scholarly journals Vision of Victorian Ecological Disaster (based on the selected novels by Cindy Spencer Pape)

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 218-223
Author(s):  
Dariia Khokhel

The problem of nature deterioration in the Anthropocene has become an important art concern, thus leading to analysis of ecological images in the texts of various genres. Our analysis of such imagery in a gaslight romance series is equally topical. The subject of the study is universe of the series of novels by Cindy Spencer Pape which centres around alternative nineteenth century London with highly developed steam engines and corresponding technology. Ecocritical approach is chosen as the research method of the study as the novels have powerful ecological imagery, which requires close analysis. The series covers a number of years, and so the ecological deterioration due to coal overuse can be traced through various London locales, which are described in different time frames, and the comparative reading of these descriptions provides the proof of ecological deterioration. It reveals the consistent ecological discourse within the series, its ties strengthened through steady layering of the images of nature, burdened with progressing pollution. There is social dimension to the issue, as the poorer urban residents are shown to be more effected by this problem due to their jobs, work and living conditions. The paper aims to reveal these numerous aspects of ecological imagery in the texts. The results. Close text analysis of various levels allows us to decipher the multi-layered ecological images and dwell on the message they bear. As the environment degradation takes place in the past, the series allows us to describe its results as facts and compress its progress in time and space within the span of the novels setting. This intensifies the image of the catastrophe, makes it feel more immediate and pressing, thus becoming a powerful plot tool that results in search for solutions of the problem and alleviation of the existing results of coal overuse. This research is the basis of further analysis of ecological imagery in steampunk and gaslight romance as genres, fruitful in that regard.

1984 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 199-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Blair Worden

Toleration is a Victorian subject, a monument to Victorian liberalism. ‘To us who have been educated in the nineteenth century’, proclaimed F. A. Inderwick in his book on the Interregnum, ‘any declaration inconsistent with religious toleration would be abhorrent and inadmissible’. His sentiment would not have seemed controversial to a generation raised on such best-selling works as Buckle’s History of Civilisation in England and Lecky’s History of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism. It may be that the Victorians, enquiring into the origins of the toleration which they had achieved, were prone to congratulate the past on becoming more like the present. Yet in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when interest in the subject was perhaps at its peak, we can also detect, in the statements on toleration of a Creighton or a Figgis, a fear that the present might become more like the past: that materialism and religious indifference might destroy the moral foundations of toleration, and foster a new barbarism which would persecute Christians afresh.


Rural History ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-247 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry Reay

More bad history has been written about sex than any other subject. Our ignorance about the sexual attitudes and behaviour of people in the past is compounded by a desire to rush to rash generalisation. This is unfortunate, for (consciously or not) our perceptions of the present are shaped by our assumptions about the past. Britain's current preoccupation with ‘Victorian values’ is but a politically visible example of a more general phenomenon. And, more specifically, we do not know a great deal about lower-class sexuality in nineteenth-century England. There are studies of bourgeois desires and sensibilities, but little on the mores of the vast bulk of the population.As Jean Robin has demonstrated recently, one of the most fruitful approaches to the subject is the detailed local study – the micro-study. It may not appeal to those with a penchant for the broad sweep, but such an approach can provide a useful entry into the sexual habits of the people of the past. This article is intended as a follow-up to Robin's work. It deals with a part of rural Kent and, like Robin's work, it covers an aspect of nineteenth-century sexuality – in this case, the social context of illegitimacy. More particularly, this study (and here I differ from Robin) will question the usefulness of the concept of a ‘bastardy-prone sub-society’ (more of which later), a term still favoured by many historical sociologists. The experience of rural Kent suggests that bearing children outside marriage should be seen not as a form of deviancy but rather as part of normal sexual culture.


2010 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 168-185
Author(s):  
Marianna Ritchey

Abstract The fantastic, theorized as an expression of the anxieties, fears, and political beliefs of the generation of young French writers born in the decades directly following the Revolution and Terror, has long been viewed primarily as a literary genre. Observed in light of this artistic movement, Berlioz's most famous work, Symphonie fantastique, emerges as a musical manifestation of fantastic techniques, and Berlioz himself as an important contributor to the Fantastic culture that swept nineteenth-century France. Using Tzvetan Todorov's narrative theory, I identify two techniques fantastic authors exploit that are most useful in understanding Symphonie Fantastique: an intentional ambiguity of form, and a privileging of ambiguous ““thresholds”” over teleological plot resolution. In pursuing a new explanation of the symphony's strange deviations from musical norms, I highlight the many different ways the symphony has been understood and analyzed by prominent musicologists over the past 180 years. By now, musicologists have effectively demonstrated that Berlioz was not the ““incompetent genius”” (in Charles Rosen's wry formulation) he was long considered to be; however, the fact that there is still disagreement and debate over Symphonie Fantastique's deviations from normative form and content, as well as what those deviations might mean, demonstrates the highly fraught signifying structure of the music. Locating the symphony's use of fantastic tropes and techniques demonstrates that many of its strangest aspects——those ““failures”” that have been the subject of musicological debate since 1835——come into focus when we take its title seriously and regard the work as a symphony in the fantastic genre.


