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Language & Literature eBooks
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Alegorías del Poder by Antonio Carreño-Rodríguez La presente monografía analiza las obras dramáticas de Lope de Vega, Tirso de Molina y Calderón de la Barca como reacción a la inestabilidad política y social de España en la primera mitad del siglo XVII. En contra de la interpretación que presenta la comedia como un instrumento de propaganda de la monarquía, este estudio propone que muchos de los dramas escritos en este período funcionan a modo de velo que sutilmente revela una crítica metafórica de los reinados de Felipe III y de Felipe IV. Tales dramas, con una función ética y política y dentro del subgénero que definimos como "alegorías del poder", representan una serie de reflexiones sobre la buena y mala conducta del gobierno. Si bien sus argumentos están tomados de la tradición clásica, bíblica, europea y de la historia de España, o de leyendas antiguas, tal cuerpo dramático hace una severa reflexión sobre el gobierno justo y virtuoso y la puesta en práctica de una moral recta y de unos valores políticos correctos. El discurso dramático que permite que estos dramaturgos, sin riesgo de censura, se hagan portavoces del sentir de un coro de voces, dialogando con otros géneros (tratados políticos, emblemática, poesía tradicional, etc.), reflexionando sobre la personalidad del príncipe ideal y sobre el arte de gobernar, llega a veces a proponer la urgente necesidad de una reforma en la conducta del imperio. Antonio Carreño-Rodríguez es profesor asistente de español, George Mason University.ISBN: 9781855661868
Publication Date: 2009-08-20
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Christianity and Romance in Medieval England by Rosalind Field (Editor); Phillipa Hardman (Editor); Michelle Sweeney (Editor) The relationship between the Christianity of medieval culture and its most characteristic narrative, the romance, is complex and the modern reading of it is too often confused. Not only can it be difficult to negotiate the distant, sometimes alien concepts of religious cultures of past centuries in a modern, secular, multi-cultural society, but there is no straightforward Christian context of Middle English romance - or of medieval romance in general, although this volume focuses on the romances of England. Medieval audiences had apparently very different expectations and demands of their entertainment: some looking for, and evidently finding, moral exempla and analogues of biblical narratives, others secular, even sensational, entertainment of a type condemned by moralising voices. BR>The essays collected here show how the romances of medieval England engage with its Christian culture. Topics include the handling of material from pre-Christian cultures, classical and Celtic, the effect of the Crusades, the meaning of chivalry, and the place of women in pious romances. Case studies, including Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Malory's Morte Darthur, offer new readings and ideas for teaching romance to contemporary students. They do not present a single view of a complex situation, but demonstrate the importance of reading romances with an awareness of the knowledge and cultural capital represented by Christianity for its original writers and audiences. Contributors: HELEN PHILLIPS, STEPHEN KNIGHT, PHILLIPA HARDMAN, MARIANNE AILES, RALUCA L. RADULESCU, CORINNE SAUNDERS, K.S. WHETTER, ANDREA HOPKINS, ROSALIND FIELD, DEREK BREWER, D. THOMAS HANKS, MICHELLE SWEENEYISBN: 9781843842194
Publication Date: 2010-04-15
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Dialectical Rhetoric by Bruce Mccomiskey In Dialectical Rhetoric, Bruce McComiskey argues that the historical conflict between rhetoric and dialectic can be overcome in ways useful to both composition theory and the composition classroom. Historically, dialectic has taken two forms in relation to rhetoric. First, it has been the logical development of linear propositions leading to necessary conclusions, a one-dimensional form that was the counterpart of rhetorics in which philosophical, metaphysical, and scientific truths were conveyed with as little cognitive interference from language as possible. Second, dialectic has been the topical development of opposed arguments on controversial issues and the judgment of their relative strengths and weaknesses, usually in political and legal contexts, a two-dimensional form that was the counterpart of rhetorics in which verbal battles over competing probabilities in public institutions revealed distinct winners and losers. The discipline of writing studies is on the brink of developing a new relationship between dialectic and rhetoric, one in which dialectics and rhetorics mediate and negotiate different arguments and orientations that are engaged in any rhetorical situation. This new relationship consists of a three-dimensional hybrid art called "dialectical rhetoric," whose method is based on five topoi: deconstruction, dialogue, identification, critique, and juxtaposition. Three-dimensional dialectical rhetorics function effectively in a wide variety of discursive contexts, including digital environments, since they can invoke contrasts in stagnant contexts and promote associations in chaotic contexts. Dialectical Rhetoric focuses more attention on three-dimensional rhetorics from the rhetoric and composition community. ISBN: 9780874219814
Publication Date: 2015-07-01
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Drama and Ethos: natural-law ethics in Spanish golden age theater by Robert L. FioreISBN: 9780813152394
Publication Date: 2014-07-07
Spanish Golden Age drama as an expression of morality falls between the extremes of art-for-art's-sake and utilitarianism. According to Spanish literary critics of the 16th and 17th centuries, drama imitated reality, the subject and domain of philosophy. The integration of drama and scholastic moral philosophy was an important aspect of the critical theory of this era, which held that art should both teach and delight. Through close textual analysis of representative plays, this book examines the artistic fusion of natural-law philosophy and drama. It demonstrates the relationship between ethics and the central ideological themes of these works, illustrating that an awareness of the doctrines of natural law ethics is crucial to an enriched comprehension of the drama of Golden Age Spain.
