ES Review. Spanish Journal of English Studies 45 (2024)

ES Review SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES Issue No. 45 ● 2024 ©LOS AUTORES. 2024 ©EDICIONES UNIVERSIDAD DE VALLADOLID E-ISSN 2531-1654 Diseño de cubierta: Ediciones Universidad de Valladolid Fotografía: SRGS DL: VA 904-2017 ES Review SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES EDITORIAL COMMITTEE GENERAL EDITORS María Belén López Arroyo Esther Álvarez de la Fuente Universidad de Valladolid, Spain Universidad de Valladolid, Spain ASSOCIATE EDITOR Tamara Gómez Carrero Universidad de Valladolid, Spain MANAGING EDITORS Qianting Yuan Lucía Sanz Valdivieso Universidad de Valladolid, Spain Universidad de Valladolid, Spain Rebeca Martín Mozo Susana Merino Mañueco Universidad de Valladolid, Spain Universidad de Valladolid, Spain COPY EDITORS Alison Killilea Thomas Hardy PRODUCTION EDITORS Sara Medina Calzada EDITORIAL BOARD Arthur Aughey · Ulster University, Antrim, UK María Vittoria Calvi · Universitá degli Studi di Milano, Italy María José Carrera de la Red · Universidad de Valladolid, Spain Emron Esplin · Brigham Young University, US Juana M. Liceras · University of Ottawa, Canada Ana Manzanas Calvo · Universidad de Salamanca, Spain Ignacio M. Palacios Martínez · Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Spain Diego Saglia · Università degli Studi di Parma, Italy Manuel Sánchez García · Universidad de Extremadura, Spain Robert F. Yeager · University of West Florida, US INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE Sonia Baelo Allué Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain Antonio A. Ballesteros González UNED, Spain José Manuel Barrio Marco Universidad de Valladolid, Spain Jesús Benito Sánchez Universidad de Valladolid, Spain Ruth Breeze Universidad de Navarra, Spain Gualter Cunha Universidade do Porto, Portugal David Earle University of West Florida, US Raquel Fernández Fuertes Universidad de Valladolid, Spain José F. Fernández Sánchez Universidad de Almería, Spain Fernando Galván Reula Universidad de Alcalá, Spain Antonio García Gómez Universidad de Alcalá, Spain Cristina Garrigós González UNED, Spain Richard Gaunt University of Nottingham, UK Manuel J. Gómez Lara Universidad de Sevilla, Spain Chris Hart University of Lancaster, UK Silvia Pellicer Ortí Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain Ana Parejo Vadillo Birkbeck, University of London, UK Ian Haywood University of Roehampton, UK Jessica Hemmings University of Gothenburg, Sweden Carlos Herrero Quirós Universidad de Valladolid, Spain Laura Hidalgo-Downing Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain Mark Hutchings University of Reading, UK Jon Klancher Carnegie Mellon University, US Luis Alberto Lázaro Lafuente Universidad de Alcalá, Spain Laura M. Lojo Rodríguez Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Spain Rosa Lores Sanz Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain Giovanna Mapelli Universitá degli Studi di Milano, Italy Elizabeth Marshmann University of Ottawa, Canada M. Soledad Morales Ladrón Universidad de Alcalá, Spain Isabel Moskowich Universidade da Coruña, Spain Francisco Javier Muñoz Acebes Universidad de Valladolid, Spain Lorena Pérez Hernández Universidad de La Rioja, Spain David Río Raigadas Universidad del País Vasco, Spain Viorica Patea Birk Universidad de Salamanca, Spain Consuelo Stebbins University of Central Florida, US Jorge Sacido Romero Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Spain The Editors wish to thank the following experts, who kindly agreed to referee specific papers in their field for this issue: Akira Suwa Doshisha University, Japan Alicia Rodríguez Álvarez Universidad de las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain Alpo Honkapohja University of Tallinn, Estonia Ana Manzanas Calvo Universidad de Salamanca, Spain Anne Jamison University of Utah, USA Antoni Oliver Gonzàlez Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain Arsenio Andrades Moreno Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain Auxiliadora Pérez Díez Universidad de Huelva, Spain Avril Tynan University of Turku, Finland Barbara Braid University of Szczecin, Poland Beatriz Domínguez García Universidad de Huelva, Spain Burcu Gülüm Tekin Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain Carlos Sanz Mingo Univeristy of Cardiff, UK Carmen África Vidal Claramonte Universidad de Salamanca, Spain Jennifer Amos University of Suffolk, UK Jesús Benito Sánchez Universidad de Valladolid, Spain John Connor King's College London, UK Juan Zarandona Fernández Universidad de Valladolid, Spain Karma Waltonen University of California, Davis, USA Ly Nguyen Ausburg University, Minneapolis, USA Margaret Stetz University of Delaware, USA Maria Ivana Lorenzetti Università di Verona, Italy María Luisa Carrió Pastor Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain María Pilar Martínez-Benedi Università degli Studi dell’Aquila, Italy Mark Llewellyn University of Cardiff, UK Marlén Izquierdo Fernández Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, Spain Marta Begoña Carretero Lapeyre Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain Martina Pfeiler Universitat Wien, Austria Carmen Soler Monreal Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Spain Carolina Pérez Arredondo Universidad de O'Higgins, Chile Catherine Calloway Arkansas State University, USA Celia Almeida Independent Scholar, Brazil Cristina Garrigós González UNED, Spain Daniel Morris Purdue University, USA Diana Edelman University of North Georgia, USA Edita Hornková Klapicová Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Slovakia Esther Muñoz González Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain Farah Mendlsohn Anglia Ruskin University, UK Heike Hartung University of Postdam, Germany Ignacio Palacios Martínez Universidade Santiago de Compostela, Spain Jenna Sciuto Massachusets College of Liberal Arts, USA Martti Mäkinen Hanken School of Economics, Finland Mary K. Bercaw University of Connecticut, USA Massimo Verzella Penn State at Erie, USA Natalia Carbajosa Palmero Universidad de Cartagena, Spain Patricia Pulham University of Surrey, UK Paula Schintu Martínez Universidad Alfonso X el Sabio, Spain Peter Plurie University of Richmond, USA Pilar Somacarrera Íñigo Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain Sara Soler Arjona Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Spain Sayre N. Greenfield University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg, USA Stef Woods Independent scholar, USA Susana Merino Mañueco Universidad de Valladolid, Spain Urszula Terentowicz-Fotyga Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin, Poland Viorica Patea Birk Universidad de Salamanca, Spain TABLE OF CONTENTS Articles The Grotto as Neo-Victorian Heterotopia: Sonia Overall’s The Realm of the Shells (2006) and Essie Fox’s Elijah’s Mermaid (2012) LAURA MONRÓS-GASPAR 11 Modality in Climate Change-Related Discourse by King Charles III OLEKSANDR KAPRANOV 31 Punctuation in Early Modern Texts: The English Translation of Rembert Dodoens’ Herbal in Handwriting and Printing JUAN LORENTE-SÁNCHEZ 60 In Defense of Fifty Shades by E. L. James: Does It Really Contain Gender-Based Violence? CATHAYSA SANTANA RODRÍGUEZ 93 Provincial Newspapers as Vehicles for Dialect Spread and Enregisterment: Insights from Nineteenth Century Devonshire Dialect RENE TISSENS 116 A Psychoanalytic Approach to Louise Glück’s Blended Receptions of the Myths of Narcissus and Persephone in Averno SANAE KICHOUH AIADI 145 “I Was in No Mood for People Who Tried to Lay Claims on Me”: Community, Hospitality, and Friendship in Teju Cole’s Open City FATMA AKÇAY 170 The Blurred Line between Good and Evil in Moby-Dick and Post-WWII Cinema: How John Huston Read Melville for his Movie Adaptation UNAI IZQUIERDO BERASALUCE 192 Queering the Vietnam Trauma Narrative in Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous MARÍA ABIZANDA-CARDONA 217 Oscar Wilde’s Trials as a Haunting Presence: An Approach to the Role of Fantasy in Contemporary Neo-Victorian Novels Depicting Same-Sex Romance Between Men MANUEL HUESO VASALLO 241 16 Laura Monrós-Gaspar ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 11–30 E-ISSN 2531-1654 “resist privileging history’s non-fictional discourse” (4) in readings of the past and rely on the twentieth-century discourses of memory and nonacademic forms of history to reinvent Victorian cultural products. The multiple functions of the neo-Victorian grotto across time are also related to the sixth and final principle in Foucault’s heterotopology, which relies on the idea that every heterotopia has a function in relation to the rest of the space. The neo-Victorian grotto is a site of concealment and transformation, but also of empowerment; thus, the grotto provides a counterpoint to the mainstream spaces of Victorian society that mould mainstream identities. As such, and in correlation with the fifth principle of Foucault’s counter-spaces, which presupposes “a system of opening and closing that both isolates and makes them penetrable” (Foucault 21), the neo-Victorian grotto functions as a site of passage between temporalities but also between innocence and experience, submission, and empowerment. Ultimately, as exemplified in Overall’s and Fox’s novels, the grotto denotes a space where female minds and bodies are either constrained or challenged. The third principle in Foucault’s heterotopology sustains that “the heterotopia has the power to juxtapose in a single real place several spaces, several emplacements that are in themselves incompatible” (Foucault 19), which he exemplifies with the space of the theatre, the cinema, or the garden. In the fourth principle, Foucault nourishes the idea that heterotopic spaces are open to heterochronisms where time is accumulated indefinitely, as in museums and libraries (Foucault 20). Historically, the intriguing life of artificial grottos began in the Hellenistic period, when grottos were built to honour water spirits (Jackson 4). Over time it became a custom to erect nymphaeum—temples and artificial grottos—around public fountains, Roman villas and gardens. During the sixteenth and through the eighteenth century, the tradition of artificial grottos occupied a place of honour in Italy. The practice then spread to England, where it remained in fashion until the late twentieth century (Jackson). Just as in the Foucauldian garden, the superimposed meanings of the grotto, from the Hellenistic period to the nineteenth century in Western culture, juxtapose in the same space two emplacements that might seem incompatible: sacred spaces of worship and ludic spaces of recreation. Additionally, the grotto overlays the present with fossilized reminiscences of the past: decorations of embedded minerals, shells and mosaics serve as a catalyst for reading the grotto as a neo-Victorian heterochronic space, where the echoes of the past coexist with the voices of the present. In the The Grotto as Neo-Victorian Heterotopia . . . 17 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 11–30 E-ISSN 2531-1654 section that follows, I support my claim that neo-Victorian grottos are best understood as Foucauldian heterotopias through two case studies that reveal the utility of the heterotopia as an analytical frame. The two selected novels re-write the nineteenth-century stories of Margate Shell Grotto to challenge the prescriptive social norms for women and restore their identities. 2. NEO-VICTORIAN GROTTOS IN SONIA OVERALL’S THE REALM OF SHELLS (2006) AND ESSIE FOX’S ELIJAH’S MERMAID (2012) A mere two years before Queen Victoria ascended the throne, a legendary cavern in England was first discovered by a young boy, Joshua Newlove, during excavations for the foundations of a new school in Margate. From that moment on, the cavern was known as Margate Shell Grotto. It is said that when Joshua lowered his head into a hole in the ground, he emerged mesmerized by the shell tunnels he found there. With over four million shells and two thousand square feet of mosaic, the fascinating mystery surrounding the construction of the shell grotto still remains unresolved. This might explain why from 1838 until now, the grotto is one of the major local attractions in Margate (Haslam). The discovery of the grotto was widely covered by the press of the time with illustrations of its tunnels and secret passages (“Links with the Past”). Provincial newspapers announced the opening of the mysterious grotto in 1838, highlighting its inscrutable aisles: The grotto...extends to a great distance under the hill, and is laid out in serpentine walks, alcoves, and passages of considerable extent, the sides being studded with shells, formed into elaborate and curious devices, and doubtless executed by torchlight. (Kendal Mercury) Even though no conclusive evidence exists of the grotto’s origins to date, some contemporary newspapers ventured to set its construction around the time of the “Saxon heptarchy” (Kendal Mercury). This increased the allure of the place to those inquisitive minds to history and to the recovery of the past in Victorian England. Much speculation surrounded the purpose of the chapels and tunnels of the grotto, which were believed to have been built as a place of worship. Conjectures reached the twentieth century with intellectuals championing both its ancient origin and modern construction alike (“Nota Bene”). 18 Laura Monrós-Gaspar ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 11–30 E-ISSN 2531-1654 In an intertextual and metatextual dialogue between the past and the present, both Sonia Overall and Essie Fox interrogate the Victorian penchant for grottos in The Realm of Shells (2006) and Elijah’s Mermaid (2012), respectively. The two writers create a credible representation of the Margate grotto, interspersing historical veracity with fictive plots. As I shall contend next, Overall and Fox refigure the Victorian grotto through revisionist resignification of the trope to position women as central agents of the narrative. Both reshape past abuses of female minds and bodies into future processes of empowerment by reimagining Victorian grottos in revisited heterotopias. Overall and Fox’s approaches to the Victorian grotto in relation to female bodies may be discussed through various theoretical approaches to neo-Victorian fiction, such as trauma theory and notions of the trace. 6 Because, as Heilmann and Llewellyn put it, “Victorian sexuality and the way we re-imagine it . . . holds an irresistible appeal for the neo-Victorian imagination. The nature of our interest in the Victorian body arguably reveals less about the Victorians and more about our own preoccupations” (Neo-Victorianism 107). Due to practical constraints, this article cannot provide a full discussion of such theories as applied to the heterotopic space of the grotto in neo-Victorian fiction. Still, while the focus of the article remains on the analysis of the Foucauldian trope, I bring to light questions about the relationship between neo-Victorian appropriations of grottos and trauma that may be further explored in future publications. In Nostalgic Postmodernism, Gutleben poses two questions that are central, Bowler and Cox argue, to the “neo-Victorian project” (Bowler and Cox 5) and have remained in neo-Victorian criticism since (Gay et al.; Heilmann and Llewellyn, Neo-Victorianism; Robinson; Boehm-Schnitzer and Gruss). First, Gutleben questions whether the contemporary novel “sets out to rectify certain historical wrongs, to fight against specific prejudice and to subvert ideological and aesthetic commonplaces” (Gutleben 7). Then, Gutleben goes on to argue whether it simply “takes over a set of themes, of characters and of novelistic devices either because they appear as tokens of an unsurpassed art or because they perpetuate the immense success of the Golden Age of the British novel” (Gutleben 7). According to Renk, women writers’ approach to the neo-Victorian project is revisionist when they address “the ways in which gender and sexuality 6 See, for example, Arias (“Traces and Vestiges”), Onega and Ganteau (Contemporary Trauma Narratives), and Scott. The Grotto as Neo-Victorian Heterotopia . . . 19 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 11–30 E-ISSN 2531-1654 are constructed in the Victorian era” (3). The same argument permeates Maier and Ayres’ edited volume on neo-Victorian representations of female madness. Therefore, even if neither Overall nor Fox defend an explicit feminist stance in their narratives, 7 the structure, plot, narrative voice and psychological depiction of the female characters in the two novels point to an intentional redefinition of female identities. For both Overall and Fox, the Margate grotto becomes—at very specific moments in the novels—the crime scene for the worst abuses. The sense of antiquity and exoticism occasionally associated with Victorian grottos wanes, and the once-fantastic pleasure domes are linked to anxiety and oppression. In a determined effort to overcome such abuses and re-define their identities, Frances and Pearl—the two heroines of the respective novels—contest and reinvent the space of the merciless grotto by recreating experiences that free their bodies through their own narratives. As such, they confirm the neo-Victorian premise that contemporary narratives remodel past social histories to “provide mechanisms of resilience” that restore wronged minds and bodies (Onega and Ganteau, “Introduction” 5). Inspired by one of the display cases in Margate’s grotto Museum, 8 Sonia Overall’s The Realm of Shells was first published in 2006. The book is based on the discovery and exploitation of the site from the naive yet truthful eyes of the Newlove children. The narrative voice combines the internal monologue of a little girl—Frances Newlove, Joshua’s sister and daughter of the schoolmaster who owned the ground—with the formal letter-writing of the seventy-year-old Frances who recalls the dark secrets of her infancy at the grotto from the perspective of the main female character. After biographical research into the real Newloves and the lives and customs of Margate residents in the 1830s, Overall recreates the characters who developed around the place from Frances’s perspective. We therefore learn about their education, family, and social relations, including Captain Easter, the antagonist of the novel. The book, Overall claims, “is essentially a novel about place, about how a place can influence 7 With regard to The Realm of Shells, Overall claims, “I didn’t write the women in this book with any gender agenda. Having said that, it's impossible to ignore nineteenthcentury attitudes towards women” (4). 8 “In one of the display cases is a potted history of the shell grotto’s ‘discovery’, in 1835, by Joshua Newlove . . . I read this, as most visitors do, before going into the grotto. It was a good story but it didn't mean much without seeing the place. Then I went into the chalk tunnel and saw the scale of the site and quality of the shell work. . . It was the central image for a story that unfolded over the next few months of research” (Overall 9). 20 Laura Monrós-Gaspar ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 11–30 E-ISSN 2531-1654 and manipulate people. The grotto exerts a fascination on the book’s characters, who all want a piece of it for themselves” (Overall 9). The subjective relation of the characters with the place adds the factor of “interexperientiality” to Ricoeur’s metaphor of the construction of new spatial structures. Ricoeur’s association is founded on the idea that every new building “is inscribed in urban space like a narrative within a setting of intertextuality” (150). Overall expands the simile through a set of individual experiences—stories—which add to the objective, analytic and ‘intertextual’ construction of the place. This infrastructural approach to narrative-building holds because, as Koselleck argues, “there is no history which could be constituted independently of the experiences and expectations of active human agents” (257). For Koselleck, two concepts underpin chronologies of place: ‘spaces of experience’ and ‘horizons of expectation.’ The former are considered the present of the past, while the ‘horizon of expectations’ is the present of the future. If one should understand history as the dialogic tension between the two notions, the history of the Margate grotto as re-imagined by Overall is the history of the two presents retold and recalled by the two female narrators in the novel, the young and the adult Frances. By recreating her “horizon of expectations” and “spaces of experience” in the time frame of the narrative, Overall makes the readers witnesses of her own emplacement in and displacement from the enticing cave in various heterochronisms. As such, the grotto reveals “the power relations that still exist as haunting legacies in the present” (Kohlke et al. 2), thus proving to be an apt example of a Foucauldian heterotopia. Overall superimposes conceptions of time to refigure the grotto as a space where experiences and expectations meet to “rectify” the past (Gutleben 7). Overall’s neo-Victorian reappraisal of the trope serves as a tool of female empowerment only when understood in relation to time and the gesture of writing. Therefore, it is not only an example of literary healing, but it also demonstrates Heilmann and Llewellyn’s ideas on women writers redressing “the past -a female past either outside of or silent within the male tradition” (“Hystorical” 142). As a heterotopia of compensation, Overall’s Shell Grotto arouses the high expectations of the Newlove children who see in its secret chambers the space of illusion that exposes the strict instruction they received in the context of evangelical Christianity. As Overall explains, “The grotto responds to the motives and actions of the characters that explore it, being read by them accordingly as a magical space, a demonic realm or a locus horridus” (30). This recalls The Grotto as Neo-Victorian Heterotopia . . . 21 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 11–30 E-ISSN 2531-1654 the effects of Utilitarianism on the Dickensian Gradgrind children in Hard Times and the actions triggered after peeping through the grotto-like booth of the circus beyond the sensorial stance developed by critics (Arias, “(Sub)Urban Landscapes”). The dissolute behaviour that Overall allows in Shell Grotto interrogates Victorian attitudes towards education. As a heterotopia of crisis, Overall’s grotto serves as the umbrella for the process of growth and transformation of the younger characters as well as for the corruption of the morale of the adults. Young Frances’s disillusionment and unfulfilled expectations grow as Captain Easter’s ambition for economic wealth is uncovered. In contrast to the strong magnetism that the grotto exercises on the children at the beginning of the novel, the last letter written by the adult Frances in 1897 reads, “the place is nothing to me. I’m not interested in it any more” (Overall 325). Between 1835 and 1897—the time frame of the narrative—the grotto involves disparate moments in time where conjectures about its first builders, memories of its first discovery, and the set of experiences lived by the Newlove family intersperse to unfold the plot. They provide the adult Frances Newlove with the narrative frame in which to overcome her silenced encounter in the grotto. Captain Easter’s abuse of the young Frances is undisclosed by the narrative voice of the little girl who recalls the history of the Newloves at the grotto. The Captain’s cruelty towards Fanny is stifled under the naked cries of “No-oh-oh. No-oh-oh” (Overall 61) and henceforth barely verbalized by her recurring address to the character as “Hateful hateful” (Overall 266). Only when Wales is working on the remodelling of the grotto and invites Fanny to see the shells does her interior voice dare to admit that the dark room in the shell is devilishly haunted by her memories of the past: “‘Thank you for showing me’ say I. He shrugs again, pointy. ‘Don’t you fret about that room, my girl’ he says. ‘It in’t haunted.’ It is though. Just not by anybody who is dead” (Overall 305). Fanny’s last chance to speak is through her last letter, where the adult Frances Schmidt responds to Mr. Goddard. The very last sentences in the letter culminate the sporadic efforts of the double narrator to excavate Fanny’s memories: “there is still something I have to tell you, if you want to hear it. I swore once I’d never say, but that was all a long time ago. It can wait” (Overall 326). Correspondence between the schoolmaster’s daughter and the real-life historian Algernon Goddard is filed in the archives of Canterbury Cathedral and served as a source of inspiration for Overall (Overall 10). Fanny’s letter, therefore, acts as the archaeological 22 Laura Monrós-Gaspar ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 11–30 E-ISSN 2531-1654 vestige that proves David Lowenthal’s “mistrust of nostalgia” in contemporary reappraisals of the Victorian past. As Arias and Pulham argue with regard to Lowenthal’s theories, “we no longer seek in the past a refuge of the present; instead, we excavate the past to expose its ‘iniquities and indignities.’” (xiv). Frances’ last letter accounts for her final excavation of her memories that attempt to denounce her silenced suffering. By asking the readers to fill in the gaps of such memories, Overall makes use of the voice of a postmodern narrative to expose and condemn the ignominy of the past. Six years after the publication of The Realm of Shells, Essie Fox refigures the Victorian grotto in Elijah’s Mermaid as a neo-Victorian heterotopia where female identities are moulded, contested, and (re)created through memory. Elijah’s Mermaid opens when the infant of a young woman discovered dead by the Thames is found and brought to an exclusive brothel in London: Mrs Hibbert’s House of Mermaids. Brought up under the name of Pearl, the girl is sold to Osborne Black—a patron of the brothel—at the auction of her maidenhood at the age of fourteen. The story of Pearl runs in parallel with that of the orphaned twins Lily and Elijah, who eventually meet the girl and form a bond that will mark their future personal, emotional and sexual development. Fox relies on neo- Victorian narratives with actual and invented nineteenth-century epigraphs, interpolated letters, tales, diaries and newspaper clippings to help her unfold the plot of the novel. Yet the narrative is mainly told from Pearl’s and Lily’s perspectives. This is a recurring trope in Fox’s neo- Victorian novels, where stories are narrated from the viewpoint of two, often opposite, female subjectivities. In the section “The Real Places Which Have Influenced the Settings for Elijah’s Mermaid” appended to the novel, Fox declares that “The Grade I listed Margate Shell Grotto plays a relatively small part in Elijah’s Mermaid, being the underground ‘cave of shells’ in which Pearl first poses in darkness for the artist Osborne Black. But it has a great significance in terms of what her life is about to become” (Fox 398). In no way insignificant to the plot of Elijah’s Mermaid, the events that take place in the Margate Grotto are the turning point for various key elements in the plot of the novel. They develop Osborne Black’s fanatical infatuation with Pearl and also influence the unfolding of Pearl’s adult life. Osborne Black is an artist obsessed with the painting of pale mermaids and forces Pearl to pose for him—first as his daughter and later his wife —for his paintings of mermaids. The first time that Pearl sits for Osborne The Grotto as Neo-Victorian Heterotopia . . . 23 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 11–30 E-ISSN 2531-1654 Black is in the Margate grotto, where “his vision grew too dark, before he was taken up with the madness of hiding his mermaid away from the world” (Fox 344). Pearl is a young adolescent, and her experience parallels an act of sexual initiation. Fox’s narrative evidences the act of possession with the recurring phrase “You are my mermaid”—first stated in this passage and a returning motif throughout the novel. The physical and psychic pain that Pearl suffers from that very first act of abuse at the grotto haunts her memories of the place and is evoked in every subsequent space of reclusion that she endures. As a result, Dolphin House—Osborne Black’s hall—and Chiswick House asylum become extensions of that first grotto of abuse and provide the foundations for the elaborate rhizomatic structure of spaces of concealment that build Pearl’s identity. Fox’s conceptualization of the grotto as a symbol is more complex than Overall’s as, far from being central and unique as an enchanting space of secrets and cruelty, it expands into an intricate chain of connections beginning at the House of Mermaids. In Fox’s rhizomatic reinvention of the grotto, three caves are worth noting for the purpose of this article. The first is Margate Shell Grotto, which sparks the abuses that ensue. The next significant grotto is Osborne Black’s own hall, where, triggered by his sick imagination, Black has built his “own world, modelled on a grotto” (Fox 190). In Black’s grotto, his “secret realm” and “darkness” perpetuates the artists’ possession of the muse that eventually ends in her seclusion in an asylum when the first signs of age and adult sexuality appear in her body (Fox 190). The third relevant space in Fox’s rewriting of the Victorian cave is the grotto built by the two siblings, Lily and Elijah, in Kingsland House. The children constructed the grotto with the shells sent by Frederick Hall. Pearl’s first and last encounters with the Kingsland House grotto are sensorial experiences that reanimate her personal story of concealment. 9 When Pearl first visits Kingsland House as Black’s wife, the stroll in the garden with Lily takes her to a stream, to the “sound of water” that she “paddles” until she finds “the spot where some shells still adhered to the damp mossed walls” (Fox 118)—the traces of the old grotto. She then recalls her story at Margate: 9 See Arias (“(Sub)Urban Landscapes”) for a thorough analysis of the grotto as a source for sensorial experiences in Sonia Overall's The Realm of Shells. 24 Laura Monrós-Gaspar ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 11–30 E-ISSN 2531-1654 ‘You have your own grotto!’ She smiled back through the dappling shadows until suddenly flinching, as if in pain. For a moment or two she bit down on her lip before letting out a lingering sigh, and then that guarded note in her voice when she murmured, ‘Osborne must not see this place. He would only want to paint me here.’ (Fox 118–19) Pearl’s recollection of her traumatic experiences through her senses illustrates the role of sensorial meanings in trauma narratives where, “unable to narrativize the traumatic experience in logical terms, the subject gives expression to his or her trauma by means of sensorial images instead of words” (Onega and Ganteau, “Introduction” 3). The second encounter with this grotto is at the end of the novel, when Pearl is about to give birth to Elijah’s child. In a trance she finds the same stream and the old grotto: Where am I? Is this Margate? For a moment, I cannot think. My world is nothing but sensory touch, dampness and greyness and cold hard stones, and the glisten of shells beneath velvety moss, and the patterns they make—like stars, like moons. And then I remember. This is the grotto. I say, ‘I am your mermaid.’ Why does Elijah not reply? There is only the silver of tears in his eyes. There is only the glint of the gold on my hand when my wet fingers twine with his, turning and squeezing, gripping hard when he pulls me from darkness and into the light. (Fox 345–46) In the two examples, the transcendence of Pearl’s recollections of Margate is rekindled by the immanence of her sensorial experiences—by the material trace of the Kingsland House grotto. For Merleau-Ponty, immanence and transcendence form a co-constitutive paradox: “[i]mmanence, because the perceived object cannot be foreign to him who perceives; transcendence, because it always contains something more than what is actually given” (16). Considering Freud’s premise that the “child is always father to the adult,” the transcendence of the various grottos in Fox’s narrative is always related to Pearl’s first experiences at Margate. This illustrates Ricoeur’s ideas of how external marks are adopted as “a basis and intermediary for the work of memory” (147). Yet in Fox’s novel, the external marks of the Kingsland House grotto not only revive disturbing memories of Pearl’s past as a sexual object but also re-imagine the space of the grotto as a modern and female-centred heterotopia. Fox’s revisitation of Margate Shell Grotto exemplifies neo- Victorian appropriations of the trope as a Foucauldian heterotopia: both as The Grotto as Neo-Victorian Heterotopia . . . 