Alexander Samely
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199296736
- eISBN:
- 9780191712067
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199296736.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This introductory chapter begins with a discussion of rabbinic texts. Rabbinic texts constitute a scholarly discourse in that their statements are concerned with halakhic norms, or linguistic meaning ...
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This introductory chapter begins with a discussion of rabbinic texts. Rabbinic texts constitute a scholarly discourse in that their statements are concerned with halakhic norms, or linguistic meaning in Scripture. And they are presented in a framework of arguments, and often contested. An overview of the chapters included in this volume is also presented. Thirteen small literary forms are described, which constitute apparently self-sufficient units of meaning and some of them occur in most rabbinic works. How the small forms are combined to build larger documents of various types is explained. Typical features of selected rabbinic genres are considered, including the Mishnah; Midrashic Bible commentaries and homilies; and the Babylonian Gemara.Less
This introductory chapter begins with a discussion of rabbinic texts. Rabbinic texts constitute a scholarly discourse in that their statements are concerned with halakhic norms, or linguistic meaning in Scripture. And they are presented in a framework of arguments, and often contested. An overview of the chapters included in this volume is also presented. Thirteen small literary forms are described, which constitute apparently self-sufficient units of meaning and some of them occur in most rabbinic works. How the small forms are combined to build larger documents of various types is explained. Typical features of selected rabbinic genres are considered, including the Mishnah; Midrashic Bible commentaries and homilies; and the Babylonian Gemara.
Caroline Levine
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691160627
- eISBN:
- 9781400852604
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691160627.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter makes a threefold argument for paying a richer and more detailed attention to rhythms, both social and aesthetic. It starts with the importance of attending to the temporal forms that ...
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This chapter makes a threefold argument for paying a richer and more detailed attention to rhythms, both social and aesthetic. It starts with the importance of attending to the temporal forms that structure historicist literary and cultural studies scholarship. It argues that the heterogeneity and endurance of social rhythms invites a new kind of sociocultural analysis, asking us to reimagine the social landscape as characterized by contending rhythms that extend forward and backward in time. The second part of the chapter asks how we might put this kind of analysis to use. It focuses on one example from the late 1920s, when avant-garde artists managed to alter US law by cannily recognizing the work of multiple social rhythms. It makes the case that despite their power to coerce and organize, rhythms, like bounded wholes, can be put to strategic ends and have the potential to work with and against other forms to surprisingly transformative political effect. Finally, the chapter asks how a new approach to rhythm might help us to rethink the relations between literary forms and social arrangements.Less
This chapter makes a threefold argument for paying a richer and more detailed attention to rhythms, both social and aesthetic. It starts with the importance of attending to the temporal forms that structure historicist literary and cultural studies scholarship. It argues that the heterogeneity and endurance of social rhythms invites a new kind of sociocultural analysis, asking us to reimagine the social landscape as characterized by contending rhythms that extend forward and backward in time. The second part of the chapter asks how we might put this kind of analysis to use. It focuses on one example from the late 1920s, when avant-garde artists managed to alter US law by cannily recognizing the work of multiple social rhythms. It makes the case that despite their power to coerce and organize, rhythms, like bounded wholes, can be put to strategic ends and have the potential to work with and against other forms to surprisingly transformative political effect. Finally, the chapter asks how a new approach to rhythm might help us to rethink the relations between literary forms and social arrangements.
Francis O’Gorman (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199281923
- eISBN:
- 9780191712951
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199281923.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
Victorian Britain offered the world an economic structure of unique complexity. The trading nation, at the heart of a great empire, developed the practices of advanced capitalism — currency, banking, ...
