Download or read book Nostalgia for the Absolute written by George Steiner and published by House of Anansi. This book was released on 1997 with total page 74 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The decline of formal religious systems has left a moral and emotional emptiness in Western culture. George Steiner, internationally renowned thinker and scholar, pursues this and examines the alternative "mythologies" of Marxism, Freudian psychology, L vi-Straussian anthropology, and fads of irrationality.
Download or read book Bulletin of the Lloyd Library of Botany Pharmacy and Materia Medica written by and published by . This book was released on 1910 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Performance of Christian and Pagan Storyworlds written by Lars Boje Mortensen and published by Brepols Pub. This book was released on 2013 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The present collection explores a hitherto understudied body of Nordic medieval literature which, although overlooked in traditional, language-based narratives, was in fact crucial in shaping social and religious identities. By drawing on the 'performance turn' in cultural studies, the volume identifies a number of minor and peripheral literary forms and texts that had a vital connection to ritual and ritualized speech. These neglected traditions therefore offer an alternative insight into Nordic literary life and the sets of cultural expression, or storyworlds, underlying Nordic culture. The collected studies explore different aspects of verbal performances as a primary vehicle for the Nordic storyworlds, with a preference for the Christian over the pagan traditions. Emphasis is placed on Latin, Old Norse, and Finnish traditions that were retold and reproduced over time. These 'living' literary forms highlight the importance of non-canonical texts for the interpretation of contact between the peripheries and centres of Nordic culture. Through the focus on the interaction between Latin and the vernacular, between eastern Baltic and western Latin influences, and between ritual and speech in religious practice, this collection demonstrates the importance of 'minor' texts for the re-construction of medieval Nordic culture and history.
Download or read book The Last Days written by Steven Spielberg and published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson. This book was released on 2000 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Five survivors of the Holocaust in Hungary describe their lives before the war; the swift and barbarous execution of Hitler's policies from March 1944; and their experiences in hiding and in Auschwitz, Buchenwald and Dachau. The book also follows their return to the camps 50 years later.
Download or read book Decayed Gods written by Wouter W. Belier and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2015-09-01 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1930 Dumézil wrote an article in which he defended the Indo-European character of the Indian varnas. In 1986 he was completing his final 25 Esquisses, research proposals the aim of which was to allow his model of the 'idéologie tripartie' of Indo-European traditions to be applied to his 'disciples'. According to this model Indo-European traditions were typified by a threefold division into functions of society, the world of the gods, and the heroic traditions. These were the functions of sovereignty, power and 'fertility'. This theoretical model was elaborated by Dumézil in a large number of books and articles. Between 1930 and 1986 he broadened enormously the amount of data on which his model was based. To do so he had regularly to adapt and reformulate his model. This was not without consequences for the material which he had interpreted earlier on. In this study a detailed description is given of this process of reformulation and reinterpretation and the conclusion is that the totality of the various models does not, despite its aesthetic attraction, satisfy the criteria which should be set for scientific models.
Download or read book Snorri Sturluson and the Edda written by Kevin J. Wanner and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2008-01-01 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wanner brings us a new account of the interests that motivated the production of the Edda, and resolves the mystery of its genesis by demonstrating the intersection of Snorri's political and cultural concerns and practices.
Download or read book Aryan Idols written by Stefan Arvidsson and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2006-09-15 with total page 367 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Critically examining the discourse of Indo-European scholarship over the past two hundred years, Aryan Idols demonstrates how the interconnected concepts of “Indo-European” and “Aryan” as ethnic categories have been shaped by, and used for, various ideologies. Stefan Arvidsson traces the evolution of the Aryan idea through the nineteenth century—from its roots in Bible-based classifications and William Jones’s discovery of commonalities among Sanskrit, Latin, and Greek to its use by scholars in fields such as archaeology, anthropology, folklore, comparative religion, and history. Along the way, Arvidsson maps out the changing ways in which Aryans were imagined and relates such shifts to social, historical, and political processes. Considering the developments of the twentieth century, Arvidsson focuses on the adoption of Indo-European scholarship (or pseudoscholarship) by the Nazis and by Fascist Catholics. A wide-ranging discussion of the intellectual history of the past two centuries, Aryan Idols links the pervasive idea of the Indo-European people to major scientific, philosophical, and political developments of the times, while raising important questions about the nature of scholarship as well.
Download or read book A History of Medieval Spain written by Joseph F. O'Callaghan and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2013-04-15 with total page 737 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Medieval Spain is brilliantly recreated, in all its variety and richness, in this comprehensive survey. Likely to become the standard work in English, the book treats the entire Iberian Peninsula and all the people who inhabited it, from the coming of the Visigoths in the fifth century to the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella. Integrating a wealth of information about the diverse peoples, institutions, religions, and customs that flourished in the states that are now Spain and Portugal, Joseph F. O'Callaghan focuses on the continuing attempts to impose political unity on the peninsula. O'Callaghan divides his story into five compact historical periods and discusses political, social, economic, and cultural developments in each period. By treating states together, he is able to put into proper perspective the relationships among them, their similarities and differences, and the continuity of development from one period to the next. He gives proper attention to Spain's contacts with the rest of the medieval world, but his main concern is with the events and institutions on the peninsula itself. Illustrations, genealogical charts, maps, and an extensive bibliography round out a book that will be welcomed by scholars and student of Spanish and Portuguese history and literature, as well as by medievalists, as the fullest account to date of Spanish history in the Middle Ages.
