TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII Research Articles

Cosmopolitan English & Transliteracy by Xiaoye You

Xiaoye You. Cosmopolitan & Transliteracy. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 2016. 284 pp. Many of the criticisms surrounding translingual perspectives in writing studies have centered on usefulness and intention. While adopting a translingual approach to academic writing challenges dominant monolingual ideologies about writing, examples of practice have been necessary. A more political critique of translingualism examines whether or not adopting translingual perspectives may align with neoliberal, product oriented purposes for economic gain. his book Cosmopolitan and Transliteracy, Xiaoye You uses these claims as a starting point to ask: How do we understand meaning making in a local-global context? What is our moral obligation in globalization? The answer to these questions is embedded in an understanding of language practice that he calls Cosmopolitan (CE). The book is broken up into eight chapters, in addition to a preface and conclusion, which provide several examples of language practices and pedagogies in multiple modalities. Chapters 1 through 4 establish the ethical, social, and literary implications that a CE perspective may offer, while Chapters 5 through 8 offer examples of pedagogical practice. Chapter 1, Cosmopolitanism and the Future of Writing Studies, introduces a conceptual framework for CE based on two different philosophical traditions. this chapter, You argues that people do not need to be separated by differences imposed by ideology if they act in a way that is considerate to others, and if they develop practices that are sensitive to difference. Taking his argument a step further, You bridges the Confucian concept [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]: men are brothers with the Greek concept kosmopolites, introduced by Diogenes the Cynic and bolstered by the Stoics. Connecting to the Greek paradigm, You, drawing on David Held, explains Allegiance is owed, first and foremost, to the moral realm of all humanity, not to the contingent groupings of nations, ethnicity, and class (7). The shared connection between Confucian [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] and Greek (kosmopolites) concepts provides a historically relevant example, from the bedrock of both traditions, into how people might relate to one another despite their differences. To create a case for CE, in the second chapter, 'Arts of Dwelling Place, You provides specific examples of ethos as dwelling and moral character by analyzing the discussions of an online study group interested in the Start with Simple Stories (SSS) method of communicating in English. The online message board, started by Professor Akio Furukowa in 2002, was examined by You to show how an English using community deals with conflicts and tensions arising in cultural encounters and how the cultural entanglement leads to cultural synthesis (38)--a reality of the contact zone that is not emphasized in contact zone theory or contrastive rhetoric. These constructs only emphasize the clash between cultures or the transfer of textual choices that writers from non-English dominant countries make when they write in English. Through his analysis of this online message board, You was able to identify the way that members' use of code-meshing gives way to cultural synthesis, too. As he explains, In the case of the SSS community, has deeply percolated local practices, mediating the construction of a virtual dwelling place (55), one in which a new culture has formed. a similar way, in Chapter 3, Linguistic Creativity in the Diaspora, You examines the multimodal exchanges between Chinese white-collar workers on the 21st Century Community Forum, a platform offered by 21st Century Newspapers in China. An examination of these narratives shows the fluidity of language practice among these multilingual language users. While is the dominant language on the forum, it does not adhere to fixed or predictable features that are often associated with nation-based understandings of practice, such as Chinese English. …

Does Nature Abhor a Vacuum of Patriarchy?: Missing Fathers in the Films of Whit Stillman

AUTHOR'S PREFACE: Prior to publication, Mr. Whit Stillman was kind enough to read this essay and offer his comments, all of which were incorporated one way or another into the final draft. Nonetheless, the opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of Mr. Stillman. HAILED AS THE Poet of the Urban Haute Bourgeoisie and the Jane Austen of indie filmmaker and author Whit Stillman has garnered critical acclaim for works that are rich, beautiful and surprisingly virtuous. (1) Stillman's first film, the low-budget Metropolitan (1990), was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and also helped to launch the independent film industry as we know it today. Stillman's cinematic comedies of manner are known for their erudite and delightful dialogue, Austenian sensibilities, and gently ironic humor. (2) But one of the most recognizable features of Stillman's first four movies--Metropolitan (1990), Barcelona (1994), Last Days of Disco (1998), and Damsels in Distress (2011)--is not quality that they possess but demographic they lack. (3) Each film depicts young persons who are ill-equipped to face the challenges of becoming happy adults because they are bereft of significant adult guidance. This pattern appears to be especially true where fathers are concerned: while the main characters' mothers sometimes make an appearance (albeit briefly), fathers only appear as usually wistful subjects of conversation. The combination of youthful yearners and missing mentors produces, as one observer puts it, a world reminiscent of the Peanuts cartoon strip, where the adults are practically gone and the young are left on their own. (4) Stillman's movies may be light-hearted, but they have never been called light-headed. We may therefore rightly suspect deeper purpose to this paternal lacuna hidden behind the wit and whimsy of his art. To find out what that purpose might be, I will first trace the concept of as it was originally understood. Second, I will survey the modern backlash against and the more recent backlash against this backlash. Third, I will situate Stillman's earlier films within this historical framework. And fourth, I will speculate about the significance of Stillman's fatherless motif and what it reveals about his work. Patriarchy Properly Understood In contemporary usage, patriarchy designates any form of male headship over family, clan, or society. (5) More specifically, in feminist studies the term has become synonymous with men's systemic oppression of women: this pejorative connotation has also affected the word's meaning outside of academia. (6) Patriarchy, strictly speaking, however, denotes not male rule or misrule in general but specific form of male authority found only in the Judeo-Christian tradition. (7) The word [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] is itself biblical neologism, appearing first in the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament in reference to: 1) the heads of the tribes of Israel; 2) the heads of families within tribe of Israel; and 3) Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. (8) In the New Testament, St. Stephen confirms this convention by referring to the sons of Jacob as the twelve patriarchs, and St. Peter, while preaching during the Church's first Pentecost, develops it further by also calling King David patriarch. (9) Later Christian usage expands the patriarchal franchise to include pre-Abrahamic figures such as Adam, Abel, and Noah (the so-called antediluvian patriarchs) and to postbiblical bishops presiding over the chief sees of the early Church--for example, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Constantinople. Today, number of prelates in the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox churches continue to bear the ecclesiastical title of patriarch. Initially, neither the Greek [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] nor the Latin transliterations patriarcha and patriarches were adopted outside of Jewish and Christian circles. …

Cicero’s Textual Relations: The Gendered Circulation of De finibus

I. How Do You Solve a Problem like Caerellia? In a pair of letters to Atticus from late June and early July 45 BCE, Cicero complains about what is usually considered to be a decidedly modern problem: the unauthorized circulation of media on a peer-to-peer network. At the start of the first of these letters to Atticus, whom he blames for this 'leak,' Cicero writes: die mihi, placetne tibi primum edere iniussu meo? hoc ne quidem faciebat, is qui Platonis libros solitus est divulgare, ex quo '[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII].' quid illud? rectumne existimas cuiquam Bruto, cui te auctore [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]? scripsit enim Balbus ad me se a te quintum de finibus librum descripsisse; in quo non sane multa mutavi, sed tamen quaedam. tu autem commode feceris si reliquos continueris, ne et [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] habeat Balbus et '[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] Brutus, sed haec hactenus, ne videar [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]. etsi nunc quidem maxima mihi sunt haec. ... quo modo autem fugit me tibi dicere? mirifice Caerellia studio videlicet philosophiae flagrans describit a tuis: istos ipsos de finibus habet. ego autem tibi confirmo (possum falli ut homo) a meis earn non habere; numquam enim ab oculis meis afuerunt. tantum porro aberat ut binos scriberent, vix singulos confecerunt. tuorum tamen ego nullum delictum arbitrar itemque te volo existimare; a me enim praetermissum est ut dicerem me eos exire nondum velle. hui, quam diu de nugis! de re enim nihil habeo quod loquar. (Att. 13.21a.1-2 = 327 SB) Tell me, in the first place, do you think it right to publish without my consent? Not even used to do that, a man who was accustomed to circulate Plato's books, from where the phrase comes, Hermodorus trades in tracts. What of this: Do you think it appropriate to give a copy of this text to anyone before Brutus, to whom I dedicated it at your suggestion? Balbus wrote me that he had obtained from you a copy of Book 5 of On Divine Ends. In this book, I didn't make many changes, to be sure, but nevertheless a few. You, however, will do well if you keep a lid on the other books, lest Balbus has an unrevised copy and Brutus a stale one. But enough about these affairs, lest I seem to make a big deal of small things, although they do appear all-important to me at this moment ... How did it escape me to tell you? Caerellia, evidently inflamed wondrously by her passion for philosophy, makes copies from yours; she has On Moral Ends in its entirety. I guarantee this to you--I am human, however, and can be mistaken-that she does not have them from mine. For never were they absent from my eyes; so far from my men having made two copies, they scarcely completed one copy of each book. Nevertheless, I do not think that any wrong was committed by your men and I wish you to think likewise; for I neglected to say that I did not wish these to go public yet. Dear me, how long about nonsense! For I have nothing to say about business. (1) De finibus was, at this time, Cicero's latest philosophical treatise, a five-book examination of the moral philosophies, that is, the ethical ends, of the various ancient schools. (2) It remains an important source for the ancient discourse on ethics. (3) As for the two people who acquired copies of this treatise before Cicero could present Brutus, the dedicatee, with a copy, our knowledge varies considerably. L. Cornelius Balbus is well known to historians: he was a provincial from Gades in Spain who gained Roman citizenship and rose to great heights in Rome, eventually becoming the first naturalized civis to attain the consulship, which he did in 40 BCE. (4) At this point in time, Balbus was, in addition to being Caesar's chief financial agent along with Oppius, one of the dictator's most important counselors, even if his actual role is somewhat opaque. …

The Gift of the Name in Shelley’s “Hymn to Intellectual Beauty”

The wrecks and fragments of those subtle and profound minds, like the ruins of a fine statue, obscurely suggest to us the grandeur and perfection of the whole. Their very language ... --A Discourse on the Manners of the Ancients, Relative to the Subject of Love (1) I. Given Names THE TITLE OF SHELLEY'S HYMN TO INTELLECTUAL BEAUTY, as has often been pointed out, situates the poem within a tradition that it will attempt to displace. Naming itself a hymn, Shelley's poem invokes a Christian concept of divinity that it ironizes and thereby calls into question. As Earl Wasserman, Spencer Hall, and Richard Cronin have shown, the incorporates Christian thematics throughout, only to disfigure them by way of a series of reinscriptions of canonical doctrine. (2) Not only does the poem's speaker decry the name of in championing the secularized virtues of Love, Hope, and Self-esteem (37), he also refers by negation to the love of God, hope of salvation, and faith in a transcendent divinity. (3) Of course, the hymnic genre predates the Christian tradition's appropriation of it, and there are also many questions that remain unanswered concerning the Greek influences in the poem: formally, that of the Greek hymnic tradition, and conceptually, that of a Platonic metaphysics. (4) This latter, much derided hypothesis has received no shortage of criticism over the last sixty years, and mostly with due cause. (5) Motivated largely by the Platonic resonances of Shelley's title and his avowed interest in Plato's thought, this position has been condemned not only for its oversimplification of Shelley's stance and tendency to reduce it to mere Platonism, also for its neglect of Shelley's philosophy and the sophistication of his reading of Plato, which would much better be expressed as reflective than merely mimetic. One need not look very hard to see extra-Platonic elements infiltrate the Hymn, most notably those empirical or utilitarian items such as the world that, as Pollin has pointed out, are to be consecrated alongside the transcendent ones. (6) If, nevertheless, the question of Plato's influence has remained persistent for readers of the Hymn to Beauty, it is ultimately less by virtue of any Platonism in the poem than by the title's inscription of a more or less Platonic phrase--a phrase that Shelley himself would use to translate Plato. Yet critics of the seem destined to remain conflicted even on this point, for it was not until nearly two years after Shelley's composition of the Hymn to Beauty on the shores of Lake Geneva that he would translate that fateful line: [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] as, but [he] would turn towards the wide ocean of intellectual beauty, in his rendering of Plato's Symposium (Shelley 449). (7) The translation would then be a transcription from his to Plato's Symposium, and this in the most literal sense of the word. For it would here be a matter of writing across texts, from one context to another, from one body, title, or text to another, also from one language to another. We could call this a trans-crib-lation, for it departs at the same time from Plato's textual source and his own Hymn, which ought to be, is not, foreign to it. Intellectual Beauty (as a phrase) is then both more and less Platonic. For, as is evinced by the chronology of the poem's composition, it is born out of Shelley's own work, only to converge with Plato at a later date. That the phrase Intellectual Beauty, moreover, only appears in the Hymn's title, as though it were a leftover or supernumerary of the text, further exacerbates this already tenuous relation between the poem and the Platonic tradition. Yet for all of these difficulties, Shelley's title nevertheless suffices to articulate a bond that no amount of disapproval, dissuasion, or disavowal would be capable of fully denying, and not only because of the possibility that Shelley had read Plato's Symposium prior to composing the Hymn, nor, conversely, simply because he may have translated the Symposium with his in mind. …

Historical Evolution of Economic Category “State Financial Reserves”

1. Introduction Under the conditions of instability and crisis in the global economy, national governments strive for search and use of various means of preservation of stability of their national economic systems. One of the most popular tools for this is formation of state financial reserves in the period of economic growth, when there is excess of assets of state budget, which could be put into reserve without any damage to realization of planned state programs and under the condition of fulfillment of all state social responsibilities. During the period of recession, accumulated financial resources are directed for supporting the top-priority spheres of economy for preservation of national production and prevention of massive bankruptcy and unemployment. Despite the large interest to state financial reserves, this economic category is not properly studies from evolutional point of view, which hinders effective use of instrumentarium of state financial reserves. This causes the necessity for conduct of additional research in this sphere and determines actuality of this article. 2. Method Up to this time, the modern financial theory viewed the problems of financial reserves primarily at micro-level, in regard to activities of separate economic subjects. This explained small number of domestic publications and studies, devoted to financial reserved at macro-level, i.e., reserves which are usually defined as state reserves. Only over the recent period, the number of scientific research grew substantially--in our opinion, it was caused by the fact that traditional structure of state reserves was supplemented by the Stabilization Reserve, which four years after its creation was divided into the Reserve Fund and the Russian National Wealth Fund (Fund of Future Generations). This gave reasons for more detailed study of theories, tendencies, and conditions which influence formation of diverse state reserves, classification of their types, ways of investment and formation, modeling, and forecasting of their required reserves. Among the researchers that studies the above problems are the following scientists: (Demirmen, 2013), (Zhou, 2009), (Rockoff, 2015), (Morelli et al., 2015), (Vortelinos, 2014), (Hayo et al., 2014), (Carpenter et al., 2014), (Kohn, 2013), (Bassetto & Messer, 2013), etc. At the same time, the task of description of economists' opinions on the nature of reserving from the point of view of their evolution remains topical. It is known that works of A. Smith, K. Marx, F. Engels, T. Hobbs, J. Locke, Antoine de Montchrestien, J. Lauderdale, E. Hansen, R. Maltus, J. Hobson. J. Ackerlof, S.Y. Vitte, etc. contain various approaches to determination of main attributes of reserves and conditions which led to their formation at micro-and macro-levels. 3. Results Our studies show that evolutional environment for generalization of various opinions as to reserving can be conventionally divided into several periods (Fig. 1). Back in III century B.C. in Rome, first bankers were chosen to receive free assets from state treasury as loans, and to borrow from them for social needs--which was the prototype of modern state financial reserves. (Rockoff, 2015). However, first attempts of theoretical realization of economic phenomena and economic structure of society were made by classical Greek thinkers (Xenophon, Plato, Aristotle). Aristotle was the first to analyze regularities of development of society and became the first economist in the history of science. He opposed economy (from [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]-household and [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]--manage) and chrematistics (from Greek: [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]--property). He treated economy as natural husbandry activities related to manufacture of commodities necessary for living, and chrematistics--as an art of accumulating wealth, activities aimed at receiving profit, accumulation of wealth, especially, in the form of money (Morelli et al. …

