From Marvels of Nature to Inmates of Asylums: Imaginations of Natural Folly

In medieval and Renaissance times European courts kept fools, who were placed into one of two categories: artificial fools (or jesters) and natural fools. The present study examines natural fools. Extant studies generally treat natural fools as both mentally and physically ill and/or disabled. This study contributes to the discussion of natural folly by examining two sources about the Ernestinian Saxon court fool Claus Narr. According to the documents natural fools were seen as permanently mentally changed people and classified as so-called "wonder men." Therefore they were kept and collected at courts. When permanent mental difference and psychiatric disease amalgamated at the beginning of the 18th century, however, the natural fool became an object of education and medicine. This paper argues that the changing meaning of the natural fool nevertheless retained components of its initial medieval conception

Scham und Schamlosigkeit:Grenzverletzungen im Spannungsfeld von Dissimulation und Ostentation

Die Tagung widmet sich dem Verhältnis von Scham und Schamlosigkeit in der Vormoderne. Obwohl die beiden Phänomene kategorial unterschiedlich gelagert sind, lassen sie sich auf der Ebene der Grenzverletzung miteinander in Beziehung setzen. Im Mittelpunkt soll deshalb weniger die Frage nach Scham und Schamlosigkeit selbst, als vielmehr nach ihren Zuschreibungspraktiken stehen, nämlich wie eine Handlung im Prozess der öffentlichen Kommunikation zur Transgression wird. Aus dieser handlungsorientierten Perspektive bietet es sich an, die beiden Phänomene nicht als normative, ethische oder affektbezogene Kategorien, sondern als performative Operatoren zu untersuchen, deren Zusammenwirken über die Markierung eines Vorgangs als Grenzverletzung die Grenze erst hervorbringt. Scham und Schamlosigkeit unterliegen allerdings unterschiedlichen Aufführungsbedingungen: Scham ist paradox angelegt, denn sie macht körperlich sichtbar, was das Subjekt verbergen will. Somit lässt sich Scham als eine Kommunikationsform der Dissimulation verstehen. Die Schamlosigkeit erscheint dagegen als Ostentation: Das Sichtbarmachen der Grenze ist in diesem Fall eine zielgerichtete Geste, die für verschiedene Semantiken offen ist. Dabei geht es nicht nur um die Modi dieser Geste, sondern auch um ihre Funktionen und Effekte. Die Tagung umfasst ein breites Spektrum von literarischen und künstlerischen Inszenierungen von Scham und Schamlosigkeit, für die das Zusammenspiel von Dissimulation und Ostentation von Bedeutung ist. Sie zielt insbesondere auf vormoderne Zusammenhänge, da hier in der öffentlichen Verhandlung von Norm- und Verhaltensgrenzen keine strikte Trennung zwischen institutionalisierten Rechtsverfahren, rituellen Äußerungen und spontanen face-to-face Interaktionen herrscht.Scham und Schamlosigkeit: Grenzverletzungen im Spannungsfeld von Dissimulation und Ostentation, conference, ICI Berlin, 4–6 June 2009 <https://doi.org/10.25620/e090604

Early Modern Yiddish Readers: Immoderately Addicted to Rhyme?

