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"All readers and students of literature
profit from paying attention to women or men whose reception
and rearticulation of their cultural inheritance has a distinctive
stamp and a lasting effect. Goethe was such a man--an exemplary
recycler and a fecund creator of culture."
--Ellis Dye, Love and Death in Goethe: "One and
Double"
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Love and Death in Goethe: "One and Double"
by Ellis Dye (Camden House, 2004. 333 pages, $75
hardback)
Ellis Dye explores Goethe's use of the theme of love and death
as opposites that coincide (a coincidentia oppositorum).
While love is life at the opposite extreme from death, in both love
and death separate individuals merge in a higher unity. Thus in
their Liebestod (love-death) Tristan and Isolde are "no
longer Tristan, no longer Isolde" but only one undifferentiated
self.
Goethe virtuosically exploits the paradox of "one" that
is at the same time "double" in his autobiography Poetry
and Truth, in his demonstration in the West-Eastern
Collection with a poem about the Gingko leaf (heart-shaped,
two-lobed periphery but internal unity) that he and the Eastern
(Persian) poet Hafiz are "twins," and in many other poems,
novels and plays. Dye interprets Goethe's ironic play with a perennial
theme and shows how he uses the unity in duality of Romantic irony
to expose the conventionality of all conceptual structures.
Dye is DeWitt Wallace Professor of German and the former book review
editor of the Goethe Yearbook. A
recipient of the Burlington-Northern Award for Excellence in Teaching,
he has taught at Macalester for 38 years and for many of them was
chair of the German Studies and Russian Department.
Resurrection of the Body in Early Judaism and Early Christianity
by Claudia Setzer '74 (Brill, 2004. 180 pages)
Using insights from the social sciences and rhetorical studies,
the author discusses the development of belief in resurrection in
early Jewish circles and the growth of a resurrection apologetic
in early Christianity. Examining materials on the Pharisees, Jewish
liturgy and the earliest rabbinic statements, as well as the theology
of resurrection in Paul, Justin, Athenagoras, Irenaeus and Tertullian,
this study demonstrates the stability of certain tenets that coalesce
around the concept of resurrection, and its utility as a shorthand
for a community's theology and self-understanding.
Claudia Setzer is a professor of religious studies at Manhattan
College. She is the author of Jewish Responses to Early Christians
and writes on early Jewish-Christian relations and women in
early Judaism and Christianity.
Imaginary Endings
by Lea Hall '70 (AuthorHouse, 2004)
This first novel tells the love story of Ivy and Daniel White, a
yogi and a shaman, who help reshape modern medical and health practices
by teaching people to control their bodies' cells. The book is permeated
with information about healing arts and visualization and offers
a personal solution to the debate over the right to die with dignity.
Lea Hall, who has a Ph.D. in social science, is the author of an
audio-tape, How To Communicate More Clearly: Zen and
the Art of Influence; a book of essays and poems,
Ecoliteracy; and a textbook, Organizational
Communication: The Process. She lives in Sarasota,
Fla.
Terrorists or Freedom Fighters? Reflections on the Liberation of
Animals
edited by Steven Best and Anthony J. Nocella, II (Lantern Books,
2004. 391 pages, $22 paperback)
Nicolas Atwood '95, an animal rights activist in Florida who received
an M.P.A. from New York University, is one of the contributors to
this anthology of writings on the history, ethics, politics and
tactics of the Animal Liberation Front. The book includes both academic
and activist perspectives on the international organization and
its position within the animal rights movement.
The Mind-Body Problem and Its Solution
by Carey R. Carlson '71 (Syren Book Co., 2005. 150 pages, $14 paperback)
This book lays out the mind-body problem--the centuries-old
question of determining the relationship between the mental and
physical--and then proposes a solution based on the
work of early 20th century philosophers Bertrand Russell and Alfred
North Whitehead. The book is intended both for general readers of
science and philosophy and those steeped in the literature.
