scholarly journals Politics and the Inadequacy of Words in Joseph Conrad’s Non-Fiction

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1 (19)) ◽  
pp. 47-64
Author(s):  
Sylwia Janina Wojciechowska

The Polish-born English novelist, Joseph Conrad, once challenged the general public with a statement which stigmatized the printed word in wartime coverage as being cold, silent, and colorless. The aim of this article is to investigate the manner in which the writer himself applied words in his wartime non-fictional works in order to bestow a lasting effect on his texts. It is argued that irony renders his non-fiction memorable. Thus, the focus is first placed on the manner in which irony features in Conrad’s political essays, collected in Notes on Life and Letters, from 1921. It is argued that irony applied in his non-fiction represents what Wayne C. Booth termed stable irony. Further, it is claimed that, as a spokesman for a non-existent country, Conrad succeeded in transposing the Polish perspective into a discourse familiar to the British public. This seems possible due to the application of the concept of the body politic and the deployment of Gothic imagery. Finally, the paper examines the manner in which words are effectively used to voice the stance of a moralist on truth and the lie of the printed word in the turbulent times around the end of the 19th century.

Author(s):  
David Castro Liñares

Este trabajo tiene como finalidad analizar el tratamiento penal que durante el siglo XIX se dispensó a los actos indebidos para con el cuerpo y memoria de las personas fallecidas. Para ello, este texto se inicia con un recorrido normativo por los Códigos Penales españoles del siglo XIX (1822-1848-1850-1870) con el propósito de analizar la forma en que el Legislador penal fue incorporando esta cuestión en los distintos textos normativos. A continuación, y como forma de continuar este análisis, se estima adecuado detenerse en las razones político criminales subyacentes a la tipificación de estas conductas. De esta forma, se intenta realizar una aproximación a las lógicas punitivas decimonónicas inherentes a una esfera tan particular como el castigo penal a los actos irrespetuosos para con los difuntos. Por último, se incorpora un apartado conclusivo en el que abordar algunas ideas que, por razón de estructura narrativa no encontraban un acomodo idóneo en otras partes del texto pero que igualmente resultan de importancia para esta propuesta de análisis político-criminal histórico.This work aims to analyse the criminal law treatment that during the 19th century is dispensed to wrongdoing with the body and memory of deceased people. For that purpose, this text begins with a normative view of the Spanish Criminal Codes of the 19th century (1822-1848-1850-1870) in order to investigate how the Criminal Legislator incorporated this issue into the various normative texts. Hereunder, as a way to continue this analysis, it is considered appropriate to dwell on the criminal political reasons typification of these conducts. In this way, an attempt is made to approximate the decimonic punitive logics inherent in an area as particular as criminal punishment to disrespectful acts with the deceased. Finally, a concluding section is incorporated in order to address some ideas that, by reasons of narrative structure, did not find an appropriate accommodation in other parts of the text but which are also relevant for this proposal of historical political-criminal analysis. 


Author(s):  
Holly Folk

Chiropractic cannot be understood without examining the decades of “metaphysical” healing before its development. Chapter two considers the early life of D. D. Palmer, who before discovering chiropractic, practiced vital magnetic healing, a popular therapy aimed at relieving obstructions of the life force in the body. An examination of Palmer’s self-published newspapers shows his belief in vitalism and his anti-authoritarian outlook. The chapter explores the roots of chiropractic in magnetism, and discusses the changes in that practice from its 18th century form as mesmerism through its 19th century encounter with neurology and other modern medical sciences. In the 19th century Midwest, magnetic healers were socially marginal in the Midwest, but their practice held appeal in a neurocentric health culture which prioritized spinal treatments. Some practitioners, like Sidney Abram Weltmer and Paul Caster, built their proprietary practices into full magnetic healing hospitals.


