Acknowledgments Preface by Professor David Marsh Introduction 1. Mother Teresa and Celebrity Culture 2. The Balkans Appropriation of Mother Teresa 3. The Forgotten Years 4. Mother Teresa’s Attitude towards Her Early Years 5. Jesus the Divine Superstar 6. From Church Rebel to Church Asset Conclusion. Select Bibliography. Select Filmography. Index
University of Manchester, UK
'It is a clever book, providing a great deal of original and new
thought on the subject.' - Primrose Peacock, Friends of Albania 'In
his unparalleled scholarly book, Alpion has presented a
multidimensional portrait of Mother Teresa. And she appears human
as she rarely did in any discourse about her.' - Gaston Roberge,
The New Leader'In its depth, breadth, and seriousness, this volume
may stand for some time to come as the single most imporant
biography of Mother Teresa in English ... A great value of this
book is that [Alpion] has provided us with the fullest portrait yet
of her native culture and her maturation' – Center for Islamic
Pluralism'This book of Alpion's feels like a whiff of delightfully
fresh air. It is the work of an open and dedicated scholar, who
despite his reverence for the nun has yet striven to be as unbiased
as possible, never letting his emotions get in the way. I would
have no hesitation at all in recommending this book to everyone.' –
Bulletin of the Faculty of Foreign Studies'I enjoyed this book and
anyone interested in how Albanian identity is understood and
constructed should take the time to read it carefully.' -- Journal
of Ethnic and Migration Studies‘Alpion’s examination of Mother
Teresa’s celebrity is a case study of corporate identity management
in today’s global media environment. His weaving of primary texts
into the setting of this character piece creates a comprehensive
cross-cultural examination that has the potential to become a new
archetypal work of this mercurial personality.’ -- Marvin Williams,
American Communication Journal, USA‘In its depth, breadth, and
seriousness, this volume may stand for some time to come as the
single most important biography of Mother Teresa in English.’ --
Stephen Schwartz, Illyria, New York, USA‘After Mother Teresa: Saint
or Celebrity? scholarship about Mother Teresa will not be the
same.… In his unparalleled scholarly book, Alpion has presented a
multidimensional portrait of Mother Teresa. And she appears human
as she rarely did in any discourse about her.’ -- Professor Gaston
Roberge, The New Leader, India‘One must ungrudgingly give it to
Alpion that this has been a work of monumental proportions
involving great dexterity….All methodological exclusivity has been
abjured, allowing the multihued disciplines to coalesce as needed
in the research….All this makes the book compulsory reading.’ --
Professor Bonita Aleaz, Head of Department of Political Science,
University of Calcutta, The Asia Journal of Theology, India‘[A]
superbly researched work…. After Germaine Greer, Christopher
Hitchens and Susan Shields this book of Alpion’s feels like a whiff
of delightfully fresh air…. I would have no hesitation at all in
recommending this book to everyone.’ -- Professor Cyril Veliath,
Bulletin of the Faculty of Foreign Studies, Sophia University,
Tokyo, Japan‘Alpion is to be congratulated on both the depth of his
research spread over several years, and the balanced way he sets
out his facts….It is a clever book, providing a great deal of
original and new thought on the subject but it is not a book to
skim through in a couple of hours.’ -- Primrose Peacock, Catholic
South West, UK‘Alpion’s book....is unique in locating the appeal of
Mother Teresa within today’s broader celebrity culture…. For
Alpion, celebrity culture is a modern form of religion and Mother
Teresa was the ultimate religious celebrity of the modern era.’
