2013.6 Journal of Literature and Art Studies

Journal of Literature and Art Studies
Volume 3, Number 6, June 2013 (Serial Number 19)
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Journal of Literature and Art Studies

Volume 3, Number 6, June 2013 (Serial Number 19)
Contents
Literature Studies
The Winters Tale by Shakespeare and the Confucian Values QIAN Zhi-fu, HAN Li-li Supernatural Elements in Kiplings The Mark on the Beast, Conan Doyles Lot No. 249, and Wells The Truth About Peycraft: The Gothic Short Story as Voicing and Exorcising Late Victorian Crisis Marcella Romeo Against Orthodoxy: Sex, Marriage, and Gender Roles in George Merediths Poems and Novels Anna Enrichetta Soccio 355 344 333
Art Studies
Artistic Practices [Between] Gender and Technologies Maia Creus Castellana Design Principles of External Lighting for Architectural Objects Batova Anastasia Major and Minor Harmonic Keys: The Discrepancy in Chord Classification Under a Computational Tonality Analytical Method Miroslaw Majchrzak Beasts of the Devil, Perishables, and the Natura Morta Gregory Chan 391 381 375 363
Journal of Literature and Art Studies, ISSN 2159-5836 June 2013, Vol. 3, No. 6, 333-343
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PUBLISHING
The Winters Tale by Shakespeare and the Confucian Values

QIAN Zhi-fu, HAN Li-li
Ningbo University, Ningbo, China
Through comparison, this paper finds out that William Shakespeare (1564-1616), the most popular and widely respected writer in all English literatures and a great dramatist and humanist in the English Renaissance period, coincides in speaking highly of love, loyalty, intelligence, harmony, integrity, righteousness, friendship, and so on with Chinese Confucian valuesthe most precious treasure of Chinese traditional culture reflected in the Three Cardinal Guides and the Five Constant Virtues used by Chinese people in maintaining the stability and harmony of the whole nation and societythrough vivid interpretation of human ethical relations in many of his works. At present, the world comparative literature studies have entered the third stage in the circumstance of globalization and internationalization, this finding is with paramount significance in construction of the mechanism of mutual recognition, mutual justification, mutual supplementation and mutual appreciation of heterogeneous cultures. This study, taking The Winters Tale (1623) as a case, is about universality, unity, and shared values of the Confucianism and Shakespeares plays in the perspective of the coexistence of multiple cultures. This paper is with four parts: (1) mechanism of mutual understanding, mutual justification, mutual supplementation, and mutual appreciation introduced in the first part; (2) the Confucian values addressed in details in the second part; (3) the third part is a case study; and (4) the last part shows how the Chinese and Western literatures and cultures can be understood, assisted, communicated, and appreciated with each other by the way of comparing the great works of Shakespeare and the Confucian values featured with universalism to a certain extent. Keywords: four-mutuals, the Confucian values, Three Cardinal Guides and Five Constant Virtues, The Winters Tale
Introduction
It is YUE Dai-yun (2005) who came forward with the conception of the third stage in the developing process of the world comparative literature studies. She said:
If the first stage of the developing process of world comparative literature studies occurred mainly in France, and the second stage occurred mainly in the United States, then, in the circumstance of globalization and internationalization today, it has incontestably entered the third stage. (YUE, 2005, p. 170)
YUE (2005) insisted that, when it comes to the third stage, world comparative literature studies must be crosscultural or interdisciplinary as well as literary studies. Scholar YUE (2005) said: The history and the current conditions of Chinese comparative literature study has proved that Chinese comparative study is the
QIAN Zhi-fu, associate professor, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Ningbo University. HAN Li-li, master, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Ningbo University.
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THE WINTERS TALE BY SHAKESPEARE AND THE CONFUCIAN VALUES
main reflection of comparative literature study in the third stage after France and the United States (p. 170). Chinese comparative literature study has prospered greatly and given significant influences to the world comparative literature studies in the years after Chinas reform and opening up to the outside world since 1978. Scholar YUE believed that:
Chinas comparative literature study is neither something that came into being all by itself, or something borrowed from abroad; instead, it grows on its own soil and embodies the features of the third stage of the worlds comparative literature studies. (as cited in ZOU, 2008, p. 3)
The world has been globalized and internationalized extensively with serious consequences such as the contradictions and conflicts between the peaceful co-existence and cultural imperialism, cultural hegemony and cultural fundamentalism, therefore, people in different cultural systems need to understand and communicate with each other effectively. The main role of literature is to study the human nature of people, therefore, it is extremely important to have the world comparative literature play the significant role of it in order to solve problems that human beings have met in the age of globalization and internationalization. Scholar YUE (2005) held that the functions and goals of world comparative literature studies of the third stage is to achieve the mutual recognition, mutual justification and mutual supplementation among literatures of different cultural systems (p. 170). According to scholar YUE, the mutual recognition refers to mutual understandings produced by interactions. It is a truth that once we understand others quite well, we can understand ourselves quite well as well. So does literature, if it is enclosed into a certain national cultural system, it would be less likely to break the original modes of thinking and accept new things. Therefore, it is important for different literatures to understand and interpret each other. Mutual justification refers to seeking common grounds and justifying different cultural elements in order to promote further and better understanding and communication. Besides, mutual supplementation refers to one kind of literature learning from other kind of literature and vice versa in order to gain strong points from others to make up their own deficiencies and pursue new progresses. This conception of three-mutuals is the essence of scholar YUEs theory on comparative literature study. The authors in this paper consider mutual appreciation as an important function and goal of comparative literature study in the third stage. The authors (2008) stated that: The history has proved that the establishment of mutual appreciation mechanism is good for the creation of humans civilization. For example, materially, the Ancient Roman Empire and the Ancient Chinese Dynasties appreciated and admired each other, so the prosperous Silk Road was founded, and both the Chinese and Western civilization were greatly promoted; culturally, Western civilization benefited much from appreciating and admiring the excellent Chinese civilization, also the Chinese civilization especially the modern one recognizes and makes most of the creams of the Western modern civilization, so the great innovation and transformation of the Chinese modern culture is gained. The authors insist that it is not enough just to create the mechanism of mutual recognition, mutual justification, and mutual supplementation in comparative literature studies. Only when we appreciate the quint-essence of each other, can we go forward. Actually, many Chinese literati are influenced by the foreign literatures and scholars from other countries. It is worth noting that Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) and Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), the two prominent representatives of American Transcendentalism, admired Chinese culture very much and thought that the Confucianism is consistent with their own outlooks on life. There is still another
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example, Ezra Pound, his theory on imagism is influenced by Chinese classic poems and culture deeply. ZHU (2008) said that Ezra Pound is the disciple of the Confucianism and the admirer of Chinese classic poems. His thoughts on morality, ethical values, peace and personal relationship of the Confucianism take an active part in his literary theories and poetry creations (p. 75). As a matter of fact, the conception of four-mutuals contains the meaning of each other and equality, and this is an attitude that researchers should take towards world comparative literature studies. However, whether by the way of influence study or parallel study, researchers are always apt to attach too much importance to one side and neglect the other one (as cited in KE & DUSHI, 2011). It is useful and effective for researchers to study comparative literature based on the mechanism of four-mutuals: mutual recognition, mutual justification, mutual supplementation, and mutual appreciation.
The Confucian Values

Being the most ancient, profound, and influential school of thought of China, Confucianism has undergone ups and downs or twists and turns throughout the remote and everlasting Chinese history. Confucianism has been the most powerful influence shaping the Chinese culture and the conceptions of Chinese people for thousands of years (as cited in Lu, Gilmour, & Kao, 2001, p. 479), it is not a religion but plays a religious role in Chinese culture and society; it is the beginning and center of Chinese culture and value system. To some degree, Confucianism is almost synonymous with traditional Chinese civilization (as cited in TANG, 1995, p. 270). Confucianism refers to a philosophy considering proper behaviors and human relationships in society (Tamai & Lee, 2002). It is originated as an ethical-sociopolitical teaching created by Confucius (551 B.C.-479 B.C.), a prominent scholar during the Spring and Autumn Period (770 B.C.-256 B.C.). Later, Confucianism became full-fledged in HAN Dynasty (202 B.C.-220 A.D.) by DONG Zhong-shu (179 B.C.-104 B.C.), a Chinese intellectual studying Confucianism. During the long feudal society period, Confucianism was a main guiding doctrine and perpetuated as the state principle for leaders to rule over the country. Besides:
The Confucianism takes the ethics and morality as its essences, attaches importance to the study of humans ethical personality, and holds that people is an ethical subject who can maintain the life of a social community and requires all human beings to engage in the improvement of moral personality so that a stable society which considers moral ideality as its principle and moral relationship as an adjustment lever. This kind of selfish departmentalism, prefer righteousness than interests and advocates inner lofty, has profound influence on the fashion of Chinese moral personality. (YU, 2002, p. 61)
LIANG (1989) said that the Chinese society is a society with ethics as its standards. As a guiding thought in Chinese feudal society, Confucianism is a philosophy which deals with human relations. Its emphasis is on ethics, i.e., the moral principles a person (who is usually surrounded by various personal relations) must follow (as cited in TANG, 1995, p. 270), the Three Cardinal Guides (Sangang ) and the Five Constant Virtues (Wuchang ) form the cores of Confucianism. The Three Cardinal Guides include: Ruler guides the subjects, father guides the sons, and the husband guides the wife; the Five Constant Virtues refers to benevolence (ren ), righteousness (yi ), propriety (li ), wisdom (zhi ), and faithfulness (xin ). The Five Constant Virtues are five ethical standards used to handle the five basic human relations between rulers and subjects, fathers and sons, husbands and wives, elders and youngers, and friends and friends. All these
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relationships involve a set of defined roles and mutual obligations. Each individual should conform to his or her proper role and act properly to perfect the society (as cited in a secondary source in J. WANG, G. G. WANG, Ruona, and Rojewski, 2005, p. 314). Throughout history, this whole set of Confucian values has affected Chinese history profoundly. Confucius is the first person who came forward with the conception that a king should behave like a king, a subject like a subject, a father like a father, and a son like a son (, ) and use rules of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and faithfulness to regulate different interpersonal relationships. He contended that kings, fathers, husbands and subjects, sons, and wives should take on their own moral responsibilities, that is to say, ruler must be courteous to his subjects and the subjects must be loyal to his ruler; the parents must be kind to his children and the children must be filial to their parents. Mencius (372 B.C.-289 B.C.) further explained them as follows: there should be affection between fathers and sons, affiliation between kings and courtiers, distinction between husbands and wifes, order between seniors and juniors, and trust among friends (, , , , ). In HAN dynasty, in order to better rule the country, to maintain the social order, and to set a standard for social ethics relations, DONG elaborated the concept more concretely and developed it into the Three Cardinal Guides and the Five Constant Virtues in his book of Annals of Fanlu (). The combination of the Three Cardinal Guides and the Five Constant Virtues forms a neatly integrative moral system which covers all social ethical relations. It is considered that the idea helps coordinate the interpersonal relationships of the power disparity of the feudal society and construct required communication orders, which is the precondition for good interpersonal relationship and the foundation that the feudal country realizes its long time governing. In light of DONG Zhong-shu, the Three Cardinal Guides (Sangang ) implicates that people should do things with the consideration of the whole conditions, and subordinate ones personal interests to those of the collective. The relationships between ruler and subject, father and children, husband and wife are emphasized and the roles played by the ruler, father and husband are particularly stressed. With its emphasis on exemplary teaching and mutual responsibility, the Confucian ideology, also required that the ruler lives up to the ideal of kinship, that the father lives up to the idea of fatherhood (as cited in TU, 1993, p. 27). The ruler will do his best to manage the whole city, the father will set an example for his children and the husband will build a happy family with his wife. The relationship between the ruler and the subject can be interpreted as follows: The king rules the country and he needs his subjects help to ensure the states safety and social stability. The perfect performance is that the king takes his subjects as his brothers and gives his trusts to them, and the subjects take the king as the one they should be loyal to. The subjects have to expostulate him when the king makes a mistake, if he was so blind to their advice that leads to the country in the unstable situation and the people are unsatisfied with him, the subjects could dispose him. Therefore, the king and the subjects must be careful and have a harmonious and well cooperation. Father has the responsibility to bring up the children and cultivate them with the best qualities. For children, they have to follow his fathers correct decisions, filial piety is considered to be their primary duty when they grow up. Confucius pointed out that filial piety does not mean blind obedience or compliance to parental demands. In serving your father and mother you ought to dissuade them from doing wrong in a gentle way. If you see your advice being ignored, you should not be disobedient, but remain reverent (Confucius, 482 B.C., p. 33). Husband is the symbolic head of the household and he holds the authority to
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represent the family, to speak and act on behalf of the family, but not against the family. Besides, the Confucian values stress that a good husband makes a good wife. Husband has no rights to command his wife that cannot command himself. If the husband is heartless, there is no need for her to follow her husbands decisions. The relationship between husband and wife is the most basic ethical relation among all human relations, and it has a direct influence on the harmony of the family and the stability of the society. In addition, Confucianism focuses on the cultivation of virtues and maintenance of ethics to build harmonious ties between brothers, friends, and other human relations. DONG insisted that human beings should behave themselves in the guide of the Five Constant Virtues which is taken as the basic ethical rules to handle all kinds of social relationships appropriately and to maintain the social stability. Firstly, benevolence is the first and most important virtue among the Five Constant Virtues and it is essentially interpersonal and altruistic. It manifests itself in the inner mind in love and compassion for people and in avoiding harm or envy toward anyone.
Confucius outlined three relevant aspects of kindheartedness. Firstly, it consists in loving others; secondly, the man of jen is one who, desiring to sustain himself, sustains others, and desiring to develop himself, develops others. Thirdly, you should not do to others, what you do not wish upon yourself. (Kim & Park, 1862, pp. 231, 233)
On the other hand, Confucianism holds that benevolence has a political dimension.
Society is seen as an extension of the family. Like a father, an ideal ruler is a person who utilizes his authority for the welfare and benefit of the people and not for his own self-interests. A ruler, like a father, must be governed by virtues of both rightness and kindheartedness. If a ruler was considered totalitarian or tyrannical, he would lose the moral basis to rule and people would be justified in revolting against him. (as cited in a secondary source in Kim & Park, 1862, p. 233)
Secondly, righteousness, means integrity, it refers to all moralities and justices with maintaining social orders as its functions. What a righteous man should be like? Mencius (293 B.C.) said: Neither riches nor honors can corrupt him; neither poverty nor lowly condition can make him swerve from principle; neither threats nor force can bend him (p. 40). Thirdly, it is worth noting that the concept of propriety has developed special meanings in Confucianism: It refers to the the acts of everyday life as well as decrees and regulations, and culturally, the moral expression of the order and it contains a set of principles need to be conformed. The norms of propriety can ease the contradictions between social stratum. For a ruler, if he can behave himself, he will not be indulged in sensual pleasures without limit; for common people, if he conform to the standard of propriety, he will not defy his superiors and start a rebellion; and for an individual, if he is polite, it is possible for him to be a benevolent and righteous man. Fourthly, wisdom refers to knowledge, opinion, and intelligence that helps judge right and wrong, good, and evil. Confucian ethics does not distinguish between intellectual and moral virtues, so Confucian wisdom represents a fusion of practice and theory by an integrated heart mind (as cited in Gier, 2001, p. 288). Finally, faithfulness is an attitude towards others and it refers to matches between deeds and words. In a word, the Five Constant Virtues of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and faithfulness are the basic qualities of human beings to develop a harmonious world, country, society, and family. The Confucianism was an orthodox ideological system in feudal China, it was criticized by some people during the period of the New Culture Movement (around the May 4th Movement in 1919) and Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). A fierce criticism on Confucianism was launched, and fight down Confucians was a fashionable slogan. Some scholars even demonized Confucianism as a devil. After the May 4th Movement, the
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criticism on Confucius continued, during cultural revolution, the Confucianism had no prestige in society, some people thought it has no merits and lost all confidence it. But today, Chinese can treat it justly. LONG (2005) argued that:
The Confucian values aim at building a perfect society filled with kindness and happiness. Maybe in this society, there are differences in ranks but people are tolerant and kind, they live together peacefully. Everyone has his own rights and responsibility. Politically and economically, the higher ranks are not imperious and despotic and are sympathetic with the lower ranks. (p. 377)
The Three Cardinal Guides and the Five Constant Virtues are the core of the Confucian values throughout Chinese history.
The core value of the Confucianism affirms firmly the mans value and advocates that men should do things by complying with his own nature to meet his ambition appropriately, and since the people are the foundation of the country, so in order to meet he aspirations of the people, the king should apply a policy of benevolence and morality to rule the country people. (as cited in LONG, 2005, p. 378)
Especially, as for the Five Constant Virtues:

They are what Confucians ask people to follow, whether he is king or common person in contemporary society, these five virtues are not only still valid, but also are even more acutely needed. Similarly, I believe that the five basically reciprocal relationships (Wulun ), those between ruler and minister, father and son, husband and wife, older and younger brothers, and friend and friend, are also still valid. (as cited in TU, 1996, p. 22)
Moreover, the Confucian values are suitable and widely accepted by other peoples such as Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, and so on in the world history. It is worth noting that the thought of humanity takes the doctrine of loyalty and consideration for others as its principle. Therefore:
The core values of the Confucianism are featured with universalism instead of outdatedness. Humanity, harmony, sincerity and taking a mean course are gradually accepted by all men in the world, besides, they are performing the function of improving the social morality and civilizing human being in the process of globalization and modernization. (WU, 2005, pp. 66-67)
Coincidence of the Confucian Values With Shakespeares Works

As the authors have above discussed in the paper that the main function of the comparative literature study is to realize mutual recognition, mutual justification, mutual supplementation, and mutual appreciation as well as perform the literatures glamors when it has developed into the third stage. The Confucian values, namely the Three Cardinal Guides and the Five Constant Virtues, still have positive significances on human beings today. The Three Cardinal Guides stress much on properly handling the relationships between ruler and subject, father and children and husband and wife while the Five Constant Virtues is a principle to guide human beings morals and acts. The authors found out that the Confucian values are consistent with the views of Shakespeare (1564-1616), in almost all his works. Shakespeare constructed and interpreted everything in his works on the relationships between ruler and subject, father and children, husband and wife, sisters and brothers as well as friends. In fact, the themes of Shakespeares many works happened to agree with Chinese Confucian values. What impressed on readers most is that in Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark (1602), a great tragedy, Hamlets father was murdered and his throne and woman was usurped by his evil uncle Claudius. Hamlets father is a good father and
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a good king, Hamlet is a good son and a good prince, he revenged Claudius for his father and he sacrificed himself. This famous drama totally agrees with the Confucian values, namely the Three Cardinal Guides and the Five Constant Virtues. According to the Confucian values, the king must be a good king and he effectively rules his subjects and people in his kingdom, he is not allowed to be cruel with his subjects and people. The subjects and people should obey the kings leadership when he does everything well. In Hamlet, as a subject, the vicious Claudius robs the kings power instead of obeying his rule and it leads to the unstable of Denmark and his own tragic ending. What Shakespeare wants to tell us is that only when the relationship between the king and his subjects is well coped with, is it possible to build a safe kingdom. In King Lear (1605), something wrong happened between father King Lear and his children. According to the Confucian values, the father must be good enough to his children and wise enough to judge the intentions of his children. King Lear, as a father of three daughters, is good enough but not wise enough. He is unaware of his two older daughterss deception and gives away his kingdom to the dishonest ones but nothing to the youngest daughter who is sincere to him. Finally, King Lear is discarded and ends in death on the wilderness. Through King Lear, Shakespeare advocated that it is a nice moral and ethical responsibility to treat parents with filial respect (as cited in WANG, 2006, p. 25), this is something coincided with the concept of filial piety of Confucian values. According to the Confucian values:
Showing filial respect for parents is the ultimate source of ethic and the general principle of morality the thoughts on promoting filial piety, respecting the elders and loving the younger ones, from a harmonious family to harmonious society, should be inherited to improve modern peoples moral and ethical qualities. (as cited in WANG, 2006, p. 25)
In Macbeth (1605), something wrong happened between husband and wife. Macbeth was a powerful and righteous general, but stepped into the abyss of power-hunting and resulted in a tragic end after being affected and stirred up by his wifes ambitions. In The Merchant of Venice (1597), the sincerity between friends shows its great charm and the wisdom of Portia impressed us deeply. In other dramas by Shakespeare, readers can also find coincidence of the Three Cardinal Guides and the Five Constant Virtues with the basic moral principles and themes of Shakespeares works.
A Case Study: The Winters Tale (1623) by Shakespeare

