Open Journals @ UWA (The University of Western Australia)
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Review: Nothing Natural is Shameful: Sodomy and Science in Late Medieval Europe
No full textJoan Cadden, Nothing Natural is Shameful: Sodomy and Science in Late Medieval Europe (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013). Print. 327 pp. US$85.00. ISBN: 9780812245370
The Melancholy of Henry More
Get PDFThis article treats Henry More’s philosophical approach to melancholy and his personal experience of the disease. Koen Vermeir argues that, in approaching the imagination philosophically, More was performing a 'balancing act' between addressing the subject as a medium between soul and body, and regarding it as a non-corporeal vehicle of reason and the spirit. 'In his life', Vermeir adds, 'More was also performing a balancing act': both an opponent of and subject to enthusiasm. In this article, I give closer scrutiny to that balancing act, charting the points of distinction and overlap between More’s philosophy of and encounters with melancholy. In the search for relief for his symptoms, I argue, More deployed two significant (and related) techniques: practicing philosophy and engaging in epistolary correspondence.
Review: Emotions and Health, 1200-1700
No full textElena Carrera, ed., Emotions and Health, 1200-1700 (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2013). Print, xii + 247 pp., $147 / €107, ISBN: 9789004250826
‘There is more to the story than this, of course’: Character and Affect in Philippa Gregory’s The White Queen
Get PDFPhilippa Gregory has critiqued gendered representations of Elizabeth Woodville and has stated that her 2009 novel The White Queen fictionalises Woodville’s history with the aim of challenging such depictions. The reimagining of Elizabeth’s affect drives her narrative and is integral to reconsidering this past, yet these emotions do not differ from those characterisations that Gregory has criticised; lust and love are key motivators for Elizabeth who is vengeful and proud, and she is defined in terms of her familial relationships. Utilising a postmodern perspective, this paper will analyse the characterisation of Elizabeth Woodville in Philippa Gregory’s novel The White Queen and argue that the novel does not diverge significantly from contemporaneous accounts of Woodville’s life. In suggesting that the novel resembles rather than challenges representations found in texts contemporaneous to Gregory’s own, the paper will contextualise Gregory’s characterisation using two biographical accounts published shortly before the release of The White Queen: Arlene Okerlund’s Elizabeth Wydeville: The Slandered Queen, and David Loades’ ‘The Queen As Lover: Elizabeth Woodville’ in The Tudor Queens Of England.
Review: Writing and Reading in Medieval Manuscript Culture
No full textStefka Georgieva Eriksen, Writing and Reading in Medieval Manuscript Culture: The Translation and Transmission of the Story of Elye in Old French and Old Norse Literary Contexts (Turnhout: Brepols, 2014). Print. XXII+262 pp., 12 colour ill. ISBN: 9782503547794.
Review: Wiktenauer
No full textMichael Chidester and Christian Trosclair, Wiktenauer (Historical European Martial Arts Alliance, 2009-). Online <http://wiktenauer.com/>
Please Let This Be Much Ado about Nothing: ‘Kill Claudio’ and the Laughter of Release
Get PDFThis article centers on the oft-criticized and baffling laughter elicited by Beatrice’s ‘Kill Claudio’ in Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing. Although many productions take pains to avoid this laughter response, the tensions built in the aborted wedding of Hero and Claudio require release. In his theory of relief, Freud posits that laughter is the means by which psychic tension is released. Laughter in the moments up to and including Beatrice’s order does not carry the same emotional tension as that elicited by Dogberry’s malapropisms, the early witty banter between Beatrice and Benedick, nor the farce or slapstick of other Shakespearean plays. Instead, the laughter in this moment is a byproduct of an audience’s desire to expel the tension amassed at the scathing dismissal and fall of Hero, to return to the comic tone of earlier scenes, and most importantly to return to safety. Rather than avoiding this audience reaction, productions should recognize the laughter’s role as a communal emotional response.
Review: Thomas Meyer's Beowulf
No full textThomas Meyer, Beowulf: A Translation (New York: Punctum Books, 2012). 312 pp. $15.00 / €14.00 Print + Open-Access E-book (http://punctumbooks.com/titles/thomas-meyer-beowulf/), ISBN: 9780615612652
Review: Emotional Excess on the Shakespearean Stage: Passion's Slaves
No full textBridget Escolme, Emotional Excess on the Shakespearean Stage: Passion’s Slaves (London: Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare, 2013). Print. 344 pp. $36.99. ISBN: 9781408179666