Religious Alliances Research Articles

Nurturing Faith and Enlightening Minds: Assumptionist Education in the Ottoman Empire

The text explores the educational activities of French Roman Catholic missions in the nineteenth century, as they evolved from serving local Catholic needs to becoming crucial assets in advancing France’s religious–cultural influences and the Holy See’s efforts to unify Eastern Christian Churches under Rome. Focused on the Mission d’Orient, initiated during Pius IX’s papacy, this study delves into the Assumptionists’ educational activities in the Ottoman Empire (1863–1914), which aimed to inculturate the Christian communities of the Ottoman Empire, achieve union with Rome, and build a bridge of knowledge between the Ottoman Orient and Europe. Employing a transnational historical approach, this research utilizes primary sources from the Holy See and the Assumptionist Order, examining religious and educational interactions with Ottoman millets. This article argues that Assumptionist institutions succeeded in inculturation and acted as bridges for cultural exchange. The context includes the French protectorate of the Ottoman Empire, the protégé system, and the Capitulations of 1740, demonstrating the Holy See’s use of political and religious alliances. The Assumptionists, influential in advancing the Holy See’s interests, are studied regarding their engagement in France and the Orient. Despite valuable insights from existing research, this article seeks to fill gaps by using Assumptionists as a case study, exploring the specific impacts of their education on various religious groups within the context of France’s religious–cultural imperialism.

Review of Nausica Palazzo and Jeffery A. Redding’s Queer and Religious Alliances in Family Law, Politics, and Beyond

Cultural and politically-salient narratives often proceed on mainstream assumptions while also promising to represent universal truths about our collective societal experiences. The frequent danger in fixing our mindsets too firmly onto such narratives is our consequential inabilities to detect situational realities that might engender grander societal benefits. In the culture wars that continue to persist in the U.S., I often see the response to such narratives as team sports-like: oppositional groups representing conservative and progressive views are invariably locked in battles that seem to repeat season after season. Those on either side deepen the narratives and beliefs about each other as part of the subjective process of “othering.”

Queer and Religious Alliances in Family Law, Politics, and Beyond. Edited by Nausica Palazzo and Jeffrey A. Redding. Pp. 230. $125.00 (cloth); $40.00 (digital). London: Anthem Press. ISBN: 9781839983078.

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New Masks, New Meanings: Covid Perspectives on African Art History: Part 1: Behind The Mask: African Art History in a Pandemic Era

New Masks, New Meanings: Covid Perspectives on African Art History: Part 1: Behind The Mask: African Art History in a Pandemic Era

TELAAH KRITIS ATAS RELASI AGAMA DAN BUDAYA PATRIARKI

This paper is a critical study of the discourse on religion and patriarchal culture. The development of religious patriarchism results from the interpretation of spiritual teachings that have the impression of a gender bias; the gender bias interpretation model is one of the relationships that shows the interaction of patriarchal culture with religion. Disclosure of the relationship between religion and patriarchism to understand the boundaries of what is called religion and interpretation and other elements in the meaning of religion. This paper is library research that relies on literature data related to gender and religion by using the theory of gender criticism to find answers to religious alliances and patriarchism. This paper shows that epistemologically, a series of meanings related to women's lives is interpreted textually. The meanings that are born are motivated by elements of male culture. There is a patriarchal ideology that is still strong in the body of a religious community that interprets the meaning of religion as religion.

Dangerous Liaisons between the Catholic Church and State: the religious and political alliance of the nationalist right with the conservative Church in Poland

ABSTRACT This article describes the history of relations between the Catholic Church and the Polish state in the period from the 1990s to the present. The authors defend a thesis that, although political elites and the state underwent pressure from the Church, the society had many opportunities to separate its religious beliefs from its own political choices, begin the slow process of secularization and learn the lessons of Enlightenment in this part of Europe. The political pressure of the Church on parliamentarians and its alliance with right-wing politicians is presented through the example of the In Vitro Fertilization Act. The authors analyse statements of the episcopate and speeches of right-wing politicians during a debate in the Senate. The article also refers to surveys to show a growing gap between the clerical state and the increasingly secularized society. Furthermore, the authors describe the growing political and religious alliance of “throne and altar” – especially under PiS rule – and the predominance of nationalist and conservative ideas in the Catholic Church in Poland.

