Quantum Books – serie

Quantum. The units of emitted energy. A Quantum Book is a short study distinctive for the author's ability to offer a richness of detail and insight within about one hundred pages of print. Short enough to be read in an evening and significant enough to be a book.

Tocqueville pessimistically predicted that liberty and equality would be incompatible ideas. Robert Dahl, author of the classic A Preface to Democratic Theory, explores this alleged conflict, particularly in modern American society where differences in ownership and control of corporate enterprises create inequalities in resources among Americans that in turn generate inequality among them as citizens.Arguing that Americans have misconceived the relation between democracy, private property, and the economic order, the author contends that we can achieve a society of real democracy and political equality without sacrificing liberty by extending democratic principles into the economic order. Although enterprise control by workers violates many conventional political and ideological assumptions of corporate capitalism as well as of state socialism. Dahl presents an empirically informed and philosophically acute defense of "workplace democracy." He argues, in the light of experiences here and abroad, that an economic system of worker-owned and worker-controlled enterprises could provide a much better foundation for democracy, political equality, and liberty than does our present system of corporate capitalism.

American Indian affairs are much in the public mind today - hotly contested debates over such issues as Indian fishing rights, land claims, and reservation gambling hold our attention. While the unique legal status of American Indians rests on the historical treaty relationship between Indian tribes and the federal government, until now there has been no comprehensive history of these treaties and their role in American life. Francis Paul Prucha, a leading authority on the history of American Indian affairs, argues that the treaties were a political anomaly from the very beginning.The term "treaty" implies a contract between sovereign independent nations, yet Indians were always in a position of inequality and dependence as negotiators, a fact that complicates their current attempts to regain their rights and tribal sovereignty. Prucha's impeccably researched book, based on a close analysis of every treaty, makes possible a thorough understanding of a legal dilemma whose legacy is so palpably felt today.

What does it mean to write "This is not a pipe" across a bluntly literal painting of a pipe? Rene Magritte's famous canvas provides the starting point for a delightful homage by French philosopher and historian Michel Foucault. Much better known for his incisive and mordant explorations of power and social exclusion, Foucault here assumes a more playful stance. By exploring the nuances and ambiguities of Magritte's visual critique of language, he finds the painter less removed than previously thought from the pioneers of modern abstraction.

Suffering from wanderlust like many of his countrymen, Mark Twain had the good fortune to be paid to offer his observations in a series of travel letters and books. Curious and indefatigable, he used his incomparable skills to produce the vivid descriptions and humorous commentaries that made his books immensely popular. At the same time, travel writing afforded him the opportunity to engage in more personal explorations.  The looseness of the travel narrative enabled Twain to put down virtually whatever came to mind, with little concern about connections. At a time when established values were faltering, this tolerance suited him. His travel books are strings of incidents, anecdotes, descriptions, and the occasional odd detail, all arranged along a geographical line. At any given moment, Twain's anarchistic independence was free to assert itself.  The travel books are more than entertaining compilations. They represent serious, if offhand, explorations of Mark Twain's outer and inner worlds and help define him as part of the whole van of modernists moving into the twentieth century.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1987.

This simulating book gathers five lectures that ask questions of the broadest general intellectual interest: What is religion? Do other peoples have the same emotional states as we do? Why do humans make use of body imagery? In Circumstantial Deliveries, Rodney Needham shows that the comparative study of societies may furnish the answers.  Circumstantial Deliveries challenges the methodology and substance of many conventional ideas about human nature and calls for more radical and comparative analyses. For instance, the author discredits the notion that to primitive peoples the colors red, white, and black symbolize blood, semen, and feces, respectively, arguing that an extensive comparative study of primitive societies discovered no such relationship.  These essays sound a common theme: "If a deeper appreciation of the value of life can be had from reading Crime and Punishment, or if a more acute assessment of the springs of action can be acquired from Hamlet, then in principle it should be conceded that like benefits may be derived from a sympathetic observation of other men engaged in their daily affairs."This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1981.

