Great Love Research Articles

"The Kiss of Memory": The Problem of Love in Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God

It is well known that there must be a body of waived matter, let us say, things accepted and taken for granted by all in a community before there can be that of The usual phrase is having things in common. Until this is thoroughly established in respect to Negroes in America, as well as of other minorities, it will remain impossible for the majority to conceive of a Negro experiencing a deep and abiding and not just the passion of sex.... [T]hey can and do experience discovery of the numerous subtle faces as a foundation for a and selfless love, and the nuances that go to that love....--Zora Neale Hurston, White Publishers Won't Print Zora Neale Hurston's 1950 essay on the lack of published representations of African American speaks to the concerns of her best-known novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, published thirteen years earlier. Hurston's piece suggests that despite her skepticism about protest fiction, she was deeply engaged with the political landscape of the early to mid-twentieth century in America as an author and intellectual. As Joel Pfister notes in an article designed to highlight Hurston's political efficacy, her racial politics were relational, not deterministic: depicted [African American] life and culture in relation to but not as decisively scripted by racially and economically motivated oppression. White Publishers Won't Print confirms Hurston's interest in the connection between racist assumptions about black people and fictional representations of African American love. She argues that publishing complex and subtle stories about heterosexual relationships between black people promotes interracial commonality of feeling. Crucially, Hurston specifies that such stories should also include how and why relationships are destroyed. This essay proposes to investigate Their Eyes Were Watching God on these terms. What diverse nuances ... go to destroy the great and selfless love between Janie Crawford and Tea Cake Woods (621)? It is difficult to talk about Their Eyes without talking about Janie and Tea Cake's relationship. Though Hurston's heroine, Janie Crawford, is fully realized, masterfully characterized, and deliciously complicated, the plot and the problem of the novel revolve around her finding, losing, and eulogizing this of her life. Critics who read the novel as a narrative about Janie's quest for selfhood or her progressive acquisition of voice tend to cast Tea Cake as a utopian alternative to the paradigm of masculinist domination identified by Janie's grandmother and typified by her second husband, Joe Starks. (1) Scholars responding to this characterization of Tea Cake tend to overcorrect these optimistic readings and attack the efficacy and authenticity of the relationship as a whole, arguing that Tea Cake is slightly more palatable, but largely of a piece with the other imperfect men in the novel. (2) What both of these readings often downplay, though, is the novel's deliberate and profound ambivalence towards Janie's chances, in her time and place, for finding a husband equipped to consistently encourage her self-actualization or listen to her voice. The novel contains both a profound idealization of Tea Cake's character and a skeptical critique of some of his behavior towards Janie. Whereas Janie's personal development can be read as a progressive journey or successful quest, her romantic relationships seem to echo each other in pervasive and disturbing ways. Pfister comments that For all its occasional romantic and pastoral cuteness and atmospheric hopefulness, Hurston chose not to insulate her story from destructive social forces and contradictions (622). Tea Cake's jealousy and violence is the novel's most intense and disturbing representation of the pervasiveness of domination because he is so unlike Logan and Joe, yet sporadically performs the same dominative masculinity that they do. …

“Passing into the great romantic loves of rebellious flesh”: medieval religion and the body in Walter Pater's “Poems by William Morris” and “Two Early French Stories”

Résumé La notion d’« esprit médiéval » chez Walter Pater a été relativement peu abordée. À partir de l’étude de deux textes, « Poems by William Morris » et « Two Early French Stories », on s’efforcera de souligner le paradoxe suivant : selon Pater, la réaction contre la religion, qu’elle prenne la forme de l’antinomisme ou d’une libération sensuelle et physique, a pour origine le christianisme lui-même. Notre hypothèse de lecture est aussi que les modalités du discours sur l’amour sont différentes selon que Pater traite du corps féminin ou masculin, l’un évoquant le désordre et l’autre l’harmonie.