The Influence of Islamic Work Ethic and Job Satisfaction on Organizational Commitment: Islamic Educational Institution Evidence

The influence of work ethics on employee performance is highly important. Researches on work ethics have been widely dominated by protestant concept. There has been indeed contradictive sight on some researches related to religious alliances, but the work ethics of protestant is principally different from that of Islam. Islamic institution obviously applies Islamic work ethics. This research is aimed at analyzing the direct and indirect influence of Islamic work ethics on organizational commitment through job satisfaction. The present study adopted the quantitative approach and data collected by using questionnaires. Meanwhile, data analysis is used path anaysis. The sample of the study consist of 70 respondents. The result shows that Islamic work ethics has direct and indirect influence on organizational commitment. The indirect influence of Islamic work ethics on organizational commitment is lower than the direct one. Islamic work ethics can increase organizational commitment indirectly through job satisfaction. Meanwhile, the total indirect influence of Islamic work ethic on organizational commitment is smaller than the direct one. The managerial implication of the current research is that the principal should conduct an ongoing assessment on the work satisfaction of the teachers and employees in order to enhance their organizational commitment.

(Im)possibility of negotiating peace: 2005‒2015 peace/reconciliation talks between the Turkish government and Kurdish politicians

ABSTRACTThe attempt by the Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (Justice and Development Party, AKP) to negotiate with the Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan (Kurdistan Workers’ Party, PKK)and Kurdish politicians was presented as a resolution process by the government and perceived as a possibility to end violence by the peace-oriented segments of the Turkish and Kurdish populations in Turkey. Robust studies of this period that stretched from clandestine talks to the end of semi-public talks with Öcalan at the Imralı Prison argue that the AKP’s goals were disarmament of the PKK and instrumentalizing the process for domestic electoral support and regional power. The same period corresponds to the deterioration and eventual breakdown of the relationship between the AKP and Cemaat, its steadfast ally. Following the conceptualization of claim-making as performance in a contentious politics perspective, this study surveys the looming narrative on Cemaat as the impediment to peace and threat for democracy as it appears in the only available records of the process between 2005 and 2015, to conclude that the possibility of non-violence might have been overshadowed by the ongoing conflict within the religious alliance that had originally carried AKP to power.

A Secular State for a Religious Nation: The Republic of Vietnam and Religious Nationalism, 1946–1963

Most studies of the Republic of Vietnam's nation-building programs have focused on its security and land reforms. Yet spirituality was a fundamental element of Ngô Đình Diệm's Personalist Revolution. This article analyzes how the Republic of Vietnam attempted to channel the religious nationalism emerging from the First Indochina War. The spiritual dimension of the Republic's Personalist Revolution did not involve state interference in all religious activities. Instead, it promoted religious freedom and diversity, provided that the spiritual values they propagated opposed communism's atheism. In practice, this framework did not succeed in creating a religious alliance against communism. In fact, it strengthened a religious consciousness that would increasingly challenge the state, its assumption that religions opposed communism, and the very principle of religious diversity.

Thresholds into the Orthodox Commonwealth: Essays in Honor of Theofanis G. Stavrou ed. by Lucien J. Frary

