This book is a history of love and the challenge love offers to the laws and customs of its times and places, as told through poetry from the Song of Songs to John Milton’s Paradise Lost. It is also an account of the critical reception afforded to such literature, and the ways in which criticism has attempted to stifle this challenge. Bryson and Movsesian argue that the poetry they explore celebrates and reinvents the love the troubadour poets of the eleventh and twelfth centuries called fin’amor: love as an end in itself, mutual and freely chosen even in the face of social, religious, or political retribution. Neither eros nor agape, neither exclusively of the body, nor solely of the spirit, this love is a middle path. Alongside this tradition has grown a critical movement that employs a 'hermeneutics of suspicion', in Paul Ricoeur’s phrase, to claim that passionate love poetry is not what it seems, and should be properly understood as worship of God, subordination to Empire, or an entanglement with the structures of language itself – in short, the very things it resists. The book engages with some of the seminal literature of the Western canon, including the Bible, the poetry of Ovid, and works by English authors such as William Shakespeare and John Donne, and with criticism that stretches from the earliest readings of the Song of Songs to contemporary academic literature. Lively and enjoyable in its style, it attempts to restore a sense of pleasure to the reading of poetry, and to puncture critical insistence that literature must be outwitted. It will be of value to professional, graduate, and advanced undergraduate scholars of literature, and to the educated general reader interested in treatments of love in poetry throughout history.

https://www.openbookpublishers.com/10.11647/OBP.0117.pdf

Love and its Critics: From the Song of Songs to Shakespeare and Milton’s Eden

This article seeks to elucidate over time changes and cross-national variations in the status of art forms through a comprehensive content analysis of the coverage given to arts and culture in elite newspapers of four different countries - France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United States - in the period 1955-2005. The authors explore how cultural hierarchy is affected by spe- cific features of these societies and their respective journalistic and cultural production fields. The four countries show significant differences in journalistic attention to high and popular arts. Throughout the period of study, the American newspapers and to a slightly lesser extent, French elite newspapers generally devote more attention to popular art forms than their Dutch and Ger- man counterparts. In accounting for cross-national differences in the coverage given to popular culture, field level factors like the structure of the newspaper market and the position and size of local cultural industries seem more important than remote societal factors such as national cultural repertoires and the level of social mobility.

Comparing cultural classification: high and popular arts in European and U.S. elite newspapers, 1955-2005

The Davidic motif is well recognised in the Lukan narrative but David's identity as God's shepherd king has not seemed to influence how scholars have understood the Lukan Jesus and his mission to seek and save the lost. This thesis argues that David's identity as God's shepherd cannot be separated from his kingship, and that Luke takes this aspect of David into his narrative. I use a narrative methodology that relies heavily on exegetical discussion to explore the text. Luke's own intention to write a διήγησις that is orderly (καθeξῆς) and written from the beginning (ἄνωθeν) is thus followed. In light of the path Luke has set, I pay particular attention to the primacy effect as this sets the trajectory for a narrative, the cumulative and cohesive nature of narrative, gaps and blanks in narrative which invite the reader to find meaning, and the use of Leitwortstil to reveal and clarify meaning. I also use Hays' test for echoes since Luke's writing uses a number of implicit tools to direct the reader to understand Jesus' mission and ministry. The thesis considers, first, the pervasive nature of the shepherd king motif in Israel's history and especially Kingdoms' portrayal of David in the Septuagint. Second, it takes the motif in Luke's infancy narrative and after reviewing the well recognised motif of David in Luke 1, asks again why the angels went to the shepherds in the birth narrative? I conclude that Micah 5:2-5 lies behind Luke's expression of the 'City of David, Bethlehem' and that here Luke points to Jesus as Micah's messianic shepherd. Further, in Luke's genealogy, which follows a different path to Matthew, we find Luke draws on Zech 12:10-14 and Jer 22:30-23:6 where the end of the kingly line from Jeconiah would be superseded by the Davidic shepherd king who brings God's salvation. Third, four shepherd sayings and passages are considered in Luke-Acts (Luke 10:3; 12:32; 15:1-7; Acts 20:28). These demonstrate that the motif of the Davidic shepherd king has an on-going influence on how the reader understands Jesus' ministry to the marginalised. I note that this shepherd task is passed onto the wider discipleship group in the household mission and also influences Paul's Abschiedsrede at Miletus. God's concern for the disciples' welfare

https://ourarchive.otago.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10523/2409/HarrisSarahJG2012PhD;sequence=1

The Davidic Shepherd King in the Lukan Narrative

This thesis is a consideration of the Spirit’s role in the interpretation of scripture (pneumatic interpretation) through a conversation surrounding this topic that has been taking place between scholars who are in, or who identify with, the renewal tradition (also known as the Pentecostal and charismatic movement[s]) since 1970 when renewed emphasis on and experience of the Spirit spurred hermeneutical conversations.

