Technology and the Cinematographic Writing of Trauma in Kipling’s Motoring Short Stories

In many short stories, Rudyard Kipling celebrates technology by foregrounding the excitement generated by its peculiar romance, but his specific tribute to motoring goes beyond his fascination for the technical. He manages to exploit the narrative potential of the motorcar as a driving force in the...

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Main Author: Élodie Raimbault
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée 2019-06-01
Series:Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/cve/5114
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author Élodie Raimbault
author_facet Élodie Raimbault
author_sort Élodie Raimbault
collection DOAJ
description In many short stories, Rudyard Kipling celebrates technology by foregrounding the excitement generated by its peculiar romance, but his specific tribute to motoring goes beyond his fascination for the technical. He manages to exploit the narrative potential of the motorcar as a driving force in the story, setting the plot in motion in a realistic setting but opening it up to adventure and the fantastic. These stories depict characters marked by physical and psychological traumas and present an ambiguous vision of this new means of transport. The most interesting stories rework the Edwardian motorcar stereotypes—the futurist car, the deadly car crash, the industrial intrusion in a pastoral environment—and offer a metanarrative analysis of the structure of the text as a mechanism. Thematically, stylistically and structurally, the association of motoring and the cinematograph led Kipling to combine two technologies that offer a fascinating mobile spectacle. Through this association, he delineates a new sort of spatiality.
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spelling doaj-art-087c35ed1eba4e8eb88a8dcf725eb3422025-01-30T10:22:21ZengPresses Universitaires de la MéditerranéeCahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens0220-56102271-61492019-06-018910.4000/cve.5114Technology and the Cinematographic Writing of Trauma in Kipling’s Motoring Short StoriesÉlodie RaimbaultIn many short stories, Rudyard Kipling celebrates technology by foregrounding the excitement generated by its peculiar romance, but his specific tribute to motoring goes beyond his fascination for the technical. He manages to exploit the narrative potential of the motorcar as a driving force in the story, setting the plot in motion in a realistic setting but opening it up to adventure and the fantastic. These stories depict characters marked by physical and psychological traumas and present an ambiguous vision of this new means of transport. The most interesting stories rework the Edwardian motorcar stereotypes—the futurist car, the deadly car crash, the industrial intrusion in a pastoral environment—and offer a metanarrative analysis of the structure of the text as a mechanism. Thematically, stylistically and structurally, the association of motoring and the cinematograph led Kipling to combine two technologies that offer a fascinating mobile spectacle. Through this association, he delineates a new sort of spatiality.https://journals.openedition.org/cve/5114Kipling (Rudyard)technologymotoringmeans of transportcinemashort stories
spellingShingle Élodie Raimbault
Technology and the Cinematographic Writing of Trauma in Kipling’s Motoring Short Stories
Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens
Kipling (Rudyard)
technology
motoring
means of transport
cinema
short stories
title Technology and the Cinematographic Writing of Trauma in Kipling’s Motoring Short Stories
title_full Technology and the Cinematographic Writing of Trauma in Kipling’s Motoring Short Stories
title_fullStr Technology and the Cinematographic Writing of Trauma in Kipling’s Motoring Short Stories
title_full_unstemmed Technology and the Cinematographic Writing of Trauma in Kipling’s Motoring Short Stories
title_short Technology and the Cinematographic Writing of Trauma in Kipling’s Motoring Short Stories
title_sort technology and the cinematographic writing of trauma in kipling s motoring short stories
topic Kipling (Rudyard)
technology
motoring
means of transport
cinema
short stories
url https://journals.openedition.org/cve/5114
work_keys_str_mv AT elodieraimbault technologyandthecinematographicwritingoftraumainkiplingsmotoringshortstories