Pre-Modern Russia and its World: Essays in Honor of Thomas S. Noonan. Schriften zur Geistesgeschichtc des östlichen Europa, 29 by K. L. Reyerson , T. G. Stavrou , J. D. Tracy (review)

reviews 355 entirely compromised' (p.41); accordingly, his memoircan be read as an exampleofShostakovich's Rezeptionsgeschichte . Significantly, BokmanthanksSolomonVolkov,yet Variations ontheTheme GalinaUstvolskaya is a verydifferent book fromTestimony (as mightwell be expected,giventhe contrasting figures dealt within each book). Bokman interleaves hisownphilosophical musings withhismemories ofUstvol'skaia, whichare in turnrefracted throughthe experienceof more than three decadesthatseparatetheevents described. The book'sostentatious paratexts - itsnotes,footnotes, acknowledgments, epigraphs and (non-)conclusion makeit clearthatthisis hisUstvol'skaia, and she shouldbe read as such. Thanksare also due to thepublisher, ErnstKuhn: theGesamtverzeichnis at the endofthis volumeillustrates hisprodigious activity inmaking availablea huge bodyofliterature on Russianand Sovietmusic. Wadham College, Oxford PhilipRoss Bullock Reyerson, K. L., Stavrou,T. G. and Tracy,J. D. (eds). Pre-Modern Russia and its World: Essays in Honor of Thomas S. Noonan. Schriften zur Geistesgeschichte des östlichenEuropa, 29. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, 2006. 179pp. Illustrations. Maps. Figures.Notes.Bibliographies. Index. €48.00(paperback). This volumeis a resultofa conference Tre-ModernRussia and ItsWorld' whichwas held at theUniversity ofMinnesotaon 2 November2002. The conference commemorated thedistinguished scholar,Professor ofHistory at theUniversity ofMinnesota, ThomasSchaubNoonan(1938-2001). Noonan's colleaguesand pupilshavealsopublished a two-volume festschrift inhishonour ,whichwaseditedbyRomanK. Kovalevand HeidiM. Sherman[Russian History /Histoire russe, vol. 28, 2001,nos 1-4; vol. 32, 2005,nos 3-4). Noonan was a leadingauthority on theeconomyofEurasiainthepre-Mongol period (i.e. beforethethirteenth century). In his introductory articleto Pre-Modern Russia, TheofanisG. StavrounotesthatNoonan interpreted economyvery broadly.He includedin it trade,technology transfer, contactsbetweenthe sedentary and nomadicpeoplesand theevolution ofRus' towns.Noonan's understanding ofRus' radically differed from anachronistic viewswhichtend toassociateRus' withone oranother East Slavicnation(comparethetitle of thevolume).According to Noonan, theeconomichistory of Rus' included theRus', Finnic,Baltic,East Slavic,Volga Bulghar, Khazar, Pechenegand Polovtsian peoples.Such a panoramicviewenabledthescholarto includein his studiesvastterritories stretching fromtheArcticto the Black Sea and from theCarpathians to theUrals.Noonan'sresearch interests also extended to theBaltics,theVikingsand CentralAsia. The Islamicworldwas especiallyattractive forNoonan. In his own words,the 'greatest love' of his scholarly lifewas hiscatalogueofIslamicsilver coins(dirhams) from c.700 to c. 1100,on whichhe workedovertwenty years. The papers includedin the volumeperfectly reflect the broadnessand diversity ofNoonan's research. In terms of'political'geography, thearticles 356 SEER, 87, 2, APRIL 200g deal withtheTaman peninsula (J.Shepard),theKhazar state(P. B. Golden), Middle Norway(Anne Stalsbergand Bernhardle Beau), northern Rus' (N. Makarov),Kievan Rus' (Janet Martin),Muscovy(RichardHellie),and medievalpolities ofEurasia(ThomasT. Alisen).Typically ofa collection of articles, thecontributions significantly varyinterms ofchronology, scopeand thelevelofconceptualization. JonathanShepardpointsoutthatcultural interaction does notnecessarily 'promptwholesaleimitation or selective borrowing'. Possiblereactionto a cultural impactincludesconsciousreaction, a hardening ofone's owntraditions , ordisinclination to absorbor assimilate techniques or customs from an alien culture(p. 16). Shepardsuccessfully appliestheseimportant methodologicalobservations to thesubjectofhisextensive and engaging paper(pp. 15-77): theStraits ofKerchand theTaman peninsula. Thankstoitsstrategic, agricultural and commercial significance, thisterritory was as important in regional politics in theeleventh to twelfth centuries as thestraits ofBosporus and theDardanellesinthenineteenth-century EasternQuestion.The Byzantineshad diverseinterests in theregion.It was to theCrimeawhereRus' traders brought theirwaresbeforereachingConstantinople. The area was alsorichwithsurface deposits ofnaphtha, themainingredient oftheefficient non-conventional weaponwhichwas knownas 'Greekfire'.However,'the Byzantine government showeda preference formaintaining relations with surrogate or clientleadersand notablesin theregion,ratherthanessaying direct rulebymeansofgarrisons and taxation'(p. 22). Otherneighbouring politieswerealso deeplyinvolvedin local affairs. In theeighth century, theKhazars had theirownrepresentatives in theregion and established impressive fortresses at Bosporusand Tmutarakan.At the sametime,theKhazars' presencein thearea was constrained bythelackof operational warfleets. As forRus' princes, Sheparddiscerns twoscenarios of their political behaviour inTmutarakan. One groupofprinces had important Byzantine connections and enoughpolitical resources to establish themselves in theMiddle Dnieperregion.They saw Tmutarakanas a seat duringthe periodsofexileor as a base forfortune seeking. Such politics was typical of two princesof Chernigov, MstislavVladimirovich and Oleg Sviatoslavich. Shepard argues that these princeswere clientsof Byzantium.Some of Shepard'sarguments in support ofthisthesis are quiteconvincing (Mstislav's patronageof Greek-style churchbuildingand Oleg's close relationswith EmperorAlexiusComnenus).Otherevidence, likevariousseals,whichmay or may be not be relevantto the princes,is of a somewhatambivalent nature.The assertionabout Mstislavfurthering Byzantineambitionsin EasternCaucasia in theearly1030sseemsto be rather speculative. Another groupofRus' princes acting atTmutarakan included thoseprinces whofailed to succeedas rulersof Tmutarakanor who soon perishedin the political struggle in theterritories northofthesteppe.None oftheregionalpowerholdersenjoyedfullcontrol oftheTaman peninsula.All politicalpowersat Tmutarakan thushad to cooperatewiththelocal elites, whichincludedthe local churchmen and influential families. It is amazingthatsome of these families apparently lastedin theregionfrom thetenth to theearlysixteenth centuries. reviews 357 Like Shepard, JanetMartinlooksat politicalhistory from theperspective...

