Graham Anderson
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199264827
- eISBN:
- 9780191718403
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199264827.003.0004
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter examines Gellius' narrative technique, which is that of an erudite collector of curiosities rather than a gifted storyteller. His choice of exempla or chreia-style anecdotes is often ...
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This chapter examines Gellius' narrative technique, which is that of an erudite collector of curiosities rather than a gifted storyteller. His choice of exempla or chreia-style anecdotes is often guided not by their philosophical or moral value, but by antiquarian piquance and their entertainment and titillatory value. Bookishness and antiquarianism are also prominent when he can be measured against others in well-known tales that exist elsewhere, such as Arion and the Dolphin, or Androclus and the Lion. In the former he seems somewhat ponderous, unimaginative and colourless, but shows to better advantage in the latter. His own enthusiasm emerges when he recounts anecdotes about life in the intellectual circles with which he is personally familiar. Here, he is able to narrate the course of events effectively and relate artistically expanded anecdotes capped with an erudite antiquarian flourish.Less
This chapter examines Gellius' narrative technique, which is that of an erudite collector of curiosities rather than a gifted storyteller. His choice of exempla or chreia-style anecdotes is often guided not by their philosophical or moral value, but by antiquarian piquance and their entertainment and titillatory value. Bookishness and antiquarianism are also prominent when he can be measured against others in well-known tales that exist elsewhere, such as Arion and the Dolphin, or Androclus and the Lion. In the former he seems somewhat ponderous, unimaginative and colourless, but shows to better advantage in the latter. His own enthusiasm emerges when he recounts anecdotes about life in the intellectual circles with which he is personally familiar. Here, he is able to narrate the course of events effectively and relate artistically expanded anecdotes capped with an erudite antiquarian flourish.
Karen Junod
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199597000
- eISBN:
- 9780191725357
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199597000.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism
This chapter discusses several biographies of William Hogarth, and explores the nature and function of literary anecdotes in the construction and promotion of the artist's individual and artistic ...
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This chapter discusses several biographies of William Hogarth, and explores the nature and function of literary anecdotes in the construction and promotion of the artist's individual and artistic personality. More precisely, this section discusses the spatial qualities of certain anecdotes contained in John Nichols's Biographical Anecdotes of William Hogarth. It argues that literary anecdotes are the most pictorial and visually effective passages of Nichols's biographical account, and thus function as verbal and textual counterparts to Hogarth's pictures. These brief stories represent biographical images in words and contribute to elaborating an image of Hogarth as an artist that is highly reminiscent of his own portraits of characters.Less
This chapter discusses several biographies of William Hogarth, and explores the nature and function of literary anecdotes in the construction and promotion of the artist's individual and artistic personality. More precisely, this section discusses the spatial qualities of certain anecdotes contained in John Nichols's Biographical Anecdotes of William Hogarth. It argues that literary anecdotes are the most pictorial and visually effective passages of Nichols's biographical account, and thus function as verbal and textual counterparts to Hogarth's pictures. These brief stories represent biographical images in words and contribute to elaborating an image of Hogarth as an artist that is highly reminiscent of his own portraits of characters.
Eric Hayot
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195377965
- eISBN:
- 9780199869435
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195377965.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History, Asian History
This chapter presents a lengthy reading of an account of the torture of a Chinese goldsmith recorded in Edmund Scott's 1606 Exact Discourse of the Subtilties… of the East Indians, and Stephen ...
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This chapter presents a lengthy reading of an account of the torture of a Chinese goldsmith recorded in Edmund Scott's 1606 Exact Discourse of the Subtilties… of the East Indians, and Stephen Greenblatt's reproduction of that account in the introduction to his 1990 collection, Learning to Curse. By moving back and forth between Scott's original account of the torture and Greenblatt's reading of it, the chapter extends Greenblatt's theorization of the anecdote as the emblem of new historicist literary work beyond the limits he himself finds there. A comparison of the edited version of the text Greenblatt cites and the original manuscript allows the chapter to make the case for an anecdotal theory whose treatment of what Greenblatt calls “real bodies” and “real people” nonetheless retains a strong connection to the literary.Less
This chapter presents a lengthy reading of an account of the torture of a Chinese goldsmith recorded in Edmund Scott's 1606 Exact Discourse of the Subtilties… of the East Indians, and Stephen Greenblatt's reproduction of that account in the introduction to his 1990 collection, Learning to Curse. By moving back and forth between Scott's original account of the torture and Greenblatt's reading of it, the chapter extends Greenblatt's theorization of the anecdote as the emblem of new historicist literary work beyond the limits he himself finds there. A comparison of the edited version of the text Greenblatt cites and the original manuscript allows the chapter to make the case for an anecdotal theory whose treatment of what Greenblatt calls “real bodies” and “real people” nonetheless retains a strong connection to the literary.
