"In a searching but sympathetic series of textual analyses, Wallace argues that the canon of eighteenth-century English Literature was bron out of the interplay between literary nationalism and an imperial internationalism. Imperial Characters will add considerably to the globalization of the discipline that has been underway for some years now."---Suvir Kaul, University of Pennsvlvania --

Davina Grojnowski examines Life, the autobiographical text written by ancient Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, from a literary studies perspective and in relation to genre theory. In order to generate a framework of literary practices, Josephus' Life and other texts within Josephus' literary spheres-all associated with autobiography-are the focus of a detailed literary analysis which compares the texts in terms of established features, such as structure, topoi and subject. This methodological examination enables a better understanding of the literary boundaries of autobiography in antiquity and illustrates Josephus' thought-process during the composition of Life. Grojnowski also offers a comparative study of autobiographical practices in Greek and Roman literature, demonstrating the value of passive education supplementing what had been taught actively and its impact on authors and audiences. As a result, she provides insight into the development of literary practices in reaction to various forms of education and subsequently reflects on the religious (self-) views of authors and audiences. Simultaneously, Grojnowski reacts to current discourses on ancient literary genres and demonstrates that ancient autobiography existed as a teachable literary genre in classical literature.

A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press’s open access publishing program for monographs. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. Imperial Genus begins with the turn to world culture and ideas of the generally human in Japan’s cultural policy in Korea in 1919. How were concepts of the human’s genus-being operative in the discourses of the Japanese empire? How did they inform the imagination and representation of modernity in colonial Korea? Travis Workman delves into these questions through texts in philosophy, literature, and social science. Imperial Genus focuses on how notions of human generality mediated uncertainty between the transcendental and the empirical, the universal and the particular, and empire and colony. It shows how cosmopolitan cultural principles, the proletarian arts, and Pan-Asian imperial nationalism converged with practices of colonial governmentality. It is a genealogy of the various articulations of the human’s genus-being within modern humanist thinking in East Asia, as well as an exploration of the limits of the human as both concept and historical figure.

This comprehensive account of the history of Chinese lexicography is the first book on the subject to be published in English. It traces the development of Chinese lexicography over three millennia, from the Zhou Dynasty (1046 BC-256 BC) to the Qing Dynasty (1616-1911). Revealing how the emergence of lexicographical culture in ancient China was linked to the teaching of ancient characters, it describes the subsequent development of primers, thesauruses, and dictionaries of all major types, including those of dialects and technical terms. These works originated and appeared in ancient China, predating their western counterparts by hundreds of years: and in one form or another most of them remain in use today. Throughout their account the authors show how changes in the organization, content, use and researches of Chinese lexicographical works reflected broader social and political developments. This book not only makes an important and original contribution to the history of Chinese lexicography and the social and cultural history of China but also provides illuminating insights into world lexicography and new forms of comparative researches in lexicography in the global context.

The dominant form of the nineteenth-century novel was the Bildungsroman, a story of an individual’s development that came to speak more widely of the aspirations of nineteenth-century British society. Some of the most famous examples —David Copperfield, Great Expectations, Jane Eyre — validated the world from which they sprang, in which even orphans could successfully make their way. Empire Girls: the colonial heroine comes of age is a critical examination of three novels by writers from different regions of the British Empire: Olive Schreiner’sThe Story of An African Farm (South Africa), Sara Jeannette Duncan’s A Daughter of Today (Canada) and Henry Handel Richardson’s The Getting of Wisdom(Australia). All three novels commence as conventional Bildungsromane, yet the plots of all diverge from the usual narrative structure, as a result of both their colonial origins and the clash between their aspirational heroines and the plots available to them. In an analysis including gender, empire, nation and race, Empire Girls provides new critical perspectives on the ways in which this dominant narrative form performs very differently when taken out of its metropolitan setting.

"The Japanese government may someday recognize--as it ought to--Tuttle's contribution to creating an intelligent interest in Japan among the English-reading public, and deepening understanding of Japanese overseas--STRONG>Hokubei Mainichi (San Francisco) Awarded the 1969 Prize for the Society of the Promotion of International Cultural Relations, this is the most comprehensive Japanese book of its kind. Containing Japanese-English and English-Japanese sections, it is an essential reference tool for serious students studying the Japanese language or for business people and tourists wishing to learn Japanese before they travel. Special features include: Lists over 5,000 carefully selected characters with their 10,000+ current readings and almost 70,000 compounds in current use, al with concise English definitions. Scientifically arranged by a logical extension of the traditional radical system so as to make the finding of a given character almost fool-proof, saving hours of time. Makes provision for quickly finding characters either in their traditional or their modern and often greatly altered forms, thus serving for both prewar and postwar literature. Includes 14 valuable appendices giving (1) instructions for the most efficient use of the book, (2) discussions of the written language in general and particularly of its recent and far-reaching official modifications, and (3) much helpful

"In 1843, the Victorian political theorist John Stuart Mill outlined a new science, "the science of the formation of character." Although Mill's proposal failed as scientific practice, S. Pearl Brilmyer shows that it survived in the work of Victorian novelists, who cultivated a narrative science of human nature. Brilmyer explores this characterological project in the work of such novelists as George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, and Olive Schreiner. Bringing to life Mill's unrealized dream of a science of character, Victorian realists used fiction to investigate the nature of embodied experience, how traits and behaviors in human and nonhuman organisms emerge and develop, and how aesthetic features-shapes, colors, and gestures-come to take on cultural meaning through certain categories, such as race and sex. In the hands of these authors, Brilmyer argues, literature became a science, not in the sense that its claims were falsifiable or even systematically articulated, but in its commitment to uncovering, through a fictional staging of realistic events, the universal laws governing human life. The Science of Character offers brilliant insights into important novels of the period, including Eliot's Middlemarch, and a fuller picture of English realism during the crucial span between 1870 and 1920"--

Beijing Opera Costumes is the first in-depth English-language book focused exclusively on the costumes of Jingju, the highest form of stage arts in China. This comprehensive volume provides both theory and analysis of the costumes and the method of their selection for the roles as well as technical information on embroidery, patterns, and construction. Extensive descriptions illuminate the use of colors and surface images derived from historical dress and modified for the stage. Details on makeup, hairstyles, and dressing techniques present a complete view of the Jingju performer from head to toe. Meticulously researched in Taipei and Beijing, this definitive work begins with an outline of the rich and complex history of Beijing opera and significant developments in design over the past millennium. Chapters on costume theory and design elements and their modification to create a wide variety of images are followed by presentations of individual costumes together with their historical background and use of color and pattern. A survey of the accessories and headdresses, makeup and hairstyles, accompanies the discussion of each costume. The intricacies of choosing costumes for a production and dressing actors are also discussed. Lavishly illustrated with more than 250 color and black-and-white photographs and pattern drafts, Beijing Opera Costumes is an indispensable record of and resource for Jingju as it is performed in China today. Textile artists will appreciate the beauty of the colors and designs as well as the information on embroidery techniques and symbolism of the images. China scholars will value the contextual analysis and theater specialists the explication of costumes in relation to performance. Finally, costume designers will relish the opportunity to examine in detail their art in another cultural setting and theatrical style.