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Victorian Britain offered the world an economic structure of unique complexity. The trading nation, at the heart of a great empire, developed the practices of advanced capitalism — currency, banking, investment, money markets, business practices and theory, intellectual property legislation — from which the financial systems of the contemporary world emerged. Cultural forms in Victorian Britain transacted with high capitalism in a variety of ways but literary critics interested in economics have traditionally been preoccupied either with writers' hostility to industrial capitalism in terms of its shaping of class, or with the development of consumerism. This book is the first extended study to take seriously the relationships between literary forms and those more complex discourses of Victorian high finance. The chapters move beyond the examination of literature that was merely impatient with the perceived consequences of capitalism to analyse creative relationships between culture and economic structures. Considering such topics as the nature of currency, women and the culture of investment, the profits of a modern media age, the dramatization of risk on the Victorian stage, the practice of realism in relation to business theory, the culture of speculation at the end of the century, and arguments about the uncomfortable relationship between literary and financial capital, this book sets new terms for understanding and theorizing the relationship between high finance and literary writing in the 19th century.Less
Victorian Britain offered the world an economic structure of unique complexity. The trading nation, at the heart of a great empire, developed the practices of advanced capitalism — currency, banking, investment, money markets, business practices and theory, intellectual property legislation — from which the financial systems of the contemporary world emerged. Cultural forms in Victorian Britain transacted with high capitalism in a variety of ways but literary critics interested in economics have traditionally been preoccupied either with writers' hostility to industrial capitalism in terms of its shaping of class, or with the development of consumerism. This book is the first extended study to take seriously the relationships between literary forms and those more complex discourses of Victorian high finance. The chapters move beyond the examination of literature that was merely impatient with the perceived consequences of capitalism to analyse creative relationships between culture and economic structures. Considering such topics as the nature of currency, women and the culture of investment, the profits of a modern media age, the dramatization of risk on the Victorian stage, the practice of realism in relation to business theory, the culture of speculation at the end of the century, and arguments about the uncomfortable relationship between literary and financial capital, this book sets new terms for understanding and theorizing the relationship between high finance and literary writing in the 19th century.
Mary Douglas
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199244195
- eISBN:
- 9780191600548
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199244197.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
This chapter expands on the previous one, which examined the differences in the styles of thought between Leviticus and Deuteronomy, by examining the differences in the styles of writing between the ...
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This chapter expands on the previous one, which examined the differences in the styles of thought between Leviticus and Deuteronomy, by examining the differences in the styles of writing between the two books. Cosmic analogies are unnecessary to Deuteronomy’s purpose, and metaphysics are barely relevant –it teaches in a different style, and is by a writer with a different kind of experience and likely to have come a different social circle: the writer is political, brilliant at rousing congregations to enthusiasm, not so happy in the library or classroom, and not very interested in the ritual service of God. For his overall structure he chooses a poignant narrative moment (Moses’ valedictory sermon to the people of Israel, with Moses’ death the foreseen conclusion), and he writes in the heroic manner – he admonishes, he exhorts, evoking fear, dread, anguish and trembling. The contrast with the laconic priestly style of Leviticus, reticent, highly patterned and controlled by the literary form, suggests how difficult it would be to try to meld the two sources into a single teaching: the one uses the language of feeling and cause and effect, the other the language of position and analogy; one looks out to the readers, the other is involuted, and looks in towards itself, to the text to be embellished. The last part of the chapter introduces the central idea of this book: that Leviticus exploits to the full an ancient tradition that makes a parallel between Mount Sinai and the tabernacle.Less
This chapter expands on the previous one, which examined the differences in the styles of thought between Leviticus and Deuteronomy, by examining the differences in the styles of writing between the two books. Cosmic analogies are unnecessary to Deuteronomy’s purpose, and metaphysics are barely relevant –it teaches in a different style, and is by a writer with a different kind of experience and likely to have come a different social circle: the writer is political, brilliant at rousing congregations to enthusiasm, not so happy in the library or classroom, and not very interested in the ritual service of God. For his overall structure he chooses a poignant narrative moment (Moses’ valedictory sermon to the people of Israel, with Moses’ death the foreseen conclusion), and he writes in the heroic manner – he admonishes, he exhorts, evoking fear, dread, anguish and trembling. The contrast with the laconic priestly style of Leviticus, reticent, highly patterned and controlled by the literary form, suggests how difficult it would be to try to meld the two sources into a single teaching: the one uses the language of feeling and cause and effect, the other the language of position and analogy; one looks out to the readers, the other is involuted, and looks in towards itself, to the text to be embellished. The last part of the chapter introduces the central idea of this book: that Leviticus exploits to the full an ancient tradition that makes a parallel between Mount Sinai and the tabernacle.
Ellen Wiles
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780231173285
- eISBN:
- 9780231539296
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231173285.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, Asian Politics
This chapter explores the lives and literary work of the middle generation of contemporary writers in Myanmar through three writers: Ye Shan, short story writer and railway superintendent; Ma Thida, ...
