著者

原田 昂

出版者

英米文化学会

雑誌

英米文化 (ISSN:09173536)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.46, pp.39-53, 2016

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<p>"The Signalman", a short story by Charles Dickens can be distinguished from other ghost stories. What makes this short story special is its focus on railways and the telegraph. This is a complex 'network' where ghosts appear in the story and to which the work itself belongs, for "The Signalman" was published as a part of <i>Mugby Junction</i>.</p><p>Employing media theory analysis, this paper re-reads "The Signalman" as a novel that echoes a Britain of the nineteenth century where new networks of railways and electrical wires enabled the rapid transit and mass communication. The new and revolutionary flow of information was mysterious and beyond the understanding of ordinary people. It was almost something spiritual. Dickens represented this enigma in "The Signalman" as the junction of ghosts and the latest media. The author's consciousness towards this junction can be found in the other chapters he wrote for <i>Mugby Junction</i>. Through this book, the protagonist improves his understanding of this junction. Our focus on technological media and spiritualistic mediums would give nineteenth century ghosts a certain definition: a piece to fill an unexplainable space in a complex of lines of information. Networks offer ghosts a place to appear, and people recognize a network through ghostly images.</p>

著者

内田 均

出版者

英米文化学会

雑誌

英米文化 (ISSN:09173536)

巻号頁・発行日

no.36, pp.149-167, 2006-03-31

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Victorian Romance Emma, a Japanese anime TV-series adaptation of the manga from Kaoru Mori, has at least two basic backgrounds: One is a cultural preference for traditional occidental fiction such as Nippon Animation's World Masterpiece Theater TV animation series of adaptations of classic children's books, second is a business plan made under the media mix strategy involving game software, comics, light novels and other related products. The anime set in late 19th century London adopts relatively modest directing in visual style, which is in contrast to most of character-centered, action-packed animes in recent years. From the viewpoint of visual media, the chief attraction for this anime is the challenge of recreating the atmosphere, the people and places as authentically as possible. It portrays the barriers of class and wealth, which are enhanced by realistic physical representation, including various kinds of women's clothes like maid servant's outfits, a dirty apron, Victorian ladies dresses, or a tight corset. Gorgeous costumes and upperclass life suggest the conspicuous consumption of Victorian society, while the portrait of a humble heroine and the gentle characters around her might obscure the exploitation of low-wage labor. Its historical accounts or accuracy can be thought-provoking and encourage the viewers to reflect on their own sexual and political repression. However, the recognition that characters represented by anime or manga have a different verisimilitude from ones by live-action films, also leads them to assimilate other types of consuming visual images, especially of women. The effects of Emma will necessarily be complex and indirect, whereas commercial purposes inherent in many visual media would put Emma in another context, far from Victorian society. This paper will examine the aspects of consuming physical representation through Emma and wide range of simulated bodies including maid servants that have been rooted in Japanese pop culture.

著者

斎 孝則

出版者

英米文化学会

雑誌

英米文化 (ISSN:09173536)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.28, pp.53-63, 1998-03-31 (Released:2017-06-20)

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Evelyn Waugh's novels have at least two impediments when Japanese readers try to read them. The one is the Englishness of his novels. As James Kirkup has said, his novels are written for English readers, using strong English idioms. Therefore, his foreign readers often find it hard to understand the scenes in his novels. The other impediment is the seeming frivolousness of his characters, which can lead careless readers to take his novels to be frivolous. In fact, the author's intentions are very serious. It is worth noticing that the Englishness is indispensable for Waugh's novels because they deal mainly with the decline of English culture which is closely connected with the Englishness. Also, in back of the seeming frivolousness lies a keen sense of cultural crisis. Waugh thinks that modern England is surrounded by non-cultural elements, which are the causes of crisis. He not only depicts those elements but also shows how he copes with them.

