Download or read book Mesmerism Medusa and the Muse written by Anne DeLong and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2012-04-26 with total page 179 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mesmerism, Medusa, and the Muse: The Romantic Discourse of Spontaneous Creativity explores the connections among the Romantic discourse of spontaneous literary creativity, the nineteenth-century cultural practice of mesmerism, and the mythical Medusa as an icon of the gendered gaze. An analysis of Medusan mesmerism in the poetry of Mary Robinson, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Percy Bysshe Shelley and Letitia Elizabeth Landon (L.E.L.) and the prose of Mary Shelley reveals that these Romantic-era writers equate the enraptured state that produces spontaneous literary creation with the mesmeric trance. These writers employ Medusan imagery to portray both the mesmerist and the mesmerized subject, a conflation of subject/object positions that complicates issues of agency, subjectivity, and gender. Images of Medusan mesmerism ultimately work to deconstruct Romantic ideological dichotomies of self/other, female/male, muse/artist, and sublime/beautiful. In contrast to a traditional, masculinized Romantic discourse that emphasizes self-possession, this study uncovers a feminized, improvisational, Romantic discourse, characterized “Other-possession,” an assumption of the mesmerized subject position that enhances subjective fluidity. This study interrogates the Romantic discourse of spontaneous literary creativity through an examination of Romantic poetry, prose, and theory that utilizes mesmeric and Medusan metaphors to suggest creative inspiration.Building on recent scholarship about improvisational poetics, the subversive potential of mesmerism, and Medusa as a feminist icon, this work suggests that the mesmeric Medusan muse not only enables creativity for women writers but also provides a mirror in which they view (and through which they give voice to) their own societal oppression. The mesmeric Medusan muse in Romantic-era literature—from the Ancient Mariner and the Frankenstein monster to the tragic, abandoned Sapphic poetess—often represents the face of oppression, an unwelcome and monstrous truth in nineteenth-century British society. For women writers in particular, braving the stare of the Medusan muse enhances empathy, and therefore inspiration and literary productivity.

Download or read book Literature and Image in the Long Nineteenth Century written by Amina Alyal and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2023-09-12 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores some of the ways in which word and image worked together in the nineteenth century, in terms of pictures, poetry and fiction. The authors keep in mind how word and image negotiate and compete for each other’s spaces. They seek to interrogate how image arises from absences in texts, and how image gives rise to narrative or voice. Topics include ekphrasis, illustration, literary representations of artists, the visual in writing, the staging of images and the textualization of theatrical tableaux, and related cultural and ideological tropes. This is covered in three main areas: ideological and philosophical resonances of image and text in fiction; the peculiar fusion of text and image that was the bread and butter of the Pre-Raphaelites; and book illustration, especially the tensions between writer and artist as authors of the text. The volume will be of interest to students and scholars in the field of Victorian literary and art history studies.

Download or read book A Cultural History of Hair in the Age of Empire written by Sarah Heaton and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-12-10 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hair, or lack of it, is one the most significant identifiers of individuals in any society. In Antiquity, the power of hair to send a series of social messages was no different. This volume covers nearly a thousand years of history, from Archaic Greece to the end of the Roman Empire, concentrating on what is now Europe, North Africa, and the Near East. Among the key issues identified by its authors is the recognition that in any given society male and female hair tend to be opposites (when male hair is generally short, women's is long); that hair is a marker of age and stage of life (children and young people have longer, less confined hairstyles; adult hair is far more controlled); hair can be used to identify the 'other' in terms of race and ethnicity but also those who stand outside social norms such as witches and mad women. The chapters in A Cultural History of Hair in Antiquity cover the following topics: religion and ritualized belief, self and society, fashion and adornment, production and practice, health and hygiene, gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity, class and social status, and cultural representations.

Download or read book The Paragone in Nineteenth Century Art written by Sarah J. Lippert and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-03-27 with total page 470 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offering an examination of the paragone, meaning artistic rivalry, in nineteenth-century France and England, this book considers how artists were impacted by prevailing aesthetic theories, or institutional and cultural paradigms, to compete in the art world. The paragone has been considered primarily in the context of Renaissance art history, but in this book readers will see how the legacy of this humanistic competitive model survived into the late nineteenth century.

