Groningen Studies in Cultural Change – serie

This book is the first of three volumes containing selected proceedings of the international conference on the theme of Knowledge, Learning and Cultural Change, held at the University of Groningen in November 2001. The contributions in this volume - which tackle the three basic topics of encyclopedic texts, centres of learning, and paradigm shifts - deal with a wide variety of topics, ranging from the Ancient Near East to the Early Medieval West. They bring us into contact with many different cultures and languages: those of Neo-Assyrian, Babylonian and Hellenistic Mesopotamia; of Late-Antique and Medieval Judaism; of the Late-Antique Greco-Roman world; and of Christianity under the Roman, Byzantine, Islamic and Carolingian Empires. The contributions show that the discussion of cultural change in relation to the field of knowledge and learning, and as applied to some of the literary witnesses thereto, is an approach both enriching and rewarding, since it contributes both to the elucidation of the past and also to a better understanding of the present. The topics treated in this volume, therefore, are not only relevant to specialists in the various fields, but are likely to stimulate much further investigation of comparable or related themes, by demonstrating the approaches to and directions of research which are most fruitful in the study of the complicated questions pertaining to cultural phenomena and their mutation, transformation or development in a continually changing world.

The present volume, number VII in the series "Groningen Studies in Cultural Change", offers a selection of papers presented at the International Conference 'Knowledge and Learning' held in November 2001 in Groningen. The first volume (number V in the series) is entitled "Learned Antiquity: Scholarship and Society in the Near east, the Greco-Roman World, and the Early Medieval West", and has been edited by Alasdair A. MacDonald, Michael W. Twomey and Gerrit J. Reinink. The second (volume VI) bears the title "Schooling and Scholarship: The Ordering and Reordering of Knowledge in the Western Middle Ages", and has been edited by Alasdair A. MacDonald and Michael W. Twomey. The papers in the present volume, "Scholarly Environments: Centres of Learning and Institutional Contexts 1560-1960", written by scholars in such disciplines as science, education and cultural history, treat various matters concerning scholarship in the period from the Renaissance until the mid twentieth century.

This volume contains a selection of essays presented at the international conference on Cultural Crises in Art and Literature, held in Groningen in November 2002, in a special session on the question of the autonomy of the arts. Do we witness, in western culture, the end of the autonomy of the arts as it has been conceptualized and institutionalized since the eighteenth century? Indeed, developments of quite a different nature seem to have contributed to a blurring of boundaries between art and non-art, art and the market, art and politics or ethics, as well as between the arts themselves, and between 'high' and 'low' art. Although this volume does not pretend to map this complex process in its entirety - partly because it is impossible to step out of one's own history - it is meant as a contribution to the elucidation of the process itself, offering some challenging explanations as to the heat of the current debate.

This volume contains a selection of essays presented at the international conference of Cultural Crises in Art and Literature, held in Groningen in November 2002, in special sessions concerning modern Dutch literature. The recent decennia have shown a gradual transition in Netherlandic Studies towards new scopes: a contextual orientation of literature and the reception of 'Theory'. The contributions to this volume touch upon the theme of cultural crises from the perspective of these frameworks, approaching topics like the interrelation of literary representation and historical and medical discourse concerning the obsession by dirt, contamination, and dust; the impact of nationalism and humanism (in the political field) on literary education; the decline of modernism, resulting in the changing position of women authors, the rise of children's literature and the reassessment of 'low' genres like melodrama. A brief outline of the development of the study of modern Dutch literature opens this volume, the presentation of a general theoretical and methodological framework for conceptualizing the notion of cultural crisis concludes it.

It is common wisdom that language is culturally embedded. Cultural change is often accompanied by a change in idiom, in language or in ideas about language. No period serves as a better example of the formative influence of language on culture than the Renaissance. With the advent of humanism new modes of speaking and writing arose. But not only did classical Latin become the paradigm of clear and elegant writing, it also gave rise to new ideas about language and the teaching of it. Some scholars have argued that the cultural paradigm shift from scholasticism to humanism was causally determined by the rediscovery, study and emulation of the classical language, for learning a new language opens up new possibilities for exploring and describing one's perceptions, thoughts and beliefs. However, the vernacular traditions too rose to prominence and vied with Latin for cultural prestige.This volume, number XXIV in the series «Groningen Studies in Cultural Change», offers the papers presented at a workshop on language and cultural change held in Groningen in February 2004. Ten specialists explore the multifarious ways in which language contributed to the shaping of Renaissance culture. They discuss themes such as the relationship between medieval and classical Latin, between Latin and the vernacular, between humanist and scholastic conceptions of language and grammar, translation from Latin into the vernacular, Jewish ideas about different kinds of Hebrew, and shifting ideas on the power and limits of language in the articulation of truth and divine wisdom. There are essays on major thinkers such as Nicholas of Cusa and Leonardo Bruni, but also on less well-known figures and texts. The volume as a whole hopes to contribute to a deeper understanding of the highly complex interplay between language and culture in the transition period between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries.

