Peter Ackroyd

Peter Ackroyd's 'Hawksmoor' (1985) tells two stories in alternating chapters: one set in London between 1711 and 1715, the other in present-day London. In the first story, a murderous architect beholden to occult beliefs relates his exploits and situates them within his project of subverting the Enlightenment agenda of his superiors; in the second story, told by an apparently objective third-person narrator, the detective Nicholas Hawksmoor is baffled by a series of bizarre murders. The text’s two loci in time mark, respectively, the early days of modernity, in which science and rationality appeared to herald a brighter future, and late modernity, in which this optimism has come under question. The detective, who embodies the rationalist ethos and the tenet of scientific progress, emerges as a figure whose failure casts doubt upon the validity of the core beliefs of Western culture. Peter Ackroyd’s text is an original example of the sub-genre known as the ‘anti-detective narrative.’

The article presents an analysis of two neo-Victorian Londons: that of Peter Ackroyd in the novel Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem and that of Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell in the graphic novel From Hell. Particular attention has been given to the representation of the city in terms of the most characteristic elements of London and its mode of portrayal in each work. The article also presents how the British capital is personified or at least treated as a driving force behind human actions, as well as the subjectification of the city and its functioning as a text. Finally, the article focuses on the
superposition of the late 19th and late 20th centuries, i.e. the times of action and writing of both works, and how relevant these texts are at the present time.

The tramp, living on the city streets, is the ultimate expression of the motif of the urban walker, and embodies for Peter Ackroyd the relationship between London and its vulnerable citizens. However, the vagrant goes beyond the sufferings of the perpetual victim to embrace a mythic London where tramps are kings, and where refuge and closure are to be found.

A short postscript to the draft article 'London Stone: History and Myth'. Why, quite suddenly in the early 21st century, has London Stone, previously ignored by writers of fiction, taken on an important role in a number of London-based novels belonging to the so-called 'urban fantasy' genre? 4 June 2015 (minor updates to references 15 December 2020): now incorporated in 'London Stone; History and Myth'.

This paper, delivered to the Literary London Society conference in 2014, considers Peter Ackroyd's representation of London as a perpetual city. It focuses on 'The House of Doctor Dee' and 'The Plato Papers', especially the depiction of subterranean London.

For Peter Ackroyd, the dead are stakeholders in the community of the living, and he is at pains to stress the need for interaction between the two. Ackroyd’s revenants bring the living out of the dimension of time and into perpetuity, encouraging them to embrace the ongoing human continuum. This continuum is at the heart of Ackroyd's portrayal of the family, and is linked inextricably with the concept of place.

This paper, delivered to the Literary London Society conference in 2011, is a reflection on the importance of immediacy, and particularly walking, for Peter Ackroyd's portrayal of London. It was reworked as 'The Trope of the Tramp' for the Literary London Society's Journal (see separate upload).

A review of Petr Chalupský's study of how the London evoked in Peter Ackroyd's novels embodies Ackroyd's transcendent view of time. Chalupský espouses a reading which is sensitive to Ackroyd's individual style in order to get the clearest appreciation of what he has achieved.

A review of B Gürenci Saglam's monograph which addresses the question of how 'knowable' is the mystical London which Ackroyd portrays in his novels. The work, which is based on Gürenci Saglam's doctoral thesis, focuses on Ackroyd's parodying of the literary genres of biography and detective fiction.

This book contributes to the development of contemporary historical fiction studies with new analyses of neo-Georgian fiction, which, unlike neo-Victorian fiction, until now has received little critical attention. The essays included in this collection study the ways in which selected twentieth-and twenty-first-century novels recreate the Georgian period in order to view its ideologies through the lens of such modern critical theories as performativity, post-colonialism, feminism or visual theories. They also demonstrate the rich repertoire of subgenres of neo-Georgian fiction, ranging from biographical fiction, epistolary novels to magical realism. The studies of the diverse novelistic conventions used to re contextualise the Georgian reality reflect the way we see its relevance and relation to the present and trace the indebtedness of the new forms of the contemporary novel to the traditional novelistic genres.

