The Father Said Goodbye: The German Press’ Reactions to the Resignation of Pope Benedict xvi and the Conclave

This paper analyzes the different constructions, interpretations and understandings of authority in the German journalistic press coverage in spring 2013, when Benedict xvi declared his resignation from the papal office, and the following time until his successor – Pope Francis – was elected. Pope Benedict’s resignation was an occasion that caused a stir in the journalistic field. The pope, the highest religious authority of the Roman Catholic Church, had brought his own power up to discussion. The opportunity was favourable for the journalistic, secular media to start an extensive critique and deconstruction of the Pope’s religious authority – but surprisingly enough, this did not happen. So, how and to whom is religious authority ascribed in the German press discourse? In this article I argue that the secular German press discourse not only refrains from deconstructing traditional religious authority, but reinforces it on various levels.

Narrating the First “Three-Parent Baby”: The Initial Press Reactions From the United Kingdom, the United States, and Mexico

In 2016, the New Scientist announced the birth and good health of the world’s first baby conceived using spindle nuclear transfer (SNT). The story was immediately circulated worldwide. In this article, we analyze 39 articles published within the first 48 hours of the announcement, in the Mexican, British, and U.S. press. These articles constitute the initial press reactions to the announcement, and as such, they offer a narrative ground on which SNT could thereafter be discussed. We argue that as a media event, the articles performed the task of rendering SNT, a “cultural novelty,” as culturally and technologically feasible.

The diffusion and impact of Baron d’Holbach’s texts in Great Britain, 1765–1800

Nicholas Treuherz first looks at the bibliographical data in terms of translations, sales and circulation of d’Holbach’s works as well as press reactions to them. After a thorough description of his methodological approach, he analyses the results of his data processing. He argues that multiple intellectual networks and friendships could have potentially allowed d’Holbach’s texts to penetrate British markets. Then, Treuherz examines how d’Holbach’s texts were read by describing four case studies of British radicals whose reading of the French philosopher’s works was instrumental in circulating his ideas in Britain: William Godwin, Dr John Jebbs, Joseph Priestley and William Hodgson. This review allows Treuherz to shed light on the adjustment of French notions of radicalism to a British context.

French Press Reactions to Hitler's First Two Years in Power

Why did fascism not succeed in France in the 1930s to the extent that itdid in Germany? Although the appeal of fascism increased dramatically in France between 1936 and 1938 as part of the backlash to the Popular Front, the fact remains that neither of France's two largest fascist movements – Colonel de La Rocque's Croix de feu/Parti social français and Jacques Doriot's Parti populaire française – came to power during this period. InFrench Fascism: the Second Wave, 1933–1939, one of the reasons (among several) that I gave for the relative failure of French fascism was the negative reaction of many French conservatives and Catholics to Hitler's repression of dissident German conservatives and Catholics in 1933 and 1934 – a reaction which indirectly diminished the potential appeal of homegrown fascism through guilt by association. Although I alluded to this reaction in my study, I did so without providing sufficient documentation. One of the purposes of this review of French press responses to Hitler's first two years in power is to correct that shortcoming.

Theatre of Migration and the Search for a Multicultural Aesthetic: Twenty Years of Tara Arts

This year sees the twentieth anniversary of the foremost British-Asian ‘company of identity’, Tara Arts, directed throughout that time by Jatinder Verma – a major interview with whom forms the core of this celebratory feature. This traces the history and evolving philosophy of the company, from its origins in outrage at a racist murder, through changing perceptions of how multicultural identity can best find its dramatic expression, to a discussion of Verma's own recent work for Contact Theatre and the National. Contributions from other leading participants in the company's work are complemented by a selection of press reactions to major productions, and a survey of bibliographical and other resources. The compiler of this feature, Graham Ley, presently lectures in the Department of Drama at the University of Exeter, having previously taught in London and New Zealand. He is currently completing a book on theatrical theory, on which he has previously also published in NTQ, most recently in ‘The Role of Metaphor in Brook's The Empty Space’ (NTQ35, 1993) and ‘The Significance of Diderot’ (NTQ44, 1995). Among his publications on ancient performance, A short introduction to the Ancient Greek Theatre appeared from the University of chicago Press in 1991.

A Tale of Two Controversies: Darwinism in the Debate over “Essays and Reviews”

The intellectual crisis of Victorian faith was a tale of two books. Charles Darwin's Origin of Species was published on 28 November, 1859; a composite volume of biblical criticism, Essays and Reviews, six of whose seven authors were clergymen, appeared on 21 March 1860. Both volumes provoked controversies. The Darwinian controversy is remembered and the biblicalcontroversy is largely forgotten, and perhaps in the longue durŕe of history this ought to be so. But there was no doubt at the time that the biblical controversy was more important, dealing with matters that Victorians regarded as both fundamental and familiar. Richard Church, later dean of St. Paul's, wrote to his American scientist friend Asa Gray in 1861 that Darwin's “book I have no doubt would be the subject still of a great row, if there were not a much greater row going on about Essays and Reviews.” Leslie Stephen, who experienced both controversies as a young man, later regretted that “the controversy raised by Essays and Reviews even distracted men for a time from the far more important issues raised by the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species.” A modern student of press reactions to Darwin found that Essays and Reviews received quantitatively more attention and concluded: “Darwin's book received decidedly less immediate attention in the press than the theological Essays and Reviews … [T]here is little doubt that science was no match for religion in the competition for public interest in Mid-Victorian Britain.” Had Essays and Reviews been published when first advertised in February 1859, or even when rescheduled in October, it, rather than the Origin of Species, would have been the major book of that critical year.