Now the authors will take The Winters Tale by Shakespeare as a case study to explore the features, main functions and goals of the comparative literature study at the third stage, and the Confucian values embodied in it will be analyzed detailedly. As a masterpiece and legendary work of Shakespeare, The Winters Tale tells us a story penetrated with benevolence, love, friendship, jealousy, and regret. It can be divided into three parts. The first part takes place in Leontes palace in a winter of Sicilia. The king, Leontes of Sicilia enjoys his friendship and a nine month stay with his childhood friend and classmate, Polixenes, King of Bohemia and begs his longer stay in Sicilia. Polixenes refuses at first but agrees to stay when Leontes pregnant and beautiful wife, Hermione, pleads with him. Leontes becomes possessed with jealousy, because he thinks Polixenes might have immoral relationship with Hermione. The king goes mad and forces his subject, a wise and loyal man, Camillo to poison Polixenes to death. Camillo, a man of strong sympathy and high righteousness, helps Polixenes flee away with him from Sicilia. Furious at their escape, Leontes publicly accuses his wife of infidelity, and declares that the child she is bearing must be illegitimate. His extreme jealousy and the lust of blood results in disasters. He prisons his wife.
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When the queens loyal and brave friend Paulina brings their newly born baby-daughter to him, not only he does not soften his heart at the sight of the child, but also he grows even more angry and orders his loyal Lord Antigonus, husband of Paulina, abandon the child in a desolate place. Antigonus died and the baby daughter abandoned. The public trial of Hermione is humiliating, the Oracle read out before the court states categorically that Hermione and Polixenes are innocent. Leontes wastes lot of precious time against Hermione and his son Mamillius died too. Hermione, meanwhile, falls in a swoon, and is carried away by Paulina, who subsequently reports the queens death to her heartbroken and repentant husband. When Leontes hears these news, he regrets at last, and vows to spend the rest of days atoning for the loss of his son and his queen. Antigonus names the baby Perdita and puts her in the cradle at the seashore before his death, and a kindly old shepherd takes Perdita home and brings her up with his son for the next 16 years. Then the story enters into the second part. Sixteen years pass. Camillo, now a subject of Polixenes, misses his homeland very much and begs the Bohemian king allow him to return to Sicilia. Polixenes depends on him so much that he refuses to let him leave his land. Later the Bohemian king finds out that his son, Prince Florizel, has fallen in love with a shepherd girl, Perdita. They disguise and follow Florizel to the shepherd place and Polixenes becomes furious when he finds out that his son is wooing Perdita. He threatens the Old Shepherd and Perdita, and orders his son never see the shepherds daughter again. With the wise aid of Camillo, however, who longs to see his native land and his old king again, Florizel and Perdita take ship for Sicilia, using the clothes of Autolycus as a disguise. They joined together on their voyage with help of the Old Shepherd and his son following Autolycus instruction. Finally, it comes up to the third part of the story. After all kinds of frustrations, Perdita turned out to be the daughter of Leontes and they are permitted by their fathers to love each other. The friendship between Leontes and Polixenes is recovered. At last, Leontes, Polixenes, Camillo, Florizel, and Perdita go to Paulinas house in the country and pay a salutation to a recently finished statue of Hermione. The sight of his wifes statue makes Leontes distraught, but to everyones amazement, the statue comes to lifeit is Hermione who restores to life. As the play ends, Paulina and Camillo are engaged and celebrated . The three acts of the first part are full of intense psychological conflicts and contradictions among the major characters. Things take place between the king Leontes and his subjects, husband and his wife are depicted vividly. The jealous and strong-headed king Leontes doubts that his wife has immoral relationship with his best friend Polixenes, he forces his subjects to obey his irrational and cruel orders. He accuses his subjects badly instead of taking their advices. He orders Camillo like this: To bide upont: thou art not honest; or, If thou inclinst that way, thou art a coward/Which hoxes honesty behind, restraining From course requird (Shakespeare, 1997, p. 318); then accuses him further: It is; you lie, you lie/I say thou liest, Camillo, and I hate thee/Pronounce thee a gross lout, a mindless slave/Or else a hovering temporizer that Canst with thine eyes at once see good and evil/Inclining to them both (Shakespeare, 1997, p. 318). Camillo is benevolent and wise enough, he knows that he cannot change the ferocious king, so he decides to flee with Polixenes. After Camillo, the king threatens his another subject Antigonus to discard his conscience and abandon the little baby. According to the Confucian values, it is the ruler who guides the subject. But when the ruler is dictatorial and cannot distinguish wrong from right, it must lead to the worsening of the relationship between the ruler and his subjects, or when the king lacks of the necessary qualities to rule his country, such as benevolence, the loyal subjects would flee to other countries. This is very true in The Winters Tale. According to the Confucian values, it is the
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husband who guides the wife. If the family lives in harmony, all business and family affairs will prosper. The husband is in the guiding position, he plays a very important role in handing the family ethical relations, but once he does something wrong and cannot distinguish right from wrong and treats his wife bad, it will surely damage the family and cause troubles. If the king himself has a bad relation with his wife, then he sets a bad example for his people, and it will lead to the instability of the whole country. As a husband, the king Leontes groundlessly doubts his innocent wife and puts her on a public trial. The noble queen has her dignity, she stands and says firmly when questioned by his husband:
To say Not guilty. Mine integrity Being counted falsehood shall, as I express it, Be so receivd/But thusif powrs divine Behold our human actions, as they do, I doubt not then but innocence shall make False accusation blush, and tyranny Tremble at patienceAs I weigh grief, which I would spare; for honor/Tis a derivative from me to mine/And only that I stand for/I appeal To your own conscience, sir Have straind t appear thus; if one jot beyond,/The bound of honor, or in act or will, That way inclining, hardned be the hearts/Of all that hear me, and my nearst of kin/Cry fie upon my grave! (Shakespeare, 1997, p. 326)
From above examples, we could find that Shakespeare agrees with the Confucian values, i.e., the Three Cardinal Guides and the Five Constant Virtues. According to the Confucian values, the nature of human-being is virtue. The nature of Leontes is virtue too. Then in the second part, Leontes regrets and suffers for almost 16 years for his ever-made mistakes. Just like a Chinese old saying that non-saints, cannot too, rectifies the hell, Leontes is surly a non-saint. But he is lucky, because he spends 16 years correcting his mistakes. His wife and children as well as his subjects forgive him, at last, they live together happily. This is what benevolence advocated by the Chinese Confucian values makes the difference. The kings sincerity, Camillos righteousness and wisdom, and Florizels fidelity are depicted vividly in The Winters Tale. The king of Bohemia treats his subject Camillo as a close friend, and he always takes his good advice, that is why Camillo helps him for 16 years. The king of Sicilia corrects his own mistakes, that is why Camillo returns to his kingdom. The prince Florizel is noble in his heart, that is why he is willing to marry the girl he loves regardless of her status. He runs away with his love even when his father is against them strongly and the ethical relationship between father and son ends. Shakespeare always lauds some merits coincided with the Confucian values, i.e., the Three Cardinal Guides and the Five Constant Virtues and blame demerits violating those values in his dramas. Shakespeare looks through into the human nature insightfully and uniquely. Leontes creates happiness and well-being for his family, his subjects and his people when he does everything well but his wrong-doing creates disasters not only for his innocent wife and the 7-year old boy Mamillius and baby-daughter Perdita, but also for his subjects and his people even to himself. Leontes is a good king but an ordinary man. He makes and corrects mistakes. Camilo is wise and benevolent and he follows good orders given by his kings but refuses to follow them when he finds out they are wrong. That is why he has a happy ending at last. Antigonus can only follow the orders given by his king whether they are good or not, that is why does not have a good ending at last. Paulina is kind, brave, and wise. She tries her best to correct Leontes fault and help Hermione when she is imprisoned and on the trial. Paulina hides Hermione at a secret place in the countryside, and saves the royal familys happiness finally. That is why she could enjoy a happy life with Camilo in her rest life. Siemon James Edward thought that The Winters Tale probes into the two aspects of human nature, one is goodness, the other is evilness. In fact, whether
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evil or kind, neither can define ones life by depending on the only one side. This is consistent with the Confucianism. Confucius thought that mans nature is good at birth, even if he does many evil things, he also should be forgiven and corrected by education, goodness and evilness cannot be separated. Therefore, from a perspective of modern view, the Confucianism and the mindset of Shakespeare can have an exchange and a dialogue to promote each others development.
Conclusions
Scholar TANG Yi-jie pointed that: There existed some elements with universal values in all kinds of national cultures. It is the only road to find the universal value in different cultures by way of communications and dialogues between them (as cited in CHEN, 2012, p. 190), and the elements in different cultures and literatures with universal values can promote human beings advancement in all around way, so it is emergent to build the system of four-mutuals between different literatures and cultures studies. At The 17th Conference of ICLA (International Comparative Literature Association) held in Hong Kong on August 8-15, 2004, scholar YUE (2005) declared with a firm belief that:
Chinas comparative literature study deeply rooted in Chinas traditional culture surely plays a unique and significant role in appeasing the intense conflicts of ideologies and ameliorating the condition of fragment, detachedness and isolation brought by post-modernism and it gains a revival and bright future in an era of globalization. (p. 1)
The Chinese and Western cultures and literatures stand for the great achievements of human beings civilization, higher requirements are for world comparative literature studies. The Chinese Confucian values are the symbols of the Chinese culture throughout the history for almost 5,000 years and set a whole set of moral standards for people to handle with all kinds of ethical relations. It has positive impact on maintaining the normal operation of a country and promoting the harmonious social ethical relations. Shakespeare, a distinguished dramatist, created a huge fortune in humans literature. From what the authors have discussed, the Chinese Confucian values have shared items with Shakespeares thoughts. In a certain sense, these two are featured with universalism and can enlighten us a lot in studying comparative literature. The mechanism of mutual understanding, mutual justification, and mutual supplementation, especially, the mechanism of mutual appreciation between literatures, have great influence on cultural exchange and communication. The Eastern and Western cultures should seek common grounds and put aside differences, they should understand, justify, supply, and appreciate each other to gain each others strong points, and it will surely promote the common development of the worlds cultures and literatures.
References
CHEN, F. (2012). The value orientation of the Confucianism and the cultural development of society. Jinan: Dongyue Tribune. Confucius. (482 B.C.). The analects (p. 33). Beijing: China Classics Publishing House. Gier, N. F. (2001). The dancing RU: A Confucian aesthetics of virtue (p. 288). Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press. KE, L., & DUSHI, Q. F. (2011). TV play The Journey to the West in Vietnam. Journal of School Chinese Language and Culture Nanjing Normal University, 6, 170. Kim, U., & Park, Y.-S. (1862). Confucianism and family values (pp. 231, 233). German: VS Verlag Sozialwissenschaften. LIANG, S. M. (1989). The essences of Chinese culture (Zhongguo Wenhua Yaoyi). Hong Kong: Joint Publishing Corporation. LONG, S. Y. (2005). On the core value and advanced-culture quality of Confucianism. Journal of Hubei University (Philosophy and Social Science), 32(4), 68.
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Lu, L., Gilmour, R., & Kao, S. F. (2001). Cultural values and happiness: An east-west dialogue. Journal of Social Psychology, 141(8), 479. Mencius. (293 B.C.). The collected works of Mencius (p. 40). Beijing: China Classics Publishing House. QIAN, Z. F. (2008). The foundation of the system of mutual appreciationAn important part of comparative literature in the third stage. Journal of Literature and Arts, 131, 2. Shakespeare, W. (1997). The complete works of William Shakespeare (pp. 318, 319, 326). New York: Random House Value Publishing. SHEN, F. (2002). Dionysiac myth in The Winters Tale. Journal of Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (Social Sciences Edition), 12. Tamai, K., & Lee, J. (2002). Confucianism as cultural constraint: A comparison of Confucian values of Japanese and Korean university students. International Education Journal, 3(5), 33-49. TANG, Z. L. (1995). Confucianism, Chinese culture, and reproductive behavior. Population and Environment: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, 16(3), 270. TU, W. M. (1993). Way, learning, and politics: Essays on the Confucian intellectual. Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press. TU, W. M. (1996). Confucian traditions in east Asian modernity: Moral education and economic culture in Japan and the Four Mini-Dragons. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. WANG, J., WANG, G. G., Ruona, W. E. A., & Rojewski, J. W. (2005). Confucian values and the implications for international HRD. London: Human Resource Development International. WANG, Z. X. (2006). Constructing an ethical Utopia: The aesthetic significance of Shakespeares play. Beijing: Foreign Literature Studies. WU, G. (2005). The orientation of the contemporary Confucianism (pp. 66-67). Shanghai: The Great Dictionary of Chinese Language Press. YU, M. S. (2002). Conflicts and fuses: Between Confucians ideas and western ideas on values. Journal of Qinghai Normal University (Philosophy and Social Sciences), 4. YUE, D. Y. (2005). The third stage of comparative literature development. Journal of Social Sciences, 9, 170. ZHU, W. (2008). The mutual influence of Chinese and American poetics. Chengdu: Sichuan Peoples Publishing House. ZOU, J. J. (2008). Text, literature and culture: Impetus for comparative literature in China. Beijing: Foreign Literature Studies.
DA VID
PUBLISHING
Supernatural Elements in Kiplings The Mark on the Beast, Conan Doyles Lot No. 249, and Wells The Truth About Peycraft: The Gothic Short Story as Voicing and Exorcising Late Victorian Crisis
Marcella Romeo
University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy
The aim of this paper is the analysis of the supernatural elements in Kiplings The Mark on The Beast (1890), Conan Doyles Lot No. 249 (1892), and Wells The Truth about Peycraft (1903) conceived of as the expression of the revitalisation of the Gothic imagery which, through the short story, serve to voice and exorcise late Victorian crisis, de-Constructing late Victorian identity. First, the complex nature of late Victorian Britain crisis will be deepened. Second, the short story will be focused on as an independent genre from the novel which mostly epitomized Fin de Sicle literary fantastic discourse. Finally, the short stories will be investigated as textual examples of what Brantlinger (1988) defined as Imperial Gothic, instrumental in voicing and exorcising the pressures of late Victorian crisis. Keywords: supernatural elements, Gothic imagery, short story, late Victorian crisis
Introduction
On the grounds of the critical studies carried out by Darwin, Said, Fanon, May, Deickman, Brantlinger, Killen, and Todorov, the aims of this paper are: first, to deepen the complex nature of late Victorian Britain crisis; second, to analyze the short story as an independent genre from the novel which mostly epitomized Fin de Sicle literary fantastic discourse, also revitalising the Gothic imagery; and finally, to investigate The Mark on the Beast (1890) by Kipling, Lot No. 249 (1892) by Conan Doyle, and The Truth about Peycraft (1903) by G. H. Wells, among the most successful Modernist Gothic short stories, as textual examples of what Brantlinger, in his Rule of Darkness: Imperialism and British Literature, 1830-1914 (1988), defined as Imperial Gothic, instrumental in voicing and exorcising the pressures of late Victorian crisis.
The Late Victorian Crisis and the Discoursive Nature of Imperial Gothic
One epoch of history is unmistakably in its decline View that have hitherto governed minds are dead or driven hence like disenthroned kings meanwhile interregnum in all its terrors prevails (Nordau, 1913, p. 5).
Marcella Romeo, associate professor, Department of Economics, Business and Statistics, University of Palermo.
SUPERNATURAL ELEMENTS IN KIPLINGS THE MARK ON THE BEAST
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Nordaus words epitomized the late Victorian mental and emotional responsiveness to the economic, social, and cultural turmoil which overwhelmed fin de sicle Britain. They account for the blurring of all those deterministic boundaries which had governed and controlled British society all over the century. Precariousness, liminality, and uncertainty suffocate the ancient glories of the empire of enlightenment and progress, and even the middle-class White male English coloniser turns out to be submitted to chance and chaotic transgressions. As Darwin (1871) underlined:
That man descended from some lowly-organised form, will be highly distasteful to many persons. But there can hardly be a doubt that we are descended from barbarians. man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin. (p. 378)
The pre-modifiers distasteful and lowly indicate the terms of the strong subjective and objective human response to the late 19th century traumatic changes the population had to manage and comprehend to assess and overcome derangement. Both the myth of progress and of race are negated by stating that if something evolve it can also regress and assuring that even the middle-class British White male, carrying with him a permanent, ignoble, and unknown self impossible to remove, could be overpowered by stochastic liminality. Abhumanness, unsuspected and unknown, was encoded in the human body and mind as one of our hereditary and evolutionary components which could contaminate or annihilate the civilized morals and behavior. Central to the anxiety about transgressing boundary order, as a form of projection of the self, was the Orient and the native considered as the nearest and most probable source of contamination: With its exotic spatial configurations, its hopelessly strange languages, its seemingly perverse morality [the Orient] threatened hygiene and domestic seemliness In the Orient one suddenly confronted unimaginable antiquity (Said, 1995, p. 166). The untamed reign of nature intrudes into the restrained reign of culture in the form of atavic past and, most importantly, the challenge is perceived as double: from external sources, the corrupted and corrupting other, and from the rational world itself, the morally pure center. Indeed, encountering the Orient means to face a far distant unknown past ready to alter traditional boundaries, to undermine conventional spatial and time coordinates. The native is the corrosive element, destroying all that comes near him; he is the deforming element, disfiguring all that has to do with beauty or morality; he is the depository of maleficent powers, Fanon (1990, p. 31) argued, clarifying the approach the British coloniser had towards the colonised. The other has the ability to injure western bodies and minds making them assume different shapes, irrational behaviors and producing extraordinary and unfamiliar circumstances. Those who were in the past submitted and thought to be powerless have now the capacity to act effectively, to exercise control and authority over the controller. The unconditional power of British Civilization, the fixity of the rational White male English body, and the totalising framework of the bourgeois system are undermined. Discoursivities of anxiety of biological contamination, of invasion, both endogenous and exogenous, come to the foreground: The imperialist fantasy of consumption is replaced by the nightmare of being consumed (Stott, 2002, p. 154). From this perspective, again Nordaus words help us to convey a graphic description of how late Victorian crisis was actually experienced and also the atmosphere which saturates the texts analyzed. Over the earth the shadows creep with deepening gloom, wrapping all objects in a mysterious dimness, in which certainty is destroyed and any guess seems plausible. Forms lose outlines, and are dissolved in floating mist (Nordau, 1913,
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p. 6). Mysterious fears, transgression of boundaries, uncertainty and disorder make everything indistinct, obscure and faintly outlined. Striking realism and freshness of experience are conveyed, delineating the proper idea of the powerful Gothic impact economic and cultural discomfort had also on the emotions and senses1. A critical economic depression overwhelmed the period causing the working class insurgency; the imperial power was in decline, menaced by the rise of Germany and the Unites States of America; colonies discontent, epitomized by the First War of Indian Independence (1857-1859), had engendered profound doubts about the superiority of race and risen the probability for the coloniser of being attacked by the colonised. The rise of the New Woman and homosexuality, challenging the traditional gender roles, was considered as the main indicator of cultural degeneration and corruption, a sharp attack on the stability of the family structure, a potential threaten to national health, and the maintenance of the purity of race. Socialism and trade unionism spread and the outbreak of the Boer War problematised the superiority of race and the morality of the imperial mission. Furthermore science, which over the century had attempted to furnish proper instruments to categorise what was considered criminal and abnormal, and restore the stability of norm, gave further support to the general feeling of decay and regression. The II law of thermodynamics emphasised the concept of entropy stressing how energy systems have a tendency to increase rather than decrease their entropy, intended as a measure of chaos it. The colonial center felt to be threatened by the periphery not only from a military point of view but also, and most pervasively, from an epistemological and ontological point of view.
The Gothic Short Story and the Fantastic

Although the short story has been culturally marginalised over time in favor of the novel, it had a special significance for the 19th century writers and readers, being a textual area of great formal, thematic experimentation and identity de-construction2. Supple, impressionistic and intense (Showalter, 1995, p. 12), it was the narrative form through which modernism undermined Victorian realism and its focus on ordinary life. Suitable, on account of its submerged meanings (Gilbert & Gubar, 2000, p. 92), for articulating new themes such as the excursion into the unknown self, the male contested sexuality, and the fluidity of the barrier between real and unreal through the revitalization of the Gothic imagery, intended as an oppositional force (Garrett, 2003, p. 1), the short story served to dramatise and exorcise the fundamental tensions of late Victorian Britain, to objectify and simultaneously distance them. According to May (1994), the short story breaks up the familiar life-world of the everyday, defamiliarises our assumption more than the novel, presents the world as I-Thou rather than I-It (p. 137). In the relationship I-It, the reader observes the world as the only one in which he/she may live; in the I-Thou relation, conversely, someone is conducted to other worlds suspended between seduction, the magical component, fear, and the unknown, allowing the reader to go beyond the boundary of certainty and problematising crucial questions. Capable of dehabituating the thinking process, the short story, rather than the novel, leads the reader to observe daily life with criticism and disrupt, opportunely, the prescriptive cultural and social order. Deautomatization is here conceived as permitting the adult to attain a new, fresh perception of the
1
Several other studies point to this conclusion. See Morton (1945), pp. 360-388; Hyam (1976), pp. 147-173; Wallerstein (1984), pp. 14-27, 287-360; Myers (1989), pp. 307-338; Boehmer (1995), pp. 12-59; McClintock (1995), pp. 21-74; Arata (1996), pp. 1-33, 107-150. 2 This point is deepened in Marsh-Russell (2009), pp. 43-102, 120-133.
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world by allowing access to fresh materials, to create with them in a new way (Deikman, 1966, p. 217). Actualising an experience directly and emotionally created and encountered (May, 1994, p. 133), the short story encourages the reader to relate the events of the narration to his/her existential or social-cultural situation, at the same time, leading him/her to an emotional distance from characters. This distance can be experientially fruitful in establishing a transfer process with the reader giving birth to what Winnicott (1980) defined as the space of cultural experience (p. 147): a potential third space between the psychic-subjective and external-objective reality, the only one in which play, and consequently creativity rather than compliance, may exist and evolve allowing the self to abandon a dependence relationship and relating critically with the object. Ideal for depicting clashes (Stubbs, 1979, p. 105), the Gothic short story, through ghostly disguises of blatantly counterfeit fictionality allows to confront the roots of our beings in sliding multiplicities and to define ourselves against these uncanny abjections, while also feeling attracted to them (Hogle, 2006, p. 16). From this perspective, it serves to face late Victorian cultural disorders, to control alarming unknown forces, distressing changes, and to handle social anxiety. Through the element of the fantastic, in the sense identified by Todorov (1975): Fantastic is that hesitation experienced by a person who knows only the laws of nature, confronting an apparently supernatural event (p. 25), and marked by Zgorzelski (1979) as the breaching of the internal laws which are initially assumed in the text to govern the fictional world (p. 298), all destabilising factors may be supernaturalised and represented in dislocated forms, normalised and pathologised to be objectified and distanced at once. According to Brantlinger (1988), Imperial Gothic explicitly gives voice to anxieties about the probability with which civilization can devolve and thus about the decay of Britains imperial hegemony: The atavistic descents into the primitive experiences by fictional characters seem often to be allegories of the larger regressive movement of civilization, British progress transformed into British backsliding (p. 229). The Gothic revival is apt to explore, articulate, and exorcise what would happen if the perspectives were altered and the colonial center were menaced by invasion. A transhistorical category (Hurley, 2006, p. 193) whose cross generic dynamism has made it so transformable to suit to changing times (Hogle & Smith, 2009, p. 1), it allows the reader to examine questions which would be difficult to approach in realistic literature, since through fantasy the desire which pervades and obsesses the forbidden can be plainly expressed, uncertainty and ideological ambiguity interrogated and depicted. A kind of literary emergency (Killen, 2009, p. 12), reactivated to support the readers to confront the shifting to modernity by externalising and negotiating anxieties, the Gothic provided the narratives and the figures that enabled late Victorian middle class culture to successfully accommodate certain historical changes, notably modernising processes (Daly, 1999, p. 24), and served to the British to project on to its evil supernatural and fantastic beings all that they did not want to recognise as inherent to the steady national self.
The Stories: Voicing and Exorcising the Crisis