Reviewed by: Thresholds into the Orthodox Commonwealth: Essays in Honor of Theofanis G. Stavrou ed. by Lucien J. Frary Jennifer Spock Thresholds into the Orthodox Commonwealth: Essays in Honor of Theofanis G. Stavrou. Edited by Lucien J. Frary. (Bloomington, IN: Slavica, 2017. 687xii, pp. ISBN 978-0893574680. An ambitious collection representing many disciplines, Thresholds into the Orthodox Commonwealth delivers rigorous scholarship, creative works, and thoughtful commentary reflecting the academic interests of [End Page 220] Professor Theofanis Stavrou of the Department of History at the University of Minnesota. The volume, whose title echoes Dimitri Obolensky's "Byzantine Commonwealth," contains forty-five articles and essays by forty-four scholars. Obolensky's phrase sparked competing interpretations of Byzantine history, and Theophilus C. Prousis notes that Stavrou utilized "Orthodox Commonwealth" both to support Obolensky's views and to describe the "shared interests and challenges" (677) across the Eastern Orthodox community. Although most articles touch on regions to which Orthodoxy spread, not all focus on Orthodox culture or its commonwealth—the book is a festschrift, with the almost inevitable problem of that genre, namely, the disparate projects of the contributors. Yet, this volume holds together, in perhaps unanticipated ways and despite its inclusion of fruits not born of Slavic and/or Greek history and culture, presenting an occasional new taste to those who enjoy a cornucopia. Despite its seemingly eclectic nature, multiple connecting threads bind the collection. The editor organized it around the main topics of Stavrou's work—Eastern Orthodoxy, Greece and Cyprus, and Russia and Eastern Europe—while the "Prolegomena" and "Epilegomena" serve up mini-florilegia of essays outside these categories. Alternative groupings come to mind: interaction within the Orthodox churches, external influences on Orthodox culture or experience, local and geopolitical stresses, analyses of literary and historical texts including travelogues, the manipulation of folk culture, and reflections on the spiritual or human condition, to name those that most naturally align. Seven scholarly articles directly address Orthodoxy in Slavic societies, and all show the flexibility within the overall structures of Orthodoxy. David Goldfrank examines the influence of eleventh-century Timothy of Evergetis on later Byzantine and Russian monastic structures, arguing that the push toward equality of food and clothing, a co-governing council, communal property, and a communal table are Evergetian features. James Cracraft revisits his work on Peter the Great's church reform, concluding that Peter's piety and goals replaced institution and ritual with practice, duty, obedience, and the church as an educational structure. Stephen K. Batalden illuminates the rift within Russia's church circles over the Masoretic and Septuagint Old Testament texts, writing of the late nineteenth-century arguments over textual criticism, and Gregory Bruess's work could also have been placed in the section on Eastern Orthodoxy, for he explores Catherine II's relatively tolerant policies dealing with the Armenian Church. Aaron Michaelson sees the nineteenth-century Orthodox Church as lacking aggressive missionary structures in contrast to the organization of the Russian Orthodox Missionary Society, whose work, while patient and slow, was well organized and extensive. External influences also highlight the flexibility of Orthodoxy as Josef Altholz presents a movement in the Anglican Church that pursued church reunification with Constantinople (not realized) and Dyrud's research unearths American court decisions giving jurisdiction over a church building in New York City to Moscow's patriarchate even though the patriarchate cooperated with the Soviet government in the 1950s. Two articles focus on the press of western Christianities against Russia's Orthodox foundations. For example, Heather Bailey investigates Russian society's reception of Ernest Renan's Life of Jesus, explaining his popularity in part because Renan offered a replacement for empiricism and materialism and simultaneously presented a substitute for the church when he separated "religious consciousness" from dogma. Matthew Miller examines linked politics and religious alliances when he explores the American YMCA's vacillating attitude toward Russian Orthodoxy, and the Y's ultimate support of its mission work in the face of Soviet atheism. Local and international political stresses weave connecting themes in Thresholds. Twelve articles, most on investigations of political topics in the modern period, show [End Page 221] the permeability of borders and flexibility of political action regardless of religious doctrine...

A transatlantic religious alliance? American and European protestant encounters, 1945\u20131965

After World War II American and European Protestants linked up at various organisational levels to discuss and defend their common interests. On the American side this was far from a unified action. Disagreements between liberal and conservative Protestants in the United States meant that each side reached out to Europe in different ways, resulting in a variety of transatlantic religious alliances. The liberal representatives tried to draft a common platform for European engagement as part of their ecumenical objectives. Conservative Protestants on the other hand, feared this liberal effort and courted European souls with informal evangelical networks and joint US-European revival campaigns. Neither effort to shape new alliances was as successful as anticipated. Both suffered from Europe’s strong national religious interests and from the incongruity of a US presence in transatlantic political formations. As well, neither group could easily transcend the ideological divide created by the Cold War. In the end American evangelicals had greater success in drawing citizens on both continents in viable transatlantic relationships. Though the religious connections surfaced publicly only on occasion, they contributed to a lively transatlantic religious exchange.