The Sudan Sensation of 1898

In early September 1898, after a two-year campaign reported in detail by some of the most famous war correspondents in the late Victorian period, an Anglo-Egyptian force under Lord Herbert H. Kitchener smashed the army of the Khalifa at his capital of Omdurman in the Sudan. Initially the event led to the usual spate of merchandising common during the time, but for weeks, then months after the battle the event and the participants stayed squarely in the public consciousness. This paper explores the breadth and depth of the public’s mania for all things Omdurman for the remainder of 1898, and speculates why a public that showed no great personal love for the regular army (at least, as enlistees) went on a binge of regular army hero worship.

The Great Love of God and the Immense Mercy of Buddha - Focusing on the theme of hell in the dialogic encounter between Christian and Buddhist thought in late Ming and early Qing Dynasties of China -

The Great Love of God and the Immense Mercy of Buddha - Focusing on the theme of hell in the dialogic encounter between Christian and Buddhist thought in late Ming and early Qing Dynasties of China -

Marcus Alexander Sleightholm

Rhys Davies writes: Marcus Alexander Sleightholm was a singular soul who was unlike anyone we are likely to meet again. After qualifying and house jobs at the Royal Liverpool Hospital...

Catullus and the Brothel-Creepers:Carmen37

Salax taberna vosque contubernales,a pilleatis nona fratribus pila,solis putatis esse mentulas vobis,solis licere, quidquid est puellarum,confutuere et putare ceteros hircos? 5an, continenter quod sedetis insulsicentum an ducenti, non putatis ausurumme una ducentos irrumare sessores?atqui putate: namque totius vobisfrontem tabernae sopionibus scribam. 10puella nam mi, quae meo sinu fugit,amata tantum quantum amabitur nulla,pro qua mihi sunt magna bella pugnata,consedit istic. hanc boni beatiqueomnes amatis, et quidem, quod indignum est, 15omnes pusilli et semitarii moechi;tu praeter omnes une de capillatis,cuniculosae Celtiberiae fili,Egnati, opaca quem bonum facit barbaet dens Hibera defricatus urina. 20Randy tavern and you tavern-men, nine pillars from the cap-clad brothers, do you think that you alone have pricks, that you alone are permitted comprehensively to fuck whatever girls there are and to consider the rest of us goats? Do you really think that, because you sit there, silly fools, one hundred or maybe two hundred in a row, I won't dare to mouth-fuck you as you sit there, all of you at once? Well, you had better believe it. For I will inscribe the front of the whole tavern for you with obscene graffiti. For my girl, who has fled from my embrace, beloved by me as no other woman will be loved, for whom great wars have been fought by me, has taken her seat there with you. Her all you great and rich men love, and – what is shameful – all of you cheap back-street lechers: you above all, you outstanding member of the long-haired crew, son of bunny-infested Celtiberia, Egnatius, to whom a thick beard and his teeth brushed in Spanish urine give respectability.

