Dirt in Victorian Literature and Culture

Writing Materiality

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, British
Cover of the book Dirt in Victorian Literature and Culture by Sabine Schülting, Taylor and Francis
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Sabine Schülting ISBN: 9781317392606
Publisher: Taylor and Francis Publication: February 5, 2016
Imprint: Routledge Language: English
Author: Sabine Schülting
ISBN: 9781317392606
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Publication: February 5, 2016
Imprint: Routledge
Language: English

Addressing the Victorian obsession with the sordid materiality of modern life, this book studies dirt in nineteenth-century English literature and the Victorian cultural imagination. Dirt litters Victorian writing – industrial novels, literature about the city, slum fiction, bluebooks, and the reports of sanitary reformers. It seems to be "matter out of place," challenging traditional concepts of art and disregarding the concern with hygiene, deodorization, and purification at the center of the "civilizing process." Drawing upon Material Cultural Studies for an analysis of the complex relationships between dirt and textuality, the study adds a new perspective to scholarship on both the Victorian sanitation movement and Victorian fiction. The chapters focus on Victorian commodity culture as a backdrop to narratives about refuse and rubbish; on the impact of waste and ordure on life stories; on the production and circulation of affective responses to filthin realist novels and slum travelogues; and on the function of dirt for both colonial discourse and its deconstruction in postcolonial writing. They address questions as to how texts about dirt create the effect of materiality, how dirt constructs or deconstructs meaning, and how the project of writing dirt attempts to contain its excessive materiality. Schülting discusses representations of dirt in a variety of texts by Charles Dickens, E. M. Forster, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Gissing, James Greenwood, Henry James, Charles Kingsley, Henry Mayhew, George Moore, Arthur Morrison, and others. In addition, she offers a sustained analysis of the impact of dirt on writing strategies and genre conventions, and pays particular attention to those moments when dirt is recycled and becomes the source of literary creation.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Addressing the Victorian obsession with the sordid materiality of modern life, this book studies dirt in nineteenth-century English literature and the Victorian cultural imagination. Dirt litters Victorian writing – industrial novels, literature about the city, slum fiction, bluebooks, and the reports of sanitary reformers. It seems to be "matter out of place," challenging traditional concepts of art and disregarding the concern with hygiene, deodorization, and purification at the center of the "civilizing process." Drawing upon Material Cultural Studies for an analysis of the complex relationships between dirt and textuality, the study adds a new perspective to scholarship on both the Victorian sanitation movement and Victorian fiction. The chapters focus on Victorian commodity culture as a backdrop to narratives about refuse and rubbish; on the impact of waste and ordure on life stories; on the production and circulation of affective responses to filthin realist novels and slum travelogues; and on the function of dirt for both colonial discourse and its deconstruction in postcolonial writing. They address questions as to how texts about dirt create the effect of materiality, how dirt constructs or deconstructs meaning, and how the project of writing dirt attempts to contain its excessive materiality. Schülting discusses representations of dirt in a variety of texts by Charles Dickens, E. M. Forster, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Gissing, James Greenwood, Henry James, Charles Kingsley, Henry Mayhew, George Moore, Arthur Morrison, and others. In addition, she offers a sustained analysis of the impact of dirt on writing strategies and genre conventions, and pays particular attention to those moments when dirt is recycled and becomes the source of literary creation.

More books from Taylor and Francis

Cover of the book Communication and Engagement with Science and Technology by Sabine Schülting
Cover of the book Environmental Communication Pedagogy and Practice by Sabine Schülting
Cover of the book Planning for Small Town Change by Sabine Schülting
Cover of the book Bullying, Peer Harassment, and Victimization in the Schools by Sabine Schülting
Cover of the book Charismatic Glossolalia by Sabine Schülting
Cover of the book The World of the Revolutionary American Republic by Sabine Schülting
Cover of the book Cinema-Interval by Sabine Schülting
Cover of the book The German Language Today by Sabine Schülting
Cover of the book Mobile Communication by Sabine Schülting
Cover of the book Australia's Foreign Aid Dilemma by Sabine Schülting
Cover of the book Selected Writings by Sabine Schülting
Cover of the book Being and Becoming an Ex-Prisoner by Sabine Schülting
Cover of the book Handbook of Relationship Initiation by Sabine Schülting
Cover of the book Melanie Klein Today, Volume 1: Mainly Theory by Sabine Schülting
Cover of the book The Organization of European Security Governance by Sabine Schülting
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy