Ronald Blythe: ‘Just a voice for his time’

Rural History ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-22
Author(s):  
K. D. M. Snell
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Oral History ◽  
Creative People ◽  
Great Range ◽  
Religious Books ◽  
Autobiographical Work ◽  
Literary Output

AbstractRonald Blythe is often seen as Britain’s finest living rural writer. He has published over thirty books, some of them, like Akenfield and The View in Winter, widely acknowledged as classics, inspiring a film and follow-up books by others. His literary output has been extraordinary: novels, short stories, poetry, rural documentary writing, oral history, ‘parish’ writing, religious books, his own autobiographical work (among a remarkable milieu of creative people), and historical studies ranging from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries. He has also edited a great range of authors and types of writing. Ronald Blythe is especially an East Anglian author, writing about that English region, in whose work the local and the religious are often to the fore. As this famous author approaches one hundred years of age, this article is a forthright academic appreciation of his work, a discussion of its themes and impressive variety, and an analysis of the meanings and importance of his writing to modern readerships.

Popularizing History: the Case of Gustav Preller

1988 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 521-535 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabel Hofmeyr
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Oral History ◽  
South African ◽  
Cultural Resources ◽  
Detailed Consideration ◽  
The Past ◽  
Frequent Use ◽  
Visual Skills ◽  
The Subject

Gustav Preller (1875–1943), a prolific and popular South African historian, is the man largely responsible for shaping many of the key myths of Afrikaner nationalism. One of these is the concept of the Great Trek, an interpretation of the nineteenth-century movement of Boers into the interior. It is Preller's written and visual version of this social movement that has been the dominant one for the last seven decades. Preller worked with a variety of media including books, newspapers, magazines, drama and film, and always produced works that sold in significant numbers. Yet despite his obvious impact and importance, Preller has been the subject of little research. This article attempts to assess Preller's work in relation to questions concerning the cultural fabrication of nationalisms. It asks how Preller did his popularizing work: what techniques, conventions, narrative formulas and social languages did he deploy in his work and whence did he derive these cultural resources? For Preller, one of the most crucial themes in his work had to do with how people recalled the past and more importantly how one could get them to ‘enact’ this memory in their own lives. Much of his work can be read as a search to find strategies of storing the past in forms which would make popular sense. He relied heavily on oral history and he also familiarized himself with popular forms of both oral and written storytelling which in turn inform his work. In 1916 he became involved in filming De Voortrekkers and these visual skills became a key ingredient in all of his ventures. His interest in the visual also informed his frequent use of the physical objects of the past as vehicles for popularizing his views. Another tactic that Preller followed was to explore and ‘colonize’ the institutions of popular leisure which he then remoulded in his nationalist enterprises. The article concludes with a detailed consideration of one of Preller's historical short stories.

scholarly journals The Collected Works of Charlotte Evans  1841-1882  Introduction and Biography

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Anne Doreen Brown
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Research Evidence ◽  
Victorian Studies ◽  
The North ◽  
The Social ◽  
Literary Heritage ◽  
Literary Output ◽  
Archive Material

<p>This thesis provides an introductory view of the life and works of early New Zealand romantic novelist Charlotte Evans 1841-1882. The work is comprised of three separate sections, including two introductions, a biographical essay and footnoting and markup for digitisation. Evans wrote short stories in addition to novels and poetry. I have attempted to create here a useful and informative overview of her two published novels Over the Hills and Far Away: A Story of New Zealand and A Strange Friendship: A Story of New Zealand - each of which were published in 1874. In the biographical essay I include a discussion of Evans’ general works, in particular the collection of poetry published by her husband Eyre Evans in 1917 entitled Poetic Gems of Sacred Thought. An important feature of the thesis has been to establish how Evans’ range of literary output may be cited and contextualised within New Zealand’s literary heritage in more detail than has previously been available. A significant aspect of the research has, in addition, involved examining the social and historical influences surrounding the author, both prior to and at the time of writing. In that respect the discussion has drawn upon available materials, such as book reviews and items published in newspapers. An appendix has been compiled of selected published poetry and articles from the North Otago Times of relevance to the foregoing text discussion. Contemporary photographs of Evans and map material of the ‘Teaneraki’ district are also included. It is hoped that situating the research evidence to specifically New Zealand contexts may provide a basis for positing Evans’ works more fully as New Zealand texts in their overall relation to pioneer period fiction. An important feature of the project has therefore meant developing a foundation of historical work concerning the author, much of which has been sourced from the National Alexander Turnbull Library and recently published family history that draws upon archive material related to the Evans and Lees families. Due reference to a range of recent critical texts has also, it is further hoped, enabled a more in-depth and detailed response to Evans’ contribution to the developing field of New Zealand literature and more specifically, Victorian Studies.</p>