25 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 11–30 E-ISSN 2531-1654 a heterotopia of crisis and of compensation, it reveals a female character on the verge of adulthood at the same time that it recreates a palace of pleasure for the male artistic gaze that abuses his muse. Still, as the plot unfolds, Pearl’s narrative voice deconstructs the grotto as a heterotopia of compensation where the hands of the male artist no longer mould an objectified Galatea. When she is giving birth to Angel and re-imagines Margate, the real-life experience supersedes the illusion of memory. The grotto becomes Pearl’s palace of pleasure and perfection. Pearl manages to conceal it from the hands of Osborne Black and respond to the petrifaction of his models’ minds and bodies by giving birth to a new life. CONCLUSIONS The two case studies considered for this article confirm how the Victorian grotto, both as an aesthetic trope and as a product of consumption, survives as a cultural commodity enmeshed in contexts that created meanings not only for its contemporaneous consumers but also for contemporary Victoriana enthusiasts. Neo-Victorian appropriations of the trope in fiction rely on a non-factual, yet historic-archaeological, excavation to unveil the micro-histories of memory and experience that helped to build such meanings. In their engagement with the Victorian age, Overall and Fox reinvent the grotto as a Foucauldian heterotopia that challenges and denounces the past abuses of history. The authors develop examples of the neo-Victorian grotto as a heterotopia of crisis and a heterotopia of compensation that adopt different functions depending on the culture that re-invents it. The neo-Victorian grotto described by Overall and Fox is a site of passage, of transition from pain to healing, from submission to empowerment, and stands in contrast to other mainstream emplacements that limit women’s emancipation and autonomy. Finally, the grotto also reconciles various and seemingly conflicting spaces through sensorial memories in a process of healing where, in the case of Overall, the act of writing is imperative to authenticate Frances’ version of the story and, in the case of Fox, the act of childbirth reconciles Pearl with her past experiences. The micro-histories recovered by Overall and Fox revisit the nineteenth-century grotto as a neo-Victorian heterotopia where the static, enchanting and repressive site is revaluated as a fluid place-as-event that is constantly subject to change through social and material relations. As such, they evidence Massey’s theories by which she reads any place as 32 Oleksandr Kapranov ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 31–59 E-ISSN 2531-1654 cualitativamente para establecer los tipos de modalidad asociados a ellos. El análisis reveló que el discurso relacionado con el cambio climático del rey Carlos III estuvo marcado por una alta frecuencia de aparición de los verbos modales will y can. Su frecuencia, funciones pragmáticas y asociación con los diferentes tipos de modalidad se analizan con más detalle en el artículo. Palabras clave: discurso relacionado con el cambio climático; modalidad epistémica; modalidad deóntica; modalidad dinámica; verbos modales. Sumario: Introducción. La cuestión del cambio climático en el discurso político británico. Modalidad en el discurso político sobre el tema del cambio climático: Revisión de la literatura. El presente estudio. Resultados y discusión. Conclusiones. INTRODUCTION The discursive means of communicating the issue of climate change to the public at large are essential in addressing, mitigating, and tackling climate change as a global challenge (Andersen et al. 397). Assuming that discursive means of communicating the issue of climate change to the public are both critical and powerful (O’Neill et al. 413), it is of paramount importance to gain insight into how celebrities, politicians, public figures, and royalty construe their discourses concerning climate change (Anderson 535). It is argued in the literature that such symbolic figures as, for instance, King Charles III of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the UK), “are increasingly appearing as key voices within the climate change debate” (Anderson 535). Conceivably, it seems pertinent and relevant to shed light on climate change-related discourse by King Charles III (further in the article—the King), given that he is considered one of the key public figures whose views on climate change are heeded to by the British public at large (MacGregor 124). Informed by the need to investigate the attitude towards climate change by the members of the British royalty (Anderson 535; MacGregor 124), the article presents a corpus-based study that seeks to elucidate how modality is employed in climate change-related discourse by the King. It should be specified that discourse in general is referred to as the use of language as a social practice, which is instantiated as “a way of signifying experience from a particular perspective” (Fairclough 91). In discourse, modality is argued to play a critical role that pertains to a range of phenomena in pragmatics, morpho-syntax, and semantics (Lillian 2). The present study is based upon the definition of modality as a complex grammatical, pragmatic, and semantic phenomenon, which is employed in oral and written discourse as an indication of the “speaker’s attitudes Modality in Climate Change-Related Discourse by King Charles III 33 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 31–59 E-ISSN 2531-1654 concerning the validity, possibility, necessity, predictability, desirability, inclination, volition, obligation, permission and evaluation of the events” (Cheng 176). Modality in English is conveyed by different word classes, for instance, adjectives, adverbs, nouns and noun phrases. It is deemed to be expressed most directly by the central modal verbs, such as can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will, and would (Kiefer 69; Levine 70; Lyons 787; Nuyts 7; Payne 255; Wildman 1455). Presumably, by means of identifying and analysing the frequency of the occurrence of the central modal verbs in the King’s discourse on climate change, it would be possible to gain a deeper insight into his discursive preferences in terms of the use of modality in his speeches on the topic. Currently, however, there are no recent studies that investigate the use of modality in the King’s discourse on climate change (Kapranov, “Modality in Sustainability Discourse” 88). The present study aims at generating new knowledge about modality in the King’s climate changerelated discourse by means of collecting a corpus of his speeches on the issue of climate change and analysing it in order to establish the most frequently occurring modal verbs, their respective pragmatic roles and types of modality they are associated with. Specifically, the study seeks to answer the following research questions (RQs): RQ 1: What are the most frequent central modal verbs in the corpus of the King’s speeches on climate change? RQ 2: What pragmatic roles and types of modalities are associated with the most frequent central modal verbs in the corpus? Further, the article is structured as follows. First, a brief summary of the literature on the issue of climate change in British political discourse is presented in section 1. Thereafter, in section 2, an outline of the prior studies on modality in climate change discourse is provided. Then, in section 3, I discuss the theoretical premises of the study and its methodology. The results of the study and their discussion are given in section 4. Finally, in section 5, the article concludes with the summary of the major findings and avenues for future research. 34 Oleksandr Kapranov ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 31–59 E-ISSN 2531-1654 1. THE ISSUE OF CLIMATE CHANGE IN BRITISH POLITICAL DISCOURSE The issue of climate change in British political discourse appears to attract a substantial amount of attention by researchers in discourse studies (Boas 21; Capstick et al. 725; Carvalho 172; Cass 47; Detraz and Betsill 303; Jaspal and Nerlich 122; Kapranov, “Rishi Sunak’s Framing” 85; Müller and Stegmeier 309; Nerlich 31; Peters 196; Rogers-Hayden et al. 134). Judging from the prior studies, climate change in British political discourse is seen as a political challenge both on the international and domestic levels (Cass 47). Notably, current British political discourse appears to adjust the major foci of the international agenda on climate change to the domestic realities (Cass 47). In line with the international actors and stakeholders, climate change discourse in the UK addresses, primarily, (i) the considerations of negative consequences of greenhouse gas emissions, (ii) the measures undertaken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and (iii) the rise in mean temperatures that constitutes a threat locally (i.e., in the UK) and globally (Jaspal and Nerlich 122; Kapranov, “The Framing of Climate Change” 55). Research indicates that British political discourse on climate change is determined, at least partially, by how British media construe the issue of climate change and communicate it to the public at large (Carvalho 172). It is argued in the literature that media representations of climate change may influence the British voters’ political engagement by pointing out some aspects of media discourses that may either facilitate or constrain their engagement in terms of the voters’ choices that involve climate change-related issues (ibid.). In addition to the transmission of climate change-related discourses by mass media, British political discourse on climate change reverberates with the public’s opinion, or rather, opinions on the matter (Capstick et al. 725). Whilst the literature notes a volatile nature of the general public’s opinion on climate change in the UK, it is, nevertheless, posited that the public understanding of climate change is based upon the voters’ ethics and value-based notions that are not likely to be changed easily (ibid.). Considering the literature, British political discourses on climate change have incorporated the construals of security and securitisation into the issue of climate change (Boas 21; Detraz and Betsill 303; Peters 196). In this regard, the literature argues that British political discourses on climate change have undergone, at least, a partial securitisation (Boas 5; Peters 198). In other words, the issue of climate change is no longer seen Modality in Climate Change-Related Discourse by King Charles III 35 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 31–59 E-ISSN 2531-1654 as a merely environmental problem but is regarded by the British political elite within the domain of national security (Peters 196). Alongside the construal of climate change within the realm of securitisation, the current British political discourses appear to regard climate change from the perspective of sustainability and renewable energy, which both pertain to the issue of climate change mitigation (Kapranov, “The Discourse of Sustainability” 35; Müller and Stegmeier 309). Prior studies point out to the recurrent discursive theme in British politics that frames climate change as a political issue that needs to be resolved within the context of sustainable and renewable energy sources (Rogers-Hayden et al. 134). Summing up the present overview of the literature, it seems conceivable to contend that climate change is involved in British political discourses as an essential component of policy-making pertaining to risk, security, sustainability, and renewable energy. Importantly, it can be gleaned from the literature that British political discourse on climate change is affected dynamically by the influence of both media and the public at large. 2. MODALITY IN POLITICAL DISCOURSE ON THE ISSUE OF CLIMATE CHANGE: LITERATURE REVIEW Modality is a well-researched area in discourse studies (Fløttum, “A Linguistic and Discursive View” 19; Juliansyah et al. 1; Kapranov, “Modal Verbs in Research Articles” 6; Lillian 1; Malik et al. 13; Nartey and Yankson 21; Poole and Hayes 37). The literature indicates that modality, which is manifested discursively by the central modal verbs, is amply used in political discourse (Nartey and Yankson 21). In particular, Lillian (6) demonstrates that political discourse is characterised by the presence of modal verbs that are associated with epistemic modality. It should be noted that epistemic modality is concerned with the speaker’s assumptions, or assessment of possibilities, and, in most cases, it indicates the speaker’s confidence or lack of confidence in the truth of the proposition expressed. (Coates 112) Typically, epistemic modality is deemed to be manifested by such modals, as might and may (Portner 2). It has been established that epistemic modality, which is realised via the aforementioned modals, is 36 Oleksandr Kapranov ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 31–59 E-ISSN 2531-1654 employed by politicians in order to inform and persuade the public at large (Lillian 12). In addition, the literature posits that political discourse utilises modals as a marker of stance (Poole and Hayes 37) in order to explicate the pragmatic strategies of hedging and politeness (Boicu 15; Hyryn 101). In contrast to the prior studies on modality in political discourse, however, modality in climate change discourse by prominent politicians, public figures, and royalty has attracted insufficient scholarly attention (Juliansyah et al. 1; Malik et al. 13; Poole and Hayes 37). Judging from the studies that shed light onto modality in climate change-related issues within political discourse, can and could are reported to be frequent modals that indicate conditionality and/or possibility in addition to uncertainty (Bailey et al. 202; Fløttum and Dahl 20). Similar findings are communicated by Fløttum (“Linguistic Mediation” 8), who argues that political climate change-related discourse involves a high number of modals, such as may, might, could, and would, which are used in order to convey hedging and hesitation in climate change-related discourse. Additionally, the literature has established that the central modal verbs will and can are rather frequent in the corpus of speeches on climate change by the Secretary-General of the United Nations (Juliansyah et al. 4). Similarly, the central modal verbs will and must are reported to be frequently used in political discourse that involves climate change-related issues by the politicians, who seek to show a strong display of conviction in the betterment of the environment (Malik et al. 19). Summarising this section of the article, we may argue that modality is manifested in the discursive space of climate change-related political discourse by a range of modal verbs that play important pragmatic roles and reflect a variety of discourse-pragmatic purposes of the particular text at hand. 3. THE PRESENT STUDY As previously mentioned in the introductory section of the article, modality seems to be an under-researched aspect of the King’s discourse on climate change. The current gap in scholarship concerning his climate change discourse appears rather surprising given that he has been addressing this critical issue repeatedly since the early 2000s (MacGregor 124). At that time, however, he was referred to as The Prince of Wales. In light of the contemporaneous gap in research, the present study aims to enhance our knowledge about modality in the King’s speeches on climate Modality in Climate Change-Related Discourse by King Charles III 37 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 31–59 E-ISSN 2531-1654 change by means of (i) collecting a corpus of his speeches on this issue and (ii) identifying the central modal verbs in them. Following the research aims, two RQs (i.e., RQ 1 and RQ 2) are formulated and presented in the introductory part of the article. To reiterate, the RQs are focused on learning about the most frequent modal verbs in the corpus and their association with the pragmatic roles and types of modality. Prior proceeding to the study, however, it is relevant to specify its theoretical premises, which, in particular, pertain to RQ 2. Namely, in the subsection below, I explain the theoretical framework allied with (i) the pragmatic roles of modals in climate change discourse and (ii) the types of modality associated with them. 3.1 The Theoretical Premises of the Study On the theoretical level, the study is informed by the approach to modality and the English modals formulated by Palmer (24–50) in his seminal monograph Modality and the English Modals, second edition. Palmer proposes the division of modality into epistemic, deontic, and dynamic types (35). Let us consider in more detail the way Palmer defines and reasons about the aforementioned types of modality. According to Palmer, epistemic modality is easily distinguishable in its syntax and semantics from the other two (50). Moreover, he contends that epistemic modality is characterised by a substantial degree of internal regularity and completeness (ibid.). Specifically, Palmer indicates that the function of epistemic modals is to make judgments about the possibility, etc., that something is or is not the case. Epistemic modality is, that is to say, the modality of propositions, in the strict sense of the term, rather than of actions, states, events, etc. (50) In other words, he maintains that “epistemic modals are normally subjective, ie that the epistemic judgment rests with the speaker” (50). Furthermore, Palmer (ibid.) points out that the relevant modals that are associated with epistemic modality occur, predominantly, in the present tense. As far as deontic modality is concerned, Palmer asserts that it is typically manifested by the modals that denote giving permission (e.g., may) (69). However, he proceeds that it also may refer to an obligation 38 Oleksandr Kapranov ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 31–59 E-ISSN 2531-1654 (e.g., must), a promise and/or a threat (e.g., shall). In terms of the deontic type of modality, Palmer demonstrates that may appears to be almost invariable associated with deontic modality (69–82). Palmer indicates that can may be reflective of deontic modality, given that it is often used to give permission. Palmer explains that the dynamic type of modality refers to the ability or volition of the subject in a clause (83). Dynamic modality is thought to consist of two subtypes. The first subtype is referred in his monograph as (i) dynamic possibility, which is conventionally represented by the modal verb can and semi-modal be able to, and (ii) dynamic necessity, which is normally associated with must, have to, and have got to. In addition, it should be specified that Palmer posits that dynamic modality is subject-oriented in the sense that it is concerned with the ability or volition of the subject of the sentence, rather than the opinions (epistemic) or attitudes (deontic) of the speaker (and addressee). (113) Another theoretical pillar of the study is represented by the approach towards the pragmatic roles of modals, which has been developed by Kjersti Fløttum (“A Linguistic and Discursive View” 19). Having examined an extensive corpus of texts on climate change, Fløttum considers modality as an invaluable linguistic resource that allows a researcher to investigate the intricacies of climate change-related discourse (“A Linguistic and Discursive View” 19; “Linguistic Mediation” 7–20). Fløttum argues that a detailed examination of modal verbs as a microdiscursive means of structuring the speaker’s discourse on climate change can facilitate a better and deeper understanding of the speaker’s intentions, stance, and attitudes towards the topic (Fløttum and Dahl 14–23). It follows from Fløttum’s (“A Linguistic and Discursive View” 19; “Linguistic Mediation” 7–20) reasoning that from the point of view of pragmatics, modal verbs are involved in the manifestation of the speaker’s stance vis-à-vis the issue of climate change. According to Fløttum (“A Linguistic and Discursive View” 19), the speaker’s stance on the issue of climate change may be direct and precise or, alternatively, less direct and, even, circuitous. In particular, Fløttum (“A Linguistic and Discursive View” 19) posits that the modals may, might, could, should and would are pragmatically involved in toning down, or hedging, the propositional content of a stretch of discourse on climate change in which they occur. Fløttum (“A Linguistic and Discursive View” 19) further illustrates her Modality in Climate Change-Related Discourse by King Charles III 39 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 31–59 E-ISSN 2531-1654 contention by a quote from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in which the modal verb may is utilised as a hedging device to impart the proposition a tentative tonality, e.g. Without substantial investment flows and effective technology transfer, it may be difficult to achieve emission reduction at a significant scale. Mobilising financing of incremental costs of low-carbon technologies is important. (IPCC 20) As seen above, the modal verb may as a hedging device conveys a degree of uncertainty to the clause, thus facilitating its hedging. It should be noted that Fløttum’s treatment of hedging in climate change discourse finds multiple parallels with hedging in academic discourse, which has been postulated by Hyland (239). In contrast to the modals, which are involved in hedging (i.e., may, might, could, should and would), Fløttum (“A Linguistic and Discursive View” 19; “Linguistic Mediation” 7–20; Fløttum and Dahl 14–23) considers the modals can, must, shall, and will to be associated with the pragmatic role of rendering a piece of discourse on climate change certainty and boosting a certain part of the utterance. In other words, the modals can, must, shall, and will as boosters contribute to (i) emphasising the part of discourse on climate change and (ii) facilitating its prominence. Another theoretical consideration that harkens back to Fløttum’s (“A Linguistic and Discursive View” 19; “Linguistic Mediation” 7–20) approach to modal verbs in climate change discourse, involves her seminal ideas concerning the discursive roles of passive and active constructions in relation to modals. Specifically, it is inferred from Fløttum that active constructions with modals (e.g., can mitigate) facilitate the creation of a more direct tonality in climate change discourse. In contrast, however, passive constructions with modals (e.g., can be mitigated) are ascribed to a rather detached and more objective pragmatic tonality in texts that deal with the issue of climate change. Unfortunately, Fløttum does not pursue the findings concerning the pragmatic role of active and passive constructions with modals and does not report any statistical measures associated with their pragmatic roles. Nevertheless, the present study takes on board Fløttums’ observations as far as the pragmatic roles of active and passive construction with modals are concerned. 40 Oleksandr Kapranov ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 31–59 E-ISSN 2531-1654 3.2 The Corpus of the Study With the aforementioned theoretical and methodological considerations in mind, the corpus of the study was collected. The corpus was comprised of the King’s speeches on climate change from 2005 to 2023. I accessed the written transcripts of his speeches on the official website of the British royal family at www.royal.uk and searched for them with help of the keywords “climate change,” “global climate change,” “global warming,” “greenhouse gas/gasses,” “CO2 emissions,” “the rise of sea level/levels,” and “global temperature rising.” Once the relevant transcripts of the speeches were identified, they were downloaded as Word files in order to calculate the descriptive statistics of the corpus in the software program Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0 (IBM) (see Table 1 below). Table 1. The descriptive statistics of the corpus # The descriptive statistics Value 1 The total number of speeches 20 2 The total number of words 36 272 3 Mean words 1 813.6 4 Standard deviation words 842.1 5 Maximum words 3 462 6 Minimum words 829 3.3 The Methodology of the Study In terms of the methodology, the study employed a quantitative corpusbased component that was subsequently enhanced by a qualitative analysis. The quantitative analysis of the corpus was carried out in the computer software AntConc version 4.0.11 (Anthony) in order to compute the frequency of the occurrence of the central modal verbs, namely can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will, and would. To do so, each transcript of the King’s speech on climate change was downloaded from the website www.royal.uk, converted into a Word file and processed in AntConc (Anthony), which yielded the occurrence of the respective modal verb per file. Thereafter, the occurrence of each modal verb per file were Modality in Climate Change-Related Discourse by King Charles III 41 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 31–59 E-ISSN 2531-1654 merged in SPSS in order to compute mean and standard deviation per each modal verb in the entire corpus. In addition, the quantitative analysis of the most frequent modal verbs was extended by the N-Gram function of AntConc in order to illustrate the textual environment in which the most frequent modal verbs in the corpus occurred. It should be specified that the N-Gram function was used to scan the corpus for an N number of clusters. Following Szczygłowska (18), the N value in N-Gram analysis was set at 3. That was done in order to see how modals were used in active (e.g., will mitigate) and passive (e.g., will be mitigated) constructions, respectively. In line with Svenonius, the term “construction” was treated in the analysis as “a characteristic formal pattern of syntactic categories or features, usually associated with some meaning and/or discourse function” (15). Following that, the qualitative part of the investigation was carried out. It involved a manual identification of the types of modality associated with the central modal verbs in the corpus. The qualitative analysis was based on Palmer’s (50–133) classification of the types of modality summarised in the preceding subsection of the article. Methodologically, the inclusion criteria of each individual modal verb in the corpus into the respective types of modality were in line with Palmer and summarised in Table 2. Table 2. The inclusion criteria of modal verbs into the respective types of modality based upon Palmer (50–133) # Types of Modality Inclusion Criteria: A Modal Verb 1 Deontic (i) Expresses a speaker’s permission (for instance, may, can), obligation (e.g., must ), a promise or a threat (e.g., shall), which take place at the moment of speaking; (ii) Expresses possibility, which consists in giving permission (for instance, may, can); (iii) Expresses a command, often of a brusque or impolite kind (e.g., can); (iv) Expresses obligation (e.g., must), which implies that the speaker is in a position to lay the obligation, and is thus in a position of some authority; 48 Oleksandr Kapranov ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 31–59 E-ISSN 2531-1654 the context what type of modality the modal verb belonged to), the application of Palmer’s typology of modality to the corpus provided clear indications what types of modality the most frequent modals in the corpus (i.e., can and will) are associated with. In particular, it is evident from Fig. 3 that the modal will is employed in the King’s speeches, predominantly, as epistemic will. This finding can be illustrated by a quote from the King’s (back then—The Prince of Wales) speech at the meeting about Forests and Climate Change at Lancaster House on 29 October 2015: (2) . . . an absolutely crucial milestone in the long overdue international effort to keep to a 2 degree world, although I think that everyone realizes that this C.O.P. will be the beginning of a new phase in the process, not the end in itself. Notably, in the same speech, there is a case of the use of will that, according to Palmer, can be interpreted as deontic will, assuming that it is utilised to render permission: “Before we begin, though, and if you will allow me, I would just like to make three brief observations—the first on C.O.P.21 and its significance.” Whilst deontic will is infrequent in the corpus (see Fig. 3), dynamic will is more numerous, even though it is utilised substantially less than epistemic will. The presence of dynamic will is exemplified by the following excerpt taken from the speech by The Prince of Wales at The Prince of Wales’s International Sustainability Unit’s meeting on Forests, Climate Change and Development on 26 January 2015: (3) So, above all, I pray this meeting will give rise to further ambitious international partnerships to implement good policies and incentives on sustainable land use and integrated, ecologically minded, truly resilient rural development in all countries of the world. It follows from Fig. 3 that epistemic modality is the prevalent type of modality as far as the modal will is concerned. Arguably, the prevalence of epistemic modality associated with the frequent modal will renders the King’s speeches on climate change a subjective, perhaps, deeply personal dimension, which, according to Palmer, is routinely associated with the epistemic modals that are typically “subjective, i.e. that the epistemic judgment rests with the speaker” (50). Modality in Climate Change-Related Discourse by King Charles III 49 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 31–59 E-ISSN 2531-1654 In contrast to will, however, the modal can in the corpus of the King’s speeches appears to be associated, mainly, with dynamic modality and to a substantially lesser degree with the deontic type of modality. Let us illustrate can as a deontic modal by excerpt (3), which is represented by the transcript of the King’s speech delivered at a meeting about Forests and Climate Change at Lancaster House on 29 October 2015: (4) We can’t possibly allow it to become 4 degrees as climate scientists have warned, that’s 7 degrees Fahrenheit, a big increase which will be impossible, I think, to adapt to. Deontic can, which denotes permission, or rather the lack thereof as in (4), is not frequent in the corpus. Unlike deontic can, however, dynamic can occurs in the majority of cases. Its occurrence is further illustrated by excerpt (5), which involves a speech delivered by HRH The Prince of Wales by video to the DEFRA Conference 'Climate Change: The Business Forecast' on 6 October 2005: (5) Are there really no additional cost-effective steps that could be taken to encourage everyone to do more to save energy? Even the seemingly little things can make a significant contribution—such as switching off lights and the “stand-by” buttons on televisions and computers. Given that dynamic can prototypically manifests possibility and expresses judgments about the degree that an action is possible, we may argue that its high frequency of the occurrence in the King’s speeches is concomitant with the King’s view of what he and the general public can do and implement in order to mitigate the negative consequences of climate change, such as “switching off lights and the ‘stand-by’ buttons on televisions and computers” (see excerpt (5)). Summarising the discussion of the findings, we may posit that the King’s speeches on climate change are characterised by his preference for the modal verbs will and can that are associated, primarily, with epistemic and dynamic modalities, respectively. CONCLUSIONS The article introduced and discussed a study that sought to learn about (i) the frequency of the occurrence of central modal verbs and (ii) the types 50 Oleksandr Kapranov ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 31–59 E-ISSN 2531-1654 of modality associated with them in the corpus of speeches by King Charles III on the topic of climate change. Whilst “modality and modal verbs in particular are one of the most researched topics in the English language” (Rizvić-Eminović and Šukalić 211), there are insufficient studies on the frequency and use of the central modals in climate change discourse in general, and by the members of the British royal family in particular. Whereas the present investigation is one of the first attempts at shedding light on this under-researched topic, its findings, nevertheless, have revealed that the modal verbs will and can are the most frequently occurring modals in the corpus of his speeches on climate change. By means of adopting Palmer’s classification of the types of modality, it was established in the present investigation that the most frequent modals in climate change-related discourse by King Charles III, namely can and will, were associated, predominantly, with dynamic (can) and epistemic (will) types of modality. The aforementioned findings could be interpreted within the parameters of Fløttum’s approach to modal verbs and modality as microdiscursive means that allow to shed light onto the King’s attitude and position towards the issue of climate change. Given that his speeches on climate change were found to be characterised by epistemic modality, it could be concluded that his climate change-related discourse could be described as subjective and personally engaged. Additionally, the highly frequent modal can, which was found to related to dynamic modality, imparted King Charles III’s speeches on climate change a more actionoriented and practical dimension, which involved the King’s considerations of what could be done and implemented to stave off the negative consequences of climate change. Obviously, the findings should be treated with caution, since more research should be conducted on the central modals in climate change discourse by the British royals. Hopefully, the present investigation could provide a bench-mark for future studies, which would examine other linguistic and micro-discursive means associated with the central modals and modality in order to arrive at more comprehensive findings. Another direction for future research could involve a comparison of potential changes in the use of modals and modality in the speeches on climate change by King Charles III in his role of His Royal Highness (HRH) Prince Charles and after his coronation. Modality in Climate Change-Related Discourse by King Charles III 51 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 31–59 E-ISSN 2531-1654 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author is appreciative of the editors and two anonymous reviewers, whose comments and suggestions are invaluable. PRIMARY SOURCES HM King Charles III. A speech by His Majesty The King at the opening of COP28, Dubai, U.A.E. 1 Dec. 2023, www.royal.uk/news-and- activity/2023-12-01/a-speech-by-his-majesty-the-king-at-the- opening-of-cop28-dubai-uae/. HRH Prince Charles. A speech by The Prince of Wales at a meeting about Forests and Climate Change at Lancaster House. 