This volume offers an alternative, sign-oriented analysis of the distribution of the French Indicative and Subjunctive. It rejects both government and functions, attributed to both moods, and shows that the distribution of the Indicative and the Subjunctive is motivated by their invariant meanings. The volume illustrates the close interaction between the Indicative and the Subjunctive, as linguistic signs, and signs of other grammatical systems, contextually associated with the invariant meanings of both moods. Special consideration is given to the use of the Indicative and the Subjunctive in texts of different styles and genres.This volume also deals with the diachronic disfavoring of the Subjunctive and especially of the Imperfect Subjunctive that occurred from Old French to Contemporary French. It is argued that this disfavoring was motivated by the narrowing of the invariant meaning of the Contemporary French Subjunctive. All hypotheses are supported by contextualized examples and frequency counts.

This volume further elaborates the empirical tradition of Columbia School (CS) Linguistics by offering diverse empirical analyses for a wide variety of languages. These studies open a much needed debate advocating the necessity of the independent validation of linguistic hypotheses. This research exemplifies how such a validation should be conducted by determining which forms underlie the analyses and extracting those observations that are considered to be objective. The volume consists of two parts: a section on synchronic and diachronic grammatical problems and a section on Phonology as Human Behavior (PHB), the Columbia School version of phonology, applied to evolutionary, developmental and clinical issues and the phonotactics of the selected lexicon of a literary text. It provides a wealth of useful empirical data and in-depth and sophisticated qualitative and quantitative analyses of a broad range of languages from diverse families: French, Spanish, Afrikaans, Dutch, English, Polish, Russian, Japanese, and Hebrew.

The present study contributes to the corpus of later 20th-century drama and theatre, examining how absurdist theatre works to show the playwrights’ deep insights into humanity’s angst through a confrontation of the deeply subconscious self and the manifest socio-moral façade around us. The book, as a consolidated study, will allow students to form a comprehensive understanding of 20th-century experimental theatre, replete with theories and discernible techniques from as early as the 1950s. It highlights the decisive turn taken by Western playwrights and the dramatic revolution that took place around the mid-20th century through the plays of Beckett, Pinter, Ionesco, Genet, Adamov, Albee, and others. The book strives to familiarize the learners systematically through scaling, surveying and scanning the multifarious literary movements and metamorphoses that created this theatrical scenario.

"The Useless Mouths" and Other Literary Writings brings to English-language readers literary writings--several previously unknown--by Simone de Beauvoir. Culled from sources including various American university collections, the works span decades of Beauvoir's career. Ranging from dramatic works and literary theory to radio broadcasts, they collectively reveal fresh insights into Beauvoir's writing process, personal life, and the honing of her philosophy. The volume begins with a new translation of the 1945 play The Useless Mouths, written in Paris during the Nazi occupation. Other pieces were discovered after Beauvoir's death in 1986, such as the 1965 short novel "Misunderstanding in Moscow," involving an elderly French couple who confront their fears of aging. Two additional previously unknown texts include the fragmentary "Notes for a Novel," which contains the seed of what she later would call "the problem of the Other," and a lecture on postwar French theater titled Existentialist Theater. The collection notably includes the eagerly awaited translation of Beauvoir's contribution to a 1965 debate among Jean-Paul Sartre and other French writers and intellectuals, "What Can Literature Do?" Prefaces to well-known works such as Bluebeard and Other Fairy Tales,La Bâtarde, and James Joyce in Paris: His Final Years are also available in English for the first time, alongside essays and other short articles. A landmark contribution to Beauvoir studies and French literary studies, the volume includes informative and engaging introductory essays by prominent and rising scholars. Contributors are Meryl Altman, Elizabeth Fallaize, Alison S. Fell, Sarah Gendron, Dennis A. Gilbert, Laura Hengehold, Eleanore Holveck, Terry Keefe, J. Debbie Mann, Frederick M. Morrison, Catherine Naji, Justine Sarrot, Liz Stanley, Ursula Tidd, and Veronique Zaytzeff.

European Existentialism is a rich collection of major texts and is made all the more significant by the range and depth of its contributions. This book aims to give greater intelligibility to existentialism by providing samples from antecedents of and influences upon it. Although existentialism is regarded as an example of twentieth-century philosophizing, the book presents nineteenth-century thinkers such as Kierkegaard and Nietzsche as its forerunners. Thinkers, such as Dilthey, Husserl, and Scheler, frequently associated with other trends in philosophy, such as historicism and phenomenology, are included because of their influence upon existentialism. Informative biographies of each author represented are also included. European Existentialism includes a broad range of philosophers working in the existentialist mode - not only French and German, but also Spanish, Italian, Jewish, and Russian philosophers. This volume is also distinctive in that it omits existentialists from the literary world. While Dostoevsky is often included in other existentialist collections, Langiulli represents Russian philosophy with a selection by Berdyaev. In his new introduction, Langiulli discusses how the themes of existentialism have led to contemporary aberrations. He uses the language of political rights as an example; whereas we once referred to "freedom of speech," we have transformed that phrase into a much wider category, "freedom of expression." Langiulli also examines various trends that have derived from existentialism: postmodernism, deconstructionism, and multiculturalism. Langiulli's introduction and the contributions place existentialism as a genuine tradition in the history of philosophy - a tradition which stresses the radical contingency and mortality of human existence. European Existentialism is an invaluable collection for philosophers, educators, and all those interested in the existentialist tradition.

In this study the author makes a comparison between the two main types of existentialism: the Christian and the non-Christian. The comparison is made on four levels: first, the common situation; second, the possibility and means of communication; third, the chosen methods of philosophy; and fourth, the attitude and interpretations in relation to similar subjects. Although the French existentialists have been greatly influenced by Kierkegaard and by contemporary existentialist thought in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, and the United States, the study is limited to the existentialism of contemporary French writers. France in the last fifty years has experienced some of the most crucial events of her history and this common setting for both Christian and non-Christian man turns to Christianity and another militant atheism. It is particularly in France that the split is most clearly made between these two varieties of existentialist thought. Dr. Kingston handles the issues in a fair and honest way, neither concealing his own position nor dealing unfairly with those of whom he is most critical. The intelligent English reader, lay or academic, will find this an excellent introduction to a whole area of modern French life and thought with which he is unlikely to be well acquainted.

Also includes The Misunderstanding, State of Siege, and The Just Assassins. Translated by Stuart Gilbert.