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      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        October 2023

        Spectral Dickens

        The uncanny forms of novelistic characterization

        by Alexander Bove

        Drawing on the recent ontological turn in critical theory, Spectral Dickens explores an aspect of literary character that is neither real nor fictional, but spectral. This work thus provides an in-depth study of the inimitable characters populating Dickens' illustrated novels using three hauntological concepts: the Freudian uncanny, Derridean spectrality, and the Lacanian real. Thus, while the current discourse on character studies, which revolves around values like realism, depth, and lifelikeness, tends to see characters as mimetic of persons, this book invents new critical concepts to account for non-mimetic forms of characterization. These spectral forms bring to light the important influence of developments in nineteenth-century visual culture, such as the lithography and caricature of Daumier and J.J. Grandville. The spectrality of novelistic characters developed here paves the way for a new understanding of fictional characters in general.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        April 2026

        Christ’s war

        Holiness, heroism and horror in Carolingian poetry, c.730-c.900 CE

        by Matthew Bryan Gillis

        Christ's war examines Carolingian holy war from the forging of their empire in the eighth century to its dissolution in the late ninth century during the Northmen's attacks. It argues that the Franks understood their wars to be holy when their soldiers were without sin and, therefore, were holy themselves. God heard their prayers as they begged for divine aid, and he helped them overcome and slaughter their foes. Therefore, the Carolingian vision of holy war differed from the pious, apocalyptic military pilgrimages of the subsequent Crusades. Latin poetry serves as an important source in this study for understanding holy war, including how poets dramatized glorious victories or horrifying defeats for their audiences. The book offers important insights into the religious nature of Frankish warfare, while also contributing a fresh and innovative perspective on medieval holy war overall.

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        August 2021

        The Massacre at Paris

        By Christopher Marlowe

        by Martin White, Mathew R. Martin

        This volume presents a modernised edition of Christopher Marlowe's critical engagement with one of the bloodiest and traumatic episodes of the French Wars of Religion, the wholesale massacre of French Huguenots in Paris in August, 1572. Sensorily shocking and intellectually gripping, the play's dramatic action spans a tumultuous two decades in French history to unfold for its audience the tragic consequences of religious fanaticism, power politics, and dynastic rivalry. Comprehensively introduced and containing full commentary notes, this edition opens up this frequently neglected but historically significant and dramatically powerful play to student and scholar alike. The introduction examines such topics as the history of the massacre, the play's treatment of its sources, the play's dramatisation of trauma, and the play's exploration of notions of religious toleration.

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        February 2025

        The Massacre at Paris

        By Christopher Marlowe

        by Mathew R. Martin

        This volume presents a modernised edition of Christopher Marlowe's critical engagement with one of the bloodiest and traumatic episodes of the French Wars of Religion, the wholesale massacre of French Huguenots in Paris in August, 1572. Sensorily shocking and intellectually gripping, the play's dramatic action spans a tumultuous two decades in French history to unfold for its audience the tragic consequences of religious fanaticism, power politics, and dynastic rivalry. Comprehensively introduced and containing full commentary notes, this edition opens up this frequently neglected but historically significant and dramatically powerful play to student and scholar alike. The introduction examines such topics as the history of the massacre, the play's treatment of its sources, the play's dramatisation of trauma, and the play's exploration of notions of religious toleration.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        October 2021

        Religion and life cycles in early modern England

        by Caroline Bowden, Emily Vine, Tessa Whitehouse

        Religion and life cycles in early modern England assembles scholars working in the fields of history, English literature and art history to further our understanding of the intersection between religion and the life course in the period c. 1550-1800. Featuring chapters on Catholic, Protestant and Jewish communities, it encourages cross-confessional comparison between life stages and rites of passage that were of religious significance to all faiths in early modern England. The book considers biological processes such as birth and death, aspects of the social life cycle including schooling, coming of age and marriage and understandings of religious transition points such as spiritual awakenings and conversion. Through this inclusive and interdisciplinary approach, it seeks to show that the life cycle was not something fixed or predetermined and that early modern individuals experienced multiple, overlapping life cycles.

