Steven Kepnes
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195313819
- eISBN:
- 9780199785650
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195313819.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
Cohen's Religion of Reason is based on careful textual reasonings of Torah and creative interpretations of Jewish liturgies such as the Sabbath and High Holidays. Cohen places liturgy at the crucial ...
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Cohen's Religion of Reason is based on careful textual reasonings of Torah and creative interpretations of Jewish liturgies such as the Sabbath and High Holidays. Cohen places liturgy at the crucial bridge points between the self and the other, the self and the community, and the self and God. Cohen uses liturgy to map out a path for the growth of the self into moral autonomy. I refer to this moral self as a “liturgical self.” What Cohen's liturgical self explains, and Kantian ethics does not, is how the individual becomes at once autonomous and moral, at once for others, for itself, and for its community. Cohen's textual and liturgical thinking makes him an important resource to critique both modern foundational and postmodern views of the self‐other relation.Less
Cohen's Religion of Reason is based on careful textual reasonings of Torah and creative interpretations of Jewish liturgies such as the Sabbath and High Holidays. Cohen places liturgy at the crucial bridge points between the self and the other, the self and the community, and the self and God. Cohen uses liturgy to map out a path for the growth of the self into moral autonomy. I refer to this moral self as a “liturgical self.” What Cohen's liturgical self explains, and Kantian ethics does not, is how the individual becomes at once autonomous and moral, at once for others, for itself, and for its community. Cohen's textual and liturgical thinking makes him an important resource to critique both modern foundational and postmodern views of the self‐other relation.
C. L. Barber
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691149523
- eISBN:
- 9781400839858
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691149523.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
During Shakespeare's lifetime, England became conscious of holiday custom as it had not been before, in the very period when in many areas the keeping of holidays was on the decline. Shakespeare, ...
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During Shakespeare's lifetime, England became conscious of holiday custom as it had not been before, in the very period when in many areas the keeping of holidays was on the decline. Shakespeare, coming to London from a rich market town, growing up in the relatively unselfconscious 1570s and 1580s and writing his festive plays in the decade of the 1590s, when most of the major elements in English society enjoyed a moment of reconcilement, was perfectly situated to express both a countryman's participation in holiday and a city man's consciousness of it. This chapter considers two principal forms of festivity, the May games and the Lord of Misrule, noticing particularly how what is done by the group of celebrants involves the composition of experience in ways which literature and drama could take over.Less
During Shakespeare's lifetime, England became conscious of holiday custom as it had not been before, in the very period when in many areas the keeping of holidays was on the decline. Shakespeare, coming to London from a rich market town, growing up in the relatively unselfconscious 1570s and 1580s and writing his festive plays in the decade of the 1590s, when most of the major elements in English society enjoyed a moment of reconcilement, was perfectly situated to express both a countryman's participation in holiday and a city man's consciousness of it. This chapter considers two principal forms of festivity, the May games and the Lord of Misrule, noticing particularly how what is done by the group of celebrants involves the composition of experience in ways which literature and drama could take over.
Arieh Bruce Saposnik
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195331219
- eISBN:
- 9780199868100
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195331219.003.0011
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This chapter examines the “language war”—the effort to establish Hebrew as the language of instruction in Haifa's Technion and its high school—as a defining struggle for the Yishuv's national ...
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This chapter examines the “language war”—the effort to establish Hebrew as the language of instruction in Haifa's Technion and its high school—as a defining struggle for the Yishuv's national culture. Together with the fight against missionary institutions that preceded it, this was a battle for institutional and organizational autonomy (in particular, from the German‐Jewish Hilfsverein), for the hegemony of the Hebraist nationalizing elite in Jewish Palestine, and for the supremacy of that group's vision of national culture. Bearing quasi‐religious overtones of cataclysmic conflict, the undertaking was incorporated into new holidays such as “Flower Day” and transformed traditional celebrations. Frequent conflations of educational struggle with escalating national conflict and the fallen of Ha‐Shomer* proved formative for new Hebrew masculinities and femininities. By the outbreak of WWI, a distinct culture had emerged in which an altered distribution of power between the Yishuv and the Diaspora was an essential component.Less
This chapter examines the “language war”—the effort to establish Hebrew as the language of instruction in Haifa's Technion and its high school—as a defining struggle for the Yishuv's national culture. Together with the fight against missionary institutions that preceded it, this was a battle for institutional and organizational autonomy (in particular, from the German‐Jewish Hilfsverein), for the hegemony of the Hebraist nationalizing elite in Jewish Palestine, and for the supremacy of that group's vision of national culture. Bearing quasi‐religious overtones of cataclysmic conflict, the undertaking was incorporated into new holidays such as “Flower Day” and transformed traditional celebrations. Frequent conflations of educational struggle with escalating national conflict and the fallen of Ha‐Shomer* proved formative for new Hebrew masculinities and femininities. By the outbreak of WWI, a distinct culture had emerged in which an altered distribution of power between the Yishuv and the Diaspora was an essential component.