著者

馬場 聡

出版者

英米文化学会

雑誌

英米文化 (ISSN:09173536)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.52, pp.63-79, 2022-03-31 (Released:2022-04-28)

参考文献数

18

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The coming of electricity to the Pacific Northwest during World War II was expected to provide new possibilities not only for economic growth but also for social transformation. This paper explores the various aspects of cultural representations of the development of the Columbia River basin, which extends between the states of Oregon and Washington. In the first part of this study, attention is paid to the narrative techniques used in two government-funded promotional films about dam construction produced by Bonneville Power Administration (BPA). After examining the rhetorical strategies that were employed in the BPA films to propagate the necessity of river development, our analysis turns to several songs sung and composed by Woody Guthrie, that were included in one of the films. Our discussion foregrounds this curious combination: a politically radical folk singer from the Midwest and a federal power agency rooted in the Northwest. Finally, we analyze several literary works that critically depict the Columbia River development and its aftermath. A careful comparative review of those works reveals the political unconsciousness of the region in the decades after the New Deal.

著者

原田 昂

出版者

英米文化学会

雑誌

英米文化 (ISSN:09173536)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.52, pp.23-37, 2022-03-31 (Released:2022-04-28)

参考文献数

12

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Recent studies have indicated that A Tale of Two Cities depicts the French Revolution as a critical period in which information technologies had developed and information transmission had accelerated and that it thereby represents the idea that social changes and technological development are inseparable. Those studies, however, have paid little attention to the end of Book 2 and the beginning of Book 3 of the work. These chapters clearly illustrate the impact of the means of communication on people’s lives, making them the most significant part of this work of fiction in regard to its consciousness of communication. This paper verifies that the aforementioned chapters are crucial for comprehending the understanding of the media presented in this work. This study first focuses on the dates of events in which those chapters progress. The time they span is sufficient to deliver messages from Paris to London by telegraph but is not long enough to do so without electric wires. It then reaffirms the meaning of the dates by examining the fact that Charles Dickens had set this scene in winter before changing his manuscript. Finally, it analyses Darnay’s travel across the English Channel, which is repeatedly impeded, to clarify that this novel delineates the substantial gap of communication between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

著者

松本 昇

出版者

英米文化学会

雑誌

英米文化 (ISSN:09173536)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.37, pp.159-163, 2007

著者

山内 圭

出版者

英米文化学会

雑誌

英米文化 (ISSN:09173536)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.28, pp.105-118, 1998

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First, the investigation was made into Steinbeck's descriptions of men and women. Originally his men work outdoors, and women at home. But, during this novel, men lose their lands, tools and jobs, and the original androcentric system no longer works. On the contrary, women's business such as cooking, washing and home-protecting invariably must continue. Thus women can keep their status. Then examinations of the human life cycle have been done. That is, birth, aging and death. Steinbeck thought the living have higher priority than both the dying and those who will be born. When aging is described realistically, it is sometimes considered as ugly. He makes candid descriptions of aging. He also describes the aged as respectable figures, respected in a very American way as ancestors and pioneers. A man dies after a life cycle. But men, as a whole, continue to live. In the Life Cycle as a whole, deaths, alternations of generations, mishaps and accidents are surely step-backs. But a death is not a 'full step-back,' but 'only half a step-back,' if it brings something helpful to the living, or if the person who is dying leaves something. This kind of idea is one of the underlying philosophies of the novel. Steinbeck built a frame of nature by putting the description of natural forces both at the beginning and at the end of the novel. In the frame, he describes men living despite of some step-backs, and praises them for their resilient attitudes.

著者

須藤 祐二

出版者

英米文化学会

雑誌

英米文化 (ISSN:09173536)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.50, pp.87-103, 2020

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<p>In Washington Irving's <i>Bracebridge Hall</i>,<i> or The Humorists</i>,<i> A Medley</i> (1822), Frank Bracebridge, a fictional squire, tries to protect his and his family's old-fashioned lifestyle from the overwhelming wave of the industrial revolution. With the voice of Geoffrey Crayon, Irving ironizes their bigoted adherence to the disappearing customs of England's "good old times." William Hazlitt criticized this work as literary anachronism, blaming Irving for not seeing what the British were really like and building up his idealized image of them based on the old books he had read in America. Behind this anachronism, however, exists Irving's critical vision on the parental-filial relationship between the United Kingdom and America, and the inheritance of the (trans) national past. "Dolph Heyliger," a success story of a young American, placed near the end of <i>Bracebridge Hall</i>, evinces that Dolph's relationship with his ancestral past is quite the opposite of what the English squire does for restoring the good old times in his fief. Dolph is neither a seeker for nor a guardian of what was gone. His ancestral ghost guides him to an itinerary in which he discovers his ancestral treasure in the end. Not only is this story a huge irony to Bracebridge's unsuccessful restorationism, but also it works as Irving's metaphorical vision on how America, a grown-up child that severed itself from the United Kingdom, can reinstall a new parental-filial relationship with this country. This transatlantic vision includes the American author's aspiration for the role of America as the potential inheritor of British's literary and cultural tradition. <i>Bracebridge Hall</i> opens a space to situate such a vision, without which Irving would not end his literary pilgrimage in the United Kingdom that he began with <i>The Sketch Book</i>.</p>

著者

河内 裕二

出版者

英米文化学会

雑誌

英米文化 (ISSN:09173536)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.49, pp.79-85, 2019

著者

曽村 充利

出版者

英米文化学会

雑誌

英米文化 (ISSN:09173536)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.26, pp.27-39, 1996

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Charles Cotton was a close friend of Izaak Walton and wrote the second part of The Compleat Angler. It is not surprising that Walton and Cotton shared the common political belief and religious faith, royalist and Anglican. In this paper, it will be suggested that Cotton quite possibly was connected with the Great Tew Circle, an Anglican latitudinarian group, some of the chief members of which were Walton's close friends. Friendship between Walton and Cotton seems to have been long and strong, and the evidence of it is found in Cotton's verse, their epistles, and the second part of The Compleat Angler. Cotton was quite explicit about his zealous royalist opinions in his verses, and celebrated the King's return and the Restoration. Three members of the Great Tew Circle can be mentioned in relation to the life of Cotton. Clarendon, a member and the most influential politician of the Restoration England, was a friend of Cotton's father. Cotton also wrote that he had 'been favoured' by another member of the circle, Sheldon, who was a post-Restoration Archbishop of Canterbury. Lastly, in one of his poems, Cotton severely criticized Edmund Waller, an ex-member of the circle, for writing a panegyric on Oliver Cromwell.

著者

横山 千枝子

出版者

英米文化学会

雑誌

英米文化 (ISSN:09173536)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.25, pp.47-56, 1995

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Murdoch thinks that love is to recognize others and to regard them as independent from and equal to oneself as well as to respect them. Moreover, she thinks that love can be acquired by being attentive to God. She says that both God and Good are the concordant point of everything which is located far from ourselves. In Unicorn, Hannah, who lives in Gaze Castle and is the heroine of this novel, finds comfort in agony. She is captured by the illusion that others and even she herself regards her as God, until she dies. Max, who is a scholar studying Plato, knows Good through books but cannot enter the situation of Good. He, who becomes Hannah's heir after her death, is captured by age and books. Through their attitudes to God and Good, Murdoch develops her idea about God and Good in her work. First, I will examine how the idea of Murdoch about God and Good is treated and then examine Murdoch's idea that God is identified with Good.

著者

佐藤 治夫

出版者

英米文化学会

雑誌

英米文化 (ISSN:09173536)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.38, pp.5-30, 2008-03-31 (Released:2017-06-20)

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The present paper reevaluated the significance of the Obscene Publications Act 1857(OPA), or Campbell's Law(An Act for more effectually preventing the Sale of Obscene Books, Pictures, Prints, and other Articles) from the view point of assessing the opposing forces in and out of the British Parliament that influenced the actual law-making process. In good contrast with the first hesitant approach before his submission of OPA, Lord Campbell, the propagator of OPA, is found quite straightforward in pressing his objective, widely supported by the public opinions outside the Houses, to his fellow members of the House, which might have unnecessarily provoked repulsive attitudes from some of them-probably best represented by Lord Lyndhurst, who openly made objections in the House of Lords, referring to the possibility of endangering the British literary works in the process of enforcing OPA. The verbal conflict between the two parties will well be summarised as that of maintaining the standard of decency in society as against the protection of national literature. It is quite noteworthy that the process of law-making itself only promoted the discussion of decency and moral integration, and not the protection of literature.