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Enlightened War by Elisabeth Krimmer (Editor); Patricia Anne Simpson (Editor) Enlightened War investigates the multiple and complex interactions between warfare and Enlightenment thought. Although the Enlightenment is traditionally identified with the ideals of progress, eternal peace, reason, and self-determination, Enlightenment discourse unfolded during a period of prolonged European warfare from the Seven Years' War to the Napoleonic conquest of Europe. The essays in this volume explore the palpable influence of war on eighteenth-century thought and argue for an ideological affinity among war, Enlightenment thought, and its legacy. The essays are interdisciplinary, engaging with history, art history, philosophy, military theory, gender studies, and literature and with historical events and cultural contexts from the early Enlightenment through German Classicism and Romanticism. The volume enriches our understanding of warfare in the eighteenth century and shows how theories and practices of war impacted concepts of subjectivity, national identity, gender, and art. It also sheds light on the contemporary discussion of the legitimacy of violence by juxtaposing theories of war, concepts of revolution, and human rights discourses. Contributors: Johannes Birgfeld, David Colclasure, Sara Eigen Figal, Ute Frevert, Wolf Kittler, Elisabeth Krimmer, Waltraud Maierhofer, Arndt Niebisch, Felix Saure, Galili Shahar, Patricia Anne Simpson, Inge Stephan. Elisabeth Krimmer is Professor of German at the University of California, Davis, and Patricia Anne Simpson is Associate Professor of German Studies at Montana State University.ISBN: 9781571134950
Publication Date: 2011-03-01
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Feminism and the Honor Plays of Lope de Vega by Yvonne Yarbro-Bejarano Between 1585 and 1631, the Spanish playwright Lope de Vega wrote numerous plays dealing with the theme of conjugal honor. Drawing on recent feminist theories and touching on literary, social, and anthropological aspects, Yarbro-Bejarano (Spanish, Stanford U.) demonstrates that hierarchical relationsISBN: 9781557530448
Publication Date: 1994-01-01
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Fuenteovejuna by Lope de Vega; G. J. Racz (Translator); Roberto González Echevarría (Introduction by) Lope de Vega “single-handedly created the Spanish national theatre,” writes Roberto González Echevarría in the introduction to this new translation of Fuenteovejuna. Often compared to Shakespeare, Molière, and Racine, Lope is widely considered the greatest of all Spanish playwrights, and Fuenteovejuna (The Sheep Well) is among the most important Spanish Golden Age plays. Written in 1614, Fuenteovejuna centers on the decision of an entire village to admit to the premeditated murder of a tyrannical ruler. Lope masterfully employs the tragicomic conventions of the Spanish comedia as he leavens the central dilemma of the peasant lovers, Laurencia and Frondoso, with the shenanigans of Mengo, the gracioso or clown. Based on an actual historical incident, Fuenteovejuna offers a paean to collective responsibility and affirmation of the timeless values of justice and kindness. Translator G. J. Racz preserves the nuanced voice and structure of Lope de Vega’s text in this first English translation in analogical meter and rhyme. Roberto González Echevarría surveys the history of Fuenteovejuna, as well as Lope’s enormous literary output and indelible cultural imprint. Racz’s compelling translation and González Echevarría’s rich framework bring this timeless Golden Age drama alive for a new generation of readers and performers.ISBN: 9780300163858
Publication Date: 2010-08-31
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A History of Spanish Golden Age Drama by Henryk Ziomek Spain's Golden Age, the seventeenth century, left the world one great legacy, the flower of its dramatic genius -- the comedia. The work of the Golden Age playwrights represents the largest combined body of dramatic literature from a single historical period, comparable in magnitude to classical tragedy and comedy, to Elizabethan drama, and to French neoclassical theater. A History of Spanish Golden Age Drama is the first up-to-date survey of the history of the comedia, with special emphasis on critical approaches developed during the past ten years. A history of the comedia necessarily focuses on the work of Lope de Vega and Calderon de la Barca, but Ziomek also gives full credit to the host of lesser dramatists who followed in the paths blazed by Lope and Calderon, and whose individual contributions to particular genres added to the richness of Spanish theater. He also examines the profound influence of the comedia on the literature of other cultures.ISBN: 9780813155388
Publication Date: 2014-07-07
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Lope de Vega en la Invención de España by Veronika Ryjik La idea de que Lope de Vega proyecta en sus personajes diferentes modos de ser español en su época ha sido un lugar común en la crítica literaria a lo largo de todo el siglo XX. Sin embargo, pocos investigadores han prestado atención a la correlación entre la imagen de España y de los españoles que construye el dramaturgo en sus comedias y el proceso de la formación de una conciencia nacional en la España de principios del siglo XVII. Este proyecto explora el papel del teatro lopesco en la construcción del 'yo' colectivo nacional. Se analizan la imagen de España y de los españoles creada por Lope mediante una constante manipulación de la historia patria, así como los posibles efectos de la propagación de esta imagen durante el siglo XVII. Dentro de este marco, se examina la manera en que Lope aborda los temas relacionados con ciertos conceptos claves para la elaboración de los supuestos ideales nacionales, como la monarquía, la religión, la jerarquía social y el imperio. Veronika Ryjik es Assistant Professor of Spanish, Franklin & Marshall College. The idea that Lope de Vega portrayed in his characters different modes of being Spanish in his time has been a commonplace in literary criticism throughout the twentieth century. However, few researchers have looked at the correlation between the image of Spain and the Spanish that the playwright constructs in his plays and the process of forming a national consciousness in Spain in the early seventeenth century. This book explores the role of Lope's plays in the construction of a collective national 'I'. It analyzes the image of Spain and the Spanish created by Lope through constant manipulation of national history, as well as the possible effects of the spread of this image during the seventeenth century. Within this framework, the book examines the way in which Lope addresses issues related to certain key concepts in the development of supposedly national ideals, such as monarchy, religion, social hierarchy and empire. Veronika Ryjik is Assistant Professor of Spanish, Franklin & Marshall CollegeISBN: 9781855662025
