scholarly journals The eye looks back: Seeing and being seen from William Bartram to H.P. Lovecraft

2018 ◽  
pp. 157-172
Author(s):  
Marek Wilczyński
Keyword(s):  
American Literature ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Edgar Allan Poe ◽  
Charles Brockden Brown ◽  
Niagara Falls ◽  
Evil Eye ◽  
William Bartram ◽  
Late 18Th Century ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Main Factor

The paper focuses on the sense of sight and seeing in the selected texts of American literature from the late 18th century to the 1930s, i.e. from William Bartram to H. P. Lovecraft. Adopting a perspective of changing “scopic regimes” – conventions of visual perception presented in a number of literary and non-literary works, the author analyzed a passage from Bartram’s Travels to reveal a combination of the discourse of science with that of the British aesthetics of gardening. In Margaret Fuller’s Summer on the Lakes (1843) the main factor is the work of imagination dissatisfied with the actual view of Niagara Falls, while in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Nature substantial subjectivity is reduced to pure seeing. In Henry David Thoreau’s essay “Ktaadn” the subject confronts nature that is no longer transparent and turns out meaningless. In American literature of horror from Charles Brockden Brown through Edgar Allan Poe and H. P. Lovecraft, the narrator’s eye encounters the inhuman gaze of a predator, a dehumanized victim of murder, or a sinister creature from the out-er space. To conclude, the human gaze was gradually losing its ability to frame or penetrate nature, bound to confront the annihilating evil eye from which there was usually no escape.

scholarly journals Lyckans administration

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (121) ◽  
pp. 135-152
Author(s):  
Thomas Götselius
Keyword(s):  
18Th Century ◽  
Local Administration ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Sovereign Power ◽  
Theoretical Level ◽  
German State ◽  
State Reform ◽  
Late 18Th Century ◽  
Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre ◽  
The Subject

This article engages in the new concept of individual happiness that spread in the 18th Century and in Goethe’s pivotal novel Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre (1795–96). In this novel, the process of “Bildung” is designed to lead the protagonist to happiness, but happiness turns out to be possible only if the process can be governed from the outside, by powers alien to the subject. For this reason, the article argues that the notion of happiness orchestrated in the novel is not based on a revolutionary concept of happiness or a victorious Enlightenment critique, but on a concept derived from a more local field of knowledge, namely “Polizeywissenschaft”. Central to German state reform, and the practices of local administration in the late 18th Century, “Polizeywissenschaft” was developed in order to render happiness to both states and individuals, and it did so by means of surveillance and secret intervention in everyday life. On a theoretical level, the breakthrough of ”the police” during the century could be mapped as an outcome of the transition from a sovereign power regime to a biopolitical one, in Michel Foucault’s teminology. In Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre, as in the biopolitics encoded in the “Polizeywissenschaft,” the experience of happiness is thus coupled with a new way of governing life as such.

scholarly journals Edgar Allan Poe: A question of sport

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 199-206
Author(s):  
Michał Mazurkiewicz
Keyword(s):  
American Literature ◽  
Edgar Allan Poe ◽  
American Football ◽  
Important Place ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
Steady Growth ◽  
Academic Publications ◽  
The Subject ◽  
American Society ◽  
Football Stadiums

Edgar Allan Poe: A question of sportThe above-presented analysis demonstrates that Edgar Allan Poe — just like numerous other writers — was not indifferent towards sport. Literature does not exist in a vacuum. Sport has a great power of influence. It permeates different spheres of life and constitutes an important segment of culture. It creates a fragment of the world of literature as well. Sport has always occupied an important place in American society. The nineteenth century laid the foundations as far as creation of American sports landscape is concerned.34 This was the time when Poe lived and worked. Paradoxically, the writer whose best work is mostly concerned with terror and sadness, quite often — especially in his youth — abandoned himself to a life of pleasure and sports. The research also touched the question of Poe’s legacy in contemporary world, which is not only visible in literary works or films, but also in the sports realm, namely at American football stadiums. Hopefully, the paper is an eye-opener showing that Edgar Allan Poe, “one of the most controversial figures in American literature” 35 had many faces, and exploring his complex personality and rich legacy lets one convince oneself that sport constitutes a part of them.Thanks to the recent rise of interest in sport among scholars in the humanities and social sciences, there has been a steady growth in the number of academic publications dealing with the subject of connections between literature and sport. Only selected aspects of this relation could be described in this article. Obviously, there is a need for further research as far as the presence of sport both in literature and in biographies of writers is concerned.

