Fredric Jameson - A Singular Modernity

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A Singular Modernity: Essay on the Ontology of the Present

by Fredric Jameson

The concepts of modernity and modernism are amongst the most controversial and vigorously debated in contemporary philosophy and cultural theory. In this new, muscular, intervention Fredric Jameson—perhaps the most influential and persuasive theorist of postmodernity—explores these notions in a fresh and illuminating manner. The extraordinary revival of discussions of modernity, as well as of new theories of artistic modernism, demands attention in its own right. It seems clear that the provisional disappearance of alternatives to capitalism plays its part in the universal attempt to revive 'modernity' as a social ideal. Yet the paradoxes of the concept illustrate its legitimate history and suggest some rules for avoiding its misuse as well. In this major new interpretation of the problematic, Jameson concludes that both concepts are tainted but nonetheless yield clues as to the nature of the phenomena they purported to theorize. His judicious and vigilant probing of both terms—which can probably not be banished at this late date—helps us clarify our present political and artistic situations.

Fredric Jameson The Modernist Papers

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The Modernist Papers

by Fredric Jameson

Fredric Jameson, one of America's finest cultural critics, offers his dynamic insight into modernist literature and art. A companion to the classic A Singular Modernity, this stunning tour de force looks at the innovative literary experiments of Joyce and Proust, the poetry of Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams and Gertrude Stein and the writing of Kafka, Mann and Mallarmé, to provide a distinct perspective on the culture of new beginnings and avant-garde endeavors.

Жак Ле Гофф - Цивилизация средневекового Запада

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Жак Ле Гофф

Цивилизация средневекового Запада

Средневековый Запад зародился на развалинах римского мира. Рим поддерживал, питал, но одновременно и парализовал его рост. Прежде всего Рим передал средневековой Европе в наследство драматичную борьбу двух путей развития, символизируемую легендой о происхождении города, согласно которой Рим, замкнутый стеной, восторжествовал над Римом без границ и без стен, о котором тщетно мечтал несчастный Рем.

Underground Humour in Nazi Germany, 1933-1945

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Underground Humour in Nazi Germany, 1933-1945

by Dr Hillenbrand

Underground Humour in Nazi Germany: 1933-1945, F. K. M. Hillenbrand compiles a collection of jokes, stories and cartoons representing covert popular opposition which took humorous form. Even this was dangerous, as an ill-judged moment of wit could lead to the camps; but the Nazis themselves recognized the impossibility of stopping anti-Nazi jokes.Although wonderfully entertaining, Underground Humour in Nazi Germany:1933-45 is not a joke book, but a serious study of the uses of humor and word play, supplemented always with full translations and explanations when a joke is retold. Hillebrand explains not only how humor could be used subversively in the Third Reich, but also suggests the ways that people resist under any totalitarian conditions, not exclusively Nazi Germany.

Greek Comedy and Ideology

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Greek Comedy and Ideology

by David Konstan

In comedy, happy endings resolve real-world conflicts. These conflicts, in turn, leave their mark on the texts in the form of gaps in plot and inconsistencies of characterization. Greek Comedy and Ideology analyzes how the structure of ancient Greek comedy betrays and responds to cultural tensions in the society of the classical city-state. It explores the utopian vision of Aristophanes' comedies--for example, an all-powerful city inhabited by birds, or a world of limitless wealth presided over by the god of wealth himself--as interventions in the political issues of his time. David Konstan goes on to examine the more private world of Menandrean comedy (including two adaptations of Menander by the Roman playwright Terence), in which problems of social status, citizenship, and gender are negotiated by means of elaborately contrived plots. In conclusion, Konstan looks at an imitation of ancient comedy by Moliere, and the way in which the ideology of emerging capitalism transforms the premises of the classical genre.

Myth and Metamorphosis: Picasso's Classical Prints of the 1930s

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Myth and Metamorphosis: Picasso's Classical Prints of the 1930s

by Lisa Florman

Previous studies of Picasso's involvement with the classical have tended to concentrate on the period immediately following the First World War, and to attribute that involvement to both the rise of political conservatism in France and the domesticating influence of the artist's marriage to Olga Koklova. Focusing instead on the later, classicizing prints of the 1930s, this book offers a radically different view of Picasso and the "classical"--a view that aligns his work much more closely with Surrealist, and specifically Bataillean, revisions of antiquity. The book's argument is built around detailed analyses of several separate print series: Picasso's illustrations for Ovid's Metamorphoses, the etchings of the Vollard Suite, and The Minotauromachy. Common to all of them, the book shows, is a strong engagement not only with the classical, but with the viewer. In the latter, Picasso's prints are clearly at odds with the understanding of the relationship between classical art and its audience that prevailed throughout most of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries--an understanding that held the work's purported autonomy to mirror the viewer's own. By exposing that autonomy as a fantasy, Picasso opens the "classical" work and its viewer alike to the entanglements of desire and the dissolution of boundaries it inevitably brings. Much of the argument turns on close readings of key Surrealist texts by Georges Bataille, Michel Leiris, and Roger Caillois. Even more important, however, are the prints' numerous references, heretofore unnoticed, to specific works by, among others, Rubens, Rembrandt, and Goya. These references effectively create an alternative "classical" tradition out of which Picasso's etchings can be seen to have emerged.

