Memory and Modernity in H.G. Well's "The Time Machine"

Memory and Modernity in H.G. Well's Author: Markus Kienscherf
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3638750787
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 40

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Book Description
Essay from the year 2004 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: Distinction, University of Newcastle upon Tyne (School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics), course: Reading the Past, 9 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: The semantic field opened up by the term modernity describes a multifaceted body of experiences that are seen as somehow different from earlier, more traditional modes of experience. This modern "experience of space and time, of the self and others, of life's possibilities and perils" seems to be marked by a sense of perpetual change brought about by the continuous and relentless application of techno-scientific knowledge (Berman 1983:2). The perpetually shifting paradigms of scientific knowledge and the social consequences of the application of techno-science to the subjugation of nature undermine any notion of stability and continuity. Pierre Nora's use of the phrase "acce leration of history" to signify "an increasingly rapid slippage of the present into a historical past that is gone for good" crystallizes the general sense of uncertainty which is often seen as an integral part of modern experience (Nora 1989:7). In the following passage Nora introduces a distinction between memory and history: On the hand, we find an integrated, dictatorial memory - unself-conscious, commanding, allpowerful, spontaneously actualizing, a memory without a past that ceaselessly reinvents tradition, linking the history of its ancestors to the undifferentiated time of heroes, origins, and myth - and on the other hand, our memory, nothing more in fact than sifted and sorted historical traces (Nora 1989:8) . In order to critique "how our hopelessly forgetful modern societies, propelled by change, organize the past" Nora juxtaposes an archaic, undifferentiated, mythical form of memory, which ties a community organically to its past with modern historiography, which produces simulacra of a memory th

Memory and Modernity in H.G. Well's "The Time Machine"

Memory and Modernity in H.G. Well's Author: Markus Kienscherf
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3638750787
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 40

Get Book

Book Description
Essay from the year 2004 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: Distinction, University of Newcastle upon Tyne (School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics), course: Reading the Past, 9 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: The semantic field opened up by the term modernity describes a multifaceted body of experiences that are seen as somehow different from earlier, more traditional modes of experience. This modern "experience of space and time, of the self and others, of life's possibilities and perils" seems to be marked by a sense of perpetual change brought about by the continuous and relentless application of techno-scientific knowledge (Berman 1983:2). The perpetually shifting paradigms of scientific knowledge and the social consequences of the application of techno-science to the subjugation of nature undermine any notion of stability and continuity. Pierre Nora's use of the phrase "acce leration of history" to signify "an increasingly rapid slippage of the present into a historical past that is gone for good" crystallizes the general sense of uncertainty which is often seen as an integral part of modern experience (Nora 1989:7). In the following passage Nora introduces a distinction between memory and history: On the hand, we find an integrated, dictatorial memory - unself-conscious, commanding, allpowerful, spontaneously actualizing, a memory without a past that ceaselessly reinvents tradition, linking the history of its ancestors to the undifferentiated time of heroes, origins, and myth - and on the other hand, our memory, nothing more in fact than sifted and sorted historical traces (Nora 1989:8) . In order to critique "how our hopelessly forgetful modern societies, propelled by change, organize the past" Nora juxtaposes an archaic, undifferentiated, mythical form of memory, which ties a community organically to its past with modern historiography, which produces simulacra of a memory th

New Worlds for Old

New Worlds for Old PDF Author: Herbert George Wells
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Socialism
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description
An account of socialism.

