Horace Walpole and W. S. Lewis

1967 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 64-75
Author(s):  
James William Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Literary History ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Alexander Pope ◽  
Horace Walpole ◽  
Richard Iii ◽  
Oil Paintings ◽  
Area Of Interest ◽  
Long Time

English literary history is full of the colorful individualists variously referred to as “characters,” “personalities,” or “eccentrics”; and the literary scene in eighteenth-century England had its full share of “originals,” to use Tobias Smollett's term. They ranged from the tendentious clergymen (Conyers Middleton, William Warburton, William Stukeley) to the Grub Street hacks (John Dennis, John Trenchard) to profligate rakehells (Charles Churchill, John Wilkes) and artistocratic dilettantes (the Duke of Chandos, the Earl of Eglinton, and scores more). Though some of these men wrote prodigious amounts — notably Middleton, Warburton, and Dennis — most of them are known today largely because they drew the anger of Alexander Pope and were amberized in The Dunciad or because Dr. Johnson dissected their opinions or because Boswell encountered them in his serendipitous career and recorded the fact in his Journals. A few of them, like Wilkes, were famous or infamous within political or social contexts; these have survived in historical works dealing with Georgian politics. For the most part, however, intellectual historians of the twentieth century are inclined to treat the Warburtons and the Monboddos as a rather bizarre species, now extinct: the overspecialized freaks thrown out by the current of ideological evolution.For a very long time Horace Walpole has been viewed by many scholarly critics as a similar sort of oddity. His literary productions were so varied, so numerous, and so uneven in quality that he defied placement in a single area of interest. Walpole's own account of his writings in the Short Notes of his life provokes in the reader wonder at a mind at once interested in making Latin verses on the marriage of the Prince of Wales, parodies of Macbeth with political overtones, Fontainesque fables about little white dogs, catalogues of oil paintings, bagatelle verses, vehement periodical essays and pamphlets, scores of cenotaphs for deceased acquaintances, and Historic Doubts on Richard III.

Van Winkle Words

2021 ◽  
pp. 192-205
Author(s):  
Ralph Keyes
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Greenhouse Effect ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Horace Walpole ◽  
Alarm Clock ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Rip Van Winkle

Many coined words lie dormant for a time, a long time even, then – like Rip Van Winkle – re-appear when needed. Such “Van Winkle words” include serendipity, which languished for nearly two centuries after being coined by Horace Walpole in 1754, before twentieth-century developments in science and technology needed that word to describe discoveries-by-chance. Changing circumstances are the alarm clock of slumbering words, waking them up as demand for such terminology mounts: greenhouse effect, vegan, groupthink. Slangy terms such as cool, chill, hip and vibe that sound so contemporary routinely turn out to have a long historical provenance. So do muggle, hobbit, and grit. Once these terms do reappear, they are typically thought to have been coined recently. This exemplifies what linguist Arnold Zwicky calls the recency illusion, “the belief that things YOU have noticed only recently are in fact recent.”

scholarly journals At the Borders of Translation: Traditional and Modern(ist) Adaptations, East and West

2009 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 387-400 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tak-Hung Leo Chan
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Literary History ◽  
Far East ◽  
Adaptive Methods ◽  
The West ◽  
The Far East ◽  
Inferior Status ◽  
East And West

Abstract Adaptation, as both a method and a textual category, has been a perennial favorite with text mediators who call themselves translators, appearing especially prominently in intersemiotic rather than interlingual translation. The present paper examines the concepts and practices of adaptation, drawing particular attention to examples from both the West and the Far East. Just as a preference for adaptive methods in translation can be seen in certain periods of Western literary history (e.g. seventeenth- and eighteenth-century France), there were times when adaptations were hailed in China, Japan and Korea. In the course of the discussion, reference will be made to (1) the modernist adaptations undertaken by Western writers through much of the twentieth century; (2) the sequences of novelistic adaptations spawned in Korea and Japan by Chinese classical novels; and (3) the adaptations of European novels by the prodigious twentieth-century Chinese translator Lin Shu. It will be shown that there is a need for translation scholars to question the theoretical validity of the dichotomy between the two modes of “translation” and “adaptation,” as well as an urgency to reconsider the supposed “inferior” status of adaptations.

scholarly journals Blonda själar: Johan Runius, maskulinitet, nation och genre i litteraturhistorien

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 34-58
Author(s):  
Anna Cullhed
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Literary History ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
The Face ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
Early Eighteenth Century ◽  
Late Twentieth Century

‘Blond Souls’: Johan Runius, Masculinity, Nation and Genre in Literary HistoryThis paper shows that the historiographical accounts of Johan Runius (1679–1713) remain remarkably stable, from the early stages of national literary history of the nineteenth century to the late twentieth century, despite the radical theoretical shifts taking place during the period. The poet Runius is generally described as an occasional poet, a rhyme virtuoso, a good-tempered man, and as a precursor of the celebrated Carl Michael Bellman, considered a uniquely Swedish genius. These features are connected to nineteenth- and early twentieth-century ideals of masculinity and the nation. Whereas Runius in the early nineteenth century was described as childish, during the later nineteenth century his good temper was interpreted as an ideal, steadfast masculinity in the face of the hardships of early eighteenth-century Sweden. Further, the historiographical tradition set greater store by poems defined as lyrical. The hailed poems were, in fact, occasional poems, but they were recontextualised by the literary historians as proof of Runius’ personal feelings. The article ends with new suggestions for reading Runius beyond nation as the ordering principle of literary history.

scholarly journals Millennialism, rapture and “Left Behind” literature.

