Bettina Liebowitz Knapp

"Bettina Knopp adds a new spin on the study of gambling as she explores both sides of the coin - the rush and thrill of risk taking versus the depression and defeat of losing. In a unique Jungian approach, Knapp probes the universal and eternal mysteries that lady luck herself offers to humanity's never-ending quest to defy destiny.". "While games of chance and of skill have held universal appeal throughout the ages, here Knapp adds a new dimension by exploring the psyches and the cultures of their players. In each of the book's nine chapters, she examines a different type of gambling as evidenced in Western and Eastern tradition through the literary works of Aleichem, Balzac, Dostoevsky, Hesse, Kawabata, Pascal, Poe, Serao, and Zhang. This scrutiny shows both the diversity and universality of each culture as she takes the literary works out of their individual contexts and relates them to humankind in general. Through an examination of seven different cultures - American, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Russian - she shows the effects of gambling on individuals and groups of players as well as its impact on the family and society."--BOOK JACKET.

The book begins by probing the "Divine Feminine" in Tibet's Gesar of Ling, one of the most fascinating myths of all time. Especially intriguing is the hero's seemingly continuous dependency on the feminine principle for guidance. The heroine in Kalidasa's Sanskrit drama, Sakuntala focuses on the obstacles set in Sakuntala's earthly trajectory, and how these were instrumental in her evolution from the stage of passive, unconscious, and withdrawn archetypal Maiden to that of the conscious, decisive, strong spiritual Mother. To explore the highly complex personalities of Kriemhild and Brunhild in the High German Nibelungenlied is to enter the realm of sun and shadow, the lightened regions of consciousness and the deep interiors of primal darkness. Quiche Mayas's Popul Vuh introduces a primordial couple as active participants in the creation of humankind while Racine's Phaedra projects the dramatist's own gnawing religious conflicts onto his mythical heroine: questions of guilt, remorse, anguish, and fatality/predestination. Yeats's Irish/Celtic feminist and heroine, Deirdre, underscores her inner strength, fortitude, and courage in the face of death while I.B. Singer's "Yentl the Yeshivah Boy" depicts the struggle confronting a young girl from an orthodox Polish Jewish family as she attempts to break out of an ultrapatriarchal society.

In Women in Myth, Bettina L. Knapp explores the role played by women in ancient societies through analysis of specific myths from nine different lands. The author probes issues as to how figures such as Isis, Tiamat, Dido, Camilla, Deborah, Iphigenia, Salome, Sita, Amaterasu, Nu-Kwa, and others - some of whom were goddesses - fared. She discusses their abilities and their outlooks, whether their views were gender oriented or androgynous, whether they were deprived of the most basic human rights or excluded from the highest functions of religious worship. Knapp explores whether or not these women had done battle, led armies, founded states, ruled lands, or experienced identity crises. She allows the reader to establish parallels as well as dichotomies between the lives of ancient and contemporary women. The reliving of specific episodes from thousands of years ago as reported in the great myths brings insights into certain relationships and sheds light on events and their ramifications in today's home and workplace.

One lasting effect of France's May 1968 antiestablishment movement has been the reevaluation of the philosophical, psychological, and aesthetic aspects of theater. In the 1950s and 1960s the plays of Samuel Beckett, Jean Genet, and Eugene Ionesco had abolished traditional theatrical forms, as had the existentialist theater of Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, and Jean Anouilh. French playwrights, bursting with new ideas as well as with confidence in their own worth after 1968, formulated fresh criteria, probed new forms, and experimented with different approaches to the performing arts. As dramatists broke new ground, so directors broke away from established aesthetics to focus on audacious, provocative interpretations of playwright's visions. In this astute examination Bettina L. Knapp looks at how the outcry of young people in 1968 has influenced French directors and playwrights and has changed conceptions of "theater" in the two and a half decades following. Beginning with an overview of 25 years of theater - an artistic environment characterized by "Directors/Directives Galore" - Knapp proceeds to discuss the contributions of Lucien and Micheline Attoun's Theatre Ouvert, Ariane Mnouchkine's Theatre du Soleil, Antoine Vitez, Armand Gatti, Patrice Chereau, Nathalie Sarraute, Andree Chedid, Liliane Atlan, Michel Vinaver, and Valere Novarina. The study includes a useful appendix of plays, production dates, and directors.

Editor Renate Stendhal has selected 360 photographs (more than 100 of those seen here for the first time) of Gertrude Stein, her companion Alice B. Toklas, and the many familiar and famous faces who surrounded her.

265 pages : 24 cm