"I Was Myself an Eye-Witness": Disaster Discourse and the Eighteenth-century English Scientific Mind in Daniel Defoe's the Storm  

Oleh:

Yeh, Tsai-ching

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: Fu jen studies: literature & linguistics no. 47 (2014), page 17-37.
Topik: The Storm; disaster; narrative technique; Francis Bacon; modern science

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Perpustakaan Pusat (Semanggi) Nomor Panggil: FF10 Non-tandon: 1 (dapat dipinjam: 0) Tandon: tidak ada

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This essay investigates Daniel Defoe's disaster discourse in his first full-length narrative, The Storm (1704), covering such issues as the narrative technique of the work, its intermingling of factual history and imaginative fiction, and its reference to contemporary scientific thinking. The Storm is a historical record of the natural disaster that struck the British Isles in 1703. Instead of regarding himself as the author of the work, Defoe calls himself the "Eye-witness and Sharer" of the calamity, while in the end of the narrative, he adopts the role of an "Editor" who tries to offer objective depictions of the disaster through the materials that he has collected. Composed of letters from people all over England, The Storm is more a record than a work of fiction. Historically, Defoe provides the reader with detailed and authentic information on the storm; literarily, The Storm impacts Defoe's Active works, both in style and in narrative techniques. However, the voices of the book are multiple, and Defoe the writer also confesses that some of the tales/observations of the storm are beyond the "real Extent." Therefore, the boundary between history and fiction appears blurred. In addition, the emphasis on the empirical experiences of the letter contributors as the foundation of the text is a reflection of the ways of thinking in early eighteenth-century England, particularly the views of Francis Bacon on modern science.

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