Literary notes about Reflector (AI summary)
The term "reflector" in literature has been employed in both its literal and metaphorical senses. In many works, it refers to a physical component of a lamp—one that casts light to create an atmosphere or highlight details, as seen in Sherwood Anderson’s depiction of a weathered tin reflector [1] and Chekhov’s recurrent description of a narrow passage illuminated by a lamp with a reflector [2, 3]. This tangible object not only sets the scene in James Joyce’s narrative, where the light from a reflector defines an intimate domestic moment [4], but it also takes on a reflective, metaphorical role. For instance, Walt Whitman uses the term to suggest that national literature functions as a great mirror or reflector of society [5], and Charles Dickens plays with its imagery to comment on self-perception and identity, as an actor contemplates his face in a lamp reflector [6].
- The lamp had a tin reflector, brown with rust and covered with dust.
— from Winesburg, Ohio: A Group of Tales of Ohio Small Town Life by Sherwood Anderson - The friends went into a narrow passage lighted by a lamp with a reflector.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of Short Stories by Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - The friends walked into a narrow little passage lighted by a single lamp with a reflector.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of Short Stories by Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - A lamp with a reflector hung on the japanned wall of the fireplace and by its light his aunt was reading the evening paper that lay on her knees.
— from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce - A national literature is, of course, in one sense, a great mirror or reflector.
— from Complete Prose Works by Walt Whitman - ‘Ay,’ rejoined the actor, contemplating the effect of his face in a lamp reflector, ‘but that involves the whole question, you know.’
— from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
