Reflections of the Czech Language Revival in the Irish Press at the Beginning 138 of the Twentieth Century

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Reflections of the Czech Language Revival in the Irish Press at the Beginning 138 of the Twentieth Century Vol. 6 HRADEC KRÁLOVÉ No. 2 JOURNAL 2019 OF ANGLOPHONE STUDIES Volume’s editor: Helena Polehlová Original illustrations: Ivan Mečl Published by: Department of English Language and Literature Faculty of Education University of Hradec Králové Rokitanského 62 500 03 Hradec Králové Czech Republic Print: Tiskárna Brázda, Hodonín Web: pdf.uhk.cz/hkjas/ ISSN: 2336-3347 (Print) ISSN: 2571-032X (Online) Editorial Board Bohuslav Mánek, University of Hradec Kralové, Czech Republic Helena Polehlová, University of Hradec Kralové, Czech Republic Editor in Chief Jan Suk, University of Hradec Kralové, Czech Republic Volume’s Guest Editors Cyrielle Garson, Avignon University, France Daniel Schulze, Theater Konstanz, Germany Advisory Board Blanka Babická, Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic Šárka Bubíková, University of Pardubice, Czech Republic Richard Burt, University of Florida, Gainesville, USA Yilin Chen, Providence University, Taichung, Taiwan Jan Comorek, Charles University, Hradec Králové, Czech Republic Milada Franková, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic Jana Harťanská, Constantine the Philosopher University, Nitra, Slovakia Kacie Hittel Tam, University of Georgia, Athens, USA Mirka Horová, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic Vladimíra Ježdíková, University of Hradec Králové, Czech Republic Ema Jelínková, Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic Blanka Klímová, University of Hradec Králové, Czech Republic Şevki Kömür, Muğla Sıtkı Koçman Üniversitesi, Kötekli/Muğla, Turkey Ela Krejčová, Akcent College, Prague, Czech Republic Stanislav Kolář, University of Ostrava, Czech Republic Ivan Lacko, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovak Republic Pavla Machová, University of Hradec Králové, Czech Republic Marcela Malá, Technical University of Liberec, Czech Republic Michaela Marková, Technical University Liberec, Czech Republic Ildiko Neméthová, University of Economics in Bratislava, Slovak Republic Ryuta Minami, Shirayuri College, Tokyo, Japan Atilla Pató, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic Hana Pavelková, Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic Jozef Pecina, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovak Republic Ondřej Pilný, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic Michal Pištora, University of Hradec Králové, Czech Republic Libor Práger, Palacký University, Olomouc, Czech Republic Václav Řeřicha, Palacký University, Olomouc, Czech Republic Vladislav Smolka, University of South Bohemia, České Budějovice, Czech Republic Martin Štefl, Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic Věra Tauchmanová, University of Hradec Králové, Czech Republic Ladislav Vít, University of Pardubice, Czech Republic Olga Vraštilová, University of Hradec Králové, Czech Republic Michaela Weiss, Silesian University in Opava, Czech Republic Yukari Yoshihara, University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan CONTENTS Helena Polehlová Variety of Perspectives and Disciplines: Introduction to Hradec Králové Journal of Anglophone Studies 11 LINGUISTICS AND METHODOLOGY Markéta Blažková Pragmatic markers actually, in fact and really in cross-linguistic perspective 13 Michael Diaz English as Lingua Franca: The Danger of Adult Learners Being Left Behind – A Study of Adult EFL Learning in the Czech Republic 29 Joseph Emonds Unique Syntactic Behaviour in the NICE position and elsewhere 44 Christoph Haase Lexical proficiency in Academic English: Ways of testing, modelling, and enhancing 53 Dorota Jagódzka, Kristina Smejová Word Order in English Superlative Adjective Phrase 62 Klára Lancová, Kristýna Červinková Poesová Accent of One’s Own: self-report perspective on accentedness in Czech pre-service EFL teachers 77 Petra Poláková Mobile applications in language learning 88 Irena Reimannová Examining grammatical knowledge of English language student teachers 94 Ludmila Veselovská Unifying WH and Focus Movement: A Case study in English and Czech 106 LITERARY AND CULTURAL STUDIES Jiří Flajšar The Crisis of Suburban Identity: Another Look at Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates 125 Ema Jelínková, Šárka Dvořáková The Ambivalent Satirist in Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey 133 Radvan Markus Ireland of the