Humility & Humiliation: The Transformation of Franciscan Humour,c.1210–1310

Humiliation and self-ridicule worked as surprisingly important tools of evangelical outreach in the first decades of the Franciscan Order (c.1210–50). According to early Franciscan texts such as the Assisi Compilation (c.1240s) and Jordan of Giano’s Chronica (c.1260), St Francis and his earliest followers sought to win supporters by stripping naked in public, mocking learned preachers and ludicrously imitating animals. Yet within a few decades of the founder’s death this type of humour had been erased from Franciscan texts. Chronicles now omitted references to Francis’s laughter, while humiliating behaviour came to be condemned by Franciscan preachers, chroniclers and theologians alike. From being a means of undermining dignity and reason, joking was now instead celebrated as a tool of upholding these very same values. Describing the nature of this shift, and contextualising it within the evolving institutional priorities of the Franciscans under the leadership of Bonaventure (d.1274), this article will complicate debates about the development of medieval humour, while also reflecting on laughter’s role as a means of resistance to the significant social and cultural upheavals of the 1200s.     

The Logic of Conquest: Tripoli, 1289; Acre, 1291; why not Sis, 1293?

In 1289, Tripoli was taken from the Franks by the Mamluk Sultan Qalāwun. In 1291, Qalāwun's son al-Ashraf Khalīl captured Acre, the last capital of the Crusader "kingdom of Jerusalem", and the few surviving Frankish outposts on the Levantine coast were swiftly abandoned. Next in line seemed to be the Armenian kingdom in Cilicia and the Taurus mountains - but it was to be a further 84 years before Sis, the kingdom's capital, was to fall to the Mamluks. It does not seem unreasonable to ask why the Mamluks should have let it survive so long: indeed, how did it survive the 1290s?     

W.S.默温: 如斗士般反抗暴力,如隐士般诗意栖居

正W·S·默温(1927—2019)是20世纪美国新超现实主义诗派的代表诗人,出生于纽约的他在新泽西州的联合城和宾夕法尼亚州的斯克兰顿长大,母亲早逝,父亲是长老会的牧师。默温5岁起就帮父亲编写赞美歌,16岁时获得一笔奖学金而进入普林斯顿大学就读,大学时代开启诗歌生涯。默温一生笔耕不辍,著作颇丰,是名副其实的多产作家,出版了50多本诗集、译作和散文集,曾获得美国国家图书奖和普利策诗歌奖,2010年被评为美国第17位桂冠诗人。默温的创作广受赞誉,因为他不断追求创作手法的推陈出新。在每个阶段,默温都对同时代的诗人和更年轻一代产生巨大的影响,被誉为     

张扬个性凸显真情:评<<明清小品:个性天趣的显现>>

明清两代，作为文学主潮的创作样式，人们公认是小说和戏曲。小说方面的《三国演义》、《水浒传》、《西游记》、《金瓶梅》、《聊斋志异》、《儒林外史》、《红楼梦》，戏曲方面的《牡丹亭》、《长生殿》、《桃花扇》，均为杰出乃至伟大的作品，在文学史上占有不可替代的地位。而在这两代的雅文学中，真正具有个性特征，可以与汉赋、六朝散文、唐诗、宋词相提并论者，大概只有小品了。 对于明清小品，能够记诵若干篇目者不乏其人；但要对这一文学品种作一番认真的整体研究，却十分困难。一方面，明清小品数量太多，太分散，要总览全貌，披…     

<<行易知难>>:立意崇高论证粗疏的革命哲学

民国建立对以孙中山为首的革命党人来说，本来是一件大喜事、大胜利。可是，对孙中山来说，在以后巩固这一伟大胜利的过程中，却出现无穷无尽的烦恼，碰到无穷无尽的新矛盾，较之他以前发动武装起义要复杂得多、头痛得多。革命形势一会儿阳光灿烂，一会儿阴云密布；胜利与失败交织，喜悦与愤怒相连，使他一而再再而三地经历了从来没有经历过的各种挫折与尴尬。诸如二次革命惨败，组织中华革命党得不到支持，袁世凯复辟，护法讨逆人心不齐，等等。 这一切都使孙中山再一次陷入迷惘和沉思，促使他在蛰居上海期间，更深入地总结革命失败的经验…     

H.L.门肯:巴尔的摩的“坏小孩”

正20世纪30年代,威尔·杜兰特(美国著名学者、历史学家)深为大萧条所引起的高自杀率而忧,发起了"问全球名人:生命意义何在"的书信对话。令他惊喜的是,素以脾气坏闻名的记者、编辑兼批评家亨利·路易斯·门肯(H.L.门肯)给他回了一封客气而贴心的长信。在其中,门肯为了阐释自己的人生观,揪住六畜就不肯撒手,他提到"我不断工作和母鸡不停下蛋是一个道理":母鸡如果不下蛋,就会屁股疼。他非常庆幸自己能够从事自己喜欢的文字工作,并认为这是