Arieh Bruce Saposnik
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195331219
- eISBN:
- 9780199868100
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195331219.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This chapter examines the impact of the “Uganda proposal” on Zionist cultural activity in Palestine. The small Zionist Yishuv (prestate community) was deeply divided between supporters and opponents ...
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This chapter examines the impact of the “Uganda proposal” on Zionist cultural activity in Palestine. The small Zionist Yishuv (prestate community) was deeply divided between supporters and opponents of a British offer of what some understood to be Jewish statehood in East Africa. In the bitter debate that ensued, political‐organizational divisions and personal rivalries fused with ideological discord and divergent visions of Jewish nationhood and the future national culture. Both sides considered their opponents to be exemplars of “exilic” thinking, evidence of Jewish disease, and lack of a healthy national constitution. Ultimately, the chapter argues, the controversy helped to give new form to the discourse of Zionism in Palestine and to the character of the Yishuv's public spaces, as holidays and community celebrations were given the form of a national liturgy.Less
This chapter examines the impact of the “Uganda proposal” on Zionist cultural activity in Palestine. The small Zionist Yishuv (prestate community) was deeply divided between supporters and opponents of a British offer of what some understood to be Jewish statehood in East Africa. In the bitter debate that ensued, political‐organizational divisions and personal rivalries fused with ideological discord and divergent visions of Jewish nationhood and the future national culture. Both sides considered their opponents to be exemplars of “exilic” thinking, evidence of Jewish disease, and lack of a healthy national constitution. Ultimately, the chapter argues, the controversy helped to give new form to the discourse of Zionism in Palestine and to the character of the Yishuv's public spaces, as holidays and community celebrations were given the form of a national liturgy.
C. L. Barber
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691149523
- eISBN:
- 9781400839858
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691149523.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter explores the connections between Shakespeare's comedies and Elizabethan holidays. It argues that the saturnalian pattern came to Shakespeare from many sources, both in social and ...
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This chapter explores the connections between Shakespeare's comedies and Elizabethan holidays. It argues that the saturnalian pattern came to Shakespeare from many sources, both in social and artistic tradition. It appeared in the theatrical institution of clowning: the clown or Vice, when Shakespeare started to write, was a recognized anarchist who made aberration obvious by carrying release to absurd extremes. The cult of fools and folly, half social and half literary, embodied a similar polarization of experience. One could formulate the saturnalian pattern effectively by referring first to these traditions: Shakespeare's first completely masterful comic scenes were written for the clowns. But the festival occasion provides the clearest paradigm. It can illuminate not only those comedies where Shakespeare drew largely and directly on holiday motifs, like Love's Labour's Lost, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Twelfth Night, but also plays where there is relatively little direct use of holiday, notably As You Like It and Henry IV.Less
This chapter explores the connections between Shakespeare's comedies and Elizabethan holidays. It argues that the saturnalian pattern came to Shakespeare from many sources, both in social and artistic tradition. It appeared in the theatrical institution of clowning: the clown or Vice, when Shakespeare started to write, was a recognized anarchist who made aberration obvious by carrying release to absurd extremes. The cult of fools and folly, half social and half literary, embodied a similar polarization of experience. One could formulate the saturnalian pattern effectively by referring first to these traditions: Shakespeare's first completely masterful comic scenes were written for the clowns. But the festival occasion provides the clearest paradigm. It can illuminate not only those comedies where Shakespeare drew largely and directly on holiday motifs, like Love's Labour's Lost, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Twelfth Night, but also plays where there is relatively little direct use of holiday, notably As You Like It and Henry IV.
Penne L. Restad
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195109801
- eISBN:
- 9780199854073
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195109801.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
Within the first forty years of the 19th century, the adaptation and continuous molding of Christmas reflected the growing sense of regional and cultural identity in the land. During those years, the ...
