‎Sciences occultes‎

‎P. Zieme (ed.)‎

‎Vimalakirtinirdesasutra. Edition altturkischer Ubersetzungen nach Handschriftfragmenten von Berlin und Kyoto. Mit einem Appendix von Jorinde Ebert. Ein Vimalakirti-Bildfragment aus Turfan‎

‎Hardback, 205 pages., 190 Abbildungen, 210 x 295 mm. ISBN 9782503509570. Das Vimalakirtinirdesasutra, mit den Worten E. Lamottes "le joyeau du bouddhisme", ist eines der beruhmten Mahayana-Sutras und hat besonders in der Geschichte des chinesischen Buddhismus einen bedeutenden Platz erhalten. Vollstandig ist dieses nur in tibetischer und chinesischer Sprache uberliefert, nicht aber in Sanskrit, wo jedoch zahlreiche Passagen als Zitate vorkommen. Die mongolische Version ist direkt von der tibetischen abhangig. Auf die sanskritische Version gehen nicht nur die tibetische, sondern naturlich auch die chinesischen Fassungen zuruck, von denen immerhin drei unterschiedliche Ubersetzungen erhalten sind. Aus dem alten Zentralasien waren bisher Fragmente vor allem in khotansakischer und sogdischer Ubersetzung bekannt. Wahrend die erstere von der sanskritischen Tradition abhangig ist, wurde die letztere aus der chinesischen Fassung des Kumarajiva ubertragen. Einige wenige altturkische Fragmente in sogdischer Schrift wurden von D. Fedakar herausgegeben, die hier als Handschrift S mit eingearbeitet wurden. Mit der vorliegenden Ausgabe weiterer Vkn-Fragmente in mehreren in uigurischer Schrift geschriebenen Handschriften (A-I, X) lasst sich ein betrachtlicher Teil des Sutras in altturkischer Ubertragung rekonstruieren. Fur das Verstandnis des Vkn selbst ergeben sich partiell einige interessante Aspekte. Languages: German.‎

‎J. Wilkens (ed.)‎

‎Buch von der Sundentilgung. SET. Edition des altturkisch-buddhistischen K'anti Kilguluk Nom Bitig‎

‎Paperback, LI+607 p., 120 b/w ill., 210 x 297 mm. ISBN 9782503526218. The book is the first comprehensive edition of all hitherto identified fragments of the K'anti Kilguluk Nom Bitig in Old Uygur (Old Turkic) culled from several collections of Central Asian manuscripts in Germany, Russia, China and Japan. The text is a translation in 40 chapters of a Chinese Buddhist work (Cibei daochang chanfa) which belongs to the apocrypha. It testifies to the strong influence of Chinese Buddhism at the beginning of the second millennium A.D. among the Uygurs. The objective of the work, which was intended to be recited during a ritual, is the expiation of sins. Another aim was to rescue the patrons' relatives from a life in unfavourable births among hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals etc. Remarkable is the insertion of what must have been originally about a thousand Buddha names numerous of which are preserved in the Old Uygur version. Languages: German.‎

‎Y. Kasai‎

‎altturkische Kommentar zum Vimalakirtinirdesa-Sutra‎

‎Paperback, 237 p., 210 x 297 mm. ISBN 9782503541570. The book is the first edition of the Old Turkish commentary on the Vimalakirtinirdesa-Sutra. All fragments that were identified belonging to this commentary are now preserved in the Berlin Turfan Collection. The relevant commentary may have been based on a Chinese text, whose author was a representative of the Tiantai school. However, some lines in the Old Turkish version are the additions of the Uyghur translator or, more specifically, author and clearly show the strong influence of the Yogic'ra school, which was then studied with keen interest in Dunhuang, the neighbouring city of Turfan. This fact indicates the close relationship between this Uyghur author and the Buddhism in Dunhuang. Moreover, the Old Turkish version of the Vimalakirtinirdesa-Sutra (published by Peter Zieme as Berliner Turfantexte XX) is preserved. The comparison between these two texts shows, however, that both texts were independently translated into Old Turkish. Languages: German.‎

‎W. Sundermann (ed.)‎

‎Sermon von der Seele. Eine Lehrschrift des ostlichen Manichaismus. Edition der parthischen und soghdischen Version mit einem Anhang von Peter Zieme.Die turkischen Fragmente des 'Sermon von der Seele'‎

