Emil Staiger (1908-1987), a native of Switzerland, was one of the foremost scholars in the field of literary studies. Grundbegriffe der Poetik is a monument in the history of literary criticism that has been unavailable to the English reader until now. Of Staiger's works, Poetics is probably the most radical, the most disruptive, for it constructs a revolutionary new poetics and erects it alongside the old traditional Aristotelian one. Here Staiger challenges the usefulness of the most distinguished of Western literary critical paradigms, the genre theory, that since the eighteenth century has been part of critics' indispensable theoretical equipment--a sort of literary sine qua non. In its stead, Staiger proposes to explain literary genres on the basis of fundamental patterns of literary creativity. He selects his examples from various European literary traditions, thus engaging the scholar as well as the comparatist in national literatures. By choosing an inductive method, he speaks to all concerned with literary values.

In her introduction, Luanne Frank establishes how the Poetics mediates between those modes of criticism current in the 1940s and those of the 1980s, as well as between those held by European scholars and those embraced by American scholars. Frank places Staiger's work within the history of genre criticism from an American perspective, defines its goals and merits, and formulates a critical response long overdue in Europe and most welcome in the United States.

In a new volume of her exegetical commentary, Sr. Aquinata Boeckmann explores chapters 4-7 of the Rule of St. Benedict. They contain Benedict's instruction of how to learn and live the spiritual art of monastic life that is focused on Christ. In her close reading of the text and its sources she pursues questions such as the following: How do general Christian rules help us to live in community? How does obedience lead us closer to Christ? How does silence build community? How does humility deepen our love for Christ and those around us? Never losing sight of the reality of monastic life, Sr. Aquinata weaves together Benedict's wisdom and today's challenges to show the crucial spiritual elements of his Rule.

This new book by Sister Aquinata Boeckmann discusses the Prologue and chapters 1, 2, and 3 of the Rule of St. Benedict. In a lectio regulae she plumbs the depths of Benedict's vision. Listen, the first word of the Prologue, is a keyword that describes the main stance of the individual monastic, the superior, and the entire community. Listening to the Scriptures and in them to Christ guides individuals and the community on how to "run on the way of God's commandments" toward the goal of communal life in and with Christ. The first three chapters of the Rule concretize the principles of this communal spirituality of listening: the importance of a rule and a pastor for maintaining the community's attentiveness to life; the superior's responsibility to listen to individuals within the community; and the mutual listening between leader and community members, regardless of their age. As in her earlier books Sister Aquinata proves to be a true guide into the spirit of Benedict's Rule, which provides sound principles for listening in common in a community of life.

It is said that the heart of the home is the kitchen tale, and the same is true of the monastic home. Saint Benedict devoted ten chapters to the monastic tale and to providing and serving food as well as necessities; inserted in the middle are chapters on the sick, the aged, and children. That arrangement makes it clear that the tale is about care, not just discipline. Sister Aquinata Backmann offers a thorough study of these core chapters in Benedict's Rule. Drawing on scholarship and personal experience of the monastic tale, she demonstrates in this commentary the relationship between Benedict's Rule and other rules, including those of Basil, Augustine, and the Rule of the Master. More than discipline, what comes through here is the focus on care for weaker members, practicality about work schedules and demands, and the overall desire to meet the needs of the brothers and sisters sharing life together.

"Aquinata Backmann, OSB, PhD, is a member of the Benedictine Missionary Sisters of Tutzing, Germany. She has taught in Rome since 1973 at the Pontifical Institute for Spirituality and Moral Theology Regina Mundi and as the first woman professor at Sant' Anselmo. She is the author of "Perspectives on the Rule of Saint Benedict, " also published by Liturgical Press."