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Modjaji Books
Modjaji Books is a small, independent, feminist publishing company, that started in 2007 in Cape Town.
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Literature & Literary StudiesAugust 2025Translating Petrarch in early modern Britain
Canzoniere and Triumphi, c. 1530–1650
by Marie-Alice Belle, Riccardo Raimondo, Francesco Venturi
Translating Petrarch in early modern Britain gathers twelve essays by international scholars focusing on the translation of Petrarch's vernacular verse (Canzoniere and Triumphi) into English, from the Tudor age to the mid-seventeenth century (and beyond). Approaching translation as an interpretive process, but also a mode of literary emulation and cultural engagement with Petrarch's prestigious precedent, the collection explores the complex and interconnected trajectories of both poetic works in English and Scottish literary milieux. While situating each translation in its distinct historical, material, and literary context, the essays trace the reception of Petrarch's works in early modern Britain through the combined processes of linguistic and metric innovation, literary imitation, musical adaptation and cultural and material 'domestication'. The collection sheds light on the origins and development of early modern English Petrarchism as part of wider transnational - and indeed, translational-European literary culture.
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Literature & Literary StudiesJune 2022The early modern English sonnet
Ever in motion
by Laetitia Sansonetti, Rémi Vuillemin, Enrica Zanin
This volume questions and qualifies commonly accepted assumptions about the early modern English sonnet: that it was a strictly codified form, most often organised in sequences, which only emerged at the very end of the sixteenth century and declined as fast as it had bloomed, and that minor poets merely participated in the sonnet fashion by replicating established conventions. Drawing from book history and relying on close reading and textual criticism, this collection offers a more nuanced account of the history of the sonnet. It discusses how sonnets were written, published and received in England as compared to mainland Europe, and explores the works of major (Shakespeare, Sidney, Spenser) and minor (Barnes, Harvey) poets alike. Reflecting on current editorial practices, it also provides the first modern edition of an early seventeenth-century Elizabethan miscellany including sonnets presumably by Sidney and Spenser.
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Literature & Literary StudiesOctober 2025Early modern drama and the theatre of war
Militarism, conflict and disruption in the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries
by Bronwen Price, Hilary Hinds
This volume explores the disruptive effects of militarism, war and social unrest in early modern drama. Engaging with Simon Barker's seminal work on dramatic representations of war and militarism, contributors highlight what often lies hidden beneath the surface of martial narratives, treating them as formative interventions in contemporary discourses, whether in justifying war, excluding dissident voices or shaping cultural identities. Discussions include new examinations of militarism, the figure of the soldier and early modern theories of war in Shakespearean tragedy, history and comedy, alongside antimasque and dramatic satire by lesser-known playwrights. The essays investigate how ideas of war underpin emerging concepts of gender, leadership, marriage and the family, as well as the continuing mobilisation of Shakespearean drama in the context of modern armed conflict. Together, they offer rich new contributions to the current lively critical debates on this topic.
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Humanities & Social SciencesApril 2024Women in exile in early modern Europe and the Americas
by Linda Levy Peck, Adrianna E. Bakos
Exile, its pain and possibility, is the starting point of this book. Women's experience of exile was often different from that of men, yet it has not received the important attention it deserves. Women in exile in early modern Europe and the Americas addresses that lacuna through a wide-ranging geographical, chronological, social and cultural approach. Whether powerful, well-to-do or impoverished, exiled by force or choice, every woman faced the question of how to reconstruct her life in a new place. These essays focus on women's agency despite the pressures created by political, economic and social dislocation. Collectively, they demonstrate how these women from different countries, continents and status groups not only survived but also in many cases thrived. This analysis of early modern women's experiences not only provides a new vantage point from which to enrich the study of exile but also contributes important new scholarship to the history of women.
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Humanities & Social SciencesJune 2025Diaspora diplomacy
The politics of Turkish emigration to Europe
by Ayca Arkilic
Since the early 2000s, Turkey has shown an unprecedented interest in its diaspora. This book provides the first in-depth examination of the institutionalisation of Turkey's diaspora engagement policy since the Justice and Development Party's rise to power in 2002, the Turkish diaspora's new role as an agent of diplomatic goals, and how Turkey's growing sphere of influence affects intra-diaspora politics and diplomatic relations with Europe. The book is based on fieldwork in Turkey, France and Germany, and interviews conducted with diaspora organisation leaders and policymakers. Diasporas have become transformative for relations at the state-to-state level and blur the division between the domestic and the foreign. A case study of Turkey's diasporas is significant at a time when emigrants from Turkey form the largest Muslim community in Europe and when issues of diplomacy, migration and citizenship have become more salient than ever.
