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The Cosmic Time of Empire
Modern Britain and World Literature
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2010
About this book
Combining original historical research with literary analysis, Adam Barrows takes a provocative look at the creation of world standard time in 1884 and rethinks the significance of this remarkable moment in modernism for both the processes of imperialism and for modern literature. As representatives from twenty-four nations argued over adopting the Prime Meridian, and thereby measuring time in relation to Greenwich, England, writers began experimenting with new ways of representing human temporality. Barrows finds this experimentation in works as varied as Victorian adventure novels, high modernist texts, and South Asian novels—including the work of James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, H. Rider Haggard, Bram Stoker, Rudyard Kipling, and Joseph Conrad. Demonstrating the investment of modernist writing in the problems of geopolitics and in the public discourse of time, Barrows argues that it is possible, and productive, to rethink the politics of modernism through the politics of time.
Author / Editor information
Contributor: Adam Barrows
Adam Barrows is Assistant Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at Carleton University in Ontario, Canada.
Topics
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Frontmatter
i -
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Contents
vii -
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Illustrations
ix -
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Acknowledgments
xi -
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Introduction
1 -
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Chapter 1. Standard Time, Greenwich, and the Cosmopolitan Clock
22 -
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Chapter 2. “Turning From the Shadows That Follow Us”
53 -
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Chapter 3. At the Limits of Imperial Time; or, Dracula Must Die!
75 -
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Chapter 4. “The Shortcomings of Timetables”
100 -
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Chapter 5. “A Few Hours Wrong”
129 -
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Conclusion. A Postmodern Politics of Time?
154 -
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Notes
171 -
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Bibliography
193 -
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Index
205
Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
July 22, 2019
eBook ISBN:
9780520948150
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Main content:
224
eBook ISBN:
9780520948150
Keywords for this book
world standard time; 1884; science; victorian culture; prime meridian; greenwich; temporality; geopolitics; victorian literature; adventure novels; high modernism; south asian novels; james joyce; virginia woolf; h rider haggard; bram stoker; rudyard kipling; joseph conrad; nature of time; empire; imperialism; cosmopolitan clock; modernity; standard time; india; indian literature; negri; backward arrow; globe; politics; human temporality; modernism; time; modernist; literary criticism; modern literature; semiotics theory
