Middle Tennessee State University: Journals@MTSU
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Brian Cowlishaw’s The Body, The Rail, and the Pen: Essays on Travel, Medicine and Technology in 19th Century British Literature
No full textBrian Cowlishaw’s recent collection on science and technology in nineteenth-century literature directs the essays contained within to a readership of “non-specialists”, those who might resemble their nineteenth-century counterparts, “intellectually curious non-experts, ordinary readers who wanted to keep up with the latest developments” in “scientific writing” (2). The Rail, the Body and the Pen seeks to expand the reach of critical, scholarly writing and make exciting developments in literary research open to all who are interested. This is a noteworthy purpose, and one that reflects, I think, wider discussions throughout academia on the cultural chasm between academic and public discourse, the intellectual elitism that has excluded wider reading audiences from research writing and perpetuated the idea of the ‘ivory tower’. In order to do so, Cowlishaw promises an exploration of “how nineteenth-century technologies speak through the literature of the time and change the ambient culture” without the reader having to “trudge through field-specific or academic jargon” (1, 2). It is an ambitious aim, and one that this collection does not quite achieve. At a time when incredible advances in science and technology – including artificial intelligence, vaccinations, and space exploration – are a regular topic in everyday, popular discourse, significant connections between interested readers of contemporary developments, nineteenth century readers, and the collection’s own readership could have been made. As the editor sets up his purpose for the book, this comparison between readership and the continuing trends in popular scientific writing could demonstrate the relevance this type of literary research has for everyone, not just academics
LeRoy Lad Panek’s Nineteenth Century Detective Fiction: An Analytical History
No full textIn Nineteenth Century Detective Fiction: An Analytical History, LeRoy Lad Panek examines an archive of transatlantic periodical detective fiction alongside canonical nineteenth-century authors to trace the rich variety of forms, themes, and characters that emerged across detective fiction during the nineteenth century. Situating these works within the context of book, periodical, and legal history, Panek demonstrates how the range of detective fiction that flourished in the periodical press during the nineteenth century adds to, and complicates, typical critical understandings of the genre as based on a few canonical authors—primarily Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Allan Poe, and Wilkie Collins. In fact, one of the most striking points of Panek’s argument is that our understanding of detective fiction as it was read, circulated, and received during the nineteenth century is not only incomplete but inaccurate, given the breadth of material that has been omitted or lost entirely. In overlooking the variety of media where detective fiction could be found—such as magazines, story papers, and newspapers—we miss key moves in the genre’s development as well as how wide-ranging detective fiction’s readership was in terms of age, gender, class, and education
The Office
Full text linkThe author describes how children used toys, collaboration, and play to create an office space
Considering Retention in the Light of the Covid-19 Pandemic
No full textThe data provided by the author in “Education by the Numbers” discusses retention after the Covid-19 pandemic
DEPICTING DEADWEIGHT LOSS FROM IMPERFECT INFORMATION
Full text linkThe concept of deadweight loss is used by introductory microeconomic textbooks to convey the social welfare consequences of many market failures and distortions. But while the market model is used to reveal the deadweight loss from externalities, market power, taxes, tariffs, and even public goods, it is not employed to illustrate the deadweight loss from imperfect information. This paper advances a way to relate imperfect information’s effect on social welfare by showing the deadweight loss it causes within the standard supply and demand framework
The Retrieving Memories of Gandhi’s Peacemission: Noakhali Riots 1946, East Pakistan
Full text linkIn 1946, Gandhi visited the Noakhali district in Eastern Bengal (nowBangladesh) to bridge the communal rift of the Hindu-Muslim communitiesjust before the British Empire divided the subcontinent into two newcountries: India and Pakistan. This sojourn is almost forgotten now, and noconcrete attempt has been made to study Gandhi’s peace-mission in a Muslimmajority area from a historical perspective of Hindu-Muslim relationshipas Gandhi would have wanted. This article attempts to understand Gandhifrom the perspective of Muslims who saw him and how they subsequentlyremember him. Therefore, the article explores how Muslim people recollectGandhi’s visit and his ideas as a relevant way to make harmonious relationsbetween antagonistic communities. The aim of this article is to recall Gandhiand, through recollecting him, create a reflective mindset that underscores thecommunal harmony embedded into core values of an equal and harmonioussociety. Through their neglect, the partition historians have safely buriedGandhi’s chapter in Noakhali, but historians could potentially use this “peacemission” of dealing with communities torn apart by riots. Therefore, it can be safely stressed that to have a just society in South Asia and to learn from pasterrors, then memories of Gandhi’s visit must be remembered collectively as amode of returning to the past and reshaping the present through memories ofthe adults who witnessed it and passed it down to their descendants
Page Turners: Books for Children
Full text linkIn this article, different children’s books are listed with descriptive summaries on each one. The books include: A Blue Kind of Day; Most Perfect You; The World’s Best Class Plant; Yoshi: Sea Turtle Genius; The Hill We Climb: An Inaugural Poem for the Country; Mrs. Peanuckle’s Earth Alphabet; A Spark in the Dark; School Trip: A Graphic Novel (The New Kid Book 3); Sharks: A Mighty Bite-y History; and Squished
From the Editor
Full text linkIt is difficult to say when, precisely, any literary genre truly begins. There are always antecedents and precursors, and intense scrutiny often reveals anything in art to be older than it seems. However, for science fiction, fantasy, and fairy tale, the nineteenth century serves as a useful time period in which to place the beginnings of these genres, at least in their modern iterations.
