DOCSLIB.ORG

Language Living on the Margins and Beyond

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

Language living on the margins and beyond A historical pragmatic study of marginal vocabulary use in eighteenth-century English Roxanne But A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Sheffield School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics March 2016 Acknowledgements Thank you Susan for being my supervisor and believing in my project. You are one of the few people who can be super professional (you were hard on me at times) and approachable with a soft spot at the same time. Thank you for giving me that extra push, saving me when I couldn’t see the wood for the trees, and looking after me at times when I needed it the most. Your books – currently sitting comfortable at my bookshelf – are eagerly looking forward to the reunion with their respective owner. Thank you to those in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities Executive Board who reviewed my PhD application and offered me a scholarship to do a doctorate. I will never forget that moment when I received your letter. Thank you for offering me this unique and once-in- a-lifetime opportunity that has changed me entirely – both intellectually, and personally. I’m glad that I could embark on this hard, but rewarding journey. Thank you to those members of the academic community within and outside of Sheffield for your intellectual stimulation, conversation and support over the years. Special thanks go to my fellow PhD buddies and office space mates in the School of English. We were all stuck in this ivory tower, not allowed to leave the palace before we completed our challenging task, dreaming of that One Day that would set us free. My time has finally come, and I shall dearly miss those little every-day moments in the office space. Thank you to the Coffee Rev lovelies for teaching me what real friendship is. You are my good bras: hard to find, very comfortable, supportive, and always close to the heart. Thank you for getting the best out of me and for giving me the confidence in being myself. Not many people can pull that off. Thank you to my housemates whom I got to live with over the years. Even though I preferred my little private space, I’m thankful for your presence in the flat, and make me feel less lonely. Thank you for the chitchat, daytrips and the great memories that we created. Special mention goes to the C4 gang - a promise is a promise, you made it into my thesis! Thank you for being the guinea pigs of my slang experiment - I will never forget how to “do a Karima”. You are awesome (and you know it)! Thank you Mum and Dad for your unconditional love, care and support. I know it must have been hard all these years that your little darling was away from home, but look where I am now! You were right (as parents usually do), studying can be a joyful activity! I will never, ever try to stop learning. This thesis is for you. i Abstract This thesis investigates the use of marginal vocabulary in eighteenth-century texts from a historical pragmatic perspective. The kind of marginal vocabulary that I will be specifically looking at is the special terminology associated with thieves, beggars and the low life known as ‘cant’. The aim of this study is to examine whether and how marginal vocabulary is used in eighteenth-century texts, and how this language evolves over the course of the century. Evidence of marginal vocabulary use in the eighteenth century was elicited from two electronic resources, namely the Old Bailey Proceedings Online (1674- 1913) and the Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) and then qualitatively examined through historical discourse analysis. In the Old Bailey Proceedings Online, I searched for the term ‘cant’ and a number of other marginal terms to find evidence of the actual use of this kind of language in these courtroom texts. As for ECCO, I conducted a diagnostic search of a particular marginal term (‘cull’) to trace the extent to which this term and other marginal terms are used beyond the Old Bailey texts in other eighteenth-century genres. One of the key findings is that marginal vocabulary in the Old Bailey texts is associated with the criminal underclass and reproduced from real-life contexts for specific communicative purposes. Evidence of marginal vocabulary in the ECCO texts shows the expansion of these terms into the wider print culture of the eighteenth century. The marginal vocabulary terms have become ‘public’ words because they have moved beyond the highly specific criminal context. Some of these expressions are reproduced, metalinguistically commented upon and appropriated in a wide variety of popular texts, such as prose fiction, drama and life narratives. In the process, the terms may or may not lose