Living in Two Worlds

This unique collection of diaries and letters offers a vivid personal account of the experiences of a Jewish couple living parallel lives during the Second World War. While their children left for England just before war broke out, and Siegfried soon followed, Else Behrend was unable to obtain her visa in time, and remained in Germany. This volume includes Else's account of her years of persecution under the Nazi dictatorship, and of her life underground in Berlin, before her eventual daring escape to Switzerland on foot in 1944. Her dramatic story is presented alongside Siegfried's account of his very different experience, living penniless and in isolation in England, as well as some of her letters to her close friend and confidante, Eva. Complemented by QR codes that allow readers to listen to Else's own voice from her 1963 BBC interviews. Published in English for the first time, Living in Two Worlds offers an unforgettable and moving insight into the impact of the Second World War on everyday life.

Parallel lives or interconnected histories? Anagarika Dharmapala and Muhammad Barkatullah's ‘world religioning’ in Japan

This article compares the ideas, connections, and projects of two South Asian figures who are generally studied separately: the Indian pan-Islamist Muhammad Barkatullah (1864–1927) and the Sinhalese Buddhist reformer Anagarika Dharmapala (1864–1934). In doing so, I argue that we can understand these two figures in a new light, by recognizing their mutual connections as well as the structural similarities in their thought. By focusing on their encounters and work in Japan, this article demonstrates how Japan—particularly after defeating Russia in the Russo-Japanese War in 1905—had become a significant site for inter-Asian conversations about world religions. Importantly, exploring the projects of Barkatullah and Dharmapala makes visible the fact that, from the late nineteenth century until the outbreak of the First World War, religion played a central role—alongside nationalism, race, and empire—in conversations about the possible futures of the international order.

"If I Were Not Alexander..." An Examination of the Political Philosophy of Plutarch’s Alexander-Caesar

<p>This thesis examines Plutarch’s Alexander-Caesar. Plutarch’s depiction of Alexander has been long recognised as encompassing many defects, including an overactive thumos and a decline in character as the narrative progresses. In this thesis I examine the way in which Plutarch depicts Alexander’s degeneration, and argue that the defects of Alexander form a discussion on the ethics of kingship. I then examine the implications of pairing the Alexander with the Caesar; I examine how some of the themes of the Alexander are reflected in the Caesar. I argue that the status of Caesar as both a figure from the Republican past and the man who established the Empire gave the pair a unique immediacy to Plutarch’s time. I then examine the argument, made by some, that it is possible to discern in the Parallel Lives a statement of cultural resistance to the Roman Empire. I argue that the affirmative Hellenism which pervades the Lives reflects not so much a cultural resistance to the Roman Empire, but a concern that the Hellenic values that Plutarch valorised should be dominant within the Roman Empire.</p>

"If I Were Not Alexander..." An Examination of the Political Philosophy of Plutarch’s Alexander-Caesar

<p>This thesis examines Plutarch’s Alexander-Caesar. Plutarch’s depiction of Alexander has been long recognised as encompassing many defects, including an overactive thumos and a decline in character as the narrative progresses. In this thesis I examine the way in which Plutarch depicts Alexander’s degeneration, and argue that the defects of Alexander form a discussion on the ethics of kingship. I then examine the implications of pairing the Alexander with the Caesar; I examine how some of the themes of the Alexander are reflected in the Caesar. I argue that the status of Caesar as both a figure from the Republican past and the man who established the Empire gave the pair a unique immediacy to Plutarch’s time. I then examine the argument, made by some, that it is possible to discern in the Parallel Lives a statement of cultural resistance to the Roman Empire. I argue that the affirmative Hellenism which pervades the Lives reflects not so much a cultural resistance to the Roman Empire, but a concern that the Hellenic values that Plutarch valorised should be dominant within the Roman Empire.</p>

Introduction

To introduce both the subject of the book and its methodological approach, the Introduction takes up the case study of the date of Shakespeare’s baptism: 26 April 1564. Those who want to believe that the national poet was born on the national feast day (23 April, or St George’s Day), have compiled ‘evidence’ to prove it, but under close analysis the evidence disintegrates. We know his day of baptism but cannot know his birthday. Much of Shakespeare’s biography has been built out of similar ‘evidence clusters’. The book interrogates many of these old clusters and also assembles new ones. This involves close reading familiar historical documents contextually, referring to other examples from the same record classes to show how their conventions and textual practices shape their meaning. A further strategy is to include mini-biographies for some of Shakespeare’s cognates in Stratford-upon-Avon, the stories of parallel lives through which we can learn more about his own. The chapter also introduces the members of Shakespeare’s natal family.

Lo abyecto y lo inmirable: la muerte de la metáfora en Spiegelman, Scafati, Schrauwen y Shaw

El artículo estudia dos fenómenos distintos pero interrelacionados: por un lado, las metáforas de la desaparición del yo, y, por otro, el mecanismo de la desaparición de la metáfora o de los sentidos metafóricos en la representación de procesos como la desaparición del yo o la abyección del yo. El marco teórico viene fundamentalmente de Kristeva, Blanchot, Agamben, Derrida y Mitchell, y de las teorías de los «inmirable». Los cómics estudiados son Maus y MetaMaus, de Spiegelman; La ciudad ausente, de Scafati y de Santis; Parallel Lives y Arsène Schrauwen, de Olivier Schrauwen, y Body World y New School, de Dash Shaw.