Search results for ""Boydell Brewer Ltd""

The first guide to research on Telemann in any language. This book is the first guide to research on the composer Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) in any language. Although the scholarly 'Telemann Renaissance' is now a half-century old, there has never been a book intended to serve asa gateway for further study. Apart from a handful of biographies, dictionary entries, and annotated bibliographies (many of which are now severely out of date), students of Telemann's life and music have been left to dive into the secondary literature in order to get their bearings. Considering that this now burgeoning literature has mainly taken the form of German dissertations and conference proceedings, it is small wonder that the field of Telemann studies has been relatively slow to develop in the English-speaking world. And yet the veritable explosion of performances, both live and recorded, of the composer's music in recent decades has won him an ever-increasing following among musicians and concert-goers worldwide. As with other books in the Composer Compendia series, the book includes a brief biography, dictionary, works-list, and selective bibliography.

Read more less

Specialists in other languages offer perspectives on the widespread use of French in a range of contexts, from German courtly narratives to biblical exegesis in Hebrew.French came into contact with many other languages in the Middle Ages: not just English, Italian and Latin, but also Arabic, Dutch, German, Greek, Hebrew, Irish, Occitan, Sicilian, Spanish and Welsh. Its movement was impelled by trade, pilgrimage, crusade, migration, colonisation and conquest, and its contact zones included Muslim, Jewish and Christian communities, among others. Writers in these contact zones often expressed themselves and their worlds in French; but other languages and cultural settings could also challenge, reframe or even ignore French-users' prestige and self-understanding. The essays collected here offer cross-disciplinary perspectives on the use of French in the medieval world, moving away from canonical texts, well-known controversies and conventional framings. Whether considering theories of the

Read more less

Architectural and historical surveys of many of the most important buildings in Lincoln. This volume illuminates the development of different building styles in timber, stone and brick over a period of 750 years, in one of the oldest areas of Lincoln. High quality and detailed architectural drawings are accompanied by documentary accounts which explain the historical context, and tell some of the fascinating and tragic stories of the people who lived and worked there from the mid-twelfth century until the First World War, including the medieval Jewish community. Steep Hill is already internationally regarded for the quality of its cultural environment as well as its picturesque architecture, and the Strait and the upper part of the long High Street have a wide range of different architectural styles in their buildings, of considerable interest. Steep, Strait and High forms the final volume in a series of architectural and historical surveys of the historic buildings of Lincoln, based on forty-five years of research, originally undertaken by the Survey of Ancient Houses, sponsored by the Lincoln Civic Trust, and now continued in the work of the Survey of Lincoln. Christopher Johnson, Chair of theSurvey of Lincoln, was an archivist and latterly service manager at Lincolnshire Archives prior to becoming Information and Records Manager at Lincolnshire County Council; Stanley Jones was a lecturer at Sheffield College of Art,and has been deeply involved in the Survey of Ancient Houses in Lincoln.

Read more less

Overview of the critical history of the German novella. Originating with Boccaccio during the Italian Renaissance, the novella, a cyclical collection of frame stories in prose, quickly inspired many imitations in Italy, France, Spain and Great Britain. However, it was not widely used in Germany until the end of the eighteenth century, when, inspired by Goethe, the genre retained the original medium but abandoned the cyclical format; it rapidly grew in popularity, dominating the nineteenth century literary scene, and became the object of much artistic speculation. The orthodox theory of the novella has sharply divided the critical establishment; defended in modern times by some scholars,it has been sharply attacked by others. The German Novella: Two Centuries of Criticism is the only work in English or German that illuminates the main currents of theory formation, evaluation, and revaluation from its inception with Wieland to the present, tracing a path through the huge amount of critical material devoted to the novella.

Read more less

Translation of medieval Dutch drama featuring first known use of the play-within-a-play device. A drama in medieval Dutch that provides the first known example of the play-within-a-play device. The text is based on the chapbook of around 1518. In a remarkable parallel to the Faust chapbook, a young woman enters into an agreement with the devil, offering her soul for knowledge and wisdom. Translated and edited by Professor Therese Decker and Martin Walsh, with the original text on facing pages.

Read more less

Women's experience of childbirth in the mid-twentieth century, revealed in their own words. For pregnant women in the 1930s and 1940s Dr. Grantly Dick-Read (1890-1959) proposed natural childbirth as the "normal" way to have babies, making drugs, instruments and hospitalization unnecessary. His book Childbirth withoutFear, first published in 1933, spoke of the joys of natural childbirth; women from around the world wrote long, detailed, and poignant letters in response, describing their own experiences in giving birth. This edited collection of the correspondence affords a rare look at childbirth experiences in the hospitals and birthing centers in post-war America and Britain from the perspective of the patient, as women discuss the way they were viewed bysociety, by hospitals, and by physicians and nurses, and their own feelings on childbirth; overall, the book provides an important opportunity to evaluate the treatment of women in the 1940s and 1950s, the generation who gave birth to the so-called "baby boomers." Professor MARY ALVEY THOMAS teaches at Bentley College, Waltham.

Read more less

Essays on philosophy and intellectual history, focusing in particular on John Locke. This collection of essays by well-known international scholars working in the history of philosophy and intellectual history honours the distinguished career of John Yolton, their subjects reflecting many of his central interests,particularly John Locke. Topics include Locke and his idea of thinking matter; the recovery of Locke's library; his understanding of the Law of Nature and its implications; Berkeley's philosophy and his conception of common sense; the connection between reason and revelation in some early eighteenth-century writers; and the post-modernist crude misrepresentation of the Enlightenment. G.A.J. ROGERS is Professor of Philosophy at Keele University; SYLVANA TOMASELLIis a former research fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge. Contributors: SYLVANA TOMASELLI, FRANCOIS DUCHESNEAU, RICHARD H. POPKIN, G.A.J. ROGERS, PETER LASLETT, MICHAEL AYRES, GENVIEVE BRYKMAN, M.A. STEWART, ARTHUR WAINWRIGHT, JOHN STEPHENS, JOHN P. WRIGHT, SHADIA B. DRURY

Read more less

Includes all known letters written and received by the poet during this period.

Read more less

Volume IV of the first complete English translation of the chronicles of Fernão Lopes chronicles the Battle of Aljubarrota (1385), which secured the throne for João I, his marriage to Philippa of Lancaster, and his reign up to 1411. Until now, the chronicles of Fernão Lopes (c.1380-c.1460) have only been available in critical editions or in partial translations. Comparable to the works of Froissart in France or López de Ayala in Spain, the chronicles provide a wealth of detail on late fourteenth-century politics, diplomacy, warfare and economic matters, courtly society, queenship and noble women, as well as more mundane concerns such as food, health and the purchasing power of a fluctuating currency. Lopes had a keen eye for detail and a perspective especially attuned to the common people, and his chronicles provide an invaluable source for the history of Western Europe in the later Middle Ages.

