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The Laughter of Aphrodite : A Novel about Sappho of Lesbos
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ISBN: 0520917154 Year: 1993 Publisher: Berkeley ; Los Angeles, California : University of California Press, Ltd.,

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Abstract

Best-selling classicist Peter Green recreates the life and times of the Greek lyric poet Sappho in this beautifully conceived, sharply detailed work of historical imagination. We meet Sappho at the age of fifty, when she is shaken by her fatal and final love affair with Phaon. She narrates her own story from the vantage point of self-questioning middle age, and her candid meditations make intimate, engrossing reading. Only fragments of Sappho's poetry survive. In imagining Sappho's life Green found his task "rather like that of an archaeologist reassembling some amphora from hundreds of shards--of which more than half are missing." Yet, in his synthesis of historical evidence and ebullient invention, Green produces a seamless, moving, and persuasive portrait. He recreates Sappho's life by interweaving her surviving poetry into the narrative, not as quotations, but as her own imagined speeches and thoughts. Sappho's life spanned one of the most exciting periods in Greek history. Green's novel, full of details about daily life on ancient Lesbos, draws the reader into the political and social climate of her world: the civil strife accompanying the transition from aristocracy to mercantilism, the household relations between slave and aristocrat, the details of sea travel in the Aegean. Green wrote the novel while living on Lesbos, and his graceful rendering of the landscape, the rhythms of the seasons, and the varied flora of Sappho's island pervades the narrative. Sappho's poetry reveals a direct, spontaneous woman who eschewed artifice and embellishment. Green's extraordinary talent captures those qualities and brings this woman of unflinching honesty very much to life.


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The Clarion of Syria : A Patriot's Call against the Civil War of 1860
Authors: --- ---
ISBN: 0520299434 0520971159 9780520971158 Year: 2019 Publisher: Oakland University of California Press

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A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. When Nafir Suriyya-"The Clarion of Syria"-was penned between September 1860 and April 1861, its author Butrus al-­Bustani, a major figure in the modern Arabic Renaissance, had witnessed his homeland undergo unprecedented violence in what many today consider Lebanon's first civil war. Written during Ottoman and European investigations into the causes and culprits of the atrocities, The Clarion of Syria is both a commentary on the politics of state intervention and social upheaval, and a set of visions for the future of Syrian society in the wake of conflict. This translation makes a key historical document accessible for the first time to an English audience. An introduction by the translators sketches the history that led up to the civil strife in Mt. Lebanon, outlines a brief biography of Butrus al-­Bustani, and provides an authoritative overview of the literary style and historiography of Nafir Suriyya. Rereading these pamphlets in the context of today's political violence, in war-­torn Syria and elsewhere in the Arab world, helps us gain a critical and historical perspective on sectarianism, foreign invasions, conflict resolution, Western interventionism, and nationalist tropes of reconciliation.

Keywords

History --- Bustānī, Buṭrus ibn Būlus, --- Syria --- Buṭrus ibn Būlus al-Bustānī, --- بستاني، بطرس إبن بولوس --- بستاني، بطرس ابن بولس --- بستاني، بطرس بن بولس، --- نستانى، بطرس بن بولس --- Sirii︠a︡ --- Iqlīm al-Sūrī (United Arab Republic) --- Iqlīm al-Shamālī (United Arab Republic) --- Syrian Region (United Arab Republic) --- سوريا --- Sūriyā --- Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah al-Sūrīyah --- Syrian Arab Republic --- République arabe syrienne --- Sowria --- Syrie --- R.A.S. --- RAS --- Ittiḥād al-Duwal al-Sūrīyah --- Fédération des États de Syrie --- Syrische Arabische Republik --- SAR --- Suryah --- Arabska Republika Syryjska --- Syrien --- Jumhuriya al-Arabya as-Suriya --- Repubblica Araba Siriana --- جمهورية العربية السورية --- Jumhūriyyah al-ʻArabiyyah as-Sūriyyah --- Сірыя --- Siryi︠a︡ --- Сірыйская Арабская Рэспубліка --- Siryĭskai︠a︡ Arabskai︠a︡ Rėspublika --- Сирийската арабска република --- Siriĭskata arabska republika --- Συρία --- Αραβική Δημοκρατία της Συρίας --- Aravikē Dēmokratia tēs Syrias --- 시리아 --- Siria --- סוריה --- רפובליקה הערבית הסורית --- Republiḳah ha-ʻArvit ha-Surit --- シリア --- Shiria --- Сирия --- Сирийская Арабская Республика --- Siriĭskai︠a︡ Arabskai︠a︡ Respublika --- Сирія --- Syrii︠a︡ --- Сирійська Арабська республіка --- Syriĭsʹka Arabsʹka respublika --- 敘利亞 --- Xuliya --- United Arab Republic --- HISTORY / Middle East / General. --- arab world. --- arabic renaissance. --- brief biography. --- butrus al bustani. --- civil strife. --- civil war. --- conflict resolution. --- critical perspective. --- culprits of atrocities. --- english audience. --- european investigations. --- foreign invasions. --- historical perspective. --- historiography. --- homeland. --- key historical document. --- lebanon. --- literary style. --- mt lebanon. --- nafir suriyya. --- nationalist tropes of reconciliation. --- political violence. --- sectarianism. --- syria. --- unprecedented violence. --- war. --- western interventionism.

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