Empress and Handmaid

Empress and Handmaid
Author: Sarah Jane Boss
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2000-03-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780304707812

Medieval images of the Virgin Mary for veneration usually showed a mother and child enthroned, bearing signs of regal authority. Yet modern images show her standing alone, without signs of authority or maternity. This work argues that this and other developments in the cult of the Virgin in western Christianity must be understood against the background of our changing relationship with "nature". The book offers a new assessment of the significance of the cult of the Virgin in Christianity. It also includes an original account of the development of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. The theorectical perspective is strongly influenced by the Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School, in its critique of domination.

The Empress of Salt and Fortune

The Empress of Salt and Fortune
Author: Nghi Vo
Publisher: Tordotcom
Total Pages: 75
Release: 2020-03-24
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1250750296

Winner of the 2020 Crawford Award! Winner of the 2021 Hugo Award! A Hugo Award-Winning Series! A 2021 Locus Award Finalist A 2021 Ignyte Award Finalist A Goodreads Choice Award Finalist "Dangerous, subtle, unexpected and familiar, angry and ferocious and hopeful... The Empress of Salt and Fortune is a remarkable accomplishment of storytelling."—NPR A 2020 ALA Booklist Top Ten SF/F Debut | A Book Riot Must-Read Fantasy of 2020 | A Paste Most Anticipated Novel of 2020 | A Library Journal Debut of the Month | A Buzzfeed Must-Read Fantasy Novel of Spring 2020 | A Washington Post Best SFF of the Year So Far Pick Named Book Riot's Best Book Cover of 2020 Named a Best of 2020 Pick for NPR | Library Journal | NYPL | Chicago Public Library | The Austen Chronicle | Autostraddle With the heart of an Atwood tale and the visuals of a classic Asian period drama, Nghi Vo's The Empress of Salt and Fortune is a tightly and lushly written narrative about empire, storytelling, and the anger of women. A young royal from the far north, is sent south for a political marriage in an empire reminiscent of imperial China. Her brothers are dead, her armies and their war mammoths long defeated and caged behind their borders. Alone and sometimes reviled, she must choose her allies carefully. Rabbit, a handmaiden, sold by her parents to the palace for the lack of five baskets of dye, befriends the emperor's lonely new wife and gets more than she bargained for. At once feminist high fantasy and an indictment of monarchy, this evocative debut follows the rise of the empress In-yo, who has few resources and fewer friends. She's a northern daughter in a mage-made summer exile, but she will bend history to her will and bring down her enemies, piece by piece. The Singing Hills Cycle The Empress of Salt and Fortune When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain Into the Riverlands The novellas of The Singing Hills Cycle are linked by the cleric Chih, but may be read in any order, with each story serving as an entrypoint. Praise for The Empress of Salt and Fortune “An elegant gut-punch, a puzzle box that unwinds itself in its own way and in its own time. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Gorgeous. Cruel. Perfect. I didn't know I needed to read this until I did.”—Seanan McGuire "A tale of rebellion and fealty that feels both classic and fresh, The Empress of Salt and Fortune is elegantly told, strongly felt, and brimming with rich detail. An epic in miniature, beautifully realised."—Zen Cho "Nghi Vo's gracefully told debut . . . resides in the intimate margins of its (beautifully imagined) world's history, portraying how the marginalized may yet shape those narratives and harness the power of stories."—Indrapramit Das At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Divine Mother, Blessed Mother

Divine Mother, Blessed Mother
Author: Francis X. Clooney
Publisher: Oxford University Press on Demand
Total Pages: 279
Release: 2005
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0195170377

The Virgin Mary has long been the object of both devotional and scholarly interest, and recent years have seen a proliferation of studies on Hindu goddess-worship traditions. Despite the parallels between the two, however, no one has yet undertaken a book-length comparison of these traditions. In Divine Mother, Blessed Mother, Francis Clooney offers the first extended comparative study of Hindu goddesses and the Virgin Mary. Clooney is almost unique in the field of Hindu studies as a Christian theologian with the linguistic and philosophical expertise necessary to produce sophisticated comparative analyses. Building on his previous work in comparative theology, he sheds new light not only on these individual traditions but also on the nature of gender and the divine.

Sing of Mary

Sing of Mary
Author: Stephanie A. Budwey
Publisher: Liturgical Press
Total Pages: 360
Release: 2014
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0814682685

Throughout the history of Christianity, Mary has been a beacon of hope to many who look to her. While Christians have always prayed to Mary, they have also sung to her in times of joy and sorrow. Sing of Mary analyzes Marian hymnody throughout Christianity--and particularly in the Roman Catholic Church in the United States from 1854 to today--focusing not only on the texts and music but also on the contexts out of which these hymns came. By using a holistic methodology--drawing from anthropology, history, liturgy, musicology, psychology, sociology, and theology--this study takes an interdisciplinary approach toward studying Marian theology and devotion through the lens of hymnody. This volume, accessible to both laypeople and academics, provides readers with a clear and full understanding of Marian hymnody by looking at many examples throughout the history of Christianity up through the present, thus shedding light on the history of Marian devotion and theology. The work concludes by providing hope for the future of Marian congregational song, particularly by exploring how the Magnificat can help Marian congregational song be meaningful to a wide range of Christians.