Philosophical Hermeneutics

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Philosophical Hermeneutics [SPECIAL EDITION]

by Hans-Georg Gadamer (Author), David E. Linge (Editor, Translator)

This excellent collection contains 13 essays from Gadamer's Kleine Schriften, dealing with hermeneutical reflection, phenomenology, existential philosophy, and philosophical hermeneutics. Gadamer applies hermeneutical analysis to Heidegger and Husserl's phenomenology, an approach that proves critical and instructive.

Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations

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Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations

by W. J. Colville

1911. Contents: Bibles Under Modern Searchlight; Rivers of Life or Faiths of Man in All Lands; Ancient and Modern Ideas of Revelation; Various Spiritual Elements in the Bible and Classic Literature; Creation Legends; Egypt and Its Wonders Literally and Mystically considered; The Philosophy of Ancient Greece; The School of Pythagoras; The Delphic Mysteries; Apollonius of Tyana; Five Varieties of Yoga; Union of Eastern and Western Philosophy; Ezekiel's Wheel-What it Signifies-Astrology in Prophecy; Emanuel Swedenborg and His Doctrine of Correspondences; The Book of Exodus-Its Practical and Esoteric Teachings; The Story of the Passover and the Pillar of Fire in the Wilderness; The Message of Buddhism-Purity and Philanthropy; Magic in Europe in the Middle Ages; Ancient Magic and Modern Therapeutics-Paracelsus and Von Helmont; Jeanne D'Arc, the Maid of Orleans; Andrew Jackson Davis; Bible Symbolism; Life and Matter; The Law of Seven and the Law of Unity; Spiritualism and the Deepening of Spiritual Life; The Esoteric Teachings of the Gnostics; Halley's Comet; Psychopathic Treatment.

Plato, VII, Theaetetus. Sophist

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Plato, VII, Theaetetus. Sophist (Loeb Classical Library)

by Plato (Author), H. N. Fowler (Translator)

Greek and Roman Dress from A to Z

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Greek and Roman Dress from A to Z (The Ancient World from a to Z)

by Liza Cleland

Who dressed as a woman in an attempt to commit adultery with Julius Caesar’s wife? How did the ancient Greeks make blusher from seaweed? Just how does one wear a toga?
If, as many claim, the importance of clothes lies in their detail, then this a book that no sartorially savvy Classicist should be without. Greek and Roman Dress from A to Z is an alphabetized compendium of styles and accessories that form the well-known classical image: a reference source of stitches, drapery, hairstyles, colours, fabrics and jewellery, and an analysis of the intricate system of social meanings that they comprise.
The entries range in length from a few lines to a few pages and cover individual aspects of dress alongside surveys of wider topics and illuminating socio-cultural analysis, drawn from ancient art, literature and archaeology. For those who want to take their reading further, there are references to both primary sources and modern scholarship.
This book will be fascinating for anyone delving into it with an interest in style and dress, and an invaluable companion for any classicist.

King Arthur - Myth Making and History

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King Arthur - Myth Making and History

by N.j. Higham

King Arthur's story encapsulates the medieval romance and the tragedy of the Dark Ages. Yet legends shroud his life, and to this day scholars cannot agree on his dates, his location or even whether he really existed.King Arthur penetrates both the historical literature and the fantastic legends of this hero, king, demigod. Probing the ever-popular cultural icon, historian N.J. Higham traces the changing face of Camelot from its birth in the ninth century to contemporary films such as Excalibur, Monty Python and the Holy Grail and First Knight. How did the idea of King Arthur evolve? What role was Arthur intended to perform in the political and cultural worlds that constructed him?Higham sheds new light on the genesis of this beloved figure, scrutinizing the first two Arthurian texts: The History of the Britons and the Welsh Annals. His conclusion: historians created Arthur to fit their present political agendas, rather than relying on primary sources. An eye-opening, fresh look at the Arthurian myths, King Arthur follows his kingship's longevity in the popular imagination from the ninth century to the twenty-first.