their specialised meaning. ii Copyright notice Some of the work covered in Chapter 5 of the thesis has been published elsewhere as a book chapter in Meaning in the History of English. Words and Texts in Contexts (2013) and is therefore subject to copyright. I would like to thank the editors of Benjamins Publishing for granting me permission to reproduce part of the material into the thesis. Book chapter: But, R. (2013), “The role of context in the meaning specification of cant and slang words in eighteenth-century English”, in Meaning in the History of English. Words and Texts in Context, Jucker, Andreas H., Daniela Landert, Annina Seiler and Nicole Studer-Joho (eds). Amsterdam: Benjamins, 129-154. iii Table of contents Acknowledgements i Abstract ii Copyright notice iii 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Aims and rationale for the study 1 1.2 Overview of the structure of the thesis 7 2 Literature review 10 2.1 Introduction 10 2.2 Studies on marginal vocabulary in the early modern period (1500-1700) 10 2.2.1 Status of marginal vocabulary in the early modern period 11 2.2.2 Popularity and fetishisation of ‘cant’ 15 2.2.3 Functions of ‘cant’ in literary texts 16 2.3 Studies on marginal vocabulary in the present day 17 2.3.1 Social and functional approaches 18 2.3.2 Functions of marginal vocabulary in written texts 21 2.4 Studies on marginal vocabulary in the eighteenth century 23 2.4.1 Canting lexicography 23 2.4.2 Changes in status of marginal vocabulary in the eighteenth century 26 2.4.3 Social significance of ‘flash’ and (im)politeness 27 2.4.4 Research gap 28 2.5 Conclusion 31 3 A historical pragmatic framework 33 3.1 Introduction 33 3.2 Written documents as data 34 3.3 Interpreting language use in context 35 3.3.1 Historical discourse analysis 35 3.3.2 Internal linguistic evidence: Clues from the co-text 36 3.3.3 External linguistic evidence: Clues about production circumstances 38 text, authors and audiences 3.4 Theoretical concepts 39 3.4.1 Concepts related to language use and functions in written texts 39 3.4.2 Concepts related to the status and circulation of language 43 3.4.3 Concepts related to lexical meaning and semantic change 43 3.5 Conclusion 44 4 Marginal vocabulary use in the Proceedings of the Old Bailey between 1700 45 iv and 1800 4.1 Introduction 45 4.2 Historical background of the Proceedings (1674-1913) 46 4.2.1 The texts 46 4.2.2 Electronic resources 47 4.2.3 The linguistic value of the Proceedings 48 4.3 Methodology and methods: Producing the evidence 50 4.3.1 Lexical-based searches in the Old Bailey Proceedings Online 50 4.3.2 Search procedures of metalinguistic marker ‘cant’ 52 4.3.3 Evidence of the use of ‘cant’ in the Proceedings 53 4.3.4 Search procedures of actual marginal terms 55 4.3.5 Evidence of the use of actual marginal vocabulary in the Proceedings 60 4.4 Marginal vocabulary use in the Sessions Papers (SP) 62 4.4.1 Speaker pragmatic device: Marginal vocabulary use in the 65 testimonies 4.4.1.1 Witness (victim) 67 4.4.1.2 Witness (for the prosecution) 69 4.4.1.3 Court officials (lawyers) 73 4.4.1.4 Defendant (prisoner) 76 4.4.2 Authorial pragmatic device: Reproduction of marginal vocabulary 77 by the court recorder in the written record 4.5 Marginal vocabulary use in the Ordinary’s Accounts (OA) 84 4.5.1 Reproduction of marginal vocabulary by Ordinary in the written 86 record 4.5.1.1 ‘Slang Mort Lay’: Romancising the life of Jenny Diver 88 (1705-1741) 4.5.1.2 Negotiating identity 94 4.6 Conclusion 99 5 Marginal vocabulary use in texts selected from the Eighteenth Century 102 Collections Online 5.1 Introduction 102 5.2 About the Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) 103 5.2.1 Linguistic value of ECCO 104 5.3 Methodology and methods: Producing the evidence 105 5.3.1 Rationale for using ‘cull’ to search for marginal vocabulary 106 5.3.2 Search procedures keyword search ‘cull’ 109 5.4 Types/contexts (co-texts and genres) of marginal vocabulary use in 111 ECCO 5.4.1 Verse 113 5.4.2 Prose 114 v 5.5. Marginal vocabulary use in ECCO texts 116 5.5.1 Reproduction of marginal vocabulary 116 5.5.2 Metalinguistic awareness, discussion and evaluation 119 5.5.3 Characterisation and mixture of registers: Marginal vocabulary as a 122 source of appropriation 5.5.4 Word meaning: The contingent polysemous nature of ‘cull’ 135 5.6 Conclusion 138 6 Conclusion 142 6.1 Key findings 142 6.2 Historical pragmatics: Some reflections on methodology and methods 146 6.2.1 Historical discourse analysis 146 6.2.2 Use of electronic databases and search procedures 149 6.3 Future research 152 Bibliography 155 Appendices 169 vi Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1.
Recommended publications
  • Similarities and Differences Between Simultaneous and Successive Bilingual Children: Acquisition of Japanese Morphology

