This chapter unveils the utopian elements in Jean Genet's post-1968 revolutionary thought, and shows how they were anticipated by the themes and practices of his late theatre. Genet's renunciation of theatre and subsequent commitment to revolutionary politics allowed him to continue his aesthetic project by other means. In an ironic twist that would have surprised Jean-Paul Sartre, Genet was, from 1968 until his death in 1986, the consummate political activist. The two movements that exerted the greatest influence on Genet in the 1970s and 1980s were the Black Panther Party and the Palestinians. Supporting oppressed peoples in the USA and Middle East, Genet was also committed to the plight of immigrant workers in France. Genet's rejection of the imperialist tendencies of the nation-State elucidates the politics of his late theatre. Against imperialism's abstract and incarcerating production of space, Genet posits the transgressive force of the Spieltrieb.

This chapter explores representations of Jewish wartime persecution and extermination in novels by Léo Malet and Hubert Monteilhet from the late 1950s and early 1960s. It locates such fiction as produced during years when Jewish wartime experiences were largely unrecognised in France. However, it argues that the revelation of crimes against the Jewish community in these novels activates complex processes of disclosure and disavowal of French anti-Semitic persecution. The chapter contends that such popular crime fiction can be read as part of an emerging reflection on French wartime guilt and complicity at a time of apparent forgetting.

This chapter examines the visual narratives through which China’s ‘China Dream’ of global rise idealises a particular type of international marriage: a union between a Chinese man and a white woman who is transformed into an obedient daughter-in-law absorbed into Chinese patriarchal structures. Analysing three Chinese TV dramas and a fiction film that highlight pivotal moments in Chinese–Russian relations across three decades of reform (1990–2010s), the chapter explores how these cultural products construct a consistent portrayal of the white woman – strong, intelligent, beautiful and independent – who ultimately submits to Confucian patriarchal values under the guidance of a Chinese man. By connecting televised portrayals of Chinese–Russian romance with broader political and public discourses on China’s foreign relations, this chapter uncovers the role of cinematic geopolitics in creating a hyperreality that bridges fantasy and the everyday.

The chapter takes issue with a tendency for polar juxtapositions in the industrial relations literature on how internationalization affects domestic trade union practices. Instead of drawing a dichotomy between ‘convergence’ and ‘path dependence’, the chapter highlights that internationalization made these practices more similar in some respects, while it simultaneously contributed to the re-creation (rather than the mere reproduction) of diversity between and within the two countries.

This chapter analyses the unusual writers' training workshop, the Centro Onelio Jorge Cardoso, seen here as a ‘case’ because it arose from the characteristic talleres literarios of the 1970s and 1980s, and also because its development reflected the post-1991 emphasis on the infrastructure and opportunities for ‘professional’ writers. It discusses the Centro's evolution and role in contemporary literary culture and places it in the context of the talleres movement as a whole. Of the many writers becoming established in Cuba over this period, the vast majority spent some time participating in the movement.

The Introduction first provides an overview of concubinage in Chinese history. It then traces the rise of modern social women in Republican China, a significant historical development that contributed to shaping the stories told in this book. Next, it focuses on the institution of concubinage in Republican China, analyzing three broad and intertwined developments that serve as the larger context for the case studies in this book: (1) The increasing social stigmatization of the concubine and the rise of her domestic status; (2) the emergence of modern-educated concubines and their active but controversial public presence; and (3) the democratization of concubinage and the emergence of the Anti-Concubinage Movement. Although some scholars have noted these changes, none have connected these issues and given them concentrated treatment, investigating the broader impact of concubines’ public presence on the society, culture, and gender politics of Republican China. This book weaves these trends together to present a new picture of an important phenomenon and its implications for modern Chinese history. Finally, it introduces the sources, methodology, and structure of the book.

