Commentary Tradition Research Articles

Understanding ātman in Praśastapādabhāṣya with the readings of Vyomaśiva and Śrīdhara

The analysis in this article is driven by a question concerning how self (atman) has been thought by Vaiśesika philosophers within the Vaiśesikasutra commentarial tradition. That is to say, how the ...

“Beholding the Man”: Viewing (or is it Marking?) John’s Trial Scene alongside Kitsch Art

One of the grand scenes of the Passion narratives can be found in John’s Gospel where Pilate, presenting Jesus to the people, proclaims “Behold the man”: “Ecce Homo.” But what exactly does Pilate mean when he asks the reader to “Behold”? This paper takes as its point of departure a roughly drawn picture of Jesus in the “Ecce Homo” tradition and explores the relationship of this picture to its referent in John’s Gospel, via its capacity as kitsch devotional art. Contemporary scholarship on kitsch focuses on what kitsch does, or how it functions, rather than assessing what it is. From this perspective, when “beholding” is understood not for what it reveals but for what it does, John’s scene takes on a very different significance. It becomes a scene that breaks down traditional divisions between big and small stories, subject and object as well as text and context. A kitsch perspective opens up possibilities for locating John’s narrative in unexpected places and experiences. Rather than being a two-dimensional departure from the grandeur of John’s trial scene, kitsch “art” actually provides a lens through which the themes and dynamics of the narrative can be re-viewed with an expansiveness somewhat lacking from more traditional commentary.

The politics of Greek tragedy in Samson Agonistes

ABSTRACTThis essay charts Milton’s engagement in Samson Agonistes with Greek political thought as critiqued in Athenian tragic drama, particularly that of Euripides. In early modern Europe, Euripides’ plays were not only understood to denounce tyranny but also to remain rigorously sceptical about the workings of Athenian democracy (in itself a highly limited kind of representational politics). Milton knew well the commentary tradition that framed Euripidean tragedy in such terms, and found a corollary to his own political views within it, most notably in the writings of Gasparus Stiblinus whose prefaces are included in the 1602 Stephanus edition of the playwright’s works, which he used heavily. Stiblinus shows how Euripides relentlessly scrutinizes corruption, which his tragedies reveal to be not only characteristic of tyrants but also to pervade democratic systems. Milton’s allusions to Euripidean tragic form in Samson Agonistes evoke these commentaries to denounce political corruption.

Circean transformation and the poetics of Milton’s Masque

ABSTRACTCirce’s presence in A Masque Presented at Ludlow Castle (Comus) invites readers to read both Milton’s Circe and Milton’s own poetic activity through long and intertwined traditions of theology and literary commentary. Stretching from Augustine and Aquinas to the commentaries and translations of Homer and Ovid by Sponde, Sandys, and Chapman, these traditions use Circe to explore and conflate the possibility, the permanence, and the experience of both human and literary transformation. Taken up by Townshend and Jones in their Caroline court masque Tempe Restored, they become essential intertexts for Milton’s Masque. Milton embeds this discourse in his masque – a genre that places metamorphosis at the heart of its poetics – to examine the nature of Renaissance intertextuality and the authorial self and interrogate his own use of Renaissance practices of imitatio and aemulatio. In Comus’ wood, Circean transformation becomes a touchstone for the virtuous soul and the virtuous poet alike.

Translating Lady Philosophy: Chaucer and the Boethian Corpus of Cambridge, University Library MS Ii. 3. 21

Abstract The fifteenth-century Boethian compilation, Cambridge University Library MS Ii. 3. 21, brings together major interpretive strands concerning why Lady Philosophy, the dialogue's authoritative figure, is represented as a woman. Working within the commentary tradition, Chaucer's Boece presents Philosophy's “norisschynge” of Boethius as the defining characteristic of Philosophy's authority, and the fullest expression of all three of her roles as teacher, doctor, and wet-nurse. In so doing, Chaucer treats translation into “our dames tonge” as inextricably feminine and pedagogical.