A Look Behind the Scenes

From the 4th – 7th of July 2016, the annual International Medieval Congress was held in Leeds, England. Among the many different sessions two specifically addressed historical European martial arts. The first session discussed and commented upon modern practices and interpretations of historical European martial arts, each paper being based on good practice and the proper criteria for academic research. The second session, in which this paper was presented, went more “behind the scenes”, discussing the importance of thorough analysis of the historical context which remains essential to forming a foundation for solid hypotheses and interpretations. This article discusses and sheds light upon Danish historical martial art during the reign of the Danish King Christian IV (r.1588 to 1648). At this point in time Europe consisted of many small principalities in addition to a few larger states and kingdoms. Thoughts and ideas could spread as quickly as ripples in water but also be bound by political and religious alliances or enmities, plague, famine and not to mention the role also played by topographical and cultural differences. Thus, at times, vast cultural differences could be seen from region to region. To this should be added a wide range of social factors, such as the role of relationships and mentalities, and the obeying of unspoken norms and codes which can also affect modern researchers’ interpretations of what is shown or described. Therefore, the aim of this article is to provide a series of “behind the scenes” examples which all have the potential to affect hypotheses, interpretations, and overall understandings of the context of historical European martial arts.

A Look Behind the Scenes: Danish Renaissance Martial Arts during the Reign of Christian IV

Abstract From the 4th – 7th of July 2016, the annual International Medieval Congress was held in Leeds, England. Among the many different sessions two specifically addressed historical European martial arts. The first session discussed and commented upon modern practices and interpretations of historical European martial arts, each paper being based on good practice and the proper criteria for academic research. The second session, in which this paper was presented, went more “behind the scenes”, discussing the importance of thorough analysis of the historical context which remains essential to forming a foundation for solid hypotheses and interpretations. This article discusses and sheds light upon Danish historical martial art during the reign of the Danish King Christian IV (r.1588 to 1648). At this point in time Europe consisted of many small principalities in addition to a few larger states and kingdoms. Thoughts and ideas could spread as quickly as ripples in water but also be bound by political and religious alliances or enmities, plague, famine and not to mention the role also played by topographical and cultural differences. Thus, at times, vast cultural differences could be seen from region to region. To this should be added a wide range of social factors, such as the role of relationships and mentalities, and the obeying of unspoken norms and codes which can also affect modern researchers’ interpretations of what is shown or described. Therefore, the aim of this article is to provide a series of “behind the scenes” examples which all have the potential to affect hypotheses, interpretations, and overall understandings of the context of historical European martial arts.

Symposium Introduction: The Politics of Religious Alliances

This symposium examines the politics of religious alliances. While the literature on religion and politics generally focuses ondifferencesacross individuals, congregations, denominations, or traditions, these articles instead ask how, when, and why religious groups do — and do not — form alliances with other organizations, both religious and secular. Specifically, this collection of original research examines the formation of multi-denominational coalitions among party activists, litigants, and religious leaders. These varied articles arose from a workshop at Oxford University in March 2015, an event hosted and funded by the Rothermere American Institute. The collection explores the impact of religious coalitional activity upon political attitudes, decision-making, and public policy development. It is wide-ranging, extending our understanding of religious coalitional activity beyond the United States and dealing with topics of vital current significance, including the swiftly changing landscape of school voucher and tax credit expansion, same-sex marriage, healthcare, and abortion advocacy.

When Collision Emerges as Unexpected Harmony

Despite sharing many of the socio-economic and political problems that led to revolutions in other Arab states, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia experienced little unrest, a fact many in the West attributed to the Kingdom’s closed political system. The absolute monarchy has been viewed as thwarting political dissension through kinship and religious alliances and sharing of oil revenues. This article aims at reframing mainstream Western explanations of the failure of the Arab Spring to gain a foothold in the largest economy in the Arab World and present a fresh vision of Saudi politics and the reaction of Saudis to the Arab Spring—one that transcends the fear and the rigid framework that characterize most scholarly discussions of the Kingdom.

My Poems Won't Change the World: Selected Poems by Patrizia Cavalli

112 worldliteraturetoday.org reviews in our political and religious alliances . Her poem highlights the arbitrary nature of the affinities and rivalries that shape the world. She concludes with the provocative question: “Who has salvation / when we all claim it?” Breaking the Jaws of Silence is a chorus of American voices speaking out against a dark world with the power of verse. Abigail Heiniger Wayne State University Patrizia Cavalli. My Poems Won’t Change the World: Selected Poems. Gini Alhadeff, ed. New York. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. 2013. isbn 9780374217440 My Poems Won’t Change the World opens with poetry almost haiku-like in its concision and simplicity, proving Patrizia Cavalli a master of minimalism . And yet the very white space on her pages can function ironically: in the eponymous poem, a bemused and knowing silence follows the poet’s affirmation: “yes of course / my poems / won’t change the world.” The arch “of course” casts a shadow over the silence that follows, casting doubt on this overly deprecatory—or ironically self-aggrandizing—statement . Her readers are left to play out possibilities. There is another well-known poet who enjoys such play with tone and self-assessment: Wisława Szymborska , the Polish Nobelist, would have understood Cavalli’s poetic personality. Both speak with voices that are modest and pretend to a simplicity that is as illusory as it is disarming: to call a poem simple is to imply easy comprehension and quick gratification. For both poets, this would be incorrect. Both are attracted to the idea that a poem can function as a puzzle, not to create bewilderment but to amuse and bemuse. An element of playfulness informs their work, helping to create the sense of a poetic persona. In Cavalli’s case, this persona can appear emotional yet never maudlin, romantic yet not conventional , perceptive but not hardedged . Her speaker, like Szymborska ’s, appears gentle. She does not seek to shock or awe. Perhaps this helps to account for Cavalli’s popularity : the twentieth century has produced plenty of shock artists, and it is good to be reminded that wit does not always vaunt itself, and that the element of surprise is distinct from that of shock. Cavalli lives in her body and writes frequently about the complexity of love, often figuratively, though we are never sure. “Don’t count on my imagination,” she writes. The corporeal reality of the present moment takes precedence over acts of memory or hypothetical projections, and the language of everyday life pushes away preciosity and poeticism. This facing-page translation is a gift for English-language readers who are curious about the poems’ original sound effects. Readers have noted that her work lends itself well to translation, and these translations —completed by many illustrious hands—give immense pleasure, yet it is also rewarding to note the occasional rhymes or deft enjambment of the original Italian. This is a book to linger with that will delight readers in both languages. Magdalena Kay University of Victoria, B.C. Lorna Dee Cervantes. Sueño: New Poems. San Antonio, Texas. Wings Press (IPG, distr.). 2013. isbn 9781609403102 In Sueño: New Poems, Lorna Dee Cervantes invokes the song of storytelling , both in a literal lyrical sense and also through the unconscious, cerebral act of dreaming. It is through dreams that the elevated metaphorical truths are rooted out. The same can be said for Cervantes’s latest collection of poetry, which derives from a mighty river of personal and culturally collected memories. She builds her poems with blue-collar ...

Sueo: New Poems by Lorna Dee Cervantes

112 worldliteraturetoday.org reviews in our political and religious alliances . Her poem highlights the arbitrary nature of the affinities and rivalries that shape the world. She concludes with the provocative question: “Who has salvation / when we all claim it?” Breaking the Jaws of Silence is a chorus of American voices speaking out against a dark world with the power of verse. Abigail Heiniger Wayne State University Patrizia Cavalli. My Poems Won’t Change the World: Selected Poems. Gini Alhadeff, ed. New York. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. 2013. isbn 9780374217440 My Poems Won’t Change the World opens with poetry almost haiku-like in its concision and simplicity, proving Patrizia Cavalli a master of minimalism . And yet the very white space on her pages can function ironically: in the eponymous poem, a bemused and knowing silence follows the poet’s affirmation: “yes of course / my poems / won’t change the world.” The arch “of course” casts a shadow over the silence that follows, casting doubt on this overly deprecatory—or ironically self-aggrandizing—statement . Her readers are left to play out possibilities. There is another well-known poet who enjoys such play with tone and self-assessment: Wisława Szymborska , the Polish Nobelist, would have understood Cavalli’s poetic personality. Both speak with voices that are modest and pretend to a simplicity that is as illusory as it is disarming: to call a poem simple is to imply easy comprehension and quick gratification. For both poets, this would be incorrect. Both are attracted to the idea that a poem can function as a puzzle, not to create bewilderment but to amuse and bemuse. An element of playfulness informs their work, helping to create the sense of a poetic persona. In Cavalli’s case, this persona can appear emotional yet never maudlin, romantic yet not conventional , perceptive but not hardedged . Her speaker, like Szymborska ’s, appears gentle. She does not seek to shock or awe. Perhaps this helps to account for Cavalli’s popularity : the twentieth century has produced plenty of shock artists, and it is good to be reminded that wit does not always vaunt itself, and that the element of surprise is distinct from that of shock. Cavalli lives in her body and writes frequently about the complexity of love, often figuratively, though we are never sure. “Don’t count on my imagination,” she writes. The corporeal reality of the present moment takes precedence over acts of memory or hypothetical projections, and the language of everyday life pushes away preciosity and poeticism. This facing-page translation is a gift for English-language readers who are curious about the poems’ original sound effects. Readers have noted that her work lends itself well to translation, and these translations —completed by many illustrious hands—give immense pleasure, yet it is also rewarding to note the occasional rhymes or deft enjambment of the original Italian. This is a book to linger with that will delight readers in both languages. Magdalena Kay University of Victoria, B.C. Lorna Dee Cervantes. Sueño: New Poems. San Antonio, Texas. Wings Press (IPG, distr.). 2013. isbn 9781609403102 In Sueño: New Poems, Lorna Dee Cervantes invokes the song of storytelling , both in a literal lyrical sense and also through the unconscious, cerebral act of dreaming. It is through dreams that the elevated metaphorical truths are rooted out. The same can be said for Cervantes’s latest collection of poetry, which derives from a mighty river of personal and culturally collected memories. She builds her poems with blue-collar Vidaluz Meneses Flame in the Air: Bilingual Poetry Edition Maria Roof, tr. Casasola Editores Flame in the Air is a treasure among translations today. For the first time, Vidaluz Meneses, well recognized in Central America for her works of poetry and social justice, is presented in a bilingual edition including translated interviews with the poet about her life. Showing that beauty survives chaos, Flame in the Air is a long-awaited collection that shows the faith and dedication that made Meneses a distinct figure in Nicaragua’s troubled past. Herman Koch Summer House with Swimming Pool Sam Garrett, tr. Hogarth This gripping novel follows the medical practice of Marc Schlosser, a...

