 | In his new book "Ayurveda," Dr. Frank Ninivaggi explains the ancient Indian medical tradition in terms Westerners can understand. |
The following is a list of books recently or soon to be published by members
of the Yale community. Descriptions are based on material provided by the publishers.
Authors of new books can forward publishers’ book descriptions to Susan Gonzalez. In this book on early Latin American narrative, Rolena Adorno argues that
the core of the Spanish-American literary tradition consists of the writings
in which the rights to Spanish domination in the Americas and the treatment
of its natives were debated. She places the works of canonical Spanish and
Amerindian writers of the 16th and 17th centuries within this larger polemic
and shows how their works sought credibility within the narrative system itself,
rather than in the historical events that lay outside it. Kaibara Ekken (1630-1714) was a prominent Japanese scholar who spread Neo-Confucian
ideas and moral teachings throughout Japan. He was also known as the “Aristotle
of Japan” for his studies of the natural world. “The Record of
Great Doubts” is the culmination of a lifetime of seeking a unified view
of humans and nature. Mary Evelyn Tucker’s translation makes this text
available for the first time in English, and features an introduction that
situates Ekken within the currents of his time and within the larger debates
of Neo-Confucianism in East Asia. Ekken’s text represents one of the
central reflections in East Asian thought on the significance of qi ch’i,
the material force coursing through all life. “The Record of Great Doubts” emphasizes
the role of qi in achieving a life of engagement with other humans, with the
larger society and with nature as a whole. “The Philosophy of Qi” is
also known, in its romanized form, as “The Philosophy of Ch’i.” Derived from prehistoric sages living in ancient India some 6,000 years ago,
Ayurveda denotes life wisdom and is arguably the oldest medical tradition that
exists. This book translates the Eastern wisdom into terms and concepts Westerners
can understand. Dr. Frank Ninivaggi explains how Ayurveda can promote physical
and mental health by targeting threats ranging from acute and chronic stress
to pre-diabetes, metabolic syndrome, obesity, coronary artery disease and diabetes.
Practical nutritional guidelines for maintaining health and addressing health
imbalances are given. The center of attention in Ayurveda is the person. The
meaningfulness of a quality of life in the world is central in this medical
tradition. Living a quality life with others and in accord with nature — the
environment at large — is emphasized. Ninivaggi points out the health
strategies that are suggested for specific individual constitutional types
to prevent emotional distress, treat illness and enhance optimal living. In his autobiography, “A Scholar’s Tale,” Geoffrey Hartman
describes his early education and his development as a literary scholar and
cultural critic. He reflects on how his career was influenced by his experience,
at the age of nine, of being a refugee from Nazi Germany in the Kindertransport.
He spent the next six years at school in England, where he developed his love
of English literature and the English countryside, before leaving to join his
mother in America. Hartman sets his experiences in the context of his gradual
self-awareness of what scholarship implies and how his personal displacements
strengthened his calling to mediate between European and American literary
cultures. Hartman helped establish the study of Romanticism as key to the problems
of modernity and was a pioneer in Jewish studies, trauma studies and studies
of the Holocaust. In his new book, he covers major trends in literary criticism,
presenting portraits of such noted critics as Harold Bloom, Paul de Man and
Jacques Derrida. This volume explores the different configurations of the relationship between
attachment and sexuality. A unifying thread of the papers featured in the book
is that the attachment system, particularly the degree of felt security in
relation to early attachment figures, provides a paradigm of relatedness that
forms a scaffold for the developmental unfoldng of sexuality in all of its
manifestations. Also central to the papers is the idea that the development
of secure attachment is predicated, in part, on the development of the capacity
for mentalization — the ability to envision and interpret the behavior
of oneself and others in terms of intentional mental states, including desires,
feelings, beliefs and motivations. To be convicted of a crime in the United States, a person must be proven guilty “beyond
a reasonable doubt.” In his new book, James Whitman examines the history
of law and discovers that society has lost sight of the original purpose of “reasonable
doubt.” He points out that it was not originally a legal rule at all,
but a theological one. He traces the history of this concept through centuries
of Christian theology and common-law history to reveal that the original concern
was to protect the souls of jurors. In Christian tradition, a person who experienced
doubt yet convicted an innocent defendant was guilty of a mortal sin. Jurors
fearful for their own souls were reassured that they were safe, as long as
their doubts were not “reasonable.” Today, the old rule of reasonable
doubt survives, but it has been turned to different purposes. The result, Whitman
maintains, is confusion for jurors and a serious moral challenge for the American
system of justice. In “Art of the Everday,” Ruth Yeazell plumbs the realist novels
of writers like Honoré de Balzac, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy and Marcel
Proust to uncover their relationship with the Dutch painters of the 17th century.
