scholarly journals Beyond the Boundaries of Realism Monstrous Islands and Literary Hybrids at the Fin de Siècle in Conan Doyle’s, R. L. Stevenson’s and H. G. Wells’s Fiction

Author(s):  
Julie Gay

This article explores the way in which at the fin de siècle, Doyle, Stevenson and Wells chose to set their works on marginal islands in order to spatially escape not only from the bleak reality of the modern world, but also from the constraints of realism, and to reconnect with more imaginative forms of writing. It thus aims to shed new light on the relationship between geographical space and literary aesthetics, and to demonstrate that the island space is especially conducive to generic excursions out of realism and towards the fantastic, the marvellous and even the monstrous, leading to the creation of eminently hybrid literary texts.

Author(s):  
Cleo Hanaway-Oakley

Stephen’s musings on the pre-cinematic ‘stereoscope’ are discussed in relation to Bloom’s contemplation of parallax and his mention of the ‘Mutoscope’. The three-dimensionality, tangibility, and tactility of stereoscopic perception is analysed alongside Bloom’s and Gerty’s encounter in ‘Nausicaa’ and the Merleau-Pontian concepts of ‘flesh’ and ‘intercorporeity’. The bodily effects of projected cinema—achieved through virtual film worlds, virtual film bodies, and the intercorporeity of film and spectator—are discussed through reference to panorama, phantom ride, and crash films. The dizzying effects of some of these films are compared to the vertiginous nature of the ‘Wandering Rocks’ episode of Ulysses; these cinematic and literary vestibular disturbances are elucidated through gestalt theory and the phenomenological concepts of ‘intention’, ‘attention’, and the ‘phenomenal field’. Finally, the relationship between the self and the other is considered, through a discussion of cinematic mirroring in Ulysses and in Mitchell and Kenyon’s fin de siècle Living Dublin films.


Author(s):  
Jo Robinson

This chapter examines the relationship between performance culture in two regional cities in the British Midlands—Nottingham and Birmingham—as compared to that in the metropolis, London. It compares reactions to plays by Ibsen and Pinero in these locales, providing evidence to suggest that regional audiences were knowledgeable about London culture, and that they were less shocked by avant-garde theatre than might be assumed.


Author(s):  
Ailise Bulfin

This chapter analyses the relationship between Marsh’s bestselling novel of Egyptian malevolence, The Beetle: A Mystery (1897), and a subgenre of Gothic Egyptian fiction which developed partially in response to contentious Anglo-Egyptian political relations. Marsh began writing his novel in 1895, the same year General Herbert Kitchener launched his famous and ultimately successful campaign to quell Islamic-nationalist rebellion in northern Sudan, then indirectly under Anglo-Egyptian control. This chapter exposes the links between the novel and colonial politics, placing The Beetle within the context of Anglo-Egyptian and Sudanese conflict, rather than broadly reading it against general imperial concerns. The chapter provides a fuller picture of both the remarkable revival of the Gothic literary mode at the fin de siècle and the society in which this literary phenomenon occurred. The chapter also reveals how Marsh’s text dramatically exceeded Gothic Egyptian genre conventions in its emphasis on pagan as well as colonial monstrosity.


2001 ◽  
Vol 27 (5) ◽  
pp. 257-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovanni Arrighi ◽  
Beverly J. Silver

A sea change of major proportions is taking place in the historical social system forming the modern world, creating a widespread sense of uncertainty about the present and foreseeable future. In the words of Eric Hobsbawm, as ‘the citizens of the fin de siècle tapped their way through the global fog that surrounded them, into the third millennium, all they knew for certain was that an era of history had ended. They knew very little else’.


2006 ◽  
Vol 121 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Crawford

Long before Australia's first commercial television broadcasts in 1956, advertising agencies and advertisers had been preparing themselves for what they believed would be the greatest ever selling medium. The creation of a new outlet for advertisements was not the industry's sole cause of excitement. Having dominated commercial radio, the advertising industry looked forward to extending its influence. These dreams, however, were only partially fulfilled. While television enabled the industry to broadcast its commercial messages in a more effective way, legislation prevented it from controlling television in the way that it had with radio. This would have a significant impact on the relationship between the two industries. By examining television's impact on the advertising industry, this paper demonstrates that the medium of TV not only altered the face of advertising; it also caused a fundamental change in the structure and operation of Australia's advertising industry.


