Joshua A. Berman
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195374704
- eISBN:
- 9780199871438
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195374704.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism, Biblical Studies
This book reveals the Hebrew Bible to be a sophisticated work of political philosophy, and the birthplace of egalitarian thought. Focusing on the Pentateuch, this book lays bare the manner in which ...
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This book reveals the Hebrew Bible to be a sophisticated work of political philosophy, and the birthplace of egalitarian thought. Focusing on the Pentateuch, this book lays bare the manner in which the Bible appropriated and reconstituted ancient norms and institutions to create a new blueprint for society. Theology, politics, and economics were marshaled anew to weaken traditional seats of power, and to create a homogeneous class of empowered common citizens. Much of this anticipates developments in the history of political thought that would recur only during the Enlightenment and in the thought of the American Founding Fathers. Ancient religion granted sacral legitimation to the ruling classes and saw the masses as mere servants. The Pentateuch, by contrast, elevates the common citizenry in the eyes of God by invoking the political institution of the vassal treaty, and casting Israel as a subordinate king to the Almighty through the theology of covenant. Through the prism of the political philosophies of Plato, Aristotle, and Montesquieu, the book demonstrates the Pentateuch to be history's first proposal for the distribution of political power. Utilizing the anthropology of pre‐modern economies, ancient norms are explored concerning land tenure, taxation, and loans are reworked so that the common citizenry remains economically secure. Invoking the transformational role of the printing press in the spread of the Reformation and the birth of the Enlightenment, the book identifies far‐reaching consequences in the Bible's approach to what was then the new technology of communication: the alphabetic text.Less
This book reveals the Hebrew Bible to be a sophisticated work of political philosophy, and the birthplace of egalitarian thought. Focusing on the Pentateuch, this book lays bare the manner in which the Bible appropriated and reconstituted ancient norms and institutions to create a new blueprint for society. Theology, politics, and economics were marshaled anew to weaken traditional seats of power, and to create a homogeneous class of empowered common citizens. Much of this anticipates developments in the history of political thought that would recur only during the Enlightenment and in the thought of the American Founding Fathers. Ancient religion granted sacral legitimation to the ruling classes and saw the masses as mere servants. The Pentateuch, by contrast, elevates the common citizenry in the eyes of God by invoking the political institution of the vassal treaty, and casting Israel as a subordinate king to the Almighty through the theology of covenant. Through the prism of the political philosophies of Plato, Aristotle, and Montesquieu, the book demonstrates the Pentateuch to be history's first proposal for the distribution of political power. Utilizing the anthropology of pre‐modern economies, ancient norms are explored concerning land tenure, taxation, and loans are reworked so that the common citizenry remains economically secure. Invoking the transformational role of the printing press in the spread of the Reformation and the birth of the Enlightenment, the book identifies far‐reaching consequences in the Bible's approach to what was then the new technology of communication: the alphabetic text.
David D'Avray (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780198208143
- eISBN:
- 9780191716522
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198208143.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Medieval History
Before the advent of printing, the preaching of the friars was the mass medium of the middle ages. This edition of marriage sermons reveals what a number of famous preachers actually taught about ...
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Before the advent of printing, the preaching of the friars was the mass medium of the middle ages. This edition of marriage sermons reveals what a number of famous preachers actually taught about marriage, teasing out the close connection between marriage symbolism and social, cultural, and legal realities in the 13th century. The relation between genre, content, and gender is analysed, with particular attention to the likely impact of preaching, viewed as a means of intellectual power in competition with vernacular genres and other social forces. Its mass diffusion anticipated printing, but the means of production were those of the monastic scriptorium. The textual criticism and palaeographical analysis of these sermons undermine central assumptions of both medieval and early modern historians of the book, establishing a technique of textual criticism appropriate for texts of this kind. A pragmatic compromise between simple transcriptions which ignore stemmatic relation and full-scale editions attempting to fit all manuscripts into a genealogical table, this book addresses both the sermon literature of the period and the understanding of marriage and its religious and cultural significance in the middle ages.Less
Before the advent of printing, the preaching of the friars was the mass medium of the middle ages. This edition of marriage sermons reveals what a number of famous preachers actually taught about marriage, teasing out the close connection between marriage symbolism and social, cultural, and legal realities in the 13th century. The relation between genre, content, and gender is analysed, with particular attention to the likely impact of preaching, viewed as a means of intellectual power in competition with vernacular genres and other social forces. Its mass diffusion anticipated printing, but the means of production were those of the monastic scriptorium. The textual criticism and palaeographical analysis of these sermons undermine central assumptions of both medieval and early modern historians of the book, establishing a technique of textual criticism appropriate for texts of this kind. A pragmatic compromise between simple transcriptions which ignore stemmatic relation and full-scale editions attempting to fit all manuscripts into a genealogical table, this book addresses both the sermon literature of the period and the understanding of marriage and its religious and cultural significance in the middle ages.