Roman Satire and the Old Comic Tradition by Jennifer L. Ferriss-Hill

Reviewed by: Roman Satire and the Old Comic Tradition by Jennifer L. Ferriss-Hill Catherine Keane Jennifer L. Ferriss-Hill. Roman Satire and the Old Comic Tradition. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015. Pp. x, 302. $95.00. ISBN 978–1-107–08154–3. The late antique grammarian Diomedes enigmatically describes Roman satire as “composed in the style of Old Comedy.” Horace casually posits a genealogical [End Page 424] connection between the genres (Satires 1.4), and praises certain stylistic virtues “to be emulated” in the Old Comic poets (1.10). Generations later, Persius imagines his ideal reader as someone who enjoys reading the Old Comic plays. There is nothing self-explanatory about these assertions of a connection between a dramatic genre that flourished in Classical Athens and a textual verse genre that first appeared two and a half centuries later in Rome; they are striking and suggestive programmatic gestures. Accordingly, the book is dedicated to unpacking all the ways in which the four Roman satirists (even the fragmentary Lucilius is represented) borrow from Old Comedy’s poetics of abjection and agonism. The key correspondences, covered in four chapters, are in the stance of the poet figure, his poetics of self-defense, literary criticism, and the selection of “comedo-satiric” targets. These topics are all interrelated, so there are many cross-references between chapters. A great deal of groundwork is laid in the introduction and first chapter, with subsequent chapters getting progressively shorter. This is a synoptic study of mostly programmatic discourse. Consideration of the external contexts for the genres’ production is more or less restricted to the point that both genres flourished during periods of “vibrant intellectual activity” and in “rich environments” for the production of scoptic verse (203, 216). Beyond that, the historical picture recedes, so that the Old Comedy that is scrutinized is the textual artifact (albeit one evocative of the Classical Athenian scene) encountered by the Roman satirists as readers. It is also the self-referential and inter-textual genre of which the parabasis is the heart (cf. T. Hubbard, The Mask of Comedy: Aristophanes and the Intertextual Parabasis [Ithaca and London 1991] and R. M. Rosen, Making Mockery: The Poetics of Ancient Satire [Oxford 2007]), and the precursor to Callimachean and Terentian agonism, “intermediaries” between Old Comedy and satire (128). Looking at the other side of the equation, Ferriss-Hill’s Roman satire is essentially that of the great persona studies (W. S. Anderson, Essays on Roman Satire [Berkeley and Los Angeles 1982]; Susanna Braund’s several pertinent publications; K. Freudenburg, The Walking Muse: Horace on the Theory of Satire [Princeton 1993]). While the persona is treated as the genre’s defining (if not unprecedented) element, alimentary imagery is another big theme, and much use is made of Emily Gowers’ The Loaded Table: Representations of Food in Roman Literature (Oxford 1993). The familiar programmatic poems and passages serve as the main exhibits, with regular looks at other poems; the latter are not, however, discussed as individual texts. On the other hand, the familiar parameters of Roman satiric poetics are fruitfully expanded by discussion of Horace’s Epistles and Ars Poetica as “part of [Horace’s] satire” (43). This book inaugurates an important project by looking at patterns in Horace’s explicit constructions of the poetic persona and aesthetic criteria in both collections. The aim here is not to write a chronology of the Horatian persona, but to examine the different hexameter collections synoptically as variations on a theme. Juvenal gets less space, for he is identified at the outset as a “literary apostate” (21). While he mimics some Old Comic programmatic strategies, Juvenal seems to gesture to tragedy as his model, and this is taken as evidence that Horace and Persius had so successfully established the Old Comic aition for satire that Juvenal felt pressure to innovate. This is intriguing, but one should be careful about branding Juvenal as a “late practitioner of a well-established genre” (22) when he was not so much “later” than the (lost) Flavian Turnus or, in the grand scheme of things, than Persius. [End Page 425] Within this territory, Ferriss-Hill has given herself room for interesting new examinations...