The Holy Grail

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The Holy Grail

by Giles Morgan

From the PublisherThrough its various guises as magic cauldron, cornucopia, and chalice cup, the Holy Grail has remained at the center of popular culture since antiquity. An object of marvel and mystery, it inhabits a place in mythology that has its roots in historical fact. From Celtic mythology to the flowering of the medieval romances, it has in many ways fulfilled its mythical role as a nurturing and regenerative vessel by providing a rich, seemingly perpetual source of interest to writers and artists. Charting the story of the Grail offers a revealing insight into the cultural shift from Celtic paganism to the emergence and domination of Christianity in Western Europe; the influence of Eastern mysticism emerges in the Grail romances as a result of the medieval crusades, with its clash of cultures and subsequent cross-pollination of ideas. Finally, the Grail has come to symbolize the ultimate achievement in the modern mind, and Carl Jung, T.S. Eliot, Richard Wagner, William Blake, and the Pre-Raphaelites are just some of those who have fallen under its enduring spell.

Word Order in Greek Tragic Dialogue

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Word Order in Greek Tragic Dialogue

by Helma Dik

Product DescriptionHelma Dik approaches word order in Greek tragic dialogue from the perspective of language rather than metre. The tragic poets engaged in mimesis of natural dialogue; therefore the analysis of the linguistic characteristics of the dialogue precedes exploration of the metrical dimension, on the assumption that poets would not be overly constrained by the iambic trimeter, which, after all, was the most natural speaking verse according to Aristotle. Dik analyses the word order of tragic dialogue in pragmatic terms, arguing that, in sentences, words functioning as Topic (the 'starting point' of an utterance) or Focus (the most salient piece of information) will come early, and that other less important words will follow. Similarly, the position of adjectives within noun phrases is analysed as a function of their relative salience rather than in terms of their semantics. This approach aims to account for word order in sentences generally, but it also allows for a new interpretation of familiar phenomena in Greek, such as 'postponed interrogatives'. The book concludes with a commentary on the word order in four passages of Sophocles' Electra.

The Travels of Marco Polo

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The Travels of Marco Polo

by Marco Polo

Product DescriptionChosen as one of the ten best adventure books of all time by National Geographic Adventure. Liveright is proud to reissue a facsimile of its classic 1926 edition of The Travels of Marco Polo. Beginning from the traditional lyrical Marsden translation, editor Manuel Komroff corrected it against Henry Yule's magisterial two-volume work, including a chapter missing from the Marsden. The artist Witold Gordon created thirty-two two-color woodcut illustrations for the original edition, published again here for the first time in over fifty years. The Travels of Marco Polo remains a wondrous adventure narrative. Chronicling the thirteenth-century world from Venice, his birthplace, to the far reaches of Asia, Marco Polo tells of the foreign peoples he meets as he travels by foot, horse, and boat through places including Persia, the land of the Tartars, Tibet, India, and, most important, China. There he stays at the court of Kublai Khan, venturing to the capital of Beijing and to Shangtu, made immortal in Coleridge's poem "Xanadu." This is a gripping look at a legendary place and time. Two-color illustrations.

C.G. Jung - Memories, Dreams, Reflections

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Memories, Dreams, Reflections

by C.G. Jung

An autobiography put together from conversations, writings and lectures with Jung's cooperation, at the end of his life.

Shakespeare's Letters

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Shakespeare's Letters

by Alan Stewart

Product DescriptionShakespeare's plays are stuffed with letters - 111 appear on stage in all but five of his dramas. But for modern actors, directors, and critics they are frequently an awkward embarrassment. Alan Stewart shows how and why Shakespeare put letters on stage in virtually all of his plays. By reconstructing the very different uses to which letters were put in Shakespeare's time, and recapturing what it meant to write, send, receive, read, and archive a letter, it throws new light on some of his most familiar dramas. Early modern letters were not private missives sent through an anonymous postal system, but a vital - sometimes the only - means of maintaining contact and sending news between distant locations. Penning a letter was a serious business in a period when writers made their own pen and ink; letter-writing protocols were strict; letters were dispatched by personal messengers or carriers, often received and read in public - and Shakespeare exploited all these features to dramatic effect. Surveying the vast range of letters in Shakespeare's oeuvre, the book also features sustained new readings of Hamlet, King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, The Merchant of Venice and Henry IV Part One.