David Paul Nord
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- July 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195173116
- eISBN:
- 9780199835683
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195173112.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
In the years after 1815, a few visionary entrepreneurs decided the time was right to launch true mass media in America. They believed it was possible through new technology, national organization, ...
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In the years after 1815, a few visionary entrepreneurs decided the time was right to launch true mass media in America. They believed it was possible through new technology, national organization, and the grace of God to place the same printed message into the hands of every man, woman, and child in America. Though these entrepreneurs were savvy businessmen, their publishing enterprises were not commercial businesses. They were nonprofit religious organizations, including the American Bible Society, American Tract Society, and American Sunday School Union. Faith in Reading tells the story of the noncommercial origins of mass media in America. The theme is how religious publishers learned to work against the flow of ordinary commerce. Religious publishing societies believed that reading was too important to be left to the “market revolution”; they sought to foil the market through the “visible hand” of organization. Though religious publishers worked against the market, they employed modern printing technologies and business methods, and were remarkably successful, churning out millions of Bibles, tracts, religious books, and periodicals. At the same time, they tried to teach people to read those books in the most traditional way. Their aim was to use new mass media to encourage old reading habits. This book examines both publishers and readers. It is about how religious publishing societies imagined their readers. It is also about reader response — how ordinary readers received and read religious books and tracts in early 19th century America.Less
In the years after 1815, a few visionary entrepreneurs decided the time was right to launch true mass media in America. They believed it was possible through new technology, national organization, and the grace of God to place the same printed message into the hands of every man, woman, and child in America. Though these entrepreneurs were savvy businessmen, their publishing enterprises were not commercial businesses. They were nonprofit religious organizations, including the American Bible Society, American Tract Society, and American Sunday School Union. Faith in Reading tells the story of the noncommercial origins of mass media in America. The theme is how religious publishers learned to work against the flow of ordinary commerce. Religious publishing societies believed that reading was too important to be left to the “market revolution”; they sought to foil the market through the “visible hand” of organization. Though religious publishers worked against the market, they employed modern printing technologies and business methods, and were remarkably successful, churning out millions of Bibles, tracts, religious books, and periodicals. At the same time, they tried to teach people to read those books in the most traditional way. Their aim was to use new mass media to encourage old reading habits. This book examines both publishers and readers. It is about how religious publishing societies imagined their readers. It is also about reader response — how ordinary readers received and read religious books and tracts in early 19th century America.
Alexandra da Costa
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199653560
- eISBN:
- 9780191742026
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199653560.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
This book investigates how Syon Abbey responded to the religious turbulence of the 1520s and 1530s. It examines the eleven books three brothers — William Bonde, John Fewterer, and Richard Whitford — ...
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This book investigates how Syon Abbey responded to the religious turbulence of the 1520s and 1530s. It examines the eleven books three brothers — William Bonde, John Fewterer, and Richard Whitford — had printed during this period and argues that the Bridgettines used vernacular printing to engage with religious and political developments that threatened their understanding of orthodox faith. Through these works — and their some twenty-six editions — the Abbey presented itself as part of the vanguard of the Church, fighting heterodoxy with a three-fold commitment to reformed spiritual leadership, vernacular theology and the spiritual education of the laity. It used its printed books to augment inferior parochial instruction; bolster orthodox faith and contradict evangelical argument; resist Henry VIII's desire for ecclesiastical supremacy; and defend the monastic way of life. The book has three principal aims. First, to continue the debate about the nature of late medieval Catholicism by directing attention to one community that publicly proclaimed a very specific Catholic identity in the early sixteenth century that was not uncritical of traditional religion. Second, to highlight the dynamic nature of that identity. Although Syon energetically contested its opponents' claims to a ‘Catholic’ identity and insisted on its own ability to rigidly define heresy, it took advantage of the fluidity of religious identity in this period to forge a public image which might bolster lay faith in traditional religion. This identity was in continuous dialogue with evangelicalism and far from static. Third, to emphasise the importance and dynamism of conservative vernacular theology in this period: it's capacity to recognize, and engage with, the lay desire for spiritual self-determination, while responding robustly to threats to traditional religion. Less
This book investigates how Syon Abbey responded to the religious turbulence of the 1520s and 1530s. It examines the eleven books three brothers — William Bonde, John Fewterer, and Richard Whitford — had printed during this period and argues that the Bridgettines used vernacular printing to engage with religious and political developments that threatened their understanding of orthodox faith. Through these works — and their some twenty-six editions — the Abbey presented itself as part of the vanguard of the Church, fighting heterodoxy with a three-fold commitment to reformed spiritual leadership, vernacular theology and the spiritual education of the laity. It used its printed books to augment inferior parochial instruction; bolster orthodox faith and contradict evangelical argument; resist Henry VIII's desire for ecclesiastical supremacy; and defend the monastic way of life. The book has three principal aims. First, to continue the debate about the nature of late medieval Catholicism by directing attention to one community that publicly proclaimed a very specific Catholic identity in the early sixteenth century that was not uncritical of traditional religion. Second, to highlight the dynamic nature of that identity. Although Syon energetically contested its opponents' claims to a ‘Catholic’ identity and insisted on its own ability to rigidly define heresy, it took advantage of the fluidity of religious identity in this period to forge a public image which might bolster lay faith in traditional religion. This identity was in continuous dialogue with evangelicalism and far from static. Third, to emphasise the importance and dynamism of conservative vernacular theology in this period: it's capacity to recognize, and engage with, the lay desire for spiritual self-determination, while responding robustly to threats to traditional religion.
