Individual Chapters Research Articles

Растения философов: Интеллектуальный гербарий (Августиновы груши (глава 4) , Пальма Маймонида (глава 6) )

The journal continues to publish translations of individual chapters of the book by the famous phenomenologist Michael Marder “The Philosopher’s Plant. An Inteellectual Herbarium”. Of the twelve stories, the fourth, “Augustine’s Pears”, and sixth “Maimonides Palm Tree” are selected. In the chapter “Augustine’s Pears” the first avowal in the Confessions of St. Augustine concerns the episode with the theft of pears, which he committed in the company of teenage friends. Today, most of us will perceive this theft as a relatively innocent teenage prank. However, for Augustine, this act is symbolic, since, according to him, he did not crave pears, but forbidden fruit and the thrill of breaking the law. Whether these events actually took place is irrelevant. To demand to separate the real from the imaginary is to ignore the main message of Augustine and his method. The world for him is a matter of interpretation, an intermediate step towards the God. Everything empirically real pales in comparison with the “fictions” of faith, hope and love that pave the road to heaven. The separation of plant processes from plants themselves, life from continuous growth, and physiological activity from the mortal organism prevents their vitality. The fruit that does not rot in the guise of a good deed, and the memory that is eternally stored in God are theological and metaphysical fantasies that destroy the essence of the metaphor that carries them in itself. If the characteristic philosophical gestures of Augustine are spiritualization, interiorization and the use of allegories, then his ethics, although seeking legitimization in the discourse of natural law, is based on the obvious deprivation of life of its natural properties. By suppressing the plant within himself, Augustine excludes real plants from the sphere of moral significance. Although the fruits of the earth allegorically represent works of mercy, a merciful approach to plants is considered inappropriate. It is not surprising that Augustine shows almost no interest in the plants themselves, treating them as translucent screens through which the divine order shines through. If we want Augustine’s philosophy to remain relevant today, it is necessary to extract the ethical core from the shell of its theological denial of the world. Now that the transcendent absolute is no longer immune from questions, the certainty that the world exists for the sake of something external inevitably collapses. In the process of mourning the loss of the absolutes, one should remember the meaning of Augustine’s modified motto: Mundo frui! Enjoy the world! The chapter “Maimonides’ Palm Tree” is dedicated to Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon –Maimonides – presented a unified worldview based on the theories of his predecessors, and systematized religious laws in a code of fourteen volumes – “Repetition of the Torah”. Maimonides pays attention to everyday details, for example, what is allowed and what is forbidden to those who observe Sabbath; describes in detail the rules governing the sale, gifts and the right to use property. He demands that the stump with two shoots be left untouched from the olive tree. But palm trees can be uprooted because they do not give shoots – that is, these trees can be subjected to unlimited violence. The author calls the palm arbor sacra, thus referring to the concept of homo sacer introduced by J. Agamben. The statement of Maimonides – “man has an erroneous idea of himself and believes that the whole world exists only for his sake” – could well serve as a unifying slogan in today’s struggle against the domination of man over nature. “The Guide for the Perplexed”, the main philosophical work of Maimonides, contains clear and strict information about plants. Maimonides prefers to combine plants with inorganic substances rather than grouping plants together with animals. His “The Book of Cleanness” praises the cleansing properties of the soil, or, more precisely, the attachment of the plant to the soil. Regardless of the contamination of the seeds, their sprouts are purified as soon as they take root, reviving their original connection with the divine origin of existence. But the growth of plants threatens the very integrity of the Law. In order to control the excess of plant raw materials, Maimonides defends the purity of species. Plants are trivial and therefore unworthy of divine interest. A chain reaction occurs: plants are neglected, left to themselves, and subsequently they become more and more mysterious. Their freedom is still more radical than that inherent in the free will of man.

Von Neumann, Turing a Gödel: o mysli a strojích

The paper discusses some of the poorly explored links between the conceptual systems of logic in Kurt Gödel, the theory of automata in Alan Turing, and the theory of self-reproducing automata in John von Neumann. Traditional controversies are left aside (especially the opposition of Gödel and Turing in the view of mind) and attention is focused on the similarities between all three authors. In individual chapters, the text deals with: the form of differentiation of syntax and semantics in formal system in Gödel, Turing and von Neumann; von Neumann’s variant of Gödel’s theorem and von Neumann’s and Gödel’s conception of Turing machine; and finally the same basis of the view of the relation between mind and automaton in all three authors.