East and Bohemia of the West: Reflections of the Czech Language Revival in the Irish Press at the Beginning 138 of the Twentieth Century Nella Mlsová Oh Venice! Venice! English presence in the Czech travel representation of Italy 150 Judita Ondrušeková Humor and Satire in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series 158 Petra Johana Poncarová “As Ancient Oak that Grows on Heath Alone”: St. St. Blicher and Macpherson’s Ossian in Denmark 166 Olga Roebuck Authenticating a Community: Exploring Scottish Conflicts in Mortal Causes by Ian Rankin 171 Daniela Šmardová The Power of Love in Jeanette Winterson’s Work 176 CALLS 185 NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS 187 MISSION STATEMENT AND GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSIONS 193 ETHICAL STATEMENT 195 I'm pointing up to the sky! What's your point? So do I. My point is in the middle... Kateřina Štěpánová Helena Polehlová |11 Variety of Perspectives and Disciplines: Introduction to Hradec Králové Journal of Anglophone Studies The current edition of Hradec Králové Journal of Anglophone Studies abounds with engaging topics and issues. As in the previous years, the goal of our journal is to bring together the results of research in the broad field of Anglophone studies; however, unlike in 2018, this year we have published a special monothematic issue called “Teaching Performing, Performing Teaching”. The present issue therefore offers mainly contributions delivered at the Anglophone Conference of our department in March 2019. Welcome to the sixth edition of our journal, the insightful pieces will hopefully broaden your horizons as well as provide enjoyment. I'm pointing up to the sky! The linguistics and methodology section of the volume opens with a corpus-based study by Markéta Blažková, dealing with pragmatic markers actually, in fact and really. Drawing on findings of an earlier cross-linguistic study, the author complements the research by focusing on English-German equivalents of the pragmatic markers in question. What's your point? So do I. Grammaticality and ungrammaticality are the terms uniting three papers of Palacký University provenance, offering a deep insight into syntactic properties of English. Joseph Emonds analyses the “Unique Syntactic Behaviour” that distinguishes functional categories from lexical ones. Drawing attention to twelve English modals, the author identifies 66 unique behaviours, e.g. the modals’ appearance/non- My point is in the middle... appearance in polite tags, or their acceptance of past time adverbs. In her richly exemplified paper, Ludmila Veselovská provides a structural analysis of Wh-questions and comments on surprising parallels between English and Czech. A corpus-based study by Dorota Jagódzka and Kristina Smejová focuses on grammaticality and ungrammaticality of word order in English superlative adjective phrase. Various aspects of university training of EFL learners are addressed by three papers: Christoph Haase presents results of an experiment focusing on the learners’ lexical use in academic writing. The aim of the experiment was to analyse which factor primarily influences the learners’ word recognition. Drawing on the results, the author argues that tachistoscopic software used in the experiment can be utilised to boost the learners’ lexical skills. Two papers look closely into pre-service teacher training: whereas it is the importance of accentedness that is highlighted by Klára Lancová and Kristýna Červinková Poesová in their paper evaluating the self-report data obtained from Czech pre-service EFL teachers, Irena Reimannová’s attention is drawn to the teacher trainees’ knowledge of English grammar. She attempts to find a correlation between content-based linguistic instruction and the students’ communicative skills, namely their use of English. Another two papers bring forth the topical phenomena of language teaching and learning: Petra Poláková draws attention to incorporating mobile applications into language teaching, which she Kateřina Štěpánová considers as a crucial factor transforming traditional ways of teaching and learning, and Michael Diaz addresses adult EFL learning. The author points at the fact that the Czech population over the age of 40 lags substantially behind other countries of the EU in their knowledge of English, and he attempts to find a way to ameliorate the situation through Life Long Learning, giving specific examples of courses at CVUT. The literary and cultural studies section of the volume opens with two papers proposing a re- reading of two classic