Innovationen und Reproduktionen in Kulturen und Gesellschaften (IRICS) Wien, 9. bis 11. Dezember 2005

 
<< Spreading the Word: Texts and the Text

Waiting for the death of Little Nell: gas, flong, and the nineteenth century novel

C. W. R. D. Moseley (FSA, FEA, FRSA, Faculty of English University of Cambridge, and Fellow, Tutor and Director of Studies in English, Hughes Hall, Cambridge)

 

ABSTRACT:

In literary history teleologies, even if often unperceived, are seductively attractive. But coincidence and contingency have a more profound effect on the structures with which we think, write and communicate than sometimes we allow. The concatenation of quite unrelated events and material circumstances, having nothing to do whatsoever with writing or literature, can have radical consequences for literary form and for reading. This paper will examine some of the changes in the formal and material structures of the novel in the nineteenth century, and will suggest links between changes in narrative strategies and contemporary technological innovations.


Innovations and Reproductions in Cultures and Societies
(IRICS) Vienna, 9. - 11. december 2005

H O M E
WEBDESIGN: Peter R. Horn 2005-04-16