著者

吉原 令子

出版者

英米文化学会

雑誌

英米文化 (ISSN:09173536)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.30, pp.79-99, 2000-03-31 (Released:2017-06-20)

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In writing about her childhood along the Texas-Mexico border, Gloria Anzaldua describes the experience of being caught between two cultures, as being an alien in both. The actual physical borderland that Anzaldua describes in Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza is the Texas-U.S. Southwest/Mexican border, but the "borderlands" she refers to are something more psychological, sexual, and spiritual. These Borderlands are present wherever two or more cultures confront each other, where people of different races occupy the same territory, where all socio-economic classes touch, and where the confusion of sexual and gender identity exists. Her preoccupations with the inner life of the Self, and with the struggle of that Self in the borderlands provide the unique positioning consciousness. The quest for one's identity based on race, gender, sexuality, class, nation, etc., ends up in the system of binary oppositions. In my view, in this book Anzaldua criticizes an absolute despot duality that says we are able to be only one or the other and insists that the Self is plural, transformative, and performative. She searches for a way of balancing, and mitigating the system of binary oppositions through knowing and learning the history of oppression. Anzaldua suggests that we should accept our differences and that our differences should open political lines of affiliation with other groups to challenge the specific forms of domination that we share in common.

著者

中垣 恒太郎

出版者

英米文化学会

雑誌

英米文化 (ISSN:09173536)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.37, pp.115-132, 2007-03-31 (Released:2017-06-20)

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Truman Capote invented a new style of "non-fiction novel" in his work, In Cold Blood (1966). About 40 years after its publication, the situation of documentary has drastically changed. Capote's In Cold Blood adopted some elements of fiction into the documentary realm.a revolutionary approach to the genre. Indeed, many journalists were impressed by his work, and the movement of "new journalism" was brought about. The 2005 film Capote was focused on Capote himself who was making his new documentary work, In Cold Blood. In effect, the film Capote showed the "behind-the scenes" of Capote's struggle to create the non-fiction novel. Besides, the film represents an outstanding depiction of the transition of documentary over the past 40 years. In recent documentary works, extreme importance is placed on the viewpoint of camera. In Cold Blood did not directly depict the relationship between the author and the targets. Those targets were deeply affected after connecting with Capote himself, but Capote could not write about these aspects. The film Capote, on the other hand, emphasized the author's dilemma. This paper will reexamine the achievements of new journalism, and explore the possibility of docu/fiction bridging the gap between documentary and fiction.

著者

大東 俊一

出版者

英米文化学会

雑誌

英米文化 (ISSN:09173536)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.28, pp.95-104, 1998-03-31 (Released:2017-06-20)

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Muneyoshi Yanagi, who is the founder of theories on folk handicrafts, respected Lafcadio Hearn as his predecessor. Perhaps Hearn was the first foreigner who had a high opinion of Japanese folk handicrafts. Hearn had a certain influence on Yanagi, but they differ in their attitudes towards folk handicrafts. The aim of this paper is to discuss this difference. Hearn and Yanagi alike have a distaste for mass-produced industrial arts. Yanagi thinks so highly of folk handicrafts that he goes so far as to personify them. He regards the craftsmen a less important element in the production of folk handicrafts, and insists that a long-established tradition is more essential. Hearn, on the other hand, regards every craftsman as a creative being. He argues that this creativity (of every craftsman) springs from a kind of memory called 'organic memory.' This memory, in my opinion, is a syncretism of Buddhist ideas and the theory of evolution by Herbert Spencer.