novels. Jiří Flajšar deliberates over the cause of the tragic fate of the main 12| protagonists of Richard Yates’s novel Revolutionary Road and argues that it is not predominantly the suburban environment that causes their downfall, but rather their “false search for identity”. The traditionally accepted reading of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey as a conventional satire of the Gothic fiction is challenged by Ema Jelínková and Šárka Dvořáková who highlight Austen’s fascination by the genre itself as well as by its potential. Humour and satire are also the topics of Judita Ondrušeková’s article. Drawing on psycholinguistic aspects of humour in general, she examines the way humour and satire function in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Series. Interdisciplinarity and intercultural bonds are what expand the horizons of our journal and what connects the studies of Radvan Markus, Nella Mlsová and Petra Johana Poncarová. Radvan
Recommended publications
  • The Influence of Scots, Especially of Robert Burns, on Danish Poets And
    41 The infl uence of Scots, especially of Robert Burns, on Danish poets and authors Torben Arboe Aarhus University Abstract The main theme of this paper is the Jutlandic poet and author Jeppe Aakjær’s translations of several poems by Robert Burns in the late 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. In addition, translations of Burns’ poems in the middle of the 20th century by another dialect-poet, Martin N. Hansen, are taken into account, as well as a translation of one of the longer poems by the author Hans Kirk. However, the inspiration from Scots already began in the early 19th century with the author St. St. Blicher. 1. Early inspiration around 1800: St. St. Blicher translating Ossian and Laidlaw During his years of study in Copenhagen, the Danish poet and author Steen Steensen Blicher (1782–1849) became very engaged in the Ossian epic poems. He certainly believed in the claim of James Macpherson (1736–1795) that, at remote places in Scotland, he had found the long stories of the Celtic past by the bard Ossian, and had published them in 1761 and 1763, although Samuel Johnson and others had raised serious doubts as to the originality of the poems, implying that Macpherson had written them himself. Blicher’s translation into Standard Danish in two volumes, fi rst published in 1807 and 1809 (Blicher 1920), was quite well acknowledged, and at the time he was called “Ossians heldige Oversætter” [Ossian’s skillful translator] (Nørvig 1943: 54). Stylistically, the poems may be described as a ‘conglomerate of the Bible, the Iliad and the Aeneid’ which corresponded to the image people at Macpherson’s time wanted to Ken Ramshøj Christensen, Henrik Jørgensen & Johanna L.
    [Show full text]
  • The Case of the Czech Language
    E-Leader Berlin 2012 Celebrating EUROMOSAIC vs. language policies: the case of the Czech language Božena Bedna říková Dept. of Czech Studies Faculty of Arts Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic and Universita degli Studi di Udine Dipartimento delle Lingue e Letterature Straniere Udine/I, Italy 1. The EU language policy and the European Commission Project EUROMOSAIC The EU has a positive policy towards regional and minority languages which is enshrined in Article 22 of the European Charter of Fundamental Rights. It states that “The Union respects cultural, religious and linguistic diversity ”. The European Commision has been providing several projects supporting regional and minority languages, one of them being the NETWORK PROMOTING THE LANGUAGE DIVERSITY. It is a pan-European Network which covers regional, minority, indigenous, cross-border and smaller national languages with the task to promote linguistic diversity in Europe. The main focus is providing information about and easy access to a large network of organisations that can share ideas, information and best practice regarding the promotion of less widely used languages. In 1992, wishing to take stock of the situation of the various language communities in Europe, the Commission initiated a study on minority language groups in the European Union. The purpose of the study, entitled "EUROMOSAIC" (later EROMOSAIC I), was not only to support the regional and minority languages, but also to find out about the different regional and minority languages in existence and to establish their potential for expanding, i. e. for their production and reproduction, and to examine the difficulties, the barriers and the challenges they could encounter in doing so.
