F O R T H C O M I N G

a u t h o r s

p h i l o s o p h y

SPRING 2012

TYRANT OIDIPOUS

This is a new translation of Sophocles', Oedipus Rex, with special focus on the mantic and divinatory aspects of the historical times. The translators stay as close as possible to Sophocles's actual words and phrases, without added fluorishes, "corrections" (the introduction notes Sophocles's use of the term gyna, or "woman" when characters address Iokasta (Jocasta), and the way most translators use "Mistress" or "Lady," both of which are incorrect), or interpolations. At the same time that they’ve sought accuracy they’ve also been very concerned to make this text a readers' – or performers' – text, something that is compelling, exciting, and reflective of the fact that the play is, in fact, the world's first murder mystery. In his relentless investigation of the murder of Laios, Oidipous interviews witnesses, demands answers, turns up clues. He is as committed to rationality as Sherlock Holmes. On the other side, of course, is Teiresias, the blind seer.

SPRING 2012

OUT OF SILENCE:
Censorship in Theatre & Performance

This is a collection of essays on theatre, censorship and self-censorship written by a number of contemporary and influential critics such as: Marvin Carlson, Stephen Duncombe, Aleks Sierz, Tim Crouch, Baz Kershaw, Guillermo Gomez-Pena, Chantal Bilodeau, Lisa Schlesinger, Rinde Eckert and more.

AUTUMN 2012

X-BUDDHISTIC HALLUCINATION: MEDITATION, IDEOLOGY, NIHILISM

X-buddhistic Hallucination consists of two parts. The aim of part one, “Speculative Non-Buddhism,” is to present a new way of looking at Buddhism. Part two, “Meditation as Organon of Dissolution,” applies this critical theory toward the analysis of a classical Buddhist meditation text. The purpose of the theory that the author calls ‘speculative non-buddhism,’ however, is not to move cumbersomely through the morass of the Buddhist canon making proclamations apropos of this or that ancient doctrine. Wallis’s ambition is both more limited and farther reaching than that. His theory is concerned with western cultural criticism in the present. As such, it is being designed with three primary functions in mind: (i) to uncover Buddhism’s syntactical structure (unacknowledged even by—especially by—Buddhists themselves); (ii) to serve as a means of inquiry into the sense and viability of Buddhist propositions; and (iii) to operate as a check on the tendency of all contemporary formulations of Buddhism—whether of the traditional, religious, progressive or secular variety—toward ideological excess.

AUTUMN 2012

ANTHONY W. JOHNSON & JYRI VAAHTERA (EDS.):

FIVE RESTORATION PLAYS FROM THE KING'S SCHOOL, CANTERBURY