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 163-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pieter GR De Villiers
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Religious Discourse ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Cultural Phenomenon

This article represents a research overview of the nature, historical roots, social contexts and growth of millennialism as a remarkable religious and cultural phenomenon in modern times. It firstly investigates the notions of eschatology, millennialism and rapture that characterize millennialism. It then analyses how and why millennialism that seems to have been a marginal phenomenon, became prominent in the United States through the evangelistic activities of Darby, initially an unknown pastor of a minuscule faith community from England and later a household name in the global religious discourse. It analyses how millennialism grew to play a key role in the religious, social and political discourse of the twentieth century. It finally analyses how Darby’s ideas are illuminated when they are placed within the context of modern England in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth century. In a conclusion some key challenges of the place and role of millennialism as a movement that reasserts itself continuously, are spelled out in the light of this history.

Espionage and Exile

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phyllis Lassner
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Popular Culture ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Literary History ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
The Political ◽  
International Crises ◽  
Popular Entertainment ◽  
John Le Carre ◽  
The Cold War

Espionage and Exile demonstrates that from the 1930s through the Cold War, British Writers Eric Ambler, Helen MacInnes, Ann Bridge, Pamela Frankau, John le Carré and filmmaker Leslie Howard combined propaganda and popular entertainment to call for resistance to political oppression. Instead of constituting context, the political engagement of these spy fictions bring the historical crises of Fascist and Communist domination to the forefront of twentieth century literary history. They deploy themes of deception and betrayal to warn audiences of the consequences of Nazi Germany's conquests and later, the fusion of Fascist and Communist oppression. Featuring protagonists who are stateless and threatened refugees, abandoned and betrayed secret agents, and politically engaged or entrapped amateurs, all in states of precarious exile, these fictions engage their historical subjects to complicate extant literary meanings of transnational, diaspora and performativity. Unsettling distinctions between villain and victim as well as exile and belonging dramatizes relationships between the ethics of espionage and responses to international crises. With politically charged suspense and narrative experiments, these writers also challenge distinctions between literary, middlebrow, and popular culture.

Marie Ulčová and her Contribution to the West Bohemian Museums

2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-23
Author(s):  
Nela Štorková
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
The West ◽  
West Bohemia ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Second World

While today the Ethnographic Museum of the Pilsen Region represents just one of the departments of the Museum of West Bohemia in Pilsen, at the beginning of the twentieth century, in 1915, it emerged as an independent institution devoted to a study of life in the Pilsen region. Ladislav Lábek, the founder and long-time director, bears the greatest credit for this museum. This study presents PhDr. Marie Ulčová, who joined the museum shortly after the Second World War and in 1963 replaced Mr. Lábek on his imaginary throne. The main objective of this article is to introduce the personality of Marie Ulčová and to evaluate the activity of this Pilsen ethnographer and the museum employee with an emphasis on her work in the Ethnographic Museum of the Pilsen Region. The basic aspects of the ethnographic activities, not only of Marie Ulčová but also of the Ethnographic Museum of the Pilsen Region in the years 1963–1988, are described through her professional and popularising articles, archival sources and contemporary periodicals.

The Gallic Singularity and the Royal Mistress

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-66
Author(s):  
Christine Adams
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
Political Power ◽  
The Political ◽  
Marie Antoinette ◽  
Louis Xvi ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Political Realm

The relationship of the French king and royal mistress, complementary but unequal, embodied the Gallic singularity; the royal mistress exercised a civilizing manner and the soft power of women on the king’s behalf. However, both her contemporaries and nineteenth- and early twentieth-century historians were uncomfortable with the mistress’s political power. Furthermore, paradoxical attitudes about French womanhood have led to analyses of her role that are often contradictory. Royal mistresses have simultaneously been celebrated for their civilizing effect in the realm of culture, chided for their frivolous expenditures on clothing and jewelry, and excoriated for their dangerous meddling in politics. Their increasing visibility in the political realm by the eighteenth century led many to blame Louis XV’s mistresses—along with Queen Marie-Antoinette, who exercised a similar influence over her husband, Louis XVI—for the degradation and eventual fall of the monarchy. This article reexamines the historiography of the royal mistress.

Historical Fragments’ Mobile Echo

Transfers ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan E. Bell ◽  
Kathy Davis
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Cultural Revolution ◽  
Ming Dynasty ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Refugee Crisis ◽  
The Third ◽  
Opium War ◽  
The Subject

Translocation – Transformation is an ambitious contribution to the subject of mobility. Materially, it interlinks seemingly disparate objects into a surprisingly unified exhibition on mobile histories and heritages: twelve bronze zodiac heads, silk and bamboo creatures, worn life vests, pressed Pu-erh tea, thousands of broken antique teapot spouts, and an ancestral wooden temple from the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) used by a tea-trading family. Historically and politically, the exhibition engages Chinese stories from the third century BCE, empires in eighteenth-century Austria and China, the Second Opium War in the nineteenth century, the Chinese Cultural Revolution of the mid-twentieth century, and today’s global refugee crisis.

Conclusion

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
John West
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Literary History ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Third ◽  
Religious Differences

Literary history often positions Dryden as the precursor to the great Tory satirists of the eighteenth century, like Pope and Swift. Yet a surprising number of Whig writers expressed deep admiration for Dryden, despite their political and religious differences. They were particularly drawn to the enthusiastic dimensions of his writing. After a short reading of Dryden’s poem to his younger Whig contemporary William Congreve, this concluding chapter presents three case studies of Whig writers who used Dryden to develop their own ideas of enthusiastic literature. These three writers are Elizabeth Singer Rowe, John Dennis, and the Third Earl of Shaftesbury. These case studies are used to critique the political polarizations of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century literary history and to stress instead how literary friendship crossed political allegiances, and how writers of differing ideological positions competed to control mutually appealing ideas and vocabularies.

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