The topic of the workshop entitled 'Role and status of journeyman in artists' and craftmen's workshops in the Low Countries c. 1450 - c. 1650', held in Groningen, 23-24 May 2003, grew out of archival and material-technical research on workshop practices. As a result of this research it gradually became clear that more knowledge about the social and economic mechanisms of art production was required in order to study the painters' workshop. Such research frequently moves in two or more directions, and in this case the workshop proceeded on the basis of two questions: how can socially and economically oriented historical research help art historians, and what can art historical, and material and technical research add to corporate history of the painter's guild?Geographically, the case studies in this volume deal with southern Netherlandish towns, in particular Antwerp, Brussels, Mechelen, Ghent and Bruges. One essay focuses on the Dutch Republic. Chronologically, the contributions treat the late Middle Ages and early Modern Period (c. 1450 and c. 1650). From an artistic point of view, this era can be characterized as the long 'Golden Age' of Flemish painting. The epoch witnessed the apogee of the art of the Flemish Primitives and the rise of the successful genre of Antwerp Mannerism. It also witnessed the start of the influence of the Italian Renaissance on Flemish art, the rise of Antwerp over the course of the sixteenth century as the vanguard of new genres which were exported all over the world, and the international triumph of the Flemish Baroque after 1610.

How do conceptions of the literary author change throughout history, and how do they function in specific contexts? The present volume aims to investigate debates on the concept of authorship as a struggle of participants - writers, critics, and scholars - over different conceptions of interpretation. In this struggle all kinds of literary and non-literary norms appear to be at stake. The volume compares the time span around 1900 and 2000, and contrasts the French situation with conditions in other cultures and 'minor literatures'. It addresses the following questions: how did the processes of group-constitution, professionalisation, and (de-)autonomisation of authorship around 1900 and 2000 offer new positionings and roles for writers, and affect conceptions of the author? To what extent can such conceptions of authorship - projected or defended by writers as well as by critics and scholars - be analysed as strategies to claim and legitimise a position in the literary field, respectively in the scholarly field? What light does the analysis of debates about authorship shed on how the social, political or moral relevance of both literature and criticism are defined and defended?

This volume focuses on the convergence between journalism and literature in the 1960s. The sixties is shorthand for a ubiquitous social, political and cultural upheaval in the Western world with its culmination point in 1968. The changes in society were so encompassing and impressive that many considered traditional ways of making sense of the world no longer sufficient; accepted cultural forms suddenly seemed to lose their capacity to interpret reality. While witnessing and experiencing the reshaping of society both journalists and novelists - as well as film makers and artists - had to find new ways to describe what was happening. Imagination and commitment, subjectivity and performativity were pervading literary and journalistic representations alike. The contributions in this volume explore how journalistic and literary norms, practices and forms got entwined in the 1960s and how the limits of both domains were stretched.

From 22-25 May, 1999, the University of Groningen hosted an international conference on 'The Book of Nature. Continuity and change in European and American attitudes towards the natural world'. From Antiquity down to our own time, theologians, philosophers and scientists have often compared nature to a book, which might, under the right circumstances, be read and interpreted in order to come closer to the 'Author' of nature, God. The 'reading' of this book was not regarded as mere idle curiosity, but it was seen as leading to a deeper understanding of God's wisdom and power, and it culturally legitimated and promoted a positive attitude towards nature and its study. A selection of the papers which were delivered at the conference has been edited in two volumes. The first deals with the perception of the Book of Nature in Antiquity and the Middle Ages; the second volume is devoted to the history of the concept in early modern and modern history.

On January 23-24, 2008 the University of Groningen hosted an international symposium entitled 'Understanding Art in Antwerp. Classicising the Popular, Popularising the Classic (1540-1580)', where art historians, literary historians and musicologists explored how art was understood in Antwerp in the sixteenth century, how that art understood itself and conveyed such understanding to others, and how students of early modern Antwerp should understand that concept of art historically. Attention was paid to the factors which influenced the vision of the nature and function of art, including those of a non-artistic nature. Central to the idea of art was the relationship between the classical and the popular and between various synonyms, such as the foreign and the vernacular. Antwerp artists in all fields covered by this volume participated in cultural exchange, attempting to incorporate and assimilate elements from different origins into their work. Likewise, contemporary audiences (either as spectators, readers or listeners) were challenged to follow and understand what amounted to a kind of play or playfulness that was so charcateristic of sixteenth-century culture.