LITERARY DISCOURSE RENAISSANCE CULTURE PARODY HUMOR

Erlbaum Associates. 321-355. 9 Literary Discourse

Literary reading has been a topic of inquiry among scholars of literature and educationalists for nearly three quarters of a century (Richards, 1929; Rosenblatt, 1937). Among empirical researchers, in contrast, attention to literature is quite recent, with most studies having been carried out only over the last 20 years. The literary field is fraught with controversy, however. Basic differences...

A Renaissance of Political Culture?

Prologue: The culture of Renaissance instrumental music

In Renaissance courts and cities, instrumental music was deeply woven into the fabric and function of everyday life, and was accessible to a wide, demographically diverse swath of the populace. Domestic entertainment, civic and village events, courtly ritual, and the functional, clockwork activities of a city, court, or militia, all demanded the contributions of instrumentalists. The wide diver...

William Harvey's Anatomy Book and Literary Culture

Ora et labora: the Benedictine motto unfurls on the banderole of the title-page of William Harvey’s masterful Exercitatio anatomica de motu cordis et sanguinis in animalibus (1628). This monastic motto, ‘‘Pray and work’’, seems an odd advertisement for an anatomy book. Harvey submitted his manuscript for publication to William Fitzer in Frankfurt, who commissioned it to one of the eight printer...

African Literature and English Language: A Political Literary Discourse

A political literary discourse is important at this moment, given the political upheavals that have engulfed African countries. The writer is often seen as an emancipator of the masses therefore, the imaginative writer can, through his work, offer critical appraisal of existing political situations in order to mould and redirect the actions of society, its belief and values. Literature can ther...