Author: J. F. Bernard
File Type: pdf
Argues that Shakespeare transforms philosophies of comedy and melancholy by revising them concomitantly Iconic as Hamletis, Shakespearean comedy showcases an extraordinary reliance on melancholy that ultimately reminds us of the porous demarcation between laughter and sorrow. This richly contextualized study of Shakespeares comic engagement with sadness contends that the playwright rethinks melancholy through comic theatre and conversely, re-theorizes comedy through melancholy. In fashioning his own comic interpretation of the humour, Shakespeare distils an impressive array of philosophical discourses on the matter, from Aristotle to Robert Burton and as a result, transforms the theoretical afterlife of both notions. The book suggests that the deceptively potent sorrow at the core of plays such as The Comedy of Errors, Twelfth Night, or The Winters Taleinfluences modern accounts of melancholia elaborated by Sigmund Freud, Judith Butler, and others. Whats so funny about melancholy in Shakespearean comedy? It might just be its reminder that, behind roaring laughter, one inevitably finds the subtle pangs of melancholy. Key Features Offers new readings of nine Shakespearean comedies centred on their extensive, interconnected treatments of melancholy Underscores Shakespeares significant revisions of philosophical discourses on melancholy, both classical and early modern, while tailoring the concept to specific comic purposes Argues that the particular sense of melancholy that Shakespeare develops throughout his comic canon informs later theorizations of melancholia and related concepts in psychoanalysis, performance studies and affect theory Contributes to the ongoing interdisciplinary critical effort to deepen our understanding of the nature, history and impact of melancholy on Western culture by drawing particular attention to its conflation of emotional and artistic overtones.
Author: Cengiz Gunes
File Type: pdf
This book examines the Kurds rise as new regional actors in the Middle East and the impact this is having on the regional order. Kurdish political activism has reached a new height in the beginning of the 21st Century with Kurdish movements in Iraq, Turkey and Syria establishing themselves as a significant force in the domestic politics of these states. The consolidation of Kurdish autonomy in Iraq and the establishment of a Kurdish de facto autonomous region within Syria is adding to the Kurds growing influence in the region and enabling Kurds to forge stronger relations with regional and international forces. The author analyses recent developments in the Kurdish question in Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria to understand the inter-connections and inter-dependencies that exist in the transnational Kurdish political space. The books policy relevance is likely to attract strong interest from policy makers as well as from academics and students in the fields of Middle Eastern Politics and International Relations. **From the Back Cover This book examines the Kurds rise as new regional actors in the Middle East and the impact this is having on the regional order. Kurdish political activism has reached a new height in the beginning of 21st Century with Kurdish movements in Iraq, Turkey and Syria establishing themselves as a significant force in the domestic politics of these states. The consolidation of Kurdish autonomy in Iraq and the establishment of a Kurdish de facto autonomous region within Syria is adding to the Kurds growing influence in the region and enabling Kurds to forge stronger relations with regional and international forces. The author analyses recent developments in the Kurdish question in Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria to understand the inter-connections and inter-dependencies that exist in the transnational Kurdish political space. The books policy relevance is likely to attract strong interest from policy makers as well as from academics and students in the fields of Middle Eastern Politics and International Relations. About the Author Cengiz Gunes is Associate Lecturer at the Open University, UK. He is the author of The Kurdish National Movement in Turkey From Protest to Resistance (2012) and co-editor of The Kurdish Question in Turkey New Perspectives on Violence, Representation, and Reconciliation (2014). In addition, he has published a number of peer-reviewed journal articles and chapters in edited books on different aspects of Kurdish politics in the Middle East.
Author: Joshua Rubenstein
File Type: pdf
Joshua Rubensteins riveting account takes us back to the second half of 1952 when no one could foresee an end to Joseph Stalins murderous regime. He was poised to challenge the newly elected U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower with armed force, and was also broadening a vicious campaign against Soviet Jews. Stalins sudden collapse and death in March 1953 was as dramatic and mysterious as his life. It is no overstatement to say that his passing marked a major turning point in the twentieth century. The Last Days of Stalin is an engaging, briskly told account of the dictators final active months, the vigil at his deathbed, and the unfolding of Soviet and international events in the months after his death. Rubenstein throws fresh light onul lthe devious plotting of Beria, Malenkov, Khrushchev, and other comrades in arms who well understood the significance of the dictators impending deathl lthe witness-documented events of his death as compared to official published versionsl lStalins rumored plans to forcibly exile Soviet Jewsl lthe responses of Eisenhower and Secretary of State Dulles to the Kremlins conciliatory gestures after Stalins death andl lthe momentous repercussions when Stalins regime of terror was cut short.l ul**ReviewJoshua Rubenstein, in his vivid, brisk account, describes the months on each side of Stalins death to give the reader a sense of the significance of this turning point.Robbie Millen, the Times(Robbie Millen The Times 2016-04-11) Joshua Rubensteins account of Stalins death and the responses to it is very well done an accessible and engaging book.Geoffrey Roberts, Irish Times(Geoffrey Roberts Irish Times 2016-04-23) Intriguing.David Mikics, Tablet(David Mikics Tablet) A fascinating work.Amy Lewonstin, Library Journal(Amy Lewonstin Library Journal) Joshua Rubenstein tells a gripping tale of the year around Stalins death, including revealing previously unknown details of the trial of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee and Stalins version of the Final Solution, the Doctors Plot.Brett M. Rhyne, The Jewish Advocate(Brett M. Rhyne The Jewish Advocate) Joshua Rubensteins extremely interesting account of the ailing Stalins last days draws upon personal memoirs and new research - and conveys the deep fear inculcated during the Black Years of Soviet Jewry. - Colin Shindler, Jewish Chronicle(Colin Shindler Jewish Chronicle 2016-07-08) Convincing . . . fascinating.Rosemary Sullivan, The Wall Street Journal(Rosemary Sullivan The Wall Street Journal) [Stalins] last days make a dramatic story, and Rubenstein tells it well.Sheila Fitzpatrick, The Guardian(Sheila Fitzpatrick The Guardian 2016-08-20) A compact, chilling account.Harvey Blume, The Arts Fuse(Harvey Blume The Arts Fuse) Engaging. . . highly recommended.D. J. Dunn, Choice(D. J. Dunn Choice) About the Author Joshua Rubenstein is an associate of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University. He was also an organizer and regional director for Amnesty International USA for thirty-seven years. His previous books include the National Jewish Book Award winner Stalins Secret Pogrom and Tangled Loyalties. He lives in Brookline, Massachusetts, with his family.
