Three fictionalized saints’ lives composed in Constantinople in the tenth century warn readers against the dangers of andromania, a male desire to have sex with other men, and paidophthoria, the corruption, or rape, of boys. The Life of Basil the Younger and the Life of Andrew the Fool condemn “andromaniacs” even while they linger over the beauty of angels and of young men. Young men risk encounters on the streets of the city, while all people should expect to have problems paying off demons for their earthly sins as their souls progress past tollhouses after death. The Life of Gregentios imagines a homophobic utopia where the death penalty renders a Christian society entirely free of “sodomites.” These texts offer some our richest narrative accounts of queer life in the Byzantine capital even as they condemn men attracted to men.

James Joyce began writing for Il Piccolo della Sera in 1907 at the invitation of its editor, Roberto Prezioso. The Shaw piece is a review of the first performance of The Shewing-Up of Blanco Posnet, which Joyce attended in Dublin in 1909. In 1911 Joyce sent a long letter about the affair to all the Irish newspapers, though it was printed by only two, Sinn Fein on 2 September 1911 and the Northern Whig on 26 August 1911. He used the same tactic in relation to the pirating of Ulysses by the rogue publisher Samuel Roth in the United States. From the Freeman's General of the first story of Dubliners to the 'dully expressed' of Finnegans Wake, journalism plays a major part in Joyce's work. The main manifestation of journalism in Joyce's writing is of course the Aeolus episode of Ulysses.

Chapter 3 examines the blood libel invented by Hyppolitus Guarinoni in 1619, Tyrol, Austria. The fictional murder of the boy, Andreas of Rinn, would have taken place in July of 1462. The accepted explanation for this unusual blood libel is a response to Protestant incursions into the Tyrol area, where Rinn is located. The chapter provides a systemic account of the blood libel, which includes complex responses to drought, plague, famine, along with the continuing influence of pagan magic. These elements created an internal dissonance within the Catholic system that Guarinoni was trying to fortify.

The British Raj had favoured open trade and a small state. Economic development was not a major priority. This changed after independence. State expenditure as share of GDP increased in both India and Pakistan, with the goal of reducing poverty and inequality. Still, the trajectories of India and Pakistan and then Bangladesh varied. Especially in India, policymakers favoured inward-looking economic policies, and were sceptical of trade and foreign investment. The private sector was constrained by regulation. After 1991 Indian economic policy shifted sharply, deregulating and becoming more open to the global economy. Bangladesh and Pakistan moved in the same direction, but less sharply, partly because they were less statist to begin with. Other factors mattered besides government policy: the Internet boom and the service exports it facilitated; substantial remittances by migrants to the Middle East; and the protests of workers, women and other marginalized groups. In this chapter we highlight key elements of these narratives and flag the chapters that discuss them.

This essay examines the oracular responses of the oracle of Dodona portrayed in fifth-century BCE Attic tragedies. This analysis explores the wording of the oracular answers, characterized by extreme conciseness and clarity, and the topic of the queries, on household security, family matters, and final journeys. The evidence from the lead tablets at Dodona corroborates this focus, showing that while the oracle addressed various concerns, a significant number of private queries dealt with family, health, marriage, and travel. Additionally, the responses from Dodona were brief and straightforward, in contrast to the cryptic nature of Apollo’s oracles at Delphi.

This chapter highlights the relationship between celebrity, sexual identity, and a star’s “authenticity” in gay celebrity autobiography. Authenticity is achieved in celebrity autobiographies when the reader perceives they are receiving personal information about a star or, ideally, that the star is participating in this revelation of private details. For gay celebrities, this personal information includes a recounting of the star’s coming out as gay. Coming out is performative and personal; it establishes intimacy with the reader and adheres to expectations for a celebrity’s media-mediated “revelation.” The coming-out story establishes the gay celebrity as vulnerable and relatable to gay readers and allows heterosexual readers to connect to gay subject matter through the revelatory nature of confession. The autobiographical form gives the celebrity control over the coming-out story as he “outs” himself, earmarking the “revelation” as the star “being himself” for his readers, giving them an exclusive that exists outside of the hollow construct of fame. Gay celebrity autobiography represents an inclusive visibility for both the writer and the reader even as the confessional space of the autobiography itself may also be an illusion in which truth and authenticity are queered through the form of the autobiography itself.

The interpretation of Hegelian theodicy that has emerged over previous chapters finally allows us to understand Hegel’s accusation that Leibnizian theodicy is undermined by its ‘abstract’ and ‘indeterminate’ categories. As Hegel’s fuller discussion of Leibniz’s theodicy shows, the root of the problem is that his theodicy is afflicted by two kinds of ‘arbitrariness’: first, Leibniz’s application of axiological criteria to worldly instances eludes rational comprehension; second, Leibniz simply presupposes those criteria, with the result that the mutual implication of good and evil remains an unexplained given. Hegel’s own theodical enterprise, however, is not without its internal tensions. Following through on the logic of Hegel’s theodicy as geared towards effecting reconciliation means seeing it as effecting a break with the juridical model found in Kant and Leibniz: the goal of justification must be renounced not as unrealisable, but as misconceived. Nevertheless, Hegel’s own presentations of the goal of his philosophy frequently betrays a justificatory ambition that marks a fundamental continuity with his predecessors, seemingly invoking a teleological logic, whereby history can be measured by an absolute end or standard. The ultimate assessment of Hegelian theodicy turns, in large part, on whether this should be understood as rhetoric or rationale.