    Similarities and Differences Between Simultaneous and Successive Bilingual Children: Acquisition of Japanese Morphology

    International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature E-ISSN: 2200-3452 & P-ISSN: 2200-3592 www.ijalel.aiac.org.au Similarities and Differences between Simultaneous and Successive Bilingual Children: Acquisition of Japanese Morphology Yuki Itani-Adams1, Junko Iwasaki2, Satomi Kawaguchi3* 1ANU College of Asia & the Pacific, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia 2School of Arts and Humanities, Edith Cowan University, 2 Bradford Street, Mt Lawley WA 6050, Australia 3School of Humanities and Communication Arts, Western Sydney University, Bullecourt Ave, Milperra NSW 2214, Australia Corresponding Author: Satomi Kawaguchi , E-mail: [email protected] ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Article history This paper compares the acquisition of Japanese morphology of two bilingual children who had Received: June 14, 2017 different types of exposure to Japanese language in Australia: a simultaneous bilingual child Accepted: August 14, 2017 who had exposure to both Japanese and English from birth, and a successive bilingual child Published: December 01, 2017 who did not have regular exposure to Japanese until he was six years and three months old. The comparison is carried out using Processability Theory (PT) (Pienemann 1998, 2005) as a Volume: 6 Issue: 7 common framework, and the corpus for this study consists of the naturally spoken production Special Issue on Language & Literature of these two Australian children. The results show that both children went through the same Advance access: September 2017 developmental path in their acquisition of the Japanese morphological structures, indicating that the same processing mechanisms are at work for both types of language acquisition. However, Conflicts of interest: None the results indicate that there are some differences between the two children, including the rate Funding: None of acquisition, and the kinds of verbal morphemes acquired.
  • Part 1: Introduction to The

    Part 1: Introduction to The

    PREVIEW OF THE IPA HANDBOOK Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet PARTI Introduction to the IPA 1. What is the International Phonetic Alphabet? The aim of the International Phonetic Association is to promote the scientific study of phonetics and the various practical applications of that science. For both these it is necessary to have a consistent way of representing the sounds of language in written form. From its foundation in 1886 the Association has been concerned to develop a system of notation which would be convenient to use, but comprehensive enough to cope with the wide variety of sounds found in the languages of the world; and to encourage the use of thjs notation as widely as possible among those concerned with language. The system is generally known as the International Phonetic Alphabet. Both the Association and its Alphabet are widely referred to by the abbreviation IPA, but here 'IPA' will be used only for the Alphabet. The IPA is based on the Roman alphabet, which has the advantage of being widely familiar, but also includes letters and additional symbols from a variety of other sources. These additions are necessary because the variety of sounds in languages is much greater than the number of letters in the Roman alphabet. The use of sequences of phonetic symbols to represent speech is known as transcription. The IPA can be used for many different purposes. For instance, it can be used as a way to show pronunciation in a dictionary, to record a language in linguistic fieldwork, to form the basis of a writing system for a language, or to annotate acoustic and other displays in the analysis of speech.
  • Whole Language Instruction Vs. Phonics Instruction: Effect on Reading Fluency and Spelling Accuracy of First Grade Students