Boethius - Consolation of Philosophy

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Consolation of Philosophy

by Boethius (Author), Joel C. Relihan (Translator)

Joel Relihan's translation highlights the poetry of the Consolation while remaining faithful to Boethius' Latin.Unjustly imprisoned and waiting to die, Boethius penned his last and greatest work, Consolation of Philosophy, an imaginary dialogue between himself and Philosophy, personified as a woman. Reminiscent of Dante in places, Boethius's fiction is an ode-to-philosophy-cum-Socratic-dialogue. Joel Relihan's skillful rendering, smoother to the modern ear than previous translations, preserves the book's heart-rending clarity and Boethius's knack for getting it just right. Listen to him on fortune: "We spin in an ever-turning circle, and it is our delight to change the bottom for the top and the top for the bottom. You may climb up if you wish, but on this condition: Don't think it an injustice when the rules of the game require you to go back down."Consolation of Philosophy recalls the transience of the material world, the eternality of wisdom, and the life of the philosopher. Boethius was deeply influenced by the Platonist tradition, and this piece is one of the more powerful and artful defenses of a detachment that feels almost Buddhist. For anyone who's felt at odds with the world, Consolation is a reminder that the best things in life are eternal. Boethius must be right: the book is just as meaningful today as it was in the sixth century when he wrote it. --Eric de Place

Plato: Laches. Protagoras. Meno. Euthdemus.

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Plato: Laches. Protagoras. Meno. Euthdemus. (Loeb Classical Library No. 165)
by Plato (Author), W. R. M. Lamb (Translator)

Plato, the great philosopher of Athens, was born in 427 BCE. In early manhood an admirer of Socrates, he later founded the famous school of philosophy in the grove Academus. Much else recorded of his life is uncertain; that he left Athens for a time after Socrates' execution is probable; that later he went to Cyrene, Egypt, and Sicily is possible; that he was wealthy is likely; that he was critical of 'advanced' democracy is obvious. He lived to be 80 years old. Linguistic tests including those of computer science still try to establish the order of his extant philosophical dialogues, written in splendid prose and revealing Socrates' mind fused with Plato's thought.
In Laches, Charmides, and Lysis, Socrates and others discuss separate ethical conceptions. Protagoras, Ion, and Meno discuss whether righteousness can be taught. In Gorgias, Socrates is estranged from his city's thought, and his fate is impending. The Apology (not a dialogue), Crito, Euthyphro, and the unforgettable Phaedo relate the trial and death of Socrates and propound the immortality of the soul. In the famous Symposium and Phaedrus, written when Socrates was still alive, we find the origin and meaning of love. Cratylus discusses the nature of language. The great masterpiece in ten books, the Republic, concerns righteousness (and involves education, equality of the sexes, the structure of society, and abolition of slavery). Of the six so-called dialectical dialogues Euthydemus deals with philosophy; metaphysical Parmenides is about general concepts and absolute being; Theaetetus reasons about the theory of knowledge. Of its sequels, Sophist deals with not-being; Politicus with good and bad statesmanship and governments; Philebus with what is good. The Timaeus seeks the origin of the visible universe out of abstract geometrical elements. The unfinished Critias treats of lost Atlantis. Unfinished also is Plato's last work of the twelve books of Laws (Socrates is absent from it), a critical discussion of principles of law which Plato thought the Greeks might accept.
The Loeb Classical Library edition of Plato is in twelve volumes.

Plato, The Republic Volumes I and II

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Plato, The Republic Volumes I and II (Loeb Classical Library) (Hardcover)

by Plato (Author), Paul Shorey (Translator)

Plato, I, Euthyphro. Apology. Crito. Phaedo. Phaedrus

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Plato, I, Euthyphro. Apology. Crito. Phaedo. Phaedrus (Loeb Classical Library)

by Plato (Author), H. N. Fowler (Translator)

philosophy in the grove Academus. Much else recorded of his life is uncertain; that he left Athens for a time after Socrates' execution is probable; that later he went to Cyrene, Egypt, and Sicily is possible; that he was wealthy is likely; that he was critical of 'advanced' democracy is obvious. He lived to be 80 years old. Linguistic tests including those of computer science still try to establish the order of his extant philosophical dialogues, written in splendid prose and revealing Socrates' mind fused with Plato's thought.
In Laches, Charmides, and Lysis, Socrates and others discuss separate ethical conceptions. Protagoras, Ion, and Meno discuss whether righteousness can be taught. In Gorgias, Socrates is estranged from his city's thought, and his fate is impending. The Apology (not a dialogue), Crito, Euthyphro, and the unforgettable Phaedo relate the trial and death of Socrates and propound the immortality of the soul. In the famous Symposium and Phaedrus, written when Socrates was still alive, we find the origin and meaning of love. Cratylus discusses the nature of language. The great masterpiece in ten books, the Republic, concerns righteousness (and involves education, equality of the sexes, the structure of society, and abolition of slavery). Of the six so-called dialectical dialogues Euthydemus deals with philosophy; metaphysical Parmenides is about general concepts and absolute being; Theaetetus reasons about the theory of knowledge. Of its sequels, Sophist deals with not-being; Politicus with good and bad statesmanship and governments; Philebus with what is good. The Timaeus seeks the origin of the visible universe out of abstract geometrical elements. The unfinished Critias treats of lost Atlantis. Unfinished also is Plato's last work of the twelve books of Laws (Socrates is absent from it), a critical discussion of principles of law which Plato thought the Greeks might accept.
The Loeb Classical Library edition of Plato is in twelve volumes.