Read more less

Volume I of the first complete English translation of the chronicles of Fernão Lopes chronicles the reign of Pedro I (1357-67), dubbed both 'the Just' and 'the Cruel', including his dealings with the kingdom of Castile, the war between Castile and Aragon, and the revenge he took on the men who murdered the woman he loved, Inês de Castro. Until now, the chronicles of Fernão Lopes (c.1380-c.1460) have only been available in critical editions or in partial translations. Comparable to the works of Froissart in France or López de Ayala in Spain, the chronicles provide a wealth of detail on late fourteenth-century politics, diplomacy, warfare and economic matters, courtly society, queenship and noble women, as well as more mundane concerns such as food, health and the purchasing power of a fluctuating currency. Lopes had a keen eye for detail and a perspective especially attuned to the common people, and his chronicles provide an invaluable source for the history of Western Europe in the later Middle Ages.

Read more less

An analysis of how artists, filmmakers and affected citizens in Mexico attempted to navigate, articulate and contend with the unparalleled escalation in brutality during the presidency of Felipe Calderón (2006-2012). In Mexico, during the presidency of Felipe Calderón (2006-2012) and as a direct result of his 'war' on drugs, at least 60,000 people were killed, tens of thousands were 'disappeared' and countless more were subjected to kidnapping and sexual violence. This book analyses how artists and filmmakers, alongside affected citizens, attempted to navigate, articulate and contend with this unparalleled escalation in brutality. The texts studied here provide a critical visual archive of this first phase in the drug war and show how artists including Pedro Pardo, Fernando Brito, Mónica González and Natalia Almada attempted to challenge official narratives, foster emerging nodes of resistance and seek justice for citizens. Bringing together works of photography, photojournalism, documentary and short fiction cinema, the book argues for the vital role of cultural production in documenting institutional corruption, human rights abuses and narco-related violence in Mexican society and providing a space to grieve and remember the victims. As Mexico's socio-political landscape continues to deteriorate, the book shows how its visual cultural legacy provides a means of understanding and responding to the violence.

Read more less

A lively and accessible introduction to Machado de Assis and his work Machado de Assis (1839-1908) is a world-class writer and arguably the greatest of Brazilian literature. Susan Sontag deemed him "the greatest writer ever produced in Latin America," and Harold Bloom, "the supreme black literary artist to date." John Updike called him a "master," and Carlos Fuentes, a "miracle." This book guides the reader through Machado's biography, times, and critical reception and examines his various personas - the translator, poet, playwright, critic, cronista, short story writer, and novelist - paying particular attention to his fictional prose, which most clearly conveys his acerbic criticism of Brazilian society and his deft view of the human condition. The book closes with an updated list of Machado's works available in English translation and a selection of further critical studies.

Read more less

How can an environment be created in Cuba in which safety is not sacrificed for more open markets and politics? This book examines present security conditions in Cuba and forecasts the effects that economic and social liberalization could have on levels of criminality. For decades, Cuban citizens have enjoyed relatively good security, as a consequence of surveillance and tight political control by an authoritarian state. However, economic liberalization necessitated by the loss of Soviet support has resulted in illicit activities and increased criminality including drugs, contraband and human trafficking. Today, relatively good security and a stable political system coexist with widespread illegality. But as restrictions are eased, the average citizen is becoming less secure. Cuba's privileged geographical location, combined with economic scarcity, the remnants of the communist system and the local criminal organizations it created, also makes it vulnerable to more dangerous foreign criminal groups. Based on both quantitative and qualitative data including in-depth interviews with experts on Cuba and democratization and observational research in Cuba itself, the book seeks to identify the risks associated with liberalization and to explore workable solutions. More broadly, it aims to shed light on how the negative consequences of social and economic liberalization can be minimized for the average citizen during periods of political transition from authoritarian systems. How can an environment be created in which safety is not sacrificed for more open markets and politics?

Read more less

Explores the scope that there is for Indigenous curatorial agency in the relationship of Indigenous contemporary art with the 'art world'. This monograph focuses on the current boom in Indigenous contemporary art in Brazil, exploring in particular the way that this work interfaces with the art world through exhibitions, and the scope that there is for Indigenous curatorial agency in this relationship. After a brief introduction to Indigenous art, it gives an overview of the evolving relationship between Indigenous art and the art world, exploring in particular the nature of decolonial and/or Indigenous curatorial practice both in Brazil and elsewhere in the world. It then hones in on a recent exhibition: 'Arte Eletrônica Indígena' [Indigenous Electronic Art], held at the Museum of Modern Art of Bahia in Salvador in August 2018. Based on participant observation and interviews, it provides an ethnographic reading of the opening weekend of the exhibition, looking at the alternative modalities of Indigenous curatorial agency that were exercised by the Indigenous people present. The conclusion explores the legacy of the 'Arte Eletrônica Indígena' exhibition, particularly for the Indigenous communities involved, and looks to the evidence provided by the exhibition for lessons to be learned for future exhibitions.

Read more less

In the last two decades, the glorification of sewing - whether involving needlework, tailoring, or fashion design - has thrived in Latin American and Iberian cultural works, particularly literature. In the last two decades, the glorification of sewing - whether involving needlework, tailoring, or fashion design - has thrived in Latin American and Iberian cultural works, particularly literature. While fast fashion has relegated the handicraft to maquiladoras in the Global South, Spanish and Latin American authors have created protagonists whose skill with needle and thread allows them to break out of culturally confining roles and spaces. In this fictional realm, seamstresses and tailors enter exciting adventures as spies, peacemakers, or explorers, all facilitated by their artistry and expertise. This book examines the depiction of women and the textile arts in contemporary Hispanic and Brazilian literature. Employing space and gender theories, the book explores how sewing, traditionally viewed as respectable only if practiced at home, gives agency and encourages self-reflection and mobility,allowing protagonists to transgress physical and socially prescribed limits. Texts analyzed include María Dueñas's El tiempo entre costuras (2009), César Aira's La costurera y el viento (1994), Pedro Lemebel's Tengo miedo torero (2001), Frances Ponte de Peebles's The Seamstress (2009), and children's literature. Encouraging readers to look behind garments to the agents of production, the book shows how contemporary authors, through their celebrations of an age-old skill, help to renew interest in sewing, tailoring, upcycling, and embroidery.

Read more less

An in-depth study of the presence and representation of Jews in contemporary Argentine film, focusing on films shot since the year 2000. Runner-up for the AHGBI-Spanish Embassy Doctoral Publication Prize for 2017 Notwithstanding the current visual prominence of Jewish life and Jewish culture on the Argentine big screen, surprisingly little has been written about Jewish film characterization in academic scholarship. In order to fill this lacuna, Portrayals of Jews in Contemporary Argentine Cinemaexplores the depiction of the Jews of Argentina in modern Argentine cinema with particular attention to the ways in which Jews and Jewishness interact with issues of national identity. The central aim of the book is to investigate how Argentine cinema negotiates the argentinidad of Jewish Argentines, thereby adding to the mosaic that is the imagined community of Argentina. To this end, key films by both Jewish and non-Jewish directors are scrutinized, shedding light on three main areas: the masculinity of the Jewish gaucho, the effects of the 1994 AMIA bombing and family relations, including fatherhood and the intermarriage between Jews and Gentiles. Organized around these topics, the book comprises four chapters and with the exception of the first, which is a historical exposition of Jewish presence in Argentina and Argentine film, all subsequent ones take a theme-centered approach. Mirna Vohnsen is a faculty member in Spanish and Latin American Studies at Maynooth University.

Read more less

Este libro ofrece la primera revisión en forma de volumen monográfico de las transferencias culturales de Gran Bretaña a España en el siglo XVIII. A close reading of the cultural exchanges between England and Spain in the18th century as seen in the periodical press. Este libro ofrece la primera revisión en forma de volumen monográfico de las transferencias culturales de Gran Bretaña a España en el siglo XVIII, centrándose en particular en el género más novedoso del setecientos, la pódica. Para ello, explora el fenómeno hasta ahora difuso de la anglomanía - moda de las ideas, influencias y estilos ingleses que dominó la Europa del setecientos - y su fenómeno opuesto, la anglofobia, en tres tipos de prensa bien diferenciados, todo ello en conjunción con la propia coyuntura nacional y el programa de reformas borbónico. Además, esta obra enfatiza la labor de estos periodistas y periódicos, así como sus conexiones con el poder, a la vez que los sitúa como agentes fundamentales de esa red europea de intercambios materiales e intelectuales que sustentó la República de las Letras. Con todo ello, este volumen contribuye a la serie de debates dedicados a la reevaluación de la Ilustración española que buscan situarla en el mapa de las Luces Europeas de entonces y de ahora. LETICIA VILLAMEDIANA GONZÁLEZ es Profesora Titular en el Departamento de Modern Languages and Cultures, University of Warwick. This book constitutes the first monographic study of the cultural transfers from Great Britain to Spain through 18th-Century periodical press, one of the most innovative genres of the period. It exploresthe notion of anglomania - the craze for all things English which spread throughout all Europe - and its reactive phenomenon, anglophobia, offering a contextualised analysis of the transmission, reception and adaptation of BritishEnlightened ideas and reforms in three different types of Spanish periodicals. In so doing, this volume brings to the fore the work of some understudied writers and journalists and situates these important periodicals and their connections to power as a key part of a wider European context of material and intellectual exchanges that sustained the Republic of Letters. This in turn, contributes to recent scholarship arguing for a central place of Spain in the intellectual map of the Enlightenment. LETICIA VILLAMEDIANA GONZÁLEZ is a Senior Teaching Fellow in Hispanic Studies at the University of Warwick.

Read more less

Presents research conducted in three difficult-to-access Cuban archives with rare textual resources, upon which very little analysis has ever previously been published. This book offers an innovative and provocative analysis of the much-studied Cuban Revolution by reminding us that Fidel Castro's was actually the second of the island's twentieth-century revolutions. By bringing 1959 into criticalcommunication with the revolution of 1933, the book explores Cuba's trajectory from colony to republic to revolution, not as a linear inevitability, but as a rite of collective passage punctuated by turning points in which publicdebate turned to almost obsessive reflection on national 'identity' and national 'destiny'. In re-reading important works of many of Cuba's most significant intellectual and political figures, whilst also revealing little known but truly transcendental contributions to the collective narrative during both revolutionary periods, this book makes a major contribution to a more complex, nuanced and sophisticated understanding of Cuban cultural history and Cuban national identity in the twentieth century. In both periods, the book reveals revolutionary zeal challenged by dogged ambivalence, nihilism undercut by remembrance, the teleological pursuit of 'The End' of the national narrative displaced by 'An End', always and forever 'to be continued'. STEPHEN M. FAY is a Lecturer in Spanish at Aston University.

Read more less

Representations of religious conflict in sixteenth-century Spanish epic poetry Este libro analiza un corpus de textos épicos y propagandísticos que se escriben en las fronteras del imperio español en el siglo XVI. Examina la representación del conflicto religioso en Inglaterra, Alemania y Holanda durante losreinados de Carlos V y Felipe II, y se centra en tres episodios, difundidos capilarmente en la cultura visual y emocional europea y en torno a los cuales cristaliza la narración heroica: los martirios de cartujos y jesuitas en Inglaterra; la guerra de Esmalcalda; y el asedio de Amberes. El volumen considera las estrechas relaciones entre épica e historia; entre épica y cultura visual; y entre la poesía épica hispánica y la historia y la cartografíaiosa de Europa en unos años críticos en los que se construye la Iglesia Anglicana y se afianza el luteranismo en Alemania. This book analyses a corpus of epic and propagandistic texts written at the margins of the Spanish empire in the sixteenth century. It examines the representation of religious conflict in England, Germany and Holland during the reigns of Charles V and Philip II, centring on three episodes widely disseminated in European visual and emotional culture and around which certain foundational Spanish heroic narratives emerged: the martyrdom of the Carthusians and Jesuits in England; the Schmalkaldic War; and the siege of Antwerp. The volume considers the close relationships between epic and history; between epic and visual culture; and between Hispanic epic poetry and the history and religious cartography of Europe during the critical years in which the Anglican Church was evolvingand Lutheranism gaining strength in Germany.