著者

越智 敏之

出版者

英米文化学会

雑誌

英米文化 (ISSN:09173536)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.29, pp.59-72, 1999-03-31 (Released:2017-06-20)

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Medical theories during Elizabethan period were based upon the medieval physiological concept of four humors. It was then believed that the macrocosm as well as the microcosm was fundamentally composed of the four elements - air, fire, water, and earth, while the microcosm (human body) had four humors - blood, yellow bile, phlegm, and black bile, each being thought to correspond with each of the four elements: for example, blood corresponds with air. Diseases were thought to be the result of the imbalance of these four humors. The humor doctrine was dominant not only in medical theories, but in the field of culinary art. Every foodstuff, as it is a part of the macrocosm, was also believed to be composed of the same four elements, each of which, when ingested, turn to each of the four humors. Consequently, it was understood that, if a body is short of blood, a foodstuff full of air such as milk should be taken. This tells us that the Elizabethans believed the microcosm could be a part of the macrocosm through the act of eating - you are what you eat. In Macbeth there are so many metaphors expressing inability to eat, and in the 'Banquet Scene' all the guests cannot eat because they are hosted by the mad king. To my thinking, when Macbeth shouts, "let the frame of things disjoint, both the worlds suffer," Shakespear dramatized the total collapse of the two cosmos that was in one through the act of ingestion.

著者

吉原 令子

出版者

英米文化学会

雑誌

英米文化 (ISSN:09173536)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.39, pp.125-141, 2009-03-31 (Released:2017-06-20)

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The movement to legalize same-sex marriage was revitalized in the 1990s in the US. This paper examines the reasons for this revitalization and analyzes the movement in relation to feminism. Gays/Lesbians called for same-sex marriage rights in the 1990s because of the influence of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and a lesbian baby-boom in the 1980s. At the same time, NOW, a liberal feminist group in the US, officially declared support for same-sex marriage. One reason for solidarity between liberal feminists and gays/lesbians was that both groups shared liberal values, including the pursuit of freedom, equality, and justice through social reform and legal change. Both groups also resisted the conservative thinking expounded by the Moral Majority and Reagan supporters. These conservatives opposed same-sex marriage and attacked both gays/lesbians and feminists during the 1980s. However, queer theorists started to criticize this movement in the 2000s because the legalization of same-sex marriage leads to assimilation, normalization, and loss of sexual diversity. They also criticized activists for prioritizing legalization of same-sex marriage over issues of poverty and discrimination against lower class queers. I analyze their criticism of the same-sex marriage movement and explore the theoretical and practical dimensions of the movement.

著者

蒔田 裕美

出版者

英米文化学会

雑誌

英米文化 (ISSN:09173536)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.40, pp.89-109, 2010

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Philaster, or Love Lies a-Bleeding, a collaboration by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, was one of the most successful tragicomedies that appeared on the Jacobean stage. It is said that Shakespeare followed the fashion set by them in writing romances such as Cymbeline and The Winter's Tale. Arethusa, the heroine of Philaster, represents-at least in some aspects-the "patient Griselda" type, a romantic character appearing in medieval and Renaissance Europe, noted for her enduring patience and wifely obedience. This motif can be found in Shakespeare's Cymbeline and The Winter's Tale. The purpose of this paper is to consider the heroine character of Philaster by comparing it with Shakespeare's Griselda heroines, and by showing some new features found in Beaumont and Fletcher's work. Shakespeare's heroines recognize that their sufferings are derived from the gods. Thus they endure their trials conventionally until time reveals the truth and things end in the spirit of "all's well that ends well," as in the Griselda tradition. Arethusa, however, already deviates from the typical Griselda heroine motif in the sense that she doesn't wait for a happy ending and, instead, takes passionate action to get married to her lover. In conclusion, Beaumont and Fletcher succeed in creating a sensational play, as the subtitle "Love Lies a-Bleeding" symbolically suggests.

