ELT & Literary Studies Books

Book SynopsisAlthough Phryne is considered the most famous of the many Greek courtesans who flocked to Athens during the fourth century BCE, there have been no modern attempts to reconstruct her life. It was not until the eighteenth century that artistic interest in her developed and her stories were continually reimagined and embellished. Artists and writers have recounted again and again how she served as the model for the Praxiteles'' Cnidian Aphrodite, the first monumental female nude in Western art, and how the sight of her naked body won acquittal when she was prosecuted for impiety. However, she left no writings in her own words, and only a handful of fragments related to her have survived from her time. Until now, the primary evidence for her life comes down to us from texts composed hundreds of years after her death, all of them written by men, whose works reflect the changing tastes, experiences, and values of Greeks living under Roman rule. Phryne of Thespiae offers a close analysis of the evidence for sexual labor in classical Athens to find parallels between Phyrne and other Greek courtesans. The result is an innovative biography that examines key moments of Phyrne''s life that have been dismissed as male fantasies, arguing that many of them could have plausibly originated in historical events. The portrait that emerges is that of a powerful and socially consequential woman whose wealth and connections helped to shape the society in which she lived.

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Book SynopsisThe Hsu-Tang Library presents authoritative and eminently readable translations of classical Chinese literature, in bilingual editions, ranging across three millennia and the entire Sinitic world.The Misadventures of Master Mugwort: A Joke Book Trilogy from Imperial China is a translation of three collections of humorous episodes revolving around the beloved fictional character of Master Mugwort (Aizi). Set in the ancient Warring States period, Master Mugwort counsels kings in the art of statecraft, takes on other masters in mock philosophical debates, and wisecracks his way through this age of opportunity and intrigue, disciples in tow.The explosive popularity of the original collection from the late 1000s, attributed to literatus-extraordinaire Su Shi, inspired sequels centuries later: in 1516 by precocious teenager Lu Cai; and in 1608 by whimsical retiree Tu Benjun. Together, these three books represent a time-honored tradition of Chinese humor as well as a light-hearted interpretatTable of ContentsDynastic Timeline for Pre-Modern China Names and Dates of the Warring States Introduction I. Miscellaneous Stories of Master Mugwort II. The Ming Sequels II.a. Further Sayings of Master Mugwort II.b. Outer Sayings of Master Mugwort Appendix 1: Preface to Jest Intrigues of the Five Masters. Appendix 2: Issues of Attribution: Miscellaneous Stories Appendix 3: Table of Pre-Modern Titles List of Abbreviations Bibliography Text-Critical Endnotes

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Book SynopsisThe Hsu-Tang Library presents authoritative and eminently readable translations of classical Chinese literature, in bilingual editions, ranging across three millennia and the entire Sinitic world.This anthology opens up new religious and poetic worlds for readers. It consists of translations of poems written by Buddhist nuns from China''s late imperial period (1368-1911). Appreciation of these poems is enhanced by individual biographical accounts for each of the sixty-five nun-poets and an Introduction to the historical, religious, and literary context of these poems, including a concise discussion of Chinese Buddhism and Chinese Buddhist poetry.The nuns in this anthology come from a range of backgrounds: some were placed in convents when very young; others were former palace ladies or courtesans who found refuge in the religious life; others were women left widowed or destitute in the wake of the various political and social upheavals of the times, especially the violent transition beTable of ContentsIntroduction The Poems Wulian After the Rain An Autumn Night: Written in the Moment Jieshi Early Morning Qingming Miaoni Spring Night The Girl Nun from Yan Gatha Xingkong Reflecting on Myself Mojing Going by Way of Tiger Hill Jueqing Poem Inscribed on a Convent Wall Wuwei Deathbed Gatha Jiyin Dharma Hall Gatha Deyin Early Autumn: A Distant Evening View Song of Planting Bamboo Lady Huang Jieling Came to Stay at My Mountain Boudoir, Written in the Moment Derong Pitying the Caged Bird Who is Just Like Me Plum Blossom Jingming Improvised Dharma Instructions to My Disciples Jingyin Going to See Huang Yuanjie but Not Finding Her In Dumu Jin'gang Gatha Gatha Deathbed Gatha Xiang'an Yinhui Gatha: Eating Bamboo Shoots Deshan Carries His Bowl Miaohui Passing By the Tomb of Tenth Daughter Ma Drinking on Flower-Raining Terrace, I Was Assigned "Falling Leaves" as the Topic for a Poem Daoyuan Seated Meditation: Reflections Sengjian Early Summer The Autumn Flowering Crabapple Tree Shenyi A Dream Journey to Mount Tiantai Crossing Again the Hengyun Mountain, Thinking of Jingwei Zaisheng Composed in Early Spring Winter's Day Narrating My Feelings on a Winter's Night Jingwei The Emerald Sea Random Thoughts on Living in the Country Facing the Moon on an Autumn Night Sitting at Night Shangjian Huizong Village Life Thoughts on Living in Seclusion A Friend from the Inner Chambers Comes to Visit: Remembering Old Times Heartfelt Recollections Wugou Writing of My Feelings (Version 1) Writing of My Feelings (Version 2) Climbing the Mountain after the Snow Chaoyi Deathbed Gatha Mingxuan Wuzhen Autumn Night Falling Leaves Inscribed on a Ying Stone Weiji Xingzhi Ode to the Honeybees Living in the Mountains Listening to the Geese Jingnuo Chaoyue Song of the Ancient Plum Trees Passing by Yongqing Monastery, I Came Upon Its Peonies and Wrote These For Lady Yang A Celebration in Verse of the Autumn Orchid Chaoyan Miyin Self-Encomium Yizhen Mid-Autumn Younger Sister Yuying and I Planned to Meet on the Ninth Day, But She Didn't Arrive Living in the Mountains Among Falling Leaves Matching the Rhymes of "Cloud Hermitage" Shangxin Ice Yuanduan Yufu My Study: An Impromptu Verse Miaohui Dawn Sitting at Bo're Convent Shiyan Recalling a Dream Swallows Rising at Dawn: An Expression of Feelings A Reply to Sixth Elder Sister Ruixian Wanxian Inside the Convent: Reflections Lianhua Kedu Gatha Yinyue Xinglin In the MountainsThe Three Blows Gatha When Sansheng Saw People He Came Out, When Xinghua Saw People He Did Not Ansheng Ode to the Silkworm Mourning Zhanna Zhuanzheng Deathbed Gatha Zhisheng Ode to the Snow The Chrysanthemum Deri Early Autumn Feelings by a Rainy Window Deyue On an Autumn Night Listening to the Crickets Zhiyuan A Lament for Peng E Qiyuan Xinggang The First Month of Summer Retreat: A Song of Leisure Dharma Instructions for Mingyuan Dharma Instructions for Person of the Way Xu Chaogu Addressing the Congregation on My Birthday Matching Jiang Yundu's "Autumn Pavilion Song" Ode to the Plum Blossom Yigong Chaoke Grieving for My Master Climbing up to a Thatched Hut on Lingyin and Gazing at Feilai Peak: An Impromptu Poem Yikui Chaochen Five Gathas: Sitting in Meditation (To a Previous Tune) To a Previous Tune Just Before Parting from My Elder Brothers Bidding Farewell to the Lay Dharma-Protectors of Meixi Of My Feelings after Visiting the Nun Weiji from Xiongsheng and Not Finding Her In Hymn: The Honeycomb In Praise of the Venerable Bamboo (To a Previous Tune) On the Fifteenth of the Twelfth Lunar Month After the Snow, Returning Home by Boat I Improvised This Poem Presented to Chan Master Zhuying Inside my Boat on My Return Home to Dongting: An Impromptu Poem Deathbed Gatha Zukui Xuanfu An Ode to Honeybees An Ode to Fireworks Breaking off a Plum Branch to Offer to the Buddha To Myself A Leisurely Visit to an Ancient Temple Returning to the Mountain, I Cross the Lake Returning to the Mountains, I Laugh at Myself A Leisurely Stroll on a Moonlit Night Traveling by Boat on a Winter Day In Search of Plum Blossoms Dharma Instructions for Practitioner Keren Taking up Residence in a Hermitage Living in the Mountains: An Impromptu Poem Reading the Recorded Sayings of Layman Pang Leaving My Old Retreat on Dongting The Moon in the Water: A Gatha My Aspirations Dharma Instructions for Person of the Way Xunji To Layman Zhao Fengchu (second of two verses) The Road is Hard (To the Tune "Immortals by the River") Summer Rest on East Mountain Song of the Twelve Hours of the Day Living in the Mountains: Miscellaneous Gathas Thoughts Baochi Xuanzong Matching the Ten Verses of Chan Master Cishou Huaiyin's "Cloud Dispelling Terrace" Silk-embroidered Peonies Harmonizing with Temple Manager Teacher Shao's "Mastering Yangqi's Primary Strategy": Four Verses Watching the Snow from Nanzhou's Phoenix Rising Tower Dharma Instructions for Person of the Way Liyan Jizong Xingche Living the Nanyue Mountains: Miscellaneous Verses Mist and Clouds Peak Gods and Immortals Grotto Heavenly Terrace Temple Mount Zhong's Great Illumination Temple The Great Yang Spring The Second Month of Autumn: A Parting Poem Enjoying the Snow on New Year's Day My Aspirations Written to Rhymes by the Layman of Zhoukui Hermitage Visiting the Monk of Nanyue on His Sickbed: Two Poems To Chan Elder Dharma Brother Zaisheng on Her Fiftieth Birthday At the Zhixi Cloister on Hidden Lake, Presented to Chan Master Daoming Presented to Layman Xu Jingke Having Borrowed a Meditation Hut from Chan Practitioner Zhubing, I Wrote a Poem to Present to Her A Farewell Poem for Person of the Way Yan Duoli New Year's Eve of the Year Wuxu (1658) Composed for Layman Gu Mengdiao on His Sixtieth Birthday On an Autumn Day, Thinking of My Mother Dharma Instructions to the Lay Assembly: Four Gathas Ziyong Chengru A Bell Shattered After Being Struck and I Was Moved to Compose a Gatha Upon Hearing the Sound of Wood Being Chopped Ode to the Snow Two Verses: Living in the Mountains Thoughts in the Bingzi Year (1696) An Excursion to the Western Hills Gatha: Boarding My Boat Early Autumn Sentiments To My Elder Dharma Brother Ruru Asking Questions of the Masters: Four Gathas A Miscellaneous Chant Walking Through the Rice Paddies, I Casually Composed This Gatha Eight Miscellaneous Gathas (selection of three) Entrusting Head Student Zhi with Robes and Whisk, I Composed This Gatha Mingxiu Seeing Off Relatives, Bowing to My Master, and Taking the Vows My Inscription for a Painting of West Lake Requested While Staying at My Convent in Jingzhou Shuxia In Deep Autumn, Returning to My Hometown; in Sixth Uncle's Garden Pavilion, Standing in Front of the Chrysanthemums To the Tune "Immortal by the River" Composed While on a Boat To the Tune "Bodhisattva Barbarian": A Parting Poem Wuqing Feelings Huiji Reply to Lady Gioro Heseri Lianghai Ru'de Poems of the Pure Land Untitled Verses Written in Imitation of an Ancient Style: The Filial Girl Lu of Pinghu Buddha-Recitation (Selections from a Series of Forty-Eight Poems) Abbreviations Bibliography Index of Sources

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Book SynopsisLa Peste (in English The Plague), originally published in 1947 by the Nobel Prize-winning writer Albert Camus, chronicles the progression of deadly bubonic plague as it spreads through the quarantined Algerian city of Oran. While most discussions of fictional examples within aesthetics are either historical or hypothetical, Camus offers an example of pestilence fiction. Camus chose fiction to convey facts--about plagues in the past, his own bout with tuberculosis at age seventeen, living under quarantine away from home for several years, and forced separation from his wife who remained in Algiers while he was abroad in Nazi-occupied France. His own lived experiences undergird an imaginative account of shared human realities with which we can identify: vulnerability to the disease, isolation, fear, and finally humanitarianism. The Plague teaches us to neither covet nor expect what we so casually took for granted. This collection of original essays on philosophical themes in The Plague is of special relevance during and in the aftermath of Covid-19 but also provides reflections that will be of lasting value to those interested in this classic work of literature. The novel explores questions of enduring importance. Do we collectively meet the threshold of ethical behaviour posed by Camus who wrote, What''s true of all the evils in the world is true of plague as well. It helps men to rise above themselves? Or does the absurd undermine the compassionate? Do heroes dutifully fight a plague with common decency, or does human nature resign itself to the normalization of uncontrollable suffering and death? There are myriad ways to approach the novel and this volume encourages readers to ponder human dilemmas in fictional Oran informed by our current pandemic.Trade ReviewRecommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. * Choice *Table of ContentsEmily Dickinson (1830-1886) poem Series Editor's Foreword Acknowledgements List of Contributors List of Illustrations Introduction, Peg Brand Weiser Chapter 1: The Plague and the Present Moment, Steven G. Kellman Chapter 2: Present in Effacement: The Place of Women in Camus's Plague and Ours, Jane E. Schulz Chapter 3: The Meaning of a Pandemic, Andrew Edgar Chapter 4: Grief and Human Connection in The Plague, Kathleen Higgins Chapter 5: Examining the Narrative Devolution of the Physician in Camus's The Plague, Edward B. Weiser Chapter 6: Horror and Natural Evil in The Plague, Cynthia A. Freeland Chapter 7: 'I Can't Breathe': Covid-19 and The Plague's Tragedy, Margaret E. Gray Chapter 8: Modern Death, Decent Death, and Heroic Solidarity in The Plague, Peg Brand Weiser

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Book SynopsisThe Hsu-Tang Library presents authoritative and eminently readable translations of classical Chinese literature, in bilingual editions, ranging across three millennia and the entire Sinitic world.Master Incapable (Wunengzi) is an important but relatively little-known Daoist work written in 887, as the Tang dynasty (618-907) was breathing its last. The unknown author, a former government official now living as a recluse, witnesses internecine warfare, widespread poverty, and rampant social injustice, and attempts to explain why humanity seems to be plunging into a state of utter chaos. The nucleus of Master Incapable''s analysis is his view of the separation of humanity from the natural world, caused by an abnormal growth of the intellect. His critique is as radical as that in the so-called primitivist chapters of the Daoist classic Zhuangzi, in which civilization is considered a disease spread by an intellectual and societal elite, those who are called sages. The way out of mankind''s Trade ReviewWith its useful supporting material and annotations, as well as the original text, this volume presents an interesting-and quite entertaining-text very well. It is certainly scholarly-thorough, but is also readily accessible to interested readers. * The Complete Review *Table of ContentsIntroduction Preface to Master Incapable Master Incapable, Book I The Fault of the Sages Illuminating the Foundation Analyzing the Delusion Being Free of Worries Offering Proof of Fraudulence (I, II) True Cultivation (I, II, III, IV) Master Incapable, Book II Discourse on King Wen Discourse on the Masters of Shouyang Discourse on Lord Lao Discourses on Confucius (I, II) Discourse on Fan Li Discourse on Song Yu Discourse on the Hermits of Shang Discourse on Yan Ling Discourse on Sun Deng Master Incapable, Book III Reply to Tong's Question Reply to Huayangzi's Question Reply to Yuzhongzi's Question Discourse on Fish Discourse on the Poison Bird Reply to Lu's Questions (I, II) Records of Things Witnessed (I, II, III) Consolidating the Foundation (I, II, III, IV) Bibliography