The 1880s and 1890s saw a surge of gothic fiction paranoically concerned with the disintegration of identity into bestiality, the loss of British identity through overpowering foreign influence, the vulnerability of the empire to monstrous and predatory sexualities, the death of humanity itself in the twilight of everything. (Jones, 2011, p. 66)
The Mark on the Beast, Lot No. 249, and The Truth about Peycraft actualise the revitalization of the
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Gothic aimed at recognizing and distancing the late Victorian Britain crisis by experiment[ing] with the emotional possibilities (for both characters and readers) of violating the laws of nature (Spencer, 1992, p. 200). From a formal perspective, it is remarkable how the authors focused on the short story as a genre distinct from the novel, designed for the singleness of its effect, and the necessity to arouse and hold the attention of the reader (Haining, 1987, pp. ix-xiii; Luckhurst, 2005, pp. ix-xxxi). In the preface to his Round the Red Lamp Being Facts and Fancies of Medical Life (1894), Conan Doyle (1894) argued that: A tale which may startle the reader out of his usual grooves of thought and shake him into seriousness, plays the part of the alternative and tonic in medicine, bitter to the taste but bracing in its results (p. iv). Also for Kipling and Wells, short stories were a discoursive experience totally different from novels in nature and scope. Wells underlined how, a short story should go to its point as a man flies from a pursuing tiger. He pauses not for the daisies in his path, or to note the pretty moss on the tree he climbs for safety (as cited in Hammond, 1992, p. 18). The stories, amusing and still terrifying, strictly focus on contemporary reality, highlighting that the world of the text and the world of the reader may overlap, blurring the border between fiction and reality. Central to them is what Hammond (1992) defined as a disturbing quality (p. 20), in so far as they raise doubts and, thus, possibilities of behavior or mental states which implicitly question accepted norms and beliefs, demonstrating how easily normal life can be altered by chance encounters and stochastic circumstances, and how the obscure zones of evil dwell immediately beneath the threshold of consciousness. They textualise what Brantlinger (1988) defined as Imperial Gothic, individual regression or going native; an invasion of civilization by the forces of barbarism or demonism; and the diminution of opportunities for adventure and heroism in the modern world, the divided self (p. 229). The stable, prescriptive, and comfortable universe in which all is known and assured by a rational approach is contaminated by a fluctuating, uncertain realm characterized by a gloomy order of being where nothing is fixed or definite. From this perspective, the stories are saturated with the notion of flux and explicitly propose an excursion into the unknown self, through the articulation of the fantastic. There are some dominating ideas they have in common: the blurring of the frontier between the real world and the world of fantasy, the Orient as the origin of corruption, the duality of man, the fluidity of life, and the precariousness of man due mostly to endogenous forces typically projected on to exogenous sources. In The Mark on the Beast, the supernatural is attained in the uttermost ends of the Empire (Kipling, 1890, p. 84), colonial India, where men forgather accidently and therefore seem to have a right to be riotous (Kipling, 1890, p. 84). A drunken and chauvinistic English coloniser, Fleete, desecrates a Hindu temple, gravely grinding the ashes of his cigar-butt in to the forehead of the red, stone image of Hanuman Shee that? Mark on the B-beasht! I made it (Kipling, 1890, p. 85). In Lot No. 249, the supernatural is actualised, instead, in a local setting, in so famed a centre of learning and light as the University of Oxford (Conan Doyle, 1892, p. 109), the core of White rationality, the propelling locus of cultural forces in which, however, the path of nature has been overstepped (Conan Doyle, 1892, p. 109). In Wells The Truth About Peycraft, the supernatural is realised again in a contemporary local setting, Bloosmbury, a residential district of north-central London famous, in the early 20th century, because associated with an influential avant-garde group of writers, artists, and intellectuals. The threat for rigid rationality and vigorous masculinity, thus, comes from within and by chance, by unknown and uncontrolled forces that destabilise the invulnerable center. These forces interrelate with the irrational Orient which powerfully intrudes the rational West in different forms. Fleete is supposed to be transformed into a beast by the offended Hanumans priest:
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[He] was on his hands and knees The mans lower lip hung down. He made beast-noises could not speak, he could only snarl, and his snarls were those of a wolf We were dealing with a beast that once had been Fleete. (Kipling, 1890, p. 91)
Smith, a medical student at the University of Oxford, has to face a revivified revengeful Egyptian mummy by which he is obsessed and haunted, a horrid, black, withered thing (Conan Doyle, 1892, p. 114) which is represented in all its ambiguity and duality, The form was lifeless and inert, but it seemed to Smith that there still lingered a lurid spark of vitality, some faint sign of consciousness (Conan Doyle, 1892, p. 128). The mummy, expression of the colonised destructive world and barbarism, is supposed to be revivified by a damnable reptilian (Conan Doyle, 1892, p. 111) student in archaeology, Bellingham, a man with secret vices [and] a demon (Conan Doyle, 1892, p. 111) at Eastern studies and languages. Contrary to the mainstream late Victorian writers construction and representation of Egyptian objects, the mummy, is not only a commodity a collectible object, a physical marker of imperial conquest (Briefel, 2008, p. 264), rather a permanent artefact which threatens the standardization and alleged impermanence of British commodities (Conan Doyle, 1892, p. 265), something created and with creative capacities (Conan Doyle, 1892, p. 264). It invades the colonisers spaces and, symbolically, his complete existence, so that what Smith thought was only a dim suspicion, a vague, fantastic conjecture (Conan Doyle, 1892, p. 130), suddenly takes form in the attempt to rationalise the occurrence: Bellingham, in his Eastern studies, has got hold of some infernal secret by which a mummy can be temporarily brought to life (Conan Doyle, 1892, p. 133). The demoniac Orient comes to the foreground through the figure of Bellingham; the maleficent secrets he has learnt from Eastern culture are capable of producing a striking chain of events (Conan Doyle, 1892, p. 134), says Peterson, who tries to convince Smith that the circumstance is only a product of his fears and imagination (Conan Doyle, 1892, p. 135). Smith, convinced of being followed by the mummy, actually by his inner and obscure self, rushed madly and wildly through the night, he could hear a swift, dry patter behind him, and could see that his horror was bounding like a tiger at his heels, with blazing eyes and one stringy arm out-thrown (Conan Doyle, 1892, p. 133). The student is transfigured into a wild beast: his nerves were all unstrung (Conan Doyle, 1892, p. 135) and he recognizes that the encounter with the mummy made him overcome the boundary between human and abhuman, rational and irrational, I am my own man again now I was never so unmanned before (Conan Doyle, 1892, p. 133). Peycrafts decaying portray is introduced from the very beginning of the story, a Great uneasy jelly of substance! The fattest clubman in London abject with his liquid appeal he grunted and gormandized (Conan Doyle, 1892, p. 447). The body is described as a hybrid semisolid substance, a shapeless, pulpy mass, and his figure is conveyed as an ignoble and degraded potentially subhuman creature. He is given a recipe by the narrator in order to loose his weight but instead of slimming down, he begins levitating. The problem has been caused, indirectly, by the narrators great-grandmother, a Hindustani woman, whose demoniac recipes, the writing and spelling of which are particularly atrocious (Conan Doyle, 1892, p. 450), have revengeful powers being strictly interrelated with Eastern culture and languages. The Orient is portrayed as the contaminating, malignant, and destructive component. Hanuman priests supernatural and corrosive powers are depicted by Strickland who assists, astonished, to his friends transformation into a savage beast that howls and devours raw and bloody meats.
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In the moonlight we could see the leper coming round the corner of the house. He was perfectly naked mewed and stopped to dance with his shadow hideously and even through my riding-boots I could feel that his flesh was not the flesh of a clean man we told him to take away the evil spirit. (Conan Doyle, 1892, p. 93)
The moonlight is a typical Gothic element through which the mysterious corrupting forces are introduced in the text, an element the short story has in common with the revivification of the mummy in Lot No. 249: The half moon lay in the west between two Gothic pinnacles, and threw upon the silvered street a dark tracery There was a brisk breeze, and light, fleecy clouds drifted swiftly across the sky (Conan Doyle, 1892, p. 133). Nakedness is conventionally a trope which embodies barbarian and uncivilized populations, to homologize natives to animals; as underlined by Fanon, Western Manichaeism typically dehumanizes the native turning him into an animal: When the settler seeks to describe the native fully in exact terms he constantly refers to the bestiary (Conan Doyle, 1892, p. 31). The leper, in fact, does not articulate words, emitting instead, the high-pitched, crying sound of a cat; his macabre and repulsive dance with his shadow suggests the horror of death and decay and his flesh is apparently contaminated, revoltingly ugly, offensive to moral sensibilities. However, he has both the power of corrupting a member of the empire and the authority to relieve him of evil forces. Also the demonised Bellingham looks beastly has a beastly temper (Conan Doyle, 1892, p. 111); indeed, he embodies the duplicity of life since he is simultaneously considered as a man of wide reading, with catholic tastes His manner, too, was so pleasing and suave (Conan Doyle, 1892, p. 119). But clever as he undoubtedly was the medical student seemed to detect a dash of insanity in the man (Conan Doyle, 1892, p. 119). Smith recognizes the multiplicity and fluidity of human beings and seems to assume as an axiom that, Its a wonderful thing to feel that one can command powers of good and of evil-administering angel or a demon of vengeance (Conan Doyle, 1892, p. 119). He does appreciate Bellinghams duality until the mummy is imparted new life and energy. Another example of floating, changeable creature suspended between life and death, the mummy has features that, though horribly discoloured, were perfect The blotched skin was drawn tightly from bone to bone Two thin teeth, like those of a rat, overlay the shriveled lower lip there was a suggestion of energy about the horrid thing (Conan Doyle, 1892, p. 117). Monstrosity, repellence, and oximoronic relationships characterise the depiction of the mummy, whose textualisation emphasises one of the major themes central to late Victorian ghost stories, that is revenge as the most primitive and punitive instinct, the impulse to inflict upon others, the same punishment one has received:
Something was coming swiftly down to it. It moved in the shadow of the hedge, silently and furtively, a dark, crouching figure, dimly visible against the black background out of the darkness he had a glimpse of a scraggy neck, and of two eyes that will ever haunt him in his dreams. (Conan Doyle, 1892, p. 133)
Smith is apparently emotionally distressed, unnerved by this obscure, ambiguous presence, and definitely out of control. The man of the enlightening empire, supposed to impart spiritual, intellectual and rational insight to the colonised is haunted by a creature that represents the colonised world and its obscure forces. He has fallen prey to those he was supposed to free from ignorance and superstition, he is attacked irreversibly by those he previously had attacked, overwhelmed by those he overpowered; exactly like Fleete to whom the leper inflicts the same pain the Hanumans statue had been subjected to: the transformation into a beasht and a mark, a perfect double of the black-rossette (Kipling, 1890, p. 87). The narrator who gives to Peycraft one of his Indian great-grandmother exotic and unfamiliar recipes describes his ancestors as a jolly queer lot (Wells, 1903, p. 449), strange, and
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eccentric figures who deviate from the expected or normal and whose unconventional nature is questionable and suspicious; the family, moreover, has kept up the knowledge of Hindustani from generation to generation (Wells, 1903, p. 449). The negative and toxic influence of Eastern languages is continuously emphasised in the text emerging, most importantly, as a permanent component which affects the narrator himself; he often underlines his own temptation to poison Peycraft alluding to his genealogic links to the Hindustani culture, also highlighting the obscure side of his self as a British citizen. The great-grandmothers recipes are queer things to handle (Wells, 1903, p. 449) and have all the magical corrosive and revengeful power of the Orient; they had been written by an Indian gentleman who had a weakness for skins of miscellaneous origin, and his hand-writing was cramped to the last degree (Wells, 1903, p. 449). The chaotic and corrupting nature of the Orient is underlined by the origin of the skins on which the recipes are written and still by the oddity of the language used, out of the ordinary and unfamiliar, simultaneously arousing inquisitiveness, and eluding explanation or comprehension, unreadable (Wells, 1903, p. 449) even for the Hindustani speaking narrator. The maleficent exotic ingredients, whose taste is beastly (Wells, 1903, p. 452) and whose appearance is extraordinarily uninviting (Wells, 1903, p. 453), constrain Peycraft to float in the air in defiance of gravity and to confine himself into his sitting room, in a state of untidy disorder (Wells, 1903, p. 451), to remain imprisoned at home where the usual order has been subverted. Contained in that queer, odd-scented sandalwood box (Wells, 1903, p. 451), the recipe causes Peycrafts becoming noisy and violent (Wells, 1903, p. 453): Again, the Orient takes its revenge, Peycrafts nature is altered and equated to an animal, his curiosity in Eastern medical science punished. Another main thematic feature the stories have in common is that the supernatural events remain unexplained, they do not articulate any rationalisation or demystification of the supernatural circumstances showing only how normal laws of cause and effect are simply suspended. The fact that the extraordinary is given no rational explanation, and doubt and confusion remain, is designed to remind that there is something that may not be accounted for within the boundaries of any norm; all certainties may be destroyed. Fleetes transformation into a beast is portrayed as beyond any human and rational experience (Kipling, 1890, p. 91), although Strickland rationally tries to think of a case of hydrophobia, the word wouldnt come, because I knew that I was lying (Kipling, 1890, p. 91). He also attempts to commit Feetes life and his own mental stability to science by calling a doctor who confirms that Fleete is dying of hydrophobia and there is nothing can be done for him: the narrator, however, is now firmly convinced that this isnt any doctors work. I also knew that he [Strickland] spoke the truth (Kipling, 1890, p. 91). Stricklands suspicions, the narrator underlines, were so wildly improbable that he dared not say them out loud; and I who entertained all Stricklands beliefs, was so ashamed of owning to them that I pretended to disbelieve (Kipling, 1890, p. 92). Both men are overcome with shame, guilt, and remorse for disbelieving rational explanations and scientific approach and entrusting, instead, Fleetes life to the magical and superstitious powers of the other, thus completely subverting their epistemological belief: It struck me that we had fought for Fleetes soul with the Silver Man in that room, and had disgraced ourselves as Englishmen for ever, and I laughed and gasped and gurgled just as shamefully as Strickland (Kipling, 1890, p. 95). Attempting to find rational foundations, Strickland suggests the narrator to write the strange story down. He disapproves of the idea since nothing is likely to clear up the mystery (Kipling, 1890, p. 95). But the story is there, is here, is being read by the reader; and although no one will believe a rather unpleasant story and it is
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well known to every right-minded man that the gods of the heathens are stone and brass, and any attempt to deal with them otherwise is justly condemned (Kipling, 1890, p. 95), the implicit suggestion the text conveys is exactly that the events are possibly true and that the gods of the allegedly savage population have the same, or perhaps a superior, authority and power of those of civilized people, as the native proverb in the epigraph provocatively questions: Your Gods and my Godsdo you or I know which are the stronger? (Kipling, 1890, p. 84). While the circumstances in Lot No. 249 are described by the narrator as monstruous entirely beyond all bounds of human experience (Conan Doyle, 1892, p. 130), they are contemporarily assumed as a thing not to be denied (Conan Doyle, 1892, p. 130). The boundary between the natural world and supernatural world is transgressed and what happens to the main male characters is attributed to a power that seems to violate and go beyond natural forces. Peterson tries to give a rational and natural explanation; and yet, Smith is submerged in fear and anxiety, he looses his human rationality, his bodily, and mental stability. Completely and decisively defeated by the uncontrollable forces of the Orient, by his own self, in frantic haste he caught up the knife and hacked at the figure of the mummy In a quarter of an hour a few charred and brittle sticks were all that was left of Lot No. 249 (Conan Doyle, 1892, p. 139). The only way the student is convinced to recover his soundness of judgment and lucidity is to destroy the mummy; this is the reason why he is considered mad by the mischievous Bellingham who urges him to give reasons. You are a madmana dangerous madman. Why should I destroy my own property? (Conan Doyle, 1892, p. 138). The overturning of the standpoint is noteworthy here, since it gives further support to the idea of unfixity and flux: All subjects are potentially liminal and at risk of experiencing odd transformations, degeneracy, and contamination. From this perspective, the epilogue of the story, despite eluding any rigid and rational elucidation of the phenomenon narrated, gives clear hints about the boundless paths of human nature and the possibility human beings have to discover their own multiple selves. The narrator says: But the wisdom of men is small, and the ways of nature are strange, and who shall put a bound to the dark things which may be found by those who seek for them? (Conan Doyle, 1892, p. 140). In The Truth About Peycraft, oriental magic is partly solved by western technology. The narrator suggests Peycraft, metaphorically but also materially, to adapt to his new situation (Wells, 1903, p. 453) and to wear lead underwear, which allows Peycraft to live almost normally, with his feet on the ground. No rational explanation of the circumstance is given but the possibility of a misunderstanding between loss of weight (Wells, 1903, p. 452) and a cure for fatness (Wells, 1903, p. 452). The fact the narrator was extremely delighted (Wells, 1903, p. 452) at Peycrafts raising into the air suggests the idea of an ancestral revenge on the part of the colonised. An allegorical description of the unfamiliar conditions of the new era emerges at the end of the story when the narrator confirms the status of Peycraft as a mere boring mass of assimilatory matter, mere clouds in clothing, niente, nefas, the most inconsiderable of men (Wells, 1903, p. 454): Indeed, the unsteady and unfixed state of being which overwhelmed late Victorian Britain.
Conclusions
The encounter the main White middle-class male characters in the stories have with the extraordinary, the irrational and the conflict which stems from it, is depicted as reversible, focusing on the fluidity of life, on unstable and permeable bodies and emotions. The events narrated remain suspended between fiction and reality. The graphic portraits of liminal bodies is instrumental in depicting the tension between the rational and the
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irrational, the conflict between the familiar and the mysterious, stemming from the incursion of extraordinary events into the everyday world. Not only marginalised persons like natives, feminists, homosexuals, and poor are potentially subjected to strange metamorphoses, but also an exuberant coloniser, a British boy student at Oxford and a plump London clubman. The White male middle-class hero, typically characterized by rationality, rigid gender boundaries and courage, is banished giving place to threshold identities whose deterministic laws of nature and superiority of race are called into question by the fantasised Orient which, unconventionally, comes to foreground as an active, authoritative and powerful force. The stories maintain the sensation of hesitation emphasised by Todorov and Zgorzelski, being saturated with that peculiar indecision, vacillation, and uncertainty people undergo when, accustomed only to a deterministic view of life, have to face a stochastic, unknown, and uncontrollable experience. Indeed, they testify to the disruption of the knowledge system of the texts culture (Hurley, 2006, p. 204), confirming the presence of a Gothic center where civilisation and barbarism had acquired an unhealthy proximity (Smith, 2004, p. 73). The Gothic emerges as a cultural project (Hogle, 2006, p. 16) capable of investigating human life in its multiplicity, compelling the readers to abandon the idea of an integral identity and displace themselves on the boundary between Manichean oppositions such as human/beast, civilized/primitive, and man/woman, by which the late 19th-century culture has to redefine experience and rewrite its epistemological and ontological components.
References
Arata, S. (1996). Fictions of loss in the Victorian Fin de Sicle. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Boehmer, E. (1995). Colonial and postcolonial literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Brantlinger, P. (1988). Rule of darkness: Imperialism and British literature, 1830-1914. London: Cornhill University Press. Briefel, A. (2008). Hands of beauty, hands of horror: Fear and Egyptian art at the Fin de Sicle. Victorian Studies, 50, 263-271. Conan Doyle, A. (1892). Lot No. 249. In R. Luckhurst (Ed.), Late Victorian Gothic tales (pp. 109-140). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Conan Doyle, A. (1894). Round the red lamp: Being facts and fancies of medical life. London: Methuen & Co., Print. Daly, N. (1999). Modernism, romance, and the Fin de Sicle: Popular fiction and British culture, 18801914. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Darwin, C. (1871). Descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. London: John Murray. Deikman, A. (1966). Deautomatization and the mystic experience. Psychiatry, 29, 324-338. Fanon, F. (1990). The wretched of the earth. Harmondsworth: Penguin. Garrett, K. P. (2003). Gothic reflections: Narrative force in nineteenth-century fiction. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Gilbert, M. S., & Gubar, S. (2000). The madwoman in the attic: The woman writer and the nineteenth-century literary imagination. New Haven: Yale University Press. Haining, P. (Ed.). (1987). The complete supernatural stories of Rudyard Kipling. London: W. H. Allen. Hammond, J. (1992). H. G. Wells and the short story. London: St. Martins Press. Hogle, E. J., & Smith, A. (2009). Revisiting the Gothic and theory: An introduction. Gothic Studies, 11, 1-8. Hogle, J. E. (Ed.). (2006). The Cambridge companion to Gothic fiction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hurley, K. (2006). British Gothic in fiction, 1885-1930. In J. E. Hogle (Ed.), The Cambridge companion to Gothic fiction (pp. 189-208). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hyam, R. (1976). Britains imperial century, 1815-1914: A study of empire and expansion. London: B. T. Batsford. Jones, A. M. (2011). Conservation of energy, individual agency, and Gothic terror in Richard Marshs The Beetle, or, Whats scarier than an ancient, evil, shape-shifting bug?. Victorian Literature and Culture, 39, 65-85. Killen, J. (2009). History of the Gothic: Gothic literature 1825-1914. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. Kipling, R. (1890). The mark on the beast. In R. Luckhurst (Ed.), Late Victorian Gothic tales (pp. 84-95). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Luckhurst, R. (Ed.). (2005). Late Victorian Gothic tales. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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Marsh-Russell, P. (2009). The short story: An introduction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. May, E. C. (1994). The nature of knowledge in short fiction. In M. E. Charles (Ed.), The new short story theories (pp. 131-147). Athens: Ohio University Press. McClintock, A. (1995). Imperial leather: Race, gender and sexuality in the colonial context. London: Routledge. Morton, A. L. (1945). A peoples history of England. London: Lawrence & Wishart. Myers, G. (1989). Nineteenth century popularisations of thermodynamics and the rhetoric of social prophecy. In P. Brantlinger (Ed.), Energy and entropy: Science and culture in Victorian Britain (pp. 307-338). Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Nordau, M. S. (1913). Degeneration. London: Heinemann. Said, E. W. (1995). Orientalism. Harmondsworth: Penguin. Showalter, E. (1995). Smoking room. TLS, 16, 12. Smith, A. (2004). Victorian demons: Medicine, masculinity and the Gothic at the Fin-de-Sicle. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Spencer, L. K. (1992). Purity and danger: Dracula, the urban Gothic, and the late Victorian degeneracy crisis. ELH, 59, 197-225. Stott, R. (2002). Scaping the body: Of cannibal mothers and colonial landscapes. In A. Richardson & C. Willis (Eds.), The new woman in fiction and in fact: Fin-de-Sicle Feminisms (pp. 150-166). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Stubbs, P. (1979). Women and fiction: Feminism and the novel, 1880-1920. Brighton: Harvester Press. Todorov, T. (1975). The fantastic: A structural approach to a literary genre. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press. Wallertsein, I. (1984). The politics of the world-economy: The states, the movements and the civilizations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Wells, H. G. (1903). The truth about Pyecraft. In J. Hammond (Ed.), The complete short stories of H. G. Wells (pp. 447-455). London: J. M. Dent. Winnicott, D. W. (1980). Playing and reality. Harmondsworth: Penguin. Zgorzelski, A. (1979). Is science fiction a genre of fantastic literature?. Science Fiction Studies, 6, 296-303.
DA VID
PUBLISHING
Against Orthodoxy: Sex, Marriage, and Gender Roles in George Merediths Poems and Novels
Anna Enrichetta Soccio
University G. dAnnunzio, Chieti, Italy
George Meredith (1828-1909) is acknowledged as a creator of memorable female characters. Merediths heroines are radically different from the women generally encountered in Victorian fiction. Characteristically, Meredith constructs a type of female character who, in a social context hostile to any break with convention, refuses to conform to the stereotype of the weak, passive, and dependant woman. In accordance with J. S. Mills observations in The Subjection of Women (1869), Meredith thought that the progress of society could be possible only through female emancipation and admittance of women into public practice. This paper discusses the themes of marital disintegration and conscious adultery that affirm the legitimacy of female pleasure against coercion. Thus, the paper will take into consideration the sonnet sequence Modern Love (1862) and one of Merediths most neglected novels, Lord Ormont and His Aminta (1894), whose heroines are unexpectedly depicted as non-conventional, strong, and proud. A close reading of the texts will reveal the narrative strategies and textual devices through which Meredith exploited a model of womanhood that, by subverting the current ideas on sex, marriage, and gender roles, is able to countermine male egoism, the only obstacle to the genuine progress of Victorian society toward real democratization. Keywords: George Meredith, Victorian women, love, sex, gender, subversion
Introduction
Towards the end of the 19th century, the representation of women in literature was progressively being transformed. In fiction and poetry, the traditional idea of women as passive, powerless, and dependant creatures gave way to a new view of femininity. Such a rethinking largely stemmed from the predictable changes produced by the numerous debates and discussions on social matters, gender roles, and the value of domesticity and family. It is well known that Victorian society was riven with conflicts and contradictions. The Victorians were constantly in search for social order and ethical unity; yet, as Marroni (2010) had aptly stated: [T]he Victorians felt continually besieged by the specter of disharmony [] (p. 11). The image of an ordered society presided over by Queen Victoria as formidable matriarch coexisted often uneasily with an unremitting struggle against disorder. The Victorians, nonetheless, were conscious that they lived in an age of sharp contrasts involving almost every class of society. Like many other important topics, the role of women, at home and in society at large, was much debated as part of a more general discourse on domesticity and family ideology. In
Anna Enrichetta Soccio, associate professor, Department of Literature, Art and Social Sciences, University G. dAnnunzio.
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AGAINST ORTHODOXY: SEX, MARRIAGE, AND GENDER ROLES
1865, John Ruskin sanctioned the separation between public and private spheres and, consequently, between male and female roles:
The mans power is active, progressive, defensive. He is eminently the doer, the creator, the discoverer, the defender [] But the womans power is for rule, not for battle,and her intellect is not for invention or creation, but for sweet ordering, arrangement, decision. (Ruskin, 1932, p. 61)
As opposed to stereotyping the woman as the chaste angel of the house or, alternatively, the corrupted femme fatale, George Meredith (1828-1909) represented, in his work, an idea of femininity that diverged from that of the literature of his time. Almost unique in his treatment of such a topic, Meredith gave voice to unorthodox, strong-willed and affirmative female characters, thereby contributing significantly to undermine the ongoing belief that women were simply not capable of dealing with life beyond domestic and motherly duties (Gardiner, 2002, p. 16).
Modern Love and the Unholy Battle of the Sexes

