Materializing the Flow of Emotion: The Interface Between Sound and Body in The Lifted Veil, Romola, and Daniel Deronda

Publication Date

11-16-2023

Document Type

Article

Organizational Units

College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, English and Literary Arts

Keywords

George Eliot, Sound, (Anti)communitarian process, Emotion

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

All Rights Reserved
All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

This article argues that the representations of hearing play an essential role in mediating emotion, sympathy, and (anti)communitarian process in Eliot’s fictional works. I look at moments when the interface between sound and body communicates socialization or marginalization: in The Lifted Veil (1859), sound highlights the vulnerability and passivity of the individuals as opposed to the external world; in Romola (1862–63), while Baldassarre’s resistance to sound reveals his isolation, Romola’s vibration to sound communicates a more complex relationship between individual and community—though sound symbolizes historical changes that transform her into an outlier, it also connects her with her community by evoking the past. Eliot’s last novel, Daniel Deronda (1876), indicates the limitations of hearing and exposes the boundary of sympathetic vibration—by using hearing to foreshadow, legitimize, and manipulate the characters’ destinies, Eliot touches the mythical origin of emotion and puts it at the center of (anti)communitarian process.

Copyright Date

11-16-2023

Rights Holder

The Pennsylvania State University

Provenance

Received from author

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by The Pennsylvania State University. User is responsible for all copyright compliance. This article was originally published as:

Gao, M. (2023). Materializing the flow of emotion: The interface between sound and body in The Lifted Veil, Romola, and Daniel Deronda. George Eliot - George Henry Lewes Studies, 75(1), 45-57. https://doi.org/10.5325/georelioghlstud.75.1.0045

Language

English (eng)

Extent

13 pgs

Publication Title

George Eliot - George Henry Lewes Studies

Volume

75

First Page

45

Issue

1

Last Page

57

ISSN

2372-191X

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