The following is a list of books recently or soon-to-be published by members of the Yale community. Descriptions
are based on material provided by the publishers.
To submit information about books for this column, send e-mail to opa@yale.edu.
This book gives an insight into panegyrics (madih), a genre central to understanding medieval Near Eastern society. Poets in this multi-ethnic society would address the majority of their verse to rulers, generals, officials and the urban upper classes. Its tone ranged from celebration to reprimand and even to threat. Gruendler discusses this panegyric genre as represented by Ibn al-Rumi, who dedicated many of his poems to the last Tahirid governor of Baghdad. Ibn al-Rumi's work addresses the issue of literary patronage and provides a self-portrait of the artist and his social position.
The lives of four sisters -- born to an artistocratic family in Hofei, China, between 1908 and 1924 --are chronicled in historian Annping Chin's new book. Growing up during a period of dramatic social, cultural and political change in China, the Changs offer recollections of the changes and upheavals they lived through. Chin's account is based on actual interviews with the sisters -- all of whom were in their 80s or 90s at the time the book was written -- as well as on diaries and letters. A critic for The New York Times Book Review recently wrote, "Chin is to be commended ... for painstakingly recreating a world that would otherwise have been lost to us."
In "The Holocaust of Texts," Amy Hungerford argues that the habit of treating books as people, or personifying texts, is rampant in post-war American culture and that this personification has become pivotal to an understanding of both literature and genocide. Personified texts, she contends, appear frequently in works where the systematic destruction of ethnic groups is at issue. She examines the implications of this trend in a range of texts, including Art Spiegelman's "Maus," Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451," the poetry of Sylvia Plath, the fiction of Saul Bellow, Philip Roth and Don DeLillo, and the fake Holocaust memoir "Fragments" by Binjamin Wilkomirski, among others. Ultimately, Hungerford argues, the personification of texts in these works is ethically corrosive, as memory becomes more esteemed than learning and debates about cultural extinction are short-circuited.
Linda Mason is the co-founder of Bright Horizons Family Solutions, a public company that provides more than 50,000 working mothers with child care. Also the mother of three, Mason draws on her personal experience and her background in employer-based work-site childcare to outline in this book steps working mothers can take to make their lives easier. Based on real-life examples drawn from interviews with mothers who have achieved a successful balance of a career and children, the book also pinpoints three "pillars of support" for working mothers: having a partner in parenting (not necessarily a husband), a supportive employer and excellent childcare.
In "Nobody's Perfect," Annabel Patterson provides a new account of liberal thought from its roots in 17th-century English thinking to the end of the 18th-century. She tackles such questions as: Is history driven more by principle or interest? Are ideas of historical progress obsolete? Is it unforgiveable to change one's mind or political allegiance? Patterson argues that while Whigs may have strayed from liberal principles on occasion, many of those attached to this political group were true progressives. In a series of case studies, she re-examines the careers of such individuals as John Almon, Edmund Burke, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Erskine and William Wordsworth, giving new insights into the careers of those who called themselves Whigs and their place in British political thought.
T H I S
Medieval Arabic Praise Poetry:
Ibn al-Rumi and The Patron's
Redemption
Beatrice Gruendler, professor of Arabic
language and literature
(Routledge, London)
Four Sisters of Hofei: A History
Annping Chin, lecturer in history
(Scribner)
The Holocaust of Texts: Genocide,
Literature, and Personification
Amy Hungerford, assistant professor
of English
(University of Chicago Press)
The Working Mother's Guide to Life: Strategies, Secrets and Solutions
Linda Mason, Yale University trustee
(Three Rivers Press)
Nobody's Perfect: A New Whig
Interpretation of History
Annabel Patterson, Sterling Professor
of English
(Warner Books)
W E E K ' SS T O R I E S
Yale's partnership with city showcased at colloquium
Graduate School increases stipends
Actress Meryl Streep discusses her role as proponent of organically grown food
Faculty grants support collaborations in cutting-edge research
Student's CD benefits Alzheimer's program
ENDOWED PROFESSORSHIPSBiologist wins award for plant research
Journalist describes forces fueling 'wheel of bin Ladenism'
Flip side of creative genius explored in Yale Rep's next play
Love and lust compete in opera production of Mozart classic
Globalization changing nature of citizenship, says scholar
MEDICAL SCHOOL NEWSResearch underscores magnetic waves' power . . .
Study: Financial ties influence research outcomes
Senior hospital managers are 'unappreciated element' . . .
New index more accurately gauges elderly patients' morality risk
Alumnus Garcia joins staff of Emerging Infections Program
Memorial service for Kyle Burnat
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Yale Books in Brief
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