Scorning the Image of Virtue

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 267-289 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia J. McKee
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modernity ◽  
Theater Studies ◽  
Reformation Theology ◽  
History Of ◽  
English Stage

There survives an extraordinary letter of 1616 by the prominent English stage player, Nathan Field. His missive is one of the only extant apologies for the theater written by a player. Field’s letter is a response to a sermon preached by Thomas Sutton, and it richly characterizes Field’s relationship to his parish and to the larger ecclesial powers. This discussion shows how Field ironically employs the very charges often levied by opponents of theater—deception, emotional indulgence, and idolatry—to indict Sutton for a public attack he wielded against Field from the Sunday pulpit. Field’s apology is read within the context of the era’s antitheatricalist polemics, Jacobean politics, Reformation theology, and Field’s history as the son of a radical puritan preacher. The letter invites deep consideration of church and theater—preaching and playing—as competing kinds of performance. Field’s apology also focuses attention on a neglected area in theater studies—the history of players and playing in early modernity. What was an actor’s idea of himself at a time when his profession was redefined by religious reforms? Further, this discussion offers preliminary suggestions for an early modern aesthetics of performance by inviting a dialogue between the era’s extreme antitheatricalism and concurrent prescriptions for effective oratory.

Taḥqīq vs. Taqlīd in the Renaissances of Western Early Modernity

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 193-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Melvin-Koushki
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
South India ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Western Civilization ◽  
Early Modernity ◽  
Existential Crisis ◽  
History Of ◽  
European Renaissance ◽  
New Framework

Abstract This essay reviews a major new study of European Renaissance Arabist-humanist philology as it was actually practiced, humanist neoclassicizing anti-Arabism notwithstanding. While definitive and philologically magisterial, that study nevertheless falls prey structurally and conceptually to the very eurocentrism whose ideological-textual genesis it chronicles. Situating it within the comparative global early modern philologies framework that has now been proposed in the volume World Philology and the present journal is a necessary remedy—but only a partial one; for that framework too still obscures the multiplicity of specifically genetically Western early modernities, thus hobbling comparative history of philology. I therefore propose a new framework appropriate to the study of Greco-Arabo-Persian and Greco-Arabo-Latin as the two parallel and equally powerful philosophical-philological trajectories that together defined early modern Western—i.e., Hellenic-Abrahamic, Islamo-Judeo-Christian, west of South India—intellectual history: taḥqīq vs. taqlīd, progressivism vs. declinism. But a broadened and more balanced analytical framework alone cannot save philology, much less Western civilization, from the throes of its current existential crisis: for we philologists of the Euro-American academy are fevered too by the cosmological ill that is reflexive scientistic materialism. As antidote, I prescribe a progressivist, postmodern return to early modern Western deconstructive-reconstructive cosmic philology as prerequisite for the discipline’s survival, and perhaps even triumph, in the teeth of totalitarian colonialist-capitalist modernity.

‘Schutz und Schirm’: Screening in German During Early Modern Times

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rüdiger Campe
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Modern History ◽  
Technological Systems ◽  
Legal Entity ◽  
Early Modernity ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
History Of ◽  
Electronic Display ◽  
Early Modern Times

Rüdiger Campe analyzes the term Schirm (screen) and its various fields of application in early modernity before it designates the optical device called screen in the new media. If Jagd-Schirme, or hunting blinds, were complex means of visual concealment that also configured deadly forms of projection, Schirm was also located in the legal sphere, where it designated an exceptional administrative and military protection that also allowed for the projection of a legal entity that would otherwise not exist within the ordinary structures of power. How can one comprehend the return of the term within the language of electronic display? Campe elucidates Friedrich Kittler’s notion of ‘implementation’ as a concept for how such early modern practices of the screen can be seen as discontinuous with the modern history of the optical screen in one respect and continuous in another. ‘Implementation’ means to identify certain functions—such as protection and projection—for possible technical development but also to construct autonomous technological systems capable of assuming such functions.