29 Oct. 2015, www.royal.uk/clarencehouse/speech/speech-prince-wales-meeting- about-forests-and-climate-change-lancaster-house/. HRH Prince Charles. A speech by HRH The Prince of Wales at a meeting about “Putting Health at the Centre of the Climate Change debate: The role of the Health community in the run up to COP21,” The Royal Society, London. 25 Feb. 2015, www.royal.uk/clarencehouse/speech/ speech-hrh-prince-wales-meeting-about-putting-health-centre- climate-change-debate-role/. HRH Prince Charles. A speech by HRH The Prince of Wales at The Prince of Wales's International Sustainability Unit's meeting on Forests, Climate Change and Development. 26 Jan. 2015, www.royal.uk/ clarencehouse/speech/speech-hrh-prince-wales-prince-waless- international-sustainability-units-meeting-forests/. HRH Prince Charles. A speech by HRH The Prince of Wales at the Energy and Climate Change Meeting in Campeche, Mexico. 4 Nov. 2014, www.royal.uk/clarencehouse/speech/speech-hrh-prince-wales- energy-and-climate-change-meeting-campeche-mexico HRH Prince Charles. A speech by HRH The Prince of Wales on climate change and the environment at Cape Town University. 5 Nov. 2011, www.royal.uk/clarencehouse/speech/speech-hrh-prince-wales- climate-change-and-environment-cape-town-university/. 52 Oleksandr Kapranov ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 31–59 E-ISSN 2531-1654 HRH Prince Charles. A speech by HRH The Prince of Wales to the “Deal or No Deal” Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change Conference. 14 July 2010, www.royal.uk/clarencehouse/speech/ speech-hrh-prince-wales-deal-or-no-deal-corporate-leaders-group- climate-change-conference/. HRH Prince Charles. A speech by HRH The Prince of Wales at the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit. 15 Dec. 2009, www.royal.uk/clarencehouse/speech/speech-hrh-prince-wales- copenhagen-climate-change-summit/. HRH Prince Charles. A speech by HRH The Prince of Wales to open the Nobel Laureates Symposium on Climate Change, St James's Palace, London. 27 May 2009, www.royal.uk/clarencehouse/speech/speechhrh-prince-wales-open-nobel-laureates-symposium-climate-change- st-jamess-palace/. HRH Prince Charles. A speech by HRH The Prince of Wales at the Third May Day Business Summit on Climate Change, London. 1 May 2009, www.royal.uk/clarencehouse/speech/speech-hrh-prince-wales-third- may-day-business-summit-climate-change-london/. HRH Prince Charles. A speech by HRH The Prince of Wales on climate change from tropical deforestation, Mansion House, London. 10 Dec. 2008, www.royal.uk/clarencehouse/speech/speech-hrh-prince-wales- climate-change-tropical-deforestation-mansion-house-london/. HRH Prince Charles. A speech by HRH The Prince of Wales for the Bali to Poznan Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change conference, St James’s Palace, London. 16 July 2008, www.royal.uk/clarencehouse/speech/speech-hrh-prince-wales-bali- poznan-corporate-leaders-group-climate-change-conference-st/. HRH Prince Charles. A speech by HRH The Prince of Wales at the Second May Day Business Summit on Climate Change, London. 1 May 2008, www.royal.uk/clarencehouse/speech/speech-hrh-prince-wales- second-may-day-business-summit-climate-change-london/. Modality in Climate Change-Related Discourse by King Charles III 53 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 31–59 E-ISSN 2531-1654 HRH Prince Charles. A speech by HRH The Prince of Wales on climate change to the European Parliament in Brussels. 14 Feb. 2008, www.royal.uk/clarencehouse/speech/speech-hrh-prince-wales- climate-change-european-parliament-brussels/. HRH Prince Charles. HRH The Prince of Wales about The Bali Communiqué on Climate Change, Financial Times (Global Edition). 30 Nov. 2007, www.royal.uk/clarencehouse/speech/article-hrh- prince-wales-about-bali-communique-climate-change-financial- times-global-edition/. HRH Prince Charles. A speech by HRH The Prince of Wales at the Celtic Nations Business Summit on Climate Change, Cardiff. 7 Nov. 2007, www.royal.uk/clarencehouse/speech/speech-hrh-prince-wales-celtic- nations-business-summit-climate-change-cardiff/. HRH Prince Charles. Closing remarks by The Prince of Wales at the May Day Business Summit on Climate Change, St James's Palace, London. 1 May 2007, www.royal.uk/clarencehouse/speech/closing-remarks- prince-wales-may-day-business-summit-climate-change-st-jamess- palace-london/. HRH Prince Charles. A speech by HRH The Prince of Wales to introduce An Inconvenient Truth, a film by former Vice-President Al Gore, to a climate change seminar of business leaders in Woking. 23 Mar. 2007, www.royal.uk/clarencehouse/speech/speech-hrh-prince-wales- introduce-inconvenient-truth-film-former-vice-president-al-gore/. HRH Prince Charles. A message (by video) from HRH The Prince of Wales to accept the British Environment and Media Award for raising awareness of climate change. 22 Mar. 2006, www.royal.uk/ clarencehouse/speech/message-video-hrh-prince-wales-accept- british-environment-and-media-award-raising-awareness/. HRH Prince Charles. A message (by video) from HRH The Prince of Wales to the DEFRA Conference “Climate Change: The Business Forecast.” 6 Oct. 2005, www.royal.uk/clarencehouse/speech/ message-video-hrh-prince-wales-defra-conference-climate-change- business-forecast/. 54 Oleksandr Kapranov ES REVIEW. 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SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 60–92 E-ISSN 2531-1654 of a prestigious herbal from the Early Modern period: the translation of Rembert Dodoens’ A Niewe Herball or Historie of Plants (see Dodoens), first published in English in 1578. The choice of such a piece not only stems from the importance it had at the time of publication, but also from the fact that a substantial part of it has been preserved in handwriting in Glasgow University Library, MS Ferguson 7 (ff. 23r–48v; 59r) (F7 for short). According to De la Cruz-Cabanillas, “little has been published concerning punctuation variants in different copies of the same text” (“Is Punctuation Comparable”12), especially when it comes to pieces available in both handwritten and printed format (see Lorente-Sánchez, “Punctuation Practice” 62). This considered, apart from contributing to the dissemination of knowledge on the use and distribution of punctuation in Early Modern English texts of a diverse typology, this work seeks to provide fresh observations towards the historical linguistic comparison between scribes and printers’ writing practices. The paper intends to accomplish the following objectives: to produce (i) a quantitative survey of the various punctuation marks occurring in the texts; (ii) a qualitative examination of these at macro- and micro-textual levels (see Romero- Barranco 63); and (iii) an evaluation of the similarities and differences between the manuscript and the printed versions. The article is divided into four sections; section 1 presents a historical overview of the text as to its origin and its subsequent development in Early Modern English, together with a summary of the contents included in the printed and the handwritten volumes; the methodological procedure followed in the gathering of data is offered in section 2; section 3 then covers the analysis of the phenomenon in terms of the quantitative distribution of the various symbols of punctuation and its qualitative usages at four different text-levels; lastly, the closing section supplies a summary of the results and draws a conclusion. 1. THE TEXT: AN OVERVIEW OF ITS HISTORICAL BACKGROUND AND CONTENTS The Early Modern English period is characterised—among other things— by a notable thriving attraction towards medical literature motivated by the radical decline of reader illiteracy but, above all, by the impact of the press as for its propagation, both in terms of the form wherein it is presented and of the quantity of works spread (see Taavitsainen et al.; Nurmi). Though not the most common text-type of a medical nature at the time, especially Punctuation in Early Modern Texts . . . 65 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 60–92 E-ISSN 2531-1654 when compared with others such as recipe books, the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries experienced a prolific boost in the amount of edited herbals, which could “range from pocket-sized, unillustrated octavos to huge folios filled with costly woodcuts” (Neville 30). Such an increase might have found part of its motivation in the influence exerted by the Continent in those days, where the popularity of these compositions and the number of authors devoted to arranging them were increasing extraordinarily (Arber 52–145). The history of the English printed herbal extends from the beginning of 1525 until 1640, two moments where the first and the last print occurrence of this text-type take place. The former emerged as an anonymous publication entitled the Little Herball, whereas the latter was developed by the London apothecary John Parkinson under the abbreviated Latin title Theatrum Botanicvm (Neville 30; see also Parkinson). Between them, a remarkable quantity of botanical works—along with their corresponding editions—were issued in the country. These encompassed volumes such as William Turner’s A New Herball (1568) and John Gerard’s The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes (1597) (Arber 119–38), pieces by high-esteemed figures among which the English translation of Dodoens’ text is also found. A Niewe Herball or Historie of Plants came to light in England in 1578 through a translation from a 1557 French version of the material undertaken by the botanist Henry Lyte (1529?–1607), who is likewise remembered for writing the so-called The Light of Britayne; a Recorde of the honorable Originall and Antiquitie of Britaine, released in 1588 (Lee 364–65). However, the history of this specific herbal goes back twentyfour years before the appearance of the earliest English edition, as it is in 1554 Antwerp when the original text, rendered in Flemish, is printed under the single-word title Cruydtboeck. This primary version reached a noteworthy degree of reputation among the majority of experts on medicinal plants of the era, to such an extent that almost a decade after its materialisation, a variety of printed editions in different languages were released, including the above-mentioned French translation (Arber 82; Lorente-Sánchez, “Dodoens’ Herbal”). The esteem of the Cruydtboeck was also extrapolated to the English printed translation, not only for the prestige brought from the original document, but also for its extraordinary layout in opposition to other contemporaneous specimens of the kind. This great appreciation is reflected in the development of three further editions after the 1578 release, two of them published before the end of the century, in 1586 and 1595, 66 Juan Lorente-Sánchez ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 60–92 E-ISSN 2531-1654 and the other in 1619 (see Barlow 141; Lorente-Sánchez, “Rams Little Dodeon”). In handwritten format, by contrast, the volume has not been as acclaimed as the printed book insomuch that, up until the present day, it has uniquely been identified in F7. This witness stands as one of the 113 seventeenth-century representatives of Professor John Ferguson’s medical collection of historical manuscripts (see Glasgow University Library), which comprises a segment of the Archives and Special Collections section of the University of Glasgow Library. 6 As illustrated in Fig. 1, F7 features a set of plant portrayals manually reproduced and customised from Henry Lyte’s 1578 version, since the following lines may be read at the beginning of the treatise: “Taken out of Doctor. Rembert dodoens phisitian to þe Emperour. his herball made anno domini. 1578.” In light of this, both the manuscript text and the earliest English edition (hereafter PH1578) 7 are employed as sources of evidence for the scrutiny of punctuation in Early Modern English handwriting and printing (see section 2). Fig. 1: First folio of A Niewe Herball or Historie of Plants in F7 8 As might be assumed from a herbal, the two versions of the piece supply us with minute depictions of numerous healing plants and herbs, covering information such as the sorts of subspecies identified within the same genus, their appellatives in several European and classical languages, their nature, the location where these grow, and their medicinal properties 6 See the University of Glasgow’s archives and special collections www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/archivespecialcollections/. 7 The letters of this label stand for ‘Printed Herbal’, whereas the number corresponds to the date of publication of the piece. 8 All the images of F7 reproduced in the article come from The Málaga Corpus of Early Modern English Scientific Prose (MCEMESP) (Calle-Martín et al.). Courtesy of University of Glasgow Archives and Special Collections, MS Ferguson 7 (ff. 23r, 25r, 32r, 35v and 47v), the images became part of the MCEMESP in 2019 after the compilers paid the required fee and obtained the corresponding permission for their online publication. The said department has the ownership of the manuscript. Punctuation in Early Modern Texts . . . 67 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 60–92 E-ISSN 2531-1654 and hazards (Lorente-Sánchez, The Secrets 7). Nevertheless, when it comes to the quantity of material, the handwritten document concerns only part of the printed volume, given that, “out of the 571 plants with their diverse subspecies described in the original, only 198 are recorded in [F7], that is, approximately 35% of the total held in the English printed edition” (Lorente-Sánchez, “Dodoens’ Herbal”). Divided into six books as the initial 1554 Flemish version, PH1578 presents a relatively balanced distribution in terms of the extent of descriptions from the different parts of the collection, which incorporate diverse topics of discussion ranging from simple contrasts between herbs to sketches of their respective parts. Even though the copyist of F7 assembles fragments of all the books, as shown in Table 1, he displays an apparent preference for those of the first, followed at a considerable distance by those of the third, second, and fourth, and then by those of the fifth and sixth (Lorente-Sánchez, “Dodoens’ Herbal”). Table 1. Figure of plant characterisations in the six books of the printed edition and the manuscript Book Topic PH1578 F7 First Differences and lively description of sundry sorts of herbs and plants. 103 61 Second Differences and descriptions of pleasant- and sweet-smelling flowers. 117 35 Third Descriptions of medicinal roots and herbs that purge the body, and of noisome weeds and dangerous plants. 94 36 Fourth Descriptions of corns, grains, legumes, thistles and such like. 82 27 Fifth Descriptions of herbs, roots and fruits which are daily used in meats. 81 21 Sixth Descriptions of trees, shrubs, bushes and other plants of woody substance, together with their fruits, rosins, gums and liquors. 94 18 Total 571 198 Source: Lorente-Sánchez, “Dodoens’ Herbal” 68 Juan Lorente-Sánchez ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 60–92 E-ISSN 2531-1654 2. METHODOLOGY From a methodological point of view, my analysis of punctuation is based on the manual semi-diplomatic transcriptions of the texts (Petti 34–35), where the contents of these, punctuation included, have been reproduced in the same form as they are in the original to conduct an accurate analysis, and thus a correct interpretation of the data. 9 The transcriptions have then been scrutinised by means of Laurence Anthony’s AntConc, a free corpus software which has given me the chance to search for the various punctuation marks employed in the versions, as well as to export the gathered occurrences to an external .xlsx file for an eventual classification of both the quantity and the qualitative uses of these in the documents. The retrieval of instances has finally reported 11,718 symbols of punctuation, 3,269 of which are from F7 and 8,449 from the printed counterpart. Although the study has exclusively focused on those parts of the piece that are contained within the manuscript for a suitable scrutiny of the phenomenon, the number of words differs between the versions. The manuscript consists of 18,165 words, whilst PH1578 contains 37,936. Consequently, the figures have been normalised to 10,000 units to make the results comparable. After such a process, the normalised frequencies amount to 1,799.61 and 2,227.17 occurrences, respectively. This confirms that punctuation is more recurrent in the printed edition than in the handwritten document. Table 2. Overall distribution of punctuation in the manuscript and the printed versions of the herbal (normalised frequencies) Text version F7 PH1578 Punctuation 1,799.61 2,227.17 9 Editorial intervention has been preserved to a minimum insofar as the unique modifications carried out reside on the different abbreviations attested in the documents. These have been widened and the omitted units have been supplied in italics (e.g. wc, wt and ϸt have been reproduced as which, with and ϸat, respectively) (see Petti 35). This allows for a better comprehension of the text, especially by any reader unacquainted with the basic notions of historical palaeography (see Miranda-García et al.; Calle-Martín et al.). At the same time, it offers the possibility to vouch for those instances wherein certain punctuation devices display some functions at the phrase level (see section 3.2.2.3). Punctuation in Early Modern Texts . . . 69 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 60–92 E-ISSN 2531-1654 3. ANALYSIS This section addresses the quantitative diffusion of the different punctuation symbols in the texts and their linguistic functions at macro- and micro-textual levels. It is, therefore, organised into two sub-sections. Section 3.1 identifies the marks employed across the versions and explores their incidences to ascertain whether there is variation between the handwritten and the printed copies. Section 3.2, in turn, analyses the symbols according to their uses, examining their similarities and/or disparities as regards to their functionality within the texts’ arrangement (section 3.2.1), and regarding their language operability at the sentence, clause, and phrase levels (section 3.2.2). 10 3.1 Quantitative Analysis The inventory of punctuation marks available for Early Modern English scribes and editors is abundant to say the least, particularly when compared to those observed in Old and Middle English texts. According to Tannenbaum (140), the symbols available to writers come to at least fourteen different types, a number which is without doubt many more than those discernible in earlier documents (Derolez 185–86; Clemens and Graham 84–86). Tannenbaum does, however, remark that the use of a limited number of these is “very erratic even in the first quarter of the seventeenth century.” As expected of two samples of written material from the Early Modern era, F7 and PH1578 accommodate an important array of devices, consisting of the following: (i) the period; (ii) the comma; (iii) the virgule; (iv) the colon; (v) the semicolon; (vi) the hyphen; (vii) the parenthesis; (viii) accents; (ix) the apostrophe; (x) the caret; and (xi) linefillers. Table 3 exhibits the frequencies of appearance of these symbols in the documents object of research. A test of significance of the overall figures carried out via the t-test shows that the variation between the Early Modern English handwritten and printed representatives is not statistically significant (t-score = 0.63; p-level = 53.87%). Nevertheless, a detailed look at the distribution of the various marks in each document denotes that 10 This is the same rationale adopted by a number of studies on the use and distribution of punctuation in texts from different stages of the history of English (see Marqués- Aguado, “Old English” 54; “Punctuation Practice” 56–57; Calle-Martín and Miranda- García 360–61; Romero-Barranco 62–63; Criado-Peña 84; Lorente-Sánchez, “Punctuation Practice” 62, etc.). 70 Juan Lorente-Sánchez ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 60–92 E-ISSN 2531-1654 there are differences between the printed book and the manuscript copy with respect to their punctuation practices, both on quantitative and qualitative grounds. Table 3. Distribution of punctuation marks in the manuscript and the printed versions of the herbal (normalised frequencies) F7 PH1578 Period ( . ) 799.89 400.67 Comma ( , ) 821.36 1,224.96 Virgule ( / ) 3.3 13.18 Colon ( : ) 38.54 301.56 Semicolon ( ; ) 8.81 0.79 Hyphen ( – ) 24.77 157.37 Parenthesis [ ( ) ] 8.81 9.49 Accents ( ´ ) 10.46 116.25 Apostrophe ( ’ ) - 2.9 Caret 4.4 - Line-fillers 79.27 - As may be attested, the comma is the most common punctuation symbol in both the handwritten and the printed formats, especially in the latter, where its incidence compared with that of the second most recurrent symbol—the period—is more than triple (1,224.96 and 400.67 instances, that is, 55% and 17.99%, respectively). 11 In handwriting, however, the difference between the two marks is slight insomuch that the comma is reported to occur in 821.36 cases (45.64%), whilst the period is attested in 799.89 occasions (44.45%). F7 and PH1578 coincide in that, in proportion to commas and periods, the rest of the symbols fall markedly behind in quantitative terms, although with a variable diffusion as well, which eventually corroborates the existence of evident punctuation contrasts between the versions. Although the two texts share a large number of the symbols enumerated above, PH1578 displays a greater preference for their usage in view that the majority of punctuation marks are more regularly seen in printing. The only exceptions are the period and the semicolon, the recurrences of which are substantially more prominent in the handwritten 11 Percentages in this section represent the rate of occurrence within each text of the different marks in proportion to the totality of instances of punctuation. Punctuation in Early Modern Texts . . . 71 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 60–92 E-ISSN 2531-1654 volume. First, the prevalence of the period in this medium (799.89 instances in F7 vs 400.67 in PH1578) is grounded on the scribal habit towards continuously employing it for a clausal purpose (see section 3.2.2.2), more specifically as an enumerator of items in a series, as exemplified in (1). 12 (1) Mulleyne or high taper. ϕλομισ. Verbascum. lychnitis. picnitis. tapsus barbatus. candela regis. The white male mullein, hath great, broad, longe, white softe and wollie leaues, from the lowest parte vpward . . . (F7, f. 29v) Second, the regularity of the semicolon in the handwritten manuscript may be based on its apparent recent nature at the time in which the volume was written. Even though this mark “makes a very public appearance at the end of the fifteenth century in the humanist circle surrounding Aldus Manutius the elder” (Parkes 49), it is seldom applied in England until approximately the last two decades of the sixteenth century (Petti 26). The semicolon appears to gain some ground from that moment onwards; hence its use in F7 could stem from the point that the treatise was composed in the early seventeenth century (see Lorente-Sánchez, “Dodoens’ Herbal”), a time when such a means of punctuation seems to experience a flourishing in handwriting (see Lorente-Sánchez, “Punctuation Practice” 77). The analysis also shows some variation between the documents when seeing that certain symbols are observed to occur in one of the versions, but are unattested in the other. On the one hand, while non-existent in the printed piece, the caret and line-fillers are witnessed in F7 on 4.4 and 79.27 occasions. Always placed under the writing lines and rendered as a sort of small triangle without a base (Fig. 2), the caret is used to denote “[t]he insertion of an extra word or words between the lines” that the scribe should have initially neglected to include when undertaking his task (Tannenbaum 147). Line-fillers, in turn, are curly horizontal lines of diverse lengths (Fig. 3) situated in empty spaces at the end of the lines to impede any posterior incorporation of undesired material (Petti 28; Derolez 186). 12 In this specific case, the scribe uses the period to enumerate several names of the herb mullein. 72 Juan Lorente-Sánchez ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 60–92 E-ISSN 2531-1654 Fig. 2. Caret in folio 32r of F7 Fig. 3. Line-fillers in folio 47v of F7 On the other hand, the apostrophe is uniquely viewed in PH1578 (2.9 instances), in passages where the French name of a specific plant is provided, as in (2a). By contrast, it is completely overlooked in the handwritten counterpart, since the scribe seems to only be keen on reproducing the English, Latin, and—in a fewer number of cases—Greek names of an array of the medicinal plants depicted in the original, as in (2b). (2) a) This herbe is called in shops Artemisia, and of some Mater herbarum: in Spanish Artemya: in English Mugworte: in French Armoyse, l’herbe S. Ian: in high Douch Beyfuszm and S. Iohans gurtel: in base Almaigne Byuoet . . . (PH1578, p. 16) b) “Mugwort, artemesia, mater herbarum, called of ould παρθενις. mugwort pownd with oile . . .” (F7, 23r) 3.2 Qualitative Analysis 13 3.2.1 Punctuation at Macro-Textual Level Punctuation performs a limited set of macro-textual purposes in the two documents object of study. This means that there are cases in the pieces in which certain punctuation symbols, rather than effecting grammatical functions, are employed as devices contributing to a better organisation and structure of the text throughout the pages. These uses are confined to 13 Accents, apostrophes, carets, and line-fillers have been disregarded in this part of the analysis insofar as these marks do not perform any linguistic functions in the texts, neither at a macro-level nor at a micro-level. Therefore, the figure of punctuation marks under examination has been reduced at this point to 1,650.43 instances in F7 and 1,950.13 in PH1578. Punctuation in Early Modern Texts . . . 73 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 60–92 E-ISSN 2531-1654 mark out the end of paragraphs, as in (3), and to denote the end of section headings, as in (4). 14 (3) It hath diuers small woddye braunches somtymes trayling alongst ϸe ground, and sometymes growing vpright of a foote and half longe sett full of small leaues, much like to ϸe leaues of garden tyme but much larger. the floures grow about ϸe top of the stalkes like to crownes or garlandes, after the manner of horehound floures, most commonly of a purple red colour, and somtymes (but very seldom) as white as snowe. the roote is hard and of a woddy substaunce with many thredye stringes, it groweth in vntilled and stony places, by the hye way sides and in the borders of fieldes. calidus. siccus. 3. gradu. it floureth from after may tyll the end of sommer, (F7, f. 35r) (4) Of wilde or common Camomill. The first kinde of wilde Camomill is now called Chamæmelum album: in Shoppes Chamomilla, whereas it is aptly vsed for Leucanthemum: in English common Camomill: in Italian Camamilla. in Spanish Macella, Manzanilla. in French Camomille vulgaire: in high Douch Chamill. Albeit this is not the right Camomill. Wherefore we call it Chamæmelum syluestre, that is to say, wilde Camomill. (PH1578, p. 184) The data in Table 4 reveal that punctuation is more recurrently used at the macro-textual level in the manuscript version, with a total of 171.76 attested cases, than in the printed equivalent, amounting to 102.54 occurrences. Despite this overall distribution, PH1578 demonstrates a higher degree of standardisation than F7. Similar to present-day writing, the printed version only makes use of the period to operate the distinct macro-linguistic functions. However, whilst a clear preference for the period is also noted in the handwritten text, F7 provides us with some instances in which the comma and, to a lesser extent, the virgule are likewise employed to such ends. The presence of these symbols in identical contexts was routine in many Early Modern English manuscripts, where they could take “the place of any punctuation mark (a period, an 14 Apart from these two major goals, punctuation also acts at macro-level to indicate lacunae. This use, however, is sporadic in the pieces since it is only seen once on folio 35r of F7, where it is marked off by means of the virgule. 80 Juan Lorente-Sánchez ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 60–92 E-ISSN 2531-1654 Punctuation in Early Modern Texts . . . 81 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 60–92 E-ISSN 2531-1654 As far as internal punctuation is concerned, the printer is prone to include the different names of the accounted plants in a number of languages; not only English, but also others such as Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, and German, as shown in (15). In a large number of cases, a plant contains at least two names in a specific language, which are generally enumerated through commas, so the printer tends to provide colons (84.88%) to separate them from those pertaining to a different language. The scribe, however, is more reluctant to apply this practice, as its incidence in F7 is negligible compared with the primary printed version. As previously mentioned, he appears to be uniquely captivated by the English and some classical names of certain herbs, and thus avoids a regular usage of this clausal function inasmuch as it might have been redundant for him. Even in those limited cases where this use emerges, he generally turns to the period (11.56 instances, that is, 61.76%). Apropos of coordinate phrases, their introduction is systematically accomplished in both PH1578 and F7 through the use of commas, albeit with a different diffusion, the former summing an aggregate almost three times higher than the latter. The lower occurrence in the manuscript dwells in an evident scribal boundedness to ignore their usage when writing the text. As illustrated in (20), the copyist refrains from including these punctuation devices for the purpose in an important quantity of fragments wherein the printer renders them in the original. (20) a) “. . . Moreouer it taketh away the payne and heate of all woundes inflamed, vlcers, and Phlegmons being applied thereto.” (PH1578, p. 139) b) “ . . . moreouer it taketh away the payn and heat of all woundes inflamed vlcers and phlegmons being applied therto.” (F7, 31v) Together with this, there is a pair of differences between the versions that are worth mentioning as for the way several elements are enumerated in a series. To start with, while the comma is the predominant mark of punctuation in the printed book (386.7 instances, i.e., 92.79%), its leading character in the handwritten treatise (200.94 instances, i.e. 55.05%) is relatively shared with the period, which displays a figure of 150.84 occurrences (i.e. 41.33%). The notable regularity of the period in this environment may be explained by the scribe’s tendency to employ it in order to differentiate the names that a medical herb possesses in diverse 82 Juan Lorente-Sánchez ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 60–92 E-ISSN 2531-1654 languages (see examples 1 and 12), as opposed to other forms of enumeration seen throughout the text, where items are almost systematically separated from each other by means of commas (e.g. “parietarie is singuler against cholerick inflammations, ignis sacer, spreading and runing sores, burninges and all hott vlcers,” f. 25v). Despite irregular in printing, this tendency is not at all surprising among Early Modern English manuscripts as, apart from its more ordinary functions, the period could also do “service as a type of comma” until at least the first two decades and a half of the seventeenth century (Petti 25; Lorente- Sánchez, “Punctuation Practice” 70). On the other hand, the data likewise indicate that there is a specific symbol used in PH1578 which is absent in F7, that is, the virgule. Found on 12.92 occasions, this means of punctuation is always located in some section titles of the printed edition and applied as a divider of the main names of certain herbs depicted in it (e.g., “Of great Pellitorie of Spayne / Imperatoria / or Masterwort,” p. 299). 