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New translations from Alastair McEwenAlastair McEwen has nearly seventy book translations to his credit, and now he has exceeded himself with no less than three being published in the one year, as well as his translation of the libretto of Giulietta e Romeo, a popular opera by Italian singing star Riccardo Cocciante. Here are the books:
Umberto Eco’s On Ugliness,
an exploration of the monstrous and the repellant in visual culture
and the arts. What is the voyeuristic impulse behind our attraction
to the gruesome and the horrible? Where does the magnetic appeal of
the sordid and the scandalous come from? Is ugliness also in the eye
of the beholder? Eco’s encyclopedic knowledge and captivating
storytelling skills combine in this ingenious study of the Ugly, revealing
that what we often shield ourselves from and shun in everyday life
is what we’re most attracted to subliminally.
Also by Umberto Eco, Turning Back the
Clock, a provocative and enlightening collection of
essays first published in two leading Italian newspapers. Eco delves
deeply into such subjects as Mideastern and European politics, myth,
prejudice, globalization, The Da Vinci Code, magical thinking, rhetoric,
religion, intelligent design and Harry Potter. The resulting book
details fresh approaches to wrestling with some of the most complex
issues of our time.
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