Robertson Davies and Music

Abstract Robertson Davies once described himself as a ‘Failed Musician,’ but the musical education that Davies received, the role that music played in his life, and the use he made of music and musicians in his novels show that this is true only in the narrow sense that he did not earn a living from music. A proficient melopoetic artist, weaving music and musicians into his literary works with consummate skill and artistry, he was also professionally active as a music critic and a librettist. The German composer E.T.A. Hoffmann is the only historical musician to be given his real name and appear as a speaking character in any of the novels, but many of the author's fictional musicians are based on real-life models, and despite his great love of music, Davies often portrayed musicians as uncouth reprobates. Music, which sometimes provides structural foundations for Davies' literary works and other times serves as a leitmotif, is often a portal to unseen worlds, including the realm of the dead and of supern...

De Hearen fan Fryslân by Arjen Terpstra

jj^ ^^^^^^^^ than a San Francisco interior decora tor. As Mark Twain said ofFenimore Cooper, we cannot too much admire this miracle. Nominally central to the story is theLady, founder of theEmpire, a large chain of pet stores, who becomes more and more like Big Brother inNineteen Eighty-Fourand apparently, according to Robert Buckeye's introductory note, is a symbol of thebrutal capitalism that replaced communism in Slovenia. The closing pages of the novel have a few good Slovenian jokes (notably the exchange "I thought we read for pleasure, not to brag about what we've learned." / "Are we talking about Slovenians here? Nope.") Until thispoint, though the action purportedly takes place in Ljubljana, there is so little solidity of specification that the story could be takingplace anywhere inCentral Europe. At theend, theLady has died? promised eternal peace rather than "profit or Eden." Ira dies alone, but in the epilogue joins theold man of her childhood dreams and isprom ised another chance. The chief survi vor is a young centaur whose func tion is to heal and forgive, though what he represents is not clear, and Buckeye isn't about to touch that subject. Some enterprising anima tor should consider turningMaja Novak's story into a feature-length film. That would capture the essen tialsand get ridofwhat seems likea good deal of dross. Robert Murray Davis Universityof Oklahoma Arjen Terpstra. De Hearen fan Frys l?n Ljouwert, Netherlands. Friese Pers. 2008. 256 pages. 19.50. isbn978-90 330-0782-8 The plot of Arjen Terpstra's debut novel may have its soap-opera ele ments. At times plot and character seem somewhat manipulated for effect, and some episodes are not well integrated. Story threads dis connect and reconnect. So do char acters,often tempest-tossedby high octane events and feelings. And there is high drama, keeping the reader turning thepages. But De Hearen fan Frysl?nhas more than that.Through vivid characterizations and a fluid style, itoffers a fascinating look at the interaction between two cultures and two brothers: their connections and their clashes, and ultimately the one place and person thatgave fulfillmenttoboth. Tsjalling and Tseerd are the twin sons of a well-to-do Frisian farmer. The two could not be more different.Tsjalling iswildly adven turous, impulsive, reckless, and restless, with a constant urge to explore and expand everything as an extension of self. Tseerd, on the other hand, is quiet, introverted, and focused single-mindedly on caring for the affairs of his father's farm. E Yet, contrary toall plans and desires, E it isTseerd who goes toAmerica to E help out a ne'er-do-well uncle strugE gling to hang on to a mismanaged E dairy farm in southern California. E When, again contrary to all intents, E Tseerd stays inCalifornia, thegirlhe = loved and left behind snares brother E Tsjalling.When she is sevenmonths E along with theirchild, they marry. E Back in California, Tseerd is E crushed, but is eventually rescued E fromhis solitary,workaholic lifeby E an irresistible beauty from Montana. E Together theybuild up a huge Mon- E tana ranch.One day, twin Tsjalling E in Friesland is jolted by a strong E psychic feeling that something seri- E ous has happened toTseerd in Mon- E tana. It is at that precise moment E that Monica, Tseerd's beautifulwife, E findsher husband on the floor,dead E from a heart attack. Tsjalling now E knows with an unshakable certainty E that the time forhim togo toAmeriE ca has at lastcome.He leaves behind E thewife thathad been intended for E his brother, aswell as their mentally E impaired son, and replaces his twin E once again as Monica's new lover. E Montana turns out to be the great E life and Monica the great love he E has always sought. They have a son E together, and eventually Tsjalling's E aged fatherand son fromFriesland E come to join thehappy little family E inMontana. E Actually, theplot, partly based E on real events and characters, has E many more layers. There are several E additional family connections made E to signify in both countries; there's E a frontierpreacher who builds a...

