The songs of the Royal Zh?u (“Zh?u Nán” ??) and of the Royal Shào (“Shào Nán” ??) have formed a conceptual unit since at least the late Spring and Autumn period (771–453 BC). With this book Meyer and Schwartz provide a first complete reading of their earliest, Warring States (453–221 BC), iteration as witnessed by the ?nhu? University manuscripts. As a thought experiment, the au…
This short book aims to turn a modest, one might even think trivial, literary labour into something more substantial, going beyond one particular novel into broader questions of novel-writing, character and narrative. My starting point is tracking down those allusions and quotations in Middlemarch that have hitherto gone unidentified by scholars. Most…
Islamic Sensory History, Volume 2: 600–1500 presents a selection of texts translated into English from Arabic and Persian. These selected texts all offer illustrative engagements with issues related to the sensorium in different times, places, and social milieus throughout the early and medieval history of Islamic societies. Each chapter is prefaced by an introductory essay by the translator,…
The Huayuanzhuang East oracle bone inscriptions, first discovered in 1991 and completely published in six folio volumes in 2003, are a synchronically compact and unified late Shang (ca. 1250-1045 BC) corpus of several thousand individual divination accounts inscribed on hundreds of still intact turtle shells and cattle scapulae. Produced under the patronage of a prince of the royal f…
It was a cold winter evening in 2010, and I had just arrived in Paris for a short research trip. The tiny hotel where I would be staying was on the fifth floor of the ophthalmological wing of the hôtel-Dieu (or hospital) just across from the cathedral of Notre Dame. 1 Given the subject of the book I was in France to research, it seemed appropri-ate that I should s…
‘Metaphysical poetry’ is a problematic term: it is broad and the phe-nomenon it denotes has blurred borderlines. In the eyes of some of the leading figures within classicist aesthetics, this description seemed pejorative, suggesting poems that were too detached from the rules of rationalised discourse, and often invoked contradictory ideas. T.S. Eliot pointed this out in his essay The Metap…
Presents detailed coverage of the deities, legendary heroes and heroines, important animals, objects, and places that make up the mythic lore of the many peoples of North America.
The African continent is home to a fascinating and strong tradition of myth, due in part to the long history of human habitation in Africa; the diversity of its geography, flora, and fauna; and the variety of its cultural beliefs. African Mythology A to Z, Second Edition is a readable reference to the deities, places, events, animals, beliefs, and other subjects that appear in the myths of vari…
In ancient Chinese civilization, emperors were revered as the direct descendants of the gods, who ruled all of nature and the heavens. Animal bones were consulted as oracles to answer the great questions of life and death, and ancestral spirits were thought to roam the earth, negotiating with the gods on behalf of the living. From the legends of the Eight Immortals to the teachings of Confucius…
In a world thought to have been created—and nearly destroyed—by the primordial gods Izanagi and Izanami, mythic heroes battled ferocious dragons and giant spiders, while ordinary bamboo cutters and farmers made unexpected contact with the supernatural. Japanese Mythology A to Z, Second Edition is a valuable, colorful reference for anyone with an interest in mythology or Japanese culture. …