Book Description




Guilt and Shame


Book Description

As theoretical positions and as affective experiences, the twin currents of contrition - guilt and shame - permeate literary discourse and figure prominently in discussions of ethics, history, sexuality and social hierarchy. This collection of essays, on French and francophone prose, poetry, drama, visual art, cinema and thought, assesses guilt and shame in relation to structures of social morality, language and self-expression, the thinking of trauma, and the ethics of forgiveness. The authors approach their subjects via close readings and comparative study, drawing on such thinkers as Adorno, Derrida, Jankélévitch and Irigaray. Through these they consider works ranging from the medieval Roman de la rose through to Gustave Moreau's Symbolist painting, Giacometti's sculpture, the films of Marina de Van and recent sub-Saharan African writing. The collection provides an état-présent of thinking on guilt and shame in French Studies, and is the first to assemble work on this topic ranging from the thirteenth to the twenty-first century. The book contains nine contributions in English and four in French.




Interpretation Des Heiligen


Book Description

The hermeneutic path involved in the interpretation of law as well as in the interpretation of sacred texts, though peculiar, seems - as Emilio Betti pointed out - to share several things, most importantly the "normative" nature of interpretation. The 1999 issue of the Yearbook "Ars Interpretandi" accounts for the several and disparate relationships between these two important "regional hermeneutics".




Le pardon


Book Description




Ezourvedam


Book Description

The Ezourvedam, used by Voltaire among others, as sourcebook for the most ancient of religions, was thereupon found to have been a fraud. Actually it was composed by a Christian – the text shows him to have been a French Jesuit missionary, who did not necessarily know Sanskrit – in order to convert Hindus to Christianity. The controversy surrounding the spurious Veda continues, involving a number of scholars and missionaries particularly in the question of whether or not the Veda was composed in Sanskrit or French. In tracing the history of the Ezourvedam Ludo Rocher adds a number of points, one being that the text was definitely first written in French with a view to a later Sanskrit translation or, more likely, to one of several modern Indian vernaculars. This edition is based on the manuscripts of Voltaire and Anquetil du Perron, and, especially, on a third manuscript preserved at the Bibliotheque National in Paris, wrongly catalogued there as Yajurveda. This edition is therefor markedly different from the 1778 edition by the Baron de Sainte-Croix.







Les 365 Meditations


Book Description

Le Rév. Dr. François Kara Akoa-Mongo est né et a grandi au Cameroun. Il est le 7ième enfants des feux Pasteur François Akoa Abômô, et de Djômô Essômba Suzanne. Après son ordination en 1967, il a servi l'Eglise Presbytérienne Camerounaise en plusieurs qualités avant et après ses etudes aux Etats Unis jusqu'en 1987, date a laquelle il est définitivement rentré aux Etats-Unis avec toute sa famille. Pendant 21 ans, il a enseigné le français, d'Espagnol, le Latin et les Sciences Sociales comme professeur certifié aux lycées de Washington Academy et de Narraguagus. Il enseignait aussi à l'Université du Maine à Machias à titre de vacataire. Lui et sa femme Kathérine ont élevé leurs 9 enfants qui vivent dans les villes de la région de New England. Depuis 20 ans, il est Pasteur d'une paroisse de l'Eglise Congregationnelle à Machiasport, Maine. Akoa-Mongo a une Maîtrise en Théologie, une autre dans l'Enseignement des Langues, et un Ph. D. en Education de l'Université du Maine à Orono. Autres livres publiés par Akoa-Mongo, The life of Akoa-Mongo Kara from Africa to the United States, Maine, 125 sermons preached from the pulpit of Machiasport, et dans bientôt Le Rév. François Akoa Abômô, l'homme et l'oeuvre. François Akoa-Mongo, Kara et sa femme Kathy vivent à Machiasport, Maine.




Montesquieu's 'The Spirit of the Laws'


Book Description

The Spirit of the Laws not only systematizes the foundational ideas of “separation of powers” and “balances and checks,” it provides the decisive response to the question of whether power in the nation-state can be limited in the aftermath of the Westphalian settlement of 1648. It describes a civilizational change through which power becomes domesticated, with built-in resistance to attempts to absolutize (or make total) political power. As such, it is the Bible of modern politics, now made more accessible to English readers than it ever has been.