Dov-Ber Kerler
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198151661
- eISBN:
- 9780191672798
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198151661.003.0014
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
The re-print of Simkhes hanefesh was the least altered towards Eastern modernization. But is still contained the most basic features of Easternization, which was most noteworthy to analyze and ...
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The re-print of Simkhes hanefesh was the least altered towards Eastern modernization. But is still contained the most basic features of Easternization, which was most noteworthy to analyze and discuss. It was also found to be superiorly popular during its editions of more than ten. It is made up of two collections, the first about narratives, moral teachings, and parables, while the second focused more on religious traditions and laws, mixed with lyrical components. The author himself was accustomed to Western and Eastern culture, having been raised in Poland. He therefore had a strong background and grasp of modern Yiddish literature. This was his objective: to write something that was recognizable and appreciated by all regions in Europe.Less
The re-print of Simkhes hanefesh was the least altered towards Eastern modernization. But is still contained the most basic features of Easternization, which was most noteworthy to analyze and discuss. It was also found to be superiorly popular during its editions of more than ten. It is made up of two collections, the first about narratives, moral teachings, and parables, while the second focused more on religious traditions and laws, mixed with lyrical components. The author himself was accustomed to Western and Eastern culture, having been raised in Poland. He therefore had a strong background and grasp of modern Yiddish literature. This was his objective: to write something that was recognizable and appreciated by all regions in Europe.
Glenn Dynner
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195175226
- eISBN:
- 9780199785148
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195175226.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
Hasidic marketing campaigns employed everything from printed sermons and tales to oral tales, songs, and dances. This chapter argues that that these methods were earmarked for specific social groups. ...
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Hasidic marketing campaigns employed everything from printed sermons and tales to oral tales, songs, and dances. This chapter argues that that these methods were earmarked for specific social groups. The importance of Hasidic printing as a vehicle for reaching the male intellectual elite has been underestimated, as demonstrated through a survey of the impressive number of printed works and an analysis of their endorsements (haskamot). Tale collections formed something of a bridge between literate, semi-literate, and illiterate populations. Oral tales were designed specifically for the latter two groups, which helps explain their propensity for fantasies about social inversion. Oral tales, in addition to songs and dances, borrowed heavily from non-Jewish culture.Less
Hasidic marketing campaigns employed everything from printed sermons and tales to oral tales, songs, and dances. This chapter argues that that these methods were earmarked for specific social groups. The importance of Hasidic printing as a vehicle for reaching the male intellectual elite has been underestimated, as demonstrated through a survey of the impressive number of printed works and an analysis of their endorsements (haskamot). Tale collections formed something of a bridge between literate, semi-literate, and illiterate populations. Oral tales were designed specifically for the latter two groups, which helps explain their propensity for fantasies about social inversion. Oral tales, in addition to songs and dances, borrowed heavily from non-Jewish culture.
Umar F. Abd‐Allah
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195187281
- eISBN:
- 9780199784875
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195187288.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
This chapter focuses on Webb's efforts to get the word out about Islam. He welcomed direct discourse with the public in parlor talks, public speeches, question-and-answer sessions, or informal ...
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This chapter focuses on Webb's efforts to get the word out about Islam. He welcomed direct discourse with the public in parlor talks, public speeches, question-and-answer sessions, or informal meetings. But he regarded the printed word to be his propaganda's principal and indispensable vehicle. In emphasizing the printed word, Webb based his mission on tasks that he, as a professional journalist, was well trained at performing. He produced a number of publications — printed lectures, journals, and books — and offered for sale a wide variety of books on Islam and religious topics, some of which were also available in the mission's reading room and study circles.Less
This chapter focuses on Webb's efforts to get the word out about Islam. He welcomed direct discourse with the public in parlor talks, public speeches, question-and-answer sessions, or informal meetings. But he regarded the printed word to be his propaganda's principal and indispensable vehicle. In emphasizing the printed word, Webb based his mission on tasks that he, as a professional journalist, was well trained at performing. He produced a number of publications — printed lectures, journals, and books — and offered for sale a wide variety of books on Islam and religious topics, some of which were also available in the mission's reading room and study circles.
