Modern and Classical Languages Faculty Books

Books published by Modern and Classical Languages faculty members after Fall 2013 are recorded in our Languages and Cultures Faculty Book Gallery.

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The Fabliaux: A New Verse Translation

Nathaniel E. Dubin

Bawdier than The Canterbury Tales, The Fabliaux is the first major English translation of the most scandalous and irreverent poetry in Western literature.
Composed between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries, these virtually unknown erotic and satiric poems lie at the root of the Western comic tradition. Passed down by the anticlerical middle classes of medieval France, The Fabliaux depicts priapic priests, randy wives, and their cuckolded husbands in tales that are shocking even by today’s standards. Chaucer and Boccaccio borrowed heavily from these riotous tales, which were the wit of the common man rebelling against the aristocracy and Church in matters of food, money, and sex. Containing 69 poems with a parallel Old French text, The Fabliaux comes to life in a way that has never been done in nearly eight hundred years.
Dwellings

Karen L. Erickson

Poetry
Understanding China via Poetry: A Selection of 108 Chinese Poems

Sen Du and Sophia Geng

This book contains 108 Chinese poems selected from 1200BC-2010AD, from 'The Ospreys Cry' of the Shijing to the six-character modern poem 'Difficulties in Getting Educated.'
Following the Trail of Max Birnbaum: From the Lesachtal in the Alps to Lake Wobegon in Minnesota

Otmar M. Drekonja

Autobiographical fiction
The Life of High Countess Gritta von Ratsinourhouse

Bettine von Arnim, Gisela von Arnim Grimm, and Anna Lisa Ohm

By Bettine von Arnim and Gisela von Arnim Grimm. Translated and with an introduction by Lisa Ohm.

Appearing for the first time in English, this delightful story of the adventures of twelve young girls will appeal to readers of all ages. Gritta, neglected by her father, is uprooted when her new stepmother insists she enter a convent school. Strictly supervised by the nun Sequestra, Gritta slips into melancholy. A mishandled bird, however, awakens Gritta to the realization that she and her friends must flee their walled-in life. Following her heart and employing her wits, Gritta leads the escape. The runaway girls are eventually shipwrecked near the principality of Sumbona. They establish a Robinson Crusoe–like existence and later found their own cloister. Their community is sustained by the industry and talents of each of the girls. Mayeli paints, Harmony composes, and Wildberry, an herbalist, learns nature’s secrets and gains access to supernatural powers that will guarantee the future of the community. Gritta chooses to marry Prince Bonus of Sumbona, but when she sees the twelve cells in the cloister, she realizes with a pang of longing that she will never occupy the one meant for her. This enchanting tale, coauthored in the early 1840s by Gisela von Arnim Grimm and her mother, Bettine von Arnim, lay undiscovered in an archive for nearly a century. Through humor and delicate satire, the authors criticize the place of women and children in nineteenth-century German society. (from the publisher's web site)
Der Wanderer of St. Paul: The First Decade, 1867-1877: A Mirror of the German-Catholic Immigrant Experience in Minnesota

John S. Kulas OSB

Examines the role, influence, and effectiveness of the German- language newspaper in its goal of preserving among immigrants in frontier Minnesota both a functioning German society and a faithful Catholic Church. Considers the relationship between the newspaper and the community, the experience of immigration, preserving ethnic heritage, literature, music, illustrations, and other aspects of life. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
The Life of the Holy Hildegard

Godefridus 12th cent. monk, Theodoricus 12th cent., Adelgundis Führkkötter OSB, Mary Palmquist, John S. Kulas OSB, and James McGrath

The life of Hildegard of Bingen by two of her contemporaries brings this German mystic to life in excerpts from her own writings. This twelfth-century Benedictine abbess exorcized demons; healed the sick; warned sister convents and monasteries against the dangers of a "soft" life; preached to the laity on her journeys; incurred an interdict against her convent rather than obey an order she knew was wrong; founded a new convent, separated from her original monastery, and then successfully negotiated the transfer of her nuns' dowries from reluctant monks. When Hildegard needed answers or protection, she went to the top - to her archbishop, to Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, to Pope Eugene III, or to St. Bernard of Clairvaux. And then she dared to revile Barbarossa when he continued to back the antipopes, even though he was the protector of her convent. Led to act by her visions, she tried, like Jonah, to ignore God's promptings. She stalled, resisted, and became deathly ill. Each time Hildegard recovered as soon as she obeyed God's hard orders. An authority on medicine, herbal remedies, natural science, music, and theology, Hildegard scolded, instructed, refused, and loved. She was a liberated woman.
Holistic Healing

Saint Hildegard, Mary Palmquist, John S. Kulas OSB, and Patrick Madigan

The author discusses the use of natural ingredients in diet and therapy to alleviate pain and to foster healing and gives insights into human physiology and pathology. Original Latin title: Causae et curae.
Así Es: Stories of Hispanic Spirituality

Arturo Pérez, Consuelo Covarrubias, Edward Foley, Elena Sánchez Mora, and Sarah Pruett

Así es: Stories of Hispanic Spirituality explores the moments of grace of fifteen Hispanics from Mexican-American, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Guatemalan, and Salvadoran traditions who live in the United States. These women and men, from youth to those who bear the gift of age and wisdom, share their intimate journey with their God.

You will identify with their human struggles, their insights as they cross boundaries from death to life, and their moments of crisis. You will also learn from the memories they share of root experiences, and how they are able to claim their awareness of God's presence working in their lives. These stories reveal how the authors tapped the resources within themselves, their community, and their Church. These stories also share how the authors discovered their God, embracing and passing through the experience of struggle, crisis, joy, transformation, and celebration.
The Ideal of Heimat in the Works of Hermann Hesse

Andreas Kiryakakis

This analysis of the ideal of Heimat in Hesse's Demian, Siddhartha and Steppenwolf is a significant contribution to Hesse scholarship, as well as a fascinating re-evaluation of the culture-bound concept of Heimat itself. Kiryakakis shows how the three novels form a trilogy, with each successive hero expanding upon and benefitting from the experiences of his precursor, and draws parallels between the novels and Hesse's own tenuous relationship to his Heimat. Using both textual and biographical analysis, he examines the three novels within the framework of a continuum, which reflects various developmental stages in the heros' search for the lost ideal of Heimat. Thus he shows how, ultimately, the trilogy not only depicts the development of an individual, but epitomizes the very nature of twentieth-century existence.
Erinnerungen an Guido Zernatto : Unbekanntes aus der Schreibtischlade eines Österreichers aus Kärnten

Otmar M. Drekonja

Inhalt/Contents:
Kärnten 1920; Wien 1927 bis 1931; Der Nachlaß aus der Heiligenstädterstraße; Auswahl von Gedichten aus dem Nachlaß; Bibliographie