1980 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 179-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
T.C. McCaskie

Historians recognize that the perception and organization of time are fundamental to the internal ordering of all human cultures. However, the history of pre-colonial Africa has largely been written to conform to the calendrical rhythms of an imposed European chronology. Regret over this discrepancy has been tempered by recognition of the very real problems involved in rectifying it. Chief among these is the fact that linear chronology per se -- in purist interpretation requiring numbered series derived from a fixed base, and therefore the mnemonic support of a graphic record -- is beyond the technological competence of any pre-literate society. However, the inability to maintain chronologically precise memorials of the past by no means precludes the existence of sophisticated mechanisms for ordering and dividing temps courant. That is, a historical sense disordered or dissolved through the agency of unassisted, and thus all too fallible, human memory may happily co-exist with an exact (and often symbolically charged) calendrical time. Broadly speaking, the foregoing was the situation obtaining-in Asante in the nineteenth century. Time in nineteenth-century Asante, in a number of its aspects, is the subject of this paper.The establishment of a historical chronology in nineteenth-century Asante was severely inhibited, and in ultimate terms negated, by the absence of a literate culture. It is the case that rare and isolated individuals like oheneba Owusu Ansa (ca. 1822-1884) and oheneba Kwasi Boakye (1827-1904) acquired in foreign exile skills in European languages. However, Akan Twi was not effectively reduced to writing until the mid-nineteenth century, and then not in Asante. Thus, at the time of the British usurpation in 1896 Asante was still a pre-literate culture.


2009 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annie Potts

AbstractThe history of brushtail possums in New Zealand is bleak. The colonists who forcibly transported possums from their native Australia to New Zealand in the nineteenth century valued them as economic assets, quickly establishing a profitable fur industry. Over the past 80 or so years, however, New Zealand has increasingly scapegoated possums for the unanticipated negative impact their presence has had on the native environment and wildlife. Now this marsupial—blamed and despised—suffers the most miserable of reputations and is extensively targeted as the nation's number one pest. This paper examines anti-possum rhetoric in New Zealand, identifying the operation of several distinct—yet related—discourses negatively situating the possum as (a) an unwanted foreign invader and a threat to what makes New Zealand unique; (b) the subject of revenge and punishment (ergo the deserving recipient of exploitation and commodification); and (c) recognizably “cute, but...” merely a pest and therefore unworthy of compassion. This paper argues that the demonization of possums in New Zealand is overdetermined, extreme, and unhelpfully entangled in notions of patriotism and nationalism.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 271
Author(s):  
Gil Karlos Ferri

Este artigo propõe uma contextualização histórica da imigração italiana para Urussanga, SC, través da análise da trajetória da família de Bona Sartor, oriunda da província de Belluno, Itália. O período analisado corresponde ao século XIX, com a crise socioeconômica e a grande emigração italiana, e à primeira metade do século XX, com o estabelecimento da família de Matteo e Domenica de Bona Sartor em Urussanga. Para recompor essa trajetória, foram utilizadas diversas fontes, como registros de nascimento, matrimônio e óbito, históricos familiares, árvores genealógicas, fotografias, entrevistas e dados antropológicos. Os estudos genealógicos e sobre os costumes do passado revelam adaptações e inovações nas dinâmicas familiares, podendo nos legar inspiração para buscarmos melhores condições de vida.*This article proposes a historical contextualization of Italian immigration to Urussanga, SC, through the analysis of the trajectory of the Bona Sartor family from the province of Belluno, Italy. The period analyzed corresponds to the nineteenth century, with the socioeconomic crisis and the great Italian emigration, and the first half of the twentieth century, with the establishment of the family of Matteo and Domenica de Bona Sartor inUrussanga. To compose this trajectory, several sources were used, such as birth, marriage and death records, family histories, genealogical trees, photographs, interviews and anthropological data. Genealogical studies and the customs of the past reveal adaptations and innovations in family dynamics, and can inspire us to seek better living conditions.