Clive Skidmore
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780859894777
- eISBN:
- 9781781380673
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9780859894777.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This book presents a collection of historical anecdotes written during the reign of the Emperor Tiberius in the first century ad. The book aims to redefine the significance of the work of Valerius ...
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This book presents a collection of historical anecdotes written during the reign of the Emperor Tiberius in the first century ad. The book aims to redefine the significance of the work of Valerius Maximus, author of The Memorable Deeds of the Men of Rome and Foreign Nations. It argues that modern scholarship's view of Valerius' work as a mere source-book for rhetoricians is misconceived. The popularity of the work during the Middle Ages and Renaissance was due to its value to the readers of those times as a source of moral exhortation and guidance that was as relevant to them as it had been to Valerius' contemporaries. The wider appeal of the book lies in its examination of earlier forms of exemplary literature, in its discussion of how Roman literature was communicated to its audience, and in its original theory concerning the identity of Valerius Maximus himself.Less
This book presents a collection of historical anecdotes written during the reign of the Emperor Tiberius in the first century ad. The book aims to redefine the significance of the work of Valerius Maximus, author of The Memorable Deeds of the Men of Rome and Foreign Nations. It argues that modern scholarship's view of Valerius' work as a mere source-book for rhetoricians is misconceived. The popularity of the work during the Middle Ages and Renaissance was due to its value to the readers of those times as a source of moral exhortation and guidance that was as relevant to them as it had been to Valerius' contemporaries. The wider appeal of the book lies in its examination of earlier forms of exemplary literature, in its discussion of how Roman literature was communicated to its audience, and in its original theory concerning the identity of Valerius Maximus himself.
Catriona Kelly
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198159643
- eISBN:
- 9780191673665
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198159643.003.0019
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
This chapter discusses Nina Sadur and several of her works. Sadur is considered as one of three writers who is currently successful in establishing their own ground, the others being Larisa Vaneeva ...
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This chapter discusses Nina Sadur and several of her works. Sadur is considered as one of three writers who is currently successful in establishing their own ground, the others being Larisa Vaneeva and Svetlana Vasilenko. Sadur is a dramatist who recently turned to prose and is able to create stories that range in length from novellas to miniature anecdotes.Less
This chapter discusses Nina Sadur and several of her works. Sadur is considered as one of three writers who is currently successful in establishing their own ground, the others being Larisa Vaneeva and Svetlana Vasilenko. Sadur is a dramatist who recently turned to prose and is able to create stories that range in length from novellas to miniature anecdotes.
Christopher Pelling
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199588954
- eISBN:
- 9780191728907
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199588954.003.0009
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Prose and Writers: Classical, Early, and Medieval
The Table Talk and the Parallel Lives were written around the same time and had the same dedicatee, Q. Sossius Senecio. Several topics are treated in both works, with closer contact with the Greek ...