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Edgar Allan Poe written by J. Gerald Kennedy and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2019 with total page 881 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This handbook is currently in development, with individual articles publishing online in advance of print publication. At this time, we cannot add information about unpublished articles in this handbook, however the table of contents will continue to grow as additional articles pass through the review process and are added to the site. Please note that the online publication date for this handbook is the date that the first article in the title was published online.

Download or read book The Birth of Homeopathy out of the Spirit of Romanticism written by Alice Ann Kuzniar and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2017-04-24 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Homeopathy was founded in 1796 by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann who ardently proposed that "like cures like," counter to the conventional treatment of prescribing drugs that have the opposite effect to symptoms. Alice A. Kuzniar critically examines the alternative medical practice of homeopathy within the Romantic culture in which it arose. In The Birth of Homeopathy out of the Spirit of Romanticism, Kuzniar argues that Hahnemann was a product of his time rather than an iconoclast and visionary. It is the first book in English to examine Hahnemann’s unpublished writings, including case journals and self-testings, and links to his contemporaries such as Goethe and Alexander von Humboldt. Kuzniar’s engaging writing style seamlessly weaves together medical, philosophical, semiotic, and literary concerns and reveals homeopathy as a phenomenon of its time. The Birth of Homeopathy out of the Spirit of Romanticism sheds light on issues that continue to dominate the controversy surrounding homeopathy to this very day.

Download or read book The Idea of Infancy in Nineteenth Century British Poetry written by D.B. Ruderman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-28 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book radically refigures the conceptual and formal significance of childhood in nineteenth-century English poetry. By theorizing infancy as a poetics as well as a space of continual beginning, Ruderman shows how it allowed poets access to inchoate, uncanny, and mutable forms of subjectivity and art. While recent historicist studies have documented the "freshness of experience" childhood confers on 19th-century poetry and culture, this book draws on new formalist and psychoanalytic perspectives to rethink familiar concepts such as immortality, the sublime, and the death drive as well as forms and genres such as the pastoral, the ode, and the ballad. Ruderman establishes that infancy emerges as a unique structure of feeling simultaneously with new theories of lyric poetry at the end of the eighteenth century. He then explores the intertwining of poetic experimentation and infancy in Wordsworth, Anna Barbauld, Blake, Coleridge, Erasmus Darwin, Sara Coleridge, Shelley, Matthew Arnold, Tennyson, and Augusta Webster. Each chapter addresses and analyzes a specific moment in a writers’ work, moments of tenderness or mourning, birth or death, physical or mental illness, when infancy is analogized, eulogized, or theorized. Moving between canonical and archival materials, and combining textual and inter-textual reading, metrical and prosodic analysis, and post-Freudian psychoanalytic theory, the book shows how poetic engagements with infancy anticipate psychoanalytic and phenomenological (i.e. modern) ways of being in the world. Ultimately, Ruderman suggests that it is not so much that we return to infancy as that infancy returns (obsessively, compulsively) in us. This book shows how by tracking changing attitudes towards the idea of infancy, one might also map the emotional, political, and aesthetic terrain of nineteenth-century culture. It will be of interest to scholars in the areas of British romanticism and Victorianism, as well as 19th-century American literature and culture, histories of childhood, and representations of the child from art historical, cultural studies, and literary perspectives. "D. B. Ruderman’s The Idea of Infancy in Nineteenth-Century British Poetry: Romanticism, Subjectivity, Form is an interesting contribution to this field, and it manages to bring a new perspective to our understanding of Romantic-era and Victorian representations of infancy and childhood. ...a supremely exciting book that will be a key work for generations of readers of nineteenth-century poetry." Isobel Armstrong, Birkbeck, University of London Victorian Studies (59.4)

Download or read book Literature and Fascination written by Sibylle Baumbach and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-07-30 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Exploring literary fascination as a key concept of aesthetic attraction, this book illuminates the ways in which literary texts are designed, presented, and received. Detailed case studies include texts by William Shakespeare, S.T. Coleridge, Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, Oscar Wilde, Joseph Conrad, Don DeLillo, and Ian McEwan.