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Book SynopsisThis is the first biography of a gay American novelist, story writer, and playwright who in the early 1960s was considered a major talent and whose work was praised by Jonathan Franzen, Susan Sontag, Langston Hughes, and Tennessee Williams.Trade ReviewThrough his writing, Purdy offers his readers a window on the sexual experiences of an America that remains largely hidden from view. * Looi van Kessel, an assistant professor of Literary Studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands, The Gay & Lesbian Review *This biography of a cult writer and pioneer of queer fiction tries to reconcile mainstream neglect of his work with the acclaim he received from authors including Tennessee Williams and Susan Sontag....Snyder takes us from Purdy's childhood on an Ohio farm to his final years in New York, in a tantalizing portrait of a man with a talent for alienating colleagues, but also for conveying 'a tragic sense of life couched in dark laughter.' * New Yorker (Briefly Noted) *For Purdy fans, it [Snyder's biography] offers a welcome trove of new details about a man who was as ornery in life as he was on the page. For everyone else, it offers something even better: a cornucopia of literary gossip. * Jon Michaud, New Yorker *Meticulously researched.... Snyder deserves applause for having delivered James's important and ramshackle life in so neat of a volume...with enough novel detail that even a reader like me, who knew James for two decades, will find value and pleasure in reading the book....I recommend that you go out and buy [James Purdy:] Life of a Contrarian Writer from your local independent bookstore and devote however many days and hours you need to read it. You won't be wasting your time. * Matthew Stadler, Los Angeles Review of Books *Snyder makes a strong case for Purdy as a visionary American Genius * Looi Van Kessel, Gay and Lesbian Review *James Purdy was out of category, out of this world, and hence, often out of print. He was also, without question, one of the most original American writers of the twentieth century. Michael Snyder has performed an essential public service by bringing this to your attention. So please heed it. * Fran Lebowitz *With his crazy prose and graveside view of life, James Purdy felt to generations of young writers under his bewitching spell like a moral compass, though one that never stopped spinning. In the black-diamond tradition of Denton Welch, Paul Bowles, even the later Herman Melville, he revealed what strange, crooked marvels the imagination might discover if left alone. Thank you, Michael Snyder, for framing, for a new generation, the fitfully forgotten but never forgettable life and fiction of James Purdy. * Brad Gooch, author of Flannery: A Life of Flannery O'Connor *A beautifully in-depth literary biography of a maddening, inflammatory, eccentric, and very important writer. James Purdy is probably the most important writer you've never heard of, and Michael Snyder makes an impeccable case for why American fiction wouldn't be what it is without him. * Brian Evenson, author of Song for the Unraveling of the World *Snyder presents Purdy as an artist well worth knowing and appreciating...Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers. * Choice *Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Mystery of Purdy Ch. 1: Hicksville, Ohio Ch. 2: A Day after the Fair Ch. 3: The Nephew Ch. 4: Dream Palaces Ch. 5: The Running Sons Ch. 6: The Professor Ch. 7: James Purdy Begins Ch. 8: Success Story Ch. 9: Threshold of Assent Ch. 10: The Mourner Below Ch. 11: Maggoty Urgings Ch. 12: The Sun at Noon Ch 13: Sleepers in Moon-Crowned Valleys Ch. 14: Elijah Thrush Ch. 15: Solitary Confinement Ch. 16: Lighting Out Ch. 17: On Glory's Course Ch. 18: Color of Darkness Ch. 19: The Acolytes Acknowledgments Notes Select Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThirty years ago Robert Kaster''s Guardians of Language: The Grammarian and Society in Late Antiquity investigated ancient Greco-Roman grammarians as social agents within their social and cultural context. This collection of twelve essays develops that line of inquiry by focusing on one dimension of their activity: how Roman grammarians - as well as scholars and intellectuals more broadly - described, made sense of, and resisted linguistic diversity within the Roman republic and empire. This includes social and diachronic variety within Latin as well as multilingual contact with Greek and other Mediterranean languages. The essays cover five centuries of Latin reflection on language, from Varro to the fifth or sixth century CE. The book concludes with an autobiographical Epilogue by Robert Kaster about the origins of Guardians of Language and updates to the prosopography of known ancient grammarians found in Guardians.Trade ReviewHow does a language that has become the lingua franca of an Empire change over time? Who drives such change, and how is it seen by intellectuals and by those who oversee élite education-the grammatici? These essays explore these questions in detail, insightfully, often humorously. The Epilogue, Robert Kaster's own account of the accidental genesis of Guardians of Language, shows why its 30th anniversary deserves celebration, and displays the wit and modesty that helped inspire the loyalty of Kaster's students and colleagues alike. Kaster's updated prosopography of Roman grammatici makes the book indispensable for students of that no longer quite so neglected group of guardians of the Latin language. * David Blank, University of California, Los Angeles *Gitner has assembled an all-star team to finally respond to Guardians of Language in the best possible way. Recent technical advances in a variety of fields have been marshaled, the time frame of the investigation has been expanded, and the relevance of a variety of other scholarly discourses to the policing of language has been properly recognized. All in all, a remarkable collective achievement. * Andrew Riggsby, University of Texas, Austin *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Contributors Short Title Abbreviations Preface Adam Gitner Introduction 1. Counterfeit and Coinage: Gresham's Law and the Grammarian James E. G. Zetzel Part I: Varro 2. Varro the Conservative? Katharina Volk 3. Varro and the Sabine Language in the De lingua Latina Wolfgang D. C. de Melo 4. Varro's Word Trees Andreas T. Zanker Part II: Professional Grammarians 5. The Use of Greek in Diomedes' Ars grammatica Bruno Rochette 6. The Grammarian Consentius on Language Change and Variation Tommaso Mari 7. Antiquus = squalidus? Pompeius' Attitude towards Antiquity Anna Zago 8. T(w)o Be or Not T(w)o Be: The dualis numerus according to Latin Grammarians up to the Early Middle Ages Tim Denecker 9. Anonymous Grammatical Scholarship: Insights from an Annotated Juvenal Codex from Egypt Alessandro Garcea and Maria Chiara Scappaticcio Part III: Scholars and Intellectuals 10. Civic Metaphors for Lexical Borrowing from Seneca to Gellius Adam Gitner 11. Grammar and Grammarians, Linguistic and Social Change from Gellius to Macrobius Leofranc Holford-Strevens 12. Language Variation and Grammatical Theory in Roman Legal Texts Rolando Ferri Epilogue The (Very Fragile) Origins of Guardians of Language Robert A. Kaster Prosopographical Addenda to Guardians of Language Robert A. Kaster Bibliography General Index Index of Notable Passages

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Book SynopsisIn Vestiges of a Philosophy: Matter, the Meta-Spiritual, and the Forgotten Bergson, John Ó Maoilearca examines the seemingly very different but nonetheless complementary ideas of philosopher Henri Bergson and his occultist sister, Mina Bergson (aka Moina Mathers), to tackle contemporary themes in current materialist philosophy, memory studies, and the relationship between mysticism and philosophy.Trade ReviewIn this revelatory study of the intersecting interests of mystic Mina Bergson and her brother, philosopher Henri Bergson, Ó Maoilearca meticulously and cautiously tracks philosophical developments from nineteenth-century spiritualism to recent new materialism. In the process, he does no less than uncover occulture's and analytical philosophy's correlated investments in both spiritualism and materialism during the modernist period. This book will prove foundational to the study of modern mysticism as philosophical engagement and materialist analysis. * Dennis Denisoff, author of Decadent Ecology in British Literature and Art, 1860-1910: Decay, Desire, and the Pagan Revival *Henri and Mina Bergson form one of the most enigmatic sibling duos of the fin-de-siècle. The unfamiliar reader might assume little common ground between the two—the former a highly respected philosopher, the latter a feminist occult leader largely unknown outside of specialist circles today. Exploring both siblings' thought in relation to the other and demonstrating their converging areas of interest, Ó Maoilearca offers a sophisticated, provocative, and beautifully crafted reconsideration of the relationship between Western esotericism and philosophy. A must-read for anyone seeking to understand the ambiguous position of mysticism and magic in the Western intellectual tradition. * Manon Hedenborg White, author of The Eloquent Blood: The Goddess Babalon and the Construction of Femininities in Western Esotericism *Vestiges of a Philosophy performs its ideas with visionary urgency, as Ó Maoilearca sustains a diffractive reading of a vast array of sources—canonical works alongside obscure archival texts exhumed through meticulous archeology—that proposes conspicuous concordances between the thought of siblings Mina and Henri Bergson. The complex and exhilarating investigation significantly reconfigures the parallel Bergsonisms, contending with their strangeness and poetics, while aligning them with ideas of contemporary philosophy from Karen Barad and François Laruelle among others, in this volume's immaculate consideration of matter, memory, movement, and spirit. * Matthew Goulish, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago *This interesting, unusual book straddles two worlds...This is a scholarly achievement,...Recommended. Graduate students through researchers and faculty. * Choice *In this revelatory study of the intersecting interests of mystic Mina Bergson and her brother, philosopher Henri Bergson, Ó Maoilearca meticulously and cautiously tracks philosophical developments from nineteenth-century spiritualism to recent new materialism. In the process, he does no less than uncover occulture's and analytical philosophy's correlated investments in both spiritualism and materialism during the modernist period. This book will prove foundational to the study of modern mysticism as philosophical engagement and materialist analysis. * Dennis Denisoff, Author of Decadent Ecology in British Literature and Art, 1860-1910: Decay, Desire, and the Pagan Revival *Henri and Mina Bergson form one of the most enigmatic sibling duos of the fin-de-siècle. The unfamiliar reader might assume little common ground between the two-the former a highly respected philosopher, the latter a feminist occult leader largely unknown outside of specialist circles today. Exploring both siblings' thought in relation to the other and demonstrating their converging areas of interest, Ó Maoilearca offers a sophisticated, provocative, and beautifully crafted reconsideration of the relationship between Western esotericism and philosophy. A must-read for anyone seeking to understand the ambiguous position of mysticism and magic in the Western intellectual tradition. * Manon Hedenborg White, Author of The Eloquent Blood: The Goddess Babalon and the Construction of Femininities in Western Esotericism *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Prologue: A Reciprocity of Acceleration Strange Memory: An Introduction in Five Parts 1° = 10° Zelator Covariant One: Ordinary Mysticism, the Hyperbolic, and the Supernormal Two: Meet the Bergsons 10° = 1° Ipsissimus Covariant (Neophyte) Three: Hyper-Ritual Four: "O My Bergson, You Are a Magician" Five: On Watery Logic, or Magical Thinking 2° = 9° Theoricus Covariant Six: Of the Survival of Images Seven: On the Meta-Spiritual 4° = 7° Philosophus Covariant Eight: Vestigia Nulla Retrorsum: "Leave No Trace" 3° = 8° Practicus Covariant Nine: Spirit in the Materialist World Ten: Veridical Hallucinations and Circumstantial Evidence Epilogue: The Whole of the Moon Bibliography Notes

