Two-wheeled Sensibility: Sensory Engagement with Place in British, American and French Cycling Narratives, 1880–1914

Texts written in the early days of cycling hint at the appearance of a new and paradoxical engagement with space. On the one hand, the bicycle was a technology which provided personal mobility to a wide section of the population, whilst encouraging a multisensory engagement with landscape in the wak...

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Main Author: Una Brogan
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée 2016-05-01
Series:Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/cve/2611
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author Una Brogan
author_facet Una Brogan
author_sort Una Brogan
collection DOAJ
description Texts written in the early days of cycling hint at the appearance of a new and paradoxical engagement with space. On the one hand, the bicycle was a technology which provided personal mobility to a wide section of the population, whilst encouraging a multisensory engagement with landscape in the wake of the railways. On the other hand, cyclists’ accounts bear testament to a certain mechanization of the body and the senses, contributing to a visual, distancing experience of place which the railways had inaugurated. I argue that it is the unique combination of these two registers that defines the turn-of-the-century cycling aesthetic.
format Article
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institution Kabale University
issn 0220-5610
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language English
publishDate 2016-05-01
publisher Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée
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series Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens
spelling doaj-art-9a1e87eb15174d2e92f3b974f9a576292025-01-30T10:21:39ZengPresses Universitaires de la MéditerranéeCahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens0220-56102271-61492016-05-018310.4000/cve.2611Two-wheeled Sensibility: Sensory Engagement with Place in British, American and French Cycling Narratives, 1880–1914Una BroganTexts written in the early days of cycling hint at the appearance of a new and paradoxical engagement with space. On the one hand, the bicycle was a technology which provided personal mobility to a wide section of the population, whilst encouraging a multisensory engagement with landscape in the wake of the railways. On the other hand, cyclists’ accounts bear testament to a certain mechanization of the body and the senses, contributing to a visual, distancing experience of place which the railways had inaugurated. I argue that it is the unique combination of these two registers that defines the turn-of-the-century cycling aesthetic.https://journals.openedition.org/cve/2611aestheticsliteraturecyclingcultural studiessensory perception
spellingShingle Una Brogan
Two-wheeled Sensibility: Sensory Engagement with Place in British, American and French Cycling Narratives, 1880–1914
Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens
aesthetics
literature
cycling
cultural studies
sensory perception
title Two-wheeled Sensibility: Sensory Engagement with Place in British, American and French Cycling Narratives, 1880–1914
title_full Two-wheeled Sensibility: Sensory Engagement with Place in British, American and French Cycling Narratives, 1880–1914
title_fullStr Two-wheeled Sensibility: Sensory Engagement with Place in British, American and French Cycling Narratives, 1880–1914
title_full_unstemmed Two-wheeled Sensibility: Sensory Engagement with Place in British, American and French Cycling Narratives, 1880–1914
title_short Two-wheeled Sensibility: Sensory Engagement with Place in British, American and French Cycling Narratives, 1880–1914
title_sort two wheeled sensibility sensory engagement with place in british american and french cycling narratives 1880 1914
topic aesthetics
literature
cycling
cultural studies
sensory perception
url https://journals.openedition.org/cve/2611
work_keys_str_mv AT unabrogan twowheeledsensibilitysensoryengagementwithplaceinbritishamericanandfrenchcyclingnarratives18801914