Elaine Freedgood
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780691193304
- eISBN:
- 9780691194301
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691193304.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
Now praised for its realism and formal coherence, the Victorian novel was not always great, or even good, in the eyes of its critics. As this book reveals, it was only in the late 1970s that literary ...
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Now praised for its realism and formal coherence, the Victorian novel was not always great, or even good, in the eyes of its critics. As this book reveals, it was only in the late 1970s that literary critics constructed a prestigious version of British realism, erasing more than a century of controversy about the value of Victorian fiction. Examining criticism of Victorian novels since the 1850s, this book demonstrates that while they were praised for their ability to bring certain social truths to fictional life, these novels were also criticized for their formal failures and compared unfavorably to their French and German counterparts. The book analyzes the characteristics of realism—denotation, omniscience, paratext, reference, and ontology—and the politics inherent in them, arguing that if critics displaced the nineteenth-century realist novel as the standard by which others are judged, literary history might be richer. It would allow peripheral literatures and the neglected wisdom of their critics to come fully into view. It concludes by questioning the aesthetic racism built into prevailing ideas about the centrality of realism in the novel, and how those ideas have affected debates about world literature. By re-examining the critical reception of the Victorian novel, the book suggests how we can rethink our practices and perceptions about books we think we know.Less
Now praised for its realism and formal coherence, the Victorian novel was not always great, or even good, in the eyes of its critics. As this book reveals, it was only in the late 1970s that literary critics constructed a prestigious version of British realism, erasing more than a century of controversy about the value of Victorian fiction. Examining criticism of Victorian novels since the 1850s, this book demonstrates that while they were praised for their ability to bring certain social truths to fictional life, these novels were also criticized for their formal failures and compared unfavorably to their French and German counterparts. The book analyzes the characteristics of realism—denotation, omniscience, paratext, reference, and ontology—and the politics inherent in them, arguing that if critics displaced the nineteenth-century realist novel as the standard by which others are judged, literary history might be richer. It would allow peripheral literatures and the neglected wisdom of their critics to come fully into view. It concludes by questioning the aesthetic racism built into prevailing ideas about the centrality of realism in the novel, and how those ideas have affected debates about world literature. By re-examining the critical reception of the Victorian novel, the book suggests how we can rethink our practices and perceptions about books we think we know.
Alan Clarke
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719068300
- eISBN:
- 9781781702987
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719068300.003.0012
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Television
This chapter traces the development of Alan Clarke's dominant themes and aesthetic approaches. The banning of Scum (1977, 1979), was a turning point in his career; the chapter focuses on this and ...
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This chapter traces the development of Alan Clarke's dominant themes and aesthetic approaches. The banning of Scum (1977, 1979), was a turning point in his career; the chapter focuses on this and contextualises it within debates on drama-documentary and academic writing on ideologically progressive form. It discusses the issues raised by its banning, including the changing status of radical single drama, administrative intervention and censorship, and the concern of both practitioners and theorists with realism and ‘progressive’ form. A decade on from debates on the visual epistemology of realism, Clarke, in his juxtaposition of highly expressive effects, narrative experimentation and a problematising of documentary elements, evolved an ideological form that foregrounded ‘the camera's misleading faculty of being able to record the real’ and represented a ‘terminus for British social realism’.Less
This chapter traces the development of Alan Clarke's dominant themes and aesthetic approaches. The banning of Scum (1977, 1979), was a turning point in his career; the chapter focuses on this and contextualises it within debates on drama-documentary and academic writing on ideologically progressive form. It discusses the issues raised by its banning, including the changing status of radical single drama, administrative intervention and censorship, and the concern of both practitioners and theorists with realism and ‘progressive’ form. A decade on from debates on the visual epistemology of realism, Clarke, in his juxtaposition of highly expressive effects, narrative experimentation and a problematising of documentary elements, evolved an ideological form that foregrounded ‘the camera's misleading faculty of being able to record the real’ and represented a ‘terminus for British social realism’.
Daniel Kremer
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780813165967
- eISBN:
- 9780813166742
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813165967.003.0005
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Furie, offered the chance to direct the next Cliff Richard picture, Summer Holiday (1963), chooses instead another British realist film project, The Leather Boys (1963), based on a novel by Gillian ...
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Furie, offered the chance to direct the next Cliff Richard picture, Summer Holiday (1963), chooses instead another British realist film project, The Leather Boys (1963), based on a novel by Gillian Freeman (under the nom de plume Eliot George) and produced by Raymond Stross. The novel is about two leather-clad young men in a motorcycle fraternity who fall in love with each other. Furie used structured improvisation to rewrite the script to fit the dialogue around the actors’ mouths. This was unusual for the era, and Furie was at odds with the producer, who wanted a slightly more exploitation-friendly picture. The Leather Boys opens well for critics and audiences after a delayed release. As a favor to Cliff Richard film producer Kenneth Harper, Furie takes a job directing the next Cliff picture, Wonderful Life (1964), in lieu of an offer to direct A Hard Day’s Night. The latter royally trumps the former at the box office, as Wonderful Life is not nearly as successful at the box office as The Young Ones.Less
Furie, offered the chance to direct the next Cliff Richard picture, Summer Holiday (1963), chooses instead another British realist film project, The Leather Boys (1963), based on a novel by Gillian Freeman (under the nom de plume Eliot George) and produced by Raymond Stross. The novel is about two leather-clad young men in a motorcycle fraternity who fall in love with each other. Furie used structured improvisation to rewrite the script to fit the dialogue around the actors’ mouths. This was unusual for the era, and Furie was at odds with the producer, who wanted a slightly more exploitation-friendly picture. The Leather Boys opens well for critics and audiences after a delayed release. As a favor to Cliff Richard film producer Kenneth Harper, Furie takes a job directing the next Cliff picture, Wonderful Life (1964), in lieu of an offer to direct A Hard Day’s Night. The latter royally trumps the former at the box office, as Wonderful Life is not nearly as successful at the box office as The Young Ones.