    [Show full text]
  • Czech Language Programs and Czech As a Heritage Language in the United States
    Czech Language Programs and Czech as a Heritage Language in the United States Simone J. Hrouda, Portland State University, Oregon Introduction Czech language schools and Czech classes exist across the United States because of the efforts of Czech heritage language speakers to preserve the language spoken by their ancestors. These programs provide heritage speakers with the opportunity to further develop and maintain their Czech oral and written skills. Even though the language and culture are vital to the identity of individuals in states such as Nebraska, Texas, and Wisconsin, the importance of sustaining the language is not recognized on a national level. Czech is not considered a critical foreign language, and limited opportunities are available for language courses and scholarship programs. It is up to Czech heritage societies to keep Czech classes alive. Czech is a less commonly taught language (LCTL) in the United States, and locating Czech classes is difficult. However, these challenges and many others do not hinder Czech speakers from learning the Czech language. Though small, there is a Czech-speaking population made up of heritage, non-heritage, and native speakers who are making efforts to keep the Czech language alive. History of the Czech Language in the United States The largest immigration of Czechs to the United States took place between the years 1848 and 1914, when over 350,000 Czechs fled their homeland and established Czech communities across the United States (Thernstorm, 1981). Over time, language attrition and acculturation have led to loss of the Czech language within these communities (Dutkova-Cope, 2006; Eckert, 1987; Hannan, 2003; Vasek, 1996).
    [Show full text]
  • The Impact of the Illyrian Movement on the Croatian Lexicon
    Slavistische Beiträge ∙ Band 223 (eBook - Digi20-Retro) George Thomas The Impact of the Illyrian Movement on the Croatian Lexicon Verlag Otto Sagner München ∙ Berlin ∙ Washington D.C. Digitalisiert im Rahmen der Kooperation mit dem DFG-Projekt „Digi20“ der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek, München. OCR-Bearbeitung und Erstellung des eBooks durch den Verlag Otto Sagner: http://verlag.kubon-sagner.de © bei Verlag Otto Sagner. Eine Verwertung oder Weitergabe der Texte und Abbildungen, insbesondere durch Vervielfältigung, ist ohne vorherige schriftliche Genehmigung des Verlages unzulässig. «Verlag Otto Sagner» ist ein Imprint der Kubon & Sagner GmbH. George Thomas - 9783954792177 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/10/2019 04:08:27AM via free access 00050383 S lavistische B e it r ä g e BEGRÜNDET VON ALOIS SCHMAUS HERAUSGEGEBEN VON HEINRICH KUNSTMANN PETER REHDER • JOSEF SCHRENK REDAKTION PETER REHDER Band 223 VERLAG OTTO SAGNER MÜNCHEN George Thomas - 9783954792177 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/10/2019 04:08:27AM via free access 00050383 GEORGE THOMAS THE IMPACT OF THEJLLYRIAN MOVEMENT ON THE CROATIAN LEXICON VERLAG OTTO SAGNER • MÜNCHEN 1988 George Thomas - 9783954792177 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/10/2019 04:08:27AM via free access ( B*y«ftecne I Staatsbibliothek l Mönchen ISBN 3-87690-392-0 © Verlag Otto Sagner, München 1988 Abteilung der Firma Kubon & Sagner, GeorgeMünchen Thomas - 9783954792177 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/10/2019 04:08:27AM via free access 00050383 FOR MARGARET George Thomas - 9783954792177 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/10/2019 04:08:27AM via free access .11 ж ־ י* rs*!! № ri. ur George Thomas - 9783954792177 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/10/2019 04:08:27AM via free access 00050383 Preface My original intention was to write a book on caiques in Serbo-Croatian.