Author: F. Gerald Downing
File Type: pdf
Law and order found widespread support in the world of the first Christians and, perhaps surprisingly, also trenchant critiques. Justice was not by any means always seen to be done. Acceptance and dissent appear from Jesus and Paul, onwards. **
Author: Thomas S. Henricks
File Type: pdf
In Play and the Human Condition, Thomas Henricks brings together ways of considering play to probe its essential relationship to work, ritual, and communitas. Focusing on five contexts for play--the psyche, the body, the environment, society, and culture--Henricks identifies conditions that instigate play, and comments on its implications for those settings. Offering a general theory of play as behavior promoting self-realization, Henricks articulates a conception of self that includes individual and social identity, particular and transcendent connection, and multiple fields of involvement. Henricks also evaluates play styles from history and contemporary life to analyze the relationship between play and human freedom. Imaginative and stimulating, Play and the Human Condition shows how play allows us to learn about our qualities and those of the world around us--and in so doing make sense of ourselves. **
Author: Brian T. Edwards
File Type: pdf
When Henry Luce announced in 1941 that we were living in an OAmerican century,O he believed the international popularity of American culture made a world favorable to U.S. interests. For decades, his claim seemed to hold. Now, in the digital twenty-first century, the OAmerican centuryO has been superseded, as American movies, music, video games, and television shows are received, understood, and transformed in unexpected ways. How do we make sense of this shift? Built on a decade of fieldwork in Cairo, Casablanca, and Tehran, Brian T. Edwards maps new routes of cultural exchange that are unpredictable, accelerated, and full of diversions. Shaped by the digital revolution, these paths are entwined with the growing fragility of American OsoftO power. They indicate an era after the American century, in which popular American products and phenomena, such as comic books, teen romances, social networking sites, and American ways of expressing sexuality, are stripped of their American associations and creatively re-presented in very different terms. A film like Argo or superhero comics is then imbibed with new meanings. Arguing against those in both scholarly and policy circles who talk about a world in which American culture is merely replicated or appropriated, Edwards focuses instead on creative moments of uptake, in which Arabs and Iranians make something unexpected. He argues that these products do more then extend the reach of the original. They reflect a world in which culture endlessly circulates and gathers new meanings.
Author: Abi Doukhan
File Type: pdf
Our era is profoundly marked by the phenomenon of exile and it is has become increasingly urgent to rethink the concept of exile and our stance towards it. This renewed reflection on the problem of exile brings to the fore a number of questions regarding the traditionally negative connotation of exile. Is there not another way to understand the condition of exile? Permeated with references to the stranger, the other and exteriority, the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas signifies a positive understanding of exile. This original and compelling book distills from Levinass philosophy a wisdom of exile, for the first time shedding a positive light on the condition of exile itself. Abi Doukhan argues that Levinass philosophy can be understood as a comprehensive philosophy of exile, from his ethics to his thoughts on society, love, knowledge, spirituality and art, thereby presenting a comprehensive view of the philosophy of Levinas himself as well as a renewed understanding of the wealth and contribution of exile to a given society.** Our era is profoundly marked by the phenomenon of exile and it is has become increasingly urgent to rethink the concept of exile and our stance towards it. This renewed reflection on the problem of exile brings to the fore a number of questions regarding the traditionally negative connotation of exile. Is there not another way to understand the condition of exile?Permeated with references to the stranger, the other and exteriority, the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas signifies a positive understanding of exile. This original and compelling book distills from Levinass philosophya wisdom of exile, for the first time shedding a positive light on the condition of exile itself. Abi Doukhan argues that Levinass philosophy can be understood as a comprehensive philosophy of exile,from his ethics to his thoughts on society, love, knowledge, spirituality and art, thereby presenting a comprehensive view of the philosophy of Levinas himself as well as a renewed understanding of the wealth and contribution of exile to a given society.