The narrative re-tellings of the life, reign, and death of the English King Edward II (reigned 1307–1327) present a unique opportunity for scholars of sexuality in the early modern era. This is because the works of authors like Christopher Marlowe, Michael Drayton, Sir Francis Hubert, Elizabeth Cary, and Richard Niccols were all inspired by the public, cultural memory fashioned from Edward’s same-sex love affair with Piers Gaveston. As such, each of them presents a particular representatio...

Cornelius Michael Buckley, S.J. delves into Stephen Larigaudelle Dubuisson’s life, using him as the point of departure to describe the tensions among Jesuits in Maryland after the restoration of the order in 1814. A refugee of the violent slave rebellions in Haiti, where he was born, and the Terror in France, Dubuisson became a clerk in Napoleon’s personal treasury and a resident in the Tuileries. He was a member of Marie Louise’s flight in 1814 and later differed with Napoleon’s account o...

Spartacus, the Thracian gladiator turned rebel leader, endures as a near-mythic hero who fought for the oppressed against a Roman oligarchy built on the backs of slave labor. The image of Spartacus as a noble if doomed avenger is familiar and his story has been retold through history as a cautionary tale about social injustice.The television series Spartacus takes a different view, with a violent depiction of the man and his times and a focus on the archetype of the gladia...

Despite the fact that Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ended over twenty-five years ago, there has yet to be a stand-alone assessment of the series. This collection corrects that omission, examining what made Deep Space Nine so unique within the Star Trek universe, and how that uniqueness paved the way for an altogether new, entirely different vision for Star Trek. If the Star Trek slogan has always been "to boldly go where no one has gone before," then Deep Space Nine...

The end of the world may be upon us, but it certainly is taking its sweet time playing out. The walkers on The Walking Dead have been "walking" for nearly a decade. There are now dozens of apocalyptic television shows and we use the "end times" to describe everything from domestic politics and international conflict, to the weather and our views of the future.This collection of new essays asks what it means to live in a world inundated with representations of the apocalyps...

This in-depth, page-turning biography of Father Joseph Fessio, S.J., founder of Ignatius Press and the University of San Francisco's Saint Ignatius Institute, is written by one of Fessio's earliest Jesuit mentors, historian Father Cornelius Buckley, S.J.Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area during the golden age after World War II, the bold, often reckless Joe Fessio would suddenly enter the Society of Jesus at age twenty and, by divine providence, find himself studying und...

Many of us grew up exploring fascinating worlds--in books, films, and, most importantly, our imaginations--places filled with mythological characters and magical landscapes where we had stunning experiences punctuated by the harmless pleasures that any child's mind can conjure. These worlds sometimes end up in our childhood fictions, which have in turn shaped countless imaginations and childhood adventures. The essays in this book attempt to comprehend the worlds of children's progressive ...

This book examines the narratives of series heroines that preceded and followed Nancy Drew, each in relation to their social, historical, and economic environments. Covering heroines including Miss Pickerell, Madge Sterling, and Polly the Powers Model, among others, this book illustrates that the recovery of stolen inheritances during the Great Depression serves different social ends than, for example, fighting Germans on an international stage. This book expands scholarship that tends to ...

New Directions in Childhood Studies: Innocence, Trauma, and Agency in the Twenty-first Century acknowledges that the conceptual frameworks for understanding the experience of childhood in the twentieth century are no longer adequate and offers important updates to the construct of American childhood. The chapters in this collection examine contemporary children’s literature, film, and video games to explore the ways in which everyday realities like trauma, disaster, and death impa...

Girls' Series Fiction and American Popular Culture examines the ways in which young female heroines in American series fiction have undergone dramatic changes in the past 150 years, changes which have both reflected and modeled standards of behavior for America’s tweens and teen girls. Though series books are often derided for lacking in imagination and literary potency, that the majority of American girls have been exposed to girls’ series in some form, whether through books, television, ...

Representing Agency in Popular Culture: Children and Youth on Page, Screen and In-Between addresses the intersection of children’s and youth’s agency and popular culture. As scholars in childhood studies and beyond seek to expand understandings of agency, power, and voice in children’s lives, this book places popular culture and representation as central to this endeavor. Core themes of family, gender, temporality, politics, education, technology, disability, conflict, identity, ethnicity,...

An unauthorized look behind one of the greatest video game franchises of all time, Final FantasyThe Final Fantasy universe is packed with compelling characters and incredible storylines. In this book, you'll take a fascinating look at the deeper issues that Final Fantasy forces players to think about while trying to battle their way to the next level, such as: Does Cloud really exist (or should we really care)? Is Kefka really insane? Are Moogles part of ...