bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Rebirth, Sex-Change, and Masculinities
Authors: Vanita Ruth 
Published: June 2022

Abstract
This chapter examines different masculinities (Shikhandin, Bhishma, and Arjuna), and views the Shikhandini story through the lens of rebirth. Born into a revenge-driven family, Shikhandini wrestles with the same issues that she did in her former lifetime as Amba—marriage, gender, suicide, grief, life as a king’s daughter. After the sex-change, Shikhandin is a character singularly uninterested in dialogue and driven by rage alone. This chapter contests some commentators’ view that Shikhandin is a mother Goddess taking revenge on Bhishma who is the ‘worst patriarch’ and thus demon-like. Through close readings, I demonstrate that Shikhandin is a lacklustre warrior and the incarnation of a demon (rākṣasa) with the enflamed masculinity of a yakṣa. Unlike other transgender figures such as Bhangashvana, Shikhandin is inclined to fear and rage, not love.
Trans-Imperial Islam in the Crucible of War
Authors: Murray-Miller Gavin 
Published: June 2022

Abstract
Chapter 7 examines France’s North African empire during the years of the First World War, noting how trans-imperial movements fueled by the war destabilized and outwardly challenged notions of a bounded “French North Africa.” As recent histories of the First World War have shown, the conflict was characterized by the intensification of imperial struggles after 1914 as the Entente and Central Powers struggled for global dominance. With Germany fomenting anti-colonial revolutionary movements across Africa and the Middle East as part of its war strategy and the Ottoman Empire declaring a global jihad, both France and Britain faced the prospect of colonial revolts in their Muslim empires. In this context, expressions of solidarity among North African Muslims evident on the eve of the war were radicalized, especially as German agents offered material assistance to Muslim activists. Algerian and Tunisian dissidents took to the press and set up revolutionary committees in Switzerland, Istanbul, and Berlin. They espoused notions of Wilsonian self-determination and spoke in the name of an Algerian-Tunisian Muslim community demanding postwar independence. Pan-Islamism and North African Muslim unity came together in this anti-colonial campaign, demonstrating the extent to which opposition assumed both an intra-imperial and trans-imperial dimension as the war progressed. By examining newspapers and magazines published in French, German, and English, this chapter follows North African activists who used the aid offered by Germany and the Ottoman Empire to pursue their own anti-colonial platforms.
Samuel Beckett and the Theatre of the Witness
Authors: Simpson Hannah 
Published: June 2022

AbstractThis book explores Beckett’s representation of physical pain in his theatre plays in the long aftermath of World War II, emphasising how the issues raised by this staging of pain speak directly to matters lying at the heart of his work: the affective power of the human body, the doubtful capacity of language as a means of communication, the aesthetic and ethical functioning of the theatre medium, and the vexed question of intersubjective empathy. Alongside the wartime and post-war plays of fellow Francophone writers Albert Camus, Eugène Ionesco, Pablo Picasso, and Marguerite Duras, it resituates Beckett’s early plays in a new conceptualising of le théâtre du témoin or a ‘theatre of the witness’. These are plays concerned with the epistemological and ethical uncertainties of witnessing another’s pain, rather than with the sufferer’s own direct experience. They raise troubling questions about our capacity to comprehend and respond to another being’s pain. Drawing on an interdisciplinary framework of extant criticism, recorded historical audience response, theatre and affect theory, and medical understandings of bodily pain, this book argues that these plays do not offer any easily negotiable encounter with physical suffering, and instead push us to recognise the very ‘otherness’ of another being’s pain even as it invades our own affective sphere. In place of any comforting transcendence or redemption of endured pain, they offer a starkly sceptical, even pessimistic probing of what it is to witness another’s suffering.
Instruments of Reform
Authors: Ceadel Martin 
Published: June 2022

