Ronald F. Hock's special research interest is the Greek romances and Greek rhetoric as sources for the reconstruction of the social and intellectual worlds of the Greek East of the early Roman empires. The infancy gospels emerged from early Christian interest in how Jesus was born and raised; the Infancy Gospel of James (the story of Mary) and the Infancy Gospel of Thomas (stories of Jesus as a child prodigy) are two of the earliest examples of this genre. Hock, a professor of religion in the School of Religion, makes these texts readily available with the original Greek text presented on pages that face the scholar's version.

German-Speaking Artists in Hollywood: Emigration Between 1910 and 1945

by Cornelius

Schnauber

Inter Nationes, $7

This volume addresses the German-speaking artists who came to Hollywood between 1910, when it was incorporated into the city of Los Angeles, and 1945, the end of World War II. The latter date marks a time of fundamental change in the process of emigration. Before 1933, writes author Cornelius Schnauber, an associate professor of German and director of the Max Kade Institute for Austrian-German-Swiss Studies, "emigration was a decision for the long-term; between 1933 and 1945, it meant for most a political exile," a "one-way ticket to Hollywood" to escape from the Nazi dictatorship. Schnauber details the cultural/historical relationships, artistic developments, lifestyle differences and interactions between the German-speaking nations and the United States. He confines his selections to artists whose mother tongue was German or who began their stage and film careers in Germany; among them are Erich von Stroheim, Thomas Mann, Arnold Schoenberg, Bertolt Brecht and Otto Preminger. The book is available through the Max Kade Institute at 743-2707.

Tangled Memories: The Vietnam War, the AIDS Epidemic, and the Politics of Remembering

by Marita Sturken

University of California Press, $16.95

"Memory forms the fabric of human life," writes Marita Sturken, assistant professor at the Annenberg School for Communication. In this work, Sturken takes a look at how cultural memory operated in the United States in the 1980s and 1990s. Cultural memory "defines memory that is shared outside the avenues of formal historical discourse yet is entangled with cultural products and imbued with cultural meaning," she writes. It is produced through objects, images and representations; for instance, objects left at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., become part of cultural memory. Sturken considers films, memorials, and bodies as commemorative media and shows how events such as television images of the Gulf War and the Challenger explosion feed into "official histories" and operate in concert with cultural objects such as yellow and red ribbons.

Zaria's Fire: Engendered Moments in Manam Ethnography

by Nancy C.

Lutkehaus

Carolina Academic Press, $65.00

Nancy C. Lutkehaus interweaves the voices of three generations of Manam Islanders with those of two women anthropologists who lived and worked among them - one British, the other a middle-class American. She creates a multi-vocal, cross-cultural conversation about men and women, power and authority, and colonialism and post-colonialism in Papua, New Guinea. Zaria - a supernatural culture heroine who appears in stories found along the north coast of New Guinea to the east and west of Manam - is said to be responsible for many components of life, including fire and the physical distinctions between the sexes. Lutkehaus, associate professor of anthropology, juxtaposes her own contemporary field material with that of officials, missionaries and local scholars, contrasting her narrative of Manam cultural resilience with the 1930s story of cultural disintegration. Some on Manam still say Zaria - a wild-looking creature who spews fire from her armpits - lives in the mouth of the volcano's crater.