The Doctrine of Eternal Recurrence and its significance with respect to On the Genealogy of Morals

Reading the writings of Nietzsche is somewhat like putting together a large and complex jigsaw puzzle. In this paper I aim to show how two pieces of Nietzsche’s puzzle fit together: the first piece being the Doctrine of Eternal Recurrence; and the second piece being On the Genealogy of Morals. In order to see how these two pieces lock in to one another we must understand that Nietzsche’s great love of fate - his ‘Amor Fati’ - is what he calls the “formula for greatness in a human being” (BGE 1 :6).2 In this paper I will address the question of how we are to reconcile Nietzsche’s amorfati, understood as a brand of determinism, with Nietzsche’s own understanding of the Doctrine of the Eternal Recurrence as the ultimate test for the highest affirmation of life. Through an investigation of how Nietzsche thinks we should react to the thought of the application of the doctrine of Eternal Recurrence to our own lives - namely, the psychological implications of the doctrine - I aim to show that by proposing the Doctrine as the ultimate test for the highest affirmation of life, Nietzsche also provides part of what he takes to be the solution to the threat of both the impending nihilism and the inhibiting current morality of his age as he discusses them in the Genealogy.

Materials–a brief history

Professor Manuel Amaral Fortes has contributed to many aspects of the science of materials. Among them, his greatest love was for a material with a history longer than that of almost any other: cork. Despite its antiquity–Horace (27 BC, 1), Pliny (AD 77, 2) and Plutarch (AD100, 3) document its use over 2000 years ago–it was, until the studies by Fortes and his co-workers 4–6, a neglected material, little studied. His work, elegantly compiled in the text Cortiça 7 has redressed the balance, giving cork its rightful place in the history of materials. This history is the subject of this short article, which the author would like to dedicate to the rich memory of Professor Fortes.

The year of magical thinking: Joan Didion and the dialectic of grief

Joan Didion is a prominent American writer. In late 2003, while her only child lay critically ill, her husband, John, died suddenly. Theirs was a marriage of great intimacy and...

Chrześcijanie jako "królewskie kapłaństwo" (1 P 2,9)

In the First Letter of St. Paul as in John's Apocalypse, there exists a very elear tendency to link the universal priesthood of Christians with the concept of dignity of the Kingdom. This joining points out that even the universal priesthood ought to be understood prlmarily as the highest honor and distinction for Christians. This results from the direct closeness of God, similar to that which in the cult of the Old Covenant was reserved only for priests. As a result of Redemption, it became on the other band a participation of all baptized without exception. This closeness is for man the privilege comparable with royal dignity, and so the highest that man can reach. It is also an expression of the great love of God to man and that is why it comprises the challenge to the highest perfection and sanctity of life. The universal priesthood, which is a privilege of all the baptized, certainly must not be mistaken with the sacramental priesthood, set for the special service among the people of God. The above analyzed texts from the First Letter of St. Peter and John's Apocalypse do not contain teachings on this topic.