This chapter surveys the handful of extant biblical plays written or translated during the last quarter of the sixteenth century to offer an overview of this complex and generically diverse group of plays. The descriptions found on their title pages provide a snapshot of the multiplicity of their tone and identity, with some termed comedies, some tragedies, and others using the trope of the looking glass to gesture at the homiletic mode of the de casibus tradition. The chapter argues that these varied descriptions permit the modern reader a more nuanced understanding of the continuities between these biblical plays and the earlier models of liturgical drama from the pre-Reformation past, with George Peele’s David and Bethsabe (1590) as a case in point. The play draws on the tradition of King David as an exemplar of lust and treachery, but Peele offers a more complex account of David’s reign by including the rebellion of his son Absalon and the planned accession of his heir Solomon. The play scrutinises providential monarchy as a model of kingship and tackles other topical issues such as the responsibilities of the monarch to govern and receive advice.

This chapter analyses Wittgenstein’s notion of ‘form of life’ as his final model of context. It argues that the deliberate vagueness of this concept represents Wittgenstein’s attempt to avoid the metaphysical commitments involved in previous formal models while still providing tools for understanding context. This strategic formlessness contrasts with how the concept was later interpreted in anthropology.

Any film directed by Carol Reed after The Third Man was bound to attract attention. Reviewers expecting another masterpiece found themselves almost unanimously expressing disappointment at Outcast of the Islands. Looking back at the film now it is clear that Outcast belongs to that group of 1950s films that challenge the conformist reputation of British films made during the decade. The film's key motif is exile, from the self, as well as from geographical and cultural roots. After the mixed reception that greeted Outcast of the Islands, Reed reverted to a trusted formula, one that had brought him his greatest critical successes, the thriller format of Night Train, Odd Man out, The Fallen Idol, and, above all, The Third Man. Reed's last film for Korda, A Kid for Two Farthings, sees him focusing more directly on aspects of British life before launching himself as an international, Hollywood-backed director.

The unprecedented experience of economic growth, full employment, immigration from all over the world and ever-rising living standards both delighted and shocked independent Ireland in the early twenty-first century. Many Irish businesses achieved global success. In 2004, 10 per cent of people living in Ireland were not born here. Immigration slowed a little after the global crash of 2008 when emigration rose again, and unemployment, but it soon recovered. Swingeing austerity measures and cuts in public services after this made a kind of economic recovery possible, and Ireland by the centenary of the 1916 Rising seemed buoyant once more, with inclusive emphasis on the ‘New Irish’ of all ethnicities. Workers in health care and education however felt the impact of cuts, and in the private sector trade union membership fell. Homelessness rose as house prices and rents soared. Investment in public amenities and green energy, however, were positive developments.

Northern Ireland also saw enhancement of public space but did not experience the same economic boom. Political developments led to the two political extremes, Sinn Fein and Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionist Party, working together. Tensions remained but peace prevailed. In 2016, Northern Ireland’s preference to remain in the European Union was negated by an overall UK vote to leave.

This chapter discusses the nature of the Crimean War, a war which incorporated much of the old eighteenth-century style of warfare, especially on the Russian side, but on the allied side saw the beginnings of twentieth-century industrialized total war. It demonstrates why this put the Russians, whose agrarian economy was based on serf labor, at an exponentially greater disadvantage, placing added burdens on the Russian nurses. In the Russian and Ottoman empires there had been little social change since the Napoleonic Wars, but the industrial revolution had produced significant changes in Britain, France, and Piedmont-Sardinia. At the same time, in these three countries a humanitarian movement was developing, and the populations were more literate and better able to put pressure on their governments, thus politicizing diplomacy and war service. The chapter explains the very major differences between military and civilian patients. It also includes an outline of the war as seen by a veteran soldier, and details the status of medicine and nursing in the 1850s.

This chapter focuses on two major axes of social identity in India: caste and tribe. It provides an overview of the two categories, in particular focusing on how the categories are identified and measured in national-level macro data. It summarizes key features of contemporary economic disparities along these two dimensions. The chapter discusses the overlap between caste/tribal status and religion and provides a summary overview of the racial theory of caste. Tribe as a category has specific dimensions that are distinct from the caste system. The chapter reviews these and moves on to a discussion of the intersection of caste/tribe category with sex. The evidence in the chapter suggests that caste and tribe continue to define socio-economic status in contemporary India. India’s affirmative-action policies addressing caste, tribe and gender disparities are necessary, but not sufficient, to lower the influence of the lottery of birth on individual outcomes.

A summing-up of the previous chapters by exploring aspects of Ireland that remain distinctively Irish in the early twenty-first century, involving a discussion of Irish names, landscape and folk beliefs.