In Revolution and Repetition, Jeffrey Mehlman surveys the question of the relation between Karl Marx's writings and the institution of literature. He presents not an application of Marxian categories to literary texts, but a delineation of how the phenomenon of revolution in France is refracted through two divergent series of writings. The first comprises three works by Marx: The Class Struggles in France 1848-1850, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, and The Civil War in France. The second consists of two exemplary nineteenth-century novels on revolution: Victor Hugo's Quatrevingt-treize and Honoré de Balzac's Les Chouans.  Mehlman also explores the limits and opportunities of reading itself. Within a series of precise textual analyses, the reader will encounter Jean Laplanche's lectures on "anxiety" in Freud, Jacques Derrida's Glas, Georg Lukács’s study of Balzac’s “realism," and Michel Foucault's genealogy of prisons, Surveiller et punir. This volume is a working introduction to what may be termed French "post-structuralism."This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1977.

How do seemingly disparate arenas of Enlightenment philosophy, economic theories, boudoir etiquette, literary styles, and artistic modes coincide in the late eighteenth century? In this poetic essay on the evolution of the idea of luxury and art, Rémy G. Saisselin uses precise, witty examples to describe the development of our modern taste, the successor of the more spiritual and grand baroque goût. His analysis both illuminates and distinguishes between eighteenth-century and modern varieties of conspicuous consumption.  This persuasive discourse depicts the rise of luxe as an escape from ennui and shows how, for the first time in European history, a large class of wealthy, leisured people emerged to make art, luxury, and the avoidance of boredom its preoccupation. Saisselin provides an original and lucid picture of the first phases in the emergence of a specifically bourgeois taste.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1992.

In this essay on "what the imagination has made of the phenomenon of echo,” John Hollander examines aspects of the figure of echo in light of their significance for poetry. Looking at echo in its literal, acoustic sense, echo in myth, and echo as literary allusion, Hollander concludes with a study of the rhetorical status of the figure of echo and an examination of the ancient and newly interesting trope of metalepsis, or transumption, which it appears to embody.  Centered on ways in which Milton's poetry echoes, and is echoed by, other texts, The Figure of Echo also explores Spenser and other Renaissance writers; romantic poets such as Keats, Shelley, and Wordsworth; and modern poets including Hardy, Eliot, Stevens, Frost, Williams, and Hart Crane.  This book has implications for literary theory and holds great practical interest for students and teachers of American and English literature of all periods.  This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1981.

Writers and Pilgrims: Medieval Pilgrimage Narratives and Their Posterity by Donald R. Howard is a groundbreaking study of how medieval pilgrimage writings shaped literary history. Howard examines hundreds of overlooked pilgrimage accounts, once dismissed as mere travel notes, and argues for their significance as a neglected genre that illuminates the rise of fiction, satire, and narrative forms. By situating pilgrimage literature in its historical, cultural, and religious contexts, he shows how these texts bridged lived religious practices with imaginative storytelling, offering a lens into how medieval people viewed travel, salvation, and human experience.At the center of Howard’s work are detailed explorations of Mandeville’s Travels and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, two touchstones where fact and fiction intermingle to produce enduring literary achievements. Through these cases and others, Howard reveals how the metaphor of pilgrimage—life as a journey toward spiritual ends—continued to shape narrative structures well beyond the Middle Ages, influencing modern conceptions of travel, storytelling, and cultural identity. Written with scholarly rigor and literary sensitivity, this book restores medieval pilgrimage narratives to their rightful place in the genealogy of European literature.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1980.

Bad Mouth: Fugitive Papers on the Dark Side examines the pervasive and complex ways in which language is used to harm, distort, and alienate. Through a series of essays, the book explores the concept of "counter-language"—words deployed as weapons to insult, deceive, and subvert standards of truth and decency. The collection broadens to examine how these linguistic tendencies mirror and contribute to modern cultural shifts, where the once exceptional use of provocative or offensive language has become increasingly normalized. Beyond language, the book delves into the aesthetics of ugliness and its metaphors—rags, garbage, and excrement—as symbols of a broader cultural fixation on the grotesque.The author reflects on a significant transformation in art, literature, and everyday discourse over the last fifty years. What was once a minority mode of offense and alienation in art is now dominant, driven by a society increasingly desensitized to shock and degradation. The book resists offering definitive explanations for this shift but presents it as a symptom of cultural upheaval. Whether this trend represents a genuine expansion of expressive possibilities or a descent into sensationalism is left open to interpretation. Ultimately, Bad Mouth challenges readers to confront the evolving vocabulary of modern life and its implications for self-definition, truth, and the human experience.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1977.