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This chapter explores the lives and literary work of the middle generation of contemporary writers in Myanmar through three writers: Ye Shan, short story writer and railway superintendent; Ma Thida, journalist, editor, short story writer, non-fiction writer, novelist, surgeon and former political prisoner; and Zeyar Lynn, poet and English language teacher.Less
This chapter explores the lives and literary work of the middle generation of contemporary writers in Myanmar through three writers: Ye Shan, short story writer and railway superintendent; Ma Thida, journalist, editor, short story writer, non-fiction writer, novelist, surgeon and former political prisoner; and Zeyar Lynn, poet and English language teacher.
David Duff
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199572748
- eISBN:
- 9780191721960
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199572748.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism
This book reappraises the role of genre, and genre theory, in British Romantic literature. Analysing numerous examples from 1760 to 1830, it examines the generic innovations and experiments which ...
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This book reappraises the role of genre, and genre theory, in British Romantic literature. Analysing numerous examples from 1760 to 1830, it examines the generic innovations and experiments which propel the Romantic ‘revolution in literature’, but also the fascination with archaic forms such as the ballad, sonnet, epic, and romance, whose revival and transformation make Romanticism a ‘retro’ movement as well as a revolutionary one. The tension between the drives to ‘make it old’ and to ‘make it new’ generates one of the most dynamic phases in the history of literature, whose complications are played out in the critical writing of the period as well as its creative literature. Incorporating extensive research on classification systems and reception history as well as on literary forms themselves, the book shows how new ideas about the role and status of genre influenced not only authors but also publishers, editors, reviewers, and readers. The focus is on poetry, but a wider spectrum of genres is considered, a central theme being the relationship—hierarchical, competitive, combinatory—between genres. The book establishes a new way of reading Romantic literature which brings into focus for the first time its tangled relationship with genre.Less
This book reappraises the role of genre, and genre theory, in British Romantic literature. Analysing numerous examples from 1760 to 1830, it examines the generic innovations and experiments which propel the Romantic ‘revolution in literature’, but also the fascination with archaic forms such as the ballad, sonnet, epic, and romance, whose revival and transformation make Romanticism a ‘retro’ movement as well as a revolutionary one. The tension between the drives to ‘make it old’ and to ‘make it new’ generates one of the most dynamic phases in the history of literature, whose complications are played out in the critical writing of the period as well as its creative literature. Incorporating extensive research on classification systems and reception history as well as on literary forms themselves, the book shows how new ideas about the role and status of genre influenced not only authors but also publishers, editors, reviewers, and readers. The focus is on poetry, but a wider spectrum of genres is considered, a central theme being the relationship—hierarchical, competitive, combinatory—between genres. The book establishes a new way of reading Romantic literature which brings into focus for the first time its tangled relationship with genre.
Hilda Meldrum Brown
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198158950
- eISBN:
- 9780191673436
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198158950.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
This chapter focuses on letters designated as ‘fictitious’ and essays, both political and literary. To progress from here to the purely fictional anecdote will illustrate how, in Kleist's hands, a ...
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This chapter focuses on letters designated as ‘fictitious’ and essays, both political and literary. To progress from here to the purely fictional anecdote will illustrate how, in Kleist's hands, a literary form that is often regarded as minor is brought to a high degree of narrative perfection.Less
This chapter focuses on letters designated as ‘fictitious’ and essays, both political and literary. To progress from here to the purely fictional anecdote will illustrate how, in Kleist's hands, a literary form that is often regarded as minor is brought to a high degree of narrative perfection.
Ernest Campbell Mossner
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199243365
- eISBN:
- 9780191697241
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199243365.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
David Hume lived during the Enlightenment Age amidst that welter of ideas and social forces that was to make the eighteenth century part-and-parcel of modernity. However, it was Hume's distinctive, ...