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Within the first forty years of the 19th century, the adaptation and continuous molding of Christmas reflected the growing sense of regional and cultural identity in the land. During those years, the Christmas holiday gained wide recognition. But it was not until the end of Civil War in the 1870s that there was yet another transition towards the modern Yuletide holiday, where similarities among the diverse regions surpassed their differences. This started to showcase a unified national holiday. This chapter tackles growth in the awareness of Christmas in America as a result of trends, events, and expansion of national media led by the North. It was the North who defined the national culture and solidified the aftermath of the Civil War, acquiring a unified sense of Christmas, with one set of rituals, symbols, and meanings, and a unified patter of a national holiday.Less
Within the first forty years of the 19th century, the adaptation and continuous molding of Christmas reflected the growing sense of regional and cultural identity in the land. During those years, the Christmas holiday gained wide recognition. But it was not until the end of Civil War in the 1870s that there was yet another transition towards the modern Yuletide holiday, where similarities among the diverse regions surpassed their differences. This started to showcase a unified national holiday. This chapter tackles growth in the awareness of Christmas in America as a result of trends, events, and expansion of national media led by the North. It was the North who defined the national culture and solidified the aftermath of the Civil War, acquiring a unified sense of Christmas, with one set of rituals, symbols, and meanings, and a unified patter of a national holiday.
Gary Cross
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195156669
- eISBN:
- 9780199868254
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195156669.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
Christmas, Easter, Halloween, and birthdays are rituals invented by adults to evoke in their children the wonder of innocence. The images of the cute child were realized in these rituals, very often ...
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Christmas, Easter, Halloween, and birthdays are rituals invented by adults to evoke in their children the wonder of innocence. The images of the cute child were realized in these rituals, very often expressed in gift giving. Holidays and pilgrimages, once expressions of deep communal needs, became the quintessential festivals of wondrous innocence, while vacations and tourist sites increasingly were changed into children's times and places. This transformation coincided both with new attitudes toward the young and with the rise of consumerism. To make sense of these subtle and ambiguous changes, the present chapter reconsiders the traditional meanings of festival rites and why they have survived the revolutionary changes of modern capitalism.Less
Christmas, Easter, Halloween, and birthdays are rituals invented by adults to evoke in their children the wonder of innocence. The images of the cute child were realized in these rituals, very often expressed in gift giving. Holidays and pilgrimages, once expressions of deep communal needs, became the quintessential festivals of wondrous innocence, while vacations and tourist sites increasingly were changed into children's times and places. This transformation coincided both with new attitudes toward the young and with the rise of consumerism. To make sense of these subtle and ambiguous changes, the present chapter reconsiders the traditional meanings of festival rites and why they have survived the revolutionary changes of modern capitalism.
C. L. Barber
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691149523
- eISBN:
- 9781400839858
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691149523.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter examines Shakespeare's Henry IV. The two parts of Henry IV are an astonishing development of drama in the direction of inclusiveness, a development possible because of the range of the ...
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This chapter examines Shakespeare's Henry IV. The two parts of Henry IV are an astonishing development of drama in the direction of inclusiveness, a development possible because of the range of the traditional culture and the popular theater, but realized only because Shakespeare's genius for construction matched his receptivity. Early in his career, Shakespeare made brilliant use of the long standing tradition of comic accompaniment and counterstatement by the clown. Now suddenly he takes the diverse elements in the potpourri of the popular chronicle play and composes a structure in which they draw each other out. The implications of the saturnalian attitude are more drastically and inclusively expressed here than anywhere else, because here misrule is presented along with rule and along with the tensions that challenge rule. Shakespeare dramatizes not only holiday but also the need for holiday and the need to limit holiday.Less
This chapter examines Shakespeare's Henry IV. The two parts of Henry IV are an astonishing development of drama in the direction of inclusiveness, a development possible because of the range of the traditional culture and the popular theater, but realized only because Shakespeare's genius for construction matched his receptivity. Early in his career, Shakespeare made brilliant use of the long standing tradition of comic accompaniment and counterstatement by the clown. Now suddenly he takes the diverse elements in the potpourri of the popular chronicle play and composes a structure in which they draw each other out. The implications of the saturnalian attitude are more drastically and inclusively expressed here than anywhere else, because here misrule is presented along with rule and along with the tensions that challenge rule. Shakespeare dramatizes not only holiday but also the need for holiday and the need to limit holiday.
