Telegraphic Realism

Richard Menke is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Georgia.

"Richard Menke has written a literary study which draws on the published history of networked communications technology to make arguments about the development of new technologies of writing by popular Victorain-era authors of British fiction." - Technology and Culture "Telegraphic Realism is an important academic study whose novelty lies in the convincing way that it reveals connections between Victorian fiction, literary and media theory, and cultural history. Richard Menke offers excellent, highly original readings of well-studied works not previously associated with communications technologies." - Laura Otis (Emory University) "Telegraphic Realism argues that Victorian realism was galvanized—in some cases quite literally—by Victorian technology. From the Penny Post to the electric telegraph to the wireless, Menke delineates a "media ecology" and an increasing awareness of writing itself as a technology. Attending to advertising, scientific writing, and political and social debates, he shows how novelists were preoccupied with technologies that claimed realist effects and challenged literary claims to mimesis." - Teresa Mangum (University of Iowa)