Carey Carlson, a writer based in Minneapolis, studied the philosophy
of science under the late Grover Maxwell at the University of Minnesota.
Teen Spirit: One World, Many Paths
by Paul Raushenbush '86 (HCI Books, 2004. $11.95 paperback)
The Rev. Paul Raushenbush, associate dean of religious life at Princeton,
writes a popular column, "Ask Pastor Paul," on Beliefnet.com
in which he answers teenagers' questions about major religions and
their influence in teens' lives. In his new book, the former minister
to young adults at The Riverside Church in New York City uses teens'
letters and questions as springboards for greater exploration of
the different religions teens encounter and how spiritual diversity
affects their lives. Teen Spirit includes
basic tenets, celebrity testimonies, teens' own stories on why they
like practicing their particular religion, specific roles and rites
of passage for young people, and etiquette for how to behave when
invited to an unfamiliar religious event.
Global Chicago
edited by Charles Madigan (University of Illinois Press, 2004. 223
pages, $45 cloth, $19.95 paperback)
Sponsored by the Global Chicago Center of the Chicago Council on
Foreign Relations, this book describes Chicago's transformation
from an industrial powerhouse to a truly global city. Its contributors
include Magda Krance '76, who wrote the chapter, "The World's
Art and Chicago's." A resident of Chicago's Uptown Neighborhood
since 1977, she is manager of media relations for Lyric Opera of
Chicago and as a free-lance journalist has covered many aspects
of cultural life for more than two decades.
Conversations on the Go: Clever Questions to Keep Teens and Grown-Ups
Talking
by Mary Ackerman '70 (Search Institute, 2004. 96 pages, $9.95 paperback)
Mary Ackerman has spent her entire professional life working with
and for young people, including 25 years at Macalester as dean of
students and a director of admissions. She is now director of external
relations for the Minneapolis-based Search Institute, an independent,
nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide leadership, knowledge
and resources to promote healthy children, youth and communities.
Conversations on the Go is intended to encourage fun family
and other youth-adult conversations. Among the many suggested questions:
What was the nicest compliment you ever received from an adult?
What is your favorite family tradition? What is the most important
quality you look for in a friend? If you were the smartest person
in the world, what would you use your intelligence to do? "Conversations
are really about creating and maintaining relationships....One of
the ways we adults can help the young people in our lives build
[activities and traits that help them succeed] is to intentionally
engage them in conversations--lots of them, about all kinds of things,
any chance we get," Ackerman writes.
Meetings
by Paul Shambroom '78 (Chris Boot Publishing, 2004. 122 pages, $49.95
cloth)
These large-format panoramic photographs of town council meetings
across the United States are the result of four years of traveling
by artist-photographer Paul Shambroom. Photographing civic meetings
as staged tableaux, he portrays the humble practice of local government
and the character of small-town America on a grand scale. The photographs
of government meetings are a continuation of his long-term investigation
of power begun in previous series on nuclear weapons, factories
and corporate offices.
Shambroom's awards include a 2003 Guggenheim. His work is in the
permanent collections of the Whitney, MOMA New York, MOMA San Francisco,
Art Institute of Chicago, Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Museum
of Fine Arts in Houston. He lives in Minneapolis.
Under Her Skin: How Girls Experience Race in America
edited by Pooja Makhijani (Seal Press, 2004. $15.95 paperback)
This anthology addresses how women of all colors in America grow
up understanding culture and race. Its contributors include Lisa
Lipner Drostova '91, who wrote the essay, "Bionic Child."
Josephine's Prize: Murder in Martinique
by David Kienitz '64 (Trafford Press, 2004. 259 pages, $21.99)
On the island of French Martinique, Silk Taylor's internship is
interrupted by the murder of her mentor. She learns that she is
the police's prime suspect and the killers are now after her. Can
she both survive and solve the mystery?
David Kienitz and his wife, Elaine Freye Kienitz '61, divide
their time between Minneapolis and Tucson, Ariz.
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