Black Book Research Articles

Worms in the Heart: A Lament for Tom Deadlight

Worms in the Heart:A Lament for Tom Deadlight Helen Steadman Belied by flat pewter and lavenderthe Auster flogs the glass, gathering wind. Sure as Blue Monday when the Black Book's read,we're dead ahead, lads now, to Fiddler's Green. Carried by salt dreams over ribs of sand–red bleeds of seaweed to far horizons where the fat ghost of the voracious seahaunts the shore, scavenging for its next meal. The fleets are tucked up in Bedlam, but forus in the abyss, three hundred fathoms from the skin of the sea. We can't see orhear—only la Lutine bell as it tolls down the list, marking the age of the tide.Adornings adrift in horse latitudes– blagueurs dressed up to the nines in dollyshop rags, left to the brethren of the coast. [End Page 159] Helen Steadman University of Aberdeen Copyright © 2019 Johns Hopkins University Press and the Melville Society

Plotting Power: Strategy in the Eighteenth Century by Jeremy Black

Reviewed by: Plotting Power: Strategy in the Eighteenth Century by Jeremy Black Neil Guthrie Jeremy Black, Plotting Power: Strategy in the Eighteenth Century. Bloomington: Indiana, 2017. Pp. xiv +312. $45. Jeremy Black, Plotting Power: Strategy in the Eighteenth Century. Bloomington: Indiana, 2017. Pp. xiv +312. $45. Mr. Black's subject did not exist for much of the century, at least as a matter of terminology. While "strategy" is a coinage [End Page 201] of the later eighteenth century, strategy as a practice and perhaps also as a concept existed long before that. The Romans certainly thought and acted strategically. In the period of the Scriblerians, examples come readily to mind to anyone whose research has even touched on matters of war and peace. The possessions of the Hanoverian dynasty in Germany involved Britain in strategic choices about Bremen and Verden that would have concerned no one under the reign of a Stuart. On a grander scale, the prospect of a Bourbon on the thrones of both France and Spain determined the direction of military action, foreign policy, and domestic politics across Europe in the early part of the century. Mr. Black, disagreeing with some military historians, argues that strategy was never limited to the battlefield; it encompassed social policy, politics, diplomacy, and trade. It is difficult to argue with his lucid exposition of this point. As he says in a postscript on military history, "Strategy precedes the term, and unsurprisingly so." Without making the concept so elastic as to be meaningless, he admits that "a looser definition" of strategy is both "valuable but beside the point." Examples are taken not just from Europe and North America, but also from China, Japan, Russian expansion into central Asia, the Mughals, and Persia. The second half of the book deals largely with material that is beyond our immediate interests: the strategy of continental empires in the late eighteenth century and of the non-European "barbarians," the rise of republican strategies from 1775 to 1800, and "imperial imaginings" in the same period. The initial chapters are, however, of direct relevance for Scriblerian readers. In a somewhat rueful preface, Mr. Black reminds us of the failures of strategy (or perhaps that is "strategery") in the last twenty years or so, suggesting that the present can "guide and equip questions and thoughts about the past," provided we do not judge solely with the benefit of ahistorical hindsight. A general introduction sets out Mr. Black's overall project, including his definitional challenges and his points of departure from other historians. Mr. Black then focuses on strategy in England and France, mostly in the early eighteenth century, before examining the specific origins of the term "strategy" as it emerged in the flow of French ideas following their defeat by the British in 1763. He concludes with some thoughts on modern historians of strategy. Mr. Black's grasp of historical material is assured, but there are times when the discussion can be a bit fuzzy: a little more than a page on the "tone" and "style" of strategy is not enough to tell us what those mean, for example. There is also the odd prose train wreck: "As part of this process, but also separate to it, the building blocks of strategic culture, strategic debate, and policy, for example glory, honor, and natural interests, or Thucydides's fear, honor, and interests, were not uniform or unchanging in their impact." Mr. Black's book is short (only about 220 pages of actual text without the references), so there was room to flesh out the vague and the overcompressed in an otherwise well-argued book. Neil Guthrie University of Toronto Copyright © 2019 W. B. Gerard, E. Derek Taylor, Kellye Corcoran, Melanie Holm, J. T. Parnell, David Venturo, and Donald R. Wehrs

