Blog Post # 5 - Alessia Dickson

I really enjoyed looking at all the different renditions of Christina Rosetti's Goblin Market. I found it really interesting how meaning can be manipulated and the audience reconfigured through illustrations. I found it useful to curate a specific image from an early 20th-century edition as it is good practice for our upcoming Cove assignment. I really enjoyed this week's week, The Modern Market for Goblin Market. It was fascinating to me how the meaning of the poem changed over time while the actual text of the poem did not. I was surprised to learn that for the longest time it was considered a text for children. I had never made that connection before the reading and studying the illustrated edition by Margaret Tarrant definitely helped me understand the perception of Goblin Market as a fairy tale for children. In her version, the meaning of the poem was completely manipulated through Tarrant's use of child-like characters and innocent-looking dwarves that are reminiscent of a fairy tale. With her version, Goblin Market simply looks like an innocent tale for children about the dangers of temptation and the power of love. Yet, it was interesting to learn that people assumed Christina wrote for children simply because she was a woman and was a 'spinster,' which made her seem innocent. I personally believe she meant to write this poem for adults and was aware of the sexual subtext in the poem as when she was alive, she helped instruct Dante Rosetti's illustrations, which all had a sexual undercurrent. Dante would be the closest person to Christina and I believe his illustrations would be the most accurate in reflecting the true wishes of Christina herself. In modern-day, the text is definitely read through a feminist, liberal, and homosexual lens. I don't think this is necessarily what Christina intended, but it certainly emphasizes how the meaning of a text can change based on the historical context of a period. 

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Comments

Goblin Market and its Multiple Meanings

It would be interesting to know exactly what Christina Rossetti "intended." She said herself that "she meant nothing by my fairy tale," which of course we don't believe for a moment. As scholars, we can only interpret the text, its material formats, including its images, and its contexts of production and reception, to determine its meanings in specific times and places and for particular audiences.