Publication Date: 2011-07-21
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Reading Junot Diaz by Christopher Gonzalez Dominican American author and Pulitzer Prize-winner Junot Díaz has gained international fame for his blended, cross-cultural fiction. Reading Junot Díaz is the first study to focus on his complete body of published works. It explores the totality of his work and provides a concise view of the interconnected and multilayered narrative that weaves throughout Díaz's writings.ISBN: 0822981246
Publication Date: 2015-12-01
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Reading Performance by Susan L. Fischer Oscar Wilde once observed that `it is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors'. This thought is borne out in this volume, which brings together two different and often mutually exclusive constituencies: the academic critic and the theatre practitioner. In looking at the ways in which theatre is a barometer of society, the essays in this book form part of a larger theoretical inquiry into performance as interpretation, contingent upon the cultural context. Engaging with theoretical approaches to culture, and theoreticians from Elam to Brook, and from Derrida to Bakhtin, the author analyzes in detail productions of plays by Lope de Vega, Tirso de Molina, and Calderón de la Barca, as well as an adaptation of Rojas' Celestina, on the Spanish, or French, or Anglo-American stage. Two chapters deal with appropriations of Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice in translation on the Spanish and French boards. As they read performance in (trans)national productions, these essays are not only at the cutting-edge of theatre studies on the `foreign' stage, but they also bring Spanish Golden-Age plays, long neglected by professional directors of the classics because of the lack of a continuous performance tradition, closer to assuming their rightful place amongst `the great theatre of the world'. SUSAN L. FISCHER is Professor of Spanish and Comparative Literature at Bucknell University.ISBN: 9781855661813
Publication Date: 2009-05-21
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Remaking the Comedia by Harley Erdman (Editor); Susan Paun de García (Editor) This volume brings together twenty-six essays from the world's leading scholars and practitioners of Spanish Golden Age theatre. Examining the startlingly wide variety of ways that Spanish comedias have been adapted, re-envisioned, and reinvented, the book makes the case that adaptation is a crucial lens for understanding the performance history of the genre. The essays cover a wide range of topics, from the early stage history of the comedia through numerous modern and contemporary case studies, as well as the transformation of the comedia into other dramatic genres, such as films, musicals, puppetry, and opera. The essays themselves are brief and accessible to non-specialists. This book will appeal not only to Golden Age scholars and students but also to theater practitioners, as well as to anyone interested in the theory and practice of adaptation. Harley Erdman is Professor of Theater at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst Susan Paun de García is Professor of Spanish at Denison University. Contributors: Sergio Adillo Rufo, Karen Berman, Robert E. Bayliss, Laurence Boswell, Bruce R. Burningham, Amaya Curieses Irarte, Rick Davis, Harley Erdman, Susan L. Fischer, Charles Victor Ganelin, Francisco García Vicente, Alejandro González Puche, Valerie Hegstrom, Kathleen Jeffs, David Johnston, Gina Kaufmann, Catherine Larson, Donald R. Larson, Barbara Mujica, Susan Paun de García, Felipe B. Pedraza Jiménez, Veronika Ryjik, Jonathan Thacker, Laura L. Vidler, Duncan Wheeler, Amy Williamsen, Jason YanceyISBN: 9781855662926
Publication Date: 2015-04-16
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Voices in Revolution by John A. Crespi China's century of revolutionary change has been heard as much as seen, and nowhere is this more evident than in an auditory history of the modern Chinese poem. From Lu Xun's seminal writings on literature to a recitation renaissance in urban centers today, poetics meets politics in the sounding voice of poetry. Supported throughout by vivid narration and accessible analysis, Voices in Revolution offers a literary history of modern China that makes the case for the importance of the auditory dimension of poetry in national, revolutionary, and postsocialist culture. Crespi brings the past to life by first examining the ideological changes to poetic voice during China's early twentieth-century transition from empire to nation. He then traces the emergence of the spoken poem from the May Fourth period to the present, including its mobilization during the Anti-Japanese War, its incorporation into the student protest repertoire during China's civil war, its role as a conflicted voice of Mao-era revolutionary passion, and finally its current adaptation to the cultural life of China's party-guided market economy. Voices in Revolution alters the way we read by moving poems off the page and into the real time and space of literary activity. To all readers it offers an accessible yet conceptually fresh and often dramatic narration of China's modern literary experience. Specialists will appreciate the book's inclusion of noncanonical texts as well as its innovative interdisciplinary approach.ISBN: 9780824833657