‎Hardback, 240 p., 98 ill., 210 x 295 mm. ISBN 9782503506357. The Sermon on the Soul is a Manichaean tract largely reconstructed from some 60 fragments in Parthian, Sogdian and Old Turkish. It played a big part in the East Manichaean tradition, attested in more than 30 manuscripts and inspiring later East Manichaean works, even hymns in the Chinese language. The sermon underscores the identity of the individual souls and the cosmic viva anima, of the spiritual nature of the soul and the five light elements, and it decribes the benificient, meritorious activities of the world soul on behalf of the wordly creatures. It gives an uncommonly optimistic description of life on earth and is remarkable for its well-designed parables. It is an outstanding example of Manichaean prose literature and contributes considerably to our knowledge of the Manichaean doctrine. Languages: German.‎

‎LEONARD, Edward.‎

‎LAND & DORP.‎

‎Paperback, originele uitgeversomslag in z/w, 16x22,5 cm., 40pp, geillustreerd met 16 platen in z/w. Aantekeningen en wenken ter overweging bij het bouwen en heropbouwen op het land.‎

‎Jan Herman, Lieven Tack et Koenraad Geldo.‎

‎Lettres ou ne pas lettres. Melanges de litterature francaise de Belgique offerts a Roland Beyen.‎

‎Paperback, Francais, sous jacquette originale d'editeur, 16x24 cm., 650 pp. ISBN 9789058671646. Symbolae Facultatis Litterarum Lovaniensis - Series D : Litteraria 14. Les quelque soixante contributions de ce livre traitent toutes d'un aspect de la litterature francaise de Belgique, domaine dont Roland Beyen est un des plus eminents specialistes. L'oeuvre theatrale et la reconnaissance nationale et internationale de ?« son ?» auteur, Michel de Ghelderode, sont evidemment largement commentees. En outre, certains dossiers nouveaux, relevant de periodes importantes du point de vue de l'histoire litteraire, sont ici mis au jour : a propos de la generation de 1880 (Verhaeren, Maeterlinck, Eekhoud, Elskamp, des Ombiaux), ou du surrealisme belge (Norge, Nouge). Enfin, ce livre se distingue par le grand nombre d'etudes consacrees a des sujets fascinants mais mal connus de la litterature francaise de Belgique : du monde des revues litteraires, de la prose paralitteraire (Steeman, Simenon, le phenomene litteraire de Pitje Schramouille), a la litterature fantastique (de Ghelderode a Ray), en passant par le theatre et la poesie du XXe siecle (de Soumagne a Bauchau) et la prose contemporaine (Adamek, Geramys). Tant par la variete des auteurs traites que par la diversite des approches (historiques, analytiques, synthetiques), ce livre constitue une contribution importante a l'etude approfondie de l'expression litteraire de notre pays.‎

‎A.. Meskens‎

‎Joannes della Faille s.j. Mathematics, Modesty and Missed Opportunities‎

‎Paperback, 177 p., 160 x 240 mm. ISBN 9789074461535. Every study on sir Anthony Van Dijck contains the portrait of Joannes della Faille s.j. While the portrait is well-known, much less is known about the sitter. Yet Joannes della Faille (1597-1652) was one of the finest mathematicians of his generation. He was one of the first students of Gregorius a Sancto Vincentio s.j. and arguably his best. Della Faille published only one book 'De Centro Gravitatis' in which he calculates the centroid of an ellipse sector. Although this book is elegantly written it was soon superseded by other books on the same subject. This means that della Faille became no more than a footnote in the history of mathematics. Newly discovered manuscript evidence shows that della Faille's research on conic sections was probably on par with that of Pascal and Desargues, whose mathematical work was only saved from oblivion in the nineteenth century. Della Faille did not have that luck and consequently was nearly forgotten. In this study della Faille's results are discussed and a plea is made for reappraisal of his work. Languages: English, French.‎

‎Ivo Maes‎

‎Half a century of European Financial Integration, From the Treaties of Rome to the 21st Century‎

‎Hardbound, with dusjacket, Pages: 128, Format: 28 x 23 cm,120 colour illustrations . ISBN 9789061537908. ... With the creation of the Common Market in the sixties the first prudent steps were taken towards financial unification. The turmoil on the exchange markets in the seventies encouraged the European authorities to take more control of the flow of capital. The European Economic Community equipped itself with a fully fledged financial column from 1985 onwards, when a programme for the full liberalisation of goods, services, people and capital was set up. With the Treaty of Maastricht European and monetary union and the creation of a central European bank became definite objectives. The conversion to the Euro in 1999 was the provisional conclusion of a long and exciting process. The introduction of the single currency was also the engine of integration in other sectors of the financial markets, such as bonds or shares. Nonetheless many legal and technical obstacles are yet to be overcome.‎

