Arts and Humanities Commons^™

"The Most Glorious War Recorded In The British Annals”: Portugal In British Figurations Of The Peninsular War, Manuela MourãO

English Faculty Publications

[First paragraph]

“THE MOST GLORIOUS WAR RECORDED IN THE BRITISH ANNALS,” AS ROBERT Southey described it in the dedication of his History of the Peninsular War,1 the conflict that brought together Portugal, Spain, and Britain against Napoleon’s armies between 1807 and 1814 was a dominant preoccupation of the British public in general, and of the first generation of Romantics in particular.2 Many critics have shown the extent to which the Iberian uprising against the tyranny of Napoleon galvanized the British people, united the British nation, and afforded Southey, Wordsworth, and Coleridge a renewed opportunity to sympathize with the cause of …

Shakespeare's Globe Archive: Theatres, Players & Performance, Rob Tench

Libraries Faculty & Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Twisting Facts To Suit Theories: In Defense Of Sherlock, Alicia Defonzo

English Faculty Publications

[First paragraph]

In August 2011, the Albemarle County school board unanimously voted to remove Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s A Study in Scarlet from the sixth-grade curricula. Over twenty students beseeched the board for the book to remain, and they were ignored. Teachers were afraid to voice their opinions on the matter. The novel has not been taught since in Albemarle, on any grade level, nor any other Sherlock Holmes texts.

The Sky Of Our Manufacture: The London Fog In British Fiction From Dickens To Woolf, Margaret Konkol

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

“The Finest Production Of The Finest Country Upon Earth”: Gender And Nationality In The Writings Of Nineteenth-Century British Women Travelers To Portugal, Manuela MourãO

English Faculty Publications

First paragraph:

Critical attention to the writings of nineteenth-century British women travelers has repeatedly stressed their value as evidence of the writers’ attempts at overcoming the constraints of nineteenth-century ideologies of femininity that constructed women as inferior or ancillary (Frawley; Robinson; Foster; Dolan; Middleton); it has also often emphasized the importance of reading them within contemporary discourses such as imperialism, colonialism, or nationalism (Blunt; Frawley; Foster; Mills; Siegel). This essay focuses on three accounts by nineteenth- century British women travelers to Portugal— Marianne Baillie’s Lisbon in the Years 1821, 1822, and 1823 (1824); Julia Pardoe’s Traits and Traditions of Portugal …

Robert Southey On Portugal: Travel Narrative And The Writing Of History, Manuela MourãO

English Faculty Publications

First paragraph:

Robert Southey was once referred to by Ernest Bernhardt-Kabisch as “one of the best known of the unread poets” (9) in a study that deliberately focused on what he considered Southey’s largely failed poetic quest: “Southey’s grand failures,” he explained, “are more interesting than his modest successes and far more illuminative of Romanticism and Romantic myth-making generally” (9). In an oblique way, my focus in this essay is likewise another of Southey’s grand failures-- his planned, but never finished, History of Portugal. This ambitious project, despite remaining mostly unwritten, occupied much of Southey’s time in the early years …

The (Re)Naturalization Of Margaret Cavendish: Making Active The Relationship Between Nature And Female Subjectivity In Blazing World, Daniel P. Richards, Julie Chappell (Ed.), Kamille Stone Stanton (Ed.)

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Illustrations And Text: Storyworld Space And The Multimodality Of Serialized Narrative, Laura Daniel Buchholz

English Faculty Publications

This essay examines the interaction between picture and text in the construction of the narrative spaces in George W. M. Reynolds's Mysteries of London (1844–45) and William Harrison Ainsworth's Jack Sheppard (1839) . Building on previous discussions from Gabriel Zoran (1984) and David Herman ( Story Logic, 2002) concerning the process by which space is constructed in verbal/written texts, this essay examines how such theories function in conjunction with the illustrations that often accompanied Victorian serialized narratives in their original publication. Specifically, I consider the interaction between the verbal and visual channels in the construction of interior rooms presented in …

Samuel Beckett And Testimony [Book Review], Marc A. Ouellette

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Othello's "Malignant Turk" And George Manwaring's "A True Discourse": The Cultural Politics Of A Textual Derivation, Imtiaz Habib

English Faculty Publications

A critique is presented of the play "Othello" by William Shakespeare, focusing on a reference from Othello's final speech to an incident in Aleppo, Syria that the author attributes to the manuscript essay "A True Discourse" by George Manwaring, a companion of English adventurer Sir Anthony Sherley. Early 17th century British history, Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, and Queen Elizabeth I are mentioned, as well as references in the works to Turks and the censorship of English literature.