Plato and Platonism

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Plato and Platonism: A series of lectures (Library edition of the works of Walter Pater) by Walter Pater

By Platonism, the author clarifies, is meant not Neo-Platonism of any kind, but the leading principles of Plato s doctrine, which I have tried to see in close connexion with himself as he is presented in his own writings. The critique here presented of Plato s work is never independent of Plato as a man or Plato as philosopher, but rather enables Pater to study the close relation between author and text. The diversity of areas covered is in itself a fine achievement, and Pater is able to give each area enough attention to make it self-sufficient (each chapter was originally a lecture), yet at the same time, he succeeds in unifying all the areas to make for a well-structured book. Especially interesting are the chapter which explores the relationship between Plato and Socrates; the chapter on Plato s aesthetics; the chapter on Plato s Republic; and the chapter dealing with the relationship between Plato and the Sophists.

The Geometry of Modernism

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The Geometry of Modernism: The Vorticist Idiom in Lewis, Pound, H.D., and Yeats (Literary Modernism Series)

by Miranda B. Hickman

Addressing both the literature and the visual arts of Anglo-American modernism, The Geometry of Modernism recovers a crucial development of modernism's early years that until now has received little sustained critical attention: the distinctive idiom composed of geometric forms and metaphors generated within the early modernist movement of Vorticism, formed in London in 1914. Focusing on the work of Wyndham Lewis, leader of the Vorticist movement, as well as Ezra Pound, H.D., and William Butler Yeats, Hickman examines the complex of motives out of which Lewis initially forged the geometric lexicon of Vorticism—and then how Pound, H.D., and Yeats later responded to it and the values that it encoded, enlisting both the geometric vocabulary and its attendant assumptions and ideals, in transmuted form, in their later modernist work.
Placing the genesis and appropriation of the geometric idiom in historical context, Hickman explores how despite its brevity as a movement, Vorticism in fact exerted considerable impact on modernist work of the years between the wars, in that its geometric idiom enabled modernist writers to articulate their responses to both personal and political crises of the 1930s and 1940s. Informed by extensive archival research as well as treatment of several of the least-known texts of the modernist milieu, The Geometry of Modernism clarifies and enriches the legacy of this vital period.

Agamemnon in Performance: 458 BC to AD 2004

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Agamemnon in Performance: 458 BC to AD 2004

by Fiona Macintosh, Pantelis Michelakis, Edith Hall, Oliver Taplin (Editors)

Aeschylus' Agamemnon, the first play in the Oresteia trilogy, is one of the most influential theatrical texts in the global canon. In performance, translation, adaptation, along with sung and danced interpretations, it has been familiar in the Greek world and the Roman empire, and from the Renaissance to the contemporary stage. It has been central to the aesthetic and intellectual avant-garde as well as to radical politics of all complexions and to feminist thinking. Contributors to this interdisciplinary collection of eighteen essays on its performance history include classical scholars, theatre historians, and experts in English and comparative literature. All Greek and Latin has been translated; the book is generously illustrated, and supplemented with the useful research aid of a chronological appendix of performances.

The Arcades Project - Walter Benjamin

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The Arcades Project

by Walter Benjamin

"Quite simply, the Passagen-Werk is one of the twentieth century's great efforts at historical comprehension--some would say the greatest." --T. J. Clark, author of The Painting of Modern Life The Arcades Project Walter Benjamin Translated by Howard Eiland and Kevin McLaughlin "To great writers," Walter Benjamin once wrote, "finished works weigh lighter than those fragments on which they labor their entire lives." Conceived in Paris in 1927 and still in progress when Benjamin fled the Occupation in 1940, The Arcades Project (in German, Das Passagen-Werk) is a monumental ruin, meticulously constructed over the course of thirteen years--"the theater," as Benjamin called it, "of all my struggles and all my ideas." Focusing on the arcades of nineteenth-century Paris--glass-roofed rows of shops that were early centers of consumerism--Benjamin presents a montage of quotations from, and reflections on, hundreds of published sources, arranging them in thirty-six categories with descriptive rubrics such as "Fashion," "Boredom," "Dream City," "Photography," "Catacombs," "Advertising," "Prostitution," "Baudelaire," "Theory of Progress." His central preoccupation is what he calls the commodification of things--a process in which he locates the decisive shift to the modern age. The Arcades Project is Benjamin's effort to represent and to critique the bourgeois experience of nineteenth-century history, and, in so doing, to liberate the suppressed "true history" that underlay the ideological mask. In the bustling, cluttered arcades, street and interior merge and historical time is broken up into kaleidoscopic distractions and displays of ephemera. Here, at a distance from what is normally meant by "progress," Benjamin finds the lost time(s) embedded in the spaces of things.

