CMU LIBRARY COLLECTIONS - 2002
Information
about new and important diversity-related resources available at the
CMU Libraries.
December, 2002
My Beautiful Laundrette.
[Books: PR6061.U68 L6 1992]
Published as part of London Kills Me: Three Screenplays and Four
Essays, Hanif Kureishi's My Beautiful Laundrette is a screenplay
(and a film) that portrays diversity in a variety of ways. Set in polycultural
south London of the Thatcherian days, this screenplay mainly tells a
story of two Pakistani immigrant brothers - Papa and Nasser, their families,
and friends. This family world is racially, ethnically, and culturally
diverse. Papa's deceased white wife, their son Omar, Nasser's white
mistress Rachel, and Omar's white friend Johnny are all outsiders both
in white and Asian London. Raised in Britain, Papa and Nasser's children
have mixed (and somewhat confused) ethnic and cultural inheritance.
Additionally, the characters belong to various socio-economic classes:
a frustrated socialist, Papa is a middle class intellectual; his snobbish
brother Nasser is a wealthy businessman; and Johnny, a one-time fascist,
is a street punk. Finally, the gay couple, Omar and Johnny, makes the
world of My Beautiful Laundrette sexually diverse as well. It
is interesting to see that in spite of their interactions, constant
tensions and struggles, these varied groups create a blended society.
In this screenplay, Kureishi not only brilliantly comments on class
structures, politics, socialism, fascism, changing value-systems, racism,
colonialism, neocolonialism, and also reverse colonialism; but also
provides insights into contemporary multiethnic societies. Perceptive
and highly entertaining both as a play and as a film, audiences might
find My Beautiful Laundrette quite interesting. For more information,
ask at the Reference Desk on the second floor of the Park Library building,
or call 989-774-3470.
(Review by Aparna Zambare)
November, 2002
Encyclopedia Of Lesbian And Gay Histories And Cultures V 1
[Books: HQ 75.5 .L4395 2000]
AND
Encyclopedia Of Lesbian And Gay Histories And Cultures V 2
[Books: HQ 75.13 .G37 2000]
The Encyclopedia of Lesbian and Gay Histories and Cultures (two
volumes) is a recent resource that attempts to unfold the "complex
history and wide cultural diversity of lesbian and gay life" (p.
IX). Trying to avoid the stigma conventionally attached to the entire
subject of "homosexuality," the encyclopedia focuses on "same-sex
desire" in different cultures and different times, and strives
to reclaim a rightful place that has so far been denied to lesbians
and gays in histories and cultures. The first volume concentrates on
lesbian concerns and the second, on gay questions. The editors state
that their reason for separating lesbian and gay issues is that historically
lesbianism has been more hidden and silenced. By devoting an entire
volume to lesbian histories and cultures the editors are thus seeking
to address lesbianism equally within gay studies. Individual entries
are written in user-friendly language, and with scholarly objectivity
and close attention to race, class, and ethnicity. Divided into various
topics such as anthropology, art, dance, economics, education, film,
geography, history, law, literature, music, philosophy, politics, popular
culture, pornography, psychology, religion, science, sexology, sports,
theory, and so on, these articles include bibliographies. Students and
scholars interested in the state of lesbian and gay research will find
the encyclopedia quite useful. For more information, ask at the Reference
Desk on the second floor of the Park Library building, or call 989-774-3470.
(Review by Aparna Zambare)
October, 2002
Aesthetics in a Multicultural Age.
[Books: BH221.U53.A33 2002]
The essays in this volume aim at undermining a major assumption in
aesthetics: the assumption that there are universal standards of beauty.
This postulation has been challenged most frequently in poststructuralist
thought. The new aesthetics of diversity has a two-fold agenda: a) to
identify the prejudices of nationalism, racism, sexism, and classism
embedded in universalistic aesthetics; and b) to recognize, respect,
and activate human differences and the forms of creative expression.
As Emory Elliot, Louis Freitas Caton, and Jeffrey Rhyne - the editors
- highlight, the purpose of this volume is "to explore some of
the ways in which recent global migration and the expanding ethnic diversity
in the United States are affecting cultural productions and necessitating
a reassessment of the nature and the role of aesthetics in our contemporary
society" (p. 3). Published by the Oxford University Press, this
volume is divided into three major sections: the first sections outlines
the challenges, the second attempts to redefine the categories of value
and difference, while the third sets out to establish the aesthetics
of pluralism. This book would be valuable to scholars and researchers
in the field. For more information, ask at the Reference Desk on the
second floor of the Park Library building, or call
989-774-3470.