Abelardo B. Perez, MD (1932 – 2007)

By HOW he is remembered --- and by how much he is missed: this, I submit, is the ultimate measure by which we can gauge the impact of a man’s labor on his world and the import of his life on the people he left behind.
 That Dr. Abelardo B. Perez will be remembered, there is no question. The fact alone that he had been in practice for close to four decades guarantees the grateful remembrance of at least a thousand patients whose afflictions he has healed, whose pains he has eased.
 Likewise, he will be remembered wistfully by hundreds of what were once clear-eyed, smart talking young men and women who considered him at that time a terror to be avoided at all cost, but who-now older, thinner of hair and thicker around the waist – cannot praise him enough for providing them with the instruction and the discipline to become themselves, Doctors of Medicine, hopefully in the same mold, of the same class as Dr. Abelardo B. Perez.
 But nowhere will the memory of Dr. Abelardo B. Perez be held in deeper reverence and in greater love than in the Philippine Board of Otolaryngology which he conceptualized, organized and institutionalized to elevate the specialization to the eminence it deserves. I should think that as the PBO was the passion of Dr. Perez’s life, in his death we should dedicate it as a monument to this gifted Head and Neck Surgeon.
 Thus, will Dr. Abelardo B. Perez be remembered – as a long-time medical practitioner, an expert ENT specialist. A stern and no-nonsense professor, a dauntless champion of the crusade to keep inviolate the quality and the integrity of the Diplomate, the founding father and the moving spirit of the PBO and an indefatigable worker in the unending task of healing the wounds and easing the pains of Man and his world.
 Yet the warranty of remembrance does not really assuage the sense of loss. It is well and good that the world remembers Dr. Abelardo B. Perez; but the knowledge that it does in no way mitigates the ache in Martha’s heart for the warmth of Abe’s touch or renders less difficult for us the task of administering PBO affairs without his counsel and guidance.
 Indeed, the name of Dr. Abelardo B. Perez will long be remembered; but we will still sorely miss the man who looked eternally youthful, who loved good music, fine dining, pleasant company, who took such great joy in beholding the wonders of creation, in confronting the challenges of the world, in living life fully, with a song in his heart, in recognition of its preciousness and in gratitude for its gift… the world will remember the physician named Dr. Perez; we will miss the man we called Abe….

Nazi Cinema Revisited

As an enduringly popular topic in fi lm history, the study of Nazi cinema now has a history of its own. The “canonical story” of Nazi cinema studies that most of these books rehearse in their introductions runs something like this: in the 1960s and 70s, historians and political scientists initiated the fi eld with a “fi rst wave” of work on Nazi propaganda; this groundwork has been followed, since the mid-1990s, by a new, revisionist historiography informed by methodologies in fi lm and cultural studies, whose focus has been popular genre cinema. The two publications widely recognized as having set off this “second wave” were Linda Schulte-Sasse’s Entertaining the Third Reich (Duke University Press, 1996) and Eric Rentschler’s The Ministry of Illusion (Harvard University Press, 1996). In a clear sign of a disciplinary paradigm shift, these two texts now serve as the established reference points for new work. A decade on, it is time to take stock. Have scholars continued to pursue the directions opened up by the shift from a “fi rst” to a “second” wave historiography? In the ever-accumulating work, what is truly new? Which questions still remain open? The work considered here is diverse and wide-ranging, so I shall confi ne myself to recurrent motifs, common assumptions, and the degree to which individual contributions diverge from the canonical story to offer new vistas. Reviewing these books, one is struck by a recurrent fi gure around which questions of fi lm and popular culture under National Socialism converge: each of these authors has something to tell us about the fi gure of the female fi lm star. The touchstone for most authors remains Zarah Leander, about whose post-war career among queer audiences much has been written (notably by Alice Kuzniar Queer German Cinema [Stanford University Press, 2000]); the contributions here insist on placing the Swedish-born diva—“arguably Nazism’s biggest and most complicated star persona” (Ascheid, 9)—back in her “original” historical contexts, with a particular emphasis on her function as a contradictory cultural icon during the war years, when she starred in the home-front fi lm Die grosse Liebe (The Great Love, 1942). The recurrence of Leander refl ects an implicit scholarly consensus that she best incarnates the ideological functions and limitations of Nazi stardom. Underpinning this consensus, we can infer, fi rst, the methodological conviction that stardom constitutes an epicenter of popular culture, and, second, the more or less explicitly argued assumption that the gender politics of popular culture are signifi ed with particular acuity by the female star. In Hitler’s Heroines, Ascheid programmatically unravels this assumption with the intention of offering “a more complex feminist history of women in the Third Reich” (8). She juxtaposes normative notions of Nazi womanhood with the rather more complex performances and images of femininity on view in the cinema. Drawing on theorizations of stardom in Cultural Studies, Ascheid argues that “the stars of fascism must be seen as containing the cultural incongruities of the period, or better, as the embodiments of particular societal confl icts and contradictions” (35). Viewed through this lens, the Hungarian-born Kristina Soderbaum appears as an unruly incarnation of melodramatic “excess.” Lilian Harvey, whose career spans the Weimar and Nazi years and includes a stint in Hollywood, looks rather more cosmopolitan and “modern” than National Socialist ideals of womanhood would allow; and Zarah Leander, whom the fi lm studios “imported” from Sweden by way of Vienna as a replacement for Marlene Dietrich, becomes an “exemplary fi gure of contradiction and incoherence” (161). While Ascheid occasionally overreaches in her valuation of such contradictions and their potential to destabilize the ideological matrix of National Socialism, these broad arguments are born out in some detail through both textual and contextual readings. A substantial and often stunningly revealing sampling of the trade and popular press adds depth, buttressing Ascheid’s claims. While each of the stars discussed in Hitler’s Heroines is certainly unique, they do represent certain cultural “types” of the kind that were prevalent during the Weimar period (to wit, Harvey’s “girlish” image) and that have been charted in typological star studies from Edgar Morin onward. By contrast, Leni Riefenstahl—if she is to be considered under the