Philadelphia Maestros: Ormandy, Muti, Sawallisch

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Philadelphia Maestros: Ormandy, Muti, Sawallisch
by Phyllis Rodriquez-Peralta

Over the past century, the Philadelphia Orchestra has earned its reputation as one of the finest orchestras in the world. Philadelphia Maestros tells the tale of this marvelous orchestra through the tenures of three conductors: Eugene Ormandy, Riccardo Muti, and Wolfgang Sawallisch. With their singular approaches to sound and public image, all three maestros left an indelible mark on the Orchestra, and the cultural life of the city of Philadelphia.

The Cambridge Companion to Virgil

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The Cambridge Companion to Virgil (Cambridge Companions to Literature)

by Charles Martindale (EditorS)

This ground-breaking and authoritative volume is an indispensable reference book to accompany the study of Virgil. It is a multi-authored guide aimed at students and anyone with an interest in great literature and the classical heritage. The chapters contain essential information while also offering fresh and original insights into the poems and their author. Emphasis is given to the responses to Virgil over the centuries, particularly by other creative artists.

The Dramatic Imagination of Robert Browning: A Literary Life

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The Dramatic Imagination of Robert Browning: A Literary Life [ILLUSTRATED]

by Richard S. Kennedy, Donald S. Hair (Authors)

"The Dramatic Imagination of Robert Browning" offers an accessible and authoritative guide to the essentials of Robert Browning's life and poetry. Drawing from his personal letters and from the diaries and memoirs of his contemporaries, this literary biography provides a wealth of information about the main events of his life, including the social, political, religious, and aesthetic issues that concerned him; it offers critical commentary defining the central characteristics of his poetry; and it tracks the changes in his reputation through contemporary reviews and the growth of the Browning societies. An English poet who was deeply responsive to European culture and affairs, Robert Browning has sometimes been dismissed by modern readers for his obscurity or roughness of language. Now two distinguished scholars of Browning's work trace the arc of his development as an artist and thinker from his earliest poems to the last in his long and remarkably productive career. The authors illustrate how Browning moved from describing "incidents in the development of a soul," to developing his reader's soul as collaborator in the artistic process, to the development of his own soul in the making of poetry. Through a fresh reading of not only his poetry but also the letters of both Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, they have garnered details that situate the two in historical context, provide a vivid sense of Robert's personality, and also correct biases against Elizabeth's influence. Their critical commentary focuses on the poet's dramatic imagination and argues that his extensive body of work after "The Ring and the Book" - often dismissed as evidencing a decline in his poetic powers - represented new directions in his poetry marked by inventive dialogue, verbal puzzles, and virtuoso rhyming. Written to appeal to both general readers and scholars, the book will enable anyone to read Browning's poems with a firm sense of the subjects and practices that are central to his texts, along with a knowledge of their context in the poet's life and thought. "The Dramatic Imagination of Robert Browning" invites readers of a singular body of poetry to achieve a new understanding of Browning's work and a greater appreciation of his life.

Encyclopedia of Taboos

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Encyclopedia of Taboos

by Lynn Holden

What are the origins of table manners? What are the politics of cannibalism? Why is the left hand thought to be sinister? These apparently unrelated questions all hinge on the fundamental notion of taboo. Far from being peripheral leftovers from distant times and places, taboos are a crucial part of any society, determing how people must and must not behave. Yet the topic has rarely been discussed in any comprehensive way in recent years,as though the word itself has become taboo in our efforts to dispel the myth of the irrationality of supposedly "primitive" cultures. This reference book is a mine of unusual information, including a comprehensive analysis of individual taboos from the ancient world to the present day, covering both well- and lesser-known examples.

A Byzantine Encyclopaedia of Horse Medicine

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A Byzantine Encyclopaedia of Horse Medicine: The Sources, Compilation, and Transmission of the Hippiatrica (Oxford Studies in Byzantium)

by Anne McCabe

How were Greek texts on the care and medical treatment of the horse transmitted from antiquity to the present day? Using the evidence of Byzantine manuscripts of the veterinary compilation known as the Hippiatrica, Anne McCabe traces the journey of the texts from the stables to the medieval scriptorium and ultimately to the printed edition. Surviving manuscripts include both magnificent presentation copies and plain ones intended for use in the field. The Hippiatrica is a rich and little-known source of information about horses, medicine, and magic. This book provides a guide to its complex history as well as a host of fascinating details, and includes color illustrations of a number of manuscript pages.

