Bent Holm Libri

Ludvig Holberg (1684–1754) is to Danish theatre what Shakespeare, Molière and Strindberg are to their national stages – and the world stage. During his lifetime, Holberg was a major figure in European literature and thought. In the Nordic region, his work forms the backdrop to writers such as Søren Kierkegaard, Hans Christian Andersen, Henrik Ibsen and Karen Blixen. This second volume in a series of ne w translations presents two of Holberg’s witty plays about playing roles, in life and in the theatre, and his satire about the man-made setting in which the roles live: his ‘feminist’ defence of women’s equal right to education and employment. With introductions and brief notes.

For centuries, the figure of ‘the Turk’ evoked both fascination and fear, symbolizing a world of pirates, sultans, and odalisques, while also representing the Ottoman Empire's real confrontations with Western powers. This complex image dissolves under historical scrutiny, revealing intricate combinations of military, commercial, and religious contexts. The narrative explores three centuries of cultural history between Denmark and the Ottoman Empire within a broader European framework. It traces the evolution of ‘the Turk’ from a diabolical figure in early modern royal ceremonies to benign ‘Turkish’ entertainment in the late nineteenth century. Artistic, theatrical, and theological notions interact paradoxically against a backdrop of pragmatic ties with the Ottomans. This exploration of a long-forgotten connection between a small Northern European nation and a powerful Oriental empire draws on previously neglected source materials—plays, paintings, treaties, and travelogues—that were significant in their time. The portrayal of ‘exotic’ figures often reflects self-images, and these documents unlock insights into the mental and fundamental (pre)conditions shaping imagery even today.

Scholars and experts in anthropology, theatricality, ethnoscenology, dance, religious studies, theology, history and art have contributed to the inspiring exchange of intellectual inquiry in this book. It presents the revised lectures and a selection of the revised papers from the international and interdisciplinary conference Religion, Ritual, Theatre which took place in April 2006 at the University of Copenhagen. The aim of the book is to intertwine new theories with concrete case studies in an empirical and practical manner. Case studies from different places and various cultures in Europe, South Africa, the Near East and India demonstrate noticeable parallels concerning the notions of embodiment and practice. Even though these upcoming perspectives share a rather redundant vocabulary they nevertheless seem to contribute to a common ground of a phenomenology of the body, of action and perception.