Spatial dispersion, namely, the dependence of the dielectric-constant tensor on the wave vector (i.e., on the wavelength) at a fixed frequency, is receiving increased attention in electrodynamics and condensed-matter optics, partic­ ularly in crystal optics. In contrast to frequency dispersion, namely, the frequency dependence of the dielectric constant, spatial dispersion is of interest in optics mainly when it leads to qualitatively new phenomena. One such phenomenon has been weH known for many years; it is the natural optical activity (gyrotropy). But there are other interesting effects due to spatial dispersion, namely, new normal waves near absorption lines, optical anisotropy of cubic crystals, and many others. Crystal optics that takes spatial dispersion into account includes classical crystal optics with frequency dispersion only, as a special case. In our opinion, this fact alone justifies efforts to develop crystal optics with spatial dispersion taken into account, although admittedly its influence is smaH in some cases and it is observable only under rather special conditions. Furthermore, spatial dispersion in crystal optics deserves attention from another point as well, namely, the investigation of excitons that can be excited by light. We contend that crystal optics with spatial dispersion and the theory of excitons are fields that overlap to a great extent, and that it is sometimes quite impossible to separate them. It is our aim to show the true interplay be­ tween these interrelations and to combine the macroscopic and microscopic approaches to crystal optics with spatial dispersion and exciton theory.

Product Description: For over 70 years, The Best American Short Plays has been the standard of excellence for one-act plays in America. From its inception, it has identified cutting-edge playwrights who have gone on to establish award-winning careers, including Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee, and more...read more

Product Description: (Best American Short Plays). Applause is proud to continue the series that for over 70 years has been the standard of excellence for one-act plays in America. As previous series editor Ramon Delgado wrote in his introduction to The Best American Short Plays of 1989 , the choice of entries for each edition has been based on the same goal: "to include a balance among three categories of playwrights: 1) established playwrights who continue to practice the art and craft of the short play, 2) emerging playwrights whose record of productions indicate both initial achievement and continuing artistic productivity, and 3) talented new playwrights whose work may not have had much exposure but evidences promise for the future...read more

Product Description: This collection of essays dissects American plays, movies and other performance types that examine America and its history and culture. From Amerindian stage performances to AIDS and post-9/11 America, it displays the various and important ways theatre and performance studies have examined and conversed with American culture and history...read more

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Product Description: The year 1956 marked a point when British drama and theater fell into the hands of a group of young playwrights who revolutionized the stage. During that time, playwrights such as Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter made the British theater as rich, varied, and vital as any national theater in history...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

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Product Description: Any review of 20th-century American theatre invariably leads to the term realism. Yet despite the strong tradition of theatrical realism on the American stage, the term is frequently misidentified, and the practices to which it refers are often attacked as monolithically tyrannical, restricting the potential of the American national theatre...read more

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Product Description: Demastes, in his interesting study of the work of David Rabe, David Mamet, Sam Shepard, Charles Fuller, Beth Henley, and Marsha Norman, examines how these playwrights utilize the realist format to redirect perception of human life, how they cope with the consciously taken 'task of challenging old systems of thought from a base of new perspective...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)