ENCHANTED WITH THE CITY OF THE SOUTH – NEW ORLEANS IN LAFCADIO HEARN’S LITERARY NONFICTION
Joanna Przeszlakowska-Wasilewska
Katedra Filologii Angielskiej Uniwersytet Warmińsko-Mazurski w OlsztynieAbstract
This paper is devoted to the New Orleans stage in the writings of the nineteenth-century American literary journalist, Lafcadio Hearn. The major focus is on the writer’s fascination with the city’s unique Southern character which was skillfully grasped and conveyed by Hearn during the decade of his residence in New Orleans. The articles published in the Cincinnati Commercial and the Daily City Item are discussed in terms of the author’s sensual and emotional approach towards what he considered as
the greatest assets of New Orleans: its tropicality, the Creole element, the climate, and the women. Special attention is paid to Hearn’s sensitivity to feminine beauty as
the crucial determinant of the city image he managed to describe for future generations.
Keywords:
American literary non-fiction, close reading, New Orleans, city image, SouthReferences
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Toporov Vladimir. 2000. Miasto i mit (The City and Myth). Gdańsk: słowo/obraz terytoria.
Wolf Naomi. 2002. The Beauty Myth – How Images of Beauty are Used Against Women. London: Vintage Books.
Bronner Simon J. (ed.). 2015. Lafcadio Hearn: Ethnographic Sketches and Editorials. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky
De Caro Frank. 2005. Louisiana Sojourns: Travelers’ Tales and Literary Journeys. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University
Gray Richard, Robinson Owen. 2008. A Companion to the Literature and Culture of the American South. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons
Ette Ottmar 2003. Literature on the Move. Amsterdam & New York: Radopi.
Gould M. George. 2011. Concerning Lafcadio Hearn. In: http://gutenberg.readingroo.ms/3/6/7/8/36783/36783-h/36783-h.htm [Access 31 VIII 2017].
Hartsock John. 2000. A History of American Literary Journalism: the Emergence
of Modern Narrative Form. Amherst, Mass.: University of Massachusetts Press.
Hearn Lafcadio. 2007. Exotics and Retrospectives. New York: Cosimo, Inc.
Heitman John. 2012. Lafcadio Hearn in New Orleans. In: https://www.neh.gov/humanities/.../lafcadio-hearn-in-new-orleans [Access 31 VIII 2017].
Henshaw Victoria. 2013. Urban Smellscapes: Understanding and Designing City Smell Environments. New York: Routledge.
Howes David (ed.). 2005. Empire of the Senses: The Sensual Culture Reader. New York & Oxford: Berg.
Kennard Nina. H. 2010. Lafcadio Hearn. In: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/33345/33345-h/33345-h.htm [Access 4 XI 2017].
LaBarre Delia (ed.). 2007. The New Orleans of Lafcadio Hearn. Illustrated Sketches from the Daily City Item. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.
Lemoine Bernadette. 2006. Lafcadio Hearn as an ambassador of French literature in the United States and Japan. In: https://www.cairn.info/revue-de-litterature-comparee-2006-3-page-299.htm [Access 9 XI 2017].
Mordell Albert. 2017. The Erotic Motive in Literature. London & New York: Routledge.
Moroz Grzegorz, Sztachelska Jolanta (ed.). 2010. Metamorphoses of Travel Writing: Across Theories, Genres, Centuries and Literary Traditions. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Murray Paul. 1993. A Fantastic Journey: The Life and Literature of Lafcadio Hearn. Hove: Psychology Press.
Nabae Hitomi. 2014. The Spirit of No Place. Reportage, Translation and Retold Stories in Lafcadio Hearn. Kobe: Kobe City University of Foreign Studies.
Perkins D. Percival, Perkins Ione (ed.). 2005. Lafcadio Hearn: A Bibliography of his Writings. Mansfield Centre: Martino Publishing.
Rindisbacher Hans J. 1992. The Smell of Books: A Cultural-historical Study of Olfactory Perception in Literature. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Rodaway Paul. 1994. Sensuous Geography. Body, Sense and Place. New York: Routledge
Saunders J. Nicolas, Cornish Paul. 2017. Modern Conflict and Senses. London: Taylor & Francis.
Smith Mastran Shelley, Lowerre Nan. 1983-91. Mountaineers and Rangers: a History of the Federal Forest Management in the Southern Appalachians. Washington D.C.: U.S. Department of Agriculture
Smith Ruys Thomas. 2011. The Southern Queen. New Orleans in the Nineteenth Century. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group
Stanonis Anthony J. 2006. Creating the Big Easy: New Orleans and the Emergence
of Modern Tourism, 1819-1845. Athens & London: University of Georgia Press.
Starr S. Frederick (ed.). 2001. Inventing New Orleans. Writings of Lafcadio Hearn. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.
Stevenson Elizabeth. 1998. The Grass Lark: A Study of Lafcadio Hearn. New Brunswick & London: Transaction Publishers.
Toporov Vladimir. 2000. Miasto i mit (The City and Myth). Gdańsk: słowo/obraz terytoria.
Wolf Naomi. 2002. The Beauty Myth – How Images of Beauty are Used Against Women. London: Vintage Books.
Przeszlakowska-Wasilewska, J. (2018). ENCHANTED WITH THE CITY OF THE SOUTH – NEW ORLEANS IN LAFCADIO HEARN’S LITERARY NONFICTION. Acta Neophilologica, 1(XX), 65–79. https://doi.org/10.31648/an.2687
Joanna Przeszlakowska-Wasilewska
Katedra Filologii Angielskiej Uniwersytet Warmińsko-Mazurski w Olsztynie
Katedra Filologii Angielskiej Uniwersytet Warmińsko-Mazurski w Olsztynie
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