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Despite the port's prominence in maritime history, its cultural
significance has long been neglected in favour of its role within
economic and imperial networks. Defined by their intersection of
maritime and urban space, port towns were sites of complex cultural
exchanges. This book, the product of international scholarship,
offers innovative and challenging perspectives on the cultural
histories of ports, ranging from eighteenth-century Africa to
twentieth-century Australasia and Europe. The essays in this
important collection explore two key themes; the nature and
character of 'sailortown' culture and port-town life, and the
representations of port towns that were forged both within and
beyond urban-maritime communities. The book's exploration of port
town identities and cultures, and its use of a rich array of
methodological approaches and cultural artefacts, will make it of
great interest to both urban and maritime historians. It also
represents a major contribution to the emerging, interdisciplinary
field of coastal studies.
This innovative history of popular magical mentalities in
nineteenth-century England explores the dynamic ways in which the
magical imagination helped people to adjust to urban life. Previous
studies of modern popular magical practices and supernatural
beliefs have largely neglected the urban experience. Karl Bell,
however, shows that the magical imagination was a key cultural
resource which granted an empowering sense of plebeian agency in
the nineteenth-century urban environment. Rather than portraying
magical beliefs and practices as a mere enclave of anachronistic
'tradition' and the fantastical as simply an escapist refuge from
the real, he reveals magic's adaptive and transformative qualities
and the ways in which it helped ordinary people navigate, adapt to
and resist aspects of modern urbanization. Drawing on perspectives
from cultural anthropology, sociology, folklore and urban studies,
this is a major contribution to our understanding of modern popular
magic and the lived experience of modernization and urbanization.
Far from being a static or eroding cultural inheritance from the
past, the supernatural has continually been appropriated and
updated to accommodate and express social, cultural, economic and
environmental anxieties. SHORTLISTED for the 2020 Katharine Briggs
Award. Since the Enlightenment, supernatural beliefs and practices
have largely been derided as ignorant and un-modern - even
anti-modern - and cities, being the ultimate symbol of progress and
rationality, have not been thought to harbour magic. Scholars have
long assumed that the world of the supernatural withered under the
impact of urbanisation; yet, as numerous books, films and T.V.
series from Hellboy to Being Human to the Harry Potterfranchise
show, contemporary culture remains fascinated by urban-based
legends and fantasy. This collection seeks to spur interest in the
urban supernatural and argues for its prevalence, importance and
vitality by presenting a rich cultural history of the complex
relationship between supernatural beliefs and practices,
imagination and storytelling, and urbanisation. Grouped around
themes of enchantment, anxiety and spectrality, it explores urban
supernatural cultures on five continents between the late
eighteenth century and the present day. The book advances a
ground-breaking exploration of the communal and cultural function
of urban supernatural ideas, demonstrating howthey have continually
been appropriated and updated to express and accommodate
socio-cultural, economic and environmental anxieties and needs.
Drawing together a diverse range of academic approaches, with
contributions from historians, geographers, anthropologists,
folklorists and literary scholars, it makes an important
contribution to our understanding of how urban environments, both
past and present, inform our imaginations, cultural insecurities
and spatial fears. KARL BELL is Reader in Cultural and Social
History at the University of Portsmouth. CONTRIBUTORS: Karl Bell,
Oliver Betts, Alex Bevan, Tracy Fahey, Deirdre Flynn, Maria del
Pilar Blanco, William Pooley, Elena Pryamikova, David J. Puglia,
William Redwood, Morag Rose, Alevtina Solovyova, Tom Sykes, Natalya
Veselkova, Mikhail Vandyshev, David Waldron, Sharn Waldron,
Felicity Wood
Despite the port's prominence in maritime history, its cultural
significance has long been neglected in favour of its role within
economic and imperial networks. Defined by their intersection of
maritime and urban space, port towns were sites of complex cultural
exchanges. This book, the product of international scholarship,
offers innovative and challenging perspectives on the cultural
histories of ports, ranging from eighteenth-century Africa to
twentieth-century Australasia and Europe. The essays in this
important collection explore two key themes; the nature and
character of 'sailortown' culture and port-town life, and the
representations of port towns that were forged both within and
beyond urban-maritime communities. The book's exploration of port
town identities and cultures, and its use of a rich array of
methodological approaches and cultural artefacts, will make it of
great interest to both urban and maritime historians. It also
represents a major contribution to the emerging, interdisciplinary
field of coastal studies.
An intriguing study of a unique and unsettling cultural phenomenon
in Victorian England. WINNER of the 2013 Katharine Briggs Award NEW
LOWER PRICE This book uses the nineteenth-century legend of
Spring-Heeled Jack to analyse and challenge current notions of
Victorian popular cultures. Starting as oral rumours, this
supposedly supernatural entity moved from rural folklore to
metropolitan press sensation, co-existing in literary and
theatrical forms before finally degenerating into a nursery lore
bogeyman to frighten children. A mercurial and unfixed cultural
phenomenon, Spring-Heeled Jack found purchase in both older
folkloric traditions and emerging forms of entertainment. Through
this intriguing study of a unique and unsettling figure, Karl Bell
complicates our appreciation of the differences, interactions and
similarities between various types of popular culture between 1837
and 1904. The book draws upon a rich variety of primary source
material including folklorist accounts, street ballads, several
series of "penny dreadful" stories (and illustrations), journals,
magazines, newspapers, comics, court accounts, autobiographies and
published reminiscences. The Legend of Spring-Heeled Jack is
impressively researched social history and provides a fascinating
insight into Victorian cultures. It will appeal to anyone with an
interest in nineteenth-century English social and cultural history,
folklore or literature. Karl Bell is Senior Lecturer in History at
the University of Portsmouth.
An intriguing study of a unique and unsettling cultural phenomenon
in Victorian England. WINNER of the 2013 Katharine Briggs Award
This book uses the nineteenth-century legend of Spring-Heeled Jack
to analyse and challenge current notions of Victorian popular
cultures. Starting as oral rumours, this supposedly supernatural
entity moved from rural folklore to metropolitan press sensation,
co-existing in literary and theatrical forms before finally
degenerating into a nursery lore bogeyman to frighten children. A
mercurial and unfixedcultural phenomenon, Spring-Heeled Jack found
purchase in both older folkloric traditions and emerging forms of
entertainment. Through this intriguing study of a unique and
unsettling figure, Karl Bell complicates our appreciation of the
differences, interactions and similarities between various types of
popular culture between 1837 and 1904. The book draws upon a rich
variety of primary source material including folklorist accounts,
street ballads,several series of "penny dreadful" stories (and
illustrations), journals, magazines, newspapers, comics, court
accounts, autobiographies and published reminiscences. The Legend
of Spring-Heeled Jack is impressively researched social history and
provides a fascinating insight into Victorian cultures. It will
appeal to anyone with an interest in nineteenth-century English
social and cultural history, folklore or literature. Karl Bell is
Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Portsmouth.
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