Feminist Movement and Goblin Market
circa. 1911 to circa. 1914
Goblin Market was written by Christina Rossetti and originally published in 1862. Since then, it has gone through many reprints and changes. The reprint in 1912, while published after Rossetti’s death, was still released at a time of great change for women. During this time, the Suffragette movement was up and well in London. During the year of this edition’s release, the Labour Party became the first political party to include female suffrage in their manifesto. While this reprint could easily be tossed aside as just another children’s poem, the protagonists encounter sexually suggestive situations. This, and other 20th century adaptations of this poem, have opened the poem to Feminist, Queer, and New Historicist critiques. During this time of the Suffragette movement, there was a big movement for the rise of women in politics and positions of power. This was a voting year as well in the US and, for the first time, all presidential candidates looked at women as important to a victory rather than a passing thought. And, of course, at this time Tarrant releasing a reprint of a feminist poem with female protagonists will have an effect, whether intentional or not. All through the streets of London, women were marching for their rights to participate, to have a vote.
Sources:
Paula Bartley, Votes for Women, 1860-1928 (Oxon, 2003), p. 85.
British Library Learning. “Women’s Suffrage Timeline.” The British Library, 2018, www.bl.uk/votes-for-women/articles/womens-suffrage-timeline, www.bl.uk/votes-for-women/arti….