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The Table Talk and the Parallel Lives were written around the same time and had the same dedicatee, Q. Sossius Senecio. Several topics are treated in both works, with closer contact with the Greek Lives than the Roman: that corresponds to the types of topic thought to be sympotically appropriate, even when parties involve Roman grandees as well as Greeks. QC 1.1, 614 A-B demands that historical material should be discussed ‘without suspicion’, and this perhaps suggests both a co-operative openness in the behaviour of the diners and an attitude of generosity – but qualified generosity – towards the historical figures who feature in the anecdotes themselves. There are some cases where we can detect the Table Talk exploiting reading done ‘for’ the Lives: there are mild divergences between versions that are best explained in terms of Plutarch's working methods. Perhaps, however, we might have expected more contact than we find: is there a deliberate avoidance of a self-characterisation as ‘the man who is working on the Lives’?Less
The Table Talk and the Parallel Lives were written around the same time and had the same dedicatee, Q. Sossius Senecio. Several topics are treated in both works, with closer contact with the Greek Lives than the Roman: that corresponds to the types of topic thought to be sympotically appropriate, even when parties involve Roman grandees as well as Greeks. QC 1.1, 614 A-B demands that historical material should be discussed ‘without suspicion’, and this perhaps suggests both a co-operative openness in the behaviour of the diners and an attitude of generosity – but qualified generosity – towards the historical figures who feature in the anecdotes themselves. There are some cases where we can detect the Table Talk exploiting reading done ‘for’ the Lives: there are mild divergences between versions that are best explained in terms of Plutarch's working methods. Perhaps, however, we might have expected more contact than we find: is there a deliberate avoidance of a self-characterisation as ‘the man who is working on the Lives’?
Linda Rui Feng
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824841065
- eISBN:
- 9780824868062
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824841065.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
During the Tang dynasty, the imperial capital of Chang’an shaped literati identity and the collective imagination through its new relationship to the empire’s most prolific writers. They came through ...
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During the Tang dynasty, the imperial capital of Chang’an shaped literati identity and the collective imagination through its new relationship to the empire’s most prolific writers. They came through its fold as examination candidates, sojourners, prospective officials, and as participants in pageantries and contests showcasing literary talent. As the central site of examination culture and social transformation, Chang’an emerged in prose narratives with a distinctive and newly formed metropolitan consciousness. In spatially evocative tales and anecdotes featuring literati protagonists, narratives demonstrate the ways in which Chang’an generated new domains of experience and added new perceptual categories to the Tang cultural imagination. In particular, these narratives explore the role of the literati as routine travelers, the interplay between literary prowess and sexual license, and the possibilities for extra-official promotion and unorthodox forms of valuation and livelihood. Because these explorations are subsumed under metropolitan, situational knowledge, they bring to our attention an unprecedented interval of social, existential, and geographical mobility maintained and reinforced by the spatial contiguities of urban space. City of Marvel and Transformation conceptualizes this literary phenomenon, and argues that such narratives amend our understanding of men of letters in between social identities and institutions, as they straddled anonymity and legitimacy.Less
During the Tang dynasty, the imperial capital of Chang’an shaped literati identity and the collective imagination through its new relationship to the empire’s most prolific writers. They came through its fold as examination candidates, sojourners, prospective officials, and as participants in pageantries and contests showcasing literary talent. As the central site of examination culture and social transformation, Chang’an emerged in prose narratives with a distinctive and newly formed metropolitan consciousness. In spatially evocative tales and anecdotes featuring literati protagonists, narratives demonstrate the ways in which Chang’an generated new domains of experience and added new perceptual categories to the Tang cultural imagination. In particular, these narratives explore the role of the literati as routine travelers, the interplay between literary prowess and sexual license, and the possibilities for extra-official promotion and unorthodox forms of valuation and livelihood. Because these explorations are subsumed under metropolitan, situational knowledge, they bring to our attention an unprecedented interval of social, existential, and geographical mobility maintained and reinforced by the spatial contiguities of urban space. City of Marvel and Transformation conceptualizes this literary phenomenon, and argues that such narratives amend our understanding of men of letters in between social identities and institutions, as they straddled anonymity and legitimacy.
Leofranc Holford-Strevens
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199263196
- eISBN:
- 9780191718878
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199263196.003.0014
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Prose and Writers: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter finds Antonine Latin culture uninterested in serious history, preferring piquant or improving anecdotes. Gellius follows suit, but has a love of facts; an interest in historiography is ...
