Bewilderments of Vision: Hallucination and Literature, 1880-1914 - Softcover

Tearle, Oliver

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1845196775 ISBN 13: 9781845196776

Publisher: Liverpool University Press, 2014

Synopsis

According to Oscar Wilde, the primary aim of the critic is to see the object as in itself it really is not. Through a series of close and often unusual readings, this book endeavours to develop Wildes remark into a detailed and creative theory of reading. Or perhaps that should be misreading: for, as this experimental work of criticism negotiates its way among the works of a number of late-nineteenth-century writers, particularly Robert Louis Stevenson and Wilde himself, Tearle uncovers some of the ways in which we as readers are prone to hallucinations while reading about, of all things, the experience of hallucination. Focusing in detail on a series of neologisms from writing of the period, such as 'handconscience', 'figmentary', and 'aftersense', and moving between a number of disciplines including literature, criticism, science, psychoanalysis, and even linguistics, Bewilderments of Vision endeavours to answer a number of questions, ranging from the urgent to the downright bizarre: What is the link between hallucination and social conscience in writing of the late-nineteenth century? Is there such a thing as textual hallucination? Why does the author of this book see a 'snake' that is not there when he 'reads' Jekyll and Hyde?

About this title

Review

"... it illuminates the relationship between the pioneers of psychical research as they grappled with issues of veridicality and hallucination in attempting to tease out the complexities of our understanding of life after death, and the writers who drew on the SPRs publications as a resource." - Tom Ruffles, Society for Psychical Research

About the Author

Oliver Tearle is a research student at Loughborough University. He has been published in such journals as Notes and Queries and the Modern Language Review, and has contributed to the online Literary Encyclopedia. Future projects include the co-editing (with John Schad) of a volume of creative-critical essays as part of the Critical Inventions series published by Sussex Academic Press (full details of the series available on the Press website).

About this edition

• Publisher: Liverpool University Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1845196775
• ISBN 13: 9781845196776
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224