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Book SynopsisIn East of the Wardrobe, Warwick Ball explores hitherto unrecognised and unexpected Eastern aspects in and influences on C. S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia.Trade Review"a complex, wide-ranging investigation" -- Mark Vernon, Church TimesBall's work highlights the breadth of intellectual and cultural traditions that were available to writers of his generation. * Greece & Rome *The book's personal, digressive, and allusive qualities make it a page turner and often sheer fun to read. * Philip Irving Mitchell, Dallas Baptist University, TX , Mythopoeic Society *A highly enjoyable and eye-opening account of the myriad ways Lewis was influenced by Eastern art, literature, and philosophy - and, indeed, religion. * Oliver Tearle, Interesting Literature *A highly enjoyable and eye-opening account of the myriad ways Lewis was influenced by Eastern art, literature, and philosophy -and, indeed, religion. * Interesting Literature *The book's personal, digressive, and allusive qualities make it a page turner and often sheer fun to read... Even those readers who are simply interested in comparative literature can enjoy the numerous possibilities on display. I think East of the Wardrobe will be mined for all of these for some years to come. * Philip Irving Mitchell, Mythlore *East of the Wardrobe is as enjoyable as it is important...Laced with Ball's humour and humanity, this book has something for every reader. * Frazer MacDiarmid, The Stimulus *East of the Wardrobe is as enjoyable as it is important. Ball betrays intimate familiarity with the Chronicles, undertaking close-reading (even exegesis) of the texts that will delight Narnia fans. Theologians will be fascinated by the variety of Eastern concepts evident in books whose secrets were thought to be long revealed... Even the endnotes were amusing and intriguing, with many meriting footnote status. C. S. Lewis emerges as a more complex and sympathetic author than commonly understood, whose bibliophilia sparked a love of beautiful stories, regardless of provenance. Laced with Ball's humour and humanity, this book has something for every reader. * The Stimulus *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Introduction: Confessions of a Reluctant Narniaphile 1. Endless Books: Herodotus to Robert Byron 2. 'It All [Perhaps] Began with a Picture': Narnia, Persian Painting, and Pauline Baynes 3. East of the Wardrobe: The Manners and Customs of the Modern Calormen 4. On Board the Dawn Treader: Epic Quests and Fabulous Voyages to the East 5. Of This and Other Worlds: Portals and Alternative Time, from the Wardrobe to the Qu'ran 6. Mere Christianity? Mere Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, and Sufism as Well in Narnia 7. Farther Up and Farther In. Messages within, beyond, and east of Narnia Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisGeorge Orwell is sometimes read as disinterested in (if not outright hostile) to philosophy. Yet a fair reading of Orwell''s work reveals an author whose work was deeply informed by philosophy and who often revealed his philosophical sympathies. Orwell''s written works are of ethical significance, but he also affirmed and defended substantive ethical claims about humanism, well-being, normative ethics, free will and moral responsibility, moral psychology, decency, equality, liberty, justice, and political morality. In George Orwell: The Ethics of Equality, philosopher Peter Brian Barry avoids a narrow reading of Orwell that considers only a few of his best-known works and instead considers the entirety of Orwell''s corpus, including his fiction, journalism, essays, book reviews, diaries, and correspondence, contending that there are ethical commitments discernible throughout his work that ground some of his best-known pronouncements and positions. While Orwell is often read as a humaniTable of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1. George Orwell: Philosophical Outsider Chapter 2. George Orwell: The Age's Advocate Chapter 3. Orwell on Free Will and Responsibility Chapter 4. Orwellian Moral Psychology Chapter 5. Orwellian Decency Chapter 6. Orwell's Egalitarianism Chapter 7. George Orwell and Left-Libertarianism Chapter 8. Orwell's Incomplete Case for Socialism Index

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Book SynopsisLove, Subjectivity, and Truth engages in a lively manner with the overlapping areas of philosophy and literature, philosophy of emotions, and existential thought. Subjective truth, a phrase used in Proust''s novel In Search of Lost Time, is rich with existential connotations. It invokes Kierkegaard above all, but significantly Nietzsche as well, and other philosophers who thematize love, subjectivity, and truth. In Search of Lost Time is especially concerned about what we can know about others through love. Insofar as it conveys and analyzes experience, the novel is capable not only of exploring existential issues but also of doing something like phenomenology. What we know is shaped by our way of knowing, just as the properties of visible, colored objects are determined by the wavelengths of light our eyes can see. Nowhere does the subjective basis of our awareness appear so evident as it does when we view things through loving eyes. In Proust''s novel we find skeptical views about loTrade ReviewIn this lucid and beautifully written book, Rick Anthony Furtak explores the infinite folds of the heart as it closes and opens to reality -- the reality of the world, and the reality of the self. His inquiry into the truthfulness of love in Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu crosses seamlessly between literature, philosophy, and psychology, illuminating the grounds of perception and value. * Yi-Ping Ong, Associate Professor of Comparative Thought and Literature, Johns Hopkins University *A hundred years on, Marcel Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu remains the leading candidate for The Great Philosophical Novel. Rick Furtak has written a great philosophical book to accompany that novel, a book that helps us navigate the complex, often contradictory statements of Proust's narrator and reveals the coherent philosophical sensibility that lies beneath. Furtak is the ideal guide to a potentially intimidating but profoundly rewarding and enriching literary work. Readers will find it both informative and inspiring, and will be inspired by it, I hope, to return to Proust's novel. * Troy Jollimore, Author of Love's Vision and Earthly Delights: Poems *Once in a rare while, a book comes along that makes you rethink everything you believed about Proust; Love, Subjectivity, and Truth is just such a book. It is original, persuasive, and as clear as it is erudite, and it has persuaded me to see matters of love and knowledge in an entirely new way. Elegantly written, and even moving at times, this is the best book on Proust I've read in many years. * Joshua Landy, Author of The World According to Proust *Table of ContentsPreface 1. Love and the Meaning of Life 2. On Possibility and Significance 3. Skepticism and Perspective: The Elusiveness of Truth 4. On Loving Badly and Discovering Truth Nonetheless 5.

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Book SynopsisTheocritus: Space, Absence, and Desire discusses many of Theocritus''s Idylls with emphasis on how these poems construct space--its contours and borders, along with the people, animals, and objects that fill it--and the equally important role of absence. Drawing on spatial theory from anthropology and cultural geography, author William G. Thalmann studies each poem in itself and in its connections with other poems, so that a loose coherence emerges among them. Spatially, the Ptolemaic empire provides a setting and reference point for the various types of Idylls (bucolic, urban, mythological, and encomiastic poems), in ways that help legitimate it. In all the idylls, however, space is constructed selectively from particular perspectives, so that it reflects and shapes people''s relations with each other and humans'' relations with nature. The bucolic Idylls in particular raise questions about being in and out of place and relations between self and other that would have been important under the conditions of mobility and intercultural contact in the early Hellenistic period. Yet theirs is a fictional world, defined more by its margins than by its center, and visions of fullness and presence of nature are always distanced from the reader. Absence is constitutive of this world, just as absence of the beloved is the precondition for the desire of bucolic characters and prompts their singing. Their desire mirrors the desire of readers for the absent bucolic world that the poems arouse and that keeps them reading.Trade ReviewThalmann offers a brilliant reading of the Theocritean corpus through the lens of space and location. Treating both realistic subjects under Ptolemaic rule and imaginary characters dwelling in bucolic space, Thalmann focuses on the dynamic of absence and desire as Theocritus' overarching theme. A pleasure to read! * Kathryn Gutzwiller, University of Cincinnati *This is a nuanced discussion of Theocritean bucolic space: how it differs from urban, agricultural, marine, and mythological realms, and the ways in which boundary dynamics inform the texts of the received corpus. A fitting successor to his work on the Argonautica. * Susan Stephens, Stanford University *Altogether this book is a delight; Thalmann effectively uses the idea of imaginative spaces to illuminate Theocritus' creation of his bucolic world while keeping the focus on the poetry, not the theory. At the same time, he engages contemporary concerns in Hellenistic poetry: the poetry book, engagement with contemporary politics, particularly the Ptolemaic Empire and Alexandrian self-consciousness. * Classical Journal-Online *Both scholarly and accessible, the study fills a need for a current book-length treatment of Theocritus and contributes to important themes in Hellenistic poetry more broadly. * Choice *[Thalmann] has authored an elegant and sensitive study that repays close engagement. It is a necessary read for anyone seriously interested in the study of Theocritus. * Classical Review *Table of ContentsPreface Introduction Note on Text and Transliteration Chapter 1: Theocritean Spaces 1: The Bucolic and Urban Poems Chapter 2: Theocritean Spaces 2: Mythological and Encomiastic Space Chapter 3: The Poetics of Absence Chapter 4: On the Margins of Bucolic Chapter 5: Conclusion References Indexes

