Questions tagged [historical-context]
Questions regarding the influence of historical events or notions on a literary work, or about the extent to which works of literature accurately depict historical events, figures, customs, ideas, etcetera.
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Is the white man at the other side of the Joliba river a historically identifiable person?
Maryse Condé's novel Ségou: les murailles de terre (1984; translated into English as Segu) contains both fictional characters (presumably the entire Traoré family) and historical characters. Some of ...
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Is there an edition of "Life on the Mississippi" with historical commentary?
I've just started reading Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain, and have already noticed both obviously erroneous statements (like the claim that the Mississippi together with the Missouri is the ...
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What kind of building was it, in Arnold's 'Thyrsis', which bore 'Sibylla's name'?
Matthew Arnold's elegy for his friend Arthur Hugh Clough, 'Thyrsis' is full of cryptic references to the landscape around the city of Oxford, as it was in the poet's lifetime. It begins:
How changed ...
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How to understand Doña Vera's decision to flee Austria for Mexico?
One of the major characters in Anita Desai's The Zigzag Way is Doña Vera, the Austrian widow of a Mexican silver baron. The couple had met and married in Vienna just prior to the outbreak of World War ...
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Can infantry be the same as marines in 1809?
In THE ROLL-CALL OF THE REEF, by Arthur Quiller-Couch, the speaker, a cavalryman, is talking to a little Marine:
"'And that was very well done, drummer of the Marines. What's your name?'
"'...
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Who is Gall in Italo Svevo's "Senilità"?
I'm reading Italo Svevo's novel Senilità, translated into English as As a Man Grows Older or Emilio's Carnival. In the third chapter, someone called Gall is mentioned (emphasis mine):
Ella portava la ...
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Why would Goldoni have wanted to allude to a treatise on thermal waters in "La bottega del caffè"?
I managed to find a copy of the critical edition edited by Roberta Turchi of Goldoni's La bottega del caffè. In this book, I found a note that caught my attention. It is a commentary regarding this ...
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What is specifically Dutch about light bulbs?
In Willem Elsschot's Cheese, the narrator Laarmans bemoans the fact that his job involves selling full-cream edam imported from the Netherlands:
It's strange, but to me there was something revolting ...
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Henry Green's Loving: What is the historical position of the English characters in Ireland?
Henry Green's Loving (1945) is set in the fictional Kinalty Castle during World War II. This Irish castle is the home of an English family, the Tennants. Mrs Tennant is a widow whose grown son, Jack, ...
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Did Napoleon ever shoot a bookseller?
In The Oxford Book of Literary Anecdotes (1975) there is a story about Thomas Campbell (1777-1844) that runs as follows:
At a literary dinner Campbell asked leave to propose a toast, and gave
the ...
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How does ignorance make a barren waste in "To the Nile" by John Keats?
The sonnet "To the Nile" (1818) by John Keats reads as follows:
Son of the old Moon-mountains African!
Chief of the Pyramid and Crocodile!
We call thee fruitful, and that very while
...
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In Ryonosuke's story "Cogwheels" (sometimes translated as "Spinning Gears") what does the yellow plaster signify?
Partway through the story, the protagonist is speaking with a friend. And he stops mid sentence:
I broke off mid-sentence, as I studied the reflection of his back in
the mirror. There was a yellow ...
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What does this allusion to the French mean in Gogol's "The Overcoat"?
In Gogol's short story The Overcoat (or The Cloak) there is an allusion to the French people that I cannot understand. In the translation into English found in the book Short story classics (Foreign) -...
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Why does changing one's name to 'Vladimir' indicate allegiance to Moscow?
From John Le Carré's Smiley's People:
“Vladimir’s father was an Estonian and a passionate Bolshevik, Oliver,” he resumed in a calmer voice. “A professional man, a lawyer. Stalin rewarded his loyalty ...
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Connotative meaning of poetic lines:- "And We went without meat and cursed the bread"
In the famous poem Richard Cory by E.A. Robinson, given below are the lines of my interest
So on we worked, and waited for the LIGHT,
And went without the MEAT, and cursed the BREAD
capitalisation ...
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What does "The thirties all over again" mean?
From John Le Carré's Smiley's People:
Suddenly Lacon’s own face took on an appalled expression and his tone dropped to one of near despair.
“You should hear them, George, our new masters! You should ...
