The Child of the City and the Palimpsest at Sea
De Quincey’s Chronological Constraints
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12880478 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Leila Walker (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2012 |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue | 10 |
| Pages | 679-693 |
| Publication date | 2012-10-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Literature Compass (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1741-4113 • E-ISSN: 1741-4113 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1741-4113.2012.00927.x |
| OpenAlex | W2142469063 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 19 |
This article concerns De Quincey’s attempts to materialize the experience of time. It takes as its focal point De Quincey’s relationship to childhood and his attempts to arrest time in the body of the child. It addresses De Quincey’s encounters with childhood in “Confessions of an English Opium‐Eater,” the Savannah‐la‐Mar section of “Suspiria de Profundis,” and his little‐read story “The Spanish Military Nun.” For De Quincey, children share with the opium eater the ability to transgress the boundaries between then and now, here and not‐here. Like the drowning woman and the opium‐eater, they can access information and experiences ordinarily closed to adults, and like the drowning woman and the opium eater, their access is produced through ruin
Archaeology · Art · Literature · Opium · Palimpsest · Caribbean and African Literature and Culture · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · History · Literature: history, themes, analysis · Psychology
| Highly cited | No |
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