Terryl C. Givens
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195167115
- eISBN:
- 9780199785599
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195167115.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Education is fundamental in Mormonism. Joseph Smith studied Hebrew, and established a School of the Prophets and the University of Nauvoo. Print culture was central to the Mormon church, and early ...
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Education is fundamental in Mormonism. Joseph Smith studied Hebrew, and established a School of the Prophets and the University of Nauvoo. Print culture was central to the Mormon church, and early leaders like Orson Pratt and Parley Pratt laid the foundations for an intellectual tradition. Early Mormon intellectual culture was capacious enough to accommodate Darwin and evolution, though that would change.Less
Education is fundamental in Mormonism. Joseph Smith studied Hebrew, and established a School of the Prophets and the University of Nauvoo. Print culture was central to the Mormon church, and early leaders like Orson Pratt and Parley Pratt laid the foundations for an intellectual tradition. Early Mormon intellectual culture was capacious enough to accommodate Darwin and evolution, though that would change.
Chris Beneke
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195305555
- eISBN:
- 9780199784899
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195305558.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
The story opens in the first three decades of the 18th century when dissenters were still treated as political subversives and unorthodox doctrines still compared to contagious diseases. This chapter ...
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The story opens in the first three decades of the 18th century when dissenters were still treated as political subversives and unorthodox doctrines still compared to contagious diseases. This chapter briefly summarizes the long history of persecution in Europe and America, emphasizing the ideal of religious uniformity and the practice of religious localism. It then traces the emergence of toleration and the limits of the “divine right of private judgment”. The chapter concludes with an account of an early religious controversy involving Benjamin Franklin to underscore the relationship between the growth of the print trade and the expansion of religious autonomy.Less
The story opens in the first three decades of the 18th century when dissenters were still treated as political subversives and unorthodox doctrines still compared to contagious diseases. This chapter briefly summarizes the long history of persecution in Europe and America, emphasizing the ideal of religious uniformity and the practice of religious localism. It then traces the emergence of toleration and the limits of the “divine right of private judgment”. The chapter concludes with an account of an early religious controversy involving Benjamin Franklin to underscore the relationship between the growth of the print trade and the expansion of religious autonomy.
Andrei A. Znamenski
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195172317
- eISBN:
- 9780199785759
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195172317.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Carlos Castaneda's first book, The Teachings of Don Juan, and two subsequent texts were described as anthropological accounts, which gave them credibility. Coming straight from the Sonoran Desert, ...
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Carlos Castaneda's first book, The Teachings of Don Juan, and two subsequent texts were described as anthropological accounts, which gave them credibility. Coming straight from the Sonoran Desert, Castaneda's ethnographic accounts could easily appear to readers to be authentic anthropology. The fact that Castaneda refused to specify the identity of his characters brought an intrigue to his plots. Readers of his books were left free to exercise their imaginations or to look around for cultural and individual parallels with Castaneda's characters and settings. Castaneda and Don Juan became attractive cultural and intellectual models, which inspired at least some spiritual seekers to replicate their experiences.Less
Carlos Castaneda's first book, The Teachings of Don Juan, and two subsequent texts were described as anthropological accounts, which gave them credibility. Coming straight from the Sonoran Desert, Castaneda's ethnographic accounts could easily appear to readers to be authentic anthropology. The fact that Castaneda refused to specify the identity of his characters brought an intrigue to his plots. Readers of his books were left free to exercise their imaginations or to look around for cultural and individual parallels with Castaneda's characters and settings. Castaneda and Don Juan became attractive cultural and intellectual models, which inspired at least some spiritual seekers to replicate their experiences.
Katharine Wilson
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199252534
- eISBN:
- 9780191719226
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199252534.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
The works of John Lyly, Robert Greene, and Thomas Lodge effectively established prose fiction in print at the end of the sixteenth century. In these extraordinary pamphlets, rhetorical sophistication ...
