While the it-narrative, the thing-poem and thing theatre have been
around for some time, the essay – which is often considered
literature’s fourth genre – is still lacking its
thing-subgenre. Yet, particularly British and Anglo-Irish
literature display a long, albeit so far implicit tradition of
texts that can be categorised as ‘thing-essays’: Starting with
Jonathan Swift’s “Meditation upon a Broomstick” (1701) and
continuing until today, these texts draw broader insights from the
contemplation of a material item of daily life. This book provides
the first theoretical conceptualisation of this genre. Bringing
elements from essay studies and the New Materialisms together, it
shows why the essay lends itself particularly well to
literarisations of the personal relationships that people foster to
everyday objects. While the idiosyncrasies of each essay show the
versatility of thing-essays, the study also seeks to unearth
changing attitudes towards things – and thus towards people’s
material surroundings in general – throughout time. In order to
account for such synchronic and diachronic differences in
thing-essays, this study develops a typology of three modes via
which things can be approached essayistically. In the book’s
second part, this framework will be employed in close readings and
historicisations of 14 thing-essays from 1701 until 2021. Ranging
from satire to sentimental writing, from religion to consumerism,
from class to gender differences, from feelings of nationality to
exoticism, from the French Revolution to Freud and from art to
everyday life, the stylistic and thematic broadness of these
thing-essays ultimately shows the multifarious connections between
human life and materiality.
General
| Imprint: |
Taylor & Francis
|
| Country of origin: |
United Kingdom |
| Series: |
Among the Victorians and Modernists |
| Release date: |
September 2023 |
| Firstpublished: |
2023 |
| Authors: |
Daniel Schneider
|
| Dimensions: |
229 x 152mm (L x W) |
| Pages: |
254 |
| ISBN-13: |
978-1-03-237404-8 |
| Categories: |
Books
Promotions
|
| LSN: |
1-03-237404-7 |
| Barcode: |
9781032374048 |
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