Genji and Faust : A Comparative Reading

Murasaki Shikibu's Genji monogatari (The Tale of Genji) and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust are two literary works that represent milestones in world literature, the former the most central work in Japanese literature and the second a culmination in the poetic achievement of one of Germany's leading poets. The Tale of Genji was written around the year 1000 AC, during the Heian period, a time when aristocrats highly valued the fine arts, such as poetry, in the form of waka [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] or tanka [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], literature in general, music and calligraphy. Faust, on the other hand, was written seven hundred years later, during the early nineteenth century. Writers of this period adopted the classical world of Greek antiquity as their model, with the national literature focusing on an idealized picture of mankind and striving to combine reason and sentiment, mind and nature. While, of course, a huge body of criticism has emerged around both The Tale of Genji and Faust, no one has yet compared these two works. Genji and Faust, the two protagonists, are exceptional individuals: Genji transcends the conventional limitations of mankind, while Faust aspires to transcend them. They represent individuals who surpass all other human beings because of their superior intellects, conviction, vision and courage. I compare these two protagonists, even though the literary works belong to different periods in human history as well as different cultures. Despite these differences, there are striking similarities in how the writers portray these exceptional individuals. Juxtaposing Genji and Faust illuminates the universal yearning to transcend the realms of human commonality. Through their ambitious actions they both often challenge social and religious principles. My analysis reveals how this yearning and the defiance of religious limitations play out against two entirely distinct religious traditions. First, I introduce each character briefly and discuss why these protagonists seem so otherworldly. Second, taking into account the respective religious backgrounds of these works as a whole, I analyze the transgressions in which the characters entangle themselves as they strive toward lofty aims. Third, I define the limitations of comparison regarding their atonement and potential salvation. GENJI, THE SHINING PRINCE Murasaki Shikibu portrays Genji as an unusual being; from early on, is described as being outstanding in every faculty, whether music, poetry or painting, and his beauty, as a glowing halo, envelops his person. Genji is of high birth, the son of the Kiritsubo [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] Emperor, but for political reasons is relegated to the status of a commoner and at Court officiates as Imperial Counselor. Therefore, is also called the Shining Prince: from childhood on, Murasaki Shikibu states, he was already so charmingly distinguished in manner (Tyler 12) (Ima yori namamekashiu hazukashige ni ohasureba [Abe, Akiyama and Imai 115]) and if I [narrator] were to list all the things at which excelled, I would only succeed in making him sound absurd (Tyler 13) (Subete ihi tsuzukeba, kotogotoshiu, utate zo narinu beki hito no onsama narikeru [Abe, Akiyama and Imai 115]). His pleasing appearance enchants all who see him and regardless of his emotional state, his seems otherworldly: He wept as thought back over the past, making as did so a vision of infinite beauty (Tyler 236) (Taishou, yorozu no koto kakiatsume, oboshi tuzukete naki tamaheru keshiki ito tsuki sezu namameki tari [Abe, Akiyama and Imai 171]). Genji pursues many women, and engages in innumerable love affairs. Many of his romantic liaisons are controversial, such as that with Oborozukiyo [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], daughter of the Minister of the Right and thus a political rival of Genji, and even more so with Fujitsubo [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], his stepmother. …

The Solonian Legacy in Socrates

[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] But before he is dead, wait, and do not yet call him happy, but fortunate. --Solon (1) Prologue What does the history of philosophy look like from the perspective of psychoanalysis? In the present essay, I propose to consider a specific moment in the history of philosophy, namely, the intervention of eros in the historical transition from Herodotean inquiry to Platonic philosophy. If psychoanalysis makes a difference as to how we understand the history of philosophy, what can it tell us about the significance of eros for the tradition of philosophy initiated by Socrates? In asking this question, my aim is twofold. First, I want to demonstrate that a psychoanalytic approach to the history of philosophy not only is plausible, but that by virtue of its insight into the wishes and fantasies that motivate human behavior, it can help us to understand how eros intervenes to motivate the Platonic account of the Socratic unity of happiness and philosophy. Where the historical significance of this account is at stake, we shall have to investigate both the prehistory of the Socratic tradition and its major connection to a Platonic account of the eros for philosophy. Hence my second aim: to demonstrate the central importance of Plato's Symposium in this psycho-historical drama. My argument is not simply that the Symposium is amenable to psychoanalytic interpretation, as readers like Jacques Lacan (1991 [1957]) and Jonathan Lear (1999) have already demonstrated. (2) Rather, my argument is that psychoanalysis offers a powerful vocabulary for understanding the genesis of philosophical eros, and that the Symposium is likewise a key resource for illuminating the prehistory of Socratic philosophy precisely because its account of the eros for philosophy is traceable to the Herodotean inquiry concerning Solon's role in an ancient quarrel about the meaning of happiness. My argument, in short, is that the eros for philosophy has its source in an all too human dynamic of seduction, and that the psychoanalytic theory of seduction is uniquely capable of elaborating the account of philosophical seduction in the Symposium--precisely because the psychoanalytic and Platonic accounts share the same fundamental structure. To be clear: I am not arguing that either Solon or Herodotus is the sole antecedent to the Socratic tradition, nor that one cannot find older or more diverse sources for the constellation of themes that link Herodotus to Plato through what I shall call the Solonian legacy in Socrates. Rather, my argument is concerned to show that a certain collection of themes converge in the figure of Solon, and that by virtue of their transformation in the Symposium, it is possible to consider both Plato's indebtedness to the Solonian teaching, as well as the specific terms of his divergence. For introductory purposes, I cite four fundamental themes that define the appearance of Solon's legacy. (3) 1. A tension between olbos and eudaimonia in the text of Herodotus, and a related connection between happiness and seeing the whole, which anticipates the valorization of eudaimonia as the highest expression of philosophy in Plato. 2. A transformation in the relation between happiness and death from Solon to Socrates. Whereas Solon commands us to call no one happy until dead, the practice of dying or being dead is itself the expression of happiness for Plato's Socrates. 3. A consideration of jealousy as an impediment to happiness. Whereas the jealousy of the gods points, for Solon, to the fluctuations of fortune that ruin human happiness, in the Socratic teaching human happiness requires a special kind of endurance with respect to those same dire elements. Coupled with the teaching of Diotima, this endurance will define human happiness in terms of friendship with the gods. 4. A reference to Solon's famous injunction to continue learning even while growing older. …

The Efficacy of Salvation in the Allegorical Reading of Scripture: Learning from Origen

