"Altogether, the work is a delight, offering an unusual, provocative view on the disparate texts, with the added pleasure of lucid graceful prose." ―Journal of Modern Literature
Bettina Knapp probes the nature, meaning, and use of the architectural metaphors and archetypes that pervade all literature.

Archetype, Architecture, and the Writer

Literature & Fiction

Knapp, Bettina L.

History & Criticism

Indiana University Press

This literary biography details the life of Judith Gautier (1845-1917). Gautier, daughter of celebrated author Théophile Gautier and opera star Ernesta Grisi, carved a special niche in the literary world. Gautier was not only the first woman elected to the prestigious Goncourt Academy, but she was also nominated as Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. Additionally, her literary work was lauded by the French Academy, which generally did not accept women into their fold. From an early age, Gautier's world was filled with intensity, purpose, and the joys of imagination. Flaubert, Baudelaire, the Goncourt brothers, Dumas, Maxime du Camp, and Puvis de Chavannes were frequent guests of her father's at her childhood home. It was the stimulating company her father kept, along with his unwavering support that inspired Gautier's career as a writer and musicologist.After mastering the Mandarin language, Gautier wrote several groundbreaking works, including The Book of Jade, The Imperial Dragon, and Sister of the Sun. Much of her work is relevant today, such as the prophetic novel The Old Man on the Mountain, which chronicled an Islamic sect of fundamentalist terrorists.

Judith Gautier: Writer, Orientalist, Musicologist, Feminist

Hamilton Books

Explores the role played by women in ancient societies through the analysis of specific myths from nine different lands.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, Nü-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.

Women in Myth

State Univ of New York Pr

Explores the role played by women in ancient societies through the analysis of specific myths from nine different lands. 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, Nü-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.

Focuses on the role played by the feminine principle in specific religious texts, epic poems, theater pieces, and tales narrating sacred events in which deities and supernatural or extraordinary beings move through their difficult celestial and earthly trajectories.

Women, Myth, and the Feminine Principle (Thought)

Religion & Spirituality

Focuses on the role played by the feminine principle in specific religious texts, epic poems, theater pieces, and tales narrating sacred events in which deities and supernatural or extraordinary beings move through their difficult celestial and earthly trajectories. Women, Myth, and the Feminine Principle focuses on the role played by women in specific religious texts, epic poems, theater pieces, and tales narrating sacred events in which Deities and supernatural or extraordinary beings move through their difficult celestial and earthly trajectories. This is a companion volume to Bettina L. Knapp's Women in Myth and it includes chapters dedicated to the study of two works that have never been broached before, the Tibetan myth Gesar of Ling and the Guatemalan sacred text, the Popul Vuh. 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 Nibe-lungenlied 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.

Women, Myth, and the Feminine Principle

State University of New York Press

The fate of the hero-gambler, as described by Dostoevsky, Balzac, Poe, and others, is the focus of this unprecedented exploration of gambling and the human psyche. Bettina Knapp 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.

Gambling, Game, and Psyche (Suny Series Psychoanalysis and Culture)

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Addiction & Recovery

Gambling, Game, and Psyche (Suny Series in Psychoanalysis and Culture)

French Fairy Tales: A Jungian Approach (Suny Series in Psychoanalysis and Culture)

Offers an analysis of fourteen French fairy tales, from the medieval Romance of Mélusine to Jean Cocteau's film version of Beauty and the Beast, exploring their universal and eternal nature as well as their relevance to modern readers. Bettina L. Knapp explores the universal and eternal nature of fourteen French fairy tales, including the medieval Romance of Mélusine, Charles Perrault’s seventeenth-century versions of Sleeping Beauty and Bluebeard, and Jean Cocteau’s film version of Beauty and the Beast. She demonstrates the relevance of these fairy tales for modern readers, both for the psychological problems they address and for the positive resolutions they offer. Through her careful examination of these tales, Knapp shows that people in past eras suffered from such supposedly “modern” problems as alienation and identity crises and went through harrowing ordeals before experiencing some sort of fulfillment. By imparting the age-old wisdom embedded in these works, French Fairy Tales triggers new insights into psychological problems and offers helpful ways of dealing with them.

Offers an analysis of fourteen French fairy tales, from the medieval Romance of Mélusine to Jean Cocteau's film version of Beauty and the Beast, exploring their universal and eternal nature as well as their relevance to modern readers. Bettina L. Knapp explores the universal and eternal nature of fourteen French fairy tales, including the medieval Romance of Mélusine, Charles Perrault’s seventeenth-century versions of Sleeping Beauty and Bluebeard, and Jean Cocteau’s film version of Beauty and the Beast. She demonstrates the relevance of these fairy tales for modern readers, both for the psychological problems they address and for the positive resolutions they offer. Through her careful examination of these tales, Knapp shows that people in past eras suffered from such supposedly “modern” problems as alienation and identity crises and went through harrowing ordeals before experiencing some sort of fulfillment. By imparting the age-old wisdom embedded in these works, French Fairy Tales triggers new insights into psychological problems and offers helpful ways of dealing with them.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Knapp, Bettina L.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Knapp, Bettina L.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Knapp, Bettina L.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Archetype, Architecture, and the Writer

Judith Gautier: Writer, Orientalist, Musicologist, Feminist

Women in Myth

Women in Myth

Women, Myth, and the Feminine Principle (Thought)

Women, Myth, and the Feminine Principle

Gambling, Game, and Psyche (Suny Series Psychoanalysis and Culture)

Gambling, Game, and Psyche (Suny Series in Psychoanalysis and Culture)

French Fairy Tales: A Jungian Approach (Suny Series in Psychoanalysis and Culture)

French Fairy Tales: A Jungian Approach (Suny Series in Psychoanalysis and Culture)