Lewes Lavater

Author : Armando Maggi
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 257 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2008-05-12
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780226501291

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In the Company of Demons by Armando Maggi Pdf

Who are the familiar spirits of classical culture and what is their relationship to Christian demons? In its interpretation of Latin and Greek culture, Christianity contends that Satan is behind all classical deities, semi-gods, and spiritual creatures, including the gods of the household, the lares and penates.But with In the Company of Demons, the world’s leading demonologist Armando Maggi argues that the great thinkers of the Italian Renaissance had a more nuanced and perhaps less sinister interpretation of these creatures or spiritual bodies. Maggi leads us straight to the heart of what Italian Renaissance culture thought familiar spirits were. Through close readings of Giovan Francesco Pico della Mirandola, Strozzi Cigogna, Pompeo della Barba, Ludovico Sinistrari, and others, we find that these spirits or demons speak through their sudden and striking appearances—their very bodies seen as metaphors to be interpreted. The form of the body, Maggi explains, relies on the spirits’ knowledge of their human interlocutors’ pasts. But their core trait is compassion, and sometimes their odd, eerie arrivals are seen as harbingers or warnings to protect us. It comes as no surprise then that when spiritual beings distort the natural world to communicate, it is vital that we begin to listen.

Author : Marcus Harmes,Victoria Bladen
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 250 pages
File Size : 54,6 Mb
Release : 2016-04-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9781317048374

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Supernatural and Secular Power in Early Modern England by Marcus Harmes,Victoria Bladen Pdf

For the people of early modern England, the dividing line between the natural and supernatural worlds was both negotiable and porous - particularly when it came to issues of authority. Without a precise separation between ’science’ and ’magic’ the realm of the supernatural was a contested one, that could be used both to bolster and challenge various forms of authority and the exercise of power in early modern England. In order to better understand these issues, this volume addresses a range of questions regarding the ways in which ideas, beliefs and constructions of the supernatural threatened and conflicted with authority, as well as how the power of the supernatural could be used by authorities (monarchical, religious, legal or familial) to reinforce established social norms. Drawing upon a range of historical, literary and dramatic texts the collection reveals intersecting early modern anxieties in relation to the supernatural, issues of control and the exercise of power at different levels of society, from the upper echelons of power at court to local and domestic spaces, and in a range of publication contexts - manuscript sources, printed prose texts and the early modern stage. Divided into three sections - ’Magic at Court’, ’Performance, Text and Language’ and ’Witchcraft, the Devil and the Body’ - the volume offers a broad cultural approach to the subject that reflects current research by a range of early modern scholars from the disciplines of history and literature. By bringing scholars into an interdisciplinary dialogue, the case studies presented here generate fresh insights within and between disciplines and different methodologies and approaches, which are mutually illuminating.

Author : Richard Corum
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 297 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 1998-10-28
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9780313007781

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Understanding Hamlet by Richard Corum Pdf

Shakespeare's Hamlet, regarded by many as the world's most famous play by the world's most famous writer, is one of the most complex, demanding, discussed, and influential literary texts in English. As a means of access to this play, this unique collection of primary materials and commentary will help student and teacher explore historical, literary, theatrical, social, and cultural issues related to the play. In an approach unique for this series, Corum guides the reader through a literary analysis of Hamlet's options. He examines the popular theatres of the day in which Shakespeare and his company first produced Hamlet and discusses the genre of tragedy in which it is written. Through judicious selection of primary historical documents, the work provides contexts for understanding Hamlet's melancholy, the ghost of Hamlet's father, the theme of revenge, and Hamlet's feigned madness. Chapters on Gertrude and Ophelia illuminate these characters in the context of the play and early modern English culture. Each chapter contains a variety of materials, many of which are not readily available elsewhere: essays, poems, histories, treatises, official documents, stories, religious tracts, homilies, memoirs, engravings, village records, and fifteen illustrations. An explanatory introduction precedes each document. Each chapter concludes with study questions, topics for written and oral exploration, and a list of suggested readings. This casebook will enrich the reader's understanding of the play and the context in which it was written.

Author : Muzhou Pu
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 361 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2009
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9789004171527

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Rethinking Ghosts in World Religions by Muzhou Pu Pdf

The central theme of this volume is to re-examine the received concepts and images of ghosts in various religious cultures ranging from the Ancient Near East and Egypt to the Old Testament, the Classical Era, Early Medieval and Early Modern Europe, Early India, and Medieval China. As a religious phenomenon, the realm of ghosts has been less studied than the realm of the divine. Through a collaborative effort by scholars from different disciplines, this volume proposes a multi-cultural approach to construct a wider and complicated picture of the phenomenon of ghosts and spirits in human societies and to have a grasp of the various problems involved in understanding the phenomenon of ghost.

