We Can Only Say What a Basque Is Not

What does it mean to be Basque, and why has this question become more complicated in the twenty-first century? An examination of several artists and their work provide possible answers to this question. American avant-garde artist Man Ray produced an experimental silent film in 1926 entitled Emak Bakia. Why he used this Basque phrase—which roughly translates as “Leave me alone”— is a mystery that has never been solved. In 2012, Basque filmmaker Oskar Alegria decided to track down the source of Ray’s inspiration in his documentary, The Search for Emak Bakia, 2012. By a strange twist of circumstance, searching for Alegria’s film turns out to be as difficult as solving the mystery of Emak Bakia. The film has never been shown in the United States, though a private copy was made available to the author of this article with the director’s permission. A Maurice Ravel musical composition and Eduardo Chillida’s sculpture in the Basque Country also help to explore this question. Together, the nuances of these collective artistic endeavors and their focus on “what is not” can suggest an alternative way to think about “what is.

Review of \u3ci\u3eMasculine Style: The American West and Literary Modernism\u3c/i\u3e by Daniel Worden

Daniel Worden argues that masculinity isn\u27t a biological identity or a fixed construct, but a type of performance that allows for fluidity, enabling individuals the freedom to refashion the self and live as an equal among others. The men and women who assume such a style challenge a hierarchical system in which men are equated with power and dominance. They reveal a complex subjectivity, sometimes engaging in sentimental relationships and forming unorthodox friendships and unions-unlike the traditional cowboy, who is portrayed in literature as a rugged and isolate, though presumably heterosexual, male. Worden examines the subversion of stereotypical western masculinity in dime novels and formula westerns, tracing this mode of experimentation through the modernist period by analyzing works by Willa Cather, Ernest Hemingway, and John Steinbeck

Over the edge: remapping the American West

From the Gold Rush to rush hour, the history of the American West is fraught with diverse, subversive, and at times downright eccentric elements. This provocative volume challenges traditional readings of western history and literature, and redraws the boundaries of the American West with absorbing essays ranging widely on topics from tourism to immigration, from environmental battles to interethnic relations, and from law to film. Taken together, the essays reassess the contributions of a diverse and multicultural America to the West, as they link western issues to global frontiers.Featuring the latest work by some of the best new writers both inside and outside academia, the original essays in Over the Edge confront the traditional field of western American studies with a series of radical, speculative, and sometimes outrageous challenges. The collection reads the West through Ben-Hur and the films of Mae West; revises the western American literary canon to include the works of African American and Mexican American writers; examines the implications of miscegenation law and American Indian blood quantum requirements; and brings attention to the historical participation of Mexican and Japanese American women, Native American slaves, and Alaskan cannery workers in community life

From story to film: <i>Brokeback Mountain</i>’s “in-between” Spaces

An examination of the translation of 'Brokeback Mountain' from story to film

The 'filling in' of community-based planning in the devolved UK?

Political devolution in the UK has afforded opportunities for studying policy differences and similarities in relation to local‐level community‐based planning initiatives in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Organised around the concepts of ‘lesson‐drawing’ and the ‘filling in’ of local governance, this paper critically considers aspects of policy design and development associated with community‐based planning within and between the devolved UK polities. In practice, policy instruments vary with respect to their institutional, scalar and organisational rationalities. A policy mobility perspective may enable a relatively more critical understanding of how local governance arrangements are being externally and internally shaped in the respective devolved nation‐regions