Introduction This article explores the possibility of returning the practice of ancient allegorical interpretation as a resource for developing a post-critical theological reading of Scripture that prioritizes its formative significance for contemporary scriptural readers. What I am after is not the specific theological conclusions proposed within an ancient reading of a scriptural text. Those conclusions are, no doubt, interesting, but often force the comparison between ancient allegorical practice and various modern exegetical strategies in a distracting and unhelpful way. I want instead see allegorical reading as a phenomenon that arises within a set of theological commitments about the impact of scriptural reading--its soteriological efficacy--on the reader. I go about this task in three steps. First, I problematize the contemporary scholarly distinction between and allegory, seeing it as supporting an often unwarranted anxiety about ancient allegorical practice. This anxiety, usually involving the relationship between interpretation and history, presses allegorical readings into a predetermined opposition history in a way that argumentatively begs the question in favor of discreet typological reading. It will be important notice how such modern discreet categories not only obscure the variety of nonliteral reading practices in the ancient period--not noticing how they work together--but also belie certain theological commitments about the efficacy of scriptural reading that gives allegorical forms their force. Second, I take up the discussion of scriptural reading in Erich Auerbach's essay Figura, showing how his theory of figural interpretation both preserves and surpasses the assumptions of the allegory/typology distinction, thus providing a framework that pinpoints the benefits and dangers of nonliteral interpretation. Nevertheless, recognizing Auerbach's hesitance affirm the procedures of the allegorical readings of Origen of Alexandria, the paragon of ancient Christian allegorical interpretation, I turn Origen's theology and his second homily on Genesis explore how his reading strategies depend on a picture of scriptural soteriological efficacy, bringing the ancient writings bear on the contemporary ecclesial formation of the Christian reader. With the help of Henri de Lubac and Karen Jo Torjesen, I argue that Origen's allegorical reading presumes a theological relationship between Scripture and the reader that allows past events preserved in ancient Scripture contribute the contemporary soteriological formation of the reader, thus including the reader into the transformative import of the scriptural text. (1) Allegory and Typology The term [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.] has been used since the ancient period and is associated with interpretive strategies that have been questioned and criticized for about just as long. No doubt the origin of its meaning, literally to say something other, (2) has often sparked a suspicion that interpretive uses of allegory do a disservice the meaning of the text under analysis. Yet the Christian incorporation of allegory as a way of reading Scripture has involved a distinct set of questions that attempt determine whether ancient Christian allegorical reading bears direct methodological influence from early Platonic, Gnostic, and Philonic uses of allegorical interpretation. Attempting differentiate between allegory and what has come be called typology (derived from the Latin typologia) has been thought assist modern scholarship on ancient Christian exegesis in differentiating between properly Christian interpretive commitment regarding Scripture and otherwise non-Christian influences that bore on ancient Christian interpretation. One of the first twentieth-century scholars incorporate this distinction, Jean Danielou, attempted discern what in Origen's exegetical writings derived from the Christian tradition and what involved carryover from other non-Christian sources. …

A Hierarchy of Violence?: Sex Slaves, Parthenoi , and Rape in Menander’s Epitrepontes

Scholarship on prostitution in ancient Greece, specifically classical Athens, commonly ignores the violence surrounding sexual labor. Whereas violence is central to discussions of prostitution in the modern context, the focus on the ancient hetaira as a courtesan has obscured the reality of Greek prostitutes, many of whom were slaves and vulnerable to abuse. (1) It is not just the obvious fact that prostitution could at times be violent--women, girls, and household slaves in general were at risk for sexual violence more broadly (as comic plots attest and as ancient warfare demonstrates (2))--but that such violence was constructed differently for sex laborers than other social groups: the prostitute body is deemed an accessible body and that accessibility normalizes sexual violence against it and creates a double standard of violence. (3) It is this construction of violence that I begin to explore here by comparing two narratives of sexual assault as recounted by the sex slave Habrotonon in Menander's Epitrepontes. In comparing the two narratives, I place special emphasis on the narrative voice (a shift from third person to first person), the intended context for the narrative (a private conversation between slaves versus a conversation at the symposium), and the identity of the (a citizen girl versus a sex slave). Also important is the fact that the narrator of both accounts is the same person, the sex slave Habrotonon. The plot of Menander's Epitrepontes (The Arbitrators) is typical of New Comedy in that the plot hinges on the of a young citizen woman by an unknown and inebriated assailant at a night festival (in this case the Tauropolia). (4) The becomes pregnant from the rape. The rapist, discovered to be a wealthy young citizen, does the right thing by acknowledging his child and uniting with the mother. All ends happily. Specific to the plot of this play is the fact that when the action begins, the victim, Pamphile, is unknowingly married to her assailant. Charisius, her husband, has discovered the pregnancy, though not his role in it, and left the marriage to take up with a slave prostitute, Habrotonon. Habrotonon, in turn, discovers that the father of the child is Charisius. Hoping to acquire her freedom, she reveals the child to Charisius, who then happily reunites with his wife. As noted by Hunter Gardner (2013) and Sharon James (2014), the Epitrepontes is unique in that it presents details of a sexual assault and its effect on the victim. (5) Habrotonon recounts the as follows (486-90): [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]. Although being there with us, she [Pamphile] wandered off. Then suddenly she ran up alone crying and pulling out her hair [in grief]. Oh gods--she had totally ruined her light cloak, very beautiful and fine; for the whole thing was a tattered rag. Pamphile is described here as hysterical after the encounter, crying and pulling out her hair. The violence of the and its effect on the are further highlighted by her torn clothing. This vivid account leads Gardner and James to conclude that Menander and most likely Athenian society more broadly recognized a rape victim and acknowledged sexual violence as an embodied event (Gardner 2013, 134; James 2014, 33). Ancient Athenians, they argue, had a concept of sexual assault akin to our modern understanding of rape. In addition to the absence of descriptive accounts, discussions of in classical Athens are hindered by the lack of specific terminology referring to it. (6) There is no single term for 'sexual violence' in classical Greek: bia (force), (7) hubris (outrage), and moicheia (adultery) are the legal categories under which sexual offences might fall. (8) Bia and hubris, however, also refer to other forms of violence and other types of crimes. In addition, victims are never noted as 'victims of hubris,' only the kurios (guardian) is. …

Other “Ways of Seeing”: Female Viewers of the Knidian Aphrodite

In his 1972 book Ways of Seeing, art historian John Berger claimed: Men look women. Women watch themselves being looked at (47). Such was certainly the case for Praxiteles' statue of Aphrodite Knidos, arguably the most famous sculpture in antiquity. Although most commentators, ancient and modern, have assumed a male spectator, women were also viewers of the Knidia. (1) A reassessment of the nudity of the Knidian Aphrodite suggests that women were in fact her primary intended audience, and that the statue would have held particular significance for hetairai. Although the fourth-century BCE marble statue by Praxiteles does not survive, its appearance is known from dozens of copies in various media and from literary descriptions of the statue, all of which postdate Praxiteles' work by several centuries. (2) Generally hailed as the first monumental female nude in western art, the Knidia stands in contrapposto, with her head turned to the left. (3) Her right hand covers the pubic area in the so-called pudica gesture; her left hand grasps a voluminous piece of cloth. (4) A vessel her feet suggests that the goddess has removed her garment in order to bathe. (5) Her hair is neatly arranged with a central part and chignon, with a fillet encircling her head. Many copies represent her wearing jewelry, most frequently a bracelet on her upper left arm. Male Commentators, Ancient and Modern Ancient commentators on the Knidian Aphrodite were primarily concerned to explain her scandalous nudity, which elicited uncontrollable lust on the part of her male viewers. According to Pliny the Elder (HN 36.21), a young man was so overcome with passion for the Knidia, he hid himself in the temple night and her, leaving a stain of semen: ferunt amore captum quendam, cum delituisset noctu, simulacro cohaesisse, eiusque cupiditatis esse indicem maculam (They say that a certain man was once overcome with love for the statue and, after he had hidden himself [in the shrine] during the nighttime, embraced the statue and that there is a stain on it as indication of his lust). (6) [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] Most modern commentators have taken the ancient sources face-value and assume that the intended viewer of the Knidia was male. The satirical account of the writer known as Pseudo-Lucian (Am. 13-4) suggests that the statue was equally desirable for both hetero- and homosexual viewers: [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] ... Charikles, indeed, shouted out in a mad and deranged way, Happiest of all gods was Ares who was bound for this and with that he ran up and stretching his neck as far as he could kissed it on its shining lips. But Callikratidas stood silently, his mind numbed with amazement ... Well, the Athenian, when he had looked on quietly for a little, caught sight of the love parts of the goddess, and immediately cried out much more madly than Charikles, Heracles! What a fine rhythm to her back! Great flanks! What a handful to embrace! Look the way the beautifully delineated flesh of the buttocks is arched, neither too wanting and drawn in too close to the bones themselves, nor allowed to spread out excessively fat.... (7) The passage ends with the anecdote about the stain that Pliny also reported. (8) Despite the satirical and formulaic nature of the literary sources, and the cultural and temporal distance of their authors from the original statue, the textual evidence has generally been taken face-value. Modern commentators have focused on the nudity of the statue and its erotic effect on her male viewers. Robin Osborne (1994, 85) identified the Knidian Aphrodite as an uncommonly powerful work. Citing the supposed responses of male viewers recorded in the ancient literary sources, he concludes (1994, 85): Rich though the message of this statue is about male sexuality, it has very little to say about female sexuality. …