Despite the many prejudices against his works raised by his contemporaries who thought him too audacious in treating topics which were considered improper and even immoral (Griest, 1970), and too difficult in style, George Meredith (1828-1909) has been always regarded as the Grand Old Man of Box Hill and the champion of women, as Virginia Woolf and Alice Woods, in 1932 and 1937 respectively, called him. Meredith started his career as a poet with the publication of a collection entitled Poems in 1851. At the time, he was only 23 and most of the poems there included were written when he was very young. In that first collection, several poems dealt with the beautiful English landscape, but the most memorable of all remains Love in the Valley (1851), a romantic hymn to love and nature in which the husbands desire for his wife is identified with his duty to marry (McGhee, 1980, p. 168). What emerges in the eight-line stanzas of the poem is a process of de-idealization of love that drives passion and sensual innocence into marriage, and then results in a joyful and rapturous vision of natural life. Merediths idea of love, however, changes in Modern Love (1862), a sequence of 50 sonnets published 10 years later, in 1862. It would be tempting to see this work as the mere recording of Merediths failure of his marriage with Mary Ellen Nicolls, daughter of Thomas Love Peacock, and widow of a lieutenant in the Royal Navy. By the time Modern Love was completed, Mary Ellen had already eloped with Merediths best friend, the pre-Raphaelite painter Henry Wallis, and had died, after a long tormented and sometimes even violent relationship with her husband (Stevenson, 1954, pp. 57-59, 95-96), of a form of Bright disease1. That the poems first germ is contained in Merediths autobiographical experience is largely acknowledged, but it must be remembered that Modern Love was conceived as part of a more extensive project of renovation and exploitation of traditional poetic forms that involved an idea of poetry as narrative in verse. Meredith (1912) himself, in a letter to Rev. Augustus Jessopp, dated November 13, 1861, wrote:
I rarely write save from the suggestion of something actually observed. I mean, that I rarely write verse. [] I desire to strike the poetic spark out of absolute human clay. And in doing so I have the fancy that I do solid workbetter than a carol in mid air. (p. 45)
A form of nephritis, as explained by Stevenson, 1954, p. 96.
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The observation of the real world and the recording of human experience are transmuted into a spiritual quest made up of fragments that the poet calls sonnets in order to narrate the story of a modern love. Here Merediths impulse toward experimentation is clear in his original treatment of one of the most conventional poetic forms. Apart from being 16 lines long (four ABBA rhyming quatrains), Merediths sonnet is intended as lyric and narrative at the same time. Moreover, instead of celebrating the joys of love in the fashion of the Renaissance sonnet sequences, Modern Love accounts for the crisis of romantic love in Victorian times. Even though his own failing marriage lies behind the whole poem, Meredith, however, goes further in his reflection on the meaning of marriage and the transformation of the complex relationship between husband and wife in contemporary times. In a thought-provoking article, Crowell (2010) has recently suggested that Meredith is using the sonetto caudato, a poetic form of the Renaissance, whose employment serves for satirical and comedic purposes. According to Crowell (2010): Modern Love contains a comprehensive critique of both progressive and regressive elements of Victorian society, and this critique is augmented by the suggestion of political action contained within the caudato form (p. 540). In other words, form reflects content: Critique to society is possible through a suitable poetic form and the sonetto caudato certainly appeared as the most effective for exploring modern times. As Meredith himself said, lamenting the unenthusiastic reception of the poem by critics: Modern Love is a dissection of the sentimental passion of these days, [that] could only be apprehended by the few who would read it many times (as cited in Meredith, 1912, p. 156). By suggesting the elitist nature of his readership, he reveals the guiding principle that animates his writing: That is to say, his intention to grasp reality through close investigation of the dramatically fast transformation in society that, in his view, entailed a radical change in gender relations. Lovealways written with a capital letter in the poemrepresents an ideal that is progressively deteriorating: From the courtly vision of the lovers who live in a condition of perpetual desire, love becomes a sentimental passion that requires to be dissected (deception, frustration, and finally, tragedy) and resembles more and more a game of subtle moves played between men and women. Indeed, the first title for the poem was Love-Match, a lexical pair that evokes a contest between the sexes apparently conducted on equal terms. Both protagonists have important roles to play in the game; both have extra-conjugal affairs; both deceive the other and are self-deceived. Not surprisingly, some years later in his Essay on the Idea of Comedy (1877), Meredith (1913) defined Comedyfor him the highest form of literary expressionas an exhibition of [womens] battle with men and that of men with them: and as the two, however divergent, both look on one object, namely Life, the gradual similarity of their impressions must bring them to some resemblance (pp. 29-30). As has been recognized by contemporary and later critics alike, Merediths heroines strive for spiritual and emotional independence as well as for an affirmation of their own identity as women. This is very likely the most Meredithian aspect of his writing: He constructs a gallery of women, whether of humble or noble origins, who struggle to impose their intellectual abilities and change the idea of woman as a passive, inanimate creature, subjected to male authority, which pervades respectable Victorian society. Paradoxically, the unconventionality of his themeromantic idealism dissolving into a mere sentimental passion (Golden, 1973, p. 268)needs an orthodox structurethe sonnetwhich is nevertheless experimented upon in order to shock the audience.
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Women: Demons or Angels?

It would be interesting now to look at those sonnets of Modern Love in which the female protagonist, the unnamed wife, and the husbands mistress subvert the Victorian idea(l) of woman. Contrary to contemporary stereotypes, it is the husbands point of view that dominates the narration of his pain and anger at his wifes adultery. However, although the speaker shows very little insight in the wifes emotional state, there is neither overt condemnation of the woman nor piety for the man. Indeed, Meredith deliberately charges both protagonists with contributing to the failure of their marriage. Surprisingly enough, as Jones (1999) had recognized: The effect [of his wifes adultery] on Meredith was to deepen the sympathy for women that resounds as a leitmotiv through all his novels (p. 94). The sonnet sequence opens with the couple in bed: She is weeping, he is becoming aware that the reason for her coldness is her passion for someone else. She lay/stone-still (Meredith, 1995, I, p. 2)2, thinking of another man, and the following morning, she appears in all her guilty beauty before her husband as:
A star with lurid beams, she seemed to crown The pit of infamy: and then again He fained on his vengefulness, and strove To ape the magnanimity of love, And smote himself, a shuddering heap of pain. (II, p. 3)
A mixture of love and hatred, desire and revulsion at the sight of her agitates her husbands mind, although he cannot help recognizing that his wife is not the only one responsible for the dissolution of their marriage. She is also seductive and determined, and for this reason she is seen as a bitter barren woman (VI, p. 7), a devilish malignant witch (IX, p. 10), a banished angel (XXIII, p. 24) whose cruel lovely pallor which surrounds her footsteps, and that nun-like look (XXIV, p. 25), still exert a strong power on him, a power involving senses, heart, and mind. Unlike the devoted, remissive wife of Victorian imaginary, she literally dominates the relationship: (1) It is the wife who has the faculty to choose between husband and lover (XXV, p. 26); (2) It is the wife who holds the reins of the story; and (3) It is the wife who controls the husbands states of mind. Moreover, her unconventionality lies in the fact that, whatever sin she commits against her husband, society, and religion, we readers cannotand Meredith himself with usbut take her side (Holmes, 2010, p. 533). Obviously, by opting for adultery and the violation of Victorian sexual mores, the wife affirms herself by appropriating mens social behavior for her own purposes, and for all that even the speaker, notwithstanding his feelings of extreme jealousy, makes us sympathize with her. Also the mistress, who is described as a woman who has wit (XXXI, p. 32) and the rarest gift to beauty, Common Sense (XXXII, p. 33), is unconventional in her accepting a Platonic love that significantly diverge from the expected behavior. Instead of being the dark seductress, the tempting demon of traditional imagery, the lady is a fair angel whose wit and wisdom paradoxically make her an ideal of femininity. Here we have a startling subversion of the two stereotypes (as cited in Golden, 1973, pp. 274-275) that testifies to the complexity and the distortion of the husbands vision of love. In dramatizing the relationship/conflict between husband and wife, man and mistress, Meredith offers a vision of the woman that uniquely departs from the Victorian ideal.
2
All quotations are from this edition. Hereafter sonnet number and page reference will appear in the text.
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Such a dramatization, however, results in exposing and resisting an epistemic framework that, in Merediths view, is growing obsolete and unsuitable to modern times.
Subversion of the Victorian Idea(l) of Femininity

This need for an urgent epistemic change is even more evident in Merediths novels. The author of this paper would like to focus her attention on one of Merediths last novels, written in 1894, Lord Ormont and His Aminta, that can be seen, as Roberts (1997) has aptly argued, as the culmination of a sequence of Meredithian approaches to the theme of female liberation from patriarchal marriage (p. 240). Aminta Farrell, the novels heroine, comes after the experience of other heroines such as Clara Middleton in The Egoist (1879) and Diana Warwick in Diana of the Crossways (1884), whose courageous attempts at extricating themselves from betrothal and marriage have paved the way for a more daring challenge to the Victorian institutions for the legitimation of womens free will. At its publication in 1894, Lord Ormont and His Aminta was coldly if not negatively received by the critics who considered it as weak, empty, unnatural and incredible, even unspeakable as James (1980, pp. 485-486) called it in a letter to Edmund Gosse. Not only does the story pose a moral problema young woman abandons her old husband to start a new (adulterous yet in a sense morally legitimized) life with a younger suitor; it also raises a host of questions about female education, free will, and resistance to social stereotypes. As usual in Merediths novels, Lord Ormont and His Aminta begins with a chapter in which facts preceding the story are told in order to give the reader proper information about past events involving the main characters. In Chapter I, we find a schoolgirl, Aminta (Browny) Farrell, the novels heroine, and a schoolboy, Matthew (Matey) Weyburn, the modern hero. Since their first meeting, Aminta appears in all her eccentricity: She is beautiful but [] she was dark enough to get herself named Browny. In the absence of a fair girl of equal height to set beside her, Browny shone (Meredith, 1916, p. 3). Although the nickname given by the boys suggests that her beauty does not correspond to traditional standards, it is recognized that she is a shining beauty. The oxymoron Browny shone signals a subversion of conventional images of female beauty:
Some of the boys regretted her not being fair. But, as they felt, and sought to explain, in the manner of the wag of a tail, with elbows and eyebrows to one anothers understanding, fair girls could never have let fly such look; fair girls are softer, woollier, and when they mean to look serious, overdo it by craping solemn; or they pinafore a jigging eagerness, or hoist propriety on a chubby flaxen grin; or else they dart an eye, or they mince and prim and pout, and are sigh-away and dying-ducky, given to girls tricks. Browny, after all, was the girl for Matey. (Meredith, 1916, p. 4)
In Chapter II, the story starts by presenting a married couple, Lord Ormont, a middle-aged man, the hero of the British Navy, and his wife, the young Aminta Farrell, married in Spain and never officially presented in society. She is now the wife of a cavalry general whom she, as a schoolgirl, worshipped but, just like her unconventional appearance, she lives an unconventional marriage that will be rejected in order to gain independence as a new woman with a new man.
The Sea Imagery as Narrative Strategy

As far as we are concerned here, it must be recognized that Aminta is the most audacious of Merediths heroine in terms of sexual behavior. Portraying her as belonging to nature and free from social concerns is a part
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of the writers evolutionary perspective according to which it is the female who selects her mate, or at the very least has the option of rejecting those who do not please her (Smith, 1995, p. 61). Aminta is very often described in connection with the sea: She swims; she loves the sea deeply; she has a sea-mind (Meredith, 1916, pp. 254, 279, 320). Time and again, the sea imagery is used to refer to Aminta and her relationship with Matthew and the sea flowing is also reflected in the language and style. In the climactic scene of the novel contained in Chapter XXVII, significantly titled A Marin Duet, the two protagonists are transformed into sea creatureswater-flowers, sea-birdsto mean a supreme spiritual freedom (Soccio, 2001, pp. 116-121). After meeting in the sea, the two swim together in a sort of divine union celebrated by old Triton:
For nothing further would astonish her, as he rightly understood her; but he said: Youre prepared for the rites? Old Triton is ready. Float, and tell me. They spun about to lie on their backs. Her right hand, at piano-work of the octave-shake, was touched and taken, and she did not pull it away. Her eyelids fell. Old Triton waits. Why? Were going to him. Yes? Customs of the sea. Tell me. He joins hands. We say, Browny-Matey, and its done. She splashed, crying Swim, and after two strokes, You want to beat me, Matey Weyburn. How? Not fair! Say what. Take my breath. But, yes! well be happy in our own way. Were sea-birds. Weve said adieu to land. Not to one another. We shall be friends? Always. This is going to last? Ever so long. They had a spell of steady swimming, companionship to inspirit it. [] They swam silently, high, low, creatures of the smooth green roller. He heard the water-song of her swimming. She, though breathing equably at the nostrils, lay deep. The water shocked at her chin, and curled round the under lip. He had a faint anxiety; and, not so sensible of a weight in the sight of land as she was, he chattered, by snatches, rallied her, encouraged her to continue sportive for this once, letting her feel it was but a once and had its respected limit with him. So it was not out of the world. (Meredith, 1916, pp. 321-322)3
The scene is imbued with symbolic meaning. The almost obsessive recurrence of words, whether belonging or referring to the sea, and the mythological allusion to sea-gods evoke a fantastic atmosphere that leaves no doubt about the narrators purpose of creating an unique dimension for the couple. By using the sea as an organic metaphor (Beer, 1970, p. 103) that stands for birth and life, purity and innocence, and fertility and sexuality, Meredith (1916) suggested that Matthew and Aminta are made of the same fluid substance and thus made for one another. Fluidity means change and adaptability, that same change which late nineteenth-century society invoked, and that same adaptability which was necessary to the survival of the fittest.
3
Italics added.
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The marine duet scene is, moreover, extremely subversive in exposing the sexual side of the protagonists, whose marriage of true minds is celebrated in the sea. The description of the couple in total union with nature, and very far from the constraints of civil society, establishes a new paradigm extolling what the Victorian social conventions disapproved. As can be easily observed, in the following scene Matthew and Aminta recognize one another as the boy and girl of many years backMatey and Brownyonly to affirm that they are grown up and fully aware of their choices:
Was [Matey] unaware that they were boy and girl again?she washed pure of the intervening years, new born, by blessing of the sea; worthy of him here!that is, a swimmer worthy of him, his comrade in salt water. Youre satisfied I swim well? she said. It would go hard with me if we raced a long race. I really was out for France. I was ordered to keep you for England. She gave him Brownys eyes. Weve turned our backs on Triton. The ceremony was performed. When? The minute I spoke of it and you splashed. Matey! Matey Weyburn! Browny Farrell! Oh, Matey! shes gone! Shes here. Try to beguile me, then, that our holidays not over. You wont forget this hour? No time of mine on earth will live so brightly for me. I have never had one like it. I could go under and be happy; go to old Triton, and wait for you; teach him to speak your proper Christian name. He hasnt heard it yet,heard Matey,never yet has been taught Matthew. Aminta! (Meredith, 1916, pp. 323-324)4
At a symbolic level, the ceremony of the ideal wedding has been performed before old Tritonthe mythological messenger of the sea, who stands for the divinity officiating the union of the two and justifies, on a moral level, what would never be allowed on a social level. Moreover, the sea imagery implies a sort of sexual experience that conveys the complete union of man and woman in body and soul. By emphasizing the pagan-like sentiment for the natural elements, Meredith offers his version of modernity for which the female ethical point of view prevails. It is not a surprise, then, that the novels hero is called the brother of women (Meredith, 1916, p. 285), a new man who is able to read women and treat them on an equal level. Finally, the reference to Matthews penchant for teaching in the last few lines of the above quotation alludes to the constant interest in pedagogy that runs throughout the novel. In fact, one of the most crucial issues discussed in Merediths corpus in connection with his study of women and gender roles is education. In Lord Ormont and His Aminta, Merediths critique of marriage is also developed through a sense of the urgency to change the education system in favor of a higher number of women to be allowed in schools. Teaching is the main aspiration that the protagonists of this novel hold in common: they will set up a school in Switzerland whose project is to bring all nationalities [] without distinction of race and religion and station (Meredith, 1916, p. 155) together, with boys and girls in one group, never separated, declaring it the only way for them to learn to know and to respect one another (Meredith, 1916, p. 31). This is Merediths most progressive view of
4
Italics added.
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society: only by improving the education system and allowing both young men and young women to take part in it, can society develop toward real progress. At the end of the novel, Amintas role as co-educator and her choice of a partnership based on equality and respect (Jones, 1999, p. 169) rather than a marriage with a respectable member of the English upper class summarize Merediths idea of womanhood which violates the Victorian sense of social order. In championing the womens cause for social rights, Meredith contributes, perhaps more than any other male writer in the fin de sicle, to change the 19th-century image of woman and sets out on new paths for future developments.
Conclusions
In conclusion, both in poetry (Modern Love) and in fiction (Lord Ormont and His Aminta), Meredith offers two examples of his strategies to represent a new model of women and to forge an alternative notion of femininity. As can be seen in the works discussed above, Meredith is interested in showing what women think and feel, and thus, he constructs his stories by subverting traditional stereotypes and common ideas of womanhood and relationship between the sexes. By developing female plots, that is to say, fictional patterns which make the womans mind and her intellectual abilities emerge as driving forces in the progress of society, Meredith undoubtedly prefigures certain the 20th-century key concerns about female conditions and female struggle for self-determination.
References
Beer, G. (1970). Meredith: A change of masks: A study of the novels. London: The Athlone Press. Crowell, K. (2010, Winter). Modern love and the sonetto caudato: Comedic intervention through the satiric sonnet form. Victorian Poetry, 48(4), 539-557. Gardiner, J. (2002). The Victorians: An age in retrospect. Hambledon and London: Hambledon Continuum. Golden, A. (1973, Summer). The game of sentiment: Tradition and innovation in Merediths modern love. ELH, 40(2), 264-284. Griest, G. L. (1970). Mudies circulating library and the Victorian novel. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Holmes, J. (2010, Winter). Darwinism, feminism, and the sonnet sequence: Merediths modern love. Victorian Poetry, 48(4), 523-538. James, H. (1980). Letters. L. Endel (Ed.). London and Basingstoke: Macmillan. Jones, M. (1999). The amazing Victorian: A life of George Meredith. London: Constable. Marroni, F. (2010). Victorian disharmonies: A reconsideration of nineteenth-century English fiction. Cranbury: Associated University Press. McGhee, R. D. (1980). Marriage, duty and desire. Lawrence: Regents Press of Kansas. Meredith, G. (1913). An essay on comedy and the uses of comic spirit. London: Constable. Meredith, G. (1916). Lord Ormont and his Aminta. London: Constable. Meredith, G. (1995). Modern love. G. Beer (Ed.). London: Penguin-Syrens. Meredith, W. M. (Ed.). (1912). Letters of George Meredith. New York. Scribners Son. Roberts, N. (1997). Meredith and the novel. Basingstoke and London: Macmillan. Ruskin, J. (1932). Sesame and lilies. G. E. Hollingworth (Ed.). London: W. B. Clive. Smith, J. (1995, June). The cock of lordly plume: Sexual selection and the egoist. Nineteenth-Century Literature, 50(1), 51-77. Soccio, A. E. (2001). George Meredith: Romanzo e sperimentazione. Pescara: Edizioni Campus. Stevenson, L. (1954). The ordeal of George Meredith. London: Peter Owen. Woods, A. (1937). George Meredith as a champion of women and of progressive education. Oxford: Blackwell. Woolf, V. (1932). The common reader (2nd Series). London: The Hogarth Press.
DA VID
PUBLISHING
Artistic Practices [Between] Gender and Technologies*