Modernism and Time Machines

Modernism and Time Machines PDF Author: Tung Charles M. Tung
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 1474431364
Category : American fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 331

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Book Description
Bridging modernist studies and science fiction scholarshipModernism and Time Machines places the fascination with time in canonical works of twentieth-century literature and art side-by-side with the rise of time-travel narratives and alternate histories in popular culture. Both modernism and this cardinal trope of science fiction produce a range of effects and insights that go beyond the exhilarations of simply sliding back and forth in history. Together the modernist time-obsession and the fantasy of moving in time help us to rethink the shapes of time, the consistency of timespace and the nature of history.Key FeaturesDraws on insights from a range of sources, including critical geography, postcolonial theory, science and technology studies, and time studiesExamines different kinds of objects together: SF, Impressionism, and Henri Lefebvre's rhythmanalysis; evolutionary biology, Eliot's The Waste Land, and Leinster's "e;Sidewise in Time"e;; Woolf, Philip K. Dick's alternate history, and the film Interstellar; bullet time, Faulkner's racialized lag, and Jessica Hagedorn's postcolonial anachronism; "e;big history,"e; Olaf Stapledon's two-billion-year novel of the human species, and Terrence Malick's film Tree of Life

H. G. Wells: Collected Works

H. G. Wells: Collected Works PDF Author: H. G. Wells
Publisher: DigiCat
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 7343

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Book Description
DigiCat Publishing presents to you this ultimate collection of novels, short stories and essays, by the visionary author, the "father of science fiction" - H. G. Wells:_x000D_ The Time Machine_x000D_ The Undying Fire_x000D_ The War in the Air_x000D_ The War of the Worlds_x000D_ The World Set Free_x000D_ A Modern Utopia_x000D_ When the Sleeper Wakes_x000D_ Ann Veronica_x000D_ Bealby_x000D_ In the Days of the Comet_x000D_ The Chronic Argonauts_x000D_ The First Men in the Moon_x000D_ The Invisible Man_x000D_ The Island of Dr Moreau_x000D_ The New Machiavelli_x000D_ The Passionate Friends_x000D_ The Prophetic Trilogy_x000D_ The Research Magnificent_x000D_ The Sea Lady_x000D_ The Secret Places of the Heart_x000D_ The Soul of a Bishop_x000D_ Tono-bungay_x000D_ Collections of Short Stories_x000D_ Short Stories:_x000D_ A Catastrophe_x000D_ A Deal in Ostriches_x000D_ A Dream of Armageddon_x000D_ A Slip Under the Microscope_x000D_ A Story of the Days to Come_x000D_ A Story of the Stone Age_x000D_ A Tale of the Twentieth Century_x000D_ A Talk with Gryllotalpa_x000D_ How Gabriel Became Thompson_x000D_ How Pingwill Was Routed_x000D_ In the Abyss_x000D_ Le Mari Terrible_x000D_ Miss Winchelsea's Heart_x000D_ Mr. Brisher's Treasure_x000D_ Mr. Ledbetter's Vacation_x000D_ Mr. Marshall's Doppelganger_x000D_ Mr. Skelmersdale in Fairyland_x000D_ My First Aeroplane_x000D_ Our Little Neighbour_x000D_ Perfect Gentleman on Wheels_x000D_ Pollock and the Porroh Man_x000D_ The Empire of the Ants_x000D_ The Flying Man_x000D_ The Grisly Folk_x000D_ The Inexperienced Ghost_x000D_ The Land Ironclads_x000D_ The Lord of the Dynamos_x000D_ The Loyalty of Esau Common_x000D_ The Magic Shop_x000D_ The Man Who Could Work Miracles_x000D_ The Man with a Nose_x000D_ The Moth_x000D_ The New Accelerator_x000D_ The New Faust_x000D_ The Obliterated Man_x000D_ The Pearl of Love_x000D_ The Presence by the Fire_x000D_ The Purple Pileus_x000D_ The Rajah's Treasure_x000D_ The Reconciliation_x000D_ The Red Room_x000D_ The Sea Raiders_x000D_ The Star_x000D_ The Stolen Body_x000D_ The Story of the Last Trump_x000D_ The Story of the Stone Age_x000D_ The Temptation of Harringay_x000D_ The Thing in No. 7_x000D_ The Thumbmark_x000D_ The Treasure in the Forest_x000D_ The Wild Asses of the Devil_x000D_ Through a Window_x000D_ Under the Knife_x000D_ Walcote_x000D_ Wayde's Essence_x000D_ Essays and Articles:_x000D_ A Short History of the World_x000D_ Floor Games_x000D_ Little Wars_x000D_ New Worlds for Old_x000D_ Russia in the Shadows_x000D_ The Misery of Boots_x000D_ The Outline of History_x000D_ Zoological Retrogression_x000D_ What Is Coming_x000D_ ...

