The Role of Light and Vision in Two Victorian Ghost Stories
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11210%2F19%3A10393986" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11210/19:10393986 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=aKS1FlRo.E" target="_blank" >https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=aKS1FlRo.E</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.5325/preternature.8.1.0090" target="_blank" >10.5325/preternature.8.1.0090</a>
Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
The Role of Light and Vision in Two Victorian Ghost Stories
Original language description
This article demonstrates how two selected Victorian ghost stories address the problem of the unreliability and subjectivity of perception through the characters' experiences with the supernatural or the inexplicable. I focus on how Victorian ghost stories-particularly Margaret Oliphant's "The Open Door" and Sheridan Le Fanu's "The Account of Some Disturbances in Aungier Street"-induce hesitation both in characters and in the reader. This "moment of hesitation" is not only central to Todorov's definition of the fantastic but also highly relevant to the anxieties about vision and knowledge that existed in Victorian society. I argue that the stories use the theories and assumptions about vision that were current in the Victorian age to subvert the idea that sight is an objective conduit to the truth, and thus the stories both utilize a source of fear that was already present in Victorian society and offer a relevant social commentary.
Czech name
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Czech description
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Classification
Type
J<sub>imp</sub> - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database
CEP classification
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OECD FORD branch
60205 - Literary theory
Result continuities
Project
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Continuities
I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace
Others
Publication year
2019
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Name of the periodical
Preternature
ISSN
2161-2196
e-ISSN
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Volume of the periodical
2019/8
Issue of the periodical within the volume
1
Country of publishing house
US - UNITED STATES
Number of pages
32
Pages from-to
90-121
UT code for WoS article
000497804300003
EID of the result in the Scopus database
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