This title delves into the interplay between Charles Baudelaire's poetic vision and Freudian psychoanalytic theory, offering a nuanced exploration of fragmented identity and the dynamic tension between traditional ideals and modern psychological complexity. Baudelaire's work is framed as a pivotal cultural drama, encapsulating the struggle between spiritual aspirations and self-degradation—a dualism rooted in his concept of "two postulations" of human nature, toward God and Satan. This framework aligns with a broader structure of oppositions—high and low, spirit and matter, reality and appearance—that has traditionally defined idealistic visions in literature.However, the book challenges reductive readings of Baudelaire's dualism, arguing instead for a recognition of his deeper engagement with psychic mobility and the destabilization of identity. Baudelaire's poetry, like Freud's theories, emerges at a cultural crossroads where traditional views of the self are simultaneously upheld and dismantled. This study emphasizes Baudelaire's resistance to the indeterminacy of self, contrasting it with more radical contemporary experiments in fragmented subjectivity. Using Freudian theory, particularly the notions of fantasy and psychic deconstruction, the book highlights Baudelaire's complex interplay between rigid dichotomies and the liberating yet disruptive forces of self-scattering desire, offering a profound examination of the tensions that define both his work and the evolution of modern thought.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1977.

A Literature Without Qualities: American Writing Since 1945 delves into the evolution of American literature from the post-World War II period to the mid-1970s, examining its transformation as both a product and reflection of a volatile and imaginative epoch. The book situates this era within the broader context of public consciousness, arguing that the period’s literary works are characterized by a provisional nature—tentative in their conclusions yet deeply entwined with the sociopolitical and cultural shifts of the time. The author refrains from defining definitive masterworks or crafting an exhaustive list of acclaimed titles, instead focusing on how this era reshaped the very enterprise of literary creation and critique. This period, marked by a shift in critical self-awareness and creative ambition, reveals American literature grappling with questions of identity, innovation, and its role within an unsettled cultural order.By blending historical critique, personal reflection, and diagnostic projection, the book examines how the collective consciousness of post-war America influenced its literary production. It explores the interplay between individual creativity and broader cultural forces, emphasizing the importance of shared experiences and societal relationships in shaping literary innovation. From the idealistic aspirations of Emerson and Whitman to the more skeptical, politically charged voices of Mailer and Berryman, the book traces a lineage of American writers who viewed literature as a vehicle for societal introspection and transformation. Ultimately, it frames the vitality of literature as inseparable from the vitality of its cultural and social context, offering a nuanced understanding of how American writing navigated the complex realities of its time while laying the groundwork for future creative endeavors.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1979.

Cooper's Landscapes: An Essay on the Picturesque Vision delves into the vivid and enduring landscapes of James Fenimore Cooper's works, exploring how his descriptive artistry shaped the American literary imagination. This essay examines Cooper's unique ability to translate the grandeur of early 19th-century America into powerful visual panoramas that resonate with readers long after the characters and plots fade. Drawing on insights from European aesthetic traditions and the picturesque conventions, the book highlights how Cooper's narrative settings were inspired by both his American roots and his transformative years abroad. This perspective not only contextualizes his work within the broader scope of art and landscape painting but also underscores Cooper's innovative approach to crafting scenes that intertwine with the thematic elements of his storytelling.The book also offers a fresh critique of Cooper’s aesthetic education, focusing on his mastery of landscape organization, the influence of his European experiences, and his application of landscape gardening principles in fiction. From early romances like The Last of the Mohicans to the nuanced complexities of later works such as Wyandotte, the essay reveals how Cooper’s visual imagination evolved to serve his narrative ambitions. By connecting Cooper’s artistry to the broader Romantic movement and theories of visual perception, this study illuminates the profound interplay between literature and the sister arts, offering a rich framework for appreciating Cooper’s enduring contributions to American cultural and literary history.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1976.