    Whole Language Instruction Vs. Phonics Instruction: Effect on Reading Fluency and Spelling Accuracy of First Grade Students

    Whole Language Instruction vs. Phonics Instruction: Effect on Reading Fluency and Spelling Accuracy of First Grade Students Krissy Maddox Jay Feng Presentation at Georgia Educational Research Association Annual Conference, October 18, 2013. Savannah, Georgia 1 Abstract The purpose of this study is to investigate the efficacy of whole language instruction versus phonics instruction for improving reading fluency and spelling accuracy. The participants were the first grade students in the researcher’s general education classroom of a non-Title I school. Stratified sampling was used to randomly divide twenty-two participants into two instructional groups. One group was instructed using whole language principles, where the children only read words in the context of a story, without any phonics instruction. The other group was instructed using explicit phonics instruction, without a story or any contextual influence. After four weeks of treatment, results indicate that there were no statistical differences between the two literacy approaches in the effect on students’ reading fluency or spelling accuracy; however, there were notable changes in the post test results that are worth further investigation. In reading fluency, both groups improved, but the phonics group made greater gains. In spelling accuracy, the phonics group showed slight growth, while the whole language scores decreased. Overall, the phonics group demonstrated greater growth in both reading fluency and spelling accuracy. It is recommended that a literacy approach should combine phonics and whole language into one curriculum, but place greater emphasis on phonics development. 2 Introduction Literacy is the fundamental cornerstone of a student’s academic success. Without the skill of reading, children will almost certainly have limited academic, economic, social, and even emotional success in school and in later life (Pikulski, 2002).
  • Hierarchy of Social/Pragmatic Skills As Related to the Development of Executive Function Created by Kimberly Peters, Ph.D

    Hierarchy of Social/Pragmatic Skills As Related to the Development of Executive Function Created by Kimberly Peters, Ph.D

    Hierarchy of Social/Pragmatic Skills as Related to the Development of Executive Function created by Kimberly Peters, Ph.D. Age Pragmatic Skills EF Development/Tasks requiring EF Treatment Ideas/Strategies 0-3 Illocutionary—caregiver attributes Development: - face to face interaction months intent to child actions - behavior is designed to meet - vocal-turn-taking with care-providers - smiles/coos in response immediate needs - attends to eyes and mouth - cognitive flexibility not emerged - has preference for faces - exhibits turn-taking 3-6 - laughs while socializing - vocal turn-taking with care-providers months - maintains eye contact appropriately - facial expressions: tongue protrusion, - takes turns by vocalizing “oh”, raspberries. - maintains topic by following gaze - copies facial expressions 6-9 - calls to get attention Development: - peek-a-boo months - demonstrates attachment - Early inhibitory control emerges - place toys slightly out of reach - shows self/acts coy to Peek-a-boo - tolerates longer delays and still - imitative babbling (first true communicative intent) maintains simple, focused attention - imitating actions (waving, covering - reaches/points to request eyes with hands). 9-12 - begins directing others Development: - singing/finger plays/nursery rhymes months - participates in verbal routines - Early inhibitory control emerges - routines (so big! where is baby?), - repeats actions that are laughed at - tolerates longer delays and still peek-a-boo, patta-cake, this little piggy - tries to restart play maintain simple,
  • Linguistic Scaffolds for Writing Effective Language Objectives

