Here's an interesting grad student inquiry from C19 that I thought perhaps some of you might like to respond to or know about ... -hb


Dr. Hal Bush

Dept. of English

Saint Louis University

[log in to unmask]

314-977-3616

http://halbush.com

author website:  halbush.com


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From: C19: The Society of Nineteenth-Century Americanists <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Carolin Alice Hofmann <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, August 2, 2018 3:21 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Train Wrecks in Fiction


Hello,

I’m writing about 19th century precursors to ‘trauma’ in my doctoral project. For a chapter on journalistic and literary responses to ‘railway spine,’ a condition that marks a shift from physical to psychological explanations of being harmed by modern technology, I am looking for train wrecks in literature. Specifically, I’m trying to find representations of railroad accidents in the second half of the 19th century, that are ideally not just minor plot events but have a greater significance, as they, for example, invite discussions of chance, risk, accident, lasting psychological damage, etc. I’ve already found Howells, A Quality of Mercy, Twain, “The Danger of Lying in Bed,” Newell, Smoked Glass, Chopin, “Story of an Hour,” and Holmes, A Moral Antipathy. Any suggestions would be super helpful. Nonfictional texts are also interesting to me.

Many thanks in advance.


Best wishes,

Alice ([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>)

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Carolin Alice Hofmann
PhD Candidate
English Department
University at Albany—SUNY