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David Hume lived during the Enlightenment Age amidst that welter of ideas and social forces that was to make the eighteenth century part-and-parcel of modernity. However, it was Hume's distinctive, if not his unique, feature that while seeking to revolutionise the study of human nature, he never lost sight of the understanding of the general public. Welding philosophy and learning together with literature, he set himself up, not as specialist, but as a man of letters, according to the intellectual ideals of his age. Hume's philosophy proper, to be sure, might necessarily be restricted to the learned; his studies of government, economics, ethics, religion, and the social sciences in general might interest only the relatively well educated; but his national history might, and actually did, appeal to most of those who were capable of reading. This intellectual revolution was repeatedly prosecuted by him throughout his life in various literary forms.Less
David Hume lived during the Enlightenment Age amidst that welter of ideas and social forces that was to make the eighteenth century part-and-parcel of modernity. However, it was Hume's distinctive, if not his unique, feature that while seeking to revolutionise the study of human nature, he never lost sight of the understanding of the general public. Welding philosophy and learning together with literature, he set himself up, not as specialist, but as a man of letters, according to the intellectual ideals of his age. Hume's philosophy proper, to be sure, might necessarily be restricted to the learned; his studies of government, economics, ethics, religion, and the social sciences in general might interest only the relatively well educated; but his national history might, and actually did, appeal to most of those who were capable of reading. This intellectual revolution was repeatedly prosecuted by him throughout his life in various literary forms.
Abigail Williams
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199255207
- eISBN:
- 9780191719837
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199255207.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, 17th-century and Restoration Literature
This chapter begins by exploring Whig perspectives on the Revolution a decade after 1688. By the end of the 1690s, it was possible to write simultaneously of the Revolution as a return to earlier ...
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This chapter begins by exploring Whig perspectives on the Revolution a decade after 1688. By the end of the 1690s, it was possible to write simultaneously of the Revolution as a return to earlier historical paradigms and as the beginning of a new era: to claim both historical precedent and inaugural status for 1688. The dual perspective was to reverberate throughout the public poetry of Queen Anne's reign, as writers debated the relevance and authority of pre-existing literary forms in relation to the celebration of contemporary affairs of state, and in particular the celebration of the victories of the War of the Spanish Succession. The chapter examines some of the verse produced in the context of these political debates, including poems on Blenheim Palace; Ambrose Philips's and Alexander Pope's pastoral wars, and the poems celebrating the Treaty of Utrecht.Less
This chapter begins by exploring Whig perspectives on the Revolution a decade after 1688. By the end of the 1690s, it was possible to write simultaneously of the Revolution as a return to earlier historical paradigms and as the beginning of a new era: to claim both historical precedent and inaugural status for 1688. The dual perspective was to reverberate throughout the public poetry of Queen Anne's reign, as writers debated the relevance and authority of pre-existing literary forms in relation to the celebration of contemporary affairs of state, and in particular the celebration of the victories of the War of the Spanish Succession. The chapter examines some of the verse produced in the context of these political debates, including poems on Blenheim Palace; Ambrose Philips's and Alexander Pope's pastoral wars, and the poems celebrating the Treaty of Utrecht.
Mary Douglas
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199244195
- eISBN:
- 9780191600548
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199244197.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
Leviticus consists almost entirely of divine laws, which are interrupted twice by narratives, and both of these interruptions are about encroachment on the divine prerogative; there is no accepted ...
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Leviticus consists almost entirely of divine laws, which are interrupted twice by narratives, and both of these interruptions are about encroachment on the divine prerogative; there is no accepted explanation for why they should occur where they do. The explanation proposed in this chapter is that the structure of law and narrative cuts the book to the shape of the controlling paradigm. This means that the book of Leviticus itself is structured as a tripartite projection of the tabernacle, and thus also as a projection of Mount Sinai. On this reading the two stories (narratives) correspond to two screens which, according to the instructions given in Exodus, divide the desert tabernacle into three sections of unequal size: the narratives interrupt the movement through the laws as the two screens interrupt the movement through the tabernacle. This thesis is discussed in sections covering: Leviticus as a projection of the tabernacle; fire for fire, and burning for burning; the curser cursed; the scandal of the law of talion (retaliation); and the language of oracles.Less
Leviticus consists almost entirely of divine laws, which are interrupted twice by narratives, and both of these interruptions are about encroachment on the divine prerogative; there is no accepted explanation for why they should occur where they do. The explanation proposed in this chapter is that the structure of law and narrative cuts the book to the shape of the controlling paradigm. This means that the book of Leviticus itself is structured as a tripartite projection of the tabernacle, and thus also as a projection of Mount Sinai. On this reading the two stories (narratives) correspond to two screens which, according to the instructions given in Exodus, divide the desert tabernacle into three sections of unequal size: the narratives interrupt the movement through the laws as the two screens interrupt the movement through the tabernacle. This thesis is discussed in sections covering: Leviticus as a projection of the tabernacle; fire for fire, and burning for burning; the curser cursed; the scandal of the law of talion (retaliation); and the language of oracles.