‎DE MOOR, J.C.‎

‎OP WEG MET DE WETENSCHAP. OVER METHODE EN TECHNIEK VAN STUDIE EN WETENSCHAPSBEOEFENING.‎

‎Paperback, originele uitgeversomslag met flappen in kleur, 23x15.5 cm., 179 pp. ISBN 9025467660. Werk dat een samenvatting geeft van de meest efficiente manier om academische graden te behalen, welke hulpmiddelen er bestaan, wat de voorwaarden zijn voor verdere zelfstandige ontplooiing. Effectieve studie en gedegen weteschappelijk werk worden niet alleen bereikt door beheersing van de techniek. Werkruimte, capaciteiten, tijdsindeling, fysiek en psychische gesteldheid zijn enkele van de factoren die hierop van invloed zijn. Er wordt aandacht geschonken aan de methodische en praktische kanten van het leven met de wetenschap.‎

‎I. Spar‎

‎Corpus of Cuneiform Texts in the Metropolitan Museum of Art II Literary and Scholastic Texts of the First Millennium B.C‎

‎Hardback, XLIV+490 p., 220 x 285 mm. ISBN 9782503517407. This important scholarly work is volume two in a series of four volumes that will publish all the more than six hundred cuneiform tablets in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Included are 106 religious, scientific, scholastic, and literary texts, written in Sumerian and Akkadian and primarily dated to the latter part of the first millenium b.c. They shed new light on the civilization of the ancient Near East - on its complex beliefs and customs and surprisingly vast knowledge of mathematics and astronomy - for both the contemporary scholar and interested reader. The texts are organized in five sections: Documents of the Temple Cult include hymns and prayers, rituals and petitions; Documents of the Incantation Priest, Diviner, Physician, and Magician reveal various categories of omens; Literary Texts present myths and legends; The Scholastic Tradition contains a variety of texts and lists, including mathematical and astronomical texts; and the final section covers Unidentified Fragments. Among the most important texts are No. 42, a fragment of the Babylonian version of the ancient Flood story, and No. 81, which attests to the intellectual achievement of Babylonian astronomers. Eighteen distinguished international scholars in the field have contributed transliterations and translations of each tablet, and these are accompanied by commentaries and by insightful introductory essays on each genre. The volume was assembled and edited by Ira Spar, Professor of Ancient Studies at Ramapo College of New Jersey, and W. G. Lambert, Professor Emeritus of the University of Birmingham, England. Lambert also contributed several entries and a general introduction that provides contextual information about the transmission of the literary and scholastic tradition in pre-Hellenistic Mesopotamia. The precise facsimile drawings of every tablet hand-made by Ira Spar are a valuable visual accompaniment to the text. This publication reaffirms the Museum's ongoing commitment to promote wider knowledge of Ancient Near Eastern civilization. And significantly, it appears at a time when better understanding of the history and culture of that region of the world holds particular relevance. Volume one of this series (1988) documents 120 tablets, cones, and bricks from the third and second millenia b.c. Volume three (2000) covers private archive texts from the first millenium B.C. Volume four, in preparation, will include an edition of cuneiform tablets written in the first millenium b.c. and inscriptions on bricks, cylinders, and prisms of royal records of the kings of Babylon and Assyria. Languages: English.‎

‎N/A‎

‎Dictionary of Old English, AE + Beon + Abbreviations for Latin Sources and Bibliography of Editions‎

‎Microfiche, 55 p., + 771 p. on 4 microfiche, 140 x 225 mm. ISBN 9780888449238. Languages : English.‎

‎N/A‎

‎Dictionary of Old English, Fasc. C‎

‎Microfiche, 1610 p., on 6 microfiche., 140 x 225 mm. ISBN 9780888449252. Languages : English.‎

‎J. Holland‎

‎Dictionary of Old English, Fasc. E‎

‎Microfiche, 6 p., + 6 microfiche, 140 x 225 mm. ISBN 9780888449276. Languages : English.‎

‎A. Di Paolo Healey, J. Holland, D. Haines, D. McDougall, I. McDougall‎

‎Dictionary of Old English, Fasc. G‎

‎Microfiche, XVI p., + 35 microfiches, 135 x 215 mm. ISBN 9780888449313. Languages : English, Old English.‎

