In such classic works as The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion, J. R. R. Tolkien depicts a vast, complex world-system. Tolkien's Middle-earth comes to life with intensely detailed historical, geographical, and multicultural content, which is presented through different poetic forms that combine elements of epic, romance, myth, history, and the modern novel. This book analyzes Tolkien's project, paying attention to narrative form and its relation to socia...

Is the world a place? As its inhabitants, we belong to the world, with its increasingly interconnected systems and cultures, but the cosmopolitanism of our daily lives is often hidden from view. In this innovative study, Robert T. Tally Jr. challenges our fundamental understanding of what constitutes the “world” in an age of shifting spatial boundaries.The conception of the “world” profoundly influences the ways we imagine space and place, and the negotiation of worldly spaces pres...

This book takes the artistic approach of assemblage and collage, and combines it with the long-loved tradition of making doll houses--but these doll houses are anything but traditional! Begun as an artistic challenge between a group of talented friends, these mixed-media doll houses include beautiful castles, undersea fantasy-lands, gothic attics, inspiring tree houses and much more. Authors Tally Oliveau and Julie Molina share a host of interesting alteration techniques while showing read...

Spatiality has risen to become a key concept in literary and cultural studies, with critical focus on the ‘spatial turn’ presenting a new approach to the traditional literary analyses of time and history.Robert T. Tally Jr. explores differing aspects of the spatial in literary studies today, providing:An overview of the spatial turn across literary theory, from historicism and postmodernism to postcolonialism and globalizationIntroductions to the major theor...

In their variety, the memoir, poetry, and fiction included in this exciting new anthology show the transitory nature of the literature of southern women who lived through a violent and defining crossroads in their lives. In rare and rediscovered excerpts and verses these women writers evidence the early hopes of a cause destined to be lost, the propagandic rhetoric which accompanied it, and the destruction ultimately visited upon them, their homes, and their families. Paradoxically, even a...

This work expands the scope of Morrison’s project to examine the ways and means of memory in the preservation of belief systems passed down from the earliest civilizations (both the Classical Greek and the Ancient Egyptian) as a challenge to the sterility of modernity. Moreover, this research explores the author’s specific use of Foucauldian theory as a vehicle for her narrative, which reclaims the very origins of civilization’s primal concerns with life, procreation and regeneration, spri...

Divorce is not the biggest threat to marriage. Discouragement is.You’ve probably heard the grim facts: Half of all marriages end in divorce. The divorce rate inside the church is the same as outside. Most marriages are just holding on. But what if these “facts” are actually myths?In The Good News About Marriage, best-selling author Shaunti Feldhahn presents groundbreaking research that reveals the shocking, incredibly ins...

The popular fascination with dragons and dragon slayers is manifest in the endlessly repeated plots of sword-and-sorcery romances and in the mass-produced artwork that illustrates their fantastical characters and themes. Yet the image of a knight in shining armour who fights a solitary battle against a winged, fire-breathing dragon in order to win the hand of a fair maiden is more common in modern popular culture than in medieval literary fiction. Applying modern theoretical literary persp...

Kendall Freed has spent most of her life trying to stay invisible. After losing her father and growing up in a home filled with pressure and expectations, all she ever wanted was a simple, steady life where she could choose her own path. But that hope disappears overnight when she is suddenly taken by Carter Sanz, a man whose name alone is enough to make people go silent.Carter is powerful, feared, and used to absolute control. Kendall is everything he never expected to cross his w...

If Tears Could Speak is a memoir of love, loss, and the long walk through grief. When Tally R. Reynolds' husband, Jack, died after years of battling melanoma, she was left to navigate a life she never imagined living alone. In raw, unflinching chapters, she shares the moments that defined their final years together, the practical and emotional chaos of "The Afterwards," and the unexpected strength found in the quietest hours.This is not a manual on how to grieve, but an honest acco...

Strange People, Scary People, is a collection of fourteen tales of terror and horror: the two aspects for which strange and scary people are famous. In its bowels, you will read of a strange, witch-like woman who likes to relate strange tales to young children--and who grinds her teeth together as she tells the story. Then there's Eddie, a weird guy who has big problems around pregnant women. You will be introduced to a couple of undertakers--two rogues, really--who teach a town f...

Fact or fiction?The decision is now in your hands.This collection of ghost stories brings all the fears and frights of sitting around a campfire telling stories to life. These supernatural stories blend history, folklore, and the paranormal in an unparalleled way. Centered mostly around North and South Carolina, these ominous stories explore the hair-raising, spine-tingling, spooky tales through firsthand experiences. Spine-chilling stories that can be read during the day b...