Read more less

Places the warrior-poet Aldana in the appropriate poetic and philosophical context of the Spanish Golden Age and the European Renaissance. This study explores the love lyric of one of the greatest, yet oft-neglected, warrior-poets of the Spanish Golden Age - Francisco de Aldana (1537-78). Hailed for his skill by Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Quevedo, and the Generation of27's Cernuda alike, Aldana's lyric is the unique result of his Florentine education and interactions with the Medici family as well as Benedetto Varchi's literary circle. Aldana died young, fighting in the Battle of Alcazaquivirin the service of Portugal's Sebastian I. His brother, Cosme, subsequently edited and published his poetry in three volumes between 1589-93. Perhaps the most alluring aspect of Aldana's poetry is his exploration of the natureof love via the reconciliation of seemingly opposing and discordant elements of physical love with the Neoplatonic spirituality more common to sixteenth-century poetry, especially as portrayed by the Petrarchan tradition. Throughclose examination of Aldana's lyric -religious, philosophical, pastoral, and mythological- this study reveals how Aldana exploits the gaps in Petrarchism, Neoplatonism, and contemporary poetic models to communicate his belief inthe importance of the physical in our search for those fleeting moments of transcendental bliss on the earthly plane. Paul Joseph Lennon is Lecturer in Spanish and Comparative Literature at the University of St Andrews,UK.

Read more less

An original and groundbreaking historiography on fifty years of Uruguayan cinema. Runner-up for the 2014 Publication Prize awarded by the Association of Hispanists of Great Britain and Ireland This book presents an original historiography on fifty years of Uruguayan cinema. It is the first English language academic book in which Uruguay becomes a case study to reflect upon broader interests of both Film and Latin American Studies, such as the conditions of film archives, the many materialities of film, the relationshipbetween film and politics, and the ways in which films are produced in countries without a mainstream film industry. Uruguayan cinema has recently begun to capture the attention of academics and critics. However, most of Uruguayan productions remain ignored and forgotten, and have not been explored in depth. This ground-breaking investigation unearths films and videos from private and public archives, made in both amateur and professional settings, to reflect upon the ever-changing nature of the concept of cinema. How is the concept of cinema defined in non-industrial contexts? Can we even talk about cinema, when most of the production was captured in small-gauge film and video? In seeking to answer these questions, this book uncovers the tensions behind the text and the - filmic, magnetic or digital - materiality of films. Detailed case studies are based on the analysis of the political, cultural and economic contexts of film production and current issues of accessibility. Beatriz Tadeo Fuica is an Associate Researcher in the Grupo de Estudios Audiovisuales (GESTA), Universidad de la República (Uruguay); and atthe Centre d'histoire culturelle des sociétés contemporaines (CHCSC), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines.

Read more less

Examines the importance of intertextuality, in particular hypertextuality, in the poetics of Castilian romances of chivalry. Runner-up for the 2015 Publication Prize awarded by the Association of Hispanists of Great Britain and Ireland and the Spanish Embassy Castilian romances of chivalry were the dominant form of fiction in Europe during the peak of the Spanish Empire in the the sixteenth century. Whilst the material traits of chivalric romances have been thoroughly studied, Don Quijote's shadow has often resulted in the neglect of the literary aspects and influence of the genre, thus hindering our understanding of Golden Age and Spanish fiction. Conversely, this book examines the literary transformation of the genre throughout the sixteenth century from the perspective of intertextuality. In particular, this book focuses on the literary practices central to the craft and development of the genre: the rewriting of previous romance, the writing of sequels, and the formation of narrative cycles. These three processes defined the poetics of the genre and set the bases and literary techniques for other fictional genres and works, including Don Quijote itself. Daniel Gutiérrez Trápaga is Associate Professor in Research Methodologies (Hispanic Literature) at the Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

Read more less

Argues for Ocampo's multifaceted development of ambiguity in various media and genres on the levels of language, plot and gender. The critical essays in this volume are dedicated to the works of Argentine writer Silvina Ocampo (1903-1993) and introduce readers more fully to a figure who has long been a kind of insider's secret among intellectuals of her country. As the title suggests, the purpose of the volume is to move beyond the codification of Ocampo's use of the supernatural, an early oversimplification of her work. The essays address the quirkiness, cruelty, violence, and overtsexuality of her works, elements which have impeded a full understanding of her creative vision. Here it becomes clear that Silvina Ocampo was a co-contributor to the literary enterprise of the Sur generation, which produced Jorge Luis Borges, Adolfo Bioy Casares, and Victoria Ocampo, and had a profound influence on writers of the younger generation, such as Alejandra Pizarnik, Sylvia Molloy, Marjorie Agosín and others. Patricia N. Klingenbergis Professor of Latin American literature at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. Fernanda Zullo-Ruiz is Associate Professor of Spanish at Hanover College in Hanover, Indiana.

Read more less

The authors maintain that Llull was an atypical 'scholar' because he enjoyed a form of access to knowledge that differed from the norm and because he organized the production and dissemination of his writings in a creative and unconventional fashion. Ramon Llull (1232-1316), mystic, missionary, philosopher and author of narrative and poetry, wrote both in Latin and in the vernacular claiming he had been given a new science to unveil the Truth. This book shows why his Latin andvernacular books cannot be read as if they had been written in isolation from one another. Llull was an atypical 'scholar' because he enjoyed a form of access to knowledge that differed from the norm and because he organized theproduction and dissemination of his writings in a creative and unconventional fashion. At a time when learned texts and university culture were conveyed for the most part using the vehicle of Latin, he wrote a substantial proportion of his theological and scientific works in his maternal Catalan while, at the same time, he was deeply involved in the circulation of such works in other Romance languages. These circumstances do not preclude the fact that a considerable number of the titles comprising his extensive output of more than 260 works were written directly in Latin, or that he had various books which were originally conceived in Catalan subsequently translated or adapted intoLatin. Lola Badia is a professor in the Catalan Philology Departament at the University of Barcelona. Joan Santanach is Lecturer of Catalan Philology at the University of Barcelona. Albert Soler (1963) is Lecturer of Catalan Philology at the University of Barcelona.