Principles and Practice of Neuropsychopharmacology

This compact volume is subtitled, “A Clinical Reference for Residents, Physicians, and Biomedical Scientists.” The book not only emphasizes treatment options for psychopharmacological disorders, but also includes succinct and informative coverage of neurotransmitters, pharmacokinetic principles, and the basics of pharmacodynamics. There are also individual chapters focusing on the treatment of neurological disorders such as headache, stroke, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Li Gerhalter, Tagebücher als Quellen: Forschungsfelder und Sammlungen seit 1800

Focusing on Germany and Austria from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries, this erudite and thorough study aims at historicizing the use of diaries as scholarly evidence and historical sources in the academic disciplines of pedagogy and early childhood research, youth psychology, and the new cultural history emerging in the 1980s. For each of these disciplines, Li Gerhalter, the long-time curator and now director of the ‘Sammlung Frauennachlässe’ at the University of Vienna (https://sfn.univie.ac.at/hauptmenue/bestand/), traces whose diaries were collected, when, by whom, for which scholarly purposes, and to what effect for the formation and transformation of the respective academic discipline under scrutiny. In addition, the individual chapters shed light on the donors of diaries, the culture and practices of diary writing, and the different communicative and epistemological functions that diaries had for their writers and researchers.

Death of the Desert: Monastic Memory and the Loss of Egypt's Golden Age by Christine Luckritz Marquis (review)

Reviewed by: Death of the Desert: Monastic Memory and the Loss of Egypt's Golden Age by Christine Luckritz Marquis Dana Robinson Christine Luckritz Marquis Death of the Desert: Monastic Memory and the Loss of Egypt's Golden Age Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2022 Pp. 212. $65.00. Death of the Desert begins and ends with a single incident: Theophilus of Alexandria's raid on the monks of Nitria and the expulsion of the Tall Brothers in 401 c.e. In the pages between, we are guided through an exploration of multiple modes of violence: prayer and psalmody as weapons against demonic powers, memory sanctions as violent erasures toward others and toward the self, and the Roman discourse of "barbarians" and the boundaries of empire as real and rhetorical violence toward the imagined Other. All these modes coincide in Theophilus's raid and in the ways it was later remembered; in Luckritz Marquis's reading, this moment was the real end of any monastic Golden Age and the beginning of a selective rehabilitation of memory that in itself did violence to the monastic past. Luckritz Marquis frames the project by arguing that the Sayings of the Desert Fathers cannot be taken as straightforward historical witnesses for events of the late fourth and early fifth centuries and, perhaps more controversially, that fourth-century witnesses such as Palladius, Cassian, Rufinus, and Theophilus himself are more valuable despite (or because of) their political, personal, and theological entanglements. Most pointed of all is her claim that many modern scholars of this period have been so formed by colonialism that they are uncritically ready to accept fifth- and sixth-century claims that the monastic Golden Age was violently brought to an end by outsider, "barbarian" attack. Instead, she suggests, the built-in violence of Christian asceticism and Roman imperialism created the conditions under which Theophilus's violent raid served as flashpoint. The individual chapters strike out into a varied landscape of theoretical discourses while attempting to keep the overall trajectory in view—an organizational challenge, especially given current expectations that book chapters should [End Page 259] function as reasonably free-standing units. Luckritz Marquis provides summaries of the argument at the beginning and end of each chapter, which is helpful for the reader to keep track of the multiple layers of analysis as they unfold, but can also produce a repetitive feel for a reader of the whole book. But this is a complaint about how current publishing conventions push authors in unfortunate formulaic directions, not about Luckritz Marquis's argumentative coherence, which is strong throughout. Chapter One treads some familiar ground regarding the desert as a locus of ascetic imagination, but raises the stakes by casting the relationship between monk-settlers and demon-inhabitants as one of violent colonization. This violence extends to the ascetic body, as monks attempt to transform both self and desert. Despite the usual contextualization of Theophilus's raid as part of the Origenist controversy (and the book blurb highlighting this context), the immediate theological stakes of this dispute remain subordinate to the political and rhetorical. Origen's thinking itself surfaces only in this chapter's discussion of demonic bodies (although his influence through Evagrius is also clearly present). Chapter Two takes up the subject of prayer and psalmody, again through the lens of violence and materiality. Prayers are weapons against the demons, but they are also instruments of divine violence against the self. Luckritz Marquis turns to Evagrius and Cassian on pure prayer and angelic bodies, portrayed with images of fiery transformation in the later retrospective of the Sayings. The monk in states of true prayer becomes fire, with all its purifying and destructive potentialities. Thus "divinized embodiment was understood as inherently violent" (72). Chapters Three and Four turn to the relationship between ascetic training and modes of violence against human others. The mapping of internal and external violence becomes even sharper in Chapter Three, which identifies parallels between the Roman practice of damnatio memoriae, the violent Christian destruction of the Serapeum in Alexandria (instigated by Theophilus), and monastic memory training. Chapter Four turns to the Roman discourse of the "barbarian" Other and...

Defining Maradonian studies

The following is an excerpt from the volume Diego Maradona: A Socio-Cultural Study, edited by Pablo Brescia and Mariano Paz (London and New York: Routledge, 2023, 265 pp). This is the first book in English to explore the figure of Diego Maradona as an object of academic study, with the aim of introducing and theorising an emerging field that could be defined as ‘Maradonian studies.’ One of the most iconic football players of all time, Maradona is much more than a sporting legend. He has been read as an emancipatory political figure, a secular saint, a symbol of subalternity and, by others, an anti-hero (cheat, addict, opportunist). This paper includes extracts from the Introduction and Chapter 1 (co-written by Brescia and Paz), discussing the relevance of Maradona today, and his links to Argentinean politics and media. The volume contains individual chapters by different experts on a gamut of areas: Maradona as portrayed in the British press; Maradona and his links to Mexico, Spain, and Italy; the representation of Maradona in literature, cinema, music, and biography; Maradona approached from feminist perspectives; and the phenomenon of the Church of Maradona (among other topics).