Author(s):  
Olga A. Dekhanova ◽  
Mikhail E. Dekhanov

The rapid development of natural sciences at the beginning of the 19th century led to the creation of new sanitary and hygienic standards. The attention of the public opinion was now turned to keeping the body and clothing perfectly clean as a way of preventing diseases. New sanitary and hygienic regulations now prescribed not to mask unpleasant bodily odors with aromatic means, but to keep the body and clothing clean, which was regarded as a guarantee of bodily health. The popularization of new scientific discoveries through articles in public newspapers and magazines prepared the public consciousness for a new perception of the smells of everyday life, and the fiction, responding to the discussed social phenomena, fixed new cultural standards in the minds of readers. In this paper, we consider some of the new olfactory criteria used for evaluating characters or behavior patterns in works of fiction written in the second half of the 19th century, as well as their patterns and peculiarities in Dostoevsky’s oeuvre.


Author(s):  
Isabelle Avila

La communication proposée aura pour but de s’interroger sur la notion de « carte mentale ». Qu’est-ce qu’une carte mentale ? Comment se construit-elle ? Comment et pourquoi faire des recherches sur les cartes mentales? Cette réflexion théorique sera accompagnée d’une étude sur les représentations cartographiques de l’empire britannique au tournant du vingtième siècle. Comment retrouver les cartes mentales de l’empire britannique au moment de son apogée à partir des discours des géographes et des cartes présentes dans les atlas, les manuels scolaires et les revues des sociétés de géographie? Tout d’abord, ces cartes présentent un empire relié au monde grâce à de nombreux liens de communication. C’est un empire qui est compris comme un véritable résumé du monde. Les cartes affirment aussi la puissance symbolique d’un empire associé à la couleur rouge, couleur qui confère une certaine homogénéité à cette construction impériale et qui suggère ainsi une identité impériale. Cependant, si de nombreuses cartes construisent l’image d’un empire unifié, certaines laissent entrevoir la diversité des statuts des différents territoires qui en font partie. D’autres encore tentent de représenter, aux côtés de l’empire formel en rouge, un empire informel commercial, c’est-à-dire la partie invisible de l’iceberg. Enfin, la plupart des cartes de l’empire britannique utilisent la projection de Mercator. Quelle image de l’empire est transmise par cette projection et quelles sont les tentatives entreprises par les géographes du début du vingtième siècle pour changer cette image? L’analyse de ces variations autour des portraits cartographiques de l’empire britannique permettra ainsi de voir comment les cartes influencent la perception d’un espace dont les territoires sont éparpillés sur les cinq continents. Cette étude conduira enfin à considérer les cartes comme des « lieux de mémoire », comme des images qui contribuent à inscrire des territoires dans les mémoires.At the end of the nineteenth century, the maps of Africa underwent a complete revolution. The blanks that they used to show were covered in a few years by the colours of the European powers colonizing the continent. The aim of this article is to study the perception of that cartographic revolution by mapreaders at the time, including one of the most famous: Joseph Conrad. In his work Heart of Darkness, published in 1899, at the close of a century of geographical progress, he dealt both with the blanks on the maps of Africa and the European colours that replaced them. His fascination for maps led him to create a very powerful literary map of Africa where the rainbow colours of the Europeans are surrounded by darkness. That oxymoronic image enables him not only to symbolically reflect a consciousness of space but also of time, summarizing the proud certainties of the imperialism and nationalism of European powers with their colours and announcing the uncertainties and the darkness of the first half of the twentieth century. Ultimately, this article aims at showing that it is necessary to replace the literary work of Joseph Conrad in its historical context in order to understand how much his inspiration was linked both to his own experience and to a zeitgeist shared by his contemporaries. 


2020 ◽  
Vol 37 English Version ◽  
pp. 5-16
Author(s):  
Magdalena Karamucka-Marcinkiewicz

The aim of the article is to analyse Norwid’s historiosophical reflections on Russia, in which the key role is played by metaphors based on the relationship between the “form” and the “content”. This metaphoricity is reflected in the popular motif in the poet’s works, which considered the relationships of the “word” – the “letter” and the “spirit” – the “body”. In the analysed fragments, mainly from the poem Niewola, tsarist, imperialist Russia appears as an empire of the “form”, which in this case is supposed to mean the dominance of formalism and broadly understood enslavement over the spiritual content. In Norwid’s eyes, Russia, similarly to imperial Rome, stands in a clear opposition to the spirit of freedom, nation or humanity. The poet’s vision reflects the popular trends in the 19th-century literature.