Publication Date: 2009-09-01
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Talking Appalachian by Amy D. Clark (Editor); Nancy M. Hayward (Editor) Tradition, community, and pride are fundamental aspects of the history of Appalachia, and the language of the region is a living testament to its rich heritage. Despite the persistence of unflattering stereotypes and cultural discrimination associated with their style of speech, Appalachians have organized to preserve regional dialects -- complex forms of English peppered with words, phrases, and pronunciations unique to the area and its people. "Talking Appalachian" examines these distinctive speech varieties and emphasizes their role in expressing local history and promoting a shared identity. Beginning with a historical and geographical overview of the region that analyzes the origins of its dialects, this volume features detailed research and local case studies investigating their use. The contributors explore a variety of subjects, including the success of African American Appalachian English and southern Appalachian English speakers in professional and corporate positions. In addition, editors Amy D. Clark and Nancy M. Hayward provide excerpts from essays, poetry, short fiction, and novels to illustrate usage. With contributions from well-known authors such as George Ella Lyon and Silas House, this balanced collection is the most comprehensive, accessible study of Appalachian language available today.ISBN: 9780813141589
Publication Date: 2013-03-29
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Fitzgerald and Hemingway by Scott Donaldson F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway might have been contemporaries, but our understanding of their work often rests on simple differences. Hemingway wrestled with war, fraternity, and the violence of nature. Fitzgerald satirized money and class and the never-ending pursuit of a material tomorrow. Through the provocative arguments of Scott Donaldson, however, the affinities between these two authors become brilliantly clear. The result is a reorientation of how we read twentieth-century American literature.ISBN: 9780231519786
Publication Date: 2009-08-01
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Jane Austen by Laurence W. Mazzeno Among the most important English novelists, Jane Austen is unusual because esteemed not only by academics but also by the reading public: her novels continue to sell well, and films adapted from her works enjoy box-office success. The trajectory of Austen criticism is intriguing, especially when one compares it to that of other nineteenth-century English writers. At least partly because she was a woman in the early nineteenth century, she was long neglected by critics, hardly considered a major figure in English literature until well into the twentieth century, a hundred years after her death. But consequently she escaped the reaction against Victorianism that did so much to hurt the reputation of Dickens, Tennyson, Arnold, and others. How she rose to prominence among academic critics--and has retained her position through the constant shifting of academic and critical trends--is a story worth telling, as it suggests not only something about Austen's artistry but also how changes in critical perspective can radically alter a writer's reputation.ISBN: 9781571133946
Publication Date: 2011-05-02
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Magic in the Web by Robert B. Heilman In his earlier work on King Lear, Mr. Heilman combined a number of critical procedures to form a new and important approach to Shakespearian criticism. His study of Othello displays the maturity of insight and skill in analysis the years have brought him in developing his critical method. Mr. Heilman takes account of stage effects; he traces out literal and symbolic meanings; he analyzes plot relationships; he examines characters in terms of both their psychological and their moral situations, and style in relation to both character and meaning.ISBN: 9780813152530
Publication Date: 2014-07-07
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Measure for Measure, the Law and the Convent by Darryl J. Gless ISBN: 9780691635811
Publication Date: 2016-04-19
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Othello by William Shakespeare; Harold Bloom (Contribution by); Burton Raffel (Editor) Presents William Shakespeare's dramatic tragedy in which Iago, jealous of Othello's successes in the army of Venice, plots against him, pretending to be his friend while planting seeds of doubt about the faithfulness of his wife, Desdemona; and includes text glosses, an introduction, details on the Shakespearean stage, an essay by critic Harold Bloom, and a further reading list.ISBN: 9780300108071
Publication Date: 2005-11-01
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Remembering Africa by Dirk Göttsche This is the first comprehensive study of contemporary German literature's intense engagement with German colonialism and with Germany's wider involvement in European colonialism. Building on the author's decade of research and publication in the field, the book discusses some fifty novels by German, Swiss, and Austrian writers, among them Hans Christoph Buch, Alex Capus, Christof Hamann, Lukas Hartmann, Ilona Maria Hilliges, Giselher W. Hoffmann, Dieter Kühn, Hermann Schulz, Gerhard Seyfried, Thomas von Steinaecker, Uwe Timm, Ilija Trojanow, and Stephan Wackwitz. Drawing on international postcolonial theory, the German tradition of cross-cultural literary studies, and on memory studies, the book brings the hitherto neglected German case to the international debate in postcolonial literary studies.ISBN: 9781571135469
Publication Date: 2013-05-15
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Tempest in the Caribbean by Jonathan Goldberg This book reads some of the "classic" anticolonial textsby Aim Csaire and Roberto Fernndez Retamar, for instancethrough the lens of feminist and queer analysis. By placing gender and sexuality at the center of the debate about the uses of Shakespeare for anticolonial purposes, Goldbergs work points to possibilities that might be articulated through the nexus of race and sexuality.ISBN: 0816695466