A Struggle of Genres, or a Dialogue: A Post-Bakhtinean View of Shakespeare's <em>Measure for Measure</em>

In his book on Rabelais, Bakhtin (1965) mentions Shakespeare's name several times, but never focuses on him: Shakespeare only makes his appearances as a background figure within the compass of Bakhtins carnivalesque theory. Indeed, Bakhtin's theory won a reputation in the field of Shakespeare studies too, even though his own remarks about Shakespeare remained cursory and any detailed opinion unknown till the appearance in Russia in 1996 of the first--actually volume 5--of Bakhtin's collected works that included the archival publication of fragments absent from the original book version on Rabelais. More than ten new pages are directly devoted to Shakespeare. These pages seem important both for Shakespeare and Bakhtin, whose carnivalesque theory emerges here within a complex structure of significance and thus can be viewed with more objectivity than it probably has ever enjoyed. The almost universal enthusiasm for the carnival seems to have waned by the date of the thirtieth anniversary of Bakhtin's book on Rabelais, one that was celebrated by several revising efforts that were made clear in the international questionnaire in the fourth issue (1996) of the journal Dialogue. Carnival. Chronotope. The theory was found unreliable in many aspects. Prompted by the experiences in the Russian Revolution, it appeared not quite organic in the context of Bakhtin's writings. Some regarded it as a threat to a higher spiritual order of life, while others said it had no historical reality behind it and looked dangerous when insisting that it would realize itself in the revolutionary future. As for the author, he was suspected of one-sidedness, which suggested that if he was not completely inconsistent, then he certainly overstated the importance of the carnivalesque in the process of cultural evolution. Memorably, Bakhtin contrasted the carnival as a manifestation of the festive-folk culture to the officialdom considered serious and repressive. In the posthumously published pages from the Rabelais book, he intended for a chapter on the history of laughter. In approximately 1944, Bakhtin penned some fragmentary notes, loosely connected, for a further elaboration. But the major direction that his thought was taking is evident. The first notion he questioned and brought into a new context was Bakhtin remarked that can be both official and unofficial: Besides official seriousness, of authority, intimidating and frightening seriousness, there also exists unofficial seriousness, that of sufferance, fear, freight, weakness, of a slave and of the one sacrificed.... [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (Additions and Revisions 81). To illustrate his thought, Bakhtin thus explains what he calls an unofficial of Dostoevsky [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]: This is utmost form of protest on the part of individuality (corporal and spiritual), thirsty to be eternalized, against change and absolute renovation ... A pure curse which is to be replaced in the finale by a pure praise (hosanna). [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (81-82). Seriousness has emerged here linked with a new train of terms and obviously extracted from the carnivalesque opposition where it had laughter as its sole counterpart; however, in its individualistic mode, seriousness still persists in its opposition to a regenerative process, which it reacts to with a curse, ambivalently transformed into a praise when the renovation is finally brought about. This metamorphosis demonstrates Bakhtin's tentative attempt to modify his traditional formula of folk laughter viewed as opposed exclusively to official seriousness. The first step was to find other forms of beyond officialdom. And they were found not cursed and blasphemed, as the official had been, but responding first with a curse to every renovating effort and ending in a praise addressed to the resurrected wholeness of life. …

Free Verse, Enjambment, Irony

In prose, the lines run from one margin of the page to the other; in poetry, it is the poet who decides where the line ends. Fraser writes about blank verse: ... we might often be uncertain (particularly when the sense is run on from line to line, without pauses at the end of the line) how the lines divide. This is what Dr. Johnson meant when he said that English blank verse is often verse for the eye (29). (1) If this were true, it would apply even more to free verse. Indeed, the surrounding empty space that indicates line endings in printed verse is not available in vocal performance. I claim, however, that just as white spaces break up the series of black marks on the paper into smaller perceptual units whose end may or may not coincide with the end of syntactic units, in aural perception, certain vocal devices may break up the text into versification units, and even indicate conflicts of versification and syntactic units. Indeed, Dr. Johnson does grant what Fraser is tacit on: there are few skilful and happy readers of Milton who enable their audience to perceive where the lines end or begin. In vocal performance, there are other means to indicate line ending: first of all, punctuational pauses; but also intonation contour, and some more elusive cues, such as the lengthening of the last speech sound or syllable, or overarticulation of the word boundaries, e.g., by inserting a stop release or a glottal stop where appropriate. Such cues may act in conjunction--indicating unambiguous continuity or discontinuity; or in conflict--indicating continuity and discontinuity at the same time. In this article, I will explore the possible mismatches between language and versification in poetry. It is a case study of a short piece of free verse, by the great Hebrew poet Yehuda Amichai. [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] 1. Rain in the Battlefield It's raining on the faces of my comrades; On the faces of my comrades, who Cover their heads with the blankets-- And on the faces of my comrades, who Don't cover anymore. The adjectives and dead are restrictive, whereas the who-clauses are nonrestrictive. Consequently, the phrase live already suggests that they are contrasted to some other group of comrades. The nonrestrictive relative clauses, by contrast, though antithetical, merely give some additional information on the two groups of comrades. The parallelism of lines 2 and 4 points up the indifference of the rain as to whether the soldiers are alive or dead. It is their response that makes some difference--but no big difference either: These comrades cover their heads, these comrades don't. This trivial difference stands in opposition to the momentous distinction between life and death; hence its effective irony. The rain and the covering of faces may be construed as an instinctive gesture to cope with the hard circumstances soldiers must face. Looking back, then, from lines 4 and 5, the metonymy for discomfort becomes a metonymy for life and death. For Cleanth Brooks, is not the opposite of an overt statement, but 'a general term for the kind of qualification which the various elements in a context receive from the context' (Wellek 329; Brooks 171). The ironist pretends to know nothing, not even that he is ironical. He merely describes what he sees, with no patent purpose, as it were. Now, suppose Amichai wrote: 2. It's raining on the faces of my comrades; On the faces of my comrades, Who cover their heads with the blankets-- And on the faces of my comrades, Who don't cover anymore. Some readers feel a considerable difference between the two texts. It is as if in Excerpt 1 the irony were subtler than in Excerpt 2. Notice, however, that the semantic and syntactic information are literally identical in the two versions. The difference is generated by the mismatch between syntax and versification. …

