Literary Aspects Research Articles

Huellas de una obra de Valera en defensa de los conversos

This paper concerns a passage in a lost work by Diego de Valera in defence of conversos, dedicated to Lope de Barrientos, bishop of Cuenca, and against a friar who preached in that town, where the author was born and lived at that moment (1458). We analyse both the specific circumstances that led to the composition of the text, which are linked with Mosen Diego's biography and the local political situation, and its ideological and literary aspects, especially its relation to the rest of Valera's works.

Companionship between Korean and Chinese literary men and aspects of literary criticism manifested in “Nanseobipyeong”

Companionship between Korean and Chinese literary men and aspects of literary criticism manifested in “Nanseobipyeong”

Magazines, Modernity and War (review)

Reviewed by: Magazines, Modernity and War Joan Roman Resina Magazines, Modernity and War. Jordana Mendelson, ed. Madrid: Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, 2008. Pp. 197. $40.00 (paper). This book stems from a conference correlated with an exhibit at the Reina Sofía Art Center in Madrid. Hence, curatorial interests and editorial economy are both responsible for the book's scope, which despite an enticingly broad title is largely limited to journals that covered or sprouted from the Spanish Civil War. This limitation, while understandable in the institutional [End Page 458] context, is unfortunate when one reflects that the shock of modernity through armed conflict was socially more dramatic and theoretically more productive during the First World War than in the localized and far less industrialized conflict that raged in the Iberian Peninsula two decades later—in effect, the last in the West to benefit from the romantic imagery of a people in arms. Despite this focus, the collection includes two essays that expand the view of modernity beyond the Spanish war. Also striking—and likewise associated with the curatorial event—is the neglect of the literary aspect of modern magazines and the heavy reliance on illustration, a privileging of image over text that clearly relates to the spectatorial conditions of the museum. Even so, sequestering a book about modern magazines from the profuse literary reactions to the Spanish Civil War and the other wars of the century is too emphatic a gesture to pass unnoticed. In her brilliant introduction, Jordana Mendelson advocates the importance of "Periodical Studies," bemoaning the relative inattention such publications have suffered at the hands of scholars. She acknowledges a recent interest in "little magazines" as manifestations of "elite culture," a proposition that, although not entirely accurate in its temporal evaluation, may be statistically correct. While specific examples of academic interest in periodical ventures can be found, they represent exceptions to a wider disinterest in cultural studies; hence it remains true that analysis of literary and cultural magazines has not been at the center of research. This is perhaps not surprising given the traditional focus on individual authors and works, whereas, as Mendelson aptly points out, "To study magazines means not just to examine individual contributions but to think about the magazine as a whole" (10). Furthermore, magazines exist in multiple arenas, all of which contribute to the overall effect. Her interest, nevertheless, lies primarily in the, in her view, more neglected role of the modernist magazine as "a visual artifact"; the book turns, therefore, less around the role of the modern magazine as a vehicle for ideas than around the role of artists in fashioning the magazine's appearance (11). Programmatically then, the book's rationale is to "reintroduce us to a category of ephemera that was thriving and ubiquitous" and is now coming to be seen as "a key to understanding the cross-media and inherently interdisciplinary modernity of early twentieth-century print culture" (11). One theoretical aspect missing from this collection is any analysis of the economic and social presuppositions that regulated the appearance of the illustrated magazine, its relation to the daily press, and to the feuilleton from which the cultural magazine derives. What sociological strata did these publications cater to? How did the interwar magazines come about and maintain themselves in a period of economic slump? What is their relation to the increased circulation of newspapers and to the ever-growing share of space given over to publicity in the newspaper's layout? How did this commercial necessity transition to the avant-garde design that changed traditional discursive vehicles into "visual artifacts"? These and other questions are left aside for the political contexts that greeted the modernist graphic aesthetics that the book is primarily concerned with. Miguel Sarró offers a compact overview of the illustrative work in the Spanish anarchist press for the duration of the Spanish Civil War, informing about the various unions and organizations of illustrators during this period of feverish collectivization. Javier Pérez Segura writes about two magazines, 14ª División and Voz de Madrid, a Spanish language publication appearing in Paris to further the cause of the Spanish republic. Unlike 14ª División...

La preceptiva antigua y la Regla monástica de san Agustín

The article deals with Augustine’s Monastic Rule (Praeceptum) focusing on the Old Literary Preceptive’s Rules, offering a new reading of its Argument and a new approach to its Literary aspects.