Why Nietzsche embraced eternal recurrence

Nietzsche's embrace of the idea of eternal recurrence has long puzzled readers, both because the idea is inherently implausible and because it seems inconsistent with other aspects of his philosophy. This paper offers a novel account of Nietzsche's motives for that embrace—namely that Nietzsche found in eternal recurrence the only possible way to reconcile three potent and apparently conflicting convictions: (1) there are no Hinterwelten (“worlds-beyond”), (2) the great love (take joy in) all things just as they are ( amor fati), and (3) all joy wills eternity. The case for this account has two parts. I show first that Nietzsche was deeply committed to each of these principles at or before the time the idea of eternal recurrence “came to” him in 1881 and second that these principles, though in apparent conflict, can, as Nietzsche understood them, be reconciled by, and only by, the idea of eternal recurrence. It follows, I argue, that the idea of eternal recurrence was originally independent of Nietzsche's conceptions of the will to power and the Übermensch.

Christina Rossetti's faithful imagination: the devotional poetry and prose

Introduction 'Out of Sight, In Mind': The Tractarian Influence 'Decayed Branches from a Strong Stem': Rossetti's Keatsian Heritage 'Great Love and Long Study': Dante, Petrarch, and Monna Innominata 'A Courteous Tilt in the Strong-Minded Woman Lists': Rossetti, St Paul, and Women Spiritual Autobiography in Time Flies: A Reading Diary Imagining Faith: Earth and Heaven in The Face of the Deep Selected Bibliography Index

Prawodawca i jego sztuka

This article originated in an effort to present a church lawgiver, his work, and some of the rules the lawgiver’s work needs to follow to become an art. Rules for making the law should not stand in isolation from the rules that govern the interpretation of that law. In fact, rules for making the law should follow the rules of interpreting that very law. The article consists of two parts. The first one presents the theory of lawgiving while the second offers the rules in question. These rules can be grouped into three categories. Rules in terms of the person of the lawgiver: 1. Get to know yourself, 2. Be aware of your philosophical and theological horizon,3. Be prudent,4. Acquire proper knowledge, 5. Thoroughly estimate the results of the chosen law solution and its alternatives.Rules in term s of the community:1. Take under consideration a community you serve,2. Predict an acceptance of law,3. Take care of acceptance and reception of law,4. Listen to voices of community after the law comes into force.Rules in term s of the text of the law:1. Remember the role of the law in the Church,2. Take care of the theological correctness of the law,3. Make the law according to the thought of the Second Vatican Council,4. Be familiar with the existing legislative system,5. Do your best to formulate a clear law,6. Take into account the common law,7. Create a form of the law adequate to its importance,8. Use proper language to write the law (take care of correct translation), use proper words, and remember about the context of used words,9. Be aware that your words will be interpreted in wide or narrow way.The lawgiving activity takes place within the church itself. It does not come to it from the outside. It flows naturally from the Church’s mission to teach. The exercise of authority in the Church, and that includes the legislature, has its roots in love. When it fails to rely on love it is no longer a Church authority. The process of making church law can be called after L. Orsy: a small participation in the great love of God that presently and perpetually creates the Christian community. We see that acting in accordance with love a church legislator is capable of turning his work into art.