    [Show full text]
  • February 2005 Newsletter
    The AATSEEL AmericanN EWSLETTERAssociation of Teachers of Slavic & East European Languages Contents Message from the President ...............3 Letter from the Editor ...........................3 AATSEEL Awards .................................4 Special in This Issue: Russian at Work ....................................5 Recent Publications ..............................6 Technology and Language 2004 AATSEEL Awards Learning ...............................................7 Awards ....................................................7 Call for Papers for Member News .......................................8 Everything You Always Wanted to 2005 Annual Know about Grammar But Were Afraid to Ask ......................................9 Conference Summer Language Programs ............................................12 Psychology of Language Learning .............................................15 Graduate Student Forum ...................16 Czech Corner .......................................18 Ukrainian Issues .................................20 Call for Papers .....................................23 Belarusica .............................................27 Employment Opportunities ..............28 Professional Opportunities ...............29 Volume 48 Issue 1 February 2005 AATSEEL NEWSLETTER Vol. 48, Issue 1 February 2005 AATSEEL NEWSLETTER EDITORIAL STAFF AATSEEL POINTS OF CONTACT Editor: BETTY LOU LEAVER President: Assistant Editor: ANNA JACOBSON CATHARINE THEIMER NEPOMNYASHCHY Contributing Editors: VALERY BELYANIN Barnard College [email protected]
    [Show full text]
  • Eight Fragments Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian
    EIGHT FRAGMENTS FROM THE WORLD OF MONTENEGRIN LANGUAGES AND SERBIAN, CROATIAN, SERBIAN, CROATIAN, BOSNIAN SERBIAN, CROATIAN, BOSNIAN AND FROM THE WORLD OF MONTENEGRIN EIGHT FRAGMENTS LANGUAGES Pavel Krejčí PAVEL KREJČÍ PAVEL Masaryk University Brno 2018 EIGHT FRAGMENTS FROM THE WORLD OF SERBIAN, CROATIAN, BOSNIAN AND MONTENEGRIN LANGUAGES Selected South Slavonic Studies 1 Pavel Krejčí Masaryk University Brno 2018 All rights reserved. No part of this e-book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission of copyright administrator which can be contacted at Masaryk University Press, Žerotínovo náměstí 9, 601 77 Brno. Scientific reviewers: Ass. Prof. Boryan Yanev, Ph.D. (Plovdiv University “Paisii Hilendarski”) Roman Madecki, Ph.D. (Masaryk University, Brno) This book was written at Masaryk University as part of the project “Slavistika mezi generacemi: doktorská dílna” number MUNI/A/0956/2017 with the support of the Specific University Research Grant, as provided by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic in the year 2018. © 2018 Masarykova univerzita ISBN 978-80-210-8992-1 ISBN 978-80-210-8991-4 (paperback) CONTENT ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................. 5 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 7 CHAPTER 1 SOUTH SLAVONIC LANGUAGES (GENERAL OVERVIEW) ............................... 9 CHAPTER 2 SELECTED CZECH HANDBOOKS OF SERBO-CROATIAN
    [Show full text]
  • The Czech Language
    Diversity, communication and coexistence On a small mother tongue as a barrier to intercultural policies: the czech language Jakub Zouhar University of Hradec Králové, Czech Republic Abstract The essay will discuss the influence of a small language on intercultural policies in the Czech Republic. The Czech language as the only official language in the Czech Republic can definitely be ranked among small European languages since it numbers only over 11 million native speakers. There is no doubt that the fact must affect the way of thinking of the majority of Czech society. From any intercultural policy’s point of view, the impact on the society might be considered as adverse. It will be argued that the Czech society might face an uphill struggle to become international more significantly than other societies that are historically connected with different cultures across the world. The language, needless to say, plays a key role here. Despite the fact, the Czech society has after all an advantage of all similarly small language groups, i.e. nearly everyone is motivated to become multilingual. You live a new life for every new language you speak (Czech proverb) I It has already been said many times that globalisation is a complex and controversial concept. There is little agreement in the literature on what it is, whether it is or is not taking place, whether it is new or old, and if it is good or bad. The process of intensification of interconnectedness, however, does not come about without certain underlying socioeconomic conditions and policy mechanisms. Globalisation, thus, needs to be understood not merely in terms of greater interconnectedness or of creating a single global economic space but also in terms of the underlying context that has made it possible, as well as the institutional arrangements and policy instruments that serve as mechanisms for promoting it.
