The Victorian Era is when fantasty and fantastical worlds really being to flourish in literature. This interest in fantasy worlds could be seen as an opposition to the scientific and realism movements that accompanied the Industrial Revolution. The Gothic movement also helped build a foundation for this fantastical movement because it brought back an interest into medieval folklore and fairytales. However, Victorian fantasy does not utilize the tools of terror and horror, but uses fantastic creatures (such as fairies or goblins) and travelling to different realms to comment on morals or just provide an escape into a world that was familiar and strange at the same time (which reflects how Victorians might have felt about the sudden cultural and technological changes brought by the Industrial Revolution). A familiar story that might help you recognize Victorian fantasy is Alice in Wonderland.
The piece of literature that our curation will focus on is Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market. This verse narrative employs fantastical elements and moral lessons about indulgence, sexuality, and a woman's place in Victorian society. The two sisters in Goblin Market show two different paths a Victorian woman can take: a path that indulges and a path with self-dicipline and control. The story has many thinly veiled allusions to sexual promiscuity with the indulgent sister. These could be inspired by Rossetti's time spent volunteering at a penitentary for 'fallen' women (many of these women were prostitutes or women out of wedlock). Prostitution was a growing problem in Victorian Era England; So, this narrative is addressing a problem that would have been well known and debated in this Era. Rossetti's narrative does not take place in a fantasy world, but uses the glen where the sisters gather water as the 'other' world where they are tempted by goblins. By choosing to set her narrative in the normal natural world, Rossetti brings the moral lessons and impurities closer to her audience.
Our curation will explore the Pre-Raphaelite's art because Goblin Market is illustrated by Rossetti's brother, who was one of the first Pre-Raphaelites. Our curation will also explore the historical and cultural influences on Rossetti's Goblin Market.