"We live in a museum age," writes Steven Conn in Do Museums Still Need Objects? And indeed, at the turn of the twenty-first century, more people are... visiting museums than ever before. There are now over 17,500 accredited museums in the United States, averaging approximately 865 million visits a year, more than two million visits a day. New museums have proliferated across the cultural landscape even as older ones have undergone transformational additions: from the Museum of Modern Art and the Morgan in New York to the High in Atlanta and the Getty in Los Angeles. If the golden age of museum-building came a century ago, when the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Field Museum of Natural History, and others were created, then it is fair to say that in the last generation we have witnessed a second golden age.By closely observing the cultural, intellectual, and political roles that museums play in contemporary society, while also delving deeply into their institutional histories, historian Steven Conn demonstrates that museums are no longer seen simply as houses for collections of objects. Conn ranges across a wide variety of museum types—from art and anthropology to science and commercial museums—asking questions about the relationship between museums and knowledge, about the connection between culture and politics, about the role of museums in representing non-Western societies, and about public institutions and the changing nature of their constituencies. Elegantly written and deeply researched, Do Museums Still Need Objects? is essential reading for historians, museum professionals, and those who love to visit museums.

Do My Story, Sing My Song tells the stories of children in residential treatment, diagnosed as severely emotionally disturbed, who took part in music... and drama therapy with the author. Engaging, informative, and moving, this book is for general readers, teachers, parents, artists, therapists, policy makers, and anyone interested in children and the arts within or beyond therapeutic contexts.

Collecting the most important of the great classics of world literature, this series spans a wide variety of genres, styles, and interests. Besides the... original texts, the collection includes a critical analysis of each book, a detailed look at each author, and the era in which it was written—giving a much more ample look at the history of literature. This series makes the study of these works easier and more accessible for both literature buffs and students, supplying additional information that allows for a deeper understanding of each topic while putting each work in its proper historical context. Recogiendo los textos íntegros de las grandes obras clásicas de la literatura universal, esta serie recorre diversos géneros, estilos y corrientes. Además de los textos originales, la colección incluye un análisis crítico sobre cada obra, un estudio profundo de los autores, su obra y la época en la que vivieron, reflejando una visión mucho más amplia sobre la historia de la literatura. Esta colección favorece y ayuda al estudio de las obras, tanto a los aficionados de la literatura como a los estudiantes de la materia, contribuyendo a adquirir nuevos elementos que completen su formación, permitiendo una mayor comprensión sobre el tema y enmarcando cada obra dentro de su propio contexto histórico.

Rómulo Gallegos is best known for being Venezuela’s first democratically elected president. But in his native land he is equally famous as a writer... responsible for one of Venezuela’s literary treasures, the novel Doña Barbara. Published in 1929 and all but forgotten by Anglophone readers, Doña Barbara is one of the first examples of magical realism, laying the groundwork for later authors such as Gabriel García Márquez and Mario Vargas Llosa.Following the epic struggle between two cousins for an estate in Venezuela, Doña Barbara is an examination of the conflict between town and country, violence and intellect, male and female. Doña Barbara is a beautiful and mysterious woman—rumored to be a witch—with a ferocious power over men. When her cousin Santos Luzardo returns to the plains in order to reclaim his land and cattle, he reluctantly faces off against Doña Barbara, and their battle becomes simultaneously one of violence and seduction. All of the action is set against the stunning backdrop of the Venezuelan prairie, described in loving detail. Gallegos’s plains are filled with dangerous ranchers, intrepid cowboys, and damsels in distress, all broadly and vividly drawn. A masterful novel with an important role in the inception of magical realism, Doña Barbara is a suspenseful tale that blends fantasy, adventure, and romance.Hailed as “the Bovary of the llano” by Larry McMurtry in his new foreword to this book, Doña Barbarais a magnetic and memorable heroine, who has inspired numerous adaptations on the big and small screens, including a recent television show that aired on Telemundo.

Deeply involved with the social issues of his times Romulo Gallegos crafted his representation of the stratified society around him by building upon... firmly grounded and widespread images. These images highlight the underlying cultural and metaphysical beliefs (basis for a legitimized social order) from which the fictional world is finally drawn. But while doing so Romulo Gallegos offered new alternatives to those visions as he established and widened gaps in those socially accepted perceptions and values. The essential aspects of the social imaginaries and the characterization of the central feminine character are present in La Coronela, the first text that evolved into Doña Bárbara. This edition, carefully annotated by prof Flor Maria Rodriguez-Arenas, also includes entire sections of that previous text, as it shows the intrinsic aspects of "the terrible stalwart woman". Also present are the structuring, discursive and functional elements as the character develops to become "the devourer of men" as portrayed in the final version of Doña Bárbara. These aspects of the social imaginary allow readers from different eras, almost a century after its publication, to understand the novel and continue to generate interpretations that will certainly enrich its reception.

