Claudel's most important work, Le Soulier de satin, has confused and puzzled readers since it first appeared. Joan S. Freilich's intensive examination of Claudel's imagery combined stylistic , structuralist, and psychoanalytic analyses. These are new methods that have been developed over the past two decades and are based on an examination of the text from the reader's point of view. This is a radical break with conventional literary studies which examine literature biographically or comparatively, i.e., focusing on the relationship of the text to other works written by the same or different authors, to the author's life and historical setting, or to various linguistic norms. Recent stylistic studies have as their point of departure the reader's perception of certain elements of style as unpredictable, and thus 'marked,' in an otherwise unmarked context; such studies seek to determine which of these 'stylistic devices' are present within a given text and what their effect is on the reader's response to the work. Structuralist analyses involve the identification and description of the basic system of concepts around which the literary text is constructed. This fundamental system, or structure, is the source of the reader's sense that the text is a coherent whole, but it is itself an abstraction and can be perceived only through one or more of the variants through which it is actualized in the text. Finally, the psychoanalytic interpretation of a literary work attempts to elucidate the most fundamental effective concepts conveyed through the text, concepts which evoke corresponding emotional responses in the reader and which, although often unrecognized, are thus responsible for much of his interest in, and appreciation of, the work. Stylistic and structuralist methods have been used together in recent years, but this study of the Soulier de satin represents the first time that psychoanalytic interpretation has been included as part of a stylistic and structuralist analysis in which the focus throughout is on the relationship of the text to the reader and the point of departure is the reader's response to the work. Furthermore, most Claudelian criticism has been vague and general in nature but this work is specific and represents an unusual and unique contribution.

A one-voume reference to the history of ideas that is a compendium of everything that humankind has thought, invented, created, considered, and perfected from the beginning of civilization into the twenty-first century. Massive in its scope, and yet totally accessible, A HISTORY OF KNOWLEDGE covers not only all the great theories and discoveries of the human race, but also explores the social conditions, political climates, and individual men and women of genius that brought ideas to fruition throughout history. "Crystal clear and concise...Explains how humankind got to know what it knows." Clifton Fadiman Selected by the Book-of-the-Month Club and the History Book Club

This work covers not only philosophy, but also all the other major disciplines, including literary theory, sociology, linguistics, political thought, theology, and more. The 240 analytical entries examine individuals such as Bergson, Durkheim, Mauss, Sartre, Beauvoir, Foucault, Levi-Strauss, Lacan, Kristeva, and Derrida; specific disciplines such as the arts, anthropology, historiography, psychology, and sociology; key beliefs and methodologies such as Catholicism, deconstruction, feminism, Marxism, and phenomenology; themes and concepts such as freedom, language, media, and sexuality; and istorical, political, social, and intellectual context. --From publisher's decription.

"Beauvoir in Time situates Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex in the historical context of its writing and in later contexts of its international reception, from then till now. The book takes up three aspects of Beauvoir's work more recent feminists find embarrassing: "bad sex," "dated" views about lesbians, and intersections with race and class. Through close reading of her writing in many genres, alongside contemporaneous discourses (good and bad novels in French and English, outmoded psychoanalytic and sexological authorities, ethnographic surrealism, the writing of Richard Wright and Franz Fanon), and in light of her travels to the U.S. and China, the author uncovers insights more recent feminist methodologies obscure, showing Beauvoir is still good to think with today"--

The great trilogy of theology by Hans Urs von Balthasar includes The Glory of the Lord, Theo-Drama, and Theo-Logic. His Epilogue, a single volume, is the closing of his masterwork, giving final details and overview to the prior volumes in the trilogy.

Theo-Logic is the third and crowning part of the great trilogy of the masterwork of theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar, following his first two parts, The Glory of the Lord and Theo-Drama. This is the third volume of Theo-Logic. Theo-Logic is a variation of theology, it being about not so much what man says about God, but what God speaks about himself. Balthasar does not address the truth about God until he first reflects on the beauty of God (The Glory of the Lord). Then he follows with his reflections on the great drama of our salvation and the goodness and mercy of the God who saves us (Theo-Drama). Now, in this work, he is ready to reflect on the truth that God reveals about himself, which is not something abstract or theoretical, but rather the concrete and mysterious richness of God's being as a personal and loving God.