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Nineteenth-century travelogues by British travelers to Persia commonly include warnings against "excessive" Persian politeness, casting it as flattery or deceit. While this pejorative representation of Persian cordiality is a token of British Orientalism, it also highlights the incompatible measures for pleasantries in Persia and Britain. This essay traces the competing economies of social courtesy in these two contexts: a desire for utmost calculability in the British market entailed a new conception of politeness, one more moderate and commercial; by contrast, Persian politeness operated through gift-giving and "extravagant" greetings and complimenting. While the former hinges on a "modern" conception of commerce, the latter pivots around the bargain entailed in gift-giving. (Mis)recognition and (mis)translation of Persian "excess" as the hypocrisy of the ancien régime in the travelogues, however, signpost a teleological fabrication of the past which urges a global circulation of the British notion of polite character. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes the Indigenous Nuu-chah-nulth story of "How Son of Raven Stole the Light". The connection between the story's description of giving and the potlatch custom of food sharing is scrutinized along with the alleged relationship between the invisible and visible worlds and a GKS conference held in Grainau, Germany.

The article focuses on animals and gifts in Willa Cather's settler colonial fictions. It examines the treatment of the frontiersman Kit Carson and of giving and receiving in Cather's novel "Death Comes for the Archbishop." It also examines the key distinctions of the novel through a classic semiotic square, which is formed by aligning in crosswise fashion a pair of contradictory relations.

Marital boundary expectations among single young adults are examined within the context of gender and religiosity among a diverse single young adult sample (n = 422) consisting of college students residing in California, Utah, and Nebraska. Participants (ages 18–29,M = 22.42) completed an online survey and were given extra credit for their participation. The results show that these young adults tend to perceive the need for communication and gift-giving boundaries within the context of heterosexual marriages. Analyses also indicate a trend for women to have higher perceptions of marital boundaries than men and for religiosity (assessed in two different ways) to be linked with marital boundaries. Limitations and recommendations are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Arnould and Rose raise some interesting issues regarding my sharing paper (Belk 2010). We agree on some points, but I find that most of their contentions are misguided and are based on misunderstandings of the original paper, social science, the extended self, and the theory of the gift. Their alternative offering of mutuality is also perplexingly self-contradictory, romanticized, and illogical. In this reply I point out issues on which we agree as well as reasons for disagreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the methods of persuasion for religious donations employed in the play "Comedia de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe y sus milagros," by Jeronymite Diego de Ocaña. Topics covered include Ocaña's mission to obtain funding for the Monastery of Guadalupe in Spain, his use of varied poetic verses, exemplary characters and promises of divine assistance to advance this mission, and the playwright's use of the practice of reciprocity to his advantage.

