Postmortem, Elegy, and Genius

2021 ◽  
pp. 63-100
Author(s):  
Arden Hegele
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Ludwig Van Beethoven ◽  
John Keats ◽  
Lord Byron ◽  
Discursive Practices ◽  
Reading Public ◽  
Mutual Exchange ◽  
Napoleon Bonaparte ◽  
History Of ◽  
Taxonomical Classification

This chapter turns to the medical field of pathology, sketching out a new theory of how discursive practices of medicine might be dependent on literary models by examining the history of the postmortem report in relation to the Romantic elegy. It explores a brief moment in the early nineteenth century when medical postmortem reports became widely available to the reading public. Using commemorative responses to the death of John Keats as the central example, but also reading the widely published postmortem reports of the deaths of Napoleon Bonaparte, Lord Byron, and Ludwig van Beethoven, which afforded readers an unexpected degree of closeness with the metaphorically charged bodies of the departed, the chapter focuses on how the postmortem report provides a protocol for interpreting mortality across a range of memorial genres in medical and literary fields. The postmortem report is shown to adopt certain generic qualities of earlier epitaphs, while later elegies by Percy Shelley and Alfred Tennyson continue to display the medical genre’s influence. The postmortem report is revealed to participate in a mutual exchange with literary conventions, as it first appropriates generic conventions from epitaphic literature, and then asserts a scientific protocol of taxonomical classification within humanistic discourse. When used in this commemorative field, reading bodily symptomology becomes a hermeneutics of consolation that brings its readers into intimacy with figures of genius.

The History of ‘the Reading Public’

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Collini
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Literary History ◽  
Reading Public ◽  
Reading Matter ◽  
History Of ◽  
Victorian Periodicals

This chapter argues that accounts of ‘the reading public’ are always fundamentally historical, usually involving stories of ‘growth’ or ‘decline’. It examines Q. D. Leavis’s Fiction and the Reading Public, which builds a relentlessly pessimistic critique of the debased standards of the present out of a highly selective account of literature and its publics since the Elizabethan period. It goes on to exhibit the complicated analysis of the role of previous publics in F. R. Leavis’s revisionist literary history, including his ambivalent admiration for the great Victorian periodicals. And it shows how Richard Hoggart’s The Uses of Literacy carries an almost buried interpretation of social change from the nineteenth century onwards, constantly contrasting the vibrant and healthy forms of entertainment built up in old working-class communities with the slick, commercialized reading matter introduced by post-1945 prosperity.

scholarly journals Metamorphoses of the Ukrainian Song “Їkhav Kozak beyond the Danube”:Was the German Translation by Wilhelm Kuchelbecker Familiar to the Hungarian Count Poet Ferenc Teleki?

2021 ◽  
pp. 327-349
Author(s):  
Zsófia Kalavszky ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Print Media ◽  
Folk Song ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
German Language ◽  
Reading Public ◽  
German Culture ◽  
German Translation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Language Area

In my essay I trace how – by which means and through what channels – the Ukrainian song «Ĭхав козак за Дунай» (Kozak was riding beyond the Danube) reached Europe at the beginning of the nineteenth-century and then by the means of German mediation, sprang out onto Hungarian territories. In the German language area, it spread essentially as a folk song. Translated (or rather transcribed) into German by Christopher Tidge, the Ukrainian song reached the Kingdom of Hungary most likely together with the troops that took part in the Napoleon wars. At the same time, another version of the song circulated among the Hungarian elite in German culture. The latter was known as Russisches Lied in the translation of Theodor Körner – it was also in vogue and was distributed mainly in print media. The history of this song that in the first decade of the nineteenth century, gained fame in Czech, Polish, and English, has another line that may be interesting from the point of view of Russian and Hungarian literary connections. In 1814, Russian poet Wilhelm Küchelbecker translated the song into German. His translation which remained in the form of the manuscript and was not known to the reading public reveals an amazing similarity and in some places direct coincidences with the poem by the Hungarian poet Count Ferenc Teleki written presumably before 1820.

