Department of Languages

Author: cgawade

Touya, Eric

December 24, 2016

The Case for the Humanities: Pedagogy, Polity, Interdisciplinarity. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2016.

Countering the perception that the humanities are unessential, this volume contends that their well-being has not only academic but also cultural, political, and existential ramifications. Our technologically-driven world possesses the means of its own destruction, while economic and financial policies undermine the very existence of our democracy. At the same time, the postmodern and post-human age fundamentally challenges our ability and legitimacy to conceive future ideals. It is within this context that the humanities provide essential paths through which the teaching and knowledge of other academic fields such as STEM and economics must be re-envisioned. In short, the humanities must be brought back to the center of academic life.
The political and pedagogical implications of this interdisciplinary study thus entail a renewed critique to rethink the relation between higher education, society, and the world at large (politically, economically, scientifically, and technologically) and the importance of the humanities within it.At the heart of this reconsideration, the humanities’ and humanity’s fate and future become one.

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Schmidt, Johannes

March 24, 2016

Staffan Bengtsson, Heinrich Clairmont, Robert Norton, Johannes Schmidt, and Ulrike Wagner: Herder and Religion. Contributions from the 2010 Conference of the International Herder Society at the University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana. Heidelberg: Synchron, 2016. 260 pages.

Those interested in the nature and wide-ranging impact of Herder’s religious thought will find this volume to be a valuable companion. The contributors participated in the 2010 meeting of the International Herder Society at the University of Notre Dame, and they approach the question of what religion actually meant for Herder by examining the relationship between the shifting nature of his response and his angle of vision. Interdisciplinary in scope, the essays testify to how his position on religious questions changes, depending on his field of inquiry. Herder the historian, concerned with defining the origin of the Greek and Hebrew Bible, develops answers that differ from those by Herder the anthropologist, concerned with operations of cognitive processes; these in turn diverge from those by Herder the poet and aesthetician. Readers curious about Herder’s positions on religious and theological matters in conversation with others, and how others felt inspired by him, will find contributions ranging from his engagement with figures such as Spinoza and Kant to the influence of his thinking on nineteenth-century Anglo-American religious debates.

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Vazsonyi, Nicholas

May 24, 2012

Richard Wagner: Self-Promotion and the Making of a Brand. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Paperback 2012.

All modern artists have had to market themselves in some way. Richard Wagner may just have done it better than anyone else. In a self-promotional effort that began around 1840 in Paris, and lasted for the remainder of his career, Wagner claimed convincingly that he was the most German composer ever and the true successor of Beethoven. More significantly, he was an opera composer who declared that he was not composing operas. Instead, during the 1850s, he mapped out a new direction, conceiving of works that would break with tradition and be literally ‘brand new’. This is the first study to examine the innovative ways in which Wagner made himself a celebrity, promoting himself using every means available: autobiography, journal articles, short stories, newspaper announcements, letters, even his operas themselves. Vazsonyi reveals how Wagner created a niche for his works in the crowded opera market that continues to be unique.

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Oropesa, Salvador

October 24, 2011

Ihrie, Maureen, and Salvador A. Oropesa, eds. World literature in Spanish: an Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 2011

Providing a thorough introduction to Spanish-language literature worldwide and across time is a tall order. However, World Literature in Spanish: An Encyclopedia contains roughly 850 entries on both major and minor authors, themes, genres, and topics of Spanish literature from the Middle Ages to the present day, affording an amazingly comprehensive reference collection in a single work. This encyclopedia describes the growing diversity within national borders, the increasing interdependence among nations, and the myriad impacts of Spanish literature across the globe. All countries that produce literature in Spanish in Europe, Africa, the Americas, and Asia are represented, covering both canonical authors and emerging contemporary writers and trends. Underrepresented writings—such as texts by women writers, queer and Afro-Hispanic texts, children’s literature, and works on relevant but less studied topics such as sports and nationalism—also appear. While writings throughout the centuries are covered, those of the 20th and 21st centuries receive special consideration.

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Touya, Eric

May 24, 2011

Francophone Women Writers: Feminisms, Postcolonialisms, Cross-Cultures. Preface by Maryse Condé. Lanham: Lexington Books Publishing, 2011.

This anthology seeks to introduce women writers in the “global” Francophone world by investigating the place of feminist, postcolonial and cross-cultural theories in interpreting women francophone literature. The book also allows the reader to examine the extent to which women writers reflect or negate the conventional archetypes of Francophone literature, how they reinvent the political, cultural and critical discourse of their time and place, and create their own identity from objectification to subjectivity.

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