The Pragmatics of Fiction: Literature, Stage and Screen Discourse

The Pragmatics of Fiction: Literature, Stage and Screen Discourse

The Privilege of Art

The Privilege of Art

Archaeology, Nation, and Race: Confronting the Past, Decolonizing the Future in Greece and Israel by Raphael Greenberg and Yannis Hamilakis

Reviewed by: Archaeology, Nation, and Race: Confronting the Past, Decolonizing the Future in Greece and Israel by Raphael Greenberg and Yannis Hamilakis Dimitri Nakassis (bio) Raphael Greenberg and Yannis Hamilakis, Archaeology, Nation, and Race: Confronting the Past, Decolonizing the Future in Greece and Israel. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2022. Pp. xvi + 218. 25 figures. Paperback $25.99. In a seminal article in 1973, David Clarke declared archaeology’s “loss of innocence,” which he understood as the ongoing process of critical disciplinary definition. Clarke’s paper sketched the radical changes, especially the renewed interest in theory, that then roiled the discipline. Fifty years later, Raphael Greenberg and Yannis Hamilakis present a discussion of a new loss of innocence (161) and a new horizon in archaeology’s development, one that promises to be fertile ground for future exploration. Their aim is to expose archaeology’s “deep roots in colonialism and racism” and “to rebuild archaeology on entirely new foundations” (3). Their method for doing so is not a conventional academic monograph, but rather a series of structured conversations with themselves as interlocutors. Individual chapters focus on archaeology’s colonial origins, its practice in crypto-colonial contexts, the notion of purification, the role of nationalism and race in the development of the discipline, and decolonization. These themes are explored through engagement with the archaeology and politics of the modern nations of Israel and Greece. Clarke (1973, 8) observed that “each archaeology is of its time,” and this book is especially and avowedly so. The influence of the Black Lives Matter movement in particular, but also that of the pandemic, are tangibly felt and indeed highlighted by the authors (3). The book owes its genesis to a seminar taught by the authors at Brown University in the spring of 2020, followed by conversations via video conferencing during the lockdown. It is perhaps unsurprising, therefore, that the main novelty of this book, at least for this reviewer, is its emphasis on race in Mediterranean archaeology. In a Greek context, of course, the issue of race has become especially pressing with the rise of racialized politics and violence against migrants from Africa and Asia, prompting a growing interest in race among Greek scholars (e.g., Avdela et al. 2017). What emerges clearly from that research and the present book is how powerful a lens race is for the study of archaeology’s development: it is critical for analysis not only of the present state of the discipline but also of its history, and it is a sufficiently productive frame that it must be considered on a par with the concept of the nation, to which it has long been subordinated (Hamilakis 2007, 2020). Greenberg and Hamilakis range widely over a broad intellectual terrain. A brief introduction to the authors’ intellectual histories and orientations (chapter 1) sets the stage for an engaging discussion in chapter 2 about the origins and historical trajectories of Greek and Israeli archaeologies. [End Page 149] Crypto-colonialism—that fertile concept first articulated by Michael Herzfeld (2002)—is the subject of chapter 3, which provides a productive lens for comparison of the Greek and Israeli cases and their “superimposed colonialisms” (58). Chapter 4 focuses on archaeology as purification, from the practice of removing material traces and communities seen as out of place to the archaeological desire for purity of categories (e.g., the hard boundaries between chronological periods). Race is the analytical focus of chapter 5, which concludes with a detailed discussion of archaeogenetic studies and the ways that they re-inscribe racial categories. The penultimate chapter (chapter 6) meditates on decolonization, understood not simply as an academic endeavor but as a broad political project. A short conclusion (chapter 7) summarizes the aims of the volume. This is an important book that should have a significant impact on archaeology, for it sets an ambitious agenda for the future of the discipline. Greenberg and Hamilakis’s goal is nothing less than an emancipatory archaeology with the potential to liberate us all from the coloniality that defines our relationship with the past and present (171). Greece and Israel are potent sites for such an undertaking, both because of the dense entanglement of the ancient...

