This special edition of the journal Central European History was edited by Dr. Rüdiger Graf and Dr. Heidi Tworek and published by Cambridge University Press on April 8, 2022. Read Volume 55 – Special Issue 1 “Sovereignty in German History”.
Sovereignty in German History ed. by Dr. Rüdiger Graf and Dr. Heidi Tworek
Writing Fear: Russian Realism and the Gothic by Dr. Katherine Bowers
Dr. Katherine Bowers‘ first monograph, Writing Fear: Russian Realism and the Gothic was published in 2022 by the University of Toronto Press.
About the book
In Russia, gothic fiction is often seen as an aside – a literary curiosity that experienced a brief heyday and then disappeared. In fact, its legacy is much more enduring, persisting within later Russian literary movements. Writing Fear explores Russian literature’s engagement with the gothic by analysing the practices of borrowing and adaptation. Katherine Bowers shows how these practices shaped literary realism from its romantic beginnings through the big novels of the 1860s and 1870s to its transformation during the modernist period.
Bowers traces the development of gothic realism with an emphasis on the affective power of fear. She then investigates the hybrid genre’s function in a series of case studies focused on literary texts that address social and political issues such as urban life, the woman question, revolutionary terrorism, and the decline of the family. By mapping the myriad ways political and cultural anxiety take shape via the gothic mode in the age of realism, Writing Fear challenges the conventional literary history of nineteenth-century Russia.
Praise
“Writing Fear is a rich and innovative study that reinterprets the Russian realist tradition by tracing the pervasive presence of gothic thematics and aesthetics throughout the period that we usually perceive as more ‘modern’ and socially focused and thus unconcerned with the fantastic, gothic, or sublime. This is a major contribution to Russian literary studies, as well as studies of realism and the gothic more generally.” — Valeria Sobol, Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
“The scholarship presented here is excellent. Writing Fear demonstrates a striking depth and breadth of reading not only of secondary literature but also of the various primary texts it discusses. Katherine Bowers impressively brings together works from the Russian, British, and other European traditions to offer comparative readings of the exploitation of gothic imagery, preoccupations, and plots in order to throw new light on the interpretation of these works. This text will become essential reading for courses on Russian literature and the gothic, and is just as valuable in terms of its studies of individual authors and works.” — Claire Whitehead, Reader in Russian, University of St Andrews
Preparing Teachers to Work with Multilingual Learners by Meike Wernicke et al.
Preparing Teachers to Work with Multilingual Learners by Meike Wernicke, Svenja Hammer, Antje Hansen, Tobias Schroedler was published by Multilingual Matters on April 15, 2021.
This collection examines a diverse range of approaches to multilingualism in teacher education programmes across Europe and North America. The authors investigate how pre-service teachers are being prepared to work in multilingual contexts and discuss the key features of current pre-service teacher education initiatives that address the increasing linguistic and cultural diversity evident in classrooms in their respective countries. The focus is not only on migrant-background learners but includes students from Indigenous, autochthonous and heritage language backgrounds, and speakers of minoritised regional varieties. The chapters contextualise, both historically and ideologically, the specific initiatives and measures taken in the participating countries. They also reveal the complexity of each educational context and the role that history, language policies and institutional and programmatic priorities play in the development and implementation of a multilingual focus in teacher education. In exploring how pre-service teachers are being prepared to work in multilingual contexts, the authors take a critical view of how multilingualism itself is conceptualised within and across contexts. The book highlights the valuable impact that explicit instruction on theories of multilingualism, pedagogies in multilingual classrooms and lived realities of multilingual children can have on the beliefs and practices of pre-service teachers.
Reviews
“This collection makes a useful contribution to the growing research base on teacher education for multilingual learners in linguistically diverse contexts. The international scope of the volume allows for richer – and more historically informed – definitions of multilingualism, and provides insightful comparative analysis of how teacher-education policies and curricula interact in shaping the preparation of future teachers to support multilingual learners.” — Jeff Bale, University of Toronto, Canada
“This book is a long awaited deeper look into the ways teacher education responds to the multilingual reality of today’s classrooms. The selection of countries elucidates the vital importance of understanding multilingualism in the context of each country’s institutional structures and sociopolitical processes. It will help to push forward the agenda in many other countries’ teacher education as well!” — Barbara Herzog-Punzenberger, University of Innsbruck, Austria
“This much-needed volume deepens our understanding of the commonalities and complexities of preparing teachers to address linguistic and cultural diversity. The authors from nine countries have forged an international alliance that accounts for the unique historical context of each setting. This important work sets the stage for future research on the equitable education of multilingual learners across their nations and around the world.” — Nancy L. Commins, University of Colorado Denver, USA
“The studies [in this book] uncover that more effort is needed to develop knowledge, skills, experiences, and awareness in the teacher candidates to teach CLD students. One of the contributions of this volume for those who are interested in multilingual education is that it reports how pre-service teachers are prepared in Europe and North America to teach multilingual learners. The chapters also unveil that the education policies and practices are informed by monolingual ideology and focus on developing literacy skills and content knowledge in the official and/or English language.” — Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 2022
“This volume is an important contribution to the research on multilingualism and teacher education [It] is essential reading for students of applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, sociology, psychology, language acquisition and education, researchers, practitioners, teachers, educators, and members of the general public who would like to know more about the recent developments in the areas of multilingualism and teacher education.” — LINGUIST List 32.2737