(Review by Aparna Zambare)
September, 2002
Hindi Films: Millennium: the Finest Collection, Vols. 1-8
[sound recordings].
[Music Resource Center: 1828-1835]
Just about all films produced in India are musicals, and that is no
small number, as India is by far the world's largest producer of motion
pictures. The unseen "playback singers" are huge stars in
their own right, and singers such as Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Mohd.
Rafi, and Kishore Kumar, are household names in India and the Indian
diaspora. This collection of eight CD's contains over nine hours of
music from the aforementioned artists and others, from 1936 to 1999.
In December 2000 we reviewed here the Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema;
this collection is essentially the soundtrack to that work. For more
information, ask at the Reference Desk on the second floor of the Park
Library building, or call 989-774-3470.
(Review by David Ginsburg)
August, 2002
En-Gendering India
[Books: HQ 1742.R298 2000]
In Sangeeta Ray's study of nine British and Indian novels, the Indian
woman serves as the focal point of emergent Indian cultural nationalism
in the imperial, national, and post-colonial periods of Indian history.
For example, Bankimchandra Chatterjee, Meadows Taylor, and Anita Desai
address the development of Indian nationalism in parallel to the progress
toward sexual and political freedom of the Hindu woman. Thus Ray seeks
a revision of accepted historiography through the examination of several
fictional women and how their power is celebrated or thwarted in the
respective representations of the Hindu past. Further she strives for
a theory of feminist literary expression beyond the traditional distinctions
of First and Third World Literature. For more information, ask at the
Reference Desk on the second floor of the Park Library building, or
call 989-774-3470.
(Review by John Riddick)
July, 2002
Remaking Respectability : African American Women in Interwar
Detroit
[F574.D49 N488 2001]
AND
Dudley Randall, Broadside Press, and the Black Arts Movement
in Detroit, 1960-1995
[PS3568.A49 Z85 1999]
These two recent books focus on specific aspects of the African American
Community in Detroit during the twentieth century. Remaking Respectability
provides an overview of the experiences of African American Women in
Detroit during the period of the Great Migration. Particular emphasis
is placed on middle class women and their changing social and political
roles. Founded in 1965, the Broadside Press is a Detroit company devoted
to publishing the works of African American poets and writers. Dudley
Randall presents a history of the Broadside Press and its founder Dudley
Randall along with an overview of African American cultural life in
Detroit during the later half of the twentieth century. Much material
published by and about the Broadside Press is housed in the Clarke Historical
Library. An online bibliography of the Clarke's Broadside holdings is
available at http://clarke.cmich.edu/Dudley/dudley.htm.
For more information, ask at the Reference Desk on the second floor
of the Park Library building, or call 989-774-3470.
(Review by Sandy Folsom)
June, 2002
Danielson, Virginia. The Voice of Egypt: Umm Kulthum, Arabic
Song, and Egyptian Society in the Twentieth Century.
[Books: ML 420 .U46D36 1997]
Umm Kulthum: A Voice Like Egypt. [Videorecording]
[Media Services: V 5471]
Umm Kulthum (her name may alternatively be transliterated as Om Kalsoum
or variations thereof), although essentially unknown in the west, is
regarded in the east not only as "the voice of Egypt" but
also as "the empress of Arabic tunes." And she certainly is
the empress of her realm. Her music has been revered in the Arabic world
since the beginning of her career in the 1920's to the present. Upon
her death in 1975, four million mourners lined the streets of Cairo
to pay their respects. Her fans still number in the millions, a quarter
of a century since her death. One would have to combine the careers
of Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, and the Beatles, to match
the lasting longevity of her career. The book by Virginia Danielson,
head of the Edna Kuhn Loeb Music Library at Harvard University, is the
first English language biography of Umm Kulthum. It thoroughly covers
her life and career, and the socio-cultural background. The video, based
on the book, includes lengthy vintage film clips of Umm Kulthum in performance.
For more information, ask at the Reference Desk on the second floor
of the Park Library building, or call 989-774-3470.