2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 154-176
Author(s):  
Štěpánka Běhalová

The activities of the Landfras printing works and the associated publishing house are an important part of the history of book culture in the Czech lands in the 19th century and form a significant chapter in the history of book printing and publishing in this period. The focus of the production of the printing works and the publishing house reflected the new needs of literate broad social classes in the 19th century, showing increased interest in the printed word. The company used the modern methods and technologies available, which reduced the price of the final book or other printed materials. For publication, it selected titles whose sales were guaranteed or at least expected. The result was the repeated printing of a number of titles of religious, educational and entertainment literature, which had already been popular in previous centuries, and the development of contemporary titles for the general public from both urban and rural areas. For centuries, great popularity was mainly enjoyed by the titles of religious folk literature (Himmelschlüssel prayer books by the theologian Martin von Cochem and other prayer and devotional books), in which Baroque Catholic piety was reflected until the late 19th century. To the original Himmelschlüssel and other traditional titles, the printing works added titles of its regular authors and their translations of contemporary prayer and religious literature. It complemented the titles of secular entertainment literature (reprints of original works, e.g. Kronika o Štilfridovi [The Chronicle of Štilfríd] or Kronika sedmi mudrců [The Chronicle of the Seven Wise Men]) with translations and original works by Jan Hýbl and Václav Rodomil Kramerius, and it also printed moralising stories by local priests. Educational literature, such as guides for homesteaders, cooks and the like sold also well. A separate activity section comprises the publication and printing of textbooks mostly for local schools. Until the end of the 19th century, they were abundantly complemented by printed broadsides, affordable to every household. A significant chapter of the 19th century was the development of periodicals, which was mirrored in the second half of that century also in newly emerging regional titles, especially in the weekly Ohlas od Nežárky [Echoes from the River Nežárka], which began to be published in 1871.


2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 96-114
Author(s):  
Tomasz Ferenc

The article examines the relations between photography, body, nudity, and sexuality. It presents changing relations of photography with a naked or semi-naked body and different forms and recording conventions. From the mid-19th century the naked body became the subject of scientifically grounded photographic explorations, an allegorical motif referring to painting traditions, an object of interest and excitement for the newly-developed “touristic” perspective. These three main ways in which photographs depicting nudity were being taken at that time shaped three visual modes: artistic-documentary, ethnographic-travelling, and scientific-medical. It has deep cultural consequences, including those in the ways of shaping the notions of the corporeal and the sexual. Collaterally, one more, probably prevalent in numbers, kind of photographical images arose: pornographic. In the middle of the 19th century, the repertoire of pornographic pictures was already very wide, and soon it become one of the photographic pillars of visual imagination of the modern society, appealing to private and professional use of photography, popular culture, advertisement, art. The number of erotic and pornographic pictures rose hand over fist with the development of digital photography. Access to pornographic data is easy, fast, and cheap, thanks to the Internet, as it never was before. Photography has fuelled pornography, laying foundations for a massive and lucrative business, employing a huge group of professional sex workers. How all those processes affected our imagination and real practices, what does the staggering number of erotic photography denote? One possible answer comes from Michel Foucault who suggests that our civilization does not have any ars erotica, but only scientia sexualis. Creating sexual discourse became an obsession of our civilization, and its main pleasure is the pleasure of analysis and a constant production of truth about sex. Maybe today the main pleasure is about watching technically registered images, and perhaps that is why we may consider visual redefinition of the body as the main social effect of the invention of the photography.


Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 618
Author(s):  
Dorota Walczak-Delanois