Zmiinyi Island Coastal Zone Macrozoobenthos State in 2016-2017

Purpose. To study the state of macrozoobenthos in the Zmiinyi Island coastal zone in 2016-2017. Methods. Standard methods of macrozoobenthos sampling, determination, number and biomass estimation. Results. Results of analysis of biodiversity, structural characteristics and taxonomic composition of macrozoobenthos in the Zmiinyi Island coastal zone have been presented. Seasonal dynamics of its number and biomass has been studied. Assessment of marine environment quality has been performed based on the metrics of macrozoobenthos. Conclusions. Altogether, 132 taxa of benthic invertebrates belonging to 10 biggest taxonomic groups of macrozoobenthos have been identified in the Zmiinyi Island coastal zone in 2016-2017. Analysis of taxonomic composition identified 1 species of Porifera (0.8%), 7 taxa of Cnidaria (5.3%), 3 taxa of Platyhelminthes (2.3%), 1 taxon of Nemertea (0.8%), 3 taxa of Bryzoa (2.3%), 52 taxa of Annelida (39.4%), 25 taxa of Mollusca (18.9%), 35 taxa of Arthropoda (265%), 2 taxa of Echinodermata (1.4%) and 3 taxa of Chordata (2.3%). Out of 132 macrozoobenthos taxa 6 are enlisted in the Red Data Book of Ukraine and 8 – in the Black Sea Red Data Book. Macrozoobenthos number varied from 0.317х104 (27.11.2016) to 16.943х104 (19.08.2016) ind/m2 on soft substrate and from 2.683х104 (17.05.2016) to 30.725х104 (19.08.2016) ind/m2 on rocky substrate; biomass varied from 0.017 (17.05.2017) to 34.857 (19.08.2016) kg/m2 on soft substrate and from 1.531 (27.11.2016) to 46.147 (19.08.2016) kg/m2 on rocky substrate. Maximal development of benthos was registered in summer period. Quality of marine environment on the AMBI and M-AMBI indices was assessed as Good in 21 cases out of 23 and as Moderate in 2 cases 2 out of 23. Mean values of AMBI and M-AMBI indices for different seasons made respectively: May, 2016 – 2.56 and 0.59; August, 2016 – 1.86 and 0.69; November, 2016 – 1.70 and 0.71; June, 2017 – 1.87 and 0.75.

Materials for the Blacklist of the Central Caucasus Flora (for the Kabardino-Balkar Republic)

A blacklist of the flora of Kabardino-Balkaria, which includes 22 species of invasive plants, has been compiled. According to recommendations for the Black Books, all plant species from the blacklist are divided into four groups according to their invasive status. A brief description of their naturalization history, occurrence, and ecological, biological, and phytocenotic features on the described territory is presented.

Post-Truth Protest: How 4chan Cooked Up the Pizzagate Bullshit

Post-Truth Protest: How 4chan Cooked Up the Pizzagate Bullshit

МОТИВ ПОИСКА В РОМАНЕ ОРХАНА ПАМУКА «ЧЕРНАЯ КНИГА»

The article reveals the problem of East - West interrelation, which is an element of an important trend in literary criticism - studying national, cultural, political self-identification of a personality and the whole nation. The research is based on the novel “The Black Book” by Orhan Pamuk. The contemporary literary work is compared with family chronicles and detective novels. Special attention is paid to analyzing the basic story lines, post-modernistic artistic devices in the context of the integrity of the Turkish writer’s creative work.

“Black” Comics as a Cultural Archive of Black Life in America

Set in the fictitious African nation of Wakanda, the six volumes of the Black Panther comic book weave plots that are faithful to superhero tropes and aware of Black nationalist discourses. The storylines focus on deterring white dominance, tribal warfare, and mineral exploitation. Creating characters conscious of the threats to their autonomy is an opportunity to reframe the “Black power” trope. This photo essay explores how iterations of raced and gendered figures in mainstream and independent comics are used to mediate and meditate on certain social anxieties. The images and their associated captions explore how Afrofuturism in “Black” comics not only provides illustrative cases of actual Black social life and political crossings engaged with cultural Black archives, but stimulates complex engagements with Black feminist thought in order to advance the liberation struggles of mutant, racialized, and gendered bodies seeking empowerment and social justice.