--Dr Stuart Derbyshire, Spiked Magazine, UK‘Alpion [who] writes
illuminatingly about different forms of "celebrity discourse"…has
written an absorbing analysis what this nun has meant to the
world.’ -- John Hodgson, Light Magazine, UK‘This engaging book
raises as many questions as it answers…. Alpion unpacks the full
historical background in meticulous detail... The result is
intriguing, if a little unsatisfactory. His thesis is original:
Mother Teresa knew well what she was about… Her success and
subsequent "fame" were of her own making, and she was far brighter
than she made out… So there was sacrifice involved in her quest for
fame, but was her integrity one of the casualties? That is what
this book tries to explore — hence its telling subtitle.’ -- Dr
Lavinia Byrne, Church Times, UK‘Alpion has not simply added another
book to the already vast literature on Mother Teresa; he has
actually enriched it. …Alpion has made an outstanding contribution
to contemporary popular culture.’ --Dr Michael Schmidt-Neke,
Albanische Hefte, Bochum, Germany‘I can’t but conclude that after
all of his careful research and reasoned probing, Alpion was
personally touched by this great woman…. Alpion does ask some
controversial questions. However, his answers are fair and reasoned
from his point of view.’ -- Dr Margaret Nutting Ralph, Albanian
Journal of Politics, Chapel Hill, NC, USA‘[T]he book does offer the
migrationist a very useful account of an exceptional migration
trajectory and, although this is not a declared objective of the
book, it is also worth reading for its migratory sub-text. Mother
Teresa as a migrant woman in the early part of the twentieth
century makes for fascinating speculation regarding her motives and
the modality of her mobility. I enjoyed this book and anyone
interested in how Albanian identity is understood and constructed
should take the time to read it carefully.’ -- Professor Glyn
Davies, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, UK‘The most
authoritative English-language author on Blessed Teresa of Kolkata
is Gëzim Alpion…a pioneer in the academic study of the phenomenon
of celebrity.’ -- Stephen Schwartz, Folks Magazine, India‘In
addition to [Aroup] Chatterjee’s books Mother Teresa: The Final
Verdict and Mother Teresa: The Untold Story, and Christopher
Hitchens’ The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and
Practice, there is one by Gëzim Alpion, titled Mother Teresa: Saint
or Celebrity? which was as critical of Teresa as the other works
mentioned earlier. Published in 2006, it exposed the
well-orchestrated publicity blitz that Mother Teresa encouraged
about herself, even when her real charity work didn’t count for
much.’Dr T. Hanuman Chowdary, Swarajya, India
'The main thrust of this carefully argued work is two fold. Firstly
it concentrates on the loss of her father when a child becoming the
mainspring driving the rest of Mother Teresa's life with 'Jesus' as
a parental and marital substitute. Secondly it shows with
considerable clarity how Mother Teresa used and was used by
politicians, governments, the church, her admirers and a few
detractors to achieve her objectives in what I consider was the
result of her Albanian psyche. It is a clever book, providing a
great deal of original and new thought on the subject but it is not
a book to skim through in a couple of hours.' - Primrose Peacock,
Friends of Albania '...this book of Alpion's feels like a whiff of
delightfully fresh air. It is the work of an open and dedicated
scholar, who despite his reverence for the nun has yet striven to
be as unbiased as possible, never letting his emotions get in the
way. I would have no hesitation at all in recommending this book to
everyone.' - Journal of the Faculty of Foreign Studies'In his
unparalleled scholarly book, Alpion has presented a
multidimensional portrait of Mother Teresa. And she appears human
as she rarely did in any discourse about her.' - Gaston Roberge,
The New Leader'This book is the work of an open and dedicated
scholar, who, despite his reverence for the nun, has striven to be
as unbiased as possible, never letting his emotions get in the way.
I would have no hesitation at all in recommending this book to
everyone.' - Cyril Veliath, The New Leader'In its depth, breadth,
and seriousness, this volume may stand for some time to come as the
single most imporant biography of Mother Teresa in English ... A
great value of this book is that [Alpion] has provided us with the
fullest portrait yet of her native culture and her maturation' –
Center for Islamic Pluralism'This book of Alpion's feels like a
whiff of delightfully fresh air. It is the work of an open and
dedicated scholar, who despite his reverence for the nun has yet
striven to be as unbiased as possible, never letting his emotions
get in the way. I would have no hesitation at all in recommending
this book to everyone.' – Bulletin of the Faculty of Foreign
Studies'Alpion has written an absorbing analysis.' –Light
Magazine'Alpion unpacks the full historical background in
meticulous detail ... the result is intriguing ... original.' – The
Church Times'Alpion gives us a thorough and well researched look in
Mother Teresa's life.' - Margaret Nutting, Albanian Journal of
Politics'In its depth, breadth, and seriousness, this volume may
stand for some time to come as the single most important biography
of Mother Teresa in English.' - Stephen Schwartz, Illyria
 |
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