Download or read book Alimentary Orientalism written by Yin Yuan and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2023-06-16 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What, exactly, did tea, sugar, and opium mean in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Britain? Alimentary Orientalism reassesses the politics of Orientalist representation by examining the contentious debates surrounding these exotic, recently popularized, and literally consumable things. It suggests that the interwoven discourses sparked by these commodities transformed the period’s literary Orientalism and created surprisingly self-reflexive ways through which British writers encountered and imagined cultural otherness. Tracing exotic ingestion as a motif across a range of authors and genres, this book considers how, why, and whither writers used scenes of eating, drinking, and smoking to diagnose and interrogate their own solipsistic constructions of the Orient. As national and cultural boundaries became increasingly porous, such self-reflexive inquiries into the nature and role of otherness provided an unexpected avenue for British imperial subjectivity to emerge and coalesce.

Download or read book A gordian shape of dazzling hue written by Greta Colombani and published by V&R Unipress. This book was released on 2017-09-11 with total page 127 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Serpent symbolism plays an important role in Keats's rich animal imagery both on a quantitative level and on a qualitative one. Through images of dazzling, twisted, suffocating snakes Keats gives form to some of his most important ideas as well as anxieties about poetic creation. In particular, snakes convey the tension between the more unconscious and the more conscious elements of the creative psyche, which is reflected in the linguistic texture of the poems. Besides, serpent symbolism shows how Keats's initial complete adhesion to the predominant Romantic view of the time was complicated and reinterpreted in highly personal terms. By recovering some Augustan notions, this young poet attempted a partial, problematic re-appropriation of the recent past Romanticism had utterly dismissed.

Download or read book Mary Robinson and the Genesis of Romanticism written by Ashley Cross and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-08-19 with total page 461 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First coming to prominence as an actress and scandalous celebrity, Mary Robinson created an identity for herself as a Romantic poet and novelist in the 1790s. Through a series of literary dialogues with established writers, Robinson put herself at the center of Romantic literary culture as observer, participant, and creator. Cross argues that Robinson’s dialogues shaped the nature of Romantic writing both in content and form and influenced second-generation Romantics. These dialogues further establish the idea of Romantic discourse as essentially interactive and conversational, not the work of original geniuses working in isolation, and positions Robinson as a central player in its genesis.

Download or read book The Female Fantastic written by Lizzie McCormick and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-08-06 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For women-identified writers of both eras, the fantastic offered double vision. Not only did the genre offer strategic cover for challenging the status quo, but also a heuristic mechanism for teasing out the gendered psyche’s links to creative, personal, and erotic agency. These dynamic presentations of female and gender-queer subjectivity, are linked in intriguing and complex matrices to key moments in gender(ed) history. This volume contains essays from international scholars covering a wide range of topics, including werewolves, mummies, fairies, demons, time travel, ghosts, haunted spaces and objects, race, gender, queerness, monstrosity, madness, incest, empire, medicine, and science. By interrogating two non-consecutive decades, we seek to uncover the inter-relationships among fantastic literature, feminism, and modern identity and culture. Indeed, while this book considers the relationship between the 1890s and 1920s, it is more an examination of women’s modernism in light of gendered literary production during the fin-de-siècle than the reverse.

Download or read book Frankenstein written by Mary Shelley and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2024-09-17 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A twisted, upside-down creation myth that gave birth to the modern science fiction novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley's chilling Gothic tale, lays bare the dark side of science, and the horror within us all. Written after a nightmare Mary Shelley was only eighteen, this book gave birth to the modern science fiction novel. Set against the backdrop of Europe in the late 18th century, Frankenstein explores themes of scientific ethics, the nature of monstrosity, and the consequences of playing god. The book follows the ambitious scientist Victor Frankenstein who plunders graveyards to create a human-like creature from reanimated body parts, driven by his desire to overcome death and unlock the secrets of life. Frankenstein is often considered a reflection of the cultural and scientific anxieties of the time, with the Industrial Revolution and advancements in science raising questions about the ethical boundaries of scientific exploration. Despite first being published in 1818, this novel remains relevant today, prompting discussions on the consequences of unchecked ambition and societal rejection of the “other.” This seminal work is perfect for fans of the Gothic and science fiction genres.

