Judith Ryan Boeken

For the Aboriginals of Australia, bark painting has long been part of a communications concept where people gather for ceremonies, revelation and rites of passage. Bark is the surface plane of the deep volume of ancestral knowledge outsiders can glimpse but never fully understand. Yet as art and design and with artists' new visual metaphors, the art has a tremendous power. This ancient form made modern blends sacred geometry and cosmic ideas with the concrete and is being avidly collected in the international fine art market. (National Gallery of Victoria)

"Long before the British invaded Australia in 1788, first peoples' art traditions flourished for thousands of generations. Their art shaped the continent as we know it today and the societies that thrived here; but it was not regarded as 'fine art' by the settlers until the late 1980s. 65,000 Years: A Short History of Australian Art celebrates the longevity and brilliance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art."--Back cover.

Focusing on both traditional and contemporary works, this introduction reveals the depth and beauty of German poetry. It highlights the emotional and intellectual rewards of engaging with these poems, offering readers insights into the cultural and historical contexts that shape them. Through a blend of classic and modern examples, the book invites readers to appreciate the nuances and artistry found in German poetic expression.

Judith Ryan traces Rilke's development from aestheticism to modernism, paying special attention to the way his work engages with other poetry and the visual arts. Taking a skeptical view of Rilke's own myth of himself as a solitary genius, Ryan shows how deeply his writing is embedded in the culture of its day. Rilke is now the most widely-read and influential German-language poet, and this study is full of surprising discoveries about his innovative and often profoundly moving poems.

'A New History of German Literature' offers some 200 essays on events in German literary history.