Yeazell writes that “at different stages of their careers, each of the
principle writers I examine strove to create illusions of the real by reproducing
in words some version of Dutch painting.” She notes that at the Louvre,
Balzac presumably saw a picture of Gerrit Dou of which he made use in a tale
of 1840; that at the National Gallery Thomas Hardy could admire a landscape
by Meindert Hobbema whose emotional effect he specifically recorded in his
notebook; and that Proust’s encounter with Vermeer’s “View
of Delft” in The Hague was still a cherished memory when he composed
the fifth volume of his masterwork nearly two decades later.
T H I S
Yale Books in Brief
The Polemics of Possession in Spanish American Narrative
Rolena Adorno, the Reuben Post Halleck Professor of Spanish and chair of the
Department of Spanish and Portuguese
(Yale University Press)
The Philosophy of Qi: The Record of Great Doubts
By Kaibara Ekken, translated and edited by Mary Evelyn Tucker, visiting professor
in the Institution for Social and Policy Studies and the Yale School of Forestry
and Environmental Studies
(Columbia University Press)
Ayurveda: A Comprehensive Guide to Traditional Indian Medicine for the West
Dr. Frank J. Ninivaggi, assistant clinical professor at the Child Study Center
and in psychiatry
(Praeger Publishers)
A Scholar’s Tale: Intellectual Journey of a Displaced Child of Europe
Geoffrey Hartman, Sterling Professor Emeritus of English and Comparative Literature
and director of the Yale Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
(Fordham University Press)
Attachment & Sexuality
Edited by Sidney J. Blatt, professor
of psychiatry and psychology and chief
of the Psychology Section of the Department of Psychiatry, and Diana Diamond
and Joseph D. Lichtenberg
(Psychoanalytic Inquiry Book Series, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc.)
The Origins of Reasonable Doubt: Theological Roots of the Criminal Trial
James Q. Whitman, the Ford Foundation Professor of Comparative and Foreign
Law
(Yale University Press)
Art of the Everyday: Dutch Painting and the Realist Novel
Ruth Bernard Yeazell, the Chace Family Professor of English and director of
the Lewis Walpole Library
(Princeton University Press)
W E E K ' SS T O R I E S
Yale cuts costs for families and students
Homebuyer benefit increased
Fossil solves mystery of extinct animal's origins
Team learns Abu Dhabi desert once lush habitat
Meeting the challenges of nursing care in Nicaragua
Foundation’s gift to the School of Drama establishes . . .
ENDOWED PROFESSORSHIPS
Marans has been appointed as Harris Professor
Medzhitov named first incumbent of Wallace chair
State is designated as Cohen Associate Professor
Study: Despite efforts, racial disparities in cancer care continue
Law School students argue case before the nation’s highest court
Sharp cited as ‘superb teacher of teachers’
Events commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. Day
The color printmaking revolution is highlighted in new exhibition
Symposium to examine the university’s role as architectural patron
Forum will explore the use of neuroimaging in study of alcoholism
Memorial Service for George Hersey
Yale Books in Brief
Campus Notes
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