Abraham Lincoln and the Transcendental Constitution: Excerpts from Lincoln's Letters, Speeches, and Remarks (Annotated)

This annotated collection of selected letters, speeches, and remarks of Abraham Lincoln seeks to identify and describe Lincoln's political philosophy - his understanding of the principles of liberty and equality, and how he influenced the American nation to adopt his vision. Annotations are color-coded for references to legal, philosophical, and literary aspects of Lincoln's work. There are also codes for references to the principles of liberty, equality, and self-government.

La Renaissance des mots: de Jean Lemaire de Belges a Agrippa d'Aubigne

Floyd Gray arrives at this project uniquely well equipped to provide for the reader an analytical account of the inexorable rise of the ‘word’ (which for him is dominated in this period by the flourishing of the vernacular language) across the sixteenth century. As both a literary scholar and an authority on print culture, he is able to engage with the historical, theoretical, material, linguistic, and literary aspects of vernacular words and their usage to illuminate central and large-scale questions pertaining to ‘literariness’. What is literature? How and when did it come into being? What are the linguistic markers that signal its emergence at the beginning of the modern era? Gray first examines the historical conditions that allowed the vernacular language to flourish, tracing the development of a new self-consciousness in writing. This part of the work has been specially written to introduce much of the historical framework necessary for understanding the literary studies that follow. The rest of the volume allows Gray to revisit articles and book contributions that have previously appeared elsewhere over the course of the last thirty-five years. These have been extensively rewritten and are grouped together under four main headings. The first section explores multiple aspects of the status of words in the works of Rabelais: a vast and rich laboratory of language. The second examines the self in Du Bellay (expressed anonymously only through synonyms) and Ronsard (through the commentaries of Marc-Antoine de Muret and Rémy Belleau) as literary predecessors to the focus of the third section, the works of Montaigne. Here Montaigne the reader, his treatment of animals, his literary monument to the memory of La Boétie, love, and La Bruyère's portrait of Montaigne provide points of entry into the author's all-encompassing fascination with words. Finally, Gray hints at the potential circularity of the language of sixteenth-century representations of the female body in a series of chapters on this theme in Jean Lemaire de Belges, Jeanne Flore, and Agrippa d'Aubigné. There is much here to engage the reader. The work is admirable in its ambition, and the literary analysis of the later part of the volume is undoubtedly enriched by the addition of the historical perspective to the analytical horizon. Gray succeeds in making accessible to the reader an area that is complex because it is fundamental to the composition and reception of texts and our understanding of them. The diversity of the complementary approaches included here means that while much is illuminated, nothing is obscured, as would be the risk with a volume that sought to map out this difficult terrain in terms of a smaller number of global and coherent narratives. Some questions, however, particularly those concerning the material presentation of texts, would have benefited from more sustained comparison across the chronological period in order for the reader to understand more fully the nature and extent of the changes that took place.

O design e a representabilidade dos signos dentro da world wide web

O presente escrito discute as seguintes questes e idias: 1) H uma linguagem que seja caracterstica da world wide web?; 2) Existe uma esttica prpria na world wide web? 3) A dicotomia, divergncia ou ambigidade nos signos da world wide web; 4) O carter simblico e literal dessas imagens. Apesar de a internet ser uma mdia recente, as questes envolvendo a imagem no so to novas assim, remontando litografia (des-re-construo da imagem) e semitica (carter simblico da informao). A prpria internet enquanto nova mdia posta em questo, enquanto se estende o alcance da discusso da imagem a todas as mdias existentes (incluindo a internet). [ Download ]

Als Clinicus over de Grenzen van de Psychiatrie. De verwantschap tussen literatuur en wetenschap in het werk van de psychiater H.C. Rümke (1893-1967)