Roman Satire and the Old Comic Tradition by Jennifer L. Ferriss-Hill

110 BOOK REVIEWS “dark hued” (kyaneon). Foster draws our attention to the identification of the mythical Symplegades with the historical Cynaean Rocks and the nearby Chelidonian Islands (Hdt. 4.85.1), arguing that Theocritus uses this adjective not in error but rather as an intentional relocation of heroic trials from the traditional epic landscapetothebucoliclocusamoenus,aworldfromwhichHeraklesisultimately barred (129–135). Other highlights include sections on Theocritus’ destabilization of Pindar’s heroic Heracles in Chapter 4 (Nemean 1 and Idyll 24: The Poetics of Heroic Revisionism ), and the influence of Homeric hospitality scenes on the image of Arsinoe in Chapter 5 (Arsinoe as Epic Queen: Hosts, Hospitality, and Their “Reception ” in Idyll 15). I did note some editorial slips, such as the absence of some publication datesfrom thebibliography and otherminorerrata(e.g.page13 “thethe”; page 37 herdsmen who sings; page 79 primary narrator Idyll 11; p. 88 Khalkas; pages 19, 114, 138, 142, 143 Kholchis: cf. the correct spelling Kolchian on page 219). ANATOLE MORI University of Missouri, MoriA@missouri.edu * * * * * Roman Satire and the Old Comic Tradition. By JENNIFER L. FERRISS-HILL. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015. Pp. x + 302. Hardcover, $95.00. ISBN 978-1-107-08154-3. Inspired by Horace’s claim that Lucilius “hangs entirely” from Old Comedy (Sat. 1.4.6) and Quintilian’s implicit pairing of Old Comedy and Roman satire in book 10 of the Institutio Oratoria, Ferriss-Hill argues that Roman satire “should be understood as an extended Old Comic parabasis” (44). To prove this thesis she explores the connections between Old Comedy and its Roman offspring as embodied in the work of Lucilius and Persius, and in all of Horace’s hexameter poetry— Satires/Sermones, Epistles, and Ars Poetica. Ferriss-Hill argues that Juvenal, who never explicitly connects himself to Old Comedy (19), turns instead to tragedy as a source of satiric inspiration (cf. Juv. 6.634-8) and thus rejects laughter (derived BOOK REVIEWS 111 elsewhere in satire from Old Comedy’s parabatic claims for “truth telling through laughter,” 17) in favor ofa serious tone when declaring his truths.Thus,she claims (although it is impossible to prove), any traces of the Greek genre in Juvenal likely derive from imitation of his Roman predecessors. Ferriss-Hill’s first and longest chapter (“The Poet in Tension”) discusses the tensions inherent in the artifex or poet’s self-representation in Old Comedy and Roman satire before Juvenal. The poet presents himself as simultaneously confidentand abject,“both wiseand flawed,essentialyetunappreciated”(45).Sections on the urban, didactic, misunderstood, physically or socially abject, lawbreaking, and chef-like aspects of the poetic persona draw on examples from Aristophanes and all four satirists, though Juvenal often proves the exception to the rules establishedbyhispredecessors .WhileFerriss-Hillfocusesonthetwogenres’continuity ofthemeandapproach,shealsodiscusseshowRomansatire’smoreparsimonious approachtofood(comparedtoOldComedy’scelebratoryfeasts)derivesfrom its smaller, elite, and private audience. Chapter2(“DefensivePoetics”)tracesthespreadofadefensivestancelinked to a stance of abjection—one pens a counterattack because one has been wrongly attackedbyothers—fromAristophanes(especiallyWasps)throughCallimachus’ Aetia preface and Terence’s prologues to Lucilius, Horace, and Persius. Juvenal, however, writing less (explicitly) programmatic and more agonistic satire than his predecessors (166,168),seems to compose satire in response to his surroundings rather than to any criticism of his work. Only Juvenal’s decision to adopt a tragic mode (6.634–638) provides any clue to potential attacks of his work. The third chapter (“Literary Criticism”) takes up Old Comedy and Roman satire’s unusual shared interest in literary criticism, both of their own genre as well as other genres. The perceived connection between the style and quality of a work and the “essence” of its author (Ferriss-Hill cites Seneca, Epistulae Morales 19.114: talis…oratio qualis vita) is the basis for such comic and satirical judgments (171). Ferriss-Hill proposes that the “frenetic intellectual” contexts in which the Old Comic poets and the four surviving Roman satirists worked provided the material for “these naturally omnivorous genres” to ingest and construct their poetry with (216). Here, as elsewhere, I would have liked to see more reflectionupontheRomansatiristswhoseworkdidnotsurviveduetoitsexclusionfrom the canon by Horace,Quintilian,and others.But Ferriss-Hillis following the precedent established by her satirical subjects: Horace both shapes the genre and converts Old Comedy’s synchronic...

Shoes, Gowns and Turncoats: Reconsidering Cacciaguida’s History of Florentine Fashion and Politics