2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 250-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thibaut Jaulin

No major citizenship reform has been adopted in Lebanon since the creation of the Lebanese citizenship in 1924. Moreover, access to citizenship for foreign residents does not depend on established administrative rules and processes, but instead on ad hoc political decisions. The Lebanese citizenship regime is thus characterized by immobilism and discretion. This paper looks at the relationship between citizenship regime and confessional democracy, defined as a system of power sharing between different religious groups. It argues that confessional democracy hinders citizenship reform and paves the way to arbitrary naturalization practices, and that, in turn, the citizenship regime contributes to the resilience of the political system. In other words, the citizenship regime and the political system are mutually reinforcing.


2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-129
Author(s):  
Tatyana Alexandrovna Khitarova ◽  
Elena Georgievna Khitarova

The article examines the problem of typological features of the chronotope of the prose of the writers of the “Fin de siècleˮ, who defined the model of the world order in the image of the “horror worldˮ. The goal is analysis of the prose samples of the middle epic of Mikhail Artsybashev, Fyodor Sologub (Teternikov), Leonid Andreyev. Perversion, the corporeality of the depicted reality are the main chronotopic features found in all the literary texts involved for consideration. As we can conclude, the writers of the “Fin de siècleˮ really do make fear and horror a constantly sounding plot-forming motif. However, this constant motif for the literary process of the turn of the century sounds in a unique personal key. The writers offer their own architecture of the image of the “horrorˮ. Thus, the sound of the fear motif is an artistic characteristic of the text, it determines both the dominant of its poetics, and the worldview and attitude of the creator of the text.


Nordlit ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Annie Bourguinon

The Swedish writer Per Olof Sundman (1922-1992) wrote mostly short stories and novels, but also reportages. The paper deals with two reportages from the Lofoten islands, Människor vid hav (1966, “People by the sea”) and Lofoten, sommar (1973, “Lofoten, summer”) The choice of the Lofoten islands as a subject is related to a fascination Sundman felt towards northern and arctic regions, a fascination he also expressed in a number of fictional narratives and in the documentary novel Ingenjör Andrées luftfärd (1967. English title: The Flight of the Eagle) A question that arises almost immediately is whether that fascination affects the way the reporter works and how it affects it. How does Sundman look at the Lofoten? What does he take notice of and tell us about? What kind of image does he give? And how does he understand his own role, his function as an investigator in an environment which is neither his own nor his postulated readers’ usual environment? Another question deals with the relationship between the reportages from the Lofoten and the author’s other works. Are the reportages easy to recognize as Sundmanian texts, can Sundman’s “signature” be traced in them? It appears that “People by the sea” and “Lofoten, summer” are not merely informative texts. They also to a rather high degree suggest an atmosphere, using among other things inherited representations and judgements to that purpose. Those reportages turn out to be strongly literary texts, in the traditional meaning of the word.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-139
Author(s):  
Zinaida Bolea

Abstract Creation is a fundamental definition of genius, and we are wondering if those minds that created totalitarian systems, could remain in human history through destructive impact on millions of people’s minds, and could they possibly be included in genius category. Certainly, we could support the idea of the participation of these people in the creation process – in the creation of ideology of a new world, of a new Human etc. At the same time, the Real Human is perceived only as an object that can be manipulated, overwhelmed, dominated, controlled, destroyed etc., “love” and “investment” of the evil genius being dedicated to a non-existent Ideal Human. We are trying to understand what are the pillars of the relationship with the Others, and the dictators’ great seduction capacity. In the condition of the incapacity and inability of these personalities to appreciate humanity, most of them were able to provoke admiration. In the context of these paradoxical relations, becomes noticeable the responsibility of understanding the way perverse mind speaks with our minds in a way that we became available consciously or unconsciously to join in this destructive creation.


Author(s):  
Lyudmila Yu. Korshunova

The article deals with the issue of correlation of language and reality in the one-acter cycle "The Comedy of Seduction" by Arthur Schnitzler. It is underlined that this theme was on the front burner among philosophers and writers of the Fin de siècle epoch and was regarded rather negatively: the language seemed not to be able to highlight the outside world in a befitting way. In Arthur Schnitzler’s one-acter cycle "The Comedy of Seduction" the afore-referenced issue is strongly involved in difficulty by the confrontation of the common men and art people. It is demonstrated that the common people use the language for the release of information whereas in contrast the art people always grind their own axe using the language. In this case they have the bulge on the common men. The impossibility of language to be the way of highlighting the outside world is shown in the one-acter cycle.


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