The Inscription of Things

The Inscription of Things
Author: Thomas Kelly
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 382
Release: 2023-11-14
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0231558031

Why would an inkstone have a poem inscribed on it? Early modern Chinese writers did not limit themselves to working with brushes and ink, and their texts were not confined to woodblock-printed books or the boundaries of the paper page. Poets carved lines of verse onto cups, ladles, animal horns, seashells, walking sticks, boxes, fans, daggers, teapots, and musical instruments. Calligraphers left messages on the implements ordinarily used for writing on paper. These inscriptions—terse compositions in verse or epigrammatic prose—relate in complex ways to the objects on which they are written. Thomas Kelly develops a new account of the relationship between Chinese literature and material culture by examining inscribed objects from the late Ming and early to mid-Qing dynasties. He considers how the literary qualities of inscriptions interact with the visual and physical properties of the things that bear them. Kelly argues that inscribing an object became a means for authors to grapple with the materiality and technologies of writing. Facing profound social upheavals, from volatility in the marketplace to the violence of dynastic transition, writers turned to inscriptions to reflect on their investments in and dependence on the permanence of the written word. Shedding new light on cultures of writing in early modern China, The Inscription of Things broadens understandings of the links between the literary and the material.

Design by the Book

Design by the Book
Author: François Louis
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2017
Genre: Art, Asian
ISBN: 9781941792100

Today, China's classical antiquity is often studied through recovered artifacts, but before this practice became widespread, scholars instead reconstructed the distant past through classical texts and transmitted illustrations. Among the most important illustrated commentaries was the Sanli tu, or Illustrations to the Ritual Classics, whose origins are said to date back to the great commentator Zheng Xuan. Design by the Book, which accompanies an exhibition at Bard Graduate Center Gallery, discusses the history and cultural significance of the Sanli tu in medieval China. The Sanli tu survives in a version produced around 960 by Nie Chongyi, a professor at the court of the Later Zhou (951-960) and Northern Song (960-1127) dynasties. It is now mostly remembered--if at all--for its controversial entries and as a quaint predecessor of the more empirical antiquarian scholarship produced since the mid-eleventh century. But such criticism hides the fact that the book remained a standard resource for more than 150 years, playing a crucial role in the Song dynasty's perception of ancient ritual and construction of a Confucian state cult. Richly illustrated, Design by the Book brings renewed focus to one of China's most fascinating medieval works.

Clawed Skin: The Literary Inscription of Things in Sixteenth Century China

Clawed Skin: The Literary Inscription of Things in Sixteenth Century China
Author: Thomas Patrick Kelly
Publisher:
Total Pages: 370
Release: 2017
Genre:
ISBN: 9780355234732

Attending to a diverse set of material substrates -- from lacquered ink tablets to imported rhinoceros horns -- I move beyond the pages of the book to show how small and often trivial decorative objects participated in the making and remaking of literature. In examining the interplay between a poet's inscriptions and other sets of artisanal markings, I explore how physical practices of engraving objects redefined the parameters of the "literary" as a field of activity in late imperial China. Following the trajectories of marked artifacts as they usurp and artfully manipulate human personae, I read the inscription as a medium through which things gain a voice.

Chord Box

Chord Box
Author: Elizabeth Lindsey Rogers
Publisher: University of Arkansas Press
Total Pages: 109
Release: 2013-02-01
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 1557289980

Finalist: 2013 Miller Williams Poetry Prize

The Rise and Fall of Jesse James

The Rise and Fall of Jesse James
Author: Robertus Love
Publisher:
Total Pages: 520
Release: 1926
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

Reprint of a classic account by a newspaperman who knew Frank James, originally published in 1926 by G.P. Putnam. With a new introduction by Michael Fellman (history, Simon Fraser U.). Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

You are Not Dead

You are Not Dead
Author: Wendy Xu
Publisher: Ohio State University Press
Total Pages: 84
Release: 2013
Genre: Poetry
ISBN:

