Twilight and History (Wiley Pop Culture and History) - Softcover

Reagin, Nancy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0470581786 ISBN 13: 9780470581780

Verlag: John Wiley & Sons, 2010

Inhaltsangabe

The first look at the history behind Stephenie Meyer's bestselling Twilight series, timed to release with the third movie, Eclipse
 
The characters of the Twilight Saga carry a rich history that shapes their identities and actions over the course of the series. Edward, for instance, may look like a seventeen-year-old teen heartthrob, but was actually born in 1901 and died during the Spanish Influenza of 1918. His adopted sister, Alice, was imprisoned in an insane asylum in 1920 and treated so badly there that even becoming a vampire was a welcome escape. This book is the first to explore the history behind the Twilight Saga's characters and their stories. You'll learn about what life might have been like for Jasper Whitlock Hale, the Confederate vampire who fought during the Civil War, Carlisle Cullen, the Puritan witch hunter-turned-vampire who participated in the witchcraft persecutions in Early Modern England, and the history of the Quileute culture that shaped Jacob and his people --and much more.
* Gives you the historical backdrop for Twilight Saga characters and events
* Adds a whole new dimension to the Twilight novels and movies
* Offers fresh insights on vampires, romance, and history
 
Twilight and History is an essential companion for every Twilight fan, whether you've just gotten into the series or have followed it since the beginning.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Nancy R. Reagin is a professor of history and women's and gender studies at Pace University, who has published several books in modern European history. Her current research focuses on the history of literary fan communities. She's also an active fan who has worked on fan archives and Web sites, and has helped build fan organizations. She rooted for Team Jacob long after most reasonable people would have given up hope.

Von der hinteren Coverseite

What were the social norms of the world that Edward grew up in? (Hint: Bella's guesses were a little off.)
 
Considering the history of the Quileute people, was Team Jacob always doomed?
 
What would Jasper have experienced as a Civil War soldier?
 
Are the Volturi typical Italian Renaissance rulers?
 
What was childhood like in seventeenth-century London, where Carlisle was born?
 
The answers to these compelling questions and more can be found inside Twilight and History. From Renaissance Italy to the persecution of suspected witches in early modern England to the American Civil War, the Cullens and other immortals in the Twilight series have witnessed many of the defining events that shaped the modern world. This book is the first to look at the wealth of history that shaped the identities of Twilight's characters and influenced their actions. With timelines comparing Twilight Saga history with real human history, it is the perfect Twilight companion for history lovers and Twilight fans to bite into, adding a new dimension to the series and providing compelling historical background on Stephenie Meyer's characters and plotlines.

Aus dem Klappentext

What were the social norms of the world that Edward grew up in?

(Hint: Bella's guesses were a little off.)

Considering the history of the Quileute people, was Team Jacob always doomed?

What would Jasper have experienced as a Civil War soldier?

Are the Volturi typical Italian Renaissance rulers?

What was childhood like in seventeenth-century London, where Carlisle was born?

The answers to these compelling questions and more can be found inside Twilight and History. From Renaissance Italy to the persecution of suspected witches in early modern England to the American Civil War, the Cullens and other immortals in the Twilight series have witnessed many of the defining events that shaped the modern world. This book is the first to look at the wealth of history that shaped the identities of Twilight's characters and influenced their actions. With timelines comparing Twilight Saga history with real human history, it is the perfect Twilight companion for history lovers and Twilight fans to bite into, adding a new dimension to the series and providing compelling historical background on Stephenie Meyer's characters and plotlines.

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Twilight and History

By Nancy Reagin

John Wiley & Sons

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-470-58178-0

Chapter One

"An Old-Fashioned Gentleman"?

Edward's Imaginary History Kate Cochran

Edward Cullen is the ideal man: "Interesting ... and brilliant ... and mysterious ... and perfect ... and beautiful ... and possibly able to lift full-sized vans with one hand," as Bella Swan notes. (Twilight, 79.) His barely restrained passion, the result of the war between his utter devotion to one woman and his animalistic desire to consume her, is reined in by his moral conscience and colored by the mystery of his aloofness; the fact that his century-old soul is housed in a physically superior seventeen-year-old body is only one aspect of his attractiveness. Both the key to the Twilight Saga's appeal and arguably its most compelling figure, Edward's character also reflects the imaginative way that history is invoked in the four books.