Naturalization Features of Alien Plants in the Northwest of the Volga Upland

The paper presents data on the taxonomic composition and naturalization features of alien plant species in the northwest of the Volga Upland. The main source of alien plants invasions is the more southern regions of Eurasia. We have identified groups of alien plants according of their invasive status as a result of an integral naturalization assessment, taking into account the following three parameters: the distribution area, ecological and cenotic confinement, and the degree of resistance in local plant communities. We have revealed the biotopic structure of the alien flora. We provide the list of plants of the Black Book of the Flora of Central Russia not previously found previously in the northwest of the Volga Upland. We present recommendations for the compilation of blacklists for the regions within the northwest of the Volga Upland.

Reviewers as Readers with Power

The Black Book, Orhan Pamuk’s second novel in English translation, was published in Güneli Gün’s translation in 1994 and in a retranslation by Maureen Freely in 2006. The decision for retranslation was mainly taken by the author on the basis of the criticism the first translation received from the reviewers, the most significant readers of translations with their power to consecrate foreign authors and their work in their new cultural settings. This study will present an analysis of the two translations of The Black Book, taking as its point of departure the criticism expressed in the reviews. The analysis will reveal the ways in which the first translation served as a criterion for the retranslation and how the two translators represented the author and his work differently, which was mainly enabled because of the changing status of Orhan Pamuk as an author in the English-speaking world between 1994 and 2006.

Brian McHale and Len Platt (eds), The Cambridge History of Postmodern Literature

THE Cambridge History of Postmodern Literature is surely one of the least postmodern books that has ever been produced on the topic of postmodernism, and it is all the more original and useful as a result. The volume’s austere grey and black book jacket will be as familiar to readers of other instalments in the Cambridge Histories series as the scholarly rigour and historical precision to be found between the covers. The aim of this collection, in no uncertain terms, is to ‘historicize postmodernism’ (11). Brian McHale’s and Len Platt’s argument is that ‘histories of the postmodern [are] entirely viable’ (4) despite the fact that numerous theorists associated with postmodernism, such as Fredric Jameson and Hayden White, have ‘had issues with historiography’ (1). ‘Enough time has elapsed’, the editors declare in their General Introduction to the collection, ‘for us to be able to discern more of the internal articulation of the “postmodern era”—its successive moments or phases’ (4) and to examine ‘the relationship between [postmodern] cultural practice and the broader politics of the period’ (12).

A Colorful Walk through Byzantine History

A Colorful Walk through Byzantine History Angeliki Lymperaki (bio) Many people, and especially young children, tend to think of the Byzantine period as an unattractive, dusty era full of meaningless dates and complicated battles. However, contemporary history writing has addressed this problem and brought out Byzantium's charm, either by highlighting little known or neglected historic events, or by examining already known facts from a fresh angle. Byzantium was a crossroad between West and East and its beauty is linked to its multicultural character. In her picturebook series Byzantium in six colors, Maria Angelidou seems to embrace this aspect. The book series retells the story of the Byzantine Empire, mostly by presenting independent stories of leading figures and important people that lived in the past. Four books have been published so far, and each book includes four stories. Every chapter starts with a motto, which introduces the subject and intrigues the reader. Similarly, at the end of every story there is a postscript that provides further knowledge. In each of the stories of Angelidou a specific color is highlighted rather than a precise year. This original way of organizing her narrative indicates that the Byzantine period was full of the colors and voices of different peoples and cultures. Besides, it is widely known that colors in Byzantium had their own meaning. Red for instance, was the imperial color. Gold symbolized glory and power. Byzantines related the black color to death and misfortune, while white was for purity. However, Angelidou often disassociates colors from their initial meaning or points out inherent contradictions. Through narrative it is indicated that history is not single or undivided. It is composed of little pieces that make up the Byzantium jigsaw puzzle. In addition, history is not just about great emperors and winning battles like Charlemagne and the Crusades. Dreams, wishes, values and ideas, like those of emperor Justinian's wife Theodora, are also intriguing. Theodora wanted to know more about the world. As readers, we get to know each person and the historical background that shaped them. Angelidou with her fascinating narrative and Veroutsou with her interesting portraits introduce us to characters that are round and dynamic. They look the reader in the eye and welcome us to their personal story, like the pleasant family of Attila in the black book. Thus, even the stories of foreign conquerors are impartially and respectfully presented. This is obvious even from the book covers as three out of four dare to portray Byzantium's enemies. The Easterner stops being an eternal barbarian. Characters' motives come to light, while blame or credits are attributed equally to opposing parties. Even though the series mostly addresses young readers, distressing and brutal events are not twisted or omitted. Young readers are treated with respect while unpleasant scenes are remarkably balanced with caustic humor and unique spontaneity. Besides, it is the author's belief that talking to children about the past is the only way to equip them for the future. Aneglidou tells her stories in the third person and makes use of an omniscient point of view. All sides are presented impartially, giving readers a chance to get familiar with different cultures. By picturing a kaleidoscope of human behaviors, instincts, weaknesses and sensitivities the series manages to bring out the similarity of people regardless of their differences. A great ally in this ambition are the illustrations, which complete and sometimes expand the [End Page 76] narrative. Every page, with its decorative first letters, atmospheric colors and rare scenery, creates an authentic experience of the past for the reader. Maps of the Byzantine period, relics, monuments and magnificent buildings are displayed in front of our eyes and give us magical access to history. [End Page 77] Angeliki Lymperaki ANGELIKI LYMPERAKI is a graduate of Kapodistrian University of Greece at the Department of Primary Education. She has a master's degree in Literature and works as a primary school teacher. WORKS CITED Children's Books Angelidou, Maria. To Βυζάντιο σε έξι χρώματα: λευκό. [Byzantium in six colors: white]. Illus. Katerina Veroutsou. Athens: Metehmio, 2017. Print. Google Scholar —. To Βυζάντιο σε έξι χρώματα: μαύρο. [Byzantium in six colors: black]. Illus. Katerina Veroutsou. Athens: Metehmio, 2017. Print. Google Scholar —. Το Βυζάντιο σε έξι χρώματα: κόκκινο. [Byzantium in six colors: red]. Illus. Katerina...

Slavic-Baltic Space through the Prism of Magic Books

In the Slavic culture, one of the remarkable places as a monument of literary texts and traditional folk knowledge was occupied by manuscripts and books which belonged to the category of forbidden (by church) literature, to the so called false, black or renounced books. Today, they are generally referred to as magical books and represent special section of superstitious and divination books. The main problem in exploring of magical books of ancient Slavs is the absence of the so-called primary sources, and only the late, fragmented and highly subjective sources of medieval census-takers and chroniclers are available, therefore in the study we have to face the inconsistencies in some details or even distortions and mistakes. The main part of works related to this topic is borrowings from other cultures, but later, when they began to be considered as “their own”, they did not cease to be influenced by local folk traditions and continued to fulfil their goals and functions. The most interesting variant is represented by ancient Russian magic books borrowed from the early Middle Ages up to the last centuries and influenced both from the south and the west. Parallels in other cultures indicate the existence of archetypal texts containing certain rules concerning key points. The article offers to review the history of some magical books that reached the Russians through the southern Slavs and the Baltic regions.

Textual Hybridity in Orhan Pamukʼs The Black Book

Textual Hybridity in Orhan Pamukʼs The Black Book

I.5. Arendt, Heidegger et le « déluge » d’Auschwitz

This article offers a critical analysis of the ways in which Martin Heidegger and Hannah Arendt elaborated a “revisionist” rereading of modernity that reversed the assignment of true responsibilities. They linked National Socialism to the modern subject, reason and the Enlightenment, all of which it had targeted, rather than linking it to the extermination-based vision of the world that laid the groundwork for and implemented the destruction of the European Jews. Moreover, Arendt raises the camps to the level of paradigms of our modern egalitarian societies. She does so without seriously accounting for the distinction between the concentration camps and the extermination camps, despite the fact that this distinction was specifically documented as early as 1946 in The Black Book, which she critiqued in oddly negative terms in a published review. In a letter to Karl Jaspers published in Germany in 1948, she speaks of Auschwitz as a “flood” and maintains that it is necessary to leave the factual territory in order to overcome the Jewish people’s “blind hatred” of the Germans, which was “created in the gas chambers.” Hatred is no longer ascribed to the exterminators but to the exterminated people! Lastly, the article challenges interpretations that hold that we need Heidegger in order to “conceive the Shoah.”

Unio mystica. Skabelse af en topos

The secular carpe diem and the religious unio mystica are historically very active in the Renaissance and the Baroque. Both form important steps in the development towards a secularized culture, abandoning the idea of eternal life with the carpe diem, and giving up the ecclesiastical hierarchy in favour of direct contact to God in the unio mystica, cf. Rudolf Otto. The topos unio mystica is restructured and secularized in the “Aleph” by the Argentinian author Jorge Luis Borges introducing the complex figure of the repeated visual verb ver combined with a synedochical selection among the entirety of the vision. The complex figure reoccurs in Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, in the Black Book by the Orhan Pamuk, and without the figure in The War at the End of the World by Mario Vargas Llosa, each of them altering the topos according to their narrative needs. As stated in Ernst Robert Curtius, the topos can be seen as historically variant, and with Marie Lund Klujeff it is proposed that the figure as such can contribute actively in the creation and restructuring of the topos, thus not only being confined to the elocutio, but also contributing to the inventio.

OFICIALIAI NEBUVUSI: DRAU­DŽIAMOSIOS LITERATŪROS LAIKYMAS IR SKAI­TYMAS SOVIETINĖJE LATVIJOJE XX AMŽIAUS 8–9 DEŠIMTMETYJE (ANGLŲ K.)

Tarybų Latvijoje (1940–1941, 1944–1990), kaip ir kitose komunistų okupuotose šalyse, kartu su oficialiai leidžiama žiniasklaida buvo platinami alternatyvūs informacijos šal­tiniai, tokie kaip draudžiami ir slapti leidiniai, kultūros ir intelektinio judėjimo atstovų darbai, kuriuos Sovietų valdžia aštriai kritikavo arba slėpė nuo visuomenės. Straipsnyje nagrinėjami literatūros, išleistos nepriklausomos Latvijos Respublikos laikotarpiu (1918–1940) ir uždraustos sovietmečiu, laikymo ir skaitymo aspektai. Nepaisant pirmuoju okupacijos dešimtmečiu (1944–1954) vykdyto nepriklausomos Latvijos literatūros kūrinių bibliocido (literatūros kūrinių išėmimas iš apyvartos, jų naikinimas dideliais kiekiais, tik riboto kiekvieno uždrausto leidinio egzempliorių skaičiaus laikymas didžiausiose mokslinėse bibliotekose), laikui bėgant prieiga prie šio laikotarpio spausdintinių darbų tapo len­gvesnė. XX amžiaus 8–9-ajame dešimtmetyje mokslininkams ir kvalifikuotiems specialistams buvo leidžiama gana laisvai naudotis knygomis ir periodiniais leidiniais, kurie saugomi trijose mokslinėse bibliotekose ir buvo vertinami kaip pasenę. Kiti šia literatūra besidomintys asme­nys galėjo jos įsigyti Rygos legaliose ir nelegaliose knygų prekyvietėse. Vis dėlto šių knygų kaina buvo gerokai didesnė nei vidutinė sovietinių knygų kaina. Kai kurie spaudiniai ar net ištisos kolekcijos buvo saugomos namų bibliotekose ir masinėse bibliotekose (taip sovietmečiu buvo va­dinamos viešosios bibliotekos). Deja, dėl visiško ir dalinio daugelio autorių draudimo ir šališko politinių, ekonominių ir literatūros procesų Tarybų Latvijoje interpretavimo, kurį pateikė so­vietų istorikai, didžioji visuomenės dalis negalėjo susidaryti tinkamo supratimo apie gyvenimą nepriklausomoje Latvijos valstybėje. Žinomi tik keli autoriai, kurių kūrybinis darbas prasidėjo antroje XIX amžiaus pusėje–XX amžiaus pradžioje arba kurių kūriniai buvo leidžiami sovietme­čiu. Siekiant įveikti šį žinių atotrūkį, XX amžiaus 9-ojo dešimtmečio pabaigoje Latvijoje prasidė­jus Nepriklausomybės sąjūdžiui, bibliotekos dėjo pastangų papildyti savo fondus šio laikotarpio literatūra. Vis dėlto iniciatyvas stabdė ribotas išlikusių egzempliorių skaičius – tai buvo ypač aktualu turint galvoje periodinius leidinius, plačiai skaitytus sovietmečiu. Šią problemą iš da­lies padeda spręsti didelio masto Latvijos kultūros paveldo skaitmeninimo procesas, prasidėjęs 1999 m. kartu su projektu „Paveldas 1: Latvijos periodinių leidinių išsaugojimas“.