‎K. Rooney‎

‎Mortality and Imagination. The Life of the Dead in Medieval English Literature‎

‎Hardback, XIII+304 p., 11 colour ill., 156 x 234 mm. ISBN 9782503524313. More than any single volume has so far attempted, Mortality and Imagination is devoted to the history and literary 'life' of the dead in medieval writing. There have been many books on the medieval culture of death, but this book is the first devoted to the use and representation of the dead in English medieval writing. Mortality and Imagination is a history of the literary 'life' of the dead - in their narrative, aesthetic, and ideological formulation - a theme which up to now has been explored only fragmentarily, available only in studies of particular genres. Kenneth Rooney's book explores a wider range of texts and genres than has been attempted before, and reads the vernacular representation of the dead against the impact of one of the most intriguing cultural phenomena of the Middle Ages - the macabre - a rhetorical and artistic idiom designed to evoke the dead at their most horrifying. Tracing the models for the representation of the dead available to English writers, he offers fresh readings of texts both familiar and neglected, including sermons, tale collections, romances, drama, lyrics, and other genres in the period c.1100-1550. This book is a stimulating appraisal of the impact, in medieval insular contexts, of an international idea of great longevity and significance, and makes an important contribution to the study of death, belief, and society in pre-modern Europe. Languages : English, Old English, French.‎

‎J. Ruys (ed.)‎

‎What Nature Does Not Teach. Didactic Literature in the Medieval and Early-Modern Periods‎

‎Hardback, XIV+530 p., 3 b/w ill., 160 x 240 mm. ISBN 9782503525969. This interdisciplinary volume takes as its subject the multi-faceted genre of didactic literature (the literature of instruction) which constituted the cornerstone of literary enterprise and social control in medieval and early modern Europe. Following an Introduction that raises questions of didactic meaning, intent, audience, and social effect, nineteen chapters deal with the construction of the individual didactic voice and persona in the premodern period, didactic literature for children, women as the creators, objects, and consumers of didactic literature, the influence of advice literature on adult literacy, piety, and heresy, and the revision of classical didactic forms and motifs in the early modern period. Attention is paid throughout to the continuities of didactic literature across the medieval and early modern periods?its intertextuality, reliance on tradition, and self-renewal?and to questions of gender, authority, control, and the socially constructed nature of advice. Contributors particularly explore the intersection of advice literature with real lives, considering the social impact of both individual texts and the didactic genre as a whole. The volume deals with a wide variety of texts from the early Middle Ages to the eighteenth century, written in languages from Latin through the European vernaculars to Byzantine Greek and Russian, offering a comprehensive overview of this pervasive and influential genre. Languages : English.‎

‎G. Donavin, A. Obermeier (eds.)‎

‎Romance and Rhetoric. Essays in Honour of Dhira B. Mahoney‎

‎Hardback, VIII+281 p., 2 b/w ill., 3 b/w tables, 156 x 234 mm. ISBN 9782503531496. Reflecting the work of Dhira B. Mahoney, in whose honour this book is published, these essays discuss the intersections between medieval rhetoric and various sorts of medieval literature, with particular focus on romance. This volume honours the academic career of Professor Dhira B. Mahoney, recently retired from the Department of English at Arizona State University, who is well known for her rhetorical readings of medieval literature. Professor Mahoney?s scholarship employs rhetorical theory in readings of late medieval literature, particularly prologues and epilogues, women?s writings, and Arthuriana. As a response to her work, Romance and Rhetoric offers rhetorical readings of a variety of literary pieces from the late Middle Ages, especially for those authors and genres on which Professor Mahoney has published. Its collected essays provide interdisciplinary studies of art, social and literary history, manuscript transmission, and women?s studies in relation to texts in Middle English, Latin, German, and French. In particular, the essays in this volume focus on the writings of courtly authors such as Chaucer, Lydgate, Malory, Guillaume de Machaut, Christine de Pizan, Chretien de Troyes, and others. In keeping with the ancient tradition of analysing rhetorical principles in the structure of an art work, they also examine the rhetoric of the manuscript art connected to these authors and the genres in which they wrote. This volume thus fills a gap in medieval literary scholarship, as it evaluates with scrutiny how rhetorical teachings or medieval poetic strategies inform the writing of romances. Languages : English, French, German.‎

