In this book, Jeffrey Mehlman dwells on the series of enigmas surrounding the "Blanchot affair," in which one of the leading figures of contemporary French thought was shown to have been a prominent fascist journalist during the 1930s. Using this as a point of departure, Mehlman investigates the ideological and political connotations of similar literary material, shedding new light on the question of the usability of psychoanalysis for literary readings. The volume provides a provocative meditation on literature, ethics, and the experience of the French in World War II.

This book examines the ways in which Pascal posed and solved intellectual problems in his immense and varied output. Hugh Davidson shows how three of the classical "liberal arts"-- rhetoric, dialectic and geometry--pervade Pascal's method as liberating and guiding influences in his search for truth, both in his attacks on and in his defenses of tradition. Professor Davidson throws new light on both the diversity and the unity of Pascal's thought, and places it in the context of other seventeenth-century innovations in the use of traditional disciplines.

This is the first full-length study to explore Simone de Beauvoir's autobiographical and biographical writings in the context of her ideas on selfhood as formulated in The Second Sex and other philosophical essays of the 1940s. Ursula Tidd presents a detailed analysis of Beauvoir's engagement with issues of gender, sexuality and race, as part of her auto/biographical strategy in seeking to write herself into the male-constructed autobiographical canon. Tidd offers new readings of Beauvoir's unpublished diaries and recently published letters along with more well-known philosophical and...

This book of linked essays contains the first critical study of Baudelaire's development as a poet, from his youth onward. It also includes studies of the development of Baudelaire's aesthetic, detailed commentaries on a number of his finest poems, and accounts of three intriguing and crucial "encounters" with notable contemporaries. Three of the essays are previously unpublished and four very recent; the other eleven have been thoroughly updated, revised, and, in some cases, substantially expanded. Together, they constitute a new and important contribution to the understanding and...

Beyond Anger is the first detailed literary analysis of Juvenal's third book of Satires (Satires 7, 8, and 9). Braund focuses on the satiric techniques Juvenal employs in this book, arguing that in Book III Juvenal uses a new, ironic persona which makes his satire more indirect, subtle, and double-edged than does the angry approach found in the earlier works.

Skin color is perhaps the most decisive and abused physical characteristic of humankind. This book presents a multidisciplinary overview of how and why human populations vary so markedly in their skin color. The biological aspects of the pigment cell and its production of melanin are reviewed. The functions of melanin in the skin, brain, eye and ear are considered, and the common clinical abnormalities of pigmentation, such as albinism, are described and illustrated. Detailed reflectance data from worldwide surveys of skin color are also presented. Next, historical and contemporary...

Combining a detailed examination of theory with a full and up-to-date account of historical development, this study analyzes the nature of the international order--the hierarchical state system--and explores its potential for reform. The theoretical account is given tracing two traditions of thought in the writings of Kant and Rousseau, while the historical survey explores the evolution of international organizations since 1815, covering such aspects as concert diplomacy, alliance systems, international organizations, and such internal understandings as nuclear deterrence, crisis management,...

This book uncovers the rich, fascinating and complex world of Ottoman manufacturing and manufacturers in the age of the European industrial revolution. Focusing on small-scale home and workshop production, Professor Quataert reveals a dynamism that refutes traditional notions of a declining economy in the face of European expansion. He shows how manufacturers adopted a variety of strategies, such as reduced wages and low technology inputs, to confront European competitors, protect their livelihoods and retain domestic and international customers.

The Seductions of Psychoanalysis reflects on the history of psychoanalysis, its conceptual foundations and its relation to other disciplines. John Forrester probes the origins of psychoanalysis and its most beguiling concept, the transference, which is at once its institutional axis and experimental core. He explores the most seductive of all recent psychoanalytic traditions, that inspired by Jacques Lacan, whose radical questioning of psychoanalytic effects has been continued implicitly by Michel Foucault and explicitly by Jacques Derrida. Other key questions addressed include the...

This book studies the processes by which the pagan Roman Empire was transformed into the Christian Middle Ages. Drawing on the perspectives of social history, archaeology and anthropology, it focuses on the strategies of Bishop Caesarius of Arles (470SH542 AD) to promote Christian values, practices and beliefs among the pagans, Jews and Christians of southern France, and on the resistance provoked by his efforts among the population. This is the first book in English about Caesarius, and the only book to discuss southern Gaul during the sixth century.