Literary Illumination

Richard Leahy

Description

Literary Illumination examines the relationship between literature and artificial illumination, demonstrating that developments of lighting technology during the nineteenth century definitively altered the treatment of light as symbol, metaphor and textual motif. Correspondingly, the book also engages with the changing nature of darkness, and how the influence of artificial light altered both public perceptions of, and behaviour within, darkness, as well as examining literary chiaroscuros. Within each of four main chapters dedicated to the analysis of a single dominant light source in the long nineteenth-century – firelight, candlelight, gaslight, and electric light – the author considers the phenomenological properties of the light sources, and where their presence would be felt most strongly in the nineteenth century, before collating a corpus of texts for each light source and environment.

Introduction
Chapter One: Firelight
1.1 Nineteenth Century Firelight: Hearth, Home and Industry
1.2 Gaskell, Dickens, Fire and Reverie
1.3 Variable Flames in Urban Domesticity
1.4 Fire and Reverie in Industrial Desperation
Chapter Two: Candlelight
2.1 A Brief History of Candlelight
2.2. Candle Theory and its Symbolic Value in Literature
2.3 The Candle and the Literary Detective
2.4 The Candle and the Gothic Unknown
2.5 The Candle and Ambiguity of Mental States
Chapter Three: Gaslight
3.1 Gaslight in the Nineteenth Century
3.2 The Networked City: Gaslight on Literary Streets
3.3 The Theatre: Gaslight’s Stage
3.4 The Department Store: Gaslight’s Dressing Room
Chapter Four: Electric Light
4.1 Electric Light in the Nineteenth Century
4.2 Jules Verne’s prophetic electric light of the 1860s and 70s
4.3 The Transient Light of H.G. Wells’s Fin-de-Siècle
4.4 Electric Light 1900-1914: Realisation and Realism
Summary and Conclusions

Sujets

• 19th Century
• Modern
• Histoire
• History

Informations

• Publié par: University of Wales Press
• Date de parution: 15 août 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781786832696
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 12 Mo

Extrait

LITERARY ILLUMINATION

INTERSECTIONS IN LITERATURE AND SCIENCE

Series Editors Ru Robbîns,Leeds Beckett Unîversîty Susan Wakîns,Leeds Beckett Unîversîty

Editorial Board Danîe Corde,Nottîngam Trent Unîversîty Care Hanson,Unîversîty o Soutampton George evîne,Rutgers Unîversîty Roger uckurs, Bîrkbeck,Unîversîty o London Aan Rauc,Unîversîty o Nort Caroîna at Carotte Sîmon Scafer,Unîversîty o Cambrîdge Keîr Waddîngon,Cardîf Unîversîty

Do we sî îve în a word o ‘wo cuures’, as C. P. Snow so memoraby suggesed în e ae 1950s? Recen îerary scoarsîp suggess a we don’, oug ere do conînue o be mîsundersandîngs beween scîenîss and umanîîes pracîîoners. hîs serîes îs concerned wî e înersecîons beween îerary researc and scîenîIc and ecno- ogîca advances. ï îs concerned wî e ways în wîc scîence as a range o pracîces and pîosopîes, and ecnoogîes în a eîr guîses, înorm îerary pracîce; în ow scîence can aso be caenged by îerary pracîces and represenaîons; and în wa appens o eac o ese dîscourses wen ey are broug îno pay wî eac oer. îeraure and Scîence pubîses paIndîng researc wîc exam- înes e conjuncîons and dîsjuncîons a occur wen (possîby) dîferen word vîews are broug ogeer. ï îs our mîssîon o brîng o readers and scoars a a eves înnovaîve înkîng and wrîîng abou scîenîIc and îerary narraîves a concern emseves wî e medîca umanîîes, ecocrîîcîsm, represenaîons o ecnoogy and scîence Icîons.

LITERARY ILLUMINATION

THE EVOLUTION OF ARTIFICIAL LIGHT IN NINETEENTHCENTURY LITERATURE

Rîcard Leay

UNïVERSïTY OF WAES PRESS CARDïFF 2018

© Rîcard eay, 2018

A rîgs reserved. No par o îs book may be reproduced în any maerîa orm (încudîng poocopyîng or sorîng î în any medîum by eecronîc means and weer or no ransîeny or încîdenay o some oer use o îs pubîcaîon) wîou e wrîen permîssîon o e copyrîg owner. Appîcaîons or e copyrîg owner’s wrîen permîssîon o reproduce any par o îs pubîcaîon soud be addressed o e Unîversîy o Waes Press, Unîversîy Regîsry, Kîng Edward VII Avenue, Cardîf CF10 3NS.

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Britis Library CIP Data A catalogue record or tHîs book îs avaîlable rom tHe BrîtîsH Lîbrary.

ISBN: 978-1-78683-268-9 e-ISBN: 978-1-78683-269-6

he rîgHt o RîcHard LeaHy to be îdentîied as autHor o tHîs work Has been asserted în accordance wîtH sectîons 77 and 79 o tHe CopyrîgHt, Desîgns and Patents Act 1988.