Abstract
Reformers have had a choice of political instrument since parties and pressure groups both emerged during England’s Cavalier Parliament. There have been twelve partisan configurations, in all but one of which parties have selected certain issues and left the rest to groups, which worked with independent-minded backbenchers. The first five configurations—structured by attitudes towards the court, James II, the Hanoverian succession, George III, and the social order—left considerable policy space for non-partisan reformers. During the exceptional sixth configuration, the era of the first two reform acts, groups agitated so effectively that parties accepted some of their demands: in the process the Tories were transformed into Conservatives and the Whigs into Liberals, while the scope for group and backbench activism was reduced. The seventh configuration saw both parties become more disciplined and develop broad alternative programmes, causing many groups to affiliate with one or the other. The eighth configuration, the era of two world wars, was complicated by Labour’s gradual supersession of the Liberals and by continuous international crisis. The ninth, 1945–70, saw Labour and the Conservatives dominate the domestic agenda. During the tenth and eleventh configurations, both parties first became more extreme, partly to manage the trade union movement, and then, with that most powerful of groups tamed, moderated their ideological positions. The twelfth, since 2016, has seen the parliamentary system become dysfunctional, the two main parties fragmenting internally over how to interpret and respond to the Brexit referendum.
J.S. Mill and Protestant Nonconformity
Authors: Kinzer Bruce 
Published: June 2022

Abstract
J.S. Mill’s reform politics and the politics of most Protestant Nonconformists had a good deal in common. They shared an anti-clerical bias, a commitment to religious liberty, an advocacy of free trade, a hostility to unearned distinction, and a leaning towards moral idealism. Yet Mill took issue with the stance taken by many Nonconformists on the question of drink, and his promotion of ‘secular’ education was not aligned with the Nonconformist preference for ‘non-sectarian’ instruction. This chapter, without neglecting the reasons why they often occupied common ground, argues that Mill’s criticisms sprang from a metropolitan sensibility averse to the provincialism of Protestant Dissent. It also seeks to show that rather narrow political considerations governed Mill’s assessment of Nonconformity’s significance before 1840, whereas social and cultural issues chiefly shaped his perspective on Dissent in the decades that followed. A fundamental change in Mill’s standing within the political and intellectual culture of his time decisively influenced this shift in perspective.
Pressure From Within
Authors: Kramer Molly Baer 
Published: June 2022

Abstract
The organized animal protection movement emerged in England in the early nineteenth century. As with all organized movements, it has experienced internal disagreements and schisms throughout its history. Such conflict is a natural part of all associative life, a regular feature of religious, political, reforming, and all other causes. But much can be learned by examining such splits and attempts to avoid them. What do these interactions, their origins, and their outcomes reveal about the motivations, priorities, and minds of the reformers? How did policy and principle interact? Could internecine bickering and schism have any positive impacts? This chapter examines and compares key episodes of schism in the anti-vivisection and anti-hunting movements in England in the mid-twentieth century.
What Is aRaij? Translating Counter-Sovereignties in Twenty-First-Century Assam
Authors: Dowdy Sean M. 
Published: June 2022

AbstractA robust understanding of vernacular politics in Assam today requires parsing the significance of collective political agency, namely in the figures of the raij (‘the people’ or ‘public’) and the raijmel (‘public assembly’). Drawing on long-term fieldwork and archival sources, this chapter proposes three ethnographic translations of these interlocked concepts: first as a disenchanted notion of ‘polity’, second as a slightly more enchanted notion of an ‘exhortatory public’, and third as a ritual instance of ‘interregnum’. By untangling the historical knotting of collected people to the intergenerational demands of kingly and king-like authority throughout the region, the chapter arrives at a novel analytic: an idea of transitory ‘counter-sovereignties’. The chapter thus proceeds with an analysis of the ritual and temporal dynamics of people’s rule in contemporary Assam. It concludes with reflections on the uptake of the category of the raij in mass-mediated publics and its recontextualization in neoteric social movements.
By the Ballot
Authors: Sharma Saba 
Published: June 2022