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This chapter finds Antonine Latin culture uninterested in serious history, preferring piquant or improving anecdotes. Gellius follows suit, but has a love of facts; an interest in historiography is harder to substantiate. He knows certain passages of Herodotus, who was in fashion, and once quotes Thucydides; amongst Roman historians the most frequently cited is Claudius Quadrigarius, followed by Cato the Elder and Sallust. The basis of valuation is style; in accordance with Antonine taste, neither Livy nor any subsequent historian is ever mentioned. Gellius takes an interest in chronology, presenting a list of Graeco-Roman synchronisms down to the Second Punic War. Writing apolitically about politics, he admires great men for their words and deeds, but has no concern for their principles.Less
This chapter finds Antonine Latin culture uninterested in serious history, preferring piquant or improving anecdotes. Gellius follows suit, but has a love of facts; an interest in historiography is harder to substantiate. He knows certain passages of Herodotus, who was in fashion, and once quotes Thucydides; amongst Roman historians the most frequently cited is Claudius Quadrigarius, followed by Cato the Elder and Sallust. The basis of valuation is style; in accordance with Antonine taste, neither Livy nor any subsequent historian is ever mentioned. Gellius takes an interest in chronology, presenting a list of Graeco-Roman synchronisms down to the Second Punic War. Writing apolitically about politics, he admires great men for their words and deeds, but has no concern for their principles.
Moshe Simon-Shoshan
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199773732
- eISBN:
- 9780199933129
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199773732.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This chapter places the findings of the previous chapters in the context of other legal texts of the ancient world. Legal writings from the cuneiform literature, the Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls and ...
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This chapter places the findings of the previous chapters in the context of other legal texts of the ancient world. Legal writings from the cuneiform literature, the Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls and Imperial Rome are each subjected to similar literary analysis of as was the Mishnah. Two important conclusions emerge from this comparison. First, only the Roman legal texts contain a similar diversity of literary forms to the Mishnah. This suggests that the Mishnah is in some ways more a product of its late antique Mediterranean milieu than its ancient Near Eastern heritage. The other finding is that the Mishnah is the only legal text considered which lacks a framing story, which serves to establish the authority of the text in its historical origins. The chapter discusses the implications of the Mishnah’s lack of framing stories, arguing that the presence of anecdotes throughout the Mishnah functions as an alternative strategy for setting up a master narrative which establishes the Mishnah’s authority.Less
This chapter places the findings of the previous chapters in the context of other legal texts of the ancient world. Legal writings from the cuneiform literature, the Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls and Imperial Rome are each subjected to similar literary analysis of as was the Mishnah. Two important conclusions emerge from this comparison. First, only the Roman legal texts contain a similar diversity of literary forms to the Mishnah. This suggests that the Mishnah is in some ways more a product of its late antique Mediterranean milieu than its ancient Near Eastern heritage. The other finding is that the Mishnah is the only legal text considered which lacks a framing story, which serves to establish the authority of the text in its historical origins. The chapter discusses the implications of the Mishnah’s lack of framing stories, arguing that the presence of anecdotes throughout the Mishnah functions as an alternative strategy for setting up a master narrative which establishes the Mishnah’s authority.
Christopher Rea
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780520283848
- eISBN:
- 9780520959590
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520283848.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
Literati compiled collections of jokes (xiaohua) throughout the imperial period. In the late Qing, however, jokes aided the livelihood of writers for Shanghai’s booming periodical press. Xiaohua ...
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Literati compiled collections of jokes (xiaohua) throughout the imperial period. In the late Qing, however, jokes aided the livelihood of writers for Shanghai’s booming periodical press. Xiaohua differ from “jokes” in that they can relate true anecdotes as well as fictional scenarios. The ambiguous truth-claim of the xiaohua appealed especially to exposé writers like Wu Jianren and Li Boyuan, who mixed news items, gossip, and apocryphal stories into xiaohua-driven novels about the misbehavior of Qing officials. Formulaic jokes proliferated and became more commoditized during the Republican period, as newspapers and magazines became ever-more hungry for copy that would attract readers. Foreign jokes were widely translated. Chinese jokes from imperial collections were rediscovered and adapted by writers, cartoonists, and performers alike. Chinese jokes circulated abroad in greater volume than ever before. As late as the 1930s, however, critics like Lu Xun still warned of danger in a culture of joking that was more interested in the funny than the true.Less
Literati compiled collections of jokes (xiaohua) throughout the imperial period. In the late Qing, however, jokes aided the livelihood of writers for Shanghai’s booming periodical press. Xiaohua differ from “jokes” in that they can relate true anecdotes as well as fictional scenarios. The ambiguous truth-claim of the xiaohua appealed especially to exposé writers like Wu Jianren and Li Boyuan, who mixed news items, gossip, and apocryphal stories into xiaohua-driven novels about the misbehavior of Qing officials. Formulaic jokes proliferated and became more commoditized during the Republican period, as newspapers and magazines became ever-more hungry for copy that would attract readers. Foreign jokes were widely translated. Chinese jokes from imperial collections were rediscovered and adapted by writers, cartoonists, and performers alike. Chinese jokes circulated abroad in greater volume than ever before. As late as the 1930s, however, critics like Lu Xun still warned of danger in a culture of joking that was more interested in the funny than the true.
