This week's seminar focused on Pamela Colman Smith's Annancy Stories, a series of African/Jamaican folktales published in 1899. Pamela Colman Smith was an author, illustrator, and publisher born to an American father and Jamaican mother. The Annancy stories is a transatlantic text unlike the other texts from previous weeks focuses on stories that originate outside of Britain. The Annancy stories originated in West Africa and were brought to Jamaica by enslaved Africans through the British slave trade.

This week's seminar focused on Clemence Houseman's The Werewolf, an author and illustrator, who was also the sister of Laurence Houseman. Clemence Houseman was an avid supporter of the women's suffrage movement and was known for flouting gender norms; this is further seen in her work, The Werewolf, which depicts a female werewolf. I think this very interesting since the depictions of female werewolves are rare as werewolves symbolize hypermasculinity, monstrosity, and giving in to one's baser needs.

This week's seminar was about Laurence Houseman's 'House of Joy', a series of short stories or fairytales published in 1895, with illustrations that were wood-engraved by his sister, Clemence Houseman. The text is filled with many beautiful yet tragic stories accompanied by equally beautiful yet tragic illustrations. Fairytales in the Victorian era were known for being a method of educating young children, by teaching them social mores and customs. Some fairytale authors who accomplished this through their writing include Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm.

This week's seminar focused on the Sherlock Holmes stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle, the stories are beloved in the genre of detective stories. A product of its time, although not an adequate excuse, the stories are rife with racist stereotypes of BIPOC and portray women in a light where they lack little agency. In the story, 'The Man with the Twisted Lip', one of the character's is seen trying to enter an opium den to look for her husband, but is stopped by the owner in what is portrayed as a very violent way.

   This week, our focus was Lord Alfred Tennyson's 'Lady of Shalott' which is includes aspects of Arthurian legend. I learned that the poem was in print for 25 years before the 1857 version was published with its illustrations by William Holman Hunt and Daniel Gabriel Rossetti. Our focus today was to make meaning between the originally published poem and its accompanying illustrations. Naturally, my mind gravitated towards understanding women in the cultural moment of the Victorian era; which delegated them to their homes to protect their chastity and sensibilities.