AbstractThis chapter looks at how the process of an election constructs and reinforces ideas of citizenship, drawing from fieldwork conducted during the Assam assembly elections in 2016, in Kokrajhar district of the Bodoland Territorial Area Districts (BTAD). Ideas of citizenship are evoked throughout elections, both in campaigns and through reflections on people’s reasons for casting votes. The chapter examines the performative value of an election as a moment of political theatre, the questions it raises about legitimacy and belonging, who can participate and who is addressed in the campaign, and the give and take between politicians and voters linking to notions of patronage. These complex interactions between voters and politicians give us a glimpse into the everyday practices that constitute citizenship.
Introduction
Authors: Cuttica Cesare 
Published: June 2022

Abstract
In early modern England, democracy was seen as something more than one of the three classical forms of government. It was identified with a way of life that had catastrophic consequences on State and Church. Democracy’s deleterious effects on the public and private spheres of a commonweal had political, religious, moral, economic, and epistemic repercussions. The main reason for this series of very negative considerations is that the anti-democratic literature presented in this book drew a fundamental distinction—nowadays lost—between ‘the many-headed multitude’ and ‘the people’. It was thus assumed that in a democratic polity the former, not the latter, ruled. Anti-democratic criticism was not only the result of aristocratic ‘revulsion for democracy’ widespread from ancient Greece onwards. Nor was it simply empty abuse or a shorthand for the overturning of the social order. It was the establishment’s response to what it viewed as both internal and external agents of democratic subversion, and to actual democratizing aspirations in theory and in practice. The Introduction elucidates that in early modern England popular government was associated with different things, and with various mouthpieces. It then explains how scholars have not asked what democracy stood for, nor have they enquired into why democracy was unceasingly criticized. They have not examined how criticism of popular government was articulated, nor have they addressed the ways in which different authors depicted the people and their leaders. They have also failed to investigate which political concerns and social prejudices informed anti-democracy. In order to tackle these questions, this book looks at how democratic ideas and practices were challenged and construed in public discourse during a historically decisive seventy-year period.
The Anti-democratic Paradigm (Late 1630s–Early 1640s)
Authors: Cuttica Cesare 
Published: June 2022

Abstract
Chapter 6—like Chapter 1—focuses on a specific and decisive historical phase, the late 1630s to early 1640s, to assess the type of anti-democratic discourses that inundated the public sphere in an England on the verge of war. Besides illustrating the period’s particular context of unrest, and connecting anti-democratic ideas with the political events of the day (for example, the Protestation), this chapter casts light on some important continuities with the central decades of Elizabeth’s reign. It then elucidates how democracy was associated with the mission of urban petitioning ‘democrats’ (including the Independents), who were thought to have the upper hand over monarchy. Above all, it concentrates on some significant issues that, influenced by Hobbes’s reading of rhetoric and oratory, were portrayed as the backbone of democratic regimes. Most importantly, it deals with two pivotal shifts in the perception of democracy and its tyrannical character. First, the conflict between royalists and parliamentarians led the anti-democratic narrative to portray Parliament as a cradle of popular tyranny. Second, although democratic government remained a prominent target in political debates, the unprecedented popular ferment of the early 1640s stimulated a change. As a result, some people were prepared to acknowledge the legitimacy of democracy as a representative government grounded on parliamentary foundations and on the participation in politics of a limited number of rational people. This opening—which chiefly entailed the consolidation of popular sovereignty—still excluded the plebs, women, the monstrous many-headed multitude. To define their government, writers made increasing use of the highly disparaging, terror-soaked ‘ochlocracy’ (‘government of the rabble’).
Degenerates
Authors: Konrád Ota , Kučera Rudolf 
Published: June 2022