Windy Words in Penelope’s Joking Dream: Odyssey 4.787–841

Introduction As the Telemachia draws to a close, Penelope lies in her chamber, worried about whether her son will survive the suitors' ambush that she cannot bring herself to eat or drink. When sleep finally overcomes her, Athena sends a that assures her of Telemachus's safe return, and Penelope seizes the opportunity to ask whether is alive. The apparition refuses to answer for the perplexing reason that is bad to babble windy things ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], Od. 4.837). An answer to Penelopes question would be anything but [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], whether construed as trivial, empty, purpose, or ineffectual. Knowing that is safe would shatter Penelope's defining uncertainty and change the entire second half of the epic, as the PQ scholion ad 4.796 astutely notes. The apparition might be expressing ignorance, but, as Stephanie West (1988,244, ad 4.837) writes, it is absurd that the dream-figure should thus allege lack of reliable information as grounds for its refusal. I suggest here that the apparition's response is actually a brilliant example of multilayered metapoetic wordplay. Later Hellenic tradition features dreams whose interpretations depend on solving puns or word-riddles embedded in their content, (1) and such riddles or puns would be perfectly at home in the Odyssey, whose frequent engagement in wordplay is well-known. (2) Although most instances of Odyssean wordplay seem to be serious in tone, (3) some have been considered humorous. (4) The wordplay in Penelope's dream, I suggest, is of the latter sort: its rhetorical mechanisms help the passage develop an emotional rapport between its audience and Penelope which its concluding joke brings to a culmination. Before considering how this wordplay works, let us examine some of the scene's other puzzling aspects, which cannot be justified by the literary nature of Penelope's dream, since some of them lack any obvious literary purpose while others actually seem to contradict the dream's ostensible literary functions. These aspects appear even odder in light of both Homeric and non-Homeric visitation and typology. (5) Perhaps the most striking feature is that Penelope's joy is postponed until after she awakens, with the result that she seems pleased by the apparition's refusal to speak about rather by its good news about Telemachus. This is not simply a matter of Penelope needing to wake up before she can react emotionally to her dream, since she cries though in a dream ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) at Odyssey 19.541. (6) The dream-figure itself is no less strange. Only Zeus sends proxies in comparable scenes; in fact, in Homeric poetry, he always uses messengers instead of appearing to mortals personally. Athena, in contrast, always deals with humans personally, as, for instance, when she appears to Nausicaa in a that is otherwise strikingly similar to Penelope's. Christine Walde (2001, 47) theorizes that Athena sends the apparition to avoid disturbing Penelope with her own divine presence and thus disrupting the dream's calming effects. Yet if this were the case, Athena could simply have maintained her disguise as she does in Nausicaa's dream. Her absence does not seem to matter anyway, since Penelope surmises that her visitor is divine (Od. 4.831) without causing herself further agitation. The PQ scholion ad 4.796 offers another theory--that Athena sends the apparition so that she won't be forced to say something about Odysseus (7)--but surely Athena could have avoided answering Penelope at least as well as the dream-vision does. To imply that Penelope's question would put Athena in an awkward position smacks of the sort of Platonic moralism that is alien to Homeric gods. Also, if this were Homer's primary concern, he could simply not have had Penelope ask her question in the first place, particularly since the question itself is unparalleled. …

Bloody Verses: Rereading Pushkin’s Prisoner of the Caucasus

Pushkin's 1822 narrative poem, Prisoner of the Caucasus (Kavkazskii plennik), is frequently pointed as Russia's first literary introduction the Caucasus and its peoples. Belinsky praised it both for its accurate representation of the region and for the beauty of its verses. (1) One section of the poem, the so-called ethnographic section in which the Circassian customs and way of life are described in some detail, was reprinted six times in Pushkin's life alone. (2) Yet, for all of its popularity, critics and readers alike have continued struggle with the poem's epilogue and its relation the first two parts of the story. This epilogue, written approximately three months after Pushkin finished the first two parts of the poem, differs both stylistically and thematically from the remainder of the work. Resembling first the elegy, then the epic narrative, and finally the ceremonial ode, as Harsha Ram points out, the form of the epilogue is as discordant as its apparent new message: the celebration of imperial might and the outright conquest of the Caucasus. (3) And, in fact, the epilogue does express a clearer political message than the remainder of the poem by celebrating the destruction of the Caucasian tribes and the expansion of the Russian Empire: [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (4) And I will celebrate that glorious hour, When, having felt the bloody attack, Upon the indignant Caucasus Our double-headed eagle raised itself [...] You I glorify, hero, O Kotliarevskii, the scourge of the Caucasus! Wherever you rushed, a terror-- Your speed, like a black plague, Destroyed, annihilated tribes. [...] And the violent cry of war fell silent: All is subject the Russian sword. Proud sons of the Caucasus, You have fought, you have perished terribly. (5) In this article I will offer a new interpretation of Pushkin's epilogue and its relationship the remainder of the poem. Pushkin succeeds in problematizing Russian imperial expansion precisely through the addition of such a nationalistic ending what at first appears be a Romantic work about an exotic people. In the first two parts of the poem, Pushkin plays on his readers' expectations, largely based on European literature, in particular Byron, as well as on their own unspoken, sometimes unconscious, desires experience vicariously the danger and excitement of the still mythical Caucasus. (6) He then describes the bloody consequences of this fascination with the region and its peoples: total conquest by Russia and the destruction of Caucasian society. Pushkin's poem reveals the double-edged sword of imperialistic expansionism: on the one hand, there is an idealization of the Other and its way of life, while on the other, contact between the empire and the Other leads the destruction of that way of life. From this conclusion, I will then reread Pushkin's poem with this end in mind and show how the body of the work leads more organically the epilogue than it first appears. Reaction the Epilogue Upon publication, Pushkin's epilogue inspired little no commentary. In fact, in the majority of reviews of the poem, literary critics simply chose not address it. (7) Susan Layton suggests that critics were unwilling speak out against the epilogue due the political climate of the time. (8) In private, though, the epilogue caused some degree of discomfort for at least one of Pushkin's contemporaries, Prince Viazemsky. It grieves me, that Pushkin stained with blood the last verses of his tale, he writes Alexander Turgenev in a letter from September 1822. kind of hero is Kotliarevsky, Yermolov? What here is good, that he, 'like a black plague, / Destroyed, annihilated tribes?' From such praise, one's blood freezes and one's hair stands on end. (9) He goes on complain that it was impossible even to allude (nameknut ) his displeasure with the epilogue in his review of the poem due the censor. …

Christian Mission Reread in the Freedom of the Spirit

General impression Certainly present statement will mark a milestone in ecumenical--and Christian--concept mission and evangelism. It does not reveal a mere aggiornamento--a simple update--to reality changing contexts, but it is result experience a living organism, experiencing the below in view the Above. The word and concept life, already present in rifle, is not mere rhetoric, for, in my own personal perception, document is a result itself--the a community people that is looking for best way to break out and share the first fruits kingdom. Thus, authority and range document certainly emerge experience Christian body that is revitalized and renewed continuously by power Spirit. In this regard, text has not been product a mere technical process exploration and interpretation a reality foreign to body. Quite contrary! The statement emerges reality body itself; this body, conscious its and being, proceeds to describe, interpret, and provide insights on matter. This concept life, present throughout length and depth document, necessarily evokes Holy Spirit--the life-giving ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.])--according to Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed. And it is this Spirit that leads human beings through their most sublime and most miserable realities to become reacquainted, renewed, relinked, reinterpreted, and finally reconfigured in present reality. From this perspective, I would have no objection to consider document as moved by Spirit ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.]) as it is born and grows reality of below seeking that from Above. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Not only does concept evoke divine Spirit: breadth and maturity concepts, audacity and effortlessness in their articulation, and finally opening and reception a plethora traditions, modes, and ways seeing, accepting, and interpreting same reality all reveal that content, structure, and articulation text have been made in an experiential and necessarily pneumatic harmony. Also, affirmative and positive tone constantly refers to attitude created by Spirit in an organism that is formed by His constant presence and action. Thus, ten concluding affirmations statement clearly seal multi dimensional concept mission as the extension life already in this realm, and towards future one. Aspects to consider Regarding content declaration, I would like to highlight some concepts that, according to my understanding, build originality text: 1. The sub-version an old theological and missiological pattern, according to which mission is based on an anthropocentric and religious parameter: in text results are clear that reading key whole reflection is no longer human beings--or their religion--but God. In my view, this displacement is absolutely necessary and constitutes major goal main rereading Christian mission. Finally, we return to base and origin--and end--of all things: that is, God. Indeed, it is more than clear that Christian mission--that coming out to the other--is an image erotic divine creative impulse. The text refers to act creation itself, in which God by natural and ecstatic love ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.]) place to the other to heterousion--liber et liberaliter--through his energies. Indeed, we Orthodox speak about energies or uncreated progresses ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.]). The origin--and end--of Christian mission is that loving God, who still being who-he-is comes out and becomes participable to created. Indeed, God comes out his essential intimacy and inner life--through his progresses--which paradoxically are God himself--remaining ontologically unmutated, and wants to be participable to his creatures, as he gives to them existence, life, logic, wisdom, and deification. …

‘Blessed Is He, Who Has Seen’: The Power of Ritual Viewing and Ritual Framing in Eleusis

