“Soot and Drops of Water”: Particulate Atmospherics and Redundancy in The Secret Agent

Brendan Kavanagh

“Soot and Drops of Water”: Particulate Atmospherics and Redundancy in The Secret Agent

Data publikacji: 04.05.2016

Yearbook of Conrad Studies, 2015, Vol. 10, s. 59 - 73

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843941YC.15.005.4911

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Tytuły

“Soot and Drops of Water”: Particulate Atmospherics and Redundancy in The Secret Agent

Abstrakt

This paper examines the saturation of redundant particulates (such as fog, soot, dust and mist) and redundant sign systems in the atmospherics of The Secret Agent, while taking into account late Victorian responses to London’s air pollution. Through applying the information theory concepts of redundancy and information carrying capacity, it extends J. Hillis Miller’s analysis of repetition in Conrad’s work and thereby examines how the text’s minimal redundancy of specific words serves to encode higher levels of significance. The paper demonstrates that The Secret Agent represents the particulate atmosphere of London as a media system, in that its patterned use of minimal redundancy serves to trace the stabilization of collective conditions of immersion in air and sign systems.

Słowa kluczowe

atmospherics, climatology, redundancy, information theory, media theory, The Secret Agent

Bibliografia

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Informacje

Informacje: Yearbook of Conrad Studies, 2015, Vol. 10, s. 59 - 73

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4467/20843941YC.15.005.4911

Typ artykułu: Oryginalny artykuł naukowy

Autorzy

Brendan Kavanagh

University of A. Stulginskis, Kaunas

Publikacja: 04.05.2016

Status artykułu: Otwarte

Licencja: Żadna

Udział procentowy autorów:

Brendan Kavanagh (Autor) - 100%

Korekty artykułu:

Języki publikacji:

Angielski

Liczba wyświetleń: 2182

Liczba pobrań: 1234

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