Women's Working Poverty: Feminist and Religious Alliances in the Living Wage Movement

Scholars generally underanalyze the roles of religious and feminist organizations in the contemporary living wage movement. Yet coalitions of religious and feminist organizations contribute significantly to the movement through funding, research, and leadership development. Moreover, these alliances to counter the feminization of poverty also raise ethical issues about the feminization of In this article, the author analyzes these coalitions and offers a theo-ethical reflection on the gendered sacrificial demands of low-wage worker organizing.

“The Bagnios of Algiers” and “The Great Sultana”: Two Plays of Captivity by Miguel de Cervantes (review)

REVIEWS 236 Miguel de Cervantes, “The Bagnios of Algiers” and “The Great Sultana”: Two Plays of Captivity, ed. and trans. Barbara Fuchs and Aaron J. Ilika (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press 2010) 208 pp. Near the end of his life, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra published a work entitled Ocho comedias y ocho entremeses nuevos, nunca representados (1615), capitalizing on his great success as a novelist and very modest one as a playwright . This edition contains a translation from Spanish into English of two plays from this volume, using as its base text the critical edition of the plays coedited by Florencio Sevilla Arroyo and Antonio Rey Hazas (Alcalá 1993), along with a useful introduction and bibliography. The plays are set in two contrasting Mediterranean locales, Algiers in North Africa and the Ottoman court at Constantinople. As Fuchs and Ilika note, “The Bagnios of Algiers and The Great Sultana enact the intense imaginative engagement of early modern Spain with the Muslim worlds of the Mediterranean” (xiii). The vigorous topicality of the plays is enriched by Cervantes’ own experience in naval engagements (most famously at the Battle of Lepanto) as well as his captivity in Algiers; the playwright interlaces the generic tropes familiar from romance with allusions to historical individuals: “Both plays figure a mix of historical specificity and literary license, with ideologically charged material —gender roles and exotic sexual practices, relations between faiths, conversion to Christianity—clearly heightened” (xxii). The plays’ interrogations into early modern cultural dialogues surrounding racial, religious, and national identity, and the intersections of these with sexual practices, offer fascinating counterpoints to other contemporary dramatic and prose texts grappling with similar cross-cultural issues. The edition’s introduction offers an interesting discussion of the status of “renegades” in the early modern Mediterranean world and on stage: “The large number of characters whose religious alliances are ambiguous suggests the impossibility of essentializing difference in a world full of renegades and counterrenegades” (xxiv). The slipperiness of the renegades , their resistance to clearly-defined religious affiliations, renders them a fundamentally theatrical category by implicating their performative identities in the mimetic spectacle of dramatic production. Cervantes’ plays dramatize the fluidity—and even elusiveness—of confessional identities in the era of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation through their treatment of conversion, apostasy, and martyrdom, often in ways that reveal the inextricably united experiences of devotion and romantic eroticism. As the editors write, when “religion and eros conflict in exogamous unions, love qualifies conversion, just as conversion qualifies love” (xxvi). The teleological pressure of marriage plots leads to a foregrounding of the economics of exchange that further complicates the thematic nexus surrounding conversion. When the rich Muslim character (and “secret” Christian) Zara raises moneybags on a pole in order to ransom (and subsequently marry) the Christian captive Don Lope, we are squarely situated within an early modern theatrical imagination of the Mediterranean in which recognizable tropes and staging devices can be used for variously inflected purposes; it is not far, in short, from Zara’s gold to Jessica’s in The Merchant of Venice, inasmuch as both occurrences of this motif navigate the waters of several interrelated themes: captivity, conversion, interreligious erotic attachment, and cultural stereotyping. REVIEWS 237 The translation of these two plays by Cervantes is an invaluable contribution to the burgeoning field of early modern Mediterranean Studies. The plays’ depiction of imperial rivalry and of empires under threat can be seen in both their anxious retrospection on imperial precedents—one of the Spanish Harquebusiers in The Bagnios of Algiers utters proverbially: “We can only bear witness that here was Troy” (7)—and teleologies, the progression of translatio imperii which so fascinated Cervantes’s medieval predecessors. Read in this light, the aside muttered by Constanza about romantic love can be expanded beyond its immediate context and made to articulate some of the fundamental concerns experienced by Cervantes’s compatriots in the Mediterranean: “What if Barbary concludes what Spain began?” (37). As Fuchs and Ilika note, the Cervantine legacy of dramas of captivity was far-reaching, and can be seen in both Spanish dramatic successors such as Lope de Vega and in English adaptations of this captivity “subgenre,” such as Philip Massinger’s The...