True Blue: White Unionists in the Deep South During the Civil War and Reconstruction By Clayton J. Butler

Reviewed by: True Blue: White Unionists in the Deep South During the Civil War and Reconstruction By Clayton J. Butler Wendy Hamand Venet True Blue: White Unionists in the Deep South During the Civil War and Reconstruction. By Clayton J. Butler. Conflicting Worlds: New Dimensions of the American Civil War. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2022. Pp. x, 228. $45.00, ISBN 978-0-8071-7662-7.) In True Blue: White Unionists in the Deep South During the Civil War and Reconstruction, Clayton J. Butler makes an important contribution to our understanding of Unionists in the Deep South during and after the Civil War. Butler asks several key questions. Who were these white men? Why did they remain loyal to the Union? How were they viewed in the North and the South? What roles did they play during and after the war? He seeks answers to these questions by focusing individual chapters on three Unionist military units: the First Louisiana Cavalry, the First Alabama Cavalry, and the Thirteenth Tennessee Union Cavalry. While acknowledging that his approach undervalues the important role played by Unionist women during the war, Butler notes that “donning a blue Federal uniform represented the most unambiguous expression of national allegiance one could make” (p. 2). Butler finds that white Unionists came from many backgrounds and professed a variety of motivations for their unconditional loyalty. Some were slave owners, while others were laborers motivated by class resentment. In New Orleans, many Unionists were German or Irish immigrants. Although some were former Whigs, many Unionists were Democrats who had voted for Stephen A. Douglas in the presidential contest of 1860. While some Unionists disliked slavery, most did not express sympathy for slaves as a motivation to enlist. Instead, they professed a strong dedication to the United States as a nation. For these men, secession represented a violation of the Constitution and the legacy of the Founders. Butler does not make a case that Unionist soldiers influenced the outcome of the war, but he does argue that these units had a respectable military record, fighting at Port Hudson, Louisiana, in the Red River campaign, and during William T. Sherman’s March to the Sea. Sherman, Butler shows, understood the public relations value of having Unionists serve in his ranks. Of greater [End Page 368] interest to Butler is the role of newspapers’ support of the Union or the Confederacy through the dissemination of information about soldiers’ allegedly heroic or traitorous efforts. Butler’s impressive newspaper research encompasses big city dailies and small-town papers, and it helps broaden the relatively narrow focus of his book. Another strength of this book is Butler’s discussion of the 1864 Fort Pillow massacre, in which Confederate soldiers under the command of General Nathan Bedford Forrest killed close to half the garrison of 585 U.S. soldiers rather than allowing them to surrender. While not taking attention away from the massacre’s Black victims, Butler notes that Forrest’s men also killed nearly one hundred white Unionists, as well as the commander of the Thirteenth Tennessee Cavalry, Major William F. Bradford. Bradford initially escaped the bloodshed but was executed by Forrest’s men several days after the massacre. Butler argues convincingly that the episode should be understood both as an expression of Confederates’ racial hatred and as their reaction to the presence of white and Black defenders of Union. In a volume of fewer than two hundred pages of text, the book’s coverage of Reconstruction is understandably brief and largely focused on Louisiana and Alabama. Although many white Unionists ultimately endorsed emancipation during the war, in the postwar period their diverse political views reemerged. Unionists played roles during both Presidential and Radical Reconstruction, but Butler joins other scholars in emphasizing that their failure to form a long-term alliance with African Americans contributed to Reconstruction’s broader failure. In his conclusion, Butler discusses the “relatively small place” unconditional Unionists occupy in both national Civil War memory and current historiography. Small in number but consequential nonetheless, these Deep South Unionists found “their voices drowned out by the chorus of returning Confederates and their descendants” (p. 166). Clayton Butler’s book reminds us of...

China’s Rise in the Global South: The Middle East, Africa, and Beijing’s Alternative World Order by Dawn C. Murphy

Professor Murphy has significantly advanced scholarship on post-Cold War Chinese foreign relations with this well-conceived and well-executed assessment of Chinese foreign relations with the Middle East, North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa. The study is theoretically informed, empirically based, and very relevant to policy. Notably, it provides clear evidence and a persuasive conclusion showing just how far President Xi Jinping’s China has come in its ambitions to change the existing international order in ways advantageous to China and detrimental to the United States and other developed countries. The book fills a gap in providing the best available scholarly review of recent Chinese relations with the Middle East. It is well-designed to be of use in undergraduate and graduate courses dealing with Chinese foreign relations and to inform journalists, policy-makers, and readers interested in China with a thorough and easily understood assessment. Clearly presented introductory chapters define the purpose and scope of the study and relevant theoretical perspectives. The volume then features chapters providing a thorough examination of Chinese behavior in the two leading Chinese-led regional groups involving Africa and the Middle East, a unique assessment of the roles of Chinese special envoys dealing with major regional conflicts, and individual chapters that respectively assess systematically Chinese behavior in economic, political, and military relations advancing Chinese influence. A final chapter before the conclusion demonstrates how Beijing employs the multifaceted activities of the Belt and Road Initiative to use economic, political, and security measures to its overall benefit in the Middle East and Africa.