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Book SynopsisFascism is a word ubiquitous in our contemporary political discourse, but few know about its roots in the ancient past or its long, strange evolution to the present. In ancient Rome, the fasces were a bundle of wooden rods bound with a leather cord, in which an axe was placed--in essence, a mobile kit for corporal or capital punishment. Attendants typically carried fasces before Rome''s higher officials, to induce feelings of respect and fear for the relevant authority. This highly performative Roman institution had a lifespan of almost two millennia, and made a deep impression on subsequent eras, from the Byzantine period to the present. Starting in the Renaissance, we find revivals and reinterpretations of the ancient fasces, accelerating especially after 1789, the first year of the United States'' Constitution and the opening volley of the French Revolution. But it was Benito Mussolini, who, beginning in 1919, propagated the fasces on an unprecedented scale. Oddly, today the emblem Trade ReviewThis is a highly readable, interesting and useful survey, and an illustration of how we can always learn from history. The line between Romulus, the consuls, Marianne, Lincoln and Mussolini isn't a straight one: symbols too can be easily manipulated. * Classics for All *Brennan follows a symbol of authority from ancient Rome, via Mussolini and Lincoln, to today's far Right.... Compelling. * The Telegraph *Few political icons can boast the longevity of the fasces, the bundle of rods surrounding an axe variously employed by the ancient Etruscans and Romans, French and American revolutionaries, and (most infamously) Mussolini's fascists. In the first comprehensive study of its kind, Cory Brennan expertly traces the complex history and shifting meanings of this powerful symbol * a history all the more important given the re-emergence of the fasces in the hands of the contemporary Alt-Right.Joshua Arthurs, University of Toronto *Power expresses itself through symbols and perhaps no symbol has been as potent, from imperial Rome to Mussolini's fascist Italy, as the Roman fasces. T. Corey Brennan in his illuminating and eloquently written book traces this use of the fasces from its origins to the present, exploring what this symbol seeks to impart. He dissects, in the process, the nature of autocratic power and the manipulation of symbols to justify and suppress aspirations for liberty. * Chris Hedges, author of War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning *The fasces are one of the most potent symbols of terrifying power and are ineradicably associated with contemporary political extremism. But their history is longer, richer, and even more fascinating. No-one is better equipped than Corey Brennan to tell this story — and he tells it brilliantly. * Christopher Smith, University of St Andrews *[An] impressive history of the ancient symbol...Brennan's long history of the fasces reminds us that there is a time and place for symbol-smashing, but also that if we attempt to erase such symbols we risk caricaturing them, forgetting the nuance of their historical reality and ultimately ceding their unquestionable power to those who would use them to promote hate-fuelled ideologies. * Times Literary Supplement *This is a beautifully written book about a potent, malleable and sinister symbol. The volume concludes by saying: 'We are now a full century past the point where one can argue that the primary associations of the fasces are benign'. Every one of us needs to know what happened, and the easiest way to do that is to read Professor Brennan's brilliant book. * Classical Journal-Online *An engrossing study... The evolution of the fasces from ancient to modern times reminds us of how dramatically the meanings of such objects can shift, or even invert, as different eras project onto them the values they want to uphold... Brennan's study is disturbingly timely... By making the fasces more recognizable and less ambiguous, Brennan's book aims to prevent its return as a banner for authoritarianism. * The New York Review of Books *By making the fasces more recognizable and less ambiguous, Brennan's book aims to prevent its return as a banner for authoritarianism. * James Romm, New York Review *A wide-reaching, ambitious book presenting a global history of fasces... Brennan covers a vast sweep of time, moving from their Etruscan origins in antiquity to the revival of the symbol in fascist Europe. * History Today *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments List of Illustrations Chapter 1. Introduction to The Roman Fasces Chapter 2. Origins of The Fasces Chapter 3. Images of The Roman Fasces Chapter 4. Roman Fasces in Action Chapter 5. Limits and Discontinuities of The Fasces Chapter 6. Carrying the Fasces Chapter 7. Medieval and Renaissance Fasces Chapter 8. Early Modern and Neoclassical Fasces Chapter 9. Popular and Revolutionary Fasces Chapter 10. American Fasces Chapter 11. Constructing Fasces in Mussolini's Italy Chapter 12. Eradication of Fasces Abbreviations and Note on Translations Bibliography Illustrations

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Book SynopsisIn The Puritan Cosmopolis, Nan Goodman demonstrates how the Puritans were far from an insular coterie that ignored the larger global community. Drawing on letters, diaries, political pamphlets, poetry, and other cultural materials, The Puritan Cosmopolis demonstrates how the Puritan population increasingly saw themselves as global citizens.Trade Review...with the arrival of Nan Goodman's The Puritan Cosmopolis, no scholar will be able to play the exceptionalist Puritan card without getting laughed out of the room. ... The Puritan Cosmopolis is an ambitious and successful study... Because the law of nations-the conceptual category that frames her study-is not widely known or understood in early American scholarship, Goodman develops the concept at length. * Bryce Traister, The William and Mary Quarterly *Goodman's engaging monograph is a welcome addition to the developing field of global Puritan studies... she addresses broader questions about the interaction of instrumental legal theory and more speculative, imaginative ways of denoting political belonging. * Christopher Trigg, 1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries of the Early Modern Era *[This book] makes for interesting reading, providing insight into some of the most interesting events in Puritan New England history. * Michael Schuldiner, University of Akron, Early American Literature *In this ambitious book, Nan Goodman offers us an outward-facing, cosmopolitan Puritanism built on the internalized idea of belonging to the entire world. It is the next chapter in a bigger, broader Puritanism. But it is also a lively essay in affiliation, community, and imagination, reorienting central dimensions of Puritan culture while inviting us to reflect on our own experiences of belonging. * Abram Van Engen, Washington University in St. Louis *Puritans, we are often told, imagined early New England as a place apart. Nan Goodman tells a different story, of a vision that balanced the Puritans' well-known exceptionalism against the cosmopolitan lessons that they learned from the law of nations. Political, moral and even religious truths, it turned out, were not the exclusive province of God's elect but were available to men and women everywhere." * Eliga Gould, University of New Hampshire *Nan Goodman's wonderful The Puritan Cosmopolis adds something radically reorienting to the body of innovative scholarship that has, in recent years, brought the New England Puritans back into contact with the outside world, variously reframing them in terms of transatlantic culture, hemispheric relations, global systems, and fraught associations with their indigenous neighbors. * Christopher Looby, University of California, Los Angeles *In this compelling re-reading of the New England Puritans, Nan Goodman brilliantly ranges across seventeenth-century conceptions of international law, relations with the Ottoman empire, and theologies of history. Highlighting literary uses of the law, she offers us an engaging argument that Puritans may yet inform Americans today about the very meaning of cosmopolitanism. * Mark Valeri, Washington University in St. Louis *Table of ContentsPrologue Chapter 1: The Law of Nations and the Sources of the Cosmopolis Chapter 2: The Cosmopolitan Covenant Chapter 3: The Manufactured Millennium Chapter 4: Evidentiary Cosmopolitanism Chapter 5: Cosmopolitan Communication and the Discourse of Pietism Epilogue

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Book SynopsisThe Upani?ads are rich and complex Sanskrit Hindu scriptures dating back to the 8th century BCE and are a staple of world religion courses across the globe. In this volume, Signe Cohen guide readers through on the thirteen Classical Upani?ads, those generally regarded as the oldest: Bhadrayaka, Chandogya, Taittiriya, Aitareya, Isa, Kena, Katha, Mundaka, Svetasvatara, Mandukya, Prasna, Kausitaki, and Maitri Upanisad. Where most survey textbooks present a cursory overview of these texts, The Classical Upani?ads: A Guide provides a nuanced but accessible exploration of the Upani?ads that will benefit both scholars, students, and general readers alike. This volume explores the historical, geographical, and social context of the Classical Upani?ads and discusses issues of dating, authorship, and transmission of the texts. Cohen also breaks down central ideas in the Upani?ads, such as atman, brahman, karma, reincarnation, moksa, knowledge, and sacred sounds (mantras). The text also discusse

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Book SynopsisThe Qur''an is a text of extraordinary depth and complexity. In How the Qur''an Works, Leyla Ozgur Alhassen takes the reader on a journey through the Qur''an, moving from one verse to another, one story to another, focusing on narratological elements while conducting a close reading in order to understand particular Qur''anic stories and to show how the text''s literary techniques enhance its theological agenda. She unpacks the text by focusing on Qur''anic narrative, and specifically, repetition in Qur''anic stories. Repetition is an important part of the Qur''an''s literary technique. Ozgur Alhassen traces the use of repetition as a narrative device from the text''s overall structure to individual letters. She compares different Qur''anic stories and explores the kinds of repetition that occur in them and what purposes they serve. Repetition, she shows, forges patterns, connections, and layers of meaning that develop, complicate, and comment on the Qur''an''s messages.Table of ContentsList of Figures and Tables Acknowledgements 1. Introduction: Why Repetition? 2. Chapter Two: Repetition in Structure: Parallels, Reversals and Triangles 3. Chapter Three: Repetition in the Qur'anic Story of Musa 4. Chapter Four: Repetition and the Portrayal of Time in the Story of Musa and Harun in the Qur'an 5. Chapter Five: Echoing Phrases, Words and Actions in Qur'anic Stories: Exchange Encounters, Fasting, Feasting and Faith 6. Chapter Six: Repetition in Surat al-Shu'ara: Prophethood, Power and Inspiration 7. Chapter Seven: Repetition in Sarat al-Qamar and a Comparison with Surat al-Shu'ara 8. Conclusion: Connections, Narrative and Power 9. Appendices Appendix A: Musa Appendix B: Surat al-Shu'ara Appendix C: Surat al-Qamar and Comparisons of Surat al-Shu'ara with Surat al-Qamar