The aim of this paper is to show the presence of religion and the particular evolution of lyrical matrixes connected to religion in the Polish poems of female poets. There is a particular presence of women in the roots of the Polish literary and lyrical traditions. For centuries, the image of a woman with a pen in her hand was one of the most important imponderabilia. Until the 19th century, Polish female poets continued to be rare. Where female poets do appear in the historical record, they are linked to institutions such as monasteries, where female intellectuals were able to find relative liberty and a refuge. Many of the poetic forms they used in the 16th, late 17th, and 18th centuries were typically male in origin and followed established models. In the 19th century, the specific image of the mother as a link to the religious portrait of the Madonna and the Mother of God (the first Polish poem presents Bogurodzica, the Virgin Mary, the Mother of Jesus) reinforces women’s new presence. From Adam Mickiewicz’s poem Do matki Polki (To Polish Mother), the term “Polish mother” becomes a separate literary, epistemological, and sociological category. Throughout the 20th century (with some exceptions), the impact of Romanticism and its poetical and religious models remained alive, even if they underwent some modifications. The period of communism, as during the Period of Partitions and the Second World War, privileged established models of lyric, where the image of women reproduced Romantic schema in poetics from the 19th-century canons, which are linked to religion. Religious poetry is the domain of few female author-poets who look for inner freedom and religious engagement (Anna Kamieńska) or for whom religion becomes a form of therapy in a bodily illness (Joanna Pollakówna). This, however, does not constitute an otherness or specificity of the “feminine” in relation to male models. Poets not interested in reproducing the established roles reach for the second type of lyrical expression: replacing the “mother” with the “lover” and “the priestess of love” (the Sappho model) present in the poetry of Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska. In the 20th century, the “religion” of love in women’s work distances them from the problems of the poetry engaged in social and religious disputes and constitutes a return to pagan rituals (Hymn idolatrous of Halina Poświatowska) or to the carnality of the body, not necessarily overcoming previous aesthetic ideals (Anna Świrszczyńska). It is only since the 21st century that the lyrical forms of Polish female poets have significantly changed. They are linked to the new place of the Catholic Church in Poland and the new roles of Polish women in society. Four particular models are analysed in this study, which are shown through examples of the poetry of Genowefa Jakubowska-Fijałkowska, Justyna Bargielska, Anna Augustyniak, and Malina Prześluga with the Witches’ Choir.


Author(s):  
Alexandru Godescu

The Body Mass Index (BMI) formula has been developed by Belgian mathematician Adolphe Quetelet and published in 1840 [1] as a law of nature and society, based on statistics about the weight and height of the population of that time, the first part of the 19th century. He called it “social physics”. From then, for nearly two centuries, the BMI had been the most important formula describing the normal relations and ratio of weight to the square of the height for humans. The problem arises if the BMI formula, developed in the first part of the 19th century is still good today when the type of work people perform is very different? In modern times, most people are less muscular than at the time when the BMI was developed because they do not work physically as heavy as at that time. In many cases, the Body Mass index can predict mortality, morbidity and illness but not always, for example cases such as (a) the obesity paradox for some cardiovascular problems and (b) the U shape mortality paradox as well as (c) false positive obesity diagnostic in regard to people who are strong and muscular, have low body fat percentage but are classified as obese by the BMI and (d) cases where BMI is normal but people have an “obese metabolism” (e) BMI normal but high fat percentage. The objective is to develop a formula good for all body types, a formula that makes the difference between fat and non-fat body weight such as muscle and body frame and quantifies the effect of strength and fitness, which BMI does not. Another objective is to develop a formula to predict the health risks and fitness status of people, better than BMI. The first generalizations of BMI using anthropometric metrics could be found in [2], where I discuss and analyze many formulae, developed, tested, and simulated by me, using similar new methods, accounting for body shape, physical shape and body function, making the difference between muscle mass and fat, fat and non fat body weight. Nearly all formulae and methods developed and proposed in this new model are new, never published before. Many experiments published before, in highly cited papers show that grip strength and muscle strength is a predictor of health, mortality, morbidity, endocrine and metabolic disease outside the BMI and anthropometric measures. The purpose of my formula is to explain the outcome of those experiments and create a formula which predicts these experiments [21-41].


2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-142
Author(s):  
Mihai Brie

"An indisputable musical personality of all times, the great musician Gheorghe Dima gave a new breath to Romanian music but also to religious music. Activating in the second half of the 19th century, turbulent times for history and nation and the first half of the 20th century, he established himself through his substantial and rich academic training in famous western schools. It remained in the consciousness of researchers and generations as one who put Romanian music (instrumental or polyphonic) on the research corridor of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In this sense, the present academic research wants to pay homage to an unforgettable personality from the local space. Keywords: musicology, history, personality, etc."


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