Sabine Arnaud
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226275543
- eISBN:
- 9780226275680
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226275680.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter’s analysis of forms of writing focuses on various literary genres adopted by physicians to present the pathology to a lettered and aristocratic audience. Dialogue, autobiography, ...
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This chapter’s analysis of forms of writing focuses on various literary genres adopted by physicians to present the pathology to a lettered and aristocratic audience. Dialogue, autobiography, epistolary treatises, consultation by correspondence, and anecdotes articulated medical knowledge from the beginning of the eighteenth century up to the French Revolution. The chapter describes how the development of such formats shaped a new image of the physician as being close to his patients and presented the pathology as an effect of sensibility and the aristocratic way of life. The chapter’s focus on genres of writing makes it possible to examine how the development of a new approach to the body, the perception of the readership of medical literature, conceptions of medical activities, and the determination of hysteria were all part of the same process of knowledge production.Less
This chapter’s analysis of forms of writing focuses on various literary genres adopted by physicians to present the pathology to a lettered and aristocratic audience. Dialogue, autobiography, epistolary treatises, consultation by correspondence, and anecdotes articulated medical knowledge from the beginning of the eighteenth century up to the French Revolution. The chapter describes how the development of such formats shaped a new image of the physician as being close to his patients and presented the pathology as an effect of sensibility and the aristocratic way of life. The chapter’s focus on genres of writing makes it possible to examine how the development of a new approach to the body, the perception of the readership of medical literature, conceptions of medical activities, and the determination of hysteria were all part of the same process of knowledge production.
Karen Junod
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199597000
- eISBN:
- 9780191725357
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199597000.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism
Chapter 2 and the following one focus on two biographical compendia: Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting in England (1762–80) and Beckford's satirical Biographical Memoirs of Extraordinary Painters ...
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Chapter 2 and the following one focus on two biographical compendia: Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting in England (1762–80) and Beckford's satirical Biographical Memoirs of Extraordinary Painters (1780). Horace Walpole's Anecdotes is usually considered the first comprehensive biographical history of the arts in England. This chapter analyses the literary structure of this text and asks the following questions: how did Walpole define and conceive of his historical project? How did he assess British art? How did he identify and publicly fashion himself as an author? The chapter examines Walpole's appropriations of George Vertue's ‘Notebooks‘. It concludes with a discussion of specific artistic topoi and shows how these formulaic anecdotes contributed to shaping certain images of artists that would developed more fully in the biographies of nineteenth-century British painters.Less
Chapter 2 and the following one focus on two biographical compendia: Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting in England (1762–80) and Beckford's satirical Biographical Memoirs of Extraordinary Painters (1780). Horace Walpole's Anecdotes is usually considered the first comprehensive biographical history of the arts in England. This chapter analyses the literary structure of this text and asks the following questions: how did Walpole define and conceive of his historical project? How did he assess British art? How did he identify and publicly fashion himself as an author? The chapter examines Walpole's appropriations of George Vertue's ‘Notebooks‘. It concludes with a discussion of specific artistic topoi and shows how these formulaic anecdotes contributed to shaping certain images of artists that would developed more fully in the biographies of nineteenth-century British painters.
Stephen Murray
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520238473
- eISBN:
- 9780520930070
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520238473.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History
Modern sermons analyze a particular biblical text at various levels from the scriptures with references to the Fathers. Michel Zink argued that the preacher's apparently artless flow of consciousness ...
