Plants and literature : essays in critical plant studies.
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Myth, art, literature, film, and other discourses are replete with depictions of evil plants, salvific plants, and human-plant hybrids. In various ways, these representations intersect with "deep-rooted" insecurities about the place of human beings in the natural world, the relative viability of animalian motility and heterotrophy as evolutionary strategies, as well as the identity of organic life as such . Plants surprise us by combining the appearance of harmlessness and familiarity with an underlying strangeness. The otherness of vegetal life poses a challenge to our ethical, philosophical, and existential categories and tests the limits of human empathy and imagination. At the same time, the resilience of plants, their adaptability, and their integration with their habitat are a perennial source of inspiration and wisdom. Plants and Literature: Essays in Critical Plant Studies examines the manner in which literary texts and other cultural products express our multifaceted relationship with the vegetable kingdom. The range of perspectives brought to bear on the subject of plant life by the various authors and critics represented in this volume comprise a novel vision of ecological interdependence and stimulate a revitalized sensitivity to the relationships we share with our photosynthetic brethren.
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1 online resource (270 pages) : color illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references at the end of each chapters and index. :
9789401209991 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Philosophy of language and other matters in the work of Anton Marty : analysis and translations /
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One of the most important students of Franz Brentano was Anton Marty, who made it his task to develop a philosophy of language on the basis of Brentano's analysis of mind. It is most unfortunate that Marty does not receive the attention he deserves, primarily due to his detailed and distracting polemics. In the analysis presented here his philosophy of language and other aspects of his thought, such as his ontology (which ultimately diverges from Brentano's), are examined first and foremost in their positive rather than critical character. The analysis is moreover supplemented by translations of four important works by Marty, including his entire work On the Origin of Language . These are in fact the first English translations of any substantial writings by him. The resulting picture that emerges from the analysis and translations is that Marty has much to say that proves to be of enduring interest for the philosophy of language on a range of topics, especially the meanings of statements, of emotive expressions, and of names as regards both their communicative and their ontological aspects. The volume will be of interest not only to philosophers and historians of philosophy, but also to historians of linguistics and psychology.
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1 online resource (xiv, 374 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 351-369) and index. :
9789042031203 :
0167-4102 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The ancients and Shakespeare on time : some remarks on the war of generations /
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In The Ancients and Shakespeare on Time Piotr Nowak depicts a world where tradition - devoid of gravity, "Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything" - attempts to curb the young and new, while youth resists with all its power, vitality and characteristic insolence. The wars of generations, which Nowak explores in the works of Plato, Aristophanes and Shakespeare, pertain to the essence and meaning of time. They make up the dramatic tensions in the transgenerational dialogue between the old and the young.
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1 online resource (xiv, 106 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 97-101) and index. :
9789401210676 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Unconscious in Philosophy, and French and European Literature : Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century.
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This book traces the idea of the unconscious as it emerges in French and European literature. It discusses the functioning of the normal unconscious mind and provides examples of the abnormal unconscious in poems and literature. Psychiatric cases as they are understood today are illustrated as mirrored in literature describing the functioning of the disturbed mind.
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1 online resource (403 pages) :
9789042029217 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Politics otherwise : Shakespeare as social and political critique /
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The book is comprised of essays that utilize Shakespeare as a productive window into topics of contemporary social and political relevance. Its interdisciplinary qualities make the book relevant for students of political studies, literature, philosophy, cultural studies, and history.
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1 online resource (xiv, 180 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789401207461 :
0929-8436 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Dostoevsky and Kant : dialogues on ethics /
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"In this book, Evgenia Cherkasova brings the philosopher Kant and the novelist Dostoevsky together in conversations that probe why duty is central to our moral life. She shows that just as Dostoevsky is indebted to Kant, so Kant would profit from the deeply philosophical narratives of Dostoevsky, which engage the problem of evil and the claims of human community. She not only produces a novel reading of Dostoevsky, but also guides us to later, often neglected Kantian texts. This study is written with scholarly care, penetrating analysis, elegance of style, and moral urgency: Cherkasova writes with both mind and heart."--Emily Grosholz, Professor of Philosophy, The Pennsylvania State University.
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1 online resource (xiv, 128 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789042026117 :
0929-8436 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Shakespeare and philosophy : lust, love, and law /
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This book is an interdisciplinary work that weaves literary interpretation, legal theory, and philosophical doctrine about sex and love into a coherent mosaic in the context of two of Shakespeare's plays: The Merchant of Venice and Measure for Measure . In the process, the work advances literary interpretations of the plays including character studies of some of the main protagonists. The aim is partly theoretical but mostly practical: to demonstrate what we can learn about living a robustly meaningful and significant human life by taking Shakespeare's work seriously from contemporary philosophical and legal vantage points. Shakespeare does not reveal a tightly defined moral system that he is trying to urge upon his audience. Instead, Shakespeare challenges his audience to struggle with moral complexity as they confront conflicting elements surrounding legal and moral issues presented in his work and within the souls of his characters. His issues and their conflicts are also ours. Much of Shakespeare's work consists of raising weighty questions inextricably connected to the human condition and inviting his audience to ponder possible answers. The philosophical lessons about living our lives meaningfully and significantly that we can derive from Shakespeare are simple yet powerful.
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1 online resource (xiii, 227 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789401208727 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Narrative ethics /
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While Plato recommended expelling poets from the ideal society, W. H. Auden famously declared that poetry makes nothing happen. The 19 contributions to the present book avoid such polarized views and, responding in different ways to the "ethical turn" in narrative theory, explore the varied ways in which narratives encourage readers to ponder matters of right and wrong. All work from the premise that the analysis of narrative ethics needs to be linked to a sensitivity to esthetic (narrative) form. The ethical issues are accordingly located on different levels. Some are clearly presented as thematic concerns within the text(s) considered, while others emerge through (or are generated by) the presentation of character and event by means of particular narrative techniques. The objects of analysis include such well-known or canonical texts as Biblical Old Testament stories, Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn , J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings , Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita , Jonathan Littell's The Kindly Ones , Ann Radcliffe's The Italian and Matthew Lewis's The Monk . Others concentrate on less-well-known texts written in languages other than English. There are also contributions that investigate theoretical issues in relation to a range of different examples.
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"The chapters of this volume are revised versions of papers given at an international conference on narrative theory and analysis arranged at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, Oslo, 19-20 November 2010"--Preface. :
1 online resource (xii, 313 pages) : color illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789401209823 :
0929-8436 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.