The Rhetorical Arts in Late Antique and Early Medieval Ireland

This book represents the first study of the art of rhetoric in medieval Ireland, a culture often neglected by medieval rhetorical studies. In a series of three case studies, Brian Stone traces the textual transmission of rhetorical theories and practices from the late Roman period to those early Irish monastic communities who would not only preserve and pass on the light of learning, but adapt an ancient tradition to their own cultural needs, contributing to the history of rhetoric in important ways. The manuscript tradition of early Ireland, which gave us the largest body of vernacular literature in the medieval period and is already appreciated for its literary contributions, is also a site of rhetorical innovation and creative practice.

Zu den Heiligennamen „Bartholomäus“ und „Johannes“ im Siebenbürgisch-Sächsischen, die auf biblische Heilige und deren Geburtstage zurückgehen

The article initially covers the historical information regarding two biblical saints „Saint Bartholomew“ and „John the Baptist“ and their birthdays. In vernacular documents from 1900 to 1980 inclusively, the Transylvanian-Saxon names „Bartholomew“ and „John“ were related to the respective saint. The vernacular documents show that their birthdays were playing a role in seasonal determination for peasant work as well as being used in descriptive country sayings, in idioms and in traditional customs. The case examples are taken from the Transylvanian-Saxon Dictionary, the North Transylvanian Dictionary, as well as relevant specialist and vernacular literature.

There’s Something about Murray: Victorian Literary Societies and Alfred Forman’s Translation of Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen

Alfred Forman’s translations of Richard Wagner’s operas are often derided for their weird diction and minute imitation of German poetic devices. Forman has seemed to represent a zealous and uncritical approach to Wagner that was typical of the early London Wagner Society. But London’s literary societies were important preprofessional gatherings for the appreciation and research of vernacular literature at a time when universities restricted who could study and what could be studied. Forman contributed to other London societies and organized for them dramatic readings of Wagner’s poetry featuring Forman’s wife, Alma Murray. In making Wagner legible and audible for these societies, Forman aligned Wagner with contemporary radical poets and promoted the Ring as a political allegory. Forman’s translations, far from cranky or cultish, show how Victorian society culture affected translation practices, renewed study of poetic alliteration, and inaugurated the political interpretation of Wagner’s works.

Comparing Lexicons Diachronically in Italian Literary Corpora

The goal of the article is to provide a comparison between several words from Florentine vernacular language and modern Italian language, using software written by the author. This paper focuses on two corpora: the first one includes a selection of Florentine vernacular literature and the second one a group of literary books written in a modern Italian language from the end of XIX Century up until the present. The article demonstrates the use of some features of the software to compare the two corpora, ranking the lexicographic entries using different strategies. It is possible to analyse the lexicon taking into consideration different types of sorting, using only three parameters: the word frequency, the percentage of frequency according to the number of words in the corpus, and the percentage of texts where the word is found in the corpus. From these parameters a fourth parameter also arises the level of persistence of words in each corpus. The software allows observing the differences in the use of lexicon in various periods of history, comparing the Florentine vernacular language, which was used in the Italian peninsula till the beginning of XIX Century, to the modern Italian language.

Languages, Identities and Cultural Transfers

What was the perception of Greece in Europe during the later nineteenth century, when the attraction of romantic philhellenism had waned? This volume focuses on the reception of medieval and modern Greece in the European press, rigorously analysing journals and newspapers published in England, France, Germany, Italy, and The Netherlands. The essays here suggest that reactions to the Greek state's progress and irredentist desires were followed among the European intelligentsia. Concurrently, new scholarship on the historical development of the Greek language and vernacular literature enhanced the image of medieval and modern Greece. This volume's contributors consider the press's role in this Europe-wide exchange of ideas, explore the links between romantic and late philhellenism and highlight the scholarly nature of the latter. Moreover, they highlight the human aspects of cultural transfers by focusing on networks of mediators, publishers and scholarly collaborators. This context enhances our understanding of both the creation of Hellenic studies and the complex formation of the modern Greek identity.

Literature by Other Mediums: Revisiting Lu Xun's Preface to Outcry

By recounting how Lu Xun 鲁迅 went from studying medicine in Japan to writing for the magazine Xin qingnian 新青年 (New Youth), the preface to Nahan 呐喊 (Outcry, 1923), Lu Xun's first collection of short stories, not only presents an origin story of an important author but also contains important clues for understanding modern Chinese literature. This article offers a new reading of that canonical text by focusing on the problem of medium. Synthesizing author biography, media history, and textual analysis, it examines three intermedial references in the preface—the famous lantern slide, the modern periodical, and the recurring notion of outcry. As an autobiographical account, the preface contains narrated events that call for more media-centered analysis, including the “slide incident” (renamed “screen incident”) and Lu Xun's failed experiment with the periodical medium. Reading the preface as an act of narration, this article scrutinizes textual choices such as the confusing word dianying 电影 (film) and the outcry metaphor. The emergence of both modern vernacular literature and Lu Xun as a major literary figure, it is argued, should be historicized in a broader transnational media environment, in which diverse media practices intersected.

Reference Models for Transmitting Knowledge

This chapter describes one specific verbal medium of paddy field knowledge transmission, farming proverbs, discussing the role these proverbs play at the nexus of rice farming and rural-urban migration in China. Based on two anthologies of oral vernacular literature, the chapter asserts that these agricultural maxims provide evidence for the transformation of farming technology and the system of knowledge transmission. In addition, it argues that, first, the strength of these sayings lies precisely in their flexibility, which has made them a platform of knowledge negotiation between peasants and the state; and, second, that these proverbs have the potential to serve as a back-up resource for retaining paddy field knowledge.