scholarly journals Monsters in the Capital: Helen Vaughan, Count Dracula and Demographic Fears in fin-de-siècle London

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 148-164
Author(s):  
Daniel Renshaw

This article examines the confluence of fears of demographic change occasioned by Jewish migration to Britain between 1881 and 1905 with two key gothic texts of the period – Arthur Machen's The Great God Pan (1894) and Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897). The descriptions of the activities of the demonic protagonists Helen Vaughan and Count Dracula in London will be compared with contemporary depictions of Jewish settlement by leading anti-migrant polemicists. Firstly, it will consider the trope of settlement as a preconceived plan being put into effect directed against ‘Anglo-Saxon’ English society. Secondly, it will look at ideas of the contested racial inferiority or superiority of the ‘other’. Thirdly, the article will examine the imputed chameleonic natures of both gothic monsters and Jews rising up the metropolitan social scale. The article will conclude by comparing the way Machen's and Stoker's protagonists deal with their opponents with posited ‘solutions’ for the Eastern European immigration ‘problem’.

2018 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 831-868 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruxanda Berlinschi ◽  
Ani Harutyunyan

This research investigates migrant self-selection on values, beliefs, and attitudes using data from Eastern European and former Soviet countries. We find that individuals who intend to emigrate are more politically active, more critical of governance and institutions, more tolerant toward other cultures, less tolerant of cheating, more optimistic, and less risk averse. With the exception of risk aversion, all selection patterns are heterogeneous across regions of origin. On the other hand, no self-selection pattern is detected on education, willingness to pay for public goods, and economic liberalism. These findings provide new insights into the determinants of international migration and reveal some of its less known consequences, such as a possible reduction of domestic pressure for political improvements in post-Soviet states due to politically active citizens’ higher propensity to emigrate.


1971 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
pp. 1048-1062 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Q. Wilson ◽  
Edward C. Banfield

An effort to test the existence and correlates of the “unitarist” and “individualist” political ethos (first discussed in City Politics under the labels “middle-class Anglo-Saxon ethos” and “immigrant ethos”) in a sample of 1,059 mostly male Boston homeowners reveals that about one fifth of the respondents have one or the other ethos when defined by two sets of attitudes and about one eighth have one or the other when defined by three sets of attitudes. In general, the respondents displaying each attitude or two or more attitudes in the predicted combinations have the predicted ethnic, religious, income, and educational attributes. Jewish voters, however, are less likely than predicted to have the good government attitude, whereas Irish and Polish respondents are more likely to have it. Upper-income Yankees were strongly unitarist as defined by all three attitudes.


2011 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 269-287
Author(s):  
Jaak Tomberg

Eastern-European Science-fictional Space through the General Representability of the Other


PMLA ◽  
1903 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 445-458
Author(s):  
James M. Garnett

The desire was expressed some years ago that we might soon have in English a collection of translations of Old English poetry that might fill the place so well filled in German by Grein's Dichtungen der Angelsachsen. This desire is now in a fair way of accomplishment, and much has been done during the past ten years, the period embraced in this paper. As was naturally to be expected from the work previously done in criticism of both text and subject-matter, Beowulf has attracted more than ever the thoughts and efforts of translators, for we had in 1892 the rhythmical translation of Professor J. Lesslie Hall and the prose version of Professor Earle; in 1895 (reprinted in cheaper form in 1898) the poetical translation of William Morris and A. J. Wyatt, the editor of Beowulf; in 1901 the prose version of Dr. J. R. Clark Hall, author of A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary; and only the other day, in 1902, the handy prose version of Professor C. B. Tinker.


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-164
Author(s):  
Elisha Russ-Fishbane

Abstract This paper addresses a paradox at the heart of the classical Sufi tradition. On the one hand, key Sufi writers express a radical universalism or ‘transconfessionalism’ in their mystical verse. This has led a variety of modern scholars to identify Sufism as an ecumenical and non-dogmatic tradition. On the other hand, in other writings the selfsame authors conduct a vigorous literary polemic and celebrate missionary efforts against unbelievers of all stripes, yet with a notable emphasis on Jewish unbelievers. This article examines the image of Jews and Judaism in key Sufi texts in both Arabic and Persian between the tenth and thirteenth centuries through a variety of motifs, including the construction of the Jew as embodiment of the demonic and as archetypal unbeliever. These images become critical to the literary function of the Jew in classical Sufi texts with little connection to their historical role in Near Eastern societies.