Nature, poetry and medicine in late 18th century England: a unified perspective of Erasmus Darwin

1976 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 537-537
Author(s):  
M. McNEIL
Keyword(s):  
18Th Century ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Nature Poetry ◽  
Medicine And Philosophy ◽  
Late 18Th Century ◽  
Medical Theory ◽  
Lunar Society Of Birmingham ◽  
Organizational Principles ◽  
Century Science ◽  
Erasmus Darwin

Erasmus Darwin was the focus and embodiment of provincial England in his day. Renowned as a physician, he spent much of his life at Lichfield. He instigated the founding of the Lichfield Botanic Society, which provided the first English translation of the works of Linnaeus, and established a botanic garden; the Lunar Society of Birmingham; the Derby Philosophical Society; and two provincial libraries. A list of Darwin's correspondents and associates reads like a "who's who" of eighteenth century science, industry, medicine and philosophy. His poetry was also well received by his contemporaries and he expounded the evolutionary principles of life. Darwin can be seen as an English equivalent of Lamarck, being a philosopher of nature and human society. His ideas have been linked to a multitude of movements, including the nosological movement in Western medicine, nineteenth century utilitarianism, Romanticism in both Britain and Germany, and associationist psychology. The relationships between various aspects of Darwin's interests and the organizational principles of his writings were examined. His poetical form and medical theory were not peripheral to his study of nature but intrinsically linked in providing his contemporaries with a panorama of nature. A richer, more integrated comprehension of Erasmus Darwin as one of the most significant and representative personalities of his era was presented.

Rediscovering Blackstone: wpływ Williama Blackstone’a na rozwój amerykańskiej nauki prawa w recepcji Alberta W. Alschulera

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-185
Author(s):  
Edyta Sokalska
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Common Law ◽  
The United States ◽  
Law School ◽  
Large Measure ◽  
American Colonies ◽  
Late 18Th Century ◽  
American Law ◽  
The Common

The reception of common law in the United States was stimulated by a very popular and influential treatise Commentaries on the Laws of England by Sir William Blackstone, published in the late 18th century. The work of Blackstone strengthened the continued reception of the common law from the American colonies into the constituent states. Because of the large measure of sovereignty of the states, common law had not exactly developed in the same way in every state. Despite the fact that a single common law was originally exported from England to America, a great variety of factors had led to the development of different common law rules in different states. Albert W. Alschuler from University of Chicago Law School is one of the contemporary American professors of law. The part of his works can be assumed as academic historical-legal narrations, especially those concerning Blackstone: Rediscovering Blackstone and Sir William Blackstone and the Shaping of American Law. Alschuler argues that Blackstone’s Commentaries inspired the evolution of American and British law. He introduces not only the profile of William Blackstone, but also examines to which extent the concepts of Blackstone have become the basis for the development of the American legal thought.

Der fatale Blick in den Spiegel – Zum Zusammenhang von Medialität und Reflexivität

2010 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oliver Jahraus
Keyword(s):  
18Th Century ◽  
Specular Reflections ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Literature And Film

Der Beitrag untersucht den Zusammenhang von Reflexivität und Medialität (das, was ein Medium zum Medium macht), indem er die Idee der Reflexion an den konkreten Formen von Spiegelungen in Literatur und Film wie zum Beispiel Doppelgänger oder Figurenspaltungen darstellt. Dabei zeigt sich, daß jedes Medium autoreflexiv verfasst ist und daß die Vorstellung von Subjektivität seit dem 18. Jahrhundert selbst auf diesem Zusammenspiel von Reflexivität und Medialität beruht. Das Subjekt gilt demnach als reflexiver Effekt der Medialität, wie es an einer Betrachtung von Foucaults berühmter Meninas-Interpretation nachverfolgt werden kann.<br><br>This article analyses the relation between reflexivity and mediality (what makes a medium a medium) by presenting concrete situations of optical and specular reflections in literature and film, such as doubles (Doppelgänger) and split figures. Thus it can be shown that since the 18th century every medium is self-reflexive and that the concept of subjectivity has its basis in the interplay of reflexivity and mediality. The subject is an effect of medialitity as may be demonstrated by a new recapitulation of Foucault’s famous Meninas-interpretation.

Praktiken zur Autonomie

2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-204
Author(s):  
Carolin Rocks
Keyword(s):  
Good Life ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Sich Eine ◽  
Moral Norms ◽  
Ethical Practices ◽  
Karl Philipp Moritz ◽  
Late 18Th Century