      • Trusted Partner
        May 2022

        In the Shadow of War

        Diary notes from Ukraine

        by Christoph Brumme

        "What can you learn in war? Do you become numb, do you get used to it at some point? Does war make you "hard", uncaring, above pain? No. These are just clichés. Every day brings new horrors. At best, one learns for some time to suppress strong feelings, because to give in to them would weaken one's life instinct." In a very stirring and shocking, but sometimes humorous language, Christoph Brumme tells of the situation in Ukraine, the everyday life of his family and friends, of fears, longings and political assessments. The diary entries of the war and the resistance of the Ukrainians, starting from the first signs of the impending war in mid-January 2022 until the printing of this book, 1st May 2022, impressively bear witness to the brutality of these events.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        February 2023

        No masters but God

        Portraits of anarcho-Judaism

        by Hayyim Rothman

        The forgotten legacy of religious Jewish anarchism, and the adventures and ideas of its key figures, finally comes to light in this book. Set in the decades surrounding both world wars, No masters but God identifies a loosely connected group of rabbis and traditionalist thinkers who explicitly appealed to anarchist ideas in articulating the meaning of the Torah, traditional practice, Jewish life and the mission of modern Jewry. Full of archival discoveries and first translations from Yiddish and Hebrew, it explores anarcho-Judaism in its variety through the works of Yaakov Meir Zalkind, Yitshak Nahman Steinberg, Yehudah Leyb Don-Yahiya, Avraham Yehudah Heyn, Natan Hofshi, Shmuel Alexandrov, Yehudah Ashlag and Aaron Shmuel Tamaret. With this ground-breaking account, Hayyim Rothman traces a complicated story about the modern entanglement of religion and anarchism, pacifism and Zionism, prophetic anti-authoritarianism and mystical antinomianism.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        January 2007

        Religion in Revolutionary England

        by Christopher Durston, Judith Maltby

        This book offers a collection of essays tightly focused around the issue of religion in England between 1640 and 1660, a time of upheaval and civil war in England. Edited by well-known scholars of the subject, topics include the toleration controversy, women's theological writing, observance of the Lord's Day and prayer books. To aid understanding, the essays are divided into three sections examining theology in revolutionary England, inside and outside the revolutionary National Church and local impacts of religious revolution. Carefully and thoughtfully presented, this book will be of great use for those seeking to better understand the practices and patterns of religious life in England in this important and fascinating period. ;

      • Trusted Partner
        2025

        Why Be a Christian Today?

        by Elisabeth Zoll / Thomas Seiterich (eds.)

        The exciting texts and reports by professing Christians offer a fresh perspective for all those who have cultivated a Christian spirituality for many years. However, the book also provides easy access for those who are newly interested in the Christian faith. There are probably as many professions of Christian faith as there are believers in the world. But what do Christians think and how have they been moulded? Elisabeth Zoll and Thomas Seiterich have compiled very personal ideas about the Christian faith in this book. When selecting the contributors, the editors deliberately chose not to include people with church offices or specialised theologians. Irrespective of church policy issues and church scandals, the contributors have provided insights into their path to faith.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        May 2024

        Modern Carmelite nuns and contemplative identities

        Shaping spirituality in the Netherlands

        by Brian Heffernan

        Discalced Carmelite convents are among the most influential wellsprings of female spirituality in the Catholic tradition, as the names of Teresa of Avila, Therese of Lisieux and Edith Stein attest. Behind these 'great Carmelites' stood communities of women who developed discourses on their relationship with God and their identity as a spiritual elite in the church and society. This book looks at these discourses as formulated by Carmelites in the Netherlands, from their arrival there in 1872 up to the recent past, providing an in-depth case study of the spiritualities of modern women contemplatives. The female religious life was a transnational phenomenon, and the book draws on sources and scholarship in English, Dutch, French and German to provide insights on gendered spirituality, memory and the post-conciliar renewal of the religious life.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        June 2025

        Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 101/1

        by Fred Schurink, Rachel Winchcombe, Huw Twiston Davies

        The John Rylands Library houses one of the finest collections of rare books, manuscripts and archives in the world. The collections span five millennia, have a global reach and cover a wide range of subjects, including art and archaeology; economic, social, political, religious and military history; literature, drama and music; science and medicine; theology and philosophy; travel and exploration. For over a century, the Bulletin of the John Rylands Library has published research that complements the Library's special collections. An electronic edition of this issue is freely available under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND) licence.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        July 2025

        Joining up in the Second World War

        Enlistment, masculinity and the memory of the Great War

        by Joel Morley

        This book connects the First and Second World Wars. It uses oral histories and Mass Observation material to explore men's attitudes to Second World War enlistment and the relationship they perceived between military service and masculinity, and how these were influenced by understandings of the First World War. Locating the cultural legacy of First World War in the subjectivities of men who participated in the Second World War demonstrates the breadth of sources that informed men's understandings of the First World War in interwar Britain. Its cultural legacy was omnipresent and diverse, and informed young men's attitudes and service preferences, but it reinforced Edwardian conceptions of wartime masculinity as often as it undermined them. Two decades after the First World War ended, they remained resilient in the subjective understandings of men who grew up in the Great War's shadow.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        April 2022

        Chinese religion in contemporary Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan

        The cult of the Two Grand Elders

        by Fabian Graham

        In Singapore and Malaysia, the inversion of Chinese Underworld traditions has meant that Underworld demons are now amongst the most commonly venerated deities in statue form, channelled through their spirit mediums, tang-ki. The Chinese Underworld and its sub-hells are populated by a bureaucracy drawn from the Buddhist, Taoist and vernacular pantheons. Under the watchful eye of Hell's 'enforcers', the lower echelons of demon soldiers impose post-mortal punishments on the souls of the recently deceased for moral transgressions committed during their prior incarnations. Chinese religion in contemporary Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan offers an ethnography of contemporary Chinese Underworld traditions, where night-time cemetery rituals assist the souls of the dead, exorcised spirits are imprisoned in Guinness bottles, and malicious foetus ghosts are enlisted to strengthen a temple's spirit army. Understanding the religious divergences between Singapore and Malaysia (and their counterparts in Taiwan) through an analysis of socio-political and historical events, Fabian Graham challenges common assumptions about the nature and scope of Chinese vernacular religious beliefs and practices. Graham's innovative approach to alterity allows the reader to listen to first-person dialogues between the author and channelled Underworld deities. Through its alternative methodological and narrative stance, the book intervenes in debates on the interrelation between sociocultural and spiritual worlds, and promotes the destigmatisation of spirit possession and discarnate phenomena in the future study of mystical and religious traditions.

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        October 2025

        Objects of belief

        Material culture and religious writings in late Medieval England

        by Joshua Easterling, Fiona Somerset

        Objects in late medieval Europe were a means for lay people and clergy to negotiate their access to powers beyond the everyday, in folk practice as well as religious observance. As has been noted by scholars, this period is marked by a profusion of objects granted special importance, imaginary as well as material. These objects prompt reconsideration of cultural and intellectual frameworks, for example of superstition, reform, and heresy, that never quite successfully contain them. Essays in this volume center attention on these things themselves, from puppets to rosaries, as indeed do the written accounts through which they are often mediated. With a focus on England, contributors re-evaluate our understanding of works and authors including Geoffrey Chaucer, Walter Hilton, Nicholas Love, Julian of Norwich, miracles of the Virgin, Edward Hall's Chronicle, the Wycliffite Glossed Gospels, and the Croxton Play of the Sacrament.

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        September 2025

        Ghosts and the Gothic

        by Ruth Heholt, Joanne Ella Parsons

        Ghosts have long been connected with the Gothic, but until now there has not been a book dedicated to the subject. This collection examines ghostly presences (and absences) in both classic and lesser-known Gothic texts from the beginning of the genre to the present in a global context. Arguing that the undead, in the form of ghosts, are intrinsic to the Gothic mode, essays in the collection question the place of manifested spirits. The Gothic has always been 'political', and essays in this collection examine some of the most relevant issues facing us today: from the destruction of the natural environment, to questions of 'freedom', to gender politics.

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        February 2021

        Spectral Dickens

        by Alexander Bove, Anna Barton, Andrew Smith

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        May 2026

        The racial politics of police warfare

        by Jasbinder S. Nijjar

        Amid renewed anti-racist resistance to violent policing, The racial politics of police warfare unpacks the racisms that rationalise militarised policing in contemporary Britain. Jasbinder S. Nijjar shatters prevailing myths about British police as an impartial public service, by revealing it as an institution where racism and war reinforce one another. In examining flagship anti-gang and counter-terrorism policies and practices, the book offers a unique analysis of the relationship between anti-black and anti-Muslim racisms, to demonstrate how racialised populations are institutionalised as common enemies of modernity. Combining perspectives from sociology, history, criminology and social policy, Nijjar illustrates how British policing defends law and order and national security from the perceived threat of race through hyper-intrusive, pre-emptive and deathly measures. Accordingly, he gives a fresh take on resisting racial police warfare, calling for strategies that are at once political, collective, anti-militaristic and abolitionist.

      • Trusted Partner
        Business, Economics & Law
        July 2025

        Medical care, humanitarianism and intimacy in the long Second World War, 1931-1953

        by Marie-Luce Desgrandchamps, Laure Humbert, Bertrand Taithe, Raphaële Balu

        This book offers a micro-global history of humanitarianism and medical care during the 'long' Second World War, which challenges the traditional and Eurocentric chronological boundaries of 1939/1945. It takes as its starting point the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931, which led to the progressive dislocation of the League of Nations, with the Japanese, German and Soviet departures in the 1930s. It ends with the termination of the Korean War in 1953, and the subsequent dismantlement of the first United Coalition and UN Peace enforcement operation. It considers the slow, messy and ambivalent transformation of humanitarian actors' relations to the suffering of distant others through a study of humanitarian encounters, practices, spaces and affects. Paying close attention to a variety of actors, such as French colonial doctors, Swiss ICRC delegates, Egyptian relief workers, Chinese-style physicians, Peruvian and Ecuadorian nurses or American member of the Unitarian Service Committee, the book provides a more holistic story of humanitarianism.

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