Publication Date: 2004-01-01
Film studies eBooks
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Eastwood's Iwo Jima by Anne Gjelsvik (Editor); Rikke Schubart (Editor) With Flags of Our Fathers (2006) and Letters from Iwo Jima (2006), Clint Eastwood made a unique contribution to film history, being the first director to make two films about the same event. Eastwood's films examine the battle over Iwo Jima from two nations' perspectives, in two languages, and embody a passionate view on conflict, enemies, and heroes. Together these works tell the story behind one of history’s most famous photographs, Leo Rosenthal’s "Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima." In this volume, international scholars in political science and film, literary, and cultural studies undertake multifaceted investigations into how Eastwood's diptych reflects war today. Fifteen essays explore the intersection among war films, American history, and Japanese patriotism. They present global attitudes toward war memories, icons, and heroism while offering new perspectives on cinema, photography, journalism, ethics, propaganda, war strategy, leadership, and the war on terror.ISBN: 9780231850438
Publication Date: 2013-06-04
Alegorías del Poder by La presente monografía analiza las obras dramáticas de Lope de Vega, Tirso de Molina y Calderón de la Barca como reacción a la inestabilidad política y social de España en la primera mitad del siglo XVII. En contra de la interpretación que presenta la comedia como un instrumento de propaganda de la monarquía, este estudio propone que muchos de los dramas escritos en este período funcionan a modo de velo que sutilmente revela una crítica metafórica de los reinados de Felipe III y de Felipe IV. Tales dramas, con una función ética y política y dentro del subgénero que definimos como "alegorías del poder", representan una serie de reflexiones sobre la buena y mala conducta del gobierno. Si bien sus argumentos están tomados de la tradición clásica, bíblica, europea y de la historia de España, o de leyendas antiguas, tal cuerpo dramático hace una severa reflexión sobre el gobierno justo y virtuoso y la puesta en práctica de una moral recta y de unos valores políticos correctos. El discurso dramático que permite que estos dramaturgos, sin riesgo de censura, se hagan portavoces del sentir de un coro de voces, dialogando con otros géneros (tratados políticos, emblemática, poesía tradicional, etc.), reflexionando sobre la personalidad del príncipe ideal y sobre el arte de gobernar, llega a veces a proponer la urgente necesidad de una reforma en la conducta del imperio. Antonio Carreño-Rodríguez es profesor asistente de español, George Mason University.
Christianity and Romance in Medieval England by The relationship between the Christianity of medieval culture and its most characteristic narrative, the romance, is complex and the modern reading of it is too often confused. Not only can it be difficult to negotiate the distant, sometimes alien concepts of religious cultures of past centuries in a modern, secular, multi-cultural society, but there is no straightforward Christian context of Middle English romance - or of medieval romance in general, although this volume focuses on the romances of England. Medieval audiences had apparently very different expectations and demands of their entertainment: some looking for, and evidently finding, moral exempla and analogues of biblical narratives, others secular, even sensational, entertainment of a type condemned by moralising voices. BR>The essays collected here show how the romances of medieval England engage with its Christian culture. Topics include the handling of material from pre-Christian cultures, classical and Celtic, the effect of the Crusades, the meaning of chivalry, and the place of women in pious romances. Case studies, including Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Malory's Morte Darthur, offer new readings and ideas for teaching romance to contemporary students. They do not present a single view of a complex situation, but demonstrate the importance of reading romances with an awareness of the knowledge and cultural capital represented by Christianity for its original writers and audiences. Contributors: HELEN PHILLIPS, STEPHEN KNIGHT, PHILLIPA HARDMAN, MARIANNE AILES, RALUCA L. RADULESCU, CORINNE SAUNDERS, K.S. WHETTER, ANDREA HOPKINS, ROSALIND FIELD, DEREK BREWER, D. THOMAS HANKS, MICHELLE SWEENEY
Dialectical Rhetoric by In Dialectical Rhetoric, Bruce McComiskey argues that the historical conflict between rhetoric and dialectic can be overcome in ways useful to both composition theory and the composition classroom. Historically, dialectic has taken two forms in relation to rhetoric. First, it has been the logical development of linear propositions leading to necessary conclusions, a one-dimensional form that was the counterpart of rhetorics in which philosophical, metaphysical, and scientific truths were conveyed with as little cognitive interference from language as possible. Second, dialectic has been the topical development of opposed arguments on controversial issues and the judgment of their relative strengths and weaknesses, usually in political and legal contexts, a two-dimensional form that was the counterpart of rhetorics in which verbal battles over competing probabilities in public institutions revealed distinct winners and losers. The discipline of writing studies is on the brink of developing a new relationship between dialectic and rhetoric, one in which dialectics and rhetorics mediate and negotiate different arguments and orientations that are engaged in any rhetorical situation. This new relationship consists of a three-dimensional hybrid art called "dialectical rhetoric," whose method is based on five topoi: deconstruction, dialogue, identification, critique, and juxtaposition. Three-dimensional dialectical rhetorics function effectively in a wide variety of discursive contexts, including digital environments, since they can invoke contrasts in stagnant contexts and promote associations in chaotic contexts. Dialectical Rhetoric focuses more attention on three-dimensional rhetorics from the rhetoric and composition community. 