OFFICIALLY NON-EXISTENT: STORAGE AND USE OF BANNED LITERATURE IN THE SOVIET LATVIA IN THE 1970s–1980s

In the Soviet Latvia (1940–1941, 1944–1990), as in other Communist-occupied countries, alongside with officially allowed media circulated alternative sources of information – forbidden and secret publications, works of cultural and intellectual movements sharply criticized or concealed by the Soviet power, etc. This paper considers storage and use of books and periodicals, published in the independent Republic of Latvia (1918–1940) and forbidden during the Soviet period. Legally this literature was accessible only at three major research libraries of the Lat­vian SSR to researchers and specialists with special permissions. Other professional and social groups could reach it illegally – at secret storage places of different libraries, black book markets as well as home libraries. Along with publications in the press, the archive of the central censorship body (the Main Literature Board of the Latvian SSR) and library docu­ments, interviews with librarians and historians are used in the research.

Does Neg-Raising Involve Neg-Raising?

Neg-Raising concerns the phenomenon by which certain negated predicates (e.g. think, believe, expect) can give rise to a reading where the negation seems to take scope from an embedded clause. The standard analysis in pragma-semantic terms goes back to Bartsch (Linguistische Berichte 27:1–7, 1973) and has been elaborated in Horn (Pragmatics, Academic Press, New York, 1978, 1989), Gajewski (Neg-raising: polarity and presupposition, PhD Dissertation, MIT, 2005; Linguistics Philosophy 30:298–328, 2007), Romoli (Linguistics Philosophy 36:291–353, 2013), and many others. Recently, this standard approach has been challenged by Collins and Postal (Classical NEG Raising, The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2014), who argue, by providing various novel arguments, that Neg-Raising involves syntactic movement of the negation from the embedded clause into the matrix clause. The syntactic structure of ‘I don’t think you’re right’ would then be like: I do[n’t]i think you’re ti right, and the Neg-Raising reading would result from the interpretation of the lower copy of the negation. In this paper I present three novel arguments against this account. First, following up work by Horn (Black Book: a festschrift in honor of Frans Zwarts, University of Groningen, Groningen, 2014), I show that Collins and Postal (Classical NEG Raising, The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2014), and their reply to Horn (Collins and Postal, ‘Dispelling the Cloud of Unknowing.’ Ms., NYU. LingBuzz/002269, 2015), predict that every negated predicate that can license so-called Horn-clauses (non-negative clauses containing NPIs in a position where subject–auxiliary inversion is licensed) should receive a Neg-Raising reading, contrary to fact. Second, Collins and Postal (Classical NEG Raising, The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2014) adopt various instances of phonological deletion of negative operators—a necessary ingredient for their account—but these instances of phonological deletion cannot be independently motivated. Third, it turns out that for certain constructions, Collins and Postal (Classical NEG Raising, The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2014) must also allude to the original Bartschian approach. I further demonstrate that the standard, pragma-semantic approach to Neg-Raising actually explains the grammaticality of Horn-clauses and other phenomena, such as the distribution of negative parentheticals, that were presented by Collins and Postal (Classical NEG Raising, The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2014) as arguments in favour of the syntactic approach to Neg-Raising, equally well, if not better, than this syntactic alternative.