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The works of John Lyly, Robert Greene, and Thomas Lodge effectively established prose fiction in print at the end of the sixteenth century. In these extraordinary pamphlets, rhetorical sophistication is married with the outlandish adventures of young lovers, ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture combined. Fictions of Authorship re-examines these narratives in the light of their creators' developing understanding of the implications of authorship. Christened the ‘University Wits’ by an earlier generation of critics, Lyly, Greene, and Lodge were themselves displaced persons, attempting to shape careers in the new and often despised medium of print. Their attempts to demonstrate their learning while appealing to as wide a readership as possible led them to manufacture multiple authorial personae, and to reflect critically and sometimes outrageously on the works of their contemporaries and predecessors. Their texts are closely interwoven with each other. The authors competed to set new literary trends, often by overgoing the attempts of their peers. Apparently opposed literary modes were mixed, resulting in the placement of a persona like Lyly's Euphues in Philip Sidney's Arcadia. Meanwhile the relationship between writer and reader became increasingly complex, as the authors began to tailor their fictions to an ever expanding market. By providing close and comparative readings of these short fictions, Fictions of Authorship charts the authors' increasing disillusionment with the confines of romance, but also their popular success. As they assimilated and domesticated the experiments of writers like Harvey, Sidney and Spenser, they created an irreverent alternative canon of ‘English literature'.Less
The works of John Lyly, Robert Greene, and Thomas Lodge effectively established prose fiction in print at the end of the sixteenth century. In these extraordinary pamphlets, rhetorical sophistication is married with the outlandish adventures of young lovers, ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture combined. Fictions of Authorship re-examines these narratives in the light of their creators' developing understanding of the implications of authorship. Christened the ‘University Wits’ by an earlier generation of critics, Lyly, Greene, and Lodge were themselves displaced persons, attempting to shape careers in the new and often despised medium of print. Their attempts to demonstrate their learning while appealing to as wide a readership as possible led them to manufacture multiple authorial personae, and to reflect critically and sometimes outrageously on the works of their contemporaries and predecessors. Their texts are closely interwoven with each other. The authors competed to set new literary trends, often by overgoing the attempts of their peers. Apparently opposed literary modes were mixed, resulting in the placement of a persona like Lyly's Euphues in Philip Sidney's Arcadia. Meanwhile the relationship between writer and reader became increasingly complex, as the authors began to tailor their fictions to an ever expanding market. By providing close and comparative readings of these short fictions, Fictions of Authorship charts the authors' increasing disillusionment with the confines of romance, but also their popular success. As they assimilated and domesticated the experiments of writers like Harvey, Sidney and Spenser, they created an irreverent alternative canon of ‘English literature'.
Jack Zipes
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691153384
- eISBN:
- 9781400841820
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691153384.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
If there is one genre that has captured the imagination of people in all walks of life throughout the world, it is the fairy tale. Yet we still have great difficulty understanding how it originated, ...
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If there is one genre that has captured the imagination of people in all walks of life throughout the world, it is the fairy tale. Yet we still have great difficulty understanding how it originated, evolved, and spread—or why so many people cannot resist its appeal, no matter how it changes or what form it takes. This book presents a provocative new theory about why fairy tales were created and retold—and why they became such an indelible and infinitely adaptable part of cultures around the world. Drawing on cognitive science, evolutionary theory, anthropology, psychology, literary theory, and other fields, the book presents a nuanced argument about how fairy tales originated in ancient oral cultures, how they evolved through the rise of literary culture and print, and how, in our own time, they continue to change through their adaptation in an ever-growing variety of media. In making its case, the book considers a wide range of fascinating examples, including fairy tales told, collected, and written by women in the nineteenth century; Catherine Breillat's film adaptation of Perrault's “Bluebeard”; and contemporary fairy-tale drawings, paintings, sculptures, and photographs that critique canonical print versions. While we may never be able to fully explain fairy tales, this book provides a powerful theory of how and why they evolved—and why we still use them to make meaning of our lives.Less
If there is one genre that has captured the imagination of people in all walks of life throughout the world, it is the fairy tale. Yet we still have great difficulty understanding how it originated, evolved, and spread—or why so many people cannot resist its appeal, no matter how it changes or what form it takes. This book presents a provocative new theory about why fairy tales were created and retold—and why they became such an indelible and infinitely adaptable part of cultures around the world. Drawing on cognitive science, evolutionary theory, anthropology, psychology, literary theory, and other fields, the book presents a nuanced argument about how fairy tales originated in ancient oral cultures, how they evolved through the rise of literary culture and print, and how, in our own time, they continue to change through their adaptation in an ever-growing variety of media. In making its case, the book considers a wide range of fascinating examples, including fairy tales told, collected, and written by women in the nineteenth century; Catherine Breillat's film adaptation of Perrault's “Bluebeard”; and contemporary fairy-tale drawings, paintings, sculptures, and photographs that critique canonical print versions. While we may never be able to fully explain fairy tales, this book provides a powerful theory of how and why they evolved—and why we still use them to make meaning of our lives.
Jiang Wu and Lucille Chia (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780231171601
- eISBN:
- 9780231540193
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231171601.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
A monumental work in the history of religion, the history of the book, the study of politics, and bibliographical research, this volume follows the making of the Chinese Buddhist canon from the ...