    Linguistic Scaffolds for Writing Effective Language Objectives

    Linguistic Scaffolds for Writing Effective Language Objectives An effectively written language objective: • Stems form the linguistic demands of a standards-based lesson task • Focuses on high-leverage language that will serve students in other contexts • Uses active verbs to name functions/purposes for using language in a specific student task • Specifies target language necessary to complete the task • Emphasizes development of expressive language skills, speaking and writing, without neglecting listening and reading Sample language objectives: Students will articulate main idea and details using target vocabulary: topic, main idea, detail. Students will describe a character’s emotions using precise adjectives. Students will revise a paragraph using correct present tense and conditional verbs. Students will report a group consensus using past tense citation verbs: determined, concluded. Students will use present tense persuasive verbs to defend a position: maintain, contend. Language Objective Frames: Students will (function: active verb phrase) using (language target) . Students will use (language target) to (function: active verb phrase) . Active Verb Bank to Name Functions for Expressive Language Tasks articulate defend express narrate share ask define identify predict state compose describe justify react to summarize compare discuss label read rephrase contrast elaborate list recite revise debate explain name respond write Language objectives are most effectively communicated with verb phrases such as the following: Students will point out similarities between… Students will express agreement… Students will articulate events in sequence… Students will state opinions about…. Sample Noun Phrases Specifying Language Targets academic vocabulary complete sentences subject verb agreement precise adjectives complex sentences personal pronouns citation verbs clarifying questions past-tense verbs noun phrases prepositional phrases gerunds (verb + ing) 2011 Kate Kinsella, Ed.D.
  • A Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms, Second Edition

    A Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms, Second Edition

    A DICTIONARY OF Literary and Thematic Terms Second Edition EDWARD QUINN A Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms, Second Edition Copyright © 2006 by Edward Quinn All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information contact: Facts On File, Inc. An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Quinn, Edward, 1932– A dictionary of literary and thematic terms / Edward Quinn—2nd ed. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 0-8160-6243-9 (hc : alk. paper) 1. Criticism—Terminology. 2. Literature— Terminology. 3. Literature, Comparative—Themes, motives, etc.—Terminology. 4. English language—Terms and phrases. 5. Literary form—Terminology. I. Title. PN44.5.Q56 2006 803—dc22 2005029826 Facts On File books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities for businesses, associations, institutions or sales promotions. Please call our Special Sales Department in New York at (212) 967-8800 or (800) 322-8755. You can fi nd Facts On File on the World Wide Web at http://www.factsonfi le.com Text design by Sandra Watanabe Cover design by Cathy Rincon Printed in the United States of America MP FOF 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This book is printed on acid-free paper. Contents Preface v Literary and Thematic Terms 1 Index 453 Preface This book offers the student or general reader a guide through the thicket of liter- ary terms.
  • Linguistics As a Resouvce in Language Planning. 16P

    Linguistics As a Resouvce in Language Planning. 16P

    DOCUMENT RESUME ED 095 698 FL 005 720 AUTHOR Garvin, Paul L. TITLE' Linguistics as a Resouvce in Language Planning. PUB DATE Jun 73 NOTE 16p.; PaFPr presented at the Symposium on Sociolinguistics and Language Planning (Mexico City, Mexico, June-July, 1973) EPRS PPICE MF-$0.75 HC-$1.50 PLUS POSTAGE DESCRIPTORS *Applied Linguistics; Language Development; *Language Planning; Language Role; Language Standardization; Linguistics; Linguistic Theory; Official Languages; Social Planning; *Sociolinguistics ABSTPACT Language planning involves decisions of two basic types: those pertaining to language choice and those pertaining to language development. linguistic theory is needed to evaluate the structural suitability of candidate languages, since both official and national languages mast have a high level of standardizaticn as a cultural necessity. On the other hand, only a braodly conceived and functionally oriented linguistics can serve as a basis for choosiag one language rather than another. The role of linguistics in the area of language development differs somewhat depending on whether development is geared in a technological and scientific or a literary, artistic direction. In the first case, emphasis is on the development of terminologies, and in the second case, on that of grammatical devices and styles. Linguistics can provide realistic and practical arguments in favor of language development, and a detailed, technical understanding of such development, as well as methodological skills. Linguists can and must function as consultants to those who actually make decisions about language planning. For too long linguists have pursued only those aims generated within their own field. They must now broaden their scope to achieve the kind of understanding of language that is necessary for a productive approach to concrete language problems.
  • New Paradigm for the Study of Simultaneous V. Sequential Bilingualism