Read more less

Muñoz Pérez revela la importancia de las mujeres en la política y cultura de la corte española en tiempos de Olivares. Muñoz Pérez examines the importance of women in political and cultural life at the Spanish courtrough the case of Teresa Valle, spiritual counsellor of Olivares. Co-Winner of the 2014 Publication Prize awarded by the Association of Hispanists of Great Britain and Ireland Esta monografía revela la importancia de las mujeres en la política y cultura de la corte española pormedio del caso de Teresa Valle, consejera espiritual de Olivares, el favorito de Felipe IV. A través del análisis de fuentes originales como son cartas, escritos literarios e inquisitoriales, la autora demuestra que las relaciones entre poderosos nobles y religiosas fue también un elemento esencial de mecenazgo barroco. Se trataba, entre otros, de un medio de publicidad y poder para ellos y una vía de acceso a la cultura para ellas. Además, la autora analiza los escritos de Teresa, revelando su identidad literaria. El camino de la monja por los resortes literarios permite que se definan nuevos métodos de estudio de la escritura femenina y de las estrategias discursivas que utilizaron las religiosas de la época. This monograph reveals the importance of women in political and cultural life at the Spanish court through the case of Teresa Valle, spiritual counsellor of Olivares, the favourite of King Philip IV. Through an analysis of diverse primary sources such as letters, literary writings, and Inquisition records the author demonstrates how relations between noblemen and religious women formed a key aspect of Baroque patronage and exchange, forming an essential tool of publicity and power for the former, and a way of access to the literary domain for the latter. At the heart of this book there is a study of the writings that Teresa produced, revealing her emerging literary identity. The nuns path into literature also allows the author to define new ways of understanding female writing in Golden Age Spain and clarify the discursive strategies that religious women negotiated. Laura S. Muñoz Pérez is currently a Lecturer at the University of Oxford.

Read more less

The fourteen essays of this volume engage in distinct ways with the matter of motion in early modern Spanish poetics. Los catorce ensayos de este volumen conectan de una manera perceptible con el tema del movimiento enla poesía española del siglo de oro The fourteen essays of this volume engage in distinct ways with the matter of motion in early modern Spanish poetics, without limiting the dialectic of stasis and movement to any single sphere or manifestation. Interrogation of the interdependence of tradition and innovation, poetry, power and politics, shifting signifiers, the intersection of topography and deviant temporalities, the movement between the secular and the sacred, tensions between centres and peripheries, issues of manuscript circulation and reception, poetic calls and echoes across continents and centuries, and between creative writing and reading subjects, all demonstrate that Helgerson's central notion of conspicuous movement is relevant beyond early sixteenth-century secular poetics, By opening it up we approximate a better understanding of poetry's flexible spatio-temporal co-ordinates in a period of extraordinary historical circumstances and conterminous radical cultural transformation. Los catorce ensayos de este volumen conectan de una manera perceptible con el tema del movimiento en la poesía española del siglo de oro, sin limitar la dialéctica de la estasis y movimiento a una sola esfera o manifestación única. Entre los multiples enfoques cabe destacar: el cuestionamiento de la interdependencia de la tradición e inovación, de la poesía, del poder y la política, de los sigantes que se transforman, de los espacios que conectan y cruzan con los tiempos 'desviados'; análisis de las tensiones entre lo sagrado y lo secular, del conflicto centro-periferia y del complejo sistema de producción, circulacióny recepción de los manuscritos; el diálogo con el eco poético a través de los siglos y de los continentes y la construcción creativa del sujeto escritor y/o lector. Al abrir la noción central de Helgerson del "movimiento cono" más allá de la poesía nueva secular, este libro propone un entendimiento más completo de las coordinadas espacio-temporales de la poesía en un periodo de circunstancias históricas extrao Jean Andrews is Associate Pssor in the Department of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies, University of Nottingham. Isabel Torres is Professor of Spanish Golden Age Literature at Queen's University, Belfast. Contributors: Jean Andrews,Dana Bultman, Noelia Cirnigliaro, Marsha Collins, Trevor J. Dadson, Aurora Egido, Verónica Grossi, Anne Holloway, Mark J. Mascia,Terence O'Reilly, Carmen Peraita, Amanda Powell, Colin Thompson, Isabel Torres

Read more less

The Vita Christi, written by the abbess Isabel de Villena, is the only literary work in Catalan to bear the signature of a woman during the Middle Ages. It represents a fascinating re-evaluation of the role women played inthe life of Jesus Christ. The Life of Christ (Vita Christi), written by the abbess Isabel de Villena, is the only literary work to have been preserved in Catalan and to bear the signature of a woman during the Middle Ages. It was composed to provide spiritual direction for the nuns within the community of Poor Clares which Sor (i.e. Sister) Isabel oversaw at the Convent of the Holy Trinity in Valencia. The work was only able to emerge from obscurity by accident. In 1497 Queen Isabel of Castile, the wife of Ferdinand of Catalonia-Aragon, who had heard news of the book's existence, asked Sor Isabel's successor for a copy. The new Abbess, Sor Aldonça, responded by bringing the work to press. Queen Isabel's interest in Sor Isabel's book was understandable. The former abbess had been the daughter of the refined and restless Marquess of Villena, and was herself educated at Court, a milieu with which she maintained very positive relations throughout her life. As an abbess, what's more, she carried out important reforms at the convent and became a valued and respected figure within the dynamic cultural world of the Valencia of her day. Isabelde Villena's Vita Christi has often been interpreted as a response, delivered from the serenity of the cloister, to the misogyny and satire against the female gender emanating from certain books written at that time. Sor Isabel's work is a re-evaluation of the role women played in the life of Jesus Christ, a role at variance with the subsidiary one ascribed to them by the majority of commentators. Published in association with Editorial Barcino, Barcelona.

Read more less

Zayas's prose through a gynocentric lens. María de Zayas y Sotomayor published two volumes of novellas, Novelas amorosas y ejemplares [1637] and Desengaños amorosos [1647], which enjoyed immense popularity in her day. She has recently been reinstated as a major figure of the Spanish Golden Age. This study examines Zayas's prose through a gynocentric lens. Drawing on an extensive array of primary and secondary sources, and referring to the ideas of Irigaray, Kristeva, Cixous,Raymond and Genette, O'Brien reflects on the interactions of Zayas's women in such relationships as friendship, sisterhood, and motherhood, analyzing these interactions through the collections as a whole, and connecting the novellas with the frame stories, an aspect of Zayas's writing which has often been overlooked by critics. EAVAN O'BRIEN is a Lecturer in Hispanic Studies at Trinity College Dublin.