‎J. M. Blythe‎

‎Worldview and Thought of Tolomeo Fiadoni (Ptolemy of Lucca)‎

‎Hardback, XVIII+276 p., 1 b/w ill., 156 x 234 mm. ISBN 9782503529264. Tolomeo Fiadoni (1236-1327) was one of the most important political theorists and historians of the Middle Ages. He was central to developing a theory for the practices of Northern Italian republicanism and was hostile to kingship, portraying it as despotic and inappropriate for virtuous and freedom-loving people. He was the first writer to compare Aristotle's examples of Greek mixed constitutions - Sparta, Crete, and Carthage - with the Roman Republic, the ancient Hebrew polity, the Church, and medieval communes, yet he remained a staunch defender of the absolute secular and spiritual monarchy of the pope. Blythe explores various tensions in Tolomeo's work that are often overlooked in scholarly treatments of him, and which derive from cultural preconceptions and the diverse influences on him: Aristotle, Augustine, apologists for papal power, his life in the Dominican Order, his educational experience with Thomas Aquinas, and his social position as a member of Northern Italy's ruling class. These factors exerted contradictory influences on Tolomeo and led him to a sometimes unsuccessful intellectual struggle for consistency. This book is the first full-length study of Tolomeo's thought and it gives full consideration not only to the political writings for which he is most known, but also to his historical and exegetical works. It is the companion to The Life and Works of Tolomeo Fiadoni (Ptolemy of Lucca). Languages : English, Latin.‎

‎M. Philippe‎

‎Naissance de la verrerie moderne, XIIe-XVIe siecles. Aspects economiques, techniques et humains‎

‎Hardback, 464 p., 155 x 240 mm. ISBN 9782503507385. Cet ouvrage represente la premiere synthese generale de toutes les donnees archeologiques et archivistiques relatives a l'histoire de la verrerie dans l'espace geographique francais du XIIe au XVIe siecle. Il analyse, region par region, l'evolution economique des ateliers, les dynasties verrrieres, les approvisionnements, l'espace de travail, les fours et les techniques de la fabrication, les aspects administratifs et humains, ainsi que le commerce et l'usage du verre. Languages : French.‎

‎M. Bougard‎

‎chimie de Nicolas Lemery‎

‎Hardback, 524 p., 155 x 240 mm. ISBN 9782503507392. La chimie prevaloisienne est encore trop souvent consideree, dans la tradition de Bachelar, comme une science perimee dont les savoirs sont devenus definitivement obsoletes. A travers la vie et l'analyse de la pratique chimique du medecin-apothicaire parisien Nicholas Lemery (1645-1715), le present ouvrage entend montrer que la chimie du XVIIe siecle constitue au contraire un domaine autonome dont l'originalite s'affirme face a l'iatrochimie paracelsienne et la chimie stahlienne du phiogistique. L'oeuvre chimique de Lemery propose une veritable rhetorique de la clarte (d'inspiration cartesienne) associee a une nouvelle vision corpusculaire du monde (davantage inspiree par Gassendi). La confrontation des theories mecanistes et des pratiques dont le laboratoire etait reellement le cadre revele aussi le combat des chimistes du XVIIe siecle pour la reconnaissance de leur "science". Ces episodes s'inserent dans divers contextes, epistemologiques mais aussi sociologiques et economiques, dont l'examen renouvelle l'histoire de la chimie de la fin du XVIIe siecle. Languages : French.‎

‎HEINRICHS, Heribert‎

‎LEXICON DER AUDIO-VISUELLEN BILDUNGSMITTEL‎

‎Gebunden mit Schutzumschlag, 135 x 225mm., 362 Seiten plus Anzeigenanhang.‎

‎Jos Joosten‎

‎Staande receptie. Literatuur, kritiek en literatuurwetenschap‎

‎paperback 12,5 x 20 cm, 176 pagina's. ISBN 9789460040979. Vanaf het moment dat het eerste kritische oordeel over een boek werd gepubliceerd, waren er betrokkenen boos of blij. En derden wisten zeker dat het helemaal anders moest. Schrijvers, lezers, uitgevers, collegacritici en ook literatuurwetenschappers: iedereen heeft al eeuwenlang zijn oordeel klaar over literatuurkritiek. En altijd is er controverse, waarbij het woord 'crisis' nooit ver weg is. Soms is het crisisgevoel groot, zoals nu. De positie van literatuurkritiek in kranten en tijdschriften ligt onder vuur, andere media dienen zich aan, schrijvers presenteren zich niet meer op de traditionele manier en lezers vinden steeds vaker hun eigen weg. In Staande receptie maakt Jos Joosten de balans op en behandelt hij een aantal actuele kwesties uit de Nederlandse literatuurkritiek: hoe functioneert kritiek in woelige tijden? Kan literatuurkritiek geengageerd zijn? En is internet een oplossing voor de kritiekcrisis? De rol van de wetenschapper heeft zijn bijzondere aandacht: (hoe) kun je objectief iets zeggen over een fenomeen dat zo in beweging is?‎