The Mediterranean Apprenticeship Of British Slavery, By Gustav Ungerer. Madrid: Editorial Verbum, 2008 (Book Review), Imtiaz Habib

English Faculty Publications

The article reviews the book "The Mediterranean Apprenticeship of British Slavery," by Gustav Ungerer.

Racial Impersonation On The Elizabethan Stage: The Case Of Shakespeare Playing Aaron, Imtiaz Habib

English Faculty Publications

The article focuses on the implications of playwright William Shakespeare performing racial roles himself, such as Aaron in "Titus Andronicus." Several plays are discussed, including "Titus Andronicus," "The Merchant of Venice," and "Othello." The SHAXICON database, which compiles the text of Shakespeare's plays, is the primary source of evidence to suggest Shakespeare acted in his plays. Information about race relations in Great Britain's society during Shakespeare's time is also given.

English Ethnicity And Race In Early Modern Drama, By Mary Floyd-Wilson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003 (Book Review), Imtiaz Habib

English Faculty Publications

The article reviews the book "English Ethnicity and Race in Early Modern Drama," by Mary Floyd-Wilson.

'There Shall Be No Discernible Traces Left': The Invisible Butler In Ishiguro's "The Remains Of The Day", Marc A. Ouellette

English Faculty Publications

This paper draws its title from an anecdote Stevens, the butler in The Remains of the Day (1989), recounts to illustrate the primary attribute for servants: the ability to perform duties without leaving any discernible traces. Mrs. D.C. Webster, an American married into British “old money,” expresses astonishment at the treatment of servants during an interview for the documentary, The Secret World of Fame and Fortune. Mrs. Webster “had a staff of twelve . . . They would do everything for you. If you took a sweater off, it would disappear. If they were too loud or if they were …

Negotiating Victorian Feminism: Anne Thackeray Ritchie's Short Fiction, Manuela MourãO

English Faculty Publications

First paragraph:

Best known for her autobiographical introductions to the collected works of her father, William Makepeace Thackeray, and for her biographical essays on several famous writers, Anne Thackeray Ritchie has repeatedly been considered most important as a source of inside information regarding her famous contemporaries. From Dickens to the Brownings, from Tennyson to James, she counted many of the canonical British nineteenth- and early- twentieth-century writers as her friends and often wrote to and about them.2 The scope of her work, however, is much wider and deserves closer scrutiny than it has so far received.

Articulating The Questions, Searching For Answers: How To The Lighthouse Can Help, Nancy Topping Bazin

English Faculty Publications

(First paragraph) At Old Dominion University, English majors must take one of the following courses-Postcolonial Literature, Literature by Minorities, African-American Literature, or Women Writers. In each course, our majors encounter new materials and perspectives. I teach Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse in Women Writers, a course in which students expect to explore feminist perspectives. Students range in age from nineteen lo sixty, but most are in their twenties or thirties. Frequently the first in their families to attend college, many come from conservative homes where feminist is a derogatory word. Therefore I find that the best way into a feminist …

Androgyny Or Catastrophe: Doris Lessing's Vision In The Early 1970s, Nancy Topping Bazin

English Faculty Publications

Doris Lessing's novels of the early 1970s offer readers a rare kind of wisdom one which has been nourished by Sufism, a form of Islamic mysticism, which she admires. Unlike Lessing's earlier fiction which was simply influenced by the ideas of Sufism, three of her novels-Briefing for a Descent into Hell (1971), The Summer Before the Dark (1973), and The Memoirs of a Survivor (1974)-are literally Sufi fables-that is, symbolic stories, each of which "illuminates truth" (qtd. in Shah, The Sufis 14). The Sufi truth illuminated by these novels is that "life is One," and that because we have …

"Lost Books" And Publishing History: Two Annotated Lists Of Imprints For The Fiction Titles Listed In The Circulating Library Catalogs Of Thomas Lowndes (1766) And M. Heavisides (1790), Of Which No Known Copies Survive, Edward Jacobs, Antonia Forster

English Faculty Publications

Almost immediately upon the British Library's publication of The Eighteenth Century Short Title Catalogue on CD-ROM (hereafter ESTC), there emerged criticism and controversy respecting the design and execution of that monumental bibliography, and of its access software. However, amidst these discussions and those surrounding the on line version, little notice has been taken of the historical inaccuracies inevitably entailed by the fact that ESTC and other union-catalog-type bibliographies only include books of which copies have survived. Certainly, for most scholars it makes sense to give bibliographical priority to cataloging books of which we still have copies, since those are the …

A Previously Unremarked Circulating Library: John Roson And The Role Of Circulating-Library Proprietors As Publishers In Eighteenth-Century Britain, Edward Jacobs