Farah Jasmine Griffin
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195088960
- eISBN:
- 9780199855148
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195088960.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, African-American Literature
In the advent of migration and urbanization, migration narratives have become central in African American literature. The chapter discusses the different forms of migration narratives. These ...
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In the advent of migration and urbanization, migration narratives have become central in African American literature. The chapter discusses the different forms of migration narratives. These migration narratives may also include visual and musical works other than the usual literary form. The focus of these migrations narratives usually revolve around a character or a rural setting. Examples of these migration narratives are elaborated in this chapter in order to explain the similarities and the main themes that each have. The chapter ends with a summary of the other chapters found in the book.Less
In the advent of migration and urbanization, migration narratives have become central in African American literature. The chapter discusses the different forms of migration narratives. These migration narratives may also include visual and musical works other than the usual literary form. The focus of these migrations narratives usually revolve around a character or a rural setting. Examples of these migration narratives are elaborated in this chapter in order to explain the similarities and the main themes that each have. The chapter ends with a summary of the other chapters found in the book.
Gary D. DeAngelis, Warren G. Frisina, and Michael LaFargue
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195332704
- eISBN:
- 9780199868155
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195332704.003.0013
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
Michael LaFargue aims to cultivate in students a capacity to see the DDJ from the point of view of its many literary forms and implied interlocutors. By exploring the structures of proverbial sayings ...
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Michael LaFargue aims to cultivate in students a capacity to see the DDJ from the point of view of its many literary forms and implied interlocutors. By exploring the structures of proverbial sayings he leads students away from the tendency to take its statements too literally, a tendency that typically makes the DDJ seem more obscure and mysterious than it is. LaFargue encourages students to ask: What “pragmatic implications” of the DDJ's statements can we reasonably attribute to the early Daoist practitioners who both produced and made use of this text? This leads to a historicist understanding of the DDJ that is rooted in questions quite different from those that a contemporary western reader would typically bring to the text.Less
Michael LaFargue aims to cultivate in students a capacity to see the DDJ from the point of view of its many literary forms and implied interlocutors. By exploring the structures of proverbial sayings he leads students away from the tendency to take its statements too literally, a tendency that typically makes the DDJ seem more obscure and mysterious than it is. LaFargue encourages students to ask: What “pragmatic implications” of the DDJ's statements can we reasonably attribute to the early Daoist practitioners who both produced and made use of this text? This leads to a historicist understanding of the DDJ that is rooted in questions quite different from those that a contemporary western reader would typically bring to the text.
Joseph Blenkinsopp
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198755036
- eISBN:
- 9780191695131
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198755036.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies, Judaism
This chapter begins with a discussion of the principal literary forms used by the sages – the proverb and the instruction – and it is these which make up the bulk of the material in the Book of ...
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This chapter begins with a discussion of the principal literary forms used by the sages – the proverb and the instruction – and it is these which make up the bulk of the material in the Book of Proverbs. It then considers other literary forms (apart from the proverb), their use as didactic tools, the connections that exist between them, and what uses the sages made of narrative for didactic purposes.Less
This chapter begins with a discussion of the principal literary forms used by the sages – the proverb and the instruction – and it is these which make up the bulk of the material in the Book of Proverbs. It then considers other literary forms (apart from the proverb), their use as didactic tools, the connections that exist between them, and what uses the sages made of narrative for didactic purposes.
Barbara Dancygier
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199794393
- eISBN:
- 9780199919338
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199794393.003.0023
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General, Philosophy of Science
Stories are linguistic, cognitive, and cultural products, whether in the context of oral traditions, classical epics, and tragedies, or more contemporary forms of fiction, such as novels. Starting ...