Drama and Ethos: natural-law ethics in Spanish golden age theater by 
Enlightened War by Enlightened War investigates the multiple and complex interactions between warfare and Enlightenment thought. Although the Enlightenment is traditionally identified with the ideals of progress, eternal peace, reason, and self-determination, Enlightenment discourse unfolded during a period of prolonged European warfare from the Seven Years' War to the Napoleonic conquest of Europe. The essays in this volume explore the palpable influence of war on eighteenth-century thought and argue for an ideological affinity among war, Enlightenment thought, and its legacy. The essays are interdisciplinary, engaging with history, art history, philosophy, military theory, gender studies, and literature and with historical events and cultural contexts from the early Enlightenment through German Classicism and Romanticism. The volume enriches our understanding of warfare in the eighteenth century and shows how theories and practices of war impacted concepts of subjectivity, national identity, gender, and art. It also sheds light on the contemporary discussion of the legitimacy of violence by juxtaposing theories of war, concepts of revolution, and human rights discourses. Contributors: Johannes Birgfeld, David Colclasure, Sara Eigen Figal, Ute Frevert, Wolf Kittler, Elisabeth Krimmer, Waltraud Maierhofer, Arndt Niebisch, Felix Saure, Galili Shahar, Patricia Anne Simpson, Inge Stephan. Elisabeth Krimmer is Professor of German at the University of California, Davis, and Patricia Anne Simpson is Associate Professor of German Studies at Montana State University.
Feminism and the Honor Plays of Lope de Vega by Between 1585 and 1631, the Spanish playwright Lope de Vega wrote numerous plays dealing with the theme of conjugal honor. Drawing on recent feminist theories and touching on literary, social, and anthropological aspects, Yarbro-Bejarano (Spanish, Stanford U.) demonstrates that hierarchical relations
Fuenteovejuna by Lope de Vega “single-handedly created the Spanish national theatre,” writes Roberto González Echevarría in the introduction to this new translation of Fuenteovejuna. Often compared to Shakespeare, Molière, and Racine, Lope is widely considered the greatest of all Spanish playwrights, and Fuenteovejuna (The Sheep Well) is among the most important Spanish Golden Age plays. Written in 1614, Fuenteovejuna centers on the decision of an entire village to admit to the premeditated murder of a tyrannical ruler. Lope masterfully employs the tragicomic conventions of the Spanish comedia as he leavens the central dilemma of the peasant lovers, Laurencia and Frondoso, with the shenanigans of Mengo, the gracioso or clown. Based on an actual historical incident, Fuenteovejuna offers a paean to collective responsibility and affirmation of the timeless values of justice and kindness. Translator G. J. Racz preserves the nuanced voice and structure of Lope de Vega’s text in this first English translation in analogical meter and rhyme. Roberto González Echevarría surveys the history of Fuenteovejuna, as well as Lope’s enormous literary output and indelible cultural imprint. Racz’s compelling translation and González Echevarría’s rich framework bring this timeless Golden Age drama alive for a new generation of readers and performers.
A History of Spanish Golden Age Drama by Spain's Golden Age, the seventeenth century, left the world one great legacy, the flower of its dramatic genius -- the comedia. The work of the Golden Age playwrights represents the largest combined body of dramatic literature from a single historical period, comparable in magnitude to classical tragedy and comedy, to Elizabethan drama, and to French neoclassical theater. A History of Spanish Golden Age Drama is the first up-to-date survey of the history of the comedia, with special emphasis on critical approaches developed during the past ten years. A history of the comedia necessarily focuses on the work of Lope de Vega and Calderon de la Barca, but Ziomek also gives full credit to the host of lesser dramatists who followed in the paths blazed by Lope and Calderon, and whose individual contributions to particular genres added to the richness of Spanish theater. He also examines the profound influence of the comedia on the literature of other cultures.