Its purpose is twofold: 1) to build understanding of pneumatic interpretation through the voices of those involved in the conversation; 2) to foster appreciation and understanding between scholars across or identifying with the renewal tradition. A significant proportion of contributions to this conversation have been from those involved in Pentecostal hermeneutics but the thesis uses renewal terminology to reflect inclusivity of all scholars across or identifying with the renewal tradition who emphasise the Spirit and accentuate the Spirit’s role in hermeneutical considerations.

The thesis stresses that central to pneumatic interpretation in the renewal tradition is priority placed on personal experience of and intimate relationship with the triune God through pneumatic encounter. Three integral, and dynamically interrelating components of this relationship are given attention: affect, ethics, and cognition. It also stresses that considering the Spirit’s role in scriptural interpretation requires contemplation of the relational nature of God from a pneumatic starting point. The thesis therefore asserts that pneumatic interpretation is holistic and cannot be restricted to interpretation of the scriptural text, because the Spirit always works through and beyond the written words interpreting and appropriating scriptural truth in our lives in ways that align with scripture and transform and draw us holistically into knowledge of God as Father, Son, and Spirit.

In terms of structure, the thesis addresses the conversation chronologically to show historical and thematic progress.

Pneumatic interpretation in the renewal tradition: the first 50 years

Biocultural theory is an integrative research program designed to investigate the causal interactions between biological adaptations and cultural constructions. From the biocultural perspective, cultural processes are rooted in the biological necessities of the human life cycle: specifically human forms of birth, growth, survival, mating, parenting, and sociality. Conversely, from the biocultural perspective, human biological processes are constrained, organized, and developed by culture, which includes technology, culturally specific socioeconomic and political structures, religious and ideological beliefs, and artistic practices such as music, dance, painting, and storytelling. Establishing biocultural theory as a program that self-consciously encompasses the different particular forms of human evolutionary research could help scholars and scientists envision their own specialized areas of research as contributions to a coherent, collective research program. This article argues that a mature biocultural paradigm needs to be informed by at least 7 major research clusters: (a) gene-culture coevolution; (b) human life history theory; (c) evolutionary social psychology; (d) anthropological research on contemporary hunter-gatherers; (e) biocultural socioeconomic and political history; (f) evolutionary aesthetics; and (g) biocultural research in the humanities (religions, ideologies, the history of ideas, and the arts). This article explains the way these research clusters are integrated in biocultural theory, evaluates the level of development in each cluster, and locates current biocultural theory within the historical trajectory of the social sciences and the humanities.

Biocultural Theory: The Current State of Knowledge

T HE PURPOSE OF THIS GUIDE is to help you write critical essays about books or other literary works. When you write literary criticism, you combine reasoned analysis with your personal evaluation of the work. Literary analysis and book reviews differ from the standard book reports you were assigned in earlier grades. A book report is a mere summary of a work that describes what happened in a text and when. However, in literary criticism and book reviews, you must bring your own critical skills to bear as you analyze a text. Your instructor will be asking you to evaluate and critique the work, not just summarize it. One of the exciting things about writing literary criticism is that you can share with others what you have learned and experienced while reading a poem, play, or novel. This personal experience is just that—personal—and is an essential ingredient for effective criticism and reviews. Nevertheless, although your work will reflect your individuality, there are some general approaches and techniques that can assist you in organizing your thoughts and creating your final report. The sections of this guide provide hints and strategies that will save you time and help you create a more thoughtful, well-written document. How to read texts critically How to locate and use outside sources of information to gain additional perspectives on a literary work How to organize and write the report How to write reports on nonfiction texts

Grazyna Branny

Papers

I. Literary Criticism