[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] Horn. Hymn. Cer. 480-2 [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] Pindar, fr. 121 Bowra [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] Sophocles, fr. 837 Pearson-Radt Blessed is he, who has seen these, among the mortal men who live on earth; but he who is not initiated in the sacred rites, who has had no share in them, he does not have a lot of similar things when he is dead under the vast darkness, says the author of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. These lines have traditionally been interpreted as referring to the spectacles offered to the initiates in the course of the secret initiation of the [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] of Eleusis, often referred to as [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE INASCII] by our sources. (1) Analogous emphasis on the visual aspect of the spectacle is also given by several other sources, which are conventionally taken to refer to the secret initiation ceremony of the Greater Mysteries of Eleusis: Sophocles, fr. 837 Pearson-Radt (Thrice-blessed among the mortals are those who having seen these sacred rites enter Hades: for them alone there is life, but for the others all is evil); and Pindar, fr. 121 Bowra (Blessed is he who having seen these things has gone under the earth; he knows the end of life; but he also knows the god-given beginning). (2) None of these or any other of our sources gives us a detailed and reliable account of what the [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] saw or, as a matter of fact, how the things seen conferred this sense of blessedness, and in what ways this blessedness eased the pain (or was it the fear?) of entering the chambers of Hades, and made the after-death existence endurable. Scholarly speculation on the nature of the things seen (and undoubtedly heard too) by the initiates is abundant. (3) A collage of textual evidence (consisting primarily of testimonies from late Christian and, therefore biased, authors) and iconographical evidence (not necessarily any less ambiguous) has been constructed and reconstructed in almost every possible way; and yet no account can be privileged without the essential leap of faith. Although a summary of some of the most learned reconstructions will be given here, the primary focus of the present essay is not so much on the nature of the things seen, as on the possible ways they were perceived by the initiates and the culturally defined scopic regimes that informed that perception. (4) Vision, Visuality, and Ritually-Centred Visuality A particular focus of this paper will be to introduce, and test the efficacy of, some recent and some more or less well-established developments in the disciplines of art history and visual culture in the study of the mysteric cults in general, and the study of the initiatory process ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) in the [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] of Eleusis in particular. Effectively, I argue that, when studying the sources that speak of the process of mystic initiation in Eleusis, more may be gained if we shift our focus from the idea of unqualified and unmediated visual experience (vision) onto the cultural construct that mediates between the eye of the beholder and the things seen (visuality). The point of this exercise is to show that even if we could actually look at what happened within the [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], it is quite unlikely that we would be able to see what the initiates saw, as it is extremely difficult to reconstruct with any certainty the complex nexus of sociopolitical and cultural discourses that shaped their gaze, their ways of viewing. Furthermore, I examine Jas Eisner's notion of ritual-centred visuality, not as a possible conceptual framework for understanding the gaze of the pilgrim in the Imperial era, but for considering how ritual framing allows the [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] in the Eleusinian [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] to see sacred visions beyond the constraints of secular visuality. …

Framing a View of the Unviewable: Architecture, Aphrodite, and Erotic Looking in the Lucianic Erôtes

Although quarantined from the Lucianic corpus and assigned variable dates from the second to the fourth centuries CE, (2) in recent years the Erotes has garnered attention for its generic complexity, its (late) engagement with the philosophical debate over pederasty, and its value as a significant witness for the viewing context of a lost sculptural masterwork, Praxiteles' Aphrodite of Cnidus. (3) Part of what makes this wayward text so attractive is its ironic and heady mix of sex, philosophy, and art, all set within a dizzying mise-en-abime of narrative frames (Goldhill 1995, 104). An external dialogue between the pansexual Theomnestus and asexual Lycinus, set at a festival of Heracles, frames a travel story about a trip taken to Cnidus by Lycinus and two friends, Charicles (a woman-mad Corinthian) and Callicratidas (a boy-crazy Athenian). An extended ekphrasis of the Cnidian Aphrodite's sanctuary and its cult statue further embeds an etiological tale that accounts for a stain on the statue's thigh, and this tale, in turn, precipitates a philosophical agon between the exclusive heterosexual and the exclusive pederast. The entire piece closes with an unabashedly erotic recasting of the agon by Theomnestus, patient listener to the entire tale. This dialogue on desiring subjects and desired objects situates its eroticism very squarely within a revelatory story about viewing sculpture (Erot. 11-7). (4) The statue of the goddess embodies a doubled erotic stimulus. Viewed from the front she is the most desirable woman, but from the rear, the most perfect boy. Proof of her irresistible erotic charm is the stain on her thigh. Lycinus and his traveling companions learn that this incontrovertible fact of her being used like a boy ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) remains from a night of passion performed on the statue by a besotted local youth. It is the confounding evidence of intercrural or anal sex (5) with this seemingly most female of statues that engenders the debate on what is the correct focus for male erotic attention: the avenues ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) to erotic satisfaction offered by the bodies of boys or of women. The initial terms of the central philosophical debate (inscribed in semen) are read off Aphrodite's ambiguous body. (6) This erotic perspective on the goddess, front and back equated with female and male, is a function of the position taken up by the viewer. That position, moreover, is determined by the points of visual access provided by the temple structure itself. Aphrodite is framed by the very architecture she inhabits. In the dialogue, the temple is depicted as a naos with two doors, front and back, communicating into an interior sacred space. There is no 'viewing in the round,' but rather looking is cathected along a very particular directional axis. It is precisely this specific closed temple structure with carefully designed openings onto that space that is a significant feature of Lycinus's description: (7) [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] When we had taken enough pleasure in the gardens, we entered the shrine [naos]. The goddess is situated in the center--a most beautiful statue of Parian marble--splendid and smiling a little with a laughing grin. Her entire beauty is unhidden, draped by no clothes, and left naked, except insofar as she inconspicuously hides her private parts with one of her hands.... The shrine has a door on both sides for those wishing to get a clear look at the goddess from behind in order that no part of her is unadmired. It is easy to enter through the other door and to examine closely her beauty from the back. Therefore, it was decided to view the goddess in all her glory, and we went around to the back of the sacred enclosure. Then, after the door was opened by the woman responsible for keeping the keys, a sudden amazement at the beauty seized us. In the other, far briefer, references to the Aphrodite statue in literary texts from antiquity, her situation within her shrine is stressed as open and affording easy panoptic visual access. …

Be Still and See: Leisure, Labor, and Human Dignity in Josef Pieper and Blessed John Paul II

IN TWO CLASSIC ESSAYS, written in 1947 and published together in English translation under title Leisure, Basis of Culture, (1) German Roman Catholic philosopher Josef Pieper argues that source of human dignity is found in leisure, sphere of life free from work. He warns against recent philosophic and social tendencies that would reduce all human affairs to punctuated only with occasional necessary periods of rest or recreation. He claims that very survival of Western civilization depends upon an explicit and public restoration of respect for realm of human endeavor transcending notion of utility. Grounding his argument in what he sees as venerable and self-consistent tradition of philosophy and theology--epitomized in works of Plato, Aristotle, St. Augustine, and St. Thomas Aquinas, and undermined in key parts by modern philosophers such as Rene Descartes, Francis Bacon, and Immanuel Kant--Pieper understands his position to be harmonious with that of Catholic Church's social magisterium, whose famous efforts to defend dignity of labor he interprets as demanding not so much exaltation of as such, but rather an extension of leisure to working classes. Though Pieper's has generally not received attention it merits, it has succeeded in deeply impressing numerous readers over years, includingT. S. Eliot, (2) C. S. Lewis, (3) and contemporary political and cultural minds such as Gilbert Meilaender, (4) Roger Scruton, (5) Ralph McInerny, (6) Roger Kimball, (7) James V. Schall, (8) and Thomas Hibbs. (9) Given Pieper's credibility among so many who share his concern for application of classical Christian intellectual patrimony to challenges of our day, it is interesting to consider one such prominent voice that, at least initially, does not appear to support Pieper's thesis. In 1981, Blessed John Paul II published encyclical letter Laborem Exercens. (10) In this writing, beginning from prior magisterial teachings on labor, John Paul seeks to stress more strongly than before centrality of not only to the modern 'social question,' but to good of human life as such. He describes as not only related to but even constitutive of man's vocation, dignity, and imaging of God in world, and defines so as to encompass seemingly all intellectual activities, which Pieper emphatically insists upon classifying as leisure and not work. In developing spirituality of work, John Paul goes so far as to call Jesus Christ a man of work and his Gospel the gospel of work, and seems to suggest that Christianity nullifies distinction between servile and liberal arts, whose recovery Pieper considers necessary condition for preservation of human freedom and flourishing (LE, Preface, nos. 1-3, 24-27; Leisure, II, IV). Can John Paul's interpretation of Christian wisdom on labor be squared with Pieper's reading of this same heritage? Or is former in effect refutation of latter? This paper will seek to answer this question through more detailed analysis of claims made by each author, considered in light of philosophic and theological tradition in which each sought to ground his thought. Pieper on Leisure and Threat of Total Work To grasp Pieper's case in defense of leisure and against progress of what he calls total work--a mode of existence in which overvaluation of leads to nearly complete neglect or suppression of leisure and goods it secures--we must first grasp precisely what he means by leisure and by work. Though in modern context leisure emerges as realm that must be preserved from imperious claims of Pieper draws his understanding of these terms from classical and medieval philosophy, which distinguishes between [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] or otium--time spent on matters of intrinsic worth--and negative concept [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] or negotium, signifying lack or deprivation of such leisure. …

