This book explains why the historical Jesus had to speak with parables to the Jews of his time solving one of the most controversial enigmas still unresolved by current historical criticism: the meaning that Jesus gave to the expression "Son of man" which he uses in the synoptic Gospels (and, in particular, in Mark's) as messianic title: the famous problem of the "Messianic Secret" discussed for the first time by William Wrede (in 1900). However, it is not necessary to read the work of Wrede or other scholars who, up to now, have dealt with the historical Jesus and the origins of the Church and Christianity: it is better, in fact, for the Reader, to make himself like a little Child ignorant of every cultural tradition!
Contemporary Psychoanalytic Field Theory articulates the theory, heuristic principles, and clinical techniques of psychoanalytic field theory. S. Montana Katz describes the historical, philosophical and clinical contexts for the development of field theory in South America, North America and Europe. Field theory is a family of related bi-personal psychoanalytic perspectives falling into three principal models, which developed relatively independently. One of the principal models is based upon the work of Madeleine and Willy Baranger. The second, constructed by Katz, draws upon what is held in common by the implicit field theories in the United States of the interpersonal, intersubjective, relational and motivational systems’ psychoanalytic perspectives. The third is based upon the work of Antonino Ferro. For each, Katz elucidates its conception of mind, unconscious processes, the specific field concept employed, therapeutic goals, and clinical techniques. Similarities and differences of the models are illustrated. In the book, a fabricated analytic process is offered in which an analysand, Zoe, is engaged in three analyses. Each analyst works with the techniques of one of the three field theories. Katz conveys the diverging thought processes and technical choices of each analyst and the potentially different therapeutic outcomes of the application of each model. In the final chapters, Katz moves beyond the specific field theories to articulate a concept of a general field which underlies the three field concepts. She explores how to use this generalized field to find a form of common ground amongst the field theories, conjecturing that this generalized concept has application beyond field theory to a greater range of psychoanalytic perspectives. Contemporary Psychoanalytic Field Theory provides a clear and comprehensive guide that will appeal to psychoanalysts, psychoanalytic psychotherapists, mental health professionals and clinicians, as well as philosophers, psychologists, sociologists and anthropologists.
In the Greek world under the Roman Empire, the tradition of rhetorical learning reached its heyday in the second century A.D., with the cultural movement named as “Second Sophistic”. Despite the emphasis on rhetoric, literary culture lato senso was was also part of it, granting a special place to poetics and literary criticism. In the wake of this hermeneutical and interdisciplinary approach, the papers assembled in this volume explore significant issues, which are linked to the narrative structure of the ancient novel and to the tradition of rhetorical training, both envisaged as a web of well-constructed narrative devices.
Inspired by and engaging with the provocative and prolific work of Stephen D. Moore, Bible and Theory showcases some of the most current thinking emerging at the intersections of critical methods with biblical texts. The result is a plurality of readings that deconstruct customary disciplinary boundaries. These chapters, written by a wide range of biblical scholars, collectively argue by demonstration for the necessity and benefits of biblical criticism inflected with queer theory, literary criticism, postmodernism, cultural studies, and more. Bible and Theory: Essays in Biblical Interpretation in Honor of Stephen D. Moore invites the reader to rethink what constitutes the Bible and to reconsider what we are doing when we read and interpret it.
The Dream Frontier is that rare book that makes available the cumulative wisdom of a century's worth of clinical examination of dreams and then reconfigured that wisdom on the basis of research in cognitive neuroscience. Drawing on psychodynamic theorists and neuroscientific researchers with equal fluency and grace, Mark Blechner introduces the reader to a conversation of the finest minds, from Freud to Jung, from Sullivan to Erikson, from Aserinksy and Kleitman to Hobson, as the work toward an understanding of dreams and dreaming that is both scientifically credible and personally meaningful. The dream, in Blechner's elegantly conceived overview, offers itself to the dreamer as an answer to a question yet to be asked. Approached in thi open-ended manner, dreams come to reveal the meaning-making systems of the unconscious in the total absence of waking considerations of reality testing and communicability. Systems of dream interpretation arise as helpful, if inherently limited, strategies for apprehending this unconscious quest for meaning. Whereas students will appreciate Blechner's concise reviews of the various schools of dream interpretation, teachers and supervisors will value his astute reexamination of the very process of interpretating dreams, which includes the manner in which group discussion of dreams may be employed to correct for individual interpretive biases. Elegantly written, lucidly argued, deftly synooptic but never ponderous in tone, The Dream Frontier provides a fresh outlook on the century just passed along with the keys to the antechambers of the new century's reinvestigation of fundamental questions of conscious and unconscious mental life. It transcends the typical limits of interdisciplinary reportage and brings both researcher and clinician to the threshold of a new, mutually enriching exploration of the dream frontier in search of basic answers to basic questions.
