Author: Assistant Professor Of English James Kuzner File Type: pdf Shakespeare as a Way of Life shows how reading Shakespeare helps us to live with epistemological weakness and even to practice this weakness, to make it a way of life. In a series of close readings, Kuzner shows how Hamlet, Lucrece, Othello, The Winters Tale, The Tempest, and Timon of Athens, impel us to grapple with basic uncertainties how we can be free, whether the world is abundant, whether we have met the demands of love and social life. To Kuzner, Shakespeares skepticism doesnt have the enabling potential of Keatss heroic negativity capability, but neither is that skepticism the corrosive disease that necessarily issues in tragedy. While sensitive to both possibilities, Kuzner offers a way to keep negative capability negative while making skepticism livable. Rather than light the way to empowered, liberal subjectivity, Shakespeares works demand lasting disorientation, demand that we practice the impractical so as to reshape the frames by which we view and negotiate the world. The act of reading Shakespeare cannot yield the practical value that cognitive scientists and literary critics attribute to it. His work neither clarifies our sense of ourselves, of others, or of the world nor heartens us about the human capacity for insight and invention nor sharpens our ability to appreciate and adjudicate complex problems of ethics and politics. Shakespeares plays, rather, yield cognitive discomforts, and it is just these discomforts that make them worthwhile. ** Shakespeare as a Way of Lifeshows how reading Shakespeare helps us to live with epistemological weakness and even to practice this weakness, to make it a way of life. In a series of close readings,Kuzner shows how Hamlet,Lucrece,Othello,The Winters Tale,The Tempest, andTimon of Athens, impel us to grapple with basic uncertainties how we can be free, whether the world is abundant, whether we have met the demands of love and social life. To Kuzner, Shakespeares skepticism doesnt have the enabling potential of Keatss heroic negativity capability, but neither is that skepticism the corrosive disease that necessarily issues in tragedy. While sensitive to both possibilities, Kuzner offers a way to keep negative capability negative while making skepticism livable. Rather than light the way to empowered, liberal subjectivity, Shakespeares works demand lasting disorientation, demand that we practice the impractical so as to reshape the frames by which we view and negotiate the world. The act of reading Shakespeare cannot yield the practical value that cognitive scientists and literary critics attribute to it. His work neither clarifies our sense of ourselves, of others, or of the world nor heartens us about the human capacity for insight and invention nor sharpens our ability to appreciate and adjudicate complex problems of ethics and politics. Shakespeares plays, rather, yield cognitive discomforts, and it is just these discomforts that make them worthwhile.

Author: Vlastimir Sudar File Type: pdf In the liberal West as in socialist Yugoslavia, the films of Aleksandar Petrovic dramatize how enforced dogmatism can corrode any political system. A case study of the oft-overlooked Yugoslav directors colorful and eventful career, A Portrait of the Artist as a Political Dissident explores how Petrovic developed specific political and social themes in his films. A response to the political vagaries of his time, these anti-dogmatic views were later to become a trademark of his work. Although interest in socialist Yugoslavia and its legacy has risen steadily since the 1990s, the history of Yugoslav cinema has been scarcely covered, and this book marks a fresh contribution to a burgeoning area of interest.

Author: Marcella Tarozzi Goldsmith File Type: pdf Draws upon a wide range of aesthetic theories and artworks in order to challenge the view that art is valueless or purely subjective. By analyzing the three loci of aesthetics--the subjective, the objective, and the absolute--the author concludes that only the sublime demonstrates that art is neither subjective nor objective. The one essential component of art is the new, the sole instrument that can guarantee arts vitality even when confronted by the nihilistic tendencies of modernity.About the AuthorMarcella Tarozzi Goldsmith, an independent scholar, is the author of Nonrepresentational Forms of the Comic Humor, Irony, and Jokes.

Author: Fred Ash File Type: pdf More than a century before the age of airlines, the windy city of Chicago was already the nations transportation hub. Tightly linked to its railroads, Chicago Union Station provided a way for passengers to reach cities from the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf coasts. In this stunning book, railroad historian Fred Ash tells the story of Chicago Union Station from its beginning in the mid-1800s, when Chicago dominated Midwest trade and was referred to as the Railroad Capital of the World. From the swing in the political climate that significantly modified the relationship between the local government and its largest landholders, to the competition between railroad companies at the turn of the 20th century, the station continued to be a center for prosperity. Profiling the fascinating stories of businessmen, politicians, workers, and immigrants whose everyday lives were affected by the bustling transportation hub, Ash documents the impact Union Station had on the growing city and the entire Midwest.Featuring more than 100 photographs of the famous beaux art architecture, Chicago Union Station is a beautifully illustrated tribute to one of Americas overlooked treasures.**About the Author Fred Ashs interest in railroads, especially passenger trains, was piqued as a teenager and nurtured after moving to Chicago. After thirty years specializing in nonprofit and government finance, he retired to complete this history that has lain in wait for over twenty years.