In the first book of its kind to appear in the English language, two of France's leading scholars trace the historical geography of their country from its roots in the Roman province of Gaul to the present day. They demonstrate how, for centuries, France was little more than an ideological concept, and examine the relatively late development of a more complex territorial geography, involving political, religious, cultural, agricultural and industrial unities and diversities. Their conclusion is that it is only recently that France has achieved its territorial unity, and has overwritten the...
In the first book of its kind to appear in the English language, two of France's leading scholars trace the historical geography of their country from...
Francois Laroque's new perspective on Shakespeare's relation to popular culture has quickly become a classic of scholarship. Available now in paperback, the book opens new possibilities for Shakespeare studies, revealing the connections between his plays and the folklore, customs, games, and celebrations of the Elizabethan festive tradition. This acclaimed study shows how Shakespeare mingled popular culture with aristocratic royal forms of entertainment in ways that combined or clashed to produce new meaning.
Francois Laroque's new perspective on Shakespeare's relation to popular culture has quickly become a classic of scholarship. Available now in paperbac...
This is a major, single-volume introduction to the whole of Ancient Greek History. It covers the period from the Golden Age of Knossos and Mycenae to the incorporation of Greece into the Roman empire in the second century BC and the transfer of Greek culture to Byzantium in the fourth century AD.
This is a major, single-volume introduction to the whole of Ancient Greek History. It covers the period from the Golden Age of Knossos and Mycenae to ...
Rich with implications for the history of sexuality, gender issues, and patterns of Hellenic literary imagining, Marcel Detienne's landmark book recasts long-standing ideas about the fertility myth of Adonis. The author challenges Sir James Frazer's thesis that the vegetation god Adonis-- whose premature death was mourned by women and whose resurrection marked a joyous occasion--represented the annual cycle of growth and decay in agriculture. Using the analytic tools of structuralism, Detienne shows instead that the festivals of Adonis depict a seductive but impotent and fruitless...
Rich with implications for the history of sexuality, gender issues, and patterns of Hellenic literary imagining, Marcel Detienne's landmark book re...
The Poetics of Eros in Ancient Greece offers the first comprehensive inquiry into the deity of sexual love, a power that permeated daily Greek life. Avoiding Foucault's philosophical paradigm of dominance/submission, Claude Calame uses an anthropological and linguistic approach to re-create indigenous categories of erotic love. He maintains that Eros, the joyful companion of Aphrodite, was a divine figure around which poets constructed a physiology of desire that functioned in specific ways within a network of social relations. Calame begins by showing how poetry and...
The Poetics of Eros in Ancient Greece offers the first comprehensive inquiry into the deity of sexual love, a power that permeated dail...
This is the first in a series of books in which one of the most influential of contemporary art theorists revised from within the conceptions underlying the history of art. The author's basic idea is that the rigor of linear perspective cannot encompass all of visual experience and that it could be said to generate an oppositional factor with which it interacts dialectically: the cloud. On a literal level, this could be represented by the absence of the sky, as in Brunelleschi's legendary first experiments with panels using perspective. Or it could be the vaporous swathes that Correggio uses...
This is the first in a series of books in which one of the most influential of contemporary art theorists revised from within the conceptions underlyi...
This book explores the possible relations between Western types of rationality and Buddhism. It also examines some cliches about Buddhism and questions the old antinomies of Western culture (-faith and reason, - or -idealism and materialism-). The use of the Buddhist notion of the Two Truths as a hermeneutic device leads to a double or multiple exposure that will call into question our mental habits and force us to ask questions differently, to think -in a new key.- Double Exposure is somewhat of an oddity. Written by a specialist for nonspecialists, it is not a book of vulgarization....
This book explores the possible relations between Western types of rationality and Buddhism. It also examines some cliches about Buddhism and question...
This book explores the possible relations between Western types of rationality and Buddhism. It also examines some cliches about Buddhism and questions the old antinomies of Western culture ("faith and reason," or "idealism and materialism"). The use of the Buddhist notion of the Two Truths as a hermeneutic device leads to a double or multiple exposure that will call into question our mental habits and force us to ask questions differently, to think "in a new key." Double Exposure is somewhat of an oddity. Written by a specialist for nonspecialists, it is not a book of vulgarization....
This book explores the possible relations between Western types of rationality and Buddhism. It also examines some cliches about Buddhism and question...
In this highly insightful analysis of Western and Chinese concepts of efficacy, Francois Jullien subtly delves into the metaphysical preconceptions of the two civilizations to account for diverging patterns of action in warfare, politics, and diplomacy. He shows how Western and Chinese strategies work in several domains (the battlefield, for example) and analyzes two resulting acts of war. The Chinese strategist manipulates his own troops and the enemy to win a battle without waging war and to bring about victory effortlessly. Efficacity in China is thus conceived of in terms of...
In this highly insightful analysis of Western and Chinese concepts of efficacy, Francois Jullien subtly delves into the metaphysical preconceptions...
In this highly insightful analysis of Western and Chinese concepts of efficacy, Francois Jullien subtly delves into the metaphysical preconceptions of the two civilizations to account for diverging patterns of action in warfare, politics, and diplomacy. He shows how Western and Chinese strategies work in several domains (the battlefield, for example) and analyzes two resulting acts of war. The Chinese strategist manipulates his own troops and the enemy to win a battle without waging war and to bring about victory effortlessly. Efficacity in China is thus conceived of in terms of...
In this highly insightful analysis of Western and Chinese concepts of efficacy, Francois Jullien subtly delves into the metaphysical preconceptions...