Maia Creus Castellana
ESDi-Universidad Ramn Llull, Barcelona, Espaa
This paper was carried out by the group of professorsMaia Creus, Tamara Daz, and Ins Martins from the Design Analysis and Prospective Department, with the collaboration of the Catalan Institute for Women, Generalitat de Catalunya. Maia Creus and Ins Martins are parts of the research group TADD (Theory, Analysis, Design, and Development) recognized by Ramon Llull University. The research, based on feminist and performance studies, focuses on artistic groups currently working in Catalonia and whose practices produce tools and technology sharing, highlight the social and educational potential of ICTs (information and communication technologies) free access when used, consciously and critically, from feminist perspectives assumed. The research project was developed as a dual methodological process. This research group has developed a critical review of the three conceptual axeswomen, art, and technologyaround which revolves the present study and, in parallel, has conducted field work directly with groups of selected artists, in order to meet them within their areas of production and to know more about their working methods, theoretical discourse, goals, frustrations, and desires. This deployment in parallel was used to develop a group of key concepts that revolve around free culture and culture of access that in contrast with the practices and theories of the investigated groups are necessary to intercept and reinterpret. Through various forms of visibility, this paper intends to investigate, promote, and share these tools, technologies, and pedagogies developed by these groups which, by its own dynamics of collective work, as well as the processes of public participation, emphasize forms of interculturality and interdisciplinary. Keywords: contemporary art, Catalonia, gender, tactical use of technology, public space, political activism, design for the 21st century
Introduction
Even though the relationship between art and technology is crucial to understand the current state of artistic practices, the center of interest of this work revolves around a very specific question: To do research on how and why, in the hands of certain women artists, ICTs (information and communication technologies) have taken giant steps, not only as creativity and production instruments, but also as a means of reflection to face new political, social, and cultural problems of our present. Our field of study is delimited to artists or artists groups, who use ICT and cybernetic space to develop collaborative practices with collective purposes and community interests. So we are talking about creativity as a political power for its will and ability to from spaces of shared and divergent interests to regular forms of sensitive experience. The artists of our research carry out one of the fundamental premises of feminist theory that we could sum up in this idea: To transform
This investigation is still a work in progress which, to the present, has generated three diffusion documents: a speech in CIDIC 2012, the audiovisual: artistic practices [between] gender and technologies, and this paper. Maia Creus Castellana, doctor, Unidad Departamental de Anlisis y Prospectiva del Diseo, ESDi-Universidad Ramn Llull.
*
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ARTISTIC PRACTICES [BETWEEN] GENDER AND TECHNOLOGIES
society a critical philosophy is not enough, it is indispensable to go from theory to practical action. For the artists included in the present study, to go from thinking to action raises, among others, the following questions: (1) To what extent ICT is not a way still more subtle of alienation of new global capitalism?; (2) To what extent ICT are instruments highly subtle for an invisible technology but equally effective for the establishment of certain political technologies that allow and perpetuate relationships between knowledge and power?; and (3) To what extent the democratic use of ICT is not the new myth of the 21st century democracies?. This critical perspective, certainly, is not circumscribed to feminist studies and practices and, however, it is the feminist perspective in the methodologies and knowledge fields which is generating a change of unknown dimensions in all spheres of current knowledge. This transforming principle is no other than a methodological change. The feminist perspective, in front of knowledge with a universality ambition, fully current in structural injustices that determine the globalization process, defend a knowledge as a basic tool that enables achieving a widen sense of objectivity and an more cross understanding of the social thing. The question raised here is as the following: Due to the fact that identities in diaspora and transnational flows of people, goods, and ideas are constituent facts of globalization, the question is determining how we can explain and take care of this spread multiplicity of hybrid subjectivities. Due to the fact that our research has been carried out in the framework of a school of design, the author would like to stop, shortly, in noting possible relationship links between certain values of feminist theory and a culture of design for the 21st century. Design, as a complex discipline, is not reduced to principles of shape, function, market, technology, and production. On the contrary, the intellectual state of design includes determinants directly related to subsistence and dignity. From time immemorial the work of artisans, as the work of artists and architects, has been related to the civic commitment in the shared building of polis and civitas. Direct heiress of this humanist conception of culture, design discipline is still a civic challenge; an aware practice of its power to transform and modify the material and immaterial realities of the world. If we bear in mind its evolving logics and its final objectives, art and design would be two different disciplines, because they point to apparently different universes. The symbolic and expressive universe of art seems to be opposed to rational, logical, and pragmatic field of design. And, however, this feeling tends to blur to the extent that: On one hand, most of the contemporary artistic practices stop looking at art as a purpose in itself; and, on the other hand, current design immersed in are vision process of its borders, its symbolic and communicative potentials, as well as its social responsibilities in a world intervened by productivity logics. Due to these premises, we can transpose some of the questions of feminist thinking and practice to design field: (1) From which human impulse design arises?; (2) To which interests it answers?; (3) Which are its tangible benefits and its intangible benefits?; (4) Who are the beneficiaries of the improvements that design contributes to the world?; and (5) Is it transparency or opacity the motor that impulses design industry?. If we understand design as a practice engaged to the building of polis and civitas, then it shares a structural and fundamental principle of feminist thinking: to think civitas within the polis and outside it. From this conceptual framework, we may formulate the following premise: Due to the fact that feminist theory, as well as design discipline, are two activities where intellectual state is unthinkable outside direct action on world materiality, we can deduce that design and feminism are two forms of thinking in action, that point to life as a value in itself. Then again the essential questions of all the feminist thinking: What life is? Who gives life? Who has right to life? Who has the power over life? Who looks after life and how can we improve it?
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Design, art, and feminist practices converge in the humanistic concept of culture as a genuinely human power expressed in the wish to transform the reality of the world we live in. In this way, cultural products will not arise from what we have nor from what we are but from dissatisfaction, from an aware and critical reaction to distortion, contradictions, and dissatisfactions of each community and historical moment. We can say, in this sense, that art and design share the same wish to identify what would be necessary to improve human forms of life; to achieve the horizon, a good life for all, included life of the planet we live in. From this hypothesis, the feminist perspective, art practices and design would share the ethical principle of a critical and responsible position towards social purposes and consequences of our technological state of global effects. They would share the need to turn cultural productions into mechanisms able to generate more fair and relational life forms; to stimulate consensus and resistance processes to coded forms of thinking and living. To promote aesthetic attitudes showing, in the words of Rancire (2005), the ethical turn of certain cultural practices that are political indeed, not the exercise of power and the struggle for power but the creation of spaces for design and disagreement; to make possible new ways of thinking and make visible what is still not visible; to develop concepts and languages able to open each present in order to make possible the happening of what is new.
Revision of Structural Terms of Our Research

In our research, we share a fundamental principle of contemporary critical theory according to which, to create new realities, to create world, first you need to create new words, a new semantic. According to this idea, the cognitive processes cannot contribute great things to present consciousness if our thinking is not, in itself, creative and able to reinvent and update language through which we represent reality. The construction of a theory is able to read our present depends, in large part, on the acceptance of the performing ability of language. We know that words not only describe reality but also build it1. Our research group takes part in thoughts that today accept the performing ability of language. For this reason, we think that it is more necessary than ever to take care and a special attention in choosing and redefinition of a vocabulary appropriate to knowledge fields and work objectives. At this critical operative, the first question arisen has been to deal with a revision and updating the three words that form the structural main idea of our research, woman, art, and technology, today subject to an intense disruption and conceptual displacement.
From the Idea of Woman in Feminine to Discourse About Gender

Several feminist critics have reaffirmed the suitability of psychoanalysis to understand in which way subjectivity and gender are formed and modeled; what is feminine and what is masculine. Identifiers model leading to identity conceived by Freud enables to understand how rules are internalized, and to show that sexual
Performativity notion in Western thinking comes from the philosopher John Langshaw Austin with the posthumous book How to Do Things With Words (1962). One of the most innovative aspects of this English linguist is to state that the most part of our speech acts is destined to make (perform) a particular action. The idea is that, apart from stating expressions (those that can be true or false), the most part of linguistic expressions are used to do something with words, that is, to do a different act of simply saying something. From here arise realising expressions (performing) characterized by establishing a type of relationship with facts very different from the one that establish stating statements. Austin offers to us the awareness that language is an action and at the same time an instrument of our action. So language depends on a more general theory that is a theory of the action. A reference name in performing research of language is Judit Butler (2004). The author moves the performing notion to the idea of identity understood as a reflective process that takes place in language. This involves conceiving the being as a process both linguistic and collective. We are performed by language and, therefore, language is the condition of possibility of our existence. It is according to language that we become what we are every moment.
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and gender roles assignment is not natural but an arbitrary and cultural process regulated by dominant patriarchal trends. As Butler (1990) affirmed later on, what is feminine as what is repudiated/excluded within the system is the possibility of a criticism and the disruption of this conceptual diagram. The criticism to the idea of subject inherited from modern tradition has been one of the most important focuses of cultural and social transformation over the last years. The question about the subject, not only the feminine subject, but also the notion of subjectivity itself has been an essential point in the meeting between feminist studies and critical philosophy over the last decades of the 20th century. Feminist criticism has made visible the gender nuance implicit in the notions of reason, objectivity and universal values, always with an orientation to what is masculine. Feminist studies and practices have become one of the most active sources of transformation in dismantling of the emancipating project of the modernity implicated, we remind it, an authoritarian and universal vision from which are excluded different limit indicators: women, the others of different ethnic group or race, and natural environment. According to these premises, the existence of the other becomes a condition of possibility of the authors identity. There is no me as an aware reality if we do not accept that there is an other. The objective of feminist studies and democratic politics is to transform this antagonism in conjunction, that is, to advance in accepting values and interests in conflict, or, as Foucault (1976) said, an analyses of the relationships between power and knowledge, power and sexuality. Here the notions of deconstruction and difference are fundamental. Derrida (1967a) put deconstruction within philosophy field as a knowledge method. First of all, deconstruction suggests dismantling logocentrism of cultural tradition in the West. It means a radical criticism to all possibility of an important meaning or conceptual idea or semantics as a last and absolute value. There is no metaphysical world but the continuation of textual works. There is nothing outside the text. Deconstruction means a dissemination or opening of the sense and the acceptance of a built notion of subjectivity. We become what we are exclusively for the differed action of our experiences. In feminist theories, deconstruction and criticism of the difference entailed a new wave of rewritings and revisions. Identity notion is now theorized as a difference of what is feminine in this space of differing. More and more aware of its political and action strength focused on a performing definition of identity, cultural theory and artistic practices have worked in the proposal of non-identity models of subjectivity. In this way it is fundamental to mention Judith Butler2. The author thinks that gender and sexuality are acts, actions, and not key aspects of an essential identity. We are not of a particular gender or sexuality, but we repeatedly act according to rules3 imposed in a psychic way. Since the 1990s, expansion of this critical theory has gone still
2 The development of post-structuralist thinking was fundamental for the criticism of modern individual. The modern idea of the individual being as a self-aware, balanced and unitbeing is moved by the idea of individual as a contingent, dispossessed of basis and temporal being. Judith Butler, in a criticism of subjectivity within a feminist perspective, reminds that reflection from thewoman cannot only refer to those beings defined to this effect by the historical representation of sexual identity, but rather has to be the horizon to a criticism that identifies sexual identity, representation, and individual as ideological impositions. See Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge. 3 See Judith Butler (1993), Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex. In this text, the author stated that it is the compulsory repetition of certain sexual and gender behaviors which forms the identity effects. They create the illusion of a focus of an interior and organizing gender, illusion maintained by means of a normative discourse with the aim of regulate sexuality within the compulsory framework of reproductive heterosexuality. Identity, the fact of being individual of this or that gender or sexual orientation, is present in the assigned repetition, so it is performing. Gender, therefore, is a construction that constantly hides its genesis. The construction forces us to believe in its need and naturalness; and however, this repetition is unstable and has inside the possibilities of its own subversion due to the fact that mind always fails when expressing itself. In the book Excitable Speech: A politics of Speech Act (1997), Butler moves the performing theory to social field.
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farer. From a critical point of view, tradition criticism is at stake, that is, which strengths and aspirations or conditions have more probability to put us aside from the inert repetition of thinking habits. In the affirmative sense, the question is determining how we can grow the political will of change and transformation, the active willing and desire of positive and creative changes. The 21st century feminisms point to a consciousness of the privilege positions of each one, as a starting point for an understanding of the world from an ethical responsibility in front of a globalized world, where forms with which people identifyin terms of race, gender, and sexualitykeeps on conditioning personal and social relationships. The main idea carried out by new feminisms of a global world is the impossibility of the one-way vision of the world. From this perspective, Braidotti (1991, 1994) started an unknown concept of nomad subjectivity and moves forward to the idea of a feminist future to reach a new diagram of human subjectivity. In the development of this consciousness revolution, women have a privileged role, but they are not the only active subjects. Philosophical nomadism is based on the cartography of our historical condition that stresses the relevance of the not-unitary vision of the subject. The starting point is a critical vision of the Western ethical and the idea that individualism is the position that better fulfils the responsibility, in a cognitive and moral sense. In Braidottis thinking, the ethical responsibility is closely related to political awareness of positions and privileges of everyone. Consequently, the feminist ethics is interested in emotion and human passions understood as the driving force of subjectivity and not for the moral content of purpose. Feminism, among other social movements, has been extremely eloquent and innovative in the production of new views of the individual and its values. The feminist contemporary philosophy has a range of applications more general than ever. On one side, it works from a universal horizon. But feminist universalism is located, partial, and responsible4. From this perspective, the universal concept of woman is moved to plural women, and to political concept of gender.
From the Idea of Art to Artistic Practices