Author : Jane P. Davidson
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 386 pages
File Size : 49,9 Mb
Release : 2012-01-06
Category : History
ISBN : 9798216076810

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Early Modern Supernatural by Jane P. Davidson Pdf

Devils, ghosts, poltergeists, werewolves, and witches are all covered in this book about the "dark side" of supernatural beliefs in early modern Europe, tapping period literature, folklore, art, and scholarly writings in its investigation. The dark side of early modern European culture could be deemed equal in historical significance to Christianity based on the hundreds of books that were printed about the topic between 1400 and 1700. Famous writers and artists like William Shakespeare and Albrecht Dürer depicted the dark side in their work, and some of the first printed books in Europe were about witches. The pervasive representation of these monsters and apparitions in period literature, folklore, and art clearly reflects their power to inspire fear and superstition, but also demonstrates how integral they were to early modern European culture. This unique book addresses topics of the supernatural within the context of the early modern period in Europe, covering "mythical" entities such as devils, witches, ghosts, poltergeists, and werewolves in detail and examining how they fit in with the emerging new scientific method of the time. This unique combination of cultural studies for the period is ideal for undergraduate students and general readers.

Author : Minoru Fujita,Leonard Pronko
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 188 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 2013-12-16
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781134240890

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Shakespeare East and West by Minoru Fujita,Leonard Pronko Pdf

The International Shakespeare Association meeting, held in Tokyo in August of 1991, was regarded by many of the participating academics as a milestone in terms of the quality of the papers given and extent to which the intercultural and cross-cultural study of Shakespeare had been developed. This volume contains the principal contributions (10) to the panel on Acting and Language in Shakespeare and Eastern Drama, specially edited for publication by Minoru Fujita who teaches at the Graduate School of Culture, University of Osaka, and Leonard Pronko, Professor of Theatre at Pomona College, Claremont, California. The papers are presented in three sections: Playhouses and Performances, Literary History, and Interpretation and Theoretical Issues.

Author : Manchester Goethe Society
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 236 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 1894
Category : Authors, German
ISBN : BSB:BSB11669890

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Transactions of the Manchester Goethe Society, 1886-1893 by Manchester Goethe Society Pdf

Author : M. A. Screech
Publisher : Librairie Droz
Page : 376 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 1992
Category : France
ISBN : 2600031731

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Some Renaissance Studies : by M. A. Screech Pdf

Author : Marion Gibson,Jo Ann Esra
Publisher : A&C Black
Page : 248 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 2014-02-27
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781780936185

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Shakespeare's Demonology by Marion Gibson,Jo Ann Esra Pdf

Is postdramatic theatre political and if so how? How does it relate to Brecht's ideas of political theatre, for example? How can we account for the relationship between aesthetics and politics in new forms of theatre, playwriting, and performance? The chapters in this book discuss crucial aspects of the issues raised by the postdramatic turn in theatre in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century: the status of the audience and modes of spectatorship in postdramatic theatre; the political claims of postdramatic theatre; postdramatic theatre's ongoing relationship with the dramatic tradition; its dialectical qualities, or its eschewing of the dialectic; questions of representation and the real in theatre; the role of bodies, perception, appearance and theatricality in postdramatic theatre; as well as subjectivity and agency in postdramatic theatre, dance and performance. Offering analyses of a wide range of international performance examples, scholars in this volume engage with Hans-Thies Lehmann's theoretical positions both affirmatively and critically, relating them to other approaches by thinkers ranging from early theorists such as Brecht, Adorno and Benjamin, to contemporary thinkers such as Fischer-Lichte, Rancière and others

Author : Philip Ball
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 333 pages
File Size : 53,5 Mb
Release : 2015-04-08
Category : History
ISBN : 9780226238890

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Invisible by Philip Ball Pdf

Science is said to be on the verge of achieving the ancient dream of making objects invisible. Invisible is a biography of an idea, tied to the history of science over thelongue durée. Taking in Plato to today's science, Ball shows us that the stories we have told about invisibility are not in fact about technical capability but about power, sex, concealment, morality, and corruption. Precisely because they refer to matters that lie beyond our senses, unseen beings and worlds have long been a repository for hopes, fears, and suppressed desires. Ideas of invisibility are, like all ideas rooted in legend, ultimately parables about our own potential and weaknesses. Invisible presents the first comprehensive survey of the roles that the idea of invisibility has played throughout time and culture. This territory takes us from medieval grimoires to cutting-edge nanotechnology, from fairy tales to telecommunications, from camouflage to early cinematography, and from beliefs about ghosts to the dawn of nuclear physics and the discovery of dark energy. Invisible reveals what our age-old fantasies about what lurks unseen, and whether we can enter that realm ourselves, truly say about us.

