Non-normative Victorians : Ian McGuire's The North Water as a neo-Victorian novel

Název: Non-normative Victorians : Ian McGuire's The North Water as a neo-Victorian novel
Zdrojový dokument: Brno studies in English. 2020, roč. 46, č. 2, s. 103-118
Rozsah
103-118
  • ISSN
    0524-6881 (print)
    1805-0867 (online)
Type: Článek
Jazyk
CHALUPSKÝ, Petr. Non-normative Victorians: Ian McGuire's The North Water as a neo-Victorian novel. Online. Brno studies in English. 2020, roč. 46, č. 2, s. 103-118. ISSN 0524-6881 (print). Dostupné z: https://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/143209. [cit. 2024-12-27].

Upozornění: Tyto citace jsou generovány automaticky. Nemusí být zcela správně podle citačních pravidel.

Abstrakt(y)
Although its roots go back to the 1960s, neo-Victorian fiction has particularly flourished over the past three decades. Naturally, the emerging genre has undergone some development in terms of its delineation. The original, restrictive definition of this fiction as one reflecting the Victorian narrative style and canonical texts, rendering real-life personalities of that age and its crucial socio-cultural issues, gradually gave way to a broader definition which stresses an alternative, non-normative (re)presentation and (re)vision of the Victorian era and also looks for connections and continuities between the period and the contemporary world. This broadening of the genre's scope opened it up to new, enriching contributions which have helped to fuel its internal dynamism. One such novel is Ian McGuire's The North Water (2016), the story of an ultimate conflict between good and evil on a background of the declining Victorian whaling industry. This paper attempts to show that the novel can be taken as a resourceful example of neo-Victorian fiction as it provides an unorthodox and authentic insight into the undersides of Victorian England in the form of the whalers' milieu, including their coarse speech, manners and values; and also, through the Conradian and Levinasian ethical queries and dilemmas of the main protagonist, the ship's surgeon Patrick Sumner, it effectively and inspiringly addresses concerns that are still topical for present-day readers.
Reference
[1] Arias, Rosario and Pulham, Patricia (2009) Introduction. In: Arias, Rosario and Pulham, Patricia (eds.) Haunting and Spectrality in Neo-Victorian Fiction: Possessing the Past. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, xi-xxvi.

[2] Burstein, Miriam Elizabeth (2006) Rules for Writing Neo-Victorian Novels. The Little Professor: Things Victorian and academic. 15 March 2006. Accessed on 29 June 2019. https://littleprofessor.typepad.com/the_little_professor/2006/03/rules_for_writi.html

[3] Cartwright, Justin (2017) The North Water by Ian McGuire review – a shocking evocation. The Guardian, February 5, 2017. Accessed on 15 April 2019. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/feb/05/the-north-water-ian-mcguire-review

[4] Chalupský, Petr (2019) The Devil Inside that Won't Be Caged in or Fixed by Words: Fluidity and Ethics in Ian McGuire's The North Water. Ars Aeterna, in print.

[5] Chapman, Raymond (1986) The Sense of the Past in Victorian Literature. London: Croom Helm.

[6] Dunmore, Helen (2016) The North Water by Ian McGuire review – a voyage into the heart of darkness. The Guardian, February 19, 2016. Accessed on 15 April 2019. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/feb/19/the-north-water-ian-mcguire-review

[7] Evans, David (2016) Ian McGuire, The North Water: Subtle as a harpoon in the head, but totally gripping, book review. The Independent, February 9, 2016. Accessed on 15 April 2019. https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/ianmcguire-the-north-water-subtle-as-a-harpoon-in-the-head-but-totally-gripping-book-review-a6856011.html

[8] Faber, Michel ([2002] 2011) The Crimson Petal and the White. Edinburgh: Canongate.

[9] Forbes, Malcolm (2017) The North Water review. The Financial Times, February 5, 2017. Accessed on 26 April 2019. https://www.ft.com/content/3d37ccfc-c68c-11e5-b3b1-7b2481276e45

[10] Gibson, Andrew (1996) Towards a postmodern theory of narrative. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

[11] Guerard, Albert J. (1958) Conrad the Novelist. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

[12] Gutleben, Christian (2001) Nostalgic Postmodernism: The Victorian Tradition and the Contemporary British Novel. Amsterdam – New York: Rodopi.