Agrarian Localities: Political economy as local power in early nineteenth-century British India

2015 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 898-933 ◽  
Author(s):  
UPAL CHAKRABARTI
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Local Power ◽  
Discursive Practices ◽  
British India ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Binary Oppositions ◽  
History Of

AbstractThis article writes the agrarian history of an obscure locality, Cuttack, in early-nineteenth-century British India. In doing so, instead of exalting the explanatory power of the local, or the particular, it interrogates the category of the ‘local’ itself by demonstrating how it was assembled as the object of agrarian governance in British India through a densely interwoven network of discursive practices. I present this network as various inter-regional practices and debates over agrarian governance in British India and some methodological debates of political economy in contemporary Britain. This article argues that the governmental engagement with locally specific, indigenous forms of interrelationship between landed property and political power in British India can be more productively understood as internal to the transformed vocabulary of contemporary political economy, rather than lying outside it, amid the pragmatism and contingency of governance. Accordingly, it shows how the particularity of agrarian relations in a locality was produced out of a host of reconfigurations, over different moments and sites, of a universal classificatory grid. In the process, I question those histories of British India which, being rooted in a series of hierarchized binary oppositions, like inside–outside, abstract–concrete, or universal–particular, reproduce the rationality of colonial governance.

Western Arms in Maritime Asia in the Early Phases of Expansion

1980 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. J. Marshall
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Military History ◽  
Military Power ◽  
Reading Public ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Coffee Table ◽  
Early Phases ◽  
Do So

To a general reading public the history of the European empires still seems to be virtually synonymous with their military power and with stories of battles in tropical climes; by contrast, academic historians of imperialism now show little interest in purely military history. Campaigns and battles were no doubt frequently the means by which European power came to be exerted over other parts of the world, but, especially from the early nineteenth century onwards, their outcome was generally predictable. If the Europeans were prepared to make adequate efforts, their ultimate success was not usually in doubt. Defeats occurred often enough at the hands of Africans or Asians, but where it seemed worthwhile to do so, at least until the Russo—Japanese War, these defeats were sooner or later avenged. Historians' debates have therefore tended to concentrate not on the means of expansion but on the motives for it: why Europeans should have wished to exert their power or why they should have been drawn into doing so in certain situations. Books on battles are left to decorate that somewhat improbable piece of furniture, the coffee table.

scholarly journals The Nineteenth-Century Italian Translators of Lord Byron’s Marino Faliero

2018 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergio Portelli
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Italian Literature ◽  
Lord Byron ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Historical Drama ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Head Of State ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Venetian Republic

The tragic story of Marino Faliero, the Doge of Venice who was executed for high treason in 1355, came to the attention of writers and artists of various European countries during the early nineteenth century thanks to a number of historians who published insightful works on the history of the Venetian Republic. Among those who were fascinated by the irascible old warrior who tried to overthrow the oligarchy on becoming head of state was Lord Byron. In 1821, the English poet published the historical drama Marino Faliero, Doge of Venice on the tragic end of a hero whose personal grievances with the Venetian Senate intertwined with an ill-fated plebeian rebellion against the nobility. Byron’s popularity in Italy brought the story to the attention of Italian romantic literary circles, where it was not only appreciated as a tragedy of honour and revenge, but also for its ideological implications in the context of the Risorgimento. This study focuses on the three translators who produced the first complete Italian versions of Byron’s play published in the nineteenth century, namely Pasquale De Virgili, Giovan Battista Cereseto, and Andrea Maffei. Based on André Lefevere’s theory on rewriting, it analyses the ideological and poetological reasons behind the translations, how the translators’ intentions shaped the target texts, as well as the impact these translations had on Italian literature and the arts. The strategies adopted by the translators are also illustrated through a comparative textual analysis of a sample passage.

Robert Chambers and the Nebular Hypothesis

1975 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 214-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Natural History ◽  
History Of Science ◽  
Reading Public ◽  
Literary Style ◽  
History Of ◽  
Scientific Value

The role of Robert Chambers's anonymous Vestiges of the natural history of creation in popularizing evolutionary ideas establishes it as a significant work in the history of science even though its intrinsic scientific value is not great. Its fascinating subject, a universally applicable developmental hypothesis, piqued the curiosity of the nineteenth-century reading public. The clientele to whom the book especially appealed was not too concerned with errors in fact and unsupported generalizations, but instead was attracted by the smoothness of its literary style and the glibness of its pronouncements. These same characteristics caused it to be an anathema to both scientists and clergymen, who joined together to voice their disapproval; they agreed that the ideas in it were potentially harmful to those untrained in scientific procedures and unaware of the book's inherent religious heresies.