A Renaissance Likeness: Art and Culture in Raphael’s Julius II, by Loren Partridge and Randolph Starn, is both a focused study of one of Raphael’s most compelling portraits and a wide-ranging exploration of the cultural world it represents. At the center is Raphael’s Portrait of Pope Julius II, today in the National Gallery, London—a likeness created during a period of intense crisis and astonishing artistic achievement in early sixteenth-century Rome. Painted between 1511 and 1512, when Julius was facing military defeat, rebellion, and illness, the portrait captures not only the man but also the turbulent moment in which he ruled. Seen alongside Bramante’s architecture, Michelangelo’s Sistine Ceiling, and Raphael’s own frescoes in the papal apartments, the painting belongs to the great cycle of Julian projects that defined the High Renaissance.Partridge and Starn use Raphael’s portrait as a point of entry into the wider cultural and historical setting of Julian Rome. They examine how Julius II’s image circulated in medals, chronicles, and satire; how his character as papa terribile inspired admiration, fear, and critique; and how art functioned within a dense web of patronage, politics, and theology. Moving between close visual analysis and cultural history, the authors highlight the interplay of form, content, and style with the circumstances of patronage and power. In doing so, they resist narrow readings that treat the work solely as art object or historical document, instead revealing it as a microcosm of Renaissance culture. Richly interdisciplinary, A Renaissance Likeness restores Raphael’s Julius to its rightful place as both masterpiece and cultural artifact, showing how, in the renewed radiance of this portrait, art and history illuminate each other.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1980.

In Conversations with Paul Gsell, Rodin’s thoughts were captured in a conversational form that lent immediacy to his ideas, grounding them in reflections on his own work and that of others. Gsell’s role as collaborator shaped the dialogues, which were based on a series of articles published before the 1911 book, providing a written record of Rodin’s philosophical musings on the purpose and nature of art, artistic expression, and movement. While Rodin’s celebrity amplified the book’s reach, the collaborative nature of its creation complicates attributing its thoughts solely to Rodin, as Gsell’s influence in the selection and framing of topics is significant. Yet, the authenticity of Rodin’s voice shines through, and the work has become a touchstone for understanding his views on art and his aesthetic principles.This dialogue remains essential to studies of Rodin’s philosophy and artistic legacy, though scholars sometimes overlook it in broader explorations of early 20th-century intellectual themes. Its historical context connects it to Symbolism, Bergsonian philosophy, and the emerging modernist aesthetics that questioned classical ideals. However, the nuances of the Rodin-Gsell partnership, Gsell’s mediating role, and Rodin’s own contributions warrant further study to fully appreciate how these elements interact to shape a foundational text in art theory. The Conversations invite readers to a deeper examination of how artistic reflection and creation converge and exemplify the enduring complexities of translating visual creativity into words.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1984.

The Territorial Dimension of Judaism by W. D. Davies investigates one of the most enduring and contested questions in Jewish thought: whether the Land of Israel is incidental or essential to the Jewish faith. Davies frames the inquiry around the doctrine that posits a special relationship among God, the People of Israel, and the Land of Israel, asking whether Judaism without this territorial connection could remain true to itself. Through a critical analysis of biblical, rabbinic, and Hellenistic sources, as well as Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha, and the Qumran scrolls, he demonstrates that the theme of the Land is one of the most persistent and passionately defended aspects of Jewish tradition. At the same time, he shows how historical, theological, and cultural forces—particularly the dominance of Christianity in shaping interpretive categories—have obscured or marginalized the significance of the Land within both Jewish and Christian scholarship.The book argues that Christian theology, long preoccupied with universal abstractions such as sin, revelation, and creation, often neglected Judaism’s geographical and particularistic commitments, leading Jewish scholars in turn to underplay the Land in defending their faith against Christian critiques. Davies traces how this marginalization persisted well into the twentieth century, as major biblical reference works offered scant treatment of the subject despite its prominence in the sources. Yet he insists that the territorial dimension is indispensable for a full understanding of Judaism and early Christianity alike, given that the Church had to grapple directly with Jewish territorial claims. By re-centering the doctrine of the Land, Davies not only clarifies its theological importance but also exposes how interpretive frameworks shaped by Christian dominance have long distorted the study of Judaism.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1982.

Writers and Pilgrims: Medieval Pilgrimage Narratives and Their Posterity by Donald R. Howard is a groundbreaking study of how medieval pilgrimage writings shaped literary history. Howard examines hundreds of overlooked pilgrimage accounts, once dismissed as mere travel notes, and argues for their significance as a neglected genre that illuminates the rise of fiction, satire, and narrative forms. By situating pilgrimage literature in its historical, cultural, and religious contexts, he shows how these texts bridged lived religious practices with imaginative storytelling, offering a lens into how medieval people viewed travel, salvation, and human experience.At the center of Howard’s work are detailed explorations of Mandeville’s Travels and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, two touchstones where fact and fiction intermingle to produce enduring literary achievements. Through these cases and others, Howard reveals how the metaphor of pilgrimage—life as a journey toward spiritual ends—continued to shape narrative structures well beyond the Middle Ages, influencing modern conceptions of travel, storytelling, and cultural identity. Written with scholarly rigor and literary sensitivity, this book restores medieval pilgrimage narratives to their rightful place in the genealogy of European literature.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1980.