As a clincian beyond the boundaries of psychiatry. The congeniality of literature and psychiatry in the work of psychiatrist H.C. Rumke (1893-1967) One of the most important Dutch psychiatrists in the interwar period was H.C. Rumke (1893-1967). With his eclectic interest in psychiatric approaches such as both psychoanalysis and phenomenology, Rumke is most well known for his remarkable diagnostic and therapeutic skills. The life and work of Rumke has been studied in detail, most notably by the Dutch historian Jacob Van Belzen. Despite this extensive research, in this paper it is stated that a relevant aspect of Rumke’s work has been largely disregarded – namely his profound interest in and use of poetry and literature. Not only did Rumke write poems himself under the pseudonym of H. Cornelius, in his scholarly work he frequently refers to fictional literature and at the end of his career he wrote a comprehensive analysis of Frederik van Eeden’s novel Van de Koele Meeren des Doods. For the eclectic clinician Rumke literature and poetry are a source of knowledge to gain insight into the human psyche. Furthermore, according to Rumke, often literature succeeds better at expressing the human condition than the science of psychiatry can. In this article it is argued that for a coherent interpretation of the life and work of Rumke this literal and poetic aspect of his work cannot be disregarded. It is precisely Rumke’s profound interest in literature and poetry that reflects his two main theses about the science of psychiatry. These are on the one hand the centrality of clinical practice and on the other hand the boundaries of psychiatry. As a clinical practitioner Rumke’s aim was to be able to understand the suffering of the patient – literature and poetry could help him do that. Rumke’s use of literature and poetry can be understood by taking into account the context of the clinic, but the intertwinement between psychiatry, literature and poetry in Rumke’s work also reflects a broader issue. Namely that the science of psychiatry is not omnipotent and that sometimes the arts are better equipped to grasp the human condition.

Helen E. Haines: A Life With Books

With this issue, & User Services Quarterly (RUSQ) begins its fiftieth year of publication. In November of 1960, the first copy of what was then known RQ (sometimes referred to Reference Quarterly) appeared as an eight-page newsletter. (1) Since that time, the content and the presentation has expanded to its present format. Throughout its history RQ, and later RUSQ, the journal has been essential to the forward progress of both the theory and the practice of reference librarianship, in the broadest sense of the phrase. While looking ahead is an important part of our work, an anniversary like this also reminds us that we should occasionally look back at where we are coming from. It is crucial that we not lose the best of our past we move, increasingly rapidly, into a future that at times seems quite uncertain for libraries and librarians. The first volume of RQ was published from the fall of 1960 through summer of 1961. It was at the end of that summer that the library profession lost one of its luminaries, whose commitment to books and reading are still a model for readers' advisors today. By the time of her death, Helen Haines had been forgotten by many in the field of librarianship, but her influence on libraries and on librarians remains an important one, and one that still speaks to the profession in the early twenty-first century. As readers' advisors are facing challenges ranging from budget cuts to rapidly expanding format choices to censorship, Haines's work in collection development and intellectual freedom offers insight into how we can make choices that support both our readers and our profession. Haines began her work in the library profession in 1892, when she joined the staff at R.R. Bowker, working first a secretary and then assistant editor on a variety of publications, most importantly Library Journal. Initially working under the supervision of Charles Cutter, Haines became the journal's managing editor in 1896. At the same time, she also assumed duties recorder for the American Library Association (ALA), with the responsibility of preparing the proceedings of the ALA. Haines was then appointed to the ALA Council, and there she worked with both Cutter and with Melville Dewey In 1906, Haines was elected second vice president of ALA, however, a bout of tuberculosis left Haines unable to continue at Bowker or ALA, and she resigned both positions. (2) At her resignation, Haines was awarded a yearly pension from Andrew Carnegie, in recognition of her effective personal work done in the library field. (3) Following a period of recuperation, Haines moved to Southern California, where she had a sister who was working at the State Library of California. (4) During her recovery, Haines read widely, laying the foundation for much of her later work. By 1910, she was sufficiently recovered to begin work a book reviewer for the Pasadena News. In 1914, Haines began to teach at the Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL), offering training classes on book selection and other related topics. Between 1914 and 1931, Haines taught courses for LAPL, the School of Librarianship of the University of California, and the School of Library Service of Columbia University. (5) Haines's wide reading and work in collection development culminated in the 1935 publication of Living With Books: The Art of Book Selection, which became a standard text in library schools across the country. Many librarians welcomed Haines's work for its focus on the literary aspects of librarianship and focus on the reader--two areas that were being challenged by the rising interest in information systems and new technological developments. In the 1930s, Haines expanded her work on book selection to include a vigorous opposition to censorship of books in libraries and schools. In 1940, Haines was instrumental in the establishment of the California Library Association's intellectual freedom committee, and served the committee's first chair. …

<b>The Pillow-Book: As Notas de Sei Shonagon</b><br>DOI: 10.5007/1984-8951.2010v11n98p329

In Peter Greenaway’s 1995 movie The pillow-book one of the most important Japanese writers of all times is the main motif behind the scene: Sei Shonagon, a courtesan of the Heian Period, attached to the Empress Sadako. The protagonist of the movie, Nagiko, is seen as a contemporary Shonagon. Some of the architectural, cultural and literary aspects of the Heian Period are analyzed in brief. Forty notes of Sei Shonagon’s book Makura no Soshi (The pillow-book) are translated to Portuguese by the first time. Shonagon is taken by many as a feminist avant la lettre, due to her notes on the feminine condition.

