Dorothy M. Spencer – Författare

A great deal can be learned about a given civilization through its literature. The living image of a people-acting and thinking, of themselves. and of the world as they see it-can only be apprehended by the creative productions of a nation's best minds. Thus students of Indian civilization and culture who cannot afford to overlook its literature will find in this book a way to approach the Indian spirit through the work of Indian authors.Fiction in India, particularly the novel, is a product of Western influences. As a literary form, the novel, with its emphasis on character analysis and related plot, is not native to the Indian temperament. Nevertheless, during the last fifty years, India has produced a wealth of fine fiction : novels and short stories, sketches and satires. In this book, Dorothy M. Spencer has selected and annotated some three hundred items for the ethnographical and cultural material they can be made to yield. English translations, works written directly in English, and translations from the various regional dialects have been included-on the whole a rather sweeping cross-section of Indian literary creativity.With the aid of Spencer's notes, the student can decide which of the works deal with specific attitudes and values that are of interest to him. The sociologist interested in institutions and interpersonal relations, in the beliefs and ideas regarding the Indian character held by the people themselves, the philosopher concerned with the Indian world-view, the anthropologist, and the political scientist will find an abundance of material in these pages to heighten his appreciation of Indian culture. The attitudes toward social institutions and fixed relationships, the family, the place of women as mothers and sisters, the caste-system-all the intricacies of a civilization's development can be revealed to the perceptive student.Naturally enough, fiction in India has also dealt with political and social themes. In this connection, autobiographies and propagandistic or moralistic novels are most useful. Both have been included in this bibliography, as well as historical novels, a genre which, though it has recently fallen into disfavor, is one of the most fruitful sources for an investigation of the Indian past.More than a comprehensive guide to Indian fiction and autobiography, this volume is also a fine introduction to Indian culture, suggesting and developing directions which a study of India may take. It will be helpful and important to all scholars in the humanities and social sciences who are concerned with understanding the people and way of life of an ancient land that has recently taken great strides into the modern era.

The manual consists of two main sections. The first includes the essential, sometimes laborious, procedures for handling yeasts, for inducing mating and isolation of hybrids, for inducing sporulation and isolation of single-spore clones, with some details of tetrad analysis, and including techniques and ancillary equipment for use of the micromanipulator. There are also proce­ dures for induction of mutants by physical and chemical agents, and for iso­ lation of particular types of mutants, such as to temperature sensitivity, for increased frequency of mutations, for mutations in the mitochondrial genome, both to the petite colonie form and to resistance to antibiotics, for mutations in that part of the yeast genome controlling the glycolytic cycle, and numerous others. Mapping of mutations is discussed briefly, though this aspect of yeast genetics is probably one which should not be undertaken until the investigator has gained a certain amount of experience in the field. How­ ever, as is pointed out in the pertinent part of the manual, the task of mapping has been tremendouslysimplified by the availability from the Yeast Genetics Stock Center at the University of California at Berkeley of a set of auxo­ trophic strains designed to permit mapping of most unknown genes with a minimum number of crosses and tetrad analyses. The first section concludes with the description of methods for hybridization of yeasts by protoplast fusion, which has been described as the poor man's system for genetic engineering.

This book gives a general overview of the biology and molecular biology of yeasts. Topics emphasized include yeast taxonomy (including evolution of yeasts), yeast ecology, with as much emphasis as possible on the relationship between the organisms and the environment, the structure and function of the yeast cell, its life cycle and metabolism, and the relationship between yeasts and mankind, including pathogenicity, traditional and current industrial and therapeutic uses and related topics. The contribution of yeasts to fundamental research in biology is discussed as an integral part of the subject.