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Modern sermons analyze a particular biblical text at various levels from the scriptures with references to the Fathers. Michel Zink argued that the preacher's apparently artless flow of consciousness was deceptive—that the piece of revisionist scholarship was particularly organized in two distinct parts, with a halfway turning point articulated through the almost verbatim repetition of the opening protocol. Zink was apparently perceptive in recognizing this rhetorical bookmark at the middle of the sermon. Although, in fact, the overlapping themes of the successive phases of the sermon obscure any tight structural organization—and given the repetition everywhere apparent in the piece—the presence of one more repeated formula might well have escaped an audience seduced by the word images, the reported dialogues, and the anecdotes of an amusing entertainer. Therefore, the speculated intention may have been quite different from the effect.Less
Modern sermons analyze a particular biblical text at various levels from the scriptures with references to the Fathers. Michel Zink argued that the preacher's apparently artless flow of consciousness was deceptive—that the piece of revisionist scholarship was particularly organized in two distinct parts, with a halfway turning point articulated through the almost verbatim repetition of the opening protocol. Zink was apparently perceptive in recognizing this rhetorical bookmark at the middle of the sermon. Although, in fact, the overlapping themes of the successive phases of the sermon obscure any tight structural organization—and given the repetition everywhere apparent in the piece—the presence of one more repeated formula might well have escaped an audience seduced by the word images, the reported dialogues, and the anecdotes of an amusing entertainer. Therefore, the speculated intention may have been quite different from the effect.
Ann Oakley
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781447349341
- eISBN:
- 9781447349365
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447349341.003.0002
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gender and Sexuality
This chapter documents the beginning stages of a pregnancy primarily in anecdotes, as women recount their initial experiences with the symptoms of pregnancy, their motives and intentions for ...
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This chapter documents the beginning stages of a pregnancy primarily in anecdotes, as women recount their initial experiences with the symptoms of pregnancy, their motives and intentions for motherhood, and seeking family planning and hospital care. Since the advent of contraceptive techniques that are reasonably effective and safe, it is widely assumed that people only have children because they want them — or that this ought to be the reason why children are conceived. But some babies are still conceived unintentionally, so this chapter places the question of whether or not the expectant mother wanted a baby comes before any discussion of people's motives for having children. Aside from these women's experiences, this chapter also documents the more emotional aspects of the initial stages of pregnancy, such as the strong cultural imperative for women to be overjoyed at the sign of pregnancy.Less
This chapter documents the beginning stages of a pregnancy primarily in anecdotes, as women recount their initial experiences with the symptoms of pregnancy, their motives and intentions for motherhood, and seeking family planning and hospital care. Since the advent of contraceptive techniques that are reasonably effective and safe, it is widely assumed that people only have children because they want them — or that this ought to be the reason why children are conceived. But some babies are still conceived unintentionally, so this chapter places the question of whether or not the expectant mother wanted a baby comes before any discussion of people's motives for having children. Aside from these women's experiences, this chapter also documents the more emotional aspects of the initial stages of pregnancy, such as the strong cultural imperative for women to be overjoyed at the sign of pregnancy.
Allen Douglas
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520228764
- eISBN:
- 9780520926943
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520228764.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter discusses the “tears of L'Intran”, which illustrated the satirical attack on the confrontational mass press and the techniques that brought humor from tragedy. The discussion examines ...
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This chapter discusses the “tears of L'Intran”, which illustrated the satirical attack on the confrontational mass press and the techniques that brought humor from tragedy. The discussion examines the moving patriotic anecdotes that were published by the L'Intransigeant, a former leftist newspaper. The Canard made a mockery of these stories and created parodies based on them. Eventually, the L'Intransigeant was known for transforming suffering or tears into militarism, while the Canard was known for transmuting both into humor.Less
This chapter discusses the “tears of L'Intran”, which illustrated the satirical attack on the confrontational mass press and the techniques that brought humor from tragedy. The discussion examines the moving patriotic anecdotes that were published by the L'Intransigeant, a former leftist newspaper. The Canard made a mockery of these stories and created parodies based on them. Eventually, the L'Intransigeant was known for transforming suffering or tears into militarism, while the Canard was known for transmuting both into humor.