Experimenting with Failure

In his article ‘Mindless Modernism’, published in 2013, Joshua Gang expressed his scepticism about the established narrative of modernism’s so-called inward turn. In his view, the notion that modernism was concerned with exploring the complex intricacies of human consciousness offers at best a partial view of the influence of psychology on the period’s most formally experimental literature. ‘In treating the introspective mind as a self-evident truth of modernism’, Gang warned, ‘we preclude rather than encourage new approaches to the period, particularly if those approaches are invested in the history of science, analytic philosophy, or the empirical study of mind.’1 The article was a necessary reminder that ‘psychology, and modernism’s relationship to psychology, did not end with introspection’.2 In many ways, Joshua Powell’s Samuel Beckett and Experimental Psychology: Perception, Attention, Imagery is the kind of scholarly work that Gang called for. Published in Bloomsbury’s Historicizing Modernism series, the book focuses on Beckett’s theatre and prose works from the late 1950s to the late 1980s. Powell argues that Beckett’s works are not simply artistically radical but can also be understood as scientific experiments. The book’s aim is to outline ‘the extent to which the psychological experiment comes to inform Beckett’s own experimental methods, and ultimately what these methods can be seen to achieve’ (p. 9). There are six main chapters in the book, most of which focus on a specific work (Not I, That Time, Footfalls, and Nohow On get individual chapters), through the lens of psychological concepts such as inattention or face-reading. Powell’s approach is significant in two respects. First, he shifts the focus from Beckett’s canonical early novels towards his less famous later plays such as Not I or That Time. Second, he largely bypasses the conversation about Beckett’s relationship to psychoanalysis (which he correctly argues has long dominated critical discussions) in favour of less frequently explored commonalities between Beckett’s work and behaviourism and gestalt psychology.

The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls by Jodi Magness

Reviewed by: The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrollsby Jodi Magness Dennis Mizzi jodi magness, The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls( 2nded.; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2021). Pp. xiii + 326. Paper $29.99. This is a second edition of one of the most influential books in the field of Qumran studies. First published in 2002, Jodi Magness's The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrollsbecame an instant landmark work on the subject (see the review by James R. Davila in CBQ66 [2004] 293–95). It not only made this celebrated, and often controversial(!), [End Page 340]site accessible to a general readership, but also became a must-read for academics seeking an introduction to Qumran. To this day, it remains a standard work and is widely cited by scholars across different fields. Nonetheless, scholarship on Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls has developed tremendously in the past two decades. In the intervening years, many new books and countless articles dealing with the archaeology of Qumran and the Scrolls have been published, and three final reports—one on Roland de Vaux's 1951–1956 excavations at Qumran (Jean-Baptiste Humbert, Alain Chambon, and Jolanta Młynarczyk, Khirbet Qumrân et Aïn Feshkha, Vol. 3a: L'archéologie de Qumrân: Reconsidération de l'interprétation; Les installations périphériques de Khirbet Qumrân; Qumran Terracotta Oil Lamps[NTOA Series archaeologica 5a; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2016]), another on Cave 11Q (Jean-Baptiste Humbert and Marcello Fidanzio, eds., Khirbet Qumrân et Aïn Feshkha, Vol. 4a: Qumrân Cave 11Q: Archaeology and New Scroll Fragments[NTOA Series archaeologica 8a; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2019]), and the other on Yitzhak Magen and Yuval Peleg's 1994–2004 investigations of the site (Yitzhak Magen and Yuval Peleg, Back to Qumran: Final Report (1993–2004)[JavaServer Pages 18; Jerusalem: Israel Antiquities Authority; Civil Administration of Judea and Samaria, 2018])—have also appeared in print. M. herself has since updated or revised some of her previous conclusions. A second edition of this most important work, therefore, was not only inevitable but highly anticipated. The book's format and structure follow the template of the original. It has the same number of chapters (ten), all of which retain the same title, and bibliographic notes are appended at the end of each one. This keeps the text clean but requires additional work from readers, who have to hunt down certain bibliographic items. The chapters are organized thematically, starting with an introduction on archaeology as a field of study (chap. 1); a summary of early explorations of Qumran, the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the early history of research (chap. 2); and an overview of the Scrolls, the sectarian communities they depict, and their relation to Qumran (chap. 3). These are followed by chapters on the site's building(s) and occupation phases (chap. 4); the pottery and architecture (chap. 5); the remains of communal meals, a toilet, and notions of sacred space at Qumran (chap. 6); miqwāʾôt(Jewish ritual baths) (chap. 7); the cemetery and the question of women at the site (chap. 8); and the inhabitants' clothing, their views on the temple tax, and their anti-Hellenizing attitudes (chap. 9). The final chapter goes beyond the site to explore the nearby settlements of ʿEin Feshkha and ʿEin el-Ghuweir and their possible connection to Qumran (chap. 10). Revisions and updates are scattered throughout the book and integrated into the individual chapters. The basic thesis of the first edition remains unchanged. M. mounts a strong and convincing case in favor of seeing Qumran as a sectarian/Essene settlement related to the large collection of scrolls found in the surrounding caves. The corollary is that Qumran presents us with a unique opportunity to bring texts and archaeology into conversation, allowing us to illumine the daily life of the Qumran sectarians in a holistic manner and gain insights that would not otherwise be possible. This is exactly what M. does, and the result is a vivid account of the site's history and its inhabitants' practices, beliefs, and worldview. Apart from updating the...