17 3.2.2.3 Punctuation at Phrase Level Punctuation is lastly noticed to carry out a couple of aims at phrasal level. These encompass the indication of abbreviations, as shown in Fig. 4, and the circumscription of numerals, as illustrated in Fig. 5. In these particular cases, the period stands as the unique symbol of punctuation, with none of the other marks from the complete inventory employed for any of the two usages. Nevertheless, this device exhibits a dissimilar distribution across the text-formats. As reproduced in Table 7, its frequency of appearance in F7 outnumbers its occurrence in PH1578 for both the totality and the individual phrasal functions. This picture, among others, may also come 17 It should be noted that in just a raw instance (i.e. 0.55 normalised occurrences), the hyphen also operates in F7 at the clause level to separate an item from the rest in a sequence of enumerated elements (e.g. “Water betonye. brown wort- Scrophularia maior. ficaria. millemorbia. ferraria,” f. 25r). This example, however, seems to have emerged here by mere accident, since the scribe normally employs other marks when it comes to enumerating. Except for such instance, the hyphen does not run any linguistic function in the texts, as it is in most cases intended to signal the specific places wherein words are split at the end of the line and, less frequently, to join some compounds (e.g., “tooth-ache” PH1578, p. 32) (see Petti 27). As may be seen in Table 3 (section 3.1), this punctuation mark is more regular in PH1578, with a total of 157.37 occurrences, an incidence substantially larger than that of F7, with 24.77 instances. Punctuation in Early Modern Texts . . . 83 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 60–92 E-ISSN 2531-1654 to justify the noteworthy degree of occurrence of the period in the manuscript compared with the printed edition. Fig. 4. Instances of punctuation used at phrasal level to indicate abbreviations (F7, f. 25r) Fig. 5 Instances of punctuation used at phrasal level to circumscribe numbers (F7, f. 35v) Table 7. Functions and distribution of punctuation at phrasal level in F7 and PH1578 (normalised frequencies) F7 PH1578 . . Abbreviations 75.97 7.12 Numerals 35.78 7.91 Total 111.75 15.03 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION The present paper has analysed historical punctuation in handwritten and printed texts from the Early Modern English period, providing a particular consideration to its quantitative distribution and its qualitative usages at 84 Juan Lorente-Sánchez ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 60–92 E-ISSN 2531-1654 macro- and micro-linguistic levels. To such a goal, it has focused on the examination of both the English 1578 printed translation of Rembert Dodoens’ A Niewe Herball or Historie of Plants and a manuscript version of this, which has survived up to the present-day in Glasgow University Library, MS Ferguson 7 (ff. 23r–48v; 59r). On the whole, the analysis has permitted me to assess a number of similarities and differences between the two pieces. Quantitatively speaking, the phenomenon is more regularly observed in the printed version in light of a major occurrence of most punctuation devices in comparison with the manuscript, with the unique exceptions of the period and the semicolon. The study has also revealed some contrasts between the documents to the view that some specific marks such as the caret, line-fillers, and the apostrophe are non-existent in a particular texttype, although they appear in the other. The first two are uniquely attested in the handwritten version, where they are respectively employed to indicate the incorporation of some word(s) in the writing lines and to fill up those vacant areas at the end of these. The third, on the contrary, is only seen in the printed document as an aid to reproduce the French names of some herbs. On qualitative grounds, the results indicate that punctuation operates mainly at sentence level in the manuscript, whereas it predominates at clause level in the printed book, as summarised in Fig. 6. The data also show that the role of punctuation diffuses more frequently at phrase and macro-textual levels in handwriting in comparison to printing. In addition to this, there are some differences respecting the manner diverse subfunctions are accomplished across the pieces, which arise as a result of a kind of linguistic adaptation of punctuation taking place when the scribe copies the original printed edition in his treatise. Punctuation in Early Modern Texts . . . 85 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 60–92 E-ISSN 2531-1654 Fig. 6: Distribution of punctuation at the different levels in F7 and PH1578 (normalised frequencies) At macro-textual level, the phenomenon presents a higher degree of variation in the handwritten texts. While in printing the period is the mark par excellence to denote the end of paragraphs and section titles, in handwriting the comma and the virgule are likewise found for these functions. At sentence level, some variation is observed apropos of the introduction of sequential markers, the use of coordination, the marking off the beginning of new sense-units, and the introduction of explanatory comments. As far as sequential markers are concerned, the comma is more numerous than the rest of marks in F7, whilst in PH1578 it presents a balanced distribution together with the period and the colon. Regarding the rest of sentential uses, the printed edition denotes some preference for the colon, though other devices are salient in each specific case, whereas in the handwritten volume the period normally stands as the favoured mark. At clausal level, the major distinction between the versions is based on the way in which some marks split units in a series including internal punctuation. In the printed book, the colon is the preferred symbol, while in F7 the period is again the most recurrent device. Apart from this, another difference is witnessed as for the enumeration of items. Although the comma is almost the only mark of punctuation employed in PH1578, the scribe also tends to share its use—once more—with the period. Finally, at phrasal level, the phenomenon is used to abbreviate and circumscribe numbers. Both functions are more recurrent in the 172.31 102.54 725.02 614.45 642.13 1,218.08 111.75 15.03 F7 PH1578 Macro-textual level Sentence level Clause level Phrase level 86 Juan Lorente-Sánchez ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 60–92 E-ISSN 2531-1654 manuscript, with the period being the only chosen means of punctuation to accomplish them. All in all, this work has demonstrated that there are still some consistent patterns towards the use of punctuation in handwritten and printed documents from the Early Modern English period; those manually produced stand in a less advanced stage of regularisation, as the phenomenon seems to be somewhat contingent on the peculiar writing procedures of each scribe. This conclusion, however, is just based on the evidence gathered for the present study, hence should not be assumed to correspond to the overall picture of other individual texts and, as such, of the entire historical era. More research on the usage and distribution of the phenomenon in documents from the period of both the same and a varied typology is required, as it would undoubtedly help elucidate this question, at least in part. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The present research has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (grant number FFI2017-88060- P) and by the Autonomous Government of Andalusia (grant number UMA18-FEDERJA-129). These grants are hereby gratefully acknowledged. I am also obliged to the editors and anonymous reviewers of the journal for their valuable feedback and suggestions, which have outstandingly improved the paper. REFERENCES Alonso-Almeida, Francisco. “Punctuation Practice in a Late Medieval English Medical Remedybook.” Folia Linguistica Historica, vol. 22, no. 1–2, 2001, pp. 207–32, doi: 10.1515/flih.2001.22.1-2.207. Anthony, Laurence. AntConc (Version 3.5.8) [Corpus Software]. Waseda University, 2019, www.laurenceanthony.net/software/antconc/. 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Lorente-Sánchez, Juan. “Dodoens’ Herbal in Glasgow University Library MS Ferguson 7 (ff. 23r–48v; 59r): A Physical Description.” Variants: The Journal of the European Society for Textual Scholarship, vol. 17– 18, Forthcoming. 96 Cathaysa Santana Rodríguez ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 93–115 E-ISSN 2531-1654 Stephanie Meyer, under her web name Snowqueen’s Icedragon (McAlister; Schreck). According to Salam Al-Mahadin, the trilogy was written to complete “the niches and gaps James felt were left unfilled by the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer (2010)” (568). However, James has never confirmed Al-Mahadin’s opinion. What James has argued is that she was a fan of the Twilight saga (“Fifty Shades of Grey”) and, most likely, used it as a source of inspiration not only to continue the love story between Bella Swan and Edward Cullen but also to rewrite it from a different perspective by dispensing with the supernatural phenomena present in the vampire genre and in the saga itself, and adding new elements more in line with our times such as the BDSM lifestyle, episodes of a traumatic childhood with neglect and physical abuse, and sexual harassment. Thus, Master of the Universe, uploaded in serial installments to a popular FanFiction forum on the Internet (Illouz 19–20), became the basis for Fifty Shades of Grey and the subsequent novels. As James states, Fifty Shades is a love story, product of her imagination (“Fifty Shades of Grey”). It belongs in essence to the popular genre of romance fiction. Romances are a form of fairy tales where love and happy endings are key elements. Fifty Shades is a romance novel embedded within the erotic romance subgenre. Erotic romance stories are based on romantic love, portrayals of explicit, often taboo, sexual and erotic elements, and an emotionally satisfying happy ending. Sex plays an integral part in the stories and “the declaration of love between heroine and hero” (Regis 30) is one of the central elements. Further, Fifty Shades rests heavily on romance tropes such as “unexpected virgin,” “self-made billionaire,” “alpha hero,” “heroine breaks hero’s control and exposes his vulnerability,” “hero overcomes the pain of physical and psychological scars from the past with the heroine’s help” and others. Fifty Shades narrates a passionate love story between twenty-one- year-old Anastasia Steele, a student of English literature at Washington State University and twenty-seven-year-old Christian Grey, a successful, powerful, and wealthy entrepreneur, CEO of Grey Enterprises Holdings. Both Anastasia and Christian meet for the first time at Christian’s office when Anastasia interviews him for the student newspaper. From that time onward, they start dating and Christian lures Anastasia into being his submissive in a sexual relationship characterized by the BDSM lifestyle. However, as they fall in love, the initial proposal, centered on a consensual dominant/submissive relationship, will eventually turn into a romantic relationship on Anastasia’s own terms. In Defense of Fifty Shades 97 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 93–115 E-ISSN 2531-1654 Throughout the novels Anastasia and Christian will have to face a series of mishaps and challenges which, instead of breaking their love relationship forever, will help them reinforce it. They will realize that they cannot be without each other and that they are stronger together. To achieve this happy ending, Anastasia will play a role of paramount importance in their relationship, since her choices and decisions will help improve not only her life but also Christian’s. In doing so, she will have to accept and learn to live and share Christian’s powerful and wealthy lifestyle without sacrificing her own control and power over her own life, including choices and decisions concerning her work, together with her emotional and economic independence. Similarly, Christian will have to learn to love Anastasia on her own terms. He will also have to overcome the horrors, fears, nightmares of his childhood, his self-loathing, insecurity, and his need for control with the crucial help of Anastasia, who will become his best form of therapy. In the end, Anastasia and Christian, with their passionate love for each other, will break all chains. They will defeat the hindrances that limited and prevented their complete happiness, which will prove the strength of their unbreakable love and, in turn, will serve to consolidate their marriage and new role as parents. 2. GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE: THE PERFECT BACKDROP FOR CRITICISM This section provides an overview of what most critics and feminists have expressed against Fifty Shades. Their critiques are often based on social or psychological realism that might not be appropriate for a novel that falls into the erotic romance subgenre that incorporates themes still considered taboo such as BDSM. Critics have always misunderstood and had a disdain for romance novels. They have condemned the repetition of thematic and structural formulas in the genre. Also, feminists have considered that romance novels perpetuate patterns of patriarchal domination and they have warned of how harmful the gender stereotypes reflected in some of these stories can be. Nonetheless, romance novels have evolved. They reflect the gradual shifts around female sexuality and independence. The portrayal of romance heroines has also changed over time, showing how women can overcome all kinds of adversity, have a successful career, find love, enjoy sex, have multiple orgasms, and start a family. Fifty Shades explores a BDSM relationship between two fictional characters. With the publication of Fifty Shades of Grey, BDSM has 98 Cathaysa Santana Rodríguez ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 93–115 E-ISSN 2531-1654 become a staple of the erotic romance subgenre. BDSM refers to a variety of consensual and desired practices involving power, domination, subordination, humiliation, the infliction or reception of pain or injury for pleasure through, but not limited to, caning, spanking, whipping, blindfolding, flogging, or restraining (Weiss). BDSM practices have never been acceptable, above all, among the most conservative strata of society because, according to them, they are not ethically and morally correct, even when these activities are consensual and safe. “BDSM has been historically labelled as being deviant and this label has still not fully disappeared” (Drdová and Saxonberg 1002). Most feminists contend that, through these BDSM activities, both the books and the film adaptations promote the idea of “a perceived normalization and naturalization of violence against women” (Larabee 223). Ultimately, they assert that Anastasia experiences gender-based violence. The Istanbul Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, as the benchmark for international legislation to address genderbased violence, defines gender-based violence and violence against women (two terms that are often used interchangeably), as a gender act that is understood as a violation of human rights and a form of discrimination against women and shall mean all acts of gender-based violence that result in, or are likely to result in, physical, sexual, psychological or economic harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life. (Council of Europe 3) This definition will be used to frame the analysis in the next section. In any event, feminism is not a monolith; while many feminists state that Fifty Shades portrays violence against women and therefore Anastasia is a battered woman, others argue against this stance and praise the fiction series for promoting female sexual liberation and empowerment. Even James herself has expressed her view in this regard: In Defense of Fifty Shades 99 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 93–115 E-ISSN 2531-1654 “Who is interested, as a woman, in reading about abuse? Why have these books taken off if they are about abuse? Domestic violence, rape, are unacceptable. They are not entertaining in any way. Let me be absolutely clear. Everything that happens in this book is safe and consensual . . . What do I need to do to convince people?” (Steinkellner) As Lucie Drdová and Steven Saxonberg put it, “Ana is portrayed as a person with no ‘sexual agency,’ no ideas or desires of her own, and she appears to be passively receptive to the male” (989–90). Their statements are mainly grounded in the contention that Anastasia is a shy, weak, vulnerable, submissive, and sexually inexperienced young woman who consents to be dominated, controlled, and cruelly punished by a wealthy, powerful, secretive, selfish, abusive, and sadistic man. An example of this perception is demonstrated in a study by Beatriz Inzunza-Acedo in which the survey responses by participants, who had seen Fifty Shades of Grey movie, showed similar views about Christian Grey’s and Anastasia Steele’s behavior: • 83.3% said [sic] that he’s more aggressive/violent than tender or sweet with Anastasia Steele • 73% think that he’s a cold person, versus the option of saying he has a romantic personality • 72.6% feel he’s psychologically or physically sick • 67.1% perceive him as an antisocial man • 59.5% consider that he’s a disrespectful man • And [sic] 65% of the participants said [sic] he’s very confident and with a [sic] high self-esteem (44, bullet points in original) • 76.5% believe she has a weak, submissive character • 73.5% think she has a [sic]very low or none [sic] self-esteem • 60.1% perceive her as a dependant [sic] person (instead of independent emotionally and/or economically) • 56.4% described [sic] her as dumb instead of smart • 50.2% indicated [sic] that she has no values • The only positive characteristic was that 67.9% believe that she has no economic [sic] interest in Christian, in other words, she’s not a gold digger (45, bullet points and italics in original) 100 Cathaysa Santana Rodríguez ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 93–115 E-ISSN 2531-1654 Personality traits should not be interpreted to mean that Christian is an abuser or that Ana experiences abuse. One can be antisocial or have mental health issues such as depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder or posttraumatic stress disorder and not be an abuser. If personality traits or mental health conditions were the cause of abuse, then abusive men would physically or emotionally abuse other people, including relatives, friends, or colleagues, not only their female partners (Bancroft 23–48). The fact that the film adaptations were centered on commercial issues and merchandising strategies has probably contributed to spreading, especially through word of mouth, such strenuous allegations of violence and sexual abuse in Fifty Shades. They have distorted or altered the real message and essence of the literary work and, consequently, the authentic roles of Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele. Due to this moral outrage, there were complaints about the way BDSM is dealt with in the story “as being not a sexual proclivity, but an act of abuse” (Steinkellner). Even some practitioners have pointed out that BDSM practices and relationships reflected in Fifty Shades are not realistic and therefore inaccurate: “Fifty Shades portrays BDSM in a manner that aims to repulse the readers rather than make them understand how BDSM is practiced in reality” (Drdová and Saxonberg 1002). In part, their complaints are based on the fact that the set of rules and the issue of consent are not sufficiently clear. Anastasia never actually signs the BDSM contract, and she is free to renegotiate rules and boundaries at any time. She agrees to a trial period in which sexual encounters with Christian are consensual, as will be argued in the next section. What is more, some members of the BDSM community disagree with Fifty Shades because the portrayals of BDSM practitioners (Christian, Elena, Leila) suggest that they are mentally damaged and in need of psychiatric professional help, thus implying that BDSM practitioners engage in such practices due to a mental disorder. Historically, BDSM practices have been pathologized and stigmatized as proof that practitioners suffered from psychological disorders or were damaged by traumatic pasts. However, the most recent scientific studies have concluded that there is no obvious connection between psychological disorders or trauma and BDSM. Indeed, in the Nordic countries it is no longer considered a psychiatric disease. Besides, “sexual sadism” and “sexual masochism” are not recognized as psychopathological paraphilias in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (American Psychiatric Association, qtd. in Weiss). This is also In Defense of Fifty Shades 101 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 93–115 E-ISSN 2531-1654 evinced in Fifty Shades Darker (James) when Dr. Flynn, Christian’s psychiatrist, explains to Anastasia that “sadist” is “no longer recognized as a psychiatric term . . . It’s not even classified as a paraphilia anymore” (412). He also clarifies that “sexual sadism . . . [is] . . . not a disease; it’s a lifestyle choice . . . practiced in a safe, sane relationship between consenting adults” (413). In addition to the harsh criticism of the film adaptations, the Fifty Shades series of novels and, most specifically, “the quality of the prose has been severely disparaged by critics” (Van Reenen 226). Comparisons between the novels and the films are frequent. “People who had read the novels before were dissatisfied with the adaptation of the book to the movie because they believed it was less erotic and romantic than the original story” (Inzunza-Acedo 44). The novels and films were defined, among other terms, as “mommy porn” (Inzunza-Acedo 44). Fifty Shades is an erotic romance novel that does not primarily aim at the sexual stimulation of its readers. It focuses on the plot, the protagonists, their personalities, their emotional bond, their respective developments, and a happy ending. These elements are not essential in pornography where depictions are reduced to sexual organs and plots “are designed to sexually arouse the reader and nothing else” (Sylvia Day, qtd. in McAlister 214). Moreover, the first installment, Fifty Shades of Grey, and its film adaptation have also been accused of glorifying, glamorizing, and even romanticizing violence against women (Casey; Dines; O’Clare; Smith). Likewise, in their research into Fifty Shades of Grey, Amy Bonomi et al. identified “abuse patterns” and found that Anastasia “suffers reactions typical of abused women” (742). Following this line, Claire Philipson, director of Wearside Women in Need, a charity aiding victims of domestic abuse, called Fifty Shades of Grey “an instruction manual for an abusive individual to sexually torture a vulnerable young woman” (Inzunza-Acedo 37). As a result, several campaigns and boycotts were organized to stop the sales of the book and the release of the film. For instance, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation “launched an online campaign to take donations for battered women and urged a boycott of the movie’s opening weekend. It told readers what message to take from it: ‘It is really about sexual abuse and violence against women’ (Dawn Hawkins, qtd. in Smith)” (Larabee 223). There were more examples such as the feminist Radical Alliance for Women which protested “outside movie theatres . . . and distributed Valentine’s Day cards with information about domestic violence and abuse 102 Cathaysa Santana Rodríguez ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 93–115 E-ISSN 2531-1654 . . . promoting the idea of ‘fifty dollars not Fifty Shades’ requesting that ticket money went to women’s shelters instead of movie tickets” (Steinkellner). Furthermore, the book was even banned from some Florida libraries, for example in Brevard County, and from other US libraries for being too pornographic, according to local librarians (Flood). On the one hand, Dawn Hawkins, executive director of National Center on Sexual Exploitation stated: “The porn industry has poised men and women to receive the message that sexual violence is enjoyable” (Smith). On the other hand, Amy Bonomi et al. criticized the stance of the librarians for banning the books due to “semi-pornographic content” rather than abuse: our analysis shows perpetuation of abuse in one of the Western world’s most popular novels . . . Concerning is that the banning of Fifty Shades in public libraries is linked to issues of semi-pornographic content, rather than to the underlying pervasive abuse patterns we documented . . . This suggests, in part, a continued underlying societal tolerance of abuse. (742) The fact that some librarians see pornography and not abuse in the books does not mean that society continues to tolerate gender-based violence. The librarians’ position is as respectable as that of those who argue that Fifty Shades is abuse and those who defend that it is a self-help manual to improve sexual relationships or a tool for social empowerment and sexual liberation. On the conservative, moralist, and Christian side, it is worth mentioning the Roman Catholic archbishop of Cincinnati, Dennis Schnurr, who claimed that “a young Miss Steele is urged to sign a contract becoming a sex slave and agreeing to an abusive and degrading relationship.” He affirmed that Fifty Shades of Grey “is in direct contrast to the Christian message of God’s design for self-giving and selfsacrificing love, marriage and sexual intimacy.” Consequently, he declared it “a direct assault on Christian marriage and on the moral and spiritual strength of God’s people” (Wyatt). Having sex outside of marriage for pleasure without reproductive purposes as well as engaging in sexual activities like BDSM is frowned upon by the Church. Women's lives and behavior have been under constant scrutiny and have received countless strictures from various sectors of society, including conservative Christian circles. These norms have influenced women by imposing roles and expectations on them that have shaped their public perception. In Defense of Fifty Shades 103 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 93–115 E-ISSN 2531-1654 3. A THOROUGH ANALYSIS OF ANASTASIA’S ROLE AS AN EMPOWERED WOMAN Female empowerment has increased in popularity as never before, especially since the “Me Too” movement in 2017, which represented a breakthrough. For the first time, women joined together to raise their voices to publicly denounce sexual abuse and harassment, and at the same time, it encouraged and empowered younger and more vulnerable women to do the same, making them feel that they were no longer alone. Female empowerment implies women’s capability to make and determine their own decisions, choices, and goals in all aspects of their lives, whether in society, education, work, or others. In other words, an empowered woman fights for her rights, freedom, opportunities, and emotional and economic independence. This is precisely what Anastasia Steele does throughout the novels. For example, Anastasia faces situations of sexual harassment by her boss, Jack Hyde, (James, Fifty Shades Darker 369–70) and by a man who touches her hips and behind while she is dancing on a dance floor at a nightclub in Aspen (James, Fifty Shades Freed 303). In both scenes, she fights back by hitting them demonstrating that she is an empowered woman who is not afraid of sexual harassers. More importantly, she feels empowered when Christian is near her: “I pull his lips to mine tasting his surprise as I push my tongue into his mouth. I am standing on the step above him―we’re at the same level, and I feel euphorically empowered” (James, Fifty Shades Darker 386, emphasis added). According to Smith et al., disempowerment is “women's routine existence and the loss of power that occurs with sustained battering as their thoughts and behaviors become habitually modified in accordance with the batterers’ desires” (176). These scholars consider disempowerment typical of battered women. As such, the definition of this concept would mean that “battered” and “empowered” are incompatible terms. In fact, women who have been battered, once they are able to leave abuse behind, must be provided with the appropriate tools and resources to empower themselves. If Anastasia were a battered woman and Christian, a batterer, she would feel disempowered because her thoughts and behavior would be routinely altered according to Christian’s wishes. But Anastasia feels happy, comfortable, and alive with him: “I have never felt as alive as I do now. It’s a thrill to be sitting here beside him” (James, Fifty Shades of Grey 355). There appears to be no evidence of gender-based violence (Council of Europe 3). 104 Cathaysa Santana Rodríguez ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 93–115 E-ISSN 2531-1654 When having sex, Christian asks Ana questions such as “You okay?”/ “More?”/ “Again?”/ “Did I hurt you?”/ “Seriously, are you okay?” (James, Fifty Shades of Grey 117–18), “How does that feel?” (James, Fifty Shades of Grey 321) to assess Ana’s positive reaction to her sexual experience, thus showing that he is an attentive, respectful, and caring man, concerned about Ana’s well-being, not an abuser. In addition, there are scenes in which Anastasia is drunk and Christian does not engage in sexual activities with her (James, Fifty Shades of Grey 66, Fifty Shades Freed 310). Similarly, there is a scene where Christian is drunk and wants to have sex with Anastasia, but she also sets boundaries related to consent and alcohol by telling him that he is drunk and needs some sleep, and he respects her decision not to have sex (James, Fifty Shades Freed 422–23). In all these scenes Christian’s behavior does not seem to exhibit signs of sexual harm or coercion towards Ana (Council of Europe 3). Anastasia knows exactly what she wants and how she feels. She rejects two suitors: Paul Clayton, her boss’s brother, and her friend José Rodríguez, even knowing that with them she would have a more “regular” relationship than with Christian: “Grey is only interested in a dominant/submissive relationship . . . Steele just wants a regular boyfriend” (Williams). However, Anastasia has no feelings of love for them. She is sexually inexperienced, that is, she is a virgin and for the first time in her life, she wants to have sex with a man and “feel his hands and his mouth on [her]” (James, Fifty Shades of Grey 69). That man is Christian Grey not Paul or José. Thus, she chooses Christian over them, and they make love because it is Anastasia’s choice and decision. Moreover, Christian asks her if she wants to make love to him and she accepts (James, Fifty Shades of Grey 110–11). This is an example of explicit consent. She loses her virginity because it is her body, her choice and this is what she also says to Christian: “I don’t think you robbed me,” I mutter haughtily—I am not a helpless maiden. “I think my virtue was offered up pretty freely and willingly. I wanted you too, and if I remembered correctly, I rather enjoyed myself.” I smile shyly at him, biting my lip. (James, Fifty Shades Darker 200, italics in original) By telling Christian she enjoyed her first sexual experience with him in a positive way, she is showing a high level of sexual communication. Anastasia does not appear to exhibit traits of “physical, sexual or In Defense of Fifty Shades 105 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 93–115 E-ISSN 2531-1654 psychological harm or suffering . . ., including threats of such acts or coercion” (Council of Europe 3). Christian proposes a BDSM relationship to Anastasia where he is the dominant and she is the submissive. After thinking it over, she agrees to a trial period of engaging in a submissive role. That means that he will have control over Ana’s health, exercise, sexual activity, and food. But Anastasia never signs the BDSM contract. The only contract she signs is a nondisclosure agreement (NDA) which means she cannot disclose anything about them and their relationship to anyone (James, Fifty Shades of Grey 96) and she signs it voluntarily. Anastasia does not sign the BDSM contract because she wants to establish her limits and negotiate the contract on her own terms at any time (James, Fifty Shades of Grey 105–08; 216– 26; 254–60). For instance, she decides to exercise three times a week, and not four, as Christian wishes (James, Fifty Shades of Grey 107). Regarding food, she says: “No one is going to dictate to me what I eat” (James, Fifty Shades of Grey 222). In doing so, Christian himself recognizes she is a good negotiator and offers her a job in his company, but she rejects it (James, Fifty Shades of Grey 107); Anastasia does not want to be professionally dependent on Christian. She is determined to pursue her dream of becoming an editor. In fact, she has interviews for internships at two publishing houses. Finally, she gets a job at one of them, Seattle Independent Publishing and, starts a new career as assistant to the editor Jack Hyde (James, Fifty Shades of Grey). Besides, Christian encourages Anastasia to take time to research, ask questions or talk to one of his former submissives to clarify doubts about the BDSM lifestyle (198). Anastasia rejects the last option; she does not want to talk to any of his former partners. As shown, Anastasia sets boundaries around Christian. At the same time, her behavior manifests traits of empowerment. According to Matilda Swinney, “Fifty Shades is the same story as Beauty and the Beast . . . innocent girl falls for troubled man, endures his anti-social behavior out of belief in his ultimate goodness, and eventually teaches him to be a sociable, polite member of society.” Anastasia is determined to drag Christian into the light. She wants to show him that another kind of relationship based on love not submission is possible, especially when Christian confesses to her that one of his mother’s friends, Elena Lincoln, had seduced him when he was fifteen years old. Elena brought him into a BDSM relationship as her submissive for six years (James, Fifty Shades of Grey 154). After this confession, Anastasia feels repulsed by Elena. At Christian’s birthday party, after Christian proposes 112 Cathaysa Santana Rodríguez ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 93–115 E-ISSN 2531-1654 empowered woman who questions the patriarchal discourse of femininity associated with obedience. Anastasia does not lose her power to Christian but gains it throughout the novels. She exhibits her firm willingness to set and reset boundaries. She does not succumb to Christian’s BDSM proposal; she does not indulge his desire to become his submissive. She negotiates and renegotiates the rules, thus drawing the lines around her comfort zone and preferences. Anastasia does not conform or submit to Christian’s desires and preferences. Rather, it is the other way around; Anastasia changes Christian’s thoughts and behavior to suit her own wishes and he compliantly accepts. Further research on this series of novels might be helpful to confirm this thesis, using tenets taken from other disciplines, including Psychiatry and Psychology and also linguistic perspectives, such as those offered by Sociolinguistics (with its focus on language and gender), Conversation Analysis and Discourse Analysis. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I owe special thanks to the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions. REFERENCES Al-Mahadin, Salam. “Is Christian a Sadist? Fifty Shades of Grey in Popular Imagination.” Feminist Media Studies, vol. 13, no. 3, 2013, pp. 566–70, doi: 10.1080/14680777.2013.786271. 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Weiss, Margot. “BDSM (Bondage, Discipline, Domination, Submission, Sadomasochism).” The International Encyclopedia of Human Sexuality, edited by Patricia Whelehan, and Anne Bolin, John Wiley & Sons, 2015, doi: 10.1002/9781118896877.wbiehs043. Williams, Zoe. “Why Women Love Fifty Shades of Grey.” The Guardian, 6 July 2012, www.theguardian.com/books/2012/jul/06/why-women- love-fifty-shades-grey/. Wyatt, Daisy. “Archbishop Calls for Fifty Shades of Grey Movie Boycott over Its ‘Attack on Christian Marriage.’” The Independent, 11 Feb. 2015, www.independent.co.uk/arts/entertainment/films/news/ archbishop-calls-for-fifty-shades-of-grey-movie-boycott-over-its- attack-on-christian-marriage-10038619.html/. ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 116–144 E-ISSN 2531-1654 Provincial Newspapers as Vehicles for Dialect Spread and Enregisterment: Insights from Nineteenth Century Devonshire Dialect Periódicos provinciales como vehículos de difusión dialectal y enregisterment: Percepciones de Devonshire durante el siglo XIX RENÉ TISSENS Institution address: Research group DING. Departamento de Filología Inglesa. Calle Placentinos, 18. 37008 Salamanca. Spain E-mail: renetis[email protected] ORCID 0000-0001-6140-5149 Received: 30/01/2023. Accepted: 20/07/2023. How to cite this article: Tissens, René. “Provincial Newspapers as Vehicles for Dialect Spread and Enregisterment: Insights from Nineteenth Century Devonshire Dialect.” ES Review: Spanish Journal of English Studies, vol. 45, 2024, pp. 116–144. DOI: https://doi.org/10.24197/ersjes.45.2024.116-144 Open access article under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CCBY 4.0). Abstract: This paper takes provincial newspapers as the basis for a discussion on dialect spread and enregisterment during the nineteenth century. It departs from the premise that, during this era of nationwide diaspora and industrial advancement, periodicals served as the main means of entertainment and identity expression. For this purpose, it takes two letters submitted by R. Giles to the North Devon Journal in 1885, where his use of the Devonshire dialect is available for analysis. It aims to explore the most remarkable dialectal features documented in his submissions in an attempt to justify my claim that provincial press could have contributed to an early process of Enregisterment in dialects. Keywords: Provincial-newspapers; Devonshire dialect; nineteenth century; enregisterment. Summary: Introduction. The Varied and Short-lived Life of Nineteenth Century Periodicals. On the enregisterment of English. Devonshire Speech during the Nineteenth Century: An Overview. R. Giles: “The Gude Old Times in Welcombe” (September 1885) and “Lucy Passmore, The Wite Witch” (December 1885). Linguistic Data and Methodology. Coincidental Features. Conclusive Remarks and Deductions. Resumen: Este artículo toma los periódicos provinciales como base para debatir la difusión dialectal y enregisterment durante el siglo XIX. Parte de la premisa de que durante esta era de diáspora nacional y avance industrial, los periódicos sirvieron como el medio principal de entretenimiento y expresión identitaria. Para este propósito, se utilizan dos cartas enviadas por Provincial Newspapers as Vehicles for Dialect Spread . . . 117 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 116–144 E-ISSN 2531-1654 R. Giles al North Devon Journal en 1885, donde su uso del dialecto de Devonshire está disponible para análisis. El propósito sería explorar las características dialectales más remarcables documentadas en sus aportaciones en un intento de justificar mi idea de que la prensa provincial hubiera contribuido a un proceso temprano de enregisterment dialectal. Palabras clave: Periódicos-provinciales; dialecto de Devonshire; siglo XIX; enregisterment. Sumario: Introducción. La variada y corta vida de los periódicos del siglo XIX. Sobre el enregisterment en inglés. El habla de Devonshire durante el siglo XIX: un vistazo general, R. Giles: “The Gude Old Times in Welcombe” (septiembre de 1885) y “Lucy Passmore, The Wite Witch” (deciembre de 1885). Datos lingüísticos y metodología. Características coincidentes. Conclusiones y deducciones. INTRODUCTION The speech of Britain shows a history of varied intermingling and transformation. English has become a linguistic collage comprising many diverse forms because of the parallel development of its varieties throughout history. Whilst Britain lacked a standardised version of English as such until the eighteenth century, commentary on the subject is hardly dismissible. The type of English spoken in the capital had always posed a contrast with the speech of the layman and communities that fared away from the metropolis. Differences of speech became the subject of discussion as well as a literary device, as reported by Norman Blake. At least from the Early Modern English period, and especially during the nineteenth century (see Hodson), various forms of English developed (e.g., the Northern variety in areas like Lancashire or Yorkshire) into (socio)linguistic and literary strategies whereby writers recreated nonstandard language and its socio-cultural associations. The impact that such representations had on readers established the grounds for commentary on the cultural associations linked to language and its itemisation as a tool for autochthonal affiliation. Indeed, literary recreations of dialects have gained considerable scholarly interest in the past few years on account of the insight they may provide into such sociocultural associations, which have been explored within the framework of enregisterment (e.g., Agha, “The Social Life”). Whilst most research has looked into the linguistic evidence present in novels and drama (e.g., Cooper, Enregisterment; Ruano-García, “Aw’m Lancashire”; Schintu), newspapers (only addressed in Paulsen), and more specifically, provincial newspapers, have gone largely unnoticed despite having an equal potential for the dissemination of dialect. Identitary and idiosyncratic devices (such 118 René Tissens ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 116–144 E-ISSN 2531-1654 as specific language belonging to the area) were indeed present in these publications: they were the printed voice of communities that found in their local newspaper a means to vindicate their relevance and presence in the national milieu. Customs, traditions, local businesses, festivities and religious flairs peppered the contents of these newspapers and manifested their distinctiveness over metropolitan discourses. This cultural insulation was furthered by readers who contributed with their own writings to influx vitality into a communicative medium they saw as belonging to them. This process engendered some questions: what were the traits that defined one community? How distinctive and representative of ancient ways of life were those traits? And, above all, were they worth fighting for? Among such features, language established a kind of individuality that no material means (clothing, festivities) could achieve. This paper discusses the impact of dialect writing in the provincial press as another medium of dialect recording, spread and enregisterment. It argues that the availability of newspapers to local readers helped them acquire a new understanding of their own dialect and its relevance in the national scene. For this purpose, two letters sent by R. Giles to the North Devon Journal (now Devon Live) in 1885 will be considered to explore the role of newspaper publications in the enregisterment of the Devonshire dialect. This paper undertakes a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data to identify the most recurrent dialect traits documented in Giles’s letters, which will be linked to the values associated with the dialect in the context of these publications. Likewise, they will be compared to the dialect features recorded in contemporary and later works like Wright’s English Dialect Dictionary (EDD) and Ihalainen to evaluate the authenticity of Giles’ dialect and his potential contribution to the enregisterment of Devonshire speech as an identitary device. 1. THE VARIED AND SHORT-LIVED LIFE OF NINETEENTH CENTURY PERIODICALS Claridge (590) dates 1670 as the year when the term “newspaper” was coined. During the seventeenth century, a series of primitive formats that barely resembled the Berliner and tabloid publications known today were published. The London Gazette ruled the stage along The Current Intelligence for a period of thirty years until 1695. Udo Fries comprehensively follows the evolution of periodicals from this point onwards, drawing a chronological line that led to current newspapers. The Provincial Newspapers as Vehicles for Dialect Spread . . . 119 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 116–144 E-ISSN 2531-1654 glorious period enjoyed by the London Gazette (previously known as Oxford Gazette, as the publication was moved to Oxford during the Great Plague years) was terminated by the inception of tri-weeklies such as The Post Boy and The Post Man. Fries indicates that the dawn of the eighteenth century caused a newspaper enthusiasm which provoked the genesis of several other publications, among which we can find The Evening Post, The Daily Advertiser and The Gentleman’s Magazine, as well as an increase in the number of weekly, bi-weekly and tri-weekly offerings encouraged by the Licensing Act of 1695. The tri-weekly design allegedly found better reception (Black 13) and held sway for many years. However, the 1700s would prove difficult in view of increased competitiveness, since several names started to crowd coffee shops and gentlemen clubs alike. A few names to be recalled during this time would include The St. James’s Evening Post, The Whitehall Evening Post, later renamed Whitehall Evening Post or London Intelligencer, or the St. James’s Post. The increase in the number of publications was provoked by the growth in readership that took place during the nineteenth century. Palmer indicates that daily Britain was inscribed in the pages of periodicals as a sort of entertainment device. Marriages, obituaries, job offers, Royal affairs or local concerns were pressed into the pages of newspapers across the country. Whilst publications whose heritage is maintained today, such as The Daily Telegraph or The Guardian, smaller titles emerged to fulfil the needs of certain sectors of society. Stephanie Olsen discusses that the periodical press at this time was varied in matter, since it informed, entertained, and shaped their readers’ opinion, which seems to have led to the diversification of the readership in terms of men, women, or children. Olsen offers a few names in the male panorama: Kaleidoscope: Or, Literary and Scientific Mirror, the Scots Observer or the Gentleman’s Magazine. Women enjoyed the advantages and pleasure of periodicals as well. Kathryn Ledbetter refers to titles such as Ladies’ Pocket Magazine, World of Fashion and Continental Feuilletons and La Belle Assemblée, mostly weekly publications in the magazine range that tried to collect female archetypes in vogue in the years prior to the coronation of Queen Victoria. The ample range of options offered by publishing houses and editors often reflected a social choice and showed the stratification of a layered society. London-based periodicals were focused on parliament affairs and conservative-leaning ideals, economics, and foreign policies, as well as highly literate articles for the expensively educated. 120 René Tissens ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 116–144 E-ISSN 2531-1654 In the countryside, provincial newspapers attempted to superimpose the relevance of its county, parish or town in contrast to the metropolis. Most of these provincial publications faced a quick demise or were purchased by massively wealthy companies in the twentieth century. Clarke and Black both refer to the Norwich Post as the first provincial newspaper, suggesting the Worcester Postman as presumptively previous. In Devon, Exeter became a periodical press workhouse and the county’s main producer. Titles existing during the early eighteenth century included Sam Farley’s Exeter Post-man, Exeter Mercury or Weekly Intelligence, Plymouth Weekly Journal or General Post, Brice’s Weekly Journal and Farley’s Exeter Journal. Some newspapers evolved and were renamed, as is the case with the Exeter Mercury or West Country Advertiser (1765), which underwent several retitling processes, becoming the Exeter Evening-Post or the Plymouth and Cornish Advertiser, and by the first half of the nineteenth century the Trewman’s Exeter Flying Post Devon, Cornwall, Somerset, Dorset, Wilts and Gloucester Advertiser. Fries questions whether examples from the provincial press should be considered in corpora compiled to analyse the language of newspapers, as he himself concedes that a language “different from that of London newspapers” (61) could be whittled from those publications. However short-lived and transitory, Andrew Hobbs evidences that most publications “from 1830 to the 1890s . . . were published outside of London,” preoccupied with local matters and identities. Their less metropolitan apparel made them, in Hobbs’ words, more “national” than the average London newspaper due to their less synthetic feel and closer approach to the average Briton. Hobbs points out that, although the life expectancy of the provincial press was less than a year, their celebration of the ordinary and local was much enjoyed by the native readership. These newspapers were configured around advertisements and “non-news content [such as] poetry, history, geography, biography, jokes, maps, gossipy ‘London letters’ . . . reviews of books and magazines” (226), where local language played a key role in the configuration of the readers’ identities and their sense of belonging. In this regard, the provincial press relied on dialect as a means of self-reflexive celebration as linguistically different individuals, which could point to the enregisterment of some dialect features. Provincial Newspapers as Vehicles for Dialect Spread . . . 121 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 116–144 E-ISSN 2531-1654 2. ON THE ENREGISTERMENT OF ENGLISH Enregisterment refers to the “processes through which a linguistic repertoire becomes differentiable within a language as a socially recognized register of forms” (Agha, “The Social Life” 231), meaning that some linguistic forms become “socially recognised as indexical of speaker attributes by a population of language users” (Agha, “Voice, Footing, Enregisterment” 38). In the wake of Agha’s groundbreaking framework, Hernández-Campoy explains that enregisterment “accounts for how meaning gets attached to linguistic forms and how these indexicalised forms metapragmatically circulate and reproduce in social interaction, permeating discourse” (50). Agha’s notion of enregisterment is critically grounded in Silverstein’s three orders of indexicality, which some scholars such as Johnstone et al. have linked to Labov’s concepts of indicators, markers and stereotypes. Johnstone (“Enregisterment”) defines indexicality as “a sign . . . related to its meaning by virtue of co-occurring with what it is taken to mean” (633). Thus, Silverstein’s first order of indexicality refers to the association between a linguistic form, or sign, in a community and a social category, as perceived by an outsider like a linguist. At the second order, members of that community are aware of such correlation. The third order shows that the linguistic forms associated with a particular type of speaker, or community, are the object of overt commentary and representation in various forms, such as literature or memorabilia (see Beal, “Enregisterment” on the commodification of dialect). This ideological approach to the study of variation is inscribed within the so-called third wave of sociolinguistics (Eckert), which “locates ideology in language itself, in the construction of meaning, with potentially important consequences for linguistic theory more generally” (Eckert 98). Research on enregisterment has covered salient varieties of English all over the globe, including historical dialects. Barbara Johnstone’s groundbreaking work on Pittsburghese (Speaking Pittsburghese) resulted in a relevant academic growth in enregisterment studies due to her insightful analysis. Enregisterment has also been explored in the US by Picone as well as in Ireland by Amador-Moreno and McCafferty. Historical varieties of Northern English in the UK have been vastly investigated by Beal (“Enregisterment,” “Dialect as Heritage”), Cooper (Enregisterment, “It takes a Yorkshireman,” “Enregisterment”), Beal and Cooper and Ruano-Garca (“On the Enregisterment,” “Aw’m Lancashire”) 128 René Tissens ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 116–144 E-ISSN 2531-1654 Ihalainen and Görlach (English in Nineteenth Century England), comparing the data they provided with the one offered by Giles. 5.1 Text 1 – “The Gude Old Times in Welcombe” This fictional letter represents a portrait of bucolic affairs in Welcombe as homage to the ancient yet perishing lifeway of nineteenth century Britain. Giles’ composition exposes the role of the parson in little communities such as Welcombe, illustrating the illiteracy of average countryside men and women. To exemplify this, the letter narrates the comic misunderstanding between the local parson, reading a letter sent by a woman’s son working abroad, and the woman herself. When recounting the son’s frustration at being constantly attacked by mosquitoes at night in Brazil, the woman understands there is some mischievous Miss Kittie who romantically harasses her son, thus leading her to believe her son is a rather successful lover. Giles’s letter closes with a recollection of images described by the author as a means of conveying a feeling of homesickness. He mentions the view from a local cliff and how there seems to be nothing comparable to it. At the end of the letter, Giles uses a short poem as closure, reinstating this sentiment: This is my own my native land, no spot so dear to me, No city with its hoards of wealth, Has half such charms as thee. The rugged hills and grassy slopes, Where oft I’ve romped and played, Remind me of companions dear, Now sleeping in the shade. Interestingly, this is the only piece of text provided entirely in standard English in the whole letter. Whether this was engineered to contrast with the dialect, as if to snap from the nostalgic reverie, it cannot be said with certainty, but it could be safely assumed to be the case. 5.1.1 Results and discussion Table 3 shows the repertoire of dialect features documented in this text. Provincial Newspapers as Vehicles for Dialect Spread . . . 129 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 116–144 E-ISSN 2531-1654 Table 3. Repertoire of Devonshire features: Text 1, including normalised frequencies Features and examples Types Tokens NF / 1,000 Voicing of initial fricatives veet ‘feet,’ vind ‘find’ 22 66 46.4 FLEECE ME /ɛ:, ɛ: + j, e:/ bayches ‘beaches,’ betwayn ‘between’ 13 23 16.1 LOT ME /o, a/ wis ‘was,’ vrum ‘from’ 3 20 14 TRAP ME /a/ thits ‘that’s,’ hid ‘had’ 5 18 12.6 GOAT ME / ɔ:/ foom ‘foam,’ auver ‘over’ 11 18 12.6 DRESS ME /ɛ, ɛ:, a/ splindid ‘splendid,’ niver ‘never’ 10 18 12.6 STRUT ME /u, u:, o:/ rinnin ‘running,’ jist ‘just’ 8 14 9.8 NURSE ME /ɛ:+r/ larn ‘learn’ zur ‘sir’ 3 13 9.1 SQUARE ME /ei+r/ thares ‘theirs’ 1 12 8.4 Weak verb treatment zeed ‘seen,’ gived ‘gave’ 4 10 7 FORCE ME /ɔː, o, o+r/ hosses ‘horses,’ turment ‘torment’ 4 9 6.3 Personal pronoun Min ‘them’ 1 7 4.9 KIT ME /i/ rayflectors ‘reflectors,’ sperrits ‘spirits’ 5 5 3.5 PALM ME /ar/ passon ‘parson’ 1 5 3.5 THOUGHT ME /a, aw/ watter ‘water,’ draeback ‘drawback’ 3 3 2.1 GOOSE ME /o:/ tew ‘too’ 1 3 2.1 FOOT ME /u/ wid ‘would’ 1 2 1.4 BATH ME /ar/ laest ‘last’ 1 2 1.4 130 René Tissens ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 116–144 E-ISSN 2531-1654 Voicing of initial fricatives is the most frequent feature, followed by FLEECE (bayches ‘beaches’), which seems to perform as the most prominent lexical set, closely followed by LOT (vrum ‘from’), GOAT (foom ‘foam’) and DRESS (niver ‘never’). Although the normalised frequencies cast comparable results, Giles does not seem to follow a rigid set of conventions, but rather his dialect employment fluctuates as an average speaker’s would in a normal conversation. Fig. 1 shows the relation between standard and dialect forms according to their lexical sets in this letter. Fig. 1. Standard vs dialect forms in “The Gude Old Times in Welcombe” This chart demonstrates the standard-dialect fluctuation in the text works on a saliency basis. Spelling variants indicating phonological change are more acute in the NURSE lexical set, with TRAP, DRESS, GOAT and ultimately FLEECE progressively less salient as localised Devonshire traits. The morphological aspects in “The Gude Old Times in Welcombe” offer little data, probably due to its brevity. The overall presence of strong verbs given a weak treatment aligns conveniently with what is known of nineteenth century Devonshire speech, whilst personal pronouns work as a functional dialectal feature even if less profusely; there seems to be no 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% FLEECE (n=157) TRAP (n=80) DRESS (n=66) GOAT (n=52) NURSE (n=15) Standard Dialect Provincial Newspapers as Vehicles for Dialect Spread . . . 131 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 116–144 E-ISSN 2531-1654 instances of pronoun exchange. 5 This is mostly explained by the letter structure: not being a narrative filled with indirect accounts and dialogue, it seems less probable that the author felt inclined to employ pronoun exchange, yet personal pronouns still find their way into the letter, as in “zo the passon wid bring min auver” (my emphasis). 6 The lexical repertoire in this text cannot be verified by the EDD as Devonian, therefore including them here would be misleading. Many of the lexical forms found throughout the body of the text appear to be spelling variants of Standard English vocabulary. On balance, this letter contains a fair amount of dialectal material which is contrived to perform a series of authenticating effects (see Bucholtz) to appeal to a given set of readers from within the area of publication. A celebration of uniqueness, his use of non-standard spellings to point at forms typically recognised in Devon and close vicinities indicates that, by the end of the century, there were enregistered Devonshire forms in the area, easily captured in writing and identifiable by local readers. 5.2 Text 2 – “Lucy Passmore, The Wite Witch” In contrast with the nostalgic tones expressed in the previous letter, this one opens with a few lines regarding the fulfilment of a promise to write again about the odd customs and traditions that were recently carried out in Welcombe and thereabouts at the time. On this occasion, he dedicates the letter mostly to a description of the white and kind witch Lucy Passmore, her place of residence and business occupation, how she passed away and was replaced by cheap imitations. At the beginning, Giles describes her as follows: Tu Lucy ivery boddy thet was in inny trubble wud resort; in fact, hur was the oracle vow awl misterys. Wither ov witchin or love squabbels or innythig lost, the vokes wud traipse away vrom miles an miles arown, tu kunsult hur; an hur wud rayd the planets for mun. 5 This feature is marked by Ihalainen and Wagner (“English Dialects”) as representative of the dialect. 6 Standard equivalent: “so the parson would bring him over.” 132 René Tissens ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 116–144 E-ISSN 2531-1654 The letter includes a comic passage where Lucy argues with the local parson about her practices. Whilst the parson insists that Lucy’s influence on the town folk is negative and, in some cases, evil enabling (prompting people to steal), the confrontation ends when Lucy discloses the dishonesty of the parson himself. Apparently, the parson’s sermons were bought from another parson and delivered to his congregation as original creations. From then on, the parson sees no reason to bother Lucy and she resumes her business to the end of her days. The letter concludes with a poetic farewell, where Giles promises to go back to the folklore topic, mentioning “pixys, hobgoblins, an reckers” and hopes people will not be too judicial of “the hignorant times thit be past.” 5.2.1 Results and discussion Table 4 displays the dialect features used in this text. Table 4. Repertoire of Devonshire features: Text 2 (N= 2,480 words), including normalised frequencies Features and examples Types Tokens NF / 1,000 Voicing of initial fricatives zeed ‘seen,’ Zinday ‘Sunday’ 21 110 44.3 NURSE ME /er, ɛ:+r, ir/ hur ‘her,’ sarmins ‘sermons,’ ware ‘were,’ zur ‘sir’ 9 79 31.8 GOAT ME /ɔ:, ɔu/ auver ‘over,’ awlmost ‘almost,’ doant ‘don’t’ 11 35 14.1 DRESS ME /ɛ/ inny ‘any,’ ivery ‘every’ 13 32 12.9 Personal pronouns en ‘him,’ hess ‘us’ 4 32 12.9 FLEECE ME /ɛ:, e:/ betwayn ‘between,’ layst ‘east,’ rayd ‘read’ 17 30 12.09 KIT ME /i/ way ‘with,’ wey ‘with’ 2 18 7.2 TRAP ME /a/ thet ‘that,’ zot ‘sat’ 2 16 6.4 STRUT ME /u/ sitch ‘such’ 2 12 4.8 LOT ME /o/ acrass ‘across,’ dizen ‘dozen’ 5 9 3.6 Provincial Newspapers as Vehicles for Dialect Spread . . . 133 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 116–144 E-ISSN 2531-1654 Weak verb treatment bilded ‘built,’ nawd ‘knew’ 3 8 3.2 Reflexive pronoun mezel ‘myself,’hissel ‘himself’ 4 7 2.8 THOUGHT ME /a/ watter ‘water’ 1 4 1.6 -th instead of -s contaynth ‘contains,’ gieth ‘gives’ 3 3 1.2 PRICE ME /i:/ mezel ‘myself’ 1 2 0.8 FORCE ME /o+r/ and / ɔ:+r/ baurn ‘born,’ mare ‘more’ 2 2 0.8 SQUARE ME /ɛ:+r/ thares ‘theirs’ 1 2 0.8 GOOSE ME /o:/ tew ‘too’ 1 2 0.8 FACE ME /ei/ aytpense ‘eightpence’ 1 1 0.4 PALM ME /a/ haff ‘half” 1 1 0.4 Addition of -en hathen ‘hath’/ ‘has’ 1 1 0.4 The most frequent feature here is the voicing of initial fricatives, which Ihalainen points at as one of the most characteristic features belonging to the West Country. The most prominent lexical set appears to be NURSE (e.g., zur ‘sir’), followed by GOAT (auver ‘over’), DRESS (inny ‘any’) and FLEECE (betwayn ‘between’). Interestingly, the pattern that occur the most belongs to the latter, since the digraph <ay> is employed almost invariably in all the types documented for this lexical set. Fig. 2 shows the relation between standard and dialect forms according to their lexical sets. As with the previous text, this chart shows the standard-dialect fluctuation on terms of saliency. Spelling variants indicating phonological change are more acute in the NURSE lexical set, with FLEECE, DRESS, GOAT and ultimately TRAP progressively less salient as localised Devonshire traits. Contrary to text 1, this chart presents more balanced standard-dialect percentages, with GOAT nearing 50% for both types. 134 René Tissens ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 116–144 E-ISSN 2531-1654 Fig. 2. Standard vs dialect forms in “Lucy Passmore, the Wite Witch” The morphology and syntax of the West Country has been widely debated, centred mostly on aspects of pronoun exchange, uninflected be, otiose of and periphrastic do, as listed by Ihalainen (see Table 1). Pronoun exchange alone designates a specific geographic area as it has traditionally been ascribed to the Southwestern peninsula (see Wagner, Gender in English Pronouns 19, “English Dialects” 157). Indeed, Ihalainen, along with Wagner (“English Dialects”), points at this feature as dialect defining. Although the instances of pronoun exchange are but scarce in this sample, examples such as Her glinted acrass “She glinted across” and Her zed “She said” show that this was taken by Giles as a characteristic feature of the dialect represented, as Hewett likewise reports that the nominative 3rd person singular is Her, whilst the nominative 1st person plural becomes Us. Given the brevity of the letter, some of those characteristic features of the West Country are not attested, yet most of those that are present go some way to suggesting that they were indeed associated with Devonshire as well. In this regard, the treatment of strong verbs as weak is commented by Weymouth, whilst demonstrative pronouns such as thicky are accounted for by Wagner (“English Dialects”). Although the Southwest prioritises uses such as -s or do periphrasis as tense and aspect markers (as discussed by Elworthy), Chope affirms that “[Devonians] use the inflection th more than . . . [Somerset people] do” (3–4), which could still 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% TRAP (n=120) FLEECE (n=91) DRESS (n=104) GOAT (n=77) NURSE (n=92) Standard Dialect Provincial Newspapers as Vehicles for Dialect Spread . . . 135 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 116–144 E-ISSN 2531-1654 point at a certain Devonshire distinctiveness within the West Country, even if the feature is shared by counties outside the Southwest. As regards to lexis, this letter mixes regional words (e.g. clibbed ‘stuck,’ see Table 2) with standard lexis, in some cases slightly respelt (parrish ‘parish,’ peese ‘piece’) to create an illusory effect, or eye dialect, yet none of them could be certified as Devonian since their area of action is wider and could be come across in texts outside the West Country. For this reason, although a valuable item in literary composition to the effect of visual dialect colouring, we cannot consider it for analytical purposes. All things considered, Giles’ second letter presents a fair number of phonological and morphological traits, which provides us with a picture of some of the Devonshire traits that may have been in use at the time Giles wrote this text, or at least those that readers of the North Devon Journal understood as characteristic of the dialect. The landscape he proposes is nurtured by a mixture of Devonian features that were well-known at the time, wisely whittled in the text with a native public in mind. Given the “localisedness” (Honeybone and Watson 311) of some variants, it would be imprudent to assume it was written for an out-group readership, yet the newspaper as broadcast medium facilitated its nationwide acquisition. 