Download or read book Islamic and Christian Spain in the Early Middle Ages written by Thomas Glick and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2005-11-01 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work represents a considerably revised edition of the first comparative history of Islamic and Christian Spain between A.D. 711 and 1250. It focuses on the differential development of agriculture and urbanization in the Islamic and Christian territories and the flow of information and techniques between them.
Download or read book Festschrift written by Rita Hamilton and published by Tamesis. This book was released on 1976 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Law and Society in the Visigothic Kingdom written by P. D. King and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2006-11-02 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The kingdom of the Visigoths, embracing at its fullest extent Portugal and part of southern France as well as virtually the whole of Spain, boasted the most sophisticated civilization to be be found in any of the Romano-barbarian states created out of the ruin of the Western Empire. Yet its fortunes have been the subject of a curious indifference by scholars otherwise well conscious of the supreme significance of the sixth and seventh centuries for a balanced understanding of the Middle Ages. Dr King makes a searching investigation into the structure and ethos of Visigothic society as it is revealed in the legal and other other sources of the time.
Download or read book The Goths in Spain written by E. A. Thompson and published by Oxford : Clarendon P. This book was released on 1969 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A study of how the Goths governed their provinces from their victory at Vouille in 507 until the arrival of the Arabs in Gibralter in 711.
Download or read book The Pursuit of the Millennium written by Norman Cohn and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1970-05-15 with total page 419 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The end of the millennium has always held the world in fear of earthquakes, plague, and the catastrophic destruction of the world. At the dawn of the 21st millennium the world is still experiencing these anxieties, as seen by the onslaught of fantasies of renewal, doomsday predictions, and New Age prophecies. This fascinating book explores the millenarianism that flourished in western Europe between the eleventh and sixteenth centuries. Covering the full range of revolutionary and anarchic sects and movements in medieval Europe, Cohn demonstrates how prophecies of a final struggle between the hosts of Christ and Antichrist melded with the rootless poor's desire to improve their own material conditions, resulting in a flourishing of millenarian fantasies. The only overall study of medieval millenarian movements, The Pursuit of the Millennium offers an excellent interpretation of how, again and again, in situations of anxiety and unrest, traditional beliefs come to serve as vehicles for social aspirations and animosities.
Download or read book Old Norse Icelandic Literature written by Carol J. Clover and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2019-06-30 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The current revival of interest in the rich and varied literature of early Scandinavia has prompted a corresponding interest in its background: its origins, social and historical context, and relationship to other medieval literatures. Even readers with a knowledge of Old Norse and Icelandic have found these subjects difficult to pursue, however, for up-to-date reference works in any language are few and none exist in English. To fill the gap, six distinguished scholars have contributed ambitious new essays to this volume. The contributors summarize and comment on scholarly work in the major branches of the field: Eddie and skaldic poetry, family and kings' sagas, courtly writing, and mythology. Taken together, their judicious and attractively written essays-each with a full bibliography-make up the first book-length survey of Old Norse literature in English and a basic reference work that will stimulate research in these areas and help to open up the field to a wider academic readership.
Download or read book The Matter of Britain and the Praise of Spain written by Stephen Reckert and published by . This book was released on 1967 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Reconquest of Spain written by Derek W. Lomax and published by Longman Publishing Group. This book was released on 1978 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Scenes from the Drama of European Literature written by Erich Auerbach and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 1984 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scenes from the Drama of European Literature was first published in 1984. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions. In his foreword to this reprint of Erich Auerbach's major essays, Paolo Valesio pays tribute to the author with an old saying that he feels is still the best metaphor for the genesis of a literary critic: the critic is born of the marriage of Mercury and Philology. The German-born Auerbach was a scholar who specialized in Romance philology, a tradition rooted in German historicism—the conviction that works of art must be judged as products of variable places and times, not from the eye of eternity, nor by a single unchanging aesthetic standard. The mercurial element in Auerbach's work is significant, for in a life of motion—of exile from Hitler's Germany—he came to believe that literary history was evolutionary, ever-changing—a view reflected in the title of his book, which suggests life and literature are historical drama. Auerbach is best known for his magisterial study Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature, written during the war, in Istanbul, when he was far from his own culture and from the books that he normally relied on. In 1957, just before his death, he arranged for the publication in English of his six most important essays, in a volume called Scenes from the Drama of European Literature.As in Mimesis,Auerbach's fresh insights bring to the disparate subjects of the essays a coherence that reflects the unity of Western, humanistic tradition, even while they hint at the deepening pessimism of his later years. In the first essay, "Figura," Auerbach develops his concept of the figural interpretation of reality; applied here to Dante's Divine Comedy,it also served as groundwork for his treatment of realism in Mimesis. A second essay on Dante's examines the poet's depiction of St. Francis of Assisi. The next three essays deal with the paradoxical nature of Pascal's political thought; the merging of la cour and la ville—the king's entourage and the bourgeoisie—chiefly in relation to the seventeenth-century French theater; and Vico's formulation concepts by the German Romantics. In the final essay Auerbach confers upon Baudelaire's Fleurs du Mal the designation "aesthetic dignity" because, not in spite of, the hideous reality of the peoms. "A major collection of important essays on European literature, almost all classics, and almost all required reading for their various centuries—thus the book is indispensable for the medieval period,the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries; in addition, the 'Figura' and the Vico essays are very significant theoretical statements. The book is lucid and far more accessible for undergraduates than, say, current high theory. Nor has Auerbach's own work aged . . . All of his varied strengths are evidence in this collection, which is a better way into his work than Mimesis." –Fredric Jameson, University of California, Santa Cruz.