Beth Kreitzer
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195166545
- eISBN:
- 9780199835188
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019516654X.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This chapter explores Lutheran sermons on texts in which Mary appears. In the Christmas story from Luke 2:1-20, Jesus as the promised messiah is the focus of sermons despite Mary’s vital role in the ...
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This chapter explores Lutheran sermons on texts in which Mary appears. In the Christmas story from Luke 2:1-20, Jesus as the promised messiah is the focus of sermons despite Mary’s vital role in the events that took place. In the story of Jesus’ passion, the significance of Mary at the cross is minimized, and the growing devotion to Mary as coredemptrix is ignored. Sermons on the three important holidays celebrating Mary’s conception, birth, and assumption appear only in the earliest postils.Less
This chapter explores Lutheran sermons on texts in which Mary appears. In the Christmas story from Luke 2:1-20, Jesus as the promised messiah is the focus of sermons despite Mary’s vital role in the events that took place. In the story of Jesus’ passion, the significance of Mary at the cross is minimized, and the growing devotion to Mary as coredemptrix is ignored. Sermons on the three important holidays celebrating Mary’s conception, birth, and assumption appear only in the earliest postils.
John McManners
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198270041
- eISBN:
- 9780191600692
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198270046.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
Methodological problems abound in the study of the history of popular religion, and it is better not to make too rigid a division between the religion of the people and that of the clerical ...
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Methodological problems abound in the study of the history of popular religion, and it is better not to make too rigid a division between the religion of the people and that of the clerical establishment. Literacy was growing in the eighteenth century and most reading matter had a religious content, but its use for the understanding of popular mentalities is limited. The reforming clergy saw themselves as the guardians of morals and made a consistent effort to suppress frivolity at religious festivities and to limit the number of holidays; here acting in concert with the state and Enlightenment reformers who wished to limit the days on which people did not work. The clergy also sought to control the credulity of the people by asserting their control over what should be considered a miracle and by absorbing folk practices into the fabric of routine institutional religion.Less
Methodological problems abound in the study of the history of popular religion, and it is better not to make too rigid a division between the religion of the people and that of the clerical establishment. Literacy was growing in the eighteenth century and most reading matter had a religious content, but its use for the understanding of popular mentalities is limited. The reforming clergy saw themselves as the guardians of morals and made a consistent effort to suppress frivolity at religious festivities and to limit the number of holidays; here acting in concert with the state and Enlightenment reformers who wished to limit the days on which people did not work. The clergy also sought to control the credulity of the people by asserting their control over what should be considered a miracle and by absorbing folk practices into the fabric of routine institutional religion.
Sarah Wobick-Segev
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781503605145
- eISBN:
- 9781503606548
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9781503605145.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Jewish Studies
This book is the first comparative study of Jewish communities in Western, Central, and Eastern Europe. It analyzes how Jews used social and religious spaces to reformulate patterns of fraternity, ...
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This book is the first comparative study of Jewish communities in Western, Central, and Eastern Europe. It analyzes how Jews used social and religious spaces to reformulate patterns of fraternity, celebration, and family formation and expressions of self-identification. It suggests that the social patterns that developed between 1890 and the 1930s were formative for the fundamental reshaping of Jewish community and remain essential to our understanding of contemporary Jewish life. Focusing on the social interactions of urban European Jews, this book offers a new perspective on how Jews confronted the challenges of modernity. As membership in the official community was becoming increasingly a matter of individual choice, Jews created spaces to meet new social and emotional needs. Cafés, hotels, and restaurants became places to gather and celebrate festivals and holy days, and summer camps served as sites for the informal education of young children. These places facilitated the option of secular Jewish belonging, marking a clear distinction between Judaism and Jewishness that would have been impossible on a large scale in the pre-emancipation era. By creating new centers for Jewish life, a growing number of historical actors, including women and youth, took the process of community building into their own hands. The contexts of Jewish life expanded beyond the confines of “traditional” Jewish spaces and sometimes challenged the desires of Jewish authorities. The book further argues that these social practices remained vital in reconstructing certain Jewish communities in the wake of the devastation of the Holocaust.Less
This book is the first comparative study of Jewish communities in Western, Central, and Eastern Europe. It analyzes how Jews used social and religious spaces to reformulate patterns of fraternity, celebration, and family formation and expressions of self-identification. It suggests that the social patterns that developed between 1890 and the 1930s were formative for the fundamental reshaping of Jewish community and remain essential to our understanding of contemporary Jewish life. Focusing on the social interactions of urban European Jews, this book offers a new perspective on how Jews confronted the challenges of modernity. As membership in the official community was becoming increasingly a matter of individual choice, Jews created spaces to meet new social and emotional needs. Cafés, hotels, and restaurants became places to gather and celebrate festivals and holy days, and summer camps served as sites for the informal education of young children. These places facilitated the option of secular Jewish belonging, marking a clear distinction between Judaism and Jewishness that would have been impossible on a large scale in the pre-emancipation era. By creating new centers for Jewish life, a growing number of historical actors, including women and youth, took the process of community building into their own hands. The contexts of Jewish life expanded beyond the confines of “traditional” Jewish spaces and sometimes challenged the desires of Jewish authorities. The book further argues that these social practices remained vital in reconstructing certain Jewish communities in the wake of the devastation of the Holocaust.
