Abstract
In this chapter for Christine Huguet’s book Writing Otherness: The Pathways of George Gissing’s Imagination, I examine how bells define ‘acoustic space’, and how soundscape contributes to cultural identity, in Thyrza, New Grub Street, The Nether World, and The Unclassed. In these, the overbearing noise of pealing or tolling bells seems to contribute a particular kind of sub-narrative at significant points. The noise clearly had unpleasant associations for Gissing.
Bells have long defined geographical and cultural identity; the ‘cockney’ is a person born, not within a specific set of streets, but within the sound of the Bow bells. Bells also provide a narrative of unspoken power dynamics, lying on the threshold between music and noise. Tolling becomes a ‘monologue of power’, to use Attali’s phrase; a sound so loud that it serves to silence everything else by deafening and censoring all other human noises. Bells also signify ‘crossing over’ from one place or state to another, particularly in connection with the processes of organised religion. In that regard, they have always been strongly associated with transformatory states. This may be particularly significant in connection with Gilbert Grail in Thyrza, the principal subject of exploration here.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Writing Otherness |
Subtitle of host publication | The Pathways of George Gissing’s Imagination |
Editors | Christine Huguet |
Place of Publication | Groningen |
Publisher | Equilibris |
Pages | 71-82 |
Number of pages | 12 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9789059760141 |
ISBN (Print) | 9789059760110, 9789059760127, 9789059760134 |
Publication status | Published - 2010 |