The carmen heroicum in Early Modernity (Das carmen heroicum in der frühen Neuzeit)

Daphnis ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Uwe Maximilian Korn ◽  
Dirk Werle ◽  
Katharina Worms
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Literary History ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
German Studies ◽  
Early Modernity ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Introductory Article ◽  
History Of ◽  
Epic Poems ◽  
History Of Literature

The special issue at hand provides a contribution to the historical exploration of early modern carmina heroica (epic poems) in the German area of the early modern period, especially of the ‘long’ 17th century. To this purpose, perspectives of Latin and German Studies, of researchers with expertise in medieval and modern literary history, are brought together. This introductory article puts the following theses up for discussion: 1) The view that epic poems of the early modern period are a genre with little relevance for the history of literature is wrong and has to be corrected. 2) Accordingly, the view has to be corrected that the history of narrative in the modern era leads teleologically to the modern novel. 3) For the exploration of the history of carmina heroica, the traditions of didactic poems and heroic poems have to be taken into consideration together. 4) Epic poems of the ‘long’ 17th century have a particular tendency to generic hybridization. 5) The genre history of carmina heroica can be reconstructed appropriately only by taking into account the vernacular as well as the Latin tradition.

scholarly journals The Anatomy of the Revenger: Violence and Dissection on the Early Modern English Stage

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Attila Kiss
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Reception History ◽  
Canon Formation ◽  
General Process ◽  
Memento Mori ◽  
Ars Moriendi ◽  
Early Modern English ◽  
History Of ◽  
English Stage

The persistent employment of excessive violence on the early modern English stage was studied by Renaissance scholarship for centuries in diverse but rather formal or historicist ways, and this critical focus received no new impetus until the corporal turn in critical theory after the 1980s. Before the poststructuralist, or, more precisely, the postsemiotic and corposemiotic investigations, critics tended to categorize bodily transgression as part of the general process of deterioration that lead to the decadence and all-enveloping perversity of the Stuart and Caroline stage, or they merely catalogued the metamorphoses of iconographic and emblematic elements of the memento mori, the ars moriendi, the contemptus mundi, the danse macabre or the exemplum horrendum traditions through the imagery of violence, mutilation and corporeal disintegration. The reception history of Shakespeare’s first tragedy exemplifies the general hostility towards extreme violence, an attitude which was established by the technologies of canon formation in the eighteenth and nineteenth century.

The Scriptures in Hungarian in Early Modernity

2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 321-331
Author(s):  
Béla Mester
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Publishing House ◽  
Latin Literature ◽  
Early Modernity ◽  
Royal Court ◽  
Political Ideas ◽  
The Bible ◽  
History Of

This paper offers an overview of the Hungarian translations of the Scriptures, printed in the sixteenth century. Both the translation of the Bible and print culture date from the fifteenth century in Hungary, but printing in Hungarian is a phenomenon of the sixteenth century. Before then, Scriptural chapters, translated by Hungarian Hussites and Minorite monks remained in manuscript, and the print of the Renaissance royal court served the needs of the humanist Latin literature. First, this paper will describe the development of the principles of translations from the cautious solutions of the Erasmian contributor of the first book printed in Hungarian, Paul’s Epistle to the Romans (Kraków, 1535), to the conceptions of the well-organized Calvinist group of scholars that edited the first complete Hungarian Bible (1590). In the analysis of the terminology this paper will focus on the expressions of the divine and earthly power, in the context of the history of political ideas of the same epoch. The history of the early printed Scriptures in Hungarian runs parallel to the gradual enlargement of the earthly power in early modern Hungarian political thought, under the conditions of the Turkish occupation, Hapsburg Catholicism, and the special status of Transylvania. In the history of religion, the dominant strain of the Hungarian Reformation turned from Luther to Calvin, with the most important Hungarian publishing house at the time being that of the Unitarians in Transylvania. This change greatly influenced the development of the Hungarian theoretical culture. For instance, the main destination of peregrinatio academica of Hungarians turned from Wittenberg to the universities of the Netherlands, and the Hungarian printers finally opted for the Humanist Antiqua instead of the German Frakturschrift. The second part of the paper will illustrate this process with examples of the typography of the sixteenth-century Hungarian Scriptures, and of their target audiences.