"Praktiken zur Autonomie Zu Moritz’ Über die bildende Nachahmung des Schönen Karl Philipp Moritz’ Über die bildende Nachahmung des Schönen (1788) gilt als der autonomieästhetischeProgrammtext in der zweiten Hälfte des 18. Jahrhunderts. DerAufsatz stellt diese ästhetikgeschichtliche Klassifikation nicht in Frage, zeigt aber,dass die im Kern unbestreitbar kunstmetaphysische Argumentation über ethischePraktiken begründet wird. Diese Praktiken nehmen in der Arbeit an der Autonomieeinen so entscheidenden Stellenwert ein, dass sich eine heteronomieästhetischeGrundierung der Moritz’schen Kunsttheorie aufweisen lässt. Diese tritt hervor,wenn man den Fokus darauf richtet, wie Ethik und Ästhetik zueinander insVerhältnis gesetzt werden: Moritz verpflichtet die autonome Kunst nicht einfachauf moralische Normen oder soziale Funktionen, modelliert aber den genialenKünstler als Praktiker, als ›Hand-Werker‹, dessen künstlerische Produktivität immerschon einem ›guten Leben‹ zuarbeitet. Der Aufsatz demonstriert, wie Moritz ineinem eigenwilligen Begriffsspiel mit dem Schönen und dem Guten ›Nachahmung‹neu entwirft als auf Moralität zusteuernde ästhetische Praxis. Diese praxeologischeGrundlage der Argumentation wirft zusätzlich ein neues Licht auf Moritz’ Rezeptionneuplatonistischer Philosopheme. Karl Philipp Moritz’s »Über die bildende Nachahmung des Schönen« (1788) is regarded asone of the key texts of autonomous aesthetics from the late 18th century. This article doesnot challenge this classification. Instead, it argues that Moritz’s metaphysics of art is foundedupon ethical practices. These practices are so essential to his conception, that one can show thatit is also based on heteronomous aesthetics. This aspect of his argument emerges from how herelates ethics to aesthetics. Moritz does not simply reduce autonomous art to moral norms orsocial functions. Instead he portrays the ingenious artist as an artisan (›Hand-Werker‹) whoseaesthetic productivity serves a ›good life‹. This article therefore demonstrates how Moritz playswith the concepts of the beauty and the good in order to remodel mimesis as an aesthetic practicethat significantly contributes to morality. Finally, by emphasising this praxeological foundationof Moritz’s argument, one can also reconsider his reception of Neo-Platonism "

LITERARY ROMANTICISM AS A THEORETICAL ISSUE

2020 ◽  
pp. 19-27
Author(s):  
Vera V. Serdechnaia ◽  
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Conceptual Analysis ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Theoretical Concept ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Theoretical Issue ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Literary Process ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject

The article is devoted to the analysis of the concept of literary romanticism. The research aims at a refinement of the “romanticism” concept in relation to the history of the literary process. The main research methods include conceptual analysis, textual analysis, comparative historical research. The author analyzes the semantic genesis of the term “romanticism”, various interpretations of the concept, compares the definitions of different periods and cultures. The main results of the study are as follows. The history of the term “romanticism” shows a change in a number of definitions for the same concept in relation to the same literary phenomena. By the end of the 20th century, realizing the existence of significant contradictions in the content of the term “romanticism”, researchers often come to abandon it. At the same time, the steady use of the term “romanticism” testifies to the subject-conceptual component that exists in it, which does not lose its relevance, but just needs a theoretical refinement. Conclusion: one have to revise an approach to romanticism as a theoretical concept, based on the change in the concept of an individual in Europe at the end of the 18th century. It is the newly discovered freedom of an individual predetermines the rethinking for the image of the author as a creator and determines the artistic features of literary romanticism.

The Portrayal of Islam in Some Early Nigerian Newspapers (1880-1910)

1989 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 319-328
Author(s):  
Salahudeen Yusuf
Keyword(s):  
18Th Century ◽  
Religious Conflict ◽  
Intellectual Honesty ◽  
The People ◽  
Late 18Th Century ◽  
The Press ◽  
External Threat ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The Impact

The history of Islam in part of what is known today as Nigeria datesto about the loth Century. Christianity dates to the late 18th Century. Bythe middle of the 19th Century, when Nigerian newspapers began to appearon the streets of Nigeria, both religions had won so many followers and extendedto so many places in Nigeria that very few areas were untouched bytheir influence. The impact of both religions on their adherents not only determinedtheir spiritual life, but influenced their social and political lives aswell. It therefore became inevitable that both religions receive coverage frommost of the newspapers of the time. How the newspapers as media of informationand communication reported issues about the two religions is thetheme of this paper.Rationale for the StudyThe purpose of this study is to highlight the context in which such earlynewspapers operated and the factors that dictated their performance. Thisis because it is assumed that when a society faces external threat to its territory,culture, and independence, all hands (the press inclusive) ought tobe on deck to resist the threat with all might. Were newspapers used as verbalartillery and how did they present each religion? It is also assumed thatin a multireligious society a true press should be objective and serve as avanguard in the promotion of the interest of the people in general and notcreate or foster an atmosphere of religious conflict. The study also aims atfinding out whether the papers promoted intellectual honesty and fosteredthe spirit of unity particularly when the society was faced with the encroachmentof the British who posed a threat to their freedom, culture, economy ...

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