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Book SynopsisLike many societies across the world, the region of Awadh in North India has been bilingual throughout its history. But literary histories of the region often indicate otherwise. In the early twentieth century, colonists recodified literary histories separately according to language, detached written literature from oral literature, and reimagined the entangled literary past according to their own ideas about language, literature, and Indian history. At the same time, multilingualism remained resilient and acquired new uses. East of Delhi: Multilingual Literary Culture and World Literature examines literature produced, practiced, and circulated in and out of North India, focusing on the region of Awadh, from the beginning of recorded vernacular literature in the late fourteenth century to the colonial era of the early twentieth century. This book considers texts in a wide range of genres-courtly, devotional, and popular-composed in the main languages of the region: Hindavi, Persian, BrTrade ReviewOrsini's book is a major intervention in the current conversation on world literature. She makes a powerful argument for a different approach that mediates between cosmopolitanism and vernacularity, between script and orality, and focuses on forms of transmission which cannot be reduced to translation. An outstanding achievement. * Galin Tihanov, George Steiner Professor of Comparative Literature, Queen Mary University of London *A breathtaking book that reveals a bejewelled literary world formed over centuries of multilingual contact on the northern plains of the subcontinent. Awadh, in Orsini's deft hands, is not just a region lost in the scramble for empires, nation-making and global worlding, but a vibrant cultural mesh that gives new meaning to the very idea of world literature. Exploring orature, script, performance, devotional poetics, instructional genres, and communities of taste in several languages and dialects, the author paints a vitalist picture of literature as a way of life. Orsini's book pluralizes our understanding of both 'world' and 'literature'. A treasure trove of insights from South Asia's eminent literary historian. * Debjani Ganguly, University of Virginia, editor of The Cambridge History of World Literature *In this strikingly original work, Francesca Orsini challenges many of the terms of current postcolonial and world literary debates. Her probing account of the rich multilingual complexity of North Indian culture moves beyond the binaries of center and periphery, cosmopolitanism and localism, and beyond the unities enshrined in terms such as 'the world,' 'the vernacular,' and even 'literature' itself. Both deeply grounded and genuinely ground-breaking, this book should be read by anyone interested in thinking freshly about the worldliness of local cultures. * David Damrosch, Ernest Bernbaum Professor of Comparative Literature, Harvard University *

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Book SynopsisThe Homeric Centos, a poem that is Homeric in style and biblical in theme, is a dramatic illustration of the creative cultural and religious dialogue between Classical Antiquity and Christianity taking place in the Roman Empire during the fifth century CE. The text is attributed to Eudocia, empress and poet, who died in exile in the Holy Land ca. 460. With lines drawn verbatim from Homer''s Iliad and Odyssey, the poem begins with the Creation and Fall and ends with Jesus'' Resurrection and Ascension. In this blend of Homeric style and Christian themes, there are also echoes of Classical and classicising literature, stretching from Homer and drama to imperial literature. Equally prominent are echoes of earlier Christian canonical and apocryphal works, verse models, and theological works. In The Homeric Centos: Homer and the Bible Interwoven, Anna Lefteratou analyzes the double inspiration of the poem by both classical and Christian traditions. This book explores the works relationship with the cultural milieu of the fifth century CE and offers in-depth analysis of the scenes of Creation and Fall, and Jesus'' Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension. This book exposes the work''s debt to centuries of Homeric reception and interpretation as well as Christian literature and exegesis, and places it at the crossroads of Christian and pagan literary traditions.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Abbreviations Unweaving crossweave poems 1. Homerocentones biblici 2. Mulierum virtutes 3. De fructu lignorum 4. Crucifixus etiam pro nobis Reweaving Eudocia's web

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Book SynopsisThe princeps Augustus (63 BCE - 14 CE), recognized as the first of the Roman emperors, looms large in the teaching and writing of Roman history. Major political, literary, and artistic developments alike are attributed to him. This book deliberately and provocatively shifts the focus off Augustus while still looking at events of his time. Contributors uncover the perspectives and contributions of a range of individuals other than the princeps. Not all thought they were living in the Augustan Age. Not all took their cues from Augustus. In their self-display or ideas for reform, some anticipated Augustus. Others found ways to oppose him that also helped to shape the future of their community. The volume challenges the very idea of an Augustan Age by breaking down traditional turning points and showing the continuous experimentation and development of these years to be in continuity with earlier Roman culture. In showcasing absences of Augustus and giving other figures their due, the papers here make a seemingly familiar period startlingly new.Trade Review...so great and distinct... * Lindsay Powell, Ancient Warfare *The Alternative Augustan Age, has the desire to explore the 'underside' of this crucial period, and is appropriately dedicated to the memory of Powell...this long period of history has subsequently been treated in either a homogenized or a linear way, which not only flattens out nuance, but promotes teleological interpretations. This volume instead shifts the spotlight onto other actors, not just by giving them their moment in the sun, but by not defining their importance in relation to Augustus. This allows us to see a 'a series of alternatives- alternative spaces, alternative worldviews, and alternative narratives'. * Greece & Rome *Table of ContentsPreface List of contributors Table of figures 1. The alternative Augustan age Hannah Mitchell, Kit Morrell, Josiah Osgood, and Kathryn Welch 2. Augustus as magpie Kit Morrell 3. Hopes and aspirations: res publica, leges et iura, and alternatives at Rome Eleanor Cowan 4. Rebuilding Romulus' Senate: The lectio senatus of 18 BCE Andrew Pettinger 5. The good wife: fate, fortune, and familia in Augustan Rome Bronwyn Hopwood 6. At magnus Caesar, and Yet! Social resistance against Augustan legislation Werner Eck 7. C. Asinius Pollio and the politics of cosmopolitanism Joel Allen 8. For Rome or for Augustus? Triumphs beyond the imperial family in the post-civil war period Carsten Hjort Lange 9. Egyptian victories: the praefectus Aegypti and the presentation of military success in the age of Augustus Wolfgang Havener 10. African alternatives Josiah Osgood 11. The reputation of L. Munatius Plancus and the idea of "serving the times" Hannah Mitchell 12. How do you solve a problem like Marcus Agrippa? James Tan 13. Acting "republican" under Augustus: the coin types of the gens Antistia Megan Goldman-Petri 14. Saecular discourse: qualitative periodization in first century BCE Rome Paul Hay 15. Maecenas and the Augustan poets: the background of a cultural ambition Philippe Le Doze 16. Gauls on top: provincials ruling Rome on the shield of Aeneas Geraldine Herbert-Brown 17. The rise of the centumviral court in the Augustan age: an alternative arena of aristocratic competition Matthew Roller 18. Shields of Virtue(s) Kathryn Welch 19. The popular reception of Augustus and the self-infantilization of Rome's citizenry Tom Hillard 20. Inventing the imperial Senate Amy Russell Bibliography

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Book SynopsisThis volume of newly commissioned essays marks a collaborative effort among scholars of ancient Greece and early China to investigate discourses of emotions in ancient philosophy, medicine, and literature from c. 5th century BCE-2nd century CE. The aim is to bring scholars working in the two ancient traditions together to explore ways in which cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary investigation might be deployed to advance our understanding of the emotions in these ancient societies, and ultimately, to confront and challenge certain long-standing modern approaches to emotions. The volume not only highlights the diverse ways in which emotions have been portrayed and discussed in different geographical and cultural contexts, but also interrogates the concepts through which writers and thinkers in the past experienced and thought about the emotions. The book takes emotions not as natural givens, but as aspects of human experience and conceptualization whose significance can be properly as