scholarly journals História e memória: a soldadura da imaginação

2006 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Resemary Fritsch Brum
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Key Words ◽  
Oral History ◽  
Key Words Memory

Este artigo explora possibilidades em história oral, o desenvolvimento na contemporaneidade das ciências cognitivas e sua aproximação com histórias curtas. Essas direções podem ser fertilizadas pelo pesquisador nos estudos da memória, da narrativa e da oralidade. Abstract This article explores possibilities in oral history, the development of contemporary cognitive science and its proximity to short stories. These are directions to be taken by the researcher in the study of memory, narrative and orality. Palavras-chave: Memória. História. Ciência. Key words: Memory. History. Science.

scholarly journals Learning Historical Thinking With Oral History Interviews: A Cluster Randomized Controlled Intervention Study of Oral History Interviews in History Lessons

2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 444-484 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christiane Bertram ◽  
Wolfgang Wagner ◽  
Ulrich Trautwein
Keyword(s):  
Oral History ◽  
Intervention Study ◽  
Historical Thinking ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Randomized Controlled ◽  
History Approach ◽  
Cluster Randomized ◽  
Oral History Interviews ◽  
Live Group

The present study examined the effectiveness of the oral history approach with respect to students’ historical competence. A total of 35 ninth-grade classes ( N = 900) in Germany were randomly assigned to one of four conditions—live, video, text, or a (nontreated) control group—in a pretest, posttest, and follow-up design. Comparing the three intervention groups with the control group, the intervention groups scored better on four of the five achievement tests. Comparing the live group with the video and text groups, students in the live condition were more convinced of their learning progress at both measurement points. However, they scored lower than the video/text group on two achievement measures and higher on one at the posttest.

Irish Literary Cinema

2020 ◽  
pp. 441-458
Author(s):  
Kevin Rockett
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
James Joyce ◽  
Narrative Structure ◽  
Literary Fiction ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Female Agency ◽  
The Past ◽  
Edna O'brien ◽  
William Trevor ◽  
Literary Output

This chapter examines the adaptation of Irish literary fiction for the screen over the past century. The discussion addresses three main aspects of this theme, beginning with the influence of the cinema and cinema-going on authors as recorded in their memoirs and literary output, and the influence of cinematic form on narrative structure, the latter being most evident in the later work of James Joyce. A second strand examines notions of female agency as they are refracted through the lens of the migrant experience in the novels of Edna O’Brien, Maeve Binchy, and Colm Tóibín. Finally, the post-independence legacy, as depicted in adaptations of the novels and short stories of John McGahern and William Trevor in particular, is discussed as a means of revealing the predicament of those psychically frozen during a time of economic, social, and cultural stagnation.

scholarly journals Od Turgieniewa do Moore’a — rola literatury rosyjskiej w ideologii Ligi Gaelickiej

2018 ◽  
pp. 65-74
Author(s):  
Joanna Jarząb
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Native Language ◽  
The State ◽  
Cultural Phenomenon ◽  
Celtic Revival ◽  
George Moore ◽  
Irish People ◽  
Autobiographical Accounts ◽  
Literary Output

