Hofstra University

Dennis P. Ryan

Albert Einstein's landmark theory of relativity, simplistically explained as all things are relative, sparked a revolution in thought affecting all fields. During the year of Einstein's 100th birthday, notable U.S. and international scholars gathered to discuss the Einstein phenomenon from an interdisciplinary and intercultural perspective. The ramifications of Einstein's theories for ethics and epistemology, religion, metaphysics, the history and philosophy of science, literature, politics, education, and psychology are all considered by the contributors.

Einstein and the Humanities

Reflecting the salient undercurrents of contemporary researh on women writers, this volume is an appraisal of the work of the writer as woman and presents critics' perceptions about how women writers have dealt with the complexity of changing female visions in the twentieth century. Each of the thirty-four essays, contributed by some of today's most distinguished writers, speaks to the work of a particular twentieth-century woman writer, and each constitutes a contribution to the scholarly debate. Questions are raised as to the appropriate posture a critic should adopt, and whether a critic of women's writing should deal with the work as the product of a woman's hand, dwelling on the sensibilities of the female consciousness, or assume that the proper point of departure remains the artistic and aesthetic norms that have emerged from generations of male-defined practice.

The Faith of a (Woman) Writer

G. Thomas Couser

Joseph Fichtelberg

Examines the state of autobiography in the postmodern world, demonstrating how writers use the experience of fragmentation to forge new kinds of collaborative identities.

Essays on Autobiography and the Postmodern

True Relations

Leon Friedman

William F. Levantrosser

The only apparent consensus about the Nixon Presidency is that his accomplishments in the foreign policy area far outshadowed those in the domestic arena. The advances for which he was responsible--in particular, the opening to China--brought the most significant improvement in foreign relations among the great powers in decades. This volume of essays and observations from scholars and participants alike examines the major areas of the Nixon diplomacy and its impact.

Cold War Patriot and Statesman, Richard M. Nixon

As reassessment of Kennedy for the popular audience largely carries on in terms of hagiography or talebearing, some scholars are more quietly at work to fashion a dispassionate appraisal. A good sampling of research is this collection of 23 papers from a 1985 conference at Hofstra University. The topics, varied if not perfectly balanced encompass the missile crisis, fiscal policy, and other standard questions, as well as less traveled ground such Indo-American relations and the influence of William Lederer and Eugene Burdick's The Ugly American on the era. The conclusions are varied too, with Kennedy appearing neither a saint nor a scoundrel. Library Journal The introduction looks at Kennedy as president and as politician, and establishes the two realms, myth and substance, in which the subsequent examination of Kennedy's life and career will be conducted. His presidency is then divided into the broad categories of foreign policy and domestic policy. Within these categories the suceeding chapters touch on the major controversies and conflicts of the Kennedy years in office, from the question of his religion, which clouded the candidacy, to his final days in the White House. The essays use events of the presidency as a means of reflecting on Kennedy the man, the Senator, and the candidate, as well as the President. Nothing is taken at face value, not Kennedy's liberalism, his support of minorities, nor the wisdom of his economic measure or his foreign policy decisions. All are scrutinized for the reality that often has been obscured by the popular myth. Along with the more widely noted issues, such as the communications flap over the vast wasteland reference, there are chapters on lesser known but nonetheless important issues, such as Kennedy's management of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands and his handling of relations with India. A brief concluding section sets the Kennedy presidency within a frame of two others, those of Truman and Reagan, yielding insights into each.

John F. Kennedy, the Promise Revisited

Chocolate has been one of mankind's obsessions for centuries. This collection examines the history of cacao and chocolate-making--its use in literature, art, music, and folklore, as a subject for psychology and childrearing, and as an important product for business.

Food of the Gods

Chocolate

Essays that explore major theoretical viewpoints of the detective fiction genre and then apply those theories to the novels of Agatha Christie and her heirs in the British ratiocinative tradition.

Theory and Practice of Classic Detective Fiction

This volume commemorates the 100th anniversary of Vincent van Gogh's death by reexamining the painter's place in the art world of his time, the phenomenal growth in his reputation, and his influence on later art movements and individual artists. Among the topics examined by leading van Gogh scholars are iconography; van Gogh's poetry as well as the literature that influenced him and that he, in turn, influenced; psychological and religious aspects of van Gogh's painting and self-imaging; and how van Gogh has been interpreted. A section on his legacy in art concludes this major reassessment of van Gogh's place in art history.

Van Gogh 100

International Conference in Celebration of Washington Irving, Stendhal, Vasilii Andreevich Zhukovskii (1983 : Hofstra University)

This valuable compilation of articles offers original, historical, biographical and literary perspectives on the works of Stendhal. Eleven essays plunge the reader into Stendhal's mythological universe, providing new insights into the network of symbols, images and obsessional themes that run through his works. This multi-faceted collection examines Stendhal as the problematic subject for a biography, as autobiographer in his own right, as journalist, novelist, and innovator in the realm of fictional devices, and as the great representative of that literature of ideas first acclaimed by Balzac. Topics addressed include the writer's own enigmatic persona, his autobiographical writings, his encounter with George Sand, and his journalistic career in Italy, as well as the structure imposed on his novels by an Oedipal conflict he himself perceives in pre-Freudian terms, his experiments with multiple narrative point of view, and a feminist perspective on his use of the epistolary form as a device to enhance the plot.

The Stendhal Bicentennial Papers

An understandable survey of the full spectrum of current environmental issues.

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