Das Drastische in der erzählenden dichtung der Antike und des Barocks

This study deals with the Ancient Latin and Old Hungarian adaptations of the most drastic myth of Tereus, Philomela and Progne. Ovid inserted the story into the 6th book of the Metamomorphoses (lines 424–674). Istvan Gyongyosi, called “Hungarian Ovid” by right, adapted an Ovidian text in compliance with baroque literary and translation aspects. The translation makes part of the poem called Csalard Cupido (Fraudulent Cupido) composed in hardly identifiable epic genre in the 17th century. The Ovidian insertion became the third part of the four-part poem, focusing on the demonstration of the outrages caused by Cupido. The main characteristics of the Gyongyosi’s adaptation are: the domestication (for example in the case of the Dionysian rites), the large insertions, the enlargement and amplification, the borrowings and changings of the motifs and patterns and the spectacular actualisation. The motive of the fire is, for example, much more emphased in the Hungarian version. Both of the authors makes capital of...

Reid Barbour and Claire Preston (eds), Sir Thomas Browne: the world proposed, Oxford University Press, 2008, pp. xii, 368, £60.00 (hardback 978-0-19-923621-3).

Reid Barbour and Claire Preston consider the seventeenth-century physician, linguist and natural historian Sir Thomas Browne (1605–1682) to have written probably the most remarkable prose in the English language. In this volume, Browne is celebrated as both a literary and an intellectual figure across sixteen chapters by British and American scholars engaging with his imaginative and eloquent meditations upon a number of wide-ranging themes including memory, authority, classicism, disease, witchcraft and historiography. In her chapter, Preston explores the medical, anatomical, natural-historical, spiritual, antiquarian and literary aspects of Browne’s A letter to a friend. For Preston, this advice to a fellow knight dying of the wasting disease phthisis comprised a profound ars morendi wherein the specifics of an individual case history gave way to a consideration of general truths. That is, for Preston, Browne was ultimately concerned with providing impersonal sententiae addressed to public patterns rather than a consilium addressed to private virtue. Reid Barbour’s contribution considers Browne’s fascination with skin as a site for decipherment of the hieroglyphics of nature, rather than merely as a physiological object of medical knowledge. For Barbour, we are to regard Browne’s explorations of artistic, moral, theological and racial implications as “larger meanings of skin” than his concerns with anatomy, healthy function and disease. Browne is presented here as ultimately having regarded the skin as holding more secrets about the human decipherer than about the divine geometer. In Barbour’s reading of Christian morals, God had ensured that “pocked and scarred” humans loved one another not by obscuring the signs inscribed upon the surface of bodies but by ensuring “that the reader [was] short-sighted” (p. 292). The volume’s historiographical approach is set out in the introduction, where Barbour and Preston casually dismiss what they choose to call a “neo-historicist focus upon subversion and the structures of power” without exemplifying it beyond a 1987 essay by the Australia-based novelist Michael Wilding. Barbour and Preston do not engage with Wilding’s argument but merely report that it is “reductive” and that he sees oppressive conservatism where they see coherent, orderly and co-operative “social and moral advancement” (pp. 2, 4). The editors signal an intention to use Quentin Skinner’s perspective of “language as action”, and the volume indeed pursues a hermeneutic reading of Browne. There is a concomitant concern with symbolism and meaning (rather than practical and material technologies) across ten of the sixteen chapters, with some employment of Wittgensteinian notions of language (chapters 6 and 8). Only the last two of the sixteen chapters in this volume offer an argument for how their literary and intellectual descriptions of Browne might serve as reflection upon twenty-first-century notions of sickness, mortality, memory, authority and identity. That is, most of the contributors do not demonstrate how their readings of Browne are important critiques of certain aspects of current practices that constitute our selfhood. Browne’s medical arguments are presented in such a way as to leave the present somewhat unchallenged. Presumably, we are not to question current medical beliefs, but instead to use them to assess those of the past. This is unfortunate given that this volume is precisely an engagement with ethical and aesthetic truth together with related subjectivities. Notwithstanding this, the contributors provide a wide-ranging, finely-detailed, lucid and highly readable account of the writings of Sir Thomas Browne in relation to the pressing spiritual and political problems of seventeenth-century England.

