2. Think about how messages are sent in Shakespeare. It's via servants & underlings like Friar John in Romeo & Juliet.
-
-
Replying to @HeerJeet
3. The Shakespearan message is a mark of privilege and embedded in social relations (message sender has some relation with messenger).
2 replies 4 retweets 90 likes -
Replying to @HeerJeet
4. As against the aristocratic messages of Shakespeare, the letter is a more private, personal, bourgeoise form of communication.
7 replies 2 retweets 79 likes -
Replying to @HeerJeet
5. Aristocrats send messages, merchants write letters. With 18th century rise of merchant class, epistolary novel emerge as dominant form
6 replies 3 retweets 100 likes -
Replying to @HeerJeet
6. Letters are in fact the vehicle by which the novel discovers its destiny as a form dealing with middle class life & love.
4 replies 7 retweets 73 likes -
Replying to @HeerJeet
7. It's interesting that Jane Austen toyed with epistolary novel in juvenilia and perhaps in early draft of Pride & Prejudice.
2 replies 1 retweet 66 likes -
Replying to @HeerJeet
8. In effect, even in non-epistolary novels, writers like Austen are taking the contents of letters and giving them dramatic form.
3 replies 2 retweets 71 likes -
Replying to @HeerJeet
9. It's Anthony Trollope who best illustrates connection. Trollope's day job was working for the post office. Wrote novels before work day
5 replies 3 retweets 60 likes -
Replying to @HeerJeet
10. Trollope was actually the person who introduced the pill box (or mail box) to England (and later much of the world).
11 replies 5 retweets 55 likes -
Replying to @HeerJeet
11. Trollope: "It was the ambition of my life to cover the country with rural letter-carriers...."
3 replies 3 retweets 49 likes
12. "I was... a beneficent angel to the public, bringing everywhere with me an earlier, cheaper, and much more regular delivery of letters"
-
-
Replying to @HeerJeet
13. The two sides of Trollope (post office official & novelist writing about bourgeois love & ambition) were in fact one and the same.
5 replies 6 retweets 74 likes -
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.