Abstract
From the late nineteenth century, violent criminality became the subject of various scientific debates and by the time the First World War erupted, modern criminology could provide a coherent system of knowledge to determine the meanings and categories of physical violence. One of the most important milestones in the scientization of individual criminal behavior was the publication of Cesare Lombroso’s theory of the “born criminal,” which elicited much debate in Europe, especially as it went against prevailing liberal views that contended that crime was the expression of free will and the individual needed to take full responsibility for his or her actions. Whilst Lombroso’s concept of an inherent criminal behavior did not find universal approval, as this chapter shows, his claims about the connection between physiognomy and delinquent tendencies did. Various German and Austrian experts, such as Paul Julius Möbius and the French-Austrian psychiatrist Bénedict Augustin Morel argued that degeneracy and physical appearance were indeed correlated and that environmental and behavioral influences, such as inadequate upbringing, alcoholism, or drug taking led to degeneration, which could then be inherited by future generations. Even so, criminologists argued that not all degenerate individuals would commit crime, but due to their degeneracy they were less resistant to external influences and thus would not always be able to resist the temptation to criminal behavior. Court-appointed experts in turn used degeneracy to explain behaviors such as Rudolf Kremser’s.
Fat Ones, Rich Ones, Jews, and Gendarmes
Authors: Konrád Ota , Kučera Rudolf 
Published: June 2022

Abstract
Violent collective behavior, as this chapter reveals, was not uncontrollable and did not destroy everything that stood in its way. Rather, it had a specific language of violence that was clearly influenced by the situation on the home front and a language that provided it with clear targets. Those who were perceived not to be suffering or making sacrifices for those on the front line were often subject to violent outbursts by the crowd. These targets included Jews, for whom hatred was strengthened by traditional anti-Semitic imaginary, patrons of cafés, who were (perceived to be) eating luxury food items such as cakes in a provocative manner, fat people, the wealthy, and even places of entertainment, such as cinemas and music halls. These figures and places formed a collective whose mere existence in the eyes of the mob symbolized a mockery of their wartime suffering. The mob, in these cases, utilized collective violence to create a new order that they perceived to be more just.
The Russian Hunter
Authors: Konrád Ota , Kučera Rudolf 
Published: June 2022

Abstract
South Tyrol was (and still is) a predominantly agricultural area, with low levels of urbanization and industrialization. The area was also located on the front lines of the battle and there was thus a great military presence in the area, with soldiers going back and forth and putting a great strain on the local economy, supplies, and infrastructure. Thus, collective violence in the region was aimed at opposing the military, the urban areas, and anything that was deemed foreign in the countryside. Russian prisoners of war in particular were singled out as the enemy. Locals feared that they were spreading venereal disease and the inhabitants of the region were also worried about the moral influence of these prisoners of war, especially when it concerned the female population. Thus, women fraternizing with Russian prisoners of war were ostracized and accused of corruption. The populace of South Tyrol also attacked thieving and begging soldiers, and “hunted” down escaping prisoners. The perpetrators of these “hunts” were often barely adult youths, playing out their masculine fantasies in the absence of older male figures.
The Victors and the Vanquished
Authors: Konrád Ota , Kučera Rudolf 
Published: June 2022

Abstract
“Defeated” Austria and “victorious” Czechoslovakia followed different paths following the end of the First World War, and the different contexts of defeat and victory shaped collective violence in the two countries. The two countries also differed in the social group that epitomized the special ethical legitimacy that came to symbolize the new order. In Austria, the group that became the symbol of new order were the war invalids, their disfigured bodies in society representing their sacrifice and wartime suffering, their presence in the public space heightening the impact of protest. However, it was not only war invalids who were visible on the streets of Vienna, but also the “enemy”: British, French, and Italian soldiers whose presence and actions often led to violent outbursts by the local population. In contrast, in Czechoslovakia officers of the victorious powers were not attacked; to the contrary, they took important positions within the newly formed Czechoslovak army. In Czechoslovakia, it was not the war invalids who came to symbolize the new order, but members of the Sokol and the legionnaires, who had fought against the imperial army for independence, often enjoying the approval of onlooking crowds as they took the task of building the future into their own hands.
A Slapped Factory Owner
Authors: Konrád Ota , Kučera Rudolf 
Published: June 2022