The Babylonians: An Introduction

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The Babylonians: An Introduction

By G. Leick

Gwendolyn Leick's approachable survey shows us the people of Babylon, from kings and merchants to women and slaves, and the social, historical, geographical and cultural context in which their extraordinary city flourished for so many millennia. This enjoyable read is the ideal introduction to the Babylonians for both students and the interested general reader. The Bible saw Babylon with only negative connotations, and while classical writers admired the city's size and splendour, they deplored some of its more unusual customs. More than any other ancient society, Babylon remained a symbol expressing a mistrust of urbanisation. Whatever the perspective taken, for much of the world, the city of Babylon was representative of the whole of Mesopotamian civilization for many centuries. In more recent times, the finds of archaeologists have allowed us to build a more balanced picture of who the Babylonians were, what they contributed to the process of civilization, and what were their intellectual and spiritual preoccupations.

King Hammurabi of Babylon

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King Hammurabi of Babylon: A Biography (Blackwell Ancient Lives)

by Marc Van De Mieroop

This book presents the first biography written in English of the famous Babylonian lawgiver, King Hammurabi, who ruled from 1792 to 1750 BC. It presents a well-rounded view of this ancient Mesopotamian king's accomplishments, by drawing on the extensive writings of his time, including those by Hammurabi himself. Numerous letters and reports by ambassadors to his court and others are presented in translation.Marc Van De Mieroop traces Hammurabi's career as a diplomat and conqueror, describing how he dealt with powerful rivals and extended his kingdom to create the large state of Babylon. He explores the administration of the kingdom and looks at the legacies of Hammurabi's rule, especially his legal code, the earliest complete body of legal instructions in world history.The book demonstrates how Hammurabi's conquests irrevocably changed the political organization of the Middle East and shows that Hammurabi was long remembered by the ancient Mesopotamians as one of the greatest kings of the past.

The Assyrian and Babylonian Empires and Other States of the Near East

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The Cambridge Ancient History Volume 3, Part 2:

The Assyrian and Babylonian Empires and Other States of the Near East, from the Eighth to the Sixth Centuries BC

by John Boardman, I. E. S. Edwards, E. Sollberger, N. G. L. Hammond (Editors)

The Cambridge Ancient History Volume III Part 2 carries on the history of the Near East from the close of Volume III Part 1 and covers roughly the same chronological period as Volume III Part 3. It describes the rise and fall of the great empires of Assyria and Babylonia, the sack of Jerusalem and the exile of the Jews in Babylon.

Индоевропейский язык и индоевропейцы

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Т.В. Гамкрелидзе, Вяч.Вс. Иванов

Индоевропейский язык и индоевропейцы

Beat Culture: Lifestyles, Icons, and Impact

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Beat Culture: Lifestyles, Icons, and Impact

by William Lawlor

The coverage of this book ranges from Jack Kerouac's tales of freedom-seeking Bohemian youth to the frenetic paintings of Jackson Pollock, including 60 years of the Beat Generation and the artists of the Age of Spontaneity. Jack Kerouac's On the Road. Poetry readings in Greenwich Village cafes. City Lights bookstore. Timothy Leary's psychedelic community. Allen Ginsberg's writings composed under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs. How did a handful of struggling writers and poets on the fringe of American culture in the 1940s launch a movement that continues to influence society? Beat Culture captures in a single volume six decades of cultural and countercultural expression in the arts and society. It goes beyond other works which are often limited to Beat writers like William Burroughs, Charies Bukowski, and Michael McClure, to cover a wide range of musicians, painters, dramatists, filmmakers, and dancers who found expression in the Bohemian movement known as the Beat Generation. Top scholars from the United States, England, Holland, Italy, and China analyze a vast array of topics including sexism, misogny, alcoholism and drug abuse within Beat circles; the arrest of poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti on obscenity charges; Beat dress and speech; and the Beat "pad." Through more than 200 entries that travel from New York to New Orleans, from San Francisco to Mexico City, students, scholars, and those interested in popular culture will taste the era's rampant freedom and experimentation, explore the impact of jazz on Beat writings, and discover how Beat behavior signaled events such as the sexual revolution, the peace movement, and environmental awareness.

A Handbook of Ornament

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A Handbook of Ornament

by Franz, Sales Meyer

From simple patterns to the most intricate ornamentation, hand-drawn decoration was a vital part of 19th-century design. Originally published in 1888, this beautiful and highly detailed volume collects over 3000 examples of contemporary decorative figures, including designs inspired by oriental tiling, heraldic pomp and the sinuous curves of Art Nouveau. Covering the full range from basic geometric patterns and borders to complex, lifelike renderings of natural forms, Franz Sales Meyer's clear line drawings provide both guidance for the drawing student and a fascinating treasury of period decoration.