Previous readers of "Morale du joujou," such as Giorgio Agamben, Philippe Bonnefis and Anne- Emmanuelle Berger, have emphasized the erotic and fetishistic elements of Baudelaire's depiction of the child at play. Focusing instead on the mnemonic questions raised by his text, this essay examines how Panckoucke's gift of a "souvenir" ties together the logic of memorialization with that of donation. In conversation with the work of Walter Benjamin and Jacques Derrida, it explores how Baudelaire's essay is invested in thinking the conditions that make memory possible, and in turn how the play of the toy and gift (but also the gift of the toy) become essential to a thinking of the event of memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author considers only imagined gifts, those that never were presented in reality but nevertheless came to be pivotal for many rulers, seeking to legitimize their audacious political ambitions. The best examples of such imagined gifts were those values and privileges that the Popes allegedly received from Constantine the Great after his conversion to Christianity. The fictitious generosity of Constantine was invented in ‘his' famous detailed charter forged in the 8th or 9th century. But other imagined gifts, also having strong legitimizing effect, used to come into being in the same way, due to equally elaborated narratives. As the principality of Moscow was striving for regional dominance in the 15th and 16th centuries, a series of influential texts was composed, describing and explaining the gifts of extraordinary political and symbolic relevance, allegedly made either to ancestors of the ruling dynasty, or to predecessors of the highest church dignitaries. The most known among those writings are the anonymous Tale of the Novgorodian White Cowl and the Tale of the princes of Vladimir, as well as the Epistle on the Monomachos Crown by Spiridon-Savva. These texts claimed that the secular potentates of Moscow, as well as ecclesiastical heads of Novgorod, had been presented in the past with invaluable insignia, either symbolizing the succession to the Roman emperors, or testifying the special benevolence of God. As the author finally argues, the morphology of these imagined gifts was mainly the same as of those in the Donation of Constantine: no really new regalia were created, but the ones already existing were vested with quite new, and nobler, significance, able to ensure a higher level of legitimacy for their possessors. Therefore the ways, how such imagined gifts used to be invented, seem to be substantially identical throughout Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay measures the extent to which gift-giving fails in an economy of reciprocity. Reading James Joyce's story 'A Mother' in terms of Derrida's notion of the gift as 'absolute loss,' I consider the implications of an economy of loss for Joyce's notion of sacrifice. Thus, I argue that the absence of an economy of sacrifice integrating 'absolute loss' engenders the zero-sum game at the heart of Dubliners. I depart from other readings of the short story in the context of an economy based on the ideal of balanced reciprocity, since these versions deny the pure gratuity of gift in its connotations of sacrifice and loss. While such theories form a good starting point for analyzing the 'moral economy' of Dubliners, they tend to overlook the fact that the only means to counteract the paralysis resulting from reciprocity is through the suspension of the economy of exchange. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines a string of stories collected from different kinds of sources: the Hanshi waizhuan ... (2nd century BC), the Shuiyuan ... (late-first century BC), the Lu Lianzi ... (? third century BC), the Shiji ... (first century BC), the Yinwenzi ... (fourth century BC), and the Xiaolin ... (third century AD). It aims to illustrate how a single story, defined as a tale-type, was adapted in six similar versions and how specific variations in its narrative served to convey different political or rhetorical agendas. In particular, this study aims to highlight how stories which were part of the traditional anecdotal lore and, in historical texts and works of the Masters, were used to substantiate an argument, once changed their reading context, could change their reading paradigm and become entertaining pieces of literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reframes Jean Rhys's critique of bourgeois culture in her second novel, After Leaving Mr Mackenzie, in terms of theories of the gift. On the one hand, Mackenzie genders the ideological separation of gifts and exchanges that Marcel Mauss argued was peculiar to Western culture and works to counter the concomitant failure of reciprocity between the sexes. On the other hand, the novel echoes Derrida's revision of Mauss, rendering the gift and especially its male and female characters' desire for the gift impossible. Ultimately, gift theory helps us to rethink motifs in and beyond Mackenzie, such as Rhys's 'masochism' and her representation of men and women as victims, and to illuminate the paradoxes at the heart of gifts of money and contractual relations more generally in her fiction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents literary criticism of the book "The Tain" by China Miéville. It focuses on the role of the uncanny in the novella. Details on the British science fiction subgenre which the author terms the cosy catastrophe are also presented. Other topics include gifts and the philosophical concept of hauntology as developed by theorist Jacques Derrida.

The hunter's gift is a common motif in stories by indigenous writers from Taiwan. I interpret the hunter's gift as symbolic, both of a way of life in which gift exchange predominates and also of a mentality in which the fruits of the forest are regarded as gifts, not as raw materials to be extracted and sold. Yet the hunter's gift in Taiwanese indigenous stories is always in danger of being sold, so that a story about a hunter's gift can be read as a meditation on the indigenous encounter with capitalist modernity. The article begins by drawing on Marcel Mauss's monograph on the gift and Marx's writings on alienation to develop a model of social transformation from gift society to commodity society. I propose 'ecorealism' as a genre of fiction in which an omniscient third person narrator places individual action not just in social but also in ecological context. Then I interpret three stories by Taiwan indigenous writers as works of ecorealism. These three stories, Auvini Kadresengan's "Home to Return to," Topas Tamapima's "The Last Hunter," and Badai's "Ginger Road" are, on first reading, nostalgic and tragic. I argue they are also critical of the impact of capitalism on community and ecology and hopeful that the gift economy might complement the commodity economy in interpersonal and ecological interchange. The indigenous hunter has been seen as a threat to wild animal populations, but the cultural tradition he represents might guide our responses to environmental problems, a possibility I consider in an afterword on the sustainability of the bushmeat trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A literary criticism is presented of the book "The Book of Jessica: A Theatrical Transformation," collaboratively written by the playwright and actor Linda Griffiths and the Metis author and educator Maria Campbell. Particular focus is given to the book's depiction of counterfeit money. An overview of the portrayal of the circulation of gifts within the book is provided.

A critique is presented of the early 17th century masque "The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses" by Samuel Daniel, which was staged in the British court of Queen Anne and performed by the queen and her ladies-in-waiting. The cost of costumes and props for the masque, the publication of the text after the performance, and the depiction of gifts in the play are discussed, as well as public finances for the royal courts and music in the play by composer Alfonso Ferrabosco.