Shoes, Gowns and TurncoatsReconsidering Cacciaguida’s History of Florentine Fashion and Politics Kristina Olson Scholarship has traditionally taken for granted that the Italian historiographical tradition is rhetorically based upon the virtues and vices of women, and a similar assumption has occasionally been made for the Commedia as well, though that totalizing vision has been challenged recently.1 When considered in the contexts of material consumption, Dante’s history of Florence is based upon the vices of both men and women, one that exists in dialogue with the governance of dress and ornamentation of the body, as scholars have noted.2 Two seminal moments in the Commedia speak to these political and social realities by lamenting the moral decadence of Florence, comparing past and present sumptuary mores: Forese Donati’s invective against the “sfacciate donne fiorentine” (Purg. 23.97–102), and, under examination here, Cacciaguida’s nostalgia for the prelapsarian age of Florence, which, among other social markers of integrity, did not have excessive ornamentation or luxurious clothing (Par. 15.100–117). The focus in Forese’s invective on the immodest dress of women expands to target both male and female dress in Cacciaguida’s description of the modest ways of Florentines who dwelled in the “cerchia antica.”3 Likewise, Cacciaguida’s reminiscence, which describes fashion trends on behalf of both sexes, should be interpreted within the political contexts from which they originate, as well as in terms of the history of its reception in the commentary tradition, as I argue in these pages. When read against the distortions of the commentary tradition of the Commedia and the [End Page 26] chronicles, and then contextualized within fashion history and select sumptuary statutes, Cacciaguida’s history of Florence can be perceived to inculpate both men and women as the protagonists in the performance of new wealth. The inextricable relationship between Dante’s history of fashion and his political vision differentiates the Commedia from the moralizing, misogynistic tradition of these other narratives. I. Im/material Girls: “Donne contigiate,” the Commentary Tradition and Villani’s Cronica The historical origins of Florence in the Commedia begin in the mid-twelfth century as the sober and chaste city described by Cacciaguida where women and men dressed simply and maintained domestic peace (Par. 15.97–129). These “mothers and fathers of Florence” evoke, as Barolini notes, those beloved parents whose absence is felt in the preceding canto: “forse non pur per lor, ma per le mamme, / per li padri e per li altri che fuor cari / anzi che fosser sempiterne fiamme” (Par. 14.64–66).4 Dante’s great-great-grandfather is anticipated by this nostalgia for the material existence of one’s progenitors, for the body as well as for that which dresses the body. In Paradiso 14, clothing serves as a metaphor for the insistent materiality which bridges this life to the next: from the “vesta” (39) radiated by love around the souls of the blessed to the “clothing” of the flesh: “Come la carne glorïosa e santa / fia rivestita, la nostra persona / più grata fia per esser tutta quanta” (Par. 14.43–5, emphasis added). It is this textual turn to the body and its adornment in Paradiso that leads as well to the exclamation of the pilgrim upon observing the souls that adorn the cross: “‘O Eliòs che sì li addobbi!’” (96, emphasis added). Dress forms an essential part of Dante’s lexicon that is at once other-worldly and bound up in the things of this world. If clothing served only as a reference to the things of this world for Dante, then he might have emphasized this notable aspect of St. Francis’s revocation of his father’s wealth a few cantos earlier, for example (Par. 11.56–62).5 Instead, as the reader begins Paradiso 15 proper, she is reminded of the spiritual value of clothing even when discussing the refusal of the material. In this case, he who “undresses” himself (“si spoglia”) of the love that breathes upwards towards the eternal, should suffer: “Bene è che sanza termine si [End Page 27] doglia / chi, per amor di cosa che non duri / etternalmente, quello amor si spoglia” (Par...

Roman Satire and the Old Comic Tradition by Jennifer L. Ferriss-Hill, and: The Invisible Satirist: Juvenal and Second-Century Rome by James Uden

Roman Satire and the Old Comic Tradition by Jennifer L. Ferriss-Hill, and: The Invisible Satirist: Juvenal and Second-Century Rome by James Uden

The Commentary Tradition on Suhrawardī

Suhrawardī (d. 1191) has been hailed as a crucial thinker in the history of Islamic philosophy. However, his actual influence remains an open question. To provide a measure for his influence, I present a list of all known commentaries on his works. I found 58 commentaries in total, of which at least 31 are extant, from all centuries and all corners of the Islamic world.

Antiquarian Voices: the Roman Academy and the Commentary Tradition on Ovid’s Fasti by Angela Fritsen

Antiquarian Voices: the Roman Academy and the Commentary Tradition on Ovid’s Fasti by Angela Fritsen

The Johannine Renaissance in Early Modern English Literature and Theology by Paul Cefalu