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Stories are linguistic, cognitive, and cultural products, whether in the context of oral traditions, classical epics, and tragedies, or more contemporary forms of fiction, such as novels. Starting with recent cognitive theories of the evolutionary sources of culture, language, and art (primarily through the work of Merlin Donald, Terrence Deacon, and Michael Tomasello), this chapter discusses some of the mechanisms of the emergence of meaning in literary texts. Relying on theories of meaning originating in the study of cognitive underpinnings of language, primarily frame theory and blending, it shows how language mediates between cognitive constructs on the one hand and evolving narrative forms of symbolic expression on the other. Crucially, the emergent culture-specific forms of storytelling is shown to be immersed both in human culture's reliance on symbolic representation and in more and more complex linguistic forms. Using the linguistic and literary representations of the workings of the human mind as an example, it is argued that the evolution of literary forms is driven in the same degree by our cultural expectations, cognitive underpinnings of creative thought, and the emergence of appropriate linguistic constructions.Less
Stories are linguistic, cognitive, and cultural products, whether in the context of oral traditions, classical epics, and tragedies, or more contemporary forms of fiction, such as novels. Starting with recent cognitive theories of the evolutionary sources of culture, language, and art (primarily through the work of Merlin Donald, Terrence Deacon, and Michael Tomasello), this chapter discusses some of the mechanisms of the emergence of meaning in literary texts. Relying on theories of meaning originating in the study of cognitive underpinnings of language, primarily frame theory and blending, it shows how language mediates between cognitive constructs on the one hand and evolving narrative forms of symbolic expression on the other. Crucially, the emergent culture-specific forms of storytelling is shown to be immersed both in human culture's reliance on symbolic representation and in more and more complex linguistic forms. Using the linguistic and literary representations of the workings of the human mind as an example, it is argued that the evolution of literary forms is driven in the same degree by our cultural expectations, cognitive underpinnings of creative thought, and the emergence of appropriate linguistic constructions.
Hilda Meldrum Brown
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198158950
- eISBN:
- 9780191673436
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198158950.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
This introductory chapter begins with a brief discussion of Heinrich von Kleist's life and works. It then lays out the purpose of the book, which is to examine Kleist's writings, focusing on the ...
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This introductory chapter begins with a brief discussion of Heinrich von Kleist's life and works. It then lays out the purpose of the book, which is to examine Kleist's writings, focusing on the ambiguity of art and artistic illusion, and his own sovereign command of a whole range of literary forms, from the smaller and straightforward to the large-scale and complex. An overview of the subsequent chapters is presented.Less
This introductory chapter begins with a brief discussion of Heinrich von Kleist's life and works. It then lays out the purpose of the book, which is to examine Kleist's writings, focusing on the ambiguity of art and artistic illusion, and his own sovereign command of a whole range of literary forms, from the smaller and straightforward to the large-scale and complex. An overview of the subsequent chapters is presented.
Mary Douglas
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199244195
- eISBN:
- 9780191600548
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199244197.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
This chapter looks in detail at the four chapters following Leviticus 11, which take off from the theme of reproduction therein to form a distinct literary unit: Leviticus 12 is about blood impurity ...