The paper scrutinizes George Moore’s fascination with Ivan Turgenev’s literary output, which led the Irish novelist into writing his first collection of short stories. Interestingly, the abundance of influences resulted in George Moore being one of the few Irish writers, who, throughout his writing career, went from the state of eager interest in the Celtic Revival to the bitter criticism of the Gaelic League, visible in his autobiographical accounts. Interestingly, his collection of short stories The Untilled field (1903) well illustrates this process. Initially written in order to be used by the members of the Gaelic League as a text for translation into Irish, and therefore as a medium of dissemination of the native language among Irish people, later became a source of influence for James Joyce’s Dubliners. Therefore, the following paper aims to investigate the case of George Moore’s The Untilled field as a literary and cultural phenomenon. The reference to Ivan Turgenev’s A sportsman’s sketches (1852) is to be scrutinized. What is more, the paper investigates how the initial interest in the idea of a „Dublin Turgenev” did not end on this particular project but had a greater impact on Moore’s literary career. 

scholarly journals The Collected Works of Charlotte Evans  1841-1882  Introduction and Biography

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Anne Doreen Brown
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Research Evidence ◽  
Victorian Studies ◽  
The North ◽  
The Social ◽  
Literary Heritage ◽  
Literary Output ◽  
Archive Material

<p>This thesis provides an introductory view of the life and works of early New Zealand romantic novelist Charlotte Evans 1841-1882. The work is comprised of three separate sections, including two introductions, a biographical essay and footnoting and markup for digitisation. Evans wrote short stories in addition to novels and poetry. I have attempted to create here a useful and informative overview of her two published novels Over the Hills and Far Away: A Story of New Zealand and A Strange Friendship: A Story of New Zealand - each of which were published in 1874. In the biographical essay I include a discussion of Evans’ general works, in particular the collection of poetry published by her husband Eyre Evans in 1917 entitled Poetic Gems of Sacred Thought. An important feature of the thesis has been to establish how Evans’ range of literary output may be cited and contextualised within New Zealand’s literary heritage in more detail than has previously been available. A significant aspect of the research has, in addition, involved examining the social and historical influences surrounding the author, both prior to and at the time of writing. In that respect the discussion has drawn upon available materials, such as book reviews and items published in newspapers. An appendix has been compiled of selected published poetry and articles from the North Otago Times of relevance to the foregoing text discussion. Contemporary photographs of Evans and map material of the ‘Teaneraki’ district are also included. It is hoped that situating the research evidence to specifically New Zealand contexts may provide a basis for positing Evans’ works more fully as New Zealand texts in their overall relation to pioneer period fiction. An important feature of the project has therefore meant developing a foundation of historical work concerning the author, much of which has been sourced from the National Alexander Turnbull Library and recently published family history that draws upon archive material related to the Evans and Lees families. Due reference to a range of recent critical texts has also, it is further hoped, enabled a more in-depth and detailed response to Evans’ contribution to the developing field of New Zealand literature and more specifically, Victorian Studies.</p>

The Artistic Conscience of Vachel Lindsay

1968 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 239-252
Author(s):  
Ann Massa
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
American Poetry ◽  
Literary Output

Vachel Lindsay's description of himself as ‘the “Casey At-the-Bat” of American poetry’ sums up his reputation during his lifetime (1879–1931) and today. Perhaps only half-a-dozen of his poems—‘General William Booth Enters into Heaven’, ‘The Congo’, ‘Bryan, Bryan, Bryan, Bryan’, for example—are regularly read; and the rest of his diverse literary output, from 1909 to 1931, of nine collections of poems (and a mid-wayCollected Poems), five prose works, numerous short stories, articles and private periodical publications, remains virtually unknown.

All the Lives He Led

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael R. Page
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Publishing Activity ◽  
Literary Agent ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Literary Output ◽  
The Way ◽  
Academic Study

This book chronicles the work of Frederik Pohl, one of the leading figures in the field of science fiction (SF). Pohl's literary output spans nine decades from his poem “Elegy to a Dead Planet: Luna,” published in 1937, to his final book, All the Lives He Led, and The Way the Future Blogs. In between he wrote novels, short stories, story collections, and nonfiction books; edited anthologies and SF magazine issues; and wrote countless essays, editorials, and reviews. The book examines how Pohl's publishing activity and his work as a literary agent in the late 1940s and early 1950s shaped the SF field. It also considers the role played by Pohl in the development of SF as a more or less respectable area of academic study and in the creation and development of SF fandom.

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