Dark Nights, Bright Lights: Night, Darkness, and Illumination in Literature

Published by De Gruyter 2015

Dark Nights, Bright Lights

Night, Darkness, and Illumination in Literature

Edited by: Susanne Bach and Folkert Degenring

Volume 50 in the series Buchreihe der Anglia / Anglia Book Series

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110415292

Overview
Contents

About this book

Light and darkness shape our perception of the world. This is true in a literal sense, but also metaphorically: in theology, philosophy, literature and the arts the light of day signifies life, safety, knowledge and all that is good, while the darkness of the night suggests death, danger, ignorance and evil.

A closer inspection, however, reveals that things are not quite so clear cut and that light and darkness cannot be understood as simple binary opposites. On a biological level, for example, daylight and darkness are inseparable factors in the calibration of our circadian rhythms, and a lack of periodical darkness appears to be as contrary to health as a lack of exposure to sunlight. On a cultural level, too, night and darkness are far from being universally condemnable: in fiction, drama and poetry the darkness of the night allows not only nightmares but also dreams, it allows criminals to ply their trade and allows lovers to meet, it allows the pursuit of pleasure as well as deep thought, it allows metamorphoses, transformations and transgressions unthinkable in the light of day. But night is not merely darkness. The night gains significance as an alternative space, as an ‘other of the day’, only when it is at least partially illuminated.

The volume examines the interconnection of night, darkness and nocturnal illumination across a broad range of literary texts. The individual essays examine historically specific light conditions in literature, tracing the symbolic and metaphoric content of darkness and illumination and the attitudes towards them.

Author / Editor information

Susanne Bach, University of Kassel, Germany; Folkert Degenring, Mannheim, Germany.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Acknowledgements Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	V
Table of Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	VII
Introduction: Dark Nights, Bright Lights Folkert Degenring and Susanne Bach Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
City Nights, City Lights in London Literature of the 1890s Paul Goetsch Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	15
“The Hours of the Day and the Night Are Ours Equally”: Dracula and the Lighting Technologies of Victorian London Maria Peker Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	35
“Light of Life”: Gender, Place, and Knowledge in H.G. Wells’ Ann Veronica Jarmila Mildorf Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	57
The Literary Realisation of Electric Light in the Early 20^th Century: Artificial Illumination in H. G. Wells and E.M. Forster Richard Leahy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	71
Public and Private Light in Virginia Woolf’s Night and Day Laura E. Ludtke Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	91
Serenading the Night in Benjamin Britten’s Opus 31 Robert Gillett and Isabel Wagner Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	111
Darkness Visible: Night, Light, and Liminality in Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles and Jed Rubenfeld’s The Death Instinct Lars Heiler Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	129
The Blackout of Community: Charlotte Jones’ The Dark Stella Butter Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	147
Genre, Gender, Mythology: Functions of Light and Darkness in Terry Pratchett’s Feet of Clay and Thud! Murat Sezi Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	163
Twenty Thousand Lights Hanging from the Ceiling: Ecocatastrophe in Karen Thompson Walker’s The Age of Miracles Susanne Bach Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	183
On Behalf of the Dark? Functionalisations of Light Pollution in Fiction Folkert Degenring Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	201
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	225
About the Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	233

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter
Audience: Literaturwissenschaftler, Anglisten, Bibliotheken, Institute
Pages
- Front matter: 8
- Main content: 234
Keywords: Anglophone Literature; Night; Light; Illumination

eBook

Published: October 16, 2015
ISBN: 9783110415292

Hardcover

Published: October 16, 2015
ISBN: 9783110415100

Paperback

Published: November 7, 2017
ISBN: 9783110578621