    New Paradigm for the Study of Simultaneous V. Sequential Bilingualism

    New Paradigm for the Study of Simultaneous v. Sequential Bilingualism Suzanne Flynn1, Claire Foley1 and Inna Vinnitskaya2 1MIT and 2University of Ottawa 1. Introduction Mastering multiple languages is a commonplace linguistic achievement for most of the world’s population. Chomsky (in Mukherji et al. 2000) notes that “In most of human history and in most parts of the world today, children grow up speaking a variety of languages…” Clearly, multilingualism “is just a natural state of the human mind.” Notably, most of this language learning occurs in untutored, naturalistic settings and throughout the lifespan of an individual. The false sense of language homogeneity and monolingualism that is often heralded in the United States, at least in certain regional sections, is clearly a historical artifact. As Chomsky notes: Even in the United States the idea that people speak one language is not true. Everyone grows up hearing many different languages. Sometimes they are called “dialects or stylistic variants or whatever” but they are really different languages. It is just that they are so close to each other that we don’t bother calling them different languages (Chomsky, in Mukherji et al., 2000:19 ) A conclusion is that every individual, by virtue of living within a community, is bilingual1 in some sense. Further, this means that in the same sense there is essentially universal multilingualism in the world. Despite the centrality of multilingualism to the human experience, however, questions persist concerning how learners construct new language
  • Thieves' Cant: a Primer for the Language of Larceny

    Thieves' Cant: a Primer for the Language of Larceny

    Thieves Cant: A primer for the language of larceny by Aurelio Locsin INTRODUCTION As with nouns, modifiers may be doubled. This indicates an This work is made possible through the efforts of several increase in quality or intensity. For example, sio kal means “big linguists, many of whom have lost their lives in their attempts to box”; siosio kal means “very big box”; and siosio kalkal means learn as much as they could about Thieves’ Cant. Although this “very big boxes.” primer and the accompanying translation dictionary are admit- tedly incomplete, this is believed to be the most extensive NUMBERS compilation to date of the language. Many numbers, including 0 through 10 and some higher numbers, are included in the accompanying dictionary as se- PRONUNCIATION AND WRITING parate entries. To create other numbers, simply “add” two or Vowel sounds in Cant are sounded the same way as in these more “number words” together. For example, “seventeen” is English words: “a” as in bad; “e” as in bed; “i” as in bid; “o” as in imboula, or “10” (imbo) plus “7” (ula); and “seventy” is ulaimbo, lone; “u” as in suit; and “y” as in sly. Optionally, for easier which translates as “seven tens.” pronunciation by those accustomed to English, “i” can be Ordinal numbers, to show the order of an item in a succes- sounded like the “e” in see when the “i” appears in the middle or sion of items, are formed by adding the suffix “nk” to the at the end of a word, and the “y” sound is shortened to sound cardinal number (or “ink,” if the number ends in a consonant).
  • Why Major in Linguistics (And What Does a Linguist Do)? by Monica Macaulay and Kristen Syrett

    Why Major in Linguistics (And What Does a Linguist Do)? by Monica Macaulay and Kristen Syrett

    1 Why Major in Linguistics (and what does a linguist do)? by Monica Macaulay and Kristen Syrett What is linguistics? Speakers of all languages know a lot about their languages, usually without knowing that they know If you are considering becoming a linguistics it. For example, as a speaker of English, you major, you probably know something about the possess knowledge about English word order. field of linguistics already. However, you may find Perhaps without even knowing it, you understand it hard to answer people who ask you, "What that Sarah admires the teacher is grammatical, exactly is linguistics, and what does a linguist do?" while Admires Sarah teacher the is not, and also They might assume that it means you speak a lot of that The teacher admires Sarah means something languages. And they may be right: you may, in entirely different. You know that when you ask a fact, be a polyglot! But while many linguists do yes-no question, you may reverse the order of speak multiple languages—or at least know a fair words at the beginning of the sentence and that the bit about multiple languages—the study of pitch of your voice goes up at the end of the linguistics means much more than this. sentence (for example, in Are you going?). Linguistics is the scientific study of language, and However, if you speak French, you might add est- many topics are studied under this umbrella. At the ce que at the beginning, and if you know American heart of linguistics is the search for the unconscious knowledge that humans have about language and how it is that children acquire it, an understanding of the structure of language in general and of particular languages, knowledge about how languages vary, and how language influences the way in which we interact with each other and think about the world.
  • Rogues, Vagabonds and Sturdy Beggars, a New Gallery of Tudor

    Rogues, Vagabonds and Sturdy Beggars, a New Gallery of Tudor

    poofe 3^ebieiusi Rogues, Vagabonds, and Sturdy Beggars: A New Gallery of Tudor and Early Stuart Rogue Literature edited by Arthur F. Kinney; 18 illusfrations by John Lawrence. 328 pp. $18.95, paper University of Massachusetts Press Reviewed by John Mucci. Mr. Mucci is Associate Editor of The Elizabethan Review. On the endless road of popular culture, there has always been a genre of entertainment which supposedly reveals the mysteries of the under­ world. Although whatever insight might be exposed, from the canting jargon to the details of a crime, accuracy seems to take a back seat to satisfying curiosity and a need for sensationalism. Today, there are interesting things to be leamed about ourselves by reading the pecuUar genre of EUzabethan pamphleteering known as rogue literature. Popular with all levels of literate society, these slender books purported to set down the manner by which con artists of all types might abscond with decent peoples' money and goods. Ostensibly written as a public service, to wam and arm society against rogues of all types, in their fascinating variety, they are an Elizabethan version of mob stories, with curious and lurid detail. This interest with the underworld and the seamiest side of life is one which has obvious parallels in modem times, particularly with readers who are most threatened by and distanced from such criminals. This so-caUed practical element of defending the populace against these all-too-prevalent creatures falls to second place against the pleasure ofreading about others who have been hoodwinked by them (and better still, hearing the details about rogues who have been caught in the act and punished).
  • Picaresque Translation and the History of the Novel.Pdf

    Picaresque Translation and the History of the Novel.Pdf

    The Picaresque, Translation and the History of the Novel. José María Pérez Fernández University of Granada 1. Introduction The picaresque as a generic category originates in the Spanish Siglo de Oro, with the two novels that constitute the core of its canon—the anonymous Lazarillo de Tormes (1554) and Mateo Alemán’s Guzmán de Alfarache (1599, 1604). In spite of the fact that definitions of the picaresque are always established upon these Spanish foundations, it has come to be regarded as a transnational phenomenon which also spans different periods and raises important questions about the nature and definition of a literary genre. After its appearance in the Spanish 16th century, picaresque fiction soon spread all over Europe, exerting a particularly important influence during the 17th and 18th centuries in Germany, France and above all England, after which its impact diminished gradually. A study of the picaresque calls for a dynamic, flexible, and open-ended model. When talking about the picaresque we should not countenance it as a solid and coherent whole, but rather as a fluid set of features that had a series of precedents, an important foundational moment in the Spanish 16th and 17th centuries, and then spread out in a non-linear way. It grew instead into a complex web whose heterogeneous components were brought together by the fact that these new varieties of prose fiction were responding to similar cultural, social and economic realities. These new printed artefacts resulted from the demands of readers as consumers and the policies of publishers and printers as producers of marketable goods.