An analytical perspective on the Fellowship Narrative of Genesis 18:1–15

The narrative in Genesis 18:1–15 deals with God’s visit to Abraham at Mamre. The general tendency in the interpretation of this narrative is to focus on Abraham’s hospitality. It is usually interpreted as an example of his righteousness, in line with Hebrews 13:2, or with the test motive of the Greek myth of the birth of Orion. These interpretations, however, seem to be in conflict with the narrator’s own theological views.This study, therefore, attempts to explore the view point of the author of the Fellowship Narrative (Gn 18:1–15) within the context of the larger Abraham narrative (Gn 11:27–25:11). The method used for the investigation is mainly that of narrative criticism. Attention is paid to the narrator’s various literary skills: ‘linking structure with preceding episode’ (Gn 18:1a), the ‘sandwiched structure’ of the larger context (Gn 18:1–21:7), the unique plot sequence, as well as repeated clue words and phrases (such as ‘laugh’, ‘Sarah’ and ‘this time next year’). These literary aspects are used by the narrator to depict the faithfulness of the Lord who fulfils what he promised. The conclusion of this study overturns the traditional interpretations of the Fellowship Narrative.

The First Yiddish Book Printed in Amsterdam: Śefer Mismor Lethode

This is a first approach to the text of Mismor-lethode a strophic retelling of parts of the Bible, first printed in Amsterdam 1644 (which has so far only been the object of short bibliographical notices), highlighting some of its specific typographical, literary and linguistic aspects: • It is a very nice piece of work and inaugurates the renowned tradition of Amsterdam Yiddish typographical works; it is also presented within the output of Amsterdam typesetters whose career is reflected in many later books. • It is remarkable as a late specimen of biblical strophic poetry that makes no use of midrashic elements (perhaps in keeping with the Sephardic influence prevalent in Amsterdam). • Linguistically it is an important document—among other idiosyncrasies— for its use of the all-purpose relative pronoun s2o and for the free usage of final unstressed vowels for reasons of euphony, rhythm and rhyme.

Solano Trindade: a poesia como arma humanizadora

This article has the purpose of revising the process of formation about Negro identity: from subordinate condition to recognition, in historic and literary aspects. The discussion of the social trajectory of the Negro is made relevant to think about the transformation in social roles given to the Negro by several writers, especially Solano Trindade. In his production, the poet gives his voice to the oppressed man (Negro or White), to denounce social injustice. Solano Trindade’s speech invites the reader to a revision of the Negro condition and, by emphasizing the human character in his poetic production, he questions the fixed image covered by stereotypes. His production therefore proposes a (re) reading of the images that were impinged on the Negro man in the Diaspora, confronted with moral, political and social standards of the elite, with the objective of the recognizing the human character in the Negro. Thus, we verify how Trindade uses his poetry as a weapon, a poetic weapon to be used in the objective of combating human illness and restore each person's dignity.

The Erotics of Consolation: Desire and Distance in the Late Middle Ages by Catherine E. Léglu, Stephen J. Milner