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Biography & True StoriesFebruary 2026Lying abroad
Henry Wotton and the invention of diplomacy
by Carol Chillington Rutter
Student, traveller, secretary, scoundrel, spy: introducing the maverick whose diplomacy saved Europe from war. Henry Wotton had already exhausted several lives when he arrived in Venice as England's ambassador in 1604. Yet the most remarkable phase of his career was yet to come. In Lying abroad, Carol Chillington Rutter tells Wotton's extraordinary story. She reveals how this one-time exile, who fled England after his employer was convicted of treason, gained the favour of King James, securing a knighthood and a diplomatic posting. Charged with restoring relations with Venice after a fifty-year hiatus, he drew criticism for his breaches of protocol. But when a dispute brought Europe to the brink of war, Wotton took a risk - one that changed European history. This engrossing biography recounts a life that was tumultuous, tarnished and endlessly theatrical. The man King James called his 'honest dissembler' was a maverick who fashioned diplomacy in ways that still inform international relations today.
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Literature & Literary StudiesApril 2021Positive emotions in early modern literature and culture
by Cora Fox, Bradley J. Irish, Cassie M. Miura
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Literature & Literary StudiesNovember 2019Transnational connections in early modern theatre
by Pavel Drábek, M. A. Katritzky
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Humanities & Social SciencesMarch 2026US cultural diplomacy after the Cold War
Decline, recovery, and fall
by Jeffrey H. Michaels, Giles Scott-Smith
In the decades following the USSR's collapse, the US has gone from unrivalled hegemon to a position of relative decline. With America 'triumphant' after 1991, its culture, like its diplomatic, military and economic power, remained unmatched. Such favourable circumstances seemed to undercut the need for cultural diplomacy. Why should the US government sell a product that was already selling so well? After 9/11, however, it was apparent the US image was less popular than previously assumed. To reverse this negative image, cultural diplomacy was revived. Despite being beset by internal and external challenges, US officials supported various cultural initiatives and partnerships to promote the American brand globally. Along the way, cultural diplomacy has made use of new forms of expression to promote American culture and build positive foreign relations. The arrival of the second Trump administration in 2025 has clearly signalled an end to using cultural diplomacy to further causes of empowerment and diversity, making the future uncertain for this field of activity.
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Literature & Literary StudiesApril 2020The early modern English sonnet
by Laetitia Sansonetti, Rémi Vuillemin, Enrica Zanin, Tamsin Badcoe
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Humanities & Social SciencesOctober 2017History of Ancient Chinese Diplomacy
by Yuan Nansheng
Ancient Chinese diplomacy refers to diplomatic activities during the period from the beginning of ancient diplomacy to the outbreak of the Opium War in 1840. The manuscript describes the history of this period. The Xia, Shang, and Western Zhou Dynasties were the emergence and formation of ancient Chinese diplomacy. The Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods were the development of ancient Chinese diplomacy. The Han Dynasty was the stereotype of ancient Chinese diplomacy. The Tang Dynasty was the heyday of ancient Chinese diplomacy. The period of transformation of ancient diplomacy. Ancient China's diplomacy is foreign affairs diplomacy. The revelation left is that the stronger the national strength, the more capable it can be, and the more rational compromise, the more it can make a difference. The readers of the manuscript are researchers of Chinese history and diplomatic history, and students of Chinese history and diplomatic history.
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Humanities & Social SciencesNovember 2024Unofficial peace diplomacy
Private peace entrepreneurs in conflict resolution processes
by Lior Lehrs
This book analyses the international phenomenon of private peace entrepreneurs. These are private citizens with no official authority who initiate channels of communication with official representatives from the other side of a conflict in order to promote a conflict resolution process. It combines theoretical discussion with historical analysis, examining four cases from different conflicts: Norman Cousins and Suzanne Massie in the Cold War, Brendan Duddy in the Northern Ireland conflict and Uri Avnery in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The book defines the phenomenon, examines the resources and activities of private peace entrepreneurs and their impact on the official diplomacy, and examines the conditions under which they can play an effective role in peace-making processes. This book is relevant to United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 16, Peace, justice and strong institutions.
