Gaze in Flux

Written in the aftermath of the Great Exhibition of 1851, Villette represents Charlotte Brontë’s literary exploration of nineteenth-century glass culture and its significant impact on urban identity and perception. This essay examines how glass in urban spaces and consumer culture reshapes characters’ self-perception and their experience of city life. After briefly discussing Brontë’s lasting interest in urban themes and her visit to the Great Exhibition, I focus on scenes in Villette involving mirrors and windows. These scenes reveal Lucy’s fragmented sense of identity through her reflections and her desire to control and frame her visual experiences. Finally, I analyze the exotic scene in Chapter 38, “Cloud,” where a spectacle is imaginatively presented behind a pane of glass, reflecting the display principles of the Great Exhibition.Keywords: Villette, Charlotte Bronte¨, glass, mirrors, windows, the Great Exhibition, urban identity, spectacles

The newspapers were heaped up on a low bench, the kind pupils use in the private classes of eccentric schoolmarms. Damata sat reading placidly and without haste. Engrossed in the news, he didn’t notice the maids singing in the kitchen or the kids playing noisy games of hide-and-seek. Each time he sat forward to grab another paper his deck chair groaned like ship’s rigging. The noise was driving him mad. He was sick of telling Bia to get it seen to and she just retorting: “Man, that chair’s fine, Damata.” Such pig-headedness! They’d lived together for years, had a few kids – yet that stubborn way of hers was still an obstacle to their getting properly married. All the same, no good house in Mindelo closed its doors to her, for Nhô Damata was an upstanding man and had recognised their children.From his waistcoat pocket he removed a silver-edged snuffbox. With a sharp tap, he knocked the contents forward before taking a pinch between thumb and forefinger.Good stuff this. He took his snort...

Valter Hugo Mae tim je riječima u romanu opisao početak, zapravo nastavak potrage za smislom, iskazujući istinske emocije ljubavi, privrženosti i požrtvovnosti, baš kako i dolikuje majkama.Bog u tami (Deus na escuridao) posljednji je dio druge tetralogije Valtera Huga Maea, portugalskog književnika novije generacije, jednog od najznačajnijih portugalskih umjetnika 21. stoljeća. Svojom osebujnom poetikom ostavlja važan trag u razdoblju suvremene književnosti, koje istaknuta teoretičarka književnosti Ana Paula Arnault naziva hipersuvremenošću (hipercontemporaneidade).Ovaj četverodijelni ciklus obuhvaća romane svedene pod zajednički naziv „braća, otoci, odsustva”. U spomenutu tetralogiju spadaju romani Dehumanizacija (A Desumanizaçao) iz 2013. godine, zatim Beskrajno poetični ljudi (Homens Imprudentemente poéticos) iz 2015., Bolesti Brazila (As Doenças do Brasil) iz 2021. godine te posljednji o kojem pišemo, Bog u tami (Deus na Escuridao) objavljen 2024. godine.

Shannon Hale’s perhaps most famous work, Austenland (2007), is a romance novel centered on Jane Hayes, an Austen aficionado, dissatisfied with her love life. In an attempt to remedy this, she travels to a faux-Regency getaway destination, Austenland. An abundance of regulations and the behavior of Mrs. Wattlesbrook, the owner, create a strictly ruled society. This paper aims to analyze how Austenland’s Pembrook Park represents a society that monitors its subjects by using the concept of the panopticon. Drawing on the theories of Jeremy Bentham and Michel Foucault, the panopticon will be explained as a system in which subjects are under constant surveillance. The concept will then be applied to Hale’s novel to show why the characters abide by Mrs. Wattlesbrook’s rules even when she is not around, with only minor attempts at rebellion. Thus, the novel shows the effective use of a panoptic system in governing subjects in a given society.Keywords: Austenland, Shannon Hale, panopticon, popu...

Čitajući prvi hrvatski kriminalistički roman, Kneginja iz Petrinjske ulice Marije Jurić Zagorke, objavljen 1910., pomalo me začudilo to što je zagrebački policajac Šimek, koji u romanu istražuje umorstvo jedne gospođe, bio obožavatelj Sherlocka Holmesa. Jednog od najslavnijih svjetskih književnih detektiva nije teško obožavati pa nije me začudilo to. Začudila me činjenica da je Zagorka već 1910. čitala ili barem čula za Doyleova junaka, koji se u književnoj javnosti, i to u Velikoj Britaniji, pojavio tek dvadesetak godina ranije. Pritom nisam, dakako, sumnjao ni u Zagorkinu natprosječnu obaviještenost o aktualnim književnim fenomenima (i po mnogočemu drugom bila je ispred svih drugih) ni u njezin smisao za prepoznavanje onoga što čitatelji vole. Zanimalo me ustvari je li Zagorka za fikcionalnog britanskog detektiva čula ili je čitala o njemu u Hrvatskoj, ili možda u Mađarskoj ili Austriji, kamo je putovala, ili gdje drugdje. Pokušao sam stoga pronaći podatak jesu li Doyleova djela s Ho...

Moje pronicljivo oko ne slabi tijekom pregleda i sada pomno istražuje moguće simptome pothlađenosti na bezizražajnom licu žene koja čita. Što to čita? Oprostite, kažem napokon, puhnuvši tu riječ u bijeli šum. Žena ne pomiče nijedan mišić, ni milimetar njezina tijela ne grči se, čak ni ne trepće. Oprostite. Mogu li sjesti? Moje usne mehanički izbace te riječi – to je pitanje dio sklopa kojim hinim milosrđe i koji sama svakodnevno podmazujem uljem. Mogu li? Noge su mi olovne, koljena se koče, bole me zglobovi, zapešća, a najviše kvrgavi nožni palci. No ženu to ne dira i na tren pomislim: da uistinu želim sjesti, mogla bih to učiniti; ova je klupa javno dobro, to jest, moja koliko i njezina. U tom slučaju, moja je molba blesava: mogla bih sjesti, no ne želim niti bih trebala sjesti – snijeg na klupi smočio bi mi bijelu suknju, bijele hulahopke, gaćice i mlohavu kožu dupeta. Da sjednem, smočila bih se, osjetila bih hladnoću poput vrele plahte koja mi prlji guzu. No tražila sam da sjednem, ...