This essay offers poetry criticism of the poem "Pearl" by Geoffrey Chaucer. It compares the element and composition of the poem with the coronal of Princess Blanche of England. It mentions that the poem offers a visual reference for the crown that maiden wears and that the coronal serves as a material analogue to the poem's structure. It particularly highlights the nature of ownership in ceremonial gifts and gift-giving in 14th century England.

The scene of the gifts of the emirs constitutes an interesting example of inter-discoursivity in the famous medieval theatrical pièce Jeu de saint Nicolas. Through a strictly literary reading, we may interpret this circumstance as an usual topos of the feudal homage. But, the anomalous and incomprehensible gift of the emir d'Outre l'Arbre Sec, a bag full of millstones, obliges us to read this scene through another point of view, through the daily language of Arras people. The gift of this strange emir constitutes just the device that is able to activate the recognition of the 'not said', as to say, that make the actual link between the text and his social context emerge. In this way, this scene reveals itself to be a satiric accusation against some famous characters of the Arras bourgeoisie. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A literary criticism of the book "Lucy Gayheart" by Willa Cather is presented. It outlines the characters and explores the symbolic significance of these characters. It refers to gifts accepted by college professors that entail research projects, citing Merrill Skaggs who shared her experiences as college professor at Drew University. An overview of the story is also given.

Presents literary criticism of the book "Men at Arms" by Evelyn Waugh. It outlines a particular passage in the novel in which the main character, Guy Crouchback, is given a cake. It discusses the theme of gift giving and receiving as it appears elsewhere in the novel, and also explores the Biblical passage in 1 Kings 19 in which the prophet Elijah is given a cake. The presence of Waugh's personal experiences in the novel is also examined.

The article examines the representation of gift-giving in tales written by Geoffrey Chaucer. He presents some situations in the tales in which gift-giving is practiced. He discusses gift-giving or its possibility arises against the contrasting background that a tale-telling contest has set for it. Moreover, the author explores the intention of Chaucer in including gift-giving in his tales.

The article discusses Rebecca Brown's novel, "Gifts of the Body." and discusses the development of intimacy between caretaker and client in hospice care. The narrator's ability to feel detached from care-giving is why she can be open to patients' physical and emotional needs--these are their gifts to her. The eleven chapters of gifts in the novel suggest that the caretaker/narrator cannot possibly give as much as is needed or receive as much as is given. The self-effacing receptivity of the caregiver, which eventually leads to "burnout," is a means for observing what occurs when witnessing trauma and when trying to understand loss and closure. In AIDS literature, Brown's book precedes Amy Hoffman's "Hospital Time" and Jamaica Kincaid's "My Brother."

This essay discusses the representation of an ethically flawed textual and material exchange in the novel "The Moonstone" by Wilkie Collins. Way of considering economic transactions in the novel and in Victorian novels; Reason behind the difficulty of Collins in describing an ethical form of exchange; Views of temporary theologians on the fate of the concept of gift in the realm of political, economic and social thinking.

The article assesses the homoerotic aspects of the poems of Robert Herrick. The author pointed out that a careful analysis of Herrick's gift lyrics thus reveals, at times, an unstable blurring of distinctions between person and thing. Such gift poems provide understanding on the changing relations between subjects and objects not only because they provide evidence of a merging of persons and things quite alien to the capitalist culture.

Analyzes the postcolonial myth of motherhood in the novel "Tu t'appelleras Tanga," by Calixthe Beyala. Overview of the story; Manifestation of maternal love in the novel; Discussion on the concept of gift.

Asserts the significance of gift giving and principle of reciprocity in ancient societies. Insights on the model of gift exchanging in peasant societies; Analysis of the narrative texts from the Hebrew scriptures; Details on the social and economic significance of exchanging gifts in Israel.

The article examines the concept of the economies of giving based on the work done by the French writer Helene Cixous, reading the Biblical passage of 2 Kings 4:8-27 within this paradigm. Subjects discussed include the Biblical text's themes on the relationship between the Shunammite woman and the prophet Elisha, bisexuality and the feminine notion of gift giving, and Cixous' social-intellectual context.

Argues for both the centrality and the ambivalence of the gift in George Eliot's works. Her books include `Daniel Deronda' and `Adam Bede'; Examination of the image of the poisonous gift in `The Mill on the Floss'; Characters; More.