Drawing on the Spanish Kabbalah s account of the divine speaking Woman, analysed in terms derived from contemporary feminist stylistics especially the speculative-cum-theological variety associated with Luce Irigaray s work this study examines the problem of female self-presentation in two novels from quite different cultural periods and national literary contexts. The study concludes that the two works participate in the long history of kabbalistic-hermetic reflexion on the nature and status of the Divine Feminine and its expression in language. The deft deployment of current French feminist...

The art of posing riddles is possibly as old as mankind and spans two apparent extremes which, nevertheless, converge in the riddlic form: that of wisdom and that of play. With this perspective in mind, the author examines the poetic enigmas present in the culture of Anglo-Saxon England, exploring both the Anglo-Latin riddles of Aldhelm and those recorded in the Exeter Book. His study investigates the Old English riddlic texts from a variety of angles, arguing for the possibility of establishing patterns of Anglo-Saxon riddlic composition as such. Rafal Boryslawski intends to prove that both...

This book follows the protection of religious ministers in armed conflict from its roots in religious law to the present-day status of religious personnel in international humanitarian law. The details of this legal protection are discussed as well as the practice of religious ministry to troops and prisoners of war. The author provides a comparison of protection of spiritual assistance to armed forces with protection granted to civilian ministry. Considering the example of German chaplaincy, he also examines interactions of international protection with the national status of religious...

What explains the similarity among the conversion accounts of so many -barbarian- rulers of the Byzantine Near East? Royal adoptions of a new religion, whether Christianity, Judaism, or Manichaeism, appear to draw on a common literary topos. King Abgar of Edessa s conversion became the subject of several early Christian legends. This analytical comparison of various conversion accounts argues that they played a significant role in fashioning the diverse local ethnic groups in the Near East into -Romans-. The Abgar legend formed part of a larger literary movement which disseminated often...

This book contributes significantly to Law and Literature studies. Arguing for the political relevance of their work, the editors open the volume with an introduction that summarizes topical developments in law enforcement and penal politics including the prisonization of American society and popular support for -no tolerance- approaches to crime. The fourteen essays that follow six on trials and eight on prisons discuss subjects ranging from the political ramifications of Captain Kidd s trials for piracy to a reading of South African prison memoirs and include treatments of prison films,...

Chemistry is a natural science which has immensely influenced both the development of technology and of civilization, transforming the world of our everyday life. It is therefore something of a paradox of modern philosophy that it took so long for it to perceive chemistry as an incredibly complex and interesting subject suitable for philosophical discourse. However, from the beginning of the 1990s this discourse has been developing in a most dynamic way creating a veritable melting pot in which various chemical concepts and actions are being blended with philosophical and cultural ideas. The...

The study addresses the question of whether or not the EU s foreign policy towards Latin American Southern Cone States (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, which created, in 1991, the Southern Cone Common Market MERCOSUR) has become more cooperative since the mid-to-end 1980s, and why a change, if any, has occurred. It explores recurrent explanatory factors pointed out in the literature (EU s intention to balance the US hegemony, accession of Portugal and Spain to the EU, and the processes of democratization, economic liberalization, and regional integration taking place in the Southern...