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A monumental work in the history of religion, the history of the book, the study of politics, and bibliographical research, this volume follows the making of the Chinese Buddhist canon from the fourth century to the digital era. Approaching the subject from a historical perspective, it ties the religious, social, and textual practices of canon formation to the development of East Asian Buddhist culture and enlivens Chinese Buddhist texts for readers interested in the evolution of Chinese writing and the Confucian and Daoist traditions. The collection undertakes extensive readings of major scriptural catalogs from the early manuscript era as well as major printed editions, including the Kaibao Canon, Qisha Canon, Goryeo Canon, and Taisho Canon. Contributors add fascinating depth to such understudied issues as the historical process of compilation, textual manipulation, physical production and management, sponsorship, the dissemination of various editions, cultic activities surrounding the canon, and the canon’s reception in different East Asian societies. The Chinese Buddhist canon is one of the most enduring textual traditions in East Asian religion and culture, and through this exhaustive, multifaceted effort, an essential body of work becomes part of a new, versatile narrative of East Asian Buddhism that has far-reaching implications for world history.Less
A monumental work in the history of religion, the history of the book, the study of politics, and bibliographical research, this volume follows the making of the Chinese Buddhist canon from the fourth century to the digital era. Approaching the subject from a historical perspective, it ties the religious, social, and textual practices of canon formation to the development of East Asian Buddhist culture and enlivens Chinese Buddhist texts for readers interested in the evolution of Chinese writing and the Confucian and Daoist traditions. The collection undertakes extensive readings of major scriptural catalogs from the early manuscript era as well as major printed editions, including the Kaibao Canon, Qisha Canon, Goryeo Canon, and Taisho Canon. Contributors add fascinating depth to such understudied issues as the historical process of compilation, textual manipulation, physical production and management, sponsorship, the dissemination of various editions, cultic activities surrounding the canon, and the canon’s reception in different East Asian societies. The Chinese Buddhist canon is one of the most enduring textual traditions in East Asian religion and culture, and through this exhaustive, multifaceted effort, an essential body of work becomes part of a new, versatile narrative of East Asian Buddhism that has far-reaching implications for world history.
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/9780691160627.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter begins with an investigation of encounters between unified wholes and networked connections, a set of relations that has been absolutely fundamental to cultural studies, from early ...
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This chapter begins with an investigation of encounters between unified wholes and networked connections, a set of relations that has been absolutely fundamental to cultural studies, from early twentieth-century anthropology to recent scholarship on global flows. It then turns to the overlapping of multiple networks, which is a far more ordinary fact of social life—and a more unsettled and unsettling one—than literary and cultural studies has recognized. It develops an understanding of networked form through two readings. The first Trish Loughran's study of print culture in early America, The Republic in Print, which makes the case that multiple, overlapping networks—mail, print, money, and roads—interrupted each other and frustrated the work of consolidating a new nation. The second is Charles Dickens's Bleak House, a novel that casts social relations as a complex heaping of networks that not only stretch across space but also unfold over time.Less
This chapter begins with an investigation of encounters between unified wholes and networked connections, a set of relations that has been absolutely fundamental to cultural studies, from early twentieth-century anthropology to recent scholarship on global flows. It then turns to the overlapping of multiple networks, which is a far more ordinary fact of social life—and a more unsettled and unsettling one—than literary and cultural studies has recognized. It develops an understanding of networked form through two readings. The first Trish Loughran's study of print culture in early America, The Republic in Print, which makes the case that multiple, overlapping networks—mail, print, money, and roads—interrupted each other and frustrated the work of consolidating a new nation. The second is Charles Dickens's Bleak House, a novel that casts social relations as a complex heaping of networks that not only stretch across space but also unfold over time.
James W. Cortada
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195165876
- eISBN:
- 9780199789689
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195165876.003.0009
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Business History
This chapter describes how computers have been used in book publishing, newspapers, and magazines over the past half century. It describes specific applications, such as printing, the extent to which ...
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This chapter describes how computers have been used in book publishing, newspapers, and magazines over the past half century. It describes specific applications, such as printing, the extent to which computers were used and the effects on how work was done. Activities after arrival of the Internet are considered.Less
This chapter describes how computers have been used in book publishing, newspapers, and magazines over the past half century. It describes specific applications, such as printing, the extent to which computers were used and the effects on how work was done. Activities after arrival of the Internet are considered.
Joshua A. Berman
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195374704
- eISBN:
- 9780199871438
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195374704.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism, Biblical Studies
This chapter examines the role that technology may have played in advancing the egalitarian platform. The adoption of the technology of the alphabetic script and its use in creating texts in ancient ...