The known details of Edward's personal history are few. He was turned in 1918 at the age of seventeen after being stricken during the Spanish flu epidemic and before shipping off to fight in World War I. But instead of manifesting the mores of the Lost Generation that came of age during the 1920s or even of an indeterminate past, Edward instead embodies the old-fashioned qualities of the nineteenth-century Byronic heroes from Bella's favorite romantic novels. Edward is compared to Pride and Prejudice's Darcy, Jane Eyre's Rochester, and Wuthering Heights's Heathcliff, becoming a general Victorian "gentleman" figure. In an interview, Stephenie Meyer said, "Edward is the most popular [character], and I think it's because he's an old-fashioned gentleman in some ways, and in other ways he's a very modern, sort of tortured soul, although I guess, you know, you go back to Byron and it's all there." An examination of Edward's literary ancestors shows that the Twilight Saga is informed by Meyer's sense of literary history more than by documented historical fact. The perfect man therefore represents Bella's (and Meyer's) fictional heroes, come to life.

Imaginary History: How Literature and History Play Together

"Imaginary history" refers to the different ways that history and literature borrow from each other. For historians, the term can refer to the creation of subjective history or to the use of fictional story to convey historical facts. Gavriel Rosenfeld's article "Why Do We Ask 'What If?': Reflections on the Function of Alternate History" examines how some historians use subjective history, specifically wondering how history would have been different if the "other side" had won World War II, the Civil War, and the American Revolution. Rosenfeld asserts that the value of "allohistorical speculation" lies in "its ability to shed light upon the evolution of historical memory"; that is, when we wonder about what could have happened, we are commenting on what we choose to remember. Other historians employ the phrase "imaginary history" to describe how they use literary devices and styles to communicate history. As Linda Orr explains, in "The Revenge of Literature: A History of History," before the mid-nineteenth century, historians frequently used fictional story to document history, although more recently they have sought to distance the field of history from that of literature. Orr examines the basic concerns of historiography in issues such as realism, bias, source analysis, and linguistic "truth." She observes, however, that "the more history presses toward science, the more literature, or a has-been history, is produced," showing that even when the two disciplines attempt to diverge, they remain inextricably linked.

"Imaginary history," however, can also indicate the construction of an imaginary past, as it does in the Twilight Saga. Meyer uses history as one means of setting her vampire characters apart, which jibes with George Garrett's definition of "imaginary history." In "Dreaming with Adam: Notes on Imaginary History," Garrett explains that novelists craft the impressionistic world of imaginary history by simply removing the details of the present day: "We therefore work backwards, stripping away the things we know well, to reach the past where they were neither known nor imagined," leaving the impression of an unspecified historical setting. Thus, instead of giving details from each vampire's actual historical background (for example, information about Carlisle Cullen's life in seventeenth-century England), Meyer more often merely indicates that they are not of the twenty-first century. For instance, when Bella remarks on Edward's speech-"I could never quite mimic the flow of his perfect, formal articulation. It was something that could only be picked up in an earlier century"-she does not specify which "earlier century" Edward sounds like. (New Moon, 9.)

Meyer's version of imaginary history is linked to feelings of nostalgia, particularly when her unidentified past is merely the present with its more unsavory aspects stripped away. We think of nostalgia as a fondness or yearning for aspects of the past now lost-aspects from both from the communal past and a personal past. For instance, one might feel nostalgic for one's childhood (personal) or for a historical era (communal). There is a sense of murkiness and unreality in these visions of the past; however, the most powerful feelings of nostalgia arise from the remembering or desire for what never really was, a "past" that seems both safe and easily understood due to its simplicity and reliance on shared values. Bella envisions such a past for Edward as she muses about their engagement: "I saw the same odd vision of Edward and me on a porch swing, wearing clothes from another kind of world. A world where it would surprise no one if I wore his ring on my finger. A simpler place, where love was defined in simpler ways. One plus one equals two." (Eclipse, 325.) She refers to her own nostalgia for Edward's past as "Anne of Green Gables flashbacks," showing that for Bella, Edward's past is the same kind of imaginary history that Meyer employs: one based in literature. (Eclipse, 277.)

The Lost Generation: Edward's Historical Moment

But how does Edward account for his own history? In the saga, little is disclosed about Edward's past. The most revealing comment he offers comes during his attempt to persuade Bella to agree to marry him: "In my world, I was already a man. I wasn't looking for love-no, I was far too eager to be a soldier for that; I thought of nothing but the idealized glory of the war that they were selling prospective draftees then." (Eclipse, 276-277.) Edward identifies his desire to fight in World War I as the most defining characteristic of his past. However, his memory of the war raises some questions about historical inconsistencies.

Edward notes that "they were selling" an "idealized glory of the war"; certainly, wartime propaganda abounded during World War I: Sean Dennis Cashman explains that "American propaganda of 1917 [referred to World War I as] the Great Crusade." Much of the American propaganda of the time depicted Germans as bloodthirsty brutes feasting on innocents and destroying democracy. Edward mentions that the propaganda was directed at "prospective draftees." In fact, President Woodrow Wilson's May 1917 draft bill mandated registration for all...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: John Wiley & Sons
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2010
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0470581786
• ISBN 13: 9780470581780
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Auflage: 1
• Anzahl der Seiten: 288
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar