Other Renaissances: A New Approach To World Literature

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Other Renaissances is a collection of twelve essays discussing renaissances beyond the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Italian and then pan-European Renaissance. With a prologue by Giuseppe Mazzotta about the Italian Renaissance as a "world-making" epistemology, and an afterward by Sander Gilman to summarize the cogent points of the essays, the collection proposes an approach to reframing the Renaissance in which the European Renaissance becomes an imaginative idea, rather than a particular moment in time. Essays cover the Chinese, Harlem, Bengali, Tamil, Maori, Irish, Mexican, Arab, Hebrew, and Cold War Renaissance of the US in the 1950s.

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Other Renaissances This page intentionally left blank Other Renaissances A New Approach to World Literature Brenda Deen Schildgen Gang Zhou Sander L. Gilman With a Foreword by Giuseppe Mazzotta OTHER RENAISSANCES © Brenda Deen Schildgen, Gang Zhou, Sander L. Gilman, 2006. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. First published in 2006 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN™ 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 and Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England RG21 6XS Companies and representatives throughout the world. PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN-13: 978–1–4039–7446–4 ISBN-10: 1–4039–7446–2 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Other renaissances : a new approach to world literature / [edited by] Brenda Deen Schildgen, Gang Zhou, Sander L. Gilman ; with a foreword by Giuseppe Mazzotta. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1–4039–7446–2 1. Literature—History and criticism. I. Schildgen, Brenda Deen II. Zhou, Gang. III. Gilman, Sander L. PN501.O84 2006 809—dc22 2006044780 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: November 2006 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America. In the wide ocean upon which we venture, the possible ways and directions are many; and the same studies which have served for this work might easily, in other hands, not only receive a wholly different treatment and application, but lead also to essentially different conclusions. Jacob Burckhardt The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy This page intentionally left blank Contents Notes on Contributors ix Foreword xiii Acknowledgments xix Introduction Brenda Deen Schildgen, Gang Zhou, and Sander L. Gilman 1 2 3 4 Suppressed Renaissance: Q: When Is a Renaissance Not a Renaissance? A: When It Is the Ottoman Renaissance! Walter G. Andrews 1 17 The People’s Entertainments: Translation, Popular Fiction, and the Nahdah in Egypt Samah Selim 35 Looking Forward to the Past: Nahda, Revolution, and the Early Ba‘th in Iraq Orit Bashkin 59 How a Cultural Renaissance Preceded a National Renaissance: The Revival of Hebrew and the Rejuvenation of the Jewish People Moshe Pelli 5 The Chinese Renaissance: A Transcultural Reading Gang Zhou 6 Sri Aurobindo: Renaissance in India and the Italian Renaissance Brenda Deen Schildgen 87 113 133 viii ● Contents 7 Irish Renaissance Kathleen Heininge 8