Spanish Culture from Romanticism to the Present: Structures of Feeling by Jo Labanyi

Reviewed by: Spanish Culture from Romanticism to the Present: Structures of Feeling by Jo Labanyi Richard Cleminson Spanish Culture from Romanticism to the Present: Structures of Feeling. By Jo Labanyi. (Selected Essay, 11) Cambridge: Legenda. 2019. xii+349 pp. £80. ISBN 978–1–78188–932–9. The great advantage of the Legenda 'Selected Essays' series is the combination in one volume of a set of prodigious works by highly influential authors such as Jo Labanyi. The task for the reviewer is, consequently, a somewhat daunting one, however satisfying the reading of the individual chapters may be. This book, set out in six parts and containing previously published essays, constitutes a key contribution to Spanish Cultural and Literary Studies. Running through the collection is the author's attention to 'structures of feeling', drawing on Raymond Williams's notion, as a driver and explanatory resource for the comprehension of a diverse array of cultural production primarily from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Part I focuses on romanticism; Part II on the realist novel and art; and the remaining parts centre on the twentieth century, with the final sections on historical memory. The first chapter, originally published in the Hispanic Research Journal in 2004, addresses the understudied (and nowadays rarely taught, at least in British universities) eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth century in order to reconsider the contribution made to European discourses on modernization and romantic love by literary production from the period. In a deft reappraisal of works by the Spanish Romantics who turned to the medieval period, Labanyi argues for the interconnectedness of Spain with European representations of love, thereby disrupting the [End Page 269] 'primitive' and anti-modern stereotypes foisted on Spain by less careful observers. Rather than rigid categories and set characteristics, Labanyi invites the reader to consider the unruly influence of alternative expressions of subjectivity by engaging in a kind of historical 'border studies' 'that tries to think across the historical "divides" produced by established schemes of periodization' (p. 11). Coupled with the identification of the structures of feeling manifested in alternative stories and readings, this borderland subjectivity perused against the grain forms the hilo conductor of Labanyi's book. The romanticized versions of love, drawn on an Arabic past, provide 'the basis for future models of the nation' (p. 15). Nation-forming was also influenced by the representation of important moments from the past or instances of daily life as events around which to coalesce and expose 'the public to representations of the past organized in a particular way', thereby schooling the public 'in modes of viewing appropriate to modern citizens' (p. 88) and emphasizing the generative force of painting in constructions of feeling and identity in the present (Chapter 8 in Part II). Novels and films are other sources of (re)presentation of images in the early twentieth century and under the Franco regime. Drawing on work by Klaus Theweleit on the genesis of the 'fascist character' in men, the chapter on Giménez Caballero's Genio de España (1932) shows how the author drew on a version of modernism that was defined by an appeal to the irrational, 'allowing it to reach the masses by speaking to the unconscious' (p. 122). Such an interpretation permits Labanyi to complicate the acceptance of certain traits of modernism by both left and right rather than assume an implicit anti-modernism on the part of Spanish fascists. Caballero's writings and speeches were ingrained with gendered aspects and the fear of the loss of unity, whether by means of the republican divorce law of 1932 or the separation of Catalonia from Spain. Rather than rejecting or eschewing the Jewish contribution to Hispanic civilization, his desire was to incorporate said contribution(s) into Spain's imperial history just as other races had been dissolved by Spanish males into the broader imperial project begun centuries before. The wide-ranging Chapter 11 on commonalities and differences between Maeztu, Giménez Caballero, and Madariaga as well as their usages of Don Juan and romantic love to prop up their own political visions is, alongside the first chapter on Arabic love and the last chapters on the intricacies of...

Incentivise Mechanism for Authors and Readers with Blockchain

Abstract: With the advent of popularity of long form publishing of written media in the form of novels and graphics novels, there arises a need for a platform to incentivise authors to get constant, periodic feedback for their work, so that it is optimized for adaptations for mainstream media as well as a cult following in terms of content and character likability and relatability. Blockchain and its associated technologies have made transactions and tipping extremely easy, and with L2 chains like Polygon which have low transaction fees, combined with the immutability and security of smart contracts make for an excellent enabler for this industry. The following research paper seeks to use blockchain to create a publishing platform that enables an author to put out individual chapters and gain rapid feedback on it in the form of voting by the users on the next storyline, while readers make some money in return for their feedback.

Kate Imy. Faithful Fighters: Identity and Power in the British Indian Army.

The British gained their empire by the sword, expanded it by the sword, and held on to it by the sword. Over the last two decades the vibrant field of “new” military history has explored the manifold ramifications of British imperialism enabled by Indian soldiers. Faithful Fighters: Identity and Power in the British Indian Army belongs to this expanding genre. However, the book is not solely a study of the army. It also examines “the Indian Army’s attempt to racialize and militarize South Asian identities” (1) and “the cultural legacies of the British Indian Army from 1900 to 1940” (2) to evaluate “how the army shaped colonial society in times of “peace” (7). Faithful Fighters is divided into six chapters. The first three consider three distinct and highly recruited religious communities, the Sikhs, “Muslims,” and Nepali Gurkhas, respectively. The fourth considers food and the military, and the fifth looks at education and the army. The final chapter discusses the political consequences of military desegregation. Each of the individual chapters adds, in varying degrees, to our knowledge of the connections between military and society. While the breadth of Faithful Fighters is impressive, its diverse topics do not coalesce around a consistent thesis encompassing all its parts. The one clear thread that runs through the book is the role and impact of religion.

