The arts: general topics Books

Book SynopsisRecent years have witnessed an upsurge of interest in relating the Bible to the worlds of literature and the visual arts. How is the Bible portrayed in the arts and how do the arts affect what we know, or think we know, about the Bible? In this provocative and wide-ranging collection, the eight contributors engage in a lively and fruitful conversation with the work of novelists, artists, filmmakers, and critics. Topics treated in this collection include the Bible and film, from Frank Capra movies of the 30s and 40s to such Hollywood epics as The Robe and The Ten Commandments; the Bible and literature, focusing particularly on the story of David and Bathsheba in recent fiction; and the Bible and painting, with specific studies of Rembrandt as painter and etcher and the twentieth-century German artist Lovis Corinth and more generalized discussion of paintings of King David throughout the centuries and the representation of the sexuality of Jesus in Renaissance art. Contributors include Joel Rosenberg, Erica Sheen, Martin O'Kane, Ilse Müllner, Johannes Taschner, Clive Marsh, J. Cheryl Exum, and David Jasper.Table of ContentsEditorial Introduction Beyond the Biblical Horizon: The Bible and the Arts, J. CHERYL EXUM The Bible and Film What the Bible and Old Movies Have in Common, JOEL ROSENBERG ‘The Light of God’s Law: Violence and Metaphysics in the 50’s Widescreen Biblical Epic’, ERICA SHEEN The Bible, Painting and Literature: David and Bathsheba The Biblical King David and His Artistic and Literary Afterlives, MARTIN O’KANE Blickwechsel: Batseba und David in Romanen des 20. Jahrhunderts, ILSE MULLNER The Bible and Painting & Etching Mit wem ringt Jakob in der Nacht? Oder: Der Versuch, mit Rembrandt eine Leerstelle auszuleuchten, JOHANNES TASCHNER Rembrandt the Etcher: Mission and Commission as Factors in New Testament Interpretation, CLIVE MARSH Lovis Corinth’s Blinded Season, J. CHERYL EXUM Review Essay In the Beginning Was the World? Leo Steinberg, The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and in Modern Oblivion, DAVID JASPER

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Book SynopsisUniquely covering literary, visual and performative expressions of culture, this volume aims to correlate the conjunctions of nation building, gender and representation in late 19th and early 20th century China and Japan. Focusing on gender formation, the chapters explore the changing constructs of masculinities and femininities in China and Japan from the early modern up to the 1930s. Chapters focus on the dynamism that links the remodeling of traditional arts and media to the political and cultural power relations between China, Japan, and the Western world. A true tribute to multidisciplinary studies.

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Book SynopsisProtestant theology and culture are known for a reserved, at times skeptical, attitude to the use of art and aesthetic forms of expression in a religious context. In Transcendence and Sensoriness, this attitude is analysed and discussed both theoretically and through case studies considered in a broad theological and philosophical framework of religious aesthetics. Nordic scholars of theology, philosophy, art, music, and architecture, discuss questions of transcendence, the human senses, and the arts in order to challenge established perspectives within the aesthetics of religion and theology.

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Book SynopsisFocusing on the role of arts in the construction of national identity, Suzanne Pourchier-Plasseraud has chosen to study the case of a country lacking an ancient state history of its own, Latvia. This book analyses the part played by the visual arts in transmuting the cultural concept of a nation, advocated by a small intelligentsia, into a widespread claim for independence. By the end of the 19th century, fretting under Russian political domination and German economic and cultural supremacy, the Latvians turned back to their own language, culture and folklore, with a special interest for their dainas, their timeless common heritage rooted into a mythical golden age. Latvian artists thus found themselves entrusted with the mission of creating a national iconographic representation and a specifically Latvian art, freed from Russian and German influences. The author shows how the links between the cultural and political spheres evolved between 1905 and 1940, including during the period of authoritarian government preceding WWII. An enlightening contribution to understanding how art and history can be turned into social and political instruments, this book reaches far beyond the Latvian case to a European and even global scope.Table of ContentsTable of Contents Acknowledgements Foreword, Prof. Dr. Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga Preface, Krzysztof Pomian Introduction Prologue: On the Eve of the 20th Century, A Cultural Awakening that Faced Twin Obstructions Part One: 1905-1915. A Socio-Cultural ‘Risorgimento’ Chapter 1. The Emergence of Demands for Autonomy in the Russian Empire Chapter 2. The Formation of an Imaginary Landscape for the Latvian Nation. 1905-1920 Chapter 3. The Arts in the Service of the Latvian Idea Part Two: 1915-1920. The Chaos of the First World War Chapter 4. The Collapse of the Russian Empire and the Emergence of Latvian Political Demands Chapter 5. Depiction of a Heroic People, a New Source Fro the Imaginary Landscape Created in Latvian Art Chapter 6. Artists in the Service of National Symbolism Part Three: The Construction of a State. 1920-1934 Chapter 7. A Vulnerable Parliamentary State Chapter 8. An Assertive Cultural Policy Chapter 9. The ‘Latvianization’ of the Visual Arts Part Four: From Nation to Nationalism Chapter 10. The Authoritarian Regime. 1934-1940 Chapter 11. Latvianisation of the arts Chapter 12. Architecture and urban development harnessed by the state Conclusion Maps Chronology Illustrations Table Bibliography and Sources Index

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