    [Show full text]
  • 89 Speech Accommodation by Moravians in Prague Jan Chromý
    SALI 2011/2 /9.1.2012 – SALI_2011_02_04.indd Recenze Speech accommodation by Moravians in Prague Jan Chromý Institute of Czech Language and Theory of Communication, Faculty of Arts, Charles Uni- versity in Prague [email protected] WILSON, James (2010): Moravians in Prague. A Sociolinguistic Study of Dialect Contact in the Czech Republic. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 267 p. ISBN 978-3-631-58694-5. Although sociolinguistics is a discipline of great interest to many linguistically oriented re- searchers in the world, there are still only few sociolinguists who are concerned with Czech. This could be ascribed to the development of Czech linguistics in the 20th century and its primary orientation on theoretical issues defined by the Prague Linguistic Circle in the 1920s and 1930s. A good illustration of this might be an article sub-title “Why is there no Czech sociolinguistics” (Starý, 1993) or several years older a statement “in principle there is no sociolinguistics in Czechoslovakia” (Nekvapil, 1986, p. 7). Nevertheless, in the 1990s and in the beginning of the 21st century, a group of younger linguists (e.g. Vít Dovalil, Tamah Sher- man and Marián Sloboda, or Martin Havlík), under the leadership of Jiří Nekvapil, emerged who changed this unfortunate situation. Their concerns are primarily based in interactional sociolinguistics and in language management – however, the present book by James Wilson is an exception since it is variationist in principle. To my knowledge, it is the first empirical study oriented on the Czech language situation which uses modern methods of variationist sociolinguistics. How do Moravians speak when they come to Prague? In his book, Wilson is concerned with the general issue if and how do Moravians (i.e.
    [Show full text]
  • Reading the Surface: the Danish Gothic of B.S. Ingemann, H.C
    Reading the Surface: The Danish Gothic of B.S. Ingemann, H.C. Andersen, Karen Blixen and Beyond Kirstine Marie Kastbjerg A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2013 Reading Committee: Marianne Stecher. Chair Jan Sjaavik Marshall Brown Program Authorized to Offer Degree: Scandinavian Studies ©Copyright 2013 Kirstine Marie Kastbjerg Parts of chapter 7 are reprinted by permission of the publishers from “The Aesthetics of Surface: the Danish Gothic 1820-2000,” in Gothic Topographies ed. P.M. Mehtonen and Matti Savolainen (Farnham: Ashgate, 2013), pp. 153–167. Copyright © 2013 University of Washington Abstract Reading the Surface: The Danish Gothic of B.S. Ingemann, H.C. Andersen, Karen Blixen and Beyond Kirstine Marie Kastbjerg Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Professor in Danish Studies Marianne Stecher Department of Scandinavian Studies Despite growing ubiquitous in both the popular and academic mind in recent years, the Gothic has, perhaps not surprisingly, yet to be examined within the notoriously realism-prone literary canon of Denmark. This dissertation fills that void by demonstrating an ongoing negotiation of Gothic conventions in select works by canonical Danish writers such as B.S. Ingemann, Hans Christian Andersen, and Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen), as well as contemporary writers such as Peter Høeg and Leonora Christina Skov. This examination does not only broaden our understanding of these culturally significant writers and the discourses they write within and against, it also adds to our understanding of the Gothic – an infamously malleable and indefinable literary mode – by redirecting attention to a central feature of the Gothic that has not received much critical attention: the emphasis on excess, spectacle, clichéd conventions, histrionic performances, its hyperbolic rhetorical style, and hyper-visual theatricality.
    [Show full text]
  • The Vicar of Wakefield (Oxford World's Classics)
    oxford world’s classics THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD Oliver Goldsmith was born in 1730(?), the second son of Charles Goldsmith, curate of the parish of Kilkenny West in West Meath in Ireland. In 1745 he was admitted to Trinity College Dublin. He quickly dissipated his savings by gambling, which was to become an abiding interest. After periods at the Universities of Edinburgh and Leyden he spent 1755–6 travelling in Europe, where he is reputed to have eked out a living by playing the flute and disputing doctrinal points at monasteries and universities. Before embarking on a writing career he worked in London as an apothecary’s assistant, a doctor, and a school usher. A combination of overwork, worry, and poor self-treatment hastened his death in 1774. Goldsmith’s ability and range as a professional writer were considerable. Best known perhaps for The Vicar of Wakefield, he was also the author of biographies, anthologies, translations, poems (The Traveller, 1764, and The Deserted Village, 1770), plays (She Stoops to Conquer, 1773), as well as numerous reviews and essays. Arthur Friedman is the late distinguished Professor of English at the University of Chicago and editor of Goldsmith’s Collected Works. Robert L. Mack is a lecturer in the School of English at the University of Exeter. He has previously taught at Princeton University and Vanderbilt University, and is the editor of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments and Oriental Tales for Oxford World’s Classics. His biog- raphy of the poet Thomas Gray was published by Yale University Press in 2000. oxford world’s classics For over 100 years Oxford World’s Classics have brought readers closer to the world’s great literature.
