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Examinations of the culture - artistic, material, musical - of English monasteries in the six centuries between the Conquest and the Dissolution. The cultural remains of England's abbeys and priories have always attracted scholarly attention but too often they have been studied in isolation, appreciated only for their artistic, codicological or intellectual features and notfor the insights they offer into the patterns of life and thought - the underlying norms, values and mentalité - of the communities of men and women which made them. Indeed, the distinguished monastic historian David Knowles doubted there would ever be sufficient evidence to recover "the mentality of the ordinary cloister monk". These twelve essays challenge this view. They exploit newly catalogued and newly discovered evidence - manuscript books,wall paintings, and even the traces of original monastic music - to recover the cultural dynamics of a cross-section of male and female communities. It is often claimed that over time the cultural traditions of the monasteries were suffocated by secular trends but here it is suggested that many houses remained a major cultural force even on the verge of the Reformation. James G. Clark is Professor of History at the University of Exeter. Contributors: DAVID BELL, ROGER BOWERS, JAMES CLARK, BARRIE COLLETT, MARY ERLER, G. R. EVANS, MIRIAM GILL, JOAN GREATREX, JULIAN HASELDINE, J. D. NORTH, ALAN PIPER, AND R. M. THOMSON.

Monasticism and religious orders --- Monastic and religious life --- History --- History. --- Monastic life --- Spirituality (in religious orders, congregations, etc.) --- Spiritual life --- Vows --- Christianity --- Cultural traditions. --- David Knowles. --- English monasteries. --- Medieval culture. --- Monastic life.

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In recent decades, life writing has exploded in popularity: memoirs that focus on traumatic experiences now constitute the largest growth sector in book publishing worldwide. But life writing is not only highly marketable; it also does important emotional, cultural, and political work. It is more available to amateurs and those without the cultural capital or the self-confidence to embrace more traditional literary forms, and thus gives voice to marginalized populations. Contested Selves investigates various forms of German-language life writing, including memoirs, interviews, letters, diaries, and graphic novels, shedding light on its democratic potential, on its ability to personalize history and historicize the personal. The contributors ask how the various authors construct and negotiate notions of the self relative to sociopolitical contexts, cultural traditions, genre expectations, and narrative norms. They also investigate the nexus of writing, memory, and experience, including the genre's truth claims vis-a-vis the pliability and unreliability of human memories. Finally, they explore ethical questions that arise from intimate life writing and from the representation of "vulnerable subjects" as well as from the interrelation of material body, embodied self, and narrative. All forms of life writing discussed in this volume are invested in a process of making meaning and in an exchange of experience that allows us to relate our lives to the lives of others.

Autobiography --- German authors. --- Autobiographies --- Egodocuments --- Memoirs --- Biography as a literary form --- History and criticism --- Technique --- German prose literature --- History and criticism. --- Germany --- Intellectual life. --- German life writing. --- cultural traditions. --- cultural. --- democratic potential. --- diaries. --- emotional. --- experience. --- graphic novels. --- history. --- interviews. --- letters. --- marginalized populations. --- memoirs. --- memory. --- narrative norms. --- narrative. --- personal. --- political.

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Constraints on freedom, education, and individual dignity have always been fundamental in determining who is able to write, when, and where. Considering the singular experience of the African American writer, William W. Cook and James Tatum here argue that African American literature did not develop apart from canonical Western literary traditions but instead grew out of those literatures, even as it adapted and transformed the cultural traditions and religions of Africa and the African diaspora along the way. Tracing the interaction between African American writers and the literatures of ancient Greece and Rome, from the time of slavery and its aftermath to the civil rights era and on into the present, the authors offer a sustained and lively discussion of the life and work of Phillis Wheatley, Frederick Douglass, Ralph Ellison, and Rita Dove, among other highly acclaimed poets, novelists, and scholars. Assembling this brilliant and diverse group of African American writers at a moment when our understanding of classical literature is ripe for change, the authors paint an unforgettable portrait of our own reception of "classic" writing, especially as it was inflected by American racial politics.