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Book SynopsisWhen I wrote the following pages, or rather the bulk of them, I lived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor, in a house which I had built myself, on the shore of Walden Pond...Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) was a leading figure in the American Transcendentalist movement and the era of U. S. literary emergence, an intellectual with worldwide influence as essayist, social thinker, naturalist-environmentalist, and sage. Thoreau''s Walden, an autobiographical narrative of his two-year sojourn in a self-built lakeside cabin, is one of the most widely studied works of American literature. It has generated scores of literary imitations and thousands of neo-Walden experiments in back-to-basics living, both rural and urban. Thoreau''s great essay, Civil Disobedience, is a classic of American political activism and a model for nonviolent reform movements around the world. Thoreau also stands as an icon of modern American environmentalism, the father of American nature writing, a forerunner of modern ecology, and a harbinger of freelance spirituality combining the wisdom of west and east.Thoreau is also a controversial figure. From his day to ours, he has provoked sharply opposite reactions ranging from reverence to dismissal. Scholars have regularly offered conflicting assessments of the significance of his work, the evolution of his thought, even the facts of his life. Some disagreements are in the eye of the beholder, but many follow from challenges posed by his own cross-grained idiosyncrasies. He was an advocate for individual self-sufficiency who never broke away from home, a self-professed mystic now also acclaimed as a pioneer natural and applied scientist, and a seminal theorist of nonviolent protest who defended the most notorious guerrilla fighter of his day. All told, he remains a rather enigmatic figure both despite and because we know so much about him, beginning with the two-million-word journal he kept throughout his adult life. The esteemed Thoreau scholar Lawrence Buell gives due consideration to all these aspects of Thoreau''s art and thought, framing key issues and complexities in historical and literary context.Trade ReviewLawrence Buell's Henry David Thoreau: Thinking Disobediently is the essential guide to the essential Thoreau. Distilling a career's worth of study and thought, Buell deftly situates Thoreau, the 'confessed misfit,' at the center of 'the Transcendentalist centrifuge,' and proceeds to reveal how, in one too-short lifetime, this man of many gifts succeeded in leaving behind for us treasures of his own: a hybrid style of creative writing, a biocentric conception of life on our planet, a road map for political action, and perhaps the greatest of all, his 'vision of human infinitude.' * Megan Marshall, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Margaret Fuller: A New American Life, The Peabody Sisters, and Elizabeth Bishop: A Miracle for Breakfast *A scintillating distillation of Buell's career-long engagement with Thoreau's life and times, this volume stands as the best introduction to this iconic figure in American culture. Buell captures the essence of Thoreau's compelling personality as he details his remarkably varied contributions to antebellum intellectual life. This book is yet another gem in Buell's scholarly diadem. * Philip F. Gura, William S. Newman Distinguished Professor of American Literature and Culture, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill *Mr. Buell's book powerfully motivates us to treat Thoreau 'not as an oracle but as a stimulus to see and be beyond the ordinary.' * Christopher Irmscher, The Wall Street Journal *The best brief introduction to Thoreau we now have... His book is a schoolroom. Enroll in this class. * Todd Shy, Los Angeles Review of Books *Henry David Thoreau: Thinking Disobediently by Lawrence Buell, meanwhile, seeks to make some broader sense of the complex figure behind the work. * Costica Bradatan, TLS *Thinking Disobediently by Lawrence Buellâ¦seeks to make some broader sense of the complex figure behind the work... For all the disconcerting variety, Buell finds a sense of unity and harmony in Thoreau. * Times Literary Supplement *Table of Contents1. Life and Mythmaking 2. Essential Thoreau 3. Contexts: Antebellum America, Transcendentalism, Emerson 4. The Writer 5. The Turn to Science 6. The Political Thoreau 7. Matters of Faith Acknowledgments Notes Further Reading

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Book SynopsisWhat did it mean that in the world''s first mass democracy only a minority ruled? Women--free and enslaved, white and Black, single and married--constituted the bulk of those barred from full self-government in nineteenth-century America. The seeming anomaly of this exclusion fostered basic questions about the possibilities and limits of popular rule during the decades of democracy''s worldwide ascendancy. Consistent Democracy examines how these wide-ranging discussions about self-government and the so-called woman question developed in published opinion from the 1830s through the 1890s. Ranging beyond the organized women''s rights movement, it places in conversation travel writers and domestic advice gurus, activists and educators, novelists and journalists, as well as countless others who explored contested aspects of democratic womanhood. Across the expansive world of print, these writers explored women''s individual autonomy, their familial roles, and their participation in the polity with the franchise and without it. An array of theorists, reformers, and critics--including foreign observers Alexis de Tocqueville and Harriet Martineau, educator Catharine Beecher, political theorist John Stuart Mill, African American author and activist Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, and historian Francis Parkman--compelled Americans to assess and reassess their popular political ideas and assumptions against the backdrop of a turbulent century that witnessed the violent end of slavery. Combining intellectual, political, and cultural history, Consistent Democracy illuminates how--in the nineteenth century and since--woman questions were democracy questions.Trade ReviewLeslie Butler's Consistent Democracy provides a sweeping intellectual history of the American idea of democracy, with women's claim to inclusion at its center. The author ranges gracefully over nineteenth-century thinkers and writersâwhite and black, male and female, for and against women's equal citizenship. Well-known figures like John Stuart Mill sit alongside less familiar democratic 'querists' like Frances Watkins Harper. With this book, it will no longer be possible to consider the development of American democracy without thinking about women * Ellen Carol DuBois, University of California, Los Angeles *In Consistent Democracy, Leslie Butler powerfully recasts the history of American democracy. With deep research and penetrating analysis, she reveals how women were not peripheral but central to extensive thought and debate over the United States' political order in its most formative period. Elegantly written, this book should become required reading for all those with a stake in democracy's future. * Kyle G. Volk, author of Moral Minorities and the Making of American Democracy *Leslie Butler returns readers to a nineteenth century in which disputes over what it meant to make democracy consistent took nothing for granted, showing us how questions about women raised questions about self-government itself. Drawing on a wide range of sources and sparkling with insights, this timely book is a must-read for historians of democracy as idea and practice, as well as for anyone concerned about the fate of government that is of, for, and by all of the people. * W. Caleb McDaniel, author of Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction Prelude: Posing the Woman Question in 1838 Part I: American Democracy, American Women Chapter 1: Observing American Democracy Chapter 2: Domesticating Democracy Chapter 3: To Make Democracy Consistent Interlude: Self-Government on Trial in 1863 Part II: Woman Questions, Democracy Questions Chapter 4: Amending Democracy Chapter 5: Reconstructing the Woman Question Chapter 6: Unresolved Questions Epilogue: New Women, New Questions in 1893 Notes Index

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Book SynopsisArab-Brazilian relations have been largely invisible to area studies and Comparative Literature scholarship. Arab Brazil is the first book of its kind to highlight the representation of Arab and Muslim immigrants in Brazilian literature and popular culture since the early twentieth century, revealing anxieties and contradictions in the country''s ideologies of national identity. Author Waïl S. Hassan analyzes these representations in a century of Brazilian novels, short stories, and telenovelas. He shows how the Arab East works paradoxically as a site of otherness (different language, culture, and religion) and solidarity (cultural, historical, demographic, and geopolitical ties). Hassan explores the differences between colonial Orientalism''s binary structure of Self/Other, East/West, and colonizer/colonized, on the one hand; and on the other hand Brazilian Orientalism''s ternary structure, which defines the country''s identity in relation to both North and East.

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Book SynopsisThe period immediately following World War II was an era of dramatic transformation for Jews in America. At the start of the 1940s, President Roosevelt had to all but promise that if Americans entered the war, it would not be to save the Jews. By the end of the decade, antisemitism was in decline and Jews were moving toward general acceptance in American society.Drawing on several archives, magazine articles, and nearly-forgotten bestsellers, Postwar Stories examines how Jewish middlebrow literature helped to shape post-Holocaust American Jewish identity. For both Jews and non-Jews accustomed to antisemitic tropes and images, positive depictions of Jews had a normalizing effect. Maybe Jews were just like other Americans, after all.At the same time, anti-antisemitism novels and Introduction to Judaism literature helped to popularize the idea of Judaism as an American religion. In the process, these two genres contributed to a new form of Judaism--one that fit within the emerging myth of

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Book SynopsisWriting Philosophy: A Student''s Guide to Writing Philosophy Essays is a concise, self-guided manual that covers the basics of argumentative essay writing and encourages students to master fundamental skills quickly, with minimal instructor input. Opening with an introductory chapter on how to read philosophy, the book then moves into the basics of writing summaries and analyzing arguments. It provides step-by-step instructions for each phase of the writing process, from formulating a thesis, to creating an outline, to writing a final draft, supplementing this tutorial approach with model essays, outlines, introductions, and conclusions. Skills essential to evaluating arguments, citing sources, avoiding plagiarism, detecting fallacies, and formatting final drafts are dealt with in detail. The final two chapters serve as a reference guide to common mistakes and basic skills in sentence construction, writing style, and word choice.Trade ReviewVaughn's writing is exceptionally clear and perfectly crafted for an undergraduate student audience. I find Writing Philosophy to be an indispensable companion for all of my courses. It provides philosophy professors with an easy yet rigorous way to teach writing without taking away from the course curriculum. * Jennifer McWeeny, Worcester Polytechnic Institute *I really like that Writing Philosophy is set up for students to read and study on their own. * Heidi Malm, Loyola University Chicago *Table of ContentsPreface Part 1 Reading and Writing 1: How to Read Philosophy What is Philosophy? Reading Philosophy - Rule 1-1 Approach the Text with an Open Mind - Rule 1-2 Read Actively and Critically - Rule 1-3 Identify the Conclusion First, Then the Premises - Rule 1-4 Outline, Paraphrase, or Summarize the Argument - Rule 1-5 Evaluate the Argument and Formulate a Tentative Judgment Writing a Paraphrase or Summary Applying the Rules 2: How to Read an Argument Premises and Conclusions Judging Arguments - Rule 2-1 Know the Basics of Deductive and Inductive Arguments - Rule 2-2 Determine Whether the Conclusion Follows from the Premises - Rule 2-3 Determine Whether the Premises Are True Applying the Rules 3: Rules of Style and Content for Philosophical Writing - Rule 3-1 Write to Your Audience - Rule 3-2 Avoid Pretentiousness - Rule 3-3 Keep the Authority of Philosophers in Perspective - Rule 3-4 Do Not Overstate Premises or Conclusions - Rule 3-5 Treat Opponents and Opposing Views Fairly - Rule 3-6 Write Clearly - Rule 3-7 Avoid Inappropriate Emotional Appeals - Rule 3-8 Be Careful What You Assume - Rule 3-9 Write in First Person - Rule 3-10 Avoid Discriminatory Language 4: Defending a Thesis in an Argumentative Essay Basic Essay Structure - Introduction - Argument Supporting the Thesis - Assessment of Objectives - Conclusion - A Well-Built Essay Writing the Essay: Step by Step - Step 1 Select a Topic and Narrow It to a Specific Issue - Step 2 Research the Issue - Step 3 Write a Thesis Statement - Step 4 Create an Outline of the Whole Essay - Step 5 Write a First Draft - Step 6 Study and Revise Your First Draft - Step 7 Produce a Final Draft An Annotated Sample Paper 5: Avoiding Fallacious Reasoning Straw Man Appeal to the Person Appeal to Popularity Appeal to Tradition Genetic Fallacy Equivocation Appeal to Ignorance False Dilemma Begging the Question Hast Generalization Slipper Slope Composition Division 6: Using, Quoting, and Citing Sources - Rule 6-1 Know When and How to Quote Sources - Rule 6-2 Do Not Plagiarize - Rule 6-3 Cite Your Sources Carefully - Rule 6-4 Build a Bibliography if Needed Part 2 Reference Guide 7: Writing Effective Sentences - Rule 7-1 Make the Subject and Verb Agree in Number and Person - Rule 7-2 Express Parallel Ideas in Parallel Form - Rule 7-3 Write in Complete Sentences, Not Fragments - Rule 7-4 Connect Independent Clauses Properly - Rule 7-5 Delete the Deadwood - Rule 7-6 Put Modifiers in Their Place - Rule 7-7 Be Consistent in Tense, Voice, Number, and Person - Rule 7-8 Communicate Pronoun References Clearly Exercises: Writing Effective Sentences 8: Choosing the Right Words - Rule 8-1 Select Nouns and Verbs Precisely - Rule 8-2 Prefer the Active Voice - Rule 8-3 Use Specific Terms - Rule 8-4 Avoid Redundancy - Rule 8-5 Be Aware of the Connotations of Words - Rule 8-6 Learn to Distinguish Words That Writers Frequently Mix Up - Rule 8-7 Strive for Freshness; Avoid Clichés - Rule 8-8 Do Not Mix Metaphors - Rule 8-9 Beware of Awkward Repetition - Rule 8-10 Spell Correctly - Rule 8-11 Distinguish Commonly Confused Words Exercises: Choosing the Right Words Appendix A: Formatting Your Paper Appendix B: Documenting Your Sources Appendix C: Grammar Handbook Appendix D: Researching a Philosophy Paper Index