Beethoven im „Brockhaus“

2021 ◽  
Vol 74 (3) ◽  
pp. 210-228
Author(s):  
Arnold Jacobshagen
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Ludwig Van Beethoven ◽  
Full Length ◽  
Reading Public ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
Source Of Information

Full-length biographies about Ludwig van Beethoven were not published until after the composer's death. During his lifetime, biographical articles in dictionaries and encyclopaedias were therefore a particularly important source of information, since general encyclopaedias achieved a much wider circulation than specialist music publications. The first entry on Beethoven appeared as early as 1790 in Ernst Ludwig Gerber's Historisch-Biographisches Lexicon der Tonkünstler. The most widely read encyclopaedia for the educated middle class was the Conversations-Lexicon oder enzyklopädisches Handwörterbuch für gebildete Stände, first published by Brockhaus in 1809. This paper comparatively examines the articles on Beethoven from the first decades of the 19th century until the eleventh edition of 1863 and with regard to the emergence of typical narratives. It is noteworthy that the early entries on Beethoven, were shorter than those for other contemporary composers, contained false biographic information and were reluctant in their assessment of Beethoven’s oeuvre. This only changes after the composer’s death and raises the question whether, in the eyes of the general reading public, Beethoven really was the predominant musical figure in the first decades of the nineteenth century.

A history of some fruit models in wax and other materials: scientific teaching aids and courtly table decorations

2003 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 299-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans-JüRgen Lechtreck
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Fruit Trees ◽  
Visual Aids ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Teaching Aids ◽  
Scientific Teaching ◽  
Glass Marble ◽  
History Of ◽  
By Products ◽  
Wax Models

Two early nineteenth century texts treating the production and use of wax models of fruit reveal the history of these objects in the context of courtly decoration. Both sources emphasise the models' decorative qualities and their suitability for display, properties which were not simply by-products of the realism that the use of wax allowed. Thus, such models were not regarded merely as visual aids for educational purposes. The artists who created them sought to entice collectors of art and natural history objects, as well as teachers and scientists. Wax models of fruits are known to have been collected and displayed as early as the seventeenth century, although only one such collection is extant. Before the early nineteenth century models of fruits made from wax or other materials (glass, marble, faience) were considered worthy of display because contemporaries attached great importance to mastery of the cultivation and grafting of fruit trees. This skill could only be demonstrated by actually showing the fruits themselves. Therefore, wax models made before the early nineteenth century may also be regarded as attempts to preserve natural products beyond the point of decay.

Adam Zalužanský’s “De sexu plantarum” (1592): an early pioneering chapter on plant sexuality

2013 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 244-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holger Funk
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
English Translation ◽  
History Of Botany ◽  
Main Work ◽  
Botanical History ◽  
History Of ◽  
The University ◽  
First Time

In the history of botany, Adam Zalužanský (d. 1613), a Bohemian physician, apothecary, botanist and professor at the University of Prague, is a little-known personality. Linnaeus's first biographers, for example, only knew Zalužanský from hearsay and suspected he was a native of Poland. This ignorance still pervades botanical history. Zalužanský is mentioned only peripherally or not at all. As late as the nineteenth century, a researcher would be unaware that Zalužanský’s main work Methodi herbariae libri tres actually existed in two editions from two different publishers (1592, Prague; 1604, Frankfurt). This paper introduces the life and work of Zalužanský. Special attention is paid to the chapter “De sexu plantarum” of Zalužanský’s Methodus, in which, more than one hundred years before the well-known De sexu plantarum epistola of R. J. Camerarius, the sexuality of plants is suggested. Additionally, for the first time, an English translation of Zalužanský’s chapter on plant sexuality is provided.

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