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This chapter examines the role that technology may have played in advancing the egalitarian platform. The adoption of the technology of the alphabetic script and its use in creating texts in ancient Israel is a result of a dynamic relationship between technology, on the one hand, and a distinct theological and social mind frame on the other that is unafraid of educating the masses. In Mesopotamia and in Egypt, by contrast, texts were produced, read, memorized, and transmitted by a scribal elite, and composed in scripts that were inherently difficult to master—hieroglyphics and cuneiform. Literacy in ancient Israel was probably always the purview of professional scribes. But passages in Deuteronomy, Exodus and in the prophetic writings of the Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Habakuk suggest that such texts should be produced for the masses, read to them, remembered and transmitted by them. Examining the role of the printing press in the flourishing of 16th century Western Europe sheds insight into how the Bible sought to optimize the newfound technology of the alphabetic script in the southern Levant in an unprecedented manner, by utilizing the power of the alphabetic text and its potential for wide circulation. Whereas in Mesopotamia and in Egypt writing was turned inwards as a guarded source of power, in Israel it was turned outwards and reflected the Bible's egalitarian impulse. The dissemination of such texts through writing and reading to the masses accords with other biblical emphases such as the domestication of national religion, the shift from a cult of objects to a cult of words and ideas, and the rise of a national vernacular literature. An examination of the role and status of writing within Greek thought generally, and the thought of Plato in particular, highlights the special status accorded writing within biblical thought.Less
This chapter examines the role that technology may have played in advancing the egalitarian platform. The adoption of the technology of the alphabetic script and its use in creating texts in ancient Israel is a result of a dynamic relationship between technology, on the one hand, and a distinct theological and social mind frame on the other that is unafraid of educating the masses. In Mesopotamia and in Egypt, by contrast, texts were produced, read, memorized, and transmitted by a scribal elite, and composed in scripts that were inherently difficult to master—hieroglyphics and cuneiform. Literacy in ancient Israel was probably always the purview of professional scribes. But passages in Deuteronomy, Exodus and in the prophetic writings of the Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Habakuk suggest that such texts should be produced for the masses, read to them, remembered and transmitted by them. Examining the role of the printing press in the flourishing of 16th century Western Europe sheds insight into how the Bible sought to optimize the newfound technology of the alphabetic script in the southern Levant in an unprecedented manner, by utilizing the power of the alphabetic text and its potential for wide circulation. Whereas in Mesopotamia and in Egypt writing was turned inwards as a guarded source of power, in Israel it was turned outwards and reflected the Bible's egalitarian impulse. The dissemination of such texts through writing and reading to the masses accords with other biblical emphases such as the domestication of national religion, the shift from a cult of objects to a cult of words and ideas, and the rise of a national vernacular literature. An examination of the role and status of writing within Greek thought generally, and the thought of Plato in particular, highlights the special status accorded writing within biblical thought.
The Multigraph Collective
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226469140
- eISBN:
- 9780226469287
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226469287.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Ideas
This book delivers a reworking of the history of print through a unique effort in authorial collaboration. The book itself is not a typical monograph—rather, it is a “multigraph,” the collective work ...
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This book delivers a reworking of the history of print through a unique effort in authorial collaboration. The book itself is not a typical monograph—rather, it is a “multigraph,” the collective work of twenty-two scholars who together have assembled an alphabetically arranged tour of key concepts for the study of print culture, from Anthologies and Binding to Publicity and Taste. Each entry builds on its term in order to resituate print and book history within a broader media ecology throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The central theme is interactivity, in three senses: people interacting with print; print interacting with the non-print media that it has long been thought, erroneously, to have displaced; and people interacting with each other through print. The resulting book introduces new energy to the field of print studies, leading to considerable new avenues of investigation.Less
This book delivers a reworking of the history of print through a unique effort in authorial collaboration. The book itself is not a typical monograph—rather, it is a “multigraph,” the collective work of twenty-two scholars who together have assembled an alphabetically arranged tour of key concepts for the study of print culture, from Anthologies and Binding to Publicity and Taste. Each entry builds on its term in order to resituate print and book history within a broader media ecology throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The central theme is interactivity, in three senses: people interacting with print; print interacting with the non-print media that it has long been thought, erroneously, to have displaced; and people interacting with each other through print. The resulting book introduces new energy to the field of print studies, leading to considerable new avenues of investigation.
Helena Sanson
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197264836
- eISBN:
- 9780191754043
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264836.003.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Historical Linguistics
This chapter begins with a brief review of various personifications of grammar. It suggests that whichever personification Grammar is given, the underlying point — that she holds a central position ...