6. COINCIDENTAL FEATURES To reach a conclusion regarding Giles’s employment of Devonshire dialect, it seems necessary to detail those items from both texts that, together, create a group of coincidental and salient elements. Such a group allows to ascertain which linguistic constituents could be considered “nuclear” in Giles’s writing. The evidence suggests that the dialect forms representative of the GOAT, FLEECE, NURSE, SQUARE, DRESS and TRAP sets were the most characteristic of the dialect in terms of phonology. Respellings of the GOAT diphthong (<au>, <oa>, <aw>, <oo> as in auver ‘over,’ aloan ‘alone,’ blaweth ‘blows,’ foom ‘foam’) are commented by Wright (The English Dialect Grammar), who concludes that Devonshire presents a development of “old long o . . . like the ö in German schön” (17), the close-mid back rounded vowel. The Devonshire realisation of the FLEECE monophthong appears to be regularly represented by <ay> (as in rayd ‘read,’ rayson ‘reason’), whilst NURSE and SQUARE seem to prefer an overall weakening of their vowel elements, as suggested by zur “sir” and thare “there.” The DRESS set is mainly defined by the close realisation of /e/ = [i] as all related examples 136 René Tissens ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 116–144 E-ISSN 2531-1654 show <i> instead of <e> (e.g., splindid ‘splendid,’ inny ‘any’), which is likewise suggested in the case of TRAP words, where we can find hingin “hanging” and thits “that’s.” The voicing of initial fricatives proves to be a defining characteristic in the representation of the dialect given the overall frequencies of this feature in both texts, as we have seen, with 110 and 66 tokens, respectively. Grammatical features are comparatively less frequent, and possibly salient, than respellings evoking Devonshire sounds, except for pronoun exchange, reflexive pronouns (only documented in text 2) and the treatment of strong verbs as weak. Table 5 conclusively shows the most coincidental features for better visual apprehension: Table 5. Repertoire of coincidental Devonshire features in text 1 and 2, with their normalised frequencies combined Features and examples Items Tokens NF/ 1000 Voicing of initial fricatives zeed ‘seen,’ veet ‘feet’ 43 176 45 NURSE ME /er, ɛ:+r, ir/ sarmins ‘sermons,’ larn ‘learn’ 12 92 23.5 GOAT ME /ɔ:, ɔu/ auver ‘over’ 22 53 13.5 FLEECE ME /ɛ:, e:/ bayches ‘beaches’ betwayn ‘between’ 30 53 13.5 DRESS ME /ɛ, ɛ:, a/ inny ‘any,’ splindid ‘splendid’ 23 50 12.8 Weak verb treatment gived ‘gave,’ bilded ‘built’ 7 18 4.6 These coincidental traits in Devon indicate the existence of “a set of linguistic features” which “have come to be linked . . . to [a] place and ‘enregistered’ . . . as a dialect” (Johnstone et al. 78). This group of traits is “associated with a personal or social identity” (Johnstone, “Pittsburghese Shirts” 160), and thus represents indexical meanings working at the time of publication, recorded in monographies and falling within Sebba’s socalled zone of social meaning. 7 Their employment in a written medium 7 Sebba explains that variation must “occur only within fairly tight parameters” (33), meaning that for R. Giles’s letters to “aim for a special effect” (Görlach, “Regional and Provincial Newspapers as Vehicles for Dialect Spread . . . 137 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 116–144 E-ISSN 2531-1654 published with a restricted readership scope (that is, a regional newspaper) indicated a wish to celebrate sociolinguistic aspects particular to Devon, “recognizable sign-values” that are brought into circulation (Agha, Language and Social Relations 145) to raise awareness in the reader and disassociate them from the Standard. Whilst the North Devon Journal could have been enjoyed by outside readers, R. Giles’s choice to write dialect in a local journal, employing enregistered phonological traits marked by non-standard spellings (Jaffe 500) seems to support the idea that newspapers, especially regional ones, could be used to bring attention to the dialect, characterise its average speaker and eulogise the culture it indexes. 7. CONCLUDING REMARKS AND DEDUCTIONS Nineteenth century periodicals played a fundamental role in the society of the period. They were a main form of entertainment, a lifeway of news broadcasting and an emblem of ideological alliance. In turn, provincial publications became the flagship of a county or parish, bearing news, traditions, festivities and relevant events such as marriages, births and deaths. Sometimes, they could also display a critical piece of literary contribution with outstanding value: dialect literature shaped as a form of original correspondence. Because dialect employment is a self-conscious practice within a media form, it could be considered that dialect literature in provincial newspapers deployed nonstandard language agentively to highlight its value and attachment to a given community. Taking R. Giles as a conscious contributor whose grasp of the local dialect had been honed by years of attentive listening, it can be assumed that he was already aware of the uniqueness of the dialect and decided to employ it as ideological material. Considering that the North Devon Journal lacked the spread and reach of bigger newspapers such as The Times, the idea that Giles only performs a celebration of Devon speech as a kind of homage gains more weight, but also tells how influential a newspaper could become to deliver an identitary message. The letters contributed by Giles analysed in this paper provide insight into his dialectal patterns and redundancy on several lexical sets (e.g., GOAT, NURSE, FLEECE) as well other dialectal features supported by contemporary research. Taken in the company of the Social Variation” 134), he must have adhered to recognisable patterns acknowledged by readers as Devon speech. 144 René Tissens ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 116–144 E-ISSN 2531-1654 Williams, Quentin. “The Enregisterment of English in Rap Braggadocio: A Study from English-Afrikaans Bilingualism in Cape Town.” English Today, vol. 28, no. 2, 2012, pp. 54–59, doi:10.1017/S0266078412000181. Wright, Joseph. The English Dialect Dictionary. Henry Frowde, 1898– 1905. Wright, Joseph. The English Dialect Grammar. Henry Frowde, 1905. ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 145–169 E-ISSN 2531-1654 A Psychoanalytic Approach to Louise Glück’s Blended Receptions of the Myths of Narcissus and Persephone in Averno Un enfoque psicoanalítico de las recepciones combinadas de Louise Glück de los mitos de Narciso y Perséfone en Averno SANAE KICHOUH AIADI Institution address: Universidad de Almería. Departamento de Filología. Edif. Dep. de Humanidades y CC de la Educación II (Edif. C). Carretera Sacramento, s/n. 04120 La Cañada de San Urbano Almería. Spain. E-mail: sana[email protected] ORCID: 0000-0002-6665-2736 Received: 30/11/2022. Accepted: 19/06/2023. How to cite this article: Kichouh Aiadi, Sanae. “A Psychoanalytic Approach to Louise Glück’s Blended Receptions of the Myths of Narcissus and Persephone in Averno.” ES Review: Spanish Journal of English Studies, vol. 45, 2024, pp. 145–169. DOI: https://doi.org/10.24197/ersjes.45.2024.145-169 Open access article under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CCBY 4.0). Abstract: In recent years, mythological retellings have garnered increasing acclaim. One such example is Louise Glück’s book of poetry Averno (2006), in which she blends the myths of Narcissus and Persephone. In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, a narcissus serves as bait when Hades abducts Persephone. However, in Glück’s contemporary rewriting, Persephone seeks to escape her authoritarian mother by embracing Hades, whose perspective is given in “A Myth of Devotion,” but the ultimate outcome is that Persephone is controlled by both her mother and her husband. In the present paper, I shall first address the reception of the myths of Persephone and Narcissus in Glück’s “A Myth of Innocence.” Then, I shall analyse sexuality, trauma and marriage in “A Myth of Innocence” and “A Myth of Devotion” from a psychoanalytic perspective, while also exploring the motifs that occur in Glück’s appropriation of the two myths in question. Keywords: Louise Glück; Averno; Persephone; Narcissus; psychoanalysis. Summary: Introduction. Classical Receptions. Psychoanalysis: Sexuality, Incest and Trauma. “A Myth of Innocence” and the Myths of Persephone and Narcissus. Incest and Trauma. Marriage as Metaphorical Death. Conclusions. 146 Sanae Kichouh Aiadi ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 145–169 E-ISSN 2531-1654 Resumen: En los últimos años, los relatos mitológicos han obtenido una aclamación cada vez mayor. Un ejemplo de ello es el poemario Averno (2006) de Louise Glück, en el que combina los mitos de Narciso y Perséfone. En el Himno Homérico a Deméter, un narciso sirve de cebo cuando Hades secuestra a Perséfone. Sin embargo, en la reescritura contemporánea de Glück, Perséfone busca escapar de su madre autoritaria abrazando a Hades, cuya perspectiva se da en “A Myth of Devotion,” pero el resultado final es que Perséfone está controlada tanto por su madre y como por su esposo. En el presente artículo, abordaré primero la recepción de los mitos de Perséfone y Narciso en “A Myth of Innocence” de Glück. Luego, analizaré la sexualidad, el trauma y el matrimonio en “A Myth of Innocence” y “A Myth of Devotion” desde una perspectiva psicoanalítica, explorando al mismo tiempo los temas en la apropiación de Glück de los dos mitos en cuestión. Palabras clave: Louise Glück; Averno; Perséfone; Narciso; psicoanálisis. Sumario: Introducción. Recepciones clásicas. Psicoanálisis: sexualidad, incesto y trauma. “A Myth of Innocence” y los mitos de Perséfone y Narciso. Incesto y trauma. El matrimonio como muerte metafórica. Conclusiones. INTRODUCTION Recent years have witnessed the rise of mythological retellings, with many authors addressing myths in their work. One such author is Louise Glück (1943–), an outstanding American poet who has written thirteen books of poetry, two of criticism, and one novel. This prominent author has received many awards, including the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1985, the Pulitzer Prize in 1993, the Bollingen Prize in 2001 and the National Book Award in 2014. She was Poet Laureate of the United States from 2003 to 2004 and received the 2020 Nobel Prize for poetry. In her work, she typically draws on several different literary traditions, such as theology (from the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament), Greek mythology and fairy tales. Among her books of poetry containing vivid retellings of mythology are The Triumph of Achilles (1985), focusing on Achilles; Meadowlands (1996), dealing with the Odyssey; and Vita Nova (1999), addressing Orpheus. In addition, Glück’s poetry book Averno (2006) considers the Demeter and Persephone myth. As Isobel Hurst has explained, the poems in Averno “evaluate and interrogate the significance of love and death with a decided inclination towards the peace of the afterlife” (75). Regarding Glück’s writing, Tanzina Halim, Rizwana Wahid and Shanjida Halim have aptly remarked that “the end of human life is one of the central themes of Glück’s poetry” (436). Meanwhile, Henri Cole has highlighted the plainness of Glück’s poetry, observing that she “is not a poet of elliptical fragmentation—she goes deeper. With her simple A Psychoanalytic Approach to Louise Glück’s Blended Receptions . . . 147 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 145–169 E-ISSN 2531-1654 vocabulary, dramatic juxtapositions, and subtle pacing, the poems seem to be more in conversation with Blake, Yeats, and Eliot” (98). Similarly, Glück appears strongly influenced by Sylvia Plath and the confessional style (MacGowan 159). As Robert Baker has contended, “Louise Glück is surely a confessional poet in some basic sense. She returns time and again to a series of wounding predicaments in her intimate life” (131), combining this with psychology and metaphysics (Bartczak 74). Indeed, autobiographical experiences form a constant theme in Glück’s writing. From an early age, she felt controlled by her mother and constantly longed for her approval (Glück, Proofs 6). As a way of breaking free from this, she stopped eating to gain control over her body, although she notes that this enterprise was ultimately unsuccessful: what I had thought of as an act of will, an act I was perfectly capable of controlling, of terminating, was not that; I realized that I had no control over this behavior at all . . . I understood that at some point I was going to die . . . I didn’t want to die. Even then, dying seemed a pathetic metaphor for establishing a separation between myself and my mother. (Glück, Proofs 11) I consider this quote imperative for an understanding of Persephone in “A Myth of Innocence,” which appears in Averno.1 Contrary to Glück, Persephone’s strategy to free herself of her mother’s control is to embrace Hades, the god of the dead. Glück states that “poems are autobiography, but divested of the trappings of chronology and comment, the metronomic alternation of anecdote and response” (Glück, Proofs 92). There is no doubt that Glück reflects her personal experience in her poetry in general and in this poem in particular.2 Previous studies of Glück’s work have examined the myth of Demeter and Persephone in Averno in isolation (Spann; Azcuy, “Louise Glück’s Twenty-First Century,” “Persona, Trauma and Survival,” “Louise Glück’s Irenic Poems”; Hurst, “‘Love and Blackmail,’” “An Autumnal Underworld”; Frankel; Zhou) and in combination with the book’s autobiographical dimension (Keniston, “‘Balm after Violence’”; Brown; 1 Glück’s poem “Pomegranate,” included in The House on Marshland (1975), was her first rewriting of the myth of Demeter and Persephone, but she returned to the same theme later, in four separate poems in Averno (2006): “Persephone the Wanderer,” “A Myth of Innocence,” “A Myth of Devotion” and “Persephone the Wanderer.” 2 See Morris 29–30; and Pereira 142–59 for Glück’s poetical motifs. For the sake of brevity, my analysis will focus on “A Myth of Innocence” and “A Myth of Devotion.” 148 Sanae Kichouh Aiadi ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 145–169 E-ISSN 2531-1654 El Bakary), or have explored the reception of the myth of Demeter in combination with psychoanalytic themes (Wong; Gosmann; Yezzi; Cooke), inviting a consideration of narcissism and trauma in Glück’s writing (Morris; Keniston, “‘Balm after Violence’”; Sastri; Bartczak). Other studies have concentrated solely on autobiography without considering the myth of Demeter and Persephone (Chiasson), while still others have focused on a particular poem, namely “October,” in reference to the 9/11 attacks (Keniston, “‘Balm after Violence,’” “‘Not Needed’”; Kočan Šalamon). None, however, have analysed the myth of Narcissus in association with “A Myth of Innocence,” encouraging me to fill this gap. Unlike previous studies, my research suggests that the myths of Narcissus and Persephone are pivotal in Glück’s rewriting. By depicting Demeter as an authoritarian mother and Persephone as wanting to escape from her control, Glück successfully blends the myths of Persephone and Narcissus.3 It is thanks to the Homeric Hymn to Demeter that these two myths dovetail so neatly because it is there that the tale first appears of the narcissus flower used as bait to lure Persephone to marry Hades,4 and now in Glück’s appropriation of the myth the abduction is deployed as a metaphor for marriage. In this case, Narcissus’ story is embedded in Glück’s retelling of the myth of Persephone.5 Therefore, in this study, I shall explore how the myths of Persephone and Narcissus are blended in Glück’s “A Myth of Innocence.” In addition, I shall analyse sexuality, trauma and marriage from a psychoanalytic standpoint in both “A Myth of Innocence” and “A Myth of Devotion.” Finally, I shall conclude by 3 On Narcissus, see Favre 1071–75; and Grafton et al. 620. On Persephone, see Doudoumis 1539–46; and Grafton et al. 254–55. 4 Glück’s The Wild Iris (1992) lends a voice to various kinds of flowers, demonstrating her extensive knowledge of these. Glück constantly refers to the idea of a doppelganger, e.g., Narcissus and his reflection in the pool, or the Demeter-Persephone duality (see Powel 253). The myths of Narcissus and Persephone are two independent stories, but Glück justifies this connection through Narcissus, who metamorphoses into the narcissus flower. 5 Glück has not written about the myth of Narcissus in her poetry, but in American Originality (2017) she addressed the mythical story and correlated it to psychoanalysis and literature; see Glück, American 8–22. Moreover, the contemporary psychoanalytic concept of narcissism is present throughout Glück’s poetry. This interest in psychoanalysis started with her anorexia nervosa (Glück, Proofs 10–12). On the anorexic experience in Glück’s poetry, see Vembar. A Psychoanalytic Approach to Louise Glück’s Blended Receptions . . . 149 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 145–169 E-ISSN 2531-1654 discussing how Glück revisits the classical tradition in her portrayal of these mythological characters in both poems. 1. CLASSICAL RECEPTIONS Reception studies explore “on the two-way relationship between the source text or culture and the new work and receiving culture” (Hardwick 4). Anastasia Bakogianni has observed that “Classical reception focuses on the way in which the classical world is received in subsequent centuries and in particular on those aspects of the classical sources that are altered, marginalized, or neglected” (97). Recently, reception studies related to Greek and Roman texts have aroused increasing research interest, raising the profile of classical receptions (Hardwick and Stray 33–34). Reception studies encompass a variety of disciplines (Brockliss 11) and form part of the classical tradition which has “studied the transmission and dissemination of classical culture through the ages, usually with the emphasis on the influence of classical writers, artists and thinkers on subsequent intellectual movements and individual works” (Hardwick 2). In fact, according to Maarten De Pourcq, classicists use the classical tradition as a shield to protect their study of the ancient sources (222). As for the reception of the myth of Demeter and Persephone, Glück seems to draw on various sources. The first is the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, which tells the story of Persephone (Foley 28–64), who was abducted by Hades while gathering flowers in a meadow (HDem. 1–21). Demeter, the goddess of the harvest, cannot find her daughter and in despair, stops plants from growing.6 Zeus then sends Hermes to the underworld to bring Persephone back (HDem. 30–341). Once in the world of the dead, Hermes explains the situation to Hades, who agrees to let Persephone go, but before she leaves, he informs her of the honours she will acquire as his wife and puts a pomegranate seed into her mouth (HDem. 342–74). Persephone and Demeter are reunited, and the goddess of the harvest restores the vegetation. However, because of the pomegranate seed, Zeus decides Persephone will spend one-third of the year with Hades and two-thirds with her mother and the other Olympian gods and goddesses (HDem. 384–452). In the two Ovidian versions7 and 6 See Brunel and Karakostas 515–20. 7 Ovid’s Metamorphoses (5.341–641) and Ovid’s Fasti (4.393–614). 150 Sanae Kichouh Aiadi ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 145–169 E-ISSN 2531-1654 D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths (1962),8 Persephone reaches for the pomegranate, from which she eats a few seeds and thus dooms herself to spend part of the year in the underworld and the other part with her mother. In Glück’s Averno, “Persephone the Wanderer” (I) follows the ancient sources, encapsulating Demeter’s reaction to the loss of her daughter— stopping all vegetation from growing—as “the goddess of the earth / punishes the earth” (2–4) and “It is snowing on earth” (46), where winter echoes Demeter’s coldness and pain while Persephone “is lying in the bed of Hades” (51). Persephone’s marriage to Hades transforms her from a maiden—Koré—to the goddess of the underworld—Persephone. Thus, in “A Myth of Innocence,” “The girl who disappears from the pool / will never return. A woman will return, / looking for the girl she was.” (23–25), while in “A Myth of Devotion,” Hades tells Persephone, “you’re dead, nothing can hurt you” (46), summarising Persephone’s situation as goddess of the underworld. This is further explained in “Persephone the Wanderer” (II), where “Persephone / is dead. She dies, her mother grieves—” (1–2), but “if Zeus will get her back, / winter will end” (73– 74). However, Zeus commands Persephone to spend one-third of the year with Hades and two-thirds with her mother. 2. PSYCHOANALYSIS: SEXUALITY, INCEST AND TRAUMA The discipline of psychoanalytic studies emerged in the nineteenth century. Among the central concepts in psychoanalysis are sexuality, incest and trauma. Sexuality is indeed very present not only in our everyday life but also in literature; as Jeffrey Weeks has soberly remarked, “sexuality is not a given, it is a product of negotiation, struggle and human agency” (19). In this paper, sexuality will be regarded as a natural impulse regulated by social convention when exploring “concepts such as repression, sexual drives and the libido” (Jackson and Scott 5). However, certain sexual practices encourage trauma, which as Caroline Garland has explained: is a kind of wound. When we call an event traumatic, we are borrowing the word from the Greek where it refers to a piercing of the skin, a breaking of the bodily envelope. In physical medicine it denotes damage to tissue. Freud 8 In an interview, Glück explicitly cites D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths (1967) as her source of information about the Demeter and Persephone myth (Gosmann 220). A Psychoanalytic Approach to Louise Glück’s Blended Receptions . . . 151 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 145–169 E-ISSN 2531-1654 (A General Introduction) used the word metaphorically to emphasise how the mind too can be pierced and wounded by events . . . (25) Although there are many possible traumatic events, not all traumas are the same: some are more devastating than others (Garland 26). Such is the case of incest, which entails major trauma (Jacobs 104). Incest, therefore, is one of the most traumatic sexual practices, and it generates what is known as incest trauma. This conceptualisation resonates with Freud’s understanding of primary narcissism. As Freud explained, “a human being has originally two sexual objects—himself and the woman who nurses him—and in doing so we are postulating a primary narcissism in everyone, which may in some cases manifest iself [sic] in a dominating fashion in his object-choice” (“On Narcissism” 88). Primary narcissism seems to be the starting point of sexual attraction, leading to Freud’s understanding of the Oedipal complex, which is also related to trauma and may lead to incest (Jung et al. 73). Moreover, Freud developed the Oedipal trauma theory, opening “the door to serious consideration of incest as a problem for psychoanalytic investigation and treatment” (Klett and Rachman 46). Furthermore, by uniting mythology and psychoanalysis, this theory endowed Oedipus with a new psychoanalytic association (Bowlby 806). However, it also generated the dilemma of whether the child is to blame for the incestuous sexual act. As Susan Klett and Arnold William Rachman have noted: Influenced by the Oedipal complex, analysts, parents, authorities, and social institutions suggested that the child’s sexuality seduced the adult. In actuality, it is the adult’s sexuality that is at issue . . . the child partner is extremely vulnerable, in a position of unequal power, status, and control, the adult seducer does not have to cope with the difficulties of an adult relationship. He/she literally seduces an innocent. (129) Thus, sexuality, primary narcissism, incest and trauma are interrelated. All of them can be applied to Persephone because she encounters them all simultaneously when gazing at herself in Glück’s pool, where Hades seizes her. 152 Sanae Kichouh Aiadi ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 145–169 E-ISSN 2531-1654 3. “A MYTH OF INNOCENCE” AND THE MYTHS OF PERSEPHONE AND NARCISSUS Persephone “was the daughter of Demeter, goddess of the harvest, and her mother loved her so dearly she could not bear to have her out of her sight. When Demeter sat on her golden throne, her daughter was always on her lap; when she went down to earth to look after her trees and fields, she took Persephone” (D’Aulaire and D’Aulaire 58). When Persephone was first abducted in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, “she still hoped / to see her dear mother” (HDem. 35–36, Foley 4). Yet, as Valerie Estelle Frankel has remarked, in contrast to the original myth, “A Myth of Innocence,” “sees Persephone seeking an escape from life so close to her mother that she has no identity of her own” (43). Hence, Persephone is no longer presented as someone emotionally attached to her mother, but rather as a child suffocated by her mother’s control: One summer she goes into the field as usual stopping for a bit at the pool where she often looks at herself, to see if she detects any changes. She sees the same person, the horrible mantle of daughterliness still clinging to her. (1–6) Glück is playing here with different allusions. Firstly, it is summer, which indicates that Persephone is under her mother’s care because summer falls within the part of the year when Persephone is on earth. This allusion may have been taken from D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths, where only winter represents the time she is away from her mother (D’Aulaire & D’Aulaire 62). Secondly, the pool where Persephone is gazing at herself represents the first allusion to Narcissus. Much more implicitly, “A Myth of Innocence” depicts the moment in the myth of Narcissus when Echo falls in love with him, but he rejects her love as he had done before with the many others that had become enamoured of him. Therefore, condemned to love his own image, Narcissus dies after falling in the pool when trying to reach his reflection (Met. 3.339–510). Nevertheless, in D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths, A Psychoanalytic Approach to Louise Glück’s Blended Receptions . . . 153 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 145–169 E-ISSN 2531-1654 unaware that he had fallen in love with his own reflection,9 Narcissus “sat smiling at himself, forgetting to eat, forgetting to drink, until he wasted away and died” (D’Aulaire and D’Aulaire 92). Narcissus gazes at his reflection in the pool10 in the same way that Persephone does in “A Myth of Innocence” when she stops “for a bit at the pool where she often / looks at herself” (2–3). However, Persephone sees “the horrible mantle / of daughterliness still clinging to her” (5–6), whereas Narcissus becomes besotted with his mesmerising reflection. Meanwhile, in the Metamorphoses, once Narcissus realises that the image he has fallen in love with is his own, he understands the enormity of his curse and prays to escape from his body (Met. 3.437–473), as Persephone does in “A Myth of Innocence” (30–31), both thus longing for death. Another aspect that unites Persephone and Narcissus is the fact that both undergo change. The former becomes the goddess of the underworld and the latter a narcissus flower. Glück’s allusion to Narcissus is more than justified as “Ovid’s Narcissus appears to be the psychoanalytical subject par excellence—split into two, desiring in vain, impelled by a desire born of lack, captivated by an image he can never possess. What is more, he knows how it works. He has been demystified” (Vallury 82). The moment Narcissus becomes besotted with his own image, he is doomed to failure as he will never attain his love object. However, as Victoria Graham-Fuller and Robinson Hazel have observed, the myth of Narcissus represents much more than that because the “interaction of Narcissus and Echo is set during adolescence, during which a young person begins to emerge from childhood dependence, through defiance, curiosity and experimentation, towards a relatively established adult identity” (10). I suggest that to leave childhood behind is exactly what Persephone seeks. Moreover, the fact that Persephone wants to see “if she detects any changes” (4) indicates that she is impatient for change, longing to leave her body and become a woman who is no longer attached to her mother; however, she only sees “the same person” (5), a child who is still under her mother’s care. The mantle that clings to her is a reminder of Demeter, who tears her veil in grief at her daughter’s loss (HDem. 40, Foley 4). Nonetheless, in Glück’s rewriting of the myth, rather than being proof of 9 See also Ovid, Metamorphoses 421, on how Narcissus falls in love with his reflection which for him is the “other.” 10 See Ballesteros González 50. 256 Manuel Hueso Vasallo ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 241–268 E-ISSN 2531-1654 representation of same-sex desire between men in a considerable number of neo-Victorian texts, fantasy can be said to have the potential to subvert its entombed traumatic trace into a more complex kind of haunting, one to which neo-Victorian narratives can talk back or reinterpret in order to show readers different approaches to queer affection. Furthermore, fantasy can depict the inner lives of those who have been mostly represented as erotic agents of fear and social dispossession because it allows harmful tropes to be sidestepped in favour of a more nuanced analysis of the psyche of the characters that are still deeply embedded in the real world without necessarily following its rules. As Roger Caillois states, in fantastic narratives, the intrusion of the strange does not lead to the replacement of the naturalistic world by a totally different one where there is nothing but miracles. The established and acknowledged order of things, its regularity, is transformed by the irruption of the inadmissible. (349) In other words, neo-Victorian texts that incorporate fantastic elements can both faithfully reflect the peculiarities of the era and allow for the incorporation of “the inadmissible,” that is, those occurrences that— whether magical or not—allow the characters to engage with their own identities in more profound ways. In this sense, fantasy allows for the exorcisation of those “secret[s] which w[ere] someone else’s psychic burden” (Abraham and Torok 19) because it allows for the inadmissible to happen. The inherited fear produced by Wilde’s trials is expelled from the narrative by the presence of certain elements that, in a way, unburden the protagonists of the weight of the real-life potential and legal consequences of their sexual and romantic identities. A clear example of this and of the way in which contemporary fantastic neo-Victorianism deals with same-sex relationships between men in a more self-conscious, reflexive, and intersectional way than its nonfantasy counterpart, can clearly be seen in Pulley’s The Watchmaker of Filigree Street. The novel tells the story of a British civil servant, Thaniel Steepleton, and of a Japanese watchmaker, Keita Mori. Set in 1883, 6 6 Even if the novel is set before the actual passing of Labouchère’s Amendment, we must take into consideration that it has been written in the Twenty-first Century. This means that despite its taking place before the Amendment’s passing, the novel is affected by the author’s consciousness of both its approval and of the dangers of being queer in the Victorian era, even if Wilde’s trials have yet to take place in the novel’s plotline. Oscar Wilde’s Trials as a Haunting Presence . . . 257 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 241–268 E-ISSN 2531-1654 Pulley’s text deals with both the evolving romantic relationship between the two characters and with the clash between Japanese and Victorian culture at the height of British imperialism. Mori’s clairvoyance and unusual technological skills provide the narrative’s fantastic element. These skills become morally suspicious to the other characters in the novel, who otherwise mostly ignore the legal consequences of Steepleton and Mori’s desire for each other. In fact, Thaniel’s fiancée, Grace, is almost unconcerned about her intended’s growing relationship with Mori, but she becomes aggressively unsympathetic towards him when she learns about his fantastic otherness, convinced that, due to his clairvoyance, he has the power to manipulate others to mistrust her: “I don’t think you’ll make any real choices until you’re away from him” (Pulley 246). Furthermore, she continues to link Mori to the bombing of Scotland Yard, the opening engine of the text (Pulley 246). Even Mori’s fellow countrymen grow suspicious of him—not because of his sexual orientation, which is hinted at in the first part of the novel—but because of his powers (Pulley 255, 274). Finally, Thaniel and Mori’s growing confidence and romantic feelings toward each other achieve two different purposes. First, it depicts a relationship between men in which, unlike most previous examples of neo- Victorian representations of same-sex desire between men, neither character is described in erotic terms. Instead, Thaniel and Mori’s love seems to be based on a deep understanding of the other’s personality, as Thaniel comes to realise Mori’s deep humanity despite his otherness: “[n]o one asked [Mori] if he wanted anything or if he was all right. It was Mori who asked those things” (Pulley 274). Their feelings are also used to portray a queer relationship free of moral prejudice, which allows readers to reflect on the complex racial relationships between Victorian England and Japan. For example, Thaniel comes to realise the many outrages committed by Britain against Japan, such as the 1856 bombing of Canton (Pulley 192). Also, Mori introduces him to Japanese culture by guiding him through a decorative Japanese villa built in London to promote Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta, The Mikado. 