American literature --- African American authors --- History and criticism. --- Classical influences. --- african american literature, literary criticism, education, dignity, identity, cultural traditions, western lit, religion, diaspora, africa, ancient greece, rome, slavery, civil rights era, jim crow, phillis wheatley, frederick douglass, ralph ellison, rita dove, poets, poetry, famous novelists, black scholars, racial politics, classical influences, leisure moments, genteel classicism, harlem, satire. --- English literature --- Agrarians (Group of writers)

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Claudio Véliz adopts the provocative metaphor of foxes and hedgehogs that Isaiah Berlin used to describe opposite types of thinkers. Applying this metaphor to modern culture, economic systems, and the history of the New World, Véliz provides an original and lively approach to understanding the development of English and Spanish America over the past 500 years. According to Véliz, the dominant cultural achievements of Europe's English- and Spanish-speaking peoples have been the Industrial Revolution and the Counter-Reformation, respectively. These overwhelming cultural constructions have strongly influenced the subsequent historical developments of their great cultural outposts in North and South America. The British brought to the New World a stubborn ability to thrive on diversity and change that was entirely consistent with their vernacular Gothic style. The Iberians, by contrast, brought a cultural tradition shaped like a vast baroque dome, a monument to their successful attempt to arrest the changes that threatened their imperial moment. Véliz writes with erudition and wit, using a multitude of sources--historians and classical sociologists, Greek philosophers, today's newspaper sports pages, and modern literature--to support a novel explanation of the prosperity and expanding cultural influence of the gothic fox and the economic and cultural decline endured by the baroque hedgehog.

Comparative civilization. --- Comparative civilization --- Latin America --- Regions & Countries - Americas --- History & Archaeology --- Civilization, Comparative --- Civilization --- North America --- Great Britain --- Spain --- Spanish influences. --- British influences. --- Economic conditions. --- Spanish influences --- British influences --- Economic conditions --- anthropology. --- baroque mindset. --- british empire. --- colonization. --- counter reformation. --- cultural achievements. --- cultural constructions. --- cultural decline. --- cultural studies. --- cultural traditions. --- culture. --- economic systems. --- economics. --- economy. --- english america. --- historical developments. --- imperialism. --- industrial revolution. --- latin american history. --- modern culture. --- north america. --- philosophy. --- sociology. --- south america. --- spanish america. --- the new world. --- world history.

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Recent decades have seen a revival of paganism, and every summer people gather across the United States to celebrate this increasingly popular religion. Sarah Pike's engrossing ethnography is the outcome of five years attending neo-pagan festivals, interviewing participants, and sometimes taking part in their ceremonies. Earthly Bodies, Magical Selves incorporates her personal experience and insightful scholarly work concerning ritual, sacred space, self-identity, and narrative. The result is a compelling portrait of this frequently misunderstood religious movement. Neo-paganism began emerging as a new religious movement in the late 1960's. In addition to bringing together followers for self-exploration and participation in group rituals, festivals might offer workshops on subjects such as astrology, tarot, mythology, herbal lore, and African drumming. But while they provide a sense of community for followers, Neo-Pagan festivals often provoke criticism from a variety of sources-among them conservative Christians, Native Americans, New Age spokespersons, and media representatives covering stories of rumored "Satanism" or "witchcraft. "Earthly Bodies, Magical Selves explores larger issues in the United States regarding the postmodern self, utopian communities, cultural improvisation, and contemporary spirituality. Pike's accessible writing style and her nonsensationalistic approach do much to demystify neo-paganism and its followers.

Neopaganism --- Festivals --- Neo-paganism --- Religions --- Rituals. --- United States --- Religion --- african american. --- ancient world. --- christianity. --- community. --- costume. --- cultural history. --- cultural studies. --- culture. --- erotic. --- eroticism. --- festivals. --- folklore. --- gender studies. --- magic. --- magical. --- myths. --- neopagan. --- pagan festivals. --- pagan gods. --- pagan history. --- pagan religion. --- paganism. --- pagans. --- religion. --- religious studies. --- satanism. --- social history. --- social studies. --- Paganism --- Neopagan festivals --- the United States --- popular religion --- ethnography --- pagan ceremonies --- ritual --- sacred space --- self-identity --- religious movements --- pre-Christian religious traditions --- pre-Christian cultural traditions --- Satanism --- witchcraft --- Neopagan communities --- Neopagan narrative --- gender --- eroticism