Bad Mouth: Fugitive Papers on the Dark Side examines the pervasive and complex ways in which language is used to harm, distort, and alienate. Through a series of essays, the book explores the concept of "counter-language"—words deployed as weapons to insult, deceive, and subvert standards of truth and decency. The collection broadens to examine how these linguistic tendencies mirror and contribute to modern cultural shifts, where the once exceptional use of provocative or offensive language has become increasingly normalized. Beyond language, the book delves into the aesthetics of ugliness and its metaphors—rags, garbage, and excrement—as symbols of a broader cultural fixation on the grotesque.The author reflects on a significant transformation in art, literature, and everyday discourse over the last fifty years. What was once a minority mode of offense and alienation in art is now dominant, driven by a society increasingly desensitized to shock and degradation. The book resists offering definitive explanations for this shift but presents it as a symptom of cultural upheaval. Whether this trend represents a genuine expansion of expressive possibilities or a descent into sensationalism is left open to interpretation. Ultimately, Bad Mouth challenges readers to confront the evolving vocabulary of modern life and its implications for self-definition, truth, and the human experience.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1977.

The Territorial Dimension of Judaism by W. D. Davies investigates one of the most enduring and contested questions in Jewish thought: whether the Land of Israel is incidental or essential to the Jewish faith. Davies frames the inquiry around the doctrine that posits a special relationship among God, the People of Israel, and the Land of Israel, asking whether Judaism without this territorial connection could remain true to itself. Through a critical analysis of biblical, rabbinic, and Hellenistic sources, as well as Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha, and the Qumran scrolls, he demonstrates that the theme of the Land is one of the most persistent and passionately defended aspects of Jewish tradition. At the same time, he shows how historical, theological, and cultural forces—particularly the dominance of Christianity in shaping interpretive categories—have obscured or marginalized the significance of the Land within both Jewish and Christian scholarship.The book argues that Christian theology, long preoccupied with universal abstractions such as sin, revelation, and creation, often neglected Judaism’s geographical and particularistic commitments, leading Jewish scholars in turn to underplay the Land in defending their faith against Christian critiques. Davies traces how this marginalization persisted well into the twentieth century, as major biblical reference works offered scant treatment of the subject despite its prominence in the sources. Yet he insists that the territorial dimension is indispensable for a full understanding of Judaism and early Christianity alike, given that the Church had to grapple directly with Jewish territorial claims. By re-centering the doctrine of the Land, Davies not only clarifies its theological importance but also exposes how interpretive frameworks shaped by Christian dominance have long distorted the study of Judaism.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1982.

In Conversations with Paul Gsell, Rodin’s thoughts were captured in a conversational form that lent immediacy to his ideas, grounding them in reflections on his own work and that of others. Gsell’s role as collaborator shaped the dialogues, which were based on a series of articles published before the 1911 book, providing a written record of Rodin’s philosophical musings on the purpose and nature of art, artistic expression, and movement. While Rodin’s celebrity amplified the book’s reach, the collaborative nature of its creation complicates attributing its thoughts solely to Rodin, as Gsell’s influence in the selection and framing of topics is significant. Yet, the authenticity of Rodin’s voice shines through, and the work has become a touchstone for understanding his views on art and his aesthetic principles.This dialogue remains essential to studies of Rodin’s philosophy and artistic legacy, though scholars sometimes overlook it in broader explorations of early 20th-century intellectual themes. Its historical context connects it to Symbolism, Bergsonian philosophy, and the emerging modernist aesthetics that questioned classical ideals. However, the nuances of the Rodin-Gsell partnership, Gsell’s mediating role, and Rodin’s own contributions warrant further study to fully appreciate how these elements interact to shape a foundational text in art theory. The Conversations invite readers to a deeper examination of how artistic reflection and creation converge and exemplify the enduring complexities of translating visual creativity into words.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1984.