Evolution in H.G. Wells’s “The Time Machine”

Evolution in H.G. Wells’s “The Time Machine” PDF Author:
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 364046916X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 22

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Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,0, University of Erfurt, course: Dystopia: Wells and Huxley, language: English, abstract: H.G. Wells had been intrigued by speculations about the future progress of humanity towards a more equal society since his youth. (RUDDICK, 2007: 198) Studying at the Normal School of Science he came into contact with the mind-set of Thomas Henry Huxley who militated against the Social Darwinist thoughts which used evolutionary theories and were present in the late-Victorian society at the end of the 19th century. Huxley became an adored men-tor and friend for Wells who transferred and enhanced his ideas in his literature. (JANSING, 1977: 54) The scientific romance The Time Machine, which was Wells’s first novel (GLENDENING, 2007: 7), explores the adventures of a respectable late-Victorian scientist within this evolutionary and Social Darwinist context. The scientist travels with his own created time machine into the year 802,701 where he finds the world of Eloi and Morlocks. These two species represent a degen-erated form of man whose retrogression results from socio-economic condi-tions. An additional journey 30 million years forward in time adds to the image of degeneration in the evolutionary process. This research paper concentrates on the evolutionary and Social Darwinist theme of The Time Machine. First, an introduction to Social Darwinist thoughts in the end of the 19th century is given in order to set the context for this scien-tific romance. Secondly, the cognition process of the Time Traveller is analysed as this will make clear Wells’s examination with the social theories of his time. Studying selected symbols and images finally shows a detailed insight into the evolutionary subject of The Time Machine.

Before Einstein

Before Einstein PDF Author: Elizabeth L. Throesch
Publisher: Anthem Press
ISBN: 1783086254
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 367

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Book Description
‘Before Einstein’ brings together previous scholarship in the field of nineteenth-century literature and science and greatly expands upon it, offering the first book-length study of not only the scientific and cultural context of the spatial fourth dimension, but also the literary value of four-dimensional theory. In addition to providing close critical analysis of Charles Howard Hinton’s Scientific Romances (1884–1896), ‘Before Einstein’ examines the work of H. G. Wells, Henry James and William James through the lens of four-dimensional theory. The primary value of Hinton’s work has always been its literary and philosophical content and influence, rather than its scientific authority. It is certain that significant late nineteenth-century writers and thinkers such as H. G. Wells, William James, Olive Schreiner, Karl Pearson and W. E. B. Du Bois read Hinton. Others, including Henry James, Joseph Conrad and Ford Madox Ford, were familiar with his ideas. Hinton’s fourth dimension appealed to scientists, spiritualists and artists, and – particularly at the end of the nineteenth century – the interests of these different groups often overlapped. Truly interdisciplinary in scope, ‘Before Einstein’ breaks new ground by offering an extensive analysis of four-dimensional theory's place in the shared history of Modernism.

H. G. Wells' ,the Time MacHine in Terms of Victorian Class Struggle and Evolution

H. G. Wells' ,the Time MacHine in Terms of Victorian Class Struggle and Evolution PDF Author: Kay Mankus
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3656059322
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 57

