Carnival and Literature in Early Modern England

A FOLKLORE SAMPLER FROM THE MARITIMES: WITH A BIBLIOGRAPHIC ESSAY ON THE FOLKTALE IN ENGLISH. Ed. by HERBERT HALPERT. Mount Allison University and Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1982. 273 pp., appendices and bibliography. Reviewed by Georgina Boyes.

THE DRUNKEN KING, OR, THE ORIGIN OF THE STATE. By LUC DE HEUSCH, translated and annotated by Roy Willis. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1982. Pp. xv + 50 (£16.50). Reviewed by Loreto Todd.

RITES AND RELIGIONS OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS. By GALE R. OWEN. David and Charles, London, and Barnes and Noble Books, New Jersey, 1981. Pp. 216, 24 plates, 40 figs. £12.50. Reviewed by H. R. Ellis Davidson.

SIJOBANG: SUNG NARRATIVE POETRY OF WESTERN SUMATRA. By NIGEL PHILLIPS. Cambridge Studies in Oral and Literate Culture, Cambridge University Press, 1981. Pp. 255. 2 maps. 8 plates. £22.50. Reviewed by H. R. Ellis Davidson.

THE CULT OF THE SERPENT: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY SURVEY OF ITS MANIFESTATIONS AND ORIGINS. By BALAJIMUNDKUR. State University o f New York Press, Albany, 1983 ISBN 0-87395-631-1. 363 pp., 107 ills. Cloth $39.50, paper $12.95. Reviewed by Jacqueline Simpson.

BRÜDER GRIMM KINDER-UND HAUSMÄRCHEN. Textkritisch revidiert und mit einem Nachwort herausgegeben von HEINZ RÖLLEKE. Cologne (Eugen Diederichs Verlag), 1982. 2 volumes, pp. 592; with 4 illustrations by Ludwig Emil Grimm. Reviewed by Ellen Ettlinger.

LEGENDS OF THE WORLD. Ed. by RICHARD CAVENDISH. Orbis Publishing, London, 1982. Pp. 433, ill. £12.50. Reviewed by Alicia C. Percival.

THE RIVER'S IN MY BLOOD: RIVERBOAT PILOTS TELL THEIR STORIES. By JANE CURRY. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London, 1983. Pp. 288. £10.00. Reviewed by Ruth Glass.

PERFORMED LITERATURE: WORDS AND MUSIC BY BOB DYLAN. By BETSY BOWDEN. Indiana University Press, 1982. Pp. 239. $18.95. 0 253 34347 X. Reviewed by Brian Hinton.

LEYENDAS, TRADICIONES, CUENTOS FABULOSOS, Y OTROS RELATOS FANTASTICOS DE LAS ISLAS CABRERA, FORMENTERA, EIVISSA, MENORCA Y MALLORCA. By GABRIEL SABRAFIN. Archivo de Tradiciones Populares, vol. 35. Apartado 296, Palma. 1982. 8vo. Pp. 237 + 3 folding maps. ISBN 84-85354-87-6. 1100 pesetas. Reviewed by Leslie Grinsell.

MYSTERIOUS WALES. By CHRIS BARBER. David and Charles, Newton Abbot, Devon. Pp. 243, 143 illus. and map. Hardback. 1982. £8.95. Paperback, 1983 (Paladin), £2.50. Reviewed by L. V. Grinsell.

OURS ONCE MORE: FOLKLORE, IDEOLOGY, AND THE MAKING OF MODERN GREECE. By MICHAEL HERZFELD. Austin: University of Texas Press 1982. x, 197 pp. Reviewed by Charles Stewart.     

Virile Turks and Maiden Ireland: Gender and National Identity in Early Modern English Travel Literature

This article examines the role of gender in depictions of national identity in early modern English travel literature. I show that human sexual relationships were believed to be echoed in relations between territories, which were often represented as masculine or feminine. Travellers used metaphors representing marriage, seduction and rape to describe geopolitical relationships, including colonialism, tribute payments and rebellion. Representations of Ireland and the Irish, and the Ottoman Empire and the Turks are among the most revealing. I argue that such metaphors were especially favoured by travel writers because gender was believed to be inherently mutable, thus providing a variety of easily understood and mutually accepted narratives to describe international political relationships.     

近代英国上层党派关系宽容化摭论

英国辉格党和托利党诞生初期,一再涉于密谋和暴力。可18世纪以来,它们之间的宽容性在成长着,这与以后欧美大国党派斗争的惨烈形成对比。不列颠党派相对宽容有赖于国内政治形势变化,有着深厚的社会阶级根源。关键是该国政治家在漫长岁月中,通过政治斗争教训,对政党关系和反对党作用逐渐有了深刻的理性认知,使之运行于议会制之上,得到宪政庇护。     

Diseases in Early Modern Sweden

In early modern Scandinavia, the population’s sensitivity to disease and food supply shortages was great. Researchers have long been interested in the crises caused by these conditions, and the dominant causes of death have been well documented in Sweden since the late eighteenth century. But for the seventeenth and early eighteenth century, in the mortality regime preceding the initial stage of the demographic transition, our understanding of the infectious diseases is significantly limited. Through an analysis of causes of death and tithe levels, this article gives new insight regarding mortality rates, harvests and, above all, diseases in a parish located in a Swedish forested area during the mid- and late seventeenth century and first half of the eighteenth century. It presents new research about which diagnoses were most common, how often the more prevalent diseases of fevers, smallpox, and dysentery broke out, and the varying role of diseases on mortality rates during bad harvest years. The inhabitants in this parish presumably had a food supply buffer in their summer farm system, yet they remained vulnerable to bad harvests, and people in the area were just as susceptible to the common infectious diseases as the inhabitants in more tightly populated areas.     

近代西文文献所记“浩官炮台”位置新考

见于近代西文文献记载的"浩官炮台",是鸦片战争前后广州城东南珠江沿岸的一座重要炮台,对于其位置所在历来有不同说法。本文通过对相关中西文史料记载和地图文献的细致考证,否定了定功炮台说、赤岗塔附近说和永靖炮台说三种观点,认为这座炮台大致可以确定在今琶洲岛西端磨碟沙公园以东的台地一带。同时,分析了"浩官炮台"的中文名称与建置年代问题,认为其正式的中文名称是猎德炮台,始建于嘉庆二十二年(1817),道光二十二年(1842)就被彻底废弃,前后只存在了约25年的时间,选址不当是这座炮台被废弃的最主要原因。     

近代中国早期的公司

在欧洲商业组织引入中国以前,中国的实体股权长久以来一直依靠文化的以及法律习俗所支撑。在缺少法典化、系统化的私法惯例之下,深深植根于日常惯例之中的契约文化和使私人契约生效的政府维持了商业的日益增长。类似的惯例满足了商界寻求方法聚积资本并长久维持商行的需求。这些习俗的发展有助于解释西方式的公司法颁布之后中国对西方判例的适应性以及中国习俗自相矛盾的存留状态。     

步入近代的中日文学交流——以19世纪七、八十年代为中心

19世纪七、八十年代,参与中日文学交流的主要是中国驻日使馆官员以及旅日文人。他们多为饱学之士,且好交友喜翰墨,常与东瀛的一流文人宴饮赋诗、笔谈雅会,创作了许多脍炙人口的诗赋篇章。这种面对面的交流,极大地刺激了日本诗人的创作欲望,有力地促进了日本汉文学的复兴与发展。同时,他们还以游记、随笔等形式,把自己在日本的所见、所闻以及亲身体验等介绍给国人,为国内同胞了解日本的文学艺术、世俗人情、自然风物等提供了生动、翔实的资料。