Joanna Brooks
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195332919
- eISBN:
- 9780199851263
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195332919.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, African-American Literature
This chapter examines three foundational texts in the history of Prince Hall Freemasonry: John Marrant's Sermon to the African Lodge of the Honourable Society of Free and Accepted Masons (1789) and ...
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This chapter examines three foundational texts in the history of Prince Hall Freemasonry: John Marrant's Sermon to the African Lodge of the Honourable Society of Free and Accepted Masons (1789) and Prince Hall's Charges to the lodge at Charlestown (1792) and Menotomy (1797). Hall and Marrant delivered these speeches at public celebrations of Masonic holidays. There, before audiences of black and white Bostonians, they revealed that the legacy of ancient Egypt and the biblical destiny of Ethiopia belonged to African Americans. And, according to Hall and Marrant, this destiny was already unfolding.Less
This chapter examines three foundational texts in the history of Prince Hall Freemasonry: John Marrant's Sermon to the African Lodge of the Honourable Society of Free and Accepted Masons (1789) and Prince Hall's Charges to the lodge at Charlestown (1792) and Menotomy (1797). Hall and Marrant delivered these speeches at public celebrations of Masonic holidays. There, before audiences of black and white Bostonians, they revealed that the legacy of ancient Egypt and the biblical destiny of Ethiopia belonged to African Americans. And, according to Hall and Marrant, this destiny was already unfolding.
Amy Speier
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781479827664
- eISBN:
- 9781479858996
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479827664.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Medical Anthropology
Millions of North Americans are priced out of North America’s expensive reproductive medicine industry. Ultimately, women learn about the possibility of doing IVF abroad, and this book reveals the ...
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Millions of North Americans are priced out of North America’s expensive reproductive medicine industry. Ultimately, women learn about the possibility of doing IVF abroad, and this book reveals the layers of desire that motivate them to travel halfway across the world in their quest for parenthood. A global marketing chain has brilliantly packaged “fertility holidays”: a European vacation alongside a healthcare system where doctors really care and want you to have your beautiful white baby. Brokers promise couples that they will experience a more relaxing IVF cycle while also assuring them Czech doctors offer better care along with the highest standards of technology. Ultimately, my book reveals the alienation of poor patients in the U.S., their active response as they assume the role of global consumers of health care. Fertility clinics around the globe have begun to develop marketing schemes that cater to this North American desire for care, since it is an obvious deficiency in our healthcare system.Less
Millions of North Americans are priced out of North America’s expensive reproductive medicine industry. Ultimately, women learn about the possibility of doing IVF abroad, and this book reveals the layers of desire that motivate them to travel halfway across the world in their quest for parenthood. A global marketing chain has brilliantly packaged “fertility holidays”: a European vacation alongside a healthcare system where doctors really care and want you to have your beautiful white baby. Brokers promise couples that they will experience a more relaxing IVF cycle while also assuring them Czech doctors offer better care along with the highest standards of technology. Ultimately, my book reveals the alienation of poor patients in the U.S., their active response as they assume the role of global consumers of health care. Fertility clinics around the globe have begun to develop marketing schemes that cater to this North American desire for care, since it is an obvious deficiency in our healthcare system.
Penne Lee Restad
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195109801
- eISBN:
- 9780199854073
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195109801.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
The history of Christmas has always been an ambiguous meld of sacred thoughts and worldly actions— as well as a fascinating reflection of our changing society. This book captures the rise and ...