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This chapter begins with a brief review of various personifications of grammar. It suggests that whichever personification Grammar is given, the underlying point — that she holds a central position in the system of education of the liberal arts — remains. She is the cradle of knowledge and the point of entry to a whole range of disciplines, skills, and methods that in turn lead to further literary and textual knowledge. This is followed by discussions of how teaching and learning grammar was considered unsuitable for women; the impact of the invention of printing on the form, content, and transmission of knowledge; and the emergence of the literary vernacular alongside Latin in the sixteenth century. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.Less
This chapter begins with a brief review of various personifications of grammar. It suggests that whichever personification Grammar is given, the underlying point — that she holds a central position in the system of education of the liberal arts — remains. She is the cradle of knowledge and the point of entry to a whole range of disciplines, skills, and methods that in turn lead to further literary and textual knowledge. This is followed by discussions of how teaching and learning grammar was considered unsuitable for women; the impact of the invention of printing on the form, content, and transmission of knowledge; and the emergence of the literary vernacular alongside Latin in the sixteenth century. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.
Helena Sanson
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197264836
- eISBN:
- 9780191754043
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264836.003.0002
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Historical Linguistics
This chapter examines women's linguistic education in Cinquecento Italy and the role played by the vernacular in making knowledge more accessible to the less educated, and particularly to women. ...
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This chapter examines women's linguistic education in Cinquecento Italy and the role played by the vernacular in making knowledge more accessible to the less educated, and particularly to women. Women's language, according to men of letters and theorists, was simple and devoid of refinement, but also pure and conservative. Women's role as linguistic educators of their offspring could only be a limited one, circumscribed to the first years of childhood: a girl's education usually remained confined within a domestic environment dominated by the vernacular, and removed from the universe of classical languages and more advanced studies that was a privilege of the lucky few. With the development and spread of the printing press, women came to be seen as a new, profitable sector of the publishing market. They became the target of a variety of works that brought the literary vernacular within their reach. A determining role in helping to spread the literary vernacular across different social classes was played by Petrarchism, and the prestige of the written vernacular allowed for the expression of the voices and talents of women writers. Discussions on language were not merely arid scholarly lucubrations. They had become a fashionable topic that pervaded courtly and upper-class society and concerned men and women alike, with women's presence also occasionally directly gracing the more traditional realms of male linguistic erudition.Less
This chapter examines women's linguistic education in Cinquecento Italy and the role played by the vernacular in making knowledge more accessible to the less educated, and particularly to women. Women's language, according to men of letters and theorists, was simple and devoid of refinement, but also pure and conservative. Women's role as linguistic educators of their offspring could only be a limited one, circumscribed to the first years of childhood: a girl's education usually remained confined within a domestic environment dominated by the vernacular, and removed from the universe of classical languages and more advanced studies that was a privilege of the lucky few. With the development and spread of the printing press, women came to be seen as a new, profitable sector of the publishing market. They became the target of a variety of works that brought the literary vernacular within their reach. A determining role in helping to spread the literary vernacular across different social classes was played by Petrarchism, and the prestige of the written vernacular allowed for the expression of the voices and talents of women writers. Discussions on language were not merely arid scholarly lucubrations. They had become a fashionable topic that pervaded courtly and upper-class society and concerned men and women alike, with women's presence also occasionally directly gracing the more traditional realms of male linguistic erudition.
Martin Campbell-Kelly, Mary Croarken, Raymond Flood, and Eleanor Robson (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780198508410
- eISBN:
- 9780191708831
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198508410.001.0001
- Subject:
- Mathematics, History of Mathematics
The oldest known mathematical table was found in the ancient Sumerian city of Shuruppag in southern Iraq. Since then, tables have been an important feature of mathematical activity; table making and ...
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The oldest known mathematical table was found in the ancient Sumerian city of Shuruppag in southern Iraq. Since then, tables have been an important feature of mathematical activity; table making and printed tabular matter are important precursors to modern computing and information processing. This book contains a series of chapters summarizing the technical, institutional, and intellectual history of mathematical tables from earliest times until the late 20th century. It covers mathematical tables (the most important computing aid for several hundred years until the 1960s), data tables (e.g., Census tables), professional tables (e.g., insurance tables), and spreadsheets — the most recent tabular innovation. This book captures the history of tables through eleven chapters. The contributors describe the various information processing techniques and artefacts whose unifying concept is ‘the mathematical table’.Less
The oldest known mathematical table was found in the ancient Sumerian city of Shuruppag in southern Iraq. Since then, tables have been an important feature of mathematical activity; table making and printed tabular matter are important precursors to modern computing and information processing. This book contains a series of chapters summarizing the technical, institutional, and intellectual history of mathematical tables from earliest times until the late 20th century. It covers mathematical tables (the most important computing aid for several hundred years until the 1960s), data tables (e.g., Census tables), professional tables (e.g., insurance tables), and spreadsheets — the most recent tabular innovation. This book captures the history of tables through eleven chapters. The contributors describe the various information processing techniques and artefacts whose unifying concept is ‘the mathematical table’.