Read more less

The first Spanish-language literary movement to originate in the New World and subsequently influence literary activity in Spain continues to be relevant to contemporary Spanish American writers. Modernismo, a literary movement of fundamental importance to Spanish America and Spain, occurred at the turn of the nineteenth century, roughly from the 1880s to the 1920s. It is widely regarded as the first Spanish-language literary movement that originated in the New World and that became influential in the "Mother Country," Spain. Characterized by the appropriation of French Symbolist aesthetics into Spanish-language literature, modernismo's other significant traits were its cultural cosmopolitanism, its philological concern with language, literary history, and literary technique, and its journalistic penchant for novelty and fashion. Despite the splendor of modernista poetry, modernismo is now understood as a broad movement whose impact was felt just as strongly in the prose genres: the short story, the novel, the essay, and the journalistic crónica [chronicle]. Conceived as an introduction to modernismo as well as an account of the current state of the art of modernismo studies, this book examines the movement's contribution to the various Spanish American literary genres, its main authors [from Martí and Nájera to Darío and Rodó], its social and historical context, and its continuing relevance to the work of contemporary Spanish American authors such as Gabriel García Márquez, Sergio Ramírez, aargas Llosa. ANÍBAL GONZÁLEZ-PÉREZ is Professor of Modern Latin American Literature at Yale University.

Read more less

The history of Spanish cinema. This is the first detailed history of Spanish cinema written in English for English readers. It presents a balanced exploration of trends and genres from the popular to art-house cinema, including landmark documentaries and children's films. There are sections in each chapter where popular, oppositional, and experimental directors are introduced as auteurs. The eleven chapters are arranged chronologically from the silent reels of the photographers to the twenty-first century, taking into account technological advances, as well as production, distribution and socio-political constraints and developments. Each chapter ends with suggestions for additional reading and possible areas offuture research. The bibliography concentrates on assessments and criticism published in English, and there is a filmography of all directors and titles mentioned, a comprehensive index not restricted to cinema, and a supportingselection of stills. BERNARD BENTLEY is Senior Lecturer in Spanish at the University of St Andrews.

Read more less

The continuing importance of the Baroque in Spanish and Latin American culture. The Hispanic Baroque is a Janus-faced phenomenon, one of its faces peering at the sunset of feudalism, the other at the dawn of European modernity. This collection of essays seeks to engage with this paradox and its consequencesfor understanding Spanish and Latin American literary and cultural history. Conceived in response to Roberto González Echevarría's influential Celestina's Brood: Continuities of the Baroque in Spain and Latin America, and spanning many years of Beverley's own intellectual trajectory, it includes material already in the public domain, together with much that is new, previously unpublished or long unavailable. An Introduction outlines the ongoing scholarly discussion about the nature of the Baroque in both Spain and Spanish America. The essays deal respectively with Luis de Góngora's Soledades; the picaresque novel; the Baroque pastoral; Gracián's theory of "wit" andthe equation of wit and power; and the relation among Baroque writing, colonial hegemony, and the formation of a criollo culture in Spanish America. A section on Baroque historicism suggests some ways of using the Baroqueto reflect on our contemporary situation, and the volume concludes with a wide-ranging conversation about the Baroque and Hispanism between the author and Fernando Gómez Herrero, a young scholar strongly influenced by postcolonialstudies. JOHN BEVERLEY is Professor of Spanish and Latin American Literature and Cultural Studies at the University of Pittsburgh.

Read more less

Versiones literarias de los tormentos inquisitoriales A pesar de que nuestro conocimiento científico sobre el Santo Oficio es cada vez más completo, la mera referencia a la Inquisición española trae a la mente una serie de connotaciones e imágenes que le deben más al arte, la liura y la polémica política que a la historiografía. Este libro plantea el estudio de la Inquisición como tema literario en el periodo comprendido entre 1789-1848, fundamental en la creación de una idea moderna del Santo Oficio. La evolución del tema literario inquisitorial en España durante dicho periodo nos ayuda a comprender nuestra propia concepción contemporánea de la Inquisición a través de la coherencia de las convenciones literarias con lae fue representada en los textos. Sin embargo, también nos proporciona valiosa información sobre el primer liberalismo y su proyección literaria. Desde la literatura afrancesada al teatro de Martínez de la Rosa y los historiadores de la década de 1840, este libro estudia la obra de escritores como Luís Gutiérrez, Clararrosa, Antonio Puigblanch, Valentín de Llanos, Eugenio de Ochoa, Gil y Zárate, Eugenio de Tapia, y otros que ofrecieron su versiólos tormentos inquisitoriales al público antes de que la historiografía inquisitorial desvelara sus misterios. DANIEL MUÑOZ SEMPERE es profesor titular de literatura española, Kings's College, Londres.

Read more less

An exploration of the cultural-political complexity of the medieval Peninsula. Medieval Iberia was rich in sociolinguistic and cultural diversity. This volume explores the culture, history, literature and language of the Peninsula in an attempt to understand its cultural-political complexity and its legacy.Principal themes include the representation of minority groups in the community; the challenge of social contact that could bring mutual absorption of influence or conflict; the effects of linguistic interaction and development; and the dissemination of cultural and scientific knowledge within and beyond the borders of the Peninsula. Modern interpretations of Medieval Iberia are neither static nor definitive in this kaleidoscopic field of investigation. EDITORS: Ivy A. Corfis and Ray Harris-Northall are Professors of Spanish at the University of Wisconsin-Madison OTHER CONTRIBUTORS: Pablo Ancos, William J. Courtney, Thomas D. Cravens, Frank Domínguez, Noel Fallows, Charles F. Fraker, E. Michael Gerli, Kristin Neumayer, Stanley G. Payne, Joel Rini, Joseph T. Snow, Michael Solomon

Read more less

The evolution of Latin American literature. A Companion to Latin American Literature offers a lively and informative introduction to the most significant literary works produced in Latin America from the fifteenth century until the present day. It shows how the press, and its product the printed word, functioned as the common denominator binding together, in different ways over time, the complex and variable relationship between the writer, the reader and the state. The meandering story of the evolution of Latin American literature - from the letters of discovery written by Christopher Columbus and Vaz de Caminha, via the Republican era at the end of the nineteenth century when writers in Rio de Janeiro as much as inBuenos Aires were beginning to live off their pens as journalists and serial novelists, until the 1960s when writers of the quality of Clarice Lispector in Brazil and García Márquez in Colombia suddenly burst onto the world stage- is traced chronologically in six chapters which introduce the main writers in the main genres of poetry, prose, the novel, drama, and the essay. A final chapter evaluates the post-boom novel, testimonio, Latino and Brazuca literature, gay, Afro-Hispanic and Afro-Brazilian literature, along with the Novel of the New Millennium. This study also offers suggestions for further reading. STEPHEN M. HART is Professor of Hispanic Studies, UniversityCollege London, and Profesor Honorario, Universidad de San Marcos, Lima.