Roughly one third of Old Yiddish literature is based on traceable European literary sources, mainly German. Given how close Old Yiddish is to Early New High German, some of these Old Yiddish texts with European sources feel like mere transcriptions, others more like legitimate translations and yet others more like free adaptations. From the Yiddish reader\u27s perspective, the texts become accessible through transcription into Hebrew characters and more accessible the more that the translator engages the text as representative Jewish reader. A large proportion of these Yiddish books with German sources are prose novels–a genre newly popular with German readers of the time. A good example is the Schildbürgerbuch, the classic account of goings-on in a fictitious city of fools, first published as the Lalebuch in Strasbourg in 1597, and, with minor revisions, as the Schildbürgerbuch in Frankfurt in 1598. The language and mood of the Schildbürgerbuch were brought up to date in a rewritten edition, attributed to one Pomponius Filtzhut, which made its appearance around 1698. This Filtzhut version inspired a literal rendering into Yiddish, which appeared in Amsterdam circa 1700. A second Yiddish translation, more spirited and more influential, was published in 1727, again in Amsterdam. These 18th-century Yiddish versions of the Schildbürgerbuch constitute the earliest Jewish literary antecedents for the wise men of Chelm, an invented tradition dating from the end of the 19th century. At around the same time (1890), this second Yiddish edition of the Schildbürgerbuch was incurring the disapproval of the scholar of German literature, Ernst Jeep, who dismisses the fondness for rhyme exhibited throughout the translation as nothing short of a rhyming mania ( Reimwut ). Against the background of the German editions of 1598 and ca.1698 and the first Yiddish edition of ca. 1700, the presentation will look at the rhyming material that is new to this alleged worst case of an apparent proclivity of late early modern Yiddish literary taste. The talk will ask whether this versification deserves a diagnosis quite as pathological-sounding as “Reimwut” and whether it is indeed the great flaw of the Yiddish version or one of its merits. In addition, we will take this as a point of departure from which at least to pose the bigger question of just how pervasive and significant the rhyming couplet is in Old Yiddish literature, and for how long this remains true. Finally, we will consider how this compares to German literature of the period, wondering how to account for any differences between the two literatures in terms of apparent consumer preference for rhymed or unrhymed prose. This presentation is for the following text(s): Wund erseltsame abendtheurliche und recht lächerliche Geschichte und Thaten der Welt bekannten Schild-Bürger in Misnopotamia, hinter Utopia gelegen (Wonderful, adventuresome and highly comical stories and deeds of the world-famous people of Schildburg in Mesopotamia beyond Utopia, 17th century) Vunder zeltsame kurtsveilige lustige geshikhte un daten der velt bekanten shild burger (Wonderful, strange, entertaining and amusing stories and deeds of the world-famous people of Schildburg, ca. 1700) Vunder seltsame kurtsveylige unt rekht lekherlikhe geshikhte unt daten der velt bekanten shild burger (Wonderful, strange, entertaining and highly comical stories and deeds of the world-famous people of Schildburg, 1727), How a man of Schildburg brought his son to school, and what happened ther

Fools: From marvels of nature to asylum inmates. Imaginations of natural folly

In medieval and Renaissance times European courts kept fools, who were placed into one of two categories: artificial fools (or jesters) and natural fools. The present study examines natural fools. Extant studies generally treat natural fools as both mentally and physically ill and/or disabled. This study contributes to the discussion of natural folly by examining two sources about the Ernestinian Saxon court fool Claus Narr. According to the documents natural fools were seen as permanently mentally changed people and classified as so-called "wonder men." Therefore they were kept and collected at courts. When permanent mental difference and psychiatric disease amalgamated at the beginning of the 18th century, however, the natural fool became an object of education and medicine. This paper argues that the changing meaning of the natural fool nevertheless retained components of its initial medieval conception

7. Shalom bar Abraham’s Book of Judith in Yiddish

The relative inattention to the internal effects of the Reformation on the Jews is no doubt in part due to the dearth of sources available to scholars. This neglect has also been due in part to the assumption that Jewish and Christian interaction was limited. If one begins with the assumption that Jews and Christians were heavily involved with one another throughout the later Middle Ages and early modern period, and if one is ready to read the limited sources available with new questions in m..

Intramyocardial synthesis of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines in infants with congenital cardiac defects

AbstractObjectivesWe sought to test the hypothesis that cytokines would be expressed in the myocardium of infants with congenital cardiac defects and to identify the signaling pathways involved.BackgroundMechanical stress upregulates pro-inflammatory cytokines in the myocardium.MethodsFifteen infants with tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) (n = 7) or with ventricular septal defects (VSDs) (n = 8) were investigated. Concentrations of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines and of the inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and/or Western blotting in the right ventricular myocardium taken during cardiac surgery. Activation of the nuclear factor-kappa-B (NF-kappa-B) and p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways was assessed by electrophoretic mobility shift assay with supershift and/or Western blotting, respectively.ResultsThe pro-inflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha, interleukin (IL)-1-beta, and IL-6 and the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 were detected in the myocardium of all patients. Concentrations of the pro-inflammatory cytokines and also of phosphorylated p38 MAPK were higher in patients with TOF than in those with VSD and correlated with the degree of pressure overload of the right ventricle. Levels of phosphorylated I-kappa-B-alpha, iNOS, and IL-10 were similar in patients with TOF and in those with VSD.ConclusionsOur results show intramyocardial synthesis of pro-inflammatory cytokines in infants with congenital cardiac defects. This is associated with activation of both the NF-kappa-B and p38 MAPK pathways. The latter could be particularly important for the transduction of mechanical signals in the infant’s myocardium. Synthesis of IL-10 indicates an intramyocardial anti-inflammatory potential in this age group