Hillel J. Kieval
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520214101
- eISBN:
- 9780520921160
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520214101.003.0011
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter presents an anecdote concerning the return to Prague in 1964 of the writer Max Brod, following an absence of twenty-five years, and the informal gathering of four Jewish figures that ...
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This chapter presents an anecdote concerning the return to Prague in 1964 of the writer Max Brod, following an absence of twenty-five years, and the informal gathering of four Jewish figures that took place in the sitting room of another Czech-Jewish writer, FrantiŠek Langer. It explains that the purpose of the anecdote, as originally recounted, had been to characterize certain Jewish “types” as emblematic of fateful historical choices made by Jews in the Czech lands: the Zionist (now living in Israel), the German-speaking Jew (now enjoying a renaissance of sorts under a liberalized Communist regime), the Czech-Jewish patriot (whose lot was thrown in with the fate of the Czech people in their struggles against external oppression), and the Communist (who recognized that the last, best path of Jewish integration, mobility, and collective security lay in social revolution).Less
This chapter presents an anecdote concerning the return to Prague in 1964 of the writer Max Brod, following an absence of twenty-five years, and the informal gathering of four Jewish figures that took place in the sitting room of another Czech-Jewish writer, FrantiŠek Langer. It explains that the purpose of the anecdote, as originally recounted, had been to characterize certain Jewish “types” as emblematic of fateful historical choices made by Jews in the Czech lands: the Zionist (now living in Israel), the German-speaking Jew (now enjoying a renaissance of sorts under a liberalized Communist regime), the Czech-Jewish patriot (whose lot was thrown in with the fate of the Czech people in their struggles against external oppression), and the Communist (who recognized that the last, best path of Jewish integration, mobility, and collective security lay in social revolution).
Amy Brown
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780816691128
- eISBN:
- 9781452952383
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816691128.003.0001
- Subject:
- Education, Educational Policy and Politics
The Introduction discusses how College Preparatory Academy created its own in-house nonprofit organization, which the authors calls “the Foundation,” in 2008, in order to solicit funds from the ...
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The Introduction discusses how College Preparatory Academy created its own in-house nonprofit organization, which the authors calls “the Foundation,” in 2008, in order to solicit funds from the private sector, most notably a corporate law firm in midtown Manhattan, which the author calls “the Firm.” It also breaks down the statistics of racial diversity within the student population and teacher population at the school, and the percentage rate for graduation and college acceptance. It talks about the history of College Preparatory Academy and the author’s own history with teaching. The Introduction lays out the main argument of the book through a brief anecdote about a benefit for College Prep. It also lays out a basic theoretical framework for the argument in the book.Less
The Introduction discusses how College Preparatory Academy created its own in-house nonprofit organization, which the authors calls “the Foundation,” in 2008, in order to solicit funds from the private sector, most notably a corporate law firm in midtown Manhattan, which the author calls “the Firm.” It also breaks down the statistics of racial diversity within the student population and teacher population at the school, and the percentage rate for graduation and college acceptance. It talks about the history of College Preparatory Academy and the author’s own history with teaching. The Introduction lays out the main argument of the book through a brief anecdote about a benefit for College Prep. It also lays out a basic theoretical framework for the argument in the book.
Jeremy Barris
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823229130
- eISBN:
- 9780823235674
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823229130.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Language
This book seeks to show that we can conceive and live with a pluralism of standpoints with conflicting standards for truth—with the truth of each being entirely unaffected by the ...