2020 ◽  
pp. 223-232
Author(s):  
Marta Kacprzak

La ermoza istorya de Robinzon o la mizerya: Sephardi Versions of Robinson CrusoeIn the second half of the 19th century the Haskalah, an intellectual movement whose objective was to educate and westernize Eastern European Jews, also reached the Sephardic communities in the Ottoman Empire. As a result, there emerged Sephardic modern secular literature, represented mainly by narrative fiction, theatre plays and press. It should be added that modern Sephardic literature is primarily based on translations or adaptations of Western novels. Among these texts we find Sephardic editions of classics of European literature, such as Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe and Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift.I have found four different versions of Robinson Crusoe that were written in Judeo-Spanish and edited in aljamía. Two of them were published serially in Sephardi press, one in Salonica in 1881 and the other in Constantinople in 1900. The other two editions were prepared by Ben Tsiyon Taragan and published as complete versions, the first one in Jerusalem in 1897 and the second one in Constantinople in 1924. The aim of this paper is to provide a brief analysis of the Sephardic adaptations of Robinson Crusoe by Taragan. La ermoza istorya de Robinzon o la mizerya: sefardyjska wersja Robinsona CrusoeHaskala, zwana także Żydowskim Oświeceniem, to ruch intelektualny, którego celem było odrodzenie kulturowe i społeczne Żydów z EuropyWschodniej oraz ich integracja ze środowiskiem lokalnym. W drugiej połowie XIX wieku Haskala objęła także społeczność Żydów sefardyjskich zamieszkujących tereny należące do Imperium Osmańskiego, w wyniku czego powstała współczesna, świecka literatura sefardyjska reprezentowana głównie przez prozę, sztuki teatralne oraz prasę. Warto dodać, że współczesna literatura sefardyjska oparta jest przede wszystkim na przekładach lub adaptacjach powieści uważanych za klasykę literatury europejskiej, takich jak Romeo i Julia Williama Szekspira, Robinson Crusoe Daniela Defoe czy Podróże Guliwera Jonathana Swifta.W trakcie prowadzonych przeze mnie badań natrafiłam na cztery różne judeo-hiszpańskie wersje Robinsona Crusoe, które zapisane zostały alfabetem hebrajskim, tzw. pismem Rasziego. Dwie z nich ukazały się w prasie sefardyjskiej, jako powieść w odcinkach, pierwsza w Salonikach w 1881 r., a druga w Konstantynopolu w 1900 r. Pozostałe dwie, autorstwa Ben Tsiyona Taragana, zostały wydane w całości, pierwsza w Jerozolimie w 1897 r., druga zaś w Konstantynopolu w 1924 r. Celem tego artykułu jest prezentacja oraz krótka analiza sefardyjskich adaptacji Robinsona Crusoe autorstwa B. T. Taragana.


Author(s):  
Diyar Mohammed

This paper investigates the concepts of Feminism and Feminist Criticisms to identify their features in two novels; Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse and Ibrahim Ahmed’s Janî Gel. The theoretical and historical backgrounds of Feminism and the other Feminist Criticisms are presented according to their importance. The paper then introduces the two novels by presenting their plot summary. This paper tries to answer how two prominent writers, one British and one Kurdish, discuss women issues. The author wants to investigate whether both writers’ cultural upbringing and social background affect the way they present women in their respective novels. Through quotations taken from the novels, one learns about the writers’ ideas regarding women’s issues; economic, social, psychological, and political. In conclusion, the present study argues that women’s experiences in English society and Kurdish society have many similarities; however, despite the many similarities, there lay differences regarding the attitudes of both writers towards women issues and representation. For instance, Wood presents an ideal female character to oppose women’s traditional roles in society in her novel. On the other hand, Ahmed paints vivid imagery of what women go through without solid women characters. Thus, this paper hopes to provide future students and researchers with helpful material on Feminism, Feminist Criticisms, and the analysis of both novels, especially the Kurdish one, since research is scarce on it.


1986 ◽  
Vol 36 ◽  
pp. 195-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Keynes

IN the gallery of Anglo-Saxon kings, there are two whose characters are fixed in the popular imagination by their familiar epithets: Alfred the Great and ÆEthelred the Unready. Of course both epithets are products of the posthumous development of the kings' reputations (in opposite directions), not expressions of genuinely contemporary attitudes to the kings themselves: respective personalities. In the case of Alfred, it was the king’s own resourcefulness, courage and determination that brought the West Saxons through the Viking invasions, for it was these qualities, complemented by his concern for the well–being of his subjects, that inspired and maintained the people’s loyalty towards the king and generated their support for his cause. Whereas in the case of jEthelred, it was the king’s incompetence, weakness and vacillation that brought the kingdom to ruin, for it was these failings, exacerbated by his displays of cruelty and spite, that alienated the people and made them abandon his cause. Few historians, perhaps, would subscribe to such a view expressed as bluntly as that, and more, I suspect, would consider such comparisons to be futile and probably misconceived in the first place. I would maintain, however, that something is to be gained from the exercise of comparing the two kings in fairly broad terms: by juxtaposing discussions of the status of the main narrative accounts of each king’s reign we can more easily appreciate how their utterly different reputations arose, and see, moreover, that in certain respects the apparent contrast between them might actually be deceptive; by comparing the predicament in which each king was placed we can better understand how one managed to extricate himself from trouble while the other succumbed; and overall we can more readily judge how much, or how little, can be attributed to personal qualities or failings on the part of the kings themselves.



1998 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 495-510 ◽  
Author(s):  
ROBERT TOMBS

Queen Victoria, her court, the embassy in Paris, the prime minister, and the press, led by The Times, were early and impassioned sympathizers with Alfred Dreyfus and bitter critics of his persecutors. This article traces the development of their views and the information available to them, analyses the principal themes as they saw them, and attempts to explain how and why they formed their opinions. It considers why the Dreyfusard position was so congenial to them. It argues that their own principles and prejudices – conservative, patriotic, Anglo-Saxon, and Protestant – were confirmed by a critique of French political culture, seen as corrupted by a combined heritage of absolutism, revolution, Catholicism, and demagoguery. This appears to be confirmed by contrast with the few dissenting voices in Britain, on one hand Catholic and Irish, on the other, anti-Semitic socialist, who showed little sympathy with the Dreyfusards, and even less with the views of their British supporters.


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