Wordsworth, Jupiter, and Annotation

Was born the plane! Jupiter? And if he was, did it make any difference to him? I have been puzzling over a footnote in the widely used Norton Critical Edition of Prelude (1979), a note that is repeated in at least two later editions, Stephen Gill's Oxford (1984) and Duncan Wu's Five-Book Prelude (1997). It concerns this passage, from Book 4: It [a new-born feeling] spread far and wide: trees, I the mounatains shared it, and the brooks. stars of heaven, now seen in their old haunts-- White Sirius glittering o'er the southern crags, Orion With his belt, and those fair Seven, Acquaintances of every little child. And my own star. (1805 version. 233-39) note begins: Wordsworth was born on April 7, and thus the planet Jupiter, I am no astrologist, but this makes no sense to me. has no particular association with April, or with the sign Aries (March 20 to April 19). It wanders through all the zodiacal signs in its twelve-year cycle, spending about a year in each. It was not in Aries on April 7, 1770, but in Saggitarius, about 120 degrees away. William was not born under in any way I understand. Since the notes for the Norton edition were written by Jonathan Wordsworth, whose authority is great and well-de-served, I have hesitated to question this one, but he offered no evidence for this claim, and I have found nothing elsewhere in to warrant it. Even if proof turned up, moreover, that William thought was his natal or something it would not explicate the line, which is perfectly intelligible without it, and which previous editors did not think it necessary to comment on. note attributes astrological ideas to the poet without foundation, and that claim, which has cloned itself in later editions, would, if it were taken seriously, radically alter a reader's understanding of Wordsworth's beliefs. Why is Wordsworth's beloved star? Surely because it is and as he makes clear in two passages in other poems. The of Jove, so beautiful and large / In the mid heavens, shines above the peak in There is an Eminence (1800). In Excursion (1814) a character points to and calls it glorious (0.763). It is easy to forget how much more important the moon, stars, and planets were in 1800 than they are in the 21st century, especially to country people where there was no light pollution to dim or distract their view, and especially to Wordsworth, who was in the habit of rambling at all hours, lie would have seen on hundreds of occasions, often amidst a full 180-degree panorama of the sky. Dorothy too mentions several times. was very glorious, she writes, among the Ambleside (December 17, 1801). When we returned, many stars were out, the clouds were moveless, in the sky soft purple, the Lake of Rydale calm, behind, at least we call him, but William says we always call the largest Jupiter (January 29, 1802). Among planets, of course, Venus is a good deal brighter, but if you are out late walking the Ambleside hills in the winter you would not see Venus at all, for it has either already set or not yet risen; it is never visible in the mid heavens. You might see however, as the brightest in the sky, beautiful and glorious. That seems sufficient reason for to claim it as his favorite star. of course, is not a star at all in the strict sense, like the others names, hut a planet. He was content to use the traditional terminology, as Dorothy did, whereby a planet is a which derives from the Greek [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], wandering star, and in the same spirit he calls the moon a planet in the first version of Strange fits of passion (24), for a planet is what it was tinder the ancient system. As for the other stars, they make a satisfying sequence for observers of the sky: you can pass on a more or less straight line from the brightest of the true stars, Sirius, which lies south of the celestial equator, through the belt of Orion, which lies right on the equator, to the Pleiades, the seven sisters, which lie to the north. …

Dynamics of Vision in Plato’s Thought

The layperson may not have read any of Plato's dialogues, but everyone will know what Platonic love is. Platonic love, in common parlance, is a love not of the body, but of the mind. The concept of Platonic love is derived from a passage in Plato's Symposium, to be discussed below, in which a priestess explains to Socrates that beauty can be found not only in the body, and not even primarily in the body, but that beauty as such is the same wherever we encounter it, and moreover that there is a beauty far beyond that which is visible and can be perceived by our senses. This characterization of beauty, however, which seems to underlie much of Plato's philosophy as explicated in the dialogues of his middle period, must be seen against the background of a culture that was focused, not to say fixated, on the body and its beauty. Athenian culture, the aristocratic culture of those with whom Socrates associated himself, had as its ideal the kalokagathos--the excellent, accomplished, capable citizen and gentleman. (1) This excellence could in theory always be analyzed as being composed of its two constituent aspects of being kalos and agathos: to be agathos is to be 'good,' whatever may count as good, but to be kalos is to be fine, handsome, and 'beautiful.' And often at the beginning of a dialogue Socrates is portrayed as deeply affected and attracted by the physical beauty of a young man or boy. The dialectic of physical beauty and the beauty of the mind will be my starting point. In Section I, I look at a few well-known passages from Plato's early and middle period dialogues: Lysis, Charmides, Meno, Republic, and Protagoras. The familiar picture arises of Socrates as an individual who, as is the case with the society he is part of, is captivated by, and to an extent erotically obsessed with, physical beauty; but the example from the Republic demonstrates that the souls of those who are subject, and in that way subjected, to physical beauty are as liable to be dictated in their thoughts and actions by ugly sights. But at the same time, Socrates from early on sets this vision of physical beauty in relation with a putative beauty of the soul and the mind; the philosopher who can see this beauty can free himself from the tyranny of the senses. In Section II, I provide the theoretical foundation of this assertion in looking at the Symposium, where the eternal form of the beautiful is introduced as the ultimate aim of all our striving, love, and friendship. But in the very act of the philosophers' freeing themselves from all that is mortal, including their subjection to the senses, and the sense of sight above all, they subject themselves, as demonstrated in Republic and Phaedrus, to a new rule--the rule of and determination by those eternal forms--so that the philosopher appears to be in no better a position than the ordinary lover of sights and sounds in respect of freedom and autonomy. In Section III, I attempt to deconstruct this picture through an interpretation of passages from Timaeus, which are read, as Plato intended them to be read, as allegorical. In Section IV, I conclude with a tentative suggestion of the consequences of this deconstruction for a new understanding of the dynamics of the metaphysics of both intellectual vision and the physical gaze in Plato's thought. I I begin with some examples of the attractiveness of physical beauty and its power over the viewer. (2) Near the beginning of the dialogue Lysis, the eponymous young hero is first encountered in a palaestra, or wrestling school (206E9-207A3): [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] Among them was also Lysis, and he stood among the boys and youths, being wreathed and outstanding to look at, worthy to hear not only the habitual kalos estin, but the designation kalos kagathos. It is interesting that Socrates reports this as his first impression, when he sees Lysis from afar. Lysis is not just handsome, he has an 'aristocratic appearance. …