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The history of Christmas has always been an ambiguous meld of sacred thoughts and worldly actions— as well as a fascinating reflection of our changing society. This book captures the rise and transformation of our most universal national holiday. In colonial times, it was celebrated either as an utterly solemn or a wildly social event—if it was celebrated at all. Virginians hunted, danced, and feasted. City dwellers flooded the streets in raucous demonstrations. Puritan New Englanders denounced the whole affair. As times changed, Christmas changed—and grew in popularity. In the early 1800s, New York served as an epicenter of the newly emerging holiday, drawing on its roots as a Dutch colony (St. Nicholas was particularly popular in the Netherlands, even after the Reformation), and aided by such men as Washington Irving. In 1822, another New Yorker named Clement Clarke Moore penned a poem now known as“'Twas the Night Before Christmas,” virtually inventing the modern Santa Claus. Well-to-do townspeople displayed a German novelty, the decorated fir tree, in their parlors, and an enterprising printer discovered the money to be made from Christmas cards. The homecoming significance of the holiday increased with the Civil War, and by the end of the 19th century a fully-fledged national holiday had materialized. In the 20th century, Christmas seeped into every niche of our conscious and unconscious lives to become a festival of epic proportions.Less
The history of Christmas has always been an ambiguous meld of sacred thoughts and worldly actions— as well as a fascinating reflection of our changing society. This book captures the rise and transformation of our most universal national holiday. In colonial times, it was celebrated either as an utterly solemn or a wildly social event—if it was celebrated at all. Virginians hunted, danced, and feasted. City dwellers flooded the streets in raucous demonstrations. Puritan New Englanders denounced the whole affair. As times changed, Christmas changed—and grew in popularity. In the early 1800s, New York served as an epicenter of the newly emerging holiday, drawing on its roots as a Dutch colony (St. Nicholas was particularly popular in the Netherlands, even after the Reformation), and aided by such men as Washington Irving. In 1822, another New Yorker named Clement Clarke Moore penned a poem now known as“'Twas the Night Before Christmas,” virtually inventing the modern Santa Claus. Well-to-do townspeople displayed a German novelty, the decorated fir tree, in their parlors, and an enterprising printer discovered the money to be made from Christmas cards. The homecoming significance of the holiday increased with the Civil War, and by the end of the 19th century a fully-fledged national holiday had materialized. In the 20th century, Christmas seeped into every niche of our conscious and unconscious lives to become a festival of epic proportions.
Maggie Kilgour
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199589432
- eISBN:
- 9780191738500
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199589432.003.0003
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Chapter 2 positions the young Milton in relation to major trends of Caroline Ovidianism, represented by both the libertine poets and the court masques. Given the role of Ovid in courtly ...
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Chapter 2 positions the young Milton in relation to major trends of Caroline Ovidianism, represented by both the libertine poets and the court masques. Given the role of Ovid in courtly self‐representation, it suggests that rewriting Ovid drew Milton inevitably into political debates. It returns to the Latin works and Comus to look particularly at the moments when Milton reworks Ovid's Fasti. Drawing on recent scholarship on Ovid's poetic calendar, it demonstrates that the poem's experimentation with genre and its preoccupation with the poetics and politics of time spoke to the concerns of 16th‐ and 17th‐century English writers. Ovid's calendar is recalled in discussions by antiquarians of English holidays and customs, and in debates over chastity which looked back to the stories of Daphne and Lucrece. As well as playing a crucial role in Milton's poetical development, Ovid is bound up in his political awakening.Less
Chapter 2 positions the young Milton in relation to major trends of Caroline Ovidianism, represented by both the libertine poets and the court masques. Given the role of Ovid in courtly self‐representation, it suggests that rewriting Ovid drew Milton inevitably into political debates. It returns to the Latin works and Comus to look particularly at the moments when Milton reworks Ovid's Fasti. Drawing on recent scholarship on Ovid's poetic calendar, it demonstrates that the poem's experimentation with genre and its preoccupation with the poetics and politics of time spoke to the concerns of 16th‐ and 17th‐century English writers. Ovid's calendar is recalled in discussions by antiquarians of English holidays and customs, and in debates over chastity which looked back to the stories of Daphne and Lucrece. As well as playing a crucial role in Milton's poetical development, Ovid is bound up in his political awakening.
Penne L. Restad
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195109801
- eISBN:
- 9780199854073
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195109801.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
Despite the recognition of Christmas during the pre-revolutionary and revolutionary days of America, the Yuletide season did not gain its popularity for many years. It was during the 1820s that ...