Lope de Vega en la Invención de España by La idea de que Lope de Vega proyecta en sus personajes diferentes modos de ser español en su época ha sido un lugar común en la crítica literaria a lo largo de todo el siglo XX. Sin embargo, pocos investigadores han prestado atención a la correlación entre la imagen de España y de los españoles que construye el dramaturgo en sus comedias y el proceso de la formación de una conciencia nacional en la España de principios del siglo XVII. Este proyecto explora el papel del teatro lopesco en la construcción del 'yo' colectivo nacional. Se analizan la imagen de España y de los españoles creada por Lope mediante una constante manipulación de la historia patria, así como los posibles efectos de la propagación de esta imagen durante el siglo XVII. Dentro de este marco, se examina la manera en que Lope aborda los temas relacionados con ciertos conceptos claves para la elaboración de los supuestos ideales nacionales, como la monarquía, la religión, la jerarquía social y el imperio. Veronika Ryjik es Assistant Professor of Spanish, Franklin & Marshall College. The idea that Lope de Vega portrayed in his characters different modes of being Spanish in his time has been a commonplace in literary criticism throughout the twentieth century. However, few researchers have looked at the correlation between the image of Spain and the Spanish that the playwright constructs in his plays and the process of forming a national consciousness in Spain in the early seventeenth century. This book explores the role of Lope's plays in the construction of a collective national 'I'. It analyzes the image of Spain and the Spanish created by Lope through constant manipulation of national history, as well as the possible effects of the spread of this image during the seventeenth century. Within this framework, the book examines the way in which Lope addresses issues related to certain key concepts in the development of supposedly national ideals, such as monarchy, religion, social hierarchy and empire. Veronika Ryjik is Assistant Professor of Spanish, Franklin & Marshall College
Reading Junot Diaz by Dominican American author and Pulitzer Prize-winner Junot Díaz has gained international fame for his blended, cross-cultural fiction. Reading Junot Díaz is the first study to focus on his complete body of published works. It explores the totality of his work and provides a concise view of the interconnected and multilayered narrative that weaves throughout Díaz's writings.
Reading Performance by Oscar Wilde once observed that `it is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors'. This thought is borne out in this volume, which brings together two different and often mutually exclusive constituencies: the academic critic and the theatre practitioner. In looking at the ways in which theatre is a barometer of society, the essays in this book form part of a larger theoretical inquiry into performance as interpretation, contingent upon the cultural context. Engaging with theoretical approaches to culture, and theoreticians from Elam to Brook, and from Derrida to Bakhtin, the author analyzes in detail productions of plays by Lope de Vega, Tirso de Molina, and Calderón de la Barca, as well as an adaptation of Rojas' Celestina, on the Spanish, or French, or Anglo-American stage. Two chapters deal with appropriations of Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice in translation on the Spanish and French boards. As they read performance in (trans)national productions, these essays are not only at the cutting-edge of theatre studies on the `foreign' stage, but they also bring Spanish Golden-Age plays, long neglected by professional directors of the classics because of the lack of a continuous performance tradition, closer to assuming their rightful place amongst `the great theatre of the world'. SUSAN L. FISCHER is Professor of Spanish and Comparative Literature at Bucknell University.
Remaking the Comedia by This volume brings together twenty-six essays from the world's leading scholars and practitioners of Spanish Golden Age theatre. Examining the startlingly wide variety of ways that Spanish comedias have been adapted, re-envisioned, and reinvented, the book makes the case that adaptation is a crucial lens for understanding the performance history of the genre. The essays cover a wide range of topics, from the early stage history of the comedia through numerous modern and contemporary case studies, as well as the transformation of the comedia into other dramatic genres, such as films, musicals, puppetry, and opera. The essays themselves are brief and accessible to non-specialists. This book will appeal not only to Golden Age scholars and students but also to theater practitioners, as well as to anyone interested in the theory and practice of adaptation. Harley Erdman is Professor of Theater at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst Susan Paun de García is Professor of Spanish at Denison University. Contributors: Sergio Adillo Rufo, Karen Berman, Robert E. Bayliss, Laurence Boswell, Bruce R. Burningham, Amaya Curieses Irarte, Rick Davis, Harley Erdman, Susan L. Fischer, Charles Victor Ganelin, Francisco García Vicente, Alejandro González Puche, Valerie Hegstrom, Kathleen Jeffs, David Johnston, Gina Kaufmann, Catherine Larson, Donald R. Larson, Barbara Mujica, Susan Paun de García, Felipe B. Pedraza Jiménez, Veronika Ryjik, Jonathan Thacker, Laura L. Vidler, Duncan Wheeler, Amy Williamsen, Jason Yancey
Voices in Revolution by China's century of revolutionary change has been heard as much as seen, and nowhere is this more evident than in an auditory history of the modern Chinese poem. From Lu Xun's seminal writings on literature to a recitation renaissance in urban centers today, poetics meets politics in the sounding voice of poetry. Supported throughout by vivid narration and accessible analysis, Voices in Revolution offers a literary history of modern China that makes the case for the importance of the auditory dimension of poetry in national, revolutionary, and postsocialist culture. Crespi brings the past to life by first examining the ideological changes to poetic voice during China's early twentieth-century transition from empire to nation. He then traces the emergence of the spoken poem from the May Fourth period to the present, including its mobilization during the Anti-Japanese War, its incorporation into the student protest repertoire during China's civil war, its role as a conflicted voice of Mao-era revolutionary passion, and finally its current adaptation to the cultural life of China's party-guided market economy. Voices in Revolution alters the way we read by moving poems off the page and into the real time and space of literary activity. To all readers it offers an accessible yet conceptually fresh and often dramatic narration of China's modern literary experience. Specialists will appreciate the book's inclusion of noncanonical texts as well as its innovative interdisciplinary approach.