Précis: Experience Embodied

ABSTRACT This précis provides a summary of the major arguments of Experience Embodied together with an overview of the three parts and individual chapters. By examining the concept of experience in the theorizing of Descartes, Locke, Hume, Rousseau, Herder, and Kant, this book sets out to complicate one of the most firmly established narratives of early modern philosophy. In its traditional form, this narrative focuses on the distinction between rationalism and empiricism and possesses a strong epistemological focus. Through this, it fails to acknowledge that the concept of experience was discussed in a much broader philosophical context, which included moral, social, political, and historical considerations. Experience Embodied demonstrates that the six philosophers examined constructively engaged with the fact that experience affects body and mind, and shapes what we can think and do. More generally, the book shows that during the early modern period a positive conception of the mind’s embodiment and principal malleability through the influences of artifice and nature was not only available, but also frequently used to counterbalance standard claims about the negative impact of passions, instincts, and undesirable social influences.

Possible Side Effects of Polyphenols and Their Interactions with Medicines

Polyphenols are an important component of plant-derived food with a wide spectrum of beneficial effects on human health. For many years, they have aroused great interest, especially due to their antioxidant properties, which are used in the prevention and treatment of many diseases. Unfortunately, as with any chemical substance, depending on the conditions, dose, and interactions with the environment, it is possible for polyphenols to also exert harmful effects. This review presents a comprehensive current state of the knowledge on the negative impact of polyphenols on human health, describing the possible side effects of polyphenol intake, especially in the form of supplements. The review begins with a brief overview of the physiological role of polyphenols and their potential use in disease prevention, followed by the harmful effects of polyphenols which are exerted in particular situations. The individual chapters discuss the consequences of polyphenols' ability to block iron uptake, which in some subpopulations can be harmful, as well as the possible inhibition of digestive enzymes, inhibition of intestinal microbiota, interactions of polyphenolic compounds with drugs, and impact on hormonal balance. Finally, the prooxidative activity of polyphenols as well as their mutagenic, carcinogenic, and genotoxic effects are presented. According to the authors, there is a need to raise public awareness about the possible side effects of polyphenols supplementation, especially in the case of vulnerable subpopulations.

One True Sentence: Writers & Readers on Hemingway’s Art by Mark Cirino and Michael Von Cannon

Reviewed by: One True Sentence: Writers & Readers on Hemingway’s Art by Mark Cirino and Michael Von Cannon Kayla Forrest One True Sentence: Writers & Readers on Hemingway’s Art. By Mark Cirino & Michael Von Cannon. Godine, 2022. 240 pp. Hardcover $26.95. In July of 2019, Mark Cirino and Michael Von Cannon released the first episode of One True Podcast, a project based on a seemingly simple question: “What is your ‘one true sentence’ and why?” Since the premier episode, Cirino and Von Cannon have interviewed over 100 individuals, discussing all things Hemingway and inviting listeners to learn more about the writer and his work. One True Sentence: Writers & Readers on Hemingway’s Art brings the podcast to print, highlighting excerpts of 38 episodes, organized as individual chapters, and presented as questions and answers, reflecting the relaxed, conversational tone of the podcast. Each chapter offers a significant portion of the original episode, and begins by identifying “one true sentence” (or “sentences,” as some individuals admit to bending the rules). Regardless of whether one has been a faithful subscriber to the podcast, the book is an excellent read for Hemingway aficionados, casual readers, and all those in between. The appeal of this volume lies in both its organization, as a series of interviews about Hemingway’s work and life, and in its breadth, examining simple and complex sentences, pulling from a wide range of texts (including letters), and featuring a varied array of guests. Moreover, the book’s emphasis on close reading illuminates a clear understanding of Hemingway’s style and explores the myriad interpretations of “true sentences.” As a whole, One True Sentence looks at truth from two perspectives: the “truth” of the chosen sentences and the meaning of “true” in Hemingway’s famous “one true sentence” dictum. The focus on a specific Hemingway sentence as the starting point for each chapter reflects the power of close reading to elucidate meaning, or the “truth” of any given text from a reader’s perspective. The conversations between Cirino, the interviewer, and each guest tease out the significance of each chosen sentence. As Ken Burns and Lynn Novick write, in their introduction to the book, the discussions inspired by the elected sentences “reveal the power of Hemingway’s iceberg principle, as the dialogue works to [End Page 120] unpack the meaning Hemingway often leaves buried” (13). Guests also discuss their personal connections to and interest in Hemingway and his writing, including historical, biographical, and theoretical approaches to his work. The guest interviews in One True Sentence include many Hemingway scholars, such as Verna Kale, who explores an affecting line of dialogue from Harold Krebs’s mother in “Soldier’s Home,” and the late Scott Donaldson, who discusses the opening sentence of A Farewell to Arms. There are also a number of fiction writers, who often relate Hemingway’s impact on their work or writing process. Several of the included conversations are with PEN/Hemingway Award winners, like Jennifer Haigh, who reflects on writing her own true sentences, and Kawai Strong Washburn, who describes conveying truth to readers. The collection also includes guests whose professions and experiences diverge from studying or writing literature. Actors, Adrian Sparks and Stacy Keach, tell stories of reading Hemingway’s prose to prepare to play him on the stage and screen, and John McCain’s longtime aide and speechwriter, Mark Salter, explains the impact of Robert Jordan on the senator. While the interviewees, perspectives, and topics often vary significantly from one chapter to the next, the organization of the chapters in no overt order, with relatively similar chapter lengths, results in a unified feel to the collection as a whole. While the interviewees offer varying backgrounds, professions, and experiences with Hemingway’s life and work, one of the more intriguing elements of this text is the delightful diversity of sentences chosen for this project. In their preface to the book, Cirino and Von Cannon challenge readers to really consider what it means for a text to be “Hemingwayesque,” especially by examining sentences that are long and complex or unremarkable at first glance. One example of such a sentence, is Mark P. Ott’s choice from “Big Two-Hearted...