[13] Gutleben, Christian and Wolfreys, Julian (2010) Postmodernism Revisited: The Ethical Drive of Postmodern Trauma in Neo-Victorian Fiction. In: Kohlke, Marie-Luise and Gutleben, Christian (eds.) Neo-Victorian Tropes of Trauma: The Politics of Bearing After-Witness to Nineteenth-Century Suffering. Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, 37–72.

[14] Hadley, Louisa (2010) Neo-Victorian Fiction and Historical Narrative: The Victorians and Us. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

[15] Heilmann, Ann, and Llewellyn, Mark (2010) Neo-Victorianism: The Victorians in the Twenty-First Century, 1999-2009. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

[16] Historia Editor (2017) Historia Interviews: Ian McGuire. March 11, 2017. Accessed on 15 April 2019. http://www.historiamag.com/historia-interviews-ian-mcguire.

[17] Hunt, Drew (n.d.) Ian McGuire: Questions & Answers. Foyles.co.uk. Accessed on 3 May 2019. https://www.foyles.co.uk/Ian-McGuire

[18] Kaplan, Cora (2007) Victoriana: Histories, Fictions, Criticism. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

[19] Kohlke, Marie-Luise (2008) Introduction: Speculations in and on the Neo-Victorian Encounter. Neo-Victorian Studies 1(1), 1–18. Accessed on 29 June 2019. http://www.neovictorianstudies.com/past_issues/Autumn2008/NVS%201-1%20M-Kohlke.pdf

[20] Kohlke, Marie-Luise, and Gutleben, Christian (2010) Introduction: Bearing After-Witness to the Nineteenth Century. In: Kohlke, Marie-Luise and Gutleben, Christian (eds.) Neo-Victorian Tropes of Trauma: The Politics of Bearing After-Witness to Nineteenth-Century Suffering. Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, 1–34.

[21] Kohlke, Marie-Luise, and Gutleben, Christian (2011) Introducing Neo-Victorian Family Matters: Cultural Capital and Reproduction. In: Kohlke, Marie-Luise and Gutleben, Christian (eds.) Neo-Victorian Families: Gender, Sexual and Cultural Politics. Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, 1–42.

[22] McGuire, Ian (2016) The North Water. London: Scribner.

[23] Mitchell, Kate (2010) History and Cultural Memory in Neo-Victorian Fiction: Victorian Afterimages. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

[24] O'Donnell, Paraic (2016) The North Water by Ian McGuire review: the elements of style. The Irish Times, February 13, 2016. Accessed on 5 April 2019. https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/the-north-water-by-ian-mcguire-review-the-elements-of-style-1.2532589

[25] Paulson, Ronald (2007) Sin and Evil. New Haven: Yale University Press.

[26] Rigsby, Joshua (2016) The North Water: A Blood-Drenched Tale of Arctic Whalers. The Los Angeles Review of Books, May 3, 2016. Accessed on 10 April 2019. https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-north-water-a-blood-drenched-tale-of-arctic-whalers/#!

[27] RNZ (2017) A wild, dark whaling tale. Rnz.co.nz, March 11, 2017. Accessed on 6 May 2019. https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/201836266/a-wilddark-whaling-tale

[28] Steger, Jason (2017) How Ian McGuire wrote his acclaimed novel of a whaling ship full of dark deeds. The Sunday Morning Herald, February 9, 2017. Accessed on 6 May 2019. https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/how-ian-mcguire-wrote-his-acclaimednovel-of-a-whaling-ship-full-of-dark-deeds-20170209-gu98pc.html

[29] Sweet, Matthew (2001) Inventing the Victorians. London: Faber and Faber.

[30] Tóibín, Colm (2016) The North Water review. The New York Times, April 11, 2016. Accessed on 10 April 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/17/books/review/the-north-water-by-ian-mcguire.html

[31] Tomaiuolo, Saverio (2018) Deviance in Neo-Victorian Culture: Canon, Transgression, Innovation. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.