Several arguments have been made, for instance, that Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) is not actually the first sf novel, that Margaret Cavendish’s The Blazing World (1666) or Johannes Kepler’s Somnium (1634) or any number of works can lay claim to being pre-Frankenstein works of sf, but Shelley’s novel in many ways established the genre as we know it today. Unlike many of its rivals that may be considered the first sf novel, Frankenstein is solely based on science and does not mix the real and the fantastic the way other works had. It was the first novel to look at humanity’s advancing scientific knowledge and ask “what if?” in a way that truly questioned our relationship with science. Instead, it asked questions about humanity and what we might do given the new scientific powers we were accumulating. While Frankenstein and other sf novels came from Europe, sf was not entirely a European creation. Much recent scholarship has demonstrated how other regions of the world, such as India and the Middle East, were early contributors to the genre.
Fantasy, of course, did not begin in the nineteenth century. Its origins can be traced back to epic poems and stories of gods and supernatural creatures at the very beginnings of written stories, and no doubt goes back even further in oral traditions. However, like science fiction, many of the aspects of fantasy literature that we now take for granted have their beginnings in the nineteenth century, and many of the writers, such as George MacDonald or Margaret Oliphaunt, gave rise to subgenres such as high fantasy or the ghost story that we so easily recognize today. In America, fantasy played a large role in giving rise to a new national literary tradition. Washington Irving’s The Sketch Book (1819-20) provided a brand of American Romanticism with works such as “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” Edgar Allan Poe pioneered the short story, detective fiction, and horror with his fantastic tales and poetry, creating distinctive types of fantasy that would continue to be developed well into the twentieth century.
Fairy tales, too, go back much further, but they gained a special relevance in the nineteenth century, thanks to academics such as the Brothers Grimm who saw these stories as something more than children’s tales. In the nineteenth century, writers such as Hans Christian Andersen and Charles Kingsley created new fairy tales, and even writers such as Charles Dickens or Charlotte Brontë were influenced in their realistic fiction by the genre. The academic study of fairy tales since then has grown into a major field within literary studies, with generations of scholars discovering new layers of depth and meaning in these class stories. Likewise, writers from one generation to the next have found the form to be a flexible vehicle for commenting on society and culture.
These literary beginnings coincided with many other changes in the nineteenth century. The Industrial Revolution changed economies and class structures. Colonialism brought cultures into contact and conflict. The women’s suffrage movement caused people to rethink long-held beliefs. Darwinism brought religious beliefs under question and sparked new interest in scientific explanations of the world. In many ways, the fantastic literature that emerged in this milieu was a reaction to these ground-shaking changes.
It is the goal of this journal to trace the origins of science fiction, fantasy, and fairy tale and explore how they developed into the familiar genres we know today. This journal is also interested in nineteenth-century reception today, how phenomenon from the steam punk aesthetic to Disney movies are constantly re-envisioning the nineteenth century and putting our time into conversation with this previous era. In all, this journal will endeavor to explore a century and its literature that were both truly incredible
Closures, Masks, and Quarantines: Historiography of Social Distancing and Preventative Measures During the 1918 Influenza Pandemic in the U.S.
Full text linkAn oft-forgotten footnote to World War I, the novel and virulent strain ofinfluenza that swept through the U.S. and around the globe swiftly in fall 1918has received more recent attention due to late twentieth- and early twentyfirst-century emerging diseases and the centennial anniversary. While theCOVID-19 pandemic just over one hundred years later will likely now sparkeven more historical interest, this historiographical paper addresses howrecent scholars treated what social measures U.S. cities and communities tookto help slow the spread of the Great Influenza and how historians interpretedacceptance and effectiveness of public health mandates. Scholars have shownhow officials missed warning signs or failed to act with enough urgency tostop or even to slow the virus early, yet still probably saved lives by takingeventual precautions. Some newer studies also have started to fill the gapin how marginalized communities like African Americans and Indigenouspeoples were affected, as well as spotlighted smaller towns and variousregions. With parallels to COVID-19, historians will have plenty of opportunityto compare contemporary actions (and inactions) to the 1918 public healthresponses, along with acceptance, resistance, and effectiveness