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Was Akutagawa's Shōgun ("The General") ever censored in Japan? If so, how?
I know books which criticize the military were censored in Japan during the interwar period.
I'm wondering if this specific story was censored, and if so, roughly when/for how long? Also, what did the ...
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"La guerra" by Goldoni: why was it about waiting for a war commissioner to become rich?
I've started reading Carlo Goldoni's play titled La guerra ('The War'). I haven't found any translation into English. One of the characters is Don Polidoro, the war commissioner. He praises war ...
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Examples of “canonical questions” in different cultures [closed]
This question will be rather odd.
I have been thinking about this topic for a while, and this is the type of question that really cannot be answered without hearing people from different backgrounds.
...
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Why were the soldiers betting with Australian pounds rather than American dollars in "The Naked and the Dead"
At the beginning of the The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer, a few soldiers, including Croft, Wilson, and Gallager, were playing a card game overnight in the hold before landing on the island. But ...
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How can Mrs Morel buy her son out of the army in D. H. Lawrence's "Sons and Lovers"?
It seems she could and she did it. But how? From chapter IX:
Mrs. Morel had had a few pounds left to her by her father, and she decided to buy her son [Arthur] out of the army. He was wild with joy. ...
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Meaning (likelihood, credibility) of "but the only trouble was that I'd never seen you before" in Our Town by Thornton Wilder
From Our Town by Thornton Wilder, Act II:
Dr. Gibbs: Well, Ma, the day has come. You're losin' one of your chicks.
Mrs. Gibbs: Frank Gibbs, don't you say another word. I feel like crying every minute....
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Second marriages in Victorian society shown in Tess of the d'Urbervilles
While reading the novel Tess of the d'Urbervilles, I noticed there are two incidents of marrying a second time. First, Angel is the son of his father's second wife. This is shown in a normal way. Is ...
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What are "Himalaya Wines", in the "Last Chronicle of Barset"?
In Chapter 37, of Anthony Trollope's, The Last Chronicle of Barset
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3045/3045-h/3045-h.htm#c37
a sign in Hook Court advertises "Burton and Bangles, Himalaya Wines&...
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Were Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bennet formally equal in rank?
Were any of the main characters in Pride and Prejudice (Mr. Darcy, Mr. Bingley, Lady Catherine de Bourgh) more than gentry? Did any of them belong to the peerage?
Was there any formal difference in ...
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Context of Kipling poem Dane-Geld
Kipling's poem Dane-Geld is a warning about submitting to blackmail. It makes the point that if you pay blackmail then the blackmailer will come back and demand more. Therefore you should never pay.
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Why does Percival Everett change the relationship of Carolyn Bryant and J W Milam in The Trees?
The character Granny C in Percival Everett's The Trees represents an aged Carolyn Bryant, the woman whose dubious claim that Emmett Till whistled at her led to his brutal murder. In real life, the men ...
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Why does the Devil "glower" at Benedict Arnold's absence in "The Devil and Daniel Webster"?
The short story "The Devil and Daniel Webster" is filled with topical and historical references, and clearly has a moral opinion on colonial American history. Generally speaking, this moral ...
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What does "Catholic privilege" mean in Pym's Excellent Women?
The narrator of Barbara Pym's Excellent Women is Mildred Lathburn, a clergyman's daughter in 1950s London. Here, Mildred's Welsh cleaning lady, Mrs. Morris, is complaining half-humorously about the ...
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Where can I take a deeper dive into Jane Austen's vocabulary?
I'm translating some Jane Austen into Latin, and I'm wondering whether there's a resource that would allow me to do a deeper dive into the nuances of the vocabulary she uses, especially the words that ...
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Customs at Calais in “The Mystery of the Blue Train”
In chapter 9 of Agatha Christie’s The Mystery of the Blue Train, which takes place in the late 1920s, one of the characters goes to a travel agency in London and asks for the best way to get to Nice. ...
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Censorship reaction to Moravia's "La mascherata"
La mascherata is a novel by Alberto Moravia, published in 1941, during Italian fascist era. It is set in an imaginary dictatorship in Latin America. It is clearly a book against dictatorship. This ...
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Is "Uncle Tom's Cabin" read in American high schools?
I have read that Harriet Beecher Stowe's work (published 1852) is not encouraged by the educational establishment in the US because of the stereotypes it presents of black people as ill-educated and ...
