski, Director's Assistant Jasmine Hoshino.