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This chapter looks in detail at the four chapters following Leviticus 11, which take off from the theme of reproduction therein to form a distinct literary unit: Leviticus 12 is about blood impurity of a woman menstruating or giving birth, and then two chapters on leprosy (Leviticus 13 and 14), are followed by Leviticus 15 on genital discharges from men or women: all sources of impurity. The peroration in Leviticus 15: 33 closes a ring by referring back to the opening of chapter 12 – the impurity of menstruation, and with this reading the whole section becomes a formal abba pattern. It is a mistake to ignore the connections between these chapters: the first and last are directly about the reproductive process, and God’s compassion has been demonstrated in Leviticus 11 by the rules declaring it ‘abominable’ to harm corpses of the teeming, fertile creatures of water and air. The next set of rules returns to impurity, hence they are about the tabernacle: the writer has returned to the theses of Leviticus 11 on the dangers of impurity in the approach to the tabernacle. In Leviticus’ favourite literary form, chiastic composition, the meaning is at the pivot or the middle of a series of parallel verses: on either side of the sections on leprosy there stand supporting verses on human reproduction, like steps or like framing pillars, and within the series on a leprous person, two additional afflicted objects are introduced, a leprous garment, and a leprous house; the alternation makes an abab pattern; this signals a return to the body/ microcosm.Less
This chapter looks in detail at the four chapters following Leviticus 11, which take off from the theme of reproduction therein to form a distinct literary unit: Leviticus 12 is about blood impurity of a woman menstruating or giving birth, and then two chapters on leprosy (Leviticus 13 and 14), are followed by Leviticus 15 on genital discharges from men or women: all sources of impurity. The peroration in Leviticus 15: 33 closes a ring by referring back to the opening of chapter 12 – the impurity of menstruation, and with this reading the whole section becomes a formal abba pattern. It is a mistake to ignore the connections between these chapters: the first and last are directly about the reproductive process, and God’s compassion has been demonstrated in Leviticus 11 by the rules declaring it ‘abominable’ to harm corpses of the teeming, fertile creatures of water and air. The next set of rules returns to impurity, hence they are about the tabernacle: the writer has returned to the theses of Leviticus 11 on the dangers of impurity in the approach to the tabernacle. In Leviticus’ favourite literary form, chiastic composition, the meaning is at the pivot or the middle of a series of parallel verses: on either side of the sections on leprosy there stand supporting verses on human reproduction, like steps or like framing pillars, and within the series on a leprous person, two additional afflicted objects are introduced, a leprous garment, and a leprous house; the alternation makes an abab pattern; this signals a return to the body/ microcosm.
Gary D. DeAngelis, Warren G. Frisina, and Russell Kirkland
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195332704
- eISBN:
- 9780199868155
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195332704.003.0012
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
In this “contrarian” approach to reading he DDJ, Russell Kirkland argues that most textbooks do a credible job of presenting the DDJ as it has been inherited through both Confucian and Western ...
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In this “contrarian” approach to reading he DDJ, Russell Kirkland argues that most textbooks do a credible job of presenting the DDJ as it has been inherited through both Confucian and Western conceptual lenses, but that such a view fails to see the Daoist as they saw themselves. He challenges students to “ponder the alienity of ancient China” before making assumptions about what the text is trying to accomplish. By focusing their attention on early Daoist religious practices, and the status of the DDJ as a Daoist scripture, Kirkland aims to cultivate in his students an appreciation for both the originary aims of the text and the way hermeneutical models are developed, challenged and clarified.Less
In this “contrarian” approach to reading he DDJ, Russell Kirkland argues that most textbooks do a credible job of presenting the DDJ as it has been inherited through both Confucian and Western conceptual lenses, but that such a view fails to see the Daoist as they saw themselves. He challenges students to “ponder the alienity of ancient China” before making assumptions about what the text is trying to accomplish. By focusing their attention on early Daoist religious practices, and the status of the DDJ as a Daoist scripture, Kirkland aims to cultivate in his students an appreciation for both the originary aims of the text and the way hermeneutical models are developed, challenged and clarified.
Allison K. Deutermann and András Kiséry (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780719085536
- eISBN:
- 9781781707173
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719085536.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
Formal Matters is intended as an exploration of the emerging and potential links in early modern literary and cultural studies between the study of material texts on the one hand, and the analysis of ...
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Formal Matters is intended as an exploration of the emerging and potential links in early modern literary and cultural studies between the study of material texts on the one hand, and the analysis of literary form on the other. The essays exemplify some of the ways in which an attention to the matter of writing now combines in critical practice with the questioning of its forms: how an interest in forms might combine with an interest in the material text and, more broadly, in matter and things material. Section I, ‘Forming literature’, makes literary and sub-literary forms its focus, examining notions of authorship; ways of reading, consuming, and circulating literary and non-literary material; and modes of creative production and composition made possible by the exigencies of specific forms. Section III, ‘The matters of writing’, examines forms of writing, both literary and non-literary, that grapple with other fields of knowledge, including legal discourse, foreign news and intelligence, geometry, and theology. At stake for the authors in this section is the interface between discourses encoded in, and even produced through, specific textual forms.Linking these two sections are a pair of essays take up the subject of translation, both as a process that transforms textual matter from one formal and linguistic mode to another and as a theorization of the mediation between specific forms, materials, and cultures.Less
Formal Matters is intended as an exploration of the emerging and potential links in early modern literary and cultural studies between the study of material texts on the one hand, and the analysis of literary form on the other. The essays exemplify some of the ways in which an attention to the matter of writing now combines in critical practice with the questioning of its forms: how an interest in forms might combine with an interest in the material text and, more broadly, in matter and things material. Section I, ‘Forming literature’, makes literary and sub-literary forms its focus, examining notions of authorship; ways of reading, consuming, and circulating literary and non-literary material; and modes of creative production and composition made possible by the exigencies of specific forms. Section III, ‘The matters of writing’, examines forms of writing, both literary and non-literary, that grapple with other fields of knowledge, including legal discourse, foreign news and intelligence, geometry, and theology. At stake for the authors in this section is the interface between discourses encoded in, and even produced through, specific textual forms.Linking these two sections are a pair of essays take up the subject of translation, both as a process that transforms textual matter from one formal and linguistic mode to another and as a theorization of the mediation between specific forms, materials, and cultures.