    [Show full text]
  • STEEN STEENSEN BLICHER and MACPHERSON's OSSIAN Harry D. Watson in The· Early 17,60S, According to One of His Biographers, "
    27 STEEN STEENSEN BLICHER AND MACPHERSON'S OSSIAN Harry D. Watson In the· early 17,60s, according to one of his biographers, "]ames Macpherson descended from his native hills and exploded a mine in the midst of Europe".l With his "Fragments of Ancient Poetry" (1760), "Fingal" (1762) and ~'Temora" (1763) - known collectively as "The Poems of:Ossian" - Macpherson ushered in a new era of European literature, and the roll-call of his early disciples is a resounding one. In Germany Goethe, Herder, Klopstock, Lessing, Schiller, Novalis, Burger an'cl Tieck were enthusiastic admirers; in France Chateaubriand! George Sand and Madame de Stael were equally smitten, and Lamartine wrote "The harp of Morven is the emble.m of my soul." Across the Atlantic" even the Bard of Manhattan, WaIt Whitman, was bitten by. the Ossianic bug, and J ames Fenimore Cooper's Indians spoke the language of Ossianic rheta·ric. Less well documented, at least in this country, is the decisive influence of Macphers0n's work on the literary career of his Danish trans­ lator, the Jutland clergyman Steen Steensen Blicher (1782­ 1848), "one of the best loved of Danish poets and a writer near to the heart of Denmark.,,2 In this article I should_like to examine several of Blicher's short stories, with a view to high­ lighting this influence and clarifying the indebtedness of a great Scan.dinavian writer to'his controversial Scottish predecessor. Blicher's early life seems to have been marked by unhappi­ ness and domestic tragedy. His mother succumbed' to mental illness when he was barely ten, and, as Johannes N~rvig explains: "....fra da af opfattede.han sin f{,Jrste Barndom.
    [Show full text]
  • A STUDY of Tihe VICAR of WAKEFIELD THESIS Presented to the Graduate Council of the North Texas State College in Partial Fulfillm
    10,0419 Nei p .l 31, A STUDY OF TiHE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD THESIS Presented to the Graduate Council of the North Texas State College in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS By Lynda Ruth Arthur, B. A. Denton, Texas August, 1960 TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. PLOT AND NARRATIVE TECHNIQUES . 1 II. CHARACTERIZATION 26 III. TH1EEU. ...... IV. STYLE . -" -"-.- - f- - - "-"- - - . 80 V. A RTROSPECT ....- *-.-.-*-.-.- -..... - 92 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........... ......... .. .. 97 111 CHAPTER I PLOT AND NARRATIVE TECHNIQUES For two centuries the plot and narrative techniques of Oliver Goldsmith' s Vicar of Wakefield have inspired copious critical commentary. Because Goldsmith utilized such sen- sational plot elements as kidnapping, protracted family misfortune, and deception of a virtuous girl by a villain, The Vicar gained immediate popularity with the reading public of the eighteenth century. Within six months following its publication in 1766, The Vicar went through three editions. So popular was this work during the nineteenth century that it averaged nearly two editions annually and was translated seven times into French and at least once into all the major European languages as well as Hungarian, Rumanian, Bohemian, Hebrew, and Icelandic. 1 Typical of late nineteenth-century reaction to this book is an anonymous reviewer's opinion that it lacked literary merit but deserved praise for its moral tendency.2 Current criticism, however, is more con- cerned with the artistic achievement of The Vicar than with 1 Ralph M. Wardle, Oliver Goldsmith (Lawrence, Kansas 1957), pp. 168-170. 'Robert Hopkins, "The Vicar of Wakefield, A Puzzler to the Critic," Notes andsueres, VTMarch, 199), 113-114.
    [Show full text]