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Despite the recognition of Christmas during the pre-revolutionary and revolutionary days of America, the Yuletide season did not gain its popularity for many years. It was during the 1820s that things changed when modernization helped to spread beliefs about the birth of Christ. When new railroads and roads were built across the land, Americans started to feel connected, and this provided an effective medium for the birth of the essence of a new Christmas tradition. This chapter tackles the growth and the increasing prominence of the celebration of Christmas in the vast geography and ethnicity of America. It is during this time that the wide acceptance of Christmas as a national holiday was finally achieved.Less
Despite the recognition of Christmas during the pre-revolutionary and revolutionary days of America, the Yuletide season did not gain its popularity for many years. It was during the 1820s that things changed when modernization helped to spread beliefs about the birth of Christ. When new railroads and roads were built across the land, Americans started to feel connected, and this provided an effective medium for the birth of the essence of a new Christmas tradition. This chapter tackles the growth and the increasing prominence of the celebration of Christmas in the vast geography and ethnicity of America. It is during this time that the wide acceptance of Christmas as a national holiday was finally achieved.
Michael Keane, Anthony Fung, and Albert Moran
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9789622098206
- eISBN:
- 9789882207219
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789622098206.003.0009
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Television
This chapter examines the influence of reality-television formats in East Asia and looks at how they function as alternative models of program investment and production. While reality television is a ...
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This chapter examines the influence of reality-television formats in East Asia and looks at how they function as alternative models of program investment and production. While reality television is a product of European and North American television systems, it has a different provenance in East Asian society. Reality television provides a fresh alternative to documentary, an expository form that state-owned broadcasters actively exploited for the explicit purpose of state-building. In 2002, the first survival reality show in East Asia, Into Shangrila, was conceived in China. Within a short time, other programs emerged such as Perfect Holiday and Indiana Jones. Most of these shows were promoted as exercises in documentary anthropology rather than just escapist game shows.Less
This chapter examines the influence of reality-television formats in East Asia and looks at how they function as alternative models of program investment and production. While reality television is a product of European and North American television systems, it has a different provenance in East Asian society. Reality television provides a fresh alternative to documentary, an expository form that state-owned broadcasters actively exploited for the explicit purpose of state-building. In 2002, the first survival reality show in East Asia, Into Shangrila, was conceived in China. Within a short time, other programs emerged such as Perfect Holiday and Indiana Jones. Most of these shows were promoted as exercises in documentary anthropology rather than just escapist game shows.
Keith Robbins
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198205852
- eISBN:
- 9780191676819
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205852.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This is a study of two conflicting trends in nineteenth-century Britain: the promotion of integration and unity, and the commitment to preserve regional diversity. In the nineteenth century, ...
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This is a study of two conflicting trends in nineteenth-century Britain: the promotion of integration and unity, and the commitment to preserve regional diversity. In the nineteenth century, communications between different parts of Britain improved enormously, through the spread of railways, the penny post, newspapers, and increased affluence which enabled more people to take holidays; but this did not necessarily lead to uniformity. The Scots and the Welsh in particular were concerned to retain their own ‘nationality’ and culture, yet in ways which would not lead to political separation. The author examines the various aspects which served to unite or divide the regions: the role of the church and religious beliefs, patterns of eating and drinking, the political system, commercial development, the educational system, language, literature, and music. He concludes that there was a ‘British’ nation which was consolidated through the century. Although not uniform in character, it held together during the supreme test of the First World War, under the political guidance of a Welshman whose first language was not English, and the spiritual guidance of an Archbishop of Canterbury who was a Scot. The relationship between region and state still lies at the heart of today's concerns with local government, devolution, and the North/South divide.Less
This is a study of two conflicting trends in nineteenth-century Britain: the promotion of integration and unity, and the commitment to preserve regional diversity. In the nineteenth century, communications between different parts of Britain improved enormously, through the spread of railways, the penny post, newspapers, and increased affluence which enabled more people to take holidays; but this did not necessarily lead to uniformity. The Scots and the Welsh in particular were concerned to retain their own ‘nationality’ and culture, yet in ways which would not lead to political separation. The author examines the various aspects which served to unite or divide the regions: the role of the church and religious beliefs, patterns of eating and drinking, the political system, commercial development, the educational system, language, literature, and music. He concludes that there was a ‘British’ nation which was consolidated through the century. Although not uniform in character, it held together during the supreme test of the First World War, under the political guidance of a Welshman whose first language was not English, and the spiritual guidance of an Archbishop of Canterbury who was a Scot. The relationship between region and state still lies at the heart of today's concerns with local government, devolution, and the North/South divide.