Levinas and Theology

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Levinas and Theology

by Michael Purcell

Emmanuel Levinas was a significant contributor to the field of philosophy, phenomenology and religion. A key interpreter of Husserl, he stressed the importance of attitudes to other people in any philosophical system. For Levinas, to be a subject is to take responsibility for others as well as yourself and therefore responsibility for the one leads to justice for the many. He regarded ethics as the foundation for all other philosophy, but later admitted it could also be the foundation for theology. Michael Purcell outlines the basic themes of Levinas' thought and the ways in which they might be deployed in fundamental and practical theology, and the study of the phenomenon of religion. This book will be useful for undergraduate and graduate students in philosophy, theology and religious studies, as well as those with a theological background who are approaching Levinas for the first time.

The Presocratic Philosophers

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The Presocratic Philosophers (Arguments of the Philosophers)

by Jonathan Barnes

This volume provides a comprehensive exposition of the arguments of the Presocratics--the founding fathers of the Western philosophical tradition and the first masters of rational thought. While previous books have concentrated on historical and philological issues, The Presocratic Philosophers focuses on the philosophical content of Presocratic ideas and arguments, offering a rigorous assessment of their contribution to philosophical thought. The book considers all the main thinkers from Thales to the Sophists and pays particular attention to Parmenides, Zeno, Anaxagoras and Democritus.

Roland Barthes

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Roland Barthes (Routledge Critical Thinkers)

by Graham Allen

Roland Barthes is a central figure in the study of language, literature, culture and the media, both as innovator and guide. This book prepares readers for their first encounter with his crucial writings on some of the most important theoretical debates of the twentieth century, including:*existentialism and Marxism*Semiology, or the 'language of signs'*Structuralism and narrative analysis*Post-structuralism, deconstruction and 'the death of the author'*Theories of the text and intertextualityTracing his engagement with other key thinkers such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Ferdinand de Saussure, Jacques Derrida and Julia Kristeva, this volume offers a clear picture of Barthes work in context. Having explained in detail Barthes's most influential ideas and their impact, Graham Allen concludes with a guide to easily available translations of his work and to useful further reading.The in-depth understanding of Barthes offered by this guide is essential to anyone reading contemporary critical theory.

William Faulkner and the Tangible Past: The Architecture of Yoknapatawpha

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William Faulkner and the Tangible Past: The Architecture of Yoknapatawpha (California Studies in the History of Art)

by Thomas S. Hines

The world of William Faulkner is seen from a new perspective in Thomas Hines's imaginative and many-faceted study. Hines assesses the impact of the built environment on Faulkner's consciousness and shows how the architecture of the writer's fictional county of Yoknapatawpha reflects the actual architecture of Oxford, Mississippi, and neighboring areas. Over 110 distinctive photographs, in both color and black-and-white, beautifully complement the text, making this book both a reading and viewing pleasure. Much has been written on the role of nature in Faulkner's work, but architecture and the built environmentthe opposite of naturehave been virtually ignored. Arguing that nature and architecture are of equal importance in Faulkner's cosmos, Hines examines the writer's use of architectural modes primitive, classical, gothic, and modernto demarcate caste and class, to convey mood and ambience, and to delineate character. Hines provides not only another way of understanding Faulkner's work but also a means of appreciating the power of architecture to reflect what Faulkner called "the comedy and tragedy of being alive." Hines's gifts as an architectural historian and photographer and his intimate knowledge of Faulkner country are evident throughout this handsome book. Combining cultural, intellectual, architectural, and literary history, William Faulkner and the Tangible Past will take Faulkner lovers, as well as lovers of architecture, on a fascinating tour of Yoknapatawpha County.

William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury

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William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury (Bloom's Modern Critical Interpretations)

by Harold Bloom (Editor)

"The Sound and the Fury", William Faulkner's fourth novel, was his first attempt at a wholly self-conscious style. Faulkner's willingness to experiment affords his readers no stable perspective from which to comprehend the decline of the Compson family. This title includes critical essays on Faulkner's work.

Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales

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Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales (Bloom's Modern Critical Interpretations)

by Harold Bloom (Editor)

"The Canterbury Tales" was the first great poem in the English language, and it remains a favorite among students and scholars to this day. Ideal for research, this volume includes a comprehensive collection of interpretive essays that provide expert commentary on this timeless work. It also features an introduction by master scholar Harold Bloom, a chronology detailing Chaucer's life, a bibliography, and an index.