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Why did the Pit and the Pendulum lack historical authenticity?
The Pit and the Pendulum is set in Toledo, Spain during the height of the Spanish Inquisition which began in 1478.
In the story, Poe references the Jacobin club, which was an influential political ...
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Is Emma's preoccupation with class and station typical of the time period or an aspect of her character?
In Jane Austen's Emma, the titular character is shown to spend a lot of time and effort thinking about class, rank, and station in society. She's worried about mixing with the lower classes, and ...
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Why did Vladek get soup when he presented a clean shirt?
On page 94 of Maus II: A Survivor's Tale, Vladek trades some of his food for a lice-free shirt that he carefully cleans and wraps in paper. He later presents the clean shirt in order to get soup.
Why ...
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In Wister's _The Virginian_, why is calling a white man white considered a compliment?
In the second chapter of Owen Wister's The Virginian, what appears to be a factual statement about the titular character's race is described by the narrator as a "high compliment":
“Yes, ...
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What superstitions about coroners is "Carbide" referring to?
In Carbide by Andriy Lyubka (set in Ukraine near the border of Hungary from the post-Soviet 1990s until at least 2012), many people were afraid of the coroner, who had a "horrible reputation"...
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Of what people, of what liquor-agency does Thoreau speak in this paragraph from "The Last Days of John Brown"?
In The Last Days of John Brown, Thoreau writes:
All through the excitement occasioned by his remarkable attempt and subsequent behavior, the Massachusetts Legislature, not taking any steps for the ...
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What historical reference is Stevenson making with "shouting in the streets"?
In The Master of Ballantrae, in the section “The Master's Wanderings”, Stevenson writes:
and I dare say these plaudits had their effect on Master Teach in the cabin, as we have seen of late days how ...
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Euripides - mystai or evidence of higher-ranked status?
Euripedes has quite an extensive catalog on the so-called mystery cults. In the wiki, it does state the tragedian had some involvement in a mystery cult:
He served for a short time as both dancer and ...
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To what "attack on the Boston Court-House" does Thoreau allude in this paragraph from "Slavery in Massachusetts"?
In Slavery in Massachusetts, Thoreau writes:
The events of the past month teach me to distrust Fame. I see that she does not finely discriminate, but coarsely hurrahs. She considers not the simple ...
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What does Thoreau mean by "pew hire" in this paragraph from "Slavery in Massachusetts"?
In Slavery in Massachusetts, Thoreau writes:
Among measures to be adopted, I would suggest to make as earnest and vigorous an assault
on the press as has already been made, and with effect, on the ...
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What prior "case of the murderer himself" does Thoreau have in mind in "Slavery in Massachusetts"?
In Slavery in Massachusetts, Thoreau writes:
It is, to some extent, fatal to the courts, when the people are compelled to go behind them. I do not wish to believe that the courts were made for fair ...
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To what laws does Thoreau allude in "Slavery in Massachusetts"?
In Slavery in Massachusetts, Thoreau writes:
I have read a recent law of this State, making it penal for any officer of the “Commonwealth”
to “detain or aid in the … detention,” anywhere within its ...
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Were schoolteachers really paid substantially less than $45 per month in 1990s Ukraine?
Shortly after Tys graduated from university and started teaching in Carbide (by Andriy Lyubka), he'd periodically borrow money from his friend Icharus:
By that time, Icarus had become a businessman (...
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How historically accurate is Koestler's The Gladiators?
The Third Servile War or War of Spartacus inspired several novels, including Arthur Koestler's The Gladiators, published in English in 1939.
In the 1930s, Koestler worked mostly as a journalist, ...
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Why was the illegal tunnel in Carbide mostly used to smuggle illegal cigarettes?
Possibly related: What is "Galacian tobacco" and what is its significance?
Carbide by Andriy Lyubka starts with the following news item:
BRATISLAVA (Reuters) - A smuggling title the length ...
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What were the changes in the Spirit of the West at the end of first millennium?
From the first Chapter of The Undiscovered Self by Carl Jung
What will the future bring? From time immemorial, this question has
occupied men’s minds, though not always to the same degree.
...
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Did Napoleon have a team of scientists named Pekinese dogs?
I was reading the book "The Code Book" by Simon Singh.
An excerpt from the book is as follows
The obsession began in 1800, when the French mathematician Jean-Baptiste Fourier, who had been ...
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