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This book seeks to show that we can conceive and live with a pluralism of standpoints with conflicting standards for truth—with the truth of each being entirely unaffected by the truth of the others. The book argues that Plato's work expresses this kind of pluralism, and that this pluralism is important in its own right, whether or not we agree about what Plato's standpoint is. The longest tradition of Plato scholarship identifies crucial faults in Plato's theory of Ideas. The book argues that Plato deliberately displayed those faults, because he wanted to demonstrate that basic kinds of error or illogic have dimensions that are crucial to the establishing of truth. These dimensions legitimate a paradoxical coordination of logically incompatible conceptions of truth. Connecting this idea with emerging currents of Plato scholarship, the book emphasizes, in addition to the dialogues' arguments, the importance of their nonargumentative features, including drama, myths, fictions, anecdotes, and humor. These unanalyzed nonargumentative features function rigorously, as a lever with which to examine the enterprise of rational argument itself, without presupposing its standards or illegitimately assimilating any position to the standards of another. Today, communities are torn apart by conflicts within and between a host of different pluralist and absolutist commitments. The possibility developed in this book—a coordination of absolute and relative truth that allows an understanding of some relativist and some absolutist positions as being fully legitimate and as capable of existing in a relation to their opposites—may contribute to perspectives for resolving these conflicts.Less
This book seeks to show that we can conceive and live with a pluralism of standpoints with conflicting standards for truth—with the truth of each being entirely unaffected by the truth of the others. The book argues that Plato's work expresses this kind of pluralism, and that this pluralism is important in its own right, whether or not we agree about what Plato's standpoint is. The longest tradition of Plato scholarship identifies crucial faults in Plato's theory of Ideas. The book argues that Plato deliberately displayed those faults, because he wanted to demonstrate that basic kinds of error or illogic have dimensions that are crucial to the establishing of truth. These dimensions legitimate a paradoxical coordination of logically incompatible conceptions of truth. Connecting this idea with emerging currents of Plato scholarship, the book emphasizes, in addition to the dialogues' arguments, the importance of their nonargumentative features, including drama, myths, fictions, anecdotes, and humor. These unanalyzed nonargumentative features function rigorously, as a lever with which to examine the enterprise of rational argument itself, without presupposing its standards or illegitimately assimilating any position to the standards of another. Today, communities are torn apart by conflicts within and between a host of different pluralist and absolutist commitments. The possibility developed in this book—a coordination of absolute and relative truth that allows an understanding of some relativist and some absolutist positions as being fully legitimate and as capable of existing in a relation to their opposites—may contribute to perspectives for resolving these conflicts.
Carla Bellamy
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520262805
- eISBN:
- 9780520950450
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520262805.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
This chapter provides a representative collection of the forms of anecdote, narrative, and story available in ambiguously Muslim spaces. It demonstrates how compatible these flexible and endlessly ...
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This chapter provides a representative collection of the forms of anecdote, narrative, and story available in ambiguously Muslim spaces. It demonstrates how compatible these flexible and endlessly interpretable forms are to negotiating the situations in which pilgrims find themselves. The chapter also tries to show that the experience of healing that is offered at the dargāh is filled far more with retrogression, unknowing, and ambiguity than the narratives of many “recovered” pilgrims would suggest.Less
This chapter provides a representative collection of the forms of anecdote, narrative, and story available in ambiguously Muslim spaces. It demonstrates how compatible these flexible and endlessly interpretable forms are to negotiating the situations in which pilgrims find themselves. The chapter also tries to show that the experience of healing that is offered at the dargāh is filled far more with retrogression, unknowing, and ambiguity than the narratives of many “recovered” pilgrims would suggest.
Lee Spinks
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719066320
- eISBN:
- 9781781703113
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719066320.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This chapter studies Ondaatje's long poem, the highly successful The Collected Works of Billy the Kid, stating that this volume served as a turning point in Ondaatje's career, and focusing on Billy ...
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This chapter studies Ondaatje's long poem, the highly successful The Collected Works of Billy the Kid, stating that this volume served as a turning point in Ondaatje's career, and focusing on Billy the Kid's final outlaw year on the New Mexico frontier. It shows that Billy the Kid combines a wide range of different registers, including historical romance and oral anecdote. The chapter then discusses Ondaatje's intertextual vision of Billy's legend, as well as its similarities with the genre of ‘historiographic metafiction’. It determines that Ondaatje's true interest in this novel was the hint of a vision unconstrained by social norms or a moral image of life.Less
This chapter studies Ondaatje's long poem, the highly successful The Collected Works of Billy the Kid, stating that this volume served as a turning point in Ondaatje's career, and focusing on Billy the Kid's final outlaw year on the New Mexico frontier. It shows that Billy the Kid combines a wide range of different registers, including historical romance and oral anecdote. The chapter then discusses Ondaatje's intertextual vision of Billy's legend, as well as its similarities with the genre of ‘historiographic metafiction’. It determines that Ondaatje's true interest in this novel was the hint of a vision unconstrained by social norms or a moral image of life.