Author : Andrew D. McCarthy
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 338 pages
File Size : 44,5 Mb
Release : 2016-04-01
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781317050674

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Staging the Superstitions of Early Modern Europe by Andrew D. McCarthy Pdf

Engaging with fiction and history-and reading both genres as texts permeated with early modern anxieties, desires, and apprehensions-this collection scrutinizes the historical intersection of early modern European superstitions and English stage literature. Contributors analyze the cultural mechanisms that shape, preserve, and transmit beliefs. They investigate where superstitions come from and how they are sustained and communicated within early modern European society. It has been proposed by scholars that once enacted on stage and thus brought into contact with the literary-dramatic perspective, belief systems that had been preserved and reinforced by historical-literary texts underwent a drastic change. By highlighting the connection between historical-literary and literary-dramatic culture, this volume tests and explores the theory that performance of superstitions opened the way to disbelief.

Author : Neil Forsyth
Publisher : Ohio University Press
Page : 269 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 2019-02-11
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780821446478

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Shakespeare the Illusionist by Neil Forsyth Pdf

In Shakespeare the Illusionist, Neil Forsyth reviews the history of Shakespeare’s plays on film, using the basic distinction in film tradition between what is owed to Méliès and what to the Lumière brothers. He then tightens his focus on those plays that include some explicit magical or supernatural elements—Puck and the fairies, ghosts and witches, or Prospero’s island, for example—and sets out methodically, but with an easy touch, to review all the films that have adapted those comedies and dramas, into the present day. Forsyth’s aim is not to offer yet another answer as to whether Shakespeare would have written for the screen if he were alive today, but rather to assess what various filmmakers and TV directors have in fact made of the spells, haunts, and apparitions in his plays. From analyzing early camera tricks to assessing contemporary handling of the supernatural, Forsyth reads Shakespeare films for how they use the techniques of moviemaking to address questions of illusion and dramatic influence. In doing so, he presents a bold step forward in Shakespeare and film studies, and his fresh take is presented in lively, accessible language that makes the book ideal for classroom use.

Author : Roland Mushat Frye
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 416 pages
File Size : 40,9 Mb
Release : 2014-07-14
Category : Drama
ISBN : 9781400852840

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The Renaissance Hamlet by Roland Mushat Frye Pdf

Drawing on recent advances in historical knowledge, the author describes contemporary attitudes toward issues such as rebellion, conscience, regicide, incest, retribution, and mourning. His investigation reveals a number of convincing new reasons for viewing Hamlet not as an irresolute young man but as a vigorous and determined figure in confrontation with the moral dilemmas of his age. By understanding the play in its original terms, we find that it takes on new depth and power for our own time. Originally published in 1984. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Author : Mark Thornton Burnett
Publisher : Springer
Page : 262 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 2002-10-28
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781403919359

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Constructing Monsters in Shakespeare's Drama and Early Modern Culture by Mark Thornton Burnett Pdf

Constructing 'Monsters' in Shakespearean Drama and Early Modern Culture argues for the crucial place of the 'monster' in the early modern imagination. Burnett traces the metaphorical significance of 'monstrous' forms across a range of early modern exhibition spaces - fairground displays, 'cabinets of curiosity' and court entertainments - to contend that the 'monster' finds its most intriguing manifestation in the investments and practices of contemporary theatre. The study's new readings of Shakespeare, Marlowe and Jonson make a powerful case for the drama's contribution to debates about the 'extraordinary body'.

Author : Stuart A. Kallen
Publisher : Capstone
Page : 80 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 2011
Category : Vampires
ISBN : 9781601522092

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Vampire History and Lore by Stuart A. Kallen Pdf

Throughout history vampires have been viewed as hideously repellant, strikingly attractive, dangerously evil, and piteously gloomy. This title explores vampire beliefs from the blood sucking beasts of ancient times to the immortal teen heartthrobs of the twenty-first century.