The question around the idea of woman, art, and technology, and its inscription in the contemporary art reality cannot be separated from the two cultural revolts that have transformed contemporary art from top to bottom. We are referring to political awareness inherited from experimental tradition of historical avant-garde, and to the second wave of feminist movements and its incorporation to cultural spaces and institutions. After World War II5, the artists answer before the new social, political, and economic reality is opened out from an implacable criticism to all forms of authority, also aesthetic
4 See Rosi Braidotti (2006), Transpositions: On Nomadic Ethics. Cambridge: Polity Press. Following post-structuralist thinkingMichel Foucault (1976), Julia Kristeva (1991), Jacques Derrida (1997), Massimo Cacciari (1994), and Gilles Deleuze (Deleuze Guattari, 1980), among othersBraidotti decidedly carried on with this criticism of European humanism in the new global world. Bradotti suggested a movement actively committed to social and cultural conditions defining location of everybody. The final objective is to negotiate resistance spaces against new dominant narratives of global economy. Braidotti positioned against a unit subjectivity and in favor of a nomad subjectivity which is based on a widen sense of interconnection between oneself and others, as an ethical way of resistance to contemporary neoliberal neo-conservatism. 5 After 1945 and crimes against humanity, the art debate moves from the worry for the form to the research of its sense within history. This questioning has determined a fundamental change in the construction of a critical theory to inherited values. Forms that guaranteed to the author a common environment and ensured certain awareness to social link lost its pregnanceand collapsed. Philosophical generation that promulgated the death of the man was simultaneously anti-fascist, post-communist and post-humanist and led to repudiation the classical definition of European identity as humanist, rational, and universal. Feminist philosophies also note the European ethnocentric nature and the need of opening it to others inside and reposition diversity as a structural component of contemporary subjectivity.
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authority. In this historical context, the objective of art is to cause a radical transformation in all its languages; to block traditional forms of relationship and perception between art and its publics. Art becomes a radical laboratory. Artists made art a space from which rethinking all the inherited traditions and all the received ideas. The keywords defining this historical moment of art are conceptualism, community, and consensus. This is a very known history both in Europe and the United States, and however, as Lippard (2009) had recently remembered, conceptual art history has tended to hide that conceptualisms both from north and south arose, to a large extent, from political ferment of that time that arrived relatively late to art world. The idea of art remained conceptually and intentionally related to certain ideas and aims borrowed from political-social movements of direct revolt. From this implication of art in what is common arise the first formulations of apolitical concept of art. It is in this context that along the 1960s and 1970s, the concept of public art6 takes shape as an answer of artists to the valid rules of an art understood as an autonomous reality separated from life surroundings. From its origin, public art practices take position in the need of an art without frontiers and made from an ideological point of view. Public art has as starting point a criticism to aristocratic and elitist nature of museums and to the division between culture and real interests of people. From the last decades of the 20th century, artistic practices involved in the public sphere have assaulted the virtual universe as a new mechanism of political fight. Influenced by neo-Marxism, feminist theories and cultural studies, public options and, therefore, art policies, try to examine and analyze the environments of private existence to understand its impact on social space. New modalities of aesthetic resistance invented by public orientation art do not depend on an expression of negativity anymore, but on creativity7. The experimental aspect of art makes a radical change towards a criticism of city spaces, urban planning, design, or architecture. The public practice of art suggests a radical conceptual change: It suggests proposals according to which life spaces are not empty and neutral, but ideological and social. In this way, space, more than a previous dimension (a place or a setting), is the result of an activity, so it is temporary, historical and symbolic8. The city is a set of identities that join in, confront, and live. The public art is interested in an analysis of the city functioning. To reveal the universal and authoritarian codes or patterns determining peoples behaviors. Gender identity (masculine or feminine) is also product of an unequal distribution of existence social production responsibilities clearly benefiting masculinity. Gender values are product of the social environment (oral and body language), what is public faced up to what is private (Corts, 2006). Cities and sexualities form and are formed by social life dynamics. Both reflect the ways in which daily life is organized, the ways in which it is represented, perceived, and understood, and the forms with which the different groups face reactions before these conditions (as cited in Corts, 2006, p. 149).
The current studies on public art distinguish, formally and conceptually, three notions and three paradigms of public art: art in public spaces (sculptures within the social space); art as a public space (relationships between public sculpture and location are investigated; art with public interest, which objective is to suggest a transformation of culture from the art praxis itself. This option formulates new ideas around what is public and works for a new link between art and reality. 7 These ways of thinking the art function and the artist activity dip its roots in May 68 and its verbal radicalism. From the problematic relationship between art and public and social space point of view, Guy Debord and La Internacional Situacionista continue to be indisputable points of reference. By means of its practices and texts, they tried to make visible the evident alienation of modern daily life, the all-embracing effects of advanced capitalism and its consumer dreams factory. See Ken Knabb (1991). 8 As Henri Lefbvre (2000) explained: spatial practice is dramatized thanks to potential energies of several groups return life flows to the homogeneous space of urban planning and architecture (p. 450). La production de lespace,Anthropos, Paris.
6
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What Are We Talking About Nowadays When We Refer to the Relationship Between Art and Technology?
In a moment in which both information processing tools and contents are accessible to all, there is the feeling that we are immersed in a boomerang effect. That is, the idea that, after claiming and exalting the democratizing and liberating potential that ICT should offer, use and social implementation policies are contributing to opposite effects is spreading and taking root9. In a context like the current one where science and technology have become genuine mediator forms of watching, thinking, and living reality, there are many artists that choose to carry on and reinvent the assault to show society10 and its production conditions. Facing false social agreementbuilt thanks to the subjugating power of mediasome artists reopen away to disagreement from art practices. The objective is a critic unfolding of prescription processes of bodies, social spaces, and human behaviors. The commitment of art with an ideology of cultural activism comes back11. The term ideology is within the art theoretical discourse to highlight the social processes through which meanings and identities are produced. This notion of ideology, which incorporates ideas from psychoanalysis and linguistics fields, does not only imply ideas and beliefs production, but the creation of identities or subjectivities with which these ideas or beliefs incarnate. Or indeed, focuses the attention on the fact that we become individuals marked by determinants of gender, race and class imposed through certain social processes determined by public and political interests. This ideological framework of an art implicated in its own historical context has been adopted as a new fighting mechanism12 in certain current artistic practices. The criticism as an idea of art does not need to place itself outside the system anymore. Its fight is the distinction and distancing as a revolutionary index (Deleuze & Guattari, 1975). The idea of art is concentrated on singularity facing what is common and homogeneous, and on mapping creative practices that, without being carried out from the idea of art, can function as art. The question around the relationship between (art-technology-society) has been formulated from a more positive and encouraging perspective by Hindu theorist Appadurai (2001). The author positively notes the fact that technological means of globalized communication societies spread identity and lifestyles scripts that later can be recreated by each one of us in new combinations of cultural meanings, imagination has get rid of its limited role in art field to be part of daily mental work of regular people. Certainly, from its entering the scene, ICTs have awakened among citizens reactions in favor and against utopias and
9
See Jess Carrillo (2004), Arte en la red. Madrid: Ctedra. The author does not limit to depict the operative and conceptual assault of art in virtual world but he also formulates critical questions unresolved like to what extent virtual network is not a media still more subtle of cultural industry and global neoliberalism. 10 This concept was launched by Guy Debourd in his well-known work: La socit du spectacle (1973) (The 1994 Zone Books Edition). 11 In this context, we use the widen concept of ideology as a non-unit set of social practices and representation systems with political consequences. Firstly theorized by Louis Althusser, this concept was incorporated and revised by Griselda Pollock, pioneer of gender studies and feminist theory of art. Pollock uses the concept of ideology making reference, in general terms, to processes by means of which meanings and identities are produced. See Rozsika Parker and Griselda Pollock (1987). 12 The word mechanism is a capital term in contemporary critical theory. It has its origin in Foucaults thinking in the middle 1970s when he began to think about problems of governability or government of men. See Michel Foucault (1994). Foucault defines the term mechanism as a kind of training that in a particular historical moment has had as main function to answer an emergency. In this sense, the mechanism has a predominantly strategic function. So the mechanism is always linked to the power game; to strategies of force relationships that support some types of knowledge and at the same time lean on them. Therefore, all mechanism involves a subjectivation process; embodies models of subjectivity. Giorgio Agamben has analysed the evolution of this concept in the text Che cos un dispositivo? (2006). Translated in: Qu vol dir ser contemporani? (2008).
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dystopias of all kinds. But it is also true that to live in a global world stresses the possibility that image, what is imagined and the imaginary technologically influenced lead into symbolic-expressive practices that, in its hybrid and spread ordinariness, widen what before was limited to the selective framework of high culture, to branch out in the popular world of dissemination and media consumption. From this perspective, we can wonder whether it is appropriate still to talk about art as a specific level of symbolic dimension; whether it is allowed to look in aesthetic experience for particular features in front of other discursive experiences and practices; and whether circulation forms of aesthetic products are distinguishable, although they permanently cross with other networks of cultural system. These questions have been formulated by philosopher Pau Alsina (2011) in the following way: We can think about a balance of forces, in an authentic coproduction between technology and society, where what is technologic would be socially built to the same extent in which what is social should be considered technologically formed (pp. 54-59). At this horizon, it is essential to have in mind certain forms of experimental art operating from the challenge of transform information technologies into technologies for empowerment13 of individuals and to promote their political power in the social space. The invasion of 2.0 devices is substantially modifying behavior and public incidence of citizens. People in masse and habitually use collaborative tools and social networks to interact with the rest of people. These tools are modifying relationships between private and professional world. This new situation has also been critically tackled from feminist perspectives. Late postmodernism have arisen new guiding narratives. The dominant guiding discourse of neoliberal post-feminism is based on the new genetic social imaginary and marks the return of the most classical forms of economic and social discrimination. Post-feminist movement has merged with neo-conservatism in gender relationships. The dominant post-feminist narrative reintroduces the exceptional woman syndrome existing before women movement introduced more egalitarian principles of interconnection, solidarity and team work. As Braidotti (2006) stated, because of structural injustices determined by the globalization process, the current geopolitical situation of women is more polarized than ever. The convergence of biotechnologies and new information technologies supported by Internet is an essential factor inducing a radical revision of body policy. Foucaults work on the discursive production of contemporary embodied individuals is the backdrop appropriate for this analysis14. Feminist scientist Dona Haraways (1997) work also started from the supposition that, in contemporary societies, life is understood as a manipulated system. The author maintains that contemporary science has gone beyond Foucaults bio-power concept and is already in the domination computing period, that is a different regime of display and control. One of the effects of biotechnologies and genetic social imaginary is the return to discourses and practices on real bodies. According to Rosi Braidotti (2006), techno-bodies are more
13 Empowerment philosophy has its origin in popular education theories of Paulo Freire developed from the sixties. Although the concept of empowerment is applicable to all vulnerable or marginalized groups, its birth and theoretical development has been done in relation with women. From feminist point of view, empowerment of women includes both individual change and collective action, and involves theradical alteration of processes and structures that reproduce the subordinate position of female sex. Since then, the term has widened its application field. Friedman (1992) noted that empowerment is related to access to three types of powers: (1) social, understood as an access to the basis of productive wealth; (2) political, or access of individuals to the process of taking decisions, above all those that affect the own future; and (3) psychological, understood in the sense of potentiality and individual ability. In a similar way, Rowlands (1997) noted three dimensions: (1) personal, as a development of the sense of me, confidence and individual ability; (2) close relationships, as an ability to negotiate and influence nature of relationships and decisions; and (3) collective, as a participation in political structures and collective action based on cooperation. 14 Michel Foucault (1986) showed that not only built structure of what we call human nature, but also its relatively recent appearance to historical scene is what makes it coextensive with control forms and social disciplines.
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immersed than ever in power places, and contemporary policy is prone to massive exclusion phenomena while cyborgs are in a monetary connection not immune to racism or to traditional power relations. The renewed interest in body materiality is especially notable in contemporary feminist theory spheres combining scientific studies with references to cross subjectivity notion (Guattari, 2004) and to globalization criticism. These new feminisms recover micro-policies 15 concept and are concentrated on the function that can carry out techno-sciences as instruments to attack advanced capitalism. Feminist ethics exerts an important control of diversity policy notion, a concept transformed into very valued and marketable goods. In its commercialized form, diversity notion, Braidotti (2006) said, has increased uniformity of consumers habits and at the same time promotes proliferation of local differences and micro-diversities. In this way, differences also feed markets, because what is local is a political space built by global flows of capital. Due to the fact that proliferation of local differences in the name of its goods condition is one of the features of global economy, globalization nourishes from otherness incorporation. So we must try not to take literally any claim of identity and cultural difference (Bradotti, 2006).
Artistic Practices Between Gender and Technologies: When What Is Personal Is Digital
Our research has focused on artistic practices that in a provisional and contingent way intercept gender and technologies fields. At first, our work has focused on a short cartography of artists and groups residents in Catalonia which use us electronic and digital means in their production and/or circulation processes. Due to this premise, we have preferred to allude to identity modelsas could result from a research exclusively fitted to the only field of women working with new technologiesto tackle a cartography that emphasizes those practices involving collective pedagogies and alternative forms of exchange of knowledge, self-learning, and collaboration. With the title Artistic Practices Between Art and Technology, we want to delimit our research work to those artistic practices made by women, for which ICT mediation in their works meet the will to create collaborative platforms of knowledge, mediation, communication, and free distribution. For this reason, we have changed the term work for practices, a term that not only refers to the opening of languages, formats, and circulation channels, but also to disciplines and methodologies transversality. It puts the interest point in these intersectional spaces, on usual borders among cultural production languages, they tend to dilute. In this situation of cross of knowledge, disciplines, and ways of doing, the concept between that divides in two in this work title becomes the focus of maximum attention expressed in the following terms: (1) To what extent artistic practices in new media allow to answer other production of gender and identities technologies? And, how and by means of which processes, the selected artists actively and politically commit to fundamental questions like the idea of author, copyright, royalties, or knowledge transfer?; (2) To what extent experimentation and creativity include ethics towards free access culture?; and (3) To what extent feminist perspective is essential to make appear the great lie that goes with the affirmative discourse of technological progress accessible to everybody?. When from our research, we go back to the question around the relationship between gender and
15
What is really attractive of what is micro-political is that it makes reference to all that is part of specific cultures different from the hegemonic one; to all that aspects of daily life that normally stay hidden and that evoke practices and lives of wide sectors, that, generally, are outside historical reviews, and represent the minorities marginalized and/or condemned to silence. See Jos Miguel Corts (2003).
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technologies, we have decided to examine the potentials of this articulation in projects questioning the conventional ways of cultural practices production and circulation. On one hand, it is about answering the hegemony of a mythologized discourse of art in terms of autonomy, originality and individual authorship, to emphasize collective projects or those that involve the participation of other social agents. On the other hand, we are interested in research, divulge, and activate initiatives suggesting the invention of spaces and tools in the articulation of new technologies and feminist practices. Notions like pro-common, free culture, do it yourself, free technologies, recycling, alternative economy, access, and to share knowledge cross a large part of these efforts. In the interviews carried out, we have investigated the specific forms with which these collective processes are formalised, the participation models showed, the more or less authoritarian or participative forms of organization; inequality in time and tasks management, difficulties and advantages of common work. In this case, we were interested in tackling collectives not only as homogeneous identities but also as formations necessarily in tension and conflict, as it is usual in the political nature of any group. The researched practices include several formats and circulation channels that take from art field to social sciences, performance and audiovisual, music and interventions in public spaces; from activism to publications, seminars, and workshops. Precisely, the term between included in the title of our research puts our interest in intersections of these fields; the cross places among disciplines; and the between of knowledge and ways of doing. From here arises our interest in these hybrid proposals, where not only media but also circulation channels and public ones are constantly formed and modified. One of the emphasis centers of our research has been the question about tools and technologies, the access ways that each artist has had available, and also the way of sharing them. For the most of the creators and collectives interviewed, the choice of free technologies is understood not only as a political positioning, but also as a way of sustainability of projects themselves, because it allows forms of distribution, modification, feedback, and exchange which would not be maintained in other conditions of intellectual insecurity and restricted circulation. As well, in these artists and collective works, it is important to highlight its questioning to political and ideological uses of ICT. By contrast, the juxtaposition of words gender and technologies, in the title of our work, allows us to go beyond the limit of the term technologies beyond its usual sphere, to include it in the feminist studies discourse: Among the questions considered, we put the following question: To what extent artistic practices in new media allow to answer other technologies of gender and sexuality production? And, beyond this question, the question that these practices suggest is the possibility of broaden the horizon of what is common (as feminism has already done) with the inclusion of new debates and critical practices in the virtual and public space of 2.0 network.
Conclusions
In 1971, Nochlin in her foundational text, asked herself why in the history of art there has not been great women artists and also about the economic, social, and institutional structures that support the production and circulation of art. In that foundational text, Nochlin (1971) also noted that the history of art rarely investigates the conditions of production of the artwork. On the basis of this concealment, it has been founded much of the mythology of the genius. Indeed, one of the cornerstones of the conversations we shared with the artists and collectives of our research lies in the questions to their material conditions of their practices. Among other things, it has become clear that the artists, like most working women, have to manage
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their own time considering other responsibilities as the take care of other people, and insecurity, self-employment, moonlighting, the (un)paid work, or the possible sustainability strategies. In our question about the relationship between artistic practices, gender, and technologies, we have shown the potential of this articulation in at least seven ways. (1) In the context of art, against the hegemony of an over-mythicised discourse in terms of autonomy, originality, and individual authorship, we want to emphasize that there exists other practices based in collaborative projects that involve the participation of other social actors. (2) Digital technologies into the hands of many women artists, have given a crucial step in the context of certain political and social issues directly related to the free culture and culture of access. Therefore, this implies to actively act in the social networks, not only to achieve its democratizing potential, but also because users can overcome the current intellectual and procedural access barriers. (3) Technological culture has not only dramatically changed the language and purposes of art, but the paradigm of museum inherited of modernity. Today, the museum is theorized as an uncontrolled and a non-exclusion democratic place; a participative laboratory designed to create new forms of subjectivity. However, the triad museum/curator/critic is still a frontier for certain artistic practices that do not aim to the work production. Against this great force of art to produce, not only works, but cultural capital organized in borderless networks, how responds the museum of the 21st century, bearing in mind that it is still the most obvious symbol of the system of art? (4) The women artists of our research work in various formats and channels of circulation covering the field of art, social sciences, performance, broadcasting, music, and interventions in public spaces; from activism to the publications, seminars, and workshops. In this sense, we note that the term between included in the title of our research, situates our interest in the intersections, in the crossing between disciplines. Therefore, the between of knowledge and ways of doing things. (5) On the relationship between art and technology, we have been interested into highlighting how some women artists experiment with political intention, the dissident uses of technology. This diverted use, allows the emergence of other and different narratives such as, the deliberate use of noise and low resolution, and to emphasize the negative side of the equation (trial/error) as ironic vindication of the right and freedom to err. (6) The juxtaposition of the words gender and technology has enabled us to exceed the usual limits of the concept of authorship, nowadays diluted into ways of collective and collaborative work, and the one of work of art, dematerialized with practices that do not generate objects to be exhibited, but to share experiences and knowledge. In this regard, we remark that the women artists of our research include the technology beyond their usual sphere, to enroll it in the feminist discourse of the technologies of the self in the bio-political sense described by Foucault and Butler. (7) Finally, we want to emphasize that the ethic and politic dimension situate the artistic practices of our research in the stage of feminist theory of the 21st century. In this context, we talk about artists who advocate an idea of plural or nomadic subjectivity following Rossi Braidottis thought. The hope of this new feminism, beyond a policy of resistance, is to move towards a form of nomadic identity in favor of plurality and difference. Against universalism, nomadic subjectivity orients to groups and specific contexts and takes life as a subject of political discourse.
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References
Agamben, G. (2006). Che cos un dispositivo?. Qu vol dir ser contemporani?. Barcelona: Arcdia- La Central. Alsina, P. (2011). Tratado de dermatologa general o cuando la visin se vuelve hptica. Quadern de les Arts, les Lletres i les Idees, 181, 54-59. Appadurai, A. (2001). La modernidad desbordada: Dimensiones culturales de la globalizacin. Montevideo: Trilce. Braidotti, R. (1991, 1996). Patterns of dissonance: An essay on women in contemporary French philosophy. Cambridge, USA: Routledge. Braidotti, R. (1994). Nomadic subjects: Embodiment and sexual difference in contemporary feminist theory. Cambridge: Columbia University Press. Braidotti, R. (2006). Transpositions: On nomadic ethic. Cambridge: Polity Press. Butler, J. (1990). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. New York: Routledge. Butler, J. (1993). Bodies that matter: On the discursive limits of sex. New York: Routledge Carrillo, J. (2004). Arte en la red. Madrid: Ctedra. Certeau, M. (1993). lInvention du Quotidien (Vol. 1). Paris: Gallimard. Corts, J. M. (2003). Micropolticas, la culminacin de un proyecto. Micropolticas, arte y cotidianidad 2001-1968 (catalogue). EACC-Espai dArt Contemporani de Castell, Valncia. Corts, J. M. (2006). Polticas del espacio: Arquitectura, gnero y control social. Barcelona: Actar. De Lauretis, T. (1987). Technologies of gender: Essays on theory, film, and fiction. Indiana: Indiana UniversityPress. Deleuze, G. (1968). Diferencia y repeticin. Gijn: Jcar Universidad. Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1975). Kafka, pour une littrature mineure. Paris: Minuit. Derrida, J. (1967a). De la grammatologie. Paris: Minuit Derrida, J. (1967b). La escritura y la diferencia. Barcelona: Anthropos. Foucault, M. (1975). Vigilar y castigar. Madrid Siglo, XXI. Foucault, M. (1976). Historia de la sexualidad (Vol. I). Madrid: Siglo XXI. Foucault, M. (1994). Dits et crits (Vol. III, pp. 299-300). Paris: ditions Gallimard. Knopp, L. (2006). Sexuality and urban Space. In D. Bell & G. Valentine (Eds.), Mapping desire (p. 149). London: Routledge. Langshaw Austin, J. (1962). How to do things with words. London: Oxford University Press. Lippard, L. (2009). Hagmoslo nosotros mismos. Ideas recibidas, un vocabulario para la cultura artstica contempornea (pp. 34-50). Barcelona: MACBA. Nochlin, L. (1971, January). Why have there been no great women artists?. ART News. Parker, R., & Pollock, G. (1987). Feminism and modernism. Framing feminism, art and the womens movement, 1970-1985. London and New York: Pandora Press. Pickering, A., & Guzik, K. (1995). The mangle in practice: Science, society, and becoming. New York: Duke University. Preciado, B. (2008). Testo Yonqui. Madrid: Espasa Calpe. Rancire, J. (2005). Sobre polticas estticas. Barcelona: MACBA, UAB. Rheingold, H. (2004). Multitudes inteligentes: La prxima revolucin social. Barcelona: Gedisa. Schechner, R. (1988). Performance theory. New York: Routledge. Witti, M. (1992). The straight mind and other essays. Boston: Beacon Press.
D
Batova Anastasia
DA VID
PUBLISHING
Design Principles of External Lighting for Architectural Objects
Moscow Architectural Institute (State Academy), Moscow, Russian Federation Nowadays, lighting design is the modern attractive field of professional activity. Although its theoretical and methodological bases are in the initial stage of formulation. Though there are standards for regulating illumination quantitatively, the science has never created a bridge to transfer illumination quantity into illumination quality. How to keep a day image of architectural object without imitating natural lighting? How unrecognizably to change the image, to make it extraordinary and catchy? This paper offers a solution in the form of external illumination designing principles. This paper proposes two conceptual ways of creating artificial lighting of buildings and constructions that pursue different goals: the principle of tectonic illumination and the principle of decorative illumination. These principles were developed based on the analysis of the state of the art experience of lighting architectural objects and authors empirical study. The latter contained measuring luminosity with luminance meter, processing the data, statistical survey (180 respondents) and lighting modeling in the laboratory of Moscow Architectural Institute. Keywords: lighting design, architecture, principle, tectonics, image
Introduction
This paper is devoted to the problem of creating a predicted image of building by artificial light. Illumination is as much a constructional material of creating similitude as stone, wood, metal, glass, and concrete. Construction material as a component of the whole building construction in many respects dictates the architectural image. In the same way, light historically designates a problem of figurative perception dependence on solar or cloudy lighting in the daytime and artificial light at night. This paper aims to zoom in external illumination design principles generated by the author. There is the Principle of Decorative Lighting and the Principle of Tectonic Lighting. The former is directed on creation a new original architectural image without natural archetype, and the latter is focused on transfer of initial (day) emotional impression into the nighttime, without imitating day light. Pluses and minuses, means and methods of creation are described in the paper. These principles are formulated first on the basis of the analysis and systematization of external illumination world experience, and second on the authors researches including on-site investigations, statistical (actuarial) poll, and laboratory light modeling.
Benchmark
The art of the external illumination of architectural objects and ensembles has been actively developed during the 20th century and got the independence status nowadays. However, in practice intuitive, empirical approach is still dominating.
Batova Anastasia, Ph.D., Department of Architectural Physics, Moscow Architectural Institute (State Academy).
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DESIGN PRINCIPLES OF EXTERNAL LIGHTING FOR ARCHITECTURAL OBJECTS
Lighting is the main component of visual impression. Image similarity formed by day (natural) lighting and by night-time (artificial) lighting is defined by similarity of experience consistency of impression. Certainly, recognition occurs in consequence of configuration, but it is not limited to that. No less importance is laid on emotions, feelings, and associations being evoked by the illuminated object. According to the aforesaid, the objects image means implies its sensual and evident perception. The research is based on the concept tectonics as a system of architectural forms classification. Tectonics means art expression of behavior of structure and construction material, entailing specify object perception by viewer, these are mechanically stable and robust The tectonics of construction comes out of design and behavior of a material and inseparable from them (Ikonnikov, 1971, p. 65). Therefore, analysis of tectonic systems is normally connected with main types of designs: wall, order, arch, frame system, etc.. So, for example, for wall tectonics visual solidity, continuity of wall plays an important role apart from visual stability and durability, for order systems there appears communication of a colonnade (rack) and an entablature (beam), visual perception of portico or gallery depth. The research brought forward two principles of external illumination designing: the Principle of Decorative Lighting and the Principle of Tectonic Lighting, which differ in purposes, tasks, and methods to achieve.
Principle of Decorative Lighting

Decorative lighting gets the aim to create a new original image which does not have a natural archetype. It is created by regular or irregular (picturesque) brightness distribution on architectural object surfaces. Usually, it is characterized by high brightness contrast (L1:L2 1:10)1 with sharp, non-uniform light-and-shade thresholds. Regular distribution of brightness as a rule tends to be in phase with an arrangement of plastic elements. High brightness contrast visually making dominant secondary elements, thus entails brings forward a new system of relationship between major and minor architectural elements defining a new object image, significantly different from a day archetype. For example, bright illuminated semi-columns on the unlit surface of a wall tectonics facade create the light rhythm visually crashing solidity of a wall and highlighting making the order tectonics dominant. Irregular distribution of brightness completely ignores architectural surface plastic elements creating new picture, for instance, by video mapping (see Figure 1).
Figure 1. Illumination of the Bolshoy Theater facade.

1
Here: Brightnessthe average brightness of an object (e.g., a column), background brightnessthe average brightness of a background the object is projected (e.g., a wall).
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Unique features of the images created by the Principle of Decorative Lighting are stylistic uniformity and visual flatness. This image (being created on high brightness and color contrasts) thrills the viewer, being grasped in a single flash, still it prevails over its day-time archetype. As a result, the reapplied lighting composition scheme creates an identical image of any other object (see Figures 2-3). Failed examples of decorative lighting split the object up in an illusory way tending to provoke the effect of internal in the observer.
Figure 2. Illumination of the Stroganovskaya Akademy fasade.
Figure 3. Illumination of the fasade of the building (Petrovka st., 38).
The Principle of Decorative Lighting, in condition of developing an individual, non-duplicated lighting scheme for the given architectural object should becomes a base of lighting design masterpieces.
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Principle of Tectonic Lighting