The book addresses students and professors interested in comparative literature and the complex problematic of modernity/postmodernity, hermeneutics, literary, and cultural theory within the past few decades of the 20th century. The author explores the works of Dostoyevsky, Thomas Mann, M. Proust, W. Faulkner, and Emil Cioran. It is a welcome opportunity for the scholarly audience to familiarize themselves with contemporary Romanian literature and literary theory.
The Routledge Anthology of Women's Theatre Theory and Dramatic Criticism is the first wide-ranging anthology of theatre theory and dramatic criticism by women writers. Reproducing key primary documents contextualized by short essays, the collection situates women’s writing within, and also reframes the field’s male-defined and male-dominated traditions. Its collection of documents demonstrates women’s consistent and wide-ranging engagement with writing about theatre and performance and offers a more expansive understanding of the forms and locations of such theoretical and critical writing, dealing with materials that often lie outside established production and publication venues. This alternative tradition of theatre writing that emerges allows contemporary readers to form new ways of conceptualizing the field, bringing to the fore a long-neglected, vibrant, intelligent, deeply informed, and expanded canon that generates a new era of scholarship, learning, and artistry. The Routledge Anthology of Women's Theatrical Theory and Dramatic Criticism is an important intervention into the fields of Theatre and Performance Studies, Literary Studies, and Cultural History, while adding new dimensions to Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies.
The present work seeks to bring literary theory in line with the most recent practical turn the humanities are witnessing. When simplified, succinctly presented, and skillfully used in multi-coded interpretation within a semiocritical framework, literary theories become practical exercises in criticism, not only facilitating the interpretation of literature, but also making it more enjoyable and more rewarding. This book is different from its counterparts in the sense that it includes an exceptionally expanded model of the practice of literary theories, and replaces long and theoretical discussions with brief synopses of the examined theories. It relies on less-overused texts for illustration as it compiles and organizes the terms and phrases that are often used by the proponents of the discussed theories. The most influential literary theories that have so far been developed in academia are included: the New Criticism, reader-response criticism, structuralism, deconstruction, feminism, Marxism, psychoanalytic criticism, linguistic criticism, cultural materialism, new historicism, postcolonialism, and semiotics. Through eliminating the excesses made in the name of theory, this book will restore the faith of students, teachers, and practitioners in the useful and enduring nature of literary theory for the analysis and appreciation of literature.
''Utterly absorbing and standout tales... Baal's witty and unconventional prose will hook you in right from the start.' – Cosmopolitan Man Hating Psycho is the caustic new collection of stories from visionary writer Iphgenia Baal. Interrogating the disconnect between our public identities and real-life selves, Baal exposes the inherent duplicity of online communication. Text messages relaying deep personal crisis are nothing more than an annoyance, WhatsApp takedowns of wide-eyed left-wingers unfold at breakneck speed, friendships that seem set in stone disintegrate at the first hint of sex, the language of love degraded as life becomes more and more transactional. With black and disquieting humour, thirteen playful texts disparage the highly-profitable superstitions that are the scaffolding of our current social order. Man Hating Psycho lays bare the trappings of modern life, whilst putting the short story form through a literary mincer.. 'An extraordinary voice, and if you want to understand what happens next in modern writing, you'd do well to listen to it. A revelation.' – Alan Moore