Neophilology ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 599-607
Author(s):  
Elena V. Boroda

We analyze the problem of escapism, briefly discuss its history and evolution, its attitude to the problem in different periods of history. Analysis of this problem is the main goal of this work. The subject of this research is the texts of authors writing for children and teenagers, created over the past decade. On the example of young adult fiction in recent years, the development of an escapist motive, a change in attitude towards it and possible causes of such a transformation are observed. The relevance of the study is that modern texts that have not yet been studied by modern literary studies are analyzed, and the problem of escapism is considered in accordance with the cultural and social trends of today. In the process, we use an integrated research method. The result of studying the problem of escapism can be called a review of modern young adult fiction, in which there is a motive for fleeing reality, as well as some observations and conclusions that may be useful in studying the cultural and social problems of today. We conclude that escapism in modern young adult fiction is a full-fledged motive and means of interacting with reality. The scope of the research results is the study of modern literary texts by philologists, literary critics, literature teachers, as well as students and schoolchildren who are interested in expanding and deepening literary knowledge.


Antiquity ◽  
1927 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 261-289 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Cecil Curwen

The importance of the part played by agriculture in the economic history of our country is sometimes apt to be forgotten, for its place has, during the past hundred years, been largely taken by manufacture. Down to the beginning of the nineteenth century the bulk of the population still made a living by tilling the fields, just as their fathers had done from time immemorial. It becomes, therefore, a matter of great interest to trace the beginnings and growth of agriculture in our country before the dawn of history.Agriculture may be taken in its broadest sense to signify the artificial growth of plants for human use, as opposed to the gathering of wild products, but the term may also be narrowed down to cover only the cultivation of farinaceous seeds which we call cereals. It is chiefly in the latter sense that the subject will be discussed here, but it must be remembered that the nature of the evidence does not altogether allow of such a distinction.


Author(s):  
Carmen Moreno Balboa

¿Ha cambiado el concepto de ciudad en tan sólo 2400 años? Si la ciudad la componen los ciudadanos ¿son éstos distintos de los ciudadanos de las antiguas polis? Si el ciudadano es quien participa en las funciones de gobierno de su ciudad, ¿quién es ahora realmente, ciudadano? ¿Quién quiere serlo? y quién quisiera participar de dichas funciones, ¿cómo podría conseguirlo?En la sociedad actual se producen dos situaciones antagónicas que afectan al desarrollo de la ciudad, por un lado las administraciones, actuando orientadas al interés general, reconocen pero congelan las posibilidades de participar de la población en el urbanismo y la creación de ciudad; y por otro lado la sociedad se mueve y actúa al margen de las administraciones en la mejora de su entorno y sus condiciones de vida, desde las denominadas iniciativas urbanas. Cuáles son los motivos de esta situación y cómo hacer que ambos movimientos coincidan en la generación del denominado “Urbanismo Colaborativo”, es el objeto de este trabajo.AbstractHas the concept of city changed in only the past 2400 years? If the city is the one consisting the citizens, are these any different of the citizens ancient polis? If the citizen is one participating in his city’s government functions, who is the real citizen now a days? Who wants to be one? Who wants to participate in those functions? How could someone acomplish that?In today’s society, there are two antagonistic situations that are affecting the development of the city, on the one hand the administrations, acting orientated to the general interest, they recognize but freeze the possibilities that the citizens have of participating in urbanism and the creation of the city. And on the other hand, the society moves and acts outside of the administrations for the improvement of their environment and their living conditions, doing this from the named urban initiatives. What causes this situation and how to put together both movements and for them to agree in the generation of the named “Collaborative Urbanism” is the subject and what this study wants to acomplish.


Litera ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 219-226
Author(s):  
Lin Yuan

This article dedicated to identification distortions in the traditional interpretations of the concepts of “West” and “East” in modern Russian media discourse. The goal lies in outlining separate aspects of distortion of these concepts and determination of causes for the emergence of such distortions in mass media discourse. The object of this research is the modern Russian media discourse that takes place in the online space. The subject is the distortions of media discourse. The article employs the analysis of scientific literature, linguoculturological text analysis, comparison and systematization of research results, continuous sampling, and keyword search. The scientific novelty consists in the fact that that this article is first to examine distortions of the concepts of “West” and “East”. It is revealed that the content of the concept of “West”, namely such aspects as modernity, progressiveness, development of new technologies, wealth, etc., are exposed to distortions the most; while the concept of “East” and its components, such as tradition, ancient civilization, despotism of state power, vestige of the past, impairment of rights of the women, and specific mode of living remain virtually unchanged. The conclusion is made that distortions of the concept of “West” and consistency of the concept of “East” in media discourse may be associated with the orientation of modern Russia towards Eastern civilization, as well deliberate opposition of Russia and the West presented in media discourse.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document