The volume Gardens of Madeira - Gardens of the World. Contemporary Approaches displays present tendencies in calling upon the idea of gardens, being a wide-range approach to their literary, sociological and cultural representations. The books four parts: Madeira: A Garden in the Sea?, Gardens as Temporal and Spatial Category. Cultural and Literary Approaches, Gardens as an Expression. Socio-cultural Perspectives and Re-Creating the Archetypal Garden - Discourses and Practices refer to vast geographical and cultural areas, starting with the very complex sample of the overseas-yet-European Island of Madeira, and then joining the exemplification material from historical and contemporary European communities (with some luso-centric accents), including examples from the less known Slavonic and Eastern European countries. Those European issues are confronted with various non-European societies such as from Africa, Asia, and both Americas. Gardens evoke and express in many ways the present human condition, and - as such a process goes on - this book provides proposals for patterns to connect them to the modern and post-modern rules of self defining, reading the Other, interpreting world/national/cultural literatures, as well as to the various attempts to introduce the idea of gardens into the basic spatial and temporal aspects of contemporary communities. It also demonstrates the theoretical and practical attempts to project our gardens dependence on to one of the essentials for contemporary societies which are multicultural, urbanised, technologically equipped and dependent, but which still are keen on reading and constructing paradises as environmental and cultural spaces for both asylum and encounter. The huge advantage of the book is showing to scholars and the wider public how discourses from the past meet with the quests of both the Humanities and the Sciences for gardening inspirations, not only for the sake of the today's societies, but also when projecting the future of the Earth.
About the Author: JOSE EDUARDO FRANCO was awarded his PhD in 2004 in History and Civilisations at Ecole de Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales about the myth of Jesuits in Portugal and Brazil. He is a Researcher and the Vice -Director of CLEPUL - Centre for Lusophone and European Literatures and Cultures, Faculty of Letters University of Lisbon and Coordinator of its Research group - CLEPUL 4: European Literatures and Cultures. He is also the Vice President of CompaRes - International Society for Iberian-Slavonic Studies, as well as the President of the European Institute of Culture of S.J. Manuel Antunes in Lisbon. Research interests: Myths of origin in the creation of nationalities, Ideas of Europe in the Portuguese Culture, Crossings of Cultural and Religious studies. Main publications: O Mito dos Jesuitas em Portugal, no Brasil, no Oriente e na Europa, Preface by Eduardo Lourenco, Bernard Vincent, Philippe Boutry and Luis Filipe Barreto, 2 Vols., Lisboa - Sao Paulo, Gradiva e Editora Arke, 2006; O mito do Marques de Pombal: A mitificacao do Primeiro-Ministro de D. Jose I pela Maconaria, (co-authored by Annabela Rita), Lisboa, Prefacio Editora, 2004. Recent publications: Danca dos Demonios - Intolerancia em Portugal: Anti-seminitismo, Anti-Islamismo, Anticlericalismo, Antijesuitismo, Antiprotestantismo, Antimaconismo, Antifeminismo, Anticomunismo, Antiliberalismo, Antiamericanismo, Obra coordenada por Jose Eduardo Franco em conjunto com AntonioMarujo e com a participacao de varios especialistas nas diferentes areas tematicas tratadas, Lisboa, Circulo de Leitores/Temas e Debates, 2009. Entre a Selva e a Corte: Novos Olhares Sobre Vieira, Coordenacao e introducao de Jose Eduardo Franco, Lisboa, Esfera do Caos, 2009, Vieira e a possibilidade de um Mundo Novo: Quinto Imperio como Projecto de Cidadania do Futuro, in [Lisboa], Paulo Mendes Pinto et al. (orgs.), Religiao & Ofensa: As Religioes e a Liberdade de Expressao, Lisboa, Edicoes Universitarias Lusofonas/Tenacitas, 2009, pp. 101-114. ANA CRISTINA DA COSTA GOMES was awarded her PhD in 2008 in Modern History (Portuguese Culture) at the University of Lisbon. In 2001 she gained her Master degree on Modern History (Portuguese Culture), University of Lisbon. She is a Researcher at the Macao Scientific and Cultural Centre (CCCM), working on the Project Tomas Pereira (1646-1708), S.J., Life, Work and World. She is the Director of the CCCM's library and a Member of the CCCM's Scientific Committee. Responsible for organizing eight international symposia, of which the most important are: Macau during the Ming Dynasty (CCCM, 2007) and Tomas Pereira, S.J. (1646-1708): Life, Work and World (CCCM, 2008). Teacher of Palaeography at the School of Decorative Arts of Foundation's Ricardo Espirito Santo and at the CCCM. Main Research interests: Oriental Study and Portugal, Crossings of Cultural and Religious Studies. Main publication: Author of Diogo de Sa. Horizontes de um Humanista, Lisbon: Prefacio, 2004. Published several articles on Portuguese Culture and the Orient and History of Religious Convents in Portugal. BEATA ELZBIETA CIESZYNSKA was awarded her PhD in 1999 in Literary Studies at the University of Gdansk, Poland. She is a Researcher of CLEPUL - Centre for Lusophone and European Literatures and Cultures, Faculty of Letters University of Lisbon and the Coordinator of its Research group CLEPUL 5 -: Iberian and Slavonic Literatures and Cultures, as well as the President of CompaRes - International Society for Iberian-Slavonic Studies. She is also a coordinator of the CISCR - ICS Commission for Iberian-Slavonic Comparative Research at the International Committee of Slavists. Research fields: History of Literature and Culture; Reading the Other in British and Polish Writings; Iberian-Slavonic Comparative Studies; Main publications: (author) The windows of the Soul. The Five Senses in the Literature of Baroque. Bydgoszcz: Point, 2006; (Ed). Iberian and Slavonic Cultures: Contact and Comparison. Lisbon: CompaRes, 2007. Recent publications: Amostras literarias de Portugal e dos paises lusofonos nos periodicos eslavos. O caso da revista polaca Literatura no Mundo / Literatura na swiecie (desde 1971), In: A Historia da Imprensae a Imprensa na Historia. O Contributo dos Acores, Carlos CORDEIRO e Susana Serpa SILVA (coordenacao), Ponta Delgada 2009, pp. 203-220.