REVIEWS The Erotics of Consolation: Desire and Distance in the Late Middle Ages. Ed. by Catherine E. Leglu and Stephen J. Milner. (The New Middle Ages) Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 2008. viii+241 pp. ?42.50. ISBN 978-1 4039-7619-2. This interesting collection of ten essays explores the appropriation and misappro priation of the classical and late antique consolatory tradition in various literary settings in the latemedieval and Renaissance era. Although two of the essays prominently feature the influence of Cicero (Tusculan Disputations) and Seneca (e.g. the Consolatio ad Marciam, theDe tranquillitate animi, and the spurious De remediisfortuitorum), the collection chiefly focuses on the influence of Boethius's Consolatio philosophiae. In fact, in the introduction co-editors Catherine Leglu and Stephen Milner describe the book as concentrating] on the vernacular and literary aspects of the reception of Boethius' work in Italy, France, Bohemia, and England in the period between 1300 and 1600' (p. 4). Boethius's Consolation was indeed a pervasive presence in the latermedieval period, owing to itsfunction as a popular textbook, but therewere other reasons aswell why it was readily adapted to various literary ends. The verse half of thisprosimetrum dialogue naturally linked it to the poetic tradition, and its framework of Lady Philosophy consoling a man (the imprisoned Boethius) encouraged its absorption by the amatory form?and erotic content?of love poetry. JeandeMeun, himself a translator of theConsolatio, provided a template for this adaptation, as he incorporated Boethian arguments into his extension of theRoman de laRose. The essays in Part 1, entitled 'Consolation and Desire', deal with some of the more unexpected uses of the Consolation of Philosophy. In an examination of fourteenth-century French narrative poems (dits) Sarah Kay argues that the authors of such works were more attracted to theverse sections of theConsolation than to the prose, and were drawn to the tangible discussions of fortune in the early sections rather than to the abstract philosophizing in the later ones. She focuses on theRemede defortune (c. 1340) and Confort d'ami (1357) ofGuillaume de Machaut to show how he adapts Boethian poetry to the realm of amatory vicissitudes, poetic expression, and even literaryglory. Jessica Rosenfeld considers the impact of Boethius on Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde. She argues thatChaucer, who relied upon Nicholas Trevet's highly Aristotelian' commentary on Boethius inhis own translation of thework, gained from itamore worldly, naturalistic view of human experience. Such a Peripatetic reading of Boethius?in contrast to the earlier more Platonic readings?inspired Chaucer to develop the erotic joys as well as the romantic sorrows of Troilus and Criseyde. Olivia Holmes explores the par allels between Boethius's Lady Philosophy and Dante's Beatrice in the Commedia. Focusing on the dream in Purgatorio xix inwhich a Donna Santa (probably a refiguring of Lady Philosophy and possibly, inpart, Beatrice) drives offan enticing siren,much as Lady Philosophy drove off themuses of poetry at the start of the MLR, 105.2, 2010 503 Consolation, she argues that a Boethian model of sickness and healing is repli cated in the Commedia. Co-editor Milner finds thatDante's Trecento successor, Boccaccio, makes a subversive use of Boethius and of rhetorical conventions in theDecameron. He argues that the putatively consolatory function of thework as stated in the Proemio?to divert and comfort lovesick women?is not genuine, but rather a satirical ploy to use the rhetoric of epistolary exchange popularized by the ars dictaminis to gain access towomen. Thus, rather than urging a Boethian rejection of theworldly for the sublime, Boccaccio the faux consoler is doing just the opposite by furthering erotic pursuits. A fifthessay in this section by Adrian Armstrong examines JeanLemaire de Belges's Concorde des deux langages (1511) in the rather contrived consolatory context of an author seeking to elevate his interest in the higher studies of language and knowledge as being worthy of the Temple of Minerva (as opposed to the lowlier Temple ofVenus)?and thereby constituting a 'Consolation of Philology. The essays in Part 11, 'Consolation and Loss', treatworks that develop con solatory motifs in themore traditional realms of death and misfortune. Letizia Panizza examines Petrarch's Latin writings to show his use of Cicero and Seneca...

Reading the authorial strategies in the Derveni Papyrus

The present article attempts to explore some literary aspects of the Derveni papyrus (usually interpreted within a religious, allegorical or exegetical framework), by focusing on the authorial persona dominating the text. If the Derveni document is viewed as a unified whole, it is natural to suppose that its creator assumes the role of the ‘author’ in that he develops an overall strategy for controlling his text and manipulating his audience. The article addresses the question of which devices are employed for this purpose. Labelled ‘authorial strategies’, these devices include: the staging of the theology, the various voices of the author, the devising of the addressees and the relation between the quoter and the quotee.

