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Scholarcast 22 : Sensation and Modernity in the 1860s

Abstract: In this episode Nicholas Daly reads from the Introduction to his book Sensation and Modernity in the 1860's published by Cambridge University Press. This is a study of high and low culture in the years before the Reform Act of 1867, which vastly increased the number of voters in Victorian Britain. As many commentators worried about the political consequences of this 'Leap in the Dark', authors and artists began to re-evaluate their own role in a democratic society that was also becoming more urban and more anonymous. While some fantasized about ways of capturing and holding the attention of the masses, others preferred to make art and literature more exclusive, to shut out the crowd. One path led to 'Sensation'; the other to aestheticism, though there were also efforts to evade this opposition. This book examines the fiction, drama, fine art, and ephemeral forms of these years against the backdrop of Reform. Authors and artists studied include Wilkie Collins, Dion Boucicault, Charles Dickens, James McNeill Whistler, and the popular illustrator, Alfred Concanen.

In collection  UCDScholarcast

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Resource description

Origin information
Dublin, Ireland : University College Dublin
Date issued:
Type of Resource
sound recording
Physical description
00:24:19 ; 35.1 MB (audio/mpeg) — Digital origin: born digital — Reformating quality: access
Note
Nicholas Daly is Professor of Modern English and American Literature at UCD, having previously taught at Trinity College Dublin (1995-2005), and held visiting positions at Wesleyan University and Dartmouth College. His research interests are in nineteenth and twentieth-century literature and culture, and he is the author of sundry articles and three monographs, most recently Sensation and Modernity in the 1860s (Cambridge University Press, 2009). His current research explores some of the narratives and images of modernity that circulated among Britain, America and France in the nineteenth century.
iTunes keywords
UCD, Scholarcast, Art, Culture, English, Drama, Nick Daly, Sensation, White Lady, Lourdes, Britain, identity, Book, British Isles, Criticism, literature, Ireland, Irish
Languages
English  
Genre
Lectures   linked data (lctgm)   Podcasts
Subject
English literature--19th century--History and criticism   linked data (lcsh)
Social change--Great Britain--History--19th century
Great Britain--Intellectual life--19th century   linked data (lcsh)
Record source
Metadata creation date: 2011-11-19 — Machine generated via XSLT from the source metadata at http://www.ucd.ie/scholarcast/scholarcast.xml

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Creative Commons License
Scholarcast 22 : Sensation and Modernity in the 1860s is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Creative Commons License
Scholarcast 22 : Sensation and Modernity in the 1860s is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.