(Review by David Ginsburg)
May, 2002
Encyclopedia of World Literature in the 20th Century.
[REF PN771.E5 1999]
The twentieth century has been a period of unprecedented social, political,
and cultural turmoil and of unparalleled proliferation and heterogeneity
of literary production resulting out of that upheaval. The Encyclopedia
of World Literature in the 20th Century provides a comprehensive survey
of this abundant and wide-ranging literary activity and fulfills to
a greater extent the need for a good reference work in this area. Designed
mainly for scholarly and general readers, the encyclopedia presents
information on major authors and literary movements of this century.
More than 2300 articles included here cover a wide range of authors
and nationalities such as British, American, Algerian, Ghanaian, Italian,
Polish, Czech, Caribbean, Chinese, Indian (Bengali, Sindhi....), Croatian,
Finnish, Iranian, Iraqi, Palestinian, Slovak, and so on - writing both
in English and in many other languages. Individual author entries include
information on the author's nationality, genre, biographical information,
a critical assessment of his/her work, and a select bibliography. For
more information, ask at the Reference Desk on the second floor of the
Park Library building, or call 989-774-3470.
(Review by Aparna Zambare)
April, 2002
American Women in Technology: An Encyclopedia.
[REF T 36 .Z54 2000]
This resource seeks to provide a record of the significant contributions
of American women within the male dominated field of technology. The
encyclopedia includes entries for female technologists of the nineteenth
and twentieth centuries. Entries for individual women include a brief
biographical background sketch and outlines of their specific contributions
to the field. In addition to entries for individual technologists, the
encyclopedia also provides overviews of particular fields outlining
the significant role played by women within those areas. For more information,
ask at the Reference Desk on the second floor of the Park Library building,
or call 989-774-3470.
(Review by Krista Graham)
March, 2002
A Woman's Gaze : Latin American Women Artists.
[Books NX 501.5 .W66 1998]
With the exception of Frida Kahlo, little has been written about Latin
American women artists. The purpose of this book is to shed some light
on this overlooked group of artists. It is an anthology of essays about
fourteen 20th-century women artists, including Kahlo, from throughout
Latin America. Most are visual artists although two are dancers and
one is a musician. The essays are written by art critics and include
both biographical and critical elements. One area of emphasis is these
women's efforts to find a place in the predominantly male arts establishment
while maintaining their own unique feminine sensibility. For more information,
ask at the Reference Desk on the second floor of the Park Library building,
or call 989-774-3470.
(Review by Sandy Folsom)
February, 2002
Identities and Issues in Literature.
[REF PS153 .M56 I34 1997]
A three volume set documenting the 20th century people and issues that
have changed the American identity as reflected in literature. Authors,
topics and literary pieces of particular note are combined in a single
alphabetical listing. Authors are identified by place of birth, principal
works, identities and significant achievements. Topics are defined and
set in a historical context by a listing of milestones and/or related
writings. Major works are identified by author, date work was first
published and a synopsis of the content. A list of suggested readings
is provided after each article. For more information, ask at the Reference
Desk on the second floor of the Park Library building, or call 989-774-3470.
(Review by Judy O'Dell)
January, 2002
Diversity and Detective Fiction.
[Books PS374.D4 D58 1999]
AND
Multicultural Detective Fiction: Murder from the "Other" Side.
[Books PS374.D4 M85 1999]
These two very interesting books offer quite a different perspective
on the genre of detective fiction. The essays in both these books aim
at providing a critical examination of this popular genre. Their intended
audience seems to be the scholar rather than the general reader. The
first book - Diversity and Detective Fiction - considers the ways in
which race, gender, and ethnicity are constructed in the American crime
novel and explores the methods of teaching various aspects of diversity
through detective fiction. Similarly, the second book - Multicultural
Detective Fiction: Murder from the "Other" Side - interrogates the image
of the Euro-American male hero commonly found in the traditional detective
novel and focuses on the hero's cultural "other" including the woman.
Diversity has a pedagogical slant, while Multicultural, critical theoretical.
Both the books include bibliographic references and serve as a valuable
source of critical framework for the serious researcher of detective
fiction. For more information, ask at the Reference Desk on the second
floor of the Park Library building, or call 989-774-3470.
(Review by Aparna Zambare)