Talking Appalachian by Tradition, community, and pride are fundamental aspects of the history of Appalachia, and the language of the region is a living testament to its rich heritage. Despite the persistence of unflattering stereotypes and cultural discrimination associated with their style of speech, Appalachians have organized to preserve regional dialects -- complex forms of English peppered with words, phrases, and pronunciations unique to the area and its people. "Talking Appalachian" examines these distinctive speech varieties and emphasizes their role in expressing local history and promoting a shared identity. Beginning with a historical and geographical overview of the region that analyzes the origins of its dialects, this volume features detailed research and local case studies investigating their use. The contributors explore a variety of subjects, including the success of African American Appalachian English and southern Appalachian English speakers in professional and corporate positions. In addition, editors Amy D. Clark and Nancy M. Hayward provide excerpts from essays, poetry, short fiction, and novels to illustrate usage. With contributions from well-known authors such as George Ella Lyon and Silas House, this balanced collection is the most comprehensive, accessible study of Appalachian language available today.
Fitzgerald and Hemingway by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway might have been contemporaries, but our understanding of their work often rests on simple differences. Hemingway wrestled with war, fraternity, and the violence of nature. Fitzgerald satirized money and class and the never-ending pursuit of a material tomorrow. Through the provocative arguments of Scott Donaldson, however, the affinities between these two authors become brilliantly clear. The result is a reorientation of how we read twentieth-century American literature.
Jane Austen by Among the most important English novelists, Jane Austen is unusual because esteemed not only by academics but also by the reading public: her novels continue to sell well, and films adapted from her works enjoy box-office success. The trajectory of Austen criticism is intriguing, especially when one compares it to that of other nineteenth-century English writers. At least partly because she was a woman in the early nineteenth century, she was long neglected by critics, hardly considered a major figure in English literature until well into the twentieth century, a hundred years after her death. But consequently she escaped the reaction against Victorianism that did so much to hurt the reputation of Dickens, Tennyson, Arnold, and others. How she rose to prominence among academic critics--and has retained her position through the constant shifting of academic and critical trends--is a story worth telling, as it suggests not only something about Austen's artistry but also how changes in critical perspective can radically alter a writer's reputation.
Magic in the Web by In his earlier work on King Lear, Mr. Heilman combined a number of critical procedures to form a new and important approach to Shakespearian criticism. His study of Othello displays the maturity of insight and skill in analysis the years have brought him in developing his critical method. Mr. Heilman takes account of stage effects; he traces out literal and symbolic meanings; he analyzes plot relationships; he examines characters in terms of both their psychological and their moral situations, and style in relation to both character and meaning.
Measure for Measure, the Law and the Convent by 
Othello by Presents William Shakespeare's dramatic tragedy in which Iago, jealous of Othello's successes in the army of Venice, plots against him, pretending to be his friend while planting seeds of doubt about the faithfulness of his wife, Desdemona; and includes text glosses, an introduction, details on the Shakespearean stage, an essay by critic Harold Bloom, and a further reading list.
Remembering Africa by This is the first comprehensive study of contemporary German literature's intense engagement with German colonialism and with Germany's wider involvement in European colonialism. Building on the author's decade of research and publication in the field, the book discusses some fifty novels by German, Swiss, and Austrian writers, among them Hans Christoph Buch, Alex Capus, Christof Hamann, Lukas Hartmann, Ilona Maria Hilliges, Giselher W. Hoffmann, Dieter Kühn, Hermann Schulz, Gerhard Seyfried, Thomas von Steinaecker, Uwe Timm, Ilija Trojanow, and Stephan Wackwitz. Drawing on international postcolonial theory, the German tradition of cross-cultural literary studies, and on memory studies, the book brings the hitherto neglected German case to the international debate in postcolonial literary studies.
Tempest in the Caribbean by This book reads some of the "classic" anticolonial textsby Aim Csaire and Roberto Fernndez Retamar, for instancethrough the lens of feminist and queer analysis. By placing gender and sexuality at the center of the debate about the uses of Shakespeare for anticolonial purposes, Goldbergs work points to possibilities that might be articulated through the nexus of race and sexuality.
Eastwood's Iwo Jima by With Flags of Our Fathers (2006) and Letters from Iwo Jima (2006), Clint Eastwood made a unique contribution to film history, being the first director to make two films about the same event. Eastwood's films examine the battle over Iwo Jima from two nations' perspectives, in two languages, and embody a passionate view on conflict, enemies, and heroes. Together these works tell the story behind one of history’s most famous photographs, Leo Rosenthal’s "Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima." In this volume, international scholars in political science and film, literary, and cultural studies undertake multifaceted investigations into how Eastwood's diptych reflects war today. Fifteen essays explore the intersection among war films, American history, and Japanese patriotism. They present global attitudes toward war memories, icons, and heroism while offering new perspectives on cinema, photography, journalism, ethics, propaganda, war strategy, leadership, and the war on terror.