Typeset by Marîe DoHerty Prînted by CPI Antony Rowe, MelksHam

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ïnroducîon: he Nîneeen-Cenury îgscape

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Fîreîg 1.1 Nîneeen-Cenury Fîreîg: Hear, Home and ïndusry 1.2 Gaske, Dîckens, Fîre and Reverîe: he Domesîc and e ïndîvîdua 1.3 Varîabe Fames în Urban Domesîcîy 1.4 Fîre and Reverîe în ïndusrîa Desperaîon

Candeîg 2.1 A Brîe Hîsory o Candeîg: An Ancîen îg în e Nîneeen Cenury 2.2 Cande heory and îs Symboîc Vaue în îeraure 2.3 he Cande and e îerary Deecîve 2.4 he Cande and e Goîc Unknown 2.5 he Cande and Ambîguîy o Mena Saes

Gasîg 3.1 Gasîg în e Nîneeen Cenury 3.2 he Neworked Cîy: Gasîg on îerary Srees 3.3 he heare: Gasîg’s Sage 3.4 he Deparmen Sore: Gasîg’s Dressîng Room

Eecrîc îg 4.1 Eecrîc îg în e Nîneeen Cenury: Evouîon and Revouîon 4.2 Jues Verne’s propeîc eecrîc îg o e 1860s and 1870s 4.3 he Transîen îg o H. G. Wes’s Fîn-de-Sîèce 4.4 Eecrîc îg 1900–14: Reaîsaîon and Reaîsm

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Summary and Concusîons he îgscape o e Eary Twenîe Cenury: Wy Sop Here? he Key ïdeas: Burrîng o Arceypes, Modernîy and e ïndîvîdua

Noes Bîbîograpy ïndex

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‘adîes by e Fîresîde’ engravîng by George A. Ecock.

ïusraîon o cear dweîng orîgînay pubîsed înhe ïustrated London News,3229 November 1862.

Cover îmage – Jon Akînson Grîmsaw, ‘Backman Sree, ondon’, 1885.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

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Camîe Pîssarro, ‘he Bouevard Monmarre a Nîg’, 1897.

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Jabockof candes on Vîcorîa Embankmen, 1878. 145

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FIGURE 6  Caroon aken romPunc, 1878, enîed ‘Eecrîc îg Comes’.

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FIGURE 8 modern îgscape, 2017 (îmage auor’s own). 189 he

FIGURE 3 rom an 1892 cemîsry book deaîîng ïusraîon Mîcae Faraday’s 1860 ecure on ‘he Cemîca Hîsory o a Cande’.

ïusraîon o ‘he Pî and e Penduum’ by Harry Carke, în Edgar Aan Poe’sTaes o Mystery, 1919. 73

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INTRODUCTION: THE NINETEENTHCENTURY LIGHTSCAPE

îg, by îs very naure, îs opposîîona. ïs bînary reaîonsîp wî darkness as ed o îg emergîng as one sîde o a symboîc srucure a as become represenaîve o oer sîmîary posîîve and nega- îve dîcoomîes. Symboîsm wîîn wesern cuure and îeraure as been domînaed by e wîe and back duaîsm o îg and dark or a very ong îme. God, în e Book o Genesîs, creaes îg, and empasîzes e uman reaîonsîp wî î: ‘And God saw a e îg 1 was good; and God separaed e îg rom darkness.’ îg îs ceary conrased o darkness, as î îs se up as a posîîve symbo; î îs ‘good’. ï îs knowedge, power and undersandîng ‘separaed’ rom darkness’s negaîve obscurîy. As Mîcae Ferber esabîses înA Dîctîonary o Lîterary Symbos: ‘îg and Darkness are probaby e mos unda- mena and înescapabe erms, used îeray or meaporîcay, în e 2 descrîpîon o anyîng în îe or îeraure.’ hroug urer bîbîca exampes, and reerences o Dane’sïnerno,Mîon’sParadîse Lost, Beowuand ceraîn Greek my, e eaboraes on e roe o îg and darkness în îeraure: ‘îg îs radîîonay înked wî goodness, îe, knowedge, ru, ame, and ope, darkness wî evî, dea, îgno- 3 rance, aseood, obîvîon and despaîr.’ ArîIcîa îg sîs awkwardy în beween ese saes, and în nîneeen-cenury îeraure reLeced someîng more compex an jus dîcoomous opposîes. A e sar o e nîneeen cenury, e symboîc reaîonsîp beween îg and dark was sî prîmarîy bînary. ord Byron wrîes o ear o e absence o îg în îs 1816 poem, ‘Darkness’, a poem a was pubîsed jus prîor o e boom în arîIcîa îg a emerged aer în e cenury. ï îmagînes e ‘dread’ and ‘desoaîon’ o a word wîou day:

Morn came and wen – and came, and broug no day, And men orgo eîr passîons în e dread O îs eîr desoaîon; and a ears 4 Were cî’d îno a seIs prayer or îg.