Gaze in Flux

Shannon Hale’s perhaps most famous work, Austenland (2007), is a romance novel centered on Jane Hayes, an Austen aficionado, dissatisfied with her love life. In an attempt to remedy this, she travels to a faux-Regency getaway destination, Austenland. An abundance of regulations and the behavior of Mrs. Wattlesbrook, the owner, create a strictly ruled society. This paper aims to analyze how Austenland’s Pembrook Park represents a society that monitors its subjects by using the concept of the panopticon. Drawing on the theories of Jeremy Bentham and Michel Foucault, the panopticon will be explained as a system in which subjects are under constant surveillance. The concept will then be applied to Hale’s novel to show why the characters abide by Mrs. Wattlesbrook’s rules even when she is not around, with only minor attempts at rebellion. Thus, the novel shows the effective use of a panoptic system in governing subjects in a given society.Keywords: Austenland, Shannon Hale, panopticon, popu...

This article examines the aesthetic category of the ‘Instagrammable’ and explores what it means for destinations like Telašćica Nature Park to be seen as Instagram Hot Spots. I begin by addressing issues arising from the spread of social media platforms like Instagram, particularly the role of marketing and the subtle operations of digital algorithms. From there, I explore the shifting notion of “authenticity” in tourist sites like Telašćica, where the Instagrammable aesthetic takes root, redefining what it means for a place to be “seen.” I argue that ‘Instagrammable’ as an aesthetic category resonates with the ‘picturesque,’ which once reflected economic and colonial entanglements; now, the Instagram aesthetic speaks to an era of communicative capitalism (Ngai; Dean). Within this aesthetic framework, Telašćica is confronted with what Jodi Dean calls a ‘whatever subject’ – a subject whose “whatever” signals a form of communication that lacks depth, a hollow connectivity that does not s...

Serial ?he Genius of Russian Detection, I. D. Putilin, written by Russian author Roman Lukich Antropov (Roman Dobryi) at the beginning of the twentieth century, undoubtedly falls into the category of detective fiction; however, the titles of its individual instalments, such as The Secrets of Okhten Cemetery, The Bloodsucking Vampires of Petersburg, The Spring of Volga Sectarians etc., suggest a strong influence of Gothic literature. The article aims to expose the presence of Gothic literary devices in Antropov’s stories, including the introduction of supernatural monsters, namely ghosts and vampires, dismal atmosphere, sublime locations, structures, and objects, causing temporal distancing from the present into the past, suspenseful episodes invoking terror, and horror-infusing visualities. Moreover, the article proposes that the intention behind these elements is not merely to complicate the mystery and intensify the reader’s experience but also to convey cultural meaning related to t...

Kad trešnja ocvate i počne listati kao sada, ja se uvijek toga sjetim – pripovijedala je gospođa. Prije trideset pet godina otac je još bio živ, a u obitelji, ako se to može tako nazvati jer sam majku izgubila još prije sedam godina, kao trinaestogodišnjakinja, bile smo samo još mlađa sestra i ja. Imala sam osamnaest godina, a sestra šesnaest kad smo se preselili u prefekturu Shimane, u gradić od dvadesetak tisuća ljudi uz Japansko more u podnožju starog feudalnog dvorca. Moj je otac tu dobio posao ravnatelja niže srednje škole. Kako u samom gradu nismo našli prikladnu kuću, unajmili smo dvije sobe u hramu na periferiji, prema brdima, i tamo smo živjeli šest godina, sve dok otac nije dobio premještaj u školu u gradu Matsue. Udala sam se po dolasku u Matsue, u jesen svoje dvadesetčetvrte godine, što je za ono vrijeme bilo prilično kasno. Premda sam imala mnoge bračne ponude, do udaje mi nije bilo toliko stalo da bih napustila dom jer sam shvaćala da bi se bez mene obitelj potpuno raspal...

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Čitajući prvi hrvatski kriminalistički roman, Kneginja iz Petrinjske ulice Marije Jurić Zagorke, objavljen 1910., pomalo me začudilo to što je zagrebački policajac Šimek, koji u romanu istražuje umorstvo jedne gospođe, bio obožavatelj Sherlocka Holmesa. Jednog od najslavnijih svjetskih književnih detektiva nije teško obožavati pa nije me začudilo to. Začudila me činjenica da je Zagorka već 1910. čitala ili barem čula za Doyleova junaka, koji se u književnoj javnosti, i to u Velikoj Britaniji, pojavio tek dvadesetak godina ranije. Pritom nisam, dakako, sumnjao ni u Zagorkinu natprosječnu obaviještenost o aktualnim književnim fenomenima (i po mnogočemu drugom bila je ispred svih drugih) ni u njezin smisao za prepoznavanje onoga što čitatelji vole. Zanimalo me ustvari je li Zagorka za fikcionalnog britanskog detektiva čula ili je čitala o njemu u Hrvatskoj, ili možda u Mađarskoj ili Austriji, kamo je putovala, ili gdje drugdje. Pokušao sam stoga pronaći podatak jesu li Doyleova djela s Ho...