The Principle of Tectonic Lighting aims at visual detection of tectonic features of the object, directed not only on visual recognition of the object, but also on the most effective figurative interpretation of the composite decision, on transfer of initial (day) emotional impression which is mostly predetermined by its tectonics. Its applicability in lighting historical architecture gets especially topical for illumination monuments of historical and cultural heritage which have the right to be recognizable any time, i.e., to protect constancy of the unique architectural artistic image. This principle of lighting assumes using specific lighting schemes of brightness distribution on designated elements of architectural composition. In other words, the lighting composition is always rigidly attached to the given architectural elements defining a tectonic image of selected system. It was experimentally proved that each of the tectonic types explored demands individual recommendations for the brightness contrast on the key elements of an architectural composition (i.e., it is incorrect to apply the same illumination schemes for different tectonic architecture in types). So, for wall tectonics objects, the key feature is the brightness contrast in illuminated and unlit zones of the plane, while for order tectonics and arch and vaulted architecture the contrast within certain elements of the fore and middle ground is dominant2. The research proved that exactly balance of average brightness had played a crucial role in perception of architecture at night-time instead of their quantitative levels; brightness of adaptation is of secondary importance. Thus, the searched ratio should be recommended for whatever objects location in city, be it a central square full of bright light or a secluded dark lane. Putting it differently, in the tectonic way of lighting unlike the decorative one reapplied lighting schemes do not lose their relevance. Because each time they reveal constructive, art and figurative features of various architectural object, working for creating a new original image. Lighting schemes being searching out for wall, order, arch and vaulted tectonic systems and being translated into the language of illumination engineering terms as a brightness correlation, are nominally called Over contrast, Normal contrast, and Scarce contrast. The field of the Principle of Tectonic lighting potential application is extremely extensive, and is never limited by objects with a certain and obviously expressed tectonics. Architecture can be diverse in manifestations. Each era displays specific receptions of art judgment of a design (Ikonnikov, 1971, p. 82). Tectonic forms strictly specified by structure at the beginning, in the subsequent development got an opportunity to be harmoniously and equally combined in a uniform composition of an architectural object. There examples are plentiful: the Pantheon in Rome, monument of antique architecture, uniting equivalent from the composite point of view an order portico and the dome arch, the Palace of rains in Venice, combining tectonics of a wall and an arch and vaulted design, the building of Smolny Institute in St. Petersburg, here adjoin order and wall tectonic systems. Also there exists a considerable group of buildings and the constructions where architectural form expresses behavior of structure not obviously but indirectly. So, for instance, the order being created by antiquity as tectonic system later came to be applied as the decorative element deprived of borne and bearing functions. The issue of developing sophisticated architectural forms combining several constructive artistically interpreted systems by artificial light, is one of the great core intellectually tasks for a lighting designer.
2
E.g., tectonics of order architecture defines a ratio of average brightness of a colonnade with an entablature (L1) and a background wall (L2). Normal contrast is L1:L2 = 1:3.
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Depending on task at hand the hierarchy of tectonic systems should be kept (following reference day image) or be broken in the dark. According to the Principle of Tectonic Lighting, the system illuminated in the terms of Normal brightness contrast should become visually prevalent, subordinated by the one illuminated in terms of Scarce contrast. The above described provisions are being demonstrated by the visualizations of the Bolshoy Theater facade lightning, as an example of an object combining order and wall tectonic systems. The first case (see Figure 4(a)) presents the lighting scheme where the order portico lighted more contrasty and accurately forms the whole objects image. The next case visually putting the wall in the forefront and making the wall system leading (see Figure 4(b)). Depth of architectural composition is visually lost, the general silhouette and mass of the building dematerialized to a certain extent by bright light, on the contrary, gain the central focus. The third case presents visualization where not any of tectonic systems is unambiguously preferred (see Figure 5). The visual interrelation based on the planned character of the general architectural composition of the facade comes to light. The final cast is turns the most complicated from the art point of view, however, it helps to create the most interesting and attractive light images in the night city landscape.
(a)
(b)
Figure 4. Illumination of the Bolshoy Theater facade (project).
Figure 5. Illumination of the Bolshoy Theater facade (project).
380
Conclusions
Objective The Principle of Decorative Lighting: to create a new, original night image of an illuminated object (a new illusory form, new impression) comparative day archetype; The Principle of Tectonic Lighting: to create a new illusory form of illuminated object, preserve related still preserve it closely related to a day archetype impression. Methods to Achieve The Principle of Decorative Lighting: distribution of brightness is not attached to an architectural form. As a rule the brightness contrast is strong (L1:L2 1:10), light and shade thresholds are sharp, non-uniform. The Principle of Tectonic Lighting: distribution of brightness is rigidly attached to key elements of architectural form. The Key elements are governed by tectonic type. As a rule the brightness contrast is normal (average) (1:2 L1:L2 1:8), light and shade thresholds are soft. Specific Application Features The Principle of Decorative Lighting: lighting scheme duplication entails image-cloning. The new object calls for originating a new scheme. The Principle of Tectonic Lighting: lighting scheme duplication entails a great variety of images dedicating identity for each of the illuminated objects. The lighting scheme investigated for wall tectonic should be used as much as you like for any wall tectonic building or structure to be origin; lighting scheme investigated for order tectonic should be used as much as you like for any order tectonic building or structure to be origin, etc. It is mostly plausible in illuminating monuments of historical and cultural heritage.
References
Azizyan, I. A. (2002). Composition theory as architecture poetics (Teoriya kompozicii kak poehtika arkhitekturih) (p. 476). I. A. Azizyan, I. A. Dobricihna, & G. S. Lebedeva (Eds.). Moscow: Progress-Traditions (Progress-Tradicii). Danler, A. (2011). Building with natural lightA symbiosis of light, space and sustainability (pp. 141-144). Gtersloh: Via-Verlag. Iannone, F. (2011). Ascona: Night light sets made by natural daylight (pp. 103-105). Gtersloh: Via-Verlag. Ikonnikov, A. V. (1971). Bases of architectural composition (Osnovih arkhitekturnoyj kompozicii). Moscow: Stroiizdat. Karcher, A., Krautter, M., Kuntzsch, D., Schielke, T., Steinke, C., & Takagi, M. (2009). Light perspectives, between culture and technology: Light, space, perspectives. Ludenscheid: ERCO. Keller, M. (2010). Light fantastic: The art and design of stage lighting (3rd ed.). Munich: Prestel. Laganier, V., & van der Pol, J. (Eds.). (2011). Light and emotions: Exploring lighting cultures: Conversations with lighting designers (2nd ed.). Basel: Birkhuser. Neumann, D. (2002). Architecture of the night: The illuminated building. Munich and New York: Prestel.
DA VID
PUBLISHING
Major and Minor Harmonic Keys: The Discrepancy in Chord Classification Under a Computational Tonality Analytical Method*
Miroslaw Majchrzak
Karol Lipiski Academy of Music, Wroclaw; Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
Basing upon the tonality analytic method, the present paper aims at: (1) Drawing attention to the subordination of the minor key vs. the major key in the chord classification, using the same methodology; and (2) Showing the differences for the major key and the minor (harmonic) key in the classification of chords, as an aspect of importance for interpreting a pieces tonal structure diagram. The relations between chords appearing in the major and minor (harmonic) key will be shown by applying the comparisons of: (1) third-based chords; and (2) degrees in the C major and A minor keys, on which the same diatonic chords appear. Keywords: tonality, modes, classification of diatonic chords, methodology
Introduction
In the Western music, the term musical mode may have dissimilar definitions. However, this notion is usually used as a concept concerning a kind of scale and melody (Powers, 2001). The invention of harmony in the Baroque period was significant source of polemics around music in the 17th and 18th centuries. Among those who investigated the foundations of harmony on a philosophical basis, including the legitimacy of the two modes, are the founders of new scientific methods (Kepler, 1619; Mersenne, 1637; Descartes, 1650). In the same period, both modes (i.e., major and minor) tend to be reduced to a single, i.e., major, scalein that a minor is but a variety of the perfect major scale. Theoretical works on scale modes, justifying the existence of scales, show minor scales as subordinate to the major. In Helmholtzs (1863) approach, the minor scale is not part of the musics beauty; nor can it be classed under the natural or rational system. Also Rameau (1722) was of opinion that only the existence of the major mode is explainable in rational terms in the world of harmony. He considered the minor mode an unnatural variety of the major mode. Our contemporary theoretical works on harmony, tonality, and methods of main key determination in a musical piece, maps of chord relations, etc., are indicative of certain problems with the minor key (Shepard, 1982; Krumhansl, 1990, 2002; Chew, 2000; Cambouropoulos, 2003; Honingh, 2007). The problem with the
*
The first version of this paper was presented and published in Proceedings of The 5th Sound and Music Computing Conference (Technical University in Berlin, 2008). Miroslaw Majchrzak, master, Faculty of Composition, Conducting, Theory of Music and Music Therapy, Karol Lipiski Academy of Music; Faculty of Musicology, Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
382
MAJOR AND MINOR HARMONIC KEYS
minor key issue also concerns the authors method of analysis of the tonal structure in pieces of music (Majchrzak, 2005, 2007, 2009).
Analytical Method
Analytical method (Majchrzak, 2005, 2009) consists in assignation of diatonic chords appearing in a piece of music to individual KRs (key ranges) being keys in their respective natural variety. We mark the keys with the consecutive integers: the sharp keys with positive numbers, the flat keyswith negative numbers. For instance, the number (3) marks the keys of A major and F sharp minor (natural); the number (-1)the keys of F major and D minor (natural). For any tone, we can determine the keys it appears in. For instance, the tone D appears in these keys: (-3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3)1. The tone E appears in the following keys: (-1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)2. This is similarly for any and each chord. For example, the tones of the C major chord appear in the following keys: (-5, -4, -3, -2, -1, 0, 1), (-1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5), (-4, -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2). The substratum for our chord classification is the arithmetic average of keys wherein the tones of a given diatonic chord appear: arithmetic average =
x1 + x2 + x3 + ... + xn n
See Examples 1-5: Example (1) DF sharp: AA (arithmetic average) = Example (2) BDFA: AA =
(0+1+2+3+4+5+6)+(3+2+1+0+1+2+3) +(654321+0)+(21+0+1+2+3+4) = 0.25 7+7+7+7
(3 2 1 + 0 + 1 + 2 + 3) + (1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7) =2 7+7
Example (3) A flat B flat DFG: ( 9876543 )+( 7654321 )+( 321+0+1+2+3 )+( 654321+0 )+( 4321+0+1+2 ) AA = = -2.8 7+7+7+7+7 Example (4) GBDF: AA =
(4321+0+1+2) +(0+1+2+3+4+5+6) +(321+0+1+2+3) +(654321+0) = -0.25 7+7+7+7
Example (5) GC sharp: (4 3 2 1 + 0 + 1 + 2) + (2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8) AA = =2 7+7 In this method: Arithmetic average spaceall numeric values derivable from the above arithmetic-average formula. The arithmetic average space is divided into KRs, each of which is a KR with a given number of clef signs. E.g., the KR of one-flat keys (F major and D minor) encompasses the arithmetic average spaces open-ended range, spanning between -0.5 and -1.5. The KR of two-sharp keys (D major and B minor)
1
E flat major and C minor, B flat major and G minor, F major and D minor, C major and A minor, G major and E minor, D major and B minor, and A major and F sharp minor. 2 F major and D minor, C major and A minor, G major and E minor, D major and B minor, A major and F sharp minor, E major and C sharp minor, and B major and G sharp minor. 3 Note: x1, x2, x3, , xn: keys wherein the tones of a given diatonic chord appear; n: number of all keys.
383
encompasses the arithmetic average spanning between 1.5 and 2.5. The KR of four-sharp keys (E major and C# minor) encompasses the arithmetic average spanning between 4.5 and 5.5. (1) Chords and KR. For example: The chord GBDF (AA = -0.25) belongs to KR 0. The chord EG#BC# (AA = 4) belongs to KR 4. (2) 2KRs chordany chord whose arithmetic average belongs to two adjacent KRs. E.g., the arithmetic average of the CEGB chord is 0.5; the chord belongs to both KR 0 (C major and A minor) and KR 1 (G major and E minor). The arithmetic average of the CDEFGA chord is -0.5; the chord belongs to both KR -1 (F major and D minor) and KR 0 (C major and A minor). (3) N-Dnon-diatonic chords. Analysis of pieces can be displayed in Figure 1.
30
20
10
0 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 N-D U/R
Figure 1. Chopin, Mazurka B flat major, Op. 17, No. 1. Note: Horizontal Axis: KRs. For example: -4 (KR of A flat major and F minor), -2 (KR of B flat major and D minor), and 0 (KRs of C major and A minor); Vertical Axis: percentage domination of given KRs.
Third-Based Chords Built on Individual Degrees of C Major/A Minor Keys

As discussed hereinabove, the analytical method consists in assignment of diatonic chords to individual ranges of a key, which is followed by a quantitative comparison of the KRs. Let us take a look at the differences in assignment to KRs of triad appearing on individual grades of C major and A minor keys. (1) C major
KR 0
KR -1
KR 1
KR -1
KR 1
KR 0
KR 0
Figure 2. Triads appearing on individual grades of C major key.
(2) A minor
KR 0
KR 0
N-D
KR -1
KR 4
KR -1
KR 3
Figure 3. Triads appearing on individual grades of A minor (harmonic) key.
384
MAJOR AND MINOR HARMONIC KEYS We could see in Figures 2-3 that all the triads built upon individual C major key grades are assigned to the
keys three ranges, including: KR 0 (C major and A minor), KR -1 (F major and D minor), and KR 1 (G major and E minor). Triads created on individual grades of the A minor harmonic key belong to the keys four ranges whilst one of them belongs to the N-D group. Now, let us have a closer look at third-based chords built up on individual C major and A minor (harmonic) key grades (see Table 1). (1) Triads: 1st, 4th: Chords based on 1st degree of C major and A minor keys are classed in the KR where they function as the keynotes, i.e., KR 0 (C major, A minor). The situation where triads built upon the same degree in the keys C major and A minor are part of a single KR is to be met only once: This concerns chords built on the fourth degree. The F major and D minor chords are part of KR -1. The situation is different for triads built on the remaining degrees of those keys. Table 1 Third-Based Chords Built on Individual Degrees of C Major and A Minor (Harmonic) Keys
Dyads C major Degree 1st 2nd 3th 4th 5th 6th 7th Chord CE DF EG FA GB AC BD KR KR 0 KR -2, KR -1 KR 0, KR 1 KR -1 KR 1 KR -1, KR0 KR 1, KR 2 Triads C major DEGREE 1st 2nd 3th 4th 5th 6th 7th CHORD CEG DFA EGB FAC GBD ACE BDF KR KR 0 KR -1 KR 1 KR -1 KR 1 KR 0 KR 0 Four-note chords C major Degree 1st 2nd 3th 4th 5th 6th 7th Chord CEGB DFAC EGBD FACE GBDF ACEG BDFA KR KR 0, KR 1 KR -1 KR 1 KR -1, KR 0 KR 0 KR 0 KR 0 KR ACEG# BDFA CEG#B DFAC EG#BD FACE G#BDF A minor KR N-D KR 0 N-D KR -1 KR3 KR -1, KR 0 N-D CHORD ACE BDF CEG# DFA EG#B FAC G#BD A minor KR KR 0 KR 0 N-D KR -1 KR 4 KR -1 KR3 Chord AC BD CE DF EG# FA G#B A minor KR KR -1, KR 0 KR 1, KR 2 KR 0 KR -2, KR -1 KR 4 KR -1 KR 4, KR 5

(Table 1 continued) Five-note chords C major Degree 1st 2nd 3th 4th 5th 6th 7th Chord CEGBD DFACE EGBDF FACEG GBDFA ACEGB BDFAC KR KR 0 KR 0 KR 0 KR -1 KR 0 KR 1 KR 0 Six-note chords C major Degree 1st 2nd 3th 4th 5th 6th 7th Chord CEGBDF DFACEG EGBDFA FACEGB GBDFAC ACEGBD BDFACE KR KR 0 KR -1, KR 0 KR 0 KR 0 KR 0 KR 0, KR 1 KR 0 KR ACEG#BD BDFACEG# CEG#BD DFACEG# EG#BDFA FACEG#B G#BDFAC A minor KR N-D N-D N-D N-D N-D N-D N-D KR ACEG#B BDFAC CEG#BD DFACE EG#BDF FACEG# G#BDFA A minor KR N-D KR 0 N-D KR 0 N-D N-D N-D
385
2nd: The chord built up on the 2nd degree of the C major, i.e., the subdominant of the 2nd degree belongs, as shown in Table 1, to KR -1, the range to which the C major subdominant chord belongs as well. In the A minor, the chord built on the 2nd degree is part of the same KR as the chord built on 1st degree (i.e., the minor keynote), that is, KR 0. Having said that, why should the triad built on the 2nd degree of A minor key belong to PT 0? The BDF chord may be considered as a dominant seventh without the root in C major key. It then appears in the KR within which the chord appears into which it is resolved (according to the classic theory of harmony, the BDF chord may be resolved to the C major chord). 3th: The chord built up on the 3rd degree of the C major, composed of EGB tones, belongs to KR 1, and so, to the KR where the G major chord appears. The chord on the 3rd degree in the A minor is an augmented chord, which means that it is not assigned to a KR. Instead, it is classed under a separate group of N-D chords. 5th: The triad built on the 5th degree (the dominant) in the C major, i.e., the G major chord, is classified in KR 1. The range is situated right of the keynotes range (KR 0 in the C major). In A minor key, the minor keynote appears in KR 0. In turn, the chord built on the 5th degree of the A minor, i.e., the major dominant, is classified as KR 4. Then, how should the dominants situation be explained, in a range fixed as many as four ranges away from the range where the minor keynote in the A minor is classed? The E major chord may act as a keynote for the E major key. Hence, it is contained within KR 4, similarly as the C major chord in KR 0 or the A flat major chord KR -4. 6th: In the C major, the sixth-grade keynote (ACE) appears within the same KR as the keynote (CEG), i.e., KR 0. In the A minor, the triad built on the sixth degree is situated in KR -1, that is, a range located left of the range wherein the keynote chord appears.
386
MAJOR AND MINOR HARMONIC KEYS 7th: In both C major and A major key, a diminished chord appears upon degree 7th. We have already come
across the BDF chord on the grounds of A minor key (as its 2nd-degree chord). As for the G sharp BD chord appearing on the 7th degree of the A minor, the following question arises: How can we interpret the position of a chord built up on the 7th degree of A minor key in the range of A major and F sharp minor keys (KR 3)? The chord composed of the notes G sharp BD may be deemed to be the dominant seventh without the root for A major key, i.e., KR 3. Thus, the second of the diminished triads built upon the A minor degrees better corresponds with the major key (A majorKR 3) than with a minor one (A minorKR 0). (2) Four-note chords: 1st: The arithmetic average of the keys where the notes appear of the four-part chord built on 1st degree of the C major (i.e., CEGB) equals 0.5. Thus, the chord belongs to both KR 0 and KR 14. As for the minor key, one has to do with a chord whose notes are not reducible to a single key of the natural variety (BDFG sharp)5, and hence, we will not take it into consideration for the purpose of assignment to individual KRs. 2nd: The four-note chord built on the 2nd degree of the C major belongs to KR -1. This chord can be considered as the minor keynote with a small seventh added in the D minor, or, the keynote with a great sixth added in the F major. The four-part chord BDFA appearing on degree 2nd of the A minor is classed under KR 0. Within this same range, C major chord appears, to which BDFA chord, being the C major keys dominant ninth without the root, gets most frequently resolved. 3rd: The structure of four-note chord EGBD is identical to that of DFAC chord, whereas the CEG sharp B chord is put in our breakdown in a separate column (N-D), and not assigned to an individual KR. 4th: In the C major, the four-note chord built on degree 4th has a structure identical as the four-note chord built on the keys 1st degree (the chord belongs to both KR -1 and KR 0). In the A minor, the four-note chord built on the 4th degree is of an identical structure as the one built on degree 1st of the C major (the chord belongs to KR -1). 5th: The GBDF chord is part of KR 0, i.e., to that major-KR in which it operates as the dominant seventh. In the case of the A minor dominant 7th, we come across a troublesome case. This chord does not, namely, belong to the KR wherein the A minor keynote appears (i.e., KR 0), but is part of KR 3 instead. A similar situation was the case when it came to discussing the G sharp BD chord. The GBDF chord belongs to the range where the major tonic appears (CEG chord appearing in KR 0), whereas it is not part of the range where the major tonic appears to which this chord can be resolved (CE flat G appears in KR -3). A similar thing happens with EG sharp BD chord, which appears in the range where the major tonic is classed to which it is resolved, that is, in KR 3 (The A major chord to which EG#BD chord gets resolved appears in KR 3). 6th, 7th: Chords build like: ACEG, FACE, and BDFA have already been discussed. The diminished four-part chord is a N-D chord. (3) Five-note chords: Most five-note chords built on A minor key degrees are part of the N-D group. In the C major, most of the chords belong to the keys main range, and two of them belong to KR -1 and KR 1 respectively. (4) Six-note chords: All the six-note chords created on individual degrees of the A minor, in its harmonic variety, contain an augmented four-part chord. This means that these are not assigned to KRs (N-D). As for the
4 5
2 KRs. N-D.
387
C major, all the six-part chords belong to KR 0. Two of them, created upon degrees 2nd and 6th, respectively, are 2KRs chords. (5) Dyads: To end with, let us take a look on third-sized dyads. As it can be seen in Table 1, the differences are remarkable also for the dyads.
Diatonic Chords of Varied Structure

The previous section discussed third-based chords built upon individual C major and A minor keys degrees. Some of the minor-key chords were unclassified with respect to the KRs, as their tones could not be reduced to a single natural key. Now, let us turn attention to diatonic chords with a diverse interval structure. The subsequent table lines specify chords belonging to KR 0 (C major, A minor) and the C major/A minor degrees whereupon the chords are created. Example: Let us take any triad, e.g., CDE. The arithmetic average equals 0, so the triad is contained within KR 0 (C major and A minor).
C major key degrees: Tones: A minor key degrees: G A 1 B 2 1 C 3 2 D 4 3 E 5 4 F 6 5 G 7 6 A 7 B C
Figure 4. Selected triad.
As for 2KRs chords, two identically structured chords will be quoted in our tables: The first belongs to KR 0 and KR 16, and the second belongs to KR -1 and KR 07 (see Table 2). Table 2 Diatonic Chords With a Diverse Interval Structure
Chord G A G A G A G A G A G A G A G A G A Chord G A G A G A G A Dyads C major key degrees 1, 3 (CE) 3, 5 (EG) 1, 6 (CA) 5, 6 (GA) 1, 7 (CB) 3, 4 (EF) 4, 7 (FB) 2, 6 (DA) 2, 5 (DG) Triads C major key degrees 1, 3, 5 (CEG) 1, 3, 6 (CEA) 2, 5, 6 (DGA) 2, 4, 7 (DFB) A minor key degrees 3, 5 (CE) 5, 7 (EG) 1, 3 (AC) 1, 7 (AG) 2, 3 (BC) 5, 6 (EF) 2, 6 (BF) 1, 5 (AD) 4, 7 (DG) A minor key degrees 3, 5, 7 (CEG) 1, 3, 5 (ACE) 1, 4, 7 (AGD) 2, 4, 6 (BDF)
B B B B B B B B B
C C C C C C C C C
D D D D D D D D D
E E E E E E E E E
F F F F F F F F F
G G G G G G G G G
A A A A A A A A A
B B B B B B B B B
C C C C C C C C C
B B B B
C C C C
D D D D
E E E E
F F F F
G G G G
A A A A
B B B B
C C C C
6 7
388 (Table 2 continued) Chord G A G A G A G A G A G A G A G A G A G A G A
B B Bb B B B B B B B B
C C C C C C C C C C C
D D D D D D D D D D D
E E E E E E E E E E E
F F F F# F F F F F F F
G G G G G G G G G G G
A A A A A A A A A A A
B B Bb B B B B B B B B
C C C C C C C C C C C
Chord G A B G A B G A B G A B G A B G A B G A B G A B G A B G A B G A B G A B G A B G A B G A B G A B G A B G A Bb G A B G A B G A B G A B G A B G A B
C D E F G C D E F G C D E F G C D E F G C D E F G C D E F G C D E F G C D E F G C D E F G C D E F# G C D E F G C D E F G C D E F G C D E F G C D E F G C D E F G C D E F G C D E F G C D E F# G C D E F G C D E F G C D E F G C D E F G C D E F G
A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A
B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B Bb B B B B B B
C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C
Chord G A B C D E F G G A B C D E F G G A Bb C D E F G G A B C D E F# G G A B C D E F G G A B C D E F G
A A A A A A
B B Bb B B B
C C C C C C
Triads C major key degrees 4, 6, 7 (FAB) 4, 5, 7 (FGB) 3, 6, 7b (EABb) 1, 4#, 5 (CF#G) 1, 2, 6 (CDA) 2, 3, 5 (DEG) 1, 5, 7 (CGB) 3, 4, 6 (EFA) 1, 2, 3 (CDE) 2, 3, 4 (DEF) 1, 2, 7 (CDB) Four-note chords C major key degrees 2, 4, 5, 7 (DFGB) 2, 4, 6, 7 (DFAB) 2, 3, 5, 6 (DEGA) 1, 2, 5, 6 (CDGA) 1,3, 5, 6 (CEGA) 1, 3, 5, 7 (CEGB) 1, 3, 4, 6 (CEFA) 1, 2, 3, 6 (CDEA) 1, 2, 3, 5 (CDEG) 1, 2, 4#, 5 (CDF#G) 2, 3, 6, 7b (DEABb) 1, 4, 6, 7 (CFAB) 3, 4, 5, 7 (EFGB) 1, 2, 5, 7 (CDGB) 4, 5, 6, 7 (FGAB) 1, 3, 4, 7 (CEFB) 2, 3, 4, 7 (DEFB) 3, 5, 6, 7b (EGABb) 1, 4#, 5, 6 (CF#GA) 1, 2, 4, 7 (CDFB) 1, 5, 6, 7 (CGAB) 3, 4, 5, 6 (EFGA) 1, 2, 6, 7 (CDAB) 2, 3, 4, 5 (DEFG) Five-note chords C major key degrees 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 (CDEGA) 2, 4, 5, 6, 7 (DFGAB) 2, 3, 5, 6, 7b (DEGABb) 1, 2, 4#, 5, 6 (CDF#GA) 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 (CDEFA) 1, 2, 3, 5, 7 (CDEGB)
A minor key degrees 1, 2, 6 (ABF) 2, 6, 7 (BFG) 1, 2b, 5 (ABbE) 3, 6#, 7 (CF#G) 1, 3, 4 (ACD) 4, 5, 7 (DEG) 2, 3, 7 (BCG) 1, 5, 6 (AEF) 3, 4, 5 (CDE) 4, 5, 6 (DEF) 2, 3, 4 (BCD) A minor key degrees 2, 4, 6, 7 (BDFG) 1, 2, 4, 6 (ABDF) 1, 4, 5, 7 (ADEG) 1, 3, 4, 7 (ACDG) 1, 3, 5, 7 (ACEG) 2, 3, 5, 7 (BCEG) 1, 3, 5, 6 (ACEF) 1, 3, 4, 5 (ACDE) 3, 4, 5, 7 (CDEG) 3, 4, 6#, 7 (CDF#G) 1, 2b, 4, 5 (ABbDE) 1, 2, 3, 6 (ABCF) 2, 5, 6, 7 (BEFG) 2, 3, 4, 7 (BCDG) 1, 2, 6, 7 (ABFG) 2, 3, 5, 6 (BCEF) 2, 4, 5, 6 (BDEF) 1, 2b, 5, 7 (ABbEG) 1, 3, 6#, 7 (ACF#G) 2, 3, 4, 6 (BCDF) 1, 2, 3, 7 (ABCG) 1, 5, 6, 7 (AEFG) 1, 2, 3, 4 (ABCD) 4, 5, 6, 7 (DEFG) A minor key degrees 1, 3, 4, 5, 7 (ACDEG) 1, 2, 4, 6, 7 (ABDFG) 1, 2b, 4, 5, 7 (ABbDEG) 1, 3, 4, 6#, 7 (ACDF#G) 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 (ACDEF) 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 (BCDEG)