‎Huub Beurskens‎

‎school aan zee‎

‎paperback, geillustreerd, 224 pagina's. ISBN 9789075697537. Huub Beurskens is dichter, prozaist, essayist en vertaler. De resultaten van zijn werk zijn terug te vinden in de vele titels die hij publiceerde gedurende een inmiddels meer dan 25 jaar omspannende carriere. In De school aan zee komen alle genoemde hoedanigheden aan bod. Het boek bevat een verhaal, essays over kunst, poezie en muziek en eigen en vertaalde poezie. De school aan zee is een hybride, die is voortgekomen uit een vanzelfsprekende samenspraak tussen de diverse kunstvormen die Beurskens beoefent. De samenhang in Beurskens' oeuvre komt in dit boek voor het eerst duidelijk aan het licht.‎

‎Lucas Husgen‎

‎Nee, maar het gebeurt. Essays‎

‎paperback, 224 pagina's. ISBN 9789075697940. In Nee, maar het gebeurt onderzoekt Lucas Husgen of de twijfel over de hang naar oorspronkelijkheid nu niet juist bij uitstek de weg vormt naar een taal van oorsprong die zichzelf voortdurend nieuw leven inblaast. Zo blijken complexe auteurs in hun kritische zoektocht naar iets wat lijkt op oorspronkelijkheid eigenlijk vaak uiterst eenvoudig. Het kloppende hart van hun nee aan het adres van de wereld maakt de literatuur in al zijn dwaalwegen des te krachtiger tot een gebeurtenis. Al maakt Husgen in zijn zwerftocht langs een televisieserie als Heimat, bewonderde auteurs als Ivo Michiels en Friederike Mayrocker of generatiegenoten als Dirk van Bastelaere en Henk van der Waal nergens gewag van zijn eigen werk, onderhands is dit boek zeker ook een poetica. Veel van die poeticale draden komen samen in het piece de resistance, het essay over de Geheimtip van de Oosterse literatuur, de Koreaanse dichteres Ho Nansorhon.‎

‎Jos Joosten‎

‎Misbaar. Hoe literatuur literatuur wordt‎

‎paperback, 12,5x20 cm, 224 pagina's. ISBN 9789077503805. De canon wordt niet door commissies opgelegd of door politiekcorrecte cultuurpolitici vanaf een preekstoel verordonneerd. Integendeel, de canon zijn wij allemaal: de lezers, schrijvers, docenten, critici, essayisten, literatuurgeschiedschrijvers van alle tijden. Samen debatteren we over literatuur in al haar vormen. En aan dat debat draagt Jos Joosten ook in zijn nieuwe essaybundel Misbaar zijn steentje bij. Eigenzinnig scheert hij langs de randen van de literatuur. Hij zet vraagtekens bij het werk van canonadepten als Dalrymple, ontkracht het romantische clichebeeld dat ook wetenschappers koesteren over dichters; bekijkt het vreemde huwelijk tussen literatuurwetenschap en kritiek; volgt de strategische manoeuvres van zulke uiteenlopende figuren als Ida Gerhardt en Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer en geeft een onverwachte kijk op zogenaamde 'hoge' en 'lage' cultuur. Minstens zo betrokken zijn Joostens pleidooien voor het werk van Maurice D'Haese en Robert Vernooy, schrijvers die ten onrechte vergeten dreigen te raken. Ook binnen de canon blijkt er voor enthousiaste lezers voldoendete beleven. We maken kennis met Michel Houellebecq als dichter, zien hoe complex Mustafa Stitou's op het oog simpele poezie eigenlijk is, ontdekken dat Reves Frits van Egters geen onaangepaste cynicus is maar het prototype van een brave burger, en krijgen antwoord op de vraag waarom Marcellus Emants' tragische held Willem Termeer zijn vrouw niet vermoordde.‎