Lumitopes and lumitopias : feeling light and place in writing between moonlight, candlelight and gaslight

This article delves into relationships between light and emotions, a concept shaped by modern scientific understanding but which has historical receptions in literature. Drawing on a detailed analysis of lighting as a literary device in three works of French literature (1820–1864), it addresses how forms of literary lighting articulate emotions, arguing that this articulation happens through (1) sensual transfer and (2) a play on perceptions of time. These considerations support the use of the term lumitope, which the author proposes as terms for discussing the interplay between light and place, and which could be applied to other disciplines. Taking the ideas about literary time-space from Bakhtin, examples show how lumitopes announce a transfer from sight to other senses and shift portrayals of time from the structured and horological toward the sensory and perceptual. Drawing attention to the effects of this literary device on evoking emotion, the article argues that the advent of modern lighting technologies influenced the conventional ways light was used in literature. We see how literature transcribes sensual experiences provoked by a light source in ways that change over time and can be modeled by new lighting technologies.