Margaret Healy and Thomas Healy
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748638734
- eISBN:
- 9780748651573
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748638734.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
This collection of essays asserts the centrality of historical understanding in shaping critical vision. It explores the dynamic cultural, intellectual, and social processes that moulded literary ...
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This collection of essays asserts the centrality of historical understanding in shaping critical vision. It explores the dynamic cultural, intellectual, and social processes that moulded literary writing in the Renaissance. Attentive to the complexities that we confront in our attempts to understand the past, the book explores important relations among literary form and material and imaginative culture which compel our attention in the twenty-first century. Addressing three crucial areas at the forefront of current academic inquiry – ‘Making Writing: Form, Rhetoric, and Print Culture’, ‘Shaping Communities: Textual Spaces, Mapping History’, and ‘Embodying Change: Psychic and Somatic Performances’ – it is relevant to all those who study and teach Renaissance literature, history, and culture. Contributors include Danielle Clarke, Andrew Hadfield, Margaret Healy, Thomas Healy, Bernhard Klein, Michelle O'Callaghan, Neil Rhodes, Jennifer Richards, Michael Schoenfeldt, William Sherman, Alan Stewart, and Susan Wiseman.Less
This collection of essays asserts the centrality of historical understanding in shaping critical vision. It explores the dynamic cultural, intellectual, and social processes that moulded literary writing in the Renaissance. Attentive to the complexities that we confront in our attempts to understand the past, the book explores important relations among literary form and material and imaginative culture which compel our attention in the twenty-first century. Addressing three crucial areas at the forefront of current academic inquiry – ‘Making Writing: Form, Rhetoric, and Print Culture’, ‘Shaping Communities: Textual Spaces, Mapping History’, and ‘Embodying Change: Psychic and Somatic Performances’ – it is relevant to all those who study and teach Renaissance literature, history, and culture. Contributors include Danielle Clarke, Andrew Hadfield, Margaret Healy, Thomas Healy, Bernhard Klein, Michelle O'Callaghan, Neil Rhodes, Jennifer Richards, Michael Schoenfeldt, William Sherman, Alan Stewart, and Susan Wiseman.
Wes Williams
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198159407
- eISBN:
- 9780191673610
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198159407.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
This introductory chapter explains the coverage of this book, which is about the French pilgrimage narrative during the period from 1490 to 1610. This book examines the works of French pilgrim ...
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This introductory chapter explains the coverage of this book, which is about the French pilgrimage narrative during the period from 1490 to 1610. This book examines the works of French pilgrim writers during the Renaissance and attempts to present the rhythm and texture of the pilgrim's experience both as argument at home and as narrative of the road. It establishes the history of pilgrimage from late Antiquity to Late Renaissance, explores the development of pilgrimage in terms of the descriptions of the Holy Land and narratives of the Jerusalem pilgrimage, and analyses the relation of pilgrimage narrative to literary form.Less
This introductory chapter explains the coverage of this book, which is about the French pilgrimage narrative during the period from 1490 to 1610. This book examines the works of French pilgrim writers during the Renaissance and attempts to present the rhythm and texture of the pilgrim's experience both as argument at home and as narrative of the road. It establishes the history of pilgrimage from late Antiquity to Late Renaissance, explores the development of pilgrimage in terms of the descriptions of the Holy Land and narratives of the Jerusalem pilgrimage, and analyses the relation of pilgrimage narrative to literary form.