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book emphasises different thematic concerns and approaches to the idea of cinematic countrysides. It explores the idea of the nationhood and how cinematic countrysides frame the occupancy and experience of border zones: those rural environments that bring the relationship between state, subject and cultural identity into sharp relief. The book also explores a largely uncharted tradition of national cinema of North Korean film. It represents an important intervention into debates about the internationalisation of economic activities and the real and imagined effects that come from attracting mobile investment into rural locales. The book examines the wider processes of production/consumption that surround the representation of countrysides in film. It addresses alternative ways of interpreting and practising cinematic countrysides.

Chapter 2 examines the history and development of regional broadcasting in the United Kingdom, from the beginnings of the BBC in the 1920s to the arrival of Channel Four in 1982, paying particular attention to the regional organisation of the ITV network and the development of regional broadcasting at the BBC. This chapter concludes with a case study of one aspect of regional broadcasting in the 1960s-70s: the structure and organisation of regional television in the Midlands, explored through the example of the Victoria Theatre Company in Stoke-on-Trent which produced TV dramas for four different Midlands TV companies from 1965-74.

This chapter suggests that the first impressions remained vivid in a migrant's mind, as they can be classified as ongoing events, in which a migrant was continually confronted with repeat experiences. It argues that by comparing the new land with the old, and gradually accepting the benefits offered by the New World, migrants overcame an initial sense of dislocation and, occasionally, disappointment. The chapter begins by charting that initial experience, following the migrant from ship to the processing station and the world that they encountered there, and considers the contrasts they discerned between life at home and abroad. A common element for Irish and Scottish migrants arriving in the United States through New York was their recollection of the Ellis Island experience. The contrasts identified by Irish and Scottish migrants show that a wider range of factors such as climate and daily essentials like food were important in their mindset.

In this chapter, attention is turned to how the boundaries of ‘old age’ are delineated by older people intra-generationally amongst peers. Chapter Four brings into focus a cultural account of the boundaries surrounding older age as both a social category and as a lived experience. It argues that ‘old age’ is not a frontier whose edges, once breached, are irreversible. Instead, using detailed and rich descriptions from the ethnographic data, it shows the subtle pressures older people in this community put on themselves and on each other whilst they discriminate between ‘normal’ and ‘real’ old age. Of particular consideration are ideals of personal comportment, body talk and interpersonal monitoring for signs of ‘real’ old age. This material permits a closer consideration of the gap between pragmatics and epistemology in the way old age is conceptualised and experienced by older people.

Specialist' patrol duties formed a central feature of the work of the Metropolitan Women Police from their origins in 1919 until integration, and the extensive records that they left enable comparisons across time. This chapter considers women's personal testimony, memoirs and oral history interviews, to explore their involvement in uniform beat patrol. Academic study has tended to rely on two frameworks, Foucauldian and feminist, to consider the 'gaze' (the relationship between the spectator and the spectacle). Although the significance of the First World War in transforming gender attitudes has been debated, the high visibility of women in uniform undoubtedly challenged previous assumptions about gender, authority and city space. If policewomen experienced greater 'freedom' in their patrol work than policemen, this did not necessarily signify a lack of discipline. Discretion and charisma continued to operate as central components of uniform foot patrol, resisting the pull of modernisation arguments.

The Georgian period is ideal for studying sibling relationships. For social scientists, like historians, the importance of siblings has paled in comparison with the impact of marriage and parenting, but unlike historians, social scientists have paid consistent attention to sibling relations. Leonore Davidoff recognized the importance of siblings over the life course. She noted their connections to the development of the self, to ideas of social and political fictive siblings; and to the tension between love and conflict, and between equality and hierarchy. The parish registers demonstrate both smooth-running sibling relations and siblings collapsing under resentment, anger, and disappointment. The American and French Revolutions and their explicit use of sibling language influenced how sibling relations were perceived in England. The nascent sibling literature has recognized the material and social connections of siblinghood and siblings' influence on gender relations. Finally, the chapter also presents an outline of this book.