Faye Hammill and Michelle Smith
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781781381403
- eISBN:
- 9781781382332
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781781381403.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
A century ago, the golden age of magazine publishing coincided with the beginning of a golden age of travel. Images of speed and flight dominated the pages of the new mass-market periodicals. This ...
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A century ago, the golden age of magazine publishing coincided with the beginning of a golden age of travel. Images of speed and flight dominated the pages of the new mass-market periodicals. This book centres on Canada, where commercial magazines began to flourish in the 1920s alongside an expanding network of luxury railway hotels and transatlantic liner routes. The leading monthlies — among them Mayfair, Chatelaine, and La Revue Moderne — presented travel as both a mode of self-improvement and a way of negotiating national identity. This book announces a new cross-cultural approach to periodical studies, reading both French-and English-language magazines in relation to an emerging transatlantic middlebrow culture. Mainstream magazines, the text argues, forged a connection between upward mobility and geographical mobility. Fantasies of travel were circulated through fiction, articles, and advertisements, and used to sell fashions, foods, and domestic products as well as holidays.Less
A century ago, the golden age of magazine publishing coincided with the beginning of a golden age of travel. Images of speed and flight dominated the pages of the new mass-market periodicals. This book centres on Canada, where commercial magazines began to flourish in the 1920s alongside an expanding network of luxury railway hotels and transatlantic liner routes. The leading monthlies — among them Mayfair, Chatelaine, and La Revue Moderne — presented travel as both a mode of self-improvement and a way of negotiating national identity. This book announces a new cross-cultural approach to periodical studies, reading both French-and English-language magazines in relation to an emerging transatlantic middlebrow culture. Mainstream magazines, the text argues, forged a connection between upward mobility and geographical mobility. Fantasies of travel were circulated through fiction, articles, and advertisements, and used to sell fashions, foods, and domestic products as well as holidays.
Marah Gubar
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195336252
- eISBN:
- 9780199868490
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195336252.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
Self-conscious about the fact that adult-produced stories shape children, Golden Age children’s authors represented young people as capable of reshaping stories, of revising rather than simply ...
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Self-conscious about the fact that adult-produced stories shape children, Golden Age children’s authors represented young people as capable of reshaping stories, of revising rather than simply reenacting the scripts handed to them by adults. Their ground-breaking decision to employ child narrators provides the best concrete illustration of this tendency. In tracing how this technique caught on, this account acknowledges the crucial role played by critically neglected writers such as Dinah Craik and Juliana Ewing, even as it challenges the common assumption that the act of employing a child narrator allows adult authors to obscure their own presence in order to secure the child reader’s unreflective identification with an ideal of innocence. Rather than characterize child storytellers in Romantic terms, as visionary beings who effortlessly produce original work, these writers depict child narrators as highly socialized, hyper-literate subjects who work with grown-ups, peers, and pre–existing texts in composing their stories. The child narrator thus provides Golden Age authors with a vehicle to explore how young people enmeshed in ideology might nevertheless deviate from rather than ventriloquize various social, cultural, and literary protocols—including the imperialistic ethos that often pervades boys’ adventure stories.Less
Self-conscious about the fact that adult-produced stories shape children, Golden Age children’s authors represented young people as capable of reshaping stories, of revising rather than simply reenacting the scripts handed to them by adults. Their ground-breaking decision to employ child narrators provides the best concrete illustration of this tendency. In tracing how this technique caught on, this account acknowledges the crucial role played by critically neglected writers such as Dinah Craik and Juliana Ewing, even as it challenges the common assumption that the act of employing a child narrator allows adult authors to obscure their own presence in order to secure the child reader’s unreflective identification with an ideal of innocence. Rather than characterize child storytellers in Romantic terms, as visionary beings who effortlessly produce original work, these writers depict child narrators as highly socialized, hyper-literate subjects who work with grown-ups, peers, and pre–existing texts in composing their stories. The child narrator thus provides Golden Age authors with a vehicle to explore how young people enmeshed in ideology might nevertheless deviate from rather than ventriloquize various social, cultural, and literary protocols—including the imperialistic ethos that often pervades boys’ adventure stories.