History of Ardalānids (1590-1810) by Sharaf al-Dīn bin Shams al-Dīn

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-79
Author(s):  
Sara Zandi Karimi
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
History Of ◽  
Critical Translation

This article is a critical translation of the “History of the Ardalānids.” In doing so, it hopes to make available to a wider academic audience this invaluable source on the study of Iranian Kurdistan during the early modern period. While a number of important texts pertaining to the Kurds during this era, most notably the writings of the Ottoman traveler Evliya Chalabi, focus primarily on Ottoman Kurdistan, this piece in contrast puts Iranian Kurdistan in general and the Ardalān dynasty in particular at the center of its historical narrative. Thus it will be of interest not only to scholars of Kurdish history but also to those seeking more generally to research life on the frontiers of empires.Keywords: Ẕayl; Ardalān; Kurdistan; Iran.ABSTRACT IN KURMANJIDîroka Erdelaniyan (1590-1810)Ev gotar wergereke rexneyî ya “Dîroka Erdelaniyan” e. Bi vê yekê, merema xebatê ew e ku vê çavkaniya pir biqîmet a li ser Kurdistana Îranê ya di serdema pêş-modern de ji bo cemawerê akademîk berdest bike. Hejmareke metnên girîng li ser Kurdên wê serdemê, bi taybetî nivîsînên Evliya Çelebî yê seyyahê osmanî, zêdetir berê xwe didine Kurdistana di bin hukmê Osmaniyan de. Lê belê, di navenda vê xebatê de, bi giştî Kurdistana Îranê û bi taybetî jî xanedana Erdelaniyan heye. Wisa jî ew dê ne tenê ji bo lêkolerên dîroka kurdî belku ji bo ewên ku dixwazin bi rengekî berfirehtir derheq jiyana li ser tixûbên împeretoriyan lêkolînan bikin jî dê balkêş be.ABSTRACT IN SORANIMêjûy Erdellan (1590-1810)Em wutare wergêrranêkî rexneyî “Mêjûy Erdellan”e, bew mebestey em serçawe girînge le ser Kurdistanî Êran le seretakanî serdemî nwê bixate berdest cemawerî ekademî. Jimareyek serçawey girîng le ser kurdekan lew serdeme da hen, diyartirînyan nûsînekanî gerîdey ‘Usmanî Ewliya Çelebîye, ke zortir serincyan le ser ‘Kurdistanî ‘Usmanî bûwe. Em berheme be pêçewanewe Kurdistanî Êran be giştî, we emaretî Erdelan be taybetî dexate senterî xwêndinewekewe. Boye nek tenya bo twêjeranî biwarî mêjûy kurdî, belku bo ewaney le ser jiyan le sinûre împiratoriyekan twêjînewe deken, cêgay serinc debêt.

Conclusion

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Randall
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
Fine Arts ◽  
James Madison ◽  
Modern Conception ◽  
Political World ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
History Of ◽  
Constitutional Thought

The changed conception of conversation that emerged by c.1700 was about to expand its scope enormously – to the broad culture of Enlightenment Europe, to the fine arts, to philosophy and into the broad political world, both via the conception of public opinion and via the constitutional thought of James Madison (1751–1836). In the Enlightenment, the early modern conception of conversation would expand into a whole wing of Enlightenment thought. The intellectual history of the heirs of Cicero and Petrarch would become the practice of millions and the constitutional architecture of a great republic....

Philosophic Pride

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Brooke
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Intellectual Life ◽  
Marcus Aurelius ◽  
Hugo Grotius ◽  
History Of ◽  
Early Modern Era ◽  
Modern Era

This is the first full-scale look at the essential place of Stoicism in the foundations of modern political thought. Spanning the period from Justus Lipsius's Politics in 1589 to Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Emile in 1762, and concentrating on arguments originating from England, France, and the Netherlands, the book considers how political writers of the period engaged with the ideas of the Roman and Greek Stoics that they found in works by Cicero, Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius. The book examines key texts in their historical context, paying special attention to the history of classical scholarship and the historiography of philosophy. The book delves into the persisting tension between Stoicism and the tradition of Augustinian anti-Stoic criticism, which held Stoicism to be a philosophy for the proud who denied their fallen condition. Concentrating on arguments in moral psychology surrounding the foundations of human sociability and self-love, the book details how the engagement with Roman Stoicism shaped early modern political philosophy and offers significant new interpretations of Lipsius and Rousseau together with fresh perspectives on the political thought of Hugo Grotius and Thomas Hobbes. The book shows how the legacy of the Stoics played a vital role in European intellectual life in the early modern era.

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