Reviewed by: The Johannine Renaissance in Early Modern English Literature and Theology by Paul Cefalu Russell M. Hillier Paul Cefalu, The Johannine Renaissance in Early Modern English Literature and Theology. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017. x + 352 pp. $81.00 cloth. Paul Cefalu's magisterial and potentially revolutionizing study invites a fresh perspective on our understanding, not only of early modern literature, but also of post-Reformation theology and devotion. The book's revisionist approach asserts that the Fourth Gospel and the First Epistle of John were, in various ways, of greater significance to early modern religious literature and theology than the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and shared with the Pauline writings a no less consequential role in the development of post-Reformed religious thought in England. Throughout, Cefalu's comprehensive grasp of the tradition of commentary and exegesis surrounding the Johannine material from patristic through to early modern and contemporary scholarship only helps to enhance and render more credible his argument for the momentousness of Johannine influence. In the introductory chapter, Cefalu explores the contours of this hitherto submerged "Johannine Renaissance" and charts at least five principal aspects of Johannine theology that helped to shape devotional poetry. First of all, where the Synoptic narratives emphasize Jesus's humble beginnings and humiliating death, the Gospel of John is couched in a high Christology stressing the Johannine Word's divine nature and the intimacy of his relationship with God, such that Donne could profess that the "Gospel of Saint John contains all Divinity" (p. 2). Second, the Johannine doctrine of salvation underlines the revelatory nature of Jesus's presence and saving role rather than dwelling, in more forensic Pauline fashion, on objective atonement, penal or substitutionary sacrifice, and expiation for sin. Third, a [End Page 90] distinctive Johannine pneumatology, or doctrine of the Holy Spirit, complements this revelatory model of salvation, where the Holy Spirit affirms God's power through the Son's presence and, in the office of Paraclete or "Comforter," provides assurance and consolation, as does, in a related sense, Johannine eschatology, which declares a realized state of things where the experience of eternal life is already present and achieved through Christ's witness. Finally, the style and rhetoric of the Fourth Gospel show a marked tendency to employ modes of distancing dramatic irony and discipleship misunderstanding that are readily adaptable to devotional poetics. The Fourth Gospel's characters who, in a manner hardly commensurate with the Synoptic accounts, must labor to clarify Jesus's enigmatic and elliptical messages or who must overcome their own interpretive acts of gross literalism to see the light are exemplary for those speakers of early modern devotional lyrics whose own often dim and obtuse views advance by stages toward enlightenment. In the course of this far-ranging study, Cefalu ably demonstrates how these Johannine features underlie the devotional verse of a broad swath of Renaissance poets, including Nicholas Breton, Robert Southwell, Gervase Markham, John Donne, Richard Crashaw, Anna Trapnel, Thomas Traherne, John Milton, Henry Vaughan, Edward Taylor, and, of course, George Herbert. For the benefit of readers of this journal, in much of what remains I shall chiefly level my aim at those chapters that pertain directly to Herbert, although it should be acknowledged that the chapters I am not discussing also have considerable merit in contributing to a complete picture of the Johannine Renaissance Cefalu is bringing to light. Notably, an illuminating second chapter examines the early modern reception of Jesus's words noli me tangere, or "Do not touch me," to Mary Magdalene at the empty tomb. So, too, chapter three demonstrates how the Gospel of John's privileging of the Holy Spirit as Paraclete or Comforter informs Donne's definition of the third person of the Trinity in his sermons and Holy Sonnets. Donne's more restrained treatment of the Spirit's Trinitarian function in the holy sonnets "Wilt thou love God" and "Father, part of his double interest" appears positively prim when juxtaposed with "Batter my heart," in which, as Cefalu underscores with recourse to Phineas Fletcher and Edmund Calamy, it is not unusual for the Spirit's agency in providing [End Page 91] comfort...

Introduction

Introduction* Chris Reyns-Chikuma and Gail de Vos Recent comic book scholarship has examined the influence of comic books and comics culture in various countries and regional areas other than the three big traditions (US, Japan, and France-Europe). Comics and the US South (2012), and various essays on cultural identity in Québec, Scotland and other countries in Comics as a Nexus of Cultures: Essays on the Interplay of Media, Disciplines and International Perspectives (2010), are two examples. Jason Dittmer reflected on Canadian superheroes in regards to Captain America in his Captain America and the Nationalist Superhero: Metaphors, Narratives, and Geopolitics (2013),1 in which he demonstrated how Captain America and Captain Canuck embodied a nation-state but neglected to address issues of multiculturalism. Bart Beaty, one of the most prominent Canadian comics scholars, preceded Dittmer’s analysis on the topic in 2006 with “The Fighting Civil Servant: Making Sense of the Canadian Superhero,” in which he concluded, “It is clear that the overt nationalism of Canadian superheroes in their contemporary era had as much to do with frustrations over sustaining a viable Canadian comics publishing industry [against the overwhelming American comics tradition and mass media power] as it did with representational issues of Canadian identity” (“Fighting Civil Servant” 438). In this introduction, we will first give a brief overview of the scholarship on Canadian comics, and then look at the individual essays, mainly focused around issues of Canadian identities. Canadian Comics in Scholarship: An Overview Summarizing research on Canadian comics is simultaneously easy, because it seems [End Page 5] that there is not much on the subject, and difficult, because it is scattered all over various media, technologies (paper, online), fields (literary studies, media studies, and comics studies), and the two official languages, and growing with new websites, articles, MA and PhD theses, and, recently, several books every year. Our definition of what constitutes a Canadian comic used the Joe Shuster Award’s statement as a starting point. This Canadian award, created in 2004, considers eligible anyone who has Canadian citizenship or permanent residence.2 The popular conception of comics has been understood as a broad category that embraces editorial cartoons (Brian Gables for the Globe and Mail), graphic novels (Chester Brown), comic strips (Lynn Johnston), and art books (Leanne Shapton). The essays here encompass all of the various elements of this comic arena. Few scholars apart from the Canadian senior archivist John Bell and the French scholar Jean-Paul Gabilliet have written on the development of Canadian comics in both official languages. While the non-scholarly but key book by Patrick Loubert and Michael Hirsh, The Great Canadian Comic Book (1971, reprinted in 2007), focused almost exclusively on the WWII Canadian Comics known as the “Canadian Whites,” Bell could certainly be considered the precursor of scholarship on Canadian comics with his first book, Canuck Comics (1986), followed by Guardians of the North (1992), which focused on Canadian superheroes. Bell was also the author of Invaders from the North: How Canada Conquered the Comic Book Universe (2006), which emphasized the slow but steady Canadian conquest of the comics media, leading up to a boom that started after 1989. Bell gave the first historical overview of Canadian comics, but there is not much information on the contemporary scene, which has seen an extraordinary mini-boom of newly published and internationally acclaimed comic book creators. These Canadian artists have been producing original works of extraordinary diversity of topics and styles. They, therefore, are deserving of much more than a simple mention. French scholar Jean-Paul Gabilliet, in his chapter on Canadian comics, “Comic Art and Bande Dessinée: From the Funnies to Graphic Novels” in The Cambridge History of Canadian Literature (2009), offered a very good overview of Canadian trends and key names (authors and titles) including many from the long-standing French-Canadian tradition.3 In 2005, John Lent published Comic Art of the United States through 2000: An International Bibliography, with the first chapter focused on Canada, with 713 entries on cartooning, cartoonists, animation, comic books, comics strips, and political cartoons. Although certainly very useful, Lent’s chapter on Canada is, unfortunately, inadequate...

Irony’s Antics: Walser, Kafka, Roth, and the German Comic Tradition by Erica Weitzman

Reviewed by: Irony’s Antics: Walser, Kafka, Roth, and the German Comic Tradition by Erica Weitzman Pamela S. Saur Erica Weitzman, Irony’s Antics: Walser, Kafka, Roth, and the German Comic Tradition. Evanston: Northwestern UP, 2015. 257pp. Erica Weitzman’s book Irony’s Antics is subtitled Walser, Kafka, Roth and the German Comic Tradition. A few comments on this title are in order. As mentions of the Swiss writer Robert Walser and the Austrians Franz Kafka and Joseph Roth indicate, the phrase “German comic tradition” here does not limit this study to the literary and philosophical heritage of Germany. Attention to these writers, as well as to theories of Austrians Hofmannsthal and Freud, reflects a broad scholarly scope in which “German” signifies language more than nation. Considerable discussion is provided on pertinent theories of the German luminaries Schiller, Schlegel, Schopenhauer, Hegel, and Kant. (Some use is also made of non-German theorists such as Bergson, Foucault, Lacan, and Hobbes.) Also worth mentioning is that the chapters on the three writers named do not discuss their entire oeuvre but concentrate primarily on Walser’s first book, Fritz Kochers Aufsätze (and to a lesser extent his later cycle Aus dem Bleistift gebiet), Kafka’s novel Der Verschollene (Amerika), and Roth’s journalistic writings (rather than his fiction). To be sure, these analyses are informed by the author’s considerable knowledge of the writings of the three authors and their interpretations. The book aims at defining and providing examples of “irony” and “the comic.” However, rather than providing simple definitions of the terms and applying them to the texts analyzed, an intricate history of their varied definitions is unrolled, emphasizing the contrasting [End Page 136] traditions of Romantic irony and twentieth-century developments but also taking a range of philosophical theories into account. Weitzman begins her analysis of Walser’s humor and comedy by questioning the common “pathological” and “happy-go-lucky” interpretations of his texts as well as the view of him as “the simple inheritor of the romantic ironic tradition” (59). She states that “another name for a romantic irony that has outlived the romanticism that created it may well be the comic” (60). Walser’s first novel undermines common notions of both education and language through a collection of fictional school essays by Fritz Kocher, “a mediocre but dutiful pupil” who dies right after leaving school. His death robs the book of “any notion of cause and effect, continuation, or aftermath, indeed of temporality whatsoever, that would [. . .] grant Fritz’s education meaning” (61). According to Weitzman, “[T]he figure Fritz Kocher does not constitute a critique of Bildung so much as its ad absurdum inflation: the pure pupil with neither past nor future, eternally sitting at his desk [. . .] he is all Bildung, Bildung for its own sake” (62). The language of the pupil’s essays adds to the comedy: “Fritz’s language is characterized by an awkward mix of naive observation, forced metaphors, non sequiturs, and badly managed quotations from society’s storehouse of clichés.” Walser’s strategy in this regard “is to bring language and its forming within the sphere of the comic. First forced to reveal its artificiality, arbitrariness, and plasticity [. . .] it is then compelled nonetheless to go through the farce of trying to mean something” (62). Weitzman’s chapter on Kafka and the comic builds on substantial previous commentary, pioneered by Max Brod and Walter Benjamin. She observes that Kafka’s humor is rooted in his lack of mimetic or didactic goals, his focus not only on theatricality and presentation but the backstage processes. His representation of mechanical process and comical calamity explain why he is often likened to comedians like Charlie Chaplin. Kafka’s slapstick elicits laughter by people turning into pseudo-objects and objects taking on a life of their own, as well as the choreography of accident and paradoxical gracefulness of clumsiness. Kafka’s own work in a government insurance office lends irony to his literature, showing paradox and humor in institutional protocol, probability calculations, and challenges of determining borders between accident and intention, automatism and will. Kafka also highlights human costs of modern technology and American models of assembly-line efficiency...

Per Se, Inseparability, Containment and Implication. Bridging the Gap between Avicenna’s Theory of Demonstration and Logic of the Predicables

The notion of per se (kath’hauto) is a signature component of Aristotle’s theory of science. This paper has two aims: (i) to examine for the first time Avicenna’s (d. 1037) account of per se (ḏātī) in the context of his theory of demonstration, especially in the Kitāb al-Burhān, and more generally in what I shall call the Posterior Analytics complex, i.e., a larger set of relevant texts from Avicenna’s logical works that deal with An. Post., and (ii) to connect it with his theory of predicables as formulated in the Kitāb al-Madḫal, and more generally in what I shall call, by analogy, the Isagoge complex.In the Posterior Analytics complex, Avicenna reasserts the role of per se predication and articulates an innovative and systematic interpretation (showing a debt towards Fārābī and the Greek commentary tradition) of the notions of per se 1 and per se 2 originally developed by Aristotle in An. Post. A4 around the idea of a term being taken in the definition of another term. In the Isagoge complex, Avicenna understands per se 1 and 2 in terms of two types of entailment of different strength—containment (taḍammun) and implication (iltizām)—, which are in turn associated with the technical notions of inseparability in conception (taṣawwur) and in imagination (tawahhum). As a result, the distinction between per se 1 and 2 in Avicenna turns out to be philosophically grounded in a larger theoretical framework than it is in Aristotle.In addition to its intrinsic interest, Avicenna’s solution also counts as an interpretive effort that aims to solve some traditional exegetical problems in Aristotle, e.g., the question whether the class of per se 2 predicates from An. Post. A4 and that of per se accidents coincide, an issue that has vexed commentators since antiquity.

Al-ʿAllāma al-Ḥillī (d. 1325) and the Early Reception of Kātibī’s Shamsīya: Notes towards a Study of the Dynamics of Post-Avicennan Logical Commentary

Al-Risāla al-Shamsīya fī l-qawāʿid al-manṭiqīya by Najm al-Dīn al-Kātibī (d. 1277) is one of the most widely-read textbooks on logic ever written. Its first readers, however, were less enthusiastic about it than later generations proved to be. In the earliest commentary written on the Shamsīya, al-ʿAllāma al-Ḥillī (d. 1325) expressed serious reservations about a number of Kātibī’s decisions, decisions which developed ideas first put forward by Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 1210). In the following article, I examine how the commentary Ḥillī wrote on the Shamsīya, al-Qawāʿid al-jalīya fī sharḥ al-Risāla al-Shamsīya, fits in with his other works on logic, and how it responds to Kātibī’s logical program in general and to the syllogistic in particular. When set against the preceding two centuries of commentary on Avicenna’s Kitāb al-Ishārāt wa-l-tanbīhāt, Ḥillī’s response to the Shamsīya—and indeed Kātibī’s writing of the Shamsīya itself—can be seen as seamlessly carrying forward a commentary tradition in which Rāzī and Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī (d. 1274) figure prominently. The first appendix to the article examines the transformation of a lemma in the Ishārāt into the corresponding lemma in the Shamsīya through 150 years of commentatorial debate; the second appendix presents translations of a number of texts on syllogistic from al-Qawāʿid al-jalīya.

Philosophy and Exegesis in Simplicius: The Methodology of a Commentator

This is the first book-length study in English of the interpretative and philosophical approach of the commentaries of of Cilicia (c. AD 530). Simplicius' work, marked by doctrinal complexity and scholarship, is unusually self-conscious, learned and rich in its sources, and he is therefore one of those rare authors who is of interest to ancient philosophers, historians and classicists alike. Here, Han Baltussen argues that our understanding of Simplicius' methodology will be greatly enhanced if we study how his scholarly approach impacts on his philosophical exegesis. His commentaries are placed in their intellectual context and several case studies shed light on his critical treatment of earlier philosophers and his often polemical use of previous commentaries. Philosophy and Exegesis in Simplicius not only clarifies the objectives, pre-suppositions and impact of Simplicius' work, but also illustrates how, as a competent philosopher explicating Aristotelian and Platonic ideas, he continues and develops a method that pursues philosophy by way of exegetical engagement with earlier thinkers and commentators. The investigation opens up connections with broader issues, such as the reception of Presocratic philosophy within the commentary tradition, the nature and purpose of his commentaries, and the demise of pagan philosophy.