(Table 2 continued) Chord G A G A G A G A G A G A G A G A G A Chord G A G A G A G A G A G A G A Five-note chords C major key degrees 1, 3, 4, 6, 7 (CEFAB) 1, 3, 4, 5, 7 (CEFGB) 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 (DEFGB) 1, 2, 4, 6, 7 (CDFAB) 1, 4, 5, 6, 7 (CFGAB) 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 (EFGAB) 1, 2, 3, 4, 7 (CDEFB) 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 (DEFGA) 1, 3, 4, 5, 7 (CEFGB) Six-note chords C major key degrees 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7 (CDFGAB) 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 (DEFGAB) 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 (CDEGAB) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 (CDEFGA) 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 (CEFGAB) 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 (CDEFAB) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 (CDEFGB) A minor key degrees 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 (ABCEF) 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 (BCEFG) 2, 4, 5, 6, 7 (BDEFG) 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 (ABCDF) 1, 2, 3, 6, 7 (ABCFG) 1, 2, 5, 6, 7 (ABEFG) 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 (BCDEF) 1, 4, 5, 6, 7 (ADEFG) 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 (BCEFG) A minor key degrees 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 (ABCDFG) 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7 (ABDEFG) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 (ABCDEG) 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 (ACDEFG) 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 (ABCEFG) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 (ABCDEF) 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 (BCDEFG)
389
B B B B B B B B B
C C C C C C C C C
D D D D D D D D D
E E E E E E E E E
F F F F F F F F F
G G G G G G G G G
A A A A A A A A A
B B B B B B B B B
C C C C C C C C C
B B B B B B B
C C C C C C C
D D D D D D D
E E E E E E E
F F F F F F F
G G G G G G G
A A A A A A A
B B B B B B B
C C C C C C C
Conclusions
The examples discussed enable us to draw attention to the differences in the assignment of chords to the KRs conditional upon the keys mode. Basing upon the examples quoted in Table 1 (C major and A minor keys, in our case), tentative conclusions may be drawn with respect to a superiority of the major key over the minor harmonic. In major key, dominant forms are frequently contained within the KR in which the major tonic appears to which they are resolvable. In the minor, dominant forms (also dominant chord!) are distant from the range wherein the minor chord (minor keynote) appears to which they are resolved. In minor key (harmonic variety), chords appear that are not assignable to KRs (which also refers to dominant forms, e.g., dominant ninth with a small ninth, or, diminished four-part chord). In C major key (Table 1) all triads are classified within three KRsKR 0, KR -1, and KR 1. In the case of A minor harmonic key the triads are classified under numerous KRsKR 0, KR -1, KR 1, KR 3, and KR 4. This seems to be not very natural, that selected triads related to the A minor key are classified within KRs distanced from KR 0. All chords in C major belong to the diatonic material. In A minor harmonic key only all dyads belong to the diatonic material. Among triads, four-note chords and five-note chords we are able to find many N-D chords. In the case of third-based six-note chords all the chords are not classified under specific KRs (N-D materialN-D). Material presented in Table 2 shows also differences in the interpretation of relationship between chords and their classification. For example: Let us have a look at Figure 3. Triad CDE belongs to the KR 0 (C major and A minor). In the C major, it is built on degrees 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. These degrees appear more important than those in the case of A minor key (3rd, 6th, and 5th). The first three notes of the C major comprise the tonics prime and third, whereas in the A minor, these are the keynotes third and fifth with an added fourth.
390
MAJOR AND MINOR HARMONIC KEYS Let us have a look at four-note chord DFAB. It can be considered as a tonic chord with added major 6th in D
minor key (In D minor key appear tone Bb, not B. However, other tones from this chord belong to the most recognized chord in one-flat key). Hence, how to explain the classification of chord DFAB within KR 0, not in the KR -1? We know that counterpart of this chord in major key (CEGA) is classified in the KR 0. Hence, if dominant 9th without the root is more important harmonic function then tonic with added interval? Presented examples show the problem with a interpretation of chords classification in the case of minor harmonic key. We can find examples, where more natural seems to be a classification of chords in minor harmonic key. However, such situations become visible in the case of chords appearing less frequent in given musical pieces. Hence, such examples are not very important when analysing a piece of music.
References
Cambouropoulos, E. (2003). Pitch spelling: A computational model. Music Perception, 20(4), 411-430. Chew, E. (2000). Towards a mathematical model of tonality (Ph.D. dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, M.A.). Descartes, R. (1650). Musicae compendium. Utrecht: J. Jansson. Honingh, A. (2007). Automatic modulation finding using convex sets of notes. 1st International Conference of Society for Mathematics and Computation in Music, Berlin. Kepler, J. (1619). Harmonices mundi. Augsburg. Krumhansl, C. L. (1990). Cognitive foundations of musical pitch. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Krumhansl, C. L. (2002). Music as cognition: Mental maps and models. Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition, Sydney, Australia. Majchrzak, M. (2005). Divergences and convergences of major and minor key distribution series in musical pieces of the tonal harmony supremacy period (Dywergencje i konwergencje szeregw rozdzielczych tonacji durowych i molowych w utworach okresu supremacji harmonii tonalnej) (Master thesis, Karol Lipinsky Academy of Music, Wroclaw). Majchrzak, M. (2007). Irrelative system in tonal harmony. 1st International Conference of Society for Mathematics and Computation in Music, Berlin. Majchrzak, M. (2009). Diversity of the tonal structure of Chopin s Etudes. British Postgraduate Musicology, 10. Retrieved from http://www.bpmonline.org.uk/bpm10/majchrzak_miroslaw-diversity_of_the_tonal_structures_of_chopins_etudes.pdf Mersenne, M. (1637). Harmonie universelle. Paris: Sebastien Cramoisy. Powers, H. S. (2001). Mode. In S. Sadie & J. Tyrrell (Eds.), The new Grove dictionary of music and musicians. London: Macmillan. Rameau, J. P. (1722). Trait de lharmonie rduite son principe naturel. Paris: Jean-Baptiste-Christophe Ballard. Shepard, R. N. (1982). Geometrical approximations to the structure of musical pitch. Psychological Review, 89.
D
Gregory Chan
DA VID
PUBLISHING
Beasts of the Devil, Perishables, and the Natura Morta
Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Surrey, Canada
Bugs have long embodied that from which we seek protection. Whether a mild irritant (a fly in the ointment), a costly pest to gardeners (bug off!), or a destructive force of Biblical proportions (a swarm of locusts), bugs are natures warning of approaching death. This paper investigates the natura morta canvas during the Golden Age of Dutch art, focusing on how these symbols of natural evil work to enliven the visual rhetoric of the still-life as they invite spiritual contemplation. In religious-themed art, we intuitively recognize these morbid creatures as symbols of decay encroaching on domestic scenes filled with food and cut flowers. Emphasizing the short life of these perishables, bugs embody a classic tension and its dichotomous variations: the corporeal vs. the spiritual, earth vs. heaven, and sin vs. redemption. Though ostensibly a peripheral feature of the natura morta, bugs are a decidedly central motif that reflects the viewers struggle with sin: Is it repellent, attractive, or repellently attractive? This study will concern the visual rhetoric of flies, dragonflies, and bees in the works of Osias Beert, Ambrosius Bosschaert, and Georg Flegel, with an emphasis on the beasts of the devil as icons of Dutch art. Keywords: still-life, Dutch paintings, religious art, death
Introduction
Bugs have long embodied that from which we seek protection. Whether a mild irritant (a fly in the ointment), a costly pest to gardeners (bug off!), or a destructive force of Biblical proportions (a swarm of locusts), bugs are natures warning of approaching death. In religious-themed art, most notably in the Flemish and Dutch still-life, we intuitively recognize these morbid creatures as symbols of decay encroaching on domestic scenes filled with food and cut flowers. Emphasizing the short life of these perishables, bugs embody a classic tension and its dichotomous variations: the corporeal vs. the spiritual, earth vs. heaven, and sin vs. redemption. The savvy viewer, and certainly the patron who commissioned such a painting, appreciate the Flemish and Dutch zeitgeist: too much sympathy for the devil can compromise a Christians salvation. The presence of bugs teaches the viewer this lesson in spiritual awareness. Whether interpreted as repellent, attractive, or repellently attractive, these symbols of natural evil enliven the visual rhetoric of a natura morta canvas.
Bugs, Visual Rhetoric, and the Still-Life

When bugs invade our domestic order, the reaction is swift and visceral. Given that discomfort, fear, and repulsion are typical reactions, why would a patron and his commissioned artist knowingly include bugs as a spoiler element of the composition? It simply could have been a means of showcasing the painters skill (see the gimmicky catalogue of insects in Balthasar van der Asts Still-Life With Flowers, Fruits and Shells, ca.
Gregory Chan, M.A., English Department, Kwantlen Polytechnic University.
392
BEASTS OF THE DEVIL, PERISHABLES, AND THE NATURA MORTA
1620), or it could have involved belief in the medieval medical adage, similia similibus curantur painted bugs keep the real ones away (Impelluso, 2004, p. 336). Perhaps it was a means of injecting a measure of Baroque realism into the well-equipped, neat, and orderly clean [Dutch] kitchens with gleaming metal pots and pans scrubbed and scoured to a fare-thee-well (Barnes & Rose, 2002, p. 14). Whatever the case is, it was about creating a conversation piece to add to a collection. However, during the Golden Age of art in Holland, many patrons vied to own works that had greater symbolic resonance; they wanted something that simultaneously spoke to their wordly and spiritual ambitions while inviting contemplation.
Case Studies: Beert and Bosschaert

Capturing these competing ambitions are several of Osias Beerts still-life, ostensibly devoted to food. The front-and-centre presence of a dragonfly in Still-Life With Cherries and Strawberries in China Bowls (1608) draws attention despite sharing visual space with a spectacle of consumption. Exotic imports (Mediterranean olives in a pewter dish), delicate china and flatware, orchard-fresh cherries and strawberries, and a trinity of wine goblets in combination with white bread (a dual symbol of affluence and transubstantiation) compete with the dragonfly, a classic religious symbol of disease, sin, and the devil (Barnes & Rose, 2002, p. 22; Ferguson, 1959, p. 7). On guard at the forefront of the serving table, this bug literally stands between the viewer and God, whose presence is reflected in the central goblet elevated beyond the bowls of fruit. Counterbalancing the dragonfly is a Monarch butterfly, seen in the right foreground register alighted on a serving knife. This insect symbolizes Christs resurrection and hints at the viewers salvation, if only they could follow the light (see the reflective surface of the knife echoed in the reflection of the glasses). Beert has re-imagined the fall: His devil is recast as dragonfly, while the apple from the Garden of Eden is represented by the red fruit. Beert purposefully fills the table-top with perishables surrounded by bugs to emphasize our invulnerability to death. Still-Life With Cherries and Strawberries in China Bowls, then, warns us that immediate pleasures are temptations that can distract us from what lies just beyond: the lasting peace of Gods salvation. It is within reach, but it must be given our full and mindful attention. Perhaps the paintings lesson lies between damnation and salvation in moderation, as Alteveel is ongesont (too much is unhealthy) (Barnes & Rose, 2002, p. 32). Ambrosius Bosschaerts Vase of Flowers (1620) provided a more overt commentary on the spiritual destructiveness of transient pleasures. On the periphery of a bouquet in mid-wilt, he rendered a caterpillar and dragonfly with realism and great delicacy (Fuchs, 1978, p. 109). The caterpillar-to-butterfly metamorphosis is symbolic of Christs resurrection and, by extension, our spiritual transformation (Ferguson, 1959, p. 7). The caterpillar-dragonfly pairing suggests a classic good vs. evil entanglement (Impelluso, 2004, p. 336). Which force of nature will prevail? If the caterpillar is too subtle, the stilted-arch window that frames Bosschaerts floral arrangement offers an architectural reminder of Gods presence. The vase of flowers perched in the church-like window frame captures the beauty of nature while it documents death in progress. Far from passive symbols, the insects in this still-life have already perforated several leaves; viewers feel the heaviness of the drooping blooms towards the base of the arrangement. Death is imminent. Through its placement and interplay of bugs, Bosschaerts piece instructs the viewer to seek out spiritual salvation before it is too late. His floral piece is less subtextual than Beerts, though equally determined in its need to be more than a showpiece. Another work by Bosschaert, Still-Life of Flowers (1614), echoes this tension between God and the devil through its use of bugs. This floral portrait pits worthy and familiar adversaries against each other: the dragonfly vs. a duo of butterflies. Added to the mixture is a third insect, aligned in virtue with the two
393
butterfliesthe bee. Once again, the demonic dragonfly appears prominently in the foreground of the composition, only by this time it shares the spotlight with a regal butterfly. Demonstrating her industriousness, a bee alights on a White Dawn rose in the centre of the basket of cut flowers; joining her in the floral arrangement is a Monarch butterfly atop a pink rose occupying the right mid-register. Bees are symbolic of the Virgin Mary, as their production of honey concerns sacrifice and hard work (Ferguson, 1959, p. 7). The centrality of Bosschaerts bee and the prominence of his butterflies overwhelm the dragonfly. Gods presence is the prevailing force. Even if the dragonfly and the butterfly were removed from the canvas, the bee would still be the central insect of the composition.
Baroque Variations: Pious Symbolism and Chiaroscuro

In the style of still-life painters like Beert and Bosschaert, Baroque artist Georg Flegel and his Still-Life With Fish (1637) highlighted the parallels between the developments that were taking place in the Netherlands and Frankfurt at the time (Meijer, 1990-1991, p. 92) and provided a hybrid German/Dutch variation on the continuing theme of spiritual awareness. His piece elevates the visual rhetoric to a sermon, with religious symbolism occupying all corners of the canvas. Here, the subtle motif of spiritual protection has been replaced by an overt message of pious edification. This becomes apparent with the plate placed before the viewer in the paintings foreground, which offers a traditional symbol of Jesus Christ: fish. In combination with the loaf of bread just behind it, the plate of fish represents both the Eucharist and the Last Supper. As the food of the faithful, fish and bread remind Christians of Christs sacrifice: In various representations of the Last Supper in early Christian art, bread and fish are depicted on the table, where fish takes the place of wine as one of the two elements in the Eucharist (Hooke, 1961, p. 537). Eucharistic symbols, the fish and the bread also allude to the feeding of the 5,000 miracle from the Gospel of John, who is referenced (as the Fourth Gospel) by the four sprigs of parsley on Flegels plate (John 6: 1-14). The transformative power of the Son of God is further portrayed by the pitcher of wine (or Christs blood), the third symbol of the Eucharist and the Last Supper. Flegels color balancing captures a windows reflection along the pitchers rim, neck, and base; these three windows, symbolic of the Holy Trinity, resemble the arched, Gothic windows of a cathedral. Taken together, these three reflections comprised of three windows add up to the perfect Christian number: nine. An angelic number, nine is symbolic of completeness, finality, or judgment (Ferguson, 1959, p. 92; Meaning of Numbers). Introspective viewers are reminded of their final judgment through the symbolism of food and drink. Much like the Flemish and Dutch still-life artists, Flegel incorporated religious symbolism, chiaroscuro (dark plate and background vs. the bread and reflective pitcher), and realism into his canvases. Still-Life With Fish introduces a spoiler to the Eucharistic scene in the form of two demonic flies. The one in the upper-right register has a three-dimensional quality to it; its jarring realism, a tromp loeil, has shock value, drawing the viewers eye away from the plate of fish. Here, once again, is the depiction of Christ (the fish) vs. the Devil (the fly). While chiaroscuro dramatically highlights the presence of the fully-articulated fly on the loaf of bread, it allows the second fly to remain hidden on the darkened periphery of the plate (though the color balancing of its wings almost gives it away). If the viewer accepts Flegels painting as an allusion to the Eucharist, then the flies are a reminder that the devil is present wherever God is. Going a step further, if the fish-bread-wine combination suggests the Last Supper, then the presence of the fly on the bread and on the plate could be interpreted as the Devil and Judas, respectively. Note how the Devil Fly makes his presence known, whereas
394
the Judas Fly is hiding himself amongst the fish. According to this layer of interpretation, the viewer is not only made a participant in the transubstantiation, but also bears witness to Judass betrayal of Christ. Overall, the fly is a powerful symbol of the dark side of faith.
Conclusions
Bugs, whether they are flies, dragonflies, bees, or butterflies, signify death in the pious still-life. Their intimate relationship with natures bountyrepresented by flowers and fruitis meant to disconcert the viewer and inspire introspection, as seen in the works of Beert, Bosschaert, and Flegel. Though bugs would lose their symbolism in the secular still-life (see Maria Sibylla Merians Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium, 1705), their status as beasts of the devil remains iconic.
References
Barnes, D. R., & Rose, P. G. (2002). Matters of taste: Food and drink in seventeenth-century Dutch art and life. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press. Bergstrm, I. (1956). Dutch still-life painting in the seventeenth century. (C. Hedstrm & G. Taylor, Trans.). London: Faber and Faber. Ferguson, G. (1959). Signs and symbols in Christian art. New York: Oxford University Press. Fuchs, R. H. (1978). Dutch painting. London: Thames and Hudson. Grootenboer, H. (2005). The rhetoric of perspective: Realism and Ilusionism in seventeenth-century Dutch still-life painting. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Hooke, S. H. (1961). Fish Symbolism. Folklore, 72(3), 535-538. Impelluso, L. (2004). Nature and its symbols. (S. Sartarelli Trans.). Los Angeles: Getty Publications. Meijer, F. G. (1990-1991). Untitled review. Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art, 20(1), 91-98. Rose, P. G. (2002). Matters of taste. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press. The Bible Study Site. (2010, May 6). Meaning of numbers in the Bible. Retrieved from http://www.biblestudy.org/bibleref/meaning-of-numbers-in-bible/9.html

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Journal of Literature and Art Studies

Volume 3, Number 6, June 2013 (Serial Number 19)

David Publishing Company www.davidpublishing.com

David Publishing Company www.davidpublishing.com

Journal of Literature and Art Studies

The Winters Tale by Shakespeare and the Confucian Values

THE WINTERS TALE BY SHAKESPEARE AND THE CONFUCIAN VALUES

THE WINTERS TALE BY SHAKESPEARE AND THE CONFUCIAN VALUES

The Confucian Values

THE WINTERS TALE BY SHAKESPEARE AND THE CONFUCIAN VALUES

THE WINTERS TALE BY SHAKESPEARE AND THE CONFUCIAN VALUES

THE WINTERS TALE BY SHAKESPEARE AND THE CONFUCIAN VALUES

Especially, as for the Five Constant Virtues:

Coincidence of the Confucian Values With Shakespeares Works

THE WINTERS TALE BY SHAKESPEARE AND THE CONFUCIAN VALUES

A Case Study: The Winters Tale (1623) by Shakespeare

THE WINTERS TALE BY SHAKESPEARE AND THE CONFUCIAN VALUES

THE WINTERS TALE BY SHAKESPEARE AND THE CONFUCIAN VALUES

THE WINTERS TALE BY SHAKESPEARE AND THE CONFUCIAN VALUES

THE WINTERS TALE BY SHAKESPEARE AND THE CONFUCIAN VALUES

SUPERNATURAL ELEMENTS IN KIPLINGS THE MARK ON THE BEAST

SUPERNATURAL ELEMENTS IN KIPLINGS THE MARK ON THE BEAST

The Gothic Short Story and the Fantastic

SUPERNATURAL ELEMENTS IN KIPLINGS THE MARK ON THE BEAST

The Stories: Voicing and Exorcising the Crisis

SUPERNATURAL ELEMENTS IN KIPLINGS THE MARK ON THE BEAST

SUPERNATURAL ELEMENTS IN KIPLINGS THE MARK ON THE BEAST

SUPERNATURAL ELEMENTS IN KIPLINGS THE MARK ON THE BEAST

SUPERNATURAL ELEMENTS IN KIPLINGS THE MARK ON THE BEAST

SUPERNATURAL ELEMENTS IN KIPLINGS THE MARK ON THE BEAST

SUPERNATURAL ELEMENTS IN KIPLINGS THE MARK ON THE BEAST

SUPERNATURAL ELEMENTS IN KIPLINGS THE MARK ON THE BEAST

AGAINST ORTHODOXY: SEX, MARRIAGE, AND GENDER ROLES

Modern Love and the Unholy Battle of the Sexes

A form of nephritis, as explained by Stevenson, 1954, p. 96.

AGAINST ORTHODOXY: SEX, MARRIAGE, AND GENDER ROLES

AGAINST ORTHODOXY: SEX, MARRIAGE, AND GENDER ROLES

Women: Demons or Angels?

AGAINST ORTHODOXY: SEX, MARRIAGE, AND GENDER ROLES

Subversion of the Victorian Idea(l) of Femininity

The Sea Imagery as Narrative Strategy

AGAINST ORTHODOXY: SEX, MARRIAGE, AND GENDER ROLES

AGAINST ORTHODOXY: SEX, MARRIAGE, AND GENDER ROLES

AGAINST ORTHODOXY: SEX, MARRIAGE, AND GENDER ROLES

Artistic Practices [Between] Gender and Technologies*

ARTISTIC PRACTICES [BETWEEN] GENDER AND TECHNOLOGIES

ARTISTIC PRACTICES [BETWEEN] GENDER AND TECHNOLOGIES

Revision of Structural Terms of Our Research

From the Idea of Woman in Feminine to Discourse About Gender

ARTISTIC PRACTICES [BETWEEN] GENDER AND TECHNOLOGIES

ARTISTIC PRACTICES [BETWEEN] GENDER AND TECHNOLOGIES

From the Idea of Art to Artistic Practices

ARTISTIC PRACTICES [BETWEEN] GENDER AND TECHNOLOGIES

ARTISTIC PRACTICES [BETWEEN] GENDER AND TECHNOLOGIES

ARTISTIC PRACTICES [BETWEEN] GENDER AND TECHNOLOGIES

ARTISTIC PRACTICES [BETWEEN] GENDER AND TECHNOLOGIES

ARTISTIC PRACTICES [BETWEEN] GENDER AND TECHNOLOGIES

ARTISTIC PRACTICES [BETWEEN] GENDER AND TECHNOLOGIES

ARTISTIC PRACTICES [BETWEEN] GENDER AND TECHNOLOGIES

Design Principles of External Lighting for Architectural Objects

DESIGN PRINCIPLES OF EXTERNAL LIGHTING FOR ARCHITECTURAL OBJECTS

Principle of Decorative Lighting

Figure 1. Illumination of the Bolshoy Theater facade.