The fourth volume in the Approaches to Culture Theory series is a contemporary Estonian anthology in culture theory. Most of the authors are members of the research groups of the Centre of Excellence in Cultural Theory: archaeology, cultural communication studies, contemporary cultural studies, ethnology, folkloristics, religious studies, landscape studies, and semiotics. These scholars have re…
Taking a strikingly interdisciplinary and global approach, Postcolonialism Cross-Examined reflects on the current status of postcolonial studies and attempts to break through traditional boundaries, creating a truly comparative and genuinely global phenomenon. Drawing together the field of mainstream postcolonial studies with post-Soviet postcolonial studies and studies of the late Ottoman Empi…
The beginning of the 20th century saw literary scholars from Russia positing a new definition for the nature of literature. Within the framework of Russian Formalism, the term ‘literariness’ was coined. The driving force behind this theoretical inquiry was the desire to identify literature—and art in general—as a way of revitalizing human perception, which had been numbed by the automat…
The Middle Included is a systematic exploration of the meanings of logos throughout Aristotle’s work. It claims that the basic meaning is “gathering,â€? a relation that holds its terms together without isolating them or collapsing one to the other. This meaning also applies to logos in the sense of human language. Aristotle describes how some animals are capable of understanding…
Who speaks when you speak? Who writes when you write? Is it “you”—is it the “I” that you think you are? Or are we the chance inheritors of an invasive, exterior parasite—a parasite that calls itself “Being” or “Language?” If our sense of self is best defined on the basis of an exterior, parasitical force that enters us from the outside, then the “self” is no longer a cen…
This volume addresses a crucial, yet largely unaddressed dimension of minority language standardization, namely how social actors engage with, support, negotiate, resist and even reject such processes. The focus is on social actors rather than language as a means for analysing the complexity and tensions inherent in contemporary standardization processes. By considering the perspectives and act…
"Learning by Design and Second Language Teaching establishes theoretical, research, and practice connections between the multiliteracies framework Learning by Design and L2 teaching and learning. A comprehensive introductory chapter presents the theoretical tenets of the approach and is followed by four chapters devoted to the establishment of connections between the framework and L2 instructio…
The Echo of Die Blechtrommel in Europe presents an overview of the critical reception of Günter Grass’s classic novel throughout Europe since its publication in 1959. Readership: The book aims at a relatively broad readership with interest in contemporary European literature and international cultural relations, as well as more specialised readers from (comparative) literary studies interest…
A novel cognitive theory of semantics that proposes that the meanings of words can be described in terms of geometric structures. In The Geometry of Meaning, Peter Gärdenfors proposes a theory of semantics that bridges cognitive science and linguistics and shows how theories of cognitive processes, in particular concept formation, can be exploited in a general semantic model. He argues that…
This volume offers an exhaustive look at the latest research on metacognition in language learning and teaching. While other works have explored certain notions of metacognition in language learning and teaching, this book, divided into theoretical and empirical chapters, looks at metacognition from a variety of perspectives, including metalinguistic and multilingual awareness, and language lea…