Arguing that missionaries occupied ambiguous positions in colonial cultures, Anna Johnson analyzes missionary writing under the aegis of the British Empire. Johnson reveals how missionaries were caught between imperial and religious interests through an examination of texts published by the largest and most influential nineteenth-century evangelical institution, the London Missionary Society. Texts from Indian, Polynesian, and Australian missions are also examined to highlight their representation of nineteenth-century evangelical activity in relationship to gender, colonialism, and race.
Arguing that missionaries occupied ambiguous positions in colonial cultures, Anna Johnson analyzes missionary writing under the aegis of the British E...
During the Irish Famine of 1845-52, novels by Dickens and Gaskell, as well as a range of commentaries on the Irish disaster, argued for a new theory of individual expression in opposition to the systemized approach to economic life that political economy proposed. These romantic views of human subjectivity eventually provided the foundation for a new theory of capitalism based on the desires of the individual consumer.
During the Irish Famine of 1845-52, novels by Dickens and Gaskell, as well as a range of commentaries on the Irish disaster, argued for a new theory o...
Gautam Chakravarty explores representations of the Indian Mutiny of 1857 in British popular fiction and historiography and within the wider context of British involvement in India. Drawing on diaries, autobiographies and state papers, Chakravarty demonstrates how narratives of the rebellion were inflected by the concerns of colonial policy and the demands of imperial self-image. The book has a broad interdisciplinary appeal.
Gautam Chakravarty explores representations of the Indian Mutiny of 1857 in British popular fiction and historiography and within the wider context of...
This survey of the evolution of British popular literature during the Romantic and Victorian periods relies on a broad range of archival and primary sources. Arguing that radical politics played a decisive role in the transformation of popular literature, Ian Haywood charts key moments in the history of "cheap" literature. The book accordingly casts new light on many neglected popular genres and texts: the "pig's meat" anthology, the female-authored didactic tale, and Chartist fiction.
This survey of the evolution of British popular literature during the Romantic and Victorian periods relies on a broad range of archival and primary s...
The nineteenth-century novel has always been regarded as a literary form pre-eminently occupied with the written word, but Ivan Kreilkamp shows it was deeply marked by and engaged with vocal performances and the preservation and representation of speech. He offers a detailed account of the many ways Victorian literature and culture represented the human voice, from political speeches, governesses' tales, shorthand manuals, and staged authorial performances in the early- and mid-century, to mechanically reproducible voice at the end of the century. Through readings of Charlotte Bronte,...
The nineteenth-century novel has always been regarded as a literary form pre-eminently occupied with the written word, but Ivan Kreilkamp shows it was...
It has long been recognised that the Gothic genre sensationalised beliefs and practices associated with Catholicism. Often, the rhetorical tropes and narrative structures of the Gothic, with its lurid and supernatural plots, were used to argue that both Catholicism and sexual difference were fundamentally alien and threatening to British Protestant culture. Ultimately, however, the Gothic also provided an imaginative space in which unconventional writers from John Henry Newman to Oscar Wilde could articulate an alternative vision of British culture. Patrick O'Malley charts these developments...
It has long been recognised that the Gothic genre sensationalised beliefs and practices associated with Catholicism. Often, the rhetorical tropes and ...
In this innovative study Julia M. Wright addresses rarely asked questions: how and why does one colonized nation write about another? Wright focuses on the way nineteenth-century Irish writers wrote about India, showing how their own experience of colonial subjection and unfulfilled national aspirations informed their work. Their writings express sympathy with the colonised or oppressed people of India in order to unsettle nineteenth-century imperialist stereotypes, and demonstrate their own opposition to the idea and reality of empire. Drawing on Enlightenment philosophy, studies of...
In this innovative study Julia M. Wright addresses rarely asked questions: how and why does one colonized nation write about another? Wright focuses o...
This innovative collection of essays addresses important issues in the history of the book. The multidisciplinary essays consider different aspects of the production, circulation, and consumption of printed texts, analyzing such topics as market trends, modes of publication, and the use of pseudonyms by women writers. Contributors draw on speech act, reader response and gender theory in addition to historical, narratological, materialist, and bibliographical perspectives to study authors such as Dickens, the Brontes and George Eliot.
This innovative collection of essays addresses important issues in the history of the book. The multidisciplinary essays consider different aspects of...
'Interdisciplinarity' has dynamized the Modern Humanities like no other recent academic trend. Yet, this presents serious challenges involving both translation and affect: how can we transmit facts and interpretations between disciplines, between different artistic media, between cultures, between the private and the public sphere? Some of the most distinctive voices in criticism from literature, music, the visual arts, psychoanalysis and philosophy, amongst others, show here their commitment to comparative thinking.
'Interdisciplinarity' has dynamized the Modern Humanities like no other recent academic trend. Yet, this presents serious challenges involving both tr...
In this study Deborah Vlock shows that characters, dialogue, and plots from many of Charles Dickens' novels can be traced to the Victorian stage, and that contemporary readers and writers of fiction were strongly influenced by what they saw at the theater. Through an examination of theatrical and popular-cultural sources--including accounts of noted actors and actresses, and of popular theatrical characters of the time--Vlock uncovers unexpected precursors for some popular Dickensian characters, and throws new light on the conditions in which Dickens' novels were initially received.
In this study Deborah Vlock shows that characters, dialogue, and plots from many of Charles Dickens' novels can be traced to the Victorian stage, and ...