Giovanni Papini'nin Bitik Adam adlı yapıtında pragmatizme bakış

Giovanni Papini, who lived between 1881 and 1956, is one of the reformist Italian authors. Many of his written works, especially The Twilight of the Philosophers, A Man-Finished, Gog, The Black Book, had a broad repercussion in Italian Literature and became an issue of debate among Italian intellectuals. Papini not only contributed his works to Italian Literature, he also became a pioneer of such a complicated movement as Pragmatism. Giovanni Papini, who introduced one of the important movements, Pragmatism to Italian Literature in the twentieth century, and pioneered the spread of this movement in Italy, defended his idea in well-known literary and philosophical journals of his period such as Leonardo. In his autobiography, A Man-Finished, Giovanni Papini points out the concerns and the disquietude of the people living in the beginning of his era, the 20th century. He also tries to make the philosophy of Pragmatism, which arose in the U.S., prevail in Italy, and nd a solution to the problems faced by the intellectuals and the society. The autobiography of Papini, the pioneer of Pragmatism in Italy, is discussed within the context of cause and effect relationship. Thus, Papini's ideas are very important in terms of creating a new perspective on Italian literature, and for its development.

Ode to the Black Bouquinistes: Bibliomaniacs of the Black Radical Tradition

CLA JOURNAL 399 Ode to the Black Bouquinistes: Bibliomaniacs of the Black Radical Tradition Roderick A. Ferguson Black Bibliophiles and Collectors: Preservers of Black History is the book that Paul Coates coedited with Elinor Des Verney Sinnette, former chief librarian of Howard University’s Moorland-Spingarn Research Center and Thomas C. Battle, the Center’s former director. Battle says this in the book’s introduction: “For many years black bibliophiles and collectors have played a major and largely overlooked role in the collection and preservation of the documentary and cultural heritage of people of African descent”(xiii). Explaining the significance of these bibliophiles and collectors, Battle notes that the major repositories for black history at Howard University, New York Public Library, Fisk University, Atlanta University, and the Library of Congress owe their holdings to the efforts of these unsung and heroic “bibliomaniacs,” to use famed librarian and archivist Dorothy Porter Wesley’s term (3). In the time of the book’s publication, Coates had been working with Des Verney Sinnette on the staff of the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center. Citing Coates’s own efforts as part of what occasioned the publication of the volume, Battle observed, “Paul Coates, the former owner of the Black Book bookstore in Baltimore, Maryland, and publisher of important out-of-print works through the Black Classic Press, has long maintained a strong personal interest in collectors, particularly book collectors, because of his involvement in these two endeavors” (xiv). Indeed, Coates would sell books in front of Howard’s Cramton Auditorium and would go into Founders Library to warm up on cold winter days. As he stated,“My whole idea to be a publisher began at Founder’s Library” (Reid). As someone who spent his undergraduate years at Howard University, I remember the booksellers, like Coates, with their tables set up in front of Cramton auditorium, on Sixth Street in front of the administration building, or on Georgia Avenue. These booksellers were so ubiquitous that they became part of the “Howard experience,” selling their books, t-shirts, prayer rugs, keffiyahs, mud cloth, and kufis. In the years when I attended the “Mecca”—from 1990 to 1994—the booksellers who lined the campus’s main street were as much a part of university life as the other students and faculty members. It was not uncommon that we could find texts for our courses among the booksellers, texts such as The Egyptian Book of the Dead, Cheikh Anta Diop’s Precolonial Black Africa, Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, or Martin Bernal’s Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization. Little did I know it then, but these books were the products of years of dedicated and tireless collecting that was part of an effort to produce a history of black radical traditions. 400 CLA JOURNAL Roderick A. Ferguson We get a glimpse at the world that those booksellers and collectors helped to produce in Ta-Nehisi Coates’s first book. In Between the World and Me (2015), Coates writes about what Howard University means for him, telling of how the school’s diasporic diversity would shape his sense of racial identity and consciousness. The booksellers would contribute to the diversity that Coates notes in Between the World and Me, a diversity that takes shape in the school’s national and transnational position as the educational institution for blacks from around the world. Yet we must not forget that he wrote of Howard’s booksellers and bibliophiles in The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and An Unlikely Road to Manhood (2008) as well, particularly through his father’s connection to Founders Library and his work as a book merchant.1 Writing of his father’s association with the school in the early 1970s, he states,“[Dad] would pack his car with Knowledge of Self and drive over to Howard University. He set up a table, and on it displayed many volumes of concealed history and radical lore. In those days, Howard was the foundation of all things right with the Race” (26). Here,I engage Paul Coates,not only as a bookseller but also as an organic intellectual who—through the texts that they collected on...