Dead Faith and Contraband Goods: Joanna Southcott and the Logic of Sexuation

THIS ARTICLE CONCERNS JOANNA SOUTHCOTT'S STRANGE AND TOO seldom-studied text of 1802, A Dispute Between The Woman and The Powers of Darkness. (1) B. Hodgkins, a contemporary and sworn enemy of Southcott's, decided that Of all Joanna's books, this is the most curious. (2) After some brief prefatory remarks, the text presents itself as a literal transcription of purportedly real conversations between Southcott, here called simply Joanna, and Satan. Each is attempting to convince the other through reasonable arguments. (When Satan is indisposed, Satan's Friends and minions make arguments on his behalf). In my view, A Dispute often a sophisticated explanation of how sexual difference can be constructed and maintained through discourse in the context of its author's unusual, even unique, espousal of religious faith. hope to show, through a close reading of this text, how its account of sexual difference partakes of the logic by which sexual difference was understood to be established in early nineteenth-century British culture generally, perhaps offering some insight into the structure of sexual difference in the literature of British Romanticism. For the first forty-two years of her life, Southcott worked as a domestic servant and upholsterer's assistant. But she gave up this career and all of her income in 1792 so that she could record, publish, and disseminate what she believed to be God's direct messages to her. Thereafter she was surrounded by scandal and public controversy, living on the charity of her supporters and at the margins of British society. In 1802, claiming to have been assigned the specific task of redeeming the eternal souls of all womankind, Southcott published A Dispute Between The Woman and The Powers of Darkness. Its purpose, explains Southcott, is to serve as a sort of stenographic record from a divine appellate court: I was ordered to pen his words, whatever blasphemy he might speak against the Lord.... Therefore was ordered to pen every word perfect which he uttered (1). In presenting its writing as potentially accurate rather than particularly good, A Dispute seeks to collapse any gap between Southcott the author and Southcott the disputant, a maneuver which has tended to deflect attention away from the literary aspects of this text. By the end of that year, Southcott's dialogue with the Devil (and knack for accurate prophetic forecasts) had won her the admiration of tens of thousands of followers, largely women of the working and service classes. Tim Fulford notes that Southcott gained a remarkable hold on the popular imagination, having attracted perhaps 100,000 followers by 1808. (3) But while the working women of Britain were devotedly pursuing Southcott's vision of liberated femininity, many of the most talented male writers felt compelled to belittle it. Keats, Southey, Blake and Byron each wrote disparagingly of Southcott, recognizing in this popular movement something that needed to be stamped out of serious literature. (4) Southcott was widely mocked for her work and followers; Hodgkins, in his booklength attack on Southcott, justified the common response to her work by arguing that when sentiments are broached that are absurd, full of contradiction, opposed to the word of God, and an outrage to common sense, ridicule is the most proper mode of treatment (iii). Predictably, as James Hopkins laments in his reappraisal of her legacy, Joanna inevitably withered into caricature as a result of this attention. (5) Southcott nevertheless published no fewer than sixty-five works over a mere thirteen years--an oeuvre totaling over 4500 pages--making her of the most prolific writers of the Romantic period. She was also one of the most widely read authors of the early nineteenth century, (6) but because this popularity was sufficiently delimited by class, vocation, and gender, she would become known as a cultural phenomenon rather than a literary writer. …

TENSIONES ENTRE LITERATURA, CIENCIA, EXPERIENCIA E HISTORIA EN UN INTELECTUAL DE LA SATTELZEIT HISPANOAMERICANA: LOS PREFACIOS EN LA PROSA CIENTÍFICA DE JUAN IGNACIO MOLINA

A study which propounds a review of the prefaces of Juan Ignacio Molina’s principal works (the anonymous Compendio 1776, the Saggio 1782, translated into Spanish like Compendio in 1788 and the Saggio 1810) in order to demonstrate how certain literary aspects of his scientific prose –in particular, gender issues (essay, compendium), the writing of “Natural History”, the meaning of the narrative and the sense of the subject's experience–– illustrate the tensions inherent in the process of semantic change of the concept of “science” in the frame of the Sattelzeit in Spanish America.

A Literary and Historical Background of Martyrdom in Iran

Martyrdom in Iran and the Middle East is a phenomenon that has been subject to a plethora of religious exegesis. However, scholars, often not having prescribed to the Aristotelian notion of poetics, have not only ignored the literary aspects of this phenomenon in the Middle East but have also failed to realize the poetics that exist within the parameters of religious and Koranic exigencies of martyrdom. This article summarizes and creates reference points for the morphology of a contemporary phenomenon, which finds its prototype not only in the tragic events of Karbala but also in literary occasions that long preceded it in Iran. This paradigm is found to be quite sufficient when dealing with martyrdom in Iran, which with the onslaught of the Safavids was provided with the proverbial “trigger” for its already long-standing literary canons. The importance of a lover-beloved relationship in accordance with a martyr's view of self as pertains to his or her actions in the face of God, country, and man under the rubric of some historical and literary events and productions throughout Iranian history is also epmhasized.