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Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: "-", Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg (Anglistik), course: Literary Utopias and Dystopias in Britain, language: English, abstract: 1. Introduction In this paper, I am going to explore the concept of evolution in H.G Well's "The Time Machine". This enormously successful and influential novel, first published in 1895, has been made into two movies in the twentieth century. The novel is generally credited with the concept of time travel using a vehicle which allows the user to explore the fourth dimension by going forward or backwards in time. On another level it is a critical view of the late nineteenth-century Victorian society, and an early masterpiece of dystopian writing. Historically considered, it is one of the first science fiction writings ever published. Wells himself called his work "scientific Romance" and the majority of reviewers at the time used the term, too. "The Time Machine" was later seen by literary historians as having laid the path for modern science fiction writing. Moreover, the novel utters a sharp criticism of the decadence of the bourgeoisie and provides a critical perspective on the growing gap between upper and lower class in Wells' own time. The main themes and leitmotifs are very ambiguous. The plot illustrates how a typical utopian paradise turns into a dark dystopian vision of a remote future for mankind. In the first part of my paper, the focus lies on the novel's structure as well as on the specific literary devices employed. This includes the narrative frame, interesting aspects of the narration and the protagonist, who is simply, yet amply named "The Time Traveller" and an overview of the extraordinary structures of time and place....

Modern Utopian Fictions from H. G. Wells to Iris Murdoch

Modern Utopian Fictions from H. G. Wells to Iris Murdoch PDF Author: Peter Edgerly Firchow
Publisher: CUA Press
ISBN: 0813214777
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
This book aims to put the fiction back into utopian fictions. While tracing the development of fiction in the writing of modern utopias, especially in Britain, it seeks to demonstrate in specific ways how those utopias have become increasingly literary--possibly as a reaction not only against the "social scientification" of modern utopias but also in reaction against the modern attempt to institute "utopia" in reality, notably in the former Soviet Union but also in consumerist, late-twentieth-century America.

The Tempo of Modernity

The Tempo of Modernity PDF Author: Gabriel R. Ricci
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351472925
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
The present work is a study in the history of an enduring idea that defines the inner life of the mind and also supplied a substratum for the twentieth-century literary imagination and substance for philosophical thinking, producing a unique alliance between philosophy and literature. This special union was forged by a new holistic conception of time which supplemented, and even supplanted, the conventional sense of chronological time. This temporal turn animated the existential insights of Husserl, Heidegger, and Bergson, but it was grounded in nineteenth-century advances in the biological sciences, the hegemony of Hegelianism, and even stretched back to Augustine's early meditation on time in Book XI of his Confessions. In linking together a set of thinkers who addressed this form of temporal consciousness, Gabriel R. Ricci illuminates a common intellectual preoccupation from the vantage point of a concept. The authors do not together assemble the thought; it is the thought that produced a collective voice. This voice appears in the episodes outlined in each chapter, and they are framed by an introduction, which explores Joseph Frank's insights into the new spatial forms in literature, and an epilogue, which resurrects J.W. Dunne's peculiar dream experiments and theory of precognition. Ricci employs Frank's seminal essay to draw comparisons between literature's adaptation of the new time sense and philosophy's expression of the new compatibility between space and time. Dunne's theory serves to demonstrate the continuity between literary form and philosophical speculation.

David Lodge and the Tradition of the Modern Novel

David Lodge and the Tradition of the Modern Novel PDF Author: J. Russell Perkin
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 077359180X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
David Lodge is a much-loved novelist and influential literary critic. Examining his career from his earliest publications in the late 1950s to his more recent works, David Lodge and the Tradition of the Modern Novel identifies Lodge's central place within the canon of twentieth-century British literature. J. Russell Perkin argues that liberalism is the defining feature of Lodge's identity as a novelist, critic, and Roman Catholic intellectual, and demonstrates that Graham Greene, James Joyce, Kingsley Amis, Henry James, and H.G. Wells are the key influences on Lodge's fiction. Perkin also considers Lodge's relationship to contemporary British novelists, including Hilary Mantel, Julian Barnes, and Monica Ali. In a study that is both theoretically informed and accessible to the general reader, Perkin shows that Lodge's work is shaped by the dialectic of modernism and the realist tradition. Through an approach that draws on diverse theories of literary influence and history, David Lodge and the Tradition of the Modern Novel provides the most thorough treatment of the novelist's career to date.