7 Furthermore, Thaniel, originally a pianist, manages to find work in this musical production through Mori’s 7 Gilbert and Sullivan’s original musical is a rather racist and exoticized representation of Japan created to cater to a Victorian, white, and imperialist sense of humour. In the novel, however, Pulley reimagines The Mikado as a well-intended effort by the British government to establish better relationships with Japan (Pulley 207–09). 258 Manuel Hueso Vasallo ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 241–268 E-ISSN 2531-1654 intervention (Pulley 192–200). In this sense, the fantasy elements within the narrative exorcises the haunting of Labouchère’s Amendment by shifting the focus from the punitive and legal consequences of same-sex desire to other aspects that have scarcely been depicted in neo-Victorian representations of love between men. This is because fantasy orientates the readers, mostly, towards issues of race and otherness, thus exploring an interstice of queer experience that is usually forgotten in this genre of novel. It downplays the legal aspects of the period to enhance the otherness produced by clairvoyance, thus effectively re-thinking Victorian dissident sexualities. The Watchmaker of Filigree Street can be said to represent the opposite of Koegler and Tronicke’s idea that many queer neo-Victorian texts are reactionary exoticisations of sexual “deviance” that do little more than cater to the expectations of white conservative audiences regarding queer obscenity, or overlap with imperial fantasies of racialisation and miscegenation. (Koegler and Tronicke 11) Thus, in this specific case, fantasy allows the real-life haunting of the Labouchère Amendment in the lives of queer men during that period to be downplayed, propelling the narrative into a more nuanced account of same-sex love. In its place, fantasy lends the narrative the ability to focus on other aspects of same-sex relationships that were often overlooked in previous neo-Victorian depictions of these relationships: race, class, and the dynamics of imperialism. As Mark Fabrizi states: “[o]ne of the most interesting aspects of fantasy literature is that it tends to ask the ‘big’ questions of life . . . the role of the individual in society, and the importance of cultural diversity” (1). In other words, this implies that the phantasmagorical, cryptical fear caused by the law in the aftermath of Wilde’s trials is somehow exorcised by fantasy’s ability to overlook certain aspects of reality and focus, instead, on other aspects that are more in accordance with the agenda of neo-Victorian studies and literature. Thaniel and Mori are protected by Mori’s divination abilities from being arrested or condemned, opening a new field of racial and imperial exploration. The author then conjures up an in-depth exploration of the clash of two different cultures on the cusp of Victorian imperialism instead of focusing on the dangers of the character’s love story or on creating “reactionary exoticisations of sexual ‘deviance’” (Koegler and Tronicke 11). Oscar Wilde’s Trials as a Haunting Presence . . . 259 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 241–268 E-ISSN 2531-1654 Following this narrative intersection of the neo-Victorian and fantasy genres, Marske’s A Marvellous Light offers yet another, more nuanced example of how productive this combination can be. Throughout the book, the anxious atmosphere surrounding queer men after Wilde’s trials is acknowledged. The novel, set at the beginning of the twentieth century, articulates these fears through one of its protagonists, Robin, a nonmagical baronet who finds himself acting as a government liaison to England’s magical population. After meeting Edwin, a magician, and starting a relationship with him, magic—the fantasy element within this novel—acts, once again, as an exorcising element that allows the protagonists to investigate their identities and configure their relationship without being in constant fear or having to hide behind a veil. However, because Marske’s novel openly articulates the atmosphere of fear and anxiety that haunted queer men after Wilde’s conviction, when Robin discovers that magicians talk openly about their sexual orientations, he states the following: “It was unthinkable. Nobody would confess offhandedly to that particular crime in front of a complete stranger” (Marske 54). His incomprehension is, in fact, justified by a direct mention of Wilde’s conviction, contemplating how despite the passing of several years “since Wilde’s trial, . . . one still had to face the possibility of being pulled up before a jury, and considering oneself lucky if the charge was merely gross indecency and not buggery” (Marske 151, original emphasis). The fantasy element in the text soon begins to act as an agent that liberates Robin from Wilde’s phantom. As magical society proves more sexually aware and open-minded, offering its members protection against ordinary British law, Robin and Edwin’s relationship is inspected through a lens that pays attention to the problems that establishing such a relationship would entail in a complex context, rather than focusing on the potential legal consequences. In fact, when Robin argues that he had never before thought about establishing a romantic relationship with someone, he claims that this is because “[f]or men like them, only the impossible was absolutely safe” (Marske 235). Of course, magic—being, indeed, the impossible—offers safety and an escape from criminal concerns, just as the other impossible, or fantasy, elements do in the other novels explored here. Once Robin discovers that he can feel safe with Edwin, the novel undertakes a serious analysis of the complexities of establishing a relationship with another man in a time when there are no patterns or almost no models for doing so. Robin lacks the vocabulary for defining 260 Manuel Hueso Vasallo ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 241–268 E-ISSN 2531-1654 such a relationship: “It’s never been someone in particular, for me. I mean to say—at university, there were a few fellows. But all my encounters were, ah. Well. It was understood that there were limits” (Marske 150). As the plot unfolds, he begins to consider how to define his own relationship in terms that are not conditioned by fear: Should Robin simply ask if what had happened between them could happen again, or if it could even be the start of . . . what? Robin’s mind was trying to fit itself around an unfamiliar shape, an implausible future . . . All he knew was that he didn’t want to let this slide beneath the surface of their tentative friendship as though it had never happened. (Marske 212, my emphasis) Finally, in an echo of Sarah Waters, Robin decides that what they share is a powerful “affinity” that can be the basis for building a strong relationship together (Marske 232). The unfamiliar shape of their affinity and the ways in which it could translate into a real-life project together becomes, thus, the main focus of the novel, and the concerns surrounding Wilde consequently disappear. Furthermore, the novel’s ending can be read as an echo of how the haunting of the legal world is definitively exorcised from the narrative. Ultimately, the protagonists are being blackmailed by Edwin’s manipulative older brother. While they are being blackmailed over a coveted magical artefact as opposed to their sexuality, the act can be easily correlated with the blackmailing craze that the Labouchère Amendment generated in the decade following the trials (Bristow 17–20). Robin and Edwin come together, however, to defy their blackmailer and succeed, as they both are motivated by the possibilities of “[f]reedom. Safety. And a chance [to be together]” (Marske 348). In this sense, and as indicated before, the novel manages to establish a dialogue between the Victorian reality of fear of queer relationships among men while also delving into a revision of the period by exploring the many ways in which potential homosexual relationships between men in this era struggled with a lack of vocabulary and the challenge of establishing their own norms and priorities without any previous patterns. In terms of Abraham and Torok’s theory of haunting through the crypt, this entails a process of “introjection,” an exorcism of intergenerational trauma that takes place when the haunted subject expands their potential “to open onto [their] own emerging desires and feelings as well as the external world” (Raid 100). Oscar Wilde’s Trials as a Haunting Presence . . . 261 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 241–268 E-ISSN 2531-1654 Marske’s novel perfectly illustrates Nathan Fredrickson’s idea that fantasy “allows one to approach the perspective of the other both in safety and yet with vulnerability” (58). While Marske does not shy away from portraying the difficulties of maintaining same-sex relationships in the aftermath of Wilde’s trials (as seen in Marske 151), her novel ultimately exorcises these fears by creating a magical community that not only accepts queerness but whose magic protects her protagonists from the realities of the Labouchère Amendment. Robin’s fears, thus, become more focused on the investigation and the naming and discovery of new affective and sexual categories, than on the phantasmagorical presence of the law and its consequences. In this sense, fantasy allows the narrative to form new patterns for exploring sexuality and even for the appearance of hope as the offer of a potential future in which being together is possible for the characters. This, of course, has the potential to assuage contemporary concerns related to queerness by anchoring them in a history that offers a positive representation of queer communities. In consonance with Sarah Waters’s novels, thus, the text becomes a liberating negotiation of same-sex affection that replicates the political and cultural interest in exploration and re-evaluation typical of the neo-Victorian genre. By embracing other cultural concerns beyond the stereotypical fears of discovery and the law, these texts manage to re-signify the spectral traces of Wilde’s trials, and what could previously be conceived as a haunting presence that generates fear and anxiety becomes, instead, a connection between Victorian and neo-Victorian literatures with which authors can establish a far more complex dialogue. Furthermore, and if we accept Lin Petterson’s claim that “neo-Victorianism considers not only how we relate to the Victorians, but also how the Victorian retroactively establishes a relationship with us” (12), we can state that these novels successfully manage to connect contemporary concerns and the past in a way that is open to new interpretations away from the haunting presence of Wilde’s trials. Despite featuring different periods in the nineteenth century and different types of magical elements, these two novels use fantasy as a means to deal with the phantasmagorical, haunting presence of Wilde’s trials and the surrounding context of fear and paranoia produced by the Labouchère Amendment of 1885. They both share, however, one important feature: a “self-conscious . . . revisionary capacity” that challenges “collective cultural experiences” (such as the potential haunting of Wilde’s trials) and confronts contemporary readers with them 262 Manuel Hueso Vasallo ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 241–268 E-ISSN 2531-1654 (Heilmann and Llewellyn 245). These novels, thus, fit in the “political” criterion assigned to neo-Victorianism by Cora Kaplan, in as much as they seem to conform to neo-Victorianism’s interest in “elective nonheteronormative families [and in the contemporary] climate of growing public debate about the appropriate treatment of same-sex relationships by the law” (Kohlke and Gutleben 15). Notably, as these two texts illustrate, the neo-Victorian agenda and contemporary fantasy have more in common than may appear at first glance: [C]ontemporary fantasy authors have been some of the most adventurous and experimental in pushing the boundaries of categories like gender, sexuality, and even the bounds of human nature, again giving a voice to the silenced and representations of empowerment to the oppressed. (Fredrickson 58) Writing about new relational patterns, social class, and racial status in novels that were frequently known for their exoticisation and eroticisation of its characters—that is, previous examples of neo-Victorian take on same-sex romance between men—through fantasy constitutes, thus, an important development within the field of neo-Victorian studies that should be carefully considered. CONCLUSIONS It is difficult to draw conclusions about a phenomenon that is not only still being currently developed, but whose continuity is also by no means ensured. If neo-Victorianism is characterised by something, it is by its mutability and its ability to adapt, interrogate, and present itself in new forms and styles. Despite this, the two novels briefly explored in this paper suggest that the combination of neo-Victorian depictions of same-sex desire between men and fantasy could lead to a productive and liberating path in which fear, anguish, and anxiety about legal consequences are downplayed in favour of exploring the different interstices of queer identities in the Victorian era and their relationship with contemporary culture. Considering Dana Shiller’s claim that “the past comes to us in textualized forms, what we are left with is a proliferation of possible ‘truths,’ some more persuasive than others” (556), we could argue that the combination of fantasy and neo-Victorian narratives of same-sex desire Oscar Wilde’s Trials as a Haunting Presence . . . 263 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 241–268 E-ISSN 2531-1654 between men textualise a persuasive truth about the many cultural and contemporary aspects entwined in this desire while simultaneously grounding them in history. Thus, the novels presented here deal with rather different issues: race, power, the social imbalance between lovers, and the need to imagine a space that allows for the socially forbidden. However, they have something in common, because their use of fantasy as an enabler to deal with these issues creates a sharp separation between them and other examples of the neo-Victorian genre. In achieving this separation from previous popular eroticised and white narratives of same-sex desire between men, these novels fit in Koegler and Tronicke’s ideas of how the treatment of queerness in neo-Victorian fiction can lead to a “writing-back to heteronormative historiography” (1). Furthermore, these novels also fit within the “visionary politics of resurrecting forgotten queer lives for the sake of the living” (Koegler and Tronicke 6). Even if fantasy may seem like a deterrent to exploring reality in depth, its usage in these texts shows that fantasy may be politically useful as it permits contemporary members of the LGBTQIA+ community to see their struggles reflected in the past; and this may help them realise the many issues that still constitute a point of struggle within the community beyond legal questions. 8 What this fantasisation of neo-Victorian portrayals of love and desire between men entails, thus, is a repositioning of Wilde’s trials as a haunting presence in queer literature and culture. The phantom, the inextricable and personal realisation that one’s sexuality may be dangerous or something to fear, was instilled in several generations of queer men by Wilde’s conviction and the Labouchère Amendment. In these novels, that phantom is exorcised through fantasy, in as much as it appears not as an overbearing and all-encompassing presence dictating the narrative, but rather as a contextual framework which the characters can subvert or ignore. Ultimately, returning to Arias and Pulham’s ideas about haunting and spectrality in neo-Victorian fiction, Wilde’s “ghost” will always be an important part of the relationship between Victorianism and neo- Victorianism (xix), but these texts demonstrate that there is not a unique way of dealing with ghosts. Much fear and anguish can be extracted from Wilde’s experience, and these feelings might continue to appear in neo- Victorian narrations of same-sex love; however, Wilde, with his immense 8 Complementarily, there are already some studies that address how science fiction has been used to explore contemporary concerns. For more on this, the reader is advised to consult the works of Ursula K. Le Guin or John Rieder. 264 Manuel Hueso Vasallo ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 241–268 E-ISSN 2531-1654 imagination and aesthetic creativity, might have welcomed fantasy—as he in fact did in many of his stories and texts—as a liberating factor that can shed new light on how we think about Victorianism and queerness. My approach has focused on the importance of reconsidering the role that fantasy can play in contemporary neo-Victorian fiction which portrays same-sex desire between men. The novels I address here have been written by women, an interesting fact that demands careful research in and of itself. The way in which Wilde’s trials are still felt in other cultural products may also be of interest to scholars invested in neo-Victorianism, as its spectre is an intermittent presence in contemporary media. Notably, the relationship between contemporary homoerotic fantasy and the Gothic (as an element mostly associated with Otherness in Victorian fiction) is also undoubtedly at play in some of the thoughts I have developed here. In the future, however, there may be other novels that follow this pattern, which effectively mixes queerness and fantasy in neo-Victorian texts, but there may also be those that do so without the same effect, for different reasons, or without actually engaging in a revision or reassessment of the Victorian era. Be that as it may, I would like to conclude this paper by pointing out that these novels are worthy of studying since they allow us to better understand how an event that took place more than a hundred and twenty years ago can still influence our way of representing queerness in literature. REFERENCES Abraham, Nicolas, and Maria Torok. The Shell and the Kernel: Renewal of Psychoanalysis, Volumn 1. Chicago UP, 1994. Arias, Rosario, and Patricia Pulham. Introduction. Haunting and Spectrality in Neo-Victorian Fiction: Possessing the Past, edited by Rosario Arias and Patricia Pulham, Palgrave Macmillan, 2009, pp. xi– xxv. Bristow, Joseph. Oscar Wilde on Trial: The Criminal Proceedings from Arrest to Imprisonment. Yale UP, 2022. Byatt, A.S. Possession: A Romance. Chatto & Windus, 1990. Oscar Wilde’s Trials as a Haunting Presence . . . 265 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 241–268 E-ISSN 2531-1654 Caillois, Roger. “The Natural Fantastic.” The Edge of Surrealism: A Roger Caillois Reader, edited by in Laudine Frank, Duke UP, 2003, pp. 348– 58. Castle, Terry. The Apparitional Lesbian: Female Homosexuality and Modern Culture. Columbia UP, 1993. Chitty, Christopher. Sexual Hegemony: Statecraft, Sodomy, and Capital in the Rise of the World System. Duke UP, 2020. Collins, Sara. The Confessions of Frannie Langton. Perennial, 2020. Donoghue, Emma. Frog Music. Little, Brown & Company, 2014. Duvezin-Caubet, Caroline. “Gaily Ever After: Neo-Victorian M/M Genre Romance for the Twenty-First Century.” Neo-Victorian Studies, vol. 13, no. 1, 2020, pp. 242–69. Edwards, Louis. Oscar Wilde Discovers America. Scribner, 2012. Fabrizi, Mark A. Introduction: Challenging Fantasy Literature. Fantasy Literature: Challenging Genres, edited by Mark A. Fabrizi, Sense Publishers, 2016, pp. 1–11. Fize, William. “The Homosexual Exception? The Case of the Labouchère Amendment.” Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens, vol. 91, 2020, pp. 1–13, doi: 10.4000/cve.7597. Fone, Byrne. The Columbia Anthology of Gay Literature. Columbia UP, 1998. Fredrickson, Nathan. “Designing a Course Integrating Critical Pedagogy, Fantasy, Literature, and Religious Studies.” Fantasy Literature, edited by Mark A. Fabrizi, Sense Publishers, 2016, pp. 57–76. Golovacheva, Irina. “Is the Fantastic Really Fantastic?: Genre, Ideology, and Popular Culture.” Exploring the Fantastic: Genre, Ideology and Popular Culture, edited by Ina Batzke, et al., Columbia UP, 2018, pp. 61–90, doi: 10.14361/9783839440278-004. 272 Manuel Macías Borrego ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 269–295 ISSN 2531-1654 10). This approach seems to validate one of the premises of this study: to fully understand the progression of a learner, little or no information is provided by the correctness of the language productions. The following scheme (adapted from Huang) represents and systematises the role of errors and error treatment in the language learning process: Try → Error → Effective Feedback (Error Treatment)→ Desired goal Try → Error → No feedback → Given up → Failure 1.1 Error Corrective Treatment Introduced by Craig Chaudron in 1977 through the publication of “A Descriptive Model of Discourse in the Corrective Treatment of Learner’s Errors” and widely systematised and accepted. This approach to errors committed during the learning process identifies four different possibilities/methods to treat the learners’ errors: − Treatment that can create autonomous ability and self-correction. − Treatment that elicits the correct response. − Any teacher comment or request that leads to improvement. − Approval or disapproval treatment (positive or negative reinforcement). The theoretical approach to Error Treatment can be thus linked to the DM System mentioned above. DM is characterised by the face-to-face treatment of inadequate outputs to treat it and eliminate it by offering alternatives or corrections in a limited time after the output or product of the exercise of language has been produced (Butler et al; Kulik and Kulik; Metcalfe et al.). 1.2 Interlanguage and Language Learning Implications Language comparison is of great interest from both theoretical and applied perspectives: “It reveals what is general and what is language specific, and it is therefore important both for the understanding of language in general and for the study of the individual languages compared” (Johansson and Hofland 25). Error Corrective Treatment in Spanish L1 ESL Learners . . . 273 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 269–295 E-ISSN 2531-1654 One of the many interesting results of the discipline, in this analytical Contrastive Linguistics perspective, is what has been defined as the Interlanguage Approach (Selinker, “Interlanguage”; Mahmood and Murad; Rajendran and Yunus). Traditionally, Contrastive Linguistics focused on the influence of the first language, on the emergence of the second language, and on the differences and similarities between the first and second languages. As suggested by Brown, Interlanguage is “a creative process of constructing a system in which the learner is consciously testing hypotheses about the target language from a number of possible sources of knowledge” (162). However, although we currently understand Interlanguage as defined by Brown, it is essential to mention that Interlanguage, as a Linguistic hypothesis, was introduced by Selinker in 1969 (“Language Transfer”) as “the interim grammars constructed by second language learners on their way to the target language” (McLaughlin 60). Nevertheless, this concept is technically connected to the one suggested by William Nemser: “Learner speech at a given time is the patterned product of a linguistic system distinct from Native Language and Target Language and internally structured” (116). McLaughlin presented a structured vision of Interlanguage and the ways in which it can affect the reality of L2 studies. In this vision, Interlanguage is (i) the system at a single point in time and (ii) the range of interlocking systems that characterise the development of learners over time. Hence, McLaughlin suggests that interlanguage is a system between knowing and not knowing the target language. In McLaughlin, we can also find the five central cognitive processes of the construction of second language learning and interlanguage: (i) language transfer (transferences from the first language), (ii) transfer of training, (iii) strategies of second language learning (approaches to material taught), (iv) strategies of second language communication, and (v) overgeneralization of the second language material. However, Powell proposes a second vision of Interlanguage in detail when he argues that much of what had been proposed by other theorists is true. Powell follows the views of William Nemser, who believed that interlanguage was an autonomous system with “elements which do not have their origin in either linguistic system [i.e., nor first nor second language]” (Powell 18). As a result, the Interlanguage is an “approximative system of approximation and emerging of the target language” (Nemser 119). 274 Manuel Macías Borrego ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 269–295 ISSN 2531-1654 The different Interlanguage theories and debates have had interesting and remarkable results, some of which are essential features and concepts to understand the process of language learning today. According to Selinker (Rediscovering Interlanguage), “the core phenomena that constitutes what we understand today as Interlanguage is the study of transfer (opposed to interference), borrowings (opposed to mistakes), code-switching (opposed to full competence) and fossilisation (opposed to succeeding in treating the wrong output)” (88). All these key concepts can be easily linked to language teaching and learning and Error Analysis, as well as to Error Treatment, as those concepts are closely related to the development of competencies which lead to an expansion of learners’ ability to produce more adequate outputs in their L2. The different visions on interlanguage share a common core idea: interlanguage is an independent language system, lying somewhere between first and second language. An especially important feature of interlanguage is that, due to its descriptive nature, it tries to explain and understand the reasons behind the imperfect language production of a second language learner in reference to the language/s available to the learner. Hence, Interlanguage can be linked with Error Analysis and Language Teaching and Learning. 1.3 Error Analysis as Opposed to Contrastive Analysis Introduced by Craig Chaudron in 1977 through the publishing of “A Descriptive Model of Discourse in the Corrective Treatment of Learner’s Errors” and widely systematised and accepted since then, this approach to errors committed during the learning process identifies four different possibilities to treat the learners’ errors: The following chart (following Corder and Dulay et al.) presents a systematic overview of the two different approaches to Error Treatment and their focuses on different key features: Error Corrective Treatment in Spanish L1 ESL Learners . . . 275 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 269–295 E-ISSN 2531-1654 Table 1. The main differences between Contrastive and Error analysis Contrastive Analysis Error Analysis Understood as a comparison of systems of different languages and predicts the areas of difficulty. Starts with errors in the second language learning and studies them in detail and looks for sources of significance. It looks for differences in the whole language system of two languages. Provides data of actual problems emphasising in pedagogical problems. Confronts complex theoretical problems. It confronts realistic problems in SLA. Provides real data of the learning process of the target language: -is it similar to learning L1 and L2? -is the process similar in children and adults? Focused on language structure and system: the speaker/learner is passive. The learner is an active participant. Interlingual importance. Interlingual and intralingual importance. 1.4 Morpho-Syntactic and Grammar Errors This paper is primarily concerned with morpho-syntactic and grammar errors. These errors, as indicated by Vosse and Kempen, result from the misapplication of morphological inflection and syntactic and grammatical rules. These errors occur quite frequently in ESL learners’ outputs and are considered serious because they are commonly seen as a result of insufficient language competence rather than accidental mistakes (such as typographical lapsus). Therefore, these errors constitute a broad and interesting area in English language teaching (ELT). This paper mainly deals with two types of morpho-syntactic errors: (i) grammar structural errors and (ii) morpho-syntactic errors because, as pointed out by Purinanda in 2022, these are the most recurrent errors in ESL written productions, and it seems that these errors do effectively 276 Manuel Macías Borrego ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 269–295 ISSN 2531-1654 hinder the progression of learners within bands and levels of the CEFR (in relative terms, from B1.2 to B1.3 and, in absolute terms, from B1 to B2). On the one hand, morpho-syntax, the combination of morphology and syntax, is the study of the forms and rules that govern the formation of words and sentences in any language (Wilmet). Hence, morpho-syntax focuses on all structures that enable language users to build grammatically correct statements in any language. Thus, it seems unquestionable that morpho-syntax plays a significant role in the formation of words, inflections of regular and irregular forms of nouns, verbs, and adjectives, as well as the arrangement of language patterns, such as those that happen around the nouns, verbs, adjectives, determiners, adverbs, and other discourse and speech elements (Weir 40). On the other hand, grammatical errors occur in the writing of many non-native language learners (Abdulkareem) and rarely in native speakers’ language production. Traditionally, this situation has been attributed to interferences of the L1 rules and structures, negative transference, in the production of the L2 outputs (Kumar). According to Ferris and Roberts and Clark, some of the most common errors among ESL learners include errors that could be allocated within the category of morpho-syntactic errors: (i) noun ending errors, (ii) subject-verb agreement errors, (iii) incorrect use of determiners, (iv) incorrect use of verb tenses, (v) lexical errors in word choice or word form, (vi) word order, and (vii) unidiomatic sentence construction. 2. OBJECTIVES This paper aims primarily to develop a systematic method or analytical instrument, derived from the analysis and discussion of errors identified within the constructed corpus, for addressing morpho-syntactic and grammatical errors and conducting error analysis. This method seeks to bridge the gap between essential theoretical frameworks and practical applications in ESL classrooms. We posit that a deeper comprehension of errors can facilitate their resolution. Therefore, conducting face-to-face sessions to analyze and discuss errors, as previously suggested, can not only enhance the learning and teaching processes but also provide insights into the effectiveness and relevance of existing syllabi. Furthermore, the paper seeks to explore the implications of Error Analysis and Corpus Studies within the context of ESL classrooms. To achieve this goal, the proposed methodology is grounded in the theoretical Error Corrective Treatment in Spanish L1 ESL Learners . . . 277 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 269–295 E-ISSN 2531-1654 review conducted in the preceding chapters of this study. By establishing its theoretical underpinnings, this methodology possesses inherent transferability, thereby enabling its replication, validation, and critique by other scholarly inquiries and teaching experiences (Richards and Renandya; Saito et al.; Sani and Ismail). 3. METHODOLOGY Selecting the most appropriate approach for addressing grammatical errors in the written productions of ESL learners is a decision of considerable significance. Previous research studies (Díaz de Ilaraza et al.; Presada and Badea; Yilmaz and Delmir) have employed similar methodologies, such as questioning the nature of the error and attempting to elucidate it, to detect grammatical errors and prevent fossilization using context-free grammar (CFG) approaches. In this investigation, we build upon prior insights by incorporating contextual factors (intragroup dynamics and CEFR assessments) into the analysis of grammatical and morpho-syntactic errors, guided by the findings reported by Little and Mariappan et al. in their empirical investigations of error analysis. The main objective of this paper is to propose and apply to an empirical study a systematic methodology (understood as a collection of methods as suggested by Patel and Patel) based on a particular instrument, or method (Viergever), to accomplish the task of error correction and feedback. This procedure is based on Error Analysis and Error Treatment and could be transferable to other similar studies, as well as to the reality of everyday teaching in the classroom of ESL. The methodology will be implemented on a sample comprising 100 written compositions, equally divided between 50 samples from level B1 and 50 samples from level B2. Consequently, this initiative holds the potential to significantly enhance the writing proficiency of ESL learners through an improved feedback mechanism. This method, referred to as ADF, entails a structured approach involving face-to-face interactions between the teacher and student for Error Analysis (A), Discussion (D) of the error’s nature, and providing Feedback (F) to the learner. This analytical framework has been meticulously devised through a five-step process designed to comprehensively address the implications of the errors encountered. ‒ Step 1: Identifying the error in its context to create a corpus of samples. The creation of a corpus of written samples helps create 278 Manuel Macías Borrego ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 269–295 ISSN 2531-1654 taxonomies of samples that serve the process of analysis; in this case, it helps centre the notion of average and medium. The objective is to extract materials that could be applicable and transferrable to other cases and in these cases selecting the best and worst seldom offer valuable information (Ellis). ‒ Step 2: Identifying errors within the corpus created. For each error, analyse what was the learner’s intention and how it can be reconstructed into a correct English written output. Not only offering a correction but a set of delayed possibilities that can help learners understand their errors (DM as proposed by Facullo) because there is usually more than one possibility of reconstructing an error and the negative evidence presented to the student should depend on the intended message. ‒ Step 3: Explaining the error according to some basic principles: select recurrent and non-recurrent grammar and morpho-syntactic errors and provide possible causes of those errors: (i) native language transfers, (ii) developmental intralingual errors (not concerned with the first language), (iii) borrowings, (iv) overgeneralization, (v) ignorance of rule restriction - occurring as a result of failure to observe the restrictions or existing structures, (vi) incomplete application of rules - arising when learners fail to fully develop a certain structure required to produce acceptable sentences, (vii) false concepts hypothesised deriving from faulty comprehension of distinctions in the target language and/or (viii) error fossilization (intragroup and personal development fossilization). ‒ Step 4: Levelling within the CEFR. It is important to provide an approximate idea of the ideal performance of each level according to the CEFR. This enhances the feedback process, as it sets the derided objective, and, also, improves the self-assessment process of the learners’ and the degree of consciousness of their own development as suggested by Hawkins and Filipović. ‒ Step 5: Effective feedback given to the learners (in a face-to-face private session). The feedback given to the learners must be error-specific and pay special attention to the nature of the error to provide viable solutions to avoid repeating the error in future written productions. 4. RESULTS AND ANALYSIS For the study presented here, we have analysed 100 written output samples by ESL Spanish students of the CEFR levels B1 and B2 (50 of each studied level). These written outputs have been analysed following the explained Error Corrective Treatment in Spanish L1 ESL Learners . . . 279 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 269–295 E-ISSN 2531-1654 original method (ADF) suggested before and inspired by a combination of Corpus Studies methodology and face-to-face teacher-student interaction. 4.1 Errors in the B1 Level Fig. 1. Error in the B1-subcollection of texts 4.1.1 B1 inside the CEFR This level is the first of the two levels that are named with the letter B in the CEFR. A learner in the B levels is an independent user of the language. In the case of the B1, the CEFR states that when reaching this learning point, a learner: ‒ Can understand the main points of clear standard input. ‒ Can deal with most situations. ‒ Can produce simple connected texts. ‒ Can describe first-hand experiences and events. 4.1.2 B1 Common Errors—Analysis, Discussion & Feedback 62% 22% 16% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% Negative Transfer Overgeneralisations Misconceptions Error Distribution in CERFL B1 Error Distribution in CERFL B1 280 Manuel Macías Borrego ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 269–295 ISSN 2531-1654 Detailed analysis of this this (sub) collection of samples demonstrates that even when learners can make themselves understood, these learners seem to encounter several problems when they try to produce complex structures as they tend to replicate the rules and linguistic patterns of their L1 in their L2 written outputs. Thus, at this stage of their learning process, the most frequent natures and sources of errors are negative transfer, overgeneralization, and ignorance of restrictive rules. This frequency in their production, makes errors attributed to these natures to be strongly visible in this stage of learning. By analysing fragments of the samples collected of written outputs with the suggested method (ADF), it is visible that the written outputs produced by these learners cannot be easily recognised as fully Englishwritten valid material as the number of errors that can be found in these texts distance these samples from valid English-written examples. The following extracts have been selected for deeper analysis as they constitute the core of the most recurrent errors found. Error 1. “How I am visiting Poland I stayed in one hotel in Warsaw. I am going to stay . . .” ADF: As may be observed, there are many deviations from the rules in this extract; learner seems to be confused with the use of verbal tenses (grammar errors) and, as a result, in the analysed extract there is no sense of time or tense sequencing. It seems quite clear that learner intended to produce sentences using the future tense. However, we do find present, past, and future tenses used without a clear distinction. It is also evident that the placement of how at the beginning of the sentence represents an example of negative transfer as it may respond to an exercise of translation from their first language and the use of the adverb como in Spanish: Como voy a . . . By analysing this short piece, it can also be understood that this learner seems to have a problem with the uses of the numeral one, which represents an example of overgeneralization of the rule and use, and at the same time, a failure in the application of a restrictive rule: one vs. a. Error 2. “I heard about the Carlos’ accident. I don’t believe it.” ADF: In this extract can be seen that the learner’s difficulties happen as a result of negative transfer and word order. A detailed analysis of this short piece reveals that in “the Carlos’s accident” we do see an example of Error Corrective Treatment in Spanish L1 ESL Learners . . . 281 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 269–295 E-ISSN 2531-1654 negative language transfer because both the use of the definite article and the choice of word order reflect the grammar rules of the learner’s L1. If we examine this short piece in further detail we understand that, on the one hand, the use of the definite article the in “the Carlos’s accident” seem to be an example of negative transfer as the sentence seems to be an exact transposition of the students L1 grammar rules regarding the use of the definite article, these rules transferred from the learner’s L1 do not apply in the target language (English). On the other hand, word order also seems to be a direct transposition of the leaner’s L1 rules, as it reflects the typically expected order in a Spanish sentence of this kind, but not the correct word order in English (El accidente de Carlos as opposed to Carlos’s accident). Error 3. “Each country has own problems one of the most damage problems is the transport. They are a lot of cars on the world and they are more . . .” ADF: A detailed analysis of this short extract reveals that this learner’s written output seems to be affected by negative transfer and overgeneralisation of grammar rules. Regarding the overgeneralisation problems, this learner is using they instead of there to create an existential meaning as the pronoun they seems to have been placed in substitution of there. This error cannot be attributed to L1 transfer as there is no similar rule in the learner’s L1; hence, according to Chaudron, it could only be regarded as a developmental intralingual grammar error and an overgeneralization of a known grammar rule; in this case the rule would be that all English sentences need a subject. This extract has been problematic during the analysis because it could be a simple mistake, the learner may know the rule and failed to apply it to this sentence for reasons that may have nothing to do with the learning process. However, what really constitutes an error, and, as a result is part of their learning process, is the problematic syntactic construction “each country has own problems one of the most damage problems is the transport”; closer analysis of this sentence reveals another example of negative transfer: the English word own (to own) is commonly translated into Spanish as a possessive meaning word; by considering this, we can see that this learner has not used the correct possessive in the produced 288 Manuel Macías Borrego ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 269–295 ISSN 2531-1654 Table 3. Supporting examples of B2 errors Nature Examples Negative transfer. Errors that we can apply to the interferences with the first language. - I’m glad to write you. - Playing with video games. - Sore throats are frequently between adults and children. - The problem is that how I told you . . . - I only have one week. - Taking a cup of coffee. - Send me them. - Be friend of. - Felt in love. Close to Spanish feel in love than fall in love. - To have the reason. - Iguality. Overgeneralization or ignorance of a rule of restriction. - Send me them à fails to apply the infinitive construction rule. - Turn over the page à fails to produce a proper word order in the sentence, does not break the verb and preposition. Does not apply a restrictive rule of both verbs and word order. - Uses of the, do not restrict its uses. - Have for everything someone possesses or takes. False concepts hypothesized. Misconceptions. - Put as show. - Show as display. - Reserve as booking. - Follow as keep, carry, continue . . . any verb expressing continuity. - Stay as go or be. - To have the reason. CONCLUSIONS This study presents two key conclusions based on its findings. Firstly, it underscores that errors at the B1 and B2 proficiency levels are prevalent at both morphological and syntactical levels. Morphological errors Error Corrective Treatment in Spanish L1 ESL Learners . . . 289 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 269–295 E-ISSN 2531-1654 encompass inaccuracies in inflections, prepositions, articles, determiners, and other fundamental components of sentences. Conversely, syntactical errors predominantly involve misuses of the passive voice, tense, and most notably, subject-verb agreement. Secondly, this analysis highlights that errors can often be attributed to negative language transfer or the adverse influence of learners’ native language (L1) on their second language (L2) outputs. Consequently, errors serve as significant indicators of the learning process, not only for educators but also for further research in the field of SLA and ESL pedagogy. The critical examination of errors has broadened the scope of linguistic analysis in ESL, overcoming the limitations and challenges of contrastive analysis (Gass and Selinker). From this perspective errors provide valuable insights into students’ development of their L2 language system, reflecting both successful progress and areas requiring further attention. Recognizing errors as an integral aspect of the classroom environment (Rod), educators must remain adaptable, responding to the implicit cues offered by students’ errors in refining syllabi and instructional approaches (Brown; Keh; Rajendran and Yunus). However, it is essential that language specialists do not forget that over-emphasising errors may lead to learner frustration. Therefore, teachers and educators need to be able to design lesson plans that allow them to elicit the errors in a supportive and positive way that leads to error elimination. In this sense, a prolonged and systematic analysis throughout the course and an attentive revision of errors in the classroom would be necessary. Furthermore, it seems that it could be beneficial if the teacher maintained a record of errors committed by learner, which coupled with supplementary or correctional material can aid in addressing errors constructively and fostering student progress. Viewed in this light, Error Analysis serves not only as a diagnostic tool but also as a means for evaluating the efficacy of instructional activities. By adopting a flexible and adaptive strategy informed by theoretical insights, educators can facilitate a collaborative learning environment where both teachers and learners actively engage in the process of error identification and correction (Mariappan et al.; Nayernia et al.; Rajendran and Yunus). As we have seen in the analysis presented, there are various sources of errors when learning a second language. However, it seems clear that the main reason and most significant nature is L1 interference. Some 290 Manuel Macías Borrego ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 269–295 ISSN 2531-1654 researchers (Ellis; Gass and Selinker), following the idea that what learners develop is never the target language but an in-between language with its own rules and ways of working, believe that errors are unavoidable in the process undergone to learn a second language, Hence, we could argue that learners are bound to a different social and cultural reality when practising and learning the L2. Therefore, it seems imperative that teachers and educators show themselves flexible towards error correction as it has been demonstrated that being too rigid regarding errors in the classroom could be prejudicial to the learning process. Learners have diverse expectations and preferences, and teachers need to be vigilant to assess how effective their teaching is. Nevertheless, determining the appropriate timing and method for error correction poses a significant challenge. 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SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 269–295 E-ISSN 2531-1654 Vosse, Theo, and Gerard Kempen. “A Hybrid Model of Human Sentence Processing: Parsing Right-Branching, Center-Embedded and Cross- Serial Dependencies.” Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Parsing Technologies, 1991, pp. 73–78, aclanthology.org/1991.iwpt-1.9/. Weir, Cyril J. Language Testing and Validation: An Evidence-Based Approach. Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. Wilmet, Marc. Grammaire Critique Du Français. 3rd ed., Duculot, 2003. Yilmaz, H. Merve Altiparmak, and Necati Demir. “Error Analysis: Approaches to Written Texts of Turks Living in the Sydney.” International Education Studies, vol.13, no.2, 2020, pp. 104–114, doi:10.5539/ies.v13n2p104. ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 296–300 E-ISSN 2531-1654 David West Brown and Danielle Zawodny Wetzel, editors. Corpora and Rhetorically Informed Text Analysis. John Benjamins, 2023. Pp. 292. Hardbound 99.00€, ebook 99.00 €. ISBN: 9789027213815 (Hardbound). Open access review under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0). DOI: https://doi.org/10.24197/ersjes.45.2024.296-300 Exploring the field of computational rhetoric, or as the authors describe it, rhetorically oriented corpus analysis, this book delves into how computational techniques can be used to study and generate rhetorical strategies and persuasive texts. The authors explain various applications of a tool called DocuScope, which is freely available as an online application, and also available to download and use in Python scripts via a dedicated library. It provides powerful text analysis capabilities, making it an invaluable resource for researchers and students. Importantly, DocuScope is free to use for noncommercial purposes, providing an accessible entry point for those wishing to explore computational rhetoric and rhetorically-oriented corpus analysis. The book is not a manual or tutorial on how to use the tool, but rather explains different areas of research where such a tool can be useful and how it can be used to obtain relevant data for the discipline. The fact that DocuScope is freely available for research and that the book covers several areas makes it of interest to a wide audience. This is an edited book that includes contributions from scholars from rhetoric, writing studies, education, data science, political science, and literary and cultural studies. Thus, the book is divided into six parts with two contributions in each part. The first part of the book, “DocuScope and Computational Rhetoric,” offers, on the one hand, a history of the project including interesting concepts and theories of rhetoric, and on the other hand an introduction to the book itself. Authors here point out the goal of this volume: “both to reflect past applications of DocuScope in a range of historical, literary, educational, professional, and political contexts, as well as to provide space for new and experimental applications” (25). In Part 2 of the book titled “Variation across Academic Disciplines and Contexts,” the chapters explore genre similarities and differences, By Antoni Oliver González 297 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 296–300 E-ISSN 2531-1654 providing valuable insights for scholars seeking methods to describe rhetorical tasks effectively. In the first chapter, “DocuScope, Multi- Dimensional Analysis, and Student Writing,” DeJeu and Brown compare undergraduate and graduate student writing, highlighting the stability of academic discourse across different contexts. In doing this, authors compare tagging systems and patterns of disciplinary variation. In the author’s words, this chapter serves as a methodological case study showing how placements along dimensions can be illustrated using parallel stick plots and how the constituents of dimensions can be compared using radar plots. This chapter also highlights the distinctions between linguistically oriented taggers, which describe syntactic, morphosyntactic, and lexical structures, and rhetorically oriented taggers, capable of analyzing the topical, organizational, and affective features of texts. Beigman’s work, “Narrative Writing from Users in the Wild,” focuses on tools that measure the distance between narrative and argument, emphasizing similarities that inform effective feedback for revision. The primary objective of the chapter is to evaluate the feasibility of incorporating automated feedback features into a writing support tool using genre analysis. Both chapters contribute to our understanding of academic writing by examining genre variations and emphasizing the importance of critical linguistic awareness in the writing process. Part 3, “Writing Pedagogy, Access and Equity” discusses writing pedagogy, justice, and genre norms. It highlights how genre boundaries are exploited by expert members of discourse communities for private intentions within socially recognized purposes. Laura Aull, in her chapter “Language Patterns in Secondary and Postsecondary Student Writing”, illustrates significant rhetorical differences between secondary and postsecondary writing, which are tied to the varying assignment tasks at each level. She also illustrates how DocuScope language clusters can be utilized to enhance students’ metacognitive awareness of writing practices across these educational stages. Additionally, Aull asserts that generalized claims like “students can’t write” (94). perpetuate a language regulation paradigm centered around error, rather than fostering a language exploration paradigm that emphasizes knowledge and analysis. Oliveri et al. chapter “Understanding Social Justice Features in Statistics Writing” is a case study of DocuScope in undergraduate writing, paying a special attention to language use from the perspective of social justice. Although the limitations of the case study, the results demonstrate the usefulness of ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 304–309 E-ISSN 2531-1654 Zenón Luis-Martínez, editor. Poetic Theory and Practice in Early Modern Verse: Unwritten Arts. Edinburgh UP, 2023. Pp. 352. Hardback £95.00, ebook £0.00 ISBN: 9781399507844. Open access review under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0). DOI: https://doi.org/10.24197/ersjes.45.2024.304-309 This excellent collection of eleven original essays on the interconnections of early modern theory and practice evolved from presentations at the University of Huelva’s 2019 international symposium “Unwritten Arts: Keywords in English Sixteenth-Century Poetry and Poetics.” Its contributors, editor Zenón Luis-Martínez states, “shared an assumption that the creative impulse that animates Renaissance writing of and about poetry grew out of Renaissance poetics but also outgrew the scope of what came to be systematised in the form of norms and precepts” (1). Rosalie L. Colie’s phrase in the subtitle suggests that it’s the makers’ take they endeavour to unpick while “explor[ing] ways in which texts of various kinds emerge as unwritten arts complementing and/or contesting the period’s formally written poetics” (2). The focus may well be on the implicit but it is not to the detriment of the normative. This distinction is relevant as, besides an official-canon-building poetics, the term “normative” may also denote the fundamental problems individual writers face and must ultimately resolve to produce a text, that is, the kind of “active thinking about matter, forms, and functions of poetry as that thinking is generated in practical writing” (2). This is not negligible when considering vernacular literature against the humanist curriculum and classroom strategy, namely the prevalence of imitation, whether as interpretation, translation, or invention—ultimately, the selection and reworking of given models as resources of style and subject-matter. Examining how these models, which chiefly emerged from classical discourses, were essayed and assumed, also means assessing the vitality of poetry in one’s own tongue and, in turn, its potential to generate new models that are appropriate for the concerns of a common quotidian experience and memory—lenses to perceive (and act upon) the world. The classification of poetry among the arts, made it both permeable to and a vehicle for other disciplines’ discourses and aims. Stemming from traditional teachings on oratory, as in Quintilian and Cicero, infused with Horatian instructive and sweet decorum, and adopted to serve Christian By Cecilia Rodrigues 305 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 304–309 E-ISSN 2531-1654 tenets, the triad that came to define the period’s ways of poetry—to delight, to teach, to move—was on a par with “the culture of teaching that was English humanism [and had] moved poetry and pedagogy to new prominence in intellectual life and pressed them closer together than ever before” (Dolven 2). Conversely, the stress on the importance of poetry’s effects upon the reader occasioned changes in the figure of the poet, prolonging further age-old debates, amongst them, the nature of “poetic inspiration” and the recognition of the performative dimension of the poetic voice. Philip Sidney attended to these matters and acknowledged the need to nourish a given talent by patiently exercising learnt skills according to the poet’s true conscience and discernment, as the passage, reminiscent of Ramus, from An Apology for Poetry indicates: Marry, they that delight in Poesy itself should seek to know what they do, and how they do; and especially look themselves in an unflattering glass of reason, if they be inclinable unto it . . . Yet I confess I always that as the fertilest ground must be manured, so must the highest-flying wit have a Daedalus to guide him. That Daedalus they say, both in this and in other, hath three wings to bear itself into the air of commendation: that is, Art, Imitation, and Exercise. But these, neither artificial rules nor imitative patterns, we must cumber ourselves withal. Exercise indeed we do, but that very fore-backwardly: for where we should exercise to know, we exercise as having known; and so is our brain delivered of much matter which was never begotten by knowledge. For there being two principal parts—matter to be expressed by words and words to express—in neither we use Art or Imitation rightly. (Sidney 132–33) The essays in Poetic Theory and Practice address these issues, steering close to the poems and their umpiring texts—comprehending the differences between and the occasions for that which is derivative, competent, and revolutionary. They raise questions involving memory and learning, the pressures of instruction and of civil duties, the difficulties in reconciling dignity and gratification, transmission of knowledge (coterie or broader readership)—and thus, the place of poetry and poets in Reformation England. The vast number of coeval critical sources drawn upon include Philip Sydney’s Defence, George Puttenham’s The Arte of English Poesie, Thomas Wilson’s, Rule of Reason, William Scott’s Model, William Webbe’s A Discourse of English Poetry, and Abraham Fraunce’s Shepherd’s Logic. The generous Introduction contextualises the project 306 Review of Poetic Theory and Practice in Early Modern Verse. . . ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 304–309 E-ISSN 2531-1654 and includes two distinct stances of poetry assuming art’s role: the poems of James VI and Aemilia Lanyer, closely read by the editor. The intriguing pair, “unwritten arts,” at the core of the collection encompasses aims, methodology, and materialisation of this project. The “inherent polysemy” of the word “unwritten” 1 points toward “unformulated critical assumptions outside official theory.” Luis-Martínez notes its frequent occurrence in sixteenth-century legal and religious contexts, mostly in reference to the oral traditions of the English common law and Catholic Doctrine. Phrases such as “unwritten verities” and “unwritten traditions” . . . repeatedly signalling the distrust towards what is admitted by mere consensus against the authority of the scriptures and underlying the “new literalism” of Protestant culture. (10) One is also reminded of “the blank surface that admits—palimpsest-like— unexplained, marginalised or novel meanings” (10). The word “art” encapsulates both poetry and poetics—the activity and the precepts that govern it—blurring the lines between theory and practice. Throughout the volume, besides “art,” selected words—such as “grace,” “blood,” “habit,” “atom,” “sublime,” “eloquence,” “Muse”—acquire the status of keywords conceived “primarily as windows into the critical discourse on poetry in early modern England . . . their relevance is gauged by their capacity to identify, contextualise or explain a specific question in relation to early modern poetry” (16). Notwithstanding the indebtedness of this kind of approach to Raymond Williams’ work in the field of cultural studies, Roland Greene’s critical semantics, or Ita Mac Carthy’s new philology, 2 these ‘complex words’ do not determine the book’s structure. Instead, bearing in mind their functions across discursive fields, verse by James VI, Spenser, Philip Sidney, Fulke Greville, Aemilia Lanyer, Marlowe, Shakespeare, Barnabe Barnes, Henry Constable, Lodge, and Chapman is multifariously analysed throughout chapters grouped into three thematic blocks found to be major concerns across contemporaneous treatises: Origin, Style, and Poetry. 1 “Not committed to writing; left unrecorded; ‘Of laws, etc.: Not formulated in written codes or documents; not reduced to writing; oral.’ Not written of or about.; 2. Not written upon. Also with on” (“Unwritten”). 2 Their work and an array of other scholars’ with different approaches, including Catherine Bates, Clark Hulse, S. K. Heninger, Rosemond Tuve, and Lynn Enterline, is, of course, acknowledged throughout the collection. By Cecilia Rodrigues 307 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 304–309 E-ISSN 2531-1654 The first three chapters by Joan Corbet-Soler, Emma Wilson, and Cassandra Gorman, respectively engage grace, logical cause, atom, and Cupid to examine texts that complement or configure alternatives to treatises. Corbet-Soler considers the courtly, political, and theological implications of the term grace in poems by Spenser, Philip Sidney, Greville, and Lanyer, and the tensions that the word generates, both within the poems and in what concerns their reception. Emma Wilson draws on Agricola, Melanchton, Ramus, Thomas Wilson, and Fraunce to trace the “connections between the discursive principles set forth in pedagogical works from the period and the ways in which writers put those ideas to use in creative contexts” (50), especially, how “sixteenth-century poets used logic to inject a new kind of agency into their poetry” (49). She analyses three “love complaints” by Spenser, Philip Sidney, and Marlowe as emerging from this “culture of logical causation and invention” (50). Cassandra Gorman relies on Renaissance mythography (especially Conti) to explore the connection between the atomic particle and the influence of Cupid in poems by Marlowe, Drayton, Philip Sidney, and Chapman. Gorman finds that the “trope of the atomised Cupid develops an aetiology for its own poetics of desire . . . wherein physical elements and Cupids conjoin to create both powerful, multi-layered metaphors (that ‘pierce deep’) and natural philosophical explanations for love and lust” (76–77). The following three chapters by Rocío G. Sumillera, David Amelang, and Sonia Hernández-Santano attend to matters of style. Sumillera investigates “the semantics of blood”; Amelang looks for the unpoetic and instances of ineloquence, drawing from treatises, poems, and dramatic texts. Hernández-Santano’s interest is the concept of eloquent bodies, connecting eloquence and emotions with a focus on Lodge’s Scilla’s Metamorphosis and Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis. The third part of the book is devoted to individual poets’ idiosyncratic voices. Jonathan P. A. Sell focuses on the sublime according to an aestheticised Philip Sidney. María Pérez-Jauregui compares Barnabe Barnes and Henry Constable through grace, following their respective journeys from the secular to religious lyric, one Protestant and the other Catholic, and the outcomes in terms of their careers. Cinta Zunido-Garrido draws on the concept of Muse in Lodge’s Phillis: Honoured with Pastoral Sonnets, Elegies and Amorous Delight and The Complaint of Elstred to address the period’s theories of imitation, inspiration, and imagination. Sarah Knight considers Fulke Greville and the idea of difficulty as impairment recurrent in the critical discussions of his work; Knight 308 Review of Poetic Theory and Practice in Early Modern Verse. . . ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 304–309 E-ISSN 2531-1654 perceives the intricacy of his writing as deliberate, thus an aesthetic and didactic category. The chapter by Zenón Luis-Martínez focuses on habit in George Chapman, problematises the idea of obscurity, and distinguishes the point of view of the received critical discourse and the poet’s method, a discipline presumed in the reader aspiring to a communion by the text. This collection fully succeeds in its purpose “to offer full-fledged instances of the habit of experiencing poetry and of thinking the conditions of the early modern poem from writerly and readerly perspectives” (10). It rescues neglected authors from derision and reads their works alongside that of canonical/more popular writers. Moreover, concerning the latter, the sensitive readings informed by unexpected connections, offer plenty of opportunities to realise, beyond established critique, the groundbreaking quality of their writings. It is thrilling to perceive the intricacy of this whole newly written art; although each chapter in its “radically different approach” can be read independently, there is much to profit from attending to the contributors’ cross-references and acknowledgments of one another’s points of view on overlapping topics. Far from accretions of redundancy, these gestures configure the venture’s necessarily collaborative and transdisciplinary nature. This will no doubt elicit many rewarding readings and stimulate further research. 3 There is also detailed referencing and extensive bibliography both of primary and secondary texts could certainly inspire and inform many a project’s preparatory work. That Luis-Martínez’ sophisticated edition complete with an elegant afterword by Clark Hulse has been published in Open Access form makes this an occasion for double rejoicing. The proof is in the pudding. REFERENCES Dolven, Jeff. Scenes of Instruction in Renaissance Romance. Chicago UP, 2007. Sidney, Philip. An Apology for Poetry, edited by Geoffrey Shepherd, Manchester UP, 1973. “Unwritten, Adj., Senses 1.a–2.” Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford UP, July 2023, doi: 10.1093/OED/5207758233. 3 The nature and extension of Iberian influence on English literary and philosophical discourse (Juan Luis Vives, Huarte de San Juan, Antonio de Guevara), for example. By Cecilia Rodrigues 309 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 304–309 E-ISSN 2531-1654 CECILIA RODRIGUES University of Valladolid [email protected]