Augustine on the Will: A Theological Account by Han-luen Kantzer Komline

Reviewed by: Augustine on the Will: A Theological Account by Han-luen Kantzer Komline Christopher R. Mooney Han-luen Kantzer Komline Augustine on the Will: A Theological Account New York: Oxford University Press, 2020 Pp. xv + 469. $150.00. What does Augustine mean by the notoriously elusive term “the will”? Hanluen Kantzer Komline’s Augustine on the Will argues that Augustine did not invent the will, nor did he simply recast a philosophical category, as others have claimed. Rather, Augustine develops an inescapably theological account of the will, meaning that any account of human willing must be differentiated by its location in the Christian narrative: creation, fall, redemption, and consummation (10–12). While there are common features, how Augustine describes created willing, fallen willing, justified willing, and heavenly willing are each unique and distinctively Christian. Before the fall, the will is like a hinge that turns the soul and is capable of sinning or not; for all humans after the fall, willing is now stuck due to their evil desires, imposing a certain necessity despite the existence of free choice; but in Christ, God’s grace through the Holy Spirit empowers the will—even drives it—to the good; finally, by a further grace the will of the saints in heaven is liberated even from the ability and desire for sin. The result is a well-researched, admirably balanced, and largely comprehensive illumination of human willing in Augustine’s thought. In certain places, especially on prayer and the will (Chapter Four), Christ’s exemplary human will and efficacious grace (Chapter Six), and the Holy Spirit’s role in illuminating the meaning of human and trinitarian willing (Chapter Seven), the book truly shines as a representation of Augustine’s thinking and aims. In addition to its judicious interventions for specialists, its individual chapters are well structured as introductions for advanced students, even if the book as a whole may be too long to serve as a student introduction. The book consists of eight chapters, which are grouped around the four stages of human willing. Chapter One concerns the created will in Augustine’s earliest works, Chapter Two deals with the fallen will up to Ad Simplicianum, Chapters Three to Four cover the fallen will and transition to redeemed willing, Chapters Five through Seven concern the redeemed will, and Chapter Eight concludes with the will eschatologically perfected in heaven. Kantzer Komline’s book also maps these four stages of human willing onto Augustine’s development over time, so that, as the bishop ages, his thinking grows [End Page 107] and his focus also shifts. She argues, for example, that his earliest accounts of the will (c. 387–95) are best seen not as a false, juvenile description but as largely right—insofar as they describe the created will. His later works do not so much reject the early account of created willing as adapt the account to other circumstances: how do we describe the will now that it is fallen, or when it is redeemed? Kantzer Komline highlights how Augustine’s four-dimensional approach to human willing uniquely grounds its goodness in the trinitarian God. This explains how Augustine really does elevate the will to a higher position in the human person than any thinker before him, though only because his account is so theological. Kantzer Komline’s theologically differentiated approach enhances our understanding of Augustine on the will, and the book is at its most persuasive in demonstrating the impossibility of distilling from Augustine a one-dimensional, atheological account of the will or simply reducing it to philosophical antecedents. In particular, Kantzer Komline shows that a theologically differentiated account of the will is necessary to account for Augustine’s anti-Pelagianism, his engagement with scripture, his theological development, his distinctly Christian, trinitarian approach to willing, and his reluctance to offer philosophically universal definitions of the will. Still, perhaps some expressions of theological differentiation go too far, such as where “four different accounts” are affirmed and contrasted with “‘an’ account of will” (418). But opposing “four accounts” to “an account” seems to risk losing any intelligibility regarding “the will.” “How the will functions varies” (10), yes, but we can still ask what...