Read more less

Un análisis de la obra poética de Lope de Vega revela cómo amoldó su propio personaje "Lope" para adecuarse, generalmente con éxito, a los cambios de su entorno. La obra poética de Lope de Vega se diferencia del resto de la producción del Siglo de Oro por una insistente singularidad: escenas y figuras de la vida del autor aparecen frecuentemente en sus poemas. La crítica y el público general ha respondido a esta característica desde una perspectiva post-romántica, considerando que Lope escribió con sinceridad e inspiración biográfica, impulsado por su apasionada vida personal. En este libro se analiza lo que los post-románticos consideran "sinceridad" como un recurso literario. Lope consigue una apariencia de sinceridad pero, de hecho, reaccionaba a los cambios de su entorno social y literario creando nuevas actitudes "biográficas". Ensu poesía amorosa y épica, su conocida vida amorosa le proporciona fama y reconocimiento. En el Isidro, se presenta como el genio defensor de lo castellano y español por antonomasia. En las Rimas sacras adopta la retórica religiosa de la época para contrarrestar el éxito de Góngora en los círculos cortesanos. Finalmente, en las Rimas de Tomé de Burguillos repasa irónicamente su carrera poética desde la perspectiva de uno. Antonio Sánchez Jiménez es profesor de español en Miami University, Ohio.

Read more less

The extent to which contemporary rhetorics of nation and kingship reflected the realities of social, economic and cultural life in Habsburg Spain. Early modern Spain's insistent rhetorics of nation and kingship, of a monolithic body of shared values and beliefs, especially in respect of racial and gender stereotypes, and of a centralized and ostensibly absolutist legislativeapparatus did not map unproblematically onto the complex topography of everyday life. This volume explores the extent to which these rhetorics and the ideology they helped to construct or underpin reflected or failed to reflect the realities of social, economic, and cultural life. It sets against their typically exorbitant claims the lived, messy, and sometimes contradictory experience of Spaniards across a broad social spectrum, both at the centre and atthe margins, not just of peninsular society, but of the Hispanic world overseas. Confronting ideology were questions of economic pragmatism, executive feasibility, jurisdictional competence, and, above all, the social and political complexity of the Spain of the period. RICHARD J. PYM is Senior Lecturer in Hispanic Studies at Royal Holloway, University of London. Contributors: TREVOR J. DADSON, MARGARET RICH GREER, BARRY IFE, ALISTAIR MALCOLM, MELVEENA MCKENDRICK, RICHARD J. PYM, HELEN RAWLINGS, ALEXANDER SAMSON, JULES WHICKER

Read more less

The first book-length study of modern Peruvian narrative and its resurgence in the 1990s, focussing on Jaime Bayly, Iván Thays and Jorge Eduardo Benavides. This book provides the first look at the dynamic resurgence of Peruvian narrative since the late 1990s. Talk-show host Jaime Bayly's seven novels have scandalized Lima's society with their treatment of homosexuality and haveattracted record sales throughout the Spanish-speaking world with their exciting re-creation of Lima slang and focus on McOndo themes. University lecturer Iván Thays has vigorously opposed this light narrative by providinga "high" cultural alternative. His three novels have played an important role in the regeneration of Peruvian culture since the fall from power of President Alberto Fujimori. Madrid-based Jorge Eduardo Benavides' narrative has offered an aesthetically challenging and explicitly politicized alternative. His marrying of aesthetics and politics stands in importance alongside Mario Vargas Llosa and José María Arguedas in terms of the mediation between cultureand politics in Peru since the 1930s.. ROBERT RUZ completed his PhD at Cambridge University under the supervision of Geoffrey Kantaris. En este libro se ofrece la primera perspectiva del dinámico resurgimiento que ha experimentado la narrativa peruana desde finales de la década de los noventa. Las siete novelas de Jaime Bayly, presentador de televisión, han escandalizado a la sociedad limeña debido al tratamiento que en ellas se da al tema de la homosexualidad y han generado un récord de ventas por todo el mundo de habla hispana debido a su apasionante recreación del argot limeño y a su concentración en los temas del grupo McOndo. El profesor de universidad Iván Thays se ha opuesto firmemente a esta literatura light, ofreciendo en su lugar una alternativa culta. Sus tres novelas han desempeñado un importante papel en la regeneración de la cultura peruana desde la caída del poder del Presidente Alberto Fujimori. La narrativa de Jorge Eduardo Benavides, radicado en Madrid, ha presentado una alternativa estéticamente estimulante y explícitamente politizada. Por lo que respecta a la mediación entre la cultura y la política en el Perú desde la década de los años treinta, la labor de unificación de la estética y la política de Benavides se halla, en cuanto a importancia, al nivel de Mario Vargas Llosa y José Marí

Read more less

Interviews, with contextual critical material, with nine celebrated contemporary Hispanic novelists. Nine of today's most celebrated Hispanic writers reveal themselves and their concerns, and how the latter are reflected in their work. The writers are Ricardo Piglia, Antonio Muñoz Molina, Juan José Millás, José María Merino, Enrique Vila-Matas, Quim Monzó, Cristina Fernández Cubas, Pedro Zarraluki and Ray Loriga. The interviews allow readers closer personal acquaintance with the subjects, their fiction and their cultural circumstances, in the process touching on major intellectual issues of today - the definition of reality, the role of art and the challenge of otherness. Each conversation is introduced by an essay commenting on the main themes in the author's works. The book contains a detailed bibliography and an extensive general introduction, which presents the intellectual context for the issues discussed. Entrevistas con Ricardo Piglia y ocho eminentes escritores españoles: Antonio Muñoz Molina, Juan José Millás, José María Merino, Enrique Vila-Matas, Quim Monzó, Cristina Fernández Cubas, Pedro Zarraluki y Ray Loriga. Son extensas conversaciones sobre la narrativa de cada escritor, abordando los problemas máss en ella. Pero las conversaciones no sólo permiten conocer a fondo a los escritores y entender mejor sus ideas sino también contienen gran variedad de comentarios sobre los temas más polémicos de finales del siglo XX - el carácter de la realidad, el papel del arte y la importancia de la otredad. Las entrevistas van precedidas de ensayos que se centran en la obra de cada autor y de una introducción general, donde se presentan los temas tratados, y las acompaña una bibliografía detallada. KATARZYNA OLGA BEILIN es profesora de español en la Universidad de Wisconsin en Madison.

Read more less

Valle-Inclan considered as actor, director and playwright, with bibliography of his plays. Daring, innovative, controversial, often satirical, a dramatist ahead of his time, Ramón del Valle-Inclán (1866-1936) was one of Spain's 'Generation of 1898', and an influence on such later movements as the Theatre of Cruelty andthe Theatre of the Absurd. Lima's study first examines Valle-Inclán's day-to-day involvement with the theatre as actor, director-dramaturg and playwright. This is followed by an account of Valle-Inclan's full-length and one-act plays, which demonstrate the foibles and follies of human behaviour, and are discussed here under a variety of thematic headings. There follows an up-to-date bibliography of the plays, from editions contemporary with the author through those published posthumously; it includes translations of the dramas into many languages, as well as a worldwide selection of critical studies. ROBERT LIMA is Professor Emeritus of Spanish and Comparative Literatures, The Pennsylvania State University. Ramón del Valle-Inclán (1866-1936) era un dramaturgo muy innovador, miembro de la Generación del '98, pero también una fuente de inspiracion mas tarde para el Teatro de la Crueldad y el Teatro del Absurdo. La monografía de Lima empieza por examinar el rol desempeñado por Valle-Inclán como actor, director, y dramaturgo. Concluye con un análisis detallado de los dramas de Valle-Inclán, tanto los grandes comolos menores, enfocándose en la manera en que el dramaturgo español crea una visión penetrante de los errores y debilidades de la conducta humana; la obra dramática se analiza en varias secciones temáticas. Esta monografía taincluye una bibliografía exhaustiva sobre los dramas de Valle-Inclán, incluyendo traducciones y estudios críticos.

Read more less

Surviving theatrical contracts throw light on the remarkable degree of theatrical activity throughout 17c Spain. In 1639 the Madrid notary Juan García de Albertos was appointed Escribano de la Comisión de las comedias - official theatre notary. His annual registers of contracts (protocolos) contain more than two thousand items related to actors and theatrical activity from 1634 to 1660. This exceptionally rich collection of documents offers a fascinating overview of theatrical life, in all its diversity, in Madrid and the surrounding area during the age of Calderón. Especially plentiful are the contracts for performances at festivities in towns and villages, both by professional companies and by local amateurs assisted by individual actresses and musicians hired in Madrid. This extraordinary degree of theatrical activity in even the smallest communities, almost entirely neglected hitherto, forces us to revise and expand our conventional picture of the Spanish Golden Age theatre. The collection also reveals in abundant detail the composition and working practices of acting companies, especially in the numerous asientos (actors' employment contracts), as well as transport conditions, costume hire, staging practices and repertory. The actors' convoluted and often precarious finances are an ever-present theme. The documents are accompanied by appendices and maps, and the extensive introduction provides an exhaustive survey of what can be learned from this remarkable source. CHARLES DAVIS was formerly Lecturer in Spanish at Queen Mary, University of London, and is currently a Ramón y Cajal Research Fellow at the University of Valencia. The late J. E. VAREYwas Professor of Spanish at the University of London and Principal of Westfield College. For description in Spanish see Volume II. Actividad Teatral en la Región de Madrid is published in TWO VOLUMES (I: ISBN 1855660628, II ISBN 1855660792) WHICH MUST BE PURCHASED AS A SET.

Read more less

An account of the critical reception of Góngora's Soledad primerain the 17c. Luis de Góngora completed the first version of his Soledad primera in the spring of 1613. Immediately his poem became the centre of a vigorous literary polemic. The writings of his detractors and of his supporters marked the beginning of a period of intense literary criticism in Spanish letters. The corpus of these writings has yet to be properly listed, edited and analysed in its totality. Approaching the problem of the obscurity of Góngora's writings by way of the reception of the Soledades in the seventeenth century, the author has been able to determine why his contemporaries found difficulty with the poems, and to study the significance of literaryobscurity, its sources, causes and consequences and the new emphasis lent to it by Góngora. On the basis of this new interpretation the critic reconsiders and reviews various long-held assumptions in Gongorine criticism. The work includes a preface by Robert Jammes, of the Université de Toulouse-Le Mirail. JOAQUIN ROSES LOZANO lectures in Spanish at the University of Córdoba.

Read more less

New and exciting scholarship on medieval and early modern English culture in all its diversity.

Read more less

A new approach to the visual arts in the work of John Donne

Read more less

An investigation of English and Scottish dream visions written on the cusp of the Renaissance, teasing out distinctive ideas of authorship which informed their design.

Read more less

A survey of the rituals of the year in Victorian England, showing the influence of the Middle Ages. What does a maypole represent? Why eat hot cross buns? Did Dick Whittington have a cat? All these questions are related to a larger one that nineteenth-century Britons asked themselves: which was more fun: living in their own time, or living in the Middle Ages? While Britain was becoming the most industrially-advanced nation in the world, many vaunted the superiority of the present to the past-yet others felt that if shadows of past ways of life haunted the present, they were friendly ghosts. This book explores such ghosts and how real or imagined remnants of medieval celebration in a variety of forms created a cultural idea of the Middle Ages. As Britons found, or thought that they found, traces of the medieval in traditions tied to times of the year, medievalism became not only the justification but also the inspiration for community festivity, from Christmas and Boxing Day through Maytime rituals to Hallowe'en, as show in the writings of amongst many others Keats, Browning and Dickens.

Read more less

Highlights human encounters with the forest and its trees at the time of the European Middle Ages, when their lofty boughs were weighted with meaning.

Read more less

How ideas and ideals of an imagined, protean, national Middle Ages have once again become a convergence point for anxieties about politics, history and cultural identity in our time - and why. After a period of abeyance, the link forged in the nineteenth century between the Middle Ages and national identity is increasingly being reclaimed, with numerous groups and individuals mining an imagined medieval past to present ideas and ideals of modern nationhood. Today's national medievalism asserts itself at the interface of culture and politics: in literature and television programming, in journalism and heritage tourism, and in the way political actors of various stripes use a deep past that supposedly proves the nation's steady exceptionalism in a hectic globalised world. This book traces these ongoing developments in Switzerland and Britain, two countries where the medieval past has recently been much invoked in negotiations of national identity, independence and Euroscepticism. Through comparative analysis, it explores examples of reemerging stories of national exceptionalism - stories that, ironically, echo those of other nations. The author analyses depictions of Robert the Bruce and Wilhelm Tell; medievalism in the discourse surrounding Brexit as well as at the Welsh Senedd; novels like Paul Kingsnorth's The Wake; community-based art such as the Great Tapestry of Scotland; and elaborate public commemorations of Swiss victories (and defeats) in battle. Basing his critical readings in current theories of cultural memory, heritage and nationalism, the author explores how the protean national Middle Ages have once again become a convergence point for anxieties about politics, history and cultural identity in our time - and why.

Read more less