Passionate Minds: The great love affair of the Enlightenment, featuring the scientist Emilie du Châtelet, the poet Voltaire, sword fights, book burnings, assorted kings, seditious verse, and the birth of the modern world

This article reviews Passionate Minds: The great love affair of the Enlightenment, featuring the scientist Emilie du Châtelet, the poet Voltaire, sword fights, book burnings, assorted kings, seditious verse, and the birth of the modern world by David Bodanis . 373 pp. plus 8 plates. Crown, New York, 2006. Price: $24.95 ISBN 0-307-23720-6.

God and the Natural Law: A Rereading of Thomas Aquinas by Fulvio Di Blasi

BOOK REVIEWS 497 God and the Natural Law: A Rereading ofThomas Aquinas. By FULVIO Dr BLASI. Translated by DAVID THUNDER. South Bend, Ind.: St. Augustine's Press, 2006. Pp. 264. $37.50 (cloth). ISBN 1-58731-351-0. Fulvio Di Blasi's God and the Natural Law is a penetrating inquiry into the theological foundation ofThomistic natural law. The book is written in response to a trend among contemporary natural-lawtheorists towards a theory of natural law without God. Di Blasi rightly notes the difficulty with this position: "Natural law without God easily becomes a lex naturalis without lex" (68). According to Di Blasi, the main features of this trend are most clearly delineated in the "neoclassical theory of natural law" proposed by Germain Grisez and John Finnis. Contrary to the neoclassical natural-law theorists, Di Blasi aims to show the central importance of God in the natural law. After an introduction highlighting current trends among contemporary natural-law theories, chapter 1 examines in detail the neoclassical critique of the conventional or traditional reading of Thomas's natural-law doctrine. The conventional view, according to the critique of the neoclassical theorists, derives the content of the natural law from mere facts of nature which, of themselves, are unable to yield any sense of duty or moral obligation. Hence, conventional natural-law theorists attempt to locate the source of moral obligation in an extrinsic, arbitrarily imposed, divine command which falls prey to the "naturalistic fallacy"-the supposed fallacy of deriving an ought from an is. The neoclassical theorists instead posit principles of practical reason which are derived neither from mere facts of nature nor from the divine will, but from our primordial intuitions of basic values. Of course, the neoclassical theorists do not deny that God is the ultimate source of moral duty; rather, their claim is that moral obligation is knowable apart from any knowledge of God as a creator and providential governor. Hence, they effectively banish God from ethics and from the doctrine of natural law (neoclassical theorists find evidence for this position in Aquinas by appealing to the fact that for St. Thomas the being of God is not self-evident). Thus the contemporary trend towards natural law without God, Di Blasi points out, goes hand-in-hand with a trend towards separating ethics and metaphysics. This sets up Di Blasi's own account of natural law in chapters 2 and 3. In chapter 2, Di Blasi turns to an analysis of the necessary theological presuppositions of Aquinas's natural-law doctrine. His aim is to show that the natural law depends upon a natural knowledge of God (not only known by means of unaided human reason, but also accessible in some way to all men) and the natural inclination to love God "before oneself and with a greater love." Di Blasi begins by showing that for St. Thomas natural moral goodness is defined by conformity to the divine will since the very essence of moral action presupposes that man wants something because he knows that God wants it. Indeed, the notion of moral goodness as conformity to the divine will is implied in the very meaning of natural law as an extrinsic principle of human action. Natural 498 BOOK REVIEWS law not only pertains to human reason; it presupposes an authority capable of imposing its will upon other subjects. The Thomistic notion of moral goodness and the account of natural law as extrinsic principle of action, however, presuppose that we have a natural knowledge of God apart from divine revelation. Indeed, Di Blasi maintains that for Aquinas "man's moral sense is not only inseparable from his sense of God, but coextensive with it" (86). He goes on carefully to refute the claim of the neoclassical natural-law theorists that God is, for the most part, unknown to man since his existence is not self-evident. Di Blasi argues that for St. Thomas the non-self-evidence of God should not be taken as a denial of a natural knowledge of God, but as a rejection of St. Anselm's argument for the existence of God which begins with the idea of God as that-than-which...