Abstract
Collective violence, this chapter suggests, helped to organize postwar societies in both Austria and Czechoslovakia, although largely because of the “defeat” and “victory” narratives in the two countries violence was framed differently. In Czechoslovakia, violence was interpreted as being in the service of a new beginning and ran along national lines, aimed at Jews and Germans. Whilst in Austria violence could at times be directed at the different nationalities, for example the Czechs but also at the Jews, the fault lines ran along the left-right political divide. This social and political tension meant that otherwise ordinary situations could easily turn into violent confrontations. Anti-Semitism, we argue, also had divergent roles in Austria and Czechoslovakia. Whilst in Czechoslovakia anti-Semitism had a new, specifically Czech national narrative, after the war, once the state stabilized in the 1920s, it did not play a role in national politics. In contrast, in Austria anti-Semitism was persistent, albeit at different levels, throughout the interwar period and it divided the spectrum of the political parties and helped to distinguish the various camps.
The Wild East
Authors: Konrád Ota , Kučera Rudolf 
Published: June 2022

Abstract
The context of victory and defeat not only shaped popular, spontaneous violence, but also influenced the behavior of uniformed units that consisted of collectives of young men who had often experienced combat during the war. The impact of victory and defeat, and the unusual social environment that prevailed within the closed military and paramilitary units gave violence committed by these groups a special dynamic. This chapter examines violence committed by these groups acting as a unit, focusing on Austria, the Czech lands, and in Slovakia. In Slovakia, especially, primarily Czech war veterans—many of whom were part of the Czechoslovak legions—tried to realize their vision of the victorious state in the southern part of Czechoslovakia. In terms of uniformed violence, the inhabitants of both Austria and Czechoslovakia were confronted by a similar experience, and uniformed violence was an integral part of the everyday experience of the public sphere.
From Epistemic Contextualism to Epistemic Expressivism
Authors: Chrisman Matthew 
Published: June 2022

Abstract
This chapter identifies a parallel between epistemic contextualism and ethical speaker-relativism, in order to argue that a promising way out of two of the primary problems facing epistemic contextualism is one already explored in some detail in the ethical case—viz., expressivism. The upshot is an argument for epistemic expressivism, modelled on a familiar form of ethical expressivism. This provides a nondescriptivist option for understanding the meaning and communicative role of knowledge attributions, which arguably better captures the normative nature of epistemic discourse than descriptivist competitors like invariantism and contextualism.
‘El Sabio Jacob Abendana’ and the Spanish Translation of the Mishnah
Authors: Kaplan Yosef 
Published: June 2022

Abstract
Two particularly gifted Jewish translators were active in Amsterdam in the seventeenth century: Rabbi Jacob Jehuda Leon (Templo) and Rabbi Jacob Abendana, both from Hamburg. They worked separately on Spanish translations of the Mishnah. Both translations were never published and are no longer extant. Abendana’s translation became available to Christian scholars, including Surenhusius who used it for his own Latin translation. This essay argues that the twenty-two quotations from the Mishnah in Spanish in Abraham Pereyra’s Espejo de la Vanidad del Mundo (Amsterdam, 1671), may have been extracted from Abendana’s translation. The character and quality of the translation, which remains faithful to the rules of Spanish syntax, are very similar to two citations of Avot quoted in Abendana’s sermon in memory of two conversos who died at the stake.
‘Ancient Rabbis Inspired by God’
Authors: Roebuck Thomas 
Published: June 2022

Abstract
The edition of Mishnah tractate Joma published in 1648 by Robert Sheringham (1602–1678) was an exceptional achievement, albeit a strange one. Taking its cue from translations and editions of Mishnah tractates that had been produced in the Netherlands, Sheringham’s book was the first of its kind to be published in England. Sheringham’s book was also, however, an outlier among English Mishnaic scholarship, and has seemed to evince an unusual degree of sympathy for Hebraic traditions. This chapter places this strange work into context through an analysis of Sheringham’s practice as a reader of the Mishnah and his sources (especially the Babylonian Talmud and Maimonides’ commentary on the Mishnah). It demonstrates that Sheringham saw the Mishnah as a key with which to unlock the centrality of Jewish traditions within the culture of the ancient world, an approach which drew mixed reactions from Sheringham’s contemporaries.