Lyric in the Renaissance: from Petrarch to Montaigne

Moving from a definition of the lyric to the innovations introduced by Petrarch's poetic language, this study goes on to propose a new reading of several French poets (Charles d'Orleans, Ronsard, and Du Bellay), and a re-evaluation of Montaigne's understanding of the most striking poetry and its relation to his own prose. Instead of relying on conventional notions of Renaissance subjectivity, it locates recurring features of this poetic language that express a turn to the singular and that herald lyric poetry's modern emphasis on the utterly particular. By combining close textual analysis with more modern ethical concerns this study establishes clear distinctions between what poets do and what rhetoric and poetics say they do. It shows how the tradition of rhetorical commentary is insufficient in accounting for this startling effectiveness of lyric poetry, manifest in Petrarch's Rime Sparse and the collections of the best poets writing after him.

Syarah Hadis Sahih Bukhari dan Muslm Dalam Komik: Studi atas Deskripsi 99 Pesan Nabi: Komik Hadis Bukhari Muslim (Edisi Lengkap)

Syarah traditions become a necessity for Muslims ummah. This is because Islamic teachings contained in its tradition. The innovation over tradition are constantly evolving. One of them is the understanding of the hadith in Sahih Bukhari and Muslim in comic form. The new media is different from other that developed before, namely the audio media as can be seen in TVRI and youtube and other media such as teaching in Islamic boarding schools and PTKIN in Indonesia. This study is interesting because the religious comics becomes new trends in Indonesia which is sourced from the two most authentic books of hadith as such. At least, the expanding range of the reader not only of those people who has expert in the science of hadith or tradition in Islamic boarding schools and in PTKIN, but rather to the realm of children and adolescents. in addition, to the realm of the comic this tradition can also be read anyone at any time. In theory of knowledge, comic tradition that developed was an attempt to apply the message contained in the redaction of hadits (matan hadis). Therefore it’s the idea of chosen the traditions that can be applied into the daily life. Supported by appropriate illustrations and narrative of present context, the comics tradition is one of the effort of understanding the tradition in the Indonesian context.[Syarah hadis menjadi suatu kebutuhan ummat Islam. Hal ini dikarenakan ajaran Islam terdapat di dalam hadis. Terobosan dan inovasi atas hadis senantiasa berkembang. Salah satunya adalah pemahaman hadis dalam kitab Sahih Bukhari dan Muslim dalam bentuk komik. Media baru ini berbeda dengan media lain yang berkembang sebelumnya yakni media audio sebagaimana dapat dilihat di TVRI dan youtube serta media lain pengajaran di pesantren dan PTKIN di Indonesia. Kajian ini menarik karena komik religi merupakan trends di Indonesia terutama yang bersumber dari kedua kitab hadis paling sahih tersebut. Setidaknya, jangkauan pembaca semakin meluas tidak hanya akademisi yang cinta pada ilmu hadis atau hadis di pesantren dan di PTKIN melainkan ke ranah anak-anak dan remaja. Selain kedua ranah tersebut, komik hadis ini juga bisa dibaca siapapun dan kapanpun. Secara teori keilmuan, komik hadis yang dikembangkan merupakan upaya untuk mengaplikasikan pesan yang terdapat dalam matan hadis. Oleh karenanya dipilihlah hadis-hadis yang dapat diaplikasikan dalam kehidupan keseharian. Dengan didukung oleh ilustrasi dan narasi yang sesuai nkonteks kekinian, komik hadis ini merupakan salah satu ikhtiar pemahaman hadis dalam konteks Indonesia.]

The Drawing Board of Imagination: Federico Commandino and John Philoponus

Federico Commandino (1509–1575) can be considered the personification of the renaissance of mathematics in sixteenth-century Italy. Previous scholars have generally reduced the philosophy of mathematics developed (1572) by Commandino in the preface to his translation of Euclid’s Elements to a superficial synthesis of Neoplatonic and Aristotelian elements. Until now, no attention has been paid to Commandino’s use of the sixth-century commentary on Aristotle’s De Anima by John Philoponus. In his article I will argue that, in depicting imagination as a mental drawing board for geometrical figures, Commandino directly relies on Philoponus’s concept of mathematical imagination.