Thomas Chatterton (1752-1770) Bristol'de do mu bir ngiliz airdir. ngiliz romantik airleri Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, Byron ve Keats için Chatterton önemli bir model ve semboldür. Kendisi do madan 3 ay önce ölen babası evlerinin hemen biti i inde olan St Mary Radcliffe Kilisesinin koro efidir. Annesi, St Mary Redcliffe kilisesinin ar ivinde buldu u bazı el yazmalarını ona verdi inde Chatterton henüz yedi ya ındadır. Bu el yazmalarını alıp tavan arasındaki minik odasında onları okurken hayal gücünü ke fetmeye ba lamı tır. Antik ça lara ve geçmi e olan merakı bu el yazmalarıyla ba lamı ve annesine bunun için hep ükran duymu tur. lk iirini yazdı ında henüz 12 ya ındadır ve 15'ine geldi inde takma isim "Thomas Rowley" adıyla yazdı ı ve Rowley Dizisi adıyla bilinen ilk eseri ortaya çıkmı tır. Thomas Chatterton okuya okuya çok iyi ö rendi i 15. yüzyıl ngilizcesini aynen kullanarak arkaik dille iirler yazmaya ba lamı tır ve kısa yoldan ün sahibi olabilmek için Thomas Rowley diye bir ortaça ke i inin geçmi te gerçekten ya adı ına ve bu iirlerin onun el yazmaları oldu una kendi ça ını inandırmı tır. Oysa o iirleri yazan henüz 15 ya ındaki Chatterton'dan ba kası de ildir. Kendi adıyla yazmı olsa, 15 ya ında bir veledin iirlerini kimsenin okumayaca ını bilmektedir. Bu sahtekarlı a ba vurarak aslında kendine ait olan iirleri, bu iirler yeni ke fedilmi eski bir air yanılsamasıyla okutup çok be enilmesini sa lamı tır. Böylelikle bir air olma yolunda büyük cesaret kazanmı tır. Chatterton kısa süre içinde Bristol'ün sıkıcı ya amından kurtulup edebi bir üne kavu mak için Londra'ya ta ınır. Henüz 17 ya ındadır. iirlerini çe itli yayıncılara götürür ama istedi i be eniyi veya ilgiyi görmez. Kısa bir süre akrabalarının yanında kaldıktan sonra 1770 Mayıs'ında Holborn semti, Brooke Soka ındaki minik bir çatı katı odasına yerle ir. Ancak üç ay sonra, yani 24 A ustos'ta sefaletten, ilgi görmemi olmaktan, hayal kırıklı ından ve girdi i depresyondan dolayı arsenik içerek henüz 17 ya ındayken ya amına son verir. Odasının kapısı kırılarak açıldı ında etraf, üstünde kendi el yazmaları bulunan yırtılmı sayfalar ve ortalı a saçılmı ka ıt parçalarıyla doludur. Polis inceleme yapar ve sonuç olarak yazdı ı raporda Chatterton'un ölüm sebebi "felo de se" -yani intihar-olarak ilan edilir. Bilinen tek bir portresi vardır. Ama Wordsworth'ün tabiriyle "bu muhte em genç adamın" silüeti "Chatterton'un Ölümü" adını ta ıyan tabloyla Henry Wallis tarafından 1856'da çizilmi ve resimde model olarak o sırada henüz 28 ya ında olan,19.

This paper focuses on Peter Ackroyd’s unique type of psychogeographical writing. Therefore, apart from an overall elaboration on his works about London, it addresses his historiographic metafictional novels Hawksmoor (1985) and The House of Doctor Dee (1993). These esoteric novels provide insight into Ackroyd’s writing about the city in different time periods and make it possible to delve deeper into what this paper argues is his distinctive manner of implementing the notions of psychogeography. At the same time, it draws parallels from classical and contemporary psychogeography where appropriate and highlights his utilisation of it. The main aim of this paper is to reveal the ways in which Peter Ackroyd uses walking in the city to reflect its manipulative power over his characters which results in the transformation of their identities.

This paper, delivered to the Literary London Society conference in 2012, juxtaposes ceremonial moments described by Peter Ackroyd and Nigel Williams. It considers how the ceremonies illustrate each author's  presentation of cultural affiliation.

This paper, delivered to the Literary London Society conference in 2015, compares the portrayal of love and sex in Williams' 'Witchcraft' and Ackroyd's 'The House of Doctor Dee'. In different ways, both depict love as a redeeming force in the face of the dangers of sex.