Developments in garden art cannot be isolated from the social changes upon which they either depend or have some bearing. Bourgeois and Aristocratic Cultural Encounters in Garden Art, 1550 – 1850 offers an unparalleled opportunity to discover how complex relationships between bourgeois and aristocrats have led to developments in garden art from the Renaissance into the Industrial Revolution, irrespective of stylistic differences. These essays show how garden creation has contributed to the blurring of social boundaries and to the ongoing redefinition of the bourgeoisie and the aristocracy. Also illustrated is the aggressive use of gardens by bourgeois in more-or-less successful attempts at subverting existing social hierarchies in renaissance Genoa and eighteenth-century Bristol, England; as well as the opposite, as demonstrated by the king of France, Louis XIV, who claimed to rule the arts, but imitated the curieux fleuristes, a group of amateurs from diverse strata of French society. Essays in this volume explore this complex framework of relationships in diverse settings in Britain, France, Biedermeier Vienna, and renaissance Genoa. The volume confirms that gardens were objects of conspicuous consumption, but also challenges the theories of consumption set forth by Thorstein Veblen and Pierre Bourdieu, and explores the contributions of gardens to major cultural changes like the rise of public opinion, gender and family relationships, and capitalism. Garden history, then, informs many of the debates of contemporary cultural history, ranging from rural management practices in early seventeenth-century France to the development of a sense of British pride at the expansive Vauxhall Gardens favored equally by the legendary Frederick, Prince of Wales, and by the teeming London masses. This volume amply demonstrates the varied and extensive contributions of garden creation to cultural exchange between 1550 and 1850. — Publisher’s description.
Handbook of Early Childhood Literacy
“This volume examines early literacy research on a global scale and puts social, cultural, and historical analyses in the front seat–without losing sight of individual and family-level matters in the process. It is comprehensive, ground-breaking, and provocative, and should help literacy researchers to think differently about the field.”
–Marjorie Faulstich Orellana, School of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University
“No other publication that I am aware of brings together views from such diverse disciplines, contributing to a comprehensive statement about early childhood literacy. The Handbook not only reviews the current field of situated literacy but presents some important and exciting new research. It is a significant resource that promises to become a landmark text.”
–Eve Bearne, University of Cambridge, Faculty of Education, U.K.
“This handbook brings together an astonishing array of writers who explore contemporary political, cultural, and cognitive understandings of early childhood literacy. Literacy and literacy acquisition are broadly defined here to encompass not just traditional notions of reading and writing, but multimodalities, multiliteracies, and critical literacies. . . It is rich and comprehensive, an invaluable resource for scholars, educators, and students of early childhood literacy.”
–Elsa Auerbach, Professor of English, University of Massachusetts, Boston
“This book is unique in its broad consideration of topics and its global focus . . . I particularly appreciate how the editors have situated current research in an historical context. They have also included development issues, pedagogy, research, and the newest areas of interest–critical literacy and popular culture.”
–Diane Barone, University of Nevada, Reno
In recent years there has been a virtual revolution in early childhood studies, with a mass of books and papers seeking to re-examine and reposition childhood. At the same time an equally significant area has developed within literacy studies, reflecting a growing interest in the nature of literacy as a socially situated phenomenon. There is increased interest in literacy as a multimodal concept in which symbolic meaning is a central concept, rather than more conventional and narrower notions of literacy. The Handbook of Early Childhood Literacy is central in providing access to all these different perspectives.
The Handbook offers a way through the vast diversity of publications on early childhood literacy by providing comprehensive and up-to-date reviews of research and thinking in early childhood literacy.
The arrangement of chapters reflects a contemporary perspective on research into early childhood literacy. Major sections include: the global world of early childhood literacy; childhood literacy and family, community and culture; the development of literacy in early childhood; pedagogy and early childhood literacy and researching early childhood literacy.
Contributions by leading authorities focus on literacy as a socially situated and global experience, one that is evolving in relation to changes in contemporary culture and technological innovation.
Wingwomen review – French Netflix crime comedy has a cop-out ending
T here are almost enough moments of low-level fun to be had in Wingwomen, Mélanie Laurent’s easy, breezy attempt to make a French action comedy polished enough to compete with Hollywood counterparts. The sub-genre has become exhausting of late, the sight of a couple quipping while involved in a pop-soundtracked action setpiece starting to border on parody, especially in this year’s atrocious Chris Evans-Ana de Armas disaster Ghosted. But Laurent, to her credit as director, is less interested in how a shootout can work as an aphrodisiac, and more invested in how it would affect a female friendship.
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And so the first time we see her and BFF, played by Adèle Exarchopoulos, fresh from Passages, they’re bantering about the latter’s lacklustre love life while trying to avoid getting shot at by some fighter drones. It’s certainly more novel than we’re used to, but only superficially, and with some messy editing and perfunctory quips, it’s an opener resting solely on the shoulders of its two leads. The same can be said for most of the film, Laurent and Exarchopoulos doing some strenuous grunt work to make Wingwomen feel as light-footed as it does. They play ride-or-dies who work together for the Godmother (a vampy, underused Isabelle Adjani), who gives them high-risk missions around Europe. But when Carole (Laurent) wants a new life, they find that, surprise of surprises, getting out is a lot harder than getting in.
We’re in very, very familiar territory here, but Laurent and her writers, using the graphic novel The Grand Odalisque as inspiration, hope that by framing the central female friendship as a romance, they might make Wingwomen feel like something new. It works in parts because the intensity of their friendship is something we don’t often see on screen from women going into their 30s and beyond (it’s what made 2019’s unfairly overlooked Animals feel so fresh) and the film is most effective when it’s just the two of them hanging out, planning what to cook for dinner and spitballing about what kind of restaurant they would open once they have retired from crime. These moments are charming more because of the two women rather than the dialogue itself, which often lacks enough specificity and wit to really sing. It feels like this is the story Laurent is more interested in telling – a talky hangout comedy – with the crime plot feeling a quarter-baked at best and action sequences struggling to lure us to even the middle of our seats.
Exarchopoulos does make a convincing case for more action movie work, though, a believable marksman and accomplished fighter who gets one standout fight scene when a threesome goes awry. The pair are also joined by Manon Bresch’s spunky driver, who adds a new, if under-explored, dimension to their friendship. But the charming trio only take Wingwomen so far, and as their plan unfolds, it’s hard to really keep up with the awkward tonal shifts, as shootouts crash into meet-cutes into monologues about grief into motorbike chases, the kind of sleek entertainment that should feel a whole lot sleeker, as we travel from one glossy location to the next. When the film lurches into grand, hanky-grabbing emotion in the finale, it feels bizarre and unearned, and is met by a cop-out last scene that’s maddeningly unexplained, the sort of lazy coda that demands us not to be too curious about important details. It’s a crime.
- Wingwomen is now available on Netflix
