Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Narrative Reliability And Spatial Limitations In Bajazet, Nina Ekstein

Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research

Récits are a standard feature in the classical theater, commonly used to bring information to an onstage universe which is limited by the unities of time and place. Action which occurs before the opening of the play finds its natural expression, given the convention of beginning the play in medias res, in narrative form. These are the récits of exposition. Bajazet is unusually rich in such récits: Acomat recounts Amurat's actions, Bajazet's youth, Acomat's own past, and how Roxane came to be able to see Bajazet (I, i, ll. 115-42, 145-56); and Atalide explains how she and Bajazet …

Some Practical Thoughts On Producing Calderón’S Court Plays, Matthew D. Stroud

Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research

Calderón's comedias de tramoyas present special problems to a modern producer attempting an authentic stage presentation. This article discusses possible answers to questions relating to staging (the theater itself, sets, the length of the performance, funding, etc.), direction, special effects, costumes, hairstyles, and text (cuts, versions, the use of loas and entremeses, etc.). In addition, court plays also require decisions about the music—tessitura, pitch, instrumentation, and orchestration—most of which must rely on conjecture rather than on concrete knowledge of the original. For each problem, it quickly becomes apparent that absolute authenticity is quite impossible. Stated generally, one must simply …

The Necessary A Posteriori: A Response To Tichý, Curtis Brown

Philosophy Faculty Research

Pavel Tichý, in a recent article, ¹ argues that Saul Kripke's purported examples of necessary a posteriori truths² are unsuccessful. I am sympathetic to some of Tichý's assumptions and to some of his conclusions. But his arguments seem misguided to me, and I will try to explain why.

In Section II, I discuss Tichý criticism of Kripke's treatment of the Hesperus-Phosphorus example. That criticism is seen to rest on the assumption that sentences which express the same proposition are interchangeable in epistemic contexts, an assumption Kripke would not accept. Nevertheless a revised version of Tichý's criticism may be successful. …

Anglo-American Merchants And Stratagems For Success In Spanish Imperial Markets, 1783-1807, Linda K. Salvucci

History Faculty Research

When Josiah Blakeley, consul of the United States at Santiago de Cuba, wrote these lines to Secretary of State James Madison on November 1, 1801 he had recently been jailed by administrators on that island. This remarkable situation notwithstanding, his sentiments still neatly express the paradox of trade between the United States and Spanish Caribbean ports. The expanding hinterlands of New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore furnished North American merchants with ever increasing, exportable food supplies and led to fierce competition for new markets at the end of the eighteenth century. At the same time, Spain's American colonies remained chronically, often …

What Skeptics Don't Know Refutes Them, Steven Luper

Philosophy Faculty Research

Skeptics usually argue that from the fact that (1) it is possible that you are in certain situations that I will call 'skeptical scenarios' where you would not know anything you believe by processing sensory information, it follows that (2) you do not know anything that you believe by processing sensory information no matter what circumstances you are in. Skeptical scenarios, which range from Descartes' deceitful demon to the modest Gettier case, are situations such that: if you were in one of them, (a) your sensory information would not be any different from the way it would be if you …

Commentary: Advertising In Arcadia, Lawrence Kimmel

Philosophy Faculty Research

There is not a long history of censorship in philosophy, but where it does occur it receives memorable note, as in the case of Plato‟s Republic. And there, as elsewhere, I often find I am in sympathy, if not agreement, concerning the problem, but utterly opposed to the offered solution.

In the paper I wish to review, Paine takes the very strong position that “child advertising” is in its very conception an offense—and that its continuance is both economically exploitative and morally corruptive of children. Although she is careful to separate her concerns as moral rather than legal or political, …

The Comedia As Potboiler: Juan De Cabeza’S Matar Por Zelos Su Dama, Matthew D. Stroud

Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research

Of the hundreds of existing comedias, only a very small percentage has actually received critical attention. Those few that have been studied in greatest depth, such as La vida es sueño, El burlador de Sevilla, Fuenteovejuna, and the like, might be said to represent the most interesting, if not the best, plays in the entire body of comedias.¹ Nevertheless, for every famous comedia, there are literally scores of lesser known and never read plays. Perhaps their lack of attention is mute testimony to their mediocrity, but they are nonetheless comedias and are of critical interest …