Radboud Studies in Humanities – serie

The papers collected in this volume study the function and meaning of narrative texts from a variety of perspectives. The word “text” is used here in the broadest sense of the term: it denotes literary books, but also oral tales, speeches, newspaper articles and comics. One of the purposes of this volume is to discover what these different texts have in common. The texts are approached from four main perspectives: New Philology, Linguistics, Iconography and Reception studies. Contributors come from diverse disciplines, such as Classical Studies, Medieval Studies, English literature, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Cultural Studies, Art History, Linguistics, and Communication and Information Studies, all united in a common purpose to understand the workings of narrative texts.

Religion can play a dual role with regard to conflict. It can promote either violence or peace. Religion and Conflict Attribution seeks to clarify the causes of religious conflict as perceived by Christian, Muslim and Hindu college students in Tamil Nadu, India. These students in varying degrees attribute conflict to force-driven causes, namely to coercive power as a means of achieving the economic, political or socio-cultural goals of religious groups. The study reveals how force-driven religious conflict is influenced by prescriptive beliefs like religious practice and mystical experience, and descriptive beliefs such as the interpretation of religious plurality and religiocentrism. It also elaborates on the practical consequences of the salient findings for the educational process.

In The Imagined and Real Jerusalem in Art and Architecture specialists in various fields of art history, from Early Christian times to the present, articulate a variety of cultural, religious and political implications of the visualization of Jerusalem. This collection of essays calls attention to two axes emerging from the study of Jerusalem in art: on the one hand, the volatile contemporary situation, and on the other hand, the abiding chain of meanings that history imparts to the city. From a contemporary perspective and within a broad historical context, the book discusses in depth a series of Western artworks, artefacts, and buildings providing new insights into memory processes and mechanisms of representation of Jerusalem.

Based on the discovery of an unknown Latin manuscript, Maria Petyt - A Carmelite Mystic in Wartime provides surprising new information about the seventeenth century Flemish mystic Maria Petyt (1623-1677) who wrote many letters to her spiritual director, Michael of St. Augustine. The book contains a transcription of the (unfortunately partly damaged) manuscript, an English translation of it, and several articles opening up new horizons concerning the life and spirituality of Maria Petyt and her historical and religious backgrounds. The authors characterize Maria Petyt as a self-confident spiritual daughter with a strong political mission, a zealous figure fighting side by side with Louis XIV for the catholic victory during the Dutch War, and as one who lived and profoundly understood the spirituality of Teresa of Avila.

Controversial poetry played a crucial role in dealing with religious, political, and scholarly conflicts from 1400 until 1625. This volume analyses roles and functions of Latin, Italian, Dutch, German, Scots, and Hungarian poetry in specific historical controversies.A media theory of poetical impact is proposed by Franz-Josef Holznagel and Dieuwke van der Poel. Levente Seláf, Philipp Steinkamp, and Guillaume van Gemert examine the genres sung in wars, and in rulers’ controversies. Judith Keßler, Dirk Coigneau, Juliette Groenland, and Regina Toepfer analyse how female and male rhetoricians and humanists use verse in religious, municipal, and educational conflicts. Signe Rotter-Broman, Samuel Pakucs Willcocks†, and Alasdair A. MacDonald explain how reception strategies can shape cultural and political identities.Controversial Poetry 1400-1625 diskutiert den entscheidenden Einfluss von Controversial Poetry, Kontrovers-Dichtung, in Konflikten zwischen 1400 und 1625. Dafür werden die Rollen und Funktionen lateinischer, italienischer, niederländischer, deutscher, schottischer und ungarischer Dichtung in konkreten historischen Kontroversen analysiert.Eine Medientheorie der Beeinflussung durch Dichtung entwerfen Franz-Josef Holznagel and Dieuwke van der Poel. Levente Seláf, Philipp Steinkamp, and Guillaume van Gemert untersuchen verschiedene Gattungen gesungener Politik in Kriegen und Auseinandersetzungen von Herrschern. Judith Keßler, Dirk Coigneau, Juliette Groenland und Regina Töpfer analysieren, wie weibliche und männliche rederijkers und Humanisten Verse in konfessionellen, städtischen und Bildungs-Konflikten verwenden. Signe Rotter-Broman, Samuel Pakucs Willcocks† und Alasdair MacDonald erklären, wie Rezeptions-Strategien kulturelle und politische Identitäten gestalten können.

East and West in the Roman Empire of the Fourth Century examines the (dis)unity of the Roman Empire in the fourth century from different angles, in order to offer a broad perspective on the topic and avoid an overvaluation of the political division of the empire in 395.After a methodological key-paper on the concepts of unity, the other contributors elaborate on these notions from various geo-political perspectives: the role of the army and taxation, geographical perspectives, the unity of the Church and the perception of the divisio regni of 364. Four case-studies follow, illuminating the role of concordia apostolorum, antique sports, eunuchs and the poet Prudentius on the late antique view of the Empire. Despite developments to the contrary, it appears that the Roman Empire remained (to be viewed as) a unity in all strata of society.

New Perspectives on Power and Political Representation from Ancient History to the Present Day offers a unique perspective on political communication between rulers and ruled from antiquity to the present day by putting the concept of representation center stage. It explores the dynamic relationship between elites and the people as it was shaped by constructions of self-representation and representative claims. The contributors to this volume – specialists in ancient, medieval, early-modern and modern history – move away from reductionist associations of political representation with formal aspects of modern, democratic, electoral, and parliamentarian politics. Instead, they contend that the construction of political representation involves a set of discourses, practices, and mechanisms that, although they have been applied and appropriated in various ways in a range of historical contexts, has stood the test of time.

Politics and Cultures of Liberation: Media, Memory, and Projections of Democracy focuses on mapping, analyzing, and evaluating memories, rituals, and artistic responses to the theme of “liberation.” How is the national framed within a dynamic system of intercultural contact zones highlighting often competing agendas of remembrance? How does the production, (re)mediation, and framing of narratives within different social, territorial, and political environments determine the cultural memory of liberation? The articles compiled in this volume seek to provide new interdisciplinary and intercultural perspectives on the politics and cultures of liberation by examining commemorative practices, artistic responses, and audio-visual media that lend themselves for transnational exploration. They offer a wide range of diverse intercultural perspectives on media, memory, liberation, (self)Americanization, and conceptualizations of democracy from the war years, through the Cold War era to the 21st century.