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The incorporation of nanomaterials into products can improve performance, efficiency, and durability in various fields ranging from construction, energy management, catalysis, microelectronics, plastics, coatings, and paints to consumer articles such as foods and cosmetics. But innovation never comes at zero risk. The potential hazards resulting fr
This book offers innovative investigations of the concept of life in art and in theory. It features essays that explore biopoetics and look at how insights from the natural sciences shape research within the humanities. Since literature, works of art, and other cultural products decisively shape our ideas of what it means to be human, the contributors to this volume examine the question of what literature, literary and cultural criticism, and philosophy contribute to the distinctions (or non-distinctions) between human, animal, and vegetal existence. Coverage combines different methodological aspects and addresses a wide field of comparative literary studies. The essays consider the question...
The fourth volume of the collected papers of the ICLA congress “The Many Languages of Comparative Literature” includes articles that study thematic and formal elements of literary texts. Although the question of prioritizing either the level of content or that of form has often provoked controversies, most contributions here treat them as internally connected. While theoretical considerations inform many of the readings, the main interest of most articles can be described as rhetorical (in the widest sense) – given that the ancient discipline of rhetoric did not only include the study of rhetorical figures and tropes such as metaphor, irony, or satire, but also that of topoi, which wer...
Anticipatory Environmental (Hi)Stories from Antiquity to the Anthropocene studies the interplay of environmental perception and the way societies throughout history have imagined the future state of “nature” and the environments in which coming generations would live. What sorts of knowledge were and are involved in outlining future environments? What kinds of texts and narrative strategies were and are developed and modified over time? How did and do scenarios and narratives of the past shape (hi)stories of the future? This book answers these questions from a diachronic as well as a cross-cultural perspective. By looking at a diverse range of historical evidence that transcends stereotypical utopian and dystopian visions and allows for nuanced insights beyond the dichotomous reservoir of pastoral motifs and apocalyptic narratives, the contributors illustrate the multifaceted character of environmental anticipation across the ages.
Otto Höfler (1901–1987) was an Austrian Germanist and Scandinavist. His research on ‘Germanic culture’, in particular on Germanic Männerbünde (men’s bands), was controversial and remains a topic of academic debate. In modern discourse, Höfler’s theories are often fundamentally rejected on account of his involvement in the National Socialist movement and his contribution to the research initiatives of the SS Ahnenerbe, or they are adopted by scholars who ignore his problematic methodologies and the ideological and political elements of his work. The present study takes a comprehensive approach to Höfler’s research on ‘Germanic culture’ and analyses his characterisation of the ‘Germanic peoples’, contextualising his research in the backdrop of German philological studies of the early twentieth century and highlighting elements of his theories that are still the topic of modern academic discourse. A thorough analysis of his main research theses, focusing on his Männerbund-research, reveals that his concept of ‘Germanic culture’ is underscored by a belief in the deep-seated religiosity of the ‘Germanic peoples’ formed through sacred-daemonic forces.
This book investigates the practices of reconstructing and representing performance art and their power to shape this art form and our understanding of it. Performance art emerged internationally between the 1960s and 1970s crossing disciplinary boundaries between performing arts and visual arts. Because of the challenge it posed to the ontologies and paradigms of these fields, performance art has since stimulated an ongoing debate on the most appropriate means to document, preserve and display it. Tancredi Gusman brings together international scholars from different disciplinary fields to examine methods, media, and approaches by which this art form has been represented and (re)activated ov...
Argues for new models of reading the complexity and subversiveness of fourteen "post-classical" sagas. The late Sagas of Icelanders, thought to be written in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, have hitherto received little scholarly attention. Previous generations of critics have unfavourably compared them to "classical" Íslendingasögur and fornaldarsögur, leading modern audiences to project their expectations onto narratives that do not adhere to simple taxonomies and preconceived notions of genre. As "rogues" within the canon, they challenge the established notions of what makes an Íslendingasaga. Based on a critical appraisal of conceptualisations of canon and genre in saga liter...
Situated within an emerging academic interest in documentary film in the Middle East and North Africa, this book studies the development of diverse documentary forms in relation to revolutionary and emancipatory movements that took place across the twentieth century in the so-called Arab World. Inspired by Deleuze and Guattari’s image of a “rhizome,” the author takes a de-territorialized approach to revolutionary filmmaking, embracing the diversity and fluidity of revolutionary works in the “Arab World.” As well as outlining the documentary film histories of the main film-producing nations of the region – Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco – the book...
The Handbook consists of four major sections. Each section is introduced by a main article: Theories of Emotion – General Aspects Perspectives in Communication Theory, Semiotics, and Linguistics Perspectives on Language and Emotion in Cultural Studies Interdisciplinary and Applied Perspectives The first section presents interdisciplinary emotion theories relevant for the field of language and communication research, including the history of emotion research. The second section focuses on the full range of emotion-related aspects in linguistics, semiotics, and communication theories. The next section focuses on cultural studies and language and emotion; emotions in arts and literature, as w...
This pertinent and highly original volume explores how ideas of Europe and processes of continental political, socio-economic, and cultural integration have been intertwined since the nineteenth century. Applying a wider definition of Europeanization in the sense of "becoming European", it will pay equal attention to counter-processes of disentanglement and disintegration that have accompanied, slowed down, or displaced such trends and developments. By focusing on the practices, agents, and experience of Europeanization, the volume strives to bring together the history of ideas and the history of human actions and conduct, two approaches that are usually treated separately in the field of European studies.