The Father-Daughter Plot

The Father-Daughter Plot
Author: Rebecca L. Copeland
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Total Pages: 397
Release: 2001-07-31
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0824864719

This provocative collection of essays is a comprehensive study of the "father-daughter dynamic" in Japanese female literary experience. Its contributors examine the ways in which women have been placed politically, ideologically, and symbolically as "daughters" in a culture that venerates "the father." They weigh the impact that this daughterly position has had on both the performance and production of women's writing from the classical period to the present. Conjoining the classical and the modern with a unified theme reveals an important continuum in female authorship-a historical approach often ignored by scholars. The essays devoted to the literature of the classical period discuss canonical texts in a new light, offering important feminist readings that challenge existing scholarship, while those dedicated to modern writers introduce readers to little-known texts with translations and readings that are engaging and original. Contributors: Tomoko Aoyama, Sonja Arntzen, Janice Brown, Rebecca L. Copeland, Midori McKeon, Eileen Mikals-Adachi, Joshua S. Mostow, Sharalyn Orbaugh, Esperanza Ramirez-Christensen, Edith Sarra, Atsuko Sasaki, Ann Sherif.

Virgin Whore

Virgin Whore
Author: Emma Maggie Solberg
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2018-12-15
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1501730347

In Virgin Whore, Emma Maggie Solberg uncovers a surprisingly prevalent theme in late English medieval literature and culture: the celebration of the Virgin Mary’s sexuality. Although history is narrated as a progressive loss of innocence, the Madonna has grown purer with each passing century. Looking to a period before the idea of her purity and virginity had ossified, Solberg uncovers depictions and interpretations of Mary, discernible in jokes and insults, icons and rituals, prayers and revelations, allegories and typologies—and in late medieval vernacular biblical drama. More unmistakable than any cultural artifact from late medieval England, these biblical plays do not exclusively interpret Mary and her virginity as fragile. In a collection of plays known as the N-Town manuscript, Mary is represented not only as virgin and mother but as virgin and promiscuous adulteress, dallying with the Trinity, the archangel Gabriel, and mortals in kaleidoscopic erotic combinations. Mary’s "virginity" signifies invulnerability rather than fragility, redemption rather than renunciation, and merciful license rather than ascetic discipline. Taking the ancient slander that Mary conceived Jesus in sin as cause for joyful laughter, the N-Town plays make a virtue of those accusations: through bawdy yet divine comedy, she redeems and exalts the crime. By revealing the presence of this promiscuous Virgin in early English drama and late medieval literature and culture—in dirty jokes told by Boccaccio and Chaucer, Malory’s Arthurian romances, and the double entendres of the allegorical Mystic Hunt of the Unicorn—Solberg provides a new understanding of Marian traditions.

A Cultural Study of Mary and the Annunciation

A Cultural Study of Mary and the Annunciation
Author: Gary Waller
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2015-10-06
Genre: History
ISBN: 1317316665

This book traces the history of the Annunciation, exploring the deep and lasting impact of the event on the Western imagination. Waller explores the Annunciation from its appearance in Luke’s Gospel, to its rise to prominence in religious doctrine and popular culture, and its gradual decline in importance during the Enlightenment.

Refiguring the Sacred Feminine

Refiguring the Sacred Feminine
Author: Theresa M. DiPasquale
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 406
Release: 2008-04-21
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0820705195

Theresa M. DiPasquale’s study of John Donne, Aemilia Lanyer, and John Milton demonstrates how each of these seventeenth century English poets revised, reformed, and renewed the Judeo-Christian tradition of the sacred feminine. The central figures of this tradition—divine Wisdom, created Wisdom, the Bride, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and Ecclesia—are essential to the works of Donne, Lanyer, and Milton. All three poets are deeply invested in the ancient, scripturally authorized belief that the relationship between God and humankind is gendered: God is father, bridegroom, king; the human soul and the church as corporate entity are daughter, bride, and consort. This important text not only casts new light on these poets and on the history of Christian doctrine and belief, but also makes enormous contributions to our understanding of the feminine more broadly. It will be of interest to scholars who study the Literary Studies, religion, and culture of early modern England, to feminist theologians, and to any reader grappling seriously with gender issues in Christian theology and spirituality.