This title delves into the interplay between Charles Baudelaire's poetic vision and Freudian psychoanalytic theory, offering a nuanced exploration of fragmented identity and the dynamic tension between traditional ideals and modern psychological complexity. Baudelaire's work is framed as a pivotal cultural drama, encapsulating the struggle between spiritual aspirations and self-degradation—a dualism rooted in his concept of "two postulations" of human nature, toward God and Satan. This framework aligns with a broader structure of oppositions—high and low, spirit and matter, reality and appearance—that has traditionally defined idealistic visions in literature.However, the book challenges reductive readings of Baudelaire's dualism, arguing instead for a recognition of his deeper engagement with psychic mobility and the destabilization of identity. Baudelaire's poetry, like Freud's theories, emerges at a cultural crossroads where traditional views of the self are simultaneously upheld and dismantled. This study emphasizes Baudelaire's resistance to the indeterminacy of self, contrasting it with more radical contemporary experiments in fragmented subjectivity. Using Freudian theory, particularly the notions of fantasy and psychic deconstruction, the book highlights Baudelaire's complex interplay between rigid dichotomies and the liberating yet disruptive forces of self-scattering desire, offering a profound examination of the tensions that define both his work and the evolution of modern thought.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1977.

A Literature Without Qualities: American Writing Since 1945 delves into the evolution of American literature from the post-World War II period to the mid-1970s, examining its transformation as both a product and reflection of a volatile and imaginative epoch. The book situates this era within the broader context of public consciousness, arguing that the period’s literary works are characterized by a provisional nature—tentative in their conclusions yet deeply entwined with the sociopolitical and cultural shifts of the time. The author refrains from defining definitive masterworks or crafting an exhaustive list of acclaimed titles, instead focusing on how this era reshaped the very enterprise of literary creation and critique. This period, marked by a shift in critical self-awareness and creative ambition, reveals American literature grappling with questions of identity, innovation, and its role within an unsettled cultural order.By blending historical critique, personal reflection, and diagnostic projection, the book examines how the collective consciousness of post-war America influenced its literary production. It explores the interplay between individual creativity and broader cultural forces, emphasizing the importance of shared experiences and societal relationships in shaping literary innovation. From the idealistic aspirations of Emerson and Whitman to the more skeptical, politically charged voices of Mailer and Berryman, the book traces a lineage of American writers who viewed literature as a vehicle for societal introspection and transformation. Ultimately, it frames the vitality of literature as inseparable from the vitality of its cultural and social context, offering a nuanced understanding of how American writing navigated the complex realities of its time while laying the groundwork for future creative endeavors.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1979.

Cooper's Landscapes: An Essay on the Picturesque Vision delves into the vivid and enduring landscapes of James Fenimore Cooper's works, exploring how his descriptive artistry shaped the American literary imagination. This essay examines Cooper's unique ability to translate the grandeur of early 19th-century America into powerful visual panoramas that resonate with readers long after the characters and plots fade. Drawing on insights from European aesthetic traditions and the picturesque conventions, the book highlights how Cooper's narrative settings were inspired by both his American roots and his transformative years abroad. This perspective not only contextualizes his work within the broader scope of art and landscape painting but also underscores Cooper's innovative approach to crafting scenes that intertwine with the thematic elements of his storytelling.The book also offers a fresh critique of Cooper’s aesthetic education, focusing on his mastery of landscape organization, the influence of his European experiences, and his application of landscape gardening principles in fiction. From early romances like The Last of the Mohicans to the nuanced complexities of later works such as Wyandotte, the essay reveals how Cooper’s visual imagination evolved to serve his narrative ambitions. By connecting Cooper’s artistry to the broader Romantic movement and theories of visual perception, this study illuminates the profound interplay between literature and the sister arts, offering a rich framework for appreciating Cooper’s enduring contributions to American cultural and literary history.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1976.