Publicada por primera vez en 1929, este clásico de la literatura venezolana y latinoamericana narra el apasionado triángulo amoroso entre Santos... Luzardo, doña Bárbara y su hija, Marisela. Cuando el abogado Santos Luzardo vuelve a Los Llanos de Apure para reclamar las tierras de su familia, descubre que éstas están en mano de su déspota prima doña Bárbara, que las dirige con mano de hierro y malas artes. La decisión de Santos de luchar por lo que es suyo y la aparición de la hija de doña Bárbara abrirán antiguas heridas y revelarán el trágico pasado de doña Bárbara. El conflicto que se producirá desestabilizará la hacienda y cambiará todo para siempre. Más allá de su ardiente historia, Doña Bárbara simboliza la lucha entre dos fuerzas, el bien y el mal; la civilización y la barbarie; el mundo de ayer y el de mañana. Una historia universal de amor, seducción y violentas pasiones.

It surprises no one that the charming but wayward Vadinho dos Guimaraes–a gambler notorious for never winning—dies during Carnival. His long... suffering widow Dona Flor devotes herself to her cooking school and her friends, who urge her to remarry. She is soon drawn to a kind pharmacist who is everything Vadinho was not, and is altogether happy to marry him. But after her wedding she finds herself dreaming about her first husband’s amorous attentions; and one evening Vadinho himself appears by her bed, as lusty as ever, to claim his marital rights.

Doña Flor is a giant lady who lives in a tiny village in the American Southwest. Popular with her neighbors, she lets the... children use her flowers as trumpets and her leftover tortillas as rafts. Flor loves to read, too, and she can often be found reading aloud to the children. One day, all the villagers hear a terrifying noise: it sounds like a huge animal bellowing just outside their village. Everyone is afraid, but not Flor. She wants to protect her beloved neighbors, so with the help of her animal friends, she sets off for the highest mesa to find the creature. Soon enough, though, the joke is on Flor and her friends, who come to rescue her, as she discovers the small secret behind that great big noise. The creators of TOMÁS AND THE LIBRARY LADY, Pat Mora and Raul Colón, have once again joined together. This time they present a heartwarming and humorous original tall tale-peppered with Spanish words and phrases about a giant lady with a great big heart.

Here is the story of Dona Gracia, one of the most remarkable women in Jewish history. The pride of sixteenth century Jewry, she is acknowledged today... for her courageous defense of her people and the promotion of their culture. This JPS classic presents the first full-length biography of Dona Gracia in English. It is an epic drama featuring extraordinary characters who risked their lives for freedom of conscience, playing for high stakes among the palaces and political courts of Renaissance Europe.

On the eve of the Chinese New Year in San Francisco's Chinatown, twelve-year-old Donald Duk attempts to deal with his comical name and his feelings for... his cultural heritage.

En la larga trayectoria vital de angel de Saavedra y Ramirez de Baquedano, mas conocido en la historia de la literatura por su apelativo nobiliario,... aparecen nitidamente reflejados los avatares politicos e ideologicos por los que paso la sociedad espanola durante uno de los periodos mas conflictivos de su devenir historico, asi como los cambios literarios que, en gran medida, fueron consecuencia de tales avatares al tiempo que trataban de ejercer sobre ellos su propia influencia.(...) La autentica y mas valiosa identidad romantica de la obra de Rivas procede de la conciencia creadora con que este supo supeditarse a los principios teoricos de la nueva orientacion dramatica.

El estreno en 1835 de Don Alvaro o la fuerza del sino supuso, en medio de disputas y polemicas, el afianzamiento del drama romantico en Espana, que se... prolongara hasta 1844, ano del Don Juan Tenorio de Zorrilla. Apoyandose en leyendas andaluzas, el Duque de Rivas define con maestria el que sera el prototipo de heroe romantico: gallardo, valiente, apasionado, entregado a un ideal amoroso, victima de la intransigencia, los prejuicios sociales y el viejo concepto del honor, y perseguido por un destino aciago, a quien unicamente el suicidio permite reafirmar su libertad individual y exteriorizar su rebeldia y nihilismo. Ningun otro escritor consigue fundir tan genialmente estilo culto y llano, verso y prosa, en una accion de desbordada y enloquecida originalidad. La edicion de Rafael Balbin facilita los datos necesarios para que el lector pueda comprender la obra en su propio contexto.

En el teatro romantico, la inverosimilitud no siempre debe ser juzgada como el resultado de un error o como una imperfeccion. Muchas veces, y... concretamente en el caso de Don alvaro, es la necesaria consecuencia de una concepcion literaria rigurosamente meditada. En la base de esa concepcion esta la interpretacion romantica y pesimista de la vida, en la que la fuerza del sino y los infortunios que persiguen a Don alvaro simbolizan la orfandad espiritual del hombre. (...) La vision del mundo de muchos escritores romanticos reconoce el fracaso de los valores absolutos aceptados previamente y de las lineas de pensamiento tradicionales. En Don alvaro Rivas expreso memorablementeesa vision. Si bien evoluciono luego hacia el romanticismo historico, su fama queda vinculada esencialmente a esta obra innovadora e inconformista.(De la introduccion de Donald L. Shaw)