Poetry. Asian American Studies. "In YOU ARE NOT DEAD Wendy Xu breaks all the old rules that have never done us any favors anyway. She writes beautifully, noticing who we are, and letting us see ourselves with a little more humanity, a little more humor, a little more humility. I'm happy to have read this book." James Tate "There's a wild and wondrous poet plundering-through our lives, collecting the oddest and most significant things, turning our thoughts toward things we couldn't have known before she turned us toward them. YOU ARE NOT DEAD is precisely how this book can get you to feel and that is an almost otherworldly power. The poet who imagines and builds these poems is irresistible." Dara Wier "That fluctuating space between the temporary and the infinite is an erogenous zone made all the more enticing when articulated so eloquently. 'We have a lifespan and O how we live it out.' Wendy Xu's poems posit for us a future, a presence, a body resistant to the ravages of time. Mortality is a far planet. Here in Xu's work, we are passionately, and gratefully, alive." D. A. Powell"

The Things We Left Behind

The Things We Left Behind
Author: Debra Allen Alford
Publisher: WestBow Press
Total Pages: 117
Release: 2018-02-14
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1973616181

While this book is being published as fiction, the very essence of the story is a true one. The gentleman this book is actually about felt that his sins were far too horrible to be forgiven. While the names and certain events have been altered in order to avoid sharing any inaccurate information, therefore making it fiction, he did, in fact, grow up in a small rural community in the south. The innocence of that idyllic childhood was shattered due to the draft during the Vietnam War. Then he struggled to rebuild his life from that point forward. However, he found that there was no returning to the things he left behind. The innocence of youth was forever lost. While he survived physically, although narrowly, any semblance of normal life was gone. From that point forward, he dealt with overwhelming guilt. Guilt for going and leaving loved ones behind, some he would never see again. Guilt for coming home and leaving his men behind, many whom would never make it home. Guilt for things he had to do during the terror that was an integral part of war. He tried to seek relief by rebuilding and helping as much as he could. He was, however, overwhelmed with the fear that nothing would ever be good enough to bring about forgiveness for his seemingly unthinkable sins. Like many who have been through such traumas, he suffered silently, and this took its toll. He was fortunate enough to have had many caring people who tried to help through the years. In the end, he was blessed to finally find the answer through one seemingly simple question that allowed him to find the peace he so desperately sought. His dying wish was that his story might help others.

Dear Girl

Dear Girl
Author: Amy Krouse Rosenthal
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 44
Release: 2018-05-08
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0062881876

The #1 New York Times bestseller that Today show co-anchor Hoda Kotb calls “a beautiful, beautiful book.” The bestselling author of I Wish You More, Amy Krouse Rosenthal, and her daughter Paris Rosenthal collaborate to bring you the heartwarming and inspiring Dear Girl, Dear Girl, is a love letter written for the special girl in your life; a gentle reminder that she’s powerful, strong, and holds a valuable place in the world. Through Amy and Paris’s charming text and Holly Hatam’s stunning illustrations, any girl reading this book will feel that she's great just the way she is—whether she enjoys jumping in a muddy puddle, has a face full of freckles, or dances on table tops. Dear Girl, encourages girls to always be themselves and to love who they are—inside and out. Dear Girl, This book is for you. Wonderful, smart, beautiful you. If you ever need a reminder, just turn to any page in this book and know that you are special and you are loved. —Amy and Paris Celebrate graduations, birthdays, and other special moments with the dear girls in your life with the lasting gift of this remarkable book.

Things New and Strange

Things New and Strange
Author: G. Wayne Clough
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2019-05-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 0820355232

Things New and Strange chronicles a research quest undertaken by G. Wayne Clough, the first secretary of the Smithsonian Institution born in the South. Soon after retiring from the Smithsonian, Clough decided to see what the Smithsonian collections could tell him about South Georgia, where he had spent most of his childhood in the 1940s and 1950s. The investigations that followed, which began as something of a quixotic scavenger hunt, expanded as Clough discovered that the collections had many more objects and documents from South Georgia than he had imagined. These objects illustrate important aspects of southern culture and history and also inspire reflections about how South Georgia has changed over time. Clough’s discoveries—animal, plant, fossil, and rock specimens, along with cultural artifacts and works of art—not only serve as a springboard for reflections about the region and its history, they also bring Clough’s own memories of his boyhood in Douglas, Georgia, back to life. Clough interweaves memories of his own experiences, such as hair-raising escapes from poisonous snakes and selling boiled peanuts for a nickel a bag at the annual auction of the tobacco crop, with anecdotes from family lore, which launches an exploration of his forebears and their place in South Georgia history. In following his engaging and personal narrative, we learn how nonspecialists can use museum archives and how family, community, and natural history are intertwined.