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Humanities & Social SciencesNovember 2024
US public diplomacy in socialist Yugoslavia, 1950–70
Soft culture, cold partners
by Carla Konta
The first comprehensive account of the public and cultural diplomacy campaigns carried out by the US in Yugoslavia during the height of the Cold War, this book examines the political role of culture in US-Yugoslav bilateral relations and the fluid links between information and propaganda. Tito allowed the US Information Agency and the State Department's cultural programmes to enter Yugoslavia, liberated from Soviet control. The exchange of intellectual and political personnel helped foster the US-Yugoslav relationship, yet it posed severe ideological challenges for both sides. By providing new insights into porous borders between freedom and coercion in Tito's regime, this book shows how public diplomacy acted as an external input for Yugoslav liberalisation and dissident movements. Using extensive archival research and interviews, Konta analyses the links between information and propaganda, and the unintended effects of propaganda beyond the control of producers and receivers.
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Literature & Literary StudiesMarch 2020Enacting the Bible in medieval and early modern drama
by Chanita Goodblatt, Eva von Contzen, David Matthews
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Humanities & Social SciencesApril 2020Early modern war narratives and the Revolt in the Low Countries
by Raymond Fagel, Leonor Álvarez Francés, William G. Naphy, Beatriz Santiago Belmonte
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Humanities & Social SciencesOctober 2020A global history of early modern violence
by Erica Charters, Marie Houllemare, Peter H. Wilson
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History of medicineNovember 2011Women's medical work in early modern France
by Susan Broomhall
Women have long been crucial to the provision of medical services, both in the treatment of sickness and in maintaining health. In this study, Susan Broomhall situates the practices and perceptions of women's medical work in France in the context of the sixteenth century and its medical evolution and innovations. She argues that early modern understandings of medical practice and authority were highly flexible and subject to change. She furthermore examines how a focus on female practitioners, who cut across most sectors of early modern medical practice, can reveal the multifaceted phenomenon of these negotiations for authority. This new paperback edition of Women's medical work in early modern France skilfully combines detailed research with a clear presentation of the existing literature of women's medical work, making it invaluable to students of gender and medical history.
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Literature & Literary StudiesJuly 2021Old Fortunatus
By Thomas Dekker
by David McInnis
With its fantasy of magical travel and inexhaustible riches, Thomas Dekker's Old Fortunatus is the quintessential early modern journeying play. The adventures of Fortunatus and his sons, aided by a magical purse and wishing-hat, offers the period's most overt celebration of the pleasures of travel, as well as a sustained critique of the dangers of intemperance and prodigality. Written following a period of financial difficulty for Dekker, the play is also notable for its fascination with the symbolic, mercantile and ethical uses of gold. This Revels Plays edition is the first fully annotated, single-volume critical edition of Old Fortunatus. It offers scholarly discussion of the play's performance and textual history, including attention to the German version printed and performed in the early seventeenth century. It provides a long overdue critical reappraisal of this unjustly neglected play.
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Humanities & Social SciencesAugust 2002Sodomy in early modern Europe
by Joseph Bergin, Tom Betteridge, Penny Roberts, Bill Naphy
This fascinating collection of essays reflects closely the main areas of debate within gay historiography. For the last twenty years scholars have argued over the nature of early modern sodomy, responding in a number of different and contradictory ways. Questions addressed in the book include: was early modern sodomy the same as modern homosexuality? Were there homosexuals in early modern Europe? Did men who had sex with each other in this period regard their behaviour as determining their identity? What was the relationship between the grave sin of sodomy and the homoerotic images that fill Renaissance culture?. The volume includes essays on sodomy in English Protestant history writing, in Calvin's Geneva, in early modern Venice and the trial of sodomy in Germany. ;
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Literature & Literary StudiesFebruary 2015Biblical women in early modern literary culture, 1550–1700
1550–1700
by Edited by Victoria Brownlee and Laura Gallagher
At once pervasive and marginal, appealing and repellent, exemplary and atypical, the women of the Bible provoke an assortment of readings across early modern literature. Biblical women in early modern literary culture, 1550-1700 draws attention to the complex ways in which biblical women's narratives could be reimagined for a variety of rhetorical and religious purposes. Considering a confessionally diverse range of writers, working across a variety of genres, this volume reveals how women from the Old and New Testaments exhibit an ideological power that frequently exceeds, both in scope and substance, their associated scriptural records. The essays explore how the Bible's women are fluidly negotiated and diversely redeployed to offer (conflicting) comment on issues including female authority, speech and sexuality, and in discussions of doctrine, confessional politics, exploration and grief. As it explores the rich ideological currency of the Bible's women in early modern culture, this volume demonstrates that the Bible's women are persistently difficult to evade. ;