Covers-Elect

Covers-Elect* Thomas Sayers Ellis (bio) I A red, ringing stimulus. Well, it could be Michelle calling but I bet it’s Bill. Handle-yo-business like you bump your fists, their fear of a Black-Islamic religious alliance. Jeremiah Bin-Laden. No Drama Obama ain’t no bama, no veterinarian vetting dogs, no donkey vetoing elephants. His master’s voice, his own. All election night the marble giant sat beneath a lunar vowel, full moon over Union. Halo, eclipse, hope. A portrait to lay the old way of doing things in Washington to rest, Presidential Blackness. II They both want the nomination that’s why they both want the phone. The lobbyist in the lobby is calling. A profile so Jihad the flag in the fireplace won’t burn unless you pour some Haliburton on it. [End Page 1054] Cabinet in need of training, secret files of flea powder, Cabinet on a leash. Barack’s best friends. Just like the Great Emancipator’s mood, the economy is a financial crisis of stars in a recession-blue sky above a credit crunch of columns. “I, Barack Hussein Obama, a continental Colored, do solemnly swear to stay black and die.” III Probably just the front desk calling, again, to complain about campaign headboard noise. “You can do this, Boo,” the Soldierette instructs her tall, hip and athletic, ivy-league educated Taliban hubby. Camouflage a la Von Furstenberg. Revolving door loyalists want a partisan, lipstick pit in their ear. Down on all fours. Consider the marchers sitting Lincoln has seated with his back to service, the ghost of battlefields. Facing freedom freed him. “The white wig fits because I have a good wave cap.” George Washington’s slaves put his on. [End Page 1055] Thomas Sayers Ellis Thomas Sayers Ellis, a native of Washington, DC, is an assistant professor of Creative Writing at Sarah Lawrence College. This co-founder of the discontinued Dark Room Collective also teaches at The Lesley University low-residency MFA program in Cambridge, MA. He is author of The Maverick Room, winner of the 2006 John C. Zacharis First Book Award, Song On, The Genuine Negro Hero, a chapbook, and The Good Junk (Take Three #1). The University of Michigan Press will soon publish his Breakfast and Blackfist: Notes for Black Poets. He has also published poems and interviews in Agni, Callaloo, The Kenyon Review, The Nation, Ploughshares, American Poetry Review, and other periodicals. He lives in New York City. Footnotes * For New Yorker Magazine cover artists Barry Blitt, Bob Staake, and Drew Friedman. Copyright © 2009 The Johns Hopkins University Press