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SUMMARY:A World of Opodeldoc: Leigh Hunt\, Edgar Allan Poe\, and the Early
  Nineteenth-Century Periodical\,  - Ross Wilson (University of Cambridge)
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20250206T164500Z
DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20250206T174500Z
UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/99d158be-7610-460a-8aab-cb1ba6089579/
DESCRIPTION:This paper opens with Leigh Hunt’s 1808 claim that one of th
 e advantages of the periodical essay is the ease of disposing of it – 
 “if you are not rich enough to possess an urn or a cloth-holder\,” for
  instance\, “it may save you a world of opodeldoc by wrapping the handle
  of your tea-kettle.” This paper traces the strange persistence of opode
 ldoc – a medical liniment invented by Paracelsus – in the imagination 
 of the material versatility of the literary periodical. Writing thirty-fiv
 e years after Hunt\, and on the other side of the Atlantic\, Edgar Allan P
 oe’s “Thingum Bob” signs the ill-fated compositions he attempts to p
 lace in journals “‘Oppodeldoc’ (a fine sonorous name)”. The compos
 ite nature of opodeldoc makes it an apt metaphor for the periodical\, but 
 its materiality ultimately dissipates in the “fine” sonority of a “n
 ame”\, which\, it will be argued in this paper\, was in fact the materia
 l affordance of “opodeldoc” that made it appeal to the ear of Poe – 
 who of course also heard his own name at its centre.\nSpeakers:\nRoss Wils
 on (University of Cambridge)
LOCATION:Rothermere American Institute (Large Seminar Room)\, 1A South Par
 ks Road OX1 3UB
TZID:Europe/London
URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/99d158be-7610-460a-8aab-cb1ba6089579/
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DESCRIPTION:Talk:A World of Opodeldoc: Leigh Hunt\, Edgar Allan Poe\, and 
 the Early Nineteenth-Century Periodical\,  - Ross Wilson (University of Ca
 mbridge)
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