The early H. G. Wells : a study of the scientific romances / / Bernard Bergonzi

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910460271803321
• Autore: Bergonzi Bernard
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Toronto, [Ontario] : , : University of Toronto Press, , 1961; ©1961
• ISBN: 1-4426-5686-7; 1-4426-3355-7
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (237 p.)
• Collana: Heritage
• Disciplina: 823/.9/12
• Soggetti: Science fiction, English - History and criticism; Electronic books.
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Frontmatter -- Preface -- Contents -- I. H. G. Wells and the Fin de Siècle -- II. From The Chronic Argonauts to The Time Machine -- III. The Short Stories -- IV. The Wonderful Visit, The Island of Dr Moreau, and The Invisible Man -- V. The War of the Worlds -- VI. When the Sleeper Wakes and The First Men in the Moon -- VII. Wells and the Twentieth Century -- Select Bibliography -- Appendix -- Notes -- Index
• Sommario/riassunto: This is a sensitive study of Wells’ imaginative development during his formative years. It comes at a time when interest in H.G. Wells’ early writing is beginning to revive, owing, no doubt, to the current translation into reality of some aspects of science fiction.Mr. Bergonzi examines Wells’ early fiction, from surviving student writings of the late eighties to 1901 when he published The First Men in the Moon, his last significant scientific romance, and Anticipations, his first systematic non-fictional treatise. The main emphasis of his study falls on the scientific romances of the nineties, which are examined in detail. In addition to literary analysis, relevant source material and reviews, which show how contemporaries received Wells’ work, are noted.Wells’ early attitude to science is shown to have been deeply ambivalent, as is apparent in his successive uses of the Frankenstein archetype. His ; intellectual attitudes tended towards scepticism and pessimism rather than to the ‘utopian’ optimism associated with his later career.These romances reflect in imaginative and non-discursive form some of the major preoccupations of late-Victorian England: the impact of Darwinism, of Socialism, and an increasing lack of national self-confidence. Mr. Bergonzi sees Wells as essentially a fin de siècle myth-maker, and he argues that it is this aspect of Wells’ work which most requires attention if he is to be remembered in the future. Two early pieces by Wells, now unobtainable elsewhere, are given in an Appendix. One, The Chronic Argonauts, a fragment of a fantastic novel written at the age of 21, is the earliest draft of The Time Machine.

For fear of the fire [[electronic resource] ] : Joan of Arc and the limits of subjectivity / / Françoise Meltzer

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910459427003321
• Autore: Meltzer Françoise
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Chicago, : University of Chicago Press, 2001
• ISBN: 1-282-73846-1; 9786612738463; 0-226-51984-8
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (269 p.)
• Disciplina: 944/.026/092; B
• Soggetti: Christian women saints - France; Virginity; Electronic books.; France History Charles VII, 1422-1461
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- INTRODUCTION: THE SNOWS OF YESTERYEAR -- CHAPTER ONE. THE BODY REVISITED -- CHAPTER TWO. THE DISCOURSE OF VIRGINITY: A FLIGHT BEFORE LIGHT -- CHAPTER THREE. PROFESSIONS OF VIRGINITY -- CHAPTER FOUR. ; RESPONSIO MORTIFERA: THE VOICE OF THE MAID -- CHAPTER FIVE. FEAR OF FIRE: DEATH AND THE IMPOSSIBLE -- CHAPTER SIX. FATHER, CAN'T YOU SEE I'M BURNING? -- INDEX OF PROPER NAMES
• Sommario/riassunto: Why are contemporary secular theorists so frequently drawn to saints, martyrs, and questions of religion? Why has Joan of Arc fascinated some of the most important thinkers of the twentieth century? In a book that faces crucial issues in both critical and feminist inquiry, Françoise Meltzer uses the story of Joan as a guide for reading the postmodern nostalgia for a body that is intact and transparent. She argues that critics who place excessive emphasis on opposition and difference remain blind to their nostalgia for the pre-Cartesian idea that the body and mind are the same. Engaging a number of theorists, and alternating between Joan's historical and cultural context, Meltzer also explores the ways in which postmodern thinkers question subjectivity. She argues that the way masculine subjects imagine Joan betrays their fear of death and necessitates the role of women as cultural others: enigmatic, mysterious, dark, and impossible. As such, Joan serves as a useful model of the limits and risks of subjectivity. For Meltzer, she is both the first modern and the last medieval figure. From the ecclesial jury that burned her, to the theorists of today who deny their attraction to the supernatural, the philosophical assumptions that inform Joan's story, as Meltzer ultimately shows, have changed very little.