Narrating hysteria: 'Caleb Williams' and the cultural history of nerves
Article Abstract:
William Godwin uses the nervous body of the narrator in 'Caleb Williams' to criticize the British way of life during the late Georgian period, since wealth and abundance was then viewed as the source of nervous disease. Association of nervous conditions with the narrative reflects the cultural concept of that period, which linked hysteria with a tendency to speak. Godwin's two opposite endings to 'Caleb Williams' bring out the paradoxical position of the nervous narrator. The speaker's resistance to narrative shows self-negation and promotes a Godwinian philosophy of healing power of even social power distribution.
Publication Name: Novel
Subject: Literature/writing
ISSN: 0029-5132
Year: 1996
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A victim in search of a torturer: reading masochism in Wilkie Collins's 'No Name'
Article Abstract:
Wilkie Collins's novel 'No Name' requires self-controlled readers interested in deviant behavior and pleased when literary conventions are challenged. The plot, main characters, and use of sympathy in this book force readers to examine individual action in the context of the regulatory mechanisms of disciplinary power.
Publication Name: Novel
Subject: Literature/writing
ISSN: 0029-5132
Year: 2000
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