This Week In Books: #14
Jan. 15th, 2007 11:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
akujunkanThe moral for this week is that it's hard to get many books read while you're busy obsessing over Avatar.
1) Eve & Adam - Linda S. Schearing, Valarie H. Ziegler, & Kristen E. Kvam
Eve & Adam is a very interesting book which it took me forever and a year to get through. In it the authors have compiled dozens of versions of Genesis 1-3 from Jewish, Christian, and Islamic scriptures and traditions. To this they add other notable references from those traditions' apocrypha and commentaries, and then use all of this to show how Gen. 1-3 has shaped perceptions of men and women throughout various ages and various cultures. To this they add instances of the verses used to justify slavery, the egalitarian lifestyles of the Shakers and Oneida community, and womens lib, before finally examining feminist interpretations. So, yeah. A lot of heavy material to get through, but very interesting nonetheless.
2) The Mabinogion - Charlotte Guest (trans)
I've read Jones & Jones' translation, which is widely considered to be the most reliable within Celtic Studies academia. I tend to agree, in that Guest seems to play fast and loose with the spellings of proper names, and junks her text up with pseudo-medeival "wouldest/sayest/wont"-type language. Finally, Guest's footnotes are omitted in my copy of the text, although they can be found at several online websites. On the plus side, Guest's translation includes "Taliesin," a story not part of the Mabinogion proper, but one which has been heavily relied upon by modern authors of arthuriana.
That will be all.
1) Eve & Adam - Linda S. Schearing, Valarie H. Ziegler, & Kristen E. Kvam
Eve & Adam is a very interesting book which it took me forever and a year to get through. In it the authors have compiled dozens of versions of Genesis 1-3 from Jewish, Christian, and Islamic scriptures and traditions. To this they add other notable references from those traditions' apocrypha and commentaries, and then use all of this to show how Gen. 1-3 has shaped perceptions of men and women throughout various ages and various cultures. To this they add instances of the verses used to justify slavery, the egalitarian lifestyles of the Shakers and Oneida community, and womens lib, before finally examining feminist interpretations. So, yeah. A lot of heavy material to get through, but very interesting nonetheless.
2) The Mabinogion - Charlotte Guest (trans)
I've read Jones & Jones' translation, which is widely considered to be the most reliable within Celtic Studies academia. I tend to agree, in that Guest seems to play fast and loose with the spellings of proper names, and junks her text up with pseudo-medeival "wouldest/sayest/wont"-type language. Finally, Guest's footnotes are omitted in my copy of the text, although they can be found at several online websites. On the plus side, Guest's translation includes "Taliesin," a story not part of the Mabinogion proper, but one which has been heavily relied upon by modern authors of arthuriana.
That will be all.