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Book SynopsisA biography of the book that inspired Prince to adopt purple as his signature color, Pulitzer-Prize-winning author Richard Powers to become a writer, and countless other creative people to become artists.A primer on the art and design of children''s picture books, renowned children''s literature scholar Philip Nel takes the reader on an illustrated tour through all that made Crockett Johnson''s Harold and the Purple Crayon an astonishing success: from Harold''s clear line, Johnson''s carefully planned improvisation, the Garamond typeface, the real Harolds who inspired the title character, how Johnson overcame his editor''s initially lukewarm reaction, to the role of the book''s three colors (purple, brown, white), and whether or not the tan-hued Harold himself is a child of color. In a series of microhistories that ripple outward from Harold and the Purple Crayon, 30 brief chapters explore the big ideas behind this small book. Johnson''s classic raises questions about the nature of reality; creative expression during the Cold War; the implied audience of children''s literature; abstract art versus representational art; and the color of crayons, ink, and people. All of these questions depend upon how children''s picture books work--in this case, the apparent invisibility of Johnson''s design choices, the limits imposed by the offset color lithography printing process, the history of the crayon, and the book''s circulation into the hands of many real children around the world.This small book explores the pleasures of looking closely. Indeed, picture books are many people''s introduction to looking closely. As a portable gallery, the picture book is a democratic art form, requiring only a library card to view. In modeling the pleasures of sustained attention, this book invites you to look closely at art that interests you--picture books, of course, but any kind of art. When you look, listen, or read closely, what questions does the art invite?

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Book SynopsisA fascinating story of change and transmission, this book describes how Mirabai, Surdas, and Kabir-the most famous and beloved poet-saints of fifteenth and sixteenth centuries-were heard and perceived in their own times and probes into the many beliefs and legends that emerged long after their deaths.Table of ContentsPREFACE TO THE PAPERBACK EDITION; PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION; TRANSLITERATION AND ABBREVIATION; POEMS TRANSLATED, BY ENGLISH TITLE; POEMS TRANSLATED, BY HINDI TITLE; ILLUSTRATIONS; INTRODUCTION; THE BHAKTI POET-SAINT; CHAPTER 2. MORALITY BEYOND MORALITY; CHAPTER 3. THE NIRGUN?/SAGUN? DISTINCTION; MIRABAI; CHAPTER 4. MIRABAI IN MANUSCRIPT; CHAPTER 5. MIRABAI AS WIFE AND YOGI; CHAPTER 6. THE SAINTS SUBDUED IN AMAR CHITRA KATHA; CHAPTER 7. KRISHNA AND THE GENDER OF LONGING; SURDAS; CHAPTER 8. LAST SEEN WITH AKBAR; CHAPTER 9. THE EARLY S?RS?GAR AND THE GROWTH OF THE SUR TRADITION; CHAPTER 10. THE VERBAL ICON-HOW LITERAL?; CHAPTER 11. SUR'S SUD?M?; CHAPTER 12. CREATIVE ENUMERATION IN SUR'S VINAYA POETRY; CHAPTER 13. WHY SURDAS WENT BLIND; KABIR; CHAPTER 14. THE RECEIVED KABIR: BEGINNINGS TO BLY; CHAPTER 15. KABIR IN HIS OLDEST DATED MANUSCRIPT; CHAPTER 16. VINAYA CROSSOVERS: KABIR AND SUR; CHAPTER 17. BHAKTI, DEMOCRACY, AND THE STUDY OF RELIGION; NOTES; BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WORKS CITED; INDEX

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Book SynopsisThis volume presents a wholly new edition of five of the most brilliant and celebrated poems of the Poetic Edda: ''The Sibyl''s Prophecy'', ''The Rigmarole of Rigr'', ''Wayland''s Poem'', ''Skirnir''s Lay'', and ''Loki''s Quarrel''. New textual readings and interpretations are established. New light is shed on the Franks Casket and on King Alfred''s interest in Wayland; new links are found between the Viking and Christian worlds. A close translation accompanies the text to give the non-specialist reader a transparent and rhythmic sense of the original. For each poem the sequence of ideas is traced in the introduction and the interpretation substantiated by a detailed commentary. Much consideration is given to the themes of the poems and the ancient ideas in which they are rooted: analogues come from many sources - Irish, Anglo-Saxon, Sanskrit, African, and Finnish. The excellence and variety of the poems give a rare insight into the genius of oral poets of the Viking age.Trade ReviewHer textual analysis is ... excellent and challenging, and her notes on the manuscript tradition illuminating her comments are instructive ... the work is a remarkable achievement, throwing new light on the background and composition of the texts examined: the comments are most instructive, and the discussions open new perspectives. An outstanding book, henceforth indispensable for all students of the Poetic Edda. * Dr Edgar Polome, The Journal of Indo-European Studies *For lovers of the Poetic Edda, this volume will be a prized possession, enabling scholars and amateur enthusiasts alike to enter with ease into the daunting world of mythological poems... this is an edition of great power and potential influence... from now on it is likely that most English-speaking readers of the Poetic Edda will wish to take Edda II for their authoritative of Voluspa and the other poems. * Richard North, Saga-Book *Table of Contents[ALL FIVE POEMS DIVIDED INTO CONTENTS, TEXT AND TRANSLATION, INTRODUCTION, COMMENTARY ON THE TEXT; VOLUSPA ALSO FEATURING AN APPENDIX: BALDRS DRAUMAR TEXT, TRANSLATION, AND COMMENTARY; VOLUNDARKVIDA ALSO FEATURING AN INDEX OF PERSONAL NAMES]

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Book SynopsisAn Introduction to Old NorseTrade ReviewThis is a superlative textbook for the teaching of Old Icelandic (language and literature). * R. Mark Scowscroft, Catholic University of America *

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Book SynopsisThe three Oxford Guides to Chaucer are written by scholars of international repute, with the purpose of summarizing what is known about his work and offering interpretations based on recent advances in both historical knowledge and theoretical understanding.Barry Windeatt''s contribution to the series offers students the most comprehensive introduction to Troilus and Criseyde yet produced. It includes the fullest and most convenient account of Chjauser''s use of sources, the first exteded analysis of the poem''s generic originality, and an invaluable commentary on all aspects of the poem that is Chaucer''s most ambitious single achievement - its structure, themes, characterization, and style. It also contains a survey of literary responses to Troilus in the three centuries following Chaucer''s death. Combining the informative substance of a reference book with the coherence of a critical reading, the Guide has taken its place as the standard introduction to Troilus and Criseyde.Trade Reviewcarefully written ... deeply learned ... sensible and judicious ... with monumental patience and humility Windeatt has served Chaucer and his students well * Notes and Queries *provides a rich compendium of knowledge ... highly recommended * Choice *

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