English Faculty Publications

The entry in The Eighteenth-Century Short Title Catalogue on CD ROM2 for The History of Miss Dorinda Catsby and Miss Emilia Faulkner (London: printed and sold by S. Bladon, 1772) notes that it contains between volumes one and two an advertisement for the catalog of John Roson's circulating library. However, Roson's library is not included in the lists of known English circulating libraries compiled by Hilda Hamlyn and by Paul Kaufman, and evidently no actual copy of a Roson catalog has survived. Still, merely the advertisement for this catalog tells us much about Roson's library business, and the discovery that …

Postmortem Diagnoses Of Virginia Woolf's 'Madness': The Precarious Quest For Truth, Nancy Topping Bazin

English Faculty Publications

The reputation of British writer Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) is now well established. Her brilliance as a writer is seldom contested, and her place in the literary canon is assured. Whether interested in literary traditions, textual studies, applied feminism, or postmodern theory, most scholars and critics admire what she had to say and how she said it. The variety, volume, and quality of her writings are impressive; her skill as a writer is seen not only in her eight novels but also in her essays, diaries, letters, short stories, biographies and nonfictional works A Room of One's Own and Three Guineas …

A Syntactical Approach To Mr. Collins' Letter, Shixing Wen

Libraries Faculty & Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Virginia Woolf's Keen Sensitivity To War: It's Roots And It's Impact On Her Novels, Nancy Topping Bazin, Jane Hamovit Lauter

English Faculty Publications

(First paragraph) War InspIred Horror In Virginia Woolf. Her antipathy toward those who cause wars is evident in her two essays, A Room of One's Own and Three Guineas. The impact of war on her fiction expands from a portrayal of individuals as victims of war to a vision of war that encompasses the possible annihilation of civilization. Between the Acts, Woolf's final novel, is obviously an artistic response to the threat posed by World War II. However, a close examination of her works reveals, to a surprising degree, her early and persistent preoccupation with the consequences of war, …

The Spherical Vision, Nancy Topping Bazin

English Faculty Publications

Virginia Woolf's experiences as a manic-depressive influenced her vision of reality and, in tum, her aesthetics. Manic-depression is a "cyclic" illness-cyclic in the sense that the manic-depressive moves alternately between two extreme psychological states. Hence, he experiences reality in terms of two opposite perspectives. Psychotic depression involves what Jung describes as the experience of the "shadow." That is, looking into the unconscious, the individual sees his own reflection. He takes a risk in looking, for as Jung says, "The mirror does not flatter, it faithfully shows whatever looks into it; namely, the face we never show to the world because …

The Evolution Of Doris Lessing's Art From A Mystical Moment To Space Fiction, Nancy Topping Bazin

English Faculty Publications

After publishing ten major novels, Doris Lessing has begun writing what she calls '·space fiction'· for her new series entitled Canopus in Argos: Archives. In a review of the first two novels published in this series, namely, Shikasta ( 1979) and the Marriages Between Zones Three. Four, and Five (1980)¹. Jean Pickering stresses that many of Doris Lessing's most avid readers were initially attracted to her because of her insights about the female experience and because of her allegiance to nineteenth-century realism." Pickering suggests that Lessing's growing interest in space fiction and Sufism (Islamic mysticism) has …

British Reviews Of Shikasta, Nancy Topping Bazin

English Faculty Publications

[First Paragraph] British reviewers had mixed reactions to Shikasta, the first novel in Doris Lessing's new series, "Canopus in Argos: Archives." Favorable and critical comments balanced one another, often within the same review. Furthermore, reactions tended to be extreme: either it was a magnificent novel (Times 11/15/79) or reading it was "a shameful waste of precious and irreplaceable time." (Sun Telegraph 11/18/79); or it was simultaneously great and boring. In general, British reviews of Shikasta were more perceptive than those of the second novel in Lessing's new series, The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four, and Five. Because …

British Reviews Of Marriages, Nancy Topping Bazin

English Faculty Publications

(First paragraph) British reviews of Doris Lessing's second novel in her "Canopus in Argos: Archives" series, The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four, and Five, were more favorable than those of the first novel, Shikasta. However, compared with comments about Shikasta, both negative and positive remarks about Marriages were less perceptive and more often blatantly inaccurate, perhaps because a novel dealing with male-fem ale relationships draws forth in reviewers and other readers the multitude of misconceptions and prejudices that abound on this topic. Moreover, although reviewers obviously enjoyed reading Marriages more than they did Shikasta, their praise …

Hermione Lee's The Novels Of Virginia Woolf [Book Review], Nancy Topping Bazin

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.