著者

福島 昇

出版者

英米文化学会

雑誌

英米文化 (ISSN:09173536)

巻号頁・発行日

no.29, pp.47-58, 1999-03-31

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This paper posits a central theme of Shakespeare's King Lear as being the relationship between truth and insanity. This theme can be gleaned from the study of the rhetorical aspect of oxymorons, such as "unpriz'd precious maid" (I.I.25I) and "Proper deformity [shows] not in the fiend/So horrid as in woman." (4.2.60- 6I) This paper clarifies how oxymorons produce powerful meanings and how fruitful they are in assisting protagonists in finding the truth. The reason for Shakespeare's use of oxymorons, which 'are especially present in King Lear, is his desire not to display a one-sided definition, but to leave the defining interpretation an uncertainty, a mystery. Shakespeare makes it clear that truth and insanity, right and wrong, rapture and sorrow, are not antinomic just because they are placed back to back- they are left open for relative interpretation. Only those who suffer deeply throughout the play, such as Lear and Gloucester, can truly experience delight and truth. One-sided viewpoints are not accepted in the great tragedy of King Lear. It is apparent from Shakespeare's use of oxymorons that Lear's insane world transforms into one of truth, Gloucester's dark world changes into one of light. It is also apparent that Kent's, the King of France's, and the other characters' worlds change from despairing into hopeful ones. Shakespeare thought truth and insanity, misery and sublimity, are ultimately one.

著者

門野 泉

出版者

英米文化学会

雑誌

英米文化 (ISSN:09173536)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.33, pp.27-42, 2003

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Many contemporary British directors seem to realize that modern, realistic, psychological analysis and interpretations are not enough to revive Shakespeare's dramatic dynamism on stage. Some directors draw upon Japanese traditional classic drama such as Noh and Kabuki, which have inherited dramatic traditions and conventions of medieval, early modern dramas. Having found shared points of commonality between Shakespeare and Kabuki, some directors have successfully adopted the dramatic techniques and staging of Kabuki in Shakespeare's plays. The transfer of Kabuki theatrical devices and acting methods has breathed new life into Shakespeare in recent productions by the Royal Shakespeare Company and Almeida Theatre. Although Shakespeare's Globe is able to exploit its unique building form to stage Elizabethan and Jacobean plays, it is very difficult to obtain details of the original Elizabethan stage practices and performances. The company has shown considerable interest in the traditional drama of Kabuki, because both forms of theatre seem to share the dynamic energy of early modern drama. Kabuki has many hints and suggestions to offer those who are eager to revive the Elizabethan stage in the contemporary Globe. The Shakespeare Globe Company have staged a revival production of Twelfth Night in which they made every possible effort to revive the dramatic traditions and methods that characterized the original staging at Middle Temple Hall in 1 602. One of these was the use of an all-male cast, which was also inspired by Kabuki onnagata, or female role specialists. This paper will consider how these English onnagata played Olivia and Viola, and their significance in the revival production of Twelfth Night at Middle Temple Hall. Mark Rylance, who played the role of Olivia, expressed femininity in a stylistic way rather than just copying womanly manners. The countess appeared very feminine not merely because "she" looked ladylike, but because the actor personified a kind of feminine essence, which is what onnagata try to achieve in Kabuki. Rylance was very successful in depicting the comical element in the proud Olivia, in vivid contrast to the patient Viola. Eddie Redmayne's Viola was unique in the sense that he was able to represent both male and female characteristics in a very natural manner, which would be almost impossible for any actress to achieve. As an "onnagata", he appeared to possess both sexes on stage, which made his Viola both unique and charming. In the recognition of the twins, Viola and Sebastian, in the final scene, the two male actors wearing the same costume looked so alike that Shakespeare's intended use of the twins seemed to be fully realized in this production. In one beautiful moment, all the confulsion was completely resolved, leaving a deep impression on the audience. Twelfth Night featuring an all-male cast was not merely an old-fashioned, nostalgic revival but a well staged production that enabled us to rediscover what had been lost from the play for a long time. The production was a revelation of what Twelfth Night must have been like in Shakespeare's day.