A Renaissance Likeness: Art and Culture in Raphael’s Julius II, by Loren Partridge and Randolph Starn, is both a focused study of one of Raphael’s most compelling portraits and a wide-ranging exploration of the cultural world it represents. At the center is Raphael’s Portrait of Pope Julius II, today in the National Gallery, London—a likeness created during a period of intense crisis and astonishing artistic achievement in early sixteenth-century Rome. Painted between 1511 and 1512, when Julius was facing military defeat, rebellion, and illness, the portrait captures not only the man but also the turbulent moment in which he ruled. Seen alongside Bramante’s architecture, Michelangelo’s Sistine Ceiling, and Raphael’s own frescoes in the papal apartments, the painting belongs to the great cycle of Julian projects that defined the High Renaissance.Partridge and Starn use Raphael’s portrait as a point of entry into the wider cultural and historical setting of Julian Rome. They examine how Julius II’s image circulated in medals, chronicles, and satire; how his character as papa terribile inspired admiration, fear, and critique; and how art functioned within a dense web of patronage, politics, and theology. Moving between close visual analysis and cultural history, the authors highlight the interplay of form, content, and style with the circumstances of patronage and power. In doing so, they resist narrow readings that treat the work solely as art object or historical document, instead revealing it as a microcosm of Renaissance culture. Richly interdisciplinary, A Renaissance Likeness restores Raphael’s Julius to its rightful place as both masterpiece and cultural artifact, showing how, in the renewed radiance of this portrait, art and history illuminate each other.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1980.

This simulating book gathers five lectures that ask questions of the broadest general intellectual interest: What is religion? Do other peoples have the same emotional states as we do? Why do humans make use of body imagery? In Circumstantial Deliveries, Rodney Needham shows that the comparative study of societies may furnish the answers.  Circumstantial Deliveries challenges the methodology and substance of many conventional ideas about human nature and calls for more radical and comparative analyses. For instance, the author discredits the notion that to primitive peoples the colors red, white, and black symbolize blood, semen, and feces, respectively, arguing that an extensive comparative study of primitive societies discovered no such relationship.  These essays sound a common theme: "If a deeper appreciation of the value of life can be had from reading Crime and Punishment, or if a more acute assessment of the springs of action can be acquired from Hamlet, then in principle it should be conceded that like benefits may be derived from a sympathetic observation of other men engaged in their daily affairs."This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1981.

How do seemingly disparate arenas of Enlightenment philosophy, economic theories, boudoir etiquette, literary styles, and artistic modes coincide in the late eighteenth century? In this poetic essay on the evolution of the idea of luxury and art, Rémy G. Saisselin uses precise, witty examples to describe the development of our modern taste, the successor of the more spiritual and grand baroque goût. His analysis both illuminates and distinguishes between eighteenth-century and modern varieties of conspicuous consumption.  This persuasive discourse depicts the rise of luxe as an escape from ennui and shows how, for the first time in European history, a large class of wealthy, leisured people emerged to make art, luxury, and the avoidance of boredom its preoccupation. Saisselin provides an original and lucid picture of the first phases in the emergence of a specifically bourgeois taste.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1992.

In this essay on "what the imagination has made of the phenomenon of echo,” John Hollander examines aspects of the figure of echo in light of their significance for poetry. Looking at echo in its literal, acoustic sense, echo in myth, and echo as literary allusion, Hollander concludes with a study of the rhetorical status of the figure of echo and an examination of the ancient and newly interesting trope of metalepsis, or transumption, which it appears to embody.  Centered on ways in which Milton's poetry echoes, and is echoed by, other texts, The Figure of Echo also explores Spenser and other Renaissance writers; romantic poets such as Keats, Shelley, and Wordsworth; and modern poets including Hardy, Eliot, Stevens, Frost, Williams, and Hart Crane.  This book has implications for literary theory and holds great practical interest for students and teachers of American and English literature of all periods.  This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1981.

In Revolution and Repetition, Jeffrey Mehlman surveys the question of the relation between Karl Marx's writings and the institution of literature. He presents not an application of Marxian categories to literary texts, but a delineation of how the phenomenon of revolution in France is refracted through two divergent series of writings. The first comprises three works by Marx: The Class Struggles in France 1848-1850, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, and The Civil War in France. The second consists of two exemplary nineteenth-century novels on revolution: Victor Hugo's Quatrevingt-treize and Honoré de Balzac's Les Chouans.  Mehlman also explores the limits and opportunities of reading itself. Within a series of precise textual analyses, the reader will encounter Jean Laplanche's lectures on "anxiety" in Freud, Jacques Derrida's Glas, Georg Lukács’s study of Balzac’s “realism," and Michel Foucault's genealogy of prisons, Surveiller et punir. This volume is a working introduction to what may be termed French "post-structuralism."This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1977.