Download or read book Clara Schumann Studies written by Joe Davies and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-12-02 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the 1980s, when she re-emerged from the peripheries into a more central position in music studies, Clara Schumann (1819–1896) has exerted an enduring fascination over the scholarly and popular imagination. Revisionist biographies, the uncovering of primary sources (diaries, letters, memorabilia), and filmic and literary depictions of Schumann have all brought into sharper focus the details and reception of her life, while simultaneously drawing attention to how much there is still to learn about her creativity. This book brings together a team of leading scholars to reappraise Clara Schumann in three particular respects: first, by delving deeper into her social and musical contexts; secondly, by offering fresh analytical perspectives on her songs and instrumental music; and thirdly, by reconsidering her legacy as a pianist and teacher. In doing so, the volume not only contributes to a rounded picture of Schumann's creative vision, but also opens up new pathways in the wider study of women in music.

Download or read book 30 Great Myths about the Romantics written by Duncan Wu and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2015-05-06 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brimming with the fascinating eccentricities of a complex and confusing movement whose influences continue to resonate deeply, 30 Great Myths About the Romantics adds great clarity to what we know – or think we know – about one of the most important periods in literary history. Explores the various misconceptions commonly associated with Romanticism, offering provocative insights that correct and clarify several of the commonly-held myths about the key figures of this era Corrects some of the biases and beliefs about the Romantics that have crept into the 21st-century zeitgeist – for example that they were a bunch of drug-addled atheists who believed in free love; that Blake was a madman; and that Wordsworth slept with his sister Celebrates several of the mythic objects, characters, and ideas that have passed down from the Romantics into contemporary culture – from Blake’s Jerusalem and Keats’s Ode on a Grecian Urn to the literary genre of the vampire Engagingly written to provide readers with a fun yet scholarly introduction to Romanticism and key writers of the period, applying the most up-to-date scholarship to the series of myths that continue to shape our appreciation of their work

Download or read book Classic Horror written by Anne DeLong and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2018-06-15 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A valuable resource for readers exploring the classic horror genre, this book presents primary source documents alongside analysis in an examination of the social, political, and economic factors reflected in 19th century Gothic literature. The nineteenth century was a time of social, cultural, and economic change; revolutionary scientific developments; and enduring imaginative works. This book explores the classic horror genre of Gothic literature in its historical and social contexts. It contains chapters on four major works of classic horror, with each chapter providing a mix of background information, primary source historical documents, and analysis that will appeal as much to high school and college students as to lovers of literature and the Victorian era. Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is contextualized through documents pertaining to British imperialism, Antarctic Exploration, and the burgeoning environmentalist movement. Shelley's Frankenstein is explored through sections on galvanism, electricity, grave robbing, and the vitalist debate. Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is read through explanations of nineteenth-century drug use and addiction and early theories of psychology and criminology. Stoker's Dracula is studied with reference to such topics as mesmerism, clairvoyance, alienism, medical ethics, xenophobia, and Victorian pseudoscience.

Download or read book Tears Liquids and Porous Bodies in Literature Across the Ages written by Norbert Lennartz and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-08-26 with total page 379 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Taking in works from writers as diverse as William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, Charlotte Brontë, John Keats, James Joyce and D.H. Lawrence, this book spans approximately 300 years and unpacks how bodily liquidity, porosity and petrification recur as a pattern and underlie the chequered history of the body and genders in literature. Lennartz examines the precarious relationship between porosity and its opposite – closure, containment and stoniness – and explores literary history as a meandering narrative in which 'female' porosity and 'manly' stoniness clash, showing how different societies and epochs respond to and engage with bodily porosity. This book considers the ways that this relationship is